JUL -
bt s. i now.
CLEAKFIELD, PA., WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1861.
VOL. 7.--JVO. 44.
THE IT.NION FOREVER!
A KENTUCK1AN SPEAKS.
Letter from the Hon. J oseph Holt,
3ost-Master-ienorl, and Secrotary-of-War, dur
ing President Buchanan's Administration.
- Washington, May 81, 18C1.
J. F. Speed, Esq My dear Sir : The recent
TerwhIuiiDg vote in favor of the Union, in
Kentucky, has afforded unspeakable gratifica
tion to all true men throughout the country.
That rote indicates that the people of that gal
lant State Lave been neither seduced by the
arts nor terrified by the menaces of the revo
lutionists in their midst, and that it is their
fixed purpose to remain faithful to a Govern
ment which, for now nearly seventy years, has
remained faithful to them. Still, it cannot be
denied that there is in the bosom of that State
a band of agitators, who, though few in hum
'her, are yet powerful from the public confi
dence they have enjoyed, and who bavo been,
and doubtless will continue to be, unceasing
in their endeavors to force Kentucky to unite
her fortunes with the rebel Confederacy of the
South. In view of this, and of the well-known
fact that several of the seceded States have by
fraud and violence been driven to occupy
their present false and fatal position, I cannot,
even with the encouragement of her late vote
before me, look upon the political future of
our native State without a painful solicitude.
.Never have the safety and honor of her people
required the exercise of so much vigilance
and of so much courage on their part. If true
to themselves, the stars and stripes, which,
like angel's wings, hare so long guarded their
homes from every oppression, will still be
theirs ; but if, chasing the dreams of other
men's ambition, they shall prove false, the
blackness of darkness can but faintly predict
the doom that awaits them. The Legislature,
it seems, has determined by resolutions, that
the State, pending the present unhappy war,
nhall occupy neutral ground. I must say, in
all frankness and without desiring to reflect
upon the course or sentiments of any, that in
this struggle for the existence of our Govern
ment, I can neither practice, nor profess, nor
led neutrality. I would as soon think ot be
ing neutral in a contest between an officer of
jiibtice and an Incendiary, arrested in an at
tempt to fire the dwelling over my head ; for
the Government whose overthrow is soiigm, is
lor me the shelter not only of home, kindred
and friends, but ot every canhly blessing
which I can hope to enjoy on this side of the
grave. If, however, from a natural horror of
fratricidal strife, or from her intimate social
and business relations with the South, Ken-
lucky shall determine to maintain the neutral
attitude assumed for her by her Legislature,
her position will still be an honorable one
though falling far short of that full measure of
loyalty which her history has so constantly il
lustrated. Her Executive, ignoring, as I am
happy to believe, alike the popular and Legis
lative sentiment ot the state, has by procla
mation, forbidden the Government of. the
United States from marching troops across
her territory. This is, in no sense, a neutral
Mcp, but one of aggressive hostility. The
trou8 of the Federal Government have as
clear a Constitutional right to pass over the
noil of Kentucky as they have to march along
the streets of Washington, and could this
prohibition be effective, it would not only be
a violation of the fundamental law, but would
in all its tendencies, be directly in advance
ment of the revolution, and might, in an e
inergeucy easily imagined, compromise the
highest national interests. I was rejoiced that
the Legislature so promptly refused to endorse
this proclamation as expressive of the true
policy of the State. Bat I turn away from
even this to the ballot box, and find an abound
ing consolation in the conviction it inspires,
that the popular heart of Kentucky, in its de
votion to the Union, is far in advance alike of
Legislative resolve and of Executive procla
mation. But as it is well understood that the late
popular demonstration has rather scotched
than killed rebellion in Kentucky, I propose
inquiring, as briefly as practicable,, whether,
in the recent action or present declared poli
cy ol the Administration, or in the history of
the pending revolution, or in the objects it
seeks to accomplish, or in the results which
must follow from it, if successful, there can
be discovered any reasons why that State
should sever the ties that unite her with a con
federacy in whose councils and upon whose
battle fields she has won so much fame, and
under whoso protection she has enjoyed so
much prosperity.
