KENTUCKY IN 1861 



171 



pie which was on us in September, 1861, he again began to lose 

 heart. The fact is, he did not see, he could not be expected to 

 understand, the curious nature of our people. He could not 

 conceive that the country was undergoing a process of growth 

 of which those years of misery were but the pains. 



After the collections made on the Anticosti expedition had 

 been properly stored in the Museum I went to Kentucky for a 

 look over the situation, visiting Frankfort and Lexington for a 

 talk with my friends of both sides. I found that the plan of the 

 Union men of my stripe, those who held for State Rights under 

 the Federal bond, had been skilfully carried out, and that the 

 commonwealth seemed tolerably sure of its neutral station for 

 some months to come. There were serious features in the 

 situation. The people were evidently in a process of division, 

 in which the majority was drifting toward what was called the 

 Union side, while a large minority, we guessed at about two- 

 fifths, led by the example of Breckinridge, Buckner, Roger 

 Hanson, and a host of the able, high-placed men who had already 

 entered the Confederate army, were leaning more and more 

 toward rebellion. The governor was at heart in sympathy with 

 the seceding states, but in their interest he held to his place. So 

 far as he could, he tried to do his duty at once by his office and 

 the law. The Unionists now controlled the Legislature in both 

 houses by an overwhelming majority. All, the measures looking 

 toward mutual cooperation with the Union forces were promptly 

 vetoed and as promptly passed over the vetoes. When they thus 

 became laws, the governor would provide for their execution, 

 or rather non-execution, by putting them into the hands of 

 Confederate sympathizers. It was a well-played game on both 

 sides, but our side stood to win ; we had, indeed, the cards in 

 hand that ensured success ; barring folly, the end was certain. 



My admiration for the way in which the anti-Secessionists of 

 Kentucky manoeuvred to prevent a sympathetic stampede of 

 the commonwealth into the Confederacy, then great, has 

 grown with time and the wider knowledge of the ways of men. 



