The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-02-01
Letter of Judge Nicholson Of Ten

A few passages from a recent letter Of
Judge Nicholson, Senator of the United
States, from Tennessee, are given below
1t Is not easy for southern men to compre
hend the code of ethics, moral or political,
by which northern people justify the forma-
tiOn in the free states of an organization
based entirely upon a sentiment OF hatred for
domestic institution existing exclusively in
the southern states. We can understand
that kind of opposition to slavery which ex.
cludes it from the northern states, but we are
wholly at loss to reconcile the continusl
agitation Of the subject in the free states with
those fraternal relations and obligations,
which were created when the several sover.
eign states pledged their faith to each other
in common conlederucy.
After remarking that it is not possible fo.
the present unnatural state of alienation to
proceed much further without "splitting as
under the Confederacy," Judge Nicholson
has the following strain of remark:
at rests mainly with the people of the
north to decide whether the Union is to be
broken up or not. The southern people will
look on with deep anxiety at the conflicts
which are to settle this momentous question.
They appreciate the sacrifices which their
northern friends have already made in their
efforts to resist the progress Of that sectional
organization which threatens the subiugoton
OF the southern states. All their sympathies
will be enlisted on the side of the Union in
the future struggles which they are to have
with sectionalism. The southern people haze
neuer expected their northern friends to become
the adUOcates and champions of the institution
Of Slavery, or Of ats ertension INTO the terrific
rieS. They have never assumed that an ab.
stract opposition to slavery was irreconcla-
BILE with a faithful compliance with all the
duties and obligations, both confederate and
constitutional, which legitimately attach to
the members of the federal Union. They
have insisted on the constitutional right to
have the title to slaves recognized as valid
in the common territories, not from spirit
Of slavery propagandism, but upon the great
principle OF perfect equality of right guar
antGed by the constitution to all the states.
They have not maintained that none are to
be regarded as reliable friends of the consti-
tutional rights of the southern states who
believe that the people of territory have the
right, whilst under territorial organization,
to regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way. Whilst the southern people have
honestly entertained their known opinions
on these subjects, they have not sought to
prescribe tests of orthodoxy to which their
northern brethren could not conscientiously
subscribe.
They had expected (and in this they have
not been disappointed) that their northern
friends would stand forth as the adyocates
and champions of the Constitution and the
Union as our fathers made them. This is
oil that we now expect and desire at their
hands. We know that in the northern states
we have million and half Of friends who
have not bowed their necks 10 the yoke of
sectionalism. Upon these we rely for the
preservation Of the Union in the day of trial
that is approaching. Until they are con.
quered, the people of the south will have no
occasion to consult safety out of the Union"