For more than a month after the inaugura
tion of President Lincoln, the manifestations
Deemed unequivocal that his Administration
would seek a peaceful solution of our unhap
py political troubles, and would look to time
nd amendments to the Federal Constitution,
adopted in accordance with its provisions, to
bring back the revolted States to their allegi
ance. So marked was the effect of these man
ifestations in tranquilizing the border States,
and in reassuring their loyalty, that tho con
spirators who had set this revolution on foot
took the alarm. White affecting to despise
these States as not sufficiently identified in
their devotion to African servitude, they well
knew they could never succeed in their trea
sonable enterprise without their support.
Iience it was resolved to precipitate a collis
ion cf arms with the Federal authorities, in
the hope that, under the panic and exaspera
tion incident to the commencement of a civil
war, the border States, following the bent of
their sympathies, would array themselves a
gainst the Governmeut. Fort Sumter, oc
cupied by a feeble garrison, and girdled by
powerful, if not impregnable batteries, afford
ed convenient means for accomplishing their
purpose, and for testing also their favorite
theory that blood was needed to cemont the
J1 Confederacy. Its provisions were ex
hausted, and the request made by the Presi
et, in the interests of peace and humanity,
'r the privilege of replenishing its stores,
m been refused. The Confederate authori
ses were aware for so the gallant comman
"w or the fort had declared to them that in
jo days a capitulation from utarvation must
'Replace. A peaceful surrender, however,
ould not have subserved their aims. They
rjoght the clash ot arms, and the effusion of
'od as an instrumentality for impressing the
oorder States, and they sought the humilia
itfl 0,1,18 Government and the dishonor of
Dig as a means of giving prestige to their
o0cuge. The result ia known. Without
lightest provocation, a heavy cannonade
opened upon tbo fort, and borne by its
helpless garrison for hours without reply, and
when, in tho progress of the bombardment,
the foitiucation became wrapped in names,
the besieging batteries, in violation of tho
usages of civilized warfare, instead of relax
ing or suspending, redoubled their fires. A
more wanton or wicked war was nevor com
menced on any Government whose history has
been written. Cotemporary with, and follow
ing the fall of Sumter, the siege of Fort Pick
ens was and still Is actively pressed; the prop
erty of the United Sfates Government contin
ued to be seized wherever found, and its
troops, by fraud or force, captured in the
State of iexasin violation of a solemn com
pact with its authorities that they should be
permitted to embark without molestation
This was the requital which the lone-star
State made to brave men who, through long
years of peril and privation, had guarded its
frontiers against the incnrsions of the savages
In the midst of the most active and extended
warlike preparations in the South, the an
nouncement was made by the Secretary of
War of the Seceded States, and echoed with
taunts and insolent bravados by the Southern
press, that Washington City was to be invaded
and captured, and that the flag of the Confed
erate States would soon float over the dome of
its Capitol. Soon thereafter there followed
an invitation to all the world embracing nec
essarily the outcasts and desperadoes ot every
sea to accept letters of marque and reprisal,
to prey upon the rich and unprotected com
merce of the United States,
in view of these events and thrcatenings.
what was the duty of -the Chief Magistrate of
the Republic ? He might have taken counsel
ot the revolutionists and trembled under their
menances; he might upon the fall of Sumter,
have directed that Fort Pickens should be sur
rendered without firing a gun in its defence,
aud proceeding yet further, and meeting fully
the requirements of the "let-us-alone" policy
insisted on in the South he might have order
ed that the stars and stripes should be laid in
the dust in the presence of every bit of rebel
bunting that might appear. But he did none
of these things, nor would he have done them
without forgetting his oath and betraying the
most sublime trust that has ever been confi
ded to the hands of man. With a heroic fidel
ity to his constitutional obligations, feeling
justly that these obligations charged bim with
the protection of the republic and its capital
against the assaults alike of foreign and do
mestic enemies, he threw himself on the loy
alty ot the country for support in the struggle
upon which he was about to enter, and nobly
has that appeal been responded to. States
containing an aggregate population of nine
teen millions have answered to the appeal as
with the voice of one man, offering soilders
without number, and treasure without limita
tion, for the service of the Government. In
these States, fifteen hundred thousand free
men cast their votes in favor of candidates
supporting the rights of the South, at the last
Presidential election, and yet everywhere, a
like in popular assemblies and upon tented
field, this million and a half of voters are
found yielding to none in the zeal with which
they rally to their country's flag. They are
not less the friends of the .South than before ;
but they realize that the question now present
ed is not one of administrative policy, or of
the claims of the North, the South, the East
or the West ; but is, simply, whether nineteen
millions ot people shall tamely and ignobly
permit five or six millions to overthrow and
destroy institutions which are tho common
properly, and have been the common blessing
and glory of all. The great thoroughfares of
the North, the East and the West, are lumin
ous with the banners and glistening with the
bayonets of citizen soldiers marching to the
capital, or to other points of rendezvous ; but
they come in no hostile spirit to the South,
if called to press her soil, they will not ruffle
a flo-ver of her gardens, nor a blade of grass
of her fields in unkindness. No excesses will
mark the footsteps of the armies of the Re
public ; no institutions of the States will be
invaded or tampered with ; no rights of per
sons or property will be violated. The known
purposes of the Administration, and the high
character of the troops employed, alike guar
antee tho truthfulness of this statement.
