The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-12-10

NlDlZltlDn Oh lIt DGtbC uc a LACiAibN VI viz CAAOH'
i State Convention, in which between 40 and so
counties were represented (about half of the
State) by about 200 members, met at Nashville
on the 1st of July last, and continued IN session
till the eth. The Convention recommended the
election of a Legislature in August, 10 form a
civil government, re-establish courts and laws,
and restore the State TO the allegiance which IN
the hour of madness it had thrown off. This
programme will be carried out IN Tennessee and
probably by next spring the State will occupy
the same position in the Union now held by Mis-
souri,. In one sense, or SO far as political priyi-
leges and franchises are concerned, 1T will resume
the status gu0 ante ~beLum-though not in the
sense in which | formerly denied that this or any
other rebel State would ever resume the status
Quo, and | deny it still. As regards the domestic
and political! Institution of slavery, too, Tennes-
see will undoubtedly follow voluntarily in the
footsteps of Missouri.
Thus in one. or in more than one, lately rebel
State. we see the pr,cess of Reconstruction and
Reunion already completed and In another. or
in others. we see IL well advanced, or entering
upon its initial stages. Those who are So busy
with their fantastical. divergent and contradicto-
nv theories and speculations as to how the Union
is To be, or may be rebuilt, seem entirely to over
look these great practical processes and facts
which exist and are going on before their eyes
Even when they are wrangllng and quarrelInS
about plans, the work is progressing upon a plan
of its own. The general impression seems TO be
that, somehow or other, the Southern Confed-
eracy is going TO come back to the Union IN
mass-that there is going 10 be some sort OF a
grand surrender on the part OF Jen DAVIS ana tue
rebel army, or else that the existing State au-
thorities-the authorities of Virginia, the Caro-
linas, Georgia, Alabama, and the other Southern
States--are going to make formal APPLICATION to
Congress for their reinstatement IN the Union.
But neither the one nor the other OF these things
is at all likely to take place, though it is quite
probable that there are one or two Southern
States that will not 90 through the revolutionary
circle described by the two States upon which
have descanted. Secession was accomplished State
by State, and the movement eXtendedOver many
months. Reconstruction, likewise, will be ac-
complished State by State, after the fashion of
Missouri, West Virginia and Tennessee, though
it may require years for its completion.
As the State of Tennessee is, %militmily speak
ing, ut our feet, SO also are the States OF Mlssls-
sippi and Louisiana. In both OF these States the
new political movement is much behind the point
il has reached in Tennessee-as Is natural, since
it is but lately that they have come completely I'M
der our arms. In Louisiana, there have been for
some time two contendingf factions OF UnlOnlsts-
the radical faction, which demands reconstruct
ton only on the basis of abolition, and the
plantinq faction, which has held one or two i'm
portanU meetings, and has sent on a delegation to
Washington to represent It's interests ana desires.
During the coming winter, the movement, as Il
whole, will doubtless acquire more consistency
and a more Ineligible shape. Even IN the State
of Mississippi, which, in ultra pro slaveryism and
ultra Seccssionism, has been the twin sister OF
South Carolina, there has appeared, since the ialI
of Vicksburg and jackson, Il nucleus Of Unlonlsm.
While Gen. Sherman with his army was ut the
State capital, prominent planters and politicians,
spoke freely to him upon the subject, and ex-
pressed the most anxious desire for Il return to the
old Union. When the whole population OF the
State see the rebel army beyond the. Tombigbee
and the COniederacy shattered and IN ruins, they
will hasten t. rebuild tEeir houses upon new and
anIuripu fnunlDfipnS- even the foundations OF the
Union.
Nor will the movement stop here. The frosts
of the coming winter will not, | believe, have
passed away before it will have extended into
Alabama, where loyalty has Il root deep in tho
soil and firm in the hearts OF many OF the people.
Even as i write, our army in Eastern Arkansas,
under Gems. Steele and Prentiss, is farming its
face and its footsteps towards the capital OF that
State, and its march thitherward will certainly be
Il triumphal one. Gen. Banks, too, will not let
the year pass away without planting his banners
west of the 81 bine river, on the soil OF Texas.
And who can doubt that when the represslve
armies of the rebels are driven from the three
States last mentioned, we shall witness the shoot
ing forth of the same glorious fruit which we
have already seen reach ripeness IN one rebel
State, attain the bud in Il second, and show the
young leaves in IL third.
This, as the signs indicate, will be the mode of
growth and the manner of reunion everywhere
in Virginia and North Carolina, as we'll rs in
the States of the Southwest. Long was the work
of PREPARATION for the rebellion long did the
conspirators labor to deceive the minds, to lncite
the prejudices, to fire the passions, to bend the
will, to thwart the loves of the Southern people,
to induce them to turn the sword upon the bosom
in which they had been nurtured. And not In 4
single day can the hot passions be cooled down
not but by knowledge and experience can the
preiudices of years be cradicated.
But what about the LIST of January PrOclama-
ton. and its application =? We shall see. Time
will tell. At ALI events, it will not operate to
prevent Tennessee organizing Il State Government,
ADOPTING such ordinances upon slavery rs her
situation may demand, or rs those of which Mis-
souri, has furnished an example, and calling upon
Congress to open for her the doors of the Union.
1t will not prevent any Southern State from
following her example, while Congress, Of course,
may pass upon their action. Concerning the
Emancipation Proclamation of the President, and
the ConfiScation Act of Congress, the New York
Times has recently put it that the Executive or
Congress need neither revoke, suspend nor repeal
them. mot at all. They are to abide the
Judgment of the Supreme Court of the United
States. If they are adjudged constitutional by
that tribunal, they are to be obeyed, Ike all other
laws, by all citizens in all sections of our COM
mon country. If they shall be pronounced I'M
constitutional, or if, having been enacted as war
measures, their effective validity ceases when the
war ends. then they disappear from the statute
book, and all citizens everywhere must acqulesce.
They stand upon precisely the same footing as
any other laws-must abide the same tests and
submit to the same fate, and the people of the
rebel States, when they renew their cath oil allie
glance TO the Federal Constitution, must acquiesce
in this necessity"
At all events, and in any event., there Is no
danger of slavery ever being rehabilita,ed through
out the land in its old barbaric character, or Of
slavery or shareholders ever again attaining to