Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-12-02
COMMUNICATION.


wisest and purest statesmen have admonished us
against.
The success of party strictly sectional and geo
graphicain its character, was in their judgments an
event fraught with more danger to tie stability OF
our government than all others.
The North has disregarded the admonitions thus
given as well as the appeals of Southern men of ali
parties.
What our patriot statemen regarded as remote
and improbable event-that against which they
cautioned, they thought distant generations
which they were so fortunate as to die without wit
Messing is upon us.
An event has happened, present peril is upon
US" the mere apprehension of which, as distant
and bare possibility, could sadden the heart of the
Father of his country, and dictate the grave and
grand warning of the Farewell Address.
RUFUS CHoATE too, upon whom it was said the
mantle of the Immortal WEBSTER fell, IN remon-
strating against the election of FREMONT, in 1856
was fully conscious of the danger, when he uttered
the following truthful sentiments
'Ihear men say that such party ought not to
endanger the Union that although it happened to be
formed within one geographical section, and contn-
ed exclusively TO it, although Its end and aim IS to
rallv that section against the other on question OF
morals policy and feeling, on which the two differ
eternally and unappeasiby; although, from the
nature of its Origin and objects, IN the section
outside can possibly join It. accept c1fce under Il
,oittod ifdmy at home; although. therefore, 1t is
stupendous organization, practically TO take power
and honor. and a full share of the Government,
from our whole family of States, and bestow them,
substantially, all upon the antagonist family; al
though the doctrines of human rights, which it
gathers out of the Declaration Of Independence
that passionate and eloquent manifesto TO revOlu-
tionary war-and adopts as its fundamental ideas,
announce to any Southern apprehension crusade
Of Government against slavery, far without and
beyond Kansas although the spirit and tendency OF
its electioneering appeals, whole, in prose and
verse, the leading articles Of its papers, and the
speeches Of its orators, are TO excite contempt and
hate fear of entire geographical section and
hate or dread or contempt is the national impress
sion it all leaves on the Northern mind and heart;
yet that nobody anywhere ought to be frightened;
that the majority must govern, and that the North
is majority; that is ten to nothing will happen;
that if worst comes to worst, the South knows it is
wholly to blame and needs the Union more than we
do, and will be quiet accordingly
Iappeal to the conscience and honor of my coun-
try that if it were the aim Of a great party, by
every species of access to the popular mind-by
elOquence, by argument, by taunt, by sarcasm by
recrlmnation, by appeals to pride, shame, and ma
tural right-tO prepare the nation for a struggle
with Spain England, or Austria, it could not do
its business more thoroughly. Many persons, many
speakers-many, very many, set higher and wiser
example, but the work is doing
If it accompGshes its object, and gives the Gov
eminent to the North, turn my eyes from the con-
sequences To the fifteen States iof the South, that
Government will appear alien Government 1t will
appear worse. 1t viii appear hostile Government.
1t will represent to their eye vast region of States,
organized upon Anti-Slavery, flushed by triumph,
cheered onward by the voices of the pulpit, tribune
and press; its mission TO inaugurate freedom and
put down the olgarchy; its constitution, the glitter
ing and sounding generaltes of natural right which
make up the Declaration of Independence. And
then thus is the beginning of the end.
WILLARD FILLMORE, whom large party in Tennes-
see and other Southern States have delighted 20
honor fully recognized the danger consequent upon
such an event. when he uttered the following senti-
ments in the campaign Of 1856:
1--WE see a political party presenting candidates
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency selected for
the first time from the free States alone with the
ayowed purpose of electng those candidates by the
sufrages of one part of the Union only to rule over
the whole United States. Can it be possible that
those who engaged in such measure can have
seriously reflected upon the consequences which
must inevitably follow in case of success? Can
they have the madness or folly to suppose that our
Southern brethren lUOd submit to be governed BIZ such
a Chief MagiStrate? "
hended the same dangers from such result.
Are the people unnecessarily alarmed, then. when
they see the Government passing into the hands Of
such party, not simply geographical party but a
sectional party, headed by man who deliberately
utters the opinion that there Is an irrepressble
conflict between the free and the slave States
that the Union cannot endure half slave and half
free, but that he does not expect the Union to be
dissolved but does expect it will cease to be di-
vided,'' man whose friends say, The whole poll
cy of the government will be policy of freedom.
The spirit that will actuae all its departments will
be a spirit of liberty. The slave States will be sur
rounded BY a Gordon of free States, and slavery
confined to its present lmits-limits too speedily to
be still further circumscribed until slavery becomes
a pecuniary, as well as a moral curse and the &C
cursed Institution is placed where the public mind
would rest in the belief that it would become finally
ertiHct"
Notwithstanding the accumulated evidence that
forces s-unwillingly-to see what their Interior
objects are that instead of administering the gov
eminent in its true spirit, which was ito establish
Justice insure domestic tranquility and provide for
the common Defence its higher law construc-
ton of the Constitution usurps all just and con-
stitutional authority its "irrepressible conflict"
doctrine, sanctions the raids of their BROwNs amp
MoNTGoMERYs, thus destroying all domestic tran
0tilityn and then, when we talk of resisting such
awless proceedings, instead of providing for our
common defense" we are told that coerciye meas
ures are to be used to bring us into submission.
Upon this point quote Mr.. LINCOLN himself. In his
Leavenworth speech, in 1858, he said: You say
Il. d. II . ~
South will not submit they will dissolve the Union
be it So it is their act, not ours.
What would a President do under such circum-
stances? Treat them as the Yirginians did JOHN
BRowN.'
1t is not claimed that the above extract is the pre-
else phraseology, but it Is substantially correct.
As is very natural, we find opinions widely
variant IN the South, as to the remedies we should
employ to avert the impending evils.
And If we desire harmony Of action in the pro-
posed movements, we should do nothing TO irritate
or offend those from whom we differ
1t is the policy of wisdom to deal with men and
things as we find them and not as we would have
them therefore, if we differ, let us be charitable
enough to suppose we differ honestly. If the citi
Gems of some States believe the speedest and safest
o
the Union and establish a Southern Confederacy
and while Others more hopeful, believe that we
should hold Southern Convention, and make anoth-
err appeal to the magnanimity and justice Of the
North, for the protection of our constitutional
rights, why indulge in elimination and recrlmina-
ton?
Whoever expects every man to take the same
view of the remedies necessary to our protection
is unreasonable and ilberal to say the least of it
still we find party papers and partizan writers, who
denounce the leading men of our more Southern
States as vile demagogues " disappointed Office
hunters" moral towards and traitors to their
country and deserving the most ignOmnious punish
ment Who are the men thus denounced? and for
what simply for giving expressions to their con-
Victions of duty-and they are leading spirits IN
theirI respective States, men who enjoy the fullest
confidence Of their people, and the very ren with
whom we would have to confer iu the event of a
Southern Convention.
Are such denunciatOns calculated to convince