result of the election as expressive of the will of a majority of the freemen of Tennessee. Had the election everywhere been conducted as it was in East Tennessee, we would entertain a different opinion. Here no effort was made to suppress secession papers or prevent secession speeches or votes, although an overwhelming majority of the people were against sucession. Here no effort has been made to prevent the formation of military companies or obstruct the transportation of armies or to prosecute those who violated the laws of the United States and of Tennessee against treason. The Union men of East Tennessee, anxious to be neutral in the contest, were content to enjoy their own opinions and to allow the utmost latitude of opinion and action to those who differed from them. Had the same toleration prevailed in other parts of the State we have no doubt that a majority of our people would have voted to remain in the Union. But if this view is erroneous we have the same, and as we think a much better, right to remain in the Government of the United States that the other divisions of Tennessee have to secede from it. We prefer to remain attached to the Government of our fathers. The Constitution of the United States has done us no wrong; the Congress of the United States has passed no law to oppress us; the President of the United States has made no threat against the law-abiding people of Tennessee. Under the Govenment of the United States we have enjoyed as a nation more of civil and religious freedom than any other people under the whole heaven. We believe there is no cause for rebellion or secession on the part of the people of Tennessee. None was assigned by the Legislature in their miscalled declaration of independence. No adequate cause can be assigned. The select committee of that body asserted a gross and inexcusable falsehood in their address to the people of Tennessee when they declared that the Government of the United States had made war upon them. The secession cause has thus far been sustained by deception and falsehood; by falsehoods as to the action of Congress; by false dispatches as to battles that were never fought and victories that were never won; by false accounts as to the purposes of the President; by false representations as to the views of Union men, and by false pretenses as to the facility with which the secession troops would take possession of the Capitol and capture the highest officers of the Government. The cause of secession or rebellion has no charms for us, and its progress has been marked by the most alarming and dangerous attacks upon the public liberty. In other States as well as our own its whole course threatens to annihilate the last vestige of freedom. While peace and prosperity have blessed us in the Government of the United States, the following may be enumerated as some of the fruits of secession:

It was urged forward by members of Congress who were sworn to support the Constitution of the United States and were themselves supported by the Government. It was effected without consultation with all the States interested in the slavery question and without exhausting peaceable remedies. It has plunged the country into civil war, paralyzed our commerce, interfered with the whole trade and business of our country, lessened the value of our property, destroyed many of the pursuits of life, and bids fair to involve the wholerievable bankruptcy and ruin. It has changed the entire relations of States, and adopted constitutions without submitting them to a vote of the people; and where such a vote has been authorized, it has been upon the condition prescribed by Senator Mason, of Virginia, that those who voted the Union ticked "must leave the State." It has advocated a constitutional monarchy, a king and a dictator, and is,