Your

People of Pottsville, you have done bravely in this noble cause. County has over two thousand men in the field. More, I will venture to say, in proportion to her population, than any county in the Union. Nearly a thousand more have tendered their services and await the acceptance of the Governor. Your companies were the first to respond to the President's proclamation; the first to face the angry mob of Baltimore; the first to march down the broad avenue of the Capital; the first to garrison your public buildings and barricade them for defence. When the brave men of Massachusetts arrived from the fray of Baltimore, your men were there to welcome them; and when railroads and telegraphs were destroyed and bridges burned; when the Government was hemmed in by its foes, and all communication with its friends cut off, they, together, for nine long days and nights, held your Capital and archives. They could not learn how you were moving to their reinforcement, and conflicting rumors filled the air. They were told that the New York Seventh had been cut to pieces in Baltimore; that their dead bodies were heaped upon the sidewalks; that your Gen. WYNKOOP Was fighting his way through Maryland; that the soldiers of the North could not or dared not come to the rescue. But with patient faith and calm courage-day by day and night by night-they watched and waited, and kept rebellion at bay, until at last the New York Seventh and Massachusetts Regiments arrived, and the Capital was saved. From that day to this, regiment after regiment has poured down the avenue, until all count is lost; and the tents of a grand army whiten all the heights of the South land! More beautiful than the daisies, they unfold among the Spring verdure of the fields ! God be praised for this wondrous blossoming! God be implored for the inestimable fruits thereof!

As I see before me the fathers, and brothers, and wives of my comrades, I would say to them collectively what I would say to each individually; your soldiers have done good service everywhere and are still in the advance. Under WREN and SMITH they garrisoned Fort Washington when secession swept to its ramparts-felling the forest, mounting the guns, manning the battery, they showed themselves ready to labor or to fight in the cause. Under CAKE and McDONALD they guard the Arsenal with its 70,000 stand of arms. Under TowER they held the road for their brethren in arms, guarded the pass through the enemy's country and joined the force of NAGLE in its march upon Harper's Ferry. With CHRIST and SPENCER, they encamp upon the outposts beyond Alexandria with their faces Southward. They are still in the advance! Better men, braver officers, never marched to meet the foe. Be proud of them, for they do you honor! May they return to you crowned with victory.

During the delivery of Major CAMPBELL's response, there was tremendous cheering, particularly when he proclaimed "Death to all Traitors." The above is only a portion of his speech. He repudiated all compromise with traitors with arms in their hands, and pronounced all compromisers as nothing but traitors in disguise. He was in favor of giving the pirates of JEFF. DAVIS, when caught, ten minutes to say their prayers, and then hang them up at the yard-arm. ("Plenty of time, Major CAMPBELL," replied

B. HAYWOOD, Esq., who was standing close by.) That he was in favor of voting for a half a million of men, and hundreds of millions of dollars, to crush out this wicked rebellion as speedily as possible, and forever. All these sentiments called forth the most tremendous applause.

Major CAMPBELL was called back suddenly, to Washington, to join his Regiment, a portion of which was ordered up from Washington, to the Division of Gen. PATTERSON. When the extra session of Congress met on the 4th of July, 1861, Major CAMPBELL took his seat. In the course of the session, in justice to Pennsylvania, that placed the first volunteer troops in Washington for its defence, and to Schuylkill County that furnished two hundred and thirty-six of the men composing them, Mr. CAMPBELL offered a resolution, recording the fact, which was adopted. The following is a copy of the vote of thanks, signed by the Speaker of the House, and attested by the Clerk:

XXXVII CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
AT THE FIRST SESSION,

In the House of Representatives, July 22d, 1861,

On motion of Mr. JAMES H. CAMPBELL, Pa.

Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are hereby tendered to the five hundred and thirty soldiers from Pennsylvania who passed through the mob of Baltimore, and reached Washington on the eighteenth day of April last, for the defence of the National Capital. GALUSHA A. GROW, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Attest, EM. ETHERIDGE,

Clerk.

