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 mili 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. form to the will of the military chief or be | tator of Kentucky, announces in one of his suppressed, as we have recently seen in the proclamations that he will arrest no one who case of Missouri, whose State Government was dispersed and martial law proclaimed; and, still later, in the case of Maryland, when thirty-eight members of the Legislature were seized and imprisoned on the mere suspicion of intending to legislate at variance with the will of the military government. We cannot, therefore, know that the public resolutions, or pre-tary force upon mere suspicion, and impose on tended laws of the two bodies, are the declarations of their active will, because we have the strongest reason to believe that, if not in accordance with the will of the Governement at Washington, they would meet the fate of the Every day foreign armed bauds are making Legislatures of Missouri and Maryland. On seizures among the people. Hundreds of citithe other hand, we know that these resolutions zens, old and young, venerable magistrates, and laws are in conflict with their public whose lives have been distinguished by the love pledge, and with the expectations of the people. of the people, have been compelled to fly from It is more charitable to believe that the mem- their homes and families to escape imprisonbers at Frankfort, or a majority of them, are ac- ment and exile at the hands of Northern and tuated by a fear of the military power rather German soldiers, under the orders of Mr. Linthan by a perverse design to violate the will of coln and his military subordinates. While yet their constituents, and degrade the State to the holding an important political trust, confided condition which it is attempted to bring down by Kentucky, I was compelled to leave my Missouri and Maryland. If any thing were want-home and family, and suffer imprisonment and ing to strengthen this view, it will be found in at- exile. If it is asked why I did not meet the tendant events. The resolutions they adopted arrest and seek a trial, my answer is, that I on the 8th of September, sanctioning the en- would have welcomed an arrest to be followed trance of General Anderson's forces, were ac- by a judge and jury; but you well know that I companied by one declaring that no person could not have secured these constitutional should be touched in his life, liberty, or proper-rights. I would have been transported beyond ty on account of his political opinions. Yet, on the very day, I believe, that these resolutions passed, the agents of the Federal Government seized the printing establishment of the Louisville Courier, the only offence of whose The case of the gentleman just mentioned is proprietor was that he criticized with freedom an example of many others, and it meets every the usurpations of the Government at Washing- element in a definition of despotism. If it ton. At the same time, and ever since, citizens should occur in England it would be righted, of Kentucky have been imprisoned or com- or it would overturn the British empire. He pelled to fly from their homes and families, is a citizen and native of Kentucky. As a against whom there was no accusation but of member of the Legislature, Speaker of the holding opinions either unfriendly to Mr. Lin- House, Representative in Congress from the coln's Government or friendly to neutrality. It Ashland district, and Governor of the State, is impossible to suppose that a free Kentucky you have known, trusted, and honored him, Legislature, in view of recent proceedings in during a public service of a quarter of a centuother States, would have turned this State over ry. He is eminent for his ability, his amiable to the posssession of a Federal military force, character, and his blameless life. Yet this man, or betrayed the people by throwing the State without indictment, without warrant, without into the arms of Mr. Lincoln, to be used for accusation, but by the order of President LinSouthern subjugation, or consented to the sup-coln, was seized at midnight, in his own house, pression of the press, or suffered, without an outery that would have pierced the skies, the indignities and outrages which have been in flicted upon the people by Federal soldiers. 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 Ma- I would speak of these things with the simryland, General Anderson, the military dic-ple solemnity which their magnitude demands, the State, to languish in some Federal fortress during the pleasure of the oppressor. Witness the fate of Morehead and his Kentucky associates in their distant and gloomy prison. 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 himwas 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! yet it is difficult to restrain the expression of a just indignation 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 opinion to approve 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 thousands of her gallant sons have the will and the nerve to make the State sing to the music of their rifles. tempted to burden you with enormous taxes to prosecute a war you ablor, and to sustain a Government which has trampled under foot every safeguard of a Constitution which was the only bond of our political connection with it, while they have allowed that Government to cut you off from the only avenues of trade which would enable you to pay these taxes, They have invited a military force of that Government to take