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MR. POWELL'S DEFENSE 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. L. W. POWELL, OF KENTUCKY, 
 
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 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 14, 1862. 
 
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 The Senate having under consideration the resolution 
 for tl)e expulsion ol" Mr. Powell, reported upon adversely 
 by the Coiniiiitlee on the Judiciary — 
 
 Mr. POWELL s:iid: 
 
 Mr. President: I liadlioped tliat after the Judi- 
 ciary Committee had made their report, tlin vote 
 would be taken wiilioutaiiy discussion. I at least, 
 on my part, after the report of that committee, 
 was willing that the vote should be taken without 
 saying a word on the subject. But after the very 
 extraordinary speecli of iny colleague, I am com- 
 pelled, it) my own defense, to make a reply. I 
 trust, sir, that in the reply whicli I shall make, I 
 shall be governed by feelings of just consideration 
 to the Senate, that I shall approach the subject 
 calmly, dispassionately, and seriously, duly im- 
 pressed with the solemn circumstances by which 
 1 am surrounded, and the awful consequences to 
 me individually of the action of the Senate. 
 
 My colleague was kind enough in the very 
 lengthy, and I must say somewliat bitter, speech 
 that he delivered, to speak kindly of me, person- 
 ally. For that, 1 thank him. I shall not, I trust, 
 be governed by that impetuosity of temper, if 
 not bitterness of feeling, that characterized my 
 colleague. My colleague's conduct in this whole 
 matter has been, I confess, somewhat aslonisli- 
 ing to me; yet I have no complaints to make of 
 it. He has rights liere as much as any other in- 
 dividual Senator. I accord to him most cheer- 
 fully all his rights and privileges. He stated to 
 the Senate that this was a very unpleasant duty 
 he had to perform. I hope that it was unpleasant, 
 notwiilistanding my colleague's disclaimer — his 
 bearirig, his manner, his temper, indicated to my 
 mind that he was engaged in what to him was a 
 worFcof love. But, Mr. President, there is a way 
 of performing unpleasant duties that sometimes 
 disarms them of a great deal of their apparent 
 liarshness. 
 
 My colleague is the author of the resolution. 
 It is before me now in his own handwriting. [Mr. 
 Davis assented.] It was presented, however, by 
 another Senator. I have no complaintagainst the 
 honorable Senator who presetited it, because my 
 colleague is presumed to know all the facts con- 
 nected with tliis matter better than any otlier Sen- 
 ator, or at least the action of the State of Ken- 
 tucky; and, as he makes the charges, I do not 
 attach the least blame to any Senator for present- 
 
 ing the resolution. I think, however, my col- 
 league acted a little ungenerously in this, that 
 while he was laboriously engaged in drawing up 
 jiis bill of indictment, he did not notify me of the 
 fact. The first intimation I had of it was when 
 the resolution was presented by the honorable /st 
 Senator from Minnesota; and I must confess that ,at I 
 when I looked at it at the Clerk's desk and found 
 it to be in my colleague's handwriting, I was some- 
 what amazed. 1 thought courtesy at least to a 
 colleague would have induced the Senator to no- 
 tify me of what he proposed to do. He did not 
 do it. The case went to the Committee on the Ju- 
 diciary; and, as the honorable Senator from Illi- 
 nois, the chairman of that committee, announced, 
 1 did promptly, and I trust delicatelj'-, ask the com- 
 mittee to give it the earliest possible attention. 
 Before that committee, however, had time to con- 
 clude their investigation, such was the hot haste 
 and zeal of my colleague, that ho publicly in the 
 Senate Chamber demanded of the committee to 
 know why they had not reported, or atleasturged 
 them to report as speedily as possible. They did 
 report that the resolution ought not to pass; and 
 the very day that they made the report, my col- 
 league notified the Senate that he would move on 
 the next day to take it up. It did strike me that 
 if my colleague had been governed by that cour- 
 tesy which I am sure I would have extended to 
 him, he would have come to me and consulted 
 with me as to whether it would be convenient for 
 me to have it taken up the next day or not; but he 
 said not a word to ine about it. 
 
 Of all this I do not complain, because I have 
 been always ready to meet the charges. Con- 
 scious of my innocence, I felt that I could success- 
 fully meet them before any intelligent and impar- 
 tial tribunal at any moment; and hence 1 have 
 been prepared for the conflict from the very first 
 day the resolution was introduced; for 
 
 " Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just." 
 
 I merely mention these things in passing; and 
 I now notify my colleague that if ever I shall be 
 under the painful necessity of making any assault 
 upon him, in any way whatever, I will never do 
 it through another. If I shall ever think it is ray 
 duty to do it, I will notify him of the fact, and I 
 will do it in my own proper person. That is the 
 way I will treat him. My sense of justice to a 
 
" That is the neutrality of Kentucky, and that I under- 
 stand to be the reason why she assuins^s to be neutral. It 
 is the first time in the history of tliat pioud Commonwealth 
 that slie ever failed to respond to tlie call upon the country 
 for volunteers ; she never was called upon to fijjlit a public 
 and foreign enemy that her true and gallant sons did not 
 rush to the stanilard of the country in numbers so great that 
 many bail to be turned back. In other wars, in the war of 
 1812, and the war with Mexico, twenty times more men 
 than could be lak<m were presented; and she would be 
 ready to do it again, if it were a war against a foreign enemy ; 
 butshe has uodesireto shed the blood of a brother, whether 
 of the North or South. I think her position is one that 
 should be admired and esteemed by all patriotic men, by 
 all Christian men, by all meu who love their country and 
 love the Union. 
 
 " She stands in an attitude, if pos.= ible, of a peacemaker, 
 between the belligerents North and South, and I hope she 
 may be permitted to maintain that altitude. It was one 
 not taken out of any hostility to the Government ; slie took 
 it because she believed it was the only means possible by 
 which those difficulties could be averted , our country saved, 
 the Union restored, and our people once more made pros- 
 perous, contented, and happy. 
 
 " I am aware that the position of my State is not palata- 
 ble to gentleman who rush fiercely on to this war. I am 
 aware also that persons in the extreme South, perhaps, are 
 not satisfied with the condition of Kentucky. They think 
 we ought to unsheathe our sword at once, and make com- 
 mon quarrel with them. We have chosen to act differeinly, 
 
 d we will, with the blessing of God, maintain our posi- 
 if neutrality. This immense armament called out by 
 the I'resident looked to us as if this were to be ii war of 
 subjugation, and not one in defense of the public property. 
 For that, in addition to the other reasons 1 have stated, we 
 wished to present, if possible, a barrier between the fierce 
 conflicting elements North and South, and restore peace 
 to this country." 
 
 That was the neutrality of which I was the 
 advocate, and I tliought tliat the whole people of 
 Kentucky who assumed it were alike honest with 
 myself. I knew the position was somewhat anoiti- 
 alous, and I told some of my Union friends that 
 I feared we should not be able to maintain it; but 
 I said to them, "as you iiave taken it, for the 
 peace of the State, for the common good, I will 
 cooperate with you." I did cooperate and went 
 not a wiiit further than the Union party went, as 
 I will show yoy, though my colleague seems now 
 to think, indeed declares, that they were not in 
 earnest but were fixing up some clap-ti-ap to cheat 
 the people. If so, they deluded me on their plat- 
 form, and because I went upon it and advocated 
 it, as I always advocate everything, in public or 
 private life, lionestly, they want to sacrifice me. 
 That is the truth, and I will make it manifest here. 
 That is the only time I ever thought 1 wasacting 
 politically with my colleague; and it seems I was 
 utterly mistaken in that; that I have been made the 
 dupe, that I have been deceived by the artifice, in- 
 sincerity, and political juggling of my colleague 
 and those with whom he acted. 
 
 If my colleague wishes the extensive popularity 
 which he imputes to me — a popularity I do not 
 claim to have — I will say, that if he will act as I 
 have acted in this and all other matters, consist- 
 ently, with integrity, witii honest directness, the 
 noble people of Kentucky will sustain him. If 1 
 have any popularity, I got it in that way. I never, 
 never attempted to ileceive them in anything. I 
 do not claim the popularity that my colleague im- 
 putes to me; but if I have it, it is because I have 
 been true and faithful to the people, uttered my 
 convictions honestly, without fear and without 
 favor. I have announced them and carried them 
 
 out as far as 1 could, consistently with public duty 
 and public interest. 
 
