Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-30

inc present. cCnIedefaey. But should new
confederaey, composed of the Cotton States,
be esia0hshed. undoubtedly one of their first
acts would be 10 legalize the African slave
trade Its Immediate effect would be to de-
preciate thu value Of slaves more than fifty
per cent throughout all the slave-holding
States !; for while the cost of a good hand
from Tennessee. in the Cotton States. is not
less Than 81 GOO, able hands brought directly
from Africa under an unrestricted slave
trade, could soon be purchased for $500. And
If the Southern Confederacy should then con-
qu-r Mexico. and annex Cuba, what a mag
nificrnt empire ii will become.
But in the meantime, y hat is to become
of the boIdgr slaveholding Stats? They
have no desire TO open the African slave
trade, aud no interest which can be subserv-
ed by it. On the contrary, such measure
would at one blow annihiiate more than one
half the value of their slave property while
the breaking up OF the Union would expose
the residue 10 increased peril.
l venture to predict that Tennessee and the
border slave-holding States win never be
allowed 10 join the Cotton Confederacy,
should it be established. unless it be with
the clear understanding that they will assent
TO the re-opening of the African slave trade.
They are now to be used for the purpose
of effccting The peaceful secession of the cotton
States, and TO ward off from them the perils
OF UlSuHfDG Dut, NGBQ ODieCG Il
! ted, they will be required to submit TO the
| terms of the seceders of the cotton States,
aud in any event remain a barrier between
them and the abolitionists of the north, reliev-
ed from the restraints OF our present Constr
| tuition, and laws.
In considering the remedies for the present
diffc ilties of our country, it is essential to
understand the elements with which we
| have to deal. There are two classes of men
whom it is needless to consult
| The first of these is the cotton State lead
| ers, who have long desired the destruction
| of The Union, and avail themselves of exist
| ing circumstances as pretext, so far as
| they are concerned, to accomplish their cher
| ished object Nothing as those men openly
avow can deter them from their pre-deter-
mined course. and if they be consulted at
all their policy will be, as it has been in con-
| nection with the administration and their
control of its newspaper organs, to prevent
all compromises, and hasten the dissolution
Of the Government. To consult such men,
when seeking means to preserve the Union,
is but 10 take enemies into your councils.
The other class, whom it is not only unnec-
| essary but dangerous to consult, are the eX-
IRENE men of the North, who would at once
rush to civil war tor the preservation OF the
Union, without listening to the just COM
plants of the Union men of the South. They
ments on the one hand and Union arguments
on The other. are in the border slave-holdiDg
States addressed to men who are smarting
under sense of wrong and outrage from
northern interference, with their domestic
Institutions 1t is but natural, that men so
situated should listen with complacency to
those who prOmise them relief and satisfac
ton by means however desperate. Keeping
clear of the disuuionists, per Sc, on the one
nd VyhO yrnu Id al rush m N
civil war on the other, let the lovers of the
Union North and South, particularly those
of the Border slave-holding, and the Middle
free states, on whom the calamities of dis
union must most heavily fall, confer together
and devise if possible, peaceful remedy for
existing wrongs. This is not very difficult
task If approached in the spirit which gave
birth to the Constitution. To secure the cor
dial adhesion of the people in the border
slave holding states, it is only necessary to
relieve them from the apprehension of per-
petual Interference by northern demagOgues
and fanatics with their local affairs. La sew
eral of those states not one-fOurth of the vo-
tiers are shareholders out they justly con-
slider slavery an Institution with which their
more northern neighbOrs have no business to
interfere, and they resent such Interference
! as Indignantly as the shareholders them
selves. Neither class have any interest to be
cutoCIhGu luC pl4Ou vi OuiOu.
| and no men would be more loyal to ii, if
satisfied that the rcseryed rights of their re-
Spective states will be sacredly respected.
1t is great error to suppose that all the
northern men who voted for Lincoln and
Hamlin are disposed to interfere with the
rights of the South. a large mass of them
are democrats, who were driven from their
pSrty by the acts of Southern disunioists
| through whose insdious influence one obnox-
-,
Lecompton Constitution, and the act relative
TO the admission OF Kansas, into the Union
was attempted 10 be Incorporated into their
creed. They are as they always have been
the staunch friends of State Rights Anoth-
er mass of these voters were from the old
wing party, who had no design or desire to
interfere with Southern Institutions.
And, it may be safely assumed, that not one
in twenty of those who voted the republican
ticket had the least conception that by SO
doing they were endangering the Union of
the States. How they now shrink back from
the consequences of their own work is shown
by the result of the recent elections in Bos-
ton and surrounding towns, and many other
evidences; and, If such be the reaction in the
very hotbed of abolitionism, what must it be
IN the less excited portions of the North? In
short, Lincoln's election, by minority of
the popular vote, was the result of divisions
artfully produced with view to that result,
by the Southern disunionists themselves, and
now, for the purpose of carrying out their dis
organizing schemes they falsely assume there
is settled hatred in the North towards the
South, incompatible with the existence of the
Union, Woe to themselves as well as their
country, if they shall succeed in infamng the
whole North with the hatred which burns in
the bosoms of Garrison and Keitt, one of
whom calls our Constitution q Legque toith hell
because it protects slavery, and the other pro-
nounces it dccuTsed, because it does mott If
these incendiaries who stir up popular hatred
North and South, shall succeed i'm their intern
al work, how long will it be before the North
and the South, whether in the Union or out
of it, will precipitate themselves upon each
other in a conflict more terrible than the pen
of history has ever yet recorded. = Obviously,
the first thing necessary to peaceful solu-
ton of our present difficulties, is, to satisfy
the conservative men of the South that there
is no fixed determination in the North to de-
priye their property of the protection which
is guaranteed by the Constitution. How is
this to be done? The first step towards it is
concerted effort of all The Conservative ele-
ments OF the North to repeal the So called
Personal Liberty Laws. wherever they have
been enacted. The Republicans themselves,
admit them TO be unconstitutional. and, I'M
der ordinary circumstances, it might be safe
ly lett to the Judiciary to declare them void.
But their passage, and unrepealed existence,
are an evidence of hostility to the South,
which nothing but their removal from the
statute book can effectuaily destroy. As to
the rendition of fugitives IRON labor, the fol-
lowing is the provision of the Constitution,
viz: INC. person held to service or labor in
one State, under the laws thereof escaping
into another, shall. in consequence of any
law or regulation therein. be discharged from
such service OF labor; but shall be d.lvered,
up on claim of the party to whom such SER
vice or labor may be due" e
1t seems to me impossible to provide for the
rendition of fugitives more efectuaiy, than
is done in this provision as. it now stands
The power of Congress to pass. all laws ne