The mountain Democrat., 1865-10-07

zeu. Wny. tnen, ask, are we threatened
with deSrotism as inexcusable as rebel
lionH Why are free elections denied t,
the Union men and qualified voters of tht
State? Why have non.residents, anC
loungers around Federal camps, withou
your knowledge or consent, and in def
ance oi yOur protests and appeals, beer
permitted to S0Dyp the high and responsi
BILE places of power, and to declare them
, selves your oppressors and masters-anC
this, too, in contempt of that Declaration
of Rights, whose sacred principles are in
violable, and by your Constitution, 'ex
cepted out of the general powers of Gov
ernment?' Why are offensive rulers be.
ing set over the loyal people Of the State
by those who are jointly responsible fol
the WARP Why are bands Of armed ne
groes permitted to roam over the country
plundering and insulting the timid and
defenceless? And more than these, why
are you and ], whose souls are unstained
by treason, compelled to drain this cup oi
shame at the hands of those who were
the original instigators Of the rebellion p
i beg leave to assure your Excellency
that, in using the words, original instiga.
tors Of the rebellion alluded to you
further, that l spoke in no Pickwickian
sense. And now that l may invoke your
clemency, not for myself, but for those
who listened to my remarks, frankly
confess that submitted certain proofs Of
the truth of my charges. told the peo.
pie that the first time ever saw you, you
were haranguing the multitude to prove
me an Aboltionist; that it was a some-
what raw and gusty day, and that your
vehemence in the open air caused you to
contract throat disease, from which un-
fortunately for the country, you profess
not to have recovered. Ialluded to your
early speeches in Congress, in which you
resorted to the bittereSt personal abuse of
John Quincy Adams, because of his reli-
gious, anti-slavery opinions; to your rev.
erentiai confession that God had killed of
General Harrison because be was an Abo-
litioniSt. also told the people that you
had, in 1856, in the State Of Tennessee,
proposed that every Southern man should
Join in one fraternal hug and plunge
into rebellion if Fremont and Dayton
were elected. In addition to this, | in
formed the audience that heard you, in
the Senate, in December, 1859, denounce
Mr.. Seward and the Republican party as
wholly responsible for the murderous raid
Of this old man Brown whom you then
stigmatized as nothing more than a mur-
derer, a robber, thief and traitor
said, also, that you not only supported
Breckenridge, the candidate of the avowed
disunionists, but that after the election oi
Lincoln. after the meeting Of Congress in
December, 1860, and only one day before
the assembling Of the Convention which
declared South Carolina out of the Union
YOU had, in the Senate of the United
States, made labored speech, embracing
part of two days, in which you positive.
! ly pledged yourself in . contingency that
has long since happened, to join these
same rebels, to perish in the last breach,
to burn every blade of grass and to
make your grave in the last intrench-
ments OF rebel freedom. told the peo,
pie that heard this speech, during the
delivery Of which Jefferson Davis offered
you a most unprovoked. insult, the effect
of which will not now attempt to state),
and that every word was designed to con-
vince the people of Tennessee that they
were an oppressed people. and you their
champion; that their constitutional rights
were IN imminent danger, and that they
ought to demand additional securities ;
that you then and there submitted the
following written basis, upon which you
declared an unaltcrabIe purpose to fight
the great battle Of our rights
Resolved, That we deeply sympathize
with our sister Southern States, and freely
admit that there is good cause for dissat
sfaction and complaint on their part on
account of the recent election of sectional
candidates to the Presidency and Vice
Presidency of the United States; yet we,
as portion of a people of slaveholding
community, are not fer seeding or break
ing up the Union of these States, until
every fair and honorable means has been
exhausted in trying to obtain, 'on the
part Of the non. n.slaveholding States,' COM
pliance with the spirit and letter of the
Constitution and all its guarantees and
when this shall have been done, and the
States now lin open rebellion against the
laws of the United. States, in refusing to
execute the Fugitive Slave Law, shall
persist in their present unconstitutional
course, and the Federal Government shall
fail to execute the laws in good faith, it
the Government will not have accom-.
plished the great design Of its creation,
and will. therefore, in fact, be practical
dissolution, and all the States, as parties,
be released from the compact which form
ed the Union.
In commenting on the foregoing basis,
| said that it proved that you did then
deeply sympathize with our sister South
ern States, that you particularly alluded
to South Carolina, whose reasonable rep.
resentatives were then assembled, and
who, one day after, inaugurated the re-
beliion that you did then and there free
" admit = good cause for dissatis.
faction and complaint because of the
election of your illustrious predecessor
and the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, whom
the Rev. Mr.. Brownlow represented as a
free negro. | said, also, that you were
then only conditional Unionst; that
you declared yourself, not for seeding or
breaking up the Union of these States
until every fair and honorable means had
been exhausted in trying to obtain on the
part of the non slaveholdiDg States com.
pliance with the spirit and letter of the
Constitution and all its guarantees, and
further stated that you, at the same
time, had assured your rebel friends with
whom You so deeply sympathize,' that
when this shall have been done, and the
States now in open rebellion (meaning
Vermont and MassAchusetts,) against
the laws Of the United States
shall persist in their unconstitutional
course, it = Ohe Government) will
not have accomplished the one great de-
c;0o of ito creation and will. therefore