66

MINISTER CLAY'S LETTER.

In order to estimate the character and quality of the letter of the American Ambassador to St. Petersburg, which appeared in The Times of last Monday, and which naturally attracts a good deal of attention, it is necessary to consider who the writer is, what position he holds in public affairs, and why he wrote that letter.

to institutions which they repudiate, can be | troubling themselves with long visions of hucalled the champions of liberty. If the South miliation and retribution, which no man now seriously threatened to conquer the North, to alive will ever see accomplished. put down trial by jury, freedom of the press, -London Times, May 20. and representative government, the contest must be for liberty; but, as this is not so, the introduction of such topics is mere rhetorical amplification. Can you subdue the revolted States?" "Of course we can," says Mr. Clay. So on that point there is no more to be said. "Can you reconstruct the Union when one-half of it has conquered the other?" "Nothing casier," says Mr. Clay. The victim of to-day will become the confederate of to-morrow: the Mr. Cassius M. Clay is a Kentucky man, and traitor will be cast out, and the Union firmer a relative of the late Henry Clay; but he has than ever-witness the happy results of the never followed the political track of his emiconquest of Ireland by England, repeated over nent relative. Henry Clay used to boast that it and over again, and always repeated in vain. was by his doing that Kentucky was a slave Having answered the questions which he State. At the time of its organization as a supposes to be addressed to him by England, State, a majority of the inhabitants desired to Mr. Clay becomes the questioner, and asks us emancipate their negroes, and encourage the where our honor would place us in this con- immigration of free labor; but Mr. Clay distest. Clearly by the side of the Union, be- countenanced the notion, and used his influence cause, he says, if slavery be extended in Amer- with success, to induce his neighbors to follow ica, it must be restored in the West Indies. If the Southern practice in regard to the tenure any one doubts the force of this demonstration of labor. To do this in such a country as Kenwe are sorry for it, for Mr. Clay has no other tucky was to incur a very grave responsibility. to offer. Our examiner next asks us to con- The inhabitants have never taken heartily to sider our interest. Clearly, he says, it is to Slavery with one accord; their soil and climate stand by the Union, because they are our best are favorable to the employment of white as well customers, and because, though they have done as free negro labor; they have seen, across the all they can, since the separation of the South river, Ohio rising into high prosperity, while gave them the power, to ruin their trade with Kentucky made little or no progress; and there us, they will, in spite of their own hostile have been not a few citizens in Mr. Clay's tariff, remain our best customers. State who have always felt that he was answerable for its inferiority in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, to the States on the opposite bank of the Ohio. Among those who have asserted the higher principles on which the State ought to have been organized, and on which it must have flourished beyond perhaps any other region in the Union, Mr. Cassius M. Clay has been the most prominent. For a long course of years he has testified against the false policy of his State, at the risk of his life, and to the great injury of his fortunes. He has been hunted out of the State: he has been im-prisoned, prosecuted, threatened, and brought within an inch of his life by Lynch law; and his property has been thrown into the Ohio, burnt, or broken up: but nothing_could daunt his spirit, or silence his protests. His Southern habits of self-defence, and his Northern habits of political reasoning, have, on the whole, made him too strong for his enemies. He was an accursed Abolitionist; yet he has lived to come to Europe as an Ambassador. He never belonged to the small body of Abolitionists proper; but, though he carried pistols, and walked about in the style of the Kentucky giants, he was so far an Abolitionist that he early emancipated his own slaves, and has ever since fought a stout battle, by his own printLet Mr. Clay and his country-ing-press, public speaking, and whole course men look well to the present, and they will of life, on behalf of the liberties of whites find enough to occupy their attention without and blacks, all over the Union.

