The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-06-12
southern Rights.


scientific investigation thst the salt
deposit at New Iberia, Louisiana, is Of
the most extensive and wonderful de-
scription For vastness and purity Il is
unequaled on the globe. One account
says: Imagine, If you can, the granite
quarry Of Massachusetts,, or the marble
quarry of Verm11t, TO be solid depoeits
Of pure rock salt clean and transparent
as 30 much clear white ice, in one solid
inexhaustible mass. underlying theearth,
and you then acquire an imperfect idea
Of Che vastness OF this salt f1rmatiOn.--
Washington, Chroiole
If the above statement be correct, and
we suppose it is, it suggests a powerful
argument against the system Of slavery,
and striking illustration Of the lack of
thrift and enterprise, where that per-
nicious institution spreads its lethargic
influence. Probably not one Southernor
in thousand ever heard Of the New
Iberia Salt Mine. II is vast mass Of
raw material, lying idle and useless for
the want Of enterprise and industry to
bring il out the bowels of the earth
Now, let free labor obtain possession
of it, and thousands Of families will
soon begin TO make an honest and COM
Portable living by working il for the
benefit of the country, and the Salt
Mines Of New iberia will speedily rival
those Of Poland.
And here let US declare that we are
Enthusiastically in favor of Southern
Rights. The phrase is an excellent one,
although misused most wretchedly. We
long, and pray, and labor, and hope, for
the prosperity and happiness Of the rich
and beautiful South, and we sincerely
desire the welfare of sll her interests
and institutions-except the peculiar
institution" whose popularity consists
in the fact that it has blighted all our
other institutions and got US into fearful
trouble and calamity. We want the
South TO enjoy her rights, except the
right of robbing and tyrannizing over
others, which is really no right We
want to see her magnificent natural
wealth, hitherto almost untouched, fully
developed by the influx of an intelligent
industrious white population. We are no
"negro- worshippers," as the pro-slavery
men are, and would not exchange
one moral, industrious, intelligent
white family, for half dozen black
ones. We feel indignant and humiliated
to think that we have hitherto pursued a
policy which has fenced out by Chi
nese wall, as it were, the best white
people on the globe. Now, one Of the
cardinal rights of a country, is to get the
best class of citizens she can; for a
country without citizens is nothing Par
adise, itself, unpeor led is desert its
golden fruits grow, and its bright plum
aged birds sing, for nothing, while its
fragrant flowers
Waste their sweetness on the desert air"
| A State divided into few overgrown
plantations, cultivated by slaves, may
be vast sugar, or cotton, or rice farm
but It is not State it is men who con-
stitute a State, and the first light of the
South is to have free white population,
who can use their tongues and pens in dis /.
cussing all the interests Of the State
without fear of being lynched by Vigil
lance Committee. There are many other
precious "rights" which we sorely need,
Free schools in every precinct and dis
trict; Churches, Academies and Lyce-
ums; mills, factories and workshops;
diversity of labor; newspapers and rail-
roads, and healthy public sentiment,
which will make it disgraceful for man
of sound mind and sound body to live
without work, and be loafer and spon-
ger on the community. Henry A. Wise,
Of Virginia, in a speech, once thanked
God that there was not a free school or
a newspaper in Virginia. If we live to
see the South get her true rights" we
will thank God that these and other
"rights," now unknown to the great ma
jority Of the people Of the South, are
accessible to thy humblest and poorest
children of the State. Yes, we want the
South to have her rights" God knows
that she needs them sorely. Dema.
gogues Of the slavery school have
tyrannized over her for many years, and
robbed her of nearly all that ennobles,
strengthens and adOrns a people. Now
is an suspicious hour, The minds of
our people are at last aroused; they are
investigating freely and courageously,
and we hope not without reason for IA
vorable result
The New York Herald, some weeks ago,