The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-07-31
of in the Constitution, you certainly afford
them most powerful encouragement and

/
them most powerful encouragement ant
support. That they regard your presen
position as friendly to- them, is proved by tn,
fact, that, in recent enactment of the Con
federate Congress confscating the debts du
from their own citizens to those ofloyal State.
the debts due to the people of Kentucky ar,
expressly excepted Is not this significant
Does 1t leave any room for doubt that tn,
Confederate Congress suppose they hav'
discovered under the guise Of your reut. ality
lurking sympathy for their cause which
entities you to be treated as friends if not n.
active allies 2 Patriotic as was the purpos,
Of her aPprehensife statesmen in placing he
in the anomalous position she now occupies
it cannot be denied that Kentucky, by be
present attitude, is exerting potent inffu
ence in Strengthening the rebellion, and i,
therefore false alike to her loyalty and to hel
fame. Yoa may rest well assured that thi:
estimate Of your neutrality is entertained by
the true men of the country in all the States
which are sustaining the Government. Within
the last few weeks, how many of those gal.
liant volunteers, who have left home and
kindred ard all that IS dear to them, and are
now under Southern sun, exposing them
selves 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 sad.
ness and longing, "Wil not Kentucky help
me ~ How my soul would have leaped
could have answered promptly, confidinsly,
exultngly, "Yes, she will" But when |
thought of this neutrality, my heart sank
within me, and did not and could net look
these brave men in the face. And vet |
could not answer ..'no:" could not crush
myself to the earth under the self-abasenent
OF such reply. therefore said-and may
my country sustain me,-"I hope, trust, I
pray, nay. | believe, Kentucky will yet do
her duty" $50
If this Government is to be destroyed, ask
yourselves: are you willing it shall be re-
corded in history that Kentucky stood by in
the greatness other strength and lifted not
hand to stay the catastrophe If it is to
be saved-asI ] verify believe it is-are you
willing it shall be written that in the immeas-
urable glory which must attend the achieve.
ment 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
under the feet of hostile soldiery as flower
garden is trampled beneath the threshngs Of
the tempests if she wishes the homes where
her loved ones are now gathering in peace,
invaded by the proscriptive fury ola military
despotism, sparing neither life nor property;
if she wishes the streets of her towns and
cities grown with grass, and the steamboats,
of her rivers to lie rotting at her wh,rves,
then let her join the Southern Confederacy.
But if she would have the bright waters of
that river flow on in their gladness If she
would have her haryests peacefully gathered
to her gamers; if she would have the lula
bies other cradles and the songs 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
their shores once more vocal with the steam.
er's'whistle-that anthem of free and pros
porous commerce-then let her stand fast
by tire Stars and Stripes, and do her duty
and her whole duty as 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
ir charge and are striving to save from dis.
honor and dismemberment is our Govern.
ment your cause is indeed our cause your
battles are our battles make room for ns
therefore in the ranks of your armies, that
your triumph may be our triumph Also"
Even as with the Father of us all would
plead for salvation, SO my countrymen, as
upon my very knees, would l plead with
you for the life, aye for the life, of our great
and benefcent institutions. But if the trait
or'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 o.
sepulchres which whiten the highway of the
past, then my heart felt prayer to God is that
it may be written in history, that the blood
of its life was not found upon the skirts o.
Kentucky.
QnthfmD EffoCt nf rOpo TOv,,n n