Lastly comes the momentous question, "Can England afford to offend the United States?" Certainly not," says Mr. Clay, "for in half a century they will amount to a hundred millions of people, and will have railways four thousand miles long.' But is Mr. Clay quite sure that, if we should offend them now, the people of America will bear malice for half a century; and, if they do, is he quite certain that his hundred millions must all be members of one Confederacy, and that we may not then, as we might now, secure either half of the Union as our ally in a war against the other? Mr. Clay must really allow us to give our own version of the honor and interest of England. Our honor and interest is to stand aloof from contests which in no way concern us, to be content with our own laws and liberties, without seeking to impose them upon others, "to seek peace and insure it," and to leave those who take to the sword to fall by the sword. In war we will be strictly neutral; in peace we will be the friends of whatever Power may emerge out of the frightful chaos through which Mr. Clay sees his way so clearly. And that neutrality which is recommended alike by our in terest and our honor, we will not violate through fear-no, not of a hundred millions of unborn men.

Such is the man who now, having just landed | a rhetorical feat is to manifest the ignorance in England on his way to Russia, is evidently which Mr. Clay proposes to rebuke and correct. struck with surprise at the ignorance he meets As for whether the North can repress the with, or is led to infer from the tone of some rebellion, everybody can judge whether Mr. of the newspapers on the great American ques- Clay's confidence is rational or not. This may tion. The impulse was to write to The Times, be decided by the facts of population and the to set the case clearly before us, and rectify comparative resources of food, stores, money, some current mistakes. He has met with &c. We are not aware that anybody pretends rather hard measure in return; but a few more that there is an approach to equality in the days in England would have shown him that resources of the two sections-even if the a somewhat closer and clearer statement of his Border States joined the South, and notwithcase would have answered better with an audi- standing the enormous embezzlements by which ance which he addresses on the very ground the Federal treasury has been emptied. Mr. that it is critical instead of sympathetic. Clay's letter, however, confirms the largest estimates yet made of the strength of the loyal Federal element throughout the country. Perhaps the most valuable part of his letter is that which he occupies with a statement, not new to our readers, but too much needed generally, of the relation which the people individually bear to the Government, and with which the States have nothing to do. The real question is, who and how many the rebels are. A little time will show whether there are most Union men or Secessionists in the States over which Mr. Jefferson Davis professes to bear sway. If Mr. Clay is right in believing that any thing like half the citizens are loyal to the Union, they will soon have the means of declaring themselves, and the contest will be at an end. It is certainly true, as Mr. Clay points out, that the political party at the North which is answerable for the long domination of the Pro-Slavery faction at Washington, has become the most loyal of all parties since its Southern comrades took to rebellion.

It is certain, however, that The Times misapprehends Mr. Clay when it dismisses as mere rhetorical amplification his notice of trial by jury, liberty of the press, and representative government as objects of conflict between North and South. Mr. C. M. Clay has but too much reason to know what the systematic perversion of justice is, under the influence of the Southern oligarchy; and we ourselves need look no further than the condition of the Supreme Court, under Southern management, to be aware what the North has to do in upholding justice. Fair jury trial is not to be had in half the States: the coercion of the press is as bad as any thing Mr. C. M. Clay will find in Russia and as for representative government, we need only point to the three-fifths suffrage of the slave States, and the virtual exclusion from the polls there of all "mean whites" whose opinions might be supposed likely to be inconvenient. Mr. Clay is certainly justified in saying that the free States are fighting for liberty under these and other forms, as the liberty and the forms have always and every where been crushed by Southern rule. But he must allow for Englishmen being unable to imagine, without due explanation, that such fundamental liberties as these are really to be fought for now in the great Republic. The successive Southern Governments of recent years have encroached more and more on these common rights, so that they are now actually in question; but Mr. Clay must remember that, while he has been contending for them at the risk of his life, and to the loss of his fortune, most of us have been supposing them the birthright of every white American, as of ourselves.

