USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 44
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Remember, now, that this resolution was unanimously adopted, not a vote of a Union representative or senator being recorded against it. The men who had voted for Breck- inridge for president or for United States senator cannot be charged with responsibility for the adoption of this resolution, since the Douglas men, and the Bell men in the general assembly had joined with them in its sup- port. Of course, there were not then in that body any of the men who had voted for Mr. Lincoln. The time had not yet come for them to sit in "the seats of the mighty" in Ken- tucky, but it was to come and that too at an earlier day than was imagined by the politi- cians of that period.
The second of the resolutions moved by Mr. Ewing, which was adopted in the house by a vote of eighty-seven yeas to six nays, re- quested Governor Magoffin "to inform the ex- ecutives of each of said states that it is the opinion of the general assembly, that when- ever the authorities of these states shall send armed forces to the south for the purpose in- dicated, the people of Kentucky, uniting with their brethren of the south, will as one man, resist such invasion of the south at all haz- ards and to the last extremity."
The tone of these resolutions, which were drawn in joint form, does not breathe of that neutrality which was soon to be proposed. To the contrary, their predominant element is pugnacious, breathing of war and bloodshed. Being drawn in joint form, it was necessary that these resolutions, after adoption by the house, should be sent to the senate for its ap- proval. The Unionist senators in that body, fearing the result of a direct vote upon the latter resolution, endeavored to prevent action upon it by pressing to the front other and less dangerous questions. To that end, they took up the resolutions of the Virginia legis- lature calling for a Peace Conference to be held in Washington, February 4th. Virginia, in inviting Kentucky to join in this confer- ence, had stated its willingness to accept the terms of the Crittenden Compromise. By the unanimous vote of the senate and an almost unanimous vote of the house, the resolutions were adopted; six Kentucky delegates to the conference were appointed; $500 appropri- ated for the expenses of each of them; they attended the conference ; as previously stated herein, no good results followed and the com- missioners came home to face conditions even worse than those existing when they went to the conference. But the Unionists had pre- vented action by the senate on the Ewing joint resolution and had gained that much, though it had but small effect upon individual citi- zens of the state, who followed their own in-
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clinations regardless of state or federal legis- lation. It was a time when the citizen had to think for himself and think quickly too. If he did not happen to think in favor of the sub- jection of the southern states to federal an- thority, he was apt to find himself first an object of suspicion, and ultimately an inmate of a prison, whither went many prominent non-combattant citizens of Kentucky during the troublous days of 1861-5.
The Unionists in the senate had been suc- cessful in forestalling the resolutions of Ew- ing and of the calling of a Sovereignty Con- vention. They had defeated the adoption of any partisan resolutions. R. T. Jacob, a Un- ion party man, and an excellent citizen, had introduced a resolution declaring : "That the proper position of Kentucky is that of a medi- ator between the sections, and, that as an um- pire she should remain firm and impartial in this day of trial to our beloved country, that by her counsels and mediation she may aid in restoring peace and harmony and brotherly love throughout the land."
This resolution was never brought to a vote, though it is difficult to understand, at this late day, why the men who called them- selves Unionists should have hesitated to vote for its adoption.
R. T. Jacob, the author of this resolution, was a man of the highest character. He was closely related by blood to Gen. Zachary Tay- lor, the real hero of the war with Mexico, and subsequently president of the United States. Finding his efforts in the general as- sembly to be of no effect. Mr. Jacob quitted the field of civil endeavor and entering the volunteer service became colonel of a regi- ment of Kentucky cavalry which gave much active service to the Federal cause. While serving in the field he was nominated for and elected to the position of lieutenant governor of the state. While filling this honorable po- sition with loyalty to his native state and with equal loyalty and affection to the Federal
government, Colonel Jacob was arrested by the Federal authorities and sent through their lines into those of the Confederate army. Col- onel Jacob's offense is supposed to have been his denial of the proposition that the war was waged for the purpose of freeing the negro, rather than for the restoration of the Union.
