Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-03-03


them in finding employment
| The real cause OF the intense excitement of The
South is not vain dreams of national glory in a sep
arate confederacy, nor the love of the filthy ucre
of the African slave trade it is the profound con
vcton that the Constitution in its relation TO slave
ry has been virtually repealed !; that the Govern,
| ment has assumed new and dangerous attitude
upon this subject; that we have, in short, ne "
terms of union submitted TO our acceptance or re.
iectinn Here lies the evil The election of lincoln
when properly interpreted, is nothing more nor
less than proposition to the South to consent to
1 Government fundamentally different upon the ones
ficn of slavery, from that which our fathers estab
lished If this point can be made ont secession
becomes not only a right but bounden duty. Nor.
ally it is only the abrogaton of the forms of a con-
tract when its essential conditions have been abel
| ished Politically, it is measure indispensable To
the safety if not the very existence of the South
1t is needless to say that in this ISSUE the personal
/ character of Mr.. Lincoln is not at all involved.
There are no objections to him as man. or as a
/ citizen of the North. He is probably entitled in
the private relations of life, to all the commenda
| tons which his friends have bestowed npon him.
We at least would be the last to detract from his
personal worth. The issue has respect, not to the
man. but to the principles upon which he is pledged
| to administer the Government, and which, we are
sufficiently informed TO be impressed upon it in
time to come. His election seals the triumph of
those principles and that triumph seals the subver-
sion Of the Constitution, in relation to matter of
This We shall proceed to show, by showing first,
| the Constitutional attitude of the Gosernment TO-
wards slavery, and then the attitude which, after
the Inauguration of Mr.. Lincoln it is to assume and
maintain forever.
l. What now is its Constitutional atttudes We
affirm it to be one of ABSOLUTE NpIsFERxcE ON NEU-
TRATY with respect to all questions connected with
the moral and political aspects of the subject In
the eye of the Constitution, slavehoding and non.
saveholding stand upon footing of perfect equal
4 H. IL H.. Ce.sA III
citizen the same to it the nonslavehoding Il
protects both it espouses the peculiarites of neh>
1t does not allow the North to say to the South
your institutions inferior to ours, and should be
changed; neither does it allow the South to say to
the North, you muat accommodate yourselves to u.s.
It says to both, enjoy your own opinions upon your
own SOIL that you do not interfere with the rights
of each pther To me there is no difference betwixt
YOU Formed by parties whose iivisive pFinci-
pie was this very subject of slavery, it stands
to reason, that the Constitution without self
condemnation on the part of one or the 9TH
er, could not have been made the patron of
either. From the very nature of the case its
position must be one Of complete impartality.
This is what tho South means by equality. in the
Union. That the General Government shall make
no difference hetwixt its institutions, and those of
the North that slaveholding shall be as good to it
as non-slaveholding In other words, the Govern
ment is the organ of neither party, but the common
agent OF both and, as their common agent. has no
right to pronounce an opinion as to the merits of
their pecuharties This we contend is the attitude
liked by the Constitution. The Government is
neither pro nor anti-slayerY, Is is simply neutral.
Had 1t assumed any other attitude upon this subject
il meyer would have been accepted by the slavehod
Ing States. When Mr. Pinckney could rise up in
the Convention and declare, that ''if slavery be
wrong, it is justified by the example OF ali the
world !" when hescoQld boldly appeal to the unani
nous testimony Of ancient and modern tmes-to
Greece and Home 70 France, Holland, and England
IN Eindicatlon of its Righteousness, 1t is not to be
presumed that he ever weuld have Joined in the
construction of a Government which was author
iEed to pronounce and treat it as evil 1t is not
TO be presumed that the slavehole'ng States un-
less they seriously aimed at the u late extinction
of slavery, would have entered mo an alliance
which was eonfessedly TO be turned against them.
That they did not aim at the extinction of slavery
is clear from the pertnacity with which some of
them chung TO the continuance of the African slave
trade, until foreign supplies should be no longer
demanded. When Georgia and South Carolina made
1t sine qua non for entering the Union, that this
tratc should be Kept open for season, to say that
these States meditated the abolition of slavery, is
grossly paradoxical Il is remarkable too that the
time fixed for the prohibition of this traffic, was
time within which the Representatives of those
States were persuaded that the States themselves
ii the question were left to them would prohibit it.
