XXII.

JOSEPH HOLT AND THE KENTUCKY SOLDIERS.

No firmer patriot graced the trying times of 61-62 than Joseph Holt of Kentucky. In the cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, at a late day-when it would seem as if a dissolution of the Union was not only to be accomplished, but the country to be thoroughly humiliated-he had the nerve to face the crisis and the ability to cope with it. In conjunction with General Dix, Attorney-General Stanton and General Scott, he labofed with almost superhuman energy to stay the terrible tide of treason then sweeping everything before it; and he succeeded so admirably that, when Mr. Lincoln came into power, the country hoped to see Mr. Holt continued in the Cabinet. He did not remain, however, in the Cabinet, though he continued to give all his time and abilities to his country's service. Kentucky balanced in the throes of revolution, and he hastened to the aid of those sustaining the cause of the Union, speaking, writing and talking for the Federal Government, sustaining the Administration in its attitude of offense against the rebellion, and opposing the "neutrality" which Kentucky Legislators had prescribed as their duty. His labors added so much to the strength of the actively loyal element that he soon had the satisfaction of finding Kentucky's quota of troops for National service rapidly gathering in the field, under tried and true Kentucky leaders.

The Kentucky troops gathered at "Camp Jo Holt," in Indiana--where General Rousseau was in command---before to taking

the field in their own State against the Confederates then preparing for the subjugation of Kentucky. These troops he vis ited prior to the day named for their departure, and addressed them (July 31st) on the crisis and their duty as citizens and soldiers. That address is worthy of repetition, for the nobility of its sentiments, the strength of its lessons and the moral of its teachings. We take pleasure and pride in reproducing such portions of it as our space and plan permit. He said:

"It is not my purpose to occupy you with any political discussion. The gleaming banner, the glistening bayonets, and the martial music, and, indeed, all that meets the eye or the ear upon this tented field, admonish me that with you at least the argument is exhausted, and that you have no longer 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, unchilled by the arctic airs of neutrali ty, you are determined to love your country, and, unawed by traitors, to fight its battles, and, if need be, to lay down your liyes for its preservation. It is indeed transporting to the patriot's heart to look upon the faces of men thus sublimely resolved; and there is to me a 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 harrowing to the soul to be dragged into companionship with those who still vacillate, who are still timidly balancing chances and coldly calculating losses and gains; who still persist in treating this agonized struggle for national existence as a petty question of commerce, and deliberately 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. It is an enlargement and exaltation of all the tenderest and strongest sympathies of kindred and of home. In all centuries and climes it has lived and defied chains and

dungeons and racks to crush it. It has strewed the earth with undying lustre on a thousand Through the night of ages,

its monuments, and has shed fields on which it has battled. Thermopyla glows like some mountain peak on which the morning sun has risen, because twenty-three hundred years ago, this hallowing passion touched its mural precipices and its crowning crags. It is easy, however, to be patriotic in piping times of peace, and in the sunny hour of prosperity. It is national sorrow, it is war, with its attendant perils 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 position is a most vivid and impressive illustration of patriotism, it has a glory peculiar and altogether its own. The mercenary armies which have swept victoriously over the world and have gathered so many of the laurels that history has embalmed, were but machines drafted into the service of ambitious spirits whom they obeyed, and little understood or appreciated the problems their blood was poured out to solve. But while you have all the dauntless physical courwhich they displayed, you add to it a thorough knowledge of the argument on which this mighty movement proceeds, and a moral heroism which, breaking away from the entanglements of kindred, and friends, and State policy, enables you to follow your convictions of duty, even though they should lead you up to the cannon's mouth. It must, however, be added that with elevation of position come corresponding responsibilities. Soldiers as you are by conviction, the country looks not to your officers, chivalric and skilful as they may be, but to you and to 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 the advancing squadrons of the enemy. In every hour of peril or incitement 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 toils and duties of your military life, should, as far as practicable, be devoted to that mental and

age

moral training without which the noblest of volunteers must sink to a level with an army of mercenaries. Alike in the inaction of the camp and amid 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 personal reputation, but the honor of your native State, and, what is infinitely more inspiring, the honor of that blood-bought and beneficent Republic whose children you are. Any irregularity on your part would sadden the land that loves you; any faltering in the presence of the foe would cover it with immeasurable humiliation. You will soon mingle in the ranks with the gallant volunteers from the North and the West, and with me you will admire their moderation, their admirable discipline, and that deep determination, whose earnestness with them has no language of menace, or bluster, or passion. When the men from Bunker Hill and the men from the 'dark and bloody ground,' unestranged from each other by the low arts of politicians, shall stand side by side on the same national battle-field, the heart of freedom will be glad.

"The Government has been like a strong swimmer suddenly precipitated into the sea, and like that swimmer it has unhesitatingly and most justifiably seized upon any and every instrumentality with which it could subdue the treacherous currents and waves by which it has found itself surrounded. All that was irregular or illegal in the action of the President has been fully approbated by the country, and will no doubt be approbated by Congress, on the broad and incontestable principle that laws and usages of administration designed to preserve the existence of the nation should not be suffered to become the instruments of its death. So, for the future I do not hesi

tate to say that any and every measure required to save the Republic from the perils that beset it not only may, but ought to be, taken by the Administration, promptly and fearlessly. Within so brief a period no such gigantic power has ever been placed at the disposal of any government as that which has rallied to the support of this within the last few months, through those volunteer who have poured alike from hill and

valley, city and village, throughout the loyal States. All classes and all pursuits have been animated by the same lofty and quenchless enthusiasm.

While, however, I would make no invidious distinctions, where all have so nobly done their duty, I cannot refrain from remarking how conspicuous the hard-handed tillers of the soil of the North and West have made themselves in swelling the ranks of our army. We honor commerce with its busy marts, and the workshop with its patient toil and exhaustless ingenuity, but still we would be unfaithful to the truth of history did we not confess that the most heroic champions of human freedom and the most illustrious apostles of its principles have come from the broad fields of agriculture. There seems to be something in the scenes of nature, in her wild and beautiful landscapes, in her cascades, and cataracts, and waving woodlands, and in the pure and exhilarating airs of her hills and mountains, that unbraces the fetters which man would rivet upon the spirit of his fellow-man. It was at the handles of the plough and amid the breathing odors of its newly-opened furrows that the character of Cincinnatus was formed, expanded and matured. It was not in the city full, but in the deep gorges and upon the snow-clad summits of the Alps, amid the eagles and the thunders, that William Tell laid the foundations of those altars to human liberty, against which the surging tides of European despotism have beaten for centuries, but, thank God, have beaten in vain. It was amid the primeval forests and mountains, the lakes and leaping streams of our own land; amid fields of waving grain; amid the songs of the reaper and the tinkling of the shepherd's bell that were nurtured those rare virtues which clustered star-like in the character of Washington, and lifted him in moral stature a head and shoulders above even the demi-gods of ancient story.

There is one most striking and distinctive feature of your mission that should never be lost sight of You are not about to invade the territory of a foreign enemy, nor is your purpose that of conquest or spoliation. Should you occupy the South, you will do so as friends and protectors, and your