 My colleague pronounced his usual philippic 
 against the Breckinridge Democracy. Because 
 Breckinridge has gone with the southern confed- 
 eracy he seems to think that lie can overwhelm 
 any opponent by announcing that he has been of 
 that party. I saw no necessity for his thrice- 
 uttered philippic .here against the Breckinridge 
 party. It is true. Senators, that in my State, and 
 perhaps in other Slates, many of those who sup- 
 ported Major Breckinridge for the Presidency are 
 in the southern confederacy. It is also true that 
 many who co6[>erated with my colleague and sup- 
 ported John Bell are there. 1 do not supposi;my 
 colleague is responsible because John Bell is in 
 the confederate cause. He certainly should not 
 make me responsible because Breckinridge is on 
 thatside, unless he takes the responsibility to him- 
 self because Bell is there. Breckinridge went 
 there; I did not. Bell went; my colleague did 
 not. What is the logic of that rule .' I know that 
 some of the most distinguished men of both the 
 Douglas and the Bell party in Kentucky are with 
 that confederation. The gentleman .singled out a 
 few Breckinridge men in the Legislature, upon 
 whom he pronounced a glowing eulogy. I sup- 
 pose they voted for him for Senator. I know those 
 members of the Legislature to whom my colleague 
 referred. They are honorable, worthy, and tal- 
 ented gentlemen. Why, sir, a distinguished gen- 
 tleman, who pronounced himself a little while 
 liefore that an unconditional Union man, in the 
 gentleman 'sown neighborhood. Colonel Hanson, 
 one of the most distinguished of the Bell men, by 
 the by, a gentleman of ability and of talents and 
 courage, was, unfortunately for himself, captured 
 at the head of his regiment at Fort Donelson. 
 Then there was another distinguished Union Bell 
 friend, one of his electors, who is now a member 
 of the confederate congress, Colonel Crockett, 
 another gentleman of ability and valor from the 
 town in which I myself live. Is ray colleague 
 responsible for these things .' Certainly not. Why 
 then, does he 'attempt to attach responsibility to 
 me because of the action of the Breckinridge De- 
 mocracy. That is all bosh, fustian-stuff. There 
 is nothing in it. In these times it is as much as 
 a man can do to take care of himself. 
 
 My colleague told the Senate, too, that my as- 
 sociates and myself are responsible for the devas- 
 tation of a large portion of Kentucky. I was 
 amazed when my colleague made that announce- 
 ment. How I could be responsible, when from the 
 beginning, as the Senate know, I have been for 
 peace.' I have been opposed to the war, and for that 
 offense my colleague wishes me expelled from the 
 Senate; for that is the charge, that 1 have been op- 
 posed to coercion. In every act of my life, in this 
 whole connection, I have opposed the war, and 
 striven in Kentucky, in mass meetings and other- 
 wise, to keep the peace — to keep the hostile armies 
 of the confederate States and of the United States 
 from our borders. Then, how could I be respons- 
 ible? I was really amazed. I could not tell; I did 
 not know by what logic or what deduction of rea- 
 soning my colleague could make me responsible 
 for the invasion oi Kentucky. I can tell my col- 
 
leaa:ue tliat when the passions of the day shall 
 have subsided and reason shall have resumed its 
 thronft*and this whole affair shall be calmly in- 
 vestigated, the responsibility for the invasion of 
 Kentucky will attach to others than myself. It 
 will attach to those who got on this neutrality 
 platform for the purpose of diverting the attention 
 of the people, who were not in earnest about it, 
 and who then went about organizing camps of 
 Federal soldiersatCanip Dick Robinson and other 
 places. In my judgment, the responsibility for 
 this war in Kentucky attaches to them. I will 
 not charge it upon anybody; but I know that I 
 had nothing to do with it, for I was opposed from 
 the beginning to the war being brought into Ken- 
 tucky." I tried to avert it. I tried in my place in 
 the Senate, as I shall presently show, to settle 
 these difficulties by conciliation, by compromise. 
 I failed. I then assumed neutrality along with the 
 Senator's party. That was overthrown against 
 my earnest protest, and how he can possibly make 
 me responsible for the introduction of hostile 
 troops into Kentucky, I am at a loss to know. I 
 know that I am in no way responsible for it; and 
 I do not fear to meet the people of Kentucky to 
 discuss before them the whole matter. 
 
 My colleague, in commenting on one of the 
 resolutions of that little county meeting in Hen- 
 derson, made a singular announcement; but it was 
 only singular in view of what I had known to be 
 the political history of my colleague. The state- 
 ment to which I allude was, that he had always 
 been an unconditional Union man. I have here 
 the proceedings of a meeting at which my col- 
 league was present, that I will read to the Senate, 
 and 1 will read some of the resolutions of the meet- 
 ing, and then I will ask the Senate how the reso- 
 lutions reported by my colleague as chairman of 
 the committee, and which it was said were passed 
 unanimously by a large mass meeting, comport 
 with his declaration that he has always been an 
 unconditional Union man. I allude to resolutions 
 adopted by the Union State conventions held in 
 Louisville, on the 8th of January, 1861. I take 
 them up at tiiis time, because I wish to place be- 
 fore the Senate in a consecutive manner the action 
 of the Union party on the neutrality question. 
 That action of course commenced after the Presi- 
 dent issued his proclamation forseveniy-five thou- 
 sand men on the 15th of April; but as these con- 
 ventions were anterior to that time, I allude to 
 them now. I wish to show where my colleague 
 and the Union men of Kentucky then stood. I 
 was at that time in the Senate Chamber, fighting 
 for the Crittenden compromise, as the Senate 
 know, and was exerting every effort I possibly 
 could to have it passed, and to have our difficul- 
 ties settled amicably, peaceably, without war, in 
 order to avoid bloodshed and the final disruption 
 of the Union: 
 
 "Tlio following resolutions were reported to the Union 
 Democratic State convention by a conniiittee composed of 
 the following gentlemen : Governor Di.voii" — 
 
 Now a distinguished Union man, my inti- 
 mate, personal friend, once a member of the 
 Senate, who lives in the same village in which I 
 reside — 
 « William G. Thompson, Judge Barbee, J. P. Barbour, Al- 
 
 exander Luske, John Jackson, V. B. Young, T. "L. Jones, 
 J. F. Bullitt"— 
 
 Now one of our supreme judges — 
 " Anil to the TTnion Stnte convention Ivy the following com- 
 mittee : Hon. Garrett Davis, Hon. Joshua F. Bell" — 
 
 Tiie gentleman who my colleague said, if hi; had 
 been elected Governor would have given troops — 
 "J. L. Shacklcfoid, John W. Crockett"— 
 
 A gentleman who is now in theconfedei'ate con- 
 gress — 
 
 " VV. L. Underwood, Z. Wheat, Thomas W. Riley, William 
 C. Goodloe, Orlando Brown, J. B. Huston, and James 
 Taylor." 
 
 The Senate will notice in this committee some 
 of the most distinguished gentlemen in Kentucky. 
 Joshua F. Bell is an ex-member of Congress, and 
 was the late candidate of the gentleman's party 
 for Governor. Warner L. Underwood was re- 
 cently a member of the other House. Z. Wheat 
 is an ex-judge of our supreme court. Thomas W. 
 Riley is a distinguished attorney. William C. 
 Goodloe is at present one of the circuit judges of 
 Kentucky. Orlando Brown is the late secretary 
 of state and a distinguished politician. J. B. 
 Huston is now one of the most distinguished 
 Union men in the Kentucky Legislature. 
 
 The Senate may think it strange that there were 
 two committees there, but I will explain that. 
 The Douglas men and the Bell men both had con- 
 ventions in the city of Louisville on the same day, 
 they met in different halls; but they agreed through 
 the instrumentality of committees tipon the same 
 resolutions; and hence it is said "they were re- 
 ported to tiieir respective conventions by the sep- 
 arate committees, and \inanimously adopted." 
 These resolutions go on to treat generally of our 
 difficulties, of the aggressions of the North, and 
 expressed very great devotion to the Union. They 
 then copy the entire Crittenden amendments to the 
 Constitution, and proceed to resolve as follows: 
 
 •' Rcsolretl, That we reconnnend totheLegislalnreof the 
 State to put these amendments in form and submit tli<:m to 
 the other States, and that if the disorganization of the pres- 
 ent Union is not arrested, the States agreeing to these 
 amendments of the Federal Constitution shall form a sep- 
 arate confederacy, with power to admit new States under 
 our glorious Constitution thus amended." 
 
 Senators, you see that my colleague, as chair- 
 man of a committee composed of the most dis- 
 tinguished citizens of the State, reported a reso- 
 lutron as early as tiie 8th of January, 1861, in 
 which they say that if the States do not take the 
 Crittenden compromise, and the disorganization 
 of the Union is not arrested, they recommend to 
 the Kentucky Legislature, which was then in 
 session or about to convene, to put it in form and 
 submit it to the States, and that such States as 
 adopted it should form a separate confederacy, 
 with power to admit new States. That is the un- 
 conditional unionism of my colleague. Certainly 
 he has shown nothing that 1 have ever had any- 
 thing to do with, so direct as that. 
 
 While I produce this resolution here, and show 
 the character of the men who attended that meet- 
 ing and passed it, I do not intend to charge my 
 colleague with disloyally; neither do I intend to 
 charge it upon any of the distinguished gentlemen 
 who participated in that meeting. I believe they 
 are loyal men; 1 believe they are Union men; for 
 
6 
 
 they expressed tlieir attachment to tlie Union in 
 these very resolutions, as I before stated; but there 
 was a contingency in their unionism. My col- 
 league asked the Legislature ot' Kentucky to pass 
 the Crittenden amendments to the Constitution, 
 invite the cooperation of other States, and then to 
 form a new Union upon the Constitution thus 
 amended. That is a kind of unconditional union- 
 ism that I do not understand. If I had been in 
 that meeting, I have no doubt that my colleague 
 would have had it in his charges, and for that he 
 would have asked, that I be driven, dishonored, 
 disgraced from the Senate because I was disloyal ; 
 but when he and his Union friends do it, it is all 
 right. They are to receive the plaudits, I sup- 
 pose, of a grateful people for doing that, which 
 if I had done he would say should stamp me with 
 eternal infamy. That was at an early time in this 
 revolution, before the war had commenced — before 
 a gun was fired, when the flag of the Union still 
 waved over Fort Sumter — even at that early day 
 my colleague had a condition in his unionism. 
 
