Year: 1861

d In this extraordinary crisis, we deem il
a duty we, your representatives, owed to
you and ourselves to say few words to
you as to the condition Of the Common
wealth and the duties we have been called
upon to perform. .,..g.l m s.rrsis r


We have ardently desired peace, and
hoped to save Kentucky from the calam-
4 tiles of war. When the Federal author
tiles deemed it necessary to employ force
in selfdefence, and to execute the laws
of the Government, we assured our
Southern neighbors Of our purpose not
to take up arms against them, notwith-
standing their wicked attempt to destroy
the Government, from which we and our
fathers have received the greatest bene-
fits. Every effort was made, both before
and after the employment of force, to ef-
feet some compromise and settlement
that would restore the Union and prevent
the effusion of blood.


The Federal Government did not in
sist upon our active aid in furnishing
troops, seeming content if we obeyed the
laws and executed them upon our SOIL
Those engaged in rebellion, however,
with hypocritical professions of friendship
and respect, planted camps Of soldiers all
along onr southern border; seized, by
military power, the stock on our railroad
within their reach, in defiance of charter
ed rights; impudently enlisted soldiers
upon our soil for their camps, whom they
ostentatiously marched through their ter
ritory. They made constant raids into
this State; robbed us of our property !;
insulted our people; seized some of our
citizens, and carried them away, as pris-
oners, into the Confederate States. Our
military was demoralized by the treach-
cry of its chief officer in command, aud
many of his subordinates, until it became
more an arm Of the Confederate States
than Guard of the State of Kentucky
Thus exposed to wrongs and indignities,
with no power prepared to prevent or re-
sent them, some of the citizens of this
State formed camps under the Federal
| Government, for the defence and protec-
tion of the State of Kentucky. What
ever might have been thought of the pol
icy once, recent events have proved that
they were formed none to soon.


In this condition we found Kentucky
when the Legislature 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 Confederate States that our position
should be respected but tho 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 Governor
of Tennessee disavowed the act, and pro-
tested his innocence of it. His commits
sioners at Frankfort professed the same
innocence Of the admitted wrong; but
our warnings to leave were only answer
ed by another invasion in the southeast
of the State, and still more direct and
deadly assault upon the very heart Of the
State by way of the Nashville road
These sudden irruptions of such magni-
tude, skillfully directed, show that the
assault on Kentucky was preconcerted,
prepared 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 Ken
lucky, and to involve this State in the
rebellion. This purpose appeared to be
well understood in the seeded 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 cxpel the invader
from our soil, and to call for the aid OF
the Federal Government, as we had a
right to do under the Federal Constitu-
ton.


Our foes would dictate terms to a
brave people upon which we can have
peace. We are required to join them in
their unwarrapted rebellion, become ac-
cessory to their crimes, and consent to
sacrifice the last hope Of permanently up
holding republican institutions, or meet
their invasions as it becomes Kentncki-
ans.


We believe we have done our duty to
chivslric people, who have forborne
long, but will never fail, as a last 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 the restoration of the
Union, and checking the rebellion by that
course. Our hope of an amicablo adjust
mcnt, and desire for peace, led us to
forbear, until forbearanoe has ceased to be
a virtue. The attempt to destroy the
Union Of these States we believe to be a
crime, not only against Kentucky, but
against all mankind. But up to this time
We have left to others to vindicate, by
arms, the integrity Of the Government.