152 



KENTUCKY . 



and at one dash arrest every man in the community 

 who was dangerous to it; and also every fellow 

 hanging about the towns, villages, and cross-roads 

 who had no honest calling, the materials out of 

 which guerrillas are made up; but this sweeping 

 exhibition of power doubtless seemed to the Gov- 

 ernor rather arbitrary. 



The fact is, in our country personal liberty has 

 been so well secured that public safety is lost sight 

 of in our laws and institutions, and the fact is we 

 are thrown back one hundred years in civilization, 

 law, and every thing else, and will go right straight 

 to anarchy and the devil, if somebody don't arrest 

 our downward progress. 



We, the military, must do it, and we haye right 

 and law on our side. All governments and communi- 

 ties have a right to guard against real and even sup- 

 posed danger. The whole people of Kentucky must 

 not be kept in a state of suspense and real danger, 

 lest a few innocent men should be wrongfully accused. 



1st. You may order all your post and district com- 

 manders that guerrillas are not soldiers, but wild 

 beasts, unknown to the usages of war. To be re- 

 cognized as soldiers they must be enlisted, enrolled, 

 ofhcered, uniformed, armed, and equipped, by a re- 

 cognized belligerent power, and must, if detailed 

 from a main army, be of sufficient strength with 

 written orders from some army commander to some 

 military thing. Of course we have recognized the 

 Confederate Government as a belligerent power, but 

 deny their right to our lands, territories, rivers, 

 coasts, and nationality admitting the right to rebel 

 and move to some other countrv, where laws and 

 customs are more in accordance with their own ideas 

 and prejudices. 



2. The civil power being insufficient to protect life 

 and property ex necessitate rei to prevent anarchy, 

 " which nature abhors," the military steps in and is 

 rightful, constitutional, and lawful. Under this law 

 everybody can be made to " stay at home and mind 

 his or her own business," and if they won't do that, 

 can be sent away where they cannot k'eep their honest 

 neighbors in fear of danger, robbery, and insult. 



3d. Your military commanders, provost marshals, 

 and other agents, may arrest all males and females 

 who have encouraged or harbored guerrillas and 

 robbers, and you may cause them to be collected in 

 Louisville ; and when you have enough say three or 

 four hundred I will cause them to be sent down the 

 Mississippi, through their guerrilla gauntlet, and by 

 a sailing ship send them to a land where they may 

 take their negroes and make a colony, with laws and 

 a future of their own. If they won't live in peace 

 in such a garden as Kentucky, why we will send 

 them to another if not a better land ; and surely this 

 would be a kindness to them and a God's blessing to 

 Kentucky. 



I wish you to be careful that no personalities are 

 mixed up in this, nor does a full and generous "love 

 of countrv," "of the South," of their State or 

 country, form a cause of banishment, but that devil- 

 ish spirit which will not be satisfied, and that makes 

 war the pretext of murder, arson, theft, in all its 

 grades, perjury and all the crimes of human nature. 

 My own preference was, and is, that the.civil authori- 

 ties in Kentucky would and could do this in that 

 State ; but if they will not, or cannot, then we must, 

 for it must be done. There must be an "end to 

 strife," and the honest, industrious people of Ken- 

 tucky and the whole world will be benefited and 

 rejoiced at the conclusion, however arrived at. 



I use no concealment in saying that I do not object 

 to men or women having what they call "Southern 

 feeling," if confined to love of country, and of peace, 

 honor, and security, and even a little family pride ; 

 but these become "crimes" when enlarged to mean 

 love of murder, of war, desolation, famine, and all 

 the horrid attendants of anarchy. 



I am, with respect, your friend, 

 (Signed) W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. 



On July 5th the President issued the follow 

 ing proclamation, establishing martial law ir. 

 Kentucky : 



Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued ot 

 the 15th day of April, 1861, the President of the 

 United States announced and declared that the laws 

 of the United States had been for some time past, 

 and then were, opposed, and the execution thereof 

 obstructed, in certain States therein mentioned, by 

 combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the 

 ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the 

 powers vested in the marshals of law ; 



And whereas, immediately after the issuing of the 

 said proclamation, the land and naval forces of the 

 United States were put into activity to suppress the 

 said insurrection and rebellion ; 



And whereas the Congress of the United States, by 

 an act approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, did 

 enact that during the said rebellion the President of 

 the United States, whenever in his judgment the 

 public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend 

 the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case 

 throughout the United States, or in any part thereof; 



And whereas the said insurrection and rebellion 

 still continue, endangering the existence of the Con- 

 stitution and Government of the United States ; 



And whereas the military forces of the United 

 States are now actively engaged in suppressing the 

 said insurrection and rebellion in various parts of 

 the States where the said rebellion has been success- 

 ful in obstructing the laws and public authorities, 

 especially in the States of Virginia and Georgia ; 



And whereas on the 15th day of September last, 

 the President of the United States duly issued his 

 proclamation, wherein he declared that the privilege 

 of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended 

 throughout the United States in the cases where, by 

 the authority of the President of the United States, 

 military, naval, and civil officers of the United States, 

 or any of them, hold persons under their command 

 or in their custody, eitner as prisoners of war, spies, 

 or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, sol- 

 diers, or seamen enrolled, or drafted, or mustered, or 

 enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval forces 

 of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or 

 otherwise amenable to military law or the rules and 

 articles of war, or the rules or regulations prescribed 

 for the military or naval service by authority of the 

 President of the United States, or for resisting a 

 draft, or for any other offence against the military or 

 naval service ; 



And whereas many citizens of the State of Ken- 

 tucky have joined the forces of the insurgents, and 

 such insurgents have on several occasions entered 

 the said State of Kentucky in large force, and, not 

 without the aid and comfort furnished by disaffected 

 and disloyal citizens of the United States residing 

 therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public 

 peace, but have overborne the civil authorities and 

 made flagrant civil war, destroying property and 

 life in various parts of that State ; 



And whereas it has been made known to the Presi- 

 dent of the United States by the officers command- 

 ing the national armies that combinations have been 

 formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a purpose 

 of inciting rebel forces to renew the said operations 

 of civil war within the said State, and thereby to 

 embarrass fhe United States armies now operating 

 in the said States of Virginia and Georgia, and even 

 to endanger their safety ; 



Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 

 the United States, by virtue of the authority vested 

 in me by the Constitution and laws, do hereby de- 

 clare that, in my judgment, the public safety espe- 

 cially requires that the suspension of the writ of habeas 

 corpus, so proclaimed in the said proclamation of 

 the 15th of September, 1863, be made effectual and 

 be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of 

 Kentucky, and that martial law be for the pre3ent 



