The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-03-17
Governor Bramlette and the Negro
Kraft


Our dispatches this morning give us
the substance Of letter from Governor
Bramlette of kentucky 10 the President,
demonstrating against the enforcement
OF the Conscription Act in that State so
far as slaves are concerned. He says
Kentucky has done her duty to the
Government, and win do it, but she
won't stand it to have her slaves con-
scripted. Hedon't threaten rebellion if
il is attempted, but he leaves fright
ful inference behind his threat, for it is
a threat rs he uses. il, to enforce the
laws of kentucky at all hazards We
should like very much to know, if the
Governor has cooled down enough to
answer q reasonable question, lst, Why
Kentuckian would rather be con-
scripted himself than have his slave
conscripted? Is a slave so much better
than a white man that he must be ex-
empt from the duties OF white men, or
IS he so much worse that it would dis
grace a white man to have bullet in
tended for his head stopped by negro
body7 ID, If slave is property under
the Constitution, why can he not be as
properly impressed into the Govern
ment service as a horse or q haystack?
Other property has been taken in Ken
lucky freely What particular quality in
a slave elevates him above the liabilities
of other property? Sd. If Kentucky
is so very sensitive about the rights of
her citizens, would it not be rather be-
coming than not for her to show a little
sensitiveness to the rights Of the citizens
of Indiana Free negroes, who have
resided for years in this State, while on
their way to the army, have been ar
rested, lodged in JAIL and sold in Ken
lucky We know of more than one
case of this kind, and we insist that if
Kentucky wants to keep her slaves so
badly she had better let those who are
not her slaves alone. There must be
some mutuality of rights in the treat
ment of negroes. Nothing more shame
full has ever occurred in the history,
even of South Carolina, than the sale
of free negroes into slavery under Ken
lucky laws, and it would not be bad
idea for the President to suggest to Gov.
Bramlette that State which pays so
little regard to the rights of others had
better not be too obstreperous in assert
ing its own Kentucky has done molly
in the war; but she has paid herself by
persistent and petulant dictation to
the Government which no other State,
slave or free, has dreamed of using
The CONSUMPTION of slaves is right
Kentucky votes with them, why should
she not fight with them? They are a
part of her population, what forbids
their being treated as such? The mas
ter loses his slave, true, but if the slave
don't go the master or his son must,
and why should a just law impose more
upon one than another? No other slave
State has said a word against the con-
scription Delaware, with Copperhead
legislature, has said nothing. Missouri
has said nothing Neither has Mary
land. Is Kentucky the only slave State
that has right to speak, or the only
one with sense enough to understand
her own rights ? Or does Kentucky
mean to breast alone the tide of events
that is sweeping slavery off the CONT
nent? Does she think she can stay
the laws of nature, or shelter from their
search the victim demanded by theirvi-
olation? Slavery is to die, and Ken
lucky is as powerless to hinder it as TO
breathe back life into the ,corpses of
her sons. There is something at once
ludicrous and pitiable in the spectacle
of one State alone scOlding and scuffling
with fate to protect an institution that
disgraces and impoyerishes her, after
its own crime has provoked its doom
Mrs. Darlington swabbing the Atlantic
ocean out Of her house to save the rats
that cat up her victuals and gnawed
her furniture, would be a less ludicrous
spectacle, for her action, if folly, would
not be inhumanity too. kentucky
alone stands in the way Of the events
and causes that are moving to the de
struction of slavery, with the ineyita-
BILE march of "the stars in their courses,
and rails and protests like nothing in
the world so much as n little dog bark
ing and swapping in the way of an army
of buffaloes. She may be able to keep
her slavery, but every hour will make
it ut once more costly and more
worthless. The sooner she recognizes
that God is against it, and directing the
agencies of the war and the feelings of
the world to destroy it the better for
her. she cannot save it, but she may
lose herself in trying. If she resists
the Government her institution is dead
from the hour the first blow was struck
Obedience may save it till the progress
of internal causes kills it, but resistance
kills it on the spot Governor Bram-
lette cannot be so short-sighted as not
to see this, and seeing he has certainly
taken a strange course for a man who
wants TO save slavery. = Indianapolis
Journal