Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-05
Union and American.
OuIUu dIIU AIII6TICdII.
THE MOBILE THEATRE
A Scene Not ON the Bills.
Yankee Doodle Kissed.
Indignation of Army Omcel.s.
The Register and Advertiser
On "the Situation.
THE MOBILE THEATRE
Indignation of Army Omcel.s.

From the Mobile Register aud Adrert,ser
we take the following article giving state
ment of an unfortunate occurrence at the
Mobile Theatre on Wednesday and Thurs
day nights of last week, and the comments
of the editor upon them:
The Mobile Theatre was the scene of a
very unpleasant occurrence on Thursday
eyening-an occurrence which would have
been avoided had there been a proper under
standing of the true relations of position and
feeling between the citizens and the military
Our readers will bear US witness that from
the moment that we resumed the editorial
pen of this paper, after the defeat of the
Southern cause in the field, we have been
the steady and earnest advocate Of submits
sion to the decree of the war, and have held
that both wisdom and duty enjoined re-
newal of allegiance to the Government of
the United States. Having taken the oath
ourselves, we have been faithful to il. We
did not, however, take an oath of allegiance
to any party; especially such party as the
Radical Disunionists, which is now opposing
the noble efforts of the President to restore
tranquility to the country, by re-uniting its
broken fragments under one protecting gov
eminent This party is not less the
enemy of the North than it is Of the
South, for its policy looks to ravish-
ing from the lips of the North the fruits
of that triumph of arms which it paid
for in hecatombs of lives and mountains of
treasure-that fruit was restored and I'M
broken Union. When we attack the policy
and principles of this obnoxious party, let
no Union man, more ardent than thought
full, mistake our zeal against these enemies
of the American people, for vestige or
faint of the old "Rebel leaven 1t is in
this same spirit of an earnest desire to
smooth the way to reunion of a broken
country in heart as well as in political in
terest and fact, that we approach the subject
of the unseemly and unnecessary row that
occurred in the theatre. 1t opens an OPP
portunity to say to the officers of the United
States, and especially. to the younger gentle
men among them, who are more likely to be
carried away from sound judgment by the
ardor of their feelings, some things that have
been on our mind, and which, perhaps, they
have not thought of With few and rare ex-
ceptions, the hospitabie doors of Southern
houses have not been opened to these Off
GERS. With ample leisure on their hands,
which young men love TO devote to society
feelingthat, as gentlemen residing in Southern
communities, belonging to an honorable pro-
fession and the soldiers of a powerful
Government, they are entitled to the hospi-
table civilities of the citizens, they are natu-
rally not pleased at an exclusion, which they
incorrectly attribute to rebellious insincer-
ity in Southern professions of allegiance to
the Government. Now, gentlemen officers
we address ourselves only to the gentlemen
among them, for we have long since found
that reason is thrown away upon all who are
smitten with the Radical mania-rehect
little, You hold that, if our people keep
aloof from YOU socially, or show some signs
of restivene$ when yankee Doodle is
played for their entertainment at the theatre,
they give tokens of disloyalty to the Govern
ment, and, in your opinion, their rebellious
spirit is not quenched, and requires little
more chastisement and bayones argument.
Now, as to the first, do you remember that
there Is scarcely domestic circle In this
land, In which your presence would not pull
safe a painful reminder on bruised hearts
not yet sered by the healing hand of time,
that the place of loved son, brother, hus-
band, or lover, or reyered father, the stay
of that household, was made vacant by the
power of your arms? Do you suppose
because this people is conquered, and
has shown every manifestation OF
sincere and earnest purpose to re-
turn to ard be faithful to the renewed ale
glance to which il has sworn, that therefore,
the natural feelings of the human heart
have been eradicated? Though beaten in
the great political conflict of thirty years
brewing, and at last submitted to the arbi-
trament of the sword, do you forget that we
are vet men and women? We should be
angels to feel otherwise. But if it we're only
the remembrance of kindred bloodshed, the
difficulty we mention would not be insur-
mountable. There are others, weightier
still. Let us ask any candid officer of the
United States army, in what capacity are
YOU here? Is it in that of soldier Of the
United States, on United States soil, as you
would be in New York or Philadelphia p
Were it so, the doors of Southern hospitality
would fy open to you. But are you no.
here to keep "watoh and ware" over a
| conquered people? Are you not in some
sense, our jailors, jealousy watching our
words and actions, ard keenly expectant Of
and ready to punish every symptom of a
rebellious feeling which has no existence ?
| If drunken fellow, with his brain not his
own, cries "hurrah for jeff Davisl" do
YOU not make a great "ta do about
it, and clap him In a military prison
Do You not con6scate and fine for arms
found on ,rhite citizen? Do you not
scrutinize and interfere with our laws, and
watch the proceedings of our courts with
nervous sensibility, lest we should act like
brutes to the poor and ever-tobe-pitied freed
men? If you say "yea," then, 10 what
sense are we your fellow citizens? You or
der ssYankee Doodle" to be played as a 'Na-
tional air" (which it is not and then are
indignant because we do not applaud. Where
is the nationality that you require US ia
stand by, and love and adore? Welfare none
Having done all we could to secure Ii, shaped
our laws according TO your wishes, and con-
trary to our own judgment and principles,
to please YOU'RE hare no nationality. W.
are without a country. We cannot thrill
under the tones and the inspiring poetry Of
the Star Spangled Banner" because you
Congress has Just decided, by ignominiously
excluding our representatives that that ban
ner is not for us, except to pin us down will
its bayonets. and make slaves of US undo
its folds, consecrated by our common ances
tors to liberty. That Congress has decides
that we are not States, nor citizens of tn
United States, but rebels and territorial sub
iects. Shall we then rejoice for what we d
not possess Shall we cry Hallelujah, whel
our humbled circumstances force lamen
tations from our lips? Give us the RICH
to rejoice in our freedom; to thrill wher
the national airs of our country vibrate Il
our souls; to feel that we live under gov
eminent that is just to our rights and re-
poets our manhood, and you win find the oil
time returned, when the South was Away
foremost in the field at the country's call, a
Washington and his Virginians we're on u
heights Of Boston. This Is the way to en-
courage and TO assure loyalty that is burs
ing for development in the Southern hear
and is ever repressed by acts that remind U
of our condition. people without cour
try. And now, having triumphed over u
isit honorable in brave men, especially
those who wear the uniform Of the profe
sion Of honor, to add to the humiliation OF
, people who at least are Americans of yol
blood? Is this the way TO sustain the POI
CIV, the grand policy Of restored fraserni
and political reconstruction so wisely shap,
by the President Of the United States and I