Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1861-12-13
Message of Governor Letcher, of Va.
Concluded from first pdge.)

L have issued arms 10 Such uuarDoQ re-
giments, battalions, and companies, as
came from other States to participate in
this struggle. | have furnished to our
friends in Maryland three thousand mus
kets; to Tennessee FIVE batteries of six
FOUNDER field pieces, comprising four
guns each, and have armed number of
her infantry regiments; to Missouri two
six-pounder rifed cannon and five hun
bred muskets; to Kentucky thirty-six
hundred muskets, and have furnished
arms to regiments, battalions, and COM
panies from Texas, Louisiana, Georgia,
and South Carolina Very recently
have furnished one thousand muskets to
South Carolina, and some heavy guns
and five hundred muskets to North Caro-
lima.
refer with modification and regret
to the unpatriotic spirit which has been
exhibited by portion of our people in
Northwestern Virginia, and to the dis
loyal and revolutionary acts to which
they have resorted to disnember this
Commonwealth, and to organize new
State within its limits. Their conduct
is without justification or excuse. The
professions and pledges of the leading
public men of this section, oft repeated
before, at the time and subsequent to the
passage of the ordinance of secession,
induced the belief that they would abide
by the expressed will Of a majority, as
it might be exhibited at the polls That
will fairly expressed, was overwhelming
ly in favor of the ordinance; and every
obligation of patriotism, every conside-
ration of duty and loyalty, the ties of
kindred and associates should have in
duced them to abide by and acquiesce in
this popular expression of sentiment
While claiming common name Of Virgil
mans, they have sought to place brethren
under the subsection of tyrant and de-
spot, who, in utter disregard of the con-
stitution and laws passed in pursuance
thereof, has invaded the territory of their
native State by hired soldiery, compos-
ed of the reckless and abandoned, the
disolute and depraved, gathered from the
purlieus of the cities and villages of the
North, and the floating scum of western
population. The personnel of their ar
my is living libel on mankind. Aban-
doning their own brethren, they have
given aid and support to these mercena-
ries, and have justified them in shedding
the blood of Virginians upon their own
soil. They have rejoiced with them in
their small victories, and they have
mourned when few thousand of South
ern volunteers have driven their tens of
thousands from the field. Could any,
thing be more unnatural, disgraceful and
reasonable?
A day of retribution will assuredly
come, and with it its certain attendants
OF shame and sorrow. The enemies of
our rights and our peace will be driven
from that fertile and valuable portion Of |
Virginia back to their homes in the
North and the West, and those who have
counselled and abetted them will be made
to feel that Virginia has power to exc
cute her laws and visit punishment upon
the guilty violators.
The northwestern portion of Virginia
must not be abandoned and surrendered
to the traitor residents and marcenary
soldiers who now occupy it. We owe it
to those noble and generous men who
have stood by us throughout this great
struggle, who have sacrificed their all in
their devotion to Virginia and the South,
who are now refugees, scattered here
and there throughout the loyal portions
OF the Commonwealth, far removed from
all the endearments and comforts of
home, and family and friends. We must
restore these men to their homes we
must repossess this country, and bring it
again under subsection to the laws oe
Virginia. The Commonwealth must not
be dismembered. When this war ends.
she must be what she was when it was
inaugurated. The Ohio river was the
western boundary then, and it must-con-
tinue to be her boundary.
This war is to end at some time, and
when it does end, the question of boun-
dairy between the two governments is to
be adjusted. We must therefore recover
every square foot of Southern territory
before we can think even of negotiating
upon the subject We cannot afford to
surrender any part of the slave-holding
territory; and any policy which looks to
such a result should be Indignantly re-
pudiated.
The enemy have recently taken pos
session Of the counties of Accomac and
Northampton with large force, estima-
ted at from six to eight thousand. The
isolated location of these counties, and
the impossibility of supporting the local
volunteers and militia by additional
troops, while the enemy held possession
of Maryland and the bay, made them an
easy capture. These counties must be
recovered, the citizens restored to their
habitations, and relieved from the SUBJ
Jugation to which they have been reduc-
cd. The possession of Maryland is in
dispensable to us in the present condition
OF affairs on the Eastern Shore and in
the northwest.
Kentucky, Virginia's Oldest daugh.
ter, parAlyzed by fratrcidal strife, torn
by intestine commotion, is now passing