possession of the State, and practically to supersede the State Government, and they have seen, with complacency, these foreign soldiers seize, imprison, and pursue hundreds of your fellow-citizens-fugitives, without a crime, over the plains and mountains of Kentucky. In a word, they have attempted, without consulting you, and against your recorded wishes, to place you in active hostility to your Southern brethren, and to fix your political destiny with the North. Whatever may be the condition or motives of the members at Frankfort, they have exceeded their authority. No legislative assem bly or other body, other than one elected by your sovereign voice for that purpose, has the right, in this great revolution, to determine finally your political future. The people, although taken by surprise, and almost unarmed, have risen to vindicate their wishes and expel the Northern invaders. The eagerness with which their aid has been invoked by those who have plunged the State into her present unhappy condition, is the strongest proof of their conviction that, but for the presence of these soldiers, the action of the members at Frankfort would be repudiated by the people. When the Northern invaders shall be sent back across the Ohio River; when the State shall be relieved of all troops from abroad, and the people of Kentucky, by a fair election, shall determine their destiny, it will be the clear duty of every citizen to acquiesce or to retire from the State. The Constitution of the United States, which these invaders unconstitutionally swear every citizen whom they unconstitutionally seize to support, has been wholly abolished. It is as much forgotten as if it lay away back in the twilight of history. The facts I have enumerated show that the very rights most carefully reserved by it to States and to individuals have been most conspicuously violated. And this destruction has been accomplished, not by the President alone, but by the Congress also, and with the approval of the Northern States and people. They have deliberately made the contest a constitutional struggle between so many millions on one side and so many on the other-one party fighting for subjugation, the other in self-defence and for independence. Whatever may be the future relations of the two Confederacies, the idea of the restoration of the Union under the old Constitution is wholly visionary and delusive. If the North should conquer the South, (which it will perceive to be impossible after a few hundred millions more shall be expended and a few hundred thousand lives lost,) the character of the Government would be radically changed. It would probably not take the form even of a mixed Government, but would soon end in a military despotism. It must soon become ap-highest sense of duty and the irresistible inparent to all thoughtful men that the last hope of constitutional liberty lies in the early recognition of these great truths-in an honorable peace and friendly intercourse. You declared your purpose not to engage in the war to subdue the South, and that you would be neutral and mediate in the interests of peace when an opportunity should offer. This is the recorded will of the State as expressed by the people. But those to represent you have violated that will. They have at For those who, denied by the Legislature the protection due to the humblest citizen, have been delivered over to the tender mercies of foreign mercenaries, and hunted like partridges on the mountains, what remains but imprisonment, exile, or resistance? As one of them, I intend to resist. I will avoid conflict with Kentuckians, except in necessary self-defence, but I will unite with my fellow-citizens to resist the invaders who have driven us from our homes. To this course we are impelled by the stincts of manhood. To defend your birthright and mine, which is more precious than domestic ease, or property, or life, I exchange, with proud satisfaction, a term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier. This letter is written at the first moment since my expulsion from home that I could place my feet upon the soil of Kentucky. I have not been able to see or communicate with my friend and colleague, Governor Powell, nor CONFERENCE AT RUSSELLVILLE, KY. RUSSELLVILLE, KY., Oct. 29, 1861. IN accordance with a notice previously given, a number of gentlemen from several counties in the State assembled in Odd Fellows' Hall, in the city of Russellville, on Tuesday, October 29, 1861, for the purpose of conferring together in reference to the situation of the country, and the steps to be taken to better preserve domestic tranquillity and protect the rights of person and property in the State of Kentucky. On motion of Colonel George W. Johnson, of Scott County, Hon. II. C. Burnett, of Trigg County, was chosen temporary chairman of the Conference. On motion of Colonel Blanton Duncan, of the city of Louisville, R. McKee, of the city of Louisville, was chosen temporary secretary of the Conference. On motion of J. C. Gilbert, of Marshall County, T. S. Bryan, of Christian County, was chosen temporary assistant secretary of the Convention. Resolved, That the proceedings of the Conference should be private and confidential until ordered to be made public by a majority thereof, and that all participating in its proceedings, or present at its deliberations, should be held pledged to secrecy in reference thereto. J. C. Wickliffe, of Nelson County, moved that the Conference adjourn to meet again to-morrow morning, at ten o'clock. Ayes twenty-three, nays twenty-two, and the Conference accordingly adjourned. