The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1862-04-18
East Tennessee.

II is known to everybody that there IS
4 large element in East Tennesseedisloyal
10 the Confederate government, and sym
patLising with the Lincoln despotism' a
large portion Of this element is compose
of uniformed and ignorant men, who are
misled and deceived, and made to believe
that the object of the war is the restorass
zion of the Union and the re-estabilsn-
roentofthe Constitution, and that the Fed
eral army will soon have possession oil Tue
csuntrv 1t is useless, we know, to point
ont the erossness of the deception. But
still it is so palpable that every one ought
to see IL. The Union cannot be restored,
the Constitution cannot be re-established,
and every Federal success but adds to the
impossibility of the thing. The Union and
the Constitution of our fathers have pass
ed away foreyer-the very element EN-
ployed for the accomplishment OF the
pretended object utterly annihilates every
hope Of its attainment. Lincoln and his
party cannot restore them as they once
existed if they would, and would not il
they could-a million of bayonets, ne
force, however great, can do it. Governor
NOW General, Banks, of Massachusetts,
standing upon the heights overhangint
Washington and looking upon the vas
military preparations for the invasion
exclaimed, Here passes away this Gov
eminent, and upon its ruins another anC
stronger one must be reared!" He knew
it at that early hour, in the inception @
the war. The South may be overrun, it
institutions broken up, its affairs overturr
ed, its fields desolated, its sons slain j
battle, and its women and children cal
ried away into captivity! But will that re
store the broken and shattered Union?-
Will that retrieve from the mire and dl
into which it has beer trampled, the viz
lated and outraged Constitution?
A restoration Of the Union and tn
re-establishment of the Constitution b.
ing an impossibility, why should any pc
ton of the people of East Tennessee loi
ger sympathise with the North in the wa
fare it is waging? Their interests an
institutions are identical with those
the South, and we ask them if their pre-
ent position is not unnatural, unpatriot
and utterly unjustifable? But it is us
less to multiply. Tennessee must eith'
be sovereign member of the Confeder
cy, or a mere dependency, province,
the Northern Despotism. The disloy
element of East Tennessee has done muC
to bring the struggle towards our border
but it is not too late for the deluded ar
: deceived to retrace their steps and 10
heart and hand with their brethren al
| natural allies in resisting the invader.
The storm is gathering, but it has II
burst yet. We have all suffered temp
1 rary inconvenience, but not yet felt Il
l presence of War. The disloyalsts have
in their power to keep it away from the
e door slls and their fire-sides, by abando
: ing the men who, for purposes Of the
l own, are deceiving and will forsake the
, on the first approach of danger, We q
. no alarmist, and speak butwhat we knc
} when we say that before East Tenness
} will be given up to the enemy, every in
of ground will be fercely contested al
! the whole region made waste and de'
late. This is enough for us to say at PR
ent.