CHAP.XII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.
The Government of the Confederate States has not only respected most scrupulously the neutrality of Kentucky, but has continued to maintain the friendly relations of trade and intercourse which it has suspended with the people of the United States generally.
In view of the history of the past, it can scarcely be necessary to assure your excellency that the Government of the Confederate States will continue to respect the neutrality of Kentucky so long as her people will maintain it themselves.
But neutrality, to be entitled to respect, must be strictly maintained between both parties; or, if the door be opened on the one side for aggression of one of the belligerent parties upon the other, it ought not to be shut to the assailed when they seek to enter it for purpose of self-defense.
I do not, however, for a moment believe that your gallant State will suffer its soil to be used for the purpose of giving an advantage to those who violate its neutrality and disregard its right over those who respect them both.
In conclusion, I tender to your excellency the assurance of my high consideration and regard, and am, sir, very respectfully, yours, &c.,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
KNOXVILLE, August 29,1861.
General COOPER:
Reliable news just in from Nelson's camp at Hoskins' Cross-Roads. Four thousand well-armed men there, and coming in 400 or 500 a day. Plenty of arms. One thousand men at Barboursville. Seven hundred at Williamsburg without arms. East Tennessee going on to Hoskins' for arms.
F.K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.
GENERAL ORDERS, } HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT NO.2, No.14. Memphis, Tenn., August 29,1861.
From and after September 2,1861, passports from and to places in the Confederate States to citizens thereof, or persons friendly thereto, shall not be required of persons leaving this department or traveling therein; but, to guard effectually against information being conveyed to the enemy, it is ordered that the commanding officers at Union City, in Obion County, and Clarksville, in the county of Montgomery, Tenn., will place a guard of not less than one non-commissioned officer and two privates at each point, whose business it shall be to prevent, by any means, persons passing from the State of Tennessee to any of the United States without a lawful passport. The commanding officers at these posts shall grant passports only to persons duly vouched for as entitled thereto. To avoid inconvenience to the loyal citizens of the South who may wish to pass through these points into the United States on any account, it is further provided, that all such persons who may not have the means of being identified at Union City or Clarksville may get passports from the military authorities where they live, from the governors of their respective States, from the governor of Tennessee, or from the headquarters of this department.
By command of Major-General Polk:
E.D. BLAKE, Captain, C.S. Army, Act.Asst.Adjt.General