When an insurrecion was apprehended a few
weeks since in Maryland, the Massachusetts
regiment at once offered its services to sup
press it. These volunteers have been de
nounced by the press of the South as "knaves
and vagrants," "the dregs and. offscourings of
the populace," who would "rather hlch a
handkerchief than fight an enemy in manly
combat ;" yet we know, here, that their disci
pline and bearing are most admirable, and, I
presume, it may be safely affirmed that a larg
er amount of social position, culture, fortune,
and elevatian of character, has never been
found in so large an army in any age or coun
try. If they go to the South, it will be as
friends and protectors, to relieve the Union
sentiment of the seceded States from the cruel
domination by which it is oppressed aud si
lenced i to unfurl the stars and stripes in the
midst of those who long to look upon them,
and to restore the flag that bears them to the
forts and arsenals from which disloyal hands
have torn it. Their mission will be one of
peace, unless wicked atd blood-thirjty men
shall unsheath the sword across their pathway.
It is in vain for the revolutionists to ex
claim that this is "subjugation." It is so,
precisely in the sense in which you and I and
all law-abiding citizens are subjugated. The
people of the South are our brethren, and
while we obey the laws enacted by our joint
authority, and keep a compact to which we
are all parties, we only ask that they shall be
required to do the same. We believe that
their safety demands this ; we know that ours
does. We impose no burden which we our
selves do not bear ; we claim no privelege or
blessing which our brethren of the South shall
not equally share. Their country is our coun
try, and ours is theirs ; and that unity, both ot
country and of government, which the provi
dence of God and the compacts of men have
created, we could not ourselves without self
immolation, destroy, nor can we permit it to
be destroyed by others.
Equally vain is it for them to declare mat
they only wish "to be let alone," and that In
establishing the independence of the seceded
States, they do those which remain in the old
confederacy no harm. The Free States, if al
lowed the opportunity of doing so will un
doubtedly concede every guarantee needed to
afford complete protection to the institutions
of the South, and to furnish assurance ot her
perfect equality in the Union ; bat all such
guarantees and assurauces aro now 'openly
spurned, and the only Southern right now in
sisted on is that of dismemberment of the re"
public. It is perfectly certain that in the at
tempted exercise of this right neither btates
nor statesmen will be "let alone." "Should a
ruffian meet me in the streets, and seek with
his axe to hew an arm and a leg from my body,
I would not the- less resist him because, as a
dishonored and helpless trunk I might per
chance survive the mutilation. It is easy to
perceive what fatal results to the old confed
eiacy would follow should the blow now struck
at its integrity, ultimately triumph. We can
well understand what degradation it would
bring to it abroad, and what weakness at
home ; what exhaustion from incessant war
and standing armies, and from the erection of
fortifications along the thousands of miles of
new frontier ;. what embarassments to com
merce from having its natural channels en
cumbered or cut off; what elements of disin
tegration and revolution would be introduced
from the pernicious example ; and above all,
what humiliation would cover the whole A
merican people for having failed in their great
mission to demonstrate before the world the
capacity of our race for self-government.
