Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-11-02
COMMUNICATION.


known. Longer to delay our opinion OF the result
would go nigh to class ourselves with the prophets
of the past The incidents. of the canvass in this
State have beeE few, while at the time it has
been manifest that our people are agitated by a
strong current of feeling strongly repressed. Up I
to the 26th ult the remark was perhaps equally /
true of all parties unless which do not suppose
the BELL. men are willing to take the mid enthus
asrl in honor of Mr.. CRrrTENDEN on the 18th of
September as the full expression of their partys
confdcnce
On Friday last, Mr.. DOUGLAS in the morning ad-
dressed our citizens at the Court House, and
at night Mr.. YAScEY did so at the Capitol. The
crowd in attendance on either occasion was as Largo
as the speakers most sanguine hope could possibly
have anticipated. OF the wOaderful outburst Of
feeling on MIR. YANcEYis arrival we have DISPOSE
ton to speak: the great crowd BY which he
was welcomed at the depot the almost frantic pro-
cession by which he was escorted to his hstel. and
the acres of peopoe who heard him at the Capitol
All was in contrast to the welcome that had greeted
Mr.. DOUGLAS in the morning welcome as cold as
it was large The right of a statesman, the public
advocate of his own claims to the Presidency. was
of itself sufficient to have drawn together the we'll
behaved audience at the Court House, independent
of the speakers national reputation. Curiesitywas
expressed on every countenance, but sympathy on
the fewest. His attacks on the State Rights Demo-
cracy were greeted with the expected applause Of
the Opposition but an applause SO justly proper
toned to the known majority of the Opposition in
our city, that all could see at glance had the
speaker in the same sentence denounced Mr.. BELL
and Mr.. BRECKNRIDoE his voice would have fallen
echoless, and not 1.-THE would have SHOWN them
selves allied to his broken fortunes He stood there
the advocate of DoUGLAs and Squatter Sovereignty;
neither in the peoples estimation, equivalent for
the dssension he has sprung in his party at the very
hour of our country's need.
In contrasting the difelent reception by which
the two speakers were honOred it is impossible
longer to donbt how the heart of State beats in
this momentous crisis if the voice of its Capital
be accepted for that of the State. Impossible to
doubt that Tennessee is bound by sympathy, as she
is by interest and honor to the sacred principle Of
State Rights under the constitution.
If there arc manifest objections to the vote Of the
State being given to DOUGLAS BELL they can be
stated In few sentences. We undertake the brief
task.
Mr. BELLS election wou Id determine principle.
/ The country is now divided upon a question by
which the nation is rent into sectional parties; the
nation is in other words brought face to face with
that catastrophe the most anxiousiy foreseen and
carefully guarded against by the trainers of the
Government. The election, under such circum-
stances, of a candidate whose platform commits him
to no policy would express nothing but the natural
\ tendency of men and people alike of human nature
in fact to pause on approaching the final step His
election would only postpone for four short years
the final struggle, that must come at last when the
first pause is over. because this maiden-head of a
crisis can only be taken once That is the utmost
good to be effected by the election of Mr. BELL, IN
less his friends are insane enough to believe that
party, not in control of single State, conld,
in the term of single Administration, accidentally
acquired, become he dominant party Of the country
The limited space of a newspaper communication
does not permit even hasty review Of the misfor-
tunes to be dreaded from election prompted by
such motives Two of them, however, are too
manifest to be overlooked. In the first place, the
North grows at rate greatly disproportioned to
that of our section: and another will, in the
next year have increased their force in the Electoral
| College while it will have diminished our own, a
consideration irrespective of the accession of new
States before the next election after this. In the
second place. misfortune still more dreadful is the
fact that Mr. BELLS election would probably if not
certainly furnish the nucleus of Black Republican
party to be built up in the South. He would be a
President without party in Congress to support
his Administration. The partial support of the
Black Republicans in Congress would beget with
the Opposionists of the South necessity to extern
uate the supporters of their chief and such
sity as that only toOapt to lead from apology to
alliance.
The election of Mr.. BELL, nevertheless, would
SIMPLY leave the question of State rights where it
! is while that of LINCOLN would fix foreign sec
tional administration upon fifteen sovereign States
Let us see in what we would be more fortunate
to have the canvass result in the election Of Mn
DOUGLAS.
If the convention of which he claims to be tn,
nominee is test, Mr.. DoUGLAs as much foreign
sectional candidate as LINCOLN himself. But, pass
ing that by, upon what terms does he propose to re
lieve us from the yoke with which we are threaten
led? Simply upon the terms that the South shall in
effect Iesigu her right in the common territory. tina
was either purchased by her blood and treasure or
else carved ont of her own body. 1t is not believ
ed that the Black Republican party could, in sin
gle administration at least secure any advantage
over us equal to this which Mr.. DOUGLAS woulJ
have US yield as the first single concession; con
cession not following defeat, but a surrender
ing of the battle in advance. In the South there
few advocates of the principle Of the DOUGLAS plat
! form. 1t is reasoned upon by the one argument at
incoauenienf, namely that the question is an alb
sracton and without material influence however II
shall be decided An argument fraught with the mos
attrocious allacy, since it stares every man in the
face that upon this very question is to be determined
whether Southern civilization is to be preserved
whether in the language of Black Republican ora
tory slavery is to be confined in its present bounds
until it shall sting itself death The enemy of his
country who first hit upon that expression did mo-
fall into the vulgar of using language toe
strong for the matter. There is but one way by
which slavery can sting itself to DEATH By having
a Gordon of free States drawn around the entire
South and thus to allow four millions of slaves
to 90 on increasing under the influence of JON
: Brown raids
. 1t would be pleasure to turn from the DOUGLAS
platform to that on which Mr.. BRECKENRIDGE is tbt
candidate, even were Mr.. BRECKINRIDGE the disun
ionist that Mr. YAHCEY is charged to be. When
men once commence to yield their palpable rights
an entrance is at that moment made into the breach
| Every sensible man sees lnaI tnere would De NJ
sectional party in the country, had the South in thu
beginning refused any compromise of her Consti
| tutional rights One evil nseparable from the ma
ture of compromise, is rlresdy upon us. 1t is re
garded as insolenee that we should ask for the ex
tent of our rights For it is not denied that tin
: very extremists of the South seek to wrong no one
! of penny-seek to force themselves on no relue
tant neighbor. A great wave of the waters tina
are combined ultimately to wash from existence
is now threatening present security. In the ex
gency Of this canvass, the most successful effort
or at least the effort nearest successful to stay tbs
advancing tide has been made as all admit by Mr.
YAACEY s speeches at the North, in which he forci
bly, and with the greatest effect, pointed out t.
Northern audiences the great value of the Union t.
the people of the North, and the oppressiyeness o
their present demands upon the people of the South
No undeserved honors have since been heaped upol
him.
a The writer Of this communication would give nc
better reason for his individual vote than that Mr.
BREcKIxRIDGE is the candidate upon platform which
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