Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-12

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Senator Fowler recently made one @
the ablest If not the ablest speech of tn
Forty First Congress. We publish til
greater portion of it. s.5sa..r
Our civil war has been no exception q
the tendency of vindictive passion +
usurp the province of reason and beneVo
hence. 1t has not only entered the heart
Of the parties, but, by the writhing obi
guilty Of the serpent, crept into the hear
of the Government itself. 1t is to b
hoped that few years reflection and tn
sober thoughtof the people will consign i
to the tomb of effete and forgotten statu
tea. where it must remain as monumen
of the folly and inconsiderate passion tina
produced it. 1t is the most unfortunst,
of sll the children of the rebellion. 1t diC
not flow from the love of humanity, open
ing up new dominions of right, new field
for liberty, new incentives to sympathy
and forgiveness. 1t does not come t
sprinkle Lethean waters over the past
il unveils the Gorgon's head and threat,
ans retribution. 1t did not enter the Con
stitution through the oren way, bu
stealthily, as the wolf enters the fold, sol
as q thief in at q window climbs.
It was after the ocean of war had ceas.
"a to rage that this curse of punishment
was announced: -....
'fSec. 8. No person shaM be Senator
or Representative in Congress. or electol
of President and Vice President, or hold
any Office, civil or military, under the
United States, or under any State, who
having previously taken an oath as q
member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as member of any
State Legislature, or as an executive or
judicial officer of any State, to support
the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurection or re-
bellion against the same, or given aid or
comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may, by q vote of two thirds of
each House, remove such disability"
1t was regarded in the South only as
theexpression of conquest and subjugation
and lasting monument of victory for
one party and defeat of the other. 1t
never met the approval of any respectable
number there, and was by its victims re-
garded as the bitterest draught of the
war. It is the penalty for the past and
the everything hope of an imperishable
and practical mslevolence for the future.
n was punishment next in cruelty to
that of exile, and gendered in heart in
which love of home and country, with
all their delicate and tender associations,
had no abiding place. 1t is a commits
don for torture till the executioner is
satisfied with the humiliating agonies of
kis victim. For the present l will leave
it. and direct my attention to questions
that may enlighten my pathway to its
grave.
CAUSES AND OCCASIONS OF THE REBELLION.
The remote and adequate causes of the
rebellion will be found in the disparity of
climate, soil, and productions of the diff
ferent sections. To these may be added
the presence of an uncongenial and dis
secisble race. The latter incident is but
ths logical result of the preexisting causes,
in presence here depending upon eli
mate partially favorable to the subject
race and the fact that the settlement of
tAe country took place in an age when
somi- barbarous ideas obtained in all the
nations of Europe. These were carried
kere and applied to the conditions that
surrounded the early settlers. The more
northern section of the United States fol-
Iswed the voice of nature, operating there
for the emancipation of labor and the
sole possession of the country. Prejudice
Of race and the desire to dominate over
al the advantages had much &c do with
fhs expulsion of the docile but thrift
laM and irresponsible African from the
Nsrth. -- ---
The broad plains the fertile laGds,
climate warm and enfeebling to the Eu-
the rich and desirable produc-
tons and climate at the same time
congenial TO African labor, always sub
iect to domination and in need of direc
don, attra cted subject labor around the
masters of the country. The presence>of
10 many of the servile race had no small
sfoct upon modifying the institutions and
habits of the ruling class. In the North
tree labor was ouly indirectly under the
influence of capital. In the South labor
Fss the chsttel of the capitalist. The
Aboring race was the property of the
white, and 30 regarded in adjusting the
national Government. The great Access
Iioz of population from Europe served to
GU up the North, which threatened to des-
roy the institutions and property of the
Bsuth. Foreseeing the tendencs and the
menace standing out against the cherished
Institutions of ages, and threatning to
overthrow, sooner or later, the accumula-
lions of many years of energy and indus
~, the Statesmen of the South sought
protection in a seperate government.
FSinly they believed that institutions
ssuld ward off the unseen and ever active
agency of natural causes.
1t was bat one of the many errors re-
sHlting from an over Astounding faith in
he power of legislative enactments to re-
pei or postpone the changes of time. An
ipathy to the authors of the constant ag-
Tessions upon their rights of property,
protected as they believed by solemn con
Ititutional guarantees, greatly increased
he force of these causes. To this was
Idded distrust of the good faith of those
VINO assailed their interests, and a con.
smpt for the spirit of gain which tn
imphed over all other considerations
Imong the champions of free labor. On
he other hand, the habit of domination
pndered the STAKEHOLDER naughty, indie |
,endent, impatient of restraint and con-