Buckner's Last Epistle. "S. B. BUCKNER, Brigadier-General C. S. A. "BOWLING GREEN, Sept. 18th, 1861." We should give, in justi- | by its people, whenever they undertake to enforce fication of the defection of it against the two belligerents alike. Buckner, J.C.Breckenridge, Humphrey Marshall, ex-Governor Morehead, James B. Clay and other Southern sympathisers, the proclamation of the first named person to his late constituents. It was designed both as a justification and a plea for the Southern cause: "TO THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY: "The Legislature of Kentucky have been faithless to the will of the people. They have endeavored to make your gallant State a fortress, in which, under the guise of neutrality, the armed forces of the United States might secretly prepare to subjugate alike the people of Kentucky and the Southern States. It was not until after three months of covert and open violation of your neutrality, with large encampments of Federal troops on your territory, and a recent official declaration of the President of the United States not to regard your neutral position coupled with a well prepared scheme to seize an additional point in your territory, which was of such vital importance to the safety and defense of Tennessee that the troops of the Southern Confederacy, on the invitation of the people of Kentucky, occupied a defensive post in your State. In doing so the commander announced his purpose to evacuate your territory simultaneously with a similar movement on the part of the Federal forces, whenever the Legislature of Kentucky shall undertake to enforce against both belligerents the strict neutrality which they have so often declared. I return among you, citizens of Kentucky, at the head of a force, the advance of which is composed entirely of Kentuckians. We do not come to molest any citizen, whatever may be his political opinion. Unlike the agents of the Northern despotism, who seek to reduce us to the condition of dependent vassals, we believe that the recognition of the civil rights of citizens is the foundation of constitutional liberty; and that the claim of the President of the United States to declare martial law, to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and to convert every barrack and prison in the land into a Bastile, is nothing but the claim which other tyrants have assumed to subjugate a free people. The Confederate States occupy Bowling Green as a defensive position. I renew the pledges of commanders of other columns of Confederate troops to retire from the territory of Kentucky on the same conditions which will govern their movements. I further give you my own assurance that the force under my own command will be used as an aid to the government of Kentucky in carrying out the strict neutrality desired This, it will be observed, makes the same general The Situation. plea for the Confederate occupation which Governor Harris and General Johnston urged. They forgot to recur to the fact of Pillow's large army at New Madrid, with Jeff Thompson's five thousand men above it-both menacing Cairo and St. Louis. Johnston claimed that self-protection compelled his advance into Kentucky: what compelled Grant's occupation of Paducah, and Sherman's advance down the Louisville and Nashville railroad? The Confederates did not care to answer. But, Zollicoffer was, at the very date of these sounding addresses, pressing his way into Kentucky, seizing her Union citizens, eating Confederate Devasta tion. of their substance and carrying terror all along the southeastern border; while Kentucky had, for weeks, been given up to a species of persecution which rendered a Union man's life and property worth but little. Great and pressing was the call for help from that quarter many days before relief came— Polk and Pillow held sway too long in that region for its good. Kentucky's own citizens are the best witnesses on this point. They were made to feel how shamelessly false were the Confederate professions of protection and immunity from persecution. The Federal army truly came as a deliverer which even those of quondam secession proclivities were glad to welcome. Time will but vindicate the wisdom, even in a selfish view, of the course pursued by that Legislature which a recreant son had the effrontery to characterize as "faithless to the will of the people."* To vindicate the truth we may cite a single case of hundreds which occurred at the period under notice. Judge R. K. Williams fled from Mayfield to escape the outrages visited upon Union men. One of the rebel commanders thus advertised the fugitive: "MAYFIELD, Oct. 7th, 1861. "Whereas, R. K. Williams has fled from his county and has gone over to the enemy, and has endeavored, as far as in him lay, to introduce among the good people of Jackson's Purchase a band of cut-throats, robbers and murderers: and whercas, the said R. K. Williams keeps himself within Fa KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE TREASON. 375 Confederate Devas tation. The 66 Knights of the Golden Circle Treason. Under Anderson's brief | federate purpose to arouse all the animosity rule but little transpired, of the popular heart against their cause-not of military movement. Ev- that they came as deliverers, and conservators ery effort, for the time-being, was concentrat- of liberty and order. ed in organization and preparation. hour was one of great peril, for Confederate troops were gathering rapidly at the most efficient points. Secession emissaries were everywhere, poisoning the loyal mind, distracting public and private councils, and, under the pernicious plea of State Rights, instilling ideas of National relations which sent thousands of Kentuckians to take up arms against she Union. It will be hard, after the bitter experiences of most of those men, to make them charitable toward the "Southern idea" or the Southern leaders. General Anderson's Retirement. General Anderson remained but a brief time in command of the Department, owing to feeble health. He was