The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-03


than If she were 10 return TO her allie
glance, retaining her slave system.
For in the former case, the cause of
dissension being uprooted, the tendency
would be to reunite, and a few years
see us a single nation again, while, in the
latter a constantly active source of irri-
tatiOn still existing, three years of
breathing time wonld not elapse without
bringing endless quarrels and a second
rebellion
Conceive reunion with Slavery still in
existence. Imagine Southern sympa-
thizcrs in power among us, offering com
promises. Suppose the South, exhausted
with military reverses and desiring a few
years armistice TO recruit, decides TO
accept it under the guise of peace and
reconstruction? Whatnext? Thousands
of slaves, their excited hopes of enamel
patton crushed, fleeing across the border
A Fugitive Slave law, revived by peace,
demanding their rendition. Popular
opinion in the North opposed to the law,
and refusing the demand. Renewed war
the certain consequence.
Or take, even, the alternative of recog-
nitiOn-recognition of an Independent
Confederacy, still slaveholing. Are we,
then-becoming the sole exception among
the nations of the earth-to make our
selves aiders and abetters of the slave
system OF foreign nation, by agreeing
to return to her negro refugees seeking
liberty and an asylum among us? Ma
tional self-respect imperatively forbids
this. Public sentiment would compel
the rejection, as a base humiliation, of
any proposed treaty stipulation providing
for rendition of runaway slaves. Yet
the South would regard such rejection in
no other light than as a standing menace
"a threat to deprive her of what she
regards as her most valuable pro-
perty. Coterminous as for hun
dreds-possibly thousands-of miles Of
our boundaries would be, must
not the South, in common prudence,
maintain all along that endless border
line an armed slave police? Are we to
consent to this? And if we do, shall we
escape border raids after fleeing fugitives?
No sane man will expect it. Are we TO
suffer these? We are disgraced. Are
we to resent them? 1t is a renewal Of
hostilities.
State elections may go as they will.
Their results can never change the fact
that any party obtaining the control of
the Government and adopting the policy
that the settlement of the emancipation
question is to be postponed till the war
shall be closed, will never, while it pur-
sues that policy, see this war permanent
ly closed-nOt even by accepting a
shameful disruption of our country.
But if emancipation is to avail us as a
peace measure, we must adopt it boldly,
resolutely, elIectually. II must be gen.
eral, not partial; extending not TO the
slaves or rebels only, but to every slave
on this continent. Even if it were prac-
ticable, which it is not, with Slavery nom
existent in the Northern States and to
abolish it in those which persist in re-
bellion, TO maintain it in the narrow bOr-
der strip, it is precisely there, where ne
gro fugitives can the most readily escape
that its maintenance would the most GER
tainly lead TO war.
Can this great peace measure be con-
stitutionally enacted ?
A proclamation or (the more appropri-
ate FORM an act of general emancipation
should, in its preamble set forth, in sub
f stance, that the claims TO service or labor
of which il depriyes certain persons hav-
+ ing been proved, by recent events, TO be Of
a character endangering the supremacy
of the law, jeopardizing the integrity Of
the Union, and incompatible with the
permanent peace of the country, are taker
~ fla 4 INC
sation made Under circumstances far
, less urgent than these, the law or custom
of civilized nations, based on considera'
/ tons of public utility, authorizes sucl
taking Of private property for public use
We ourselves are familiar with its oper-
atoms. When a conhagration in a cts
threatens to spread far, houses in th,
line Of its progress may legally be seizeC
, and destroyed by the authorities in ordel
| TO arrest it, and the owners are not held
TO have been wronged if they are paiC
Z for such losses under an equitable ap.
praisement But ii is not the existence
of part of a city that is how endangered
1t is the integrity of one among the frs
[ powers Of the world that is menaceC
- with destruction.
[ The truth OF the preamble suggested
has become, in my judgment incontro-
vertibe. 1t will receive the assent Of al
p overwhelming majority Of the people o
f the loyal States. The public sentiment
| of Europe will admit its truth.
Let us confess that such a preamble
r as preface to act or proclamation, could
! not have commanded the assent Of more
than asmall fraction Of our people only two
short years ago--two years, as we reckon
, time a generation, IL we calculate by
the stirring events and lar-reaching up
heavals that have been crowded into the
eyentful months In such days as these
abuses ripen rapidly Their consequent
ces mature. Their ultimate tendencies
become apparent We are reminded OF
their trausitory character, We are re-
minded that ollhouvb for the fine and