While a far more fearful responsibility has
fallen upon President Lincoln than upon an'
of his predecessors, it must be admitted that
he has met it with promptitude and fearless
ness. Cicero, in one of his orations against
Cataline, speaking of the credit due himself
for having suppressed the conspiracy ot that
arch traitor, said, "If the glory of him who
founded Rome was great, how much greater
should be that of him who had saved it from
overthrow after it had grown to be the mis
tress of the world ?" So it may said of the
glory of that statesman or chieftain who shall
snatch from the vortex of revolution this re
public, now that it has expanded from ocean
to ocean, has become the admiration of the
world, and has rendered the fountains of the
lives cf thirty millions of people, fountains of
happiness.
The vigorous measures adopted for the safe
ty of Washington and the Government itself
may seem open to criticism, in some- of their
details, to those who have yet to learn that
not only has war like peace its laws, but it
has also its privileges and its duties. What
ever ol severity, or even of irregularity, may
have arisen, will find its justification in the
pressure of the terrible necessity under which
the Administration has been called to act.
When a man feels the poignard of the destroy
er at his bosom, he is not likely to consult
the law books as to the mode or measure of
his rights of self-defence. What is true of in
dividuals is in this respect equally true of
Governments. The man who thinks he has
become disloj al because of what the Admin
istration has done, will probably discover, af
ter a close self-examination, that he was dis
loyal before. But for what has been done,
Washington might ere this have been a smoul
derirg heap of ruins.
They have noted the course of public affairs
to little advantage, who suppose that the elec
tion of Mr. Lincoln was the real ground of the
revolutionary outbreak that has occured. The
roots of the revolution may be tracked back
for more than a quarter of a century, and an
unholy lust for power is the soil out of which
it sprang. A prominent member of the band
of agitators declared in one of his speeches,
at Charleston, last November or December,
that they had been occupied for thirty years in
the work of severing South Carolina from the
Union. Wben'Ge.neral Jackson'crushed nul
lification, he said it would revive again under
the form of the slavery agitation, and we have
lived to see this prediction verified. Indeed
that agitation, during the last 15 or 20 years
has been almost the entire stock in trade of
Southern politicians. The Southern people,
known to be as generous in their impulses as
they are chivalric, were not wrought into a
phrenzy of passion by tho iutemperate words
of a few fanatical abolitionists; for these
words, If left to themselves, would have fallen
to the ground as pebbles into the sea, and
would have been heard of no more. But it
was the echo of those words, repeated with
exaggeration for tho thousandth time by
Southern politicians in the halls of Congress,
and in the deliberative and popular assemblies,
and through the press of the South that pro
duced the exasperation which has proved so
potent a lever in the hands of the conspirators.
The cloud was fully charged, and the juggliug
revolutionists who held the wires and could at
will direct its lightnings, appeared at Charles
ton, broke up the Democratic Convention as
sembled to nominate a candidate for the Presi
dency, and thus secured the election of Mr.
Lincoln. Having thus rendered this certain,
they at once set to work to bring the popular
mind of the South to tho point of determining
in advance that the election of a Republican
President would be, per e, cause for a disso
lution of the Union. They were but too suc
cessful, and to this result the inaction and in
decision of the Border States deplorably con
tributed. When the election of Mr. Lincoln
was announced, there was rejoicing in the
streets of Charleston, and doubtless at other
points in the South ; for it was believed by
the conspirators that this had brought a tide
in the current of their machinations which
would bear them on to victory. The (drama
of secession was now open, and State after
State rushed out of the Union, and their mem
bers withdrew from Congress. The revolution
was pressed on with this hot haste in order
that no time should be allowed for reaction in
the Northern mind, or for any adjustment on
the slavery issues by the action ot Congress,
or of the State Legislatures. Had the South
ern members continued in their seats, a satis
factory compromise would, no doubt, have
been arranged and passed before the adjourn
ment of Congress. As it was, after their re
tirement, and after Congress had become Re
publican, an amendment to the Constitution
was adopted by a two-thirds vote, declaring
that Congress should never interfere with Sla
very in the States and declaring, further, that
this amendment should be irrevocable. Thus
was falsified the clamor so long and so insidi
ously wrung in the ears of the Southern people,
that the abolition of slavery in the States was
the ultimate aim of the Republican party.
But even this amendment, and all others which
may be needed to furnish the guarantees de
manded, are now defeated by the secession of
eleven States, which claiming to be out of the
Union, will refuse to vote upon, and, in effect,
will vote against any proposals to modify tho
Federal Constitution'. There are now thirty
four States in the confederacy,' three-fourths
of which, being twenty. six, must concur in
the adoption of any amendment before it can
become a part of the Constitution ; but the
secession of the eleven States leaves but twen
ty-three whose vote can possibly be secured,
which is three less than the constitutional
number.
