Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-08

preservation and selt-respect require that we
should assert and maintain our equality in
the Union, or independence out Of it,
In my opinion. the only mode left Us OF
perpetuating the Union upon the principles
of justice and equality, upon which it was
originally established. is by the Southern
States, identified as they are, in interest, SEN
timent and feeling, and must. in the natural
course of events, share common destiny,
uniting In the expression of fixed and un-
alterable resolve, that the rights guaranteed
by the Constitution must be respected. and full
iy aud perfectly secured in the present Govern
ment, or asserted and maintained in homo
genous Confederacy of Southern States.
Mere questions of policy may be very often
properly compromised, but there can be no
compromise OF cardinal and vital principles;
no compromise between right and scroag.-
Principle must be vindicated, and right tri-
umphant, be the conseq uences what they may
To compromise the one, or abandon the 9th
er, is not only unmanly and humiliating In
the extreme, but always disastrous in its final
results.
The South has no power to re-unite the
scattered fragments OF violated Constitu-
| ton and once glorious government. She
is acting on the defensive. She has been
driven TO the wall, aud can submit to 70 fur
| ther aggression. The North, however. can
restore the Constitutional Union of our ia
theirs. by undoing their work of alienation
and hate, engendered by thirty years of con-
slant aggression, and by unlearning the les
sous of malignant hostility to the South aud
her institutions. with which their press, pull
pit and schools have persistently infected the
public mind.
Let them do this, and peace will again es-
tablish her court in the midst of this ono 6
happy country. and the union OF these States
be restored to that spirit Of fraternity, equali-
ty and justice, which gave it birth.
Let them do this, and the vitality which
has been crushed out Of the Constitution may
be restored, giving renewed strength and
vigor to the body polite
But can we hope for such results! Two
months have already passed, since the devel-
opInent of facts which make the perpetuity
to the South satisfactory guarantees for her
chartered rights. Yet, there has been no pro-
position at all satisfactory, made by any
member of the dominant and aggressive par
ty of that section. So far from it, their Sem
ators and Representatives in Congress, have
voted down and spurned every proposition
that looked to the accomplishment of this
object, no matter whence enanatiug; and the
fact. that their constituents have, in no au-
thoritatiye manner, issued words of rebuke or
warning to them, must be taken as conclusive
~
Ia view of these facts, I cannot close my
eyes to the conclusion, that Tennessee will
be poweriess ia any efforts she may make to
quell the storm that pervades the country.
The work of alienation and disruption has
gone so far, that it will be extremely diff
cult, if not impossible, to arrest it; and be-
fore your adjournment, in all human proba-
bility, the only practical question for the
State to determine, will be whether she will
IA 4,
ern Confederacy; upon which question, when
presented. am certain there can he little or
no division in sentiment. identified as we
are in every respect with the South.
IF this calamity shall befall the country,
the South will have the consolation of know
ing that she is in no manner responsible for
the disaster. The responsibility rests alone
upon the Northern people, who have wilful-
ly broken the bond of Union. repudiated
the obligations and duties which it imposes,
and only cling to its benefits. Yet even in
this dark hour of responsibility and peril,
let no man cOuntenanee the idea for a mo-
ment, that the dissolution of the Federal
Union reduces the country to anarchy. or
proves the theory of self-government to be a
failure. Such conclusions would be not
only erroneous but unworthy of ourselves
and our revolutionary ancestry, while our
machinery. perfect and complete, which is
necessary to the purposes of civil govern
ment. just as they existed before the Union
was formed.
The sases and patriots of the revolution,
when in the act of seyeriDg their connec-
ton with the mother country. and establish
ing the great cardinal principles of free gov
comment, sOlemnly declared that govern
ments were instituted among men to secure
tba,r rxbf ,,so a.
of happiness" 'deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governerd; that
whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of
the people to alter or abolish it, and to insti-
tute new government, laying its foundations
on snch principles, and organizing its pow
ers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness.
But when long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing inyari-
ably the same object, evinces design TO re-
duce them under absolute despotism. it is
their right. it is their duty, TO throw off such
government, and to provide new gaads for
their future security"
Recognising these great principles, the
people of Tennessee incorporated in their
declaration of rights, as a fundamental ar
tcle of the Constitution OF the State, "'That
government being Instituted tor the common
benefit, the doctrine ofnon-resistance against
arbitrary power and oppression is absurd.
slavish, and destructive of the good and
happiness of mankind"
Whatever liue of policy may be adopted
by the people of Tennessee, with regard to
the present Federal relations of the State
/ am sure that the swords of her brave and
gallant sons will never be drawn for the pur-
pose of cOercing, subjugating, or holding as
a conquered province, any one OF her sister
States, whose people may declare their indie
pendence of the Federal Government. for
the purpose of being relieved from "a long
train of abuses and usurpatiOns." To admit
the right or policy of coercion, would be uu-
true TO the example OF our fathers and the
glorious memories of the past, destructive
OF those great and fundamental principles of
civil liberty, purchased with their blood; de-
structive Of State sovereignty and equality;
tending to Capitalization, and thus subject
the rights of the minority to the despotism Of
an unrestrained majority.
Widely as we may differ with some of our
sister Southern States as to the wisdom of
their policy :desirous as we may be that what
ever action taken in this emergency,
should be taken by the South as a unit;
hopeful as we may be of finding some remedy
for our grievances consistent with the perpe-
tuity of the present Confederacy, the ques-
ton, at last, is one which each member OF
that Confederacy must determine for itself,
and any attempt upon the part of the others
to hold, by means of a military force, an I'M
willing sovereignty as member of COM
mon Union. must inevitably lead to the
worst form of internecine war, and if sue
cessful, result in the establishment of a new
and totally different Government from the
one established by the Constituiion-the Con-
stitutional Union being Union of consent
and not of force, OF peace, and not of blood
composed of sovereignties, free, and politi-
caly equal But tie new and coercive Gov
ernment, while it would deserve its powers''
to govern a portion of the States from the
consent of The governed" would derive the pow
er by which it governed the remainder,
from the cannon and the stcord, and not from
their eonses-a Union, not of equals, but of
the victors and the vanqnished. pinned to-
gether by the bayonet and congealed in
blood.
/ devoutly trust that a merciful Provi-
danca NAV avart sueh ealanitv and ho-