Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-01
Letter from a Delegate.

To THE EDITORS CT THE PATRIoT:-lu your
issue Of the 26th inst, you published and en-
dorsed a communication from a number of
the citizens of Spring Hill, Maury county,
Tennessee, suggesting " the propriety of
each county in the State holding primary
meeting at its county seat, on the first Mon
day in March, to instruct and urge its dele
gates to meet at the capitol at Nashville, on
or before the third Monday of the aforesaid
month of March, that they may define the
position of the State of Tennessee, in relation
to the questions that are distracting this
once happy and uraited, but now distressed and
dirided nation, in language not to be mistaken
or nlisconstrlled either in or out of the State"
In the editorial with which you preface
this communication, you say: although the
State has refused by a popular vote to call a
Convention, the people have elected delegates
by overwhelming majorities to Convention,
and in doing so have said these gentlemen re-
feet their opinions and sentiments. In view
of the failure to call a Convention, we know
of no better means of expressing and defn-
ing the true feelings of the State on the ex-
traordinary condition of public affairs, by
which we are now surrounded than through
q meeting of these delegates"
must beg leave to dissent from the views
expressed by you and your Spring Hill cor
respondents, and fatter myself that can
give you satisfactory reasons for so doing. In
the first place there is no more propriety in
calling together the delegates elected on the
9Th of February, than there W uld be in call
ing together one hundred other private citi.
gems of the State Of Tennessee, selected by
primary meetingz,-for the plain and simple
reason that the people of our State have, by
q very decided majority. refused to elothe the
aforesaid delegates with any power at all.
They have decided that they will not have
any authoritative expression of opinion from
these delegates, and consequently the dele
gates elect, notwithstanding they were elect
ed by large msjorities. have by the fat of the
sovereign people, been authorized to do
nothing.
In the next place, as the delegates at present
are clothed with no authority, 1 am opposed
to calling primary meetings, for the purpose
OF Investing A4CLA Will tAC c4l1OlLty W
fine the position Of Tennessee, in relation to
the questions that are distracting this once
happy country" Primary meetings do not
always reflect the sentiments of the people.
They are usually managed by political wire
workers-the real people rarely attend them
in any considerable numbers. and when they
do they are not unfrequently overruled. and
their voice choked by the skillful intriguing
of professed politicians.
But you say the delegates reflect the opin-
ions and sentiments of the people In many
instances 1 think this doubtful. The people
in each county elected their delegates with
an eye to a certain contingency, (the posi-
bility of the people of the State voting for
Convention,) and they voted for those whose
sentiments and views Appropriated The near
est to their own, but still voting that they
would have nc aahoriatire expression of opin-
ion in our State.
In view of the great fact, that the sover-
eign people have decided that they will have
no Convention, shall we by the calling of
meetings at Court Houses and Cross Roads,
endeaEor to override this plain and unequivo-
cal act Of theirs as expressed at the ballot
box7
Ii the Union party Of Tennessee desire to
call Convention for the purpose of nomi-
mating candidate for Governor, let them
hold primary meetings and select their dele
gates in the usual way, but let not the dele
gates elected an the 9th, be invested with any
authority, from the fact of their having been
elected, because the people have positively
and emphatically decided that these dele
gates have no authority.