We regret that our limits do not enable us to publish in full the admirable letter of
Judge Monroe, formerly of
Kentucky, to
Major-Gen. Breckinridge, declining a nomination for Congress from the Ashland district by a Convention of the Kentuckians in
Georgia.
Whilst we deeply regret that the services of a citizens so illustrious for wisdom and virtue cannot be secured to our national councils, the reason he gives for declining the proffered honor are such as to increase our admiration of the uprightness and conscientiousness of the man. They are, in brief, that when he left
Kentucky he expatriated himself from the
United States without any intention of ever returning, and proceeded to
Virginia, where he was born, and where he expects to spend the remainder of his days.
He is, therefore, not an inhabitant of the Ashland district nor of the
State of Kentucky, as required by the now permanent Constitution of the
Confederate States and statute of the
Legislative Council of the
Provisional Government of the
State.
This Constitution declares that "no person shall be a representative" in Congress "who shall not when elected be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. " It is true that
Kentucky, having been admitted to the
Confederacy, the
Provisional Government appointed
Judge Monroe by its Legislative Council a member of the Provisional Congress of the
Confederacy, and he took his sent and served until the close of the
Revolutionary Government.
But the
Constitution of the
Confederate Provisional Government did not require that a member of that Congress should be an inhabitant of the
State he represented, nor prescribe for him any other qualification, nor mention the mode of appointment by the States.
He willingly served his State (to which he pays a noble tribute) in that Congress, because there were no Constitutional impediments in the way, and, he adds, were it consistent with his honor, he would accept the present nomination.
We find the voluntary expatriation of
Judge Monroe, from
Kentucky, eloquently referred to in
Pollard's "History of the First Year of the
War." The historian says that the scene of the renunciation of allegiance, in the presence of a Confederate Court, by this venerable jurist, who had been driven from his long-cherished home, and was now on his way
Virginia, where rest the ashes of a dozen generations of his ancestors, was one of peculiar augustness and interest. "The picture of the scene was alone sufficient to illustrate and adorn the progress of a great revolution.
Driven from a State in which he had lived, the light of the law, irreproachable as a man, beloved by his companions, honored by his profession, and proudly abjuring an allegiance which no longer returned to him the rights of a citizen." No man has suffered more; no man bears more nobly his sufferings than this great and pure man. Bereft of his estate, his gallant sons killed and wounded in the service of the country, his heart knows no abatement of its lofty resolution, and, in the evening of his days, he begins the battle of life over again as a member of the bar of
Richmond.
We congratulate that bar upon the accession of one of the first lawyers of this or any other country, and
Virginia upon the restoration of a citizen who would have graced her brightest historical annals.
The words of wisdom contained in the subjoined paragraphs are at this hour most timely:
I would any to the distracted councils of the
Confederacy: ‘"Be just.
Never sacrifice the honor of the
Republic under plea of necessity.
This is the tyrant's plea, and all false.
Nothing can be necessary or expedient which is dishonorable or unjust.
Justice, with its consequent character, is itself a power, and an indispensable means of obtaining the favor of a just God."’
But I could not go into Congress without a violation of the fundamental law of the
Confederacy, which I have again and again sworn to support.--Ted these things to those patriotic and gallant men who have nominated me, so that they may choose another without distraction.
God protect you and them.