Col. Frank Wolford, a very gallant gentle- man and soldier, who also commanded a regi- ment of Kentucky cavalry in the Federal ser- vice, shared the experience of Colonel Jacob, and was like him, banished by the military authorities into the Confederate lines. Col- onel Wolford was possessed of a very active and unique imagination and his recital of his experiences within the Confederate lines, would enliven the pages of this work, the lim- itations of which, it is regretted, will not per- mit such recital.
Returning to the special session of the leg- islature, it may be stated that it had been ad- journed without any permanent results being attained. On March 20, 1861, it reassembled with what have been termed the Unionists still fighting for inaction and delay. Some have claimed that this inaction was the result of a fear that on a final vote, the Ewing res- olutions, or an equivalent, would be adopted. McElroy, who, unfortunately for the histo- rian, seems unequal to seeing other than the Union side of the question, says: "The fight for delay and inaction was reopened by the Unionist leaders, who were still determined to prevent precipitate action and to allow the people to settle the question of Union or Se- cession at the coming election."
The situation was of the most delicate na- ture. During the legislative recess Mr. Lin- coln had been inaugurated as president of the United States-unfortunately united only in name-and Mr. Davis had been accorded like honors as president of the Confederate states. The elevation of these two distinguished sons of Kentucky to the highest honors in the gov- ernments which each represented, had not
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tended to lessen the tense strain under which the minds of the people of Kentucky existed.
The legislature invited prominent men to address it. Every one wanted something done to avert the coming struggle; no one knew what was best to be done. Old men, whose fathers had fought with Washington to es- tablish the Union, pleaded with their hot- headed sons to do nothing to disrupt that Un- ion ; other men who had fought with Jackson at New Orleans, or with Taylor and Scott in Mexico, stood ready to buckle their swords about their sons and send them forth to battle for the south. "No man of today who did not live in those days can understand or appre- ciate what the situation was.
The experiences of a single family-one of the most distinguished in the state-may suf- fice to illustrate the condition of affairs. The father, a very distinguished minister of the gospel, was the intimate friend and adviser of Mr. Lincoln in all affairs pertaining to Kentucky. Of his four young sons, two joined the Union army, one of these to die early in his honorable service under the stars and stripes, the other to survive the war in which he served brilliantly, retiring from ac- tive service long after the war had closed, as inspector general of the United States army. He yet lives to do honor to the illustrious line from which he sprang. The other two sons went into the southern army, one of them for a tiine as a major of cavalry, later to become one of the representatives of Kentucky in the Confederate congress. The other served as the gallant colonel of a regiment of Ken- tucky cavalry in the Confederate command of Kentucky's other brilliant military son, Gen. John H. Morgan. When the war had closed and the restrictions the legislature had put upon those who served the Cofederate states had been removed, this brilliant son of a Un- ion man went into the congress of the United States, where during his long years of service he established a reputation for oratory that
has not been surpassed nor equalled by any who have come after him. So closely identi- fied with the history of Kentucky from the days of John Breckinridge and the Resolu- tions of 1798-9 has been the family of which mention is here made, no excuse is necessary for stating that the four young men here men- tioned were the sons of the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, whose stanch de- votion to the Union was equalled, but not sur- passed, by his attachment to the Presbyterian church, of the pulpit of which he was during his long and useful life one of the brightest lights. This distinguished family was but a type of many others who found themselves thus divided, even the father being in one or the other army while his sons wore the uni- form of the opposing forces.
It is not a matter for surprise that the leg- islature hesitated before taking final steps. Many of the men who sat in that body in the early Spring of 1861, counseling with each other as to the best means for bringing peace to a distracted country, afterwards met as foes upon the battlefield when the days of attempted conciliation had come and gone and had finally given way to the appeal to arms.