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30, 1861. The Conference met pursuant to adjournment. The journal of yesterday was read and approved. The following gentlemen appeared and took seats in the Conference, viz.: From Carroll County, H. L. Giltner; from Anderson County, J. H. D. McKee; from Muhlenburg County, W. U. Wand; from Woodford County, Sandford Lyne; from Monroe County, Z. McDaniel; from Christian County, Henry Young; from Campbell County, George B. Hodge; from Jefferson County, J. B. Bell. Colonel G. W. Johnson, of Scott County, presented a series of resolutions for the consideration of the Conference. R. McKee, of the city of Louisville, offered a substitute for the resolutions presented by Mr. Johnson. On motion of Colonel John D. Morris, of Christian County, the counties were called, and the following gentlemen answered to their names:-Caldwell--Dr. W. N. Gaither. Cal- | loway-E. Owen, D. Matthewson. Christian -J. D. Morris, T. S. Bryan. Graves-A. R. Boone. Grayson—J. J. Cunningham. Hardin —II. E. Read, G. W. Maxson. Henry-B. W. Jenkins. Hopkins-L. M. Lowe, C. S. Greene. Jefferson-John Jones. Larue-J. S. Churchill. Logan-R. Browder, G. T. Edwards, W. M. Clark. City of Louisville-J. D. Pope, B. H. Hornsby, J. G. Gorsuch, W. Johnston, E. D. Ricketts, Blanton Duncan, Henry Gray, II. W. Bruce, R. McKee. Marshall-I. C. Gilbert. Marion-G. S. Miller. Meade-J. P. Walton, J. S. Taylor. Mercer-Philip B. Thompson. Muhlenburg-II. D. Lothrop, R. S. Russell. Nelson-J. D. Elliott, J. C. Wickliffe. Oldham -Mr. Miller, J. R. Gathright. Ohio-Dr. W. G. Mitchell, F. W. Forman. Scott-G. W. Mr. Bruce moved to refer all the resolutions Johnson. Shelby-Colonel Jack Allen, J. F. before the Conference to a select committee of Davis. Spencer-T. L. Burnett. Todd-James seven, of whom G. W. Johnson should be chairA. Russell, W. B. Harrison. Trigg-Mat. Mc-man, with instructions to report at three o'clock Kinney, II. C. Burnett. Washington-Pat. P. M. Carried. Symmes, Lyon-W. B. Machen, R. L. Cobb. McCracken W. Bullitt. McLean-Rev. Joseph Gregory, J. S. Morton. Garrard-J. P. Burnside, G. R. Davis. On motion of Mr. J. C. Gilbert, the rules of the House of Representatives at Frankfort, as far as applicable to its proceedings, were adopted by the Conference. H. W. Bruce, of the city of Louisville, offered an amendment to the original resolutions. George B. Hodge, of Campbell County, offered an amendment to the substitute. The various propositions before the Conference were discussed at much length, when The committee was appointed by the Chairman, as follows:-George W. Johnson, H. W. Bruce, P. B. Thompson, B. Duncan, T. L. Burnett, and George B. Hodge. The chairman, H. C. Burnett, was added to the committee by a vote of the Conference. And then the Conference took a recess until three o'clock P. M. AFTERNOON SESSION. The Conference met at three o'clock P. M. George W. Johnson, from the select committee, reported the following resolutions, which were, without debate, unanimously adopted by the Conference. Whereas the majority of the Legislature of Kentucky have violated their most solemn pledges made before the election, and deceived and betrayed the people; have abandoned the position of neutrality assumed by themselves and the people, and invited into the State the organized armies of Lincoln; have abdicated the government in favor of the military despotism which they have placed around themselves, but cannot control; and have abandoned the duty of shielding the citizen with their protection; have thrown upon our people and the State the horrors and ravages of war, instead of attempting to preserve the peace, and have voted men and money for the war waged by the North for the destruction of our constitutional rights; have violated the express words of the Constitution by borrowing five millions of money for the support of the war without a vote of the people; have permitted the arrest and imprisonment of our citizens, and transferred the constitutional prerogatives of the executive to a military commission of partisans; have seen the writ of habeas corpus suspended without an effort for its preservation, and permitted our people to be driven in exile from their homes; have subjected our property to confiscation, and our persons to confinement in the penitentiary as felons, because we may choose to take part in a contest for civil liberty and constitutional government, against a sectional majority waging war against the people and institutions of fifteen independent States of the old Federal Union, and have done all these things deliberately against the warnings and vetoes of the Governor, and the solemn remonstrances of the minority in Senate and House of Representatives; therefore, be it Resolved, That the unconstitutional edicts of a factious majority of a Legislature thus false to their pledges, their honor and their interests, are not law, and that such government is unworthy of the support of a brave and free people, and we therefore denounce their unconstitutional acts and usurpations, and bid defiance both to the Federal and State Governments. Resolved, That abandoned and betrayed as we have been by the Lincolnite majority of the Legislature of Kentucky, and proscribed by the abolition party who have usurped the Federal Government and broken down the Constitution of the Federal Union, and being as yet no part of the Southern Confederacy, and therefore altogether without the protection of law, the