Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-01-30
To Abraham Lincoln, President Elect of


To Abraham Lincoln, President Elect of
the United States.
Iber to be permitted to address word of earnest
entreaty to your Excellency interpose the power
with which you are invested, and to seize the in
strumentaities by which you surrounded to save
this Government from ruin. You alone can save us
from dismemberment from anarchy, and what is
more, from absolute despotism.
The South have tried unsuccessfully all the means
in their power. Those Republican members of Con-
gress who were of the Committee of Thirteen in the
Senate and Thrty-three in the House of Represen-
tatves have refused all the propositions of pacifca
ton which have been offered them by the Southern
members. They have even rejected Mr.. Senator
CRrTENDENs equitable proposition to extend the
Missouri Compromise line 10 the Pacific in
such form and manner as to extort from
him the declaration that the day of its
rejection was the gloomiest of his lfe And, after
anxious days and nights passed in mploring them to
do justice to the South all that has been effected, is
solemn and positive refusal to give any further
compromises, concessions, guarantees. Is it then
strange that the of the Union discouraged
that the last anchor of their hope is almost being
lost? The hoarse moaning of the raven with dirge
like wall is croakng in the "peUer more of
the Union. South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and
Louisiana, and Mississippi, separating from us,
and before your Excellency shall be inaugurated as
President, the whole fifteen Southern States will
have seeded unless something miraculous shall be
done to prevent it.
elt is the opinion of many wise statesmen that you
can prevent the catastrophe If so, viii you not
seize with alacrity, any means which can be sug-
gested by your countrymen, compatible with your
official honor? Allow me to say a citizen of this
once happy country Hove the Union, and God knows
/ would sacrifice my life to save it. Are you a
patriot, and would not you make similar sacri-
fee Although we do not know you personally
at the South, we do know that you have been ele-
waited to the highest position in the world by the
suffrages of your own countrymen at the North ;
and your friends claim for you that you are of
conservative principles. and that you will be the
President Of the 1ohole people, and not of section.
Whilst clouds Of discomfort are lowering over
Southern skies-discontent at the refusal of the
North to yield them equal rights in the Union-ds-
content at the determination of the North. as ex-
pressed in the platform on which your Excellency
was elected, to deprive us of our property-dscon-
tent at the fact of your election exclusively by
section and principle of antagonism to South
ern interests-whilst these thupders are rolling
over your head, you are quietly seated in your
lor at Springfield as silent as the grave The only
voice which reaches us here from Springfield is
through you political organs, at one time, that
your Exceency is perfectly cool and indifferent and
,1iN execute the IaaoS And at another that you are
in secret counsel with GREELEY and SEWARD and
WnMoTF and HALE, the enemies-the universally
acknowledged enemies of the South. If your
friends have not misconceived your character as a
patriot, you surely not Indifferent to the pregnant
events which passing around and about you
Surely you will not sit in your easy CHAIR RECALLING
your taste for music, whilst the city is in flames
appeal to your Excellency to come to our help and
let US make one vigorous effort to save the Union.
1t may not be too late yet. beseech youto awake
from your cold Indifference separate yourself from
the damning eounsels of GREELEY, WILMoTT, SEW
ARD, HALE, and others-throw away the hostile
platform which has been devised for you by bad
men, and CUBTUs like, sacrifice yourself, if need be-
for the salvation of your country come with the
speed of stea Of electricity if you prefer to send
US manifested to your Southern brethren, aad say
to them, lam ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the President elect
of the States. Although elected by the North, 1
pledge myself to be the President of the Nation.
will execute and preserve the Constitution. | will
use my influence as President in procuring such
additional guarantees, as will protect and make
safe the rights of the States and the property of
the South" Make these declarations-g;ye such
pledges as these to your brethren Of the South and
you may still save the Union. If it were done
"then it were well it were done quickly" You will
be justified by the eternal principles of right and
justice And although HALE and GREELEY, SEWARD
and WmMoT, ct ID onlns genus, may revile you for
while for course so manly. so patriotic, so states
manlike yet it is certain that virtue will meet
with its reward, or that justice will be melted out
to mortals that the returning sense of proprety of
your own friends will soon approve your course,
and the nations of the earth will rise UP as Gne
man and call you blessed. Your organ at Spring
field gives assurance that you "will execute the
laws" Abiding as understand it. to the enforce
ment of the laws against the Southern States
which have may seeded on the 4th of March,
the tLlS Of yOJr inauguration.
VIII your Excellency permit q stranger word
of expostulation the subject? / assure you,
sir, the Southern States can never be reduced to
conquered provinces by the sword. Every battle
field, from the days of the Revolution to the more
recent battles in Mexico, have demonstrated that
the citizens of the South are the praVest-most
chivaric-most invincible people the face of the
earth. And if, as matter of policy, your Excel
lency shall think it wise coerce them back into the
Union at the point of the bayonet, l solemnly be-
lieve when your Northern myrmidons shall be sent
against them, to subdue and conquer them, that
!. FhermOpyla, and every nan and YoPan, too,
will be found TO be Spartan, who Eill diapute
every inch of the ground, burn every blade of
grass, and that the last entrenchment of liberty
will be their graves.
Do not deceive yourself, sir, nor suffer yourself
to be cajoled into a fatal error by the mis-
guided fanaticsm of your Northern brethren
Admitting that secession is wrong and that as Pres
ident yog have the right, the wisdom of the policy
Of coercng the seeding Stages is most questionable
The enforcement of that right your Excellency a
higher pyramid of skulls than that erected by the
bloody Tamerlane. You will remember in reading
works of the immortal BURKE his illustration on this
very subject in the case of the mailman shearing
the vol. NJ recollection of the illustration is
mailman declared that nan had ?iad to con-
troll ali animals, that a wolf an animal,
and that he had the right and was resolved to
shear it. In the attempt, however, he lost his own
lie. l beg you to take warning and consider well
the consequences to the country before you per-
suaded to adopt the mad policy of coercion. With
much respect for the high position to which you
apo elected and sincere sympathy for the awful re-
sponsioiliteg resting upon you, pray God that he
will give yop wisdom and r.nne . +? save the Union
from tue dangers which threaten the dismembel-
ment d, i. H.,
citizen Of Tennessee.
From washington,