The legislature invited Mr. Crittenden, whose term as senator had expired. to address a joint session of the house and senate. The fine old man, who had striven for peace in the national senate, came and made his final plea to the people who had long delighted to honor him. "It would be wisdom in us never to consider the question of dissolution. It is not a question to be debated" were the con- clusions at which he had arrived and with which he concluded his temperate appeal.
Later John C. Breckinridge, who had just surrendered the vice-presidency to his suc- cessor, the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, was in- vited to address the joint assembly. Mr. Breckinridge, whose splendid presence was itself an appeal for any cause which he espoused, presented the cause of the south
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with all that eloquence which has so long char- be disturbed by the sounds of opposing ar- tillery.
acterized the name of Breckinridge in Ken- tucky. He pleaded not for secession but for peace, if it could be secured without sacrificing what he and many who heard him, regard- ed as the inalienable rights of the southern states, including, of course, Kentucky.
Nothing tangible came of these addresses. Those who heard them did so with the fullest respect for the distinguished men who had spoken, but each was of the same opinion as before.
It was finally decided to invite the border states to send representatives to a Peace Con- ference to be held in Frankfort, May 27, 1861, provision being made for the election of twelve delegates for Kentucky. The legisla- ture then adjourned.
The Unionists had triumphed in-so-far as they had blocked the plan for a Sovereignty Convention, but it was a triumph which events proved to be of no great moment. The ques- tion seemed to be left open for a decision by the people at the ensuing August election.
But a higher power than a mere state leg- islature or, indeed, the votes of the people of a state, intervened and changed the entire as- pect of affairs. What had been merely spec- ulative, within a few hours became a reality, and men who had considered what they would do with possibilities, were called upon at a moment's notice to deal with actualities.
Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, knew with a soldier's prescience, that his position there was not tenable, should the South Caro- lina forces conclude to storm it. He had a certain limited intercourse with the city of Charleston, but on April 7th, General Beaure- gard, in command at Charleston, notified him that this would no longer be permitted. Mr. Lincoln promptly stated on the next day that, if necessary, supplies would be sent to Major 'Anderson. Matters were approaching a cri- sis. Peace Conferences amounted to but little when their deliberations were likely to
The hour had struck. At 4:30 A. M., April 12, 1861, a shell from a mortar in the Confederate works, rose high in the air and curving in its course, burst almost directly over Fort Sumter. The last echo of that first gun has not yet been heard in our coun- try, nor will it be until through statesmanship or other means, the "negro question" has been solved. The bombardment of Fort Sumter continued for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time, Major Anderson, the gallant Kentucky commandant, hauled down his flag. He negotiated terms of surrender, honorable alike to him and to those who granted them. No other military action in the history of the world has meant so much as this. Undergo- ing a bombardment of twenty-four hours, re- turning shot for shot, no man in the fort which was dismantled about him, was injured, nor was there one in the attacking forces. When Major Anderson was preparing to sa- lute the colors under which he had so long served and under which he had gallantly re- sisted attack on the fort until it was no longer tenable, he, by the gracious consent of the men who had overpowered him, was granted the privilege of "saluting the colors;" and in this ceremony a gun was burst and one of the gallant fellows who had done his duty in defense of the fort and his flag, was killed. Major Anderson was permitted to transfer his gallant garrison to a transport which sailed for New York.
To one proud of the history of Kentucky ; justly proud of the record its sons have made upon every battlefield where they have served, it is difficult to understand why Major Ander- son, who did his whole duty at Fort Sumter, should have been ignored in the after events of the war. The shot fired at Concord in the Revolution, which Emerson, in immortal verse, has told, was "heard around the world" was not more important than the shots fired
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at Charleston to which Anderson bravely made response until Fort Sumter was a mass of ruins, yet history tells but little of Ander- son after his heroic deeds in Charleston har- bor. As a brigadier general he came, for a time. back to his native Kentucky, with his headquarters in Louisville, in the county in which he was born, and then all sight of him was lost. He was merely a soldier and knew not the ways of politicians, else his place in the history of his country might be higher to- day than that of some of those who had never heard a hostile gun fired at the time when he was defending his country and his people.
