Daily Nashville union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-04-18
ssvbei Freedom OF Speech-nnd Rebel

ssesei Freedom OF Speech-Rnd Rebel
Presses.
wherever rebellion has obtained even
temporary ascendency all discussion
ceases. No dissenting voice is heard to
oppose or call in question the acts Of the
despOt who with soldiers under his COM
mand tramples down the flag of freedom
and with it all those priceless blessings
Of freedom of which it is the symbol.
We look back with a shudder upon those
fearful days during the reign of King
Harris when all freedom of discussion by
tongue or pen was strangled out and the
swift attention" of vigilance commit
tee hushed the remons trance ofeyery un-
lucky dissentient. We find in the col
umns OF the Nashville Union and Ameri-
can of August, 1861, an example of the
mode in which the work of muzzling out
spoken mouths was sometimes done.
Nix. ErHRIDGB Nor ALLOwEDTo SPEAK IN
PARIS Hon. Emerson Elhridge had an ap.
polnlment to speak in Paris Monday, but we
learn that on that day committee OF citi-
zens Of Paris Oi all a,ties met him about
mileirom town aud inlUrm-u him that he
was regarded there rs u traitor 10 tie South
and Would Net BE Allowed TO sPEAR, AND
THAT If HE ATrsMprED IT THE CITIZENS
wtULD HANG HlN. The commit ee advised
bin 10 return homt, which advice be acted
upon promptly.
2 The intOlerant spirit Of despotism eX-
hibi.s itself in this infamous paragraph
too plainly 10. be mistaken "Hang him!
Hang him p was the cry of the "Blood-
hounds" of the Nashville LINEN and
American just as another intolerant mob
once shouted Cruelty him Cruelty
him " A correspondent of the same pa
per is warmly endorsed by the editors,
says that the Union. men in Nashville
should be vigilantly watched, and that "a
LONG ROPE AND A SHORT SHIFT
SHOULD BE FURNISHED TO ALL
UNION MEN IN CORRESPONDENCE
WITH THE GOVERNMENT" Yes,
this is the freedom of speech which is
granted to all in the borders Of the Com
federacy, who srefuse to bow the knee to
the Baal of treason. Ridgeway the fiery
hearted and dauntless was stricken
down in Richmond, Brownlow was cast
into dark, damp and deadly cell in
Knoxville, and Etheridgc and johnson,
and Maynard, and others who stood up
firmly for the rights of the people and
the government which they had ordain-
ed were hunted down by "BloOdhOunds"
and men lercer and more brutallzed
than bloodhounds, and threatened with
"cOld steal and bullets" or with "a
short shift and long rope" We cannot
forbear asking in this connection how
long rebels shall be suffered 70 shoot
their poisoned shafts at the hearts Of
loyalty and of the Government, through
the columns Of o9lsnsibly religious or neu-
trail newspapers If rebel despotism
brushes out those journals which uphold
the sacred cause Of law and order, shall
rebels be suffered to revive the dropping
spirit Of disloyalty, and encourage the
thoughtlcss in their treason, by giving
currency to absurd umors, by making
covert attacks upon the Government, by
supprossing most that is favorable TO the
Union, and publishing all that is unfa-
vorable, by heralding the incorporate
words Of few zcalois as the expression
Of the temper Of the North, and by in
dulging in inucndoes and hints, and dark
insnuations Shall we be less vigilant
in defending the Government, than trail
tors are in attempting 10 destroy il?