a question of Southern rights-which have | neighbor of his forts, his arsenals, his arms, his never been violated-nor of the security of munitions of war, his hospital stores, or any Southern institutions, which we know perfectly thing that is his. Indeed, so impressed are we well have never been interfered with by the with the obligations of this law, that we would General Government, but it is purely with us a no more think of plundering from our neighbor question of national existence. In meeting this half a million of dollars because found in his terrible issue which rebellion has made up unprotected mints, than we would think of with the loyal men of the country, we stand filching a purse from his pocket in a crowded upon ground infinitely above all party lines and thoroughfare. Write us down, therefore, “subparty platforms-ground as sublime as that on missionists." Again, the law says, "Thou which our fathers stood when they fought the shalt not swear falsely; " we submit to this law, battles of the Revolution. I am for throwing and while in the civil or military service of the into the contest thus forced upon us all the country, with an oath to support the Constitumaterial and moral resources and energies of tion of the United States resting upon our conthe nation, in order that the struggle may be sciences, we would not for any earthly considbrief and as little sanguinary as possible. It is eration engage in the formation or execution of hoped that we shall soon see in the field half a conspiracy to subvert that very Constitution a million of patriotic volunteers, marching in and with it the Government to which it has columns which will be perfectly irresistible, given birth. Write us down, therefore, again, and, borne in their hands-for no purpose of “submissionists." Yet again, when a President conquest or subjugation, but of protection only has been elected in strict accordance with the -we may expect within nine months to see the form and spirit of the Constitution, and has Stars and Stripes floating in every Southern been regularly installed into office, and is honbreeze, and hear going up, wild as the storm, estly striving to discharge his duty by snatchthe exultant shout of that emancipated people ing the republic from the jaws of a gigantic over their deliverance from the revolutionary treason which threatens to crush it, we care not terror and despotism by which they are now what his name may or may not be, or what the tormented and oppressed. The war, conducted designation of his political party, or what the on such a scale, will not cost exceeding four or platform on which he stood during the presi five hundred millions of dollars; and none need dential canvass; we believe we fulfil in the be startled at the vastness of this expenditure. sight of earth and heaven our highest obligaThe debt thus created will press but slightly tions to our country, in giving to him an earupon us; it will be paid and gladly paid by nest and loyal support in the struggle in which posterity, who will make the best bargain he is engaged. which has been made since the world began, if they can secure to themselves, in its integrity and blessings, such a Government as this, at such a cost. But, if in this anticipation we are doomed to disappointment; if the people of the United States have already become so degenerate-may I not say so craven-in the presence of their foes as to surrender up this Republic to be dismembered and subverted by the traitors who have reared the standard of revolt against it, then, I trust, the volume of American history will be closed and sealed up forever, and that those who shall survive this national humiliation will take unto themselves some other name, some name baving no relation to the past, no relation to our great ancestors, no relation to those monuments and battle-fields which commemorate alike their heroism, their loyalty, and their glory.

---

But with the curled lip of scorn we are told by the disunionists that, in thus supporting a Republican Administration in its endeavors to uphold the Constitution and the laws, we are "submissionists," and when they have pronounced this word, they suppose they have imputed to us the sum of all human abasement. Well, let it be confessed, we are submissionists," and weak and spiritless as it may be deemed by some, we glory in the position we occupy. For example, the law says, "Thou shalt not steal; " we would submit to this law, and would not for the world's worth rob our

66

Nor are we at all disturbed by the flippant taunt that, in thus submitting to the authority of our Government, we are necessarily cowards. We know whence this taunt comes, and we estimate it at its true value. We hold that there is a higher courage in the performance of duty than in the commission of crime. The tiger of the jungle and the cannibal of the South Sea Islands have that courage in which the revolutionists of the day make their especial boast; the angels of God and the spirits of just men made perfect have had, and have that courage which submits to the law. Lucifer was a non-submissionist, and the first secessionist of whom history has given us any account, and the chains which he wears fitly express the fate due to all who openly defy the laws of their Creator and of their country. He rebelled because the Almighty would not yield to him the throne of heaven. The principle of the Southern rebellion is the same. Indeed, in this submission to the laws is found the chief distinction between good men and devils. A good man obeys the laws of truth, of honesty, of morality, and all those laws which have been enacted by competent authority for the government and protection of the country in which he lives; a devil obeys only his own ferocious and profligate passions. The principle on which this rebellion proceeds, that laws have in themselves no sanctions, no binding force upon the conscience, and that every man,

under the promptings of interest, or passion, or caprice, may at will, and honorably, too, strike at the Government that shelters him, is one of utter demoralization, and should be trodden out as you would tread out a spark that has fallen on the roof of your dwelling. Its unchecked prevalence would resolve society into chaos, and leave you without the slightest guarantee for life, liberty, or property. It is time, that, in their majesty, the people of the United States should make known to the world that this Government, in its dignity and power, is something more than a moot court, and that the citizen who makes war upon it is a traitor, not only in theory but in fact, and should have meted out to him a traitor's doom. The country wants no bloody sacrifice, but it must and will have peace, cost what it may.

