The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-11-07

one Of the most malignant and unpatFi-
otto factions which this country has ever
seen, The faction is led by few cold
blooded politicians universally known as
the meanest syeOphants Of the South and
the most impudent bullies Of the North
but they have contFiyed 20 array on their
side a considerable number of honest and
well-meaning dupes by dexterous ap-
peal to conservative prejudice and con-
serva'ive passion, so that hundreds serve
their ends who would feel contaminated
by their companiOnship. Never before
has Responsibility so blandly consented
to become the mere instrument and tool
Of Rascality The rogues trust 70 inau-
gurate treason and anarchy under the
pretence of being the special champions
of the Constitution and The Laws Their
real adherents are chilled from the most
desperate and dishonest portions Of our
population. They can hardly indite a
leading article, or make stump speech,
without showing their proclivities TO mob
law. To be sure, if known traitor is
informally arrested, they rave about the
violation of the rights Of the citizen; but
they think Lynch law is good enough for
Abolitionists." IL a General is assailed
as being over prudent and cautious in
his operations against the common enemy,
they Immediately laud him as Hannibal,
a Caesar, and Napoleon; they assume 20
be his special friends and admirers; they
adiure him to perseVere in what they con-
ceive to be his policy Of inaction and, as
he is great master in strategy, they
hint that his best strategic movement
would be a movementa a la Cromwell, on
the Abolitionized Congress of the United
States. Disunion, anarchy, the violation
of all law, the appeal TO the lowest and
fiercest impulses Of the most ignorent
portions of the Northern people, these
constitute thereal stock-in- trade of the
Hang eff. Davis and Charles Sumner
party but the thing is so managed, that,
formally, this party appears as the spe-
cial champion of the Union, the Consti-
tuition, and the Laws.
Those politicians who personally dis
like the present holders Of political pow :
er, those politicians who think that the
measures of confiscation and emancipa-
tion passed by the Congress which has
just adjourned are both unjust and inn
polite, unconsciously slide into the aid :
ers and abettors Of the khaves they in
dividually despise and distrust. The
radicals" must, they say, at all events,
be checked; and they lazily follow the
lead of the rascals. The rascals intend to
ruin the country. But then they pro-
pose 60 do il in constitutional way,
The only thing, it seems, that q lawyer
and jurist can consider is Form. II
the country is dismembered, ii all its de-
tenders are slain, if the Southern Con-
federacy is. triumphant, not only at Rich
mOnd, but at Washington and New York,
If eight millions Of people beat twenty
millions, and the greatest ofal democra-
cies ignominiously succumbs to the basest
of all aristocracies, the true patriots will
still have the consolation, that the defeat
the damned defeat" occurred under the
sirictest forms of Law. Better that ten
Massachusetts, soldiers should be killed
than that one negro should be illegally
freed Better that Massachusetts should
be governed by jeff. Davis than that il
should be represented by such men a!
Charles Summer and Henry Wilson, netO.
riOusly hostile TO tie constitutional right,
of the South Subsection, in itself, is bad
but the great American idea of local gov
ernments for local purposes and gen
eral government for general purposes
STILL thank God may survive it. TC
be sure, we may be beaten and onslaved
The rascals, fenegades, and liberticide
may gain their object This object W,
shall ever contemn. But if they gain i
fairly, under the forms Of the Constitu
tion, it is the duty OF oil good citizenl
10 submit Our Southern opponents, W,
acknowledge, committed some "irregu
larities"; but nobody can assert, that, il
dealing with them, we devisted by
hairs breadth from the powers intrusteC
TO the Government by the Fathers Of tht
Republic. While the country is con.
yulsed by rebellion unprecedented il
the whole history Of the world, we ar,
compelled by our principles TO look upoi
il as lawyers, and not as statesmen. w,
apply to il the same principles which ou
Yenerated forefathers applied 20 Shay
Rebellion in Massachusetts and the Whis
key Instruction in Pennsylvania. II
be sure, the circumstance" are differ
ent but we need not remind the philan
thropic inhabitants Of our section OF th
country, that "principIes are eternal,
We judge the existing case by these eter
nal principles. We may fail, and fail ig
ANONYMOUSLY but, in our failure, nobod,
can say that we violated any sacred form
OF the eyer-gloriOus Constitution Of th
United States. The Constitution has II
il no provisions TO secure its own exist
ence by unconstitutional means. IL i
therefore our duty, as lawyers as we'll q
Legislators, To allow the gentlemen VIII
have repudiated II, because they wer
defeated in an election, 10 enjoy all IL
benefits. That they do not seem 70 ap
preciate these benefits, but shoot, Ia
shockingly irregular" manner, all wh
insist on imposing on them its blessing
furnishes no reason why we should pat