The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-02-03

than Austrian despotism, did not
stamp out the first symptoms of
resistance; if it were not high trea-
son to hinder the circulation Of
of Confederate notes; if the power
of wealthy and almost unani.
mously consolidated slaveholding
minority were broken, a large ma
jority Of the citizens of the South
would to-day be for the Union
The fear of the dungeon, the hal.
ter and the sword have silenced the
voice of Southern loyalty.
We have already said that the
original rebels, and prime movers
of four civil war are the Southern
conspirators, who are endeavoring
to make African slavery the con-
trolling and supreme power of the
nation. But suppose we exam
inc the point which the Journal
asserts as positively as if it were
an axiom whose statement carried
with it its own demonstration that
the auti-slavery spirits as treason
able and culpable as the spirit of
slavery. Let us compare the two
principles. The object of the first
is freedom of the second enslave-
ment The first animates the De-
claration of our eountry's indie
pendence the second that Of the
Southern confederacy. The first
receives an involuntary response
from all hearts unseared by the
exercise or influence of despotism !;
the second is tolerated in those UNI
happy districts only, where avarico
or luxury has corrupted the soul.
The love of freedom is Unborn in
the human heart, as truly as in the
lion of the desert, or the eagles of
the air; but no man ever loved
slavery except the master On the
side of freedom are arrayed the
brightest ornaments of our race,
the Father of our Country, the
founders of the Republic, and all
the great statesmen of the South,
with all the enlightened and phi.
lanthropic spirits of Europe. On
the side of slavery are the detested
and abominated pirates of the AT
rican slave trade. whom the voice
Of mankind has branded as ene-
mics of the human race"-hOStes
hafmani generiS,-and consign-
ed to infamy. On the side
of freedom, are. found progress,
invention, mechanical industry,
enterprise, science, and the arts.
On the side of slavery are stagna-
ton, the degradation of labor, lack
of enterprise, the want of public
improvements, the monopoly of
land, the encouragement of popu-
lar education, and the consolida-
ton of the one great moneyed in
terest. which bids defiance to all
opposition, as it brushes out the
rights and liberties of the people.
Freedom is the greatest temporal
blessing bestowed on man, without
which all other gifts are nothing.
The day." said the Greek poet,
"when man loses his freedom de-
prives him of half his virtue"
1.-The Almighty has no attribute
which can take side with slave
ry, said THOMAS JEFFERsoN.-
Few champions Of slavery go fur
Their than to affirm that it is a ne
ceSSary eV1 /; to be removed, per-
haps, some day or other, but not
non. And still in the face of all
these facts, which no man can
gainsay, we are told that if man
oppose slavery, and discuss it
freely, as Americans are taught to
discuss all other things, and South
ern leaders use his opposition to
slavery, as a means of exasperating
the people into rebellion long
since plotted against the Govern
ment; the opponent of slavery, by
the act of the Southern leaders,
becomes an original traitor, and
incurs the responsibility of the re-
bellion! Such an assertion may
well shock, not only the common
sense, but the noblest sentiments,
and moral sense Of all man