The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-04-29
A Bad position.

a Bad Position.
THREE or four hundred Kentuckians,
mustered into the service of the Confederate
States, started South yesterday from this
city on the Nashville Railroad. We under
stand that they took with them twenty ca
ses of muskets and several pounders.-
Now, we ask in all earnestness, where and
how these muskets were obtained. Ger
tainly they did not come from another
State than this. They must have been
procured in Kentucky; and, if so, they
were unquestionably portion of the public
property. Then who, what public func-
tionary, furnished them to be sent out of
the State and out of the United States for
use in a war against the United States p
What State officer, high low, can have
thus aided in robbing Kentucky of a por-
ton of her very insufficient means of de-
fence, at a time when Governor Magofin
and his friends, in their just alarm at her
comparatively defenceless condition, insist
that the Banks should afford the means of
arming her by giving half Il million of dol
lars to his Excelencv Internationally and
without security
Possibly Governor Magofin can throw
some light upon this matter. It looks dark
enough now.-L0u. Journal.
The telegraph has denied that there is
any truth in the statement that the troops
carried with them the arms mentioned
above. Yet there is no kind Of doubt that
the Union men of Kentucky are entirely
impotent to prevent movements of that
kind. They may, by their appeals, cramp
and embarrass the General Government
in its efforts to crush the rebellion in the
Southern States, with as little loss of life as
practicable, 10y inaugurating a vigorous
blockade-yet they cannot, or do not, pre-
vent the shipping of arms and the enlist
ment of soldiers for Davis's rebel army.
Indeed, Kentucky is more useful to the
Southern Confederacy in her present posi-
tion than if she were to pass an ordinance
of secession and march out of the Union
forthwith. Were she to declare her allie
glance to the federal government at an end,
"a vigorous blockade would at once be estab-
lished along the entire length of the Ohio
river provisions of all kinds would stop
going south, and the ire-eaters would have
to face a famine--a foe more terrible than
an army with banners. To this foe they
would be compelled to suceumb. They
might attempt to carry the war into the
northern states, but every such attempt
would prove a disastrous failure, as the vast
network Of telegraph and railroad lines
would enable the Invaded states to concen-
trate powerful army at any menaced point
within "a hOurs-to repel any attack that
might be made.
But Kentucky remains in the Union. A
portion of her citizens claim to be law abid-
ing and loyal to the Constitution of the U.
S. but neutral aoAen its authority IS assailed. AS
loyal State, she claims that all goods. pro-
visions, and munitions of war, shipped to
any one within her borders, shall not be in
terfered with. Louisville thus becomes the
great mart for supplying the seeded states
with all they want. either of war materials
or army supplies, and the generous, patri-
otto Kentuckians become spectators in the
distress of the country.
We believe there are large numbers of
Kentuckians who are at heart Union men,
but they have assumed an untenable and il
logical position The Secessionists are aware
of this, aud entertain no doubts but that the
State will ultimately secede. They are not
unwilling to let matters drift along quietly
for the present in hopes of obtaining more
arms from the General Government with
which to aid in her destruction. They are
not unwilling that Kentucky shall talk
neutrality, because in that way alone can
starvation and ruin be prevented from
overtakjng the rebellious States So long
as provisions can be had in Louisville and
quickly transported over the Southern
Railroads, the full horrors of war will not
be realized by those who have made haste
to seize the sword.
We insist that the Union men of Ken
lucky, if they are in the majority, ought
to enforce neutrality on all the citizens Of
that Commonwealth. If they are in the
minority, and the secession of the State is
only postponed until the conspirators can
no longer make anything by working in
the dark, it is due them and the whole
country that this neutrality dodge be aban-
doned.