 In the resolution just read, my colleague and 
 bis friends declare their intention and purpose, if 
 the disorganization of the Union is not arrested, 
 to break up the old Union and to form a new one. 
 So far from being unconditional Union men, they 
 distinctly avow their intention, in a certain con- 
 tingency, which is set forth in the resolution, to 
 form a new Union. They were for abandoning 
 the old Union before a gun had been fired in its 
 defense. The disorganization of which they spoke 
 has not been arrested. The Crittenden amend- 
 ments have been adopted by no States. With a 
 full knowledge of these facts, my colleague yester- 
 day distinctly told the Senate that he had always 
 been an unconditional Union man. I will make 
 no comments upon his sincerity or consistency, 
 let the facts speak for themselves. 
 
 These distinguished gentlemen said further in 
 their resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved, That we deplore the existence of a Union to 
 1)0 lifid together hy the sword, with laws to be enforced liy 
 standiui; ainiies. It is not such a Union as our fathers in- 
 tended, and not worth preserving." 
 
 That was the language of the Bell men and the 
 Douglas men in Louisville in mass meeting. Yet 
 the gentleman arraigns me for opposing coercion. 
 They pronounced themselves against any such 
 thing, and said that a Union held together by force 
 was not worth preserving. He has introduced 
 some resolutions in his charges against coercion, 
 passed by political meetings attended by me, and 
 asks that I be driven from the Senate because I 
 advocated them and was opposed to coercion. 
 My colleague has been very eulogistic of himself 
 and the Union party of Kentucky; and he asks 
 my condemnation and expulsion from the Senate 
 for advocating the very principle set forth in the 
 resolution last read, which was passed unani- 
 mously in mass meeting by himself and friends. 
 What think you, Senators, of my colleague's 
 sense of justice? 
 
 I introduce those matters for the purpose of 
 showing what was the public mind of Kentucky. 
 When I was urging the integrity of the Union, 
 and not intimating that in any contingency I was 
 for dissolution, my colleague and his friends were 
 
 engaged in mass meeting, sending fortli to the 
 country and to the world resolutions th^ if the 
 States did not take the Crittenden amendments, 
 they were for uniting only the States that would 
 adopt them, with power to admit new States, and 
 turning the States that would not adopt the Crit- 
 tenden amendments out of the Union. I am sorry 
 my colleague did not think of these things wlien 
 he was arraigning me for disloyally to the Union. 
 
 I now ask the indulgence of tlie Senate while I 
 show by the resolutions of the Union men of Ken- 
 tucky, by their addresses, and by their legislative 
 resolves, that tliey were in favor of neutrality, 
 that they did approve the action of Governor Ma- 
 goffin in refusing troops in obedience to the call 
 of the President. I hold in my hand the Louis- 
 ville Democratof the 19lh of April last, containing 
 the proceedings of a Union meeting held in the 
 city of Louisville on the previous evening. It is 
 headed: 
 
 " Groat meeting. Kentucky to stand neutral in the Union. 
 Hands otr on both sides. Fivethonsand Union men. Elo- 
 quent speeches by Hon. James Guthrie, Ex-Senator Dixon, 
 Hon. John Young Brown, and Judge Bullock. Resolutions 
 worthy of Kentucky." 
 
 I will read to the Senate some of the resolutions 
 of this meeting: and I will hand to the reporter, to 
 be published as an appendix to my speech, the 
 whole resolutions and proceedingsof the meetings 
 to which I may allude, this among others, because 
 I wish to make a record of them that the people 
 of Kentucky may in after time know who it was 
 that inaugurated neutrality, and who it was that 
 stood upon it, and who it was that abandoned it. 
 The meeting was organized by calling Judge Pir- 
 tle to the chair. 
 
 " Hon. Nat. Wolfe moved the appointmont of a comniit- 
 t(!e on resolutions, and the following gentlemen were ac- 
 corilingly appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the 
 sfiitiMieiits and sense of the meeting. Nat. Wolfe, Lovel 
 Rosscau, [now General Rosscau,] Joseph Speed, G. A. 
 Honghton, J. H.Harney, [the editor of the Limisville Dem- 
 ocrat,] and Judge Bullock." 
 
 The committee reported a series of resolutions, 
 from which I will read a few extracts: 
 
 "3. That as we oppose the call of the President for vol- 
 unteers for the purpose of coercing the seceded States, so 
 we oppose the raising of troops in this State to cooperate 
 with the southern confederacy." * * * * 
 
 '• 6. That the present duty of Kentucky is to maintain 
 her present independent position, taking sides not with 
 the Administration nor with the seceding States, hut with 
 the Union against them both, declaring her soil to be sacred 
 from the hostile tread of either, and if necessary, to make 
 th(^ declaration good with her strong riglit arm." 
 
 That was the meeting which inaugurated neu- 
 trality. The gentleman censures the resolutions 
 of the meeting at which I was prcsi'iit, held after- 
 wards, because they said that if the forces of either 
 belligerent came upon the State, they should be 
 expelled. Here the Union men of Louisville, at 
 the very time they inaugurated neutrality, de- 
 clared that they would make it good by the strong 
 right arm. What did that mean .' That they would 
 maintain the neutrality by force, if needs be. It. 
 meant nothing else. I will read another resolu- 
 tion of that meeting : 
 
 " 7. That to the end Kentucky may be fully prepared for 
 any contingency, we would liave lier arm herself thor- 
 oughly, at the earliest practicable mouient, by regular legal 
 "action." 
 
Yes, they wished to have the State armed for 
 the purpose of maintaining her neutrality by their 
 good right arms. Now, let me read a few extracts 
 from tlie si:)eeches delivered before that meeting. 
 Hon. James Guthrie addressed the meeting. He 
 said: 
 
 '• Now, ill tlio action of tlie sputliprn confederacy and 
 tliat of Mr. Lincoln, tin; friends of botli parties find ex- 
 ciisi's for tliejii ; but when it was tlie peace of the country 
 and till' saving it from war and bloodshed, then tlieie should 
 liave been no interference of etiquette to prevent such a 
 drciulful calamity. Kentucky spolie as her statesmen have 
 always spoken, of conciliation, peace, harmony, and a 
 fintil settlement. But war has been inaugurateti. Fort 
 Sumter has fallen. The President has issued a proclama- 
 tion calling for seventy-five thousand men ; but he has not 
 told us what he is going to do with them. Is he going to 
 retake Fort Sumter.' Is he going to defend Fort Pickens? 
 If so, why does he congregate them at Washington.'" 
 
 " I want Kentucky to take her stand for peace, and ap- 
 peal to that still, small voice in the North crying for peace. 
 There are religious men from habit, education, and from 
 profession, whose hearts, when Kentucky calls for peace, 
 will be reached, and whose voice will reach the powers 
 that he, and we will have peace." 
 
 " We have asked the South to stay their hands, for we 
 had a great vtake in this Governinent, and they have not. 
 We plead with Mncoln for peace, and have not been heark- 
 ened to. Shall we be hearkened to in the din of arms? 
 There will be a time when Kentucky's voice, if she stands 
 firm on her own soil, fighting with neither section will be 
 heard by millions o.f people of the free States who will 
 liearkeu to us and say, ' Why should thcvc be strife be- 
 twi'en us and you?' 
 
 "Let us staud boldly and fearlessly, as is characteristic 
 of Keiituekians, and cry peace ! Hold fast to that we know 
 to be good, and let those men who want to make the exper- 
 iment of secession go as individual amateurs, and find con- 
 genial spirits for their work." 
 
 "If the North comes to ravage our land, we will meet 
 tlicin as Keiituekians always meet their foes. We will meet 
 them as Keiituekians should meet them, so long as there is 
 a tree for a fortification or a foot of land for a freeman to 
 stand upon." 
 
 You .see tliatMr. Guthrie, who is a Union man, 
 and who in that speech expressed iiis devotion to 
 the Union, declared himself in favor of neutrality. 
 In the resolutions of that meeting they declared 
 their ardent attachment to the Union, but were 
 still in favor of neutrality, and of maintaining it 
 with their own right arm. Governor Dixon al.so 
 made a speed) at tiiat meeting, from which I shall 
 read a brief extract: 
 
 " We do not mean to submit to Linooln. He has com- 
 niamled ns to send troops. W^; sent word that Kentucky 
 will not do it. Will he compel Ms? Let him not dare it. 
 Let him not rouse the sleeping lioness of the border States. 
 She sleeps now, still and quiet, but it is not from lack of 
 strength, courage, or power. She waits for the assault. 
 Let it eoni", and roused she will crush the power that as- 
 sails, and drag Mr. Ijincolri from his high placr'. Can he 
 make Kentucky hel|) him kill? He has a riiiht to demaml 
 troops, and he ilid. Ulenduwer eonUI, as he said, call spirits 
 from the vasty diep, hut would they come wlicn (hey were 
 called ? Will tli(" troops from Kentucky come at his call ? 
 No; they will nrver lend tlienis<'lves to such a cause. 
 
