Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-11-29
sas- In the Virginia Convention, nov

rowing iesOldHons:
Resolred, That the committee on the Constitution
s Instructed to amend their repor, so as to provide
/. That no one who shall become ciiizenof the
Confederate States Of America after the close Of
the existing war, shall be entitled 10 vote
2. That no such persons shall he eligible to the
General Assembly, or 10 the Office Of Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, or Judge of the Supreme
Court Of Appeals OF Circuit Courts.
As a member of the much abused Amer
lean party, we are grati6ed at this tribute
of justice to its leading idea, coming, too
from State which boosted of its proves
In crushing an organization which embod-
led principles that lie at the very founda.
tion Of conservative republican govern
ment. To maintain a distinctive nation
atty, the people must be homogeneous
Ito the manor born" and TO make Re
public permanent, we must exclude from
the ballot box the discordant opinions and
radical doctrines ever to be found in pop
ulation composed of representatives of ey-
cry nation on earth. No one who has
investigated the subject will venture to
deny that the foreign element, so freely
admitted to citizenship under the Consti-
tuition of the old Union, has contributed
more than any other cause to hasten its
dismemberment and to plunge the dissev-
cred sections into cruel and unnatural
war. And as we, of the South, are the
only people who uphold slavery as alb
stractly right, it follows that we can not
confer the right of suffrage upon any for
eigner without encouraging, to the extent
of his prejudice and influence, the securi-
ty of that peculiar institution. The OBJ
vious truth of this proposition is reason
enough why the Confederate States should,
by their Constitution, exclude from the
ballot-box and from all civil offices, the
subjects Of foreign governments.
The South is taking its position among
the nations of the earth, under peculiar
circumstances. The existence of slavery,
as permanent institution, has forced it to
separate from the North, which is scarcely
more anti-slavery in sentiment than the
great powers of Europe. This feeling of
hostility-frst engendered by politicians
is now fostered by religious fanaticism, and
the pulpits of both Continents delight to
hurl anathemas at the STAKEHOLDER as a
monster of iniquity, deserving every curse
that can be heaped upon his head here and
hereafter. Children are taught, in Sunday
schools, to look upon slavery as the I'M
pardonable sin, and weak and nervous wo-
men are frightened into Mysteries by terri
bic pictorial representations of the cruelty
of the slave driver. Is this hostility, thus
fostered and stimulated, and already the
growth of fifty years, likely to cease with
the establishment of Southern independ-
ence? 1t would be folly thus to argue
The people of the North will become more
than ever embittered against slavery, be-
cause they will look upon its existence as
the proximate cause of their inevitable ru
in as a separate government England has
been striving, for years, to open up new
sources of supply that she may become in
dependent of the products of slave labor,
and large and influential class of her
people have long been aiding the aboli-
tionists of the North in their crusade
against Southern rights and institutions.
How, then, is the South to sustain sla-
very against so powerful an outside press
ure? BY putting none but Southerners on
guard by closing every avenue through
which foreign and hostile influence can
reach the administrative policy of its gov
eminent. When peace shall have been re-
stored, our sunny cline and rich soil will
stimulate the immigration of capitalists
and adventurers, and unless efficient meas
ures be adopted to prevent it, every branch
of trade and commerce will be crowded, II
not monopolized, by men with whom we
are now at war, and who will not scruple
to decoy slaves from their homes, or incite
them to rebellion. The question for us to
consider is, whether such men shall come
among us, and not whether they shall be
vested with the powers of the ballot box
and thus be enabled to agitate the subject
Of emancipation or abolition, To multi.
ply shareholders is the true policy of the
government, and after all that this policy
can effect there will be too many ncn'
Shareholders without admitting to the
rights of citizenship those of other coun,
tries who have been educated TO believe
that slavery is mOnstrous curse and sin
There are still other reasons of no little
weight, why foreigners should never BE-
allowed 10 vote in the Confederate States
but believing this single one to be all