Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-12-27
HRAroUARTERs MIpDLHsEx BRIGADE,
SHIP ISLAND, Miss, Dec 4, 1861.


Without sny desire OF my own. but eoa-
trary to my private inclinations, again End
myself among yeu az military oficer OF
the Governments. A proper respect for my
fellow counlrymen renders il not out of
place that / should make known TO you the
motives and principles by which my CON-
msnd will be governed.
We believe that every State, that has
been admitted as a slave State into The Tn
ion, since the adoption Of the Constitution,
has been so admitted in direct Eiolation OF
that Constitution.
We believe that the slave States which
existed at the adoption of our Constitution,
are, by becoming parties 10 that compact,
under the highest obligations OF honor and
morality to abolish slavery.
1t is our conviction that monopolies are as
destructive as competition is conservative Of
the principles aud Sitslities Of republican
government hat slave labor is monopoly
which exclude iree labor and competition
that slaves SIe Kept in comparative idleness
and ease liz fertile half of our arabic ns-
tional territory, while tree white laborers,
constantly augmenting in numbers from
Europe, are confined TO the other hall, and
are often distressed by want; that the free
labor OF the North has more need Of expsn-
sion into the Southern States, from which il
is virtually excluded, than slavery had into
Texas in 1886; that free labor is essential
TO free institutions; ihat these Institutions
are naturally better adapted and mere con-
genial TO the Anglo Saxon race than are the
despotic tendencies of slavery: and, finally,
that the dominent political principle of this
North American Continent, so long as the
Caucasian race continues TO flow in upon US
from Europe, must needs be that of free in
stutiOns and free government. Any OBJ
structions TO the progress OF that form of
government in the United States must in
esi;ably be attended with discord and war.
Slavery, from the condition of univer-
sally recognized social and moral evil, has
become Al length a political institution, de-
manding political recognition. 1t demands
rights to the exclusion and snnihilation OF
those rights which are insured TO us by the
Constitution; and We must choo e between
them which we will have, for We cannot have
both. The Constitution Was made FOR Free.
men-not for Sia res Slavery, as q social
evil, might for time be tolerated and en-
dured; but as a political institution il be-
comes imperious and exacting, controlling,
like dread necessity, all whom cireum-
stances have compelled TO live under its
sway, hsmpering their action, and thus i'm
peding our national progress. AS a polit-
icel Institution IL could exist Rs oo-ordi.
nate part only Of two forms of government,
viz the despoic and the free and it could
exist under free government only where
public sentiment, in the most unrestricted
exercise of q robust freedom, leading to ex-
trassgance and Ecentiousness, had swsyed
the thoughts and habits of the people be-
yond the bounds and limits of their own
moderate constitutional provisions. 1t could
exist under free government only where
the people, in a period Of unressoning ex-
.revsg ance, had permitted popular clamor
10 overcome public reason. and had at
permanently, as a political, institution,
social evil which is opposed to moral Law.
BY reverting to the history of the past,
We 6nd that one Of the most destructive
wars on record, that Of the French Revolu-
tion, was originated by the attempt to give
political character to an institution which
was not susceptible Of political character.
The Church, by being endowed with politi-
cal power, with its converts, its schools, its
immense landed wealth, its associations, Sc
cret an open, became the ruling power OF
the State, and thus occssioned war or
more strife and bloodshed, probably, than
any other war which hss desolated the
earth.
Slavery is still less susceptible OF politi-
cal character than was the Church. It was
at at this moment for the lumber room Of
the past az was in 1898 the monastery, the
landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, &C.,
of the Catholic Church in France. 1t be-
hooves US to consider, rs self-governing
people, bred and reared and practiced in
the habits Of self-goyernment, whether we
cannot, whether We ought not, to revolu-
tionize slavery out of existence, without the
necessity Of q conflict Of arms like that Of
the French Revolution.
Indeed, We feel assured that the moment
slavery is abolished, from that moment onr
Southern brethren, every ten of whom have
probably seven relatives in the North, would
begin to emerge from a hateful delirium.-
From that moment, relieved from imaginary
terrors, their days become happy and their
nights peaceful and free from alarm; the
sggre gate amount Of labor, under the new
stimulus Of fair competition, becomes grea-
ter day by day; property rises in value; in
vigorating influences succeed 10 stagnstion,
degeneracy and decay; and nnion, harmony
| and peace, to which we have SO long been
strangers, become restored, and bind Us
again in the bonds Of friendship and amity,
% when We first began our national career,
under our glorious government Of 1879.
Why do the leaders Of the rebellion seek
to change the form Of your ancient Govern
p,sntp Tn II hecasae the Growth of tho Al