Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-05-24
CT AR Sv LILLE
Friday, Nay gath, 1861.

peS~ A Washington dispatch says that I. A. R
Nelson has written letter containing the assertion
that Fest Tennessee will go against The South by
twenty thousand majority We do not believe that
Nj Nelson ever made any such absurd and extrav
agent calculation; bnt If he did, he slandercl his
own people. Ensl Tennessccans, az body, are as
sensitive TO wrongs auy people and as prompt to
repel them What then, are we TO infer from such
= declaration That there are good many men
in tho, section who are deludcd into the belief that
there is still Union and Constitution as before
the Black Republicans disrupted he Que and sus-
pended the other. There is no Union, as hereto
fore nor is there Federal Government of any
sort, at the North and it is exceedingly unfortun-
ate that any portion of the people of East Tennes-
see should be so deludod ms TO entertain contrary
impression But assuming it to be fact that
portion Of the people of East Tennessee have been
thus deceived, it becomes the duty--more impera-
tive than ever-of the citizens of the other two
sections, to nuify that influence by increased en-
ergy and fu vote. Let every man who despises
the de,poisn Mt Washington--who has the spirit to
resist wanton aggression and to defend his rights
and his home-who has sense enough to perceive
that the suspension of the Constitution is the over
throw of the Government, and that the North and
the South can never be reunited except by treaty
rs separate sovreigntes--let every such man go to
the polls, and the cause of Justice liberty. and the
South has nothing to fear from the few who have
been led astray by Andy Johnson Lincoln's ally,
and we fear, his spy also.
Error has its votares as well as truth and in ev-
cry age, and among every people, the latter has
often been forced to yield TO the Temporary ascen-
deucy of tho former and at no period in the histo-
~ of man has the conflict between them been sus-
pended, much less definitely settled The same ig-
norance and moral obliquity which blind some to
the most palpable truths make them insensible to
the yoke Of tyranny-the lash of the despot. Shall
we who have been the freest people on EARTH and
have boosted of our freedom; in terms the most
vain glorious, now bend the knee to the usurper
The thousands, in the North who are rallying TO
the standard of Lincoln, and, in their subservient
haste, are trampng the Constitution under foot,
answer in the affirmative, loudly as actions can
speak and tho hundredi in the border States, who
tamely surrender their constitutional rights and
would kiss the tyrant-hand that smites them echo
that response We will not believe that Tennessee
cnn Member amongst her citizens, many such de-
generate sons Of n noble stock of ffeemen. In our
first struggle for national independence and indi-
vdual liberty, there were tories who wore the
badge of political bondage and gloried in their de-
galaton; and as the lowest as well as the highest
elements of character are hereditary, we find,
now, as then, the spiritess and mercenary kneeling
at the footstool of power and the fearless and the
free standing erect at the shrine of freedom-ther
motto, "LIBERTY OR DEATHl For these, the
frowns of the tyran have no terrors-his smiles no
Establishments; and whilst they hurl defiance in
his teeth, can smile at the weakness Of those who
remble at his power, and despise the sycophantS
who knsel where thrift may follow Awning
May the vote, on the 9Th Of Jane fully sustain the
proud position Of Tennessee as the gallant chNmpi-
ON Of liberty, and the ndomitabe foe of usurpaion