Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-01

leo, Central America and the British
West Indies. even when threatened
with an 'irrepressible conflict by one
80 cunning and crafty as William H.
Seward, backed by Abraham Lincoln,
the whole Republican party and a
"higher law than the Federal Constitu-
ton" When the States seeded, they
placed their cause in the forum of con-
science, reason and constitutional right;
for they did noU have one soldier, one
sailor, one ship of war, nor dollar for
any war purpose In their Confederate
treasury. However strong in principle,
their material weakness invited subju-
ton, and subjugationf followed secession.
But was it vice In theSouthern heart,
or a crime in the Southern intellect, to
feel, think and act as John Adams, of
Massachusetts,, and Patrick Henry, of
Virginia, felt, thought and acted when
they solemnly declared that "Resis-
lance to tyrants is obedience to GodP"
American independence rests on the
soundness of this general principle.
Can the thinking Of little bell'' in
the hand of a tyrant, armed with
power "higher than the constitution.
annihilate this republican principle?
What slavery can be more hopeless
than that which has ceased all resis-
lance to wrong and oppression? Will
it be said there is deep political ne
cessity in the North which compels
and raust perpetuate Northern despo-
tism over the subjugated South?
If this be true, the soil of the Sunny
South is not worth row of brass but
tons. Foreign domination, with its
unavoidable heartlessnesss and mis-
taken selfshness, will ruin any country.
Idleness, servilitY and poverty follow
the loss of self-government, the en-
nobling feeling of manly independence,
and self-sustaining energy. Can the
fact be truthfully denied that, in the
MONDAY of its strength and its mad
ness, the Republican party emascu-
lated our national constitution, to
make the stupid OK carry on its neck
the burden Of a "higher law" while
it dragged in the mud and filth behind
the never-dying crocodile called an
'irrepressible conflict" The ''conhict"
does not and cannot cease, because 1t
claims to be right, just and true; and
true principles never die. If it was
right to rob the people of the South OF
their property and their liberty ten
or twelve years ago, it is right
now, and will be right forever.
The far-reaching right to do wrong by
courts-martial and unrestrained legisla-
ton was the right that hung an inno-
cent woman in Washington, in time OF
peace since the war, and In the right by
which Congress picks the pockets of
thirty-nine million common people to
give fortunes to one million of much
better uncommon people. This Is the
daily work Of the "best government IN
the world" as the Administration par
ty understand good government. To
prolong indefinitely this very protective
system for tyrants, with their ''httle
tinkling bells in fat Offices, and eight
hundred thousand negro voters to sup
port them by "civil rights" conflicts,
and John Browns ever marching on"
no usurpation is deemed too daring or
flagitious. Practically, they required
the citizens of the South to commit
suicide, and are still dissatisfied be-
cause the work of blood-letting
and dissolution was not done by South
err rather than Northern hands.
Impartial history Will show that all re-
cent changes in the Federal Constitu-
ton have taken place not 80 much TO
benefit the old free States, as to inJure
the old slave States, andfomenta quasi
civil war for purposes of pecuniary
gain, military, civil and politicalpower.
Our national government is a huge
steam engine, which has been run by
drunken engineers till burnt nearly
into iron dust and ashes; and the coun-
try has yet to learn that sober brains
are not improved by being often intox-
icated. View the great interests of the
nation in whatever light we may, We
cannot avoid the conviction that the
extinction of Southernideas andstates-
manship in our political affairs has
operated most disastrously. A bal
ance-wheel with one side thrown off, Is
no longer a wheel that can balance any
machinery, whether light or ponderous.
a well known poet and pubhcist has
said:
''Truth crushed 10 earth viii rise again,
The eternal years Of God are hers"