Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-14
The Recommendation of the Peace
Couference in Tennessee.

So far as the expression of public opinion
through the press of this State goes, it is
generally in favor of the recommendation Of
an amendment to the Federal Constitution
made by the Peace Conference lately assem-
bled at Washington. Though in phraseology
and substance the result OF that Conference
may not fully meet the views Of each indi-
vidual among the conservative and Union
loving people of the State, they are willing
to accept and abide by the principles therein
embodied, as understood by them, as suffi-
cient to protect and preserve the rights of
all sections, sDd 80 annihilaie the ''irrepres-
sible conflict" and restore the government to
its original peace and confraternity. The in
.iications likewise are that the opposition TO
the victorious sectional party throughout the
North, viii present the recommendation OF
the Peace Conference as the paramount is
sue in the near approaching contest before
the people of that section. in their elections
for Congress and State officers. We are in-
clined to believe also that the people of The
this contest both in the nOn-slaveholding
States and in the border States of the South
as decisive of the final result of the efforts to
preserve the Union under the Constitution,
and that the result will Diet rhine TO great
extent the question whether there is pos
sible ex it from our present difficulties which
will lead to the yindica,ion of the equal rights
OF all sections, aud the complete restoration
of the Union in its original integrity. II We
are correct in this view. il must follow that
it Is our imperative duty as friends of the
Union and its restoration, to come forward
as one man to the support Of the recommen-
datiou of the Peace Conference. and to make
thorough test as TO whether it is the sense
Of the people OF the Union. We are salts
fed that nothing less than the amendment
proposed by that Conference will accomplish
the desired result, and we regard it of the
highest moment to the Union al large that
the approaching contest should be so shaped
as to determine that question. In the incep-
ton of the canvass, therefore, we desire TO
place ourselves on that platform, and so OBJ
tain verdict of the people on the great
question of the Union on this construction.
for We regard the proposition submitted by
the Peace Conference as little more than
further verbal expression of the plain intend
ment of the Federal Constitution as origi-
nally adopted.
Upon an issue of this character there can,
of course. be no discussion of past party
views and tenets. 1t simply presents the
great overshadowiEg question whether the
Union shall be preserved on the equal and
just principles on which the trainers of the
government at first constructed it, or to yield
tito the hand of indefinite disruption and dis
indignation through the baleful instrument
talities of antislaVery fanatIcism on the one
hand and 10 fiery secessionism the other.
We trust that no one can hesitate on such a
question: 1t goes TO the very existence of
the government itself, and cannot be decided
by Individual preference or partisan feeling.
1t calls into active exertiOn all the disinter-
ested patriotism and sOOer Judgment Of all |
classes of people They must first secure |
the government before they can dispute about |
the most expedient mode of its administra-
ton.
We earnestly commend the subject to the
serious consideration of the people, and ask
our contemporaries of the Press to speak out
upon il.