The paragraph of Mr. Clay's letter which cites the demands of the Southern Confederacy is certainly accurate. Every point of it may be proved by facts within the memory of most of us; and the one truth, that in every instance the Confederate authorities "have refused to refer their new usurpations to the votes of the people," should be well considered by any Englishman whose mind is open to evidence in the case. The demands are essentially barbaric in such a country at such a date; and Mr. Clay is indisputably justified in saying that the great question of the war is whether this barbarism is or is not to be allowed to swamp the whole Republic. To smile at such a statement as

Another valuable statement of Mr. Clay's is that there is no question of the "subjugation" of any State. Our contemporaries have been raising the difficulty, one after another, of what is to be done with a subjugated territory; and Mr. Davis, the leader of the aggressivo party, who met with long-suffering to the last moment, now invites his followers to declare against "subjugation." It is no question of territory or conquest at all. Rebels must return to their allegiance, or obtain terms which do not involve trouble to their loyal neighbors. They will probably have the choice of going away or living in peace and order under the laws. We believe Mr. Clay to be mistaken if he thinks the Constitution may remain precisely what it is. There must be amendments, by which the free States will be released from all implication with Slavery; and there are other points which will not be again sanctioned. But his general statement that the Constitution exists still for the whole country, and that there is no political adversary to subjugate, will be of great use to those who wish to understand the case.

The ignorant complaints of Mr. Lincoln's supposed indecision or apathy must come to an end, now that people are beginning to remember that he proclaimed a term of grace, during which the Secessionists might return to their

allegiance. He had enough to do in the interGRAFTON, May 25, 1861. val; and now the time for action has come. DEAR COLONEL: From information just reMeantime, a schism has taken place in each of ceived, it is essential to the safety of my comthe Border States, and in some others, which mand that the bridges be destroyed as far west goes to confirm Mr. Clay's account of the as possible. You will please proceed on the strength of the loyalists wherever they have next train, and have it carried into effect withthe means of asserting themselves. Consider-out delay. Yours, G. A. PORTERFIELD. ing this, and the command which the Union To Col. WILLEY. forces have, not only of the coasts, but of the Mississippi, it seems probable that the war will be a short one.

-Wheeling (Va.) Intelligencer, June 6.

Doc. 238.

THE THIRD MAINE REGIMENT. THE Third Maine Regiment numbers 1,010 men. They are fully armed and equipped, bringing with them their tents and baggage, and forty horses furnished by the State. They are men accustomed to muscular pursuits, and are of fine size for hard service. The following is the list of the officers:

Mr. Clay may rely on England wishing and doing no injury to his country and Government; but, if his letter means that he expects us to take an active part, he will, of course, soon learn better. Our sympathies will, we trust, be found on the side of right, freedom, and civilization, but we shall not interfere in any way. Mr. Clay probably refers to privateering invitations to our countrymen, and by this time, he must have heard of the Queen's Proclamation. If he means more, he had bet- Colonel, Oliver O. Howard; Lieutenant-Colter have waited a few days to learn our policy. onel, I. M. Tucker; Major, H. G. Staples; AdWe do not "ignore" good "aspirations" on jutant, Edward Burt; Assistant Surgeon, Dr. any hand; but aspirants must work out their J. Palmer; Chaplain, Rev. Dr. Church; Quarown welfare, and there is every possible evi- termaster, W. D. Haley; Quartermaster-Serdence before the world's eyes that the Ameri-geant John S. Smith; Hospital Steward, F. H. can people are abundantly able to do it.

-London News, May 23.

Doc. 237.

GOVERNOR LETCHER'S ORDERS
FOR DESTROYING ROADS AND BRIDGES.

RICHMOND, VA., May 25, 1861.

DEAR SIR:-When you get matters in proper condition at Grafton, take the train some night, run up to Wheeling and seize and carry away the arms recently sent to that place by Cameron, the United States Secretary of War, and use them in arming such men as may rally to your camp. Recover the State arms also recently seized by the malcontents at Kingwood.

It is advisable to cut off telegraphic communication between Wheeling and Washington, so that the disaffected at the former place cannot communicate with their allies at Headquarters. Establish a perfect control over the telegraph, (if kept up,) so that no despatch can pass without your knowledge and inspection

before it is sent.