These States conceded to the Government the right
d. as their agent, only whatthey themselves would
d. as sovereign communities under the same cir
eupstanees. No presumption, therefore, of an at
titude on the part of the Constitution hostile TO
slavery, can be deduced from the clause touching
the African slave trade, On the contrary, the
presgmptiGA il, that, as the trade was kept
open tor While-kept open, in fact, as long
as tie African supply was needed-the slave
holding States never meant to abolish the in
stitQtioD, and never GOULD have consented to
set the face CT the Government againstit No doubt
the fathers of the Republic were, many of them,
not all opposed to slavery. But they had 10 frame
Government which would represent, not their
personal and private opinions, but the interests of
sovereign States. They had to adjust it to the m
situations of South Carolina and Georgia, as well
as those of New England. ana they had the grace
given them 70 impress upon 1t the only attitude
Which could conciliate and harmonize ali parties
the attitude of perfect Indifference
This at the same time, is the attitude of justice.
We of the South have the same right te our opin-
ions as the people of the North, They appear as
true to US as theirs appear to them. We are as
honest and sincere IN forming and maintaining them
We unite to form government. Upon what prin-
cple shall it be formed? Is it to be asked of to
renounce doctrines which we believe have come
down to US from the earlieat aGes and have the
sanction OF the oF4oies Gf Gcd? Must we give up
what we cpnscientiogsly believe to be the truth?
The thing is absurd. The Government, in justice,
can only say to both parties; Twill protect you
both, l will be tho advocate of neither
III order to exempt slavery from the operation of
this plain principle of justice, it has been contend
cd that the right o. property in slaves is the
ture Of positive statute, and consequently of force
only within the limits of the jurisdiction of the law;
that II is right not recognized by the Constitution
of the United StaIes and therefore not to DO pro-
tected where Congress is the local legislature.
These two propositions contain every thing that has
any show Of reason for the extraordinary revolu-
tion which the recent election has consummated in
the Government OF the United States,
They are both gratuitOusi
IL In The first place, saVery has never, IN any
country, so tar as we know, arisen under the ope-
ration OF statute law, 1t is not municipal nstitu-
ton-it IS not the arbitrary creature of the State,
1t has not sprung from the force of legislation.
Law defines, modifes and regulates 1t, as it does
every other species of property, but lalO
dted it. The law found it in existence and being in
existence, the law subjects it to fixed rules. On the
contrary, what is local and municipal is the aboli-
ton of slavery. The States that non-slave-
holding, have been made SO by positive statute.
Slavery exists of course in every nation in which j.
is not prohibited. II arose, in the progress of human
events, from the operation of moral causes; it has
been grounded by philosophers in moral maxims, 1t
has always been held to be moral by the vast ma
jority of the race No age has been without it.
From the first dawn OF authentic history until the
present period, 1t has come down to US through
all the course of ages We find it among nomadic
tribes, barbarian hordes, and civilized States
Wherever communities have been organized at all
there slavery is seen, IT, therefore, there be any
property which can be said to be founded in the
common consent of the human race, it is the prop
ertY in slaves, i there be any property thar can
be called natural in ths sense that spontaneously
springs upn the history of the speeches, it is the
property in slaves. If thefe be any property which
is founded in principles of universal operation it is
the property IN slaves. To say of an institution,
whose history is thus the history of man, which
has always and every existed that it is the local and
municipal relation, is of "al absurdites the motiest
the merest word that ever fooled the ear from out
the achooman's jareOn." Mankind may have been
wrong-that is not the question. The point u.s.
whether the lao made slavery-whether it is the
police regulation Of limited localities, or whether it
Is property founded in natural causes, and causes
of universal operation We say nothing as to the
moral character of the causes. We insist only upon
the fact that slavery rooted in a common law,
wider and more pervading than the common law of
England--the universal custom of mankind.
IT, therefore, slavery is not municipal, but natu.
raj if 1t Is abolition which is municipal and local.
then, upon the avowed doctrines of our opponents,
two things would follow; lst That slavery gpes of
right, ana as matter of course, into every Terri
tory from which It is not excluded by positive stat
ute and I'd. That Congress competent to forbid
&l,o