Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-09-21
SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH HOLT
To- THE KENTUCKY TROOPS.

II oi ' te'sihrt Npu uaNN 'SS''NS' 'p"'
no earthly power shall rob You of this
proud title, or in any manner curtail
the pri,iledses and blessings associated
with it. that Won have become soldiers.
Your solJiership i but the stately ar
NOR Won have donned for the purpose
of doing battle in defense of that citi-
zenship which i at once the most i'll
tense and the mos, truthful expression
of your political life.
No poor words of mine could ade-
quately convey 10 you the grateful emo
tons inspired by the kindness and
warmth of this welcome. / should
have been rcjoiced to meet YOU any
where. How full. therefore. the meas
ure of my happiness must he to meet
You here in such presence. and amid
the thrilling associations i"scpcrable
from the scene, you can well under
stand, / should have felt proud to have
my name connected with the humblcst
trapping of your cncampment, but to
have linked it with the cncampmcnt
ite!f, 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
Mt once an honor and Il token of your
confidence and good will for which l
cannot be too profoundly thankful.
1t is not my purpose to occupy you
with any political discussion. The
cleaning banner the glistcning bayon-
cts and the martial music, and indeed
all that meets the eye or the ear upon
this tented field, atlmonish me that with
YOU at least the argument is exhausted,
and that you have no longerany doubts
to solve or hesitating convictions to
confirm. Your resolution is taken, and
you openly proclaim that, let others do
as they will, as for yourselves, unchillsd
by the Arctic airs of neutrality, you are
determined to love your country, and
unuwed by traitors, to fight its battles,
and if need be, to lay down your lives
for its preservation. 1t is indeed trans
porting to the patriots heart to look
upon the faces of men that arc thus
sublimely resolved, and there is for me
a positive enchantment in the very at
mosphcre whose pulsations have been
stirred by the brcathings of their hero
ic 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 ev-
cry breeze, it is narrowing to the soul
to be dragged into companionship with
those who still vacillate, who are still
timidly balancing chances and coldIy
calculating losses and gains-who still
persist in treating this agonized strug-
gle for national existence as petty
question of commerce, and deliberately
take out their scales and weigh in our
presence the beggarly jewels OF trade
against the life of the nation.
Soldiers, next to the worship of the
Father of us all, the deepest and grand
est of human emotions is the love of the
land that gave us birth. 1t is an en-
largcmcnt and eXaltation of all the ten
dcrcst and strongest sympathies of kim
dred and of home. IN all countries
and climes it has lived, and has ,lcticd
chains and dungeons and racks to
crush it. It has strcwcd the earth
with its monuments, and has shed un-
dying lustrc on thousand fields in
which it has hattled. Through the
night of ages Thermorylm glows like
some mountain peak on which the sun
has risen, because twenty-thrcc hund-
red years ago the haIlowing passion
touched its mural prccipices and its
f.'own!:s cTags. 1t is easy, however,
to be patriotic in piping times OF peace
aud IL the sunny hour OF prosperity.
1t is national sorrow-itis war. with It's
attendant I,eriIs aud 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 position is a most
vivid and impressive illustration of pa
triotism, it has glory peculiar and al
together It's own. The merccnary ar
mics which have swept victoriously
over the world and have gathered SO
many of the laurcls that history has
embalmed, were but machines, drafted
into the service of ambitious spirits
whom they obeyed, and little under
stood or appreciated the problems their
blood was poured out to solve.
But while you have all the danntless
physical courage which they displayed,
you add to it thorough knowledge
of the argument on which this mighty
movement proceeds, and moral her,'-
ism. which, breaking away from the en-
tan nglements 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