Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-18
The National Crisis---Hon. John Y.
Wright.

ciples of the greatest national Importance, il
is but natural that his constituents should re
gard his counsel and advice at a later period
with great caution; and especially is this tbs
case when he urges them to seize hold of tht
pillars, and pull down upon their heads 8
government under which they are happy and
free, and which was secured and perpetuated
by memories the mest endearing to the hu
man heart.
In the last canvass when We were being
assured of the existence of plot to destroy
the government by such men as Yancey
Toombs and Davis, had you have come out
candidly and confessed your connexion with
that joint stock spoil company. as you dc
now, while we would not have complied
| with your suggestions. the boldness and sin.
cerity of your designs would have command
ed our respect.
While you do not deny that the grievances
under which we suffer are more tolerable
| than dissolution of the Union attended by
the horrors of eiva war, you must pardon
me for looking suspiciously at the course
you would have us pursue
We are not entirely obliyious of the fact
that our present Constitution was adopted
only after a severe struggle; that the same
arguments that justified its adoption apply
with equal force now, to its continuance,
| while no one objection was urged against
them, that circumstances justify at present.
! What then is the real objection to the per-
petuation Of our present Union2 | honestly
believe tbat il is to be found in the Language
of Alexander Hamilton, ''in the perverted
ambition of certain class of men who will
either hope to aggra1dize themselves by the
confusion of their country, or will fiatter
themselves with fairer prospects of elevation
from the subdivisions of the empire into sew
cral partial cOnfederacies, than from its
| Union under one government
Permit me to notice your effusion, and call
your attention to the fact, that while you
would have US adopt line of policy the
most nomentous that a free people were ever
called to act upon, you do not by any toll
cradle appearance of argument attempt to
support it. You set ont by alleging that
Mr.. LINCOLN denies us equal rights in the
territories.
The Supreme Court has defined what our
rights are under the Constitution, and it is
impossible for Mr.. LINCOLN and his party,
were not both houses ofCongress against him,
TO pass any law that will practically injure
US. If you mean that he will not protect
slavery in the territories, when the territorial
legislature shall have enacted unfriendly yet
unconstitutional laws in regard to it, then i
say he should not. But you are perfectly
well aware that, for all practical purposes,
this is a question which the people, the soil.
and climate will settle, regardless of Federal
Interference. Did it never strike you that
the North was physically more powerful than
the South, that her citizens emigrated more
rapidly, and that when we dissolved our con-
nexion with her and made her our enemy,
that the Angle-Saxon spirit of enterprise and
bravery would not be confined to the limits
that are would assign her; but that she would
follow the star of empire to the prairies of
the West, and appropriate TO herself such
territory as she wished?
Does not every intelligent citizen know
that the best plan to preserve our rights in
the territories is to preserve the friendly re-
lations of the North and the strong arm of
the Federal Government?
Secondly. on say that Mr.. LINCOLN and
his party stubbornly refuse to give the South
any assurance that they will not abolish
Yards, Arsenals, &c.
Sir. you know that if the Southern States
will remain bravely at their posts, they are
powerless TO accomplish it. The members of
the republican party from the northwestern
States are willing to assure us that it will
if the Cotton States DO declare themselves
out, the ultra abolitionists can effect nothing.
If they do pass such laws they are unconsti-
tctional, and therefore cannot be enforced
except at the point of the bayonet, and then
they are The actual aggressors. Let US then
await this issue, rather than flee like towards,
''to Ills we know not off,
Your third objection is: Mr.. Lincoln has
given US no assurance that he will execute
the Fugitive Slave Law.
Ny dear sir, has the bau5le of Southern
Confederacy so bewildered you, as TO deaden
every charitable feeling in your bosom, and
make you believe that he will wilfully per-
jure himself, or forgetful that he has repeated
ly assured thai he toiH erecute thai particular
Tar. IT we cannot, as you affirm, get our
negroes back on account of their hostility to
our Interests, with the aid of the federal arm,
as statesman, as man with ordinary dis
erection. l ask you il we viii be betteringour
condition to dissolve the government, ex-
asperate those men who are now our enemies,
drive those that are neutral into their ranks,
aud lop off the arm of Federal power? With
border free States hostile towards us, and
more negroes killed in the South for rapine
than ever escaped, and no protecting egis
over US, will we eUer get negro back?
Fourth. You assert that Mr. Lincoln be-
lies the negro and white man to be socially,
morally aud politically equal.
What if he does He do not and he can't
interfere with the domestic relations of the
States. don't see how this wonderful be-
lief of his eau practically injure any one?
We have got no fears of having negro judges
aud juries, and if Massachusetts, and Mr.. LIN
coin desire to permit negroes to marry their
sons and daughters, why we are not opposed
to it. 1t resolves itself so far, into a matter
of taste that they must decide for themselves.
At any rate, we wont establish Southern
Confederacy on this account.
You are very kind, indeed, TO inform US of
HH
these political alterations of the Republican
party; but you have failed to show us how
they can practically affect us, if the South
does her duty and The tars are erecwed. The
wise founders of this, the best government in
the world, happily provided that minority
could not be trampled upon; the balances are