Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-06-15


berous but when your intellect shall have nstursi
to the comprehension Of how much depends upon
differentiation and rigid adherence % the laws Of
the camp, you will see that Napoleon could only
be just to the thousands Of lives under his care by
assuming the appearance OF cruelty to this de-
linquent.
obedience is not servility; it ia daty. It is,
therefore, not e0wardly, but honorable. The camp
is no place for the soft manners Of the drawing.
room, and soldiers are proverbially blunt; there
fore, do not imagine if an ecer speaks sharply TO
you, that he wants to insult you or browbeat you
and, my dear son, as you value your happiness and
usefulness do not beg of YOU listen to the scandal
of tattling go-between allow your feelings to be-
come prejudced, either against an officer Or fell
low soldier, by anything that may be said to you
against them in their absence. That man is foe to
your country who attempts to SOW dissension be-
tween brother soldiers, or shake the confidence of
the army in its officers and If he is inconsderaie
and malignant enough to select such holy spot as
the bvouac for such sacrilege he must be too bias
to speak the TRUTH and you will only be melting out
to him his just deserts TO give in place of your
spect and confidence, your derision and seorn.
Nothing can make me more happy, my dear son,
than to know that young as you are, you enjoy the
esteem and confidence Of your brave comrades in
arms and therefore warn you against that com
mon fault of volunteer soldiers to-wit: murmuring
Never murmur, my dear son, at anything. In the
first place, it is not manly; in the second place it
cleave to you in the third place. it demorazes the
army, and makes mob Of erumblers out of men
who, but for this propensity, might have bet n
much happier themselves and been the source
of happiness in the very ranks in which
their puerlle complaints must breed dIscOn-
tent. Be cheerful, my brave boy, and it will
mike your officers love you. Il is not pleat-
ure excursion you are on, and you must not expect
that uxuries will fall in showers along your path.
The soldiers Washington led. marched barefoOtep
over the frozen ground, with the blood pouring
from the gashes in their feet. They braved the
terrors of Northern winter, only half clad, and
won laurels that must flourish in perennial verdHe
while the Goth and Vandals who invaded Us from
the North, with the exchequer of mighty govern.
ment to provide for their comfort will have been,
in charity, forever forgotten.
There is but one issue between Lincoln's Govern
ment and ours. We assert that our fathers meant
TO secure to US independence and freedom. He and
his Cabinet hold that they meant to make US the
slaves of parchment, instead of the subjects of
George the Third. You, then, my son, are fighting
to assert that State is sovereignty, and citizen
is a free man; and you are fighting those who are
guilty of the paradoxical folly Of insisting that the
negroes of the South ought to be set absolutely
free; and that the white people of the South ought
to be held in political slavery. The sovereignty OF
State is like the liberty of an individual inaiien-
able; and our fathers never possessed the incina-
ton or po,cer to disrobe themselves of their per-
sonal liberty, or their State Governments of their
inherent sovereignty And the flag under which
you fight is as essentially the flag of human free
dom, and our cause the cause of human liberty, as
our fathers supposed the flag under which, and the
cause for which, they fought was the flag and Cause
of independence.
Lncolnand his Cabinet seekto ignore the great prn-
ciple of self government They say that the people
cannot convene when they please and alter the gov
eminent if they choose. Yet they claim that the
REPRESENTATIVES of the people in Congress assem-
LII have 10 Ia hat vvh fhavd ao m
the people themselves have not the power to do II
amounts to this then, my son, that men have risen
in our day and generation who seek to make the
dogmas of fanatcalparty the curse of once hap
DIV country, and 70 consummate their foul designs
unblushngly violate all the laws of logic, humanity
propriety and decency usually respected among the
civilized nations of EARTH seeking to do justice to
man and man, and uphoding the Government to
which they owe their loyalty.
May God bless you, my noble boy, is the prayer
that is perpetualy ascending from the lips of your
angel mother and perpetually burning in the heart
of your affectionate father. D.