 "15ut keiitncky will stand lirm with her sister border 
 States in the cfnter of the liepuhlie, to calm the distracted 
 sections. This is her true position, and in it she saves the 
 Uitinii and frowns down secession." 
 
 There is certainly nothing in the resolutions 
 read by my colleague more pointed than those 
 resolutions'of the first meeting in Kentucky that 
 inangurnted neutrality — a Union meeting. I will 
 next read an extract from the address of tlie Union 
 
 central committee to the people of Kentucky, 
 issued on the 17th of April: 
 
 "The alliance between party spirit and the sectional 
 question of slavery has at length produced the legitimate 
 fruit of such a combination. Disunion and war are upon 
 the land. No further retrospect is necessary for the pur- 
 poses of this brief address. The past is understood. We 
 here propose to touch alone upon the present and the future. 
 
 "A condition of hostilities, as is known, exists between 
 the seceding States and the national Government, spring- 
 ing inimediatelvfrom tlie seizure by theformerofone of tlie 
 national forts. " The President, in view of this seizure, and 
 of the kindred acts committed prcvionsly by the seceding 
 Stales, and of the secession nut of which the acts have 
 grown, has published a proclamation calling forth the mili- 
 tia of the several States of the Union to supjness what he 
 describes as ' combinations too powerful to be suppressed 
 in the ordinary way,' and to ' execute the laws,' appealing 
 at the same time to ' all loyal citizens to facilitate and aid 
 this effort to maintain the laws and the integrity of the na- 
 tional Union and the perpetuity of |>opular governments, 
 and redress wrongs that have long been endured.' Ken- 
 tucky, through herE.xecutive,has already, we understand, 
 responded to this appeal. She has refused to comply with 
 it. And in this refusal she has acted as became her. IKe 
 appro re the response of the Executive of th e Commonwealth. 
 One other appeal now demands a response from Kentucky. 
 
 "The Government of the Union has appealed to her to 
 furnish men to suppress the revolutionary combinations in 
 the cotton States. She has refused ; she has most wisely 
 and justly refused. Seditious leaders in the midst of us 
 now appeal to her to furnish men to iipliold those combina- 
 tions against the Government and the Union. Will she 
 comply with this appeal? Ought she to comply witli it? 
 We answer, with emphasis, no. 
 
 " If a conviction that the policy of coercion is wild and 
 suicidal, promising only to deluge the land in blood and dis- 
 solve the Uniini irretrievably in the crimson tide, is a good 
 reason, as it is, for Kentucky to withhold her countenance 
 and aid from the elfort of the Government to suppress by 
 tbrce the revolutionary combinations of the Gulf, surely her 
 allegiance, undimmed as yet by a solitary blur, her own 
 sovereign interest, and the all but equal interest of the com- 
 batants themselves in the maintenance of her present inde- 
 pendent relations towards both of them, and finally, the 
 sacred and over-arching interest of the national peace and 
 of the national life, are good reasons, nay, unanswerable 
 and decisive ones, for Kentucky, as the case now presents 
 itself, to decline to draw the sword in belialfof the seceding 
 States against the Government of the Union." 
 
 There they denounce the doctrine of coercion 
 as " wild and suicidal;" yet my colleague arraigns 
 me most fiercely upon an extract he read from a 
 speech of mine in the Senate, in which I opposed 
 the war and opposed the whole policy of coercion. 
 For that, forsooth, he says 1 should be driven 
 from the Senate, though in the very extract he 
 road there was coupled with that, the declaration 
 that I opposed coercion becau-se I thought it would 
 lead to permanent disunion, that I was for the 
 Union, and I believed coercion would destroy it. 
 It was my love of Union that caused me to oppose 
 coercion, as I distinctly staled. Here the Union 
 central committee concur with me, and yet my 
 colleague eulogizes them and condemns me. Is 
 it because I am a Democrat, and have been a 
 Breckinridge Democrat.' I trust my colleague is 
 not so prejudiced as to suppose that that which 
 is good in others is bad in me; but that is the logic 
 of his position. In this address, the Union cen- 
 tral committee say further: 
 
 " The present duty of Kentucky is to maintain her pres- 
 ent independent jiosition, taking sides not with the Gov- 
 ernment and not with the seceding States, but with the 
 Union against them both, declaring her soil to be sacred 
 from the hostile tread of either.'and, if necessary, make the 
 declarajioM i. lod wUh her strong right arm. .And to the end 
 that sil'e may lie fully prepared for this last contingency we: 
 
8 
 
 would liave her arm herself thoroughly at the earliest prac- 
 tical moment. 
 
 " What the future duty of Kentucky may be, we, of 
 course, cannot with certainty foresee, liut if the enterprise 
 announced in the proclamation of the President sliould at 
 anytime hereafter assume the aspect of a war for the over- 
 running and sulijugation of the seceding States through the 
 full assertion therein of the national jurisdiction by a stand- 
 ins; military force, we do not hesitate to say that Kentucky 
 should promptly unsheathe her sword in belialf of what will 
 have then become her common cause.-'' 
 
 The Union central committee were not uncon- 
 ditionally for the Union, it seem.s,any more than 
 my colleague and his committee were on the 8th 
 of January previous: 
 
 " Such an event, if it sliould occur, of which we confess 
 there does not appear to be a rational probability, could 
 have but one meaning — a meaning which a people jealous 
 of their liberty would he keen to detect, and svhich a people 
 worthy of liberty would be promi)t and fearless to resist. 
 When Kentucky detects this meaning in the action of the 
 Government, she ouglit, without counting the cost, to take 
 up arms at once against the Government. Until she does 
 detect this meaning, she ought to hold herself independent 
 of both sides, and compel both sides to respect the inviola- 
 bility other soil." 
 
 That address of the Union central committee 
 was signed by J. H. Hartley, W. F. Bullock, G. 
 D. Prentice, (editor of the Louisville Journal,) 
 James Speed, (now a distinguished member of 
 the Senate of Kentucky,) Charles Ripley, W. P. 
 Boone, P. Tompert, H. Pope, Nat. Wolfe, and 
 L. E. Harvie. Certainly nothing the Senator has 
 produced from mo is stronger or more pointed 
 than this address of the Union committee; and yet 
 he eulogizes the conduct of his Union friends and 
 censures mine most severely. 
 
 I have shown you. Senators, what was the 
 action of the Union party of Kentucky, by their 
 resolutions and addresses and speeches. Now, 
 allow me to show you their action in the Kentucky 
 Legislature. I wish the dates to be borne in mind, 
 and in the end you will see whether I misrepre- 
 sented the wishes of the people of Kentucky or 
 not. On the 22d of January, 1861, the lower 
 House of the Kentucky Legislature passed these 
 resolutions: 
 
 " Resoheil hytke General .Sssemhly of the Commonwealth 
 of Kentucky, 'i'hat this General Assembly has heard with 
 profound regret of the resolutions recently adopted by the 
 States of New York, Ohio, Maine, and Massachusetts, tend- 
 ering men and money to the President of the United States, 
 to be used in coercing sovereign States of the South into 
 obedience to the Federal Government. 
 
 "Resolved. That this General Assembly receivasthe ac- 
 tion of the Legislatures of New York, Ohio, Maine, and 
 Massachusetts as the indication of a purpose upon the part 
 of the people of those States to further complicate existing 
 difficulties by forcing the people of the South to the ex- 
 tremity of submission or resistance; and so regarding it, 
 the Governor of the State of Kentucky is hereby requested 
 to inform the Executivesof each of said States that it is the 
 opinion of this General Assembly that whenever the au- 
 thorities of these States shall send armed forces to the South 
 for the purpose indicated in said resolutions, the people of 
 Kentucky, uniting with their brethren of the South, will, 
 as one man, resist such invasion of the soil of the South, 
 at ail hazards and to the last extremity." 
 
 The first of these resolutions was adopted by 
 a vote of yeas 92, nays 0; and the second by a vote 
 of yeas 87, nays 6. My colleague may say that 
 this was before the present Legislature was elected ; 
 but allow me to tell him that Mr. Nat. Wolfe, Mr. 
 Euckner, the present Speaker, and many other 
 Union men in that Legislature, who voted for tlie 
 resolutions, are in the present Legislature. Then 
 
 they passed a resolution recommending the call- 
 ing of a national convention, and a resolution 
 appointing commissioners to the peace confer- 
 ence. The resolutions I first read only passed 
 one House; but the following resolutions were 
 passed by both Houses, and approved by the 
 Governor on the 11th of February, 1861: 
 
 " Resolved hy the General .issemhly of tlie Commonu-eallh 
 of Kentucky, Tliat the people of Kentucky view, with the 
 most lively apprehension, the dangers that now environ the 
 Union and threaten its perpetuity. 
 
 "Resolved, That we appeal to our southern brethren to 
 stay the work of secession — to return and make one mighty 
 etfort to perpetuate the noble work ol" our forefathers, hal- 
 lowed by the recollection of a thousand noble deeds. 
 
