| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| June 29, 1861 |
| |
| Trade of Louisville, Ky. |
| We have already published the
announcement of the new Surveyor of the
port
of
Louisville
-- one Cotton — notifying shippers that a "permit" from
him will be necessary to enable them to ship anything over the Louisville
& Nashville Railroad. The Louisville
Courier thus notices this act of despotism: |
| There isn't a respectable
lawyer in the State who doesn't know that this interference with our
trade is illegal — who doesn't know that the Administration has just
as much authority to order Mr. Cotton to have the first half dozen men
he meets in the street in the morning beheaded as to order him to stop
any shipments over the railroad to
Nashville. |
| And if the Administration is
permitted to do this thing, to what extent may it not go ? If it may
prevent us from sending goods away, may it not prevent us from
receiving goods from elsewhere? If it may do one palpable illegal act,
shall it he restrained from doing others? |
| We don't know, either, that
this is all this accursed despotism contemplates doing. We suppose the
next thing will be to examine trunks and carpet-bags, as is now done
in New Albany
and Jeffersonville. We suppose they will soon search persons for contraband goods, and
that even ladies will be compelled to submit to indignities, such as
are imposed on ladies in St. Louis
by the ruffian soldiery there. |
| And if quiet submission to
these acts should convince the powers that be that we are really
slaves, then heaven only knows what else is in store for us. |
| One thing is certain — there
is no law for this interference with shipments; and resistance to any
extremity to any unlawful acts is proper, and may become an imperative
duty. |
| One other thing is certain —
that any community that does submit to an illegal exercise of power by
the Administration, must be considered as subjects and not as
citizens, as slaves and not as freemen. |