Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-04-16

Fellow CITIZENS: We have met under extraor-
binary circumstances. A battle has been fought at
Charleston. war has been inaugurated by the
Federal Administration to subdue the seeded
States of the South tits not the first gun fired at
Charleston whiehhas inaugurated this conflict but
it is the formidable preparation of land and naval
forces by the authorities at Washington, and their
movement upon that point, with the threat forcbly
to provision Fort Sumter Were a military force
moving upon Tennessee, with threat of compel
ing US to do that which we were unwilling to do,
we could not be regarded as aggressors if we fred
upon them. Mr.. Lincoln knew he was hazarding
war. That he knew this is proven by his formida-
bic preparations for war; by the acknowledgements
ofthe leading Republican journals, that war would
probably follow his determined policy of coercion,
and by the sudden war prebarations made by
Northern Governors and Legislatures, ofwhich we
are now apprised by telegraph. 1t was but to-day
1 read IN the Chicago Tribune, printed day before
yesterday-tbe leading organ of the President in
his own State-the declaration that "Mr. Lincoln
and his Cabinet are about to undertake the euforce
ment Of the revenue laws and the reinforcement
of the Government forts in the Seeding
States That they will De able to do this
says that organ, without bloodshed there is little
hepe." "Thank God, our rulers have mastered the
philosophy of the situaton-which is that either
freedom Slavery must be the dominant po1cer Of the
continent. II matters not when or where the first
blood is split, except that the sooner the clinch
comes the better" ''There can be peace till one
or the other is conquered"
Fellow-ctIzens, We must not close our eyes to
such facts. If the news which reaches US to-day
does not mean sectional war, threate ing the
subiugation of unwilling States resisting because
of apprehenced danger to their sacred rights their
property and their Institutions what does it mean?
It was so easy for the President and his party to
have settled the difficulties by peaceable adjust
ment. giving security and equality to every State
and every section why does he resort to war if he
does not mean to enforce upon the South the anti
slavery POWER of his PARTY? Surely it was better
to do justice than make war. All the efforts for
peaceabe adjustment have come from the South.
while the North has been stoically immovable.
During all the last session of Congress Southern
Senator's and Representatives were suing for terms
of justice, imporiuning the North in vain to agree
to some adjustment giving to US sense of future
safety and peace. The venerable and patriotic
Crittenden exhausted every effort of his great in
tellect and popularity, in vain. The Peace Confer
ence sat a month in Washington and employed every
effort to win to the stubborn fanaticism of
the party that sustans the President all In valid.
His Congressional maJorties treated all reasonable
efforts of adjustment with silence or contempt.
What sufficient reason can there be for the Pres-
dent reinforcing or holding Forts Sumter and Pick
ems under present circumstances, unless he intends
to go further. and take the other forts and other
government property-eustom houses. navy yards
DC? The holding of these tive forts alone, will GER
tainly not enable him to collect the revenue or en-
force the laws in the seeded States. If he means
to go forward and take the forts and custom houses
and do such other things will enable him to en-
force the Iws and collect the before he has
offered any terms of justice and safety to the South
| he well knows that this means war, suljugation
ultimate and inevitable disunion.
If war is what he MEANS the time has come when
Tennessee should say to him, STOP THIS WAR. This
| is no way to save the Union. Give us guarantees
of safety to our Institutions; give US equality of
rights give peace, and are true to the Union.
This is all we ask, But if justice and peace are de-
| MED us, if the rule of Black RepuDlicanism, re-
gardless of cur complaints is to be enforced at the
mouth of the cannon, upon our sister States of the
| South, we stand in their defence-your war must
| be waged against united South. At all events /
for one am true son of the South and viii survive
| or perish with her fortunes You, my old friends
| and neighbors of Nashville, know that have been
| as true and ardent Union man as ever breathed
| the breath of life /, at least, know, that
would willingly have shed the last drop of my life
blood if it could have saved this great government
from destruction But have also been true to the
constitutional rights of the slavehoding States.
