Daily Nashville union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-06-04
DAILY

own control The funds Of our State
Bank, our only financial agent and place
Of safe-keeping Of the money of the
State, have been seized and carried with
in the control Of men at war against the
Government. Our State debt is increased
by millions without dollar considera-
ton. Our credit is dishonored and our
currency ruined, Our commerce is cut
off and our manufactures shut up. Our
fences are destroyed, bridges burned,
private property taken, and crops con-
sumed under the plea Of military neces-
sity. Our fields are uncultivated and the
hand of industry is still Our cities,
towns and country are crowded with
troops, and our public highways and
street corners blockaded with military
guards. Our Governor, Secretary of State,
Comptroller and Treasurer with the pub
lie Records of the State, are missing
Our Courts are suspended, and we are
without regular government. Our sons
and brothers, and our relations and
friends are on the eve of battles, prob
able the most destructive to be record
edin history. And at time when most
needed, our churches are closed, our
ministers of religion absent from their
duties or in the army, and instead of
"peace on earth; good will to men," it
is war to determination.
And in the legislation of the country,
the FIRST principles of justice are out
ragged @by laws forbidding the payment
of debts justly due--laws for the seques-
tratiOn of debts honestly contracted
laws ordering the dismissal of suits, and
prohibiting the bringing of suits, because.
the plaintiffs oppose a most unholy re-
bellion--laws forbidtiing the administra-
tiOn Of the estates of dead men, because
their distributes, legatees, or devisees
are citizens of the Northern States"-and
laws Of conscription to compel men to
commit treason by levying war against
their government.
And in an age of civilization and of
progress, we have witnessed efforts to
sustain the character of the currency of
a country by orders of Provost Marshals
and through fears of the bayonet and the
prison; and after the country has been
flooded with hundreds of millions of this
currency, in the shape of Treasury notes,
and fallen into the hands of the common
people all over the land we have seen
military edicts calling upon these same
people to burn the products of their own
hard earnings, upon which alone they
could have relied as a means for the re-
demption of this worthless issue.
With the deepest regret we have also
witnessed demonstrations of delight,
among people protesting love for free
government, at the prospect Of armed in
teryentiOn by the Despotisms of Europe,
for the overthrow of the only government
on earth that secures equality of rights
and privileges TO all its citizens.
1t is not our purpose to go into detail
of the means and the devices ty which
bad men have brought ruin upon our
country. They are part of the history
of the times But the saddest part of
this whole movement is the heavy hand
and destructive blows that have fallen
upon the common people and the youths
of the South. With the leaders, however,
this is oflittle consequence. They made
their resolves, reckless of consequences
Their scheme was not conception of
the year 1861. 1t was concocted years
ago, 1t was planned thirty years since
and the plan has been followed and
"worked up to" by shrewd men, by Sc
cretly and skillfully manufacturing a
false opinion, which has been kept alive
and nourished by the creation of an ex-
asperated public excitement-by appeals
to sectional prejudice. A distinction in
the races Of the people North and South
was assumed and pressed increasingly,
by men in high positions in Church and
State. Angry passions were inaamed,
and fears Of impending aggression upon
our rights aud liberties induced, by
falsely representing as the settled and
ultimate purposes Of the entire Northern
people, including the Government itself,
IL ,ricLed rnvinns of a few crnzu FAM.