in the grass of rebellion, and those who handle it will sooner or later feel its fangs. Said one who spake as never man spake, "He who is not with us is against us;" and of none of the conflicts which have arisen between men or between nations, could this be more truthfully said than of that in which we are now involved. Neutrality necessarily implies indifferenco. Is Kentucky indifferent to the issues of this contest? Has she, indeed, nothing at stake? Has she no compact with her sister States to keep, no plighted faith to uphold, no renown to sustain, no glory to win? Has she no horror of that crime of crimes now being committed against us by that stupendous rebellion which has arisen like a tempest-cloud in the South? We rejoice to know that she is still a member of this Union, and as such she has the same inBefore closing, I desire to say a few words terest in resisting this rebellion that each limb on the relations of Kentucky to the pending re- of the body has in resisting a poignard whose bellion; and as we are all Kentuckians here point is aimed at the heart. It is her house together to-night, and as this is purely a family that is on fire; has she no interest in extinguishmatter, which concerns the honor of us all, I ing the conflagration? Will she stand aloof hope we may be permitted to speak to each and announce herself neutral between the ragother upon it with entire freedom. I shall not ing flames and the brave men who are perilling detain you with any observations on the hostile their lives to subdue them? Hundreds of and defiant position assumed by the Governor thousands of citizens of other States-men of of your State. In his reply to the requisition culture and character, of thought and of toilupon him for volunteers under the proclama- men who have a deep stake in life, and an intion of the President, he has, in my judgment, tense appreciation of its duties and responsibiliwritten and finished his own history, his epi- ties, who know the worth of this blessed Govtaph included, and it is probable that in future ernment of ours, and do not prize even their the world will little concern itself as to what own blood above it-I say, hundreds of thouhis Excellency may propose to do, or as to what sands of such men have left their homes, their he may propose not to do. That response has workshops, their offices, their counting-houses, made for Kentucky a record which has already and their fields, and are now rallying about our brought a burning blush to the cheek of many flag, freely offering their all to sustain it, and of her sons, and is destined to bring it to the since the days that crusading Europe threw its cheek of many more in the years that are to hosts upon the embattled plains of Asia, no come. It is a shame, indeed a crying shame, deeper, or more earnest, or grander spirit has that a State with so illustrious a past should stirred the souls of men than that which now have written for her, by her own chief magis- sways those mighty masses whose gleaming trate, a page of history so utterly humiliating banners are destined ere long to make bright as this. But your Legislature have determined again the earth and sky of the distracted South. that during the present unhappy war the atti- Can Kentucky look upon this sublime spectacle tude of the State shall be that of strict neutrali- of patriotism unmoved, and then say to herty, and it is upon this determination that I wish self: "I will spend neither blood nor treasure, respectfully but frankly to comment. As the but I will shrink away while the battle rages, motives which governed the Legislature were and after it has been fought and won, I will redoubtless patriotic and conservative, the conclu- turn to the camp, well assured that if I cannot sion arrived at cannot be condemned as dishon- claim the laurels, I will at least enjoy the blessorable; still, in view of the manifest duty of ings of the victory"? Is this all that remains the state and of possible results, I cannot but of her chivalry-of the chivalry of the land of regard it as mistaken and false, and one which the Shelbys, the Johnsons, the Allens, the Clays, may have fatal consequences. Strictly and the Adairs, and the Davieses? Is there a Kenlegally speaking, Kentucky must go out of the tuckian within the sound of my voice to-night, Union before she can be neutral. Within it she who can hear the anguished cry of his country is necessarily either faithful to the Government as she wrestles and writhes in the folds of this of the United States, or she is disloyal to it. gigantic treason, and then lay himself down If this crutch of neutrality, upon which the upon his pillow with this thought of neutrality, well-meaning but ill-judging politicians are halt-without feeling that he has something in his ing, can find any middle ground on which to bosom which stings him worse than would an rest, it has escaped my researches, though I adder? Have we, within the brief period of have diligently sought it. Neutrality, in the eighty years, descended so far from the mounsense of those who now use the term, however tain heights on which our fathers stood, that patriotically designed, is, in effect, but a snake already, in our degeneracy, we proclaim our

