Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-02-08
How Jars clemens Regards the Issue.

In the Louisville Courier, Ct yester-
day, We observe a truly eloquent and
patriotic letter from Hon. Jere Clemens,
OF Ala, to Col. Blanton Duncan, of
Louisville. We sincerely wish it were
possible for every TennessOan to read it
before he casts his vote on Saturday
next. We make an extract;
Recent developments at the North
have opened our eyes to great fact to
which we have been willfully blind.
Heretofore we have been accustomed to
believe that fanatieism was confined to a
fsw-that the masses of the Northern
people were free from personal animoSity
towards US, and that even the politicians
were only using the slavery question as
a hobby to obtain power, and he con-
sequent control If Federal patronage,
without any serious intention of in erfer-
ing with our rights Of property. The
election of Lincoln, and the oyeawhoim-
ing defeat of such Conservative statesmen
as Bell and Douglas did not entirely dis.
pei the d.lusion. There was still a
lingering hope that existing causes of
dissatisfaction would be removed, and
that we should march on in the pathway
of nations united, prosperous ana happy.
But the secession of South Carolina W s
q tCuchstons too severe for the patriotism
of the North. When that impetuous
and sensitive, but chivalrous aud high
tonel people adopted their ordinance, if
they had been me. ia q spirit Of kindly
forbeGraace-if instead Of threats of
coercion they had been treated 10 offers
Of eonce ssions and guarantees such as
would have been alike honorable and
glorious when tendaFad BY tAe strong to
the weak--lf tRa compromise offered by
your venerable statesman, Mr.. Critten-
den, had been promptly accepted, a set
t'ement might even then have been
effected mot another STATE would have
followed the example of South Carolina,
and that single wanderer would have
been again gathered beneath the protect
Ing folds Of the national banner.
Concession and Cancellation was the
obvious policy, as it ought to have been
the natural impulse Of men Of Kindred
blood, who Lacked back to a common
history, ana forward to q common desti-
ny; but the idea of concession and con-
citation has not yet penetrated the Nor.
thern mind. Submission without terms,
or death by the halter, are the only ais
ternatiyes which nave up to this hour
been presented to US. With a people
whose minds and judgments ars so per-
verified and whose affections arc SO little
to be relied upon, q further unionis i'm
possible. Slowly and reluctantly this
conviction has been allowed to grow UP
within me. No one ever chung to the
Union more tepaciausly than ibid, but
the Union Of my affections was one Of
love, rot Of fear, and when the alterna-
tive is presented to me of unconditional
submission TO hostile faction, or death
upon the gibbet, l feel an irresistible
impulse to answer that there is yot q
third alternative, which is always in
brave man's reaoh-ths alternative of
dying,with arms in his hands, and
sfaining, the field on which he falls with
other blood than his own.
Alabama has been forced iato her
present position by the uncompromising
Spirit which has Eeen exhibited through
out the North. Three months ago not
enc fourth of the people were Eecession--
lists, One month ago there was barely
majority IN favor of severing our con-
nection with tho North. To-day nine
tenths of them sustain the action of the
Convention, and before the 4th of March
there will not be one man II a thousand
to raise his voice against it. Of this
there cannot be a shadow of daubs,
l look Tor Kentucky Il move more
slowly, but know what she Dust do in
the end. She cannot stand by and wit
ness the murder of her own children
without raising her strong arm in their
defense. The North will make no cons
cessions. They have derided the warm
ings of Crittepden. They will eontinue
20 spuFn every offer of mediation, and
leave you at last the choice of emaneipa-
ting your slaves and assisting to fight
their battles, or of combining with us.
Too much Of my own blood is Kentucky
blood to allow me to doubt what your
ch, ice will be. The Government will
attempt coercion. This question has
gone beyond the point at hich peace
hi solution was possible. War, in my
judgment, is inevitable, and in such a
war there can be no neutral States upon
the North American continent.
Accept my tn anks for your manly and
patriotic letter, and believe me to be,
very truly, Your fFiend.
JERE. CLEMENS.