The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1860-01-28

A O01A&4@ALkMB vy2W o. N1AAYHRYs
/ .ra ssz u .r..
'La<r u aesy B,sa rsdse II. Pnjtar.
For period Il nearly seventy year. liz p se
Of Kentucky, even from the moment Of their own
existence - free and separate Commonwealth,
have bestowed, first upon your grandfather, and
thea upon your father, and, then upon yourself,
every mark Of confidence andlove It was IN their
power TO bestow and in no instance did they
ever refuse 70 either Of Jon any distinction that
either Of you were willing to accept, and in no
Instance did they ever complain that either 81
you had come short Of what they expected from
YOU. Such Testimonies on the part Of such pc0-
ple accumulated until you now find yourself In D
position for good or evil to the whole nation,
scarcely inferior 70 that Of any other person, in
crease all the ordinary responsibilities which rest
upon You to the very highest degree, and add
new ones the most affecting which can address
themselves to true heart. Every man in the
nation, still more every man in this Common
wealth which has 80 signally honored you, will
ponder these things Just In the degree that they
hope or expect ANYTHING from YOU, in this season,
which you have declared yourself, in the most
public and emphatic manner, declared to be full
peculiarly to the people Of Kentucky. know
you will admit that everyone Of them has the
right to address to you these noble reflections
warning you BY them, in a manner at once ear
nest and confding, that your people do not ex-
pect you to allow their destiny to be compromised
and yourself to be oycrborne and carried away By
events and parties; but they expect and desire
that, what may come, YOU should 20 counsel and
act that Kentucky may do her part, as be-
comes her, for the safety and glory ofthe whole
and that when the worst comes to worst
she may i've or die according to her own free
and separate sense Of her duty and her honor
nor is there one among them all, who, from q
private station and impellcd only by the deepest
interest in the country and in you, could more
properly than myself address to you words OF
confidence and Of hope, and urge upon you, con-
siderations,. connected alike with your own fame
and the glory Of your country, whose due weight
may be easily overlooked amidst the passionate
violence, which to all calm men seems TO prevail
at Washington.
As to the dissolution Of the American Union
the settled and deliberate conviction Of Ken
lucky Is, that it is no remedy for anything
whatever bat that it is itself the direst OF all ca
lamities, Kentucky never had any existance as
Commonwealth, except as one Of the States of
the American Union. She never had disioyal
thought towards that Union-or toward any sis
ter State she never for ono instant desired to en-
large her rights ander the Federal Constitution
or TO exercise any Of those rights offansiyely-or
to deny to others their equal rights under that
Consultation. Wholly unable to comprehend how
it can be to the interest ola State to sccede from
the Union--or how the right to sccede can be
considered anything else but purely revolutionary
!--she sees nothing in the past conduct of the
Federal Government to justify secession fit were
. constitutional remedy; nothing in the aspect Of
the times, promising anything but disaster to the
country, to every seeding State and most cspec-
tally to herself, from the application Of any such
remedy, whether by war, by revolution, by the
formation of new confcderacics, or BY the Sc
cession of individual States. As far as she can
understand, it is mainly the uprnling passion of
unreasonable men, and the violent assertion Of
dubious, or, to say the least, extreme rights-and
the madness of political parties in their struggle
for power, that has brought the country to its
present perilous condition. The true remedy for
such disorders is not the breaking up Of the gov
ernment, but the, due enforcement Of the laws;
and posterity will exccrate to the end of time
whatever Government shall allow the lawless con-
duct Of any portion Of the people, to run into
secession, or to drive others into it. The lives Of
traitors ought not to weigh feather against the
peace or SECURITY much less against the very ex-
istercc OF the nation; and their blood eeneTits
instead of weakening the foundations Of society
Civil war itself within the Union, horrible as
civil war ALWAYS IN is necessarily temporary, and
il consistent with the ultimate preservation Of
everything distinctive in our present nationality
and in all our institutions, general and particular
and universal civil war at this time, Gitltha tie
Union, could hardly fail to end in the permanent
establishment, for the whole country, of just
,l,.,& e. -
But after the division of the Union upon the
slave line, and the necessary breaking out Of the
fierce aad interminabie war along frontier ex-
tending from the Atlantic Ocean TO the western
border Of Missouri, no m,n can forsee state or
case when peace can be ever preserved along that
frontier, as well az it can be in the Uaion, and
any man can see that any future union of the
divided portions Of the confedcracy, if any union
shall ever be possible, must be upon the very
terms which now exist. The inevitable effect of
the recent events at Harpcrs Ferry, taken alto
gether must be to give degree of security to the
whole slave frontier ridsin the Union which no
part of it can ever have ont Of tie Union; and the
handful Of white men and negroes whose frllies
and crimes were consummated there would proba-
bly, be the last as they were the first &, try such
an attempt The whole case ought to be, 10 every
reflective man. a demonstration Of the inestimab!e
value Of the Union, both as it sets bounds to the
passions of men, and as it enables US to punish
crime by due course Of law, instead Of by private
or public war.
Kentucky il through choice slave State
When forming her first Constitution in 1892,
when forming her second Constitution in 1898,
and when forming her present Constitution in
1850, the whole subject was carefully considered
By her people, and each time decided in the same
and it il probable that at the present
there is less disposition amongst her
people to make any change on that subject than
1T any former period. Two facts Of great i'm
portance must not, however, be oyerlooked-l
Iha first is, that no considerable portion Of the
people of Kentucky have ever held extreme
views in favor Of slavery, while very large pro:
portion Of the people have tolerated without
prcferring it, and while the common opinion Of
he people has always been that the relative
growth OF the white over the black race would
DC greater and greater continually, and at some
utafe, perhaps distant, period, slavery would
become an insignificant element in the condition
If the State, The second fact is, that Kentucky
has all along been exposed along frontier Of
even hundred miles Of river border, to greater
wills and losses than all the slave States which
iaye no free frontier pnt together; yet she has
lever for moment manifested any sense of |
Ilarm or insecnrty-made use Of any threats, |
"HiOs3 W 0UtSs Vt eItstfta1lleu sNH2fe tlOuEnt
u secession. She has uniformly acted with |
aimness, moderation, and dignity her citizens |
AVE uniformly relied upon the laws for redress |
gainst such as law coud reach and against the |
awiess promptly redressed themselves, leaving
Q those who did not approve her ways, to amend
heir own, or choose their own remedy against i
cr Undoubtedly she has had great cause to be
undoubtedly her people are the last
. the world to put up with either injuries or in.
ults; undoubtedly she would be prompt to take
p arms against any odds, when she til Fought no
ope was left but in arms and undoubtedly Who
Ferputs her y that extremity, will see good
eason TO regret htying done So
What assert is, that Ior all that has come
I'd gone, she sees no reason for the ruin of the |
ountry one for the dissolution Of the Union, none
,rthe secession ofany State by revolution or other
is, none for allowing herself to be forced into
position fatal to her, by the fanaticism Of 1
ortion of the people of the North, and the pas
ons Of portion Of the South. OF tile fifteen
ave States if Delaware can properly be so con-
deredl the eleven which lie further South than
,entucky, have, as members of the Federal
mon, q thousand times less cause Of complaint
IAN she has, and will not encounter the thous-
a!h part Of her peril if the Union is dissolved.
y Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri
hgya oil In. n