blood too precious, our treasure too valuable to | of antagonism. Your inaction is a virtual inbe devoted to the preservation of such a Gov- dorsement of the rebellion, and if you do not ernment as this? They fought through a sey- thereby give to the rebels precisely that "aid en years' war with the greatest power on earth, and comfort" spoken of in the Constitution, for the hope, the bare hope, of being able to you certainly afford them a most powerful enfound this republic, and now that it is no longer couragement and support. That they regard a hope nor an experiment, but a glorious re- your present position as friendly to them, is ality, which has excited the admiration and the proved by the fact that, in a recent enactment homage of the nations, and has covered us with of the Confederate Congress confiscating the blessings as "the waters cover the channels of debts due from their own citizens to those of the sea," have we, their children, no years of loyal States, the debts due to the people of toil, of sacrifice, and of battle even, if need be, Kentucky are expressly excepted. Is not this to give, to save it from absolute destruction at significant? Does it leave any room for doubt the hands of men who, steeped in guilt, are per- that the Confederate Congress suppose they petrating against us and humanity a crime, for have discovered, under the guise of your neuwhich I verily believe the blackest page of the trality, a lurking sympathy for their cause history of the world's darkest period furnishes which entitles you to be treated as friends, if no parallel! Can it be possible that in the his- not as active allies? Patriotic as was the purtory of the American people we have already pose of her apprehensive statesmen in placing reached a point of degeneracy so low, that the her in the anomalous position she now occupies, work of Washington and Franklin, of Adams it cannot be denied that Kentucky by her presand Jefferson, of Hancock and Henry, is to be ent attitude is exerting a potent influence in overthrown by the morally begrimed and pig- strengthening the rebellion, and is, therefore, mied conspirators who are now tugging at its false alike to her loyalty and to her fame. You foundation? It would be the overturning of may rest well assured that this estimate of your the Andes by the miserable reptiles that are neutrality is entertained by the true men of the crawling in the sands at their base. country in all the States which are are now sustaining the Government. Within the last few weeks how many of those gallant volunteers who have left home and kindred, and all that is dear to them, and are now under a southern sun, exposing themselves to death from disease and to death from battle, and are accounting their lives as nothing in the effort they are making for the deliverance of your Government and theirs; how many of them have said to me in sadness and in longing, "Will not Kentucky help us?" How my soul would have leaped could I have answered promptly, confidently, exultingly, "Yes, she will! " But when I thought of this neutrality my heart sank within me, and I did not and I could not look those brave men in the face. And yet I could not answer, "No." I could not crush myself to the earth under the self-abasement of such a reply. I therefore said-and may my country sustain me-"I hope, I trust, I pray, nay, I believe Kentucky will yet do her duty."

But our neutral fellow-citizens in the tenderness of their hearts say: "This effusion of blood sickens us." Then do all in your power to bring it to an end. Let the whole strength of this commonwealth be put forth in support of the Government, in order that the war may be terminated by a prompt suppression of the rebellion. The longer the struggle continues, the fiercer will be its spirit, and the more fearful the waste of life attending it. You therefore only aggravate the calamity you deplore by standing aloof from the combat. But again they say, "We cannot fight our brethren." Indeed? But your brethren can fight you, and with a good will, too. Wickedly and wantonly have they commenced this war against you and your institutions, and ferociously are they prosecuting it. They take no account of the fact that the massacre with which they hope their swords will, ere long, be clogged, must be the massacre of their brethren. However much we may bow our heads at the confession, it is If this Government is to be destroyed, ask nevertheless true that every free people that yourselves are you willing it shall be recorded have existed have been obliged, at one period in history that Kentucky stood by in the greator other of their history, to fight for their liber-ness of her strength and lifted not a hand to ties against traitors within their own bosoms, and that people who have not the greatness of soul thus to fight, cannot longer continue to be free, nor do they deserve to be so.

There is not, and there cannot be, any neutral ground for a loyal people between their own Government and those who, at the head of armies, are menacing its destruction. Your inaction is not neutrality, though you may delude yourselves with the belief that it is so. With this rebellion confronting you, when you refuse to cooperate actively with your Government in subduing it, you thereby condemn the Government, and assume toward it an attitude

stay the catastrophe? If it is to be saved, as I verily believe it is, are you willing it shall be written that, in the immeasurable glory which must attend the achievement, Kentucky had no part?

