Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-05-31


and the Congress under him, for the passage
of the military bill by which the power was
transferred to the President, in the event of a
declaration of war, or of invasion by any for
eign power, to raise 10, 900 regular troops and
an indefinite number of volunteers. He con-
sidered the law unconstitutional, because the
President was made the sole judge of the neces-
sity of raising this army.
Yet Mr.. Lincoln, in third proclamation,
dated May Sd, alluding to the immediate ext
genoies by which he was surrounded, calls into
the service of the United States AZ, 334 volun-
teers, to serve for period of three years, I'M
less sooner discharged; and also directs that
the regular army of the United States be in
creased by the addition of eight regiments of
infantry, one of cavalry and one of artillery,
| making altogether a maximum aggregate in
crease of %, ia officers and enlisted men.
He further directs the enlistment for not less
than one or more than three years, of $4,000
seamen in addition to the present force for the
naval service of the United States. This pow
er belongs alone and absolutely to Congress,
and there is no law in existence attempting to
transfer it to the President. 1t is an open and
| shameless disregard of one of the plainest and
most sacred and vital provisions of the Con-
stitution. Where is the use of swearing a
President to support that instrument, if it can
be thus trampled under foot, and rank usurpa-
| ton, which is despotism, reared in its place ?
The only extenuatiOn have seen offered, is
| the plea of necessity. Can it be necessary to
break down the barriers of the Constitution in
order to preserve it inviolate? Mr. Madison,
who has been justly called the Father of the
Constitution, has furnished the best answer to
this miserable apology for Mr.. Lincoln and his
Cabinets Exhortations," he saws, Sc 10 disre-
garded domestic usurpation, until foreign dan
ohal1 have
| be forever used, because the possessors of pow
er, who are the advocat es for its extension, can
ever create national embarrassments, to be
| successfully employed to soothe the people
into sleep, whilst that power is swelling silent
| ly, secretly and fatally" But what are all
| these mighty ornaments for, to raise which the
| Constitution has been trodden DOWN. Are
| they to subjugate the Southern States, and
make them conquered provinces? l think l
know something of that PROFESSIONALISM OF
the daring, intrepid, and determined spirit with
| which they have gone into this matter, and L
| solemnly declare that l do not believe that all
| the power of the North, strengthened and ce-
| mented as it is by the fanaticai element against
| slavery, can ever conquer them. / by no
| means underestimate the bravery of the North
/ know that they are brave-that they Will
| fight gallantly-that they have the prestige of
| the stars and stripes ON their side-and that in
| all respects they have greater resources but a
people imbued with one spirit, as the people
of the South now are, fighting as they feel
they are fighting, for all that is sacred to them
| upon earth, can never be conquered. Mr..
| Burke in his speech on Cancellation with Ame-
rica truly says that where slavery exists in any
| part of the world, those who are free are by
| far the most proud and jealous of their free
| dom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoy
| ment, but kind of rank and privilege. They
are much more strongly, and with higher and
| more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty. In
such a people the haughtiness of domination
combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifes
and renders it invincible." But if conquered,
what then? The organization of the General
Government cannot be maintained without the
cooperation of the States. Can you compel
this cooperation? When you have conquered
Louisiana, or any other seeding State, can
you compel her to elect Senators or Representa-
tives, and if not, what would be her position !?
If the object of embodying an army of two
hundred and fifty thousand men is not to SUBJ
iugate the South, what is it for? Is it to re-
cover a few worthless forts or to wreak the
vengeance engendered by sectional hatred? Is
an ocean of blood to be shed and the gulf be-
tween the sections to be so deepened and wild
ened as to be forever impossible, in order to do
what we can do as well now? But for this
been eight slaveholding States seeking redress
within the Union and under the Constitution.
But four more have gone out, and four only,
including Delaware, are left, with the iron heel
of military coercion on two of them. Under
these circumstances, what ought Kentucky to
do? My solemn conviction is, that the first
and most important thing is to discard all past
party feuds, and agree to united on one COM
mon platform. If there be those who think
that Kentucky ought to withdraw and unite
her destiny with the South at once, and take
her share of the responsibility and danger of
the step, they ought to remember that the peo-
pie alone can decide such question, and that
under existing circumstances it is almost, if not
absolutely, certain, that it would give rise to
civil war among ourselves. On the other hand,
the people of the State have decided by a
large majority, that Kentucky shall, during
unnatural war, maintain strict and impartial
neutrality, and stand prepared to enforce it
against either belligerent who shall violate it.
The refusal of the Governor to furnish troops
to fight our brethren of the South has been al
most unanimously approved, and both parties
seem now to agree to the common platform of
neutrality.
During my absence from the State, I was
nominated, and, with eleven other gentlemen,
elected by the people of Kentucky delegate
to the Border Slave State Convention.
was not in the State during the period of the
stirring and startling events which have
covered the whole country with pail of
darkness, and have had no opportunity of
expressing my opinions upon them. Finding,
however, an address from gentlemen compos-
ing the Central Committee of the party which
elected me, approving in strong and decided
terms the action of the Governor in refusing
the quota of troops demanded by Mr.. Lincoln,
4 IL.
of Kentucky, am willing to endorse that ad-
dress, and in my action as delegate conform to
the policy there indicated. l especially and
cordially agree to the following extract from
that address: ''What the future duty of Ken
lucky may be, we of course cannot with GER
tainty foresee, but if the enterprise announced
in the proclamation of the President should at
any time hereafter assume the aspect of a war
for the overrunning and subjugation of the
seeding States, through the full assertion
therein of the national jurisdiction by stand
ing military force, we do not hesitate to say
that Kentucky should promptly unsheath her
sword in behalf of what will have then become
the common cause. Such an event, fit should
occur, of which we confess there does not ap-
pear to US to be rational probability, could
have but one meaning meaning which
people jealous of their liberty would be keen
to detect, and which people worthy of liberty
would be prompt and fearless to resist. When
Kentucky detects this meaning in the action
of the Government, she ought, without count
ing the cost, to take up arms at once against
the Government. Until she does detect this
meaning, she ought to hold herself independ-
ent of both sides, and compel both sides to
respect the inviolability of her SOIL"
/ am no secessionist, and as is well known,
never have been. have treated it always as
political heresy without constitutional sane
ton, and have deprecated as truly as any
other man living its dangerous tendency. But
we ought to remember that many of the best
minds in the country do honestly believe that
it is right fairly deducible from the Constitu-
ton, and whole communities have acted under