Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-07-31
The True Issue in the Presidential Cam
Paign.

If we look for the origin of this unhappy quarrel
one thatthrea:ens TO destroy the institutions which
the heroes of &c fought for and bequeathed to
we find it in the social theories which have been so
iHdustrOusy disseminated in the North to the preju-
dice of the South. The founders of the republic
recognized the institution Of slavery it then exist
ed in all the States The institution is sanctioned by
the organic law of the land. and protected in the
States where it exists by the Constitution of the
United States In the course of time the New Eng
land and Middle States abolished slavery-not from
any moral religious scruples, but simply and sole
y because it did not pay. In the South the institu
ton has become far engrafted upon the political
and embedded in the social SYSTEM that its abolition
is matter of impossibility unless the South is abo
shed well. You may tear up the tree by the
roots, but you cannot cut carve TRIM benz or break
it.
This, however, is not the view which was held by
certain philosophers who commenced the abolition
movement twenty-five years ago. They believed
that they had special mission to set the social sys
TEN, North and South, to rights and they began by
slow degrees to build up party to carry out their
intentions Forgetting that the founders of the
Government guaranteed equal rights to all the
States, the abolition party attempted, and still do
attempt to interfere with the domestic institutions
of the South and deprive the people of that section
of their property by force of arms. Along with
this idea they have taken up in the particular
folly or delusiOn which ruled the hour such as spi-
ritualism, free love agrarianism, Fourerism,
mems rights and so on, until they have revived all
exploded theories of the last ten centuries pretend
ting that they and important discoveries in
social science. As one party after another
broken up by the agitation of the slavery question,
the ab0tonists gathered in recruits to their ranks
and promised rich rewards to the decayed poti-
clans, no matter from which side Of the house they
came. The orators and writers Of the new party
have been as violent the leaders of the sans coes
in the time of the French Revolution. They have
denounced the South a section of the country in
habited by barDarians and pirates. No term of OBJ
lOquy or reprOach has been spared when the South
was alluded to. According to the accounts of Sum-
ner, Seward and Wendell Phillips, SOutherners are as
cruel the cannibas of the South Sea- uncivlzed
Kaffir and depraved the inhabitants of Sodom
and GOmorrah. While the more moderate of the
republicans have been attempting to conceal the true
issuts which will grow out of their theories, the
radical section of the party has been throwing red
hot shot into the Southern camps until the present
moment, when the contlagration is the point of
breaking out.
The natural consequences of this line of conduct
may be readily perceived. The violence of the alb |
in the North has reacted upon the South
which demands protection for its local institutions
an equal share in the Government ard the recogni
ton Of its constitutional rights Failing to receive
all this at the hand of the North, the South claims
the last resort the right to secede peaceaby and
quietly from the Union.
That is the real state of the case as it stands. |
And now it remains for the conservative men of |
the Middle and Western States to say what course |
shall be taken to avert the danger that threatens
he country The question is a most important one.
It is far above any party considerations The mat
er has gone so far that the politicians have no
onger any control over it. At such time every
nan should consult interests which are above per-
onal preferences and party ties We need not paint
he horrors which would result from the dissolu-
ion of the Union. We need not point to the inevi-
able money panic, the breaking down of the COM
nercial mining and manufacturing interests of the
atiOn. All this will suggest itself to the mind of
very man who has anything at stake in the country
We may, however, suggest that the only way by
which the peace of the country can be preserved IS
y uniting all the opposition against Lincoln upon
ne candidate, and that candidate the one who alone
) sure OF the Southern States. If the conservative
zen OF the North be aroused to a sense of their
anger, so as to combine for Mr.. Breckenridge then
lincoln may be defeated but on the other hand If
he Black Republican candidate should be elected
re can expect nothing but renewed and more |
liter agitation ending finally in the disruption of
ne confederacy and consequent downfall of the re
ublic. Men and brethren, ponder upon these
,incs Np1r Yarl- Herald |