The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-06-02

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81 they believe that a nation which willfully
, violates great law Of God will suffer for
the sin, just as anindividual will, sooner
or later, suffer, who steals, swears falsely
or murders. The great macs Of the owl
lized world are so firmly convinced that
bad men viii reap the bitter harvest Of
their offences, even in this life, that they |
repeat as a universal adage, Franklin's |
saying " Honesty is the best policy"
And when a great calamity befalls
nation, mems consciences whisper TO them
that IL is a punishment
$50 Joye decroes rCslstlo.s lord Of all
At whose command whole empires rise or fall
Ne si.@iss iio festls propa q human tIust
And towns and armos humbes to the dust"
The United States is to-day the the
atre Of one of the bloodiest civil wars
which ever desolated any people. 1t
opened in Charleston harbor on the 18th
of April, 1861, and still RACES, on larger
scale and more bloody than ever, And
wherefore? Has this war no cause? May
NOT its innumersble sorrows, its "lliad
Of evils" be the dread expiration of some
national violation of rightP Some tell
us that this is "mere politicians war"
but this is shallow nonsense. Politicians
might declaim in vain till doomsday
without stirring up nation to cutting
j each others throats, unless some cause
,rt existed. There was a cause mighty
cause, which spread in tho bowels of the
land like dangerous malady. 1t had
~ been consuming us like burning fever
for many years, and could no longer be
kept in check. The cause was African
81 slavery, systematic violation of the
great inaliennble right of the whole hui
man race. II was not only our misfortune;
il was our willful and ever-cherished
fault II was base; il was corrupting !;
or it was grossly dishonest. II was vii
famous in its origin who would trust
his purse or his life TO an African slave
H trader, who is called by christendom a
pirate. II we did not originate the
the despisabe system, we maintained 1t
we were the receivers of stolen goods
The slave codes of the Southern States arr
NH
tr dishonest to the negro and dishonest e
eat the non-slaveholder. The whole sys
tenn of slavery was standing insult anc
challenge TO the Almighty. BE at las
800 accepted the challenge, and the red Dol
Of an angry God leaped, swift as winget
thought, from sky, upon whose seren'
face our blinded eyes had discerned nj
rr- harbinger of the tempest. Tennesseans
Ell. lay aside your prcjudices, and ask your
selves seriously lie slavery right? Fo
ia. either il is wholly right, or else il is tn
tl6 most gigantic and horrible sin ever per
ad q petrated by mankind. There is no mid
.lhs.. die ground. If the negro has no rights
then slavery is right; If he has rights
then it is the height of wickedness I
,d'g deprive him of their enjoyment If b
has natural rights, then you are the rob
Der of his happiness, bis liberty, hi
bones and sinews, his immortal sou
cos just SO long as you uphold and cndeavo
ga 10 prolong that slavery which Henri
= Clay denominated "tle greatest curse Z
ia,ai all human eVils."
l.rl Our tatn0rs, whose memories the lm
pious conservatives" blaspheme, wit
hypocritical and irreverent worship, pre-
dioted the pernioious influence of slavery
Thomas Jefferson shuddered with appre
suil hension at the bare thought of this war
,.sa.is and said that the Almghty possessed n
attribute sOhieh soould make him side s0it
slavery" in such conflict And shall
we hesitate to say what the great JEFF
ferson asserted? We cannot expect t.
form an exception to the rest of the hu
i'N' man family and be exempted from tn
operations of the laws of eternal justice
If we willfully commit great nAtiona
sins, we must expect severe punishment
II we deprive the laborer of his hire
debhuch his wife and daughters, an,
sell his children into the cotton fields an
rice swRmps of the Gulf States, we ma,
expect TO expiate the sin with the bes
blood Of the land. We have oOmpelle
a weak and helpless people to serve u
for two hundred years, and now we il
turn are doomed TO tread the winepres
of the wrath of God" Talk of "inferio
races Out on such wretched stuff
The armies Of Louis Napoleon have sew
eral times of late been frightfuIll
defeated by the Mexicans, so tina
the Mexieans are the master race
in this respect, aud consequently tn,
French ought to be their slaves TIT
Turks have owned Caucasian slaves
hundreds of years, and therefore, they
must be the master race. This doctrin,
OF the right Of "a superior race" that is
stronger one, TO enslave weaker one, Is
the doctrine of The highwayman and
pirate. 1t is the doctrine Of force. w,
cannot dress it into decency it's do
formity is still apparent Until we re.
nounce this great offence the Republic
will continue to bleed at every pore.