The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1864-01-28
Errom the MemphI, puu.iln. jan. lslh.

l. Slavery, as "an institution, exists
legally in Tennessee, but practically Il
rs dead. The Presidents proclaim alton
did not apply to our State, and SO far
as that is concerned, the status Of 9Th,
instilution" is not effected. But 9th
or causes, not less potent, have beo..
in operation. The utter absence 9
oil civil courts, by which the rights u
the master could be enforced, and the
arming of the negro, have been the eff
cient means by which the Constitution"
has been brought to its death in Ten
nessee. II is Just as dead IN Tennessee
as Vthe rebels had voluntarily yemanci-
pdted erery negrOe before leaving their
homes. Slavery is creature of local
law, and once tho protection, aid and
assistance which from tho nature ofthe
institution" is necessary for its
existence is withdrawn, it is i'm.
possible for him to maintain IL.
1t was necessary that the Gin
siitutiOn" should be recognized in
the Constitution in several places-it
was necessary that Congress should pass
fugitive-slave law--it was necessary
that every Southern State should in.
graft the "institution" into their esn.
stitutions, and it was necessary that
every city and county should mako DO.
lice or municipal regulations for the
protection and enforcemnnt Of tho mas
tsr's right Of property in man before
the institution" could have q legal and
practical existence in the Southern
States. When JEFF. Davis and the
leaders Of the rebellion threw off tho
protection which the Federal Consti.
tuition and laws afforded, and in order
to put the institution" on q moro per-
manent footing appealed to the sword,
he and they struck the shackles of Of
every slave which should bo found in
the territory conquered by the Nation
al arms. They woro warned of the folly
of their course at the time,
In the old Bulletin the writer Of This
article devoted considerable time to
show that the Federal Constitution was
the only national law or com pact known
to civilization, which recognized prop
erty in man; and that Southern men,
in attempting to throw that instrument
aside, by an appeal to the sword, would
lose the very object, the possession Of
which they professed most of all to de-
sire. But fanaticism ruled the hour;
the appeal was dOfantly made to force,
and the result has been the death OF
the substitution" in Tennessee.
2. Wo are not prepared to say that
Tennessee can mover get back into the
Union as a slave State. We live ia
fast age-in an age when the Almighty
Ruler of Nations is making His pow
er and His providence felt in a p0oulilI
and most significant manner. This i
nowhere more strikingly exhibited
than in the "iustitution" of slavery it-
self. Its friends went to war againN
the freest Government in tho world
against Government in which th,
people themselves are the sovsreignI--
for the purpose of sustaining and poH
petuating the "institution,'' and sftss
two years Of toll and struggle, bshola
the RESULT Hundreds Of thousands are
already free, by the conquest Of the
territory in which the Constitution" ex.
listed; and the longer the struggle is
protracted, the more certain is the dis
truotion of the "institution" acsom-
plished. Ifthe Federal arms had been
succsssfulat Bull Ruu--if Johnston and
Beauregard had been defeated at that
early period of the war, the Union
might have been restored aud tbs Gin
stitutiOn" partially, if not entirely say.
ed. But new lights have burst upsA
the mind Of the nation since, and it is
aow apparent to the most casual ebSsr-
YER, that the more protraeted tho StERg.
gle for the Constitution" the more ssr-
tain the destruction. Whether the
Federal Congress would permit Tennes.
ssee to come back iRtO tho Union as a
slave State, "Wben the war is ovs.,"
we cannot pretend to say, but all the
signs of tho times 60 TO confirm tho
bslieR that it would not, Bnt as loyal
citizens Of Tennessee, We do not pro-
pose to wait till the war is over, before
the application for rsadmissiOn is made.
Il shOEld BE- psdds at once. We intend
to use whatever influence We can com-
mand to have the issue made with tho
least possible delay; and, desiring sue
cess in the application, above all things
We are equally determined 70 make
in such manner only as wO belisvsw
insure success. We arc decidedly of