Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-12
A Threat from Tennessee Against Keu.

w. Ae"s"'N ~"
The Louisville (Ky.) Journal observes;
The Memphis AUatdnche of last Wednes
day, in a reply to al article of ours upon
the stopping Of the shipment of provisions
South ove the Nashville Railroad, SAYS that
TO stop the provisions would be to steal the
road, partly the property OF Tennessee, and
It adds;
1--WE notify the Journal that we hereby
enter the protest Of Tennessee against this
robbery of her property and that she will
be compelled to issue a writ of replevin to
recover il, which will be executed by an
armed posse commitatus, whose presence in
Louisville may not be very agreeable to the
Lincolnites of that city"
Thus we are notified, from Tennessee, that
if we choose, in obedience to an order of
the Government to which we acknowledge
allegiance, to cease sending provisions to
Tennessee, that State will consider It az
robbery OF her property, and at once send
her army to Louisville. This is no time for
States to engage in the pitiful business of
bandying threats and words of defiance, but
we can tell Tennessee that, if an army Of
hers shall invade Louisville for not sending
flour and bacon to her upon the railroad,
it will be driven back again. Let not the
experiment be made.
Tennessee or the Southern Confederacy
of which she now claims to form q part, has
stopped the bringing of cotton in Kentucky
upon the Nashville Railroad as we'll as upon
all other roads, yet Kentucky, although she
considers the railroad as in part her prom.
erty, and although she believes that Tennes-
see and other Southern States have no more
right to stop the transportation of cotton
upon that road than she herself has to stop
the transportation of -four and bacon upon
it, has at no time contemplated sending an
army to recover her property and punish
Tennessee for any alleged robbery No
man, not even q Secession editor, can be
such an ass, such o thrice sodden ass, as to
pretend that the stopping of cotton upon
the railroad is not as much robbery as the
stoppage of -four and bacon would be-; and,
IT an army must redress one of the robber-
les, another army, we guess, may have to
try its hand at the redress of the other.
And then there is the Mississippi River.
That, like the Nashville Railroad, is partly
the property of Kentucky. Kentucky, to be
sure, didn't make it, but her beautiful river,
the Ohio, has always done a very fair share
toward making it. AT any rate, it is partly
hers as the gift of God; her title doesn't de-
pend upon any decision of earthly courts.
But Tennessee, not satisfied with excluding
Kentucky from the privilege of importing by
the Mississippi any particular article or any
half dozen articles or classes of articles, UNI
%dertakes, by a summary and unceremonious
process, TO shut out from that vast stream
the whole of our commerce and navigation
to annihilate it forever unless our people
will swear allegiance to a power at war with
their own Government, We shouldn't
quarrel with Tennessee or any other South-
ern State, or all the Southern States, for
refusing, in compliance with an order of
their Government, or without any order, to
send cotton or provisions, or any thing
else, to Kentucky, by the way of the
Mississippi or any other way, but, when
Tennessee undertakes to say that
Kentucky shall not be permitted, unless
she will change her allegiance, to transport
anything whatever upon that river or even
to navigate ii, why then Kentucky, if the
gross and s~tupendous wrong be persisted in,
will unquestionably assert her right OF
property and back her assertion with what
ever physical force shall be found necessary
to make it respected. When Tennessee,
after having, as she supposes, cleared KEN
lucky out of the Mississippi, aud after hay
ing, as she knows, united in excluding the
great Southern staple, cotton, from the
Nashville Railroad, threatens to send an
army to su6due US if we dare to exclude
bacon and -four from that road, her insolepce
is a little more than Kentucky could stand if
Kentucky were not the most patient State
in the world. But even Kentucky can't
stand everything. She probably thinks that,
if King Cotton is too proud to travel upon
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad,
neither will King Flour, nor King Bacon,
nor King Corn, nor King Bagging eeude-
scend to travel on it. Their Majesties Az
SBittfp as uroud as their royal brother of the
And really, since Tennessee, by an act of
her late Legislature, has prohibited ali of
her citizens. under severe penalties, from
paying any debts due to the citizens Of Ken
lucky or any other State that has not
seeded, we can't SEQ why she should expect
US to send provisions or anything else to
Der. Does she claim that we must send her
everything she wants and receive no pan for
il? Does she demand that we feed her
gratis? And, if we object to doing that,
does she in truth mean to send an arm to
punish us for what ner Memphis organ calls
'robbery?"