The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1866-11-24
WINCHESTER, TENN, NOVEMBER o. 1866.

stitutiOn OF Government can last oniV
80 long rs acuuicscncc is less painful
than the consequences OF oulhrcak,-
The anomaly ofOur system. which it
WAS long ago iorcseen must hn cut
away with trb'lntion and blood and
dancer of dissolution. is gone This
alone can heal the wound, buj with Time
mutual interests again will knit the
common bond artificial ligamcnts Will
only irritatc, distort a nj destroy. Now.
my friends, which path offers to com
mon reason and common sens" our
best chance of lasting concord and hap
pincssY Plu'arch. the philosopher and
histo ian, in his life Of Scion, the great
Athcuian Law. givtr, relates that when
the famous Nuacharsis visited Solon he
found lin preparing his code Of laws,
upon Which " he laughed ut him for
trvin% To rest ain the injustice OF the
citizens by written laws, which in all
respects, resemble spider webs, and
would, Ike them, only entanFla and
hold the poor and weak while the rich
aal the powerful easily broke through
them" >olon replied & "Men keep
their agreements whcnit is an advan
tagc to both parties not to break them
and he would 80 frame his laws rs to
make it evident 10 the Athcnians that it
would be more for their interest to OBJ
serve than to tranSgress them
believe that this piece Of homely
wisdom was known and appreciated BY
the irlmcrs Of our Constitution, and
that they prepared that instrument upon
the same sound estimate Cfhuman ma
turc And Our own history proves it
For so long as all parts Of our people
equally felt its blessings we chung close
to the fundamental law; bat when the
Southern slaveholling States began to
think that they saw superior interests
and greater prosperity in separation,
the doctrines OF State sovereignty, Nul-
iiication and secession became com
mon at the South. Gentlemen, let us
never be too sure that the North may
not, if equally tempted, struggle too, at
some future day for release from what
may in time grow to look to her y bur
densome bargain; for once already, II
fame does not lie, something nearly ap-
proachiug at least a discussion Of pos
sbir cventuaiitics which might justify
a Northeastern Confederation took
place at Hartford. And curiOusly
enough, passion and sct.intcrcst have
rendered very popular at the North Ger,
tain doctrines whic! arc thc converse
Of the pet Southern schemes, and
which will one day he looked upon as
constitutiomally as anomalous rs they
we're. 1fthe South believed in State
severe gnty, are we not tending to
State nullity? Yhey could ONLY
recogui1e rights Of the Sta'es--we see
only Their wrDnE and the right ofCon
&rrsa,- lit iiication IS fairly offset by
our doctrines Of right Of Congress to
tax without Representation. and the
doctrine ut Constitutional guarantees il
the counterpart, to secession Tor want
of them AMI as their madness took
WV t''l III VI oar 'bll' t't'f w '''' 49,
MAJ; )nal to the State Government, 81
now orr tcmptstiJn is to invasion by
the National uthor!ty Of The reserved
rights Of the States and the plig'ltrd
cons rCHisc- Of the Constitution. The
day will surely come. lay friends, when
too deapigcl State rights viii he loudly
invoked here in dc,ensc Of thc Consti-
tuyional Compromises We are now 50
nasty TO destroy.
Gcntlcmeu, it seems to me that 4
scrutiny Of the proposed amendment
wiil disclose such tcNlcNcy in it to
nuiify original compromises ofthe Con
stitution as should induce us Of New
England to assulne at least wary
watcn, If not. as think, to unitain Il
hearty opposition to its paeaage. As
have said before, the Union was IN
agreement, concession, compromise
TO effect it at all the varying and Oft
en conflicting interests and prcjudiccs
of people for the North, East, West and
South had to be consulted and recon,
cilcd Full Of the wisdom ofSolon the
trainers oi the Union did not dream
Of founding free government on com
pul'ion, or constitutional guarant e5,
or conditions precedent but they
patiently explored Il way to general
agreement by mutual concession. IN
this spirit they met the grayed!iiclIties
which arose in the convention upon the
question of representation, and from
lhcir wise deliberations resulted the
twin compromise of the Constitution
upon that subject. On the one hand
avoiding the method Of the Coniedera-
ton where each State had an equal vote
and on the other the plan OF represeh
tation by population alone, 1t was
agreed that the States as States should
have equal voices, while at the same
time the population OF States shonid De
represented according t. number.
This was a compromise in favor Of the
smaller States, and to induce them 10
heartily embrace the compact, to make
it, rs Solon said their interest to keep
it. But the Southern States where the
laboring class were slaves and MT to
be counted at all to balance the labor
ers 1.-THE North, required something
to be glautedthcm as II counterpoise To
this terrible inequality, rs they deemed
it. TO satisfy them and to induce them
to bind the bargain, and let me say,
as condition without which no Union
could probably have been effected
more complete than the powerless con
federation, certain of the States were
allowed to count three-ffths OF the
slaves living in them.
This is the second representative
compromise--One TO conclliate the
small States, the other to secure the
slave States. To day Congress asks
you to nulify one Of these compromises