124 



KENTUCKY. 



resolutions expressive of their opinions on the 

 questions of the day. The following are among 

 the most important of the series : 



Resolved, That while we deem it right and essential 

 to the national unity to sustain the Government of the 

 United States in the exercise of all its just powers, 

 we deem it no less essential to the liberties of the 

 people to preserve the well-conceived balances of 

 power as defined in the organic law of the land, and 

 to protest against every encroachment upon the re- 

 served rights of the States, among the most impor- 

 tant of which is the right of each State to determine 

 the qualifications of voters. 



Resolved, That the Congress of the United States 

 has no power, under the second section of the thir- 

 teenth amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States, to pass any law granting the right of suffrage 

 in the States to persons of African descent, and that 

 we are opposed to granting suffrage to persons of 

 that class by the State. 



Jiegolved, That it is the duty of the Legislature, 

 now in session, to enact such laws, adapted to the 

 changed condition of those recently held in slavery, 

 and made free by the late amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion, as may secure to them full protection in all their 

 rights of person and property, and thus remove all 

 need for Federal interposition in their behalf, either 

 through the Freedmen's Bureau or otherwise ; and 

 having full confidence that the people of Kentucky 

 will see to it that such laws are enacted, we there- 

 fore respectfully request the President of the United 

 States to remove the Freedmen's Bureau from this 

 State. 



The Freedmen's Bureau question excited 

 great interest throughout the State. Governor 

 Bramlette, in an official letter to Hon. Speed 

 S. Gordon, city judge of Lexington, Ky., who 

 had become involved in a conflict of jurisdic- 

 tion with Mr. Pinkerton, agent of the. bureau 

 at that place, expressed his views upon the sub- 

 ject without reserve. He advised that the 

 power assumed by the agents of the bureau 

 should be firmly met and resisted in every legal 

 form. He declared that the institution was 

 totally unnecessary, that " the whole negro 

 population being now free, are, by our laws, as 

 they exist, secured and protected in their rights 

 of life, liberty and property." He also said : 

 " Our race, who have built up and maintained 

 this Government, must and will hold it as an 

 inheritance for their children ; though it shall 

 become necessary, in so doing, to sacrifice the 

 negro race, and all those who, like mistletoe, 

 fasten themselves upon the negro. Negrophilists 

 and negrophobists have kept up a warfare 

 upon the peace and security of our people until 

 patience has well-nigh ceased to be a virtue." 



Early in February, the Kentucky Senate ap- 

 pointed a committee to correspond with Gen- 

 eral Palmer, and demand of him the evidence 

 upon which he stated that outrages had been, 

 and were being committed upon the freedmen 

 by persons hostile to the objects of the bureau. 

 General Palmer responded 'to the demand by a 

 letter, in which he said that he was compelled 

 by a sense of what was due to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, as well as to him- 

 self, to decline all intercourse or communica- 

 tion with the committee. He recognized that 

 the Kentucky Senate had duties to perform, 



and that he had his ; and he would leave it to 

 the loyal and patriotic people of the State to 

 decide whether a body which offensively de, 

 clared its disbelief of the truth of the statements 

 of a public officer, and then demanded the evi- 

 dence upon which those statements were made, 

 intended to insult him, and excite popular pre- 

 judices against the Government that he repre- 

 sented,. or were influenced by any purpose to 

 promote the public good. While he refused to 

 give information to the committee, he would 

 feel a pleasure in laying before them as private 

 gentlemen and citizens the numerous letters 

 and official reports upon which his statements 

 had been based. After some discussion the 

 committee were discharged. 



The President's veto of the Freedmen's Bu- 

 reau bill was highly gratifying to those who 

 sympathized with him. A mass meeting of the 

 citizens of Louisville was held on the night 

 of February 22d, to approve the action of the 

 President. Governor Bramlette presided, and 

 made a speech highly eulogistic of the President. 

 Resolutions were adopted sustaining the veto, 

 and essentially the same in other respects with 

 those passed at the January convention. The 

 meeting expressed its disposition toward the 

 freedman in the following language : 



Resolved, That the right to fix the legal status of 

 the inhabitants of a btate belongs, of right, to the 

 State in which they reside ; that there is no hostility 

 to the freedman in Kentucky ; no purpose to do him 

 injustice ; but, on the contrary, a disposition to treat 

 him with kindness and forbearance in a condition 

 not of his seeking ; and that humanity to the black 

 race, as well as justice to the white, forbids any Fed- 

 eral interference. We therefore respectfully request 

 the President to remove the Freedmen's Bureau from 

 this State. 



Early in April the Kentucky Union soldiers 

 held a State convention in Louisville, at which 

 they adopted resolutions condemning the " ef- 

 forts of politicians to organize a party upon the 

 basis of an extinct rebellion." avowing their be- 

 lief that those whom they "found gallant ene- 

 mies in war " were " sincere in their professions 

 of future loyalty," " and warning them against 

 the arts of these stay-at-home rebels, who, 

 having used them in battling against our Gov- 

 ernment, would now employ them to accom- 

 plish their own selfish purposes." A portion 

 of one of the resolutions covered an approval 

 of President Johnson's policy of restoration. 

 This excited considerable discussion, and was at 

 length stricken out. The following were sub- 

 sequently adopted : 



Resolved, That in the late war we fought for the 

 laws, the Constitution, and the Union, and we con- 

 sider that fighting as one of the proudest, best, and 

 most glorious acts of our lives; we hold ourselves 

 now, and at all times, ready to fight for the same 

 cause as long as strength endures and life lasts. 



Resolved, That this convention does not desire to 

 be understood, by arty action it has or may take iu 

 rejecting political questions, as approving or disap- 



E roving said questions, but only as ignoring them as 

 jreign to the oojects of this convention, and de- 

 structive of the noble purposes of our associatiou 



