Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-21

as q n81lOn-tO save lot Us cd1 P<o-
to reconcile our Presenf-to pledge anew
the promise of our glorious Future2 Shall
we realize through your action-as we do IN
ou- own hearts-;hat the American Republic,
which. next to God, has been our worship,
;e ,ot the baseless fabric of a vision, !"
having it foundation only in Idea, and which
can be disrupted and dissipated by mere
Abstraction; but that it is a grand historic
Institution, having its basis of immutable
Truth, iron-clamped by the law-abiding in
stincts and Fashioned by the patriotism and
sound sense of its people, Shall we see you
81 from seeming evil, still educing good, !"
unite once more in q last brave struggle,
whereby we may stand as heretofore under
the glorious old Flag of our Union-shel-
tered by the broad seal of "tbese United
States and relying fully, freely, firmly
and finally on your honor, your heroism,
your honesty, aud your plighted faith ?
Union, or Disunion? viii you stand forth
in your strength TO preserve for us the bless
ings of the one-to sare us from the horrors
of the other?
TESNEssEE-and we are proud to say it
is the great geographical centre-the
stsunch, heroic heart of our Federal Repub-
lie. If this still be sound, then the exis-
tence of our Union is not hopeless, for out
of the heart are "the issues of life" But
is Tennessee-the grand balancing point
n In,
pulses still keep time to the 80 music of the
Union?" She has ''rights," and well she
knows them; is she, then, with a clear eye and
steady step, marching forward to take NJ
those rights, through the Constitution and
the Laws? The old Confederacy is break
ing up around her-Sta after State Is
Gliding from it like ice-islands from the
shore, to melt away perhaps under that sur
of destiny which they have invoked-and
Tennessee, as she looks about her, and real
ICES her own impending position, may well
exclaim with Webster at the breaking up OF
the old Wing party" Where then shall 1 go
now2' 4 very few days, and she must de-
eide that question. A plain unequivocal
answer is expected from her, and 1t must
come. The question is not will she join the
South, or the North; but, simply, will she
be true to the Chote cOuntTy-and so, just
to both sections? The question is not, Shall
1 s'subInit" TO South Carolina, or to Ohio
but merely shall l continue to be Amerl-
CAM" The keynote to the lives of great
nd love of
country. Let Tennessee remember this.
If she would keep pace with Titans,
she, too, must prove herself Titanic. Is
there yet remaining in her bosom anything
of the spirit of Washington? Has she any
thing of the steadfast heroism of him whose
calm eve alone could quel tumultuous trou-
bles-whose steady and stately utterance of
great principles swept along like the deep
current and slumbrous simmer of wide
western rivers-whese whole life is crowned
with an eloquence more noble than Cicero's,
more majestic than Caesars. Washington,
who whether he knelt with his people to take
the sacrament of suffering, barring his brow
to the baptism of blood-or rising on the
food-tide of power with the buoyant surges
of a grand destiny beneath him-turned his
calm eye upon the flag of his country, which
fioated eyermore over his hearts citadel, in
scribed with his own golden Legend" Never
.never-never give up the Union."
Has Tennessee now no remembrance of
the spirit of Webster Webster, whose
sphinxine lips were wont to send his SEN
tenoes, like wedges, crashing home through
crushed heart and eleven brain-and yet
who, softening down his tones to more than
mortal melody, dropped pearls and mamma,
when he said, 80 shoulder to shoulder, South
Carolina and Massachusetts stood by the
of Washington, and felt his
own great arm lean upon them for support"
Has Tennessee no memory of him as he
stood amid the storm of 1861 monumental
lighthouses massive combination of iron
and granite, anchored into the rocks and
bearing the brunt of the breakers - his
mighty intellect blazing at the summit like
q Drummond light, pulsating its radiance
leagues upon leagues away, out into the
night and the tempest, enabling every eye to
catch light and hope from the imperishable
words emblazoned on his breast-words
struck by lightning into adamant-'' Liberty
and Union-now and forever-one and in
Does Tennessee retain now nothing of the
spirit of Clay? Has she nought of that
briliancy and power which could pour in
upon the dark labyrinths of sophistry the
clear daylight of immortal Truth-and TAX
ing up the clue unravel thread after thread
of its intricacies, Keeling them off into golden
lines, with which triumphantly to bind our
States anew in fraternity and faith? Is there
no one now, crowned and robed in impera-
torlal supremacy, TO stand forth as he did in
1850, and make this great country unit
Is there no one now to advocate with his
apostolic fervor the motto of his own Ken
lucky" United We stand;" or TO take the
voice of that prophet whose hallowed lips
were touched with fire from Gods own altar,
and warn us backward from the dreadful
doom, % Divided-we fall?"
And more-is there lingering among us
now nothing of the indomitable spirit of
''Old Lion of Tennessee at
the lifting up of whose voice, States shook and
and Senates trembled? Have we lost all the
spirit of him whose words we were went to
hail as 90 thus saith the Lord" Have we
forgotten him who sleeps now at the very
doors of our Capitol, and whose memory
should fill these marble halls with the very
of the Hermitage? Is there
nothing left unto us of that deep determine
ton, that defiant port, that heroic self-poise,
and dominant decision with which he .stook
the responsibility, and issued his iron man.
date" By the Eternal" Have We no one
now strong enough, true enough, to "do
him reverence" and TO echo his immortal