KENTUCKY. 



465 



Absence from the place of residence in the service 

 of the country, or from any other cause where no in- 

 tention existed to change the residence, will not ex- 

 clude from voting if present at the election precinct 

 where his residence is on the day of election. 



Absence without any purpose of changing the resi- 

 dence, keeps the residence of such person in his vot- 

 ing precinct. 



Loyal men throughout the State are requested to 

 report to the Governor any disregard of the expatri- 

 ation law, either upon the part of officers or citizens, 

 giving the names of the offenders, that they may be 

 proceeded against for such violation. The officer 

 who shall fail to discharge his duty, as prescribed by 

 law, or the citizen who, not being entitled to vote, 

 shall do so in violation of law, should be promptly 

 reported, that the proper steps may be taken for his 

 punishment. These plain words are spoken, that 

 none may act upon the supposition that they will be 

 permitted with impunity to disregard the laws made 

 to guard and protect the purity of the elective fran- 

 chise, or override the lawfully established sovereignty 

 of the people. 



The military authorities will assist the civil officers 

 in the enforcement of these instructions, if any at- 

 tempt be made to violate them, upon application to 

 the officer nearest in command. 



THOS. E. BRAMLETTE, Governor. 



The result of the election was, that in the 

 Legislature parties formed a tie in the Senate, 

 while in the House the Conservatives had a 

 majority of sixteen. Of nine members of Con- 

 gress elected, five were Conservatives and four 

 Unionists. The popular vote for these mem- 

 bers was divided as follows: Conservative, 5 7,- 

 562 ; Unionist, 54,008. The Conservative, can- 

 didate, James H. Garrard, was elected State 

 Treasurer. 



There were many complaints of the interfer- 

 ence of the military with the election, of which 

 a Union paper in Cincinnati, the " Commercial," 

 thus remarked : 



It is not becoming that a file of soldiers shall stand 

 before the polls, and that officers of the army of the 

 United States shall hold lists of those who are pro- 

 scribed, made out by irresponsible persons, and pre- 

 vent them from approaching the ballot-box. That this 

 was done in Kentucky, there is ample and conclusive 

 evidence ; and the flavor of this business is too nearly 

 that of the border ruffian outrages in Kansas, to per- 

 mit it to be passed in silence by any honest journal- 

 ist. * * * * * 



Persons competent to testify those familiar with 

 the people conversant with all the facts and in full 

 sympathy with the Union cause assure us that in 

 Kenton and Campbell Counties there were many of 

 the best Union men who did not go near the polls, 

 scorning to cast a vote under military surveillance. 



Tho acts of interference with the election 

 were subsequently investigated by the grand 

 juries in several counties in compliance with 

 the laws of the State. Indictments against 

 military officers and others were found in sev- 

 eral counties, and in one the number of indict- 

 ments exceeded a hundred. 



Other difficulties arose between the military 

 and civil authorities. In order to relieve some 

 of the towns of the crowds of blacks, Gen. 

 Palmer ordered all common carriers to trans- 

 port all colored applicants upon the presenta- 

 tion of a pass from the military and a tender 

 of the fare. The laws of the State meanwhile 



LVOL. v. 80 A 



' 



prohibited, under heavy penalties, the transpor- 

 tation of slaves. This order opened a passage 

 across the Ohio River for large numbers of slaves. 

 In another case the Judge of the City Court of 

 Louisville ordered a slave to be sent to the 

 workhouse, under a law of the State, " until 

 his master should give bail that he would not 

 be suffered to go at large and hire himself out 

 as a free man." Whereupon an order was is- 

 sued by Gen. Palmer to the keeper of the work- 

 house, requiring him to release the slave, upon 

 the ground that in the then existing unsettled 

 condition of slavery in Kentucky, the master 

 was practically relieved from his obligation to 

 the law, inasmuch as the penalties of the law 

 were not then ordinarily enforced against the 

 master himself; and further, that as the master 

 had lost his interest in the slave, the confine- 

 ment of the latter would be perpetual. On 

 another occasion, where the Mayor of Lex- 

 ington had issued, on October 17th, an order 

 threatening legal proceedings against the owners 

 or claimants of the slaves who had congregated 

 in that city, the General instructed his subordi- 

 nate in command at Lexington, as follows : 

 " You will inform the Mayor of the city of 

 Lexington that you are instructed to protect the 

 people of his city from the violence he invites ; 

 that no portion of them can be seized and re- 

 moved from that city at the mere will of per- 

 sons who may choose to call themselves ' own- 

 ers and claimants ; ' that, without discussing the 

 question whether there is in point of law any 

 person in the State who can truthfully be called 

 the owner of any other person, that the dis- 

 charged soldiers and wiv* and children of sol- 

 diers now in the service of the country, are un- 

 der the special protection of the military au- 

 thorities, and all the people of the State are 

 presumed to be free, and will be protected as 

 free until orders are received to the contrary. 



" It is not our business to suggest the proper 

 policy to be pursued toward these often imagi- 

 nary congregations of colored persons claimed 

 to be slaves, but I venture to say that if the 

 skill and energy which is employed in devising 

 safe methods of harassing them, was directed to 

 their protection, and finding employment for 

 them, 'the evil' would become of far less 

 ' magnitude.' " 



These facts, with many others which are un- 

 important here, except as they serve to illustrate 

 the condition of affairs in the State, led to an 

 application by the Governor to the President 

 for the removal of Palmer, but without success. 

 A suit was also commenced against the latter 

 in the name of the State, for aiding slaves to 

 escape. This suit, however, was dismissed by 

 the Judge, Johnston, on the ground that the 

 requisite number of States had adopted tho 

 Constitutional amendment before the indict- 

 ment was found, therefore all criminal and 

 penal acts of the Legislature of Kentucky re- 

 lating to slavery were of no effect. 



The following order was also issued by Gen. 

 Palmer on the adoption of the amendment : 



