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

suits which they could not, IT they haC
wished, have controlled.
do not intend to deny responsibility
and crime on the rart of many of Thu
agents who brought about the occasion:
which inaugurated the rebellion. In the
South they were the guilty ones who
seized upon the social and political condi
/ tons as stepping stones to position. They
endeavored tostrenghen the southern mind
in its convictions of the righteousness of
the institution of slavery, and to infame
| its resentment toward the North. In the
North the men who aroused the spirit OF
aggression and revolution of their section
against the South, and thus sought power
at the expense of the public peace, are
| Justly responsible for their full share in
| the fatal consequences of the war. The
| guilty men are not the ones who come I'M
der the ban of exclusion from office.
Many of them are those who now howl
most loudly on the track, of persecution
and malevolence. 1t is not of these that
/ am soaking. 1 refer to the great mass
of the people, who sought NO personal ad-
vantage from political changes and who
always had loved and still love the Gov
eminent. For the guilty parties there is
but little retribution. They have neither
conscience to. condemn them, nor shame
to feel modification, and are abundantly
supplied with that kind of prudence that
glides through the meshes of the law. 1t
is the honest, the brave, and the worthy
that suffer in great national calamities.
Against such class wisdom will never
counsel severity or scanty charity. Such
wonderful upheavals in society should an
initiate all personal resentment, all sec
tional and social prejudices. The magni-
tude of the calamity should silence indi-
vidual suffering. On such occasions
men should arise above the narrow sphere
of the shops or the markethouse. They
then ascend beyond the level of even q
common humanity, and for once become
divine, by manifesting that spirit of for
giveness which rendered the Cross so glor-
ious in its conquest of the world.
REBELLION NOT THE UNPARDoNABLE SIN.
The opinion of men on moral and po-
litical questions depend greatly upon the
standpoint from which they view the
subjects. They seldom see virtues and
lofty motives of duty in their enemies.
This is especially true of mean and IN
generous natures, of the narrow, fanati-
cal, envious, and naughty, and of those
who cherish implacsble resentments. 1t
is not often that the agents of great con-
flicts are disposed to do justice to their
opponents. This is the work of disinter-
ested spectators or future historians.
Truth will, however, in the end vindicate
itself, and generous spirit of forgiveness
and philanthropy triumph. We are prone
to follow the dictates of reseatments and
passion, though they must in the end lead
to ruin. Revenge is sweet TO the ma
jority; it is present qualification, while
forgiveness promises only a future good.
Tyrants and their satellites are so prone
to punish opposition and so fond Of SUBJ
mission, thai they reward the latter and
discourage the former by penalties and
all kinds of maledictions. Loyalty to ex-
listing power is always a great virtue and
disloyalty the greatest crime. Self-lnter-
est furnishes an ample incentive for the
possessor of power to venerate loyalty;
but it is not equally satisfactory for the
course of his partisans unless their chief
pleasure consists in service. Il matters
not what may be the motive, all adyo-
Gates of a party regard loyalty to them as
the sublimest virtue and disloyalty as the
most pernicious of crimes. They do not
readily discriminate between intelligent
maintenance of a cause and blind deYo-
ton to party organized in their own in
terests. While the power of the Federal
Government was in the interests of the
South the early opponents of slavery had
no high regard for the Union and the
Constitution. No sooner had the interest !
changed than the Rebel became the |
grandest criminal in the annals of time.
Ii is far from my purpose to justify |
in all cases. On the contrary, !
it is better to endure q bad government |
than hastily to rush into war without any |
prospect of obtaining a better or without |
a well-fOunded hope of success. Rebellion |
against a good government seldom fails |
to bring its own calamity as retributiOn |
upon those who resist. While we con- |
denim the conduct of many who resort to
we are as far from regarding |
loyalty as cardinal viz
tue 1t is, after all, but blind divinity,
as often leading crusade against liberty
IS protecting human rights. Its instincts
are all on the side of power. Ii has borne
the banner of the Oppressor and inspired
the hosts that have trampled the humble
In the dust. 1t loves not the cottages of
the lowly, and the rags, the hunger, and
the cold that surround them. 1t is the
nhabitant of the palace, and is clothed
in purple and fine linen. 1t is the COM
panion of emperors and kings and mar
shals, their fleet and armies, against
liberty. II was the loyalty of Robespierre
that conquered the fidelity of La Fayette
and "ROland's spotless virtue" and
3ilenced ''the fervent eloquence of Yer
yuiand' sitongue." In all ages it has been
he ''friend of tyranny and the foe of
man. 1t was claimed by St. Just and
Jouthon as the ally of the guillOtine inthe
lefense of France. In Spain it has sus
aimed the Inquisition, in England, the
yallows; in Russia, the knout; and it car
led the cimeter and the Koran over half
If PROSTATE Asia and the best parts of
Europe and AfriCa.
The Odious term .'disloyslty" seems TO
lerive its frightful character from the ser
rice it has rendered mankind, who too
,ften kiss the foot that tramples on their
leck and smite the friend that rescues
hem. Disloyalty has been the apostle of
glad tidIngs to the humble, the courageous
md the frea 1t has ODeDed to humanity |