Thus we have the extraordinary and dis
creditable spectacle of a revolution made by
certain States professedly on the ground that
guarantees for the safety of their institutions
are denied them, and at the same time, in
stead of co-operating with their sister States
in obtaining these guarantees, they designed
ly assume a hostile attitude, and thereby ren
der Jt constitutionally impossible to secure
them. This profound dissimulation shows
that it was not the safety of the South but its
severance from the Confederacy, which was
sought from the beginning. Cotemporary,
with, and, in some instances, preceding these
acts of secession, the greatest outrages were
committed upon the Government of the Uni
ted States by the States engaged in them. Its
forts, arsenals, arms, barracks, Custom houses,
Postoffices, moneys, and, indeed, every spe
cies of its property within the limits of these
States were seized and appropriated, down to
the very hospital stores for the sick soldiers.
More than half a million of dollars was plun
dered from the mint at New Orleans. United
States vessels were received from the defiled
hands of their officers in command, and as if
in the hope of consecrating official treachery
as one of the public virtues of the age, the
surrender of an entire military department by
a General, to the keeping of whose honor it
had been confided, was deemed worthy of the
commendation and thauks of Conventions of
several of the States. All these lawless pro
ceedings were well understood to have been
prompted and directed by men occupying
scats In the Capitol, some of whom were frank
enough to declare that they could not and
would not, though in a minority, live under a
Government which they could not control.
In this declaration is found the key which un
locks the whole of the complicated machinery
of this revolution. The profligate ambition
of public men in all ages and lands, has been
the rock on which republics have split. Such
men have arisen in our midst men who, be
cause unable to permanently grasp the helm
ot the ship, are willing to destroy it in the
hope to command some one of the rafts that
may float away from the wreck. The effect
is to degrade us to a level with the military
bandits of Mexico and South America, who,
when beaten at an election, fly to arms, and
seek to master by tho sword what they have
been unable to control by the ballot box.
- The atrocious acts enumerated were acts of
war, and might all have been treated as such
by the late Administration; but the Presi
dent patriotically cultivated peace bow anx
iously aud how patiently, the country well
knows. While however, the revolutionary
leaders greeted him with all hails to his face,
they did not the less diligently continue to
whet their swords behind his back. Immense
military preparations were made, so that when
the moment for striking the Government of
the United States arrived, the revolutionary
States leaped into the contest clad in full
armor.
As if nothing should be wanting to darken
this page of history, the seceded States have
already entered upon the work of confiscating
tne debts due from their citizens to the North
and Northwest. The millions thus gained
will doubtless prove a pleasant substitute for
those guarantees now so scornfully rejected.
To these confiscations will probably succeed,
soon, those of lands and negroes owned by
the citizens of loyal States; and, indeed, the
apprehension of the step is already sadly dis
turbing the fidelity of non-resident proprietors.
Fortunately, however, infirmity of faith,
springing from such a cause, is not likely to
be contagious. The war begun is being pros
ecuted by the Confederate States in a temper
as fierce and unsparing as that which charac
terises conflicts between the most hostile na
tions. Letters of marque and reprisal are be
ing granted to all who seek them, so that our
coasts will soon swarm with theso piratical
cruisers, as the President has properly de
nounced them. Every buccaueer who desires
to rob American commerce upon the ocean,
can, for the asking, obtain a warrant to do so,
in the name of the new republic. To crown
all, large bodies of Indians have been muster
ed into the service of the revolutionary States
and are now conspicuous in the Tanks of the
Southern army. A leading North Carolina
journal, noting their stalwart frames and un
ci ring maiksmanship, observes, with an exul
tation positively fiendish, that they are armed
not only with the rifle, but also with the tcalp-ing-knife
and tomahawk.
