Daily Nashville union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-05-01
>. &. mERCEE, Editor.
East Tennessee.

East Tennessee.
If there can be found on earth a peo-
ole more deserving The heartfelt sympa-
thies Of every true patriot, than East
Tennesseans. we do not know it. Their
patience, their fortitude, their deep devo-
tion to the Union, attachment TO its peo-
pie, constitution and laws, under the most
trying difficulties and severe prosecutions,
rival the Waldenses or the martyrs Of ear
ly Christianity. The picture Of the suffer
ings and Affections Of ST. Paul, inflicted
fo= opinions sake, az drawn by himself
form an almost exact portraiture Of the
condition of this unfortunate people.
They arc torn from their families and
forced into military service against
their friends and countrymen which in
their souls they abhor, and from which
they shrink with instructive horror. Nor
IN this resistless compulsion is needed
the cries Of unprotected infancy, the
lamentations of tender wives, nor the
pressing necessities Of poverty. Their
groans are answered with scorn and their
aorrows treated with contempt Their
complaints are passports to imprisonment
and their resistance pathway 70 the
gallows, Humility and obscurity, equal
ly with honor and distinction, are made
the fatal marks Of Southern despotism.
Their corn cribs and smoke houses are
made tributary TO the commissary Of the
army whose sworn duty is their subju-
cation Their fields are desolated, their
fences made fuel for campfires and their
houses RACED to the ground.
If they seek personal safety, not by
resistance but by flight, they are hunted
down by cavalry, caught and carried
through towns and villages, like prison
ers az the chariot of some Roman con-
queror, and made a'spectacle and show,
for the double purpose Of wounding and
humiliating their friends and gratifying
the insatiate vengeance and savage cru
city Of their enemies You naturally
pause to inquire of what hcinous offence
have they been guilty? The answer is
easy. The lps are scarcely parted with
the utterance Of the interrogatOry before
the response is heard They loved the
country in which they were born; they
embraced the constitution which their
fathers taught them to revere, and they
obeyed the laws which so long had given
them protection; they were unwilling 10
follow after strange Gods; bu; The teach
ings of their early infancy became the
precious lessons of their ripened man
hood This is The head and front Of
their offending" nothing more.
For this picture we have not drawn
upon the Imagination; it is not dyed in
the hues of fancy; but the frame work
and finishing touches Of confessed facts,
vauntingly promulgated in the Knoxville
Register, the organ Of the Secession party
Of East Tennessee. If any one doubts
les him read. II there is so much upon
The stage what must be behind the scenes?
If the Knoxville Register unblushingly
publish these facts TO tbe world, what
sad tales Of woe, wretchedncss and mise
~ would the experience of the victims
tell.
But, shank God, the day Of their de-
liyerance is athand The thunder Of the
artillery Of the Union is heard approach
ing, and already its echoes and reyerbe-
rations resound through their mountain
Businesses, informing them chat succor is
at hand And ere long that old familiar
flag, from which they have been too long
separated, will rise like = rainbow Of
hope over the highest tops Of their ro-
mantle mountains.