402 



KENTUCKY. 



Bank of Louisville, whose quota was nearly 

 $100,000, promised $200,000. The Northern 

 Bank promised $25,000 more than her quota ; 

 and the Farmers' Bank promptly responded to 

 her quota. So soon after the first step was 

 Kentucky brought fully into the field with arms 

 and money for the cause of the Union. 



The Legislature then took a recess until No- 

 vember 27th. Previous to this adjournment, 

 an address was issued by that body to the peo- 

 ple of the State, on " the condition of the State, 

 afld the duties they had felt called upon to per- 

 form." The condition of the State is thus briefly 

 related : 



We have ardently desired peace, and hoped to save 

 Kentucky from the calamities of war. When the Fed- 

 eral authorities deemed it necessary to employ force in 

 self-defence, and to execute the laws of the Govern- 

 ment, we assured our Southern neighbors of our pur- 

 pose not to take up arms voluntarily against them, 

 notwithstanding their wicked attempt to destroy the 

 Government from which we and our fathers have re- 

 ceived the greatest benefits. Every effort was made, 

 both before and after the employment of force, to effect 

 some compromise and settlement that would restore 

 the Union, and prevent the effusion of blood. 



The Federal Government did not insist upon our ac- 

 tive aid in furnishing troops, seeming content if we 

 obeyed the laws and executed them upon our own soil. 

 Those engaged in rebellion, however, with hypocritical 

 professions of friendship and respect, planted camps 

 of soldiers all along our Southern border ; seized, by 

 military power, the stock on our railroad within their 

 reach, in defiance of chartered rights ; impudently en- 

 listed soldiers upon our soil for their camps, whom 

 they ostentatiously marched through their territory. 

 They made constant raids into this Sta^e, robbed us of 

 our property, insulted our people, seized some of our 

 citizens and carried them away as prisoners into the 

 Confederate States. Our military was demoralized 

 by the treachery of its chief officer in command, and 

 many of its subordinates, until it became more an arm 

 of the Confederate States than a guard of the State of 

 Kentucky. Thus exposed to wrongs and indignities, 

 with no power prepared to prevent or resent them, 

 some of the citizens of this State formed camps under 

 the Federal Government for the defence and protection 

 of the State of Kentucky. Whatever might have been 

 thought of the policy once, recent events have proved 

 that they were formed none too soon. 



In this condition we found Kentucky when the Legis- 

 lature met, on the first Monday in September. We 

 still hoped to avoid war on our own soil. We were 

 met by assurances from the President of the Confed- 

 erate States that our position should be respected; 

 but the ink was scarcely dry with which the promise 

 was written, when we were startled by the news that 

 our soil was invaded, and towns in the southwest of 

 our State occupied by Confederate armies. The Gov- 

 ernor of Tennessee disavowed the act, and protested 

 his innocence of it. His commissioners at Frankfort 

 professed the same innocence of the admitted wrong ; 

 but our warnings to leave were only answered by an- 

 other invasion in the southeast of the State, and a still 

 more direct and deadly assault upon the very heart of 

 the State by way of the Nashville road. These sudden 

 irruptions of such magnitude, skilfully directed, show 

 that the assault on Kentucky was preconcerted, pre- 

 pared and intended long before. The excuses made 

 for any of them but add insult to injury. We shall not 

 repeat them. They are but excuses for acts intended, 

 without any excuse. 



The purpose is to remove the theatre of the war from 

 the homes of those who wickedly originated it, to those 

 of Kentucky, and to involve this State in the rebellion. 

 This purpose appeared to be well understood in the 

 seceded States. They need the territory of Kentucky, 



and are determined to have it, if it must be by blood 

 and conquest. 



Thus forced into war, we had no choice but to call 

 on the strong arms and brave hearts of Kentucky to 

 expel the invader from our soil, and to call tor the" aid 

 of the Federal Government, as we had a right to do 

 under the Federal Constitution. 



Our foes would dictate terms to a brave people upon 

 which we can have peace. We are required to join 

 them in their unwarrantable rebellion, become acces- 

 sory to their crimes, and consent to sacrifice the last 

 hope of permanently upholding republican institutions, 

 or meet their invasions as becomes Kentuckians. 



We . believe we have done our duty to a chivalric 

 people who have forborne long, but will never fail as a 

 fast resort to resent an injury and punish an insult. 

 We should hold ourselves unworthy to represent you 

 if we had done less. The only error, we fear, is that 

 we have not been as prompt, you may think, as the 

 occasion demanded. 



Thrice have the revolutionists appealed to the ballot- 

 box in this State, and thrice have the people expressed, 

 by overwhelming majorities, their determination to 

 stand by the Union and its Government. They have 

 not been active in this war, not from indifference or 

 want of loyalty, but in the hope of better promoting a 

 restoration of the Union, and checking the rebellion oy 

 that course. Our hope of an amicable adjustment, and 

 a desire for peace, led us to forbear, until forbearance 

 has ceased to be a virtue. The attempt to destroy the 

 union of these States we believe to be a crime, not only 

 against Kentuckj% but against all mankind. But up 

 to this time we have left to others to vindicate, by 

 arms, the integrity of the Government. The Union is 

 not only assailed now, but Kentucky is herself threat- 

 ened with subjugation by a lawless usurpation. The 

 invasion is carried on with a ruthless destruction of 



Eroperty, and the lives and liberties of our people, that 

 elong only to savage warfare. 



We have no choice but action, prompt and decided. 

 Let us show the insolent invaders that Kentucky be- 

 longs to Kentuckians, and that Kentucky's valor will 

 vindicate Kentucky's honor. We were unprepared 

 because unsuspecting. An insolent and treacherous 

 invader tells the people that their legislators have be- 

 trayed them; and he comes with fire and sword to 

 correct their error, by a crusade against property, lib- 

 erty, and life. 



The position taken by the Legislature "was 

 fully sustained by the people, and upon the re- 

 assembling of that body on the 27th of Novem- 

 ber, very emphatic resolutions were adopted. 

 The following extract shows their character: 



fiesolved, by the General Assembly of the Common- 

 wealth of Kentucky, That Kentucky has ever cherished 

 and adhered to the Federal Union, and she will cling 

 to it now, in this time of its extremest peril, with un- 

 faltering devotion. While at the beginning of the mad 

 and wicked war which is being waged by the rebellious 

 States for the destruction of the Government, she fore- 

 bore to take part, in the hope that she might interpose 

 her friendly offices in the interests of peace, she has, 

 nevertheless, sternly repelled every movement which 

 looked to a change of her political relations, and has 

 never swerved from her full and fervid loyalty to the 

 noblest and freest Government in the world. And 

 now, since her proffered mediation has been spurned, 

 and her soil invaded by the Confederate armies, she 

 deems it fit that she should announce to the world 

 that, standing firmly by her Government, she will re- 

 sist every effort to destroy it ; and she calls upon her 

 true and heroic sons to rally around the standard of 

 their country, and put forth 'the whole energies of the 

 Commouwealth till the rebellion shall be overthrown, 

 and the just supremacy of the National Government 

 shall be restored and maintained everywhere within 

 its limits. 



Kesolred, That the existing civil war, forced upon 

 the National Government without cause by the dis- 