Is Kentucky willing to link her name in
history with the excesses and crimes which
sullied this revolution at every step of its pro
gress ? Can she soil her pure bands with its
booty ? She possesses the noblest heritage
that God has granted to his children ; is she
prepared to barter it away for that miserable
mess of portage, which the gratification ot the
unholy ambition ol her publicmen would bring
to her lips ? Can she, without laying her face
in the dost tor very shame, become a parti
cipant in the spoliation of the commerce of
her neighbors and friends, by contributing her
star, hitherto so stainless in its glory, to light
the corsair on his way ? Has the war whoop
which used to startle the sleep of our frontiers,
so died away in her ears that she is willing to
take the red-handed savage to her bosom as
the champion of her rights and the represen
tative of her spirit ? Must she not first forget
her own heroic sons who perished, butchered
and scalped on the disastrous field of Raisiu 1
The object of the revolution, as avowed by
all who are pressing it forward, is the perma
nent dismemberment of the confederacy. The
dream of reconstruction used during the last
winter as a lure to draw the hesitating or4he
hopeful into the movement has been formal
ly abandoned. If Kentucky separates herself
from the Union, it must be upon the basis that
the separation must be final and eternal. Is
there aught in the organization or administra
tion of the Government of the United States
to justify, on her part, an act so solemn and so
perilous? Could the wisest of her lawyers,
if called upon, find material for an indictment
in any or in all the pages of the history of the
Republic? Could the most lepronslipped of
its caluminators point to a single State or
Territory, or community or citizen, that it baa
wronged or oppressed ? It would be impossi
ble. So far as the slave States are concerned,
their protection has been complete, and if it
has not been, it has been the fault of. their
Statesmen, who have bad the contrqlot the
Government since its fpundatipn.'
-- -V -j "-
- y'if$j . .-
The census returns show that during the
year 1860 the Fugitive Slave Law was execu
ted more faithfully and successfully than it
had been during the preceding ten years.
Since the installation of President Lincoln,
not a case has arose in which the fugitive has
not been returned, and that too, without any
opposition from the people. Indeed, the h
delity with which it was understood to be the
policy of the present Administration to en
force the provisions of this law, has caused a
perfect panic among the runaway slaves in the
free States, and they have been escaping in
multitudes to Canada, unpursued and unre
claimed by their masters. Is there found in
this reason for a dissolution of the Union ?
That the slave States are not recognized as
equal in the Confederacy, has for several
years, been the cry of demagogues and con
spirators. But what is the truth ? Not only
according to the theory, but the actual prac
tice of the Government, tho slave States have
ever been, and still are, in all respects, the
peers of the free. Of the fourteen Presidents
who have been elected, seven were citizens of
slave States, and of the seven remaining, three
represented Southern principles, and received
the votes of the Southern people ; so that, in
our whole history, but four Presidents have
been chosen who can be claimed as the special
champions of the policy and principles of the
free States, and even these, so only in a mod
ified sense. Does this look as if the South
has ever been deprived of her equal share of
the honors and powers of the Government I
The Supreme court has decided that the cm
zens of the slave States can at will, take their
slaves into oil the Territories of the L nited
States; and thisdecision, which has never been
resisted or interfered with in a single case, is
the law of the land and the whole power of the
Government is pledged to enforce it. That it
will be loyally enforced by the present Ad
ministration, I entertain no doubt. A Re
publican Congress, at the late session, organ
ized three new Territories, and in the organic
law of neither was there introduced, or at
tempted to be introduced, the slightest restric
tion upon the rights ot the Southern emigrant
to bring his slaves with bim. At this mo
ment, therefore and I state it without quali
fication there is not a Territory belonging to
the United States into which the Southern
people may not introduce their slaves at pleas
ure, and enjoy there complete protection.
Kentucky should consider this great and un
deniable fact, before which all the frothy rant
of demagogues and disunionists must disap
pear as a bank of fog before the wind. But
were it otherwise, and did a defect exist in
our organic law, or in the practical adminis
tration of the Government, in reference to the
rights ol Southern slaveholders in the Terri
tories, still the question would be a mere ab
straction since the laws ot climate forbid the
establishment of slavery in such latitudes;
and to destroy such institutions as ours for
such a cause, instead of patiently trying to
remove it, would be a little short of an act of
national insanity. It would be to burn the
house down over our heads, merely because
there is a leak in the roof; to scuttle the ship
in mid ocean, merely because there is a dif
ference of opinion among the crew as to the
point of the compass to which the vessel
should be steered ; it would be, in fact, to
apply the knife to the throat instead of to
the cancer of the patient.
