Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-26
RADICALS UNFIT TO GOVERN
WISELY.

The extinction of yillenage in the coun-
try from which we derive most that is
valuable in cur frame Of government was
a gradual process. 1t sprung from causes
that asserted insensibly, but constantly,
the force of the laws which controlled
them. IL was perfected, therefore, with
out political perturbation So done, it
was great general good, and worked no
general or individual damage 1t was an
important step, and effected wonderful
and beneficial changes in the condi~
ton Of the people; but being wrought
out by ordinary and natural means, it was
completed before any but the wisest and
most observant were aware, and com>
PEELED the acQuieseence Of all as an ae~
comPlished fact Happy had it been for
this nation, if slavery, with its good and
its evil, could have disappeared in the
same way 1t was otherwise ordained,
however; and the revolutionary ordeal
through which political violence has
forced this nation to pass in the achieve
ment Of this economic change, will form
one Of the most terrible chapters in the
history of the nineteenth century. The
peaceful abolition Of serfdom in Eng
land blended two branches of the Cau-
casian race into one, and contributed
strong element to the foundation of q gov
ernment which has Aourished asnone other
ever did, and promises to be as durable
as it has proven itself to be excellent and
capable of adaptation to the condition
and wants of the people The violent
abolition of,slavery in America was be,
gun in mistaken and meddling spirit,
was pursued for vicious political ends, and
contaminated by a bloody intestine war
10 has oyerthrown the constitution of the
government it has piled mp a gigantic
debt, whose burden, in the best possible |
view, will be felt for generations to come;
it has alienated one portion of the people |
from another and laid across the breadth |
orthe continental smouldering train, which,
from the slightest cause, may kindle the
flames Of another war it has put the /
race for whose interest it was undertaken, !
at the mercy of events which may make
their condition infinitely worse; it has
produced widespread political and social
decentralization. The modicum of possible
good it may have done, is whelmed in a
mass Of actual and palpable evils, affect
ing the whole and all its parts, sections
as we'll as States, States rs well as indi-
yiduals
But it is proftless 10 ruminate on the
past, and that was not the intention OF
these remarks The only useful purpose
in adyerting to these facts, is to warn the
people that it is time to withdraw their
confidence from the authors Of all this
mischief and conceding the humane and
economic propriety Of dispensing with
the system of slavery az it existed in the
Southern States, to admonish them that
the men who did it after the fashion we
have described, are not the fit men to
ralm the passions that they have excited,
and restore to the nation the peace and
they have destroyed The
people may congratulate themselves, too,
.hat the negro has passed out Of politics
De is freed and enfranchised Even those
Who condemned this movement in its
inception, and have not approved the
teps by which it has been done, and who
iaye been the greatest sufferers by this
iolent upheayal, have no intention or
Iesire to reverse it. They have too much
wisdom and conservatism 70 think such
n attempt feasible They would not
ubjeetthe country the throes of another
evolution for all the negroes in Africa or
.ut Of il Those already here have cost
be nation too dearly The Southern
'eeple, however, earnestly purpose to re
Fleve the losses Of every kind to them
elves and to the country, which this ter
lbie experience has inflicted; and 20 re
ard the eolored freedman, panoplied in
all as be Is with his civil and political !
ights, as part Of them II Radical
renzy and yindictiyeness can he re-