Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-01-11
CONTINUATION.

COMMUNICA TTON
Gov J ufss1sonsz Esssss speech In the Senate.
Mnssns EDrroRs know that the "press upon
your colunfnsr requiras you to be parsimonious u
your spaee But as one of The constituents of GOV
Johnson hope you will allow glance CT NV
uerl Al his late speech in the Senate As a whole
in its application to the crisis, it is shallow, pern
cous and unstatesmanlike. He holds that "if the
sates have the right TO secede &C Will AID paeasure
for real or imaginary eciis or oppreSsioas repeat
again that this Government is at an end it is not
stronger than rope of sand, &C.. IL is true in
former paragraph he admits that the people have
tthe great inherent right of revolution when griey-
ances are without remedy, or without redress or
when oppression has become intolerabie.p And
then the nth of his whole elaborate argument il.
that the Constitution f0rbids secession for ssreai
evils or oppressiorkD and the 0.tend doctrine for
bids secession for sintoleraber evils as that would
not permit any other Independent Government to
exist within the territory of the United States.
These eonciusitns any one win see hold the death
warrant OF South Carolina and the other Southern
States that may be driven by Oppression into Sc
eessien According to his construction of the Ostend
doctrine they are even denied the benefit Of clergy
They are adJudged traitors and incur the coereive
vengeance OF the Governmenk IF his position be
true, the States consenting to the American Consti
tuition bound themselves and their posterity forever
TO endure "real evils expressions without
right Of escape from the oppressor The only re-
they must have stronger power than the Federal
Government, to redeem themselves from the doom of
traitors and rebels, and that they could become
patriots only By success,
Now, deny that any American statesman ever
taught any such doctrines before himself. Washing
ton, Madison, Jefferson, jackson, Webster. all con-
ceded the right of revolution and abjuration of
allegiance to people who were Under "real evils
Or oppressiens.o Washington taught it with his
sweFd-3 Jefferson taught in the Declaration of In
/ wi nc non and
with his tongue in the revolutionary councils
Jackson and Webster, while they denied the right to
nullify law of Congress, admitted the revolution
airy resistance to oppression" No American citi
zen can deny the right without dishonoring the
memory Of his revolutionary fathers, and putting
them under the ban of traitors and rebels The
very drdtion Of oppression temporarily tolerable,
may make it intoeraele Slow torture is the refine
ment of cruelty. If this Government cannot be held
together to it the right perpetua
right of oppression it ought to be "a rope of
sand" As physical fact, our revolutionary faith
ers could have endured longer than they did. They
could hare paid the tax on the tea or denied them
selves the use of it. But because England assumed
perpetual right Of taxing them without represen-
tatio and had exercised that right 20 their oppfes
SION they denied the right and cut the cord of their
allegiance. ~ g.
The truth ia. Gov. johnson did not comprehend the
real issue before the country. There is much
learned luggage in his speech and such confusion of
idea growing out of the technical terms secession
and qualification, that it is only necessary to state
the question in another form to free it from obscu
rity. - . 80 ~ ~ d .5'ltas t-.ls7 -
South Carolina and the other prospective seeding
States waive all special pleading and take issue on
the merits. The question is one of allegiance.
The duty of allegiance begins with the compact of
government, and ends when the government goes out
of its scope of powers to oppress the subject or is
unable or refuses to perform the duties Of protec
ton and guarantee taken upon itself If the Gov
ernment Expresses the subject then it becomes his
enemy and he has a right te resist. If the govern
ment permits another to Cypress the subject, it be-
comes an aceomplce by delinquency, and the sub
ject being without the protection of the government
may protect himself As to how long the subject
viii endure oppression, and the manner in which he
will seek redress, belong to him to bear and choose,
and not to his enemy to provided the govern
mont persists in the oppression. Prudence might
dictate that he should endure long time, under one
set of circumstances, and but a short time under
another. Be this as it may, it does not impair his
right If single citizen be oppressed he may fly
from his own governments renounce his allegiance,
and swear allegiance to another. If State il may
abjure its allegiance and declare its own indepen-
denee. To do this there is Ldlc of nature or of ma
Tons loheh requires the shedding of blood The aburing
State instead of levying war against the parent
State, may choose to withdraw in peace. If the pa
rent government being the offending party by 9mis-
sion or commission, should desire reconciliation
how much more noble, just, humane, and magnahi-
nous il would be TO ackno Wedge the wrong and Of
fer honorable amends, than to pursue the injured
party with fire and sword TO coce into chains and
UaSsdlGge.
