Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-02-13
Remarks of Mr.. Vaughan, OF Monroe, inT
the House OF Representatives, Nashville,
january 22, 1881.

January 22s 1851.
[coNcLunED.l
/, sir, cannot and will not blink the issue: viii
not by word or deed Of mine entail upon our future
posterity the settlement of question that | was
afraid to meet myself They shall not brand nv
name with craven. No muttered curses of theirs
shall disturb the quietness of my last resting place
Neither will stand here to-day and sanction
course that will merely hold the storm of evil in
allowance Icannot be guilty of advocating a time
serving policy by b0lsering up this expiring Union
by applying those quack remedies those never ending
sticking plasters. eclypt Compromise | would
give the lie to my own conscience by such course
They have avaed nothing IN the past, they avail
nothing in the future They have been shameful ces-
sation of the conflict between turth and falsehood
truce that patriotism can sanction AVE ave-
how can right or turth compromises, with error ~
They have been whittier sepulehare of peace fair to
behold without, butaccumulating war within, whose
mrttering thunder is drowned until the proper mo-
ment when in an instant its bursts to the surface
They have been as the applications of quacks to
restore dying patient, and instead of having the
desired effect, they have hurried him off Of the
stage of action by applying remedies the surface
when the disease made Its appearance, and neglect
ing the vital organs. that gave strength TO the
disease which all the while were being rent assun-
der.
Have spoken the truth in this? if yes, then each
compromise upon this question that has been made
Quito have rung forth the order to the people of the
He
let us have no more pasters in the way Of eompro-
misses Whist guarantee haveyo that they. too will
not be disregarded and trodden under foot like their
Ill starred predecessors.
foot like their ill-starred predecessors.
So sir cannot stand here to-day and sanction
the doctrine of new constitutional guarantees for
the preservation of our rights. have enough OF
those already. such as my pro-slavery forefathers
gave me- They are what want-they are what
will have upon this question, not in this Union, for
= hut ,fofit
eracy formed by States in feeling, in inter-
est aud one in destiny Then"I am for the Union"
but it is united South for resistance to oppression.
am not to be led as.ray by 6ashy fourth of July
defamation about expansion, increase, wealth, and
happiness, &c. Those things, in the man, at
tributabe to a gracious Providence. and to be-
nign Just and equitable State Constitution and laws
The union of the States has not been the moving
cause We have been satisfied with the Federal
Constitution because it contains the great cardinal
doctrines upon which all free governments must be
founded. 1t is the God worship, in political
point of view. 1t is the ark Of Southern safety,
and want to live with people and States that will
carry out its provisions
All governments upheld by the consent
of the governed, and a law not sanctioned
by public sentiment is void upon the statute
books. The Northern people against our federal
Constitution and laws. if they uphold slavery and
you may well separate our herdmen and theirs,
and betake ourselves to different forms of Govern
menL, 1Dr slavery must SidNe Ctdles
alone. The of the South must still be free and
their strong and stout hearts will never suffer
oppression from any quarter
They Will not be turned aside by insane twaddle
about the Declaration of Independence, Yankee
Doodle Hail Columbia Bunkers HILL &c. No sir
never, for these are but dust in the balance, com
pared TO the rights of freemen and religious toler
ance. | would sacrifice all those, and the bright
memories that cluster around them, and hurl them
iEto perdtion rather than submit to the doctrine Of
negro equality.
My featy to the constitutional liberty of the sons
and daughters of the South is not to be lost sight of
by this foolish babbling about the Union" the
GLORIOUS Union" This cry now is the dirge of
Southern liberty, be him so honest who utters
it. This wild cry is held up to the people of the
Border slave States by those of the North as the
paramount issue and unconcodsy to our liberties
to be sacrificed by appeals to cur feelings of
devotion to the Union, making eur patriotism the
dagger with which they stab our freedom
Are we welded TO the fanateism Of New England
to her wooden nutmegs" and puritan can't" are
we chained to the feshpots forever; must we pros
trate ourselves under this of iugganaut? This
land of religious intolerance, where fanatieism has
increasingly belched forth its poisonous feted breath
from the time the "hulks" and prisons of old Eng
land upon the restoration of the second Charles
turned loose the crew of the MAY Flower" and
hurled them like a curse against Plymouth rock;
from the time she scOurged the Bapsts through the
streets of Boston, and burnt witches IN Salem. This
the people At one moment taking Gods holy sacra-
ment; the dealing Sharpe's rifles to slay
their Southern ia Kansas. At ore moment polluting
their infamous lips with praises to tie Most High
brethren at the next plotting John Browns murder
raid into Virginia and kndling the fires of incen
diarism and insurrection in Texas.