relieved, October 7th, by special request, and Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman assumed command of the "Department of the Cumberland," understood to embrace all of Kentucky east of the Cumberland river. Announcing his withdrawal, Anderson said: "Regretting deeply the necessity which renders this step proper, I do it with less reluctance because my successor, Brigadier-General Sherman, is the man I had selected for that purpose. God grant that he may be the means of delivering this Department from the marauding bands who, under the guise of relieving and befriending Kentucky, are doing all the injury they can to those who will not join them in their accursed warfare." This latter expression indicated with precision the character ter of the "relief" and "protection" vouchsafed to the people of Kentucky by the Confederate commanders. A disinterested observer would have supposed it was the Con ducah, I hereby warn all well disposed persons from having anything to do with him, and I hereby ask all good and loyal men to arrest the said Williams and to deliver him to me, and I promise to hang the traitor on the first tree. "H C. KING, "Commanding Ky. Volunteers, C. S. A. As Judge Williams was one of the most estimable citizens of the State, the promise to "hang the traitor on the first tree," fully indicates the nature of Confederate justice. It affords correct data for comment on General Johnston's proclamation. A letter writer from Paducah, Sept. 22d, announcing the seizure of a Castle" of the Knights of the Golden Circle, said: "When the Union troops entered Paducah one of the first fruits of their advent was to secure the "Castle" and its contents; and from the books and papers there found it is hoped that Government will be enabled to ferret out most of the arch traitors in this State. These documents have been sent to Washington. Among them are letters carefully filed from Governor Beriah Magoffin, Senator John C. Brenkenridge, General Gideon J. Pillow, General Buckner, Mr. Representative Burnett and others; all of whom are thus proved to have been members of this treasonable league, and many of them file leaders in the movement. A copy of the proceedings of the last three meetings of the "National Castle" was also found, which lets in several rays of light upon the strange conduct of Governors Harris, Jackson and Magoffin, and the breaking up of the Charleston Convention; a letter-or, rather, a private circular-from two members of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, while yet in office, stating the number and quality of arms which would be in the Southern States at the expiration of their terms of office, and other information which will be of use when the rebellion is crushed. This discovery has been kept a profound secret until now, in order that the persons implicated, or such of them, at least, as could be caged, might be taken care of by the Government, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that three of them have found a residence in Fort McHenry." The greatest sinner of them all, John C. Breckenridge, escaped from Frankfort, Sept. 20th-passing secretly and in disguise into the Confederate dominions. A few days later he was at Bowling Green and Columbus, advising with the rebel commanders in regard to a campaign against his own State. The disregard of consequences practiced in the Charleston Convention, to prevent the nomination of Mr. Douglas, culminated in his The Case of John C. Breckenridge. flight by night from the commonwealth which had bestowed all the honers he ever knew. Once beyond the reach of Federal or State process he prepared and published (October 25th) an Address to his late fellow-citizens and constituents, announcing his resignation of the office of U. S. Senator, and setting forth his views of the crisis at length. It was an able document a special plea, as specious as his disloyal sympathies would permit. Its composition was designed not more to justify his own course than to cover his night-flight with glory. We have, in the course of this work, given much space to the views of leading minds, in order that the dispassionate inquirer might have the whole argument before him. To the opinions of Mr. Breckenridge ample justice has deen done [see page 42, et sequitur], and we do not feel it incumbent on us to reproduce at length his last outburst of mingled entreaty, argument, invective and threat. It was his valediction to friends and malediction to foes; but, it was, also, the funeral oration of one who had passed away-the victim of a thwarted ambition. In announcing the dissolution of the Union he seemed unconsciously to throw his own memory into the past tense. We quote enough of the Address to indicate its spirit and something of its argument. His position as a partizan leader gave to his words the weight of authority to a large class in the Northern States up to the hour of his final defection, and his last appeal, we have reason to know, received from many of that class a willing though silent endorsement. That endorsement he well knew awaited his words; and the subtle Chief of State-Rights' Democracy in his valedictory, but breathed into being the heresies of party which sprang into a vigorous life in a year's time. Mr. Breckenridge wrote: Breckenridge's Last Address. I resign because there is no place left where a Southern Senator may sit in council with the Senators of the North. In truth, there is no longer a Senate of the United States within the meaning and spirit of the Constitution. "The United States no longer exist. The Union is dissolved. For a time after the withdrawal of the Southern States, and while there was a hope that Breckenridge's Last Address. the rupture might be healed, it might be assumed that the Union was not yet dissolved, and such was the position of Kentucky in declaring her neutrality and offering her mediation between the contending parties. But time has now elapsed, from the minds of reasonable men all expectation and mighty events have