Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-04-16

the last drop of my Iife-blood, if it could
have saved this great government from de-
| structon But have also been true to the
constitutional rights of the slayeholdinp
| STATES. AGd L have not doubted, that unless
! every State and every section could be made
To feel sale IN Its domestic institutions. there
could be no security for the Union / have
been Wiling to adopt any adjustment that
| could possibly secure these ends. voted for
the Peace Conference propositions which
were not such as entirely approved. But /
| deemed them far better than no settlement
| at ALL
From the beginning there have been two
| great systems of labor in the country-free
labor in one section and slave labor in the
other-working tremendously for a long time
| under the government, and all the time con-
tributing. in thousand ways, to the mutual
| prosperity OF the two sections. All we ask
| Is that these systems shall be undisturbed =
| Both are entitled to, and have been puaran-
teed protection by the General Government.
! As long as the slave States were numerically
the strongest, all was peace, justice and fra
ternity- But when the free States acquired
| numerical ascendency, disturbances COM
| menced. The clauses of the Constitution Civ
| ing security and equality to the slayebolding
States have been construed one way in the
| North and another in the South. Ali we ask
is that they shall be so construed as to g,ue
| US sgfay. AT length party has attained
power which refuses this. They now have
control of nearly all the Northern States and
of the Federal Government They refuse to
recognize the right of property in slaves
They denounce the holding of this property
as an evil and crime. They deny to the
people of the slaveholding States an equal
participation in the common territories
of the Union. They assert that every
human being in this government, black or
NH LII Il
voice in the Government, and they steadily
keep up an exciting agitation, sometimes for
abolishing slavery in the District of Column
bla, and in the forts and arsenals within the
slave States, at other times for prohibiting
slavery in the territories, and at other times
In resistance 10 the fugitive slave law, and to
almost every other law or regulation design
ed for the preservation of Southern property
L need not go into details; but it is necessary
that we should not fail 10 remember what
this revolution has its origin in. Look at
the second section of the Chicago platform
look at the Blake resolution in Congress last
year, for which sixty Republican leaders
voted, and you will find the doctrine laid
down, which the Premier in Mr. Lincoln's
Cabinet expounded in all his speeches through
the Northwest last fall that the slave is en-
titled to his libe1ty-the black man to equal
lty with the white man. This is what coer-
clon ultimately means. At Atchison, Mr.
seward said that ''fuery human beiaq being
necessarily born the subject of a government.
is a member Of the State and has natural right
to be a member of the State" You must
put into Gerry mans hand-not into the hands
OF few-the ballot; or put into tUery mans
hand, and not into the hands of a few, the
6uLLa, so that eUery man shall be equal before
the law in his po,cer as a citizen. All men
shall have the ballot, or none; all mel shall
have the bullet, or none" At Chicago, he
STANDARDIZATION is to be maintained and
carried on upon this continent by Federal
States upon the principle of free soil. free labor,
Tree speech, equal rights, and uniuersal suf-
Jrage" He said this was in '.irrepressible
conflict" with the false principle of ''SLaus soil
OF African slave labor, of unequal rights and
une4uaE representation, [striking at the three
hfths representation resulting in unequal
suffrage" What does this all mean? Is it |
not revolutionary of the most solemn CON-
pacts of the constitution? And does not the |
pending revolution justly take its origin in |
such an Inauguration of ''irrepressible con-
iict?" |
Mr.. Seward processes now to be for peace |
and Cancellation. The President also profess |
es to desire peace. For weeks they have |
been secretly and energeticly preparing for |
war, but all the time feigning to look to |
peace They impressed the public mind with |
the belief that the withdrawal of the garri- |
son from Fort Sumter was daily to be licked |
for. The activity at the arsenals, armories, |
and navy yards, and the unusual movements |
of ships and land forces, attracted attention,
and caused much surmise; but all was mys- |
terry at Washington. An Autocrat or Empe- |
Tor of Europe could not have been more |
mysterious than this republican President in
his secret preparations to coerce the seeded
States. What confidence can be placed in |
the assurances of the Administration, after
such nm exhibition of perfidy?
And is the American principle, that all
government is intended to protect the per-
sonal aod property rights of the people to be
broken down? Have we not declared in our
Constitution, that all government is founded |
on authority of the people, and may be
changed by them at will? When seven
States, alarmed for their safety, renounce the
government that menaces their rights, and
to take care of themselves are they
to be whipped into submission, by numerical
force? At time when even the leading mon
arches of Europe have recognized the right
Of the people to change their forms of gov
at will-when they permit the
lown-trodden masses of the Kingdoms and
Duchies of Italy to go to the ballot-box and
throw off their old forms Ofgovernment, and
adopt new, are we to see the experiment
made, in this Government of the people, by
Northern sectional President, to conquer
and hold as prav1nces" resisting Southern
States? The Confederated States ask for
separation. They must have it, or
De made perfectly secure in all their rights,
u union with the other States We should
leplore permanent separation of the States;
,ut war is not the way to prevent it. Let
ustice be done-let the rights of all be re-
pected-let the domestic institutions of eve
y State be perfectly secure against inter-
neddling from abroad, and we may once
more come together and live in harmony and
,eace-but never otherwise. Tennessee and
'ther slave States yet within the Union have
'een patient and torbearlng; they have been
ruly and ardently attached to the Union;
hey have employed every possible effort for
adjustment that would save the Union and
protect the rights of the States. They would +
till labor to accomplish these results, if
here is ground for hope, or plank to stand
lpon. But, in my opinion, it now becomes
heir highest duty to warn the infatuated
men in power that auy attempt to subjugate
he seeded States, will at once place the IA
latics in conflict with united South.