 "Resolved, That we protest against the use offon.-e or 
 coercion by the General Government against the seceding 
 States, as unwise and inexpedient, and tending to the de- 
 struction of our common eoinitry." 
 
 There is a resolve, passed by both Houses of 
 the Legislature and approved by the Governor, 
 against coercion as pointedly as any sentiment I 
 ever uttered in this Hall or elsewhere. That was 
 passed, you will remember, February 11, 1861. 
 The next resolution is in favor of the call of a 
 national convention to settle our difficulties. 
 
 Then in April the Legislature passed an act to 
 provide for the election of delegates to the border 
 State convention to be held at Frankfort. 
 
 Now, I will bring the record down to May, 1861. 
 That was after the President had issued his proc- 
 lamation. On the 16th of May the Committee 
 on Federal Relations of the House reported the 
 following resolutions, which were proposed by 
 one of the most distinguished Union men in the 
 Legislature, an ex-member of this body, Judge 
 Underwood, and reported by the Committee on 
 Federal Relations: 
 
 "Considering the deplorable condition of the country, 
 and for which tlie State of Kentucky is in no way respons- 
 ible, and looking to the best means of preserving the inter- 
 nal peace, and securing the lives, liberty, and property of 
 the citizens of the State: Therefore, 
 
 "Resolved by the House of Representatives, That this State 
 and the citizens tliereof shall take no part in the eivil war 
 now being waged, except as mediators and friends to the 
 belligerent parties; and that Kentucky should, during the 
 contest, occupy the position of strict mnitrality ; and your 
 connniltee unanimously recommend the adoption of the 
 following resolutions." 
 
 There, sir, they take the position of " strict 
 neutrality." What is strict neutrality .' It is that 
 you will stand indifferent; that you will furnish 
 no aid of any kind whatsoever to either of the l>el- 
 ligerent parties. That is the meaning of it, and 
 that is ail it can meait: 
 
 '• Resolved, That the act of the Governor in refusing to 
 I'urnish troops or military force upon the call of the execu- 
 tive authority of the United States, under existing circum- 
 stances, is approved." 
 
 Yes, sir, the Kentucky Legislature, in May, 
 after the issuing of the President's proclamation, 
 resolved to stand upon the doctrine of strict neu- 
 trality, and they approved of the action of the 
 Governor of the Commonwealth in refusing to 
 send troops upon the call of the President. The 
 first of those resolutions was adopted by a vote 
 of 69 yeas to 26 nays, and the second by a vote 
 of 89 yeas to 4 nays. Out of the whole body there 
 were but four who did not vote to approve the act 
 of the Governor in refusing troops to the Presi- 
 dent. 
 
Well, sir, the aliove series of resolutions were 
 adopted by the lower House of the Kentucky Lf- 
 gisiature. The Senate, on ilie24ili of May, 18fil, 
 passed the following resolutions by a vote of 13 
 yeas to 9 nays, enunciating similar doctrine in 
 different words: 
 
 " Whereas, there exists a civil war between the na- 
 tional Goveriimeiit and the secedej States, wliich Ken- 
 tucky deeply deplores ; a war she had no voice in creating, 
 and in which she has hitherto relused to take part, and she 
 now refuses, lieing a part of the national Goveniineiit, 
 in the enjoyment of' its bemfils — such as mail tai'ilities, 
 national hospitals, Federal courts, protection at home and 
 abroad, a garrison paid out o( the national Treasury, into 
 which she' is paying revenue — and having a representa- 
 tion in Congress, Kentucky ought, at least, to remain neu- 
 tral till the end of the controversy; neither hindering the 
 national Government in the exercise of its authority, nor 
 furnishing men, as a State, to either of the belligerents; 
 nor asking aid from either to maintain her position ; she 
 will, all the time, be ready and anxious to mediate between 
 the belligerents, and will be profoundly happy, should she 
 be able to reconcile the contending parties, and arrest the 
 shedding of fraternal blood by fraternal hands. With this 
 position, Iventucky is willing to go before the civilized 
 world, and let her conduct pass into history, and await the 
 candid and calm judgment of future and disinterested gen- 
 erations. Being connected with the seceded States geo- 
 graphically, and havnig the same domestic instii\ition, she 
 is unwilling to take up arms against them. Being attached 
 to the national Goverimient under which she has always 
 lived and greatly prospered, and having no cause for war 
 against it, she cannot take up arms to overthrow it. Hav- 
 ing, in good faith, taken this position, she asked the belli- 
 gerents to respect it : Therefore, 
 
 " 1. Resolved by the General ^sscmhly of the Common- 
 wealth of Kentucky. ITiat Kentucky will not sever her con- 
 nection with tlie national Governmeirt, nor will she take 
 up arms for either of the belligerent parties, but will arm 
 herself for the one purpose of preserving tranquillity and 
 peace within her own borders. 
 
 "2. Resolved, That Kentucky now tenders, and to the 
 end of the war, all the lime, will tender herself as media- 
 tor, and that she will constantly be ready to do all in her 
 power to bring about a just and honorable peace. 
 
 " 3. Resolved, That the Governor be directed to transmit 
 a copy of the foregoins preamble and resolutions to the Pres- 
 idents of the United States and of the seceded States, and 
 to the Governors of each of the thirty-four States." 
 
 Mr. President, at the extra session of Cono;ress, 
 when I gave the votes and made the speeches of 
 which my colleague and the Kentucky Legisla- 
 ture complain, I stood hero upon the platform of 
 Kentucky, as announced by her Union men in 
 convention, by speeches, by addresses, and by 
 legislative res(>lves. I stood here to advocate and 
 did advocate the very doctrine that she said in the 
 most solemn and formal manner should be advo- 
 cated; and for that I am to be driven from the Sen- 
 ate by my colleague. Was there ever in the his- 
 tory of a public man such an unjustifiable assault 
 upon him for doing that which the very party 
 making the assault said should have been done.' 
 The Legislature ask me to resign for acting in 
 obedience to their expressed will ; and my colleague 
 appears here and assumes the character of prose- 
 cutor in their behalf. I do not believe that the 
 representatives of Kentucky ever desired or del- 
 egated to him the power to appear here as my 
 prosecutor — he of his own volition assumes the 
 task. 
 
 I hold in my hand the address of the delegates 
 of the border State convention to the people of 
 the United Slates. I wish to make this record 
 complete, for I want to make but one vindication 
 to the people of Kentucky. I know that when 
 
 the whole tacts are known, the honist, the brave, 
 the true-hearted, noble men of Kentucky will sus- 
 tain my action. Th<y will say that I did riy;ht, 
 that 1 acted in obedience to liie [Uiblic will of 
 Kentucky, and that I did not misrepresent them. 
 The border Stale convention published two ad- 
 dresses; one of them to the people of the United 
 States, signed by J. J. Crittenden, James Guih- 
 rie, H. R.' Gamble, W. A. Hall, J. B. Henderson, 
 William G. Pomeroy — tlie last four are from Mis- 
 souri— R. K. Williams, Archibald Dixon, F. M. 
 Bristow, Joshua F. Bell, C. A. Wickliffe,G. W. 
 Dunlap, J. F. Robinson, John B. Huston, Robert 
 Richardson, and John Caldwell of Tennessee. 
 I will read an exti-act from that address to the 
 people of the United States: 
 
 " Our Stales desire and have indicated a purpose to take 
 no part in this war, and we believe that in this course we 
 will ultimately bestserve the interests of ourcommon coun- 
 try. It is impossible that we should be indilferenl specta- 
 tors; we consider that our intcre-ts would be irretr'avably 
 ruined by taking part in the conflict on the. side where the 
 strongest .sympathies of our people are, and that our sense 
 of honor ai'id of duty requires that we should not allow our- 
 selves to bo drawn or driven into a war in which other 
 Slates, without consulting us, have deliberately chosen to 
 involve themselves. Our safety and our dignity, as among 
 the most powerful of the slave States, demand of us that 
 we take this position. 
 
 " If the time shall come when our friendly mediation 
 may arrest the further progress of the strife, our most earn- 
 est and strenuous efforts shall not be wanting to bring about 
 peace, and it is by such efforts that we hope to serve the 
 interests of our country." 
 
 I shall now read a few extracts from the address 
 of that border State convention to the people of 
 Kentucky. This address is signed by John J. 
 Crittenden, James Guthrie, R. K. Williams, 
 Archibald Dixon, F. M. Bristow, Joshua F. Bell, 
 C. A. Wickliffe, G. W. Dunlap, C. S. Morehead, 
 J. F. Robinson, John B. Huston, and Robert 
 Richardson — all distinguished names among Ken- 
 tucky politicians. Mr. Bristow and Mr. Bell are 
 ex-members of Congress; and Crittenden, Dun- 
 lap, and Wickliffe are now my honored colleagues 
 in the other House; J. F. Robinson and John B. 
 Huston are now distinguished members of the 
 Legislature; and Robert Richardson is at present 
 superintendent of public instruction in the State. 
 What do they say on this question of neutrality, 
 for which my colleague invokes my expulsion 
 from the Senate.' 
 
 i "Your State, on a deliberate consideration of her re- 
 ji sponsibilities, moral, political, and social, has determined 
 
 I that the proper course for her to pursue is to take no part in 
 i the controversy between the Government and the seceded 
 
 States but that of mediator and intercessor. She is un will- 
 M ing to take up anus against her brethren residing either 
 i North or South of the geographical line by which they are 
 ' 1 unhappily divided into warring sectimis. This eourse was 
 { commended to her by every consideration of patriotism, and 
 
 I I by a proper regard lor her'own security. It does not result 
 1 from tiiniditv; on the contrary, it could only have been 
 !i adopted by a' brave people— so brave that the least imputa- 
 tion on their courage would be branded as false by their 
 written and traditional history." 
 
