The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-02-08
The Times on the Proclamation of
JEFF. Davis.
From the Times, Jan. IA.

Prom the Times, Jan. IA.
Mr.. Davis condemns General Butler to
die, but threatened men live long, and il
would be a strange chance indeed which
enabled the President of the Southern
States 10 put his sentence into execution.
Very different however, is the sentence
of death pronounced against the whole Of
General Buffers officers. That sentence
the South will have an opportunity at
some time Of putting into effect against
some one or other, perhaps person
wholly innocent of any of the wrongs
complained OF, perhaps person who had
only done what he did under the COM
pulsion of military obedience. His inno-
cence will avail him nothing be is TO
die to expiate the fault Of one over whose
actions he had no control, and whose or
ders he could not dispute. But this is
only the beginning, For every life that
is taken under this proclamation the
Southern President well knows another
life will be required lie knows that by
putting to death prisoners taken in war,
in order TO ayenge the faults of their
Generals, he is inaugurating state of
things under which quarter will neither
be given nor asked, and which will de-
grade that war the usages Of which he is
so anxious TO maintain into an indiscri-
inmate and merciless butchery.
Mr.. Davis ought also 10 romeber that
though England and France have con-
coded TO the Southern States the position
Of belligerents, it behooves them TO ex-
ercise their belligerent rights with tho
utmost forbearance and moderation. We
have not scrupled to express our sympa-
thy with the South in their gallant strug-
gle for natioal independence, and so
strong has been that sympathy that IL
has overpowered the repulsion inspired
by the institution Of slavery. But tho
South should remember that they were
the FIRST TO draw the sword in this quar-
rel, that they rose against an established
! Government in the exercise of its legal
functions, that they obtained by the agon.
! cy of traitors in that Governments con-
siderably supply of arms and money,
and that that Union which they seek 10
dissolve is, as events have proved, the
dearest wish of every American heart.
These things are provocations Of no
ordinary magnitude, and in some degree
extenuate, though they can in no degree
! justify the outrages which have followed
the solitary Northern success, the capture
Of New Orleans. Better to bear a little
longer even such Iiniquitiss as those of
which they complain than to aggravate
the horrors of . contest already SUM-
GENTLY dreadful by licensing system
of murder from which neither party
can reap any possible advantage, and
which can only tend TO envelope the
American name in everlasting ignominy.
No donbt il may be suggested as an ex-
euse for the South that they have the
fate Of st. Domingo before their eyes.
and have the most dreadful apprehen-
sions of the lot which may overtake their
wives, and their childrens in case Of =
negro instruction. But this is one of
the chances Of war which they must
have well weighed and considered before
they raised the flag Of instruction.
Their own valor and success have ere
ated the danger by driving the North TO
despair, and they ought 10 meet IL with
the calmness of men resolved and pre-
pared, not with the fury of surprise and
panic. If the North, which we will not
yet believe, should carry out lis dread
fui threat, the evil will not be avertod by
killing the officers 'ghO may be detached
on a service which is not in itself con
trary to the usages of war. They will
not be deferred from undertaking II, and
should they be slain, their death will be
blOodily avenged Lastly, Mr.. Davis
ought TO consider whether il IL worth his
while, in order 10 crafty the Justly in p
| censed faelinPg of the gouih "a emf on
from himself that European sympathy
which he now possesses, aud 10 appear
before the civilized world as the first q
convert an honorable contest into a war
Of determination. We earnestly hope 10
find that this plan Of retaliation has re-
NAMED unexecuied, and that the horror
Of massacres in cold blood may not b,
added to the miseries Of contest be.
tween men Of the same language, the
same lineage, and the same country.