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

cies," and " lofty strides and
g contemptuous swells." To Dor
row its own language, " we should
be inexcusable, if we did not for
give the airs it puts on, for the
sense it puts off The Journal
continues:
How did the disunion leaders succeed
in siirring'up and hurrying on The South
ern people TO disunion By what means
did these leaders instigate and fire the
people TO secession? There is but one
answer. By 1ls help Of the abolition scar
upon he social order Of ae South.
The Union cannot deny this, without
at the same time asserting, in the teeth Of
familiar and undisputed history, that the
masses of the Southern poole were trai.
tors from the beginning. The Union, as
a conscientious and intelligent journal,
dares not assert this. As little dares il
deny the former. Ay, We challenge the
Union so much as TO deny explicitly the
proposition it lectures us for affirming
We have shown that at least half Of the
oiium belongs TO the anti-slayery party
or TO a faction of it and that the Union
does not 80 much as attempt TO show the
contrary. We have delied it even TO deny
explicitly tho proposition il assails.
The reader Of our argument and
the logical comments of the Jour
nal, will probably suspect that if
we have been guilty of perpetra-
ting the vulgar and despicable fall
lacy of ignoratio ezenchi" our
critic has perpotrated the no
less vulgar and despicablo
fallacy of PetitiO a'rinclpii.
Indeed the latter is regarded as
far more vulgar and despicable
than the former, inasmuch as ig.
nOratio eLenchi makes an argument
on the wrong proposition, while
petiti0 principij makes no argu-
ment at all. We deny positively
the propositions which the Journal
so magestirially defes us to con.
trovert; that the leaders of the
Southern rebellion instigated the
people to disunion, "by the help
of the abolition war upon the so.
cial order of the South" and that
without this war, the disunion
leaders would have remained pow
erless in their cherished plot of
treason, and secession nerer lOoul6
hare been attempted."
If the Journal had said that a
portion of the Southern people,
and that portion a minority only
had been instigated by the I'M
founded accusations and calumnies
of the rebel leaders against the
Federal Government, we would
mot have dissented. In the words
Of Judge Hours celebrated lettor:
The Southern people, known to be as
generous in their impulses as they are
chivalric, ,0ere not OrouyM into frenzy Of
passion by the intemperatc ioords of few
fanatical abolitionists, for these would if
left TO themselves, have fallen 20 the
ground as pebbles into the sea, and would
have been heard of no more. But it
was the echo of these words, repeated
nth corporations for the uousandth time By
Southern politicians, that produced the ex-
ASPIRATION that has proved so potent a
lever in the hands of the conspirstors.
Perhaps the journal may claim
that this passage, taken from one
Of the most eloquent productions
of the wars literature establishes
its proposition. Not at all. Its
testimony is directly to the contra
ry. Judge Holt atlirms positive
ly that 1t was the thousand epag-
gerdtionS and misrepresentation,
made by the rebel leaders, of the
incorporate words of a few fana-
tics, which exasperated the people.
We must keep in mind that what
ever may be the offence of the an
ti-slavery party, the cause of that
offence was undeniably given by
the Southern conspirators in drag
ging slavery from its original posi-
ton of a domestic institution, and
making it, in the language Judge
HoLT, "almost the entire stock in
trade in Southern politics. In
South Carolina a citizen was not
suffered to become a member OF
the Legislature, unless he owned
ten negroes; a law conceived in the
same spirit, which brought forth
the infamous twenty-negro Elk.
cmption act of the Rebel Congress
relieving the owner of twenty
slaves from military service. The
original prorooation was given by
the Southern rebel leaders, who