Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-12-03
For the Daily Patriot.
rhe or1sIs-what ought Tennessee
to Eo2

OF the Southern states. IL Il right tndt every
phase of opinion should be represented in the
public prints. Not having seen fairly andd
squarely expressed the feelings and opinions
of that portion of the people with whom |
concur: fhope you will accept this commu. |
nicati6n and lay it before your readers. As |
all my means are Invested in cotton produ- |
cling property, it is to be presumed that no |
man will charge me with abeiitionism or
abolition proclivities. I am constantly en-
ployed among the real people in rural loca-
ZION, and think I know their views here
abouts. Many of US think we can see our
own interests, and are as jealous of OAR
rights as any man in the Cotton States can
be. and we will, assOksn necessary do as much
in defence of those rights as any will dare to
do. But we are unwilling 'to resign our
right of thought by base abandonment OF
reason,' under the pressure of a morbid sem
timent now too prevalent at the South in ia
vor of united action.
/, sirs, cannot see the congsaon sense, the Jus
tice or the loisdom of urging the Southern
people to be united in any plans or efforts in
| reference to future action. There is no COM
| mon sense in urging united action, or
nion of purposes or plans on the Southern
| people at the present time. And why? First:
}rcau-e, as 1 honestly believe, four-ffths of
me population of the Southern States, if
they were to express their sentiments unbi-
| assed by social considerations, and party
| prejudices, would be incredulous of any as
serted Just cause, for the great hulta6aIil now
| being kicked up by our South Carolina
| neighbors. Secondly, Because an united South
is plainly an impossibily, and therefore an
absurdity.
There can be no justice in a moiety of the
people of any State being coerced into any
measures which shall increase the burthen Of
taxation, and make a call upon their mental
| and physical resources, in aid of cause
which does not meet the appreciation OF their
| judgment ard conscience, and which, if pur-
sued to contamination, must result in DANA
| giug their interests of every sort. material,
political and religious. In the event that no
overt act is committed by the General Gov
| eminent whereby our constitutional rights
are infringed, honestly believe that large
and respectable body of our citizens do now
feel, and viii continue to feel, that war
| against the Federal Authorities would be un-
holy and reasonable / cannot see how any
rational man, (and am far from being alone
in this opinion), by any principle OF ethics,
can argue himself into the belief that neigh
borship justifies the following of the evil ex-
ample of another either in business transac-
tons or political movements. No man or
set of men, no State or Confederacy of
States, has right to coerce even a minority
either by arms or the force of public opinion
into the commission of that greatest of public
| crimes, treason. In the event of civil war a
| revolutionary party may compel those who
do not side with them to occupy the position
| of noR-cOmbatants. But it is not in the
power of any State of this Union, as a matter
| Of right, to COMPEL its citizens to take up
arms against the United States. So those
ultra Southern gentlemen, who have been
| hiding behind the doctrine of State allegiance,
in their revolutionary enterprises, had better
examine into the validity of their doctrine
before they attempt to force people into their
State armies, proposed to be raised for the
4
There can be no acisdom in the calling of
conventions or the assembling of legisla-
| lures, or the raising of State armies. Nom
action on our part, will speak our disappro-
| baton to the seceeding States in louder
| tones than addresses and resolutions. II
those States are in the wrong, they deserve
not our sympathies. If in the spirit of reck-
lessness, under the specious plea of preserv-
ing the equality of the States, they show a
disregard for the rights of other States, they
deserve our unqualified disapprobation.
State conventions will necessarially be COM
posed to considerable extent, of mad-cap
politicians and gentlemen of leisure, who
know too little of public sentiment to repre-
sent it correctly. The most noisy and VIC
lent members will probably be most conspic-
uous and give tone to the expressions of opin-
ion. The real people, the hard-fsted people,
the hard thinking, the hardfghting people
will be almost wholly uurepseseuted.
Our legislatures elected prior TO the &C.
currence of the present exigeneies and IN
der the sway of party drill, cannot reflect
the present state of public sentiment.
The raising of State armies, if by drafting
t55 militia, would at the present, be great
I 'yIv,nny. If such armies are made up of
volunteer corps. they would be subject to
the objection, that they would contain too
many hot-headed men, who see aggression
| everywhere, and on all occasions, and might
create cause for precipiiating the now con-
s.rvative States into revolution. The peo-
pie of Tennessee should keep cool. remain
quiet. Mad-eap fire-eaters should not calcu-
late largely, that our peoplecan be brought
/ into united action in any effort tending to-
wards civil war. 1 for one, (and believe 1
am rejecting the sentiments of thousands
am not willing at the beck and nod of in
temperate agitators in South Carolina or
elsewhere, and under the pressure
of morbid public sentiment.
to sell my birth-right for a mess of
pottage, to barter away the constitution OF
my country, its glorious associations, and its
present and prospective blessings for the rule
OF disappointed politicians, a set of madi-cap
auilifers and secessionists, who, I honestly
believe, have for thirty years been eonspir-
ing to break up the most glorious govern
ment whose his Dry has ever been recorded.
Broken down politicians, in the midst of
excitement, may be able to keep down the
expression of great truths, and for time
crush them out But the day Of reckoning
will come, when they will find that there are
thousands of men good and true In ev-
cry Southern State, who hold with the faith
ers and defenders of the Constitution. the
Madisons, the Jaeksons, the Claws and 9TH