The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1862-10-10
From the Knoxville Register
ADDRESS OF HON. T. AR. MEL.
SON.
To the People of East Tennessee.

In all the speeches which made to YOU in
the spring and summer of 1861, as we'll as in
printed address to the people of the State.
on or about the 50th of May 1851. declared,
In substance, that if had believed it was the
object of the North to subjugate the South
and to emancipate our slaves in violation OF
the Constitution, I would haze gone as far as
the tarthest in advocating resistance to the ut
most extent
Ny attention has just Been called to pro-
elamation issued by the President of the
United States on the 22d Sept, 1862. in which
he declares that .son the first day of january
in the year of our ord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any State, or any designated
part of a State, the people whereof shall then
be in rebellion against the United States, shall
be thenceforward and forever Free and the
executive government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority,
will recognize and maintain the freedom of
such persons, and will d, no act or acts to re-
press such persons or any of them, in any eff
forts they may make for their actual free
DOM"
[ need scarcely remind you that one Of the
evils which dreaded and predicted as the
result of the efforts which were made to dis
solve the Union was that In the progress of
war, they might open the way for seryiIc in
surrection and the overthrow of the institu-
ton of slavery. NY opinions as to the un-
eonstitutionality and inpaliey of secession
remain unchanged, but in my last sreecl in
Congress aud on various other public &C.
easions, have INDICATED and maintained,
and still maintain. the right of aeeoiaHion.-
On no occasion, however, did | ever assert
the doctrine that a violation Of the Constitu-
1 Il p
similar. or other vinlat:oss by the opposing
party The paramount causes wlsipi, have
controlled and Influenced my conduct and
opinions were love fer the Union and an un-
shaken confidence that we had the best con-
stitution and government in the world, But
OF all the acts of desrotisln of which the
civil war IN which we are now engaged has
been the prolific source. there is not one
which, in the slightest degree. equals the
atrocity and barbarisnl of NJ Lincol,.'S pro-
clanation. At one blow it deprives all the
citizens of the slave Suites, without distinc-
ton, of the right to hold slaves, a right
guaranteed by tile worry Constitution lie pre-
tends to upholi. 1t is true he makes an in
tinlation that he will recommend to Congress
to provide just compensation to Uninn mas
tcrs in the slave States, but what right has
lie. or the government of the U.ited States,
to deprive them of this property without their
consent? And what assurance have they
that his vague and general intimatan will be
applied to them, or that an abolt on Con-
grcss. reeking with the blood Of the South,
and lub!lant in the possession Of nsurped
power, will adept his recommendation?
We are in The midst of sea Of difficulties.
Many acts have been done III the Ssuth TO
which we were bitterly opposed rs people,
and which we who have adhered to the Union
in spite of periis and dangers, could not jus
tify or pallate. But the Onion men of East
Tennessee are not now and never were Abo-
Iitionists. The Union men of East Tennes-
see are not now and never have been COM
niitted to the doctrines of ineendriaism and
murder to which Mr.. Lincoln's proclamation
leads. What then, is the path of duty in the
trying circumstances which surround us? Is
it to belle all our past professions and to sus-
tain Mr.. Linsolns administration, right or
wrong? Is it to justify man, whom we had
noagency Ia etevating to power, not only In
abandoning the Constitution of the United
States, hut in repudiating the Chicago plat
form, his inaugural address and messages to
Congress in which the absolute right 10 Slave
~ in the States where it exists was distinctly
and uneqniyocally conceded? Or is it, in
view of his many violations of the Constitu-
ton, and this crowring act of ustrpatien, to
5OiH titl siue WHICH at present dHoFuS the
oaly earthly hope Of Successful resistance?
/ am aware, my coantrymen. that you will
find difficulties in bringing yeur minds to the
same conclusion at which my own has ar
rived. Many wanton and unauthorized acts
Of cruelty and oppression have been perpe-
trated among you, which, instead of chang
ing your opinions, have only been calculated
to aggrayate and intensity heroic principle
ofeendnrance. Many of these acss have been
committed in remote places, without the
knowledge or appreciation of the authorities
at Richmond, or ef those who have held the
supreme command in East Tennessee, and
under such circumstances, that you have felt
it dangerous to complain. Gradually and
slowly these outrages have at last become
known, and in the very recent proclamation
issued by MajorG General Jones, you have the
assurance that your complaints will be heard,
and the most energetic measures adopted to
remedy the evils to which you have been sub
iected.
Let not, then sense of private and pre-
sent wrongs blind you against the enornities
already perpetrated, and still more seriously
contemplated by Mr.. Linceln's adn,inistra-
tien. If a majority of the Republican party
have been sincere in their professions Of a
determinations to respect the right Of slavery
in the States. and if the light of freedom is
not utterly extinguished in the North, may
we not hope that spirit Of resistance will be
aroused in that section, which, combined
,r;,b tho oearts of the South will hurl Mr.