Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-02-08
For the Chronicle.
Secession Peaceful, Legal and
Constitutional Remedy.


The South s strictly an agricultural community. |
The present difficulties between the North and South
are not some suppose and endeavor TO make 9th |
ers believe, slumbcriug FIRE famed into fame by
huxtering politicians and briefless lawyers. So far
as the South is concerned it is based upon that
great underlying substrata of society composed of
planters and tlers of the soil Il is they who have
this matter in hand and it is they who demand and
must have final adjustment Of this difficulty
They have been the sufferers. Slow to act patient
and enduring and loyal to the Union hoping against
nope, that some plan might be devised to perpetuae
the Constitution made by their fathers when every
measure to that end fails, they will stand firm, uni
ted, unit in the maintenance IF their rights at
whatever cost of blood and treasure; they will be
found to look revolution anything else in the face
rather than take position of inferiority in that
Union, or humbly take anything less than their
Constitutional rights Great exceptions are taken
to the course of South Carolina by some. South
Carolina has not been precpitate in her action; har
raised by an unce sing war OF thirty years duration
against Southern institutions, institutions which arc
interlaced with her very existence her peace her
prosperity, happiness and security. She declared
long ago, that the election of sectional Chief
Magistrate, pledged to carry out the doctrines of
faction so inimica to the South and its interests
would take her out of the Union. That fact was
accomplished in the election of Lincoln TO the Pres
idency. In pursuance of this determination, South
Carolina with other States seeded from this Union
adopting this course with unanimity unparalleled
in public determination. She did so with all the
forms, soemlities and deberation, with which she
entered the Union, and resumed her original sove-
reignty which she had right to do first because
it is peaceful remedy. She has not taken, nor
does she propose to take aggressive position to-
wards the other States remaining in the Union
She declares and all the world knows that agrees
sons have been perpetrated by the North upon the
South, that were they the acts of foreign power,
would be good cause of war. The North have, for
years, lived in violation of the most solemn consti-
tutional obligations and compacts. There is no
charge Of this kind against the South, they have
observed good faith with their co-States North
When the North proposes by forcibe coercion, to
compel South Carolina to remain in the Union with
what equity can she enforce her unjust preten-
sions before the civilized world; will it not be said
that she must do equity before she has a right to
demand equity2 She must come into Court with
clean hands. South Carolina docs not propose to
act upon the aggressive, she wages war upon
the rights the liberties, the property of the Nor
then peoples then if the North lets her alone, there
can be no war. South Carolina and the other sece-
ding States will adopt such will secure
their rights and the happiness of their people, which
is an unalienable right belonging to all nations and
recognized in all its length and breadth, from the
earliest days of the Republic. Under the Constitu-
u
edy. There is no provision in tat instrument to
coerce State by the armed force of the General
Government; it is not direct not an incidental
power. The trainers of the Constitution were too
wise not to see the incongruity of establishing a
government based upon the choice and will of the
people, recognizing that to be the of all pow
er, and from which ..ead-spring, all governments
derive their legitimate vitality and at the same
time clothing the General Government with the
power to coerce or make war upon any of the the
sovereign States composing the Confederacy. In
deed, so careful were the trainers of the Constitu-
ton to prevent any assumption of power over the
sovereignty of the States, that no State can even
be made party to a suit in the Supreme Court OF
the United States; State can neither be sued OF
impeaded in that Court. The General Government
cannot use coercion, or employ legally, the Army
or Navy of the United STATES Against State, sim
ply because the General Government is one of linn
tied powers, expressed in the Constitution; no pow
er being given no power exists for that purpose
The Attorney General and the President admit
these premises. When there is no legal remedy
there is no legal right, citizen imagines he ha:
legal right against another, he seeks to enforc,
that supposed right in any of our Courts, the Court
tells him there is no legal remedy; his fancied legn
right falls to the ground. If the Government at
tempts by force TO coerce State she exercises
power not conferred upon IL by the Constitution
and those high officers who thus usurp so dangerous
a power, are subject to impeachment and punish
f ment. The United States Government being on,
OF choice. and resulting from a compact between
sovereign and independent States composing the
Union, the right of secession is a conservative re
served constitutional aud legal power protect thu
weak from the aggressions of the strong, to proec
the constitutional rights of the several States from
the overshadowing power of the Federal Govern
ment which, if not for this reserved power of tn,
, States, might and DO doubt would, merge all thu
rspffh a
into one great splendid, consolidated, arbitrary DIES
potic monarchy.
The division of the powers of government i
f strictly American; the checks which the division
Of power gives each upon the Others is the shee
anchor of our liberty and security, destroy then
and as power is always stealing from the many t,
, the few, gov eminent would rapidly drift in the di
rection of monarchy
To preserve the Government, the equality of thu
Statates must be preserved The States composing
the Union must stand side by side upon the plat
: form of equality-each the equal and the peer 0
r all.
They must also stand manfully upon their feet
you cannot preserve the Union by prOstrating fit
teen States this platform, and each Of the othe
States to place her foot upon their necks nor viii
any compromise admitting this condition of things
be a remedy for the difficulties that surround u.s.
The condition of things at the South, canno
be endured by any people nor will they he endured
/ by the Southern States For years, an institution
which is interlaced with every fiber of society, ha
been attacked by the North with v,rIence and &C
rmony which could hardly be expected from tn
bltterest enemy, much less a people who are untet
to us by the ties of a common Government. Thi
hostility has been persistent and unceasing and dc
clared by the party about to take possession of tn
General Government without end and means Il
this end, the military force Of the Nation is to b
r invoked TO iesolate the South The South has of
fered compromise after compromise they have treat
ed these with scorn, contempt, and derisi0n. Wba
is left for the SOUTH Can she go further into tn
valley of humiliation to beg for what she has righ
to demand? God forbid.
II is time for Tennessee to take her stand let he
declare to the world, she will maintain her right
out Of a Union which she can no longer maintain
in it.
Politicians have threatened, and no doubt alarm
ed some, by jeremiads about taxation in of Sc
cession The products OF Southern soil find sale il