probable that the bulk of those who may not have expatriated themselves, will stand aloof at the Presidential election. It is also probable that as many of them will vote for Lincoln, as for McClellan. It is also probable they may conclude that their interests require them to go in a body, one way or the other; but it is far from certain, at present, which way that will be. This is a state of things by no means anticipated, either by the party represented by Mr. Wickliffe, or that represented by Messrs. Guthrie and Prentice. Both the Union party and the backslidden party, profess to believe Kentucky will vote for them; and some excited, relapsed politicians, pledged the State, at Chicago, for enormous majorities, if McClellan should be nominated. We know of no reason, under the sun, why any peace man, or any pro-slavery man, should vote for McClellan, without any platform; nor any, why any body at all should vote for him, on such a platform; nor any, why any man who has any convictions at all, for peace or for war, for Union or for disunion, for slavery or for freedom, should vote for any body at all, in such a time as this, on such a platform as that. Therefore, our general trust in human nature, makes it incomprehensible to us, how, with that platform and that candidate, in the present state of parties, any possible combinations can carry Kentucky into that pit. We may, however, be much mistaken, by having more sympathy with human nature than it deserves.

22. Those are the parties and the elements out of which the result is to come. Two of those elements are the decisive ones, namely the grand element of the Union, and the subordinate element of slavery. The vast majority of the people of Kentucky still profess an earnest love for the Union, and they have proved their sincerity in many ways, and by many sacrifices. As far as has yet been made manifest, there is no convincing evidence that the mass of the Union people will sustain the mass of the politicians, in their fatal desertion of the national cause, their monstrous amalgamation with the factions at Chicago, and their scandalous pretenses of saving the Union by means which necessarily give triumph to the rebellion, at the moment when its destruction is certain. Still less is there any convincing evidence that the mass of the people even continue to favor the perpetuity of slavery in the State, much less that

they desire this so fervently, that they will embrace every thing, even treason, and sacrifice every thing, even their country, in order to make so great an evil permanent. Still we must say, that if Kentucky is lost to the Union cause, it is slavery, which has been one principal cause of her unhappy change. And we must add that the blame of this sad result, due, in part, to the hereditary and constant unwillingness of the people to abolish the institution; and due, in part, to the intrigues of parties connected with a subject of such extreme difficulty; is due also, very essentially, to the action of Congress and the President in relation to it, and not less to the manner in which the immense and most costly and destructive social revolution has been made to fall on the slaveholders of the State, with little regard to their individual loyalty, and with none at all to the loyalty of the State. We trust in God, Kentucky will stand with unshaken constancy by the nation. But we are well persuaded, that if she still stands firmly to her glorious principles, under such trials and temptations, and dangers and losses, as are now accumulated upon her, she will deserve to occupy the highest station to which any people has been exalted, for heroic constancy and truth. Come, then, sons of this ancient Commonwealth, the first birth of the old Revolution and into the Federal Union; come, let us be the last to betray that Revolution, or to forsake that Union. There is our banner-Union-Nationality-Freedom. It is the only one we acknowledge. The hand that writes these lines has pointed, many a time, the way of duty and honor to you: never any other. The voice that utters this call to you, once when clothed with authority both from you, and from the loyal people of all America, pledged you, by all he held dear on earth, to live as becomes you, or to die like men. And the Nation, in like manner, is pledged to you, to the last extremity. Surely will God so deal with them and us, as they and we redeem, to our uttermost, these sacred pledges!

ART. IV.-The Past Course and Present Duty of Kentucky.

WE approve all the past course of Kentucky, in its principal points, since the beginning of our troubles. We think it has been right and wise, and has saved her from the fate of some of her sister border States. Kentucky was originally in favor of the Crittenden Compromise. The hearty adoption and honest execution of that Compromise, by both the North and the South, would have averted the unhappy contest, and given us tranquillity, as long as it was faithfully observed. But extremism* prevailed on both sides-moderation was thrown away. We sowed to the wind, and have reaped the whirlwind. Kentucky was in favor of neutrality. For this she has been severely censured; but this position was all that her loyal people could take, and successfully maintain, at that time. It was all that was practicable. Practicability is the measure of duty. "Who does the best his circumstance allows,

Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more." †

It is not only foolish, but it is wrong, to attempt what can not be done. At that time, to have attempted more, would have been

The emphatic weakness of human nature is to run to extremes. "Truth," said Ruskin, "is a noble column, with many sides." Men look, for the most part, upon but one side, and being deeply impressed with the aspect of truth thus seen, become extremists, if not fanatics, in its maintenance; if they would but take another step, and another, and another yet, until they have surveyed the golden shaft in all its aspects and in all its harmonious proportions, they would have the grand and glorious unity of truth in their intellects and their hearts, and would not be carried away into falsehood and fanaticism, by distorted and halftruths. A half-truth is almost as bad as a whole falsehood. These remarks apply equally to politics and religion. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," says Paul. That is the half-truth; but he adds, "for it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure." That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The States are sovereign, within certain limits; that's a half-truth. The General Government is sovereign, and exercises national sovereignty within certain limits-that makes the whole truth: Sovereign States composing a Nation with national sovereignty. Each sovereign within its own sphere.

