Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1861-01-25
Your ferlow-citlzsn,

time ana TOT tle occasion you nave muIcdleu.
lam very respectfully,
Your fenow-eitizen,
Scion BoRLAND.
To Messrs. James Elde-, c. C. Clsaves, and
others, Memphis.
THE POLICY OF TENNESSEE.
EDIroBs AFPEAt: I am askedt to state what
1 think Of the policy Of secession, having ad-
mitted the right Of a State to withdraw from
the Union. It was not my purpose to discuss
this question here. There are facts and Opin-
ions Of which men need not speak, not because
Of their effects upon him who utters bis senti-
ments, but there are considerations which
might well induce silence when an exposition
Of facts would operate detrimentally to a cause
we would sustain.
was born and reared on a cotton plaDts-
tion. The ashes Of my fathers rest beneath
the soil Of a State which has already severed
its connection with the Federal Union. It is
to be presumed that my sympathies and preju-
diceg would naturally induce me to concur IN
any line Of policy adopted by the extreme
Southern States. This is true, and if / were
a Georgian to-day I might be an immediate,
unconditional secessionist. A citizen of Ten
nessee must, however, adapt himself TO the
condition Of things which exist here, and bis
political policy should be such as would most
certainly lead to the perfect unanimity Of his
fe,low-citizens throughout the State. Aiarge
majority Of the people Of Tennessee cesire a
reconstruction Of the Government, and final
adjustment eUen aov Of the slavery question
such an adjustment as will last through all
coming time. In this sentiment I concur, with
the supplemental provision that the New En-
gland States shall never be admitted into any
confederscv that may hereafter be created.
The question at once arises, how can such a
Union Be most certainly brought into being?
viii the immediate secession Of Tennessee
tend to such a result? The people Of Mem
phis should remember, in examining the ques-
tons before Us, that Memphis is not Tennes-
see. They should reflect that, while our in
~teresls. avocations and sympathiss are identi-
cal with those Of the people Of Alabama and
Mississippi, a different state Of things may be
found in other portions Of our State. There
are many counties in East and Middle Ten
nessee where African slavery is almost IN
known, in which the pursuits Of their inhabi-
tants render slave labor almost proh.less. Il
must be apparent that, il the Southern States
adopt a policy bv which emancipation is
forced upon Kentucky, East and Middle Ten
nessee may soon md it to heir interest to col
onize their slaves 10 the far West, or to ship
them to New England, whence originated all
the evils Of which we now complain.
In another place I have illustrated my views
Of this matter, BY sHpposing that if Arkansas
could to-day BE- converted into another Cana
da, how many slaves would leave Memphis
tonight? Sensible men, who desire a recon
s~truction Of the Government, would avoid all
acts which would Of necessity lead 70 collision
between the people Of the two sections Of the
Confederacy. II a master tells me that be
/ would pursue bis negro with a thousand armed
men, | would say that, in Canada, be would be
opposed by two thousand; that each party
would be reinforced, and here would begin an
interminable war, which would only end ia
the complete destruction Of one OF the other Of
the belligeren's.
would ask whether W will not by the i'm
mediate consolidation and secession Of the
southern States, place Kentucky il the very
position that Tennessee would occupy in the
case supposed? If we render slaves value
less, by two processes resulting from seces-
sion, to Kentucky, the one furnishing all IA
ciiities for their escape, and the other arising
from the increased burdens imposed upoa
slave property under a necessarily revised svs.
TEN Of taxation, we are surely inauguratiBg a
policy Of Government which will lead within
a very short period to the liberation Of slaves
in that Sta'e, and Tennessee will become at
once a border State. It is not my province to
predict how many years must elapse before
East and Middle Tennessee would become
elamorous for a like change in our State Con-
stituti0n, and it is needless 10 suggest an infer
ence I have dedHcei from the action Of sboli-
t]ionists 10 Congress and elssWhers. They
refuse to make any propositions. or conces-
sions looking 70 a settlement y the %eontro-
versy between The North and South. Nav it
not be true that they spprehend from The
secession OF the whole South the consequences
Indicated? May we not fear that the area Of
slavery will be contracted, while The whole
South demands its extension? Is il the policy
Of Mississippi and Alabama 60 have Tennes-
see, az she exists 10 day, made a border State F.?
