Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-02-12

born, reared and educated in q free STATE;
and who knows nothing of stern necessity of
The relation of servitude az it exists in the
southern States but what be hears FROM Gar
rison, Wendeli Phillips and their coadjutors.
who is not opposed to slavery in the abstract.
1t is true, many of your Yankees go South,
and almost instantly fall in love with negro.
lLsughter.1 / beg pardon, with a woman
has some real or contigent interest in pian-
tation and negroes; and not unfrequastly-
they cajole her into marriage. Very soon
you will hear them announce their belief In
the theory of Agassiz. and descant hugely
against the unity of the human race. / have
had repeated lectures myself from these in
teresting gentry. repeat that the people of
the free States have always been opposed to
slavery; as evidence of which point you to
the fact that they abolish it when it existed
among them. 1t is quite as difficult to make
northern man favorable to negro slavery
without making him interested in it, as it is
make politician run away from fat office.
fLaughter.1
The precipitators assign, as another cause
for their attempt to overthrow the Govern
meni, that the people of the free States in
tend to abolish slavery in the States where it
exists. Now, sir, l do not believe there is
one word of truth in this allegation, aud
those who make it ought to know better; and
if such were their desire, we all know they
have no such power. The whole Republican
party denounce this charge as false. | am
here in the presence of the members Of this
House, and aver that there is not man in
this Congress, of any party. from any quarter
OF the country. who claims the power or
aYoEs the purpose to interfere with slavery
in the States where it exists. lCries of Not
onei" from the Republican side of the House,
If there is one. / wish to know it, IA voice,
There are none y because he will receive
the rebuke, not only of his colleague, but of
every man who wishes 10 live up to the Con-
stitution. But, sir, this purpose is imputed
to the people of the free States by the disun-
ionists and their allies, in the teeth of the
mo solemn assurance which political
party can make to the world; and l hesitate
not to say that this assurd nee has been, in
many instances, purposely withheid from the
people of the slave States, so tha' this misre-
presentation might produce Its baleful effects
upon the popular mind. L remember that,
during the last summer, some of the news
papers in my own State affected to be horri-
fed because L read the following resolution
from the Republican platform
THAT the maintenance inviolate OF the
rights of the States, aud especially the right
OF each State TO order and control It's own
domestic institutions, according to its own
judgment exclusively, is essential to that
balance of power on which the perfection; and
endurance of our political fabric depends;
and we denounce the lawless Invasion by
armed force of the soil of any State or Terri
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among
the gravast OF crimes"
And / do not hesitate now, in this presence,
to assert, that no political party that ever
assembled in convention ia this country, has
given stronger guarantees against any desire
or any power to interfere with slavery In the
States of this Union. They did more than
this-that which no other political party in
this country has ever done: appreheuding the
possibility of invasions similar to that OF
John Brown, they denounce, in express serms,
all such raids ''as among the gravest OF
crimes" Common fairness requires that we
take gentlemen at their word; but ii more
were wanting in this regard, they are now
willing. to appease your apprehensions-lf
any such you have-to vote for an amend
ment to the Constitution, declaring, in ex-
press terms, that Congress shall never have
power or authority to legislate in regard to
slavery in the States where it may exist
Such provision would be, in fact, no amend
ment at all, but declaration of what the
Constitution already is; for no intelligent
lawyer, no man of sense, believes that the
Constitution now confers upon Congress any
such power.
But, say those who are intent upon SUBJ
verting the Government, the people of the
two sections are dissimilar; they have their
peculiarities and prejudices; they hate each
other. Sir, that may all be true to some ex-
tent; but there may be more hope of another,
and, trust better generation. How long
have they been hating each other to that ex-
tent which can justify separation, and that
intensified hate which will be sure to follow
fraternal war? The people of the North and
South do not hate each other one particle
more than did the embittered leaders of the
or1I H., - Al -,
of those sanguinary political conflicts which
marked our history few brief years ago.
But will they love each other any more sim
cerely when they are separated into hostile
armies aud encamped In battle arrayf Or,
will the bloody traditions, which will disturb
the repose of our children, prepare them for
a more cordial embrace? True you may sep
arate upon paper, but the Ohio will be a poor
memorial of peace between a rival people
and contending States. But 1 will not agree
that you hate each other now. Our lineage
is the same; and each should know the
others infrmities by his own. If your con-
stituents could sometimes see how frequently
and how lovingly the free soiler aud the
southern radical hold kind anu familiar coun-
Gil; how often they almost embrace each
other, they would not for moment believe
the stale complaint OF sectional hate. tell
will you when you most cordially hate each
place to the outs. When that army of poIti-
cal retainers, by the reverses of political for
tune. has to take up his baggag e, and aban-
don the tempting harvests of the capital; then
it is you hate each other. daughter and APP
plause in the galleries. Sir, If you desire
to witness a grand living panorama of the
sorrowful faces which were seen when the
Jews were led into captivity, you have but
to take position upon one of these adjacent
towers on the 4th of March, and behold these
martyrs, now so devoted to country, when
they are exiled from the places they now
knew aud love so well.
Sir, l trust that in a grave public emer-
gency like this, love of our whole country,
and every part of it, may Danish all meaner
emotions. In an hour like this would scorn
to cherish an unkind political feeling toward
a human being. l feel that if l could, by
immolating myself, add a day to the life of
my country. would freely make the offering;
and L trust that all others will yet be found
to yield much to preserve that Union with
which are mingled the best hopes of man
kind. Again l ask you, will you love each
other better in that fearful hour of final sep
aration? You will not. You cannot. But
hate, undying hate, will foment and protract
fueds and contests more bitter and unrelent-
ing than those of the rival houses of York
and Lancaster. Furthermore: let this Gov
eminent be broken up, and the border slave
States dragooned, first into revolution and
then into southern confederacy, and ten
years will not have elapsed before the slum-
bering fires of the present strife Will be bla-
zing there, and perhaps another reUoiution will
mark our history. II this be not SO, then all
history is falsehood and its philosophy
lie.
ITO be Continued
q POINTING THE GUNS INLAND" - The