Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-03
Letter from Hon. n. $. Foote.
NASHVILLE. January 1, Is

HON. JOSEPH U.
1hy Dear Sr:-YOur letter of this morn
ing is before me, and hasten to respond to it.
You have done me the honor to refer, IN most
kind and complimentary language. to what
you have been pleased to term my ''long
and eminent services in behalf of the Union
cause, and especially TO the great struggle
which finally resulted in the Compromise
Measures Of $780, ana sstx5 ne conviction
that ~the people of all sections would be
gratifed to know my opinions as to the best
mode of relieving the government from the
dangers which now so seriously threaten its
destruction" You have been so gracious as
TO add, that, occupying the position of a
constitutional statesman. willing and deter
mined that the rights of all should be guard
ed and protected according to the letter and
spirit of the organic law of the land, no one
in the slightest degree acquainted with the
candor and high dignity which have hereto
fore marked my career as a gentleman and a
patriot, would doubt that any suggestions
which might make were dictated by other
than the purest desire TO avoid the fearful
evils which now surround US on every side
L ara very far, nay dear sir, from appropria-
ting 10 myself the commentators which you
have so generously showered upon me; nor
do concur with you in supposing that any
considerable portion of the great American
public can feel any particular curiosity in
regard to the opinions which 1 may chance to
hold touching the momentous political crisis
which We are now so painfully confronting
for the first time in our history as people.
Nor do 1 feel by any means sure that this
frank and unambiguous response to your
communication viii be so fortunate as to
cape unkind and acrimonious revision in
several opposite quarters. On this latter
head though, 1 am quite as Indifferent. l
trust as any good citizen could well be
whose nature rendered him averse to giving
Just offence to the upright and virtuous of
his own generation; and shall proceed to
comply with your request at once, and in
phraseology which will at least leave 10
doubt as to what is the precise attitude which
occupy touching the questions now so fear
fully disturbing the public repose.
l have not word to say in reference to
the causes which have, in my Judgment,
brought upon the country the present appal
ling dangers Concerning these, 1 regard it
as both judicious and becoming to be absO-
lutel5 silent for the present, and until the
existing conjuncture shall have passed by.
This is no time for elimination and recrimi-
nation among citizens of the South, whose
present and future safety must so much de-
pend upon that perfect 'unity both of senti-
ment and action" which was so earnestly in
culcated by one of the resolutions adopted
by the public meeting of our citizens which
was held three days since in this city. With
The dangers arhich are now upon US, and the
means of averting future evils, alone shall
occupy your attention.
A sectional President has been .ecently
chosen to occupy the highest seat of execu-
tive authority in the nation. His friends
claim for him the possession of honesty of
purpose, and abilities commensurate with the
duties Of the station to which he has been
elected. No enc denies that he is hostile in
sentiment to the domestic institutions of the
South, and that be is unequivocally pledged to
sanction a Congressional enactment exclu-
ding slavery from the Territories of the
Union. No man has yet assured the country
that he would not sign bill abolishing sla-
very in the District of Columbia, should
such bill pass the two Houses of Congress,
in the absence of any consent being previ
ously yielded thereto by the two slaveholding
States of Maryland and Virginia. 1t is~a fact
which no truthful man will deny, that Mr..
Seward and other leading members of the
Republican party have more than once. in the
most unequivocal language, avowed the poll
cy of that party to be the exclusion of slavery
from all the Territory now held by the Gov
eminent, or which shall hereafter be held by
it, with the design of building up as rapid,
Iy as possible additional free States, and rem
dering it impossible that future slave States
shall be anywhere formed; intending, as has
been more than once distinctly menaced, when
ever the number of free States should sufi-
ciently surpass the number of those wherein
slavery is allowed to exist, TO alter the Fed
eral Constitution itselfin such manner as to
enable Congress, by single sweeping enact
ment to destroy slavery throughout the Re
public The fugitive slave law now existing
has not been for some years past respected
and obeyed as the South had right to ex-
pect it to be in all the ron-slaveholding States,
and no guarantee has been yet given even
that the various acts, known as Personal
Liberty Laws, shall be hereafter repealed.
Under these circumstances, Mr.. Lincoln, if
nothing should occur TO prevent his doing so,
,-ilI enter upon bis career as President of the
United States on the 4th of March next, and
be prepared to WELD all the power and pat
ronage of the Government in furtherance of
the principles of bis party and in execution
IF its known schemes of policy. Within the
last four weeks, patriotic statesmen in Con.
rress, devoted friends of the Union, have
made the most strenuous efforts to procure
.nch assurances from Mr.. Lincoln and his
leading supporters in and out of Congress,
As might enable them TO allay the excitement
md solicitude naturally prevailing in the
South, and thus prevent the consummation of
hat scheme of secession, which has been noio-
.iously in active progress for at least three
months past, and which it is now in all proba- |
,ility too late to arrest. So far, no satisfac-
,ory concession has been made on the part of
hose who control the action of the Republi- |
IAN party. Mr.. Lincoln remains doggedly |
md ominously silent. Neither the PROPOSE
ion of Mr.. Crittenden, of Mr. Douglas, of |
Mr.. johnson, of Mr.. Rust, nor any other |
equivalent proposition, has called forth from |
he Republican leaders in Congress one word |
If approval or of respect. Meanwhile. South
Carolina has adopted formal ordinance of
and several Southern States be-
,ides will have followed her example
ong before the fourth day of March.
f nothing shall be doae meanwhile
20 avert this terrible result. Civil war,
1t this moment practically exists in South |
and no man wo1ld be surprised at |