KENTUCKY. 



451 



sary in the Constitution of the United States as that 

 of a republican form of government to each State. 



3d. The Government has the constitutional right 

 to command the services of every man, no matter what 

 his color or condition, whether bond or free. The 

 master cannot interpose his right between the man 

 aud the Government ; and we are in favor of enlist- 

 ing and enrolling all alike. 



Uh. That during a rebellion the President, in the 

 exercise of the war power, has full and ample authority 

 to free all slaves in the rebellious districts, and they 

 are hereby invested irrevocably with all the rights 

 of freemen ; and in the present rebellion he ought 

 to exercise this power to its full extent. 



5th. That with the effect of the President's Amnes- 

 ty Proclamation before us we declare that in our 

 opinion the same has been injurious to the Union 

 cause and its operations within the district to which 

 it especially applies, humiliating and unjust to loyal 

 men, by pfacing them upon the same footing with 

 rebels, and we would urge its recall or suspension 

 until armed rebellion is wholly crushed. 



6th. That the Slave-State Freedom Convention be 

 made a permanent organization by the formation of 

 an executive committee of one member and one alter- 

 nate from each of the slave States for the purpose of 

 carrying out its principles, aud that the delegation 

 for each State represented in the convention appoint 

 the members on the committee. 



7th. That we declare ourselves favorable to such 

 an amendment of the Constitution of the United 

 States as shall make the- President elective for one 

 term only. 



A State executive committee was appointed 

 by the Kentucky delegates to the convention, 

 and a call issued for a State convention to as- 

 semble at Louisville on May 9th, and appoint 

 delegates to the Baltimore Presidential Conven- 

 tion. The following persons were appointed 

 the State executive committee: James Speed, 

 afterwards U. S. Attorney-General, John Toinp- 

 kins and L. N. Dembitz, Louisville ; C. A. Pres- 

 ton, Covington ; C. F. Beyland; Ham Cummings, 

 Xewport ; Dr. Perry S. Leyton, Lewis County ; 

 George D. Blakey, Russellville ; Thomas B. Cal- 

 vert, Bowling Green. 



A Eepublican, or a Republican Union conven- 

 tion, assembled at Lexington on April llth, at 

 which Mr. Goodloe was appointed chairman. 

 Speeches were made, and delegates appointed 

 to the Baltimore Presidential Convention. 



On May 25th a Union Democratic convention 

 assembled at Louisville, at which James Guthrie 

 was chosen chairman. Delegates were appoint- 

 ed to the Chicago Presidential Convention, and 

 an electoral ticket appointed. Resolutions were 

 also unanimously adopted, affirming the princi- 

 ples expressed by the previous convention of 

 March 17th, 1803, condemning the doctrine 

 that the insurrectionary States have ceased to 

 be States of the Union, that the object of the 

 war should be to subjugate armed insurrection, 

 condemning the enlistment of negroes, &c., etc. 



A convention was also called by some of the 

 most prominent members of the Democratic 

 party of the State, to meet at Louisville on May 

 15th for the purpose of appointing delegates to 

 the Chicago Presidential Convention. It had 

 been previously proposed by the senators and 

 some of the representatives from the State at 

 Washington that the Union Democrats and Dem- 



ocrats should meet in joint convention on June 

 18th. The former, however, declined the prop- 

 osition. Both, however, acted in union at the 

 Chicago Convention and at the subsequent elec- 

 tion. The Democratic convention assembled 

 June loth, and Chas. A. Wickliffe was chosen 

 chairman. The resolutions express the sover- 

 eignty of the people, that the declarations of the 

 authors of the Constitution, the deliberations of 

 the Federal conventions, the resolutions of 1T98 

 and 1799, and the decisions of the Supreme 

 Court, were the guides for its interpretation, that 

 the coercion of eleven States is an act of suicidal 

 folly ; that the administration has attempted to 

 strike down State sovereignty, interfered with 

 the right of suffrage, &c., &c., and that they 

 are uncompromisingly opposed to the elevation 

 of the African race to citizenship and then- for- 

 mation into standing armies to control white 

 men, &c. The convention also appointed a 

 committee to address President Lincoln for the 

 purpose which they thus state : 



To Abraham Lincoln, President, &c. : 



The Kentucky Democratic State Convention meet- 

 ing in Louisville on the 2Sth of June respectfully 

 requests, through the undersigned committee, vour 

 immediate attention to a grievance under which Ken- 

 tucky is now suffering, of an extraordinary, if not 

 anomalous, character in a republic. 



For more than a week Democratic newspapers from 

 other States have been excluded from the city of 

 Louisville, by the order, we are informed, of the 

 provost marshal, under the authority of General 

 Ewing ; and for nearly the same time the Cincinnati 

 / and Chicago Times have been excluded 

 from the whole State of Kentucky under the order, 

 as reported, of General Burbridge. 



Early in June an invasion of the eastern and 

 central part of the State was made by Col. 

 John Morgan from East Tennessee. For the 

 object and details of the invasion see AEMY 

 OPERATIONS. Guerrillas acting as thieves, 

 were infesting the southern borders, greatly to 

 the injury of the peaceable inhabitants. On 

 June 21st Gen. Sherman issued the following 

 instructions to the commander of the division 

 of Kentucky: 



HEADQUARTERS MrL. Drv. OF THE Miss.. IN THE FIELD, ) 

 BIG SHANTY, GA., June 21, 1SW. j 

 Gen. Burbridge, Commanding Div. of Ky. : 



GEXEEAL, The recent raid of Morgan, and the 

 current acts of men styling themselve_s Confederate 

 partisans or guerrillas, calls for determined action on 

 your part. 



Even on the Southern "State Rights" theory- 

 Kentucky has not seceded. Her people by their 

 vote and their actions have adhered to their allegi- 

 ance to the National Government, and the South 

 would now coerce her out of our Union, and into 

 theirs, by the very dogma of coercion upon which so 

 much stress was laid at the outset of the war, and 

 which carried into rebellion the people of the middle 

 or border slave States. 



But politics aside, these acts of the so-called parti- 

 sans or guerrillas, are nothing but simple murder, 

 horse stealing, arson, and other well-defined crimes, 

 which do not sound as well under their true name as 

 more agreeable ones of warlike meaning. 



!Now before starting on this campaign I foresaw it, 

 as you remember, that this very case would arise, and 

 I asked Gov. Bramlette to at once organize in each 

 county a small trustworthy band under the sh^r?J&, 



