New Orleans daily crescent., 1861-07-31
NEupR

Kentucky has proclaimed that she means to take
and keepa position of neutrality in the present
war between the United and Confederate States.
That is to say, she will not fight on either side,
and will not permit either side to fight on her own
soil or pass troops over it.
But this is impraoticable and absurd. II Ken
lucky hadresamed her sovereignty as State, she
might be neutral, but not otherwise. If she were
an independent nation, she might hold aloof equally
from both sides of the contest though then it
would be difficult. But to proclaim neutrality
| while she ia State of the Union, and bound by
| the laws of the Union, is simply ridiculous This
is contest in which either one side or the other
must be taken, and in which riding of the fence
can be done. If Kentucky is not for u.s. she is
against us--and as long as she stays in the old
Union, she IS against US. About the only sensible
thing IN Lncoln's Message is where he overturns
ana disslpates this nonsensical idea of neutrality
10 show what this sort of neutrality leads to- let
US refer to a few facts. The Northern Congress
mas passed {through one House, and probably
through both) bill imposing direct tax of thirty
millions of dollars upon the people. Kentucky's
proportion of this is than one million, and as
long as she is in the Union she is bound to pav it.
Everybody knows that this money is to be used to
carry on the war against the South What sort of
neutrality is that, which contributes a million
Of dollars to help to cut the throats of Southern
people!
so, also, Kentucky, being in the Union, and
bound by the laws of the Union, must pay the
heavy duties recently levied upon coffee, sugar,
tea and other articles which almost necessaries
Of life. She must pay the high duties on every
thing else, as arranged by the Morrill, tariff. This
money goes into the United States Treasury,
and thence it goes to pay off Yankee invaders who
have come down here to throttle the South. And
yet Kentucky coolly tells us that she is neutral!
The war debt of five hundred millions of dollars
created at one dash, (proVided the money can be
borrowed) will be charge upon the people of the
Northern Union; and Kentucky, as long as she is
amember of that Union, will be bound and held
liable for her full proportion. This money is for
the purpose of attempting to subiugate the South
and kentucky helps to furnish it. 1t is mockery
to talk of being neutral, under such circumstances
as these 1t is jug-handle neutrality, all on one
side-and that side the side of the North against
the south. Il Kentucky pays this direct tax into
the United States Treasury we know of no respect
In which she differs from Vermont or Massachusetts,
except that, being Southern State, she is helping
to make war upon her friends and neighbors.
Lincoln was right in saying there could be no
neutrality. whether armed or unarmed. To re. |
main in the Union is to be on the side of our enc
mics, and it is moekery to the South to say that
such State is neutral We have had some hone |
that the four slave States in the Union would see
in time where they were drifting, and would take
measures for their own protection and safety-but
if they pay this direct tax to Lincoln, we hope no
Southern man will any longer consider them as
having the slightest sympathy for the Southern
cause.