Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-04-13
cannon Tennesseans Agree.


have. in times past, been greatly Influenced |
nv partisan feelings. Her people have, in
this respect, been placed under peculiar cir
cumstances These influences have been per-
soual as well as political. So far as past po-
litical issues and persons and PERSONAL recol-
lections are concerned, the times have evolv-
ed new issues, which demand their own solu
ton regardless of the past, and exclusively
on our reason and judgment, Old party is
sues are obsolete. The questions of to-day
were never discussed and determined by eth
er of the parties of the past. The issues
of the present involve not only the perpe-
tuity of the General Government, but
State and individual safety. They go
ultimately to the very foundations of
our institutions and our happiness, well
fare and prosperity which rests upon them.
On such questions the people should agree.
No nation or State can be either prosperous
or happy while the people of whom it is
made up radically disagree On the basis and
form of government Republican or repre-
sentative democratic institutions pre-suppose
the general consent of the people. So long
as they are unanimous in support of the or
ganic law the government is secure and en-
during. In view of this primary fact, and
of the extraordinary and pregnant events
daily occurring, cannot the people of Ten
nessee agree in opinion and action? Can they
not by standing together, with the lustre, the
beroism and patriotism they and their ances-
tors have exhibited on the field and in the
cabinet, exercise some good influence or the
course of current events? If they may not
united, how can they divided? 1t is true that
Tennessee cannot absolutely dictate to other
States the course of action they should pur-
sue. If the preservation of the Union could
have been left to her, she would have re-
peated what she said on the 9TH of Novem-
Der, that the Union must be preserved, not
by placing any part in vassalage to another,
but by overthrowing sectiOnalists every
where, and re-establishing nationality of
feeling, undivided allegiance. to the Consti-
tuition, and a faithful. observance ofIthe laws.
Such would be her edict now. But her will
is not absolute. She can not preserve or re-
store the Union by her fat. Her only re-
source is to maintain her own views with
frmness, and to be certain those views are
correct in theory and in practice. She may
thus exercise beneficent influence upon the
county at large.
While Tennessee has declared her attach
ment for the Union, she has also demanded
a final and permanent settlement of the in
famous agitation which has placed her in
present peril. She does not mean to give her
voice for a continuance of that agitation.
She knows that it is fruitful of mischief and
only mischief. She knows that its perpetual
ton day by day weakeus the bonds of the
Union, and that its ultimate effect will be,
either to separate her from the Union, or to
bring her on Bonded knees to the acceptance
of the Chicago platform or something worse.
She spurns both. She demands settlement.
For the present this is as far as she goes.
Why not, then, the people be unanimous on
such question: Why not present united
front, which will be, to the extent of its una
nimity, influential? Why not place herself in
an attitude where her people will be able to
defend her, as an individual defending his own
hearthstone? Why destroy her power by an
insane warfare among her sons? Why divide
the house against itself? There ought to be
no impossible gulf between the citizens of
the same State. Whatever the result of the
existing international disputes, Tennesseans
must remain Tennesseans still. individuals
may remove to the North or to the South !;
but those who remain must act as Tennessee
ans and be prepared at all times to vindicate
their former renown by a prompt and cour-
ageous assertion of all their rights. In di-
vision they will find their fall. Where then
will they reap the rewards of Union or Sc
cession? If we are all equally patriotic,
what has the secessionist 10 contend for
in which the Unionist is not equally interes-
ted How can a government which is gen.
erai in its functions and operations Cypress
me and not equally Cypress my next door
neighbor? Are the demands and interests
of single State too much diversified and too
extended to admit of harmony of institu-
tions and concurrence of opinionf If so,
we had as well turn our attention to the
erection of counties into governments Let
us invoke the people to consider these ques-
lions, and direct their political action accord
ingly.