Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-06-07
CT A R KS WILLIE
Friday, June 9TH, 1854.
ps,y- Rutherford saws she will give a lar


p5- Rutherford says she will give lar
ger vote, in proportion to population, for
Separation and Representation than any
other county in the State We once tho't
that Montgomery would come out ahead of
any but we regret to learn that few Of
her citizens have been so far led astray as
TO believe there is still Union to vote for,
and a Constitution to uphold, and that
their votes will save the one and give vital
ity to the other, Such an impression, af-
ter al Lincoln's lawless acts-when the
whole country ought to have seen that the
stars and stripes are borne aloft as the en-
blem of tyranny, and that the Constitution
is tranpled under the feet Of the despot,
leave little hope that minds thus impress
cd ca now be enlightened save by bitter
experience, or that spirits thus tanned can
be @oused even by the clanking of the
chairs that are to fetter their free limbs
But he number of these is small, and al
though the vote is to be taken tomorrow,
thertis a chance that it may yet be reduc
ed, tat some of the few who feel it incum-
beutupon them to stand by dismembered
Uniu and violated Constitution, will yet
be constrained by loyalty 10 their State to
bowto the will of the majority and with
hold their unavailing opposition, for the
sakeof unanimity so much to be desired.
Totlct from pride of opinion, at such a
junture, is TO be influenced by an un-
ruling consideration, its manifestation is
due to the State rather than to the Govern
me1t at Washington which is exerting all
its energies to subdue Tennessee to the
will of usurper backed by horde of ia
natics who avow their purpose to extermi-
nate the entire South. We do not hope to
influence men who can believe that Lin
coin is right, and who would rather see
Tennessee subjugated province of an abo
)ition Government than a free and SOW
reign State fff Southern Confedcracy
but we can only discharge our duty consci-
enciously, by protesting, to the last, against
so glazing an error of judgment, or a want
of patriotism verging upon moral treason.
We pity the victims of such delusion,
and envy not their feelings when after
events shall awaken them to a conscious
ness Of having upheld tyrantand proved
iaithless to the great princi pies of liberty
for which their State has taken up arms
In this great cause, Tennessee has never
ialtered, but she would be blessed above ev-
ery other State could to -morrow prove that,
within her borders, there breathes not man
who would welcome the Northern invader
of her dearest rights and gloat over the
butchery of her sons and daughters by the
mercenary rabble of a bitterly hostile Sec
ton. We struggled for the Union while
there seemed chance to save it on homo
rable terms; but all hope has been extin.
guished, and now we would sooner die thar
suffer the shame of tory extraction to be
visited upon our descendants even to the
third.generation. Tomorrow, we shall Ell
ter it upon the record, that we proudly
stand by Tennessee to which alone we ow,
allegiance, and defantly repudiate tho
usurper. who has severed the Union, viola
ted the Constitution, and disgraced thu
once glorious emblem of American unit,
and liberty. May that record never b,
successfully searched, in after times, to fl
the stigma of tory ancestry GPSn the hap
less offspring of some deluded advocate o
Northern despotism, lawless beyond pre-
cedcnt, and hateful no less for its enormi
ties than its hypocritical cant about Uniol
and liberty,