Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-29
From the GAINESVILLE Jefsrsonian.
Hon. Cave Iohu.ou

The name of our esteemed and distinguish.
ed townsman having been mentioned fire.
quently of late in connection with the gu
bernatorial nomination of the Union party,
and having been repeatedly solicited to give
our views upon the subject by gentlemen Of
all OF the old parties, it seems proper that
we should do so.
There is an almost universal desire among
men of the Union party. without reference to
old party lines and divisions in this section,
that Mr. johnson should represent the Union
sentiment of the State in the next contest for
Governor. We have been approached by
gentlemen, who for the last thirty years have
consistently voted against him on ali occa.
sions, who now earnestly desire to support
him. and who believe that the Union party
could not present so strong and available q
candidate in any other man. We also, for
many reasons, incline to this view; and right
here it is proper to remark, that we write
this article without any consultation with
Mr.. johnson, or any knowledge of hiswishes.
We are discussing the question entirely with
reference to the public interests.
Mr.. johnson is one of the Oldest and &C
complished of Tenuessee's statesmen. He has
served bis State in various capacities, and
always with honor to his country and credit
to himself. Whether as Representative in
Congress, or Postmaster General. as Com
missioner to settle our claims under the trea-
| ty with Paraguay, or in our own State as
President for many years of the Bank OF Ten
nessee, his official career has never been faint
ed with suspicion. His sagacity and lnteg-
| rity have been illustrated in every position
| in which he has ever been placed. Worn and
exhausted with the tolls of Office during a
public career of almost unprecedented
length, he sometime since retired to private
life, in the expectation of spending his re-
naming years i'll the enjoyment of social hos
| FATALITIES, with his mind released from official
| care. And we are satisfied that it would on
| ly be with reluctance, and from considera-
tions of patriotism growing out of the pre-
| sent distracted condition of our torn and
unhappy country. that he would now toler-
| ate the idea of being again dragged into pub
| lie life.
| But we have said that there are considera-
tons of public policy of national Importance
now involved in the struggle approaching,
| which we are satisfied he would not feel at
liberty to disregard, if his services were de-
/ manded.
The great question of Union or disunion
| have for the time, and it may be forever, OBJ
| liberated all former party distinctions. The
| voters of Tennessee are now divided into
TWO parties, whose principles and motives
are distinctly marked. Every man must in
the very necessities of the case be identified
and act with one or the other of these parties.
L
| on basis alike honorable and secure: while
| the other is for the overthrow of the Govern
| ment under which we live, and the annexa-
| ton of Tennessee to the Republic of the
| Confederate States. The question to be
| tried in the coming contest for Governor
and members of the Legislature, is, what
shall Tennessee do?
The Union party triumphed in the cleo
ton for delegates to the Convention by an
-baI pnin ,oiOritu hnt cooQScinn
| only scOtched not killed. 1t is rampant and
| invites another test. In their determination
| to drag the State into the wild and uncertain
vortex of revolution, they will struggle with
desperate energy to elect their candidate for
Governor and carry the Legislature. 1t is
| important and vitality necessary that the
Union party put up as their candidate, a man
of high character. of undoubted integrity
| and unbending patriotism, whose devotion
to the interests and honor of his section, and
honesty of purpose cannot be questioned
| Such man is Cave johnson. His deTotion
to Southern rights could not be impugned,
nor could his int gritty be asSailed- His at
tachment to the Federal Union has been IL
Illustrated by lifetime spent in the public
service. In the present contest in behalf OF
the maintenance CT the Union, he took an
early occasion to enter his protest against
secession, as remedy for the evils affecting
the country, in a speech which did much to-
wards correcting public sentiment then
highly inhamed.
There is another consideration which ar
CUES strongly in favor of Mr.. Johnson's avail
ability as candidate: and, that is his age,
and the fact that he has become wearied of
the public service and retired to private life.
Strange as it may seem, in time of great
sectional trial like this, when the deep foun-
dation of the Government seems about to be
broken up, there are many men who cannot
lay aside their old party prejudices and pre-
objections, and are liable to be Influenced by
appeals to them. If the candidate of the
Union party is man who has heretofore
acted with the Democratic party, and he is
still young enough and ambitious enough to :
be looking forward to future preferment and
the building up of party, the party preJu-
dices of those on the other side, though they
may be Union men, will inevitably be ap
pealed to by the Secession party to strengthen
their cause and increase their vote. And to
the same prejudces if leading politician of
the old Wing or Opposition party. With
retired politician, who desires nothing in the
future, and whose declining years forbid
any hope of future preferment, the argument
could not be used, and the Opposition to
the Union party would be deprived OF this
specious argument, with which to strengthen
their cause.
linen Mr. NOulu
carry the minds of people back to the heroic
DAYS of the Republic-to those great states
men who were his associates quarter of a
century ago, who never dreamed that this
Government was not to be perpetual-and
who believed that it would 60 on through all
time, growing in power, and increasing in
greatness until its glory would overshadow
the world To the days of Clay and Web
ster. Silas Wright. Andrew jackson, Felix
Grundy, James K. Polk. Levi Woodbury.,
and that long list of worthless with whom Mr..
johnson served in the councils of the nation.
He stands to-day one of the very few living
associates of those great minds we have
named, who never entertained the thought
of a nations dissolution.
The memories connected with those associa-
tons would be a tower of strength, and
would act more powerfully than words
could do to WOO the misguided people back
to their allegiance to the Government they
Inherited from their fathers, and which the
exercise of little forbearance, and of that
patriotic spirit in which the Union was con-
ceiyed, may yet enable them 10 transmit I'M
impaired to their children's children.
We have thus hastily dashed off few of
the reasons which have presented themselves
to our mind, why Cave johnson should be
the candidate of the Union party in Tonnes
see.
The National Iuf,lIi1,5c,r of the 25th inst