If troops from Ohio and Pennsylvania shall be attempted to be passed on the railroad, do not hesitate to obstruct their passage by all means in your power, even to the destruction of the road and bridges.

Having confidence in your discretion, I am sure you will manage all things wisely and well. Yours truly, JOHN LETCHER.

Col. PORTERFIELD, Grafton, Va.

The following is a letter written by Porterfield, in pursuance of the above instructions, to Col. W. J. Willey, whom the Federal troops now have a prisoner at Phillippi:

Getchell; Sergeant-Major, James II. Plasted. Co. A-Captain, Reuben Sawyer; First Lieutenant, John Wiggin. Co. B-Captain, E. A. Batcheldor; First Lieutenant, Albert B. Hall; Second Lieutenant, Edward Bird. Co. C-Captain, William Jarvis; First Lieutenant, James Colson; Second Lieutenant, George Andrew. Co. D-Captain, Charles L. Sampson; First Lieutenant, William H. Watson; Second Lieutenant, Warran H. Madison. Co. E-Captain, David Nash; First Lieutenant, John W. Sanborn; Second Lieutenant, Gorham Johnson. Co. FCaptain, Eldridge G. Savage; First Lieutenant, Royal B. Stearns; Second Lieutenant, Henry A. Boyce. Co. G-Captain, F. S. Hazeltine; First Lieutenant, N. Hanscomb; Second Lieu tenant, W. A. Hatch. Co. H-Captain, Wm. S. Heath; First Lieutenant, Frank E. Heath; Second Lieutenant, John R. Day. Co. I-Captain, Moses B. Lakeman; First Lieutenant, Albert R. Quimby; Second Lieutenant, Henry M. Rines. Co. K-Captain, Newell Strout; First Lieutenant, B. S. Kelley; Second Lieutenant, Wm. Elder.

-National Intelligencer, June 9.

This regiment arrived in New York on the 6th of June, by the steamer Bay State, of the Fall River line. It left Augusta, at 5:30 A. M., on Wednesday. In Boston they met with a generous reception, which took the form of a hearty supper. On their arrival at Pier No. 4 North River, they were met by the Committee of the Sons of Maine, who escorted them through Battery Place and Broadway to the White street Arsenal, where the men piled arms, unslung their knapsacks, and made themselves as comfortable as the circumstances would permit. The ceremony of the presentation of a handsome United States flag, here took place. The

mothers will speak in prayer the name of their boy. Sir, in behalf of the Sons of Maine in this city, I give you this flag. Guard it as a woman guards her honor, as children keep the ashes of their father. That flag shall float in triumph, on your avenging march, as those steel fingers point the way through Baltimore to Sumter. That flag shall hover with more than mother's love over your dead. We hear to-day, above the sound of conflict, the voice of the Archangel crying, “Victory is on the side of Liberty, Victory is on the side of Law." With unbroken ranks may your command march beneath its folds. God bless you. Farewell.

Col. Howard responded as follows:-Brethren, sons of Maine, brethren of New York, brethren of the Union, and all present before me, especially those who have been engaged in the presentation of this beautiful emblem of Liberty and Law, through me receive the warmest thanks of the body of brave men that I have the honor to command. I was born in the East, but I was educated by my country. I know no section; I know no party, and I never did. I know only my country to love it, and my God that is over my country. We go forth to battle, and we go in defence of righteousness and liberty, civil and religious. We go strong in muscle, strong in heart, strong in soul, because we are right. (Cheers.) I have endeavored to live in all good conscience before God, and I go forth to battle without flinching, because the same God that has given his spirit to direct me, has shown me that our cause is righteous, and I could not be better placed than I am now, because he has given me the warm hearts of as noble a regiment as the United States have produced. (Cheers.)