The next day after the firing upon Fort Sumter, Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers for use against the insurgents, as the Confed- erate forces were termed. The latter were commanded to return to their allegiance with- in twenty days, but it required four years for them to hearken to this command.
On April 15th, President Lincoln, through Simon Cameron, secretary of war, called by telegraph upon Governor Magoffin for "four regiments for immediate service." The gov- ernor, unhampered by the presence of the leg- islature, which had adjourned its extraordi- nary session on the 4th of April, replied to this demand.
"Your dispatch is received. In answer, I say, emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister southern states."
How very little the governor knew of what the near future was to show and how, within a few short months, the gallant sons of Ken- tucky were to confront each other upon the field of battle and how each contending regi- ment, whether under the flag of the Union or the Confederacy, was to add to the glorious record which Kentucky's soldier sons have made upon every field where they have con- tended.
This response of the governor to the de- Vol. 1-20
mand for troops to be used against the south could have no other effect than to encourage the young Confederacy to believe that Ken- tucky would cast her fortunes with her sister southern states. L. P. Walker, the Confed- erate secretary of war, sent to Governor Ma- goffin the following message :
"Your patriotic response to the requisition of the president of the United States for troops to coerce the southern states justifies the belief that your peo- ple are prepared to unite with us in repelling the common enemy of the south. I therefore request you to furnish one regiment of infantry without delay to rendezvous at Harper's Ferry, Virginia."
The governor was no more prompt in fur- nishing this one regiment requested by the Confederate secretary of war, than he had been to send the four demanded by Secretary Cameron. The regiment went forward to Virginia, however, under the command of Colonel Blanton Duncan, of Louisville, but it went upon its own initiative and not that of the governor. The latter, while in positive sympathy with the southern states, hesitated to take a step which would bring Kentucky into the vortex of war. In his inaugural ad- dress, looking forward with prophetic vision, he had warned the people of the dangers of the immediate future. He told them that "with seven hundred miles of territory bor- dering on the free states, Kentucky must think calmly and act with discretion In the event of a separation of these states then indeed would she be baptized in blood and fire, with the significant title first won by our forefa- thers of 'the dark and bloody ground.' "
While declining to furnish troops for either army, Governor Magoffin was not unmindful of the duty of placing Kentucky in a state of defense. He was confronted at thie very be- ginning of these efforts by a lack of money. As had been stated, the legislature had ad- journed. but during the session, that body had made no adequate appropriation for military purposes. . Either of the opposing military
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forces could, without restraint, march upon her soil, and even if it should be desired to oppose such force, it could not be done ade- quately with the State Guard forces then in existence : but, to the credit of this force. made up of the best young men of the state, it should be stated that when the final align- ment was made and each took his place under the flag of his choice, the service rendered was a credit to Kentucky.
The governor called upon the banks to aid him, but the response was not encouraging. Small loans were tendered by some of them, but the majority showed little disposition to lend money to the state. The times were not propitious for such loans. Business was dis- turbed and uncertain ; no man knew today what tomorrow would bring forth. The horrors of a war between men of the same blood was something the people had not permitted them- selves to contemplate. The Bank of Kentucky, a sturdy and most conservative institution, agreed to furnish a loan (her quota), but upon the express condition that the fund so loaned should be used exclusively "for arming the state for self-defense and protection, to pre- vent aggression or invasion from either the north or the south, and to protect the present status of Kentucky in the Union."
