Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-18
TEE VOICE OF TIE rAruERs.

~ ARtCI AAhN NJ NAt&AA abeSA W eAO IVA
lowing prophecy in regard to the agita-
ton, which was then in its incipiency, of
the question of abolition and equality of
races:
The agitation of slavery in the free States
will E - = - - =.
LIST. Destroy all harmony =
I'd. Lead to division
Sd. To poverty;
= 4th. To war
18th. The determination of the black race );
9th. To ultimate military despotism.
DANIEL WEBSTER, though opposing
slavery in its ethical and economical as
poets, set his face sternly against the in~
PRODUCTION of the subject into politics,
predicting that it would delay "a peaceful
solution Of the question, and if persisted
in, would lead to civil schism and all its
attendant and accumulative horrors
JOHN C. CALHoUN in 1886, delivered
these words, which to-day are truthful
statement of the results of this agitation
Inc DEdChS, duQ TIE
that. might unite with them, would
become the principal recipients of the
Federal offices and patronage, and would,
in consequence, be raised above the whites
of the South in the polite al and social scale.
We would, in word, change conditions
with them, degradation greater than has
yet fallen to the lot of free and enlight-
ened people, and one from which We could
not escape should emancipation take place,
(Which itcertainly will ifnot prevented but
by fleeing the homes of our ancestors, and
by abandoning our country to our former
slaves, to become the permanent abode of
disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery and
Wretchedness.
These three mer, eonfessedly the first
statesmen of the era in which they lived
and acted, each after his own mode, but
all, with all their transcendent abilities
and all the earnestness Of their high and
noble natures, stroge to restrain this
agitation and avert its evils. They died
and their counsels were condemned. The
present generation are reaping the fruits
If the American people do not soon ex~
hibit sufficient common sense and virtue
to expel from public station the men who
continue to agitate the negro question,
the worst fears of these sages will be as
perfectly realized in a total overthrow of
the form of government which they
labored to uphold, and under which the
country throve, as have their predictions
to the present time
The question has no longer sectional
aspect The recent elections have so
demonstrated. The Southern people con,
sent to and confirm the negro's freedom.
They agree that he shall live among
them, and enjoy the fruits of his labor,
under the shadow of his own vine and fig
tree. They prefer that he shall be pro-
tected in his civil rights. They tender
him all, and more than all, that any
similar class with a similar history have
ever obtained as result of emancipation
| from servitude. The blame of further
agitation is with the successors of the
same set who originally commenced it
In the name of all that is valuable in
good government, have not the people
suffered enough at the hands of that
faction The voice of the five or six
Northern States that have lately spoken,
gives hope to believe that the white men
Of that section have determined that
this negro business has gone far enough ];
and that they do not intend that its agi-
tation shall be profitable political in~
yestment any longer, 1t is the cant of
the negrOphilist to say that it required
years to foment civil war whose fires
melted the shackles of the slave, and that
they will never cease until he is erected
into the full stature of an American
citizen But let them take heed. 1t is to
be hoped there is sanity and soberness
enough induced by the terrible expes
rience we have already undergone, to
check them, efectualIy and stop the
country this side of another catas-
trophe