Change the spots upon the Leopard, the skin
upon the Ethiopian, and then you stop their
wings about the equality of all men. Who so lost
TO all sense of self-respect and right reason to
Ill.
ship with these? This fell spirit of fanaticsm
and coercion has rendered the soil of the old world
with human gore, and its red banner has never
been lowered until blood torrents of human blood had
saturated its morbid appetite; and wo be to him who
thinks that Governmental compacls can stay its
wild career or put bit between its teeth. What
forms limitation or barrier to its designs, it
sweeps away like frost-work before the rising SUM-
No sir. you cry out: down down, but like Banquo's
ghost, 1t will not down, and to day it comes like
Caesars spirit, raging for revenge hot from Hell
Cries havoc, and let slip the dogs oiwar
Those who to-day shirk the issue are but states
men of the hour, and in my estimation are those
faithess wardens who failed to cry 'up drawbrIdge
grooms,' who foemen stormed the wall Of their
country's liberty. Those who purchase inglori-
Gus peace by faiIhless compromises, are themselves
already conquered.
If the North was to offer new Constitutional guar
antees l. for one, would the proposal and turn
from it with loathing. l not willing by such
slavsh course to acknowledge the power to Cypress
lie in them liberty consists not much in being
free in the right and power TO be so. will new
er place by act of mine the freemen of the South in
the condition of the cur that licks the hand that
smites him.
1t is not freedom when we are in a condition to
be oppressed. And new guarantees would be
mere forbearance Of boate1 arrogance and domi-
neering power until the chains of conquest were
riveted more closely. No sir, Freedom consists
IN the absence Of any power to enslave. And new
guarantees will never consent to take as a whin-
ing suppliant at the feet of lording arrogance
They talk to us of concessiOn-tis the language of
slavery itself. They talk too of coercion to school
US into the manhood of associating with them and
their indelity let them but try it. and every drop
of Southern blood she'd will send up armed war
riOrs for the conflict. They have the dra-
CONS teeth, they will now reap crop of armed
men. The race is not always to the swift the
battle to the strong. Better meet the tgress robbed
of her wheps, tllan the Southern Southern
soil. Yea sir, as long as one Southern church
mains TO liti tapering spire to Heaven and pro-
claims that freedoms sons worship at the altar be-
low; so long as one Southern hearthstone remains
untnrned by ruins ploughshare, so long will South
chivalry press around the banne1 that leads on
to the feast Of DEATH in defence of their beraters
l would have the people of the South to rule the
institution of slavery without intermeddling from
any quarter. Ts duty that Providence, in His
wisdom and benefeence has given US to perform;
and sanctioned by Divine, no human laws must dis
turb the relation between master and slave. We, |
of the South, a brave and free people, and |
inherent rights must not be surrendered to per-
petuate this, nor any other imaginable Union.
We must be free to control our own pro-
perty in cur own way. And if this Union is |
a barrier to free exercise of that |
right we must rend it asunder though ali |
the Lords of the Philistines perish beneath |
its crumbling columds. And the Southern peo- |
pie to-day it to freedom, to self respect and to
the first law of nature, to feel the pillars of the
temple and destroy one blind Sampson in their fall |
to give liberty to her unborn children.
And in order that we may be free it must be the |
Government of those whose interests and whose |
destines are the same. We must not be controlled |
by any power foreign us in interest, in feeling,
in habits relations, social or political We must
not submit to the doctrine that Governments are
formed to preserve order and insure safety alone,
for these the fundamental doctrines lying at the
of all despotic Governments, and we
must not suffer any despotsm to be reared over
and our children, difference from what QUAR- ter
the attempt is made. And here let say the
innate love of man for old forms of Government is
the hammer with which the chains ofdespotsm are
riveted upon him. Resistence to oppression is
to God" We are lost if we hesitate now.
The North to-day is striding arrOganty on to the
accomplishment of this result. and that too under
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