people have, by the laws of God and the express letter of the Constitution of Kentucky, "at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their government, in such manner as they may think proper;" and, in the language of the same Constitution, we declare that absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty, and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic-not even in the largest majority." Resolved, That we do hereby declare that the majority of the Legislature, by their acts, have abandoned, betrayed, and abdicated the govern ment, aud that the people have now a right to a fair representation of their will, and that the Governor be and is hereby invited to convene a Legislature to meet cutside of the lines of the Lincoln army, to be composed of such members as are now elected and may attend, or new members to be chosen by the people. And whereas, we have reason to believe that the Governor is unable to convene the Legisla ture outside the lines of the Lincoln army; therefore, Resolved, That we recommend a Convention, to be chosen, elected, or appointed in any manner now possible by the people of the several counties of the State, to meet at Russellville on the 18th of November, and we recommend to them the passage of an ordinance severing for ever our connection with the Federal Government, and to adopt such measures, either by the adoption of a provisional government or other wise, as in their judgment will give full and ample protection to the citizens in their persons and property, and secure to them the blessings of constitutional government. Resolved, That we recommend to the people in every county where they have the power so to do, to organize at once a County Guard of at least one hundred men, to be armed by the people in every county, and mounted if possible, to be paid as Confederate troops, and subject to duty in their own and adjoining counties, and subject also to the rules and regulations of the Confederate States, and to the orders of the commanding general. Resolved, That we will never pay one cent of the unconstitutional loan of five millions of dollars obtained by the Legislature from the banks for the prosecution of this war, instituted for the coercion and subjugation of the slaveholding States, and that we will resist by force of arms, if necessary, the collection by the sheriffs of all taxes intended to be paid over to the Lincoln party in the Legislature, and that we denounce as enemies to their country and constitutional government, all those who may advocate the payment of the same to the sheriff's for the purpose aforesaid. Resolved, That each one of us will go to work actively and energetically, to secure a full representation in such Convention, and that we will urge upon our friends everywhere to take such steps as will secure such a result. Resolved, * * * * Resolved, That Robert McKee, John C. Breckinridge, Humphrey Marshall, George W. Ewing, H. W. Bruce, G. B. Hodge, Wm. Preston, G. W. Johnston, Blanton Duncan, and P. B. Thomp son be, and they are hereby appointed a committee to carry out the above resolutions. DOCUMENTS. A motion offered by B. Duncan, in reference | hour we were steering south after the Sumter. On motion, the thanks of the Conference were tendered to the Odd Fellows of Russellville, for the use of their hall. And then the Conference adjourned sine die. T. S. BRYAN, Assistant Secretary. Doc. 119. THE PURSUIT OF THE SUMTER. UNITED STATES SHIP POWHATAN, ST. THOMAS, October 9, 1861. SIR: As every thing relating to the privateer steamer Sumter is at this moment particularly interesting to the mercantile community, some intelligence of the doings of that vessel and her supposed movements at present may be welcome to those who have vessels and property on the ocean. It may not be known to you that, while lying at the Southwest Pass, (mouth of the Mississippi,) on the 13th of August, the look-out at the mast-head descried the masts of a vessel, about twenty miles off, bearing N.W. It being late in the evening, nothing could be done; but at early daylight the captain sent off an armed boat, under command of Lieutenant Queen, with orders to steer N.W. until he made a vessel under sail or at anchor. After steering the direction indicated for five or six hours, with a fresh breeze under sail, Lieutenant Queen discovered a large schooner getting under way. A heavy squall came up at the time, and she was for a short period lost to view; but, coming in sight again, the boat gave chase under When she got within range of oars and sails. the schooner, (which was crowding all sail and trying to escape,) a discharge of rifles was fired at her, and, after a close shot or two at the man at the wheel, the schooner hove to and surrendered. She proved to be the "Abbie Bradford," of Boston, a prize to the Sumter. Her papers were secured, and by evening she was lying at anchor near the Powhatan. Among the papers were letters from the commander of the Sumter and her officers, giving some idea of her future movements, and indicating that her cruising ground was to be down on the Spanish Main. In two or three hours the schooner had a prize crew on board, and the Powhatan was off for Pensacola to notify the flag-officer of the Sumter's whereabouts, the Niagara remaining to blockade the SouthOn the 14th August, at sunset, we west Pass. arrived at Pensacola. The captain communicated with Flag-officer Mervine, and in half an Rather a lame duck the old Powhatan, in her On the 17th we boarded some American ves- |