Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-02
SEWARn
A Pen Picture of the Author of
the Higher Law.

At the very outset Of Mr.. Seward s
career in Congress he began to press
the bloody cup TO the lips of tie South.
| As .snon as he Fad "a voice in the Fed
eral legislation he announced that
emancipation was near and inevitable.
1t might be peaceable or violent, and
every effort to hinder or dealy it would
| tend to the contamination of violence. .
He would hear Of no compromise and
offer 40 terms to the South. For them
there was but one alternative; submis-
! sion or death. THIS mode OF beginning
his Senatorial duties, persistently fol-
lowed up, made him your beau ideal of
great statemen; far superior to CiSt
and CalheuR wtt equally relucted"
IS his policy; and towering high above
Webster, who "never could make up
his mind to meet it fully in the face"
because be saw there the Union broken
into dishohored. fragments sid lie
country drenched with fraternal gore
By many persons who know him well,
these ferocious demonstrations of hos
tility to the public peace, the Union
and the Constitution, were regarded as
the clap-trap of = dernarcgtie; 5haIns
intend to cajole the ultra abolitionists,
and fiatter their cruel rapacity with
hopes of blood and plumber which
would never be gratifed. Those who
hold this opinion, while they did not
think him dangerous man, had most
unspeakable contempt and detestatiOn
for his character. But Others took him
in more serious way. Southern men
especially believed &c unsafe to despise
his threats of pain and ruin. They
watched his gathering strength with
dread and terror, and when his fortunes
eliminated in the possession of SUI
preme authority they felt that their
hour had come.
a SINFUL people can never app eciate
tbe holiness of the strangers who kill
and rob them for their good. Philip ii
and the Duke of Alva determined to
lay the Low Countries waste. and -ex-
tinguish the heresies of the people in
their own blood. This was TO save
their souls. The King expressed the
object in his teTaest Latin: ''MalO re-
yhU1 rastdiam guam dGmn0tHBl." But
the Dutch ''relucted" at this mode of
salvation as much as Clay and Cal
houn, and the whole population ''in q
moment of re-entmeiit' determined to
die In the last ditch" The nghte-
Gus souls of the English Puritans were
vexed from day TO day that Cathoh-'
cism should exist in Ireland. 1t was
"a relic of bar6aTism;" It was blight
ing curse" there was an ''irrepressIble
conflict" between it and the great
truths which Puritanism had adopted.
So the Puritans, impelled like you by
disinterested seal in great cause, and
not at all by avarice or hatred, plum
dered the Irish, killed them by thous-
ands, took possession Of their churches,
banished their native leaders, and set
up government of strangers to tax,
1.-THE. coniscate, and impoverish them
The Irish resisted this, fought II for
centuries, and to this day they cannot
understand the purity of the Puritans.
Mr.. Stewards reputation must rest
forever on the three things which made
him especially notorious all the world
over. His fame, SO superior, IN your
opinion, to that of the men who framed
our laws and administered them faith
fully for three-quarters!of a century. was
not won as they won theirs. He was
remarkably defective IN nearly all the
qualities which gave so much grandeur
to their characters. But he was IN
questionably greater than any or all of
them put together on The Higher
Law THE Irrepressible Conflict"
and The Little Bell" OF these, You
touch the first in a gingerly way, and
avoid all mention of the other two. If
his theory and practice on these points
are indefensible, you wronged your
country and yourself by calling him a
public benefactor and setting him up
rs "a light and a landmark" TO guide
his successors.
Yonr Interpretation of the higher law
as operating to fix moral limitations
TO legislative power is equally inaccu-
rate. You say that the limitation to
legislation may be either purely mate
rial or it may be moral; but IN either |
case its powers n. e., the power of the
limitation is siBlijGr, if not the same"
Here You mean, 4 you mean anything. |
that rule II civil conduct. enacted III |
prescribed by supreme Legislative au-
thority Of an established State, Is as
powerless if opposed by a moral objec-
ton as If II were in conflict with n ma
terial force. You think it safe to af- |
firm that the mere niquity Of law |
does. prOpriG rigOre, defeat the intent |
Of the law!,iyer. III the same way that |
the winds and tides are said to have |
defeated Ganutc's proclamation to the |
waves of the Northern Ocean. Reason |
and history both contradict YOU. From |
the days of Nimrod 20 the time of |
Grant mankind have been governed by |
laws as bad as the cruel perversity of |
their rulers could make them: but SO |
far from being Intellectual. the nations |
Of the earth have groaned under them
and struggled against them in vain. |
Many recent enactments of Congress |
are open to the graveSt moral objec- |
tons, but no jot or title of them falls !
10 the ground for that. reason. The |
Infamous combination of Yankee and |
negro thieves who now have the gov
of the Southern States in their
hands are every day using their sub
iects IN ways which shock all sense of |
Justice; but their laws are remorseless-
y executed; right is overbOrne and
wrong revels in its insolent triumph.
Here in Pennsylvania a similar class of /
have for years been preying
ike vultures on the PROSTATE body of |
The commonwealth. 1t would be a de- |
ightful discovery to find that their en-
lctments are stripped of all force by
The self-acting power Of the moral linn
tations which they transgress. But we
nave no hope Of such relief, or anyrelief
1t all. Only the other day, in a con-
-ention to reform the constitution, an
.ifort was made to provide for the an
Of future immoral laws upon
judicial proof of bribery and fraud used
% procure their passage. The COnven-
ion voted it down. Your fellow-disci-
1les of Mr.. Seward who lead us herenOt
,nly deny that there areany moral linz
tations to the powers of government
md legislation, but they believe that
lone ought to be imposed even in the
Tossest cases of the worst laws known
o be passed by the most open, shame
,z- md iu,r,rrI ONT antr1rr,+ip,