The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1862-01-31
yallandirham,s sneeen.

OF representatives, on the mason anu
Slidell question. The reader viii be am
ply compensated for its perusal:
Mr.. yallandigham, topp.) of Ohio, said !:
Il avail myself, sir, of this, the earliest
opportunity offered, to express my utter
and strong condemnation, as one of the
Representatives Of the people, Of the act
of the Administration in surrender.ng up
Messrs. Mason and Slidell 10 the British
Government. For six weeks, sir they
were held in close custody as traitors OF
the United States, by order of the Secre
tary of State, and with the approval, and
applause Of the press, of the public men,
Of the Navy Department, or this House,
and Of the people of the United States,
with full knowledge OF the manner and
all the circumstances Of their capture, and
yet, in six days after the imperious and
peremptory demand Of Great Britain, they
were abjectly surrendered upon the mere
rumor even of the approach Of hostile
feet, and thus, for the first time in our
national history, have we strutted irso-
lenly into a quarrel without right; and
then basely crept out of it without honor;
and thus for the first time has the Ameri-
can eagle been made to cover before the
British lion.
Sir, yassal or fettered and terror
stricken press, or servile and sycophantic
politician, ia this House, or out of it, may
applaud the act and fawn and fiatter, and
lick the hand which has smitten down
our honor into the dust. But the people,
now or hereafter will demand terrible
reckoning for this most unmanly surren-
der. But | do not trust myself to speak
of it now as propose some day to speak.
rose only TO put on record my emphatic
protest against it, and to express my deep
conviction that the very war, which, the
other day, might have been avoided by
combined wisdom and frmness, is now
inevitable.
Sir, the surrender may be no FAULT of
the Secretary of State, but he has shown,
fear, the dragons teeth, by this, his fatal
dispatch, and armed war will spring from
it. In the name of God, sir, what does
England want with Mason and Slidell?-
1t was a surrender of the claim OF the
right to seize them, on board her ships,
under her flag, that she demanded, and
yet this is the very thing that Mr.. Seward
pertinaciously refuses, and he only con-
demns Captain Wilkes because he did not
enforce this asserted right with greater
severity against the offending neutral ship.
Why, sir, upon the principles of this dis
patch, if merchant vessel, as at first in
tended, had been employed to carry these
men out from Fort Warren to England,
she might to-day have been arrested ON
the high seas, and they dragged from her
deck, provided only she were forthwith
brought back to the port of Boston for
confscation.
But more than this, England needs, ]
do not say wants, a war, but she must and
will have it, and this Administration has
acted, from the beginning, as il it was
their perpese TO ebheeheein it 10 tlieat
most. Lool; into your diplomatic cores
poudcnce, Look at your stone Aaet.--
But let that pass. Who, ask among all
the millions Of this country, or even IN
this House OF Senate, or the Aduiinistra-
ton itself, in the midst Of the dead calm
of stolid security, which seems now to rest
over all, has reflected for moment upon
the significancy of the events of the pass
ing hour?
A British man-of-war bears to the shores
of England, there to be received in tri-
umph and with shouts Of exultation as
martyrs and heroes, and with the gusto Of
the people of England and MS the protege
of their ministers, the very men who, but
for the rash act of Capt. Wilkes and the
still more rash endorsement of the Ad-
ministration and the country. would, six
weeks ago, have been quietly landed from
private ship in quiet security as rebels
and refugees. All Europe echoes now
with their naines. All Europe will rise up
to do them honor, and yet you surrender
ed. them, did you, TO escape the recogni-
ton 10y England of the Confederate States,
and your Secretary of State, with Christian
resignation or stole philosophy, calmly
reioces that the eftectual check upon and
waning proportions OF the insurrection, as
well as the comparative unimportance of
the persons concerned, happily enable the
Administration, after six weeks of expert
ment, 10 cheorfully ibcrate them, and
thus to remove this terterina causi befG.
Sir, give me leave to say that the mo.
ment they Mason and Slidell) stepped
upon the deck of British man-ot-war,
your prisoners of State, whom the other
day you would have consigned to felon's
cells, became indeed the ENJOYS and am
bassadors, of recognized independent
State, and predict here, to-day, in spite
of this deep national humiliation, or rath-
er perhaps because of il, and, in spite, too,
of the surrender without protest, of the
Monroe doctrine, for forty years the cher
ished and proud policy of this Govern
ment, in less than three months you will
be al war with Great Britain, or else, in
the meantime, will have basely submitted
TO the recognition of the Confederate
States, and the breaking up of the block
ade, and, il at war, then, with hearts un-
strung, and hands unnerved by this very
surrender. ..
Courage courage! courage! sir, is the
best and first Of peacemakers. know
well, of course, sir, that, like all other
similar predictions, for some years past, in
regard to our public affairs, you will treat
this or e also with scolIing and increduliiy;
but, nevertheless, | put it on record here
to-day. "The prudent man foreseeth the
evil and hideth himself but the simple
pass on and are punished"
1J~ The following is significant. 1t is
an extract from the New York World, Of
late ono of the most ardent Of Lincoln's
nattercrs and supporters;
The credit Of the Government is sink
ing. The people are becoming desperate
ready for anything for relief from the
crushing suspense and horrible burden Of
tn immoyable army and a war, at once
the most costly and the least profitable
known in the history Of civilized commu
mites. All manner OF factions will arise
Abolition fanatics Red Republican furies
Secession conspirators-will grow po.
tent in the unwholesome atmosphere Of o
war conducted by imbeciles for the bene-
fiji OF contractors. 1t will not do to wait,
and wait, any longer-now or never.