nce of the Government. Can it be expected, then, that these
counties, after filling their quotas and paying their taxes, will be able
still to turn out and maintain in the field an additional force,
sufficient to protect them from invasion? Is not the Government pledged,
after it has taken their men and their money, to afford them protection,
so far as it has ability? And have not these border counties a right to
expect such protection? Is not the State under obligation to use all its
power to afford protection to the remotest portion of its territory, so
long as it demands the support of all its citizens?

"2. It has generally been conceded in the North, during this war, that
what is called _bushwhacking_ is contrary to the rules of war. A private
citizen has no right to enjoy that protection and immunity which is
accorded him by the armies, and then take his gun and shoot down a
soldier. This, we think, is conceded, and it has been urged all along that
private citizens who do so deserve summary execution. Suppose now that
private citizens should employ violence against rebel soldiers, is it not
plain that they would expose themselves to the vengeance of the rebel
army, and that the end of it would be a war of savage butchery on both
sides, a war of destruction and desolation? Would it not invite to pillage
and arson and murder?

"3. But even if this had been attempted in the cases of invasion that have
occurred, it would have been of no avail. Take the recent case of the
capture and burning of Chambersburg. General Averill was not far from the
place, with twenty-five hundred cavalry, when a detachment of Early's
corps, under McCausland, entered and burned it. If, then, General Averill
felt himself too weak to interfere to prevent the rebels from entering the
town, what could the unarmed citizens of such a place, without any one to
lead them, have been able to do? It has been said by papers that ought to
know better, that two or three hundred rebels captured and burned the
town. Is it not to be supposed that General Couch would know what could be
done, and when he despaired of being able to hold the town and left it,
would it not have been sheer madness for the citizens to have provoked the
rebel soldiery to shoot them down in the streets, without being able to
effect anything?

"Besides it must be remembered that the citizens of Chambersburg did not
know, and had no right to expect, that the rebel force intended burn