The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-09-11
alashrilIe aluiuu.
GREAT SPEECH
OF
GOVERNOR PIERP0NT,
A Voice rrOmwestern Virginia.

A Voice RrOmW estern Virginia.
You will pardon me il say that after
a careful review of The whole subject.
after consulting the sentiments of the
South, as well as of the North, il is my
deliberate conviction that this is warfare
between the two antagonistic systems of
civilization in this country conflict
| between FREQ and slave labor. This was
really the spirit of the notification Of
1892, and it has been advancing ever
since. The result of my observation has
been that Republican institutions aud
Slavery are utterly Incompatible. Where
Slavery exists the Republican theory be-
comes fallacious. They cannot exist
together. They will not exist together
| Slavery has been in existence ever since
the Government war formed, and the
Slave power has been determined to
overthrow our institutions and adopt
another form of Government more suited
TO its tastes.
| do not advance this as my own
opinion merely, but as the opinion ct the
] principal men of the Southern States
also. Listen to Stephens, Rhett, Keitt,
Garnet Of Kentucky, Hinton of Virginia,
and, indeed, nearly all the leading men
of the slave States, and you have the
same voice in reference to the change of
our form of government. What is this
concurrent deduction? 1t is that Slavery
and free institutions are incompatible.
The fathers declared the same thing, but
believed that Slavery would soon yield
TO the progress of Freedom. Now we
have the bold avowAl, and the bOlder
blow to effect it, that Freedom shall
yield to Slavery. Their fundamental
doctrine is that capital should own the
labor of the country, and that those who
own the capital and labor shall rule the
country, make all the laws, and execute
them
think they are right, and will tell
you why | think they are right They
hold that the masses can never be quail
fed TO participate safely in the sover-
eighty of the country, and viewing it
from their standpoint, and with such
facts as they have before them, they are
right.
You cannot own slaves profitably un-
less you own them in large bodies OF
three or four huRdred--or unless you
drive them yourself when you have but
few. To own large numbers of slaves
you must have large plantations of three
or four thousand acres of land. The
masters and their families live in seclu-
sion, almost exclusively to Themselves,
surrounded by their negroes. lie brings
the school teacher to his own house, and
in this exclusiveness his sons are pre-
pared for college
Those then are the poor white men who
comprise the great majority. They live
in miserable cabins at the cross roads
and scattered over the plantations. They
have made the acquaintance of very few
schoolmasters aud 20 per cent of the
adults cannot read. They look up 10 the
stakeholder almost as submissively as the
slaves themselves. They get all their
political opinions from the masters, aud
no one scarcely ever is found aspiring to
anything higher than to be an overseer
on plantation. They are ever ready TO
do all the dirty work of the nAbobs, aud
run at their bidding, especially to the
polls. The masters despise labor, and so
do the poor whites, and hence this squalid
condition brings upon them the c,ntempt
of the slavee themselves whom they unite
with the masters in calling poor white
trash" The poor whites thus get to des-
plse themselves, and rarely ever hope for
anything better than the poorest fare and
the most miserable existence.
These poor men are commanded by the
Shareholders 10 call any one who differs
with them in political opinions, an "Ab-
olitionist." They become in all things
the mere lick spittles Of the rich
Thus il is that the shareholders, seeing
the condition to which slavery has re-
duced the poor white population, pro-
claim 10 the world that the working
classes are not fiji TO vote and should not
be allowed TO vote. Hence they pro-
nounce against universal suffrage, and
say that Republicanism will answer only
where the population is sparse, but will
not do for refined society. They dare
not tolerate educat for the poor whites,
because they might e;one unmaasg "a
BILE aud be 'ound vodrg AccoF ling T.
their own opinions aud against the de :
polism Of the masters
Such is the kind Of talk they indulge
in about a governing class The few
should rule the many, and popular gov
ernment breeds vulgar people, They
look upon the common people, who iiyt
by their own work, in the North, with
profound contempt, and are disgusted a
the idea OF fighting them on equal terms
saw letter from one of them lately
that fully illustrates this spirit. Tn,
writer says 81 feel when | am fighting
the North as if were fighting -
The reporter did not catch il all, but th,
, chiyAlrous writer ftlt as if he was fight
= ing the very dregs Of creation, and il wal
5 A burning shame 20 stake his valuabl,
lite against such a lOw-lived, vulgar se
of miserable soamps.
That is the way in which they talk 0
; all the people Of the Northern States.
( must tell you how they hope and expeo
+. 20 carry out their designs. They hav,
i their ffiends in tie North, whom they ar
,, drilliny in accordance with their views
and whom they expect will carry on
their wishes. These minions of th
Southern olgarchy said at Washinglor
10 that they would cut you down by calm
this an -" Abolition war" AccOrdingl
b. Beauregard issued his proclamation call
!, ing this an Abolition war;" and ia
n soldiers Abolition soldiers. He also in
{ stfucted their MOI thern allies TO call 20
V ali Abohtionists, because "it would hay