Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-01-18


OhancolIer cuiiass speech.
At large meeting Of the citizens Of Sumner upon
offering the resolution denonncing coercion, Judge
GUILD said:
That the time has come when every citizen in the
State should speak out and announce his position in
the present crisis Strong hopes were once enter
tanned that the dominant party of the North who
for a series of years,-had broken the compact of
our Union. would reent-cease their uriconstitution-
al aggression upon the States and the citizens of the
South. While the North has broken and disregarded
every compromise made with the South touching.
its property and rights, they now announce and in
tend to carry into effect directly in the teeth of the
Constitution and the decisions Of the Supreme
Court of the United States, the alsrming doctrine
that these States are not coequa sovereign States
and those OF the South and their citizens are to be
deprived Of their equal rights in the Union All tile
Territories acquired by the joint blood and treasure
of the North and South shall be exclusively a.>pro-
priated to the citizens Of the North. Although the
Constitution recognizes slavery and that the slaves
of the South are property and as such shall be pro-
tected wherever the jurisdiction of the United
States shall extend, yet this Dominant party main
tain that there is higher ldlc than the compact of
Union, and it Is serving God to send their raids
into cur midst, to STIR up servle insurPection,
murder our citizens and steal our property and if
we shall go the North in obedience to the provis-
ions ef Constitution. and reclaim our property
we are thereby guilty of felony and shall be CON
demned to the penitentiarIes of their States They
maintain that this institution shall never be extend
ed, it shall be cireumscribed. as By wall of fire.
to its present limits and an eternal war shall be
made upon IT through their schools, churches Lee
gslatures, State and Territorial, and the Congress
of the United States and ultimately crushed out that
all fraternity existing between the North and the
Southshall bebrOken up Emisares shall continue to
be sent among us, spirit of INSTRUMENTATION shall
be aroused aud ultimately teehsct its extinction,
and ia doing this the whole South is to be involved
in bloodshcd and ruin. This is the effect of the
irrepreSsibe conflict, that this weak but now
powerful party intends ultimately to bring about.
The mere fact of I4incoins election being according
to the forms of the Consultation. though against Its
spirit renders the situation of the South more peril
Gus. 1t is an illustration of the coming dangers,
and the ultimate realization of their unconstitutional
objects. Already have they the majority in the
House of Representatives, and in a few months the
Senate and Executive departments and shortly will
they have the Supreme Court of the United
States tiled with the advocates of the IT.
repressble conflict South Carolina, Alabama,
Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and other States
of the South having felt for twenty years
those unconstitutional aggressions have exercised
remarkable forbearance, growing out of theiride-
votion to the Union of these States they know that
their equal rights in the Union have been withheld
from them, they are not permitted to enjoy their
Constitutional rights at home and abroad-have that
protection extended to their persons and property
which by the Constitution, it is the duty of the Gov
ernent to give to the people of all the States wher
ever the jurisdiction of the United States shall ex-
tend Those States have seen, that it is the aTowed
purpose of Lincoln and the leaders of his party to
carry into full operation the principles of the Chi
cago platform and that that administration will not
abate ot title of those principles they being
in direct conflict with the Federal Constitution and
utterly subversye of the rights of the fifteen slave
holding States. In vain have they looked to the Con-
gress of the United States and the Leaders of this
dominant party for concession in the form of few
Constitutional guarantees for the preservation Of
their liberties and independence every proposition
has been spit upon and rejected. They now fall
back upon the reserved right Of free States by for
mally Withdrawing from Union already broken up
in fact by the violation of the Federal Constitution
by thirteen of tire Northern States-aggrayated by
the declared policy of Lincoln and his Northern
hosts coming into poweP-the compact broken on
one side, being broken on all. The States of. the
South have been driven to the abolition wall and
put upon their great natural right of selfdefense
and of which no human power deprive freenaen
Shall the States of the North which have violated
the national compact De permitted to use the army
and navy to eoerce those States or citizens and
drive them back into the Union and hold them there
as unwilling and subjugated provinces? Those !
Southern States which have and taking this in
dependent position do it in good faith for the MAIN
tainenee of their natural, inherent rights-rights
denied them within the Union-rights that Tenhes-
see and every other State have under the Constitu
ton, which have been persistently trampled under
foot by this dominant party, and which will in
few months have possession of all the various de-
partments of the Government. To coerce those
Southern States their citizens is nothing more
nor less than making war upon them for coercion:
and war are convertible terms, and mean the same
thing. If this dominant party shall be so unrFise
and unjust as to make this war upon any one
Southern State, they will likewise have to fight
Tennessee. for Tennessee's destiny IN with the
South and war made upon one State of the South is
war upOn the entire South. If that battle should
ever be fought, which God forbid, the North will
find the chivary of the entire South will fight un-
der the same banner and they will find common
grave or grasp common victory
The North must know it is by their aggresslons
and repeated violations of the national compact that
they have disrupted the greatest government upon
the face Of the earth they will find if coercion is
attempted and they seek to subjugate the South by
war. that all the powers of the North cannot CON
qucr these Southern States. Never will their proud
hearts submit to be governed by force in opposition
to their free WILL and TO be led as subugated pro-
vinces by the of this Northern hive OF Abolition
lists. The South is for peace and that this Union
should be preserved, but not as a compact to be
broken at pleasure upon side, and the constitu-
tional rights of the South tramped under foot and ut
terly disregarded by the dominant party at the
North. Such Union as that, freemen cannot main
tain. If the North shall consent to new cOnstltu-
tonal guarantees by which all the rights of ali the
States and every citizen thereof may be asserted
and certainly protected. then the Union can and
should be maintained If this great desideratum
can never be effected, and this dominant marty of
the North shall make war upon any State OF
the South, with view to coercion and subjugaton.
then they will find that the of the South will
stand together aunit and every battlefield shall
proclaim that they worthy descendants of their
voiutionary fathers.