Sefdefeace is a right founded in the law of nature
and is just valid any right founded in the law
of government. If the written law fails the op-
pressed he may retreat to the wall and throw him
self upon his right Of selfdefence, right never sur
rendered by citizen or State. Z
The Southern States say that they are now driven
to the wall and that the government can no longer
protect them, and that they have right to protect
themselves. That it can no longer administer that
Justice 1t eoVenanted to establish. That it can no
longer that domestic trsnq utility" it prom
ised to promote. That they no longer temporize
with an unrestrained aggression, which, in single
night, might spre ad the most appalling caamities in
their midst. That they have already taken as much
insult and beating they can bear, and that their
endurance cannot admit of the weight of another
srdc, and that they 1oho hare the oppression 10 bear
are better judges of the ''intoerable" crisis than
those who nfliet the oppression, but do not feel IT,
And they think that they have right to
protect themselves, without mourning the guilt
of traitors and rebels They do not propose to rev.
olutiOnize the Constitution, nor the principles of
free government, but simply to withdraw from a
dissocial association with those who do svpw de-
termination to revOlutionize the principles of the
government. They believe that the government has
lost its power of INSTANTLY government; that it
has taken sides, geographical basis, with one
portion Of the family against the other that they
cannot remain in the family without interminable
1ue1s c0llislOnS u1leSS tney SUBJECT
their constitutional rights to desperate operation
of Abolition surgery and mayhem. They, therefore,
fly to the law of selfdefence, which towers above
'the battlements Of the Constitution"
The consequences of exercising right is q thing
very different from the riqt itself The aggressor
is always responsible for consequences, and he
not find justification for further aggression to
avoid such consequences. The effect OF Gov. John
aon's argument is, that if the Southern States
should be driven by real evils expressions" into
secession, yet the General Government would be
bound by theOstend doctrine to them into sub
mission and hold them provinces. If this be true,
he establishes the edct of despctsm that the Gov
eminent can do no wrong. and the Southern States
are without redress. If they look back to the
Government, they see the upfted rod of oppres
sion; if they look forward, they see Gov. johnson
with the sword of the Osend doctrine pointed at
their hearts. They must "stand and deliver, or
meet the doom of martyrdom, The people of the
South are two well posted in the Ostend doctrine,
to become the dupes of such a bloody sophistry.
The Ostend doctrine asserts, THAT self preserva-
ton is the first law of nations as well as inGivdu-
ais" In speaking of the transfer of Cuba by
Spain to any other European power, the authors OF
the Ostend manifest say:
''We should, however, be reeFeant TO our duty, be
unworthy of our gallant forefathers, and commit
base treason against our posteriy, should we per-
nit Cuba to be AfricaniZed, and become second
ST. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the
white race, and suffer the flames to extend to
actually consume the fair fabric OF our Union.
If Spain had transferred Cuba to England, Gov.
johnson would have conjured the Southern people,
by all the laws of "self-preservatonl By the
memory of our gallant forefathers" By all
the guilt "of base treason to posterityw BY
the record of English Abotionism, written in the
blood of the white mani By all the horrors of St
Domngol By all our affairs wives, and children
to stir our blood and nerve our arms to dispute
every inch of ground burn every blade of grass
and make "the last entrenchment of freedom our
graves" before we should submit to such an out
rage'The chivalry of the South would have respon-
ded to it all, and kept the covenant to the death
The people of the South stand by the principle
of the 0stend doctrine yet, and they are wise
enough 20 apply the principle wherever there
is cause. Let us unlember and point the Ostend
artillery in another direction. Sa-WHAT DO THE
NoRTHES STATES PROPOSE TO DO FOR THE SOUTH ~eS
Are they not colonizing Territory all around US like
ring Of fire, out, of sheer hostility to slavery
Have they not organized great Fillibustering
Party, elected Fillibustering President, and are
they not struggling to make ours a Flli5ustering
Government against Southern slavery After we
have read the designs of this conspiracy against u.s.
in bOOd fire, poison, Platforms bdAotbor, and the
solemn dissertations of their tle leaders, are we to
stand still and permit the South to become African