 Further on, they say: 
 
 " In declining lo respond to a call made by the present 
 Administration of the Government, and one that we have 
 reason to believe would not have been made if the .Admin- 
 istration had been fully advised of the circum-tances by 
 which we were surrounded, Kentucky did not put herself 
 in factious oppssition to her legitimate obligations ; she did 
 not choose «<> tlirow herself in hostile collisioa with the 
 
10 
 
 slave States of Missouri, Maryland, and Di;Iawaro, wliich 
 liave not seceded on tlie one hand, nor the shive States 
 which liave and are in process of secession on the other, 
 and shed the hlood of bretlnen and I^iiidred at tlie very mo- 
 ment wlien slie was striving to be an aposth; of peaca. Na- 
 ture lierself revolted at the thought, and her conduct in tills 
 matter had so much of love to God and love to man in it, 
 that it will meet the sanction of an approving world. So 
 far from being denounced for this action, it is everywhere 
 looked upon as an act of purest patriotism, resultina; from 
 imperious necessity and the highest instincts of selt-pres- 
 ervation — respected by the very Administration that alone 
 couhl have complained of it, and will, we d(mbt not, be rat- 
 ified by it, if not in terms, at least by its future action. That 
 fact did not take her out of the Union. 
 
 " Kentucky, in so grave a matter as this, passes by mere 
 legal technicalities, and a discussion of theoretical difficul- 
 ties of government, poises herself upon her right to do what 
 the necessities of her condition imperatively demanded of 
 lier, and relies upon the good sense and magnanimity of 
 her sister States, seeing that there is no parallel in her con- 
 dition and theirs, to do her justice. 
 
 "In all things she is as loyal as ever to the constitutional 
 administration of the Government. She will follow the 
 stars and stripes to the utmost regions of the earth, and de- 
 fend it from foreign insult. She refuses alliance with any 
 who would destroy the Union. All she asks is permission 
 to keep out of this unnatural strife. When called to take 
 part in it, she believes that there is more honor in the breach 
 than in the observance of any supposed duty to perform it. 
 
 " Feeling that she is clearly right in this, and has an- 
 nounced her intention to refrain from aggression upon oth- 
 ers, slie must protest against her soil being mad(Uhe theater 
 of military operations by any belligerent. The war must 
 not be transferred by the warring sections from their own 
 to her borders. Such unfriendly action cannot be viewed 
 with indifference by Kentucky." 
 
 Why, sir, that is the doctrine that I have an- 
 nounced, and for wliich I am so harshly and bit- 
 terly censured by my colleague. I have read lite 
 distinguished names signed to this address; and 
 right here allovir me to defend one of those gentle- 
 men from what, 1 have no doubt, was an uninten- 
 tional assault by my colleague. I allude to Mr. 
 Joshua F. Bell. My colleague, with stentorian 
 voice and lusty lungs, announced that if Joshua 
 F. Bell had been elected Governor instead of Ma- 
 goffin, he would have furnished troops at the call 
 of the President; that they were not fttrnished in 
 consequence of the treason of the Governor. Why, 
 sir, in this address, signed by liim, Joshua F. Bell 
 says the Governor did right; that Kentucky's 
 position was right. I have known Mr. Bell for 
 many years. In early life I was his school-mate 
 in the university. I sat on the same benches with 
 him. I have known him since. He is a talented, 
 high-toned, and honorable gentleman. In my judg- 
 ment, Joshua F. Bell would scorn to approve in 
 another what he would not do himself. The fair 
 inference is, that Mr. Bell, if he is an honorable 
 gentleman, and I knowhim to be such, would have 
 acted just as Magoffin acted; for he approved of 
 Magoffin's action. I know my colleague did not 
 intend to make any assault upon Mr. Bell, for I 
 understand there are the most friendly relations 
 between them. 
 
 I have now read to Senators the proceedings of 
 the Legislature. I have still another action of 
 theirs that I desire to present. The Kentucky 
 Legislature in May last, in obedience to the re- 
 solves of these Union meetings — for they called 
 upon them to do it — passed a law to organize her 
 military. That law, as you will see, reiterates the 
 very same idea on the subject of neutrality that 
 is contained in the resolutions that I have read. I 
 
 will read you the tenth section of that military 
 law wliich was passed in May, 1861: 
 
 " Nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as 
 to authorize said board, or any of the military organizations 
 Treated by the militia law pf this State, to use in any wise 
 the arms and munitionsof war herein authorized to be pur- 
 eliased, or those already belonging to the State, against the 
 Government of the United States, nor against the confed- 
 erate Slates, unless in protecting our soil from unlawful in- 
 vasion, it being the intention alone that said arms and mu- 
 nitions of war are to be used for the solo defense of the State 
 of Kentucky." 
 
 The law declared that the arms and munitions 
 of war were not to be used against the confeder- 
 ate States, nor against the Federal Government, 
 but in defense of Kentucky. That law was passed 
 in obedience to the resolves of the Legislature of 
 Kentucky, and particularly in accordance with 
 the resolutions of my colleague's party in the State. 
 Allow me to read another extract on this subject 
 of neutrality. I have shown you, from their res- 
 olutions and addresses, that they meant just what 
 I did by neutrality. Judge Underwood — well 
 known to this Senate — wrote a letter on this sub- 
 ject of neutrality, dated Glasgow, June G, 1861. I 
 will read one short extract from that letter. Judge 
 Underwood believed in the right to coerce a State, 
 but in speaking of neutrality he said: 
 
 " Now, although my opinion as to the right of coercion 
 remains unchanged, I have, from many considerations, too 
 numerous to be liere mentioned, come to the conclusion 
 that Kentucky may properly refuse to participate in the 
 war in progress. Hence I proposed tliatshe should occupy 
 the position of neutrality, believing she could thereby be 
 more efiicient in putting an end to the war, and restoring 
 the Government to its legitimate action, than in any other 
 way. Having taken that position, I think we are bound 
 in honor to maintain it ; after assuming to be neutral, if we 
 join our forces with those of tlie national Government and 
 aid in coercing the seceded States, we shall present our- 
 selves before the world as an oscillating, undecisive, unre- 
 liable, and timid people; meriting ridicule and contempt, 
 instead of respect and confidence. We can attract the ad- 
 miration of mankind by taking a firm, Immovable, and yet 
 conciliatory stand." 
 
 That was the opinion of Hon. Joseph R. Un- 
 derwood, once an eminentand distinguished mem- 
 ber of this body, a gentleman eininent for ability, 
 integrity, and worth, now a distinguished Union 
 member of the Kentucky Legislature, on the sub- 
 ject of neutrality. My colleague must see then 
 that all the Kentucky Union men were not like 
 himself, that some of them were in earnest on 
 this subject of neutrality, and meant what they 
 said. I will read extracts from a speech of Hon. 
 Archibald Dixon, delivered at Paducah, Ken- 
 tucky, on the 9th of March, 1861. Mr. Dixon 
 is a distinguished member of the Union party, a 
 gentleman of talent and high position, having filled 
 many offices of honor and trust in Kentucky; he 
 was once a member of this body. He said: 
 
 ''That the distracted condition of the country was not 
 without cause. 1'here was a cause, and that cause must 
 be removed, or peace between the sections could never be 
 restored. 
 
 " The people of the slave States had been wronged, griev- 
 ously wronged by some of their brethren of the free States, 
 but not by the Federal Government." * * * * 
 "The Black Republican party, led on by Lincoln, their 
 President, Seward, and others, are enemies of the people 
 of the South, and of their institutions ; they alone are re- 
 sponsible for all the injuries of which the people of the 
 southern States have just cause of complaint. 
 
 " It was this party that resisted the execution of the fugi- 
 tive slave law ; that organized and protected underground 
 
11 
 
 railroads ; tliat encouraged and aided its followers in steal- 
 ing tlio negroes of the soutliern slavcliolders ; that i,'ave 
 countenance and support to sucli incendiaries and ninrdor- 
 crs as Helper and John Brown; that stirred up strife be- 
 tween master and slave." ***** 
 
 " But we are told that the Black Kepiiblican party has 
 succeeded in electing a President and Viei- I'n-sident upon 
 a principle purely sectional and hostile tt)the institutions of 
 the slave States. This is true; and such a triumph, of such 
 a party on sucli a principle, was and is an insul:, not only 
 to the people of the southern States, but to the conserva- 
 tive men of the whole nation. 
 