But what remains? Though, say the dis
unionists, the Fugitive Slave law is honestly
enforced, and though, under the shelter of
the Supreme Court, we can take our slaves
into the territories, yet the Northern people
will presist ia discussing the institution ot
slavery, and therefore we will break up the
Government. It is true that slavery has beeu
very intemperately discussed in the North,
and it is equally trrue that until we have an
Asiatic despotism, crushing out all Trecdora
of speech and of the press, this discussion will
probably continue. In this age and country
all institutions, human and divine, are discus
sed, and so they ought to" be; and all that can
not bear discussion must go to the trail, where
they ought to go. It is not pretended, how
ever, that the discussion of slavery, which
has been continued in our country for more
than forty years, has in any manner disturbed
or weakened the foundation of the iustitution.
On the contrary, we learn from the press of
the seceded States that their slaves were nev
er more tranquil or obedient. There are zeal
ots happily few in number both North and
South, whose language upon this question is
alike extravagaut and alike deserving our con
demnation. Those who assert that slavery
should bo extirpated by the sword, and those
who maintain that the great mission of the
white man on earth ia to enslave black, are not
far apart in the folly and atrocity of their sen
timents. Before proceeding further, Kentucky should
measure well the depth of the gulf she is ap
proaching,' and look well to the feet of her
guides. Before forsaking a Union in which
her people have eDjoyed such uninterrupted
and such boundless prosperity, she should ask
herself not onco but many times, why do I
go, and where am I going ? In view of what
has been said, it would be difficult to answer
the first branch of the inquiry, but to answer
tho second part is. patent to all, as are the
consequences which would follow the move
ment. In giving her great material and mor
al resources to the support of the Southern
Confederacy, Kentucky might prolong the
desolating strnggle that rebellious States are
making to overthrow a Government which
they have only known in its blessings ; but
the triumph of the Government would never
theless be certain in the end. She would a
bandon a Government strong and able to pro
tect her, for one that is weak and that con
tains in the very elements of its life, the
seeds of distraction and early dissolution.
She would adopt, as the law of her existence,
the right of secession a right which has no
foundation in jurisprudence, or logic, or In
our political history; which Madison, the
father of tho Federal Constitution, denounc
ed ; which has been denounced by most of the
States and prominent Statesmen now insisting
upon its exercise; which, in introducing a
principle of indefinite disintegration, cuts up
all confederate governments by the roots, and
gives them over a prey to the caprioes, and
transient interests, of their members, as au
tumnal leaves are to the winds which blow
upon them. In 1811, the Richmond Enquir
er, then, as now, the organ of public opinion
in the South, pronounced secession to be
treason and nothing else, and such as tben
the doctrine of Southern statesmen. What
was true then is equally traa now.
. The prevalence of this pernicious heresy is
mainly the fruit of that farce called "Stato
rights," which demagogues have been so long
playing under tragic mask, and which has done
more than all things else to unsettle the foun
dations of .the republic, by estranging the peo
ple from the Federal Government, as one to
be distrusted and resisted, instead of being,
what it is, emphatically their own creation, at
all times obedient to their will, aud in its min
istrations the grandest reflex of the greatness
and beneficence of popular power that has ev
er ennobled the history of our race. Said Mr.
Clay: "I owe a supreme allegiance to the
General Government, and to my State a sub
ordinate one." And this terse language dis
poses of the whole controversy which has a
risen out of the secession movement in regard
to the allegiance of the citizen. As the power
of the State and Federal Governments are in
perfect harmony with each other, so there can
be no conflict' between the allegiance due to
them ; each while acting within the sphere of
its constitutional authority, is entitled to be
obeyed ; but when a State, throwing off all
constitutional restraints, seeks to destroy the
General Government, to say that its citizens
are bound to follow it in this career of crime,
and discard the supreme allegiance they wo
to the government assailed, is one ot the shal
lowest and most dangerous fallacies that has
ever gained credence among men.
