Year: 1860

TUCKY.


For period of nearly seventy years the people OF
Kentucky even from the moment of their own eXis-
tence as a free and separate Commonwealth have be-
slowed first upon your grandfather and then upon your


father and then upon YOURSELF every marx OF confidence
and love in their power TO bestOW and IN no instance
did they refuse either of you any distinction that
either of you willing accept and in no instance did
they complain that either of you had come short OF
what they expected from you. Such testimonies on the
part Of such people accumulated until you no" ma
Yourself in q position for good evil to the whole ma
ton scarcely interior TO that OF any other person, IN
crease all the ordinary responsibilities which rest upon
YOU the very hghes. degree and add new ones the
affecting which address themselves to true
heart. Every in this nation, still more every man
in the Commonwealth which has sgnally honOred you,
will ponder these things just in the degree that they
pect hope anything from yOu in this season, which
YOU have yourself, in the most public and emphatic
manner declared to be full of peril TO the whole Amer-
people, and peculiarly to the people OF kentuc-
kv know you will admit that every OF them has the


right 10 address YOU these noble notwithstanding
you by them in at once earnest and conhdmg,
that people do not expect you TO allow their destiny
be compromised, and yourself 10 be oyerborne anu
carried away by and parties but that they expect
and desire that let what may come, you should coun-
sci and act that Kentucky may do her part becomes
her for the safety and glory of the whOe-and that when
the she may live die according to her own
free and separate OF her duty and honor Nor
there one amsng them all, who, from private station
aud impeed only by the deepest interest in the country
and in you could more properly than myself address to
you words of confidence and hope and urge upon you
considerations connected alike with your fame and
the glory of your country, whose due weight may be eas
N overlooked amidst the passionate violence which to all
/ calm men seems to prevail at Washington


As TO the dissolution of the American UniOn-thc set


tied and deliberate conviction of Kentucky IS that 1t is
remedy for anything whatever but that 1t Itself the
direst of all calamites. Kentucky had any eXs


ence a Commonwealth except one of the States Of


the American Union. She never had disloya thought
towards that Uniou-Or towards any sister State, she
for instant desired to enlarge her rights under
/ h Federal COnsuUuon-or 10 exercise any OF those
rights oeusivey-or deny others their equal rights
under that Constitution. Wholly unable to comprehend
how be the interest of any State to ecede from
the Unon-Or how the right to secede be considered
anything else but purely revolutionary she nothing
in the past conduct of the Federal Government 10 justify
secession il it constitutional remedy nothing III
the aspect of the times promising anything but disaster
/ 70 the country, 10 every seCeedng State and most
/ especially 20 herself from the application of any
such remedy whether by war, by revolution, by the
/ formation of coniedcracies, or by the secession
of individual States As far she understand, 1t Is
maaly the unruy passions Of unreasonable men, and the
violent assertion OF dubious 10 say the least extreme
rghts-snd the madness of political parties in their strug
gle for power that has brought the country TO It's present
/ perilous condition The remedy for such disorders
is the breaking up Of the Government but the due
enforcement of the laws, aud poSerity will execrae 20
the end of time whatever Government shall allow the law


less conduct of any portion Of the people into
ce,Sion drive others into it, The lives OF traitors
ought not weigh feaiheragaiast the peace secur
~ much less against the very existence OF the nation;
aud their blood cements instead Of weakening the OU
cations of society. Civil itself within the Union,
horrible as civil always is is necessarily temporary
and is consistent with the ultimate preservation of every
thing distinctive in our present nationality and in all
our institutions general and particular; and universal
| civil war at this time, ,ribu the Union could hard
| y fail 20 end IN the permanent establishment, for
] the whole country OF just what our fathers cstab-
shcd from l716 to l7Sg. But after the division of
the Union upon the slave line and the necessary break


ing of fierce and nterminable war along frontier
extending from the Atlantic Ocean the border
| of Missouri no man can tOresee state of when
peace can be preserved along that frontier Well
can be in the Union, ald every can see that any
future union OF the divided portions OF the cJu!eleacy


t any union shall ever be possible, mus. be upon the
very terms which now exist The inevitable effect of
the recent events at Harpers Ferry taken altogether
be 20 give degree of security TO the whole slave
| frontier cittin He Uou which part Of it ever
/ have ont IF the Union and the handful Of white
aud negroes whose foes and crimes consummated
there would probably le the last as they were the first


try such attempt The whole ought TO be- to
every rejecting man, demonstration of The iuesumable
value of the Union both AS bounds TO the passions
of men, and enables 10 punish crime by due course
| Of law instead OF by private or public war.


