hostility. Any remedy for our present evil, to be adequate, must be one which shall vacate the offices held by the officers who have thus brought our trouble upon us.

Your delegates desire that you shall by election fill these offices, by process of your own choice, and for this purpose they have directed, by ordinance, that an election shall be held on the first Monday in November. This time, rather than one nearer at hand, was selected, so as to conform to the spirit of the provision in the Constitution, which requires three months' notice to be given of an election to fill a vacancy in the office of Governor. But, in the mean time, much damage might happen to the State by keeping the present incumbents in office, not only by leaving necessary executive duties unperformed, while they prosecute their war measures, but by continuing and increasing the internal social strife which threatens the peace of the whole Sate.

Your delegates judged it necessary that, in order to preserve the peace, and in order to arrest invasions of the State, these executive offices should be vacated at once, and be filled by persons selected by your delegates, until you could fill them by election. They have, therefore, made such selection as they trust will be found to be judicious in preserving the peace of the State. The office of Secretary of State has not been mentioned before, and it is sufficient to say that Benjamin F. Massey, the present incumbent, has abandoned the seat of government, and has followed the fortunes of the Governor, taking with him the Seal of State as an instrument of evil. He may be employed by the Governor in action deeply injurious to the State; and he has been dealt with by your delegates in the same manner as the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor.

ordinance amended the Military law, and such other acts as were doubtless passed for the purpose of disturbing the relations of the State with the Federal Government.

These are the measures adopted by your delegates in Convention for the purpose of restoring peace to our disturbed State, and enabling you to select officers for yourselves to declare and carry into effect your views of the true policy of the State. They are measures which seem to be imperatively demanded by the present alarming condition of public affairs, and your delegates have determined to submit them to you for your approval or disapproval, that they may have the authority of your sanction, if you find them to be adapted to secure the peace and welfare of the State.

There are some who question the power of the Convention to adopt these measures. A very brief examination of this question of power, will show that the power exists beyond doubt. It is one of the fundamental principles of our Government, that all political power resides in the people; and it is established beyond question, that a Convention of Delegates of the people, when regularly called and assembled, possesses all the political power which the people themselves possess, and stands in the place of the assemblage of all the people in one vast mass. If there be no limitation upon the power of the Convention, made in the call of the body, then the body is possessed of unlimited political power.

If it be a State Convention, then there is a limitation upon it, imposed by the Constitution of the United States. If we state the position of the opponents of the powers now exercised by this Convention in the strongest form, it is this: The Convention was called by an act of the General Assembly for specific purposes deAs-clared in the act, and, therefore, the people in electing delegates under that act intended to limit the Convention to the subjects therein specified, and this action taken by the Convention, in vacating State offices, is not within the scope of the subjects thus submitted to the Convention.

In regard to the members of the General sembly, it is only necessary to say that by the enactment of the law called the Military bill, which violates the Constitution, and places the entire military strength of the State at the almost unlimited control of the Executive, and imposes onerous burdens upon the citizens for the support of an army, and by the passage of general appropriation acts which give to the Executive the command of large funds to be expended at his discretion for military purposes, thus uniting the control of the purse and the sword in the same hands, they have displayed their willingness to sustain the war policy of the Executive, and place the destinies of the State in the hands of the Governor.

The offices of the members of the General Assembly have therefore been vacated and a new election ordered, so that you may have an opportunity of choosing such Legislative Representatives as may carry out your own views of policy.

In order that the schemes of those who seek to take Missouri out of the Union may not further be aided by the late secret legislation of the General Assembly, your delegates have by VOL. II.-Doc. 36

It is very well understood by all that a Convention of the people does not derive any power from any act of the Legislature. All its power is directly the power of the people, and is not dependent upon any act of the ordinary functionaries of the State. It cannot be claimed, in the present case, that we are to look at the act of Assembly referred to for any other purpose than to find whether there is any limitation imposed by the people upon the powers of the Convention, by electing the Convention under the act. If it be examined with that view, and if it be conceded that any of its provisions were designed to limit the powers of the Convention, it will be seen that all the Convention has done comes clearly within the scope of the powers designed to be exercised. The 5th section of the act provides that the Convention, when assembled, shall proceed to consider the then

avert them. They desire to restore peace to all her citizens. They have adopted the measures which, in their judgment, gave the highest promise of peace and security to all her citizens. If the measures adopted should have the desired effect, your delegates will feel that gratification which always attends the success of wellintended effort. If the measures should fail to restore peace, your delegates will find consolation in the fact that they have done what they could.

The report of the Committee was agreed to.

Doc. 146.

SPEECH OF JOSEPH HOLT,

TO THE KENTUCKY TROOPS UNDER GEN. ROUS-
SEAU, AT CAMP “JO HOLT,' IN INDIANA, DE-
LIVERED JULY 31, 1861.

Fellow-Citizens and Soldiers:-I say citizens, since you still are such, and it is only because you have resolved that no earthly power shall rob you of this proud title, or in any manner curtail the privileges and blessings

existing relations between the Government of the United States, the people and governments of the different States, and the government and people of the State of Missouri, and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the protection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded. The measures to be adopted are to be such as the Convention shall judge to be demanded in order to vindicate the sovereignty of the State and protect its institutions; those measures are left to the judgment of the Convention, and may reach any officer or any class of persons. Let us take the case, then, of an armed invasion of the State by troops from Arkansas, neither invited nor headed by the Governor of Missouri. The vindication of the sovereignty of the State may demand that such invasion be repelled by force, and every person can see that, while the forces of Missouri may be employed in repelling the invasion, it is perfectly obvious that the vindication of our sovereignty requires that the Governor, who is, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the State, must be removed from that office when he is actually engaged in leading or inciting the invasion. To consider the relations existing between the peo-associated with it, that you have become solple and Government of Arkansas and the people and Government of Missouri, and to adopt measures to vindicate our sovereignty, imperatively demands in the case supposed, and which actually exists, that the commander in the State of Missouri be removed from his office. This case is stated merely as an illustration of the principles upon which the Convention has felt itself bound to act. Other cases equally strong and equally demanding like interposition of the Convention, might be stated as actually existing, but that now stated is sufficient to put you in possession of the principles upon which the action of the Convention rests. It is clearly an action demanded by the duty of vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and it applies to the other persons removed from office by the Convention upon the ground that they are all involved in the same scheme for assailing the sovereignty of the State.