Kentucky's status in the Union was that of one of the sovereign states of that Union and, at this day, it seems to an unprejudiced ob- server, that if she was to preserve that status, she should do nothing that would interfere with the authorities of the Union in their ef- forts to prevent the destruction of that Union. But the state wished to be neutral; there can be no denial of that fact, however untenable the position may have been. Elsewhere in this work, there is reference to these facts. The governor sympathized with the south ; he was an honest and sturdy States Rights man, but he never forgot for a moment that he was the governor of his state, and he eagerly em-
braced the idea of neutrality in its strictest sense. This impracticable idea, as it proved to be, had its basis, in sound reason. Those who supported it, hoped that if the border states would all firmly hold to the po- sition taken by Kentucky, there might be a compromise finally effected and war averted. How mistaken was this idea is now easily to be seen. In those days, men caught at straws in the hope of saving their country from suf- fering. Men who for months were the stur- diest supporters of the idea of neutrality. when the die was cast were first among the soldiers whom Kentucky gave to the War Between the States. They did not want war ; they pleaded for peace, but when war came, they did as Kentuckians have ever done in war's presence-they buckled on their swords and added new laurels to those the sons of the state had won on other fields than those at home.
Hoping almost against hope, Governor Ma- goffin wrote to the governors of Missouri and Tennessee, General Simon Bolivar Buckner, then inspector general of the Kentucky State Guard, acting as his special messenger. Gen- eral Buckner found the executives of these states to hold similar views to those enter- tained by Kentucky, the governor of Tennes- see favoring "mediating neutrality." On May I, 1861, Governor Magoffin invited the gov- ernor of Indiana and Ohio to join him in a plan for mediation between the Federal gov- ernment and the seceding states, urging that if a truce could be obtained until congress could be assembled, a way might be found for peacefully adjusting existing difficulties. Gov- ernor Dennison, of Ohio, declared in his re- ply to the invitation, that the Federal govern- ment was wholly in the right and the only solution he recognized was a return of the southern states to their allegiance. Governor Morton, of Indiana, read a lecture to Ken- tucky in his response, declaring that the state was bound to obey the requisitions for troops
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made upon her by the president, at the same time intimating that the state would do her- tillery or the rattle of musketry. self more credit if, instead of posing as a mediator, she should take her place alongside of Indiana in support of the Union. It would be interesting here to recite the events con- nected with the receipt of the response of Governor Morton by the governor of Ken- tucky. Those who best knew and therefore best loved that excellent gentleman may put their imagination to work but they will prove unequal to the test. The governor had a unique vocabulary, never permitted to grow rusty from disuse, and history fails of its full effect when it admits that there is no record of the happenings at the executive office in Frankfort on receipt of the response from the executive office at Indianapolis.
Governor Magoffin sincerely desired that the neutrality of Kentucky should be assured, as did the majority of the people of the state, though in the light of subsequent events, it seems a strange thing to write these words. He called the legislature back to share with him the extreme responsibilities of the mo- ment. That body reassembled May 6, 1861. The Union leaders, not feeling the ground entirely firm beneath them were determined to grapple with the neutrality idea that had developed much strength, the people of the state having demonstrated that they approved of the governor's refusal to furnish troops for the subjugation of the seceding states. They determined to take a stand for "medi- ating neutrality" friendly to both north and south, which may have seemed proper at that time but as it appears to an observer today who wishes to be entirely impartial, it would have been more manly to take a decided stand one way or the other. But those were peril- ous days and it were perhaps more generous to admit that temporizing was justified. The day· came all too soon when it was impossi- ble. No nation nor people has yet invented
a method of temporizing with the roar of ar-
Mr. Crittenden, no longer in the senate, had come home, his great heart still beating warm- ly for the Union and for Kentucky. In a speech, at Lexington, he had strongly advo- cated the then impossible theory of "mediat- ing neutrality," which Governor Morton's response to Governor Magoffin's letter had made an impossibility. He declared in this speech that, as Kentucky had done nothing to bring on the war, she should not be drawn into it, but should stand neutral, offering the hand of conciliation to both sections. As if a war could proceed in the presence of Ken- tuckians without her sons taking part on the one side or the other !
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