Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-10
For the Daily Patriot

new government attempted TO be set up In
| our more Southern States; whether We will
uphold the United States, or give aid and
| comfort to the faction installed in power at
Montgomery. We must either take sides
with our old government, although admins
tered by Abraham Lincoln, or else submit
| 10 JEFF. Davis. There is no avoiding this
issue. Our present Union and government
| must fall. or JEFF. Davis and his oligarchy
| must fall. The Nation must submit to the
Southern faction or the Southern faction
must submit to the Nation. 1t must come to
| this. at last. and Tennessee must determine
| which cause she viii espouse.
The sectional Issues and disputations
which have agitated politicians are AS MOTH
ING before this tremendous issue. In my
opinion. if we are loyal to the Union and see
TO it that the arm of government is
| strengthened, or at least do not lend our
might to paralize 1t, we shall vindicate all
our lust rights under the Constitution, aud
preserve our institutions intact. On the
contrary, if we prove recreant to this great
trust and take part with the Rebellion be-
low, we not only imperil the interest We are
so much agitated about, but place ourselves
| in the hands and at the mercy of despot-
| ism which will rule US with rod OF iron and
grant US no rights but that of fighting its
| battles By "Us'' mean the great masses.
the People of Tennessee. 1t is evident from
the spirit of the abettors of the Southern fac
ton in our midst, and the manner in which
its emissaries from those States now regard
ing themselves foreign nation, undertake
to brow-beat Tennesseans into submission to
their behests, undertake to af1x the odium Of
cowardice upon the loyalty of Tennessee, I'M
dertake TO stigmatize Union men as aboli-
tionists, that when they have once gotten US
in their power they intend to ''hold' US to
know of the stern independence of the free
men of Tennessee, that if they should by ap-
peals to sympathy, pride and passion, be
drawn into this Southern oligarcby, when
they begin to feel the pressure of that spirit
of domination and rule Bow foresbadowed, it
will arouse resistance fierce and terrible,
and inaugurate scene of violence and blood
which nothing but the arm OF military power
could suppress. The Rulers below evidently
understand this and will be prepared for the
emergency. Then disarmed and disfran
chised people might feel the need of that
Federal protection which they would then
be ashamed to ask, and which they are now
SO disinteresedly urged to repudiate.
The disunion faction of the South have
ruled the Southern people-tor rather ruled
the politicians, and the people have acqui-
esced) for several years past They have
forced their measures, their dogmas, their
"points of honor" their ultraism, upon the
politicians OF all parties. Playing upon the
sensitive chords of Southern prejudices,
pride, apprehensions and sense of honor, and !
welding the convenient, ever-ready and eff
feetive imputation of "abolitionism" against
dissenters, they have professionally become
the "whippers in'' of all parties. They sup
posed they had succeeded in permanently sub
jugating the whole government, winning the
ear and confidence of, or overawing treach-
net nest of traitors and public plunderers,
the most of whom with their ill-gotten spoils,
are now iu rebellion against that govern
ment they could no longer rule Who doubts
# they had succeeded in foisting Breckin-
ridge and Lane upon US, with such council
Iors in high places as the Yanceys, Rhetts, |
Davises ard Floyds, that they would have |
HELD the reins of government despite of the |
ballot box, restraining Southern Indignation |
by sectional pretexts? The North did right |
to resist and overthrow that dynasty. By /
the light of eternal truth the North did |
right, under whatever available leader. The
Northern people do not and never did medi-
tate any iDfraction of the rights of the South. |
Neither Lincoln nor even the majority of the /
leaders intend injustice, although |
they may differ in opinion upon certain
points, as the territorial question, which il |
strikes me is absolutely non-eesential 10 any |
class in the South, but which they consider |
of importance to the great body of the |
American people North and South. The abo- |
lition faction Of the North are no more the |
of the people of the North, |
nor even of the majority of the Republican |
BGElls kUHu lut Ol Tue
States are of the people of Tennessee.
1t is fashionable just now Tor everybody to |
say something against Lincoln, to criticise |
his inaugural, aud to exc out ground for dis |
trust and suspicion therefron. And all are |
expected to take up the disunionist's cue |
about coercion" in proof of sympathy and |
loyalty with the ''South'-the word South" |
having come to mean that class of faction |
ists who hare usurped power aud fixed their |
headquarters below, and are now toiling to |
drag the whole South under their rule. By |
coercion" appears to be meant any COLI |
sion, no matter by whom provoked, that may
occur between the government and those in |
armed rebellion against it, or indeed any
measures that may discommode them. This /
Issue was early looked to as the final resort |
1t was early sprung by the leading disunion- |
ists. State Legislatures were committed up
On it. 1t was 1.-THE point" with the seeding /
Congressman who refused Crittenden's COM
promise Ia every meeting of the people /
among the resolutions adopted, a resolution |
pledging resistance 10 coercion" For, of |
what use then would compromises be. II the
Union men South, and the border States
South were thus pledged to sustain the rerOlu-
ionists in case they came in collision with the
government. they were pledged when it came
% this, to disregard compromises. If those
Who sought compromise in order to preserve
he Union, intended to resist the government
n legal attempts to preserve it, if desiring
o uphold the Union they come with the con-
lition that it must be allowed 10 fall TO pieces
nd be discovered at the will of the disaffect-
d, on the peril of arraying themselves
Oainsf IL and supnortin0 the rebellion IF