The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1861-01-11

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pact of union, much as we may appre-
ciate the power, prosperity, greatness, and
glory of this government; deeply as we
deplore the existence Of causes which
have already driven one State from the
Union much as we may regret the inn
perative necessity which they have wan
tonly and wickedly forced upon us, every
consideration of self-prcservation and
self-respect require that we should assert
and maintain our equality in the Union,
or independence out OF it,"
In my opinion. the only mode left us of
perpetuating the Union upon the princi-
pie of justice and equality, upon which
it was originally established is by the
Southern States, identified as they are,
in interest, sentiment and feeling, and
must, in the natural course of events,
share common destiny, uniting in the
expression of fixed and unalterable re-
solve, that the right guaranteed by the
Constitution must be respected and .ft,l,y
and perfectly secured in the present Gov
eminent, or asserted and maintained in
a homogeneous Confederacy of Southern
States.
Mere questions of policy may be very
often properly compromised, but there
can be no compromise of cardinal and
vital principles; no compromise between
right and wrong. Principle must be vim
Dictated. and right triumphant, be the
consequences what they may. To COM
promise the one, or abandon the other,
is not only unmanly and humiliating in
the extreme, but always disastrous in its
final results.
The South has no power to re-unte the
scattered fragments of violated Consti-
tuition and a once glorious government.
She is acting on the defensive. She has
been driven to the wall, and can sub
NIT to no further aggression. The North,
however, can restore the Constitutional
Union of our fathers, by undoing their
work of alienation and hate, engendered
by thirty years of constant aggression,
and by unlearning the lesson of malig-
nant hostility to the South and her insti-
tutiops, with which their presses, pulpit,
and schools have persistently infected
the public mind.
Let them do this and peace will again
establish her court in the midst of this
once happy country and the union of
these States be restored to that spirit of
fraternity, equality, and justice, which
gave it birth
Let them do this, and the vitality
which has been crushed out of the Con-
stitution may be restored, giving renewed
strength and yigor to the body polite.
But can we hope for such results? Two
months have already passed since the
development Of facts which make the
perpetuity of the Union depend, alone,
upon their giving to the South satisfacto-
ry guarantees for her chartered rights
Yet, there has been no proposition at all
satisfactory, made by any member of the
dominant and aggressive party of that
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and Representatives in Congress, have
voted down and spurned every PROPOSE
ton that looked to the accomplishment
of this object, no matter whence emana-
ting; and the fact that their constituents
have. in no authoritative manner, issued
words of rebukc or warming to them,
must be taken as conclusive proof of
their acouiescing in the policy.
In view of these facts, cannot close my
eyes to the conclusion that Tennessee will
be powerless in efforts she may make to
quell the storm that prevades the coun-
try. The work of alienation and disrup-
ton has gone so far that it will be en-
tremcly difficult, il not impossible, to ar
rest it; and before your adjournment, in
. all human probability, the only practical
question for the State to determine, will
be whether she will unite her fortunes
with Northern or Southern Cofederacy;
upon which question, when presented, |
am certain there can be little or no divi-
sion in sentiment, identified as we arc in
every respect with the South.
; 1rthis calamity shall bcfall the country,
the South will have the consolation of
knowing that she is in no manner respon-
; sible for the disaster. The responsibility
rests alone upon the Northern people,
who have wilfully broken the bond of
Union, repudiated the obligations and
, duties which it imposes, and only cling
, to its benefits. Yet even in this dark
hour of responsibility and peril. perfect
and complete, which is necessary to the
, purposes of civil government, just as they
: existed before the Union was formed.
The sages and patriots of the revolution
when in the act of severng their connec-
ton with the mother country and estab-
fishing the great cardinal principles of
free government, solemnly declared that
governments we're instituted among men
to secure their rights ito life, liberty and
the pursuit Of happiness; deriving their
just powers from the consent of the gov
erned; that whenever any form of govern
ment becomes destructive of these ends
it is the right of the people to alter or
abolish it, and institute new government
| ldylIlR us IOunuatlOnS Oh SUCH
: and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness.
But when a long train of abuses and usur-
pations, pursuing invariably the same OBJ
ject, evinces q design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such govern
ment, and to provide new guards for their
future security.
Recognizing these great principles, the
people Of Tennessee incorporated in their
declaration of rights, as fundamental
article of the Constitution of the States.
"The government being instituted for the
common benefit, the doctrine of non.re-
sistance against arbitrary power and OPP
!, preston is absurd, slavish, and destructive
of the good and happiness of mankind"
: Whatever line of policy may be adopt
ed by the people of Tennessee, with re-
gard to the present Federal relations of
the State. am sure that the swords of
her brave and gallant sons will never be
drawn for the purpose of coercing, subju-
eating, or holding as n conquered pro-
vince, any one of her sister States, whose
people may declare their Independence of
the Federal Government for the purpose
of being relieved from "a long train of
abuses and usurpatiop." To admit the
right or policy of coercion, would be I'M
true to the example of our fathers and
the glorious memories of the past des-
tructive of those great and fundamental
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