Kentucky is through choice a slave State. When form
ing her FIRST Constitution in 1892 when forming her sec
oud Constitution IN iIg5 and when forming her present
Constitution in 1850 the whole subject va. carefully con
,dered boy her people aud each time decided IN the
manner; aud it is probable that at the present
there less disposition amongst her people 10 make any
change that subject than any former period Two
dcts of great Importance must not howeverbe overlook
ed. The first Is that 10 considerable portion Of the peO
pie of Kentucky have held extreme views in favor Of
slavery while very large proportion of the people have
tolerated without preterriug it, and while the common
opinion of the people has always been that the relative
growth of the white the black would be greater
and greater continually, and at some future perhaps dis
period slavery wOGd BECOME Insignificant element
IN the condition OF the The second icts that Ken
lucky has all along been exposed along frontier Of 100
miles of river border 70 greater evils and losses than
all the slave States which have free frontier put
setheT et she has never for moment manifested any
OF alarm i.s~cSg,tvmade use OF any threats,
camOr or abuse entertained s,nac t.ogght Of Sc
cession She has uniformly acted with calmness mOder
ation and dignity her citizens have uniformly relied
upon tie laws for redress against such law could reach
and against those 4SeSs promptly redressed themselves


leaving to those who did not approve er ways amend
their own choose their own remedy against hex. I'm
dOubtedy she has had great 70 be dissatisfied
dOubtedy her people the last in the world to put
up with either injuries insults undoubtedly she would
be prompt take up against any odds, when she
thought hope left but in arms and undoubtedly
whoever puts her TO that sAtremy W good reason
| 70 regret having done What ! assert H. that for
| AL that has come and gone she 10 reason for
the ruin Of the country none for the dissolution OF the
Unon none for the secession Of any State, by revO-
| luton or otherwise, none for allowing herself TO be
forced into position fatal to her by the nacsm of


portion of the people Of the North and the passions Of
a portion of the South. OF the fifteen slave States Cif
Delaware can properly be so cOnsidered the eleven
which lie further South than Kentucky, have, a.
bers of the Federal CnGn, thousand times less
Of complaint than she has and will not encounter the
thousaudth part of her peril the Union is dissolved
Ii is Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, ana Missouri that
have borne all the loss and annoyance and ARE to bear
all the impending peril 1t is to these four States, there


fore that the decision Of the national aspects of these
impending peris emphatcaly appertaGs so far as that
decision appertanS the slave States all And every
wise and generous impulse ought to prompt the people
Of the other eleven States fogbear whateYe: Of
action is dsapproyei by these four border States. And
these four great States bound by the highest
sderaons both of patriotism and Of interest throw
their united weight against all sudden rash and uncon
Stiuonal action the part OF the slave States and If
the worst comes TO secure themselves position COM
patabe with their honor their freedom and their
safety In like manner the border free States New Jer-
| sew, Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana Illinois, and Iowa.
ought TO remember that their borders are as much ex-
posed as ours and that muldues of considerations be-


sides numeral force enter into all warfare and above ALL


into border var So that them, With reference the
numerous free States behind them the duty aud the


right of deciding the national aspect Of the subject of
slavery on the free side Of the line, just rests with
the border slave States on the other side 1t may be
confidently asserted that pOStery viii hold these six bor
der free States aud these four border slave States respOn
sble for the fate of this nation at the present crisis And
they will deserve its lasting contempt IT, with their cen
trail position across the TetUbc, end their irresistible
force they permit the country to be ruined AID dgrac
ed and themselves thrown into position OF endless mu
tua hostility along common frontier OF 1000 miles,
And for what reason? d1for whose benefit?


BY what blindness end by what violence Of political