occurred, which banish of restoring the Union. Coercion has been tried and has failed. The South has mustered in the field nearly as many combatants as the North, and has been far more victorious. The fields of Manassas and Bethel, of Springfield and Lexington, have worked with a terrible and sanguinary line the division between the old order of things and the new." He then proceeded to demonstrate even the unconstitutionality of upholding the Constitution-a view of the case which his professed friends of the North did not care to adopt, since it might create doubts as to their ever having entertained any faith in the Federal compact. If it was to be broken simply by the power of non-representation, the Union was but a shadow at best, and the democratic rally cry, "The Union! It shall be preserved!" was proven, therefore, a designed imposture. Mr. Breckenridge's argument was: "The constitutional compact which created and upheld the old Union is at an end. A large number of the original and additional parties have withdrawn from it. So large a number that its stipulations can no longer be executed, and under such circumstanees no court has ever decided a contract to be bind ing between the remaining parties, or attempted to enforce its execution. The Constitution requires positively that each State shall have at least one representative in Congress, but now twelve States have none; that each State shall have two Senators, but now twelve States have none; that all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, but now in more than one third of them none are or can be collected. Commerce cannot be regulated between the respective States. Uniform rules of naturalization and bankruptcy cannot be adopted. Post offices and post roads, in nearly half the States have been given up, and a preference is given to the ports of one State over those of another. Even the election of a President has become impossible. The Constitution is mandatory on all the States to appoint electors, and requires a majority of the latter to elect; but more than one-third of the States refuse to appoint, and hence no election can be made by the people. If the election goes to the House of Representatives, the Constitution requires that at least two-thirds of Breckenridge's Last Address. BRECKENRIDGE'S LAST ADDRESS. 377 Breckenridge's Last Address. the States shall be represented | duties, taken beyond the limits in that body. The Constitution of their respective States and can no longer be amended, for imprisoned in the forts of the it requires three-fourths of the States to concur, and Federal Government. A subservient Congress ratimore than one-third of the States have withdrawn fies the usurpations of the President, and proceeds from the Confederacy. All the safeguards provided to complete the destruction of the Constitution. for by the States in the instrument, still further to History will declard that the annals of legislation secure public and personal liberty, have been de- do not contain laws so infamous as those enacted at stroyed. The three departments of the Federal | the last session. They sweep away every vestige Government, which were carefully separated and of public and personal liberty, while they confiscate their boundaries defined, have been merged into the property of a nation containing ten millions of one, and the President, sustained by a great army, people. In the House of Representatives it was dewields unlimited power." clared that the South should be reduced to " abject submission," or their institutions overthrown. In the Senate it was said that, if necessary, the South should be depopulated and repeopled from the North, and an eminent Senator expressed a desire If this position was true all others were un necessary: yet, the ex-Vice President,evidently distrusting the force of his own deductions. goes on at length to show how the Constitu This that the President should be made a dictator. tion had been violated—as if such a Constitu- The exemption of persons from arrest without judicial warrant, the right of a citizen to have his body brought before a judge to determine the legality of his imprisonment, the security provided against searches and seizure without warrant or law, the sanctity of the home, the trial by jury, the freedom of speech and of the press-these and every other precious right which our fathers supposed they had locked up in their Constitution, have been torn from it and buried beneath the heel of military power. The States made the Constitution, placed rigid boundaries around that Government, and ex in the North; here and there a few heroic voices are feebly heard protesting against the progress of despotism, but for the most part, beyond the milita This 'Daniel come for judgment' forgot to state, in this immediate connection, that he himself, had he not fled by night, would have been seized and thrust into prison, because, like most all others so arrested and incarcerated, he was guilty of treason-was a dangerous enemy of the country, whom the Federal Executive, in the discharge of its sworn duty to protect the Constitution, had no power to allow of liberty. But, it is unnecessary to devote more space to the Senator's statements on these points. pressly reserved to themselves all powers not dele- Like the argument of every ultra State Rights gated. They did not delegate to the Federal Gov-man, it pronounced all attempts to " ernment the power to destroy them-yet the creature has set itself above the creator. The atrocious doctrine is announced by the President and acted upon, that the States derive their power from the Federal Government, and may be suppressed on any pretence of military necessity. The gallant little State of Maryland has been utterly abolished. Missouri is engaged in a heroic struggle to preserve her existence and to throw off the horrors of martial law proclaimed by a subordinate military commander. Everywhere the civil has given way to the mili tary power. The fortresses of the country are filled with victims