Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-01-19
N address to the People of Ten

fTeen1en OF TENNESSEE we Shall sOoh pe caiie@ "
to decide the greatest and most important question
that has been submitted to the American peopl
since the organization of our Government
! Events, since the 9th of November, of the mos
startling character, have followed each other il
= such rapid succession that considerable men, tn
stoutest hearts have stood aghast appalled, by thu
dangers which threaten us, alike on the one side AM
on the other. Looking to the North we behold al
army whose name is legion, bearing down on u
with resstless fury, and threatening to invade ou
domestic circles, to visit us with the FIRE and thu
sword. the dangers of servile insurrection, ant
the total subyerson of political and social fab
ric. Resistance, we are told, is war-civil war
the war Of brother against brother of father agans
the son. Our mothers and our sisters given ever t
horrors, the very thought Of which were enough t.
freeze our hearts blood. Bend your neck to the
yoke like the gentle OK or go to the SHAMELESS HOLD
out your hands and take upon you the chains which
Northern fanatcism has long been forging for you
or meet the felons doom. These are, indeed, sad al
ternatives. But thank God, there is still another
| if indeed we be not already subdued if sloth, the
love of ease and fear, have not already possessed
cur hearts; if there still burns in cur bosoms that
patriotic fire which warmed and animated the hearts
Of our sires that ndomtable love Of freedom and
Independence which sustained their hearts amid the
tolls, the dangers, and the suferings of seven long
years of relentless war; if, with such hearts and
one man we defy the tyrants, whose mercy is the
brand of infamy, then, indeed we shall come cut
eonquerors- sons of worthy sires. Then,
indeed glorious future will open up before us. The
dark and threatening clouds which now overshadow
US shall break away, and the sun of hope, of joy
and gladness once more illumine our path.
Which will you choose, submission, which brings
with it a moment of rest and of inglorious ease,
disgrace infamy and moral death, or initiating the
gallant deeds of the brave who gave their lives
thatyou might be Free confrodt the foe and dare him
to battle?
We know well the conflicting emotions which al
most distract your hearts at the bare thought of
dissolution of this once glorious Union. We know
well the deep love- the flal affection, the almost
idolatrous devotion with whehyou have worshipped
this greatest offspring of the wisdom and patriotism
of fathers and now that the funeral bell tolls
its sad requiem, with fearful eyes we gaze upon its
stalwart limbs--a thousand cherished associations,
crowd upon the mind and in the agony of dispar,
who looks for the last time upon the lfeless
features of that old father, who for seventy odd
years had endured the tolls and braved the storms
and tempest of life, we too are almost ready to
give up the battle and ask Heaven that we might be
permitted to go down into the grave with him to
whom our hearts varmest affections had so long
eung. But let not impiousy complain of Heavens
DEGREES. God in his nscrutible wisdom has ordained
that the proudest monuments of Earth shall perish.
But though to day our hearts are bowed down in
sorrow and anguish in view of the wreck that now
lies before u.s. yet let us remember, that dangers
always soonest fly the path of the resoute and the
brave. That God who is just, will help them, who
with undaunted hearts go forward in defence of
their own rights and that in the end though ii may
be after sore trials, He will crown our cause with
victory all the more glorious for the pers we may
have encountered.
1t is now almost certain that legislation, act
ing in unison with the patriotic impulse of the great
Southern heart, will provide for convention Of
delegates of the sovereign people of Tennessee, to
determine what action they will take in reference to
the existing crisis, for in such convention alone
are we authorized to exercise that highest power
of sovereignty so fully, SO admirably expressed in
our bill of rights Secs and ?: r
al. That all power is inherent in the people, and
all free Governments founded on their authori-
ty and instituted for their peace safety and happi
ness; for the advancement of those ends they haveH
at all tlmes inalienable and indefeasbIe right to
alter. reform abolish the Government in such
manner as they may think proper.
I" 2. That Government being instituted for the
common benefit, the doctrine of nen-resistance
against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd
slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness
of mankind" @'
The States of Florida, South Carolina, Alabama
and Mississippi have already withdrawn from the
confederacy and the States of Louisiana and Geor
ga viii undoubtedly have seeded by the time cur
delegates shall have met in Convention.
Under these circumstances, the question for to
determine will be, not whether the Union shall be
dissolved, for that is already an accomplished fact but
whether We shall, with present venerated con-
sttution the basis of a Southern Confederation
unite our destiny with those to whom we are ndis-
soluby bound by the ties of sympathy and of inter-
est cling to the skirts of those States which not
only deny us equality of rights, but declare IN
ceasing war upon our peace happiness and safety |
until the present relations of the white and the black
race shall have been abolished States in which the
robbery of Southern citizens is legalized and the
murder of Southern citizens c9nonsed.
Can Tennesseans hesitate which to choose? Every
effort TO procure redress of grievances and
Of our rights has met not only |
with stern resistance, but with defiance and threats
We have then to make up our minds, to submit IN
to Black Republican domination,
solve to stand upon the unalienabe rights of free
men. Time presses On the 18th of March next, tine |
army and the navy and the treasure of the Govern
ment viii pass into the hands of these who are |
pledged to our destruction He knows nothing Of
the past history and character Of that party will
fully attempts to deceive, who tells US there is safe
ty or patriotism in submission. Impartial history
will stamp with infamy, the Southern State, which
through fear of coercion, shall fail to assert its
rights, and maintain them at whatever cost
In a union with Northern States we shall be es-
teemed only many sheep, useful for our fleece,
but kicked and despised for our imbecility. They
have lived upon our labor grown fat upon our boun
ty, and arrogant upon our humiliation. They have
flooded the world with ISLANDERS upon our insttu-
tons and people. Shall we give these ISLANDERS
an official endorsement in the person of every for
eign minister and consul? They are pledged before
God and man, in the pulpit and the hustings, in
every form of xpresson to direct the whole power
and moral influence of the government, to the sub
version of our social and civil institutions and
political degradation. Shall we contribute our
quota of the eighty millions per annum, as brIbe
to the agents who shall serve in this unholy cru
SADIE? They threaten us with coercion? Shall we
lick the rod held up for ourchastsementer planting
ourselves upon the right, bid them defiance and
trust the issue to the God of our fathers? There
are those who would divert from our only
hope of safety by directing public attention to the
absurd scheme of amidde confederacy. With some,
the object is only to delay this great and patriotic
movement of the people, until the incoming admin
istraton is fairly naugurated and all the appliances
of the government fully organized for the application
of palliative or coercive measures as the exlgen-
eies of the times may seem to require. Others
there arc, not a numerous class we hope, whose
object is thus to give aid and comfort to the Uholy
purposes of Black Republican,. IN. Divide and con-
quer! Separate the slave States from each other;
set Them if possible, to war one upon the other and
III