In relation to the members of the General Assembly, the Convention are aware that all the members did not participate in the action which is regarded as an attempt to destroy the institutions of the State by destroying her connection with the Union, and thus overturning the institutions which she has as one of the United States. But no distinction could be made among the members on account of their individual opinions. The body was necessarily located collectively.

And now, having stated the necessity for the action of the Convention, and the principles which have governed the action, your delegates submit the whole for your consideration and calm judgment. They have felt their own position and that of the State to be peculiar. They have looked over Missouri and beheld the dangers that threaten her. They desire to

diers. Your soldiership is but the stately armor you have donned for the purpose of doing battle in defence of that citizenship which is at once the most intense and the most truthful expression of your political life.

No poor words of mine could adequately convey to you the grateful emotions inspired by the kindness and warmth of this welcome. I should have been rejoiced to meet you anywhere; how full, therefore, the measure of my happiness must be to meet you here in such a presence and amid the thrilling associations inseparable from the scene, you can well understand. I should have felt proud to have had my name connected with the humblest trapping of your encampment, but to have it linked with the encampment itself, and thus inscribed, as it were, upon one of the milestones that mark your progress toward those fields of danger and of fame that await you, is at once an honor and a token of your confidence and good will for which I cannot be too profoundly thankful.

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 neutrality, you are determined to love your country, and, unawed by traitors, to fight its battles, and, if need be, to lay down your lives 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.

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 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.

Carry with you the complete assurance that you will ere long have not only the moral but the material support of Kentucky. Not many weeks can elapse before this powerful Commonwealth will make an exultant avowal of her loyalty, and will stand erect before the country, stainless and true as the truest of her sisters of the Union. In the scales of the momentous events now occurring, her weight should be and will be felt. Already she is impatient, and will not much longer, under the pressure of any policy, submit to shrink away into the mere dust of the balances.

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 has defied chains and dungeons and racks to crush it. It has strewed the earth with its monuments, and has shed undying lustre on a thousand fields on which it has battled. Through the night of ages, Thermopyl 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 courage which they displayed, you add to it a thorough knowledge of the argument on which this mighty move-authority, which the Administration may be ment 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 this 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

Have no fears as to the vigorous and ultimately successful prosecution of this war; and feel no alarm either as to the expenditure it must involve, or as to those startling steps, seemingly smacking of the exercise of absolute

forced from time to time to take. While doubtless all possible economy will be observed, it is apparent that no considerations of that kind can be permitted, for a moment, to modify the policy that has been resolved upon. When the life of the patient is confessedly at stake, it would be as unwise as it would be inhuman to discuss the question of the physician's fee before summoning him to the bedside. Besides, all now realize that the system of arithmetic has yet to be invented which could estimate in dollars and cents the worth of our institutions. This terrible emergency, with all its dangers and duties, was unforeseen by the founders of our Government, and by

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 aim will be not to subjugate that betrayed and distracted country, but to deliver it from the remorseless military despotism by which it is trodden down. Union men, who are your brethren, throng in those States, and will listen for the coming footsteps of your army, as the Scottish maiden of Lucknow listened for the airs of her native land. It is true, that amid the terrors and darkness which prevail there, they are silenced and are now unseen, but be assured that by the light of the stars you carry upon your banner you will find them all. It has been constantly asserted by the conspirators throughout the South that this is a war of subjugation on the part of the Government of the United States, waged for the extermination of Southern institutions, and by vandals and miscreants, who, in the fury of their passions, spare neither age, nor sex, nor property. Even one of the Confederate generals has so far steeped himself in infamy as to publish, in choice Billingsgate, this base caluminy, through an official proclamation. In view of what Congress has recently so solemnly resolved, and in view of the continuous and consistent action of the Administration upon the subject, those who, through the press or in public speeches, persist

those who subsequently administered it, and it must make laws for itself. 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 hesitate 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 volunteers 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 inge-in repeating the wretched slander, are giving nuity, 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

utterance to what everybody, themselves included, knows to be absolutely and infamously false. It will be the first and the highest duty of the American army as it advances South, by its moderation and humanity, by its exemption from every excess and irregularity, and by its scrupulous observance of the rights of all, to show how foully both it and the Government it represents have been traduced. When, therefore, you enter the South, press lightly upon her gardens and fields; guard sacredly her homes; protect, if need be, at the point of your bayonets, her institutions and her constitutional rights, for you will thereby not only respond fully to the spirit and objects of this war, but you will exert over alike the oppressed and the infatuated portion of her people, a power to which the most brilliant of your military successes might not attain. But when you meet in battle array those atrocious conspirators who, at the head of armies, and through woes unutterable, are seeking the ruin of our common country, remember that since the sword flared over the portals of Paradise until now, it has been drawn in no holier cause than that in which you are engaged. Remember, too, the millions whose hearts are breaking under the anguish of this terrible crime, and then strike boldly, strike in the power of