Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-08-19
HON.1oHN RELL.
tttAET HISTORY CONNECTED WITH
THE PUBLIC sERvECE.D


as fully we would like to have done, and TO pass
over others without note of comparative minor inn
portance. Our endeavor has been to deal candidly
and justly-to make no assertion unacc0mpanied
with the proof, and to adduce no proof that is not
part CT the history Of the country, to be found by
the references we have given.
What has been the JUDGMENT of the public already
rendered upon the past services of Mr.. BELLY This
is an important inquiry in order to understand the
opinions and feelings with which his contemporaries
have viewed him in connection with the great ques-
tons at the time they received the strctest scrutiny
from the public. What that Judgment must be, no
one had foreseen better than Mr.. Bell. His eye
has ever been upon the FUTURE. He has waited long
and patiently for the day Of his reward, when those
with whom he had cast his fortunes should become
the dominant section in the country; and in his IA
nous debate on the Compromise in 1850, he took
occasion to mark that important epoch as then APP
preaching, and as he gazed into that future to
mind his old associates of the now dominant North,
that when they should come in possession Of the
power and patronage of the Government. they
should not forget their friends who though living in
South have long continued faithful and just to them
To adopt his own words:
Il cannot forbear further to remind my Northern
friends that in the South and Southwest there is
body of men, who for a long period, have contin-
ued faithful and just 70 them; sustaining them IN their
| FAYORITE POLICY through every uiciSSitade of po-
itiedl fortune; body of men of liberal and catholic
views of national policy who look beyond the Inn
tied horizon CT sectional interests spurn the lnnu
ence of sectional prejudice, and embrace the whole
| Union as their common country.
"Whie that protracted domination of the South
which has been so long and so keenly felt at the
North was always more imaginary than real, no
| Southern man ever having attained the Presidency
except BY the concurrence oftentmes, of more than
half and al ways of large division of the North yet
now it cannot be disguised that the period of South
| ern ascendancy-f ever ithad real existence-ap-
| breaches its end. Political power and ascendancy,
in a sectional view, have already passed away from
the South forever and this is manifest that Sena
| tor who spoke in this debate, could not forbear
haunting the South with the prospect of their de-
Ginning fortunes great change had taken place
in the political vocabulary: 1t is no longer he ex-
ultingy exeaims, the South and the North; is now
the North and the South
That North with whom Mr.. BELL had so long CO.
operated that North, which he had sustained in its
favorite policy through every vicssude of political
fortune that North, with whom he had formed
sacred alliance at Hartford and at Boston, when he
betrayed the Democratic party in 1886; that North,
with whom he had co-operated in reviving all the
Federal measures of JOHN QUINcY ADAMS admins
tration that North, with whom he had labored for
United States Bank and high Protective Tariff !;
that North, with whom he had combined to defeat
the acquisition of Southern territory in the admis
sion of Texas that North with whom he had Joined
hands in denouncing the Mexican war and in i'm
peding its vigorous prosecution; that North with
which he had voted, almost uniformly against his
own section, upon every question involving the
rights of slavery that North, whom he had aided
opening the doors of Congress forhe reception of
Abolition petitions, in applying the WimOt PrOviso
to the territory of Oregon, and in making it prece
dent against the South in future legislation de-
feating the CLAYTON Compromise, which secured to
the slave States whatever constitutional rights the
Supreme Court should determine them entitled to !;
in endeavoring to defeat the Compromise measures
of 1850 and adopt in their stead plan of settlement
which would have debarred the South from
every inch of the newly acquired territory :;
that he stood shoulder to shoulder with them
in their efforts to defeat the Kansas bill and subse-
quenty in prohibiting her admission into the Union
under a slavery Constitution; that North, was now
getting the ascendancy by numerical force, not by
any newly acquired Constitutional rights, and Mr..
BELL desired to remind them, as he saw the scale
turning that In their future trumphs they must not
forget those in the South and Southwest "who for
long period have continued faithful and just to Them
sustaining them in their favorite policy through
every vicissitude of political fortune" The North
understood Mr. BELL and has not altogether forgot
ten hi mas shall presently see.
But first, what has been the Judgment passed up
on him in his own country? Throughout the South,
even from men heretofore of his own party, his
course has called forth the strongest disapproba-
In h. H.
public Judgment. Take the expression of both
parties in the Legislature of 1854; take the express
sion of the people in 1855 take the expression of
the people in the Presidential election CT 1856: take
,her expression in the elections of 1857 and in
every instance hear the strong and positive con-
demuaton of Mr. BELL Smarting under the evidences
of popular dlsapprobation, he attempted to fortfy
himself, temporarily with pledge that he would
resign his seat in the Senate of the United States if
he should fail to be sustained at home. But not
wIthstandiDg these numerous evidences Of disappro
baton, he did not resign; and upon the meeting of
the Legislature of 1875 that body, embodying in
preamble the language of his positive pledges,
pasted resolutions expressing the disapprobaton of
the people of Tennessee and respectfully requesting
him to resign. The Governor of the State was in
structed to furnish Mr. BELL with copy of these
proceedings. When they reached Washington he
laid them before the Senate declined to obey their
request or instructions and took occasion 20 insult
that great majority of his constituents from whom
these instructions emanated. He gravey charged
that his language, quoted in the preamble passed
by the Legislature, had been "garbled," thanking
God that neither his character nor his honor "were
in the keeping Of such men," ...
But Mr.. BELL knew, ard felt that the world knew,
that the disapprObauon of his course in aiIiating
with the Black Republicans and especially in regard
to Kansas was not mere party movement, but the
general sentiment of the State. The great body of
his own party were committed against him. Gen
ZouICoFFER had said upon more than one occasion,
and afterwards declared it boldly in his speech in
tie House
any strong belief is that but for the teach
ings winch have been more or less successfully inn
pressed upon the Southern mind that there no
chance to establish slavery in Kansas, the question
would long since have been practically settled, and
Kansas would by this timel have been slave State
in the Union
The Nashville Patriot, one of the most influential
ard leading Journals of the Opposition party in
Tennessee, took decided ground against the course
which Mr.. BELL was pursuing, announcing that "the
time had when the South must stand up against
the North, come what might" Col. READY, Mr..
MAYNARD, the present representative from this dis
trict Gen. QuARLEs and the great majority of his
party throughout the State stood with Gen. ZoLLT-
GOLFER and the Patriot in their course on the Kansas
question. Mr.. BELL felt this, when enumeratng
the that led to the action of the leg
islature instructng him out of his seat he said:
ITO add to the embarrassments arising from this
cause, private advices and assurances from persons
IN Washington said TO be well informed and relia-
BILE circulated to the effect that the admission
of Kansas, with the LecOmptOr Constitution, would
only make it slave State for the present but
that it could be maintained permanently as such.
$50 said Gen. ZOIIICOFFER.] Meanwhile one of the
most influential and leading journals of Tennessee
the interest of the American and Wing parties took !
decided ground In favor of the admission of Kansas
under the Lecompton Constitution 1.-THE Nashville |
Patriot took this position announcing that the time
had come 1obeH the South must stand up against the
North. CONE WHAT NIGHT, and at the same time |
pointing It's battery on every Southern man who |
should dare 10 take opposite course and. IN |
eject deaOmcGg hem as reCTedRtS 20 Southern RIGHTS