flag is the gift of the Sons of Maine, residing in | New York. Before the ceremony of presentation took place, Col. Howard requested that, if any clergyman was present, the ceremonial should open with a prayer, when the Rev. I. K. Kalloch, formerly of Boston, and now of the Laight street Baptist Church, made an appropriate prayer. The presentation was then made by Stewart L. Woodford, Esq., Assistant United States District Attorney, who spoke as follows: MEN OF MAINE, CITIZENS OF THE UNION :-I had expected to present this standard to you in the Park. I am somewhat surprised that soldiers of Maine should not have faced the storm, for as soldiers you should have learned to keep your powder dry, and as citizens of a State that has given the temperance law, you ought not to be afraid of God's cold water. After your tiresome journey I shall be very brief. Indeed, words, except those of Godspeed and loving and prayerful culogy in behalf of the dead, are idle now. The time for discussion is past. Open rebellion has trampled upon our Constitution. We have the issue, and in this State men's minds are one. We have laid aside our partisan wranglings and we have sworn as the Lord liveth that treason shall be crushed, (great cheering,) if the Carolinas be a forest of gibbets. My friends, the men of Maine resident in this city have desired to bid you welcome, and almost in the same breath, farewell. They wish to give you as they part a token that shall speak of their brotherhood. Each mother has given to her boy in your ranks that fittest pledge of a mother's love, her Bible. Each dear one has given some pledge that speaks of softer and sweeter hours. Your brethern in this hour of battle would give you a strong man's gift-your country's flag. That flag shall Col. Howard then asked for three for New be your guardian. Its starry eyes shall look York, the Union, the Constitution, and for the upon you in watchful love-its blended stripes President of the United States, which were shall stream above you with protection. It is given with tremendous effect, every man springthe flag of history. Those thirteen stripes telling to his feet the instant the call was made by the story of our colonial struggle, of the days the Colonel. of '76. They speak of the wilderness savage, of old Independence Hall, of Valley Forge, and Yorktown. Those stars tell the story of our nation's growth, how it has come from weakness to strength, from thirteen States to thirty-House. four, until the gleam that shines in the sunrise over the forests of Maine crimsons the sunset's dying beams on the golden sands of California. Let not the story of the flag be folded now, and lost forever. Wherever your axe has rung, the school-house has been reared alongside the hut of the fisherman and the pioneer. Maine is the child of Massachusetts, and in your hearts flows the blood of the Old Bay State. Soldiers! I know that every heart gives an eager response to those which the Massachusetts man uttered as he fell stricken by a Maryland mob, "All hail! to the Stars and Stripes." (Tremendous cheering.) We give this flag to you, and with it we give you our prayers, and not ours alone, but as the loved home circle gathers far in the Pine Tree State, gray-haired fathers and loving

A few remarks were then made by the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, when Mr. Hawkins, in the naine of the Committee, invited Col. Howard and the officers of the regiment to dine at the Astor

Col. Howard then placed the regiment in charge of Sergeant Fish of Co. F, directing the men to their knapsacks for their dinner.

The Regimental Band of 23 performers, under the leadership of Mr. Fen. G. Barker of Augusta, accompanies the regiment. A full drum corps is also attached.

Col. Howard is a graduate of West Point, and until recently was Professor of Mathematics in the West Point Academy. He says he was fifteen or twenty minutes behind time at Augusta and at Boston, but that he should endeavor to be more punctual in his departure from New York. Such prompt action will astonish the laggards in New York, who are usually three or four hours behind. Major Sewell of Portland accompanies the regiment,