On the 27th of May, 1861, a beautiful stand of colors was presented to the 25th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Col. JOSEPH W. CAKE, of Pottsville. The presentation took place in the square east of the Capitol in Washington City, in the presence of the Secretary of War, and other distinguished gentlemen. Col. JOHN W. FORNEY, presented the colors to the Regiment on behalf of the absent donor, and Major CAMPBELL received them. We append Major CAMPBELL's speech :

COL. JOHN W. FORNEY:-In behalf of the officers and men composing the 25th Regiment of Pennsylvania, I tender to you and through you to the worthy and patriotic citizen of Pennsylvania, Col. JOSEPH W. CAKE, who has presented the Regiment with this beautiful national emblem, their thanks. Sir, we heartily respond to the patriotic and noble senti

On

ments which have escaped from your lips. We see in this glorious banner of our country an emblem of civil and religious liberty. every fold, in every star, we read the history of the past. We remember the dangers, the trials, and the struggles of the Revolution. It brings back to memory the terrible massacre of Paoli, the blood-stained snows at Valley Forge, the fight at Trenton, the surrender at Yorktown, and the long and bloody conflict at Saratoga. We remember that those patriotic men who resolved to die, or be free, adopted this as the emblem of their faith and their nationality. In many a terrible conflict, through weary years, they rallied round it, fighting to uphold it, and dying it with their hearts' best blood. [Cheers.] This national emblem was not established in a day. We have heard much, but we really know nothing of the sacrifices and sufferings of those gallant men in their effort to attain civil and religious liberty. Sir, the poorest man in our regiment would consider himself forever disgraced if he uttered but the smallest complaint of any want, or any denial he has suffered in a cause so sacred as this. He has held before him the example of our fathers, their struggles and their trials, and remembering their history, he will bear on, fight on, dare on, until that banner flies in triumph from the Rio Grande to the waters of the Kennebec. [Cheers.] Sir, it is the emblem of religion, it is the God-protected and God-sustained banner of the universe; it is the only emblem of free institutions, of man's capacity for self-government, on the face of God's universe. When it dies, liberty dies; while it lives, liberty lives. In my humble judgment, while the grass grows, and the white clouds float in God's azure as they float now, that flag will wave without a star dimmed or a stripe erased. [Cheers.] They talk of that other banner, that miserable reptile flag, with some seven stars. We want all the stars and all the stripes, and we will have every star and every stripe upon its folds and every acre of ground within our glorious limits. [Great applause.]

Treason must die. There is no spot of earth within our limits over which that banner has floated or will float on which treason can live. ["True," and cheers.] Die it must. It must die before our victorious columns. It must die a natural death and it must die a social death. It must die everywhere. It must find no foothold on this new world in the cottages of the humble or in the mansions of the great. I am opposed to open rebellion. I am opposed to secret rebellion. [Cheers.] If our laws--and I say it as an American citizen, and a friend of law and order-if our laws punished not treason directly, and sufficiently, I would make other laws. [Loud cheers.] Sir, if there is no other remedy, we will meet it with the bayonet, everywhere. ["That's it," and great applause.] In this great national struggle there must be no backward movement. Men laud those who have been placed at the head of our national affairs, and justly so, because they have been found sufficient to the emergency. While they go on in well doing we will rally around them, but if they fail to advance, public opinion will consign them to the background, and other men will lead the column. We must move on! [Applause.] There must be no backward movement. If we have not men enough in the field, let us have two hundred thousand more. Let us at once push on our victorious forces. Let the music of the battle drum be heard in one continuous roll from the Atlantic to the Pacific; let our tents whiten the land; let our soldiers everywhere be on the march, and our navies cover the sea.