seized without warrant of law, and ignorant of the cause of their imprisonment. enforce the Laws" and to uphold the Constitution to be an infamous abuse of power, &c. No counter argument ever did or ever will satisfy that class of thinkers, as will be discovered should a Convention of States be called to revise the Federal fundamental law. The north and south poles are not wider apart than men of the schools of Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun. Mr. Breckenridge, after this general discussion of the question, then addressed himself to Kentuckians, charging that tyranny, duplicity and treachery had marked the entire "The legislators of States and other public officers course of Federal proceedings in the are seized while in the discharge of their official State. He charged that Federal money had Breckenridge's Breckenridge's Last Address. . been lavishly used to bribe | the Ashland district, and Govcitizens-that armed pos- ernor of the State, you have session of the State had known, trusted and honored been taken under false pretences-that the him, during a public service of a quarter of a century. He is eminent for his ability, his amiable Legislature had been awed and bribed into a character and his blameless life. Yet this man, betrayal of the State's independence, &c., &c. withou indictment, without warrant, without accuHe presented this picture for contemplation: 'Fellow citizens, you have to do now, not with this fragment of a Legislature, with its treason bills and tax bills, with its woeful subserviency to every demand of the Federal despotism, and its woeful neglect of every right of the Kentucky citizen; but you have to deal with a power which respects neither Constitution nor laws, and which, if successful, will reduce you to the condition of prostrate and bleeding Maryland. General Anderson, the military dictator of Kentucky, announces in one of his pro clamations that he will arrest no one who does not act, write or speak in opposition to Mr. Lincoln's Government. It would have completed the idea if he had added, or think in opposition to it. Look at the condition of our State under the rule of our new protectors. They have suppressed the freedom of speech and of the press. They seize people by military force upon mere suspicion, and impose on them oaths unknown to the laws. Other citizens they imprison without warrant, and carry them out of the State, so that the writ of habeas corpus cannot reach them. "Every day foreign armed bands are making seizures among the people. Hundreds of citizens, old and young, venerable magistrates, whose lives have been distinguished by the love of the people, have been compelled to fly from their homes and families to escape imprisonment and exile at the hands of Northern and German soldiers, under the orders of Mr. Lincoln and his military subordinates. While yet holding an important political trust, confided by Kentucky, I was compelled to leave my home and family, or suffer imprisonment and exile. If it is asked why I did not meet the arrest and seek a trial, my answer is, that I would have welcomed an arrest to be followed by a judge and jury; but you well know that I could not have secured these constitutional rights. I would have been transported beyond the State, to languish in some Federal fortress during the pleasure of my oppressors. Witness the fate of Morehead and his Kentucky associates in their distant and gloomy prison. "The case of the gentleman just mentioned is an example of many others, and it meets every element in a definition of despotism. If it should occur in England, it would be righted, or it would overturn the British empire. He is a citizen and native of Kentucky. As a member of the Legislature, Speaker of the House, Representative in Congress from sation, but by the order of President Lincoln, was seized at midnight, in his own house, and in the midst of his family, was led through the streets of Louisville, as I am informed, with his hands crossed and pinioned before him-was carried out of the State and district, and now lies a prisoner in a fortress in New York harbor, a thousand miles away. Do you think that any free Legislature, ever assembled in Kentucky since the days of Charles Scott and Isaac Shelby, until now, would have permitted such a spectacle to dishonor the State? No! fellow citizens, the Legislature could not have been free! "I would speak of these things with the simple solemnity which their magnitude demands, yet it is difficult to restrain the expression of a just indigna. tion while we smart under such enormities. Mr. Lincoln has thousands of soldiers on our soil, nearly all from the North, and most of them foreigners, whom he employs as his instruments to do these things. But few Kentuckians have enlisted under his standard, for we are not yet accustomed to his peculiar form of liberty. "I will not pursue the disgraceful subject. Has Kentucky passed out of the control of her own people? Shall hirelings of the pen, recently imported from the North, sitting in grand security at the Capitol, force public apinion to opprove these usurpations and point out victims? Shall Mr. Lincoln, through his German mercenaries, imprison or exile the children of the men who laid the foundations of the Commonwealth, and compel our noble people to exhaust themselves in furnishing the money to destroy their own freedom? Never, while Kentucky remains the Kentucky of old-never, while thon sands of her gallant sons have the will and the nerve to make the State sing to the music of their rifles!" Yet, in spite of the Senator's rhetoric, there was no rebellion against the acts of the loyal Legislature. The arrest of ex-Governor Morehead and of others plotting treason against the Union, was loudly called for by leading Kentuckians, as a matter of public safety. The suppression of the Louisville Courier was also an act to suppress conspiracy and disloyalty—a mere step of self-defense. The Anderson characterised as a military dictator was the hero of Fort Sumter-8 |