Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[332] of Union men in the seceded States, and seeing that they had to be hanged or be silent, and still wishing to be free as of yore, have lately purchased arms with which to defend themselves. This act is pronounced as a crime — a great crime. And how it irritates them. Garrett Davis received 1,200 stand of arms the other day, and a young gentleman of the secession persuasion became so irritated that he could not stand it at all; that the “States' rights” men would not submit to it — no, never. Well, said I, I would not put up with it if I were in your place. I tell you what I would do, I would go and take Garrett's guns away from him. But — he didn't.

South Carolina was irritated at the presence of Major Anderson and fifty-five men at Fort Sumter, so irritated that she could not bear it. She tried to starve him to death; she tried to knock his head off, and burn him up. She bombarded the people's fort; shot into the flag of our Government, and drove our soldiers from the place. It was not Mr. Lincoln's fort; not his flag nor his soldiers, but ours. Yet after all these outrages and atrocities, South Carolina comes with embraces for us, saying: “Well, we tried; we intended to kill that brother Kentuckian of yours; tried to storm him, knock his brains out, and burn him up. Dont you love us for it? Won't you fight with us, and for us, and help us to overthrow your Government?”

Was ever a request so outrageously unnatural; so degrading to our patriotism? And yet, Mr. Speaker, there were those among us who rejoiced at the result, and termed the assault upon their own fort and the capture of their own flag and their own soldiers a heroic victory!

Mr. Speaker, I am sick and tired of all this gabble about irritation over the exercise by others of their undoubted right, and I say once for all to you secession gentlemen, that we Union men know our rights, and intend to. maintain them; and if you get irritated about it, why — get irritated. Snuff and snort yourselves into a rage; go into spasms if you will; die if you want to, and can't stand it — who cares? What right have you to get irritated because we claim equal rights and equality with you? We are for peace; we desire no war, and deprecate collision. All we ask is peace. We don't intend you any harm. We don't want to hurt you, and don't intend you shall injure us if we can help it. We beg of you to let us live in peace under the good old Government of our fathers. We only ask that. Why keep us ever on the alert watching you, to prevent you from enslaving us by a destruction of that Government?

Senator Johnson--It is already destroyed.

Mr. Rousseau--Not a bit of it. The Union will never be dissolved. I know you say it is; but, believe me, it will never be dissolved. We may have much suffering; we may endure many calamities. War, pestilence and famine may befall us; our own good old Kentucky may be overrun and trodden under foot, and her soil may be drenched in blood, but the Union will never, never be dissolved. I have never had a doubt on this subject, never. I know we must suffer, but we must preserve the Union.

You, Mr. Senator from McCracken, are a sanguine man. You think the Union is destroyed. Well, you sometimes err. I believe you had a correspondence with “Uncle Abe,” in which you committed a glaring error. But that was only a semi-official correspondence, and perhaps should not be alluded to here.

Senator Johnson (good-humoredly)--Oh! yes; tell.

Mr. Rousseau--I thank you. Well, as one of the Senators of Kentucky, you made your most solemn protest against the stationing of troops at Cairo, Ill. The protest was very elegant, as is generally what comes from you — a little highfalutin, it is true. You forwarded your protest to “Uncle Abe,” and, in due time, received a reply, which was too good a joke for a good-natured gentleman like yourself to keep all to yourself, and so you disclosed it. Uncle Abe replied to you that your letter had been received, duly considered, and in reply, he had to say to you, (one of the Senators of Kentucky,) that if he had known that Cairo, Ill., was in your Senatorial District, he would not have sent any soldiers within a hundred miles of that point.

Mr. Speaker, I have blt a word to say. Kentucky is an armed neutral, it is said. I submit, with others, to that position. I hope that circumstances may not drive us from it. I hope that our secession friends will be, in fact, neutral. If we remain so, it is said we shall have peace. I hope so; but the neutrality that fights all on one side I do not understand. Troops leave Kentucky in broad daylight, and our Governor sees them going to fight against our own Government, yet nothing is said or done to prevent them. Is this to be our neutrality? If it is, I am utterly opposed to it. If we assume a neutral position, let us be neutral in fact. It is as little as we can do.

Our Government, constitutionally administered, is entitled to our support, no matter who administers it. If we will not support it, and yet enjoy its blessings, in Heaven's name let us not war against it, nor allow our people to do so. Let us be true to our position, whatever it may be. We are nullifying at any rate. Our Government has not objected to it. But who can look an honest man in the face, while professing neutrality, refusing to help his Government to preserve its existence, yet secretly and traitorously warring against it? For one, sir, I'll none of it. Away with it. Let us be men, honest men, or pretend to be nothing but vagabonds.

I hear it said that Kentucky will go out of the Union; that if she goes anywhere she will go South, &c., &c.

Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, sit, Kentucky will not “go out.” She will not stampede.