 " And if such a party after all that has occurred, is to be 
 continued in power by the deliberate judgment and suf- 
 frages of the people of the free States. I Ihiniv the sooner a 
 separation upon just and amicable principles takes place 
 between the sections the better for all parties. But before 
 this takes place, I am for appealing directly to the people 
 of the free States to turn this faction out of power and amend 
 the Federal Constitution in such a way as to prevent a re- 
 currence of similar difficulties, and afford to the people of 
 the slave States such guarantees for the safety of their slave 
 property, both in the States and Territories, as the neces- 
 sities of the case may rc(|uire. 
 
 " This, in my judgment, would be infinitely better for all 
 parties than hastily and rashly to break up and destroy a 
 Government, that if properly administered and properly ap- 
 preciated by the American people, would be productive of 
 more real and substantial blessings to those who live under 
 it than any that ever existed or perhaps that ever will ';xist. " 
 
 * * * * " Are these States that have separated 
 themselves from the Federal Union, because of wrongs and 
 injuries done their citizens by the Black Republican party, 
 to be forced and driven back into the confederacy by that 
 party.' And are the people of Kentucky to be compelled to 
 enlist under the Black liepublicaii banner and aid them in 
 dishonoring and degrading those who have common sym- 
 pathies and a common interest with them ' 
 
 "I do not know that Mr. Lincoln means to attempt thiS. In 
 his inaugural he says that the laws must be enforced in every 
 State ill the Union; but he could not have said less than 
 this, as he is sworn to support the Constitution ot the Uni- 
 ted States and to see that the laws are faithfully executed. 
 
 " This means, of course, that the revenue laws now exist- 
 ing in all the States shall be enforced ; and it may be that 
 not only existing, but all laws which a Black Republican 
 Congress may pass, shall be ; and it may be, in his judgment, 
 his sworn duty to see that they are enforced. 
 
 "A Black Republican Congress passes a law to collectil 
 direct tax. not only of the people of Kentucky, but of every 
 other slave State, to raise money to support armies and na- 
 vies to whip a seceding State back into the Union. Will 
 Kentucky submit to such a tax .' A Black Republican Con- 
 gress passes a law to raise troops in Kentucky to compiil 
 Kentuckians to submit to Black Republican rule, or to aid 
 the usurping Administration to whip sister slave States into 
 subjection, or back into the Confederacy. Will Kentucky, 
 with the lash of unprincipled faction suspended over her 
 back, submit to such outrages, such wrong, such indignity .' 
 Will she suffer the foot of a Black Republican invader to 
 desecrate her soil, whether the object of such invasion be 
 the subjugation of her own brave and noble sons or of her 
 brethren in lier sister slave States.' Neocr, never." * 
 
 * * * " Shall Kentucky, then, resist him if heat- 
 tempts to compel her to aid him in coercing her sister slave 
 States back into the Union .'' Of course she will. She con- 
 siders him and his party enemies to the whole country; as 
 disorganizers, usurpers, and destroyers of the liberty and 
 peace of the nation. Jfoiw will she resist him .' By seced- 
 ing from the Union, and surrendering all into his hands .' 
 In my judgment, this would be unworthy of the high char- 
 acter which Kentucky has always sustained for courage 
 and chivalry. It she does not secede, what other course 
 will she adopt to maintain her honor and protect her rights 
 under the Constitution.' I say, throw herself upon the res- 
 olutions of 1798, and. in her sovereign character, declare 
 every law of Congress (lasscd by the Republican party to 
 coerce in any way seceding States unconstitutional and 
 void. And \( the President attempts to enforce any such 
 laws after they have been declared by Kentucky unconsti- 
 tutional and void, by raising money, by direct taxation of 
 the people of Kentucky, or by compelling them to enlist 
 under liis banner, or marching his troops tlirough her ter- 
 ritories, let her meet him sword in hand, and appeal to the 
 God of battles to determine the right between them. 
 
 " In this tight she will have as allies all the people of the 
 
 slave States, and half or more of the people of the free 
 Stat(!s; for those opposed to Black Republicanism in the 
 free States, hate it with a more undying hatred than even 
 the people of the slav(! States. 
 
 "'I'heyhuve been faithful to us through all our conflicts , 
 and are ready in a just cause to stand by us to the last ex- 
 tremity; and we ought not to desert them because tempo- 
 rarily borne down by the Republican faction, their enemies 
 and ours. Let then the fight be, as it should be, with the 
 Black Republican party, and not with the Government. It 
 will be time enough to wage war against the Government, 
 and separate ourselves from it, when the people of the free 
 States, after having had a fair opportunity of voting on the 
 great question of right, decide such question against us, and 
 refuse us such guarantees as flre have a right to demand of 
 them. But this, in my opinion, they will never do, I have 
 not always been an advocate of the principles contained in 
 the resolutions of 1798; but the perils by which our State 
 is now surrounded, and the necessity she may be under in 
 a short time to clioose between secession and nullification, 
 have satisfied me that they are her last hope; and to save 
 the State government from destruction, and the people from 
 anarchy, and it may be from civil war, she must plant her- 
 self firmly upon them. If she does this, she will not be 
 forced against her will into a conflict with either the North 
 or South, but will have it in her power to act as mediator 
 between them. She will not have to bear her portion of 
 the tax on her property imposed by the southern confed- 
 eracy, and which she would be compelled to do if she se- 
 ceded from the Union and became a member of it, and 
 which she would willingly do if she thought secession right 
 or there was just cause for it. Nor would she be compelled 
 to furnish men or money or arms against her own stern 
 judgment of right to coerce such confederacy." 
 
 I have shown you, Senators, what was the ac- 
 tion of pulilic meetings and the Legislature of Ken- 
 tucky on tills subject. 1 sliall now read one or 
 two extracts from the leading political journals of 
 Kentucky, to show that they took tiie same po- 
 sition. I will first read an extract from the Louis- 
 ville Journal. It is but just to the editors of the 
 Journal and the Louisville Democrat, extracts 
 tVom which pa|iers I propose to read, that I should 
 state that I find these extracts taken from those 
 journals in other papers. I tried to obtain a copy 
 of their files, to see if they were correctly quoted, 
 but was unable to find them. I believe they were 
 properly and coi'rectly extracted. The Louisville 
 Journal, speaking of the Presdent's proclamation 
 calling for seventy-five thousand men, says: 
 
 " The policy announced in the proclamation deserves the 
 unqualified condemnation of every American citizen. It is 
 unworthy not merely of a statesman but of a man. It is a 
 policy utterly hairbrained and ruinous. If iVIr. Lincoln con- 
 templated this policy in the inaugural address, he isaguilly 
 disseinhler; if he has conceived it under the excitement 
 raised by the seizure of Fort Sumter, he is a guilty Hotspur, 
 In either case, he is miserably unfit for the exalted position 
 in which the enemies of the country have placed him." 
 
 Again, the Journal says — this was written, I 
 suppose, in May last: 
 
 " In our judgment, the people of Kentucky have answered 
 this question in advance; and the answer, expressed in 
 every conc(!ivable form of popular expression, and finally, 
 clinched by the glorious vote of Saturday, is : arm Ken- 
 tucky, efiiciently but rightfully and fairly, with the clear 
 declaration that'tlie arming is not for oflense against either 
 the Government or the seceding States, but [lurely for de- 
 fense against whatever power sets hostile foot upon the 
 actual soil of the Commonwealth. In other words, the Le- 
 gislature, according to the manifest will of the people, should 
 declare the neutrality of Kentucky in this unnatural and 
 accursed war of brothers, and equip the State for the suc- 
 cessful maintenance of her position at all hazards. And 
 when the Legislature shall have done this, it may, in our 
 opinion, wisely .idjourn, leaving the cause of peace and ol 
 constitutional Government, so far as Kentucky is con- 
 cerned, in the hands of the twelve mediators whom the peo- 
 ple of the Commonwealth have just chosen expressly for 
 
12 
 
 tliat liisli ou'itofiinnshii). This, it sePins to us, as it plainly 
 sctniis to the people at larjje, is what the Legislature sliould 
 now do." 
 
 That was soon after tlip election of delegates to 
 the border St;)te convention. I will now read 
 some extracts from the Loui.sville Democrat: 
 
 " Let Kentucky preserve her neutrality, and slieatonce 
 becomes tlie rallying point for patriots I'roni all portions of 
 the land WtsterH Virginia, southern Ohio, southern In- 
 diana, and southern Illinois will stand hy her toa man, and 
 we are very mucli mistaken if Tennessee will not heartily 
 coiiperate. 
 
 '• <'onservative men from all parts, both North and South, 
 will join her standard to stay the fratricidal hand which is 
 now being raised in anger and furv."'^ioia"sri//e Demo- 
 crat, .flpril 19, 1861. 
 
