Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-09-30

J OllV6 braDcn ana tae Henry CO
respondence.) Not long afterwarC
Josiah Quincy, whose fidelity to tt
party which elected him was uevt
doubted, formally announced in Cor
gress the intention Of his State to leas
the Union, 'peaceably if she coult
forcibIy if she must" Their hatre
fof the Union deepened, and their dt
termination to break it up grew fierce
as the resolution of the Democrats t
maintain the independence of the cour
try became stronger. When the wa
of 1872 began they were virtually ou
of the Union, remained out during tn
whole of that desperate struggle, no
only refusing all assistance to carry
on, but helping the enemy in ever
possible way II was while Englan,
had her tightest grasp on the throat 0
the nation that the Hartford convention
was called to dismember it; and this
Mr.. jefferson says, they would hay,
accomplished but for the battle O
New Orleans and the peace of Ghent
John Quincy Adams in 1889, anC
Abraham Lincoln in 1847, made elab
crate arguments in favor of the legd
right of Safe to go out. The late
abolitionists did not attempt to con
ceal their rancorous hostility to the
Union. No union with shareholders
was one of their wateh-words, anc
down to the opening of the war its de.
struction was the avowed object Of
their Vaccinations.
There is one conclusive proof ofyoul
enmity to the Union, and that is your
unwavering opposition to the Consti-
tuition which held the States together.
You know as well as | do how absurd
it is to suppose that any man or party
can support the Union, and at the same
time trample on the Constitution; and
you certainly are not ignorant that you
and your predecessors, from the earli-
est times, have been anti-constirution-
al in all your proclivities Coutemptu-
Gus disregard of constitutional obliga
tlons is not now the mere germ OF a
doctrine; it is part of your settled
creed. Before the war, and since, you
have trodden under foot every provis-
ion contained in the great charter of
our liberties. | do not speak at ran
dom. | challenge you to designate a
single constitutional right of the States,
or of individuals, which you have not
at some time, or in some way, deliber-
ately violated.
LAWLEssNEss AND LOYALTY"
This contempt for the Constitution,
this practical denial that an oath to
support it is sacred, implies disre-
gard of all laws, human and divine,
and when adopted, it left nothing to
guide you except the propensities, evil
or good, of ynur natural hearts. Many
of you (and notably you yourselG con-
tracted no individual guilt, because
you were too proud for petty larceny,
too benevolent for large handed rob-
berry, and too full of kindness to break
wantonly into the tabernacle of human
life. But generally the moral princi-
Piles of the Observation-Disclosures Of they
ever had any became so wholly per-
verted that they saw nothing wrong in
the worst offenses that could be COM
mitted against their political oppo-
nents. In their eyes, theft and murder
not only lost their felonious character,
but became meritorious, if the victims
lived south OF Mason and Dixons's
line. When John Brown stole horses
in the peace of God and the State of
Missouri, he was taking his lawful
booty; when he sneaked into quiet
Virginia village on Sunday night and
assassinated defenseless citizens, he
was hero; and when he died felon's
death on the scaffold, to which he was
justly condemned, he became martyr.
THE DEMOCRATS OF THE NORTH.
You persist in misunderstanding the
ante bellum attitude of the Northern
Democracy. We stood steadfastly by
the Union against all attempts of the
New England party to break it up by
secession. We sustained the Consti-
tuition against the ferocious assaults of
ly to save Republican instft1ti dt3y riS6i
the destrutiOn with which they were
threatened by you; aDd as long as the
Southern people acted with US, we
gratefully accepted their aid in the
good work.
Your averment that the Democratic
party desired the aggrandizment of
slavery, and yielded their conseien-
ces" on that subject to the South, is
grossly unjust, if you mean to charge
them with anything more than a will
ingness to protect the Southern, as
we'll as the Northern and Middle,
States In the exercise Of their consti-
tutional rights. We had disposed of
slavery within our own jurisdiction ac-
cordln to our sense of sound policy
and justice. But we had made an ex-
press compact with the older States to
leave the entire control of their do
mestic affairs to themselves. We kept
our covenant, simply because it would
have been gross dishonesty to break it.
The Abolitionists took a different
view, and refused to keep faith. They
swore as solemnly as we did to observe
the terms of the bargain, but accord
ing to their code it was a sin not to vi
olate it. The fact is true that we did
not think it right to cut the throats, or
shoot, or strangle the men or women
of the South for believing in negro
slavery; but that is no justification of
your assertion that we yielded our con-
sciences to them.
Again: You charge us (the North
ern Democracy with having given bad
advice to the Southern people. This
consisted, you say, in assuring them
that if they seeded we would take
their part against any attempt to force
them back again into the Union. This
is gross error, and you see it when |
recall your attention to the facts. In
all our exhortations to Southern men
against secession we were met by the
of their fear that the Abo-
litionists intended, in any event, to in
wade and slaughter them. Some reas-
on for this apprehensionwas given by
the fierce threats of your leading men,
and especially by your almost univer-
sal admiration OF Brown for his raid
into Virginia. Certain Democrats land
very good men, too) did then declare
that lawless expedition intended for
purposes of mere pillage could not and
should not be started in the North,
such opposition as would eff
fectualIy stop it. But this was before
secession, and it was intended to pre-
vent movement, not to encourage it.
You can not, with any show of JUS
tice, deny that devotion to the Union
was one of the strongest feelings in
the heart of the Northern Democracy.
We had always deprecated a separa-
ton from the Southern States with so
much earnestness that one of the ap-
probriOus epithets you bestowed on us
was that of Union savers" This |
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