Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-02-01
Letter from Hon. g. a. Henry,


ASLJeI lIOltl Hull. VI. a. heuIY,
1, ctARKsvItLr Jan. 20, 1885,
Dr.. E q. Hasksns, Dr. James Byaiiag IFiR Dorteh
and others
GENTLEMEN.
10 my address to the people on Monday last, as
srmbled in Convention At GAINESVILLE, I distinctly
stated was not candidate for a seat in the State
Convention which viii meet in Nashville on tho
25th Of February next; and that bad deliberately
made up my mind not to accept the nomination as
= delegate from Montgomery county, should it be
rendered to me, and recommended to the peop'e 10
nominate Mr.. Bailey as person well qualified TO
discharge the important trusts that might Ne com
mitted to his hands. in the afternoon Of the same
day, as you inform me, was nominated by that
portion of the people Of Montgomery county who
think, with slight shades Of difference of opinion,
that Mr. Crittenden's proposed amendments of TIE
Constitution ought to be adopted by the present
Congress, and in they rejected the time will
have arrived for Tennessee to take immediate steps
to retire from the Union and 10 connect herself with
her sister States of the South. This nomination, rs
you know, was not solicited by rue, and was be-
slowed without my knowledge, and after had left
the Court House and returned to my home. Pur-
suing the course had laid down for myself from
the beginning. respectfully decline the nomination
thus rendered to me through you. beg you to
believe am perfectly sincere in the course here in
Dictated, and that | cannot, consistently, deviate
from it. II is, however, due to the occasion that
should add few words more. Great events have
transpred in the last three months, aud have been
hurried on with such rapidity that the opinions Of
yesterday are unsettled by startling announce
ment Of to-day.
Whatever opinions, therefore, may entertain or
express to-day, reserve to myself the right Of re-
versng tomorrow, If more cheering intelligence
rh1 81 ALL - Al. Sc
more accurate information, touching the complica-
ton of our public affairs shall demand it me. as
citizen, sincerely anxious to promote the general
welfare. Before the late Presidential election re-
peocdy addressed large audiences of the people of
Pennsyvania New Jersey and New York on the is
sues that were then pending before the people.
told them would not nor would the Union party
of the South regard the election of Abraham Lin
coin as nfordng of ITSELF sufficient cause for disso-
luton that if elected, i, would be according to the
FORMS but against the spirit of the Constitution, and
that it was not 70 be expected that the South would
calmly submit to Il sectional triumph that was ac-
compiished on proposition for the government Of
the whole people, upon basis which nearly one
half regarded as utterly repugnant to their feel
ings and as being an inftaction Of their political
rights, by forcible attempt TO use power to their
injury, if not to their destruction which was there
fore wrongful use Of strength and moral per-
version of the ends for which institutions were
established. warned the people that il Lincoln
were elected upon the sole issue they presented to
the country, and that issue directly hostile TO the
interests of the South that the friends Of the Tn
ion, although they were in the majority then, could
not long maintain their ascendency, and that if
collision should take place between the Federal and
State authorities, it would be utterly impossible TO
prevent the South from being drawn into it, or to
prevent a majority OF the conservative masses from
ultimately coming to view it as sectional conflict
between the North and South. II could not be de-
MED that Lincoln was run upon an issue hostile to
our institutions and that his success would create
fostering sore in the conservative mind of the South
aud would be the herald Of the dissolution of the
Union; for the people in this section the South
could not shut their eyes to the knowledge of the
fact that his election would be triumph of prin-
ciple and sentiment. achieved by the enemies Of
slavery and of shareholders in particular.
! entertained these sentiments before the election
and expressed them over and over again, and have
not been taken by surprise when ore Southern State
after another has revoutionzed its condition until
fourth Of the whole plumber have dissolved the ties
tina. bound them to the Union. | used my best en-
beavers to prevent this catastrophe and incurred
little Udium in the South because plead for the
Union and earnestly advised that the South should
cooperate together through Conventions for the
purpose of asking Of the North, in u temperate but
manly tone redress Of grievances in the shape of
u
the whole Is Stateso the South had demanded this
redress our troubles would now have an end.
still cling TO the hope that Convention of the
border States may suggest some Plan Of reconciia-
ton that viii tarmonize the country on the basis of
Mr. Crittendens proposed amendments. From the
! first moment he proposed them in Congress, | he
came their advocate; candor forces me 10 say |
would be satisfied with nothing less, and am ANA
zed that propositions reasonable in their charac-
ter, rendered by venerable patriot in, probably,
the last act of his political life, as an ove-brnnch
of peace have not been promptly met by the Re-
publican party in Congress and Republican masses
in the country. Why is it that Congressman are
silent in their seats and the masses are not moving
to rchuke them, while upon the breath of every
breeze there is horne the notes Of discord and fra
ternal strife | fear they have yielded themselves
up TO a fanatic impulse that is blind 10 The awful
consequences of their conduct that reasons not up
on the dread catastrophe into which they may
plunge the country; which having ears hears not tn,
earhquake-tread of the terrible revolution it i
hurrying upon the country; which having eyes sees
not the verge Of the precipice and the bottomes:
pit over which the country is trembling, and which
yawns TO receive it
AROUSE the Tiger of Hyrcanian deserts
Strive with the haf-starred Lion for his preyi
Lesser the risk, than rouse the Stumbling FIRE
OF wild fanaticism."
confess am not sanpuine that these dihcultieswil
he adinstedi the prospect is not hopeful--but
win, nevertheless, cling to the Union which Ia
carried ussaiely over so many stormy seas and ha
been the Of so many blessings, so long as
single star Of hope wrinkles, however family, upor
the dark horizon of our fortunes. will stand by
it and do battle for it till that star goes out in gloon
and darkness; and like Marcus Curtius, would
| gladly throw myself into the yawnng gulf that di
vides the two sections Of my country if the sacri
fee of my poor life would close it forever. am
therefore, for the Crittenden amendments, out snC
out. But if this Congress shall reject them wha
then would, as a matter of extreme forbeAr
ance, wait still longer, provided | could see tn,
States of the North moving earnestly and in fore
Of numbers to robnke their Representatives and Il
take the necessary steps to apply to Congress 70
4 amendments to the Constitution embodying thos
2 proposed by Mr.. Cuttenden. If however, the Nor
. thern States do not move in this direction and Civ
. earnest of their sincerity by action, or if Lincoln
when he comes into mower attemnts q rOnrc0 In