We should not regard the questions now dis
cussed as affecting Us only for a moth OF a
year. If we could raise the veil which en-.
shrouds the future, we might find beyond that
narrow isthmus Of time which ssparstss the
past from The future, many a scene % woe
and desolation caismitons 70 ~ the interests
OF the SOUTH from which a statesman and
patriot would shrink back sghaat.
Il may be said that a consolidated south can
force the North to enter INTO treaty stipula-
tions for the rendition OF f~lritiVes from labor.
IF such A clause cannot be embodied 10 a re-
AAAAAeA 10ANHAaAaANnH AA - AnANNN AnaAGuMN TO
hope FOR its adoption by negotiat on with an
inimical governmeut. 10 very truth, the war
would in tie manner suggested be-
fore, any treaty could by possibility be effected.
God alsne knows when and how It wouid end.
Il is my opinion-and his is asked for BY
your correspondent, Messrs. Editars-that ey-
erythiug depends upon the action Of The Vir-
GINA convention, which assemblies seven days
before that OF Tennessee. IL Virginia goes
out OF tie Union our State must 20 with her,
and the last hope Of recoBstrGcting the old
Confederacy has vanished. Our destiny for
veal OF woe is with the South. n revolution
must occur, and we have taken such a course
as to unite the people Of this state, Tennessee,
in proportion to her population, can furnish
more h5hting msterial than any State in the
Union When jackson and Carroll went to
New Orleans in 1914, they carried with them
from a single county more men than had ever
voted in L.. The mountaineers Of East Ten
nessee make The best soldiers in the world, and
all must confess The Importance Of having this
people with ns in any struggle which may oc-
cur. would look to Virginia, through which
East Tennessee reaches The Atlantic, as well
as 70 the action Of Alabama and Mississippi,
with which States we are 50 intimately and
insepsrablY connected. I would consult the
wishes Of East Tennessee BY concurring, as
far as possible, in the action Of Virginia, and
not eOGhne our policy to that narrow scope
which embraces slave-holding and cotton
growing West Tennessee alone. A Iennes-
scans political opinions should affect at least
the whole commonwealth, and It is true that
the character Of population, and their inteTes e
and pursuits in the other two districts Of this
State are very different from Guns, and that they
are as closely allied with the Middle States as
Memphis is with the cotton States.
It has been proposed BY many southern men
in the seeded States that Kentucky, Missouri,
Delaware, and Maryland should Be lefs out Of
the southern eonfsderacy. The Charleston
Mercury adopts the suggestioA, and it seems
that it is The policy of the seeded States TO
make Tennessee a border State. They thus
coDcede every point ! would make, for even
now they anticipate the emancipation Of slaves
IN the States designated To such a proposal
/ cannot assent as long az an a TsnnesseraD,
and a radical pre-slaFey TenBesseean. |
would postpone tde day on which Tennessee
must be coterminous with a free state as long
AZ possible, ami can but condemn the short
sightedness Of that Alabama OF Mississippi
statesman Wh0, cogDizant Of the character and
peculiaritles Of other portions Of Tennessee,
stu advocates our instantaneous withdrawal
from the Union without reference 10 the ac-
ton Of the other middle and border States. Five
or ten years sre as one day in the lifetime Of a
nation, and this short period would not eiapsa
before siaveholaing West Tennessee would
be forced to secede from the other districts OF
our State. How this procedure would result
In benefit tc Alabama and Mississippi, I leave
it for their statesmen to detsrnins.
II men sincerely desire to reconstruct the On.
ion, Virginia may adopt i~ncipient measures
which weaid result ID the CONTAMINATION Of
this end. She may % remodel The present
obsolete Cons tuition, ihat the south and
N~orth-west viii assent to It's provisions to Be
a~itcrwsr9 perfectet. TIE proceedings Of ne
Democratic convention Ia uiinais, which an,
\ pear 10 tie AFHEAL to-day, show t44t I an 81
mistaken Ia ny opinions Of tie people NORTH 81
intimate commercial relations The North.
west VII much more readily assent Is the nosl