The weekly Butte record., 1861-08-31
SPEECH OF JOSEPH HOLT TO THE
KENTUCKY TROOPS.
[From the Louisville Journal.l

you have resolved that no earthly power shall
rob you of this proud tile, or in any manner
curtail the privileges and blessings associated
with it, that you have become soldiers. Your
soldiership is but the stately armor you have
donned for the purpose of doing battle in de-
fense of that citizenship which is at once the
most intense and The most truthful expression
of your political life.
Nor poor words of mine could adequately
convey to you the grateful emotions inspired
by the kindness and warmth of this welcome.
should have been rejoced to meet you any
where. How full, therefore, the measure of
my happiness must be to meet you here in such
presence, and amid the thrilling associations
inseparabe from the scene, you can well under
stand. l should have felt proud to have my
name connected with the humblest trapping oil
/ your encampment, but TO have liked it with
the encampment itself, and thus inscribed as it
were upon one of the mle-stones that mark
your progress toward those fields of danger and
of fame that await you, is at once an honor and
token of your confidence and good will for
which | cannot be too profoundly thankful.
1t is not my purpose to occupy you with any
political discussion. The cleaning banner,
the glisteuing bayonets and the martial music,
and indeed all that meets the eye or The ear up
on this tented field admonish me that with you
at least the argument is exhausted and that
you have no longer doubts to solve or hesita-
ting convictions to confirm Your resolution
is taken, and you openly proclaim that, let
others do as they will, as for yourselves, un-
chilled by the Arctic airs of neutrality, you are
determined to love your country, and unawed
by traitors, to fight its battles and if need be.
to lay down your lives for its preservation. 1t
is indeed transporting to the patriots heart to
look upon the faces of men that are thus sub
timely resolved, and there is for me positive
enchantment in the very atmosphere whose
pulsations have been stirred by the breathings
of their heroic spirits. Now that the booming
of the cannon of treason, and the cry of men
stricken unto death for fidelity to our flag are
borne to US on almost every breeze, it is har-
rowing to the soul to be dragged into compan-
ionship with those who still vacillate, who are
still timidly balancing chances and coldly cal
culating losses and gains-who still persist in
treating this agonised struggle for National ex-
istence as a petty question of commere and de-
liberately take out their scales and weigh in
our presence the beggarly jewels of trade
against the life of our country.
Soldiers, next to the worship of the Father
of US all, the deepest and grandest of human
emotions is the love of the land that gave US
birth 1t is an enlargement and exaltation of
| all the tenderest and strongest sympathics Of
kindred and of home. In all countries and
climes it has lived, and has defed chains and
dungeons and racks to crush it. 1t has strewed
the earth with its monuments, and has SIZED
undying luster on thousand fields on which it
has battled. Through the night of ages Their
mopylae glows like some mountain peak on
which the morning sun has risen, because twe1-
ty-three hundred years ago the hallowing pas
sion touched its mural precipicts and its frown-
ing crags. 1t is easy, however, to be patriotic
in piping times of peace and in the sunny hour
OF prosperity. 1t is national sorrow-it is war,
with its attendant pers and horrors that tests
this passion, and winnows from the masses
those who, with all their love of life, still love
their country more. While your present posi-
tion is a most vivid and impressive illustration
of patriotism, it has a glory peculiar and alto
gether It's own. The mercenary armies which
have swept VIGOROUSLY over the world and
have gathered so many of the laurels that his
tory has enbamed, were but machines, drafted
into the service of ambitious spirits, whom
they obeyed, and little understood or appre-
cated the problems their blood was poured out
to solve.
But while you have all the dauntless physi-
cal courage which they displayed, you add to
it thorough knowledge of the argument on
which this mighty movement proceeds, and a
moral heroism, which, breaking away from the
entanglemens of kindred aud friends and State
policy, enables you to follow your convictions
Of duty even though they should lead you up
to the cannon's mouth 1t must ever be added,
that with this elevation of position come cor
responding responsibilities. Soldiers as you
are by conviction, the country looks not to
your officers, chivalric and skillful as they may
be, but to you and each of you, for the safety
of those vast national interests committed to
the fortunes of this war. Your camp life will
expose you to many temptations you should
resist them as you would resist the advancing
squadrons of the enemy. In every hour Of
peril or inctement to excess, you will say to
yourselves, "Our country sees us" and so act
as to stand forth soldiers, not only without
fear, but also without reproach each moment,
not absorbed by the tolls and duties of your
military life, should, as far as practicable, be
devoted to that mental aud moral training,
without which the noblest volunteers must sink
to level with any arm Of mercenaries.
Alike in the inaction of the camp, and the
fatigues of the march, and the charge and
shouts of battle, you will remember that you
have in your keeping, not only your own per-