. Kentucky, occupying a central position in
the Union, is now protected lrom ihe scourge
of foreign war, however much its ravages may
waste the towns and cities upon our coast? or
the commerce upon our stas j but as a mem
ber of tho Southern Confederacy, she would
be a frontier State, and necessarily the victim
of those border feuds and conflicts which have
become proverbial in history alike for their
fierceness and frequency. The people of the
South now sleep quietly in their beds, while
there is not a home in infatuated and misgui
ded Virginia that is not filled with the alarms,
and oppressed by the terrors of the war. In
the fate of this ancient Commonwealth, drag
ged to the altar if sacrifice by those whu
should have stood between her bosom and ev
ery foe, Kentucky may read her own. No
wonder, therefore, that she has been so coax
ingly besought to unite her fortunes with those
of the South, and to lay down the bodies cf
her chivalric sons as a breast-work, behind
which the Southern people may be sheltered.
Even as attached to the Southern Confedera
cy she would be weak for all the purposes of
self-protection, as compared with her present
position. But amid the mutations incident
to such a helpless and self-disintegrating
league, Kentucky would probably soon find
herself adhering to a mere fragment of the
Confederacy, or, it may be, standing entirely
alone, in presence of tiers of f ree States with
populations exceeding by many millions her
own. Feeble States thus separated from pow
erful and warlike neighbors by ideal bounda
ries, or by rivers as easily traversed as rivu
lets, are as insects that feed upon the lion'a
lip liable at every moment to be crushed.
The recorded doom of multitudes of such has
left us a warning tco solemn and impressive
to bo disregarded.
Kentucky now scarcely feels the contribu
tion she makes to support the Government of
the United States, but as a member ol' the
Southern Confederacy, of whose policy fiea
trade will be a cardinal principle, she will be
burdened with a direct taxation to the amount
of double, or it may be triple or quadruple
what she now pays into her own treasury.
Superadded to this will be required of her her
share of those vast outlays necessary for the
creation of a navy, the erection of forts and
custom houses along a frontier of several
thousand miles; and for the maintenance of
that large standing army, which will be indis
pensable at once for her safety, and for im
parting to the new government that strong
military character which, it has been openly
avowed, the peculiar institutions of the South
will inexorably demand.
Kentucky now enjoys for her peculiar insti
tution, the protection of the Fugitive Slav
Law, loyally enforced by the Government;
and it is this law, effective in its power of re
capture, but infinitely more potent in its mor
al agency in preventing the escape of tlaves,
that alone saves that institution in the border
States from utter extinction. She cannot car
ry this law with her into the new Confederacy.
She will virtually have Canada brought to her
doors in the form of powerful free States
whose population, relieved of all moral and
constitutional obligation to deliver up fugi
tive slaves, will stand with open arms, invi
ting and welcoming them, and defending them.
if need be, at the point of the bayonet. Un
der such influences, slavery will perish rapid
ly away m Kentucky, as a ball of snow would
melt in a summer's sun.
Kentucky, in her soul, abhors the African
slave trade, and turns away with unspeakable
horror and loathing from the red altars of
King Dahomey. But although this traffic has
been temporarily interdicted by the seceded
States, it is well understood that this step has
been taken as a mere measure f policy for
the purpose of impressing the border States,
and of conciliating the European powers. Th
ultimate legalization of this trade, by a Re
public professing to be based upon African
servitude, must follow as certainly as does the
conclusion from the premises of a mathemati
cal proposition. Is Kentucky prepared to e
the hand upon the dial-plate of her civiliza-
tion rudely thrust back a century, and to
stand before the world the confessed champi
on of the African t lave-hunter ? Is she, with,
her unsullied fame, ready to become a pander
to the rapacity of tho African slave-trader,
who burdens the very winds of the sea with
the moans of tho wretched captives whose
limbs be has loaded with chains, and whose
heatts he has broken? I do- not, I cannot.
believe it.
For this catalogue of what Kentucky must
suffer in abandoning her present honored aud
secured position, and becoming a member of
the Southern Confederacy, what wiii bo her
indemnity? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
The ill-weaved ambition of some of her on
may possibly reach the Presidency of the new
Republic ; that is all. Alas ! for the dream of
the Presidency ot aaoutnern Kepuuiic, which
has disturbed so many pillows in the South,
and, perhaps, some in tho West also, and
whose lurid light, like a demon's torch, is
leading a nation to perdition !
The clamor that in insisting upon the South
obeying the laws, the great principle that all
popular governments rest upon tho consent of
the governed, is violated, should not receive.
COSCLCDEO OX FOURTH PAGE.
t 'I
f ,