Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-10-12
REOonD OF A REREL.RADpCAL,

suffrage. We now propose to give his
Rebel record. He first made his appear
ance in the House OF Representatives of
the Tennessee Legislature. During that
session action was taken by the Legisla-
ture on the then recent announcement OF an
''irrepressible conflict" by Mr.. Seward,
| and on the Harper's Ferry Instruction
by John Brown. The excitement in the
South was then rapidly intensifying, ana
Butler, willie processing to be for the
Union, and opposed to the doctrine of
| secession, on most important questions
deserted the party with which he pro-
fessed to act, and voted with what he now
terms Secession Democracy He
served out the session of $4,000; attended
the called session of January, 1861, and
returned at the April call, which resulted
in Che passage of the "Ordinanceof Sep
aration." He appeared at the adjourned
session in June of the game year, after
the Ordinance of Separation had been
ratified by the popular vote by an oyer-
whelming majority. He went home and
was re elected in August, 1861; came to
the '9Rebel Legislature" and participated
actively in the proceedings, until it was
precipitately removed to Memphis, by rea-
son of the fall of Fort Donelson, when he
was found "right side up, with care, /"
at Memphis, and stuck 10 the Legislature
there until "the last day in the morn
ing when he received his pay and free
| ticket, and retired TO "the mountains of
Garter and johnson" to raise regiment
for the Confederate serVicei
We propose this morning, to make a
few extracts from the written record of
this man, in order to let the people of his
district know what he was doing while he
was away from them. The record runs
thus:
BUTLER ON sEwARD's "IRREPREssIBLE
CONFLICT AND JOHN BROWNS HAIR
PKR's FERRY RESURRECTION.
On the 25th of October, 1859, tue fol-
lowing resolutions, for which Mr.. Butler
afterwards voted seriatim, were Offered in
the House of Representatives:
Whereas, a most dangerous epoch has
arisen in the history of the country,
based upon the 5anatical aggressiOns of
Northern Black Republicans, on the re-
served rights of the States and the insti-
tutions of the South, seeking to abolish
slavery by preventing the extension into
common territory, and rendering it inse
cure and hazardous in eur midst; and,
whereas, in the recent insurrectiOn at
HaTper's Ferry, as well as in The revolu-
tiOnary scenes in Kansas, we recognize
the legitimate fruits of that reasonable
policy avOwed by the acknowledged head
of the Black Republican party, VIM. H.
Seward, in his famous Rochester speech,
in which he said:
''These an,agonistic systems Cree and
slave labOD are continually coming into
ClUs.T contact, and collision results.
Shall tell you what the collision means
They who think that it is accidental, I'M
necessary, the work of interested or
fanatical agitators, and therefore ephe-
neral, mistake the case altogether. 1t is
an nrepressible conflict between opposing
and enduring forces, and it means that
the United States must, and will, sooner
or later, become either entirely slave
holding nation, or entirely a free labor
nation. Either the cotton and rice fields
of South Carolina and sugar plantations
of Louisiana will ultimately be TILED by
free labor, and Charleston and New Or
leans become marts for legitimate mer-
chandise alone, or else the rye fields and
wheat fields of Massachusetts and New
York must again be surrendered by their
farmers TO slave culture, and TO the pro
duc,iol of slaves; and Boston and New
York become once more markets for
trade IN the bodies and souls of men. 1t
is the failure 10 apprehend this great
Truth that induces so many unsuccessful
attempts at final compromise between the
slave and free States, and it is the exist
ence Of this great fact that renders all
such pretended compr 3mises when made,
vain and cphcmeral.
And, whereas, Henry Wilson, another
Black Republican Senator, from Massa-
chUsctls has declared:
fLci MS remember that more than three
millions of bOndsmen, grooming under
namclcss woes, demand that We shall re-
prove each other, and that we labor for
their dcliycIancc 81 tell you here to-
night, that the agitation Of this question
of human slavery viii continue while the
foot of a slave presses the soil Of the
American Republic"
And Mr.. Wade, another Black Repub-
lican Senator, from Ohio, has said:
"TheTe is really no union now between
the North and South, and he believed no
two nations upon the earth entertained |
feelings Of more bitter Iancour towards |
each other than these two nations Of the |
Republic. The only salvation of the
Union, therefore, was TO be found in di |
vesting it entirely from all faint Of
slavery"
And, whereas, Senator Seward, adj |
dressing Southern Senators from his
place in that body, proclaimed to the
world that:
'At last a new voice issues from your
own region, from the South, from the
slave States, and protests against your
further persistence in this mad enterprise
(of extending slavery, and admonishes
you that it must and will fail. The CO.
horts arc gathering from the South; the
men Of moderation and conservatism,
who as they have heretofore moderated
in favor Of slavery and against freedom,
will now be obliged, in consistency with
their Just and well established character
and their habitual patriotism, to moderate
against you in favor or freedom, and rise
up unanimously against slavery"
And again, at Rome, in New York:
'It will be the show Of the next two
years to witness the organization of this
same Republican party within slave States,
mdcr the lead of brave and true men.
such as Frank p. Blair, of Missouri, and
Jassjus NJ. Clay, of Kentucky. What
remains of organization as a national
party to be effected is as sure and Ger
ain as what has already occurred and is
now 50 distinctly seen.
Therefore,
Resolved by the General Assembly Of |
he State of Tennessee, That we recog-
lize in the recent outbreak at Harpcr's