Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-12-05

and hopes. Climate local attachment and loyalty
to those who direct their labor and protect their
lives, all conspire TO tell US, and not others are
now and must remain their friends. Let US consId-
er this question calmly and nationally. We are as
| yet the only people that can do it. We know them
| and understand what of Development in the scale
Of being and sefsustaining power they nave attain
| cd. We know that slavery cannot be abolished,
even though our National and State glory be over
| thrown in the attemat In wild dismay they mustfa
victims of the Fapacity that such event must pro-
| duce. Whatever Outgrowth to capacity universal
Providence may afford them all history. ali common
sense, all justly appreciated experience demonstrates
that people be made civilly free only as ind
viduals rise to see and own the principles and the
elements of selfsustaining power ever administered
| by the Eternal Bounty. We are the constituted in
struments of that Providence, and dare not betray
our trust. They were brought here by the agency,
and to the profit of the North equally with the
South. The former section has retreated from per
sonal care and direct responsibility and by the law
| of climate and the tidal emigration OF the world
artiZans have attained success and power IN the re-
! treat We cannot retreat; we cannot throw off the
/ responsibility To us their labor and their enlarge
ment is entrusted The trust is solemn, and we had
better die at affairs than attempt Its deserton
In view of this responsibility let wait till aggres
sion is positive and plain and then to them as oa it
must appear wher our hope lies. Think me not
mistaken here or if you do, hear me patiently and
will give you estimate of this view OF the case
| in hands indicated by all the lights of reason and
/
spiration confirms. Call upon me- but not now, and
l will answer in view of all that has been said
| the nature and hope of the American Negro race
Ill Allow me. then. to present the true position
of the South to this crisis Your partlZan dlssen-
tons in the last Presidential canvass were most UNI
| fortunate and all similar divisions in your action
must be dispensed with, or consequences no lam
| guage portrays are before US. If we would
| preserve our rights we must be united. We must
decide for or against African slavery in States
| No ohio fgersa No 9th q
South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia or Louisiana have
| interests involved we have the same. II they or
any one of them go out Of the Union, remember
they go out upon question and an interest as vital
to us as to them. Grant the fact that own fewer
slaves. Twenty or twenty thousand make no diff
ference in the principle involved. Suppose they go
out and you remain. With whom do you remain
and under what auspices? You are hopeless mi
nority your slave Interests destroyed in the South;
your last negro sold there and mighty tide OF IN
fated and powerful fanaticism directly upon your
border. Their ruin is your ruin and severed from
them you will be compelled TO aid in their over
throw. Are you prepared fer this? A grave ques-
tiOn-let its answer be the matured judgment of
men who dare to be men.
A word here, on secession. / must regard the
secession of any one or more States, without the
consent and united action of all interested, as
fatal desertiOn of all principle and community of
interest if taken without mature consultation with
us and with every State holding slaves, care not
how many or how few. Some precpitate action of
this kind is much to be dreaded. Nothing could so
completely weaken our mutual interests, for 1t
would be a virtual acknowledgements Of principles.
of action that shun the light of day. 1t would be
as selfish ard fore-dOomed for you to desert
me because have only three children whilst you
have thirteen. 1t will not do If attempted, time
will show a worse condition than ever be effect
ed by the marshalling in serried host of all the Scy
THAN hordes opposed to slavery. Mark We well
what say. We are one people, and one destiny,
for good ill., is Slavery is right, or it is not
If wrong must remedy 1t. If right, 1t is as
much right it ID that of the aroused planters
of the Cotton and Sugar States and they cannot, in
honor and good faith, act without at least knowing
what we VIII do Heaven has joined US to be sew
cred only by desolatiOn fierce and Overwhelming. If
it be principle at stake, men am their personal and
political claims cannot be placed in the balance.
Bell and Breckenridge may deservedly CLAIM your
fealty of devotion but you have a united North a
people who despse and trample under foot their
greatest and best and link all their energies to
obscuuty and availability for the sake of power
And shall we quarrel over tavOritcs! Forbid
it every returning sense of duty and defence.
