Year: 1873

NO CHANCE FOR A NEW STATE.


The convention to consider the pro-


priety Of organizing q new State out of


West Tennessee and contiguous coun-


try, meets to-day in Jackson. There


will be great deal of talk and many


predictions of the great results to follow


such an organization, but it will all be


time wasted. We are surprised to see so


much time and money frittered away in


q project that has not the shadow of a
chance to succeed. We feel entirely sat-
istied that congress will not even give it
serious consideration. The large States
of the Union are now, as they ALWAYS
have been, jealous of the power and in
fiuence of the small States. Rhode Is
land and Delaware have as many votes
in the senate of the United States as the
great commonwealths of New York and
Pennsylvania. All persons familiar with
the debates in the convention that
framed our present constitution, and
with the history of its adoption by the
various States of the old confederacv.
know how great an effort was required
to overcome this objection of inequality
urged by the larger States. Those ia
miliar with the history of the formation
of West Virginia know that it required
the special efforts and all the influence
of President Lincoln to secure the con-
sent of congress to that division. The
project could not tnow be carried through
and there never has been a congress since
the one that consented to the new State


that would consider it as a new proposi-
ton. Just after the war the old project
of making a separate State out of East
Tennessee and Western North Carolina
was revived. There were then very
strong reasons urged in behalf of the
measure-reasOns which, we trust, may
never again exist. Those reasons pre-
sented the project in a peculiarly strong
light to congress. At that time the
writer had reason to pretty thoroughly
canvass the measure in Washington,
and he was surprised to find what little
encouragement it received. Nearly
every prominent, thoughtful senator
and representative very decidedly but
kindly said that it stood no possible
chance of success. AS we said before,
East Tennessee then merited and re-
ceived special recognition at Washing
ton, but its efforts at independence as q
separate State met with few well-wish-
ers. We think, therefore, that our
friends in West Tennessee are wasting
their time in talking about a new State.
The same efforts directed toward more
fraternally uniting the States we already
have, would deserve, as they will re-
ceive, encouragement from every direc-
ton. Tennessee needs to heal up the
old sores and bind up more firmly to-
gether her three sections. Talk of sepa-
ration will not help in that direction. If
West Tennessee insists on going, we
have no objection, but at the same time
we tell her she cannot tear herself away.
A higher power says no. Her most SEN
sible course is to put her shoulder to
the wheels of the old State and help push
her forward to the high position she
ought to hold in the great sisterhood.


THE NEW STATE NONSENSE.


From the Nashville Banner.l


The convention of new State agitators
IS s5embled at Jackson, yesterday. From
the beginning the movement was not
genuine. We doubt if the most ener-
getic and vociferous of its agitators were
ever in earnest. 1t was chimerical from
the start, and the simple-minded who
were caught up by it, and went on a gos-
siping excursion to Jackson, instead of
saving their hay or looking after their
other crops and things, have, perhaps,
even by this time awakened from the
idle day-dream to the reality that 1t was
a predestined farce. Even the Memphis
APPEAL, which we thought at one time
was growing little sweet toward it, now
weakens upon the proposition, and sobs
upon the neck and shoulder of East and
Middle Tennessee. 1t now asks: "Can
West Tennessee afford to lose the min
eral wealth-the coal and iron Of East
Tennessee? or East Tennessee give up
her mutual interest in the commercial
and agricultural expansion and fertility
of the West? There is nothing in SOUTH
ern Kentucky or in north Mississippi to
West Tennessee for the loss
of the mineral resources of the eastern
spirit of sound public policy to make
those splendid resources foreign to US, at
the very time they are beginning to at
the State?" We think not. We never
did think SO. We always did look up
on secession as the craziest folly that
ever possessed the minds of men. Sec
tionalism in a commonwealth is the
most foolish of sectionalism. 1t would
be a good deal better for us if there was
no East Tennessee nor West Tennessee,
and so let it be, henceforward, simply
Tennessee, for one and all of us.


PALL-BEARERs TO THE FRONT.


From the Memphis Ledger.l


What advantages are to be derived
by the people of West Tennessee or by
the people of Western Kentucky from
the formation of the new State have
never been made public. The creation
of the State of West Virginia is cited as
good authority by way of precedent, but
this was the result of the exercise Of
Radical power, without legitimate su-
thority. In this end of the State
the new movement is hardly dis
cussed, it being regarded as a wild
having its origin in the mind of
some eccentric thinker who wishes to be
regarded as the puller down and setter
up of States. Many days since, when
the movement gave signs of vitality, we
predicted its speedy demise, and it is
dead. Pall-bearers, to the front!