And have not doubted, that unless every State and
every section could be made to feel safe in its do
nestle institutions, there could be security for
the Union l have been willing to adopt any ad-
justment that could possibly secure these ends.
voted for the Peace Conference propositions which
| were not such as entirely approved. But deem
ed them far better than no settlement at all.
| From the beginning there have been two great
systems of labor in the country-free labor in one
section and slave labor in the other-working har-
moniously for long time under the government
| and all the time contributing, in thousand ways
to the mutual prosperity of the two sections. All
we ask is, that these systems shall be undisturbed
Both entitled to- and have been guaranteed pre-
/ lection by the General Government AS long as
the slave States were numerically the strongest
all was peace justice and fraternity. But when the
free States acquired numerical ascendency, distur-
Dances commenced. The clauses of the Constitu'
ton giving security and equality to the slaveholding
States have been construed one way in the North
and another in the South. All we ask is that they
shall be construed to glue safety. At length
| party has attained power which refuses this
They now have control of nearly all the Northern
States and of the Federal Government. They re-
fuse to recognize the right of property in slaves
They denounce the holding of this property as an
| evil and crime. They deny to the people of the
slayehoiding States an equal participation in the
common territories of the Union. They assert that
| every human being in this government, black
| or white is entitled to liberty and equality of
voice in the Government and they steadily
keep up an exciting agitation. sometimes for
abOlishrng slavery in the District of Columbia and
in the forts and arsenals within the slave States at
other times for prohibiting slavery in the terrific
res and at other times in resistance to the fugitive
slave law, and to almost every other law regula-
tion designed for the preservation of Southern prop
erty. need not go into details but il is necessary
that should not fail to remember what this rev.
oution has its origin in. Look at the second Sec
ton of the Chicago platform-look at the Blake res
oution in Congress last year, for which sixty Re-
| publican leaders voted and you will find the doc
trlne laid down, which the Premier in Mr.. Lincolns
Cabinet expounded in all his speeches through the
Northwest last fal-that the slave is entitled to his
| Hberty-the black man to equality with the white
| man This is what coercion ultimately means. At
Atchison, Mr. Seward said that every hi1nIl being,
being necessarily born the subject of government
Is member of the State and has a natural right to
| be member of the State" You must put into
| every mans hand-not into the hands of few-the
ballot or put into every mans hand and not into
the hands of few, the bullet so that every man shall
be equal before the law in his pOloer citizen.
All shall have the ballot or none all men shall
| have the bullet, or none" At Chicago, he said
civilization is to be maintained and carried on up
this continent by Federal States upon the princi-
pie of free soil free labor, free Speech equal rights
and universal suffrage" He said this was in ire
pressble conflict" with the false principle of
- SGUe soil-of African slave labor of unequal
rights and unequal representation, lstriking at the
| threef tths representation resulting in unequal
suffrage" What does this all mean? Is it not rev.
dictionary of the most solemn compacts of the con-
| stitution? And does not the pending revolution
justly take Its origin in such an Inauguration of sir
| repressble conflict"
Mr., Seward processes now to be for peace and
conciation The President also progresses to desire
| peace. For weeks they have been secretly and
energetically preparing for war, bus al the
| time feigning to look to peace, They impressed
the public mind with che belief that the withdrawal
] of the garrison from ort Sumter daily to be
looked for. The activity at the arsenals armories,
| and navy yards, and the unusual movements of
| ships and land forces, attracted attention, and
| caused much surmise but all was mystery at
Washington. An Autocrat or Emperor Of Europe
could not have been more mysterious than this re-
| publican President in his secret preparations to
coerce the seeded States What confidence can be
placed in this assurances of the Administration, af
ter such an exhibition of perfdy?
And is the American principle, that all govern
ment is inteuded to protect the personal and pro
pery rights of the people to be broken down? Have
we not declared in our Constitution, that all gov
eminent is founded authority of the people, and
may be changed by them at will? When seven
States, alarmed for their safety renounoe the gov
eminent that menaoes their rights, and prepare to
take care of themselves, are they to be whipped
| into submission, by numerical forces At time
when even the leading monarchies of Europe
have recognized the right of the people to
| change their forms of government at will
when they permit the down-trodden
masses of the Kingdoms and Duchies Of
Italy to go to the bRllotbox and throw on their
| old forms of government, and adopt new, are we
to see the experiment made in this Government of