Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-06

= M, a'Oitrary and despotic Congress
Q When you come to look at Congress an
= It's acts, these remarks will be unde,
e | stood. UN'i q
q 1 was speaking about vetoing some ,
Their measures. When you look at IN
Declaration of Independence, framed h
: Jefferson, look at the existing colonie
and at the list Of grievances thew snm
med up, they sink into insignificanc
! when compared to the acts of Congress
When they talked about dispensing leg
islatures, removing Governors, etc. th,
flame of liberty burned from one end O
the country to the other until the liber
ties of the country were secured. Now
look at our country. The writ Of habeas
corpus suspended, to establish which
England contended six hundred years
The right of trial by jury denied. and
we see citizen appealing to the highest
Judicial tribunal of the country, the SUI
preme Court, to have it restored and
congress passing law taking the case
out OF court. Gray-headed men, | aps
peal to you and you, young men who
are soon to fill our places and sustain all
these interests, listen, look and ponder
these things. Ina short time you must
take our place and assume charge Of sill
that is here. Hence you see the import
ance of understanding all these things
well. Don't you see governors deposed
and put out Of Office? and by whom? By
some colonel or lieutenant, with epau-
lsttes on his shoulders.
oalJa,,, all ,ko..oo IL T
one here, Of an incident that occurred in
Richmond, the once proud capital of a
State, the mother of States and of states
men-Virginia. A short time since,
some parties were over in Richmond
riding around the city in a carriage.
They came to certain building. "Who
lives there Pr they inquired of the dri-
yer. Unable to tell his name, the driver
replied, 20, it's the man who has charge
of the State !" The Old Dominion's
Governor deposed, a military gentleman
had charge of the State
SYMPATHY FOR THE OPPRESSED.
Why, sirs, q resolution was introduced |
before my time expired, instructing the |
President to transmit it to the Sublime |
Porte, about the quarrels of Crete and
Turkey. | was almost instructs
ed to interpose in favor of the Gre
tans against the Turks, because the
Cretans talked about liberty. But we
must interfere. We are in quest Of the
We want to set our con-
sciences all right as to the disputes be-
tween Christians and Mohammedans
Kossuth came to this country and set it
Ill abIaze with excitement. Poland and
Ireland, God bless Ireland q voice,
Three cheers for the Fenian l' and
hey were giveD; awakened our SYM
iathies. l trust the day will come when
he shall be free; and still more. Here
8 Cuba. While l was President, we
made an effort to get st. Thomas, an ISL
md lying south of Cuba. We believed
f we could get st. Thomas it was equiv {
lent to annexing Cuba; and we believed {
hey ought to be ours, but we wanted to
Jet them in a right way. We found
ebellion there against the government
{ Isabella, the Queen Of Spain, since
opposed, and our sympathies have be-
ONE very strong. We, are exceedingly
nxious to acknowledge the authorities
here, almost ready to declare the rebels
here belligerent power. II
You had great talk, not long since, :
ecause Great Britain, was interfering
A an improper way, but now we are c
lmost ready to acknowledge the rebels '
here as belligerent power. am in
lvor Of annexing Cuba; but in a proper
ray.
But is there no oppression, elsewhere? |
We Seem to have taken our rowing COM
Mission for the oppressed abroad; but
our own people, who speak the same
anguage, read the same Bible, acknoW-
edge the same God, | say, the same
eople are in the dust, with the heel Of
over resting on their necks. There are
welVe- millions Of them; Who? Your
Wn people-bone of your bone. Ex-
eediDgly interested about Cuba; but 1
our own people, with the heel Of power
n their necks, and you say, Mo- You
hall have no representation here.
HE CHARGE OF TRAIToR-HIs RECORD. ,
When / went into office as President
nd thought to administer the govern. I
nent, it is said l deserted my party. s
Where is the man here, who can look
ne in the face and say that ever aban-
Oued friend or deserted principle ?
a voice, Never BY Why, they say, you
vas elected Vice President in 1864
low? BY whom? Was it a Radical
invention? No 1t was q Union con-
entiOn-a constitutional convention, ifa
onyention can be constitutional. But it
vas q Union convention for the purpose s
{ sustaining the constitution. 1t was I
made up of war Democrats, Wings, Re-
,ublicans. That is the convention was I
dominated by. Now examine the plat.
orm Of that convention AMI let them
nut their finger on one principle in that
platform that | have violated. 1t is
,asY to make charges. want my repn |
ltation TO go down in truth. | want the
ecord to be kept in truth. The convenH
ion made the nomination and addressed
ne letter. | want the record right,
md if some Of these gentlemen who
nave been making the wrong impression
will turn to the record, they will see that
accepted, nominated as war Democrat,
md in my letter Of acceptance, | made
IN appeal to my old Democratic friends
% come up and help save the country.
| stand now where | then stood
Where doihey stand, these Simon 'pures!
And these eally, seem to be strange CO.
ucidences. | stand, now, where ! then
stood and l told our friends that the
true and proper place to fight the battle
was in the Union and under the consti-
tuition. | ask, who was the coward
Those who stood firm under the consti
tuition, or those who picked up their hats
and marched out ? After the battle Of
Bull Run was fought, the country was
Five thousand troops could
have marched into Washington and took
l. and to restore confidence to the
country and re-animate it, Mr.. Critten-
den in one House Of Congress and l IN
the other introduced resolution, de-
claring the objects of the war. 1t was
to restore the Union, suppress the rebel
lion, and that then peace should be re-
stored, and that no State had the right to
secede; that the States were not out Of
the Union, and could not get out of the
Union. We prosecuted the war. The
rebellion collapsed, and then what -? Did
not all that portion of our fellOw-citizens
who had been arrayed against us come
up and bow to the power of the govern
ment and express their willingness to re-
new their allegiance Was not this all
they asked They came forward and
submitted, and then what was to be
done d? There had been a feud in the
family. now we wanted peace. 1t was