On the other hand. and for the same reason, will
South Carolina any single State, precipItate
common interest and hope without even hearing
what we are resolved to do? 1t cannot be. Large
as my hope for the good and glory Of my country
is full of strength as we are in cur resources such
an event would awaken fears to which / have
been as yet stranger. Anything less than united
action IS fatal. We must be united that we may be
determined determined that we may succeed. Let
me collect and concentrate all have said IN few
plain and pertinent questions, and you will see our
duty and danger. and The remedy for all Of which
we justly complain.
First We have to decide this Is there any
ground for complaint? If so, has right been VIC
lated? Have right and justice been dlsregarded
All viii answer, unhesitatingy they have been and
are now, by legislative enactment and popular
power? Do you believe it? Do you know it?
Then. as honest men, can you be less than decisive
You acknowledge, as one man, that right has been
most lagrantly set at nOught. All the slavehotdng
States say Amen, Then you not willing TO re-
quest nav urge cooperate and insist for the suprem
aCy of justice and right? To admit and acknowledge
with your whole heart and accord, as one man the
injustice and increasing OppressIveness Of condI-
tiOns,-l say with sentiment Of this kind IN your
heart and with a recognition Of principle as
clear as days to submit to any part or any power
of this COnfederacy, Overruling and coercing to an
in5ignity SO monstrOus and subyerslve of all you
hold sacred in the memory of your fathers or the
hope of your children, would be degrading as it
would be fatal TO all hope, to all aspiration to all
power for good either to the slave or our own!
DO YOU brave and pOtriOtic Tennesseans understand
me now? Can y3u fail to make the just discrimln
alton / have drawn tonight DO you not owet !
to yourselves to say in unmstakable resolve to the
North State protecting her slave interest In the
South can be cOerced. We will perish to man |
before it can be done. To the South act not with
OIt US for interests the same To do so is de-
sertiOn and we not worthy of such treatment. !
Meanwhile, assemble your people and make unanI |
nous and united your determination; and may Al |
mighty God, the Father Judge and Sovereign Of all
inspire your leaders and bless your people IN the full
of Eternal Right and Universal JUS
tice!
A word to Conservative men. You know all that |
have said to be true and you may still desire to
perpetuate the condition of things as it now is, |
rather than incur dangers that theaten You wish |
above all TO preserve the glory greatness and union
Of all the States In what attitude should upresent
the position of Tennessee and other Northern slave
States? The South cannot in good faith honor act
without full conference with you and willingness
to abide the decision of all the slave States. Your
Geographical position and acknowledged right ena-
bic you to ask, nay if need be- demand tins at their
hands. Your grievances in common require de-
mand upon the General Government for indemnity
for all loss of property it fails to restore by inab
ty TO execute its own laws. Can you do less than
Join in this demand2 Can you do less than require It
shoui be made before extreme action is taken, the
dangers and burdens of which, your portion of the
country must mainly feel? And. il after united
demand of right, all fails, can you do less than
stand BY your own section, for veal or woe
n the events that must follow? You owe II 10 your
position To restrain precipitate action on the one
hand and to unite in demand decisive and unalter
lble os the aggressive and offending portion Of the
Jonfederacv on the other. The duty Of no class Of
our people is more clear. If the South Will not
hear; will TO the will of the majority IN
IN estimate of a common interest and IN view OF
your over part in the dangers it may bring, before
Sod and all time you will stand clear annie any results
that transpire in the Union. Your local condl-
rOn demands that you should be heard. You are
upon the border and more liable to loss. In of
disruption of the Union any aggressive movement,
we are the first to suffer. The extreme states are
protected by our losses. We stand between them
and danger still greater cOnsderations that if the
cause of our complaint Is just, it is equally so with
every State holding slaves Our fresides our wives
and children are exposed; our fields the theatre
of invasion; all this you know and would Won still
look beyond the elements Of strife and see what
truth would perpetuate, could we be what nature
designed us you cannot fail to see question that
involves the Union. You abhOr its consequences
and desire if possible, TO be relieved of them That
cannot be done by inactiOn by turning our back |
We must meet, we must look at facts as they are !
aad not as We would have them. and to do this we |
must be as one man. Less Is gross inconsistency
We would occupy the false position of protesting one
thing and doing another. There is nothing so impor-
anta have the premises well understood: conse-
q1ently, let us review condition. Numerically