Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-02-06


candor and earnestness- Let US then ad
dress ourselves TO the task like men. Or
the one side is the Constitution of our father
the result of their united revolutionary
struggle of eight years. affording the freest
wisest and best government, II we know how
10 use it-in the world: and on the otheI
the total absence of national aud fraterna
sympathy on the part of a majority of the
citizens of the Northern, with the people and
institutions of the Siaveholding States, and
the expressed determination of some of those
slave States no longer to remain under the
same government with their hostile and un
sympathizing brethren of the North. Shall
we keep to the Constitution with the hostile
and insulting opinions of part of the North.
ern people, or shall we let the Constitution
go and join destiny with the seeding States'
Secession is revolution. That is what IL is;
and il is bold and manly resort, worthy Of
the men who carry il QUITO means OF es
Gaping from Black Republican domination
But it is revolution. 1t is the overthrow OF
government 1t is the breaking mp of set
tied relations with the nations of the earth
One nation can speak with another nation
alone through the government of that other
nation. Ii is the de- truction of this sole or
gan of communication. 1t is breaking up
aud unsettling the civil relations OF citizen
with citizen, and the total destruction OF ac-
customed and cherished trains of relations oil
the people. 1t is the unhousing of a whole
nation; il is moving them from the shelter
and protection of their fathers house. around
which cling the memories of childhood
youth and manhood, and sending them adrift
upon the wide sea of political speculation
aud experiment for new shelter and new
home. Before we do this. let US examine
this house. Ny fellow-citizens what is this
government?
1t is the embodiment of indefinite millions
of people, aud all these throughout it, speak
and are spoken TO as one man. 1t is a
thing competent to be estimated as an indi-
vidual IL is the organ of communication
with the nations OF the earth, and only
means through which thirty millions of free,
epegetic, enlightened and prosperous people
are known to the balance of the world.
The Creator made man social being and
implauted in his heart a necessity for inter-
course with his kind. Accordingly he can
not live alone. He must have acquaintance.
a ueighborhood, and finally, because his
faculties are finite and he cannot establish
personal friendly relations eo-extensiye with
his wants and desires, government comes
to the aid of his limited abilities. and creates
for him friendly relations with indefinite
numbers aud gives him a home and protec-
ton, sympathy and assistance, wherever be
NAV 90 or send within its limits. But this is
not all No government whatever may be the
extent of it's territory, unless it embraces the
whole habitat globe. can contain within it
self sufficient to satisfy all the desires of man.
We have seen that government is necessary
to enable him to obtain even his ordinary or
common place wants beyond the circle of
his immediate. acquaintance. But it is in
if he wishes to pass beyond the
territory of his own nation or upon the high
seas. When he gets outside these limits be
must have with him the guarantee and pro-
lection of organized government, or he is at
the mercy of all whom he meets with. And
this government must not only be organized,
but it must have recogized existence by all
the nations with whom he has Intercourse.
Hence it is that those who are acting in
of the laws OF nations, or who, in
other words, go upon the seas, or upon land,
not as citizens of some government, are sub
ject to have their properly confiscated, or
their bodies imprisoned by any government
which may choose to do 80. Thus ii Is now
in some parts OF the world and was, until
lately. among all nations. that Jew was
subject to have his property confscated. and
his lib,rty or life taken from him. Thus it is
also that pirates and flibusterS, having no
government, are taken and imprisoned, or
without any government on people
q questioning th,. justice of the act.
We see. then, the universal necessity of
having and acting under the protection OF
and recognized government.
But the difficulty OF obtaiuing a satisfac-
tory government is commensurate with the
necessity of having one. This difficulty has
been in the effort to establish government
which gave, at the same time, the largest
liberty and the largest protection to its citi-
zeDs. Aud it has arisen from the fact that.
according to the philOsOphic reasoning OF all
the historic world, aud of nearly ell existing
nations, these two claims are inconsistent
and Incompatible with each other. Again.
as the practice of having written forms of
government, in which the powers OF the rul-
ers and the duties, and privileges of the gov
erned were clearly defined. was not in vouge,
government was without the means of peace
able alteration, or Improvement. Hence cruel
and sanguinary revolutions of citizens against
organised government have followed each
other on the pages of history until the very
paper is black with blood
After this retrospect, we may safely pause
upon our government as containing within
itself all the requirements of philOsophic
reasoning and bloUdy experience, and may
challenge history, or fiction to produce
its equal. If we examine its coDstruc-
ton in detail, we will be better able to
appreciate its excellence. But it is proper
u
All governments have two lives,
or which is probably more correct, are or
ganised to accomplish two ends: one is, 20
look after, and care for, the welfare of its
citizens, as nation, and the other is, to look
after, and provide for the welfare OF the citi-
zens as individuals. The one employs itself
with such matters as peace and war. treaties,
with foreign nations and such mat
ters as concern the common defence and general
lcelfare: The other is employed in taking
care of the individual citizen, defines his
rights and duties, and enforce them by suffi-
cient sanction. These ends of government
are intimately blended, and at the line OF
separation seem almost merged into one. By
the light of this general truth let us proceed to
The examination of the structure of our gov
ernment The foundation of it is laid upon
masses of people organised into political
with Executive, Legislative,
and judicial departments of government, a
public treasury, and q defined extent OF ter
ritory, called States. These States or the
people of them, for verbal distinctions are
nothing-reserving to themselves the entire
operations of government which concerned
the citizens as individuals, erected the FEEDER
al government for the purpose of looking af-
ter those things which concerned the whole
as nation. And the powers they gave it
Tor these purposes. and the modes IN which
IL was to exercise them, are clearly defined
in a written Constitution. If these powers
are examined, they will be found to be ex-
ceedingly few. No distinct government was
ever before organised with such narrow
limit of authority. And this was necessarily
SO from the existing organization of the peO-
pie who made it into States. These reserv-
ing 10 themselves all the legislation which re-
garded individuals in their relations with
each other grasped, by this. nearly all politi-
cal power. The General Government would
have been perfect, il there had been given it
no other power, except that of representing
the nation in its relations to other nations.
But in order to make the Union of the peo-
pie of all the States more perfect, aud to give
them the widest range among people, and
into territory and to give to each citizen
all the advantages which could begiven him
without interfering with the power and au-
thority of the States, within their own
limits, there was granted to the General
Government, the power to ensure the citi-