The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-07-18
speech of Hon. Joseph e. Holt.

Speech of Hon. Joseph Z. Holt.
The Hon. Joseph f. Holt having been in
vted to address the citizens of Louisville,
complied with the request on Saturday night
last 1t need hardly be said that the au-
dience was worthy the occasion and the
man. The address was one of the most ell
oquent outbursts of patriotic devotion to the
scathiug rebuke to secession and neutrality
that has yet come to our notice. We regret
our inability to publish it in full We can
not refrain, however, from copying, entire
his rebuke to the I" neutrality men of the
old commonwealth, with his admirable pc.
roration:
Before closing, desire to say few words
on the relations of Kentucky to the pending
rebellion; and, as we are all Kentuckians
here together tonight. and as this is purely
a family matter, which concerns the honor
of US all, hope we may be permitted to
speak to each other with entire freedom
l shall not detaiu you with observations on
the hostile and defiant position assumed by
the Governor Of your State. In reply to
the requisition made upon him for vnlun-
teers, under the proclamation of the Presi-
dent, he has, in my judment, written aud
finished his own history, his epitaph includ-
ed and 1t is probable that in future the
world will little concern itself as to what
his excellency may propose to do, or as to
what he may propose not to do. That res
ponse has made for Kentucky a record that
has already brought burning blush to the
cheek of many of her sons and is destined
to bring it to the cheek of many more in the
years which are to come. 1t is shame, in
deed crying shame, that a State with so
ilustrious past should have written for her,
by her own chief magistrate page of his
tory so utterly humiliating as this. But
your Legislature have determined that du-
ring the present unhappy war the attitude
of the State shall be that of strict neutrali-
ty, and it is upon this determination that
wish respectfully, but frankly to comment.
As the motives which governed the Legis-
lature were doubtless patriotic and conserv-
alive, the conclusion arrived at cannot be
condemned as dishonorable, still, in view of
the manifest duty of the State and of posi-
BILE results, / cannot but regard it as mista-
ken md false, and one which may have ia
tai consequences. Strictly and legally
speaking, Kentucky must go out of the
Union before she can be neutral Within
it she is necessarily either faithful to the
government of the United States, or she is
disloyal to it. If this crutch of neutrality,
upon which her wel-meaning but ill.iudg-
ing politicians are hating, can find any
middle ground on which to rest, it has es-
capped my researches, though have dill
gently sought it. Neutrality, in the sense
of those who now use the term, however
periodically designed, is, in effect, but a
snake in the grass of rebellion, and those
who handle it will. sooner or LATER feel its
fangs Said oneSwho spake as man never
spake, "he who is not with US ia against
ms and in none of the coHffic:s " hich have
arisen between men or between nations.
could this be more trutbfully said, than of 1
that in which we are now involved Neu- /
trality necessarily implies indifference L. |
Kentucky Indifferent 10 fiir issues OF this /
contest Has she, indeed, nothing at
stalker Has she no compact with her sister
States to keep no plighted faith to uphold, |