The freemen of the country have taken the contract to put down the revolt, and they want to do it-they mean to do it. [Wild applause.] I

only represent these gallant men, when I say, sir, that their motto is, death to everything that crosses the path of the Union. [Cheers.] It is not for me to refer to the fact that these young men from the mountains of our old State your State and mine, God bless her!-bared their breasts, unarmed to the mob of Baltimore. Where a Washington monument towered to the Heavens, they feared no violence; they thought to meet no enemy. Carrying this glorious emblem, they thought they were among friends; and though they found foes, they came here, as you have so eloquenty described, unarmed, and, if I may use the expression, "fluttering their rags with an air of majesty." [Laughter.] You have referred to the fact that there was a want of care of these young men in some quarter. I grant it. They have not been so equipped, nor have they had their wants supplied, as citizens of our State deserved. It is not for me to say where the fault lies, but these men know that even the commissariat blankets, such as were furnished to them, (and I can imagine none worse,) may be worn like the purple of an emperor! [Laughter and applause.]

It has been said, and it may have had its effect upon the public-I know not and I care not-that probably England may, to advance a supposed manufacturing interest, take part in this great struggle, in behalf of the rebels of the South; but, sir, I have no fear that England will become so lost to all sense of honor, and diametrically opposed to all her past history. I fear it not. The supposition does her injustice. But if England—and while I am in this mood, under this flag, and upon this American green, I will say, that if any alliances can be made by these traitors with any of the European nations, let us know it now, while we are in the humor. Let us go into the fight like the Sioux Indians, who never count their foes. [Immense applause.]

I fear I am making too long a speech for a man who wears a uniform, but let me make one further remark. There are men throughout the South who sympathise with our Union cause. There are true men as ever lived in these so-called Confederate States. They cry to us for help and succor. Weighed down by an armed despotism, with the yoke of an unscrupulous enemy around their necks, without the means to strike a blow for liberty, they call upon the Government for arms and for means to aid them in their struggle against this despotism. What would you think of a Government that would refuse to aid and protect them? Shall we not extend a helping hand to the gallant men of Kentucky, Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia? It is our duty to afford them all the assistance in our power. If we fail to carry this emblem into their midst, to send our eagles there, and give them all the aid that men, arms, money, and ships can give, this great Government is faithless to its trust. We are bound to protect them. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of them give allegiance to this Government, and when they demand protection we must protect them. If the Government failed to give that protection, it would fail of its high object and be consigned to perdition.

Mr. Speaker. [Laughter.] Col. FORNEY, I am done. You and I sometimes suppose we are in the hall of the House in our immediate neighborhood, and you, I know, will pardon a slip of the tongue such as has just fallen from me.

I cannot close without congratulating these officers and men upon the fact that this flag was presented to us to-day by as noble, as patriotic, and as generous a citizen as our mountain land ever produced-Col. J. W. FORNEY. [Great enthusiasm.]

PATRIOTIC CONTRIBUTIONS, MEETINGS, INCIDENTS, ETC.

Having summed up the number of men from Schuylkill County, who sprang to arms at the first call of the constituted authorities, it now becomes our pleasing task to record what the people of the County who remained at home, did to sustain the Government, and encourage the soldiers in the field to do their duty. This page of the record is quite as bright and honorable as any we are called upon to notice.

The Messrs. ATKINS, of the Pioneer Furnace, concluded to pay to the families of their hands who volunteered, two dollars each per week, during their absence.

During April, 1861, meetings were held in all the important towns of the County, at which patriotic resolutions and measures to support the families of volunteers, were adopted.

In Pottsville on Tuesday, April 23, an interesting ceremony took place at the column and statue erected to the memory of Henry Clay, which stands on the slope of the hill east of the residence of JOHN BANNAN, Esq. The iron column was decorated with the Stars and Stripes. The daughters of Mr. BANNAN furnished the flag, and an ALEXANDER S. FAUST was found, who supported by his men, was willing to mount the column, some eighty feet in height. Amidst the shouts and cheers of the multitude, assembled upon a few minutes notice, the flag of our beloved country was placed by him in the iron hands of the statue, and it floated gracefully in the breeze, held by the statue as a solemn rebuke to those who would tarnish its lustre.

The following were the proceedings on the occasion :

On motion of JOHN T. WERNER, Esq., the following officers were appointed:

President, JOHN BANNAN, Esq.; Vice-Presidents, Col. J. P. HOBART and JACOB KLINE, Esq.; Secretaries, JAMES W. BOWEN and BERNARD ESIENHUTH.

After some patriotic remarks from the President, the following