Executive Office,
Iowa, Jan. 17, 1861.
R. [sic]
R. Cowles, Captain Washington Light Guards, Washington, Iowa:
SIR: — In these days when cabinet officers abet treason, and
use their official positions to bankrupt and disarm the government they are
sworn to support, when members of both branches of our national councils are
openly engaged in endeavoring to overthrow the government of which they are the
sworn servants, and retain places and prostitute their powers to thwart the
efforts of those who loyally seek to maintain that government — when in one
portion of our country many men delirious with passion, regard the firing upon
our National flag, the forcible seizure of our National forts, and the plunder
of our National arsenals and treasuries as manly, honorable and patriotic service
— when in another portion of our country a few men blinded by partisan
prejudice can be found who justify these acts, and say the perpetrators of them
must not be punished — when, in short, men are found in high places so lost to
patriotism as to emulate the treason of Benedict Arnold, and so lost to shame
as to glory in their infamy, and can find followers and apologists — it is
gratifying to know that the gallant yeomanry of Iowa are still determined “to
march under the flag and to keep step to the music of the Union.”
I accept with pleasure the services of the “Washington Light
Guards” so frankly tendered, and should events render it necessary, shall
promptly call you to the field to defend that flag under which our fathers
fought so bravely, and to maintain that government they founded so wisely and
so well.
Very respectfully,
SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD
SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of
Samuel J. Kirkwood, p. 112
