Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

In the perilous times upon which our country is thrown, we trust it will not be deemed presumptuous or improper in us to express to our fellow-citizens our united opinion as to the duty of the State in this dire emergency.

We are threatened with a civil war, the dreadful consequences of which, if once fully inaugurated, no language can depict. In view of such consequences we deem it the duty of every good citizen to exert his utmost powers to avert the calamities of such a war. The agitation of the slavery question, combined with party spirit and sectional animosity, has at length produced the legitimate fruit. The present is no time to discuss the events of the past. The awful presence [72] is upon us, and the portentous future is hanging over us. There has been a collision, as is known to you, at Fort Sumter, between the forces of the seceded States and those of the National Government, which resulted in the capture of the fort by the army of the Confederate States. In view of this event and of other acts growing out of the secession of seven of the Southern States, the President has issued his proclamation calling out the militia of the States of the Union to suppress what the Proclamation designates a “combination too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law.”

Tennessee is called upon by the President to furnish two regiments, and the State has, through her Executive, refused to comply with the call. This refusal of our State, we fully approve. We commend the wisdom, the justice, and the humanity of the refusal. We unqualifiedly disapprove of secession, both as a constitutional right and as a remedy for existing evils; we equally condemn the policy of the Administration in reference to the seceded States. But while we, without qualification, condemn the policy of coercion as calculated to dissolve the Union forever and to dissolve it in the blood of our fellow-citizens, and regard it as sufficient to justify the State in refusing her aid to the Government, in its attempt to suppress the revolution in the seceded States, we do not think it her duty, considering her position in the Union, and in view of the great question of the peace of our distracted country, to take sides against the Government. Tennesse has wronged no State or citizen of this Union. She has violated the rights of no State, north or south. She has been loyal to all where loyalty was due. She has not brought on this war by. any act of hers. She has tried every means in her power to prevent it. She now stands ready to do any thing within her reach to stop it. And she ought, as we think, to decline joining either party. For in so doing, they would at once terminate her grand mission of peace-maker between the States of the South and the General Government. Nay, more; the almost inevitable result would be the transfer of the war within her own borders — the defeat of all hopes of reconciliation, and the deluging of the State with the blood of her own people.

The present duty of Tennessee, is to maintain a position of independence — taking sides with the Union and the peace of the country against all assailants, whether from the North or South. Her position should be to maintain the sanctity of her soil, from the hostile tread of any party.

We do not pretend to foretell the future of Tennessee, in connection with the other States, or in reference to the Federal Government. We do not pretend to be able to tell the future purposes of the President and Cabinet in reference to the impending war. But should a purpose be developed by the Government of overrunning and subjugating our brethren of the seceded States, we say unequivocally, that it will be the duty of the State to resist at all hazards, at any cost, and by arms, any such purpose or attempt. And to meet any and all emergencies, she ought to be fully armed, and we would respectfully call upon the authorities of the State to proceed at once to the accomplishment of this object.

Let Tennessee, then, prepare thoroughly and efficiently for coming events. In the meantime, let her, as speedily as she can, hold a Conference with her sister slaveholding States yet in the Union, for the purpose of devising plans for the preservation of the peace of the land. Fellow-citizens of Tennessee, we entreat you to bring yourselves up to the magnitude of the crisis. Look in the face impending calamities. Civil war — what is it? The bloodiest and darkest pages of history answer this question. To avert this, who would not give his time, his talents, his untiring energy — his all? There may be yet time to accomplish every thing. Let us not despair. The Border Slave States may prevent this civil war; and why shall they not do it?