I will only add, if Kentucky wishes the waters of her beautiful Ohio to be dyed in blood-if she wishes her harvest fields, now waving in their abundance, to be trampled beneath the feet of hostile soldiery, as a flowergarden is trampled beneath the threshings of the tempest-if she wishes the homes where her loved ones are now gathered in peace, invaded by the proscriptive fury of a military

despotism, sparing neither life nor property-if | informed that these provisions were to be sent she wishes the streets of her towns and cities for to-night (July 14) by some person who was grown with grass, and the steamboats of her riv- to convey them and the negroes on the plantaers to lie rotting at her wharves, then let her join tion to the Southern army. On this representhe Southern Confederacy; but if she would have tation, he took into possession three horses, and the bright waters of that river flow on in their the negroes harnessed up one four-mule team gladness-if she would have her harvests peace- to a wagon, and one two-mule team to a wagon, fully gathered to her garners-if she would and got in, to the number of ten, of their own have the lullabies of her cradles and the songs accord, and drove to my camp. of her homes uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle-if she would have the streets of her towns and cities again filled with the hum and throngs of busy trade, and her rivers and her shores once more vocal with the steamer's whistle, that anthem of a free and prosperous commerce, then let her stand fast by the Stars and Stripes, and do her duty, and her whole duty as a member of this Union. Let her brave people say to the President of the United States: "You are our chief magistrate; the Government you have in charge, and are striving to save from dishonor and dismemberment, is our Government; your cause is indeed our cause; your battles are our battles; make room for us, therefore, in the ranks of your armies, that your triumph may be our triumph also."

Even as with the Father of us all I would plead for salvation, so, my countrymen, as upon my very knees, would I plead with you for the life, aye for the life, of our great and beneficent institutions. But if the traitor's knife, now at the throat of the republic, is to do its work, and this Government is fated to add yet another to that long line of sepulchres which whiten the highway of the past, then my heartfelt prayer to God is, that it may be written in history, that the blood of its life was not found upon the skirts of Kentucky!

Doc. 91.

REPORT OF COL. DAVIES.

HEAD-QUARTERS, 2D BRIGADE 5TH DIVISION,
July 14, 1861.

To Col. Miles, Commanding 5th Division Troops,
Department of Northeastern Virginia.
SIR:-In pursuance of your verbal order of
yesterday, I made a reconnoissance on the Fair-
fax road, seven miles out, and on the Richmond
road about ten miles, and on the Mount Vernon
road as far as Mount Vernon. The pickets on the
Fairfax road captured a newly-painted ambu-
lance, containing a set of harness and two bags
of buckwheat. On the curtain, on the inside,
was distinctly written in pencil, "John Hughes,
Fairfax." The picket on the Richmond road
saw three horsemen, who, by a dexterous turn,
evaded a shot from the picket. The picket on
the Mount Vernon road, in its diligence, dis-
covered, on the premises of one John A. Wash-
ington, formerly a resident and still an occu-
pant of a large estate near Mount Vernon, what
was supposed to amount to eight thousand
pounds of bacon, and seventy-five barrels of
fish. The officer in charge of the picket was

Deeming the transaction of sufficient consequence to merit my individual attention, and supposing that I might capture the force sent to convey these provisions away, I immediately ordered out three companies of the 10th Regiment, and, taking the two teams referred to and two others, proceeded to capture the provisions and bring them to camp. On arriving at the plantation I proceeded to make inquiry and ascertain if such an amount of provisions was really upon the place. I could not find any thing like the quantity of bacon-not more than sufficient, in iny judgment, to carry on the operations of the plantation, whatever might have been there in the morning; but I found twenty-five barrels more fish (one hundred in all) than were at first represented. On looking the whole matter over, whatever may be my individual views as to the confiscation of the property of rebels, who are using it and its income to overthrow the Government, I considered that the case was not sufficiently plain to authorize me to retain the mule teams, or seize upon the fish and bacon, although their owner is well known to be an officer high in rank in the rebel army, and now in active command.

As to the negroes, there being no law or orders directing me either to cause them to remain at home or to prevent them from volunteering to do team duty in my brigade, I shall allow them to remain until otherwise directed. I, however, have placed a guard over the provisions, the mules, and the wagons on the estate, and shall await your orders for their disposition. THOMAS A. DAVIES,

Colonel Commanding 2d Brigade, 5th Division
Troops, N. E. Army, Virginia,

Doc. 92.

MOVEMENT ON BUNKER HILL.

BUNKER HILL, Berkeley Co., Va., July 16, 1861. GEN. PATTERSON moved, with his whole column, except two regiments, early yesterday morning to this place, where it is now encamped, ten miles from Martinsburg and twelve from Winchester. The army marched in two columns, one composed of the First Division, Major-General Cadwalader, and the Second Division, Major-General Kiem commanding; and the other of the Seventh and Eighth Brigades, Cols. Stone and Butterfield forming a Third Division, Major-General Sandford commanding. The First and Second Divisions came by the turnpike, and the Third by the old dirt roadboth roads converging at this point. The troops