by the instructions of the Governor of the State | shall have subsided, and the historian can take of Maine. The regiment is fully armed and a calm and philosophical view of the events equipped, and have tents and camp equipage. which have led to the present collision between The uniform is Canada gray throughout. The the two sections, he will write that the people march through Broadway was enthusiastically of the Southern States understood and protected cheered by those who had courage enough to civil liberty, and that the misguided North brave the storm. At 5 o'clock the regiment either did not comprehend, or abandoned it? left for Philadelphia via Camden and Amboy. For what have we witnessed? The spectacle For the purpose of going through Baltimore of the Chief Justice of the United States, the respectably, the Colonel ordered the men to be man who stands at the head of the principal desupplied with ten rounds each of ball cartridge, partment of the Federal Government-thie man which was done on board the Bay State. The who has illustrated in his life, for more than Rev. L. C. Lockwood, on behalf of the Y. M. C. four generations, all that adorns honor, virtue, A. of New York, presented to the regiment, be- and patriotism-a native-born citizen of your fore their departure, 250 Soldiers' Text Books, own State of Maryland-Roger B. Taney-that donated by a lady of the city, and 200 of man has put the judicial fiat of condemnation Horace Waters' Patriotic Song Books. upon the Government of the United States for its shameless abandonment of the very cornerstone of our liberties. A native Marylander, he remains at home to defend the last refuge of civil liberty against the atrocious aggressions of a remorseless tyranny. I honor him for it; the world will honor him, posterity will honor him; and there will be inscribed on his monument the highest tribute ever paid to a man. He has stood bravely in the breach, and interposed the unspotted arm of justice between the rights of the South and the malignant usurpation of power by the North. There he still remains, "a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night," to direct the welfare of our nation in this atrocious aggression upon our liberty.

-N. Y. Tribune, June 7.

Doc. 239.

SPEECH OF J. M. MASON,

AT RICHMOND, Va., June 8.

66

SOLDIERS OF THE MARYLAND LINE:-I am deputed to do a most grateful duty; first, in the name of Virginia, to give you an earnest and cordial welcome to the "Old Dominion; " and next, to present to you, in behalf of the ladies of Maryland, this flag. I see, soldiers of Maryland, that you are rough and ready "-the highest honor of a soldier in revolutionary times. We all know who you are. We all Now, my countrymen, why are you here? know what brought you here, and we are all What has brought you across the border? ready, as I trust you have experienced, to ex- What is your mission to Virginia? You tell tend to you a soldier's welcome-the only wel- your own tale. You have arms in your hands; come, indeed, that can be extended in times like you are under a gallant leader, and you are to these. Your own honored State is with us march under a flag honored by the ladies of heart and soul in this great controversy. By your own State, worked by their own fair your enterprise, your bravery, and your deter-hands. You are here not merely to fight our mined will, you have escaped from the thraldom of tyranny which envelopes that State; and you know, I know-for I have been among its people-we all know, that the same spirit which brought you here, actuates thousands who You are not the first Marylanders who have remain at home. (Applause.) I welcome you, crossed the border. We had, in the days of the soldiers of Maryland, upon the threshold of the first Revolution, a Maryland line, whose naine second great war of independence-a war that has passed into history without one blot upon will be transmitted by history to the future as its fair escutcheon-a Maryland line who illusthe greatest of two wars of independence; trated upon every field in the South their dea war that is waged against the South with less votion to the civil liberty of that day—a Maprovocation, less reason, less regard to human-ryland line, who, in the remote savannahs of ity and to honor, than was that waged by the mother country in 1776.

Your presence here is proof that you participate in this sentiment. And I tell you further, my countrymen, in view of these circumstances, there is not a man among you who will dare to return to Maryland with that flag dishonored. Not one. I tell you further, there is not a man among you who will dare to return to Maryland except as a soldier in victory. Do you ask me why? Because we are engaged in a great and holy war of self-defence. In after ages, when history records the transactions of this epoch-when the passions of men

battles. No, I am not so selfish as to presume that; but to fight the battles of civil liberty in behalf of the entire South. You are on a high mission.

the Carolinas, spilled their blood like water at Camden, at Guilford Court-House, at the Cowpens, and at Eutaw, where the last battle was fought, and the enemy finally surrendered. They were your ancestry. They travelled barefooted, unclothed, without blankets or tents, and but few muskets, and you came after them. But you have this peculiar distinction: You are volunteers in a double sense-you are volunteers for the war, and you are volunteers for the great cause of the South against the aggressions of the North. You are no strangers; you are our neighbors. My own home is upon the confines of your State. I went there, four