396 



KENTUCKY. 



vention fell upon unheeding ears, while the bill 

 to arm the State, when it was not proposed that 

 Kentucky should make war upon any one, and 

 no one proposed to make war upon her, also 

 failed to command the respect which its advo- 

 cates claimed for it. Indeed, Kentucky, having 

 shown that she intended to stand by the Union 

 to the last, and that the rash and precipitate 

 policy of her Southern seceding sisters did not 

 meet her sanction, now awaited to see if the 

 North would but do justice, as she considered it. 

 Under instructions from the Treasury Depart- 

 ment of the Confederate States, its revenue offi- 

 cers now required manifests to be delivered and 

 entries to be made of all merchandise coming 

 down the Mississippi from States beyond the 

 limits of the Confederacy. The subject was 

 brought up before the Legislature of Kentucky 

 at its session in March, and the following reso- 

 lutions were adopted : 



Whereas this General Assembly is informed that 

 certain persons acting as a Congress of the seceding 

 States have assumed power to obstruct and regulat-e 

 the free navigation of the Mississippi River by the 

 citizens of this Union, to whom it belongs : therefore 

 be it 



Resolved, by ike General Assembly of the Common- 

 wealth of Kentucky, That Kentucky having as much 

 right to the Mississippi River, to its free, unobstructed 

 navigation, as Louisiana or any other State, and that 

 right being of vital importance to her people, feels it 

 her duty to herself and her sister States, at the earliest 

 day, to make this her most solemn protest against any 

 assumption of such power to control the navigation 

 of that river as utterly without right or proper au- 

 thority, and as what she cannot and will not submit to. 



Resolved furtlwr, That the States in the valley of the 

 Mississippi be earnestly requested to unite with Ken- 

 tucky in this protest against the violation of a mutual 

 right so vitally important to them all, and which their 

 permanent interests forbid should ever rest in the dis- 

 cretion of any Government save that under which 

 they live. 



Itesolved, That the Governor be requested to trans- 

 mit copies of these resolutions to the Executives of the 

 States aforesaid. 



The attack upon Fort Sumter and the call 

 of President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand 

 men, were turned to the utmost advantage by 

 the friends of the seceded States, to promote 

 their cause. Kentucky, however, refused to 

 take part either with the North or the South. 

 Her Governor issued a proclamation convening 

 an extra session of the Legislature, on the 27th 

 of April. 



In answer to the requisitions of the Secre- 

 tary of War, the Governor sent the following 

 reply by telegraph : 



FRANKFORT, (Kr.,) April 15, 1861. 

 Your despatch is received. In answer, I say, em- 

 phatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the 

 wicked purpose ot subduing her sister Southern States. 



B. MAGOFF1N, Governor of Kentucky. 

 Hon. SIMON CAMEROX, Secretary of War. 



The State Union Committee issued an ad- 

 dress to the people on the condition of the 

 country, declaring it to be the duty of the State 

 to maintain neutrality, and to take no part 

 either with the Government or the Confederates. 

 Kentucky, they said, could not comply with the 



appeal of the Government without outraging 

 her solemn convictions of duty, and without 

 trampling upon that natural sympathy with the 

 seceding States which neither their contempt 

 for her interests nor their disloyalty to the 

 Union had sufficed to extinguish. She could 

 not comply with the appeal of the seditious 

 leaders in her midst without sullying her un- 

 spotted loyalty, destroying her most vital in- 

 terests, quenching in the blood of her own sons 

 the last hope of reestablishing the Union, and 

 lashing her free destiny amidst the clash and 

 fury of arms to the chariot-wheels of the Gulf 

 Alliance. She ought clearly to comply with 

 neither the one appeal nor the other. And, if 

 she be not smitten with judicial blindness, she 

 would not. The present duty of Kentucky was 

 to maintain her present independent position, 

 taking sides not with the Government, and not 

 with the seceding States, but with the Union 

 against them both ; declaring her soil to be sa- 

 cred from the hostile tread of either, and, if ne- 

 cessary, making the declaration good with her 

 strong right arm. And, to the end that she 

 might be fully prepared for this last contin- 

 gency, and all other possible contingencies, they 

 would have her arm herself thoroughly at the 

 earliest practicable moment. 



At Louisville, on the evening of the 19th, a 

 Union meeting was held, at which Mr. Guth- 

 rie, once Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, and 

 other prominent men, made speeches. He op- 

 posed the call of the President for volunteers for 

 the purposes of coercion, or the raising of 

 troops for the Confederacy; asserted that se- 

 cession was no remedy for the pending evils, 

 and that Kentucky would not take part with 

 either side ; at the same time declaring her soil 

 sacred against the hostile foot of either. Reso- 

 lutions were adopted that the Confederate 

 States having commenced the war, Kentucky 

 assumed the right to choose her position, and 

 that she would be loyal until the Government 

 became the aggressor. 



On the 3d of May, the Governor issued his 

 proclamation ordering an election on the 30th 

 of June, for members to the extra session of 

 Congress. 



An extra session of the Legislature was also 

 called for the 6th of May. 



On the 4th, an election was held for dele- 

 gates to the Border State Convention, at which 

 the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the 

 Union, being nearly two-thirds of the entire 

 vote at the election in November, 1860. The 

 vast majority of Kentuckians were manifestly 

 more aroused than ever before, to the absolute 

 importance of the Union and to the indispen- 

 sable necessity of its preservation for themselves 

 and their posterity, as well as for the people of 

 the whole country ; and they were as manifestly 

 determined to stand firm and quiet on their 

 own soil, to keep the peace at home and along 

 the border, and steadily to strive for its resto- 

 ration and establishment. 



The vote for Union Delegates to the Conven- 



