Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-08-02
81 YoRK coRREaPoNpENcE.

for during my absence from tins city the
jewellers herein have been par-boiled and
partially baked by the excessively hot wealth
er. The thermometer here, for many con-
secutive days, is said to have ranged from
SO TO l03o Farenheat, in the shade. The
temperature in Nashville, during this peri
cd, was comparatively hyperborean. The
mortality statistics, incidentupon thisdeath-
dealing caloric, have been fearful, the same
having SWOLLEN, in a single week, to the
extent Of nearly five hundred persons. From
all causes the number of deaths in this city
for the week ending Dist inst, were 1862 a
number Unprecedented, save in 1s49, when
epidemic cholera prevailed. Now, where
five hundred people expire in a week from a
torrid temperature alone, just imagine what
must have been the torments of the remain
ing million who went fussing and Tuning
and fretting and frying through this woeful
heated term p Yes think and as you
inhale the more greatful airs and imbibe the
no less refreshing julips of your less preten-
tious metropolis, let thankful emotions swell
you. breast that you were not here to see or
to feel.
1 learn from the Geographic dispatches in
this mornings papers that half dozen
members Of the House Of Representatives Of
your State Legislature have been expelled
from their seats in that body. Upon such
an event as this should suppose they would
be apt to congratulate themselves, fer there
cannot possibly be any honor in association
with body so bankrupt in all the elements
Of true manhood, patriotism and honor as
are the reckless men of your State who now
'play their fantastic trick" as echoes Of the
"bold, bad men" who now Strut their brief
hour upon the stage" at Washington; making
Of free republican government broad bur
lesque, and consolidating their own infamy
by the most shameful assaults upon consti-
tutional liberty and right
These Radical factionists whether in the
State or National Legislatures, will yet learn
at the hands Of an indignant constituency,
that it is unsafe to outrage the principle of
public justice, and to trample upon the
cherished and fundamental privileges of a
people. Party demands, however execra-
bic, may find temporary recognition at the
hands of expediency, but the voice of a
people animated by justice will never cease
its clamors till a righteous arbitrament is
attained. The people themselves have no
interest in wrong doing or misgovernment
while factionists, such as now rule and
curse the nation, scruple not to consolidate
power, to trample upon liberty and law, and
promote sectional and selfish schemes from
the most mercenary and malignant ends.
The action of Congress, admitting the
members from your State to their seats, will
have arrested your attention and claimed
your criticism before thisreaches you. While
this long delayed. act of justice meets the
general approval, it at the same time writes
a heavy sentence Of condemnation against
the fanatical majority who perpetrated this
great wrong. Tennessee was either IN the
Union or ont Of it when Congress convened.
If in the Union, upon what theory Of repre-
sentative government can her exclusion find
justification Ifoa of the Union, why was
she called upon to ratify the constitutional
amendments proposed by a Rump Congress +?
If not member Of the Union she certainly
had no more right to ratify or reject such
enactment than had Mexico or the Fejee Is
lands-and the simple submission of their
high-handed and illegal acts, Is the most
bold and astounding instance of qualification
in the history Of politics. KnaUe or fool
stands out in such bold effectiveness, that we
are startled by its prominence. The whole
theory of the Republican party, from Presi-
dent LINCOLN down, was that the Southern
States were still in the Union; and England,
France and other Governments tacitly ac-
knowledged the status by Withholding their
recognition of the Confederacy for four long
years.
That Tennessee, or any other Southern
State would have placed herself in close
sympathy with the radicalism of the North
by the enactment Of anti-slavery amendments
is unquestionably true-but her acceptance
of these acts could no more have vitalized
and restored her dead sovereignty than their
rejection would have paralyzed or destroyed
il. The Constitution confers no power upon
Congress to organize or construct the inter-
nal machinery Of States-this power abides
with the people. / am apprised that Mr..
LINCOLN assumed that the States owed their
creation to the General Government, prop
osition which the merest tyro in the roliti-
cal history of his country ought to blush to
n. No the people are the source and
fountain power They construct the States,
and the States, through the Federal Consti-
tuition, constitute the Union. The Federal
Government is one of delegated and defined
powers, and no where is Congress invested
with authority to say what specific princi-
pies the State governments shall adopt. II
this were so, our government would not be
what its name implies, and what its trainers
designed to make it, a Federal Government
for the conservation Of the rights of a great
political partnership, but Central DePot-
ISM overriding all rights and embodying
all power.
/ am glad to see that Tennessee is to be
represented in the approaching National
Convention at Philadelphia. This is th'
true policy, if we desire to remove those
asperities and animosities which the puri
tanical fanaticism of New England has done
so much to breed, and which many Of hei
prominent men seem anxious to indurat,
upon the national heart. Though thes'
revolve about the club Of the Universe
where great moral ideas" God save tn
mark J swell the huge hearts Of the vas
masses, and whose sanity pretensions ant
perfection glow with unimPassioned being
nifty and heavenly beauty, and their love O
themselves, and Plymoth Rock, and thei
" man and brother" Sambo, is intensified b.
a passion surprising the love Of woman,
vet they cannot resist the luxury Of hatin
the South with holy fervor, and pourin
out upon its barbarism the vials of thei
concentrated venom.
Now is a good time to begin the inaugu
ration Of a new and better dispensation.