The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-01-11

| compromise propositions has oriven VI
Union men into the ranks of secesslo. l.
We have now to consider the case oi "
important State OF Tennessee, the last o. ~
Southern States. Up to the present junctl
that State has been regarded as the most con
sentative State in the Union. Mr.. Bell, the
embodiment of the Union sentiment at the
South in the late Presidential election, halls
from Tennessee. But what is the con-
dition Of that State now? The answer
will be found in the calm, 6igniied and
Legislature, now in extra session, which we
print in another part of this days HERALD.
In this argumentative but determined docu-
ment, which we commend to the perlisal Of
every Northern man, the republican party,
unless they are struck with what the Puritans
would call Judicial blindness" must see in
large and legible characters the doom of the
made to the demands of justice For if Ten
nessee fails the North, as raIlying point for
the Union, where else in the South is she to
look for help or hope? Let any dispassionate
Northern man read the indictment against the
Northern States by the Governor of Ten
nessee, and then say whether the South is not
wronged and aggrieved, and whether, if
her wrongs are not redressed, she ought
to remain in Union which is but the
union Of the shark with its prey?"
AS to the course Tennessee means to pursue,
if we are to take the message of her Governor
as any indication there cannot be shadow of
doubt. He says "to evade the issue forced
upon them at this time, without the fullest Sc
curity for their rights, would be fatal to the in
stitution of slavery forever" He "has no
doubt as to the necessity and propriety of call
ing State Convention;" and Convention
will be called, and the chances are one hun
bred to one that that Convention will declare
Tennessee out OF the Union He enumerates
some excellent amendments to the constitution
as absolutely necessary for the restoration Of
amicable relations, and on the part Of the
State confidently expresses its determination to
"assert and maintain its equality in the Union,
or its independence out of it." He likewise
declares that Tennessee will never submit to
coercion by the federal power of any seeding
State, for that would BE "a Union not Of consent,
but of force; Union not of equals, but OF the
yictors and the vanquished." And this is the
unanimous resolve of all the Southern States.
The military force Of Tennessee is l20,000men,
and the Governor recommends the purchase of
more arms and thorough and efficient arming
Of the State.
This message is the most decisive and signi-
fcant sign of the times we have yet OBJ
served at the South. 1t shows that whatever
Union sentiment existed in the Southern States
heretofore is now extinguished, and that the
secession movement is sweeping all before it
like an avalanche. The North would not be-
lieve the South was in earnest till now it is
almost too late to arrest the progress OF the
revolution. 1t contented itself with denounc-
ing the secessionists as traitors and rebels,
which only accelerated their action. George
H. and his ministers called the people of these
States, when they were colonies, rebels and
traitors but the denunciation did not stop
their career. Had he yielded to their just de-
mands and shed no blood, he might have pre-
served his provinces. If, before the end of the
next month, the rights of the South are
not conceded, fifteen States will be lost to
the confederacy before the 4th Of March,
and any attempt at coercion will only hasten
the catastrophe. Full justice to the South,
promptly rendered, or the peaceable separa-
ton of fifteen States, and the formation of a
Southern confederacy, or the dread alternative
of bloody civil war, are the only possible So
lutions Of the dark problem which agitates the
whole American people, from Passamaquoddy
to the Rio Grande.