†There is no more fatal curse to a country than abstractions in its politics put into practice. Abstraction begets fanaticism. Statesmanship is altogether a practical art. Not that we would sever it from moral principle. Its measures

to plunge the State into the secession movement. Our loyal statesmen wisely did what they could, and bided their time. They waited until it was evident the rebels would allow us to remain neutral no longer, and then raised the Union flag. The people were ther prepared, which they were not at the beginning, to support the loyal movement, and have sustained the cause ever since. It is useless to say that this was temporizing that Kentucky ought to have declared her loyalty at the first-that she ought to have been outspoken from the beginning that she ought to have taken her loyal position at once. We repeat our answer, and it is sufficient. She could not do it. Kentucky has thenceforward, heartily and fully, supported the Government, as it was both her duty and interest to do. When the President issued his Proclamation of Freedom, her loyal citizens, for the most part, condemned and opposed it. Yet they still clung to the Government, and while condemning, sustained the Administration—that is, obeyed and submitted to all its requisitions. When the President determined on the employment of negro soldiers, she again condemned and opposed the measure. But her fidelity was unshaken. She threw the whole blame upon the South, which had inaugurated the rebellion and fiercely persisted in it, whose inevitable consequencesconsequences we, of Kentucky, so clearly foresaw and foretoldwere so fatal to all the interests of slavery. Her position was taken and manfully announced by her Chief Magistrate and Lieutenant Governor-that if slavery perished incidentally in the war, let it perish. Kentucky, doubtless, wished to preserve the institution, but she wished to preserve the Union more. When, at last, the Administration has entered upon, and is prosecuting the enlistment of negro soldiers from our slaves, and forming negro camps in the State, what is our duty to the whole

should be founded on the highest morals-let its theories of abstract right be the loftiest, but it must be content with the attainable. Abstract and theoretical right is the object of desire and effort, both in private and public morals, and should be kept steadily in the mind's eye and the heart's purpose; but practicability in public affairs is the necessary limit of action and conduct. To be satisfied with nothing less than abstract and theoretical right, degenerates into fanaticism, when the surrounding and modifying circumstances are not taken into the view; or, at least, is mere silly obstinacy. The country is now ground into powder between the abstractions of Northern and Southern fanaticism and impractica leness.

country, and to ourselves in particular, but to submit to what we can not help, as we have hitherto done? Shall we madly enter into rebellion, too? Shall we resist? Grant that the whole course of the Administration is wrong touching the negro-is unconstitutional-shall we, therefore, bring ruin upon ourselves by forcible resistance? If the Administration has committed a wrong, it has been led to do it, and enabled to do it, by the rebellion and' by the rebels. They are the party both first and last to blame. Shall we give aid and comfort, then, to the rebellion and to the rebels, by a useless, armed opposition to the measures of the Government, even granting them to be wrong and injurious? Surely not, if we are wise. Let us exercise the same prudence and wisdom as hitherto; let us submit to what we can not avoid; let us bide the time.

Resistance to the measures of the Government would inevitably result in a confederation with the rebels, whether intended or not, and however sincerely not intended. It would bring upon us, at once, all the armed power of the Government. The President's Emancipation Proclamation would be at once applied to us, and could be easily and at once executed, and certainly would be without hesitation. Every slave in the State would be instantly emancipated, and a sufficient force sent among us to enforce the decree. Nay, an army would be raised from among ourselves to enforce it, and we should, in a few months, exhibit the pitiful and contemptible condition of a people ruled over by their own slaves. This would be equality with a vengeance. This dreadful fate we can bring upon ourselves if we will, and we can successfully avoid it if we will. The Government will not give up Kentucky-that is certain. She holds it, and can retain her hold. Resistance to any of its measures may bring to our aid a rebel army; but that would only the more certainly insure our destruction. We should, then, become the common battle-ground; contending armies, like opposing winds and waves, would rush in wild and furious destruction across our territory Every part and parcel of it should be repeatedly harried, until Kentucky became a desert. We should receive no favor from either party; and what is more, we would deserve none. Our folly would merit the chastisement we should receive. Both would regard us as just objects of rapine and vengeance. Our