The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-19
Tha Nation.

* The loyal men Of this land hope for
Nationality, they love, adore, and fight
Tor this principle. They expect TO see
peryade the minds Of The whole people
The love Of law, progress, and constitu-
s;opal freedom. They are now sirug
cling for unity against desinteeraiion for
law against anarchy for constitutional
freedom against passionate violence. II
Is the contest Of the highest imperatives
Of Che soul against the lowest impulses OF
passion. II is dignity and worthipcss
aoainat speculation and calculation. II
struggling fer preservation. II IS
the action of nations mind leaping
I. forth for its existence. In The present
war the intelligence, tho reverence of
thirty millions of people are seeking
preservation. In view, then, of the mo-
menious importance of the prize at stake,
il cannot but enlist the whole loyal part
of the people Under the circumstan-
ces it is only wonderful that the disloyal
are not hunted down like ferocious mon
sters. That they are not, is due alone to
the high civilization Of the nation. That
The sublime spectacle Of the uprising of
the heart and mind Of this people will
not become light house to advancing
generations is not to be doubted.
Greece, with her God inhabited foun-
tains and groves, has been the worlds
teacher and the nurse Of heroism. She
has inspired the world, and bid refine
ment and beauty live in all time, wor-
SHIPPED and loved. If our nation prove
true TO itself, IL will not be her armies
and navies, her lofty mountains and ex-
tensive plains, her crystal lakes and
majestic rivers, that future ages shall
adore. twill be loyalty, science, free
dom. 1t is the "unbought graces of
life that live and breathe, and grow fresh
in revolving years.
Shall our virtues perish Shall the
hand Of violence crush the mind
of the nation, and degrade it to the
society of the brute. The million of
armed heroes now in the field will not
suffer such calamity TO fall upon the
race. They will redeem by their valor,
order and discipline the nation, and pre-
serve humanity from the sCorn Of mean
ness, cowardice and corruption.
The climax of shame and degradation
would be found in our failure to preserve
Che mind Of this nation. You and | may
perish, our bodies may return to their
native elements, cur minds will triumph
over all the vices Of the body, the foibles
and excuses of life, for individual mind
is eternal. II may and does bid defiance
10 the agencies Of men for destruction.
Not so with nation. Its life is one of
history, it belongs TO time and space.
The nations, intellect goes out when the
virtues of the nation are disregarded;
when its glories are forgotten, and dig
nifty and loyalty are sacrificed to pas
sion, or become purchasable. Think
now Of the man, so lost TO worth, that he
would see his soul go out, or would sell
il in the market for any price. Estimate
the brutality Of the individual that has
lost himself, il we may SO speak, and
who has enrolled himself amid the de-
graded orders of being. II is God him
self becoming demon.
1t is no less melancholy, yea il is
even more SO, to behold whole people, .
race of men that have read SHAKsPEARE,
that have spoken the language of Bunk,
forget all the treasures Of aglorious past
and submit to the damnation that histo-
ry will consign them TO. What signifies
the loss Of this or succeeding genera
tion. what il Il costs hundred years of
rich production to pay for the cementing
and founding ona permanent basis the
Republic which our fathers punished and
reared to its present manly proportionsF
A nation honored abroad, dispensing tho
blessings of peace, prosperity and excel
lsnce, encouraging educated labor and
cultivated triumphant mind at he-ae,
what we must have or all is lost
Terrible CONSERVATION was created in
- Z kfn...,,i-.. dsaot n favy davs a0o NV