Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-09-11
A War Speech from a Tennesseean'
WHAT SECESSION HAS DONE.
How it was Brought About,
NO COMPROMISE WITH JEFF. DAVIS

. NO COMPROMISE WITH JEFF. DAVIS
The Cincinnati Gazette says-Smith
Nixon's Hall was filled last evening will
J a most respectable audience of ladies an'
) gentlemen assembled to listen to the ad
. dress Of w. B. Carter, Esq, prominen
) citizen of East Tennessee, whose loyalt..
: to the Union has been deemed sufficient
! ground for threat against his life in hi
native State. He arrived here on Satur
day last in company with the Hon. And!
johnson. ..
On being introduced to the audience las
evening Mr.. Carter said:
, While it affords me much pleasure t.
! appear before you tO-night, this pleasure
is mingled with pain. My heart is over
Whelmed with sorrow when l remember
why it is that |, stranger, unknown tc
you, should occupy this place in your pres
euce. Why is it that We have been brought
face to face? Why am l among stranger:
while the loved ones at home are this houI
mourning over my absence.
But find pleasure in my new position.
Here have formed true friends, whose
names, if | should live in coming years,
must become familiar to my children
But l find higher pleasure in the knowl-
edge of the fact that the heart of the as
sembly in whose presence l stand beats in
perfect unison with my own, touching the
fate of that great and magnificent inherit
ance which has come to US from our fathers;
for am persuaded that as the Jewish peo-
pie always turn their eyes toward Jerusa-
lem when they worship God, that both you
and 1 have our hearts fixed upon the Cap
ital of our common country, and are daily
praying for its safety. Applause
am also convinced that, perSdventure,
every individual in this assembly like my
self prays that the day may never come
when the footstepsOf the vile usurrer shall
tread the halls of the temple of freedom,
the founda tions of which were laid by the
father of his country. Applause.
But to proceed at once to those thoughts
which l design to present to you in the
plainest and simplest manner Permit Inc
to remark that l very much fear that the
citizens of Cincinnati do not fully realize
tie greatness, the swfuln IS. the hight, the
depth and the breadth, and the accursed
wickedness of this thing called Secession
1t is only those who, like my honored
friend (alluding 70 Mr. Johnson) and my
self, have lived and moved amid the accurs-
ed thing, that can realize it in all its length
and breadth
What is Secession? ? 1t is the absence
of all good 1t is the presence and con-
centratiOn of all that is evil, and all that
is vile beneath the sun Applsuse -
What effect does it produce upon the proud
American-what effect does it produce up
on the fairest part of the creation?
have seen it transform the gentle, refined
and beautiful woman into demon of hell.
have seen it make mother and daugh-
ter thirst for the blood of her own son and
her own brother. have seen it destroy
the closest, the nearest, and the dearest
friendships and associations that ever ex-
listed upon earth. Why, here is a man
(Mr. Johnson) whose neighbOrs-men and
women-whom he has nourished and cher
lshed from their childhood up to the day
when Secession first infatuated them-peo-
pie who would laugh with joy now to see
him suspended from a gallows. have
frlends-former friends-they are my en-
emies now, because they are the enemies of
my country. have former friends with
whom l may almost say l have grown up
from the very cradle-Hith whom l have
walked to school in childhood's s sunny days
men with whom have never had an
unkind word in all the days of my life, but
to-day are thirsting for my blood, and l
dare not venture to my own homo where
my fathers have lived for hundred years
where three generations of my kindred
lie buried to-day. If l should venture
there to night, they would assassinate me-
1t is painful for me thus to speak of my
own former friends and my own country
men. but what say is, before God, the
truth.
Just here arises a question 1t is this:
Why have Americans taken such awful
steps in so wicked way? Why is it p
How can you account for it? l can not
account for it except on the principle that
as in the time of cur Savior, so now, null
titudes are possessed not only of seven deV-
lis, but of legion. Applause and laugh
ter. l have lived with Secession from the
first of June last up to the time l left
nv home and | have done nothing during
that time but fight it day and night. Ap-
plause. l and my friend, here, (Mr.
Johnson) may both return thanks to Al
mighty God that we have not perished
long since at their hands. /
Now, perhaps 1 may say things which
will sound roUgh to you tonight. Perhaps
I may say something which will sound un
becoming. as falling from the lips of cler-
gyman; but the truth is, fellow citizens
for 1 regard you as my fellow citizens
ia voice, 1--WE are, that, that we who
have lived beneath the oppressor's yoke.
have become accustomed to saying hard
things. We have to receive hard things
and to return hard things for them. This
must be my apology An individual who
has been crushed to the earth, can not
speak with the same patience and kind
ness with which one not so trampled upon
can speak generally confess my sins in
advance. and if l should happen to get in
to bad humor TONIGHT ] hope this as
sembly will keer its temper.
Now there are many reasons assigned
by Secessionists for their present course
] beg leave to remark that | am slave
holder, and so far as can trace back my
ancestors they have been Shareholders al
so, therefore it cannot be prcsuppOscd that
] am prejudiced against the institatiOn.-
While | acknowledge the fact that am a
Shareholder, l must say to you that / re-
gard the Union of these States as of infn-
itely more value than all the negroes in
America and in Africa to boot Loud
applause.