Mountains, 'has nobly responded to
the cause of the Union.' 'They represent a population which from the
first outbreak have been on fire with loyal zeal, repudiating all
sympathy with this war of slavery against the Union.' The proportion of
slaves to freemen in these counties, according to the census of 1850, is
as follows:--

COUNTIES FREE SLAVE
Letcher, 2,440 62
Floyd, 5,503 149
Harlan, 4,108 123
Whitley, 7,222 201
Knox, 6,238 612
Perry, 2,972 117
Clay, 4,734 515
Breathitt, 3,603 170
Morgan, 7,305 187
Johnson, 3,843 30
Lawrence, 6,142 137
Carter, 5,000 257

In contrast to this healthy, temperate Eastern Kentucky, 'a portion of
the great central district of mountain slopes and valleys,' let the
reader turn to the secession hot-bed of the State. He will find it the
largest slaveholding district of Kentucky. It is worth noting that
secession is matured in the slave regions, for though it is popularly
identified with slavery, they are not wanting among its leaders--no, nor
among their traitorous and cowardly sympathizers here at the North--who
constantly assert that secession is simply a geographical necessity, and
slavery only a secondary cause--that the South will, in fact, eventually
emancipate, and that race and latitude are the great fundamental causes
of national difference, constituting us in fact 'two peoples.' How
completely false and puerile are all these assertions, appears from an
examination of the mountain region now under discussion.

Of all these sections of 'Alleghania,' none is of more importance to the
Federal Union than East Tennessee. Immensely rich in minerals, with a
healthy and agreeable climate and much rich soil, it is one of the
finest countries on earth, lying under the temperate zone, and developes
the most extraordinary physical perfection in the human form. Its
proportion of slaves to freemen is no greater than in the other mountain
regions of the South--its area is about equivalent to that of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island united. In considering this
with the loyalty of its inhabitants, and in studying 'Cumberland Gap,'
the great natural highway of the Alleghany Range, the observer
appreciates with pleasure the remark of Secretary Chase,