 " Oiie other feature of these speeches of Air. Lincoln and 
 we shall, for the present, have done with him. At Indian 
 opolis he, by the most direct indirection, threatened the 
 southern Slates with practical coercion, and the country 
 vvitli speedy civil war. At I'itlshurg he distinctly stated 
 that the Chicago platform, as regarded the tariff and sla- 
 very, would be sacretl law to his administration, and at no 
 other point has he retracted or essentially modified these 
 positions or assertions. 'J'lie country may, hereafter, re- 
 gard coercion and no more slave territory as the settled 
 policy of his administration. If it comes to that, and the 
 is^ue is simply submission to that policy or disunion and 
 war, Kentucky will accept the issue. And Mr. Lincoln 
 might as well know, once for all, that Kentucky takes war 
 with all its fearful consequences. And when war comes, 
 no intelligent son of the Commonwealth can for a moment 
 doubt in which direction the hostile batteries of Kentucky 
 will be pointi'd, upon what soil the steady tramp of her in- 
 vading battalions will be heard, or in whose bosoms the 
 keen blades of her coiu]uering swords will he flashed. Let 
 Mr. Lincoln and his abolition myrmidons, who so valiantly 
 press him on to ' no compromise' and war, consider well 
 these things, and beware in time, while yet the dangers 
 they suggest are not at their own doors." — Louis Mle Dem- 
 ocrat, Fehruary 24, 1861. 
 
 "There are some principles born with the people of this 
 country, or inculcated I'rom the cradle, and one is, that all 
 Governments derive their just powers from the consent of 
 the governed. When whole communities will not consent, 
 what is to be done .' Shall they be forced .' We shall not 
 discuss the right of secession. It does not come into the 
 case. Deny it, and the difficulty remains. If whole com- 
 munities are forced to submit, how shall it be said that the 
 powers of the Government over them is derived from the 
 consent of the governed .' Besides, when war begins, where 
 will it end .' VVill it not defeat forever the object, the res- 
 toration of this Union. We are satisfied it will. Timeand 
 the policy of conciliation will restore all that is lost. Force 
 will destroy all hope of such a result. 
 
 " (t is too late to talk of coercion in any shape ; it is com- 
 promise or war if coercion is attempted. Lincoln must see 
 this; and if he does not, his advisers, some of them, cannot 
 fail to see it. We are told of the threats of those seceding 
 States; but they threaten because they apprehend coer- 
 cion." — Louisville Democrat, February 23, 186L 
 
 Mr. Prentice and Mr. Harney, the editors of 
 the Journal and Democrat, are both gentlemen of 
 eminent ability, and iiavegretU influence in form- 
 ing public opinion in Kentucky. Both of these 
 journals at one time o|)|)osed coercion, and ap- 
 proved the action of the Governor in refusing to 
 obey the call of tiie President for troops in April 
 last. 
 
 I could give you several other extracts from the 
 same papers, but 1 shall not take up the time of 
 the Senate by doing so. 
 
 I have now shown you, Senators, distinctly the 
 record of the Union party in Kentucky on thi.s 
 subject. I have shown it by their meetings, by 
 their legislative resolves, by their addresses, and 
 by their political journals. I have shown it to be 
 precisely in accordance with the votes that I gave 
 here at the cailvd SeS§iot; of Congress ; and y el nfiy 
 
 colleague says that I have misrepresented the peo- 
 ple of Kentucky. What evidences have you of 
 it, sir.' Here were these resolves of the Legisla- 
 ture unrepealed at the time I cast those votes. 
 Here were those resolutions and addresses of the 
 Union mass meetings unrevoked. It was in ac- 
 cordance with those resolutions and with the 
 express will of Kentucky, as declared by resolu- 
 tions unrepealed on the statute-book, that 1 cast 
 those votes in July last. I do not believe that the 
 honest, bold, chivalrous people of Kentucky, 
 when they see the whole facts, will be willing to 
 censure me fordoing what I had reason to believe 
 was the will of the people of my State, expressed 
 in every form in which the public will could be 
 conveyed to a public servant. 
 
 The Senate will bear in mind thefiict that it was 
 not until after the lOih day of September last that 
 the Legislature of Kentuckyabaitdoned neutrality. 
 
 I regret very mucli while on this subject of neu- 
 trality that I have not a letter written by my col- 
 league after he made a visit some time in April or 
 May last to Mr. Lincoln. Mr, Warner L. Under- 
 wood, who visited the President about the same 
 time, wrote a letter also. 1 have an extract here 
 from Mr, Underwood's letter which I will read, 
 and if my recollection is right, it is about the same 
 in substance with the letter of my colleague, I 
 must say, however, that my recollection of my 
 colleague's letter is very general and indistinct, I 
 regfet I have not been able to obtain a copy of it 
 Mr, Underwood says: 
 
 " In reference to Kentucky, Mr. Lincoln told me he hoped 
 Kentucky would stand by the Government in the pri'seiit 
 difficulties ; but if she would not, that, let her stand still and 
 take no hostile part against it, and that no hostile step should 
 tread her soil. This is also true with Missouri." 
 
 My recollection of my colleague's letter is that 
 Mr. Lincoln would acquiesce in Kentucky 's neu- 
 trality. I may be mistaken in that, however, as 
 I have no very distinct recollection of it. I read 
 it hastily when it appeared in the newspapers, I 
 think some time in JVIay last. 
 
 No w, Senators, ha vingd is [losed of the subject of 
 the neutrality of Kentucky, with your permission 
 1 shall address my.self briefly to the S()ecific charges 
 contained in the pending resolution again.st me, 
 I think my colleague himself, as one of myjudges, 
 ought now to be satisfied that I have not misrep- 
 resented the will of the people of Kentucky. The 
 vindictive manner in which he assailed me I sup- 
 pose resulted from his character as prosecutor; 
 but I have a right to appeal to liis calm and dis- 
 passionate reason in hiscapacity as judge to know 
 if I have not shown, by the most incontrovertible 
 documentary testimony, that 1 did act in accord- 
 ance with the will of the people of Keritucky, as 
 made known to me in every form. If he would 
 divest himself of his prejudice, I might yet have 
 some hope of obtaining his vote agauist this res- 
 olution; but I do not think I shall; his prejudices 
 are too deejily rooted to be overthrown by any 
 array of facts, however convincing and irresisti- 
 ble they might be to an unbiased or unprejudiced 
 mind 
 
 Let me notice for a moment the resolutions of 
 the conventions that were alluded to by my col- 
 league yesterday. I shall very briefly notice those 
 resolutions, for I have now spoken longer than I 
 
intended to do. The resolutions of the meeting^ 
 in the county of Henderson contained one clause, 
 approving the ]iroclamation of the Governor, and 
 that was criticised by niy colleague. The Gov- 
 ernor of Kentucky was only faitlifully carrying 
 out the neutrality of the Slate assumed by the Le- 
 gislature. My colleague also read a portion of the 
 proclamation of the Governor. I will read the first 
 part of that proclamation to show what the Gov- 
 ernor's meaning was: 
 
 " Whereas numerous applications liavo been made lo nie 
 I'roni many ^ooil citizens ot' this Uornrnonwealth, prnj-in? 
 me to issue a proclamation forbidding the marcli of any 
 forces of this or any other State or States over our soil to 
 make an appreliended attack upon the Federal forces at 
 Cairo, in Illinois, or to disturb any otherwise the peaceful 
 attitude of Kentucky with reference to the deplorable war 
 now waging between the United States and tin; confederatfi 
 States; and whereas numerous applications from like good 
 citizens of this Commonwealth have also been made to me, 
 praying me to issue a proclamation forbidding the occupa- 
 tion of any post or place or the march over our sacred soil 
 by any force of the United States for any purpose; and 
 whereas it is made fully evident, by every indication of 
 public sentiment, that it is the determined purpose of the 
 good people of Kentucky to maintain, with courageous firm- 
 ness, the fixed position of sell-defense, proposing or intend- 
 ing no invasion or aggression towards any other State or 
 States, forbidding the qnartering of troops upon her soil by 
 either of the hostile sections, but simply standing aloof from 
 an unnatural, horrid, and lamentable strife, for the exist- 
 ence of which Kentucky, neither by thought, word, nor act, 
 is in any wise responsible; and whereas the policy thus 
 recomniejided by so many of my fellow-citizens of all po- 
 litical leanings is, in my judument, wise, peaceful, safe, and 
 honorable, and the most likely to preserve peace and amity 
 between the neigtiboring bordering States on both shores of 
 tlie Ohio river, and protect Kentucky generally from the rav- 
 ages of a deplorable war; and whereas the arms distributed 
 to the ' State guard,' composed as it is of gentlemen equally 
 conscientious and honest, who entertain the opinions of 
 both parlies, are not to be used against the Federal Govern- 
 ment nor the confederate States, but to resist and prevent 
 encroachments upon her soil, her rights, her honor, and her 
 sovereignty, by either of the belligerent parties, and to pre- 
 serve the peace, safety, prosperity, and happiness and strict 
 neutrality of her people, in the hope she may soon have an 
 opportunity to become a successful mediator between them, 
 and in order to rennive the unfounded distrust and suspi- 
 cions of purposes to force Kentucky out of the Union, at the 
 point of the bayonet, which may have been strongly and 
 wickedly engendered in the public mind in regard to my 
 own position and that of the ' State guard.' " 
 
 That shows that the Governor had but one pur- 
 pose in issuing the proclamation — that was to pre- 
 serve the neutrality of the State. One reason that 
 caused him to issue it was to prevent the march- 
 ing of troops across Kentucky to attack the Fed- 
 eral troops in Cairo, Illinois. The Governor slates 
 that in the proclamation. He speaks particularly 
 of that. Then he forbids troops being marched 
 through Kentucky by either contending party, 
 and asserts the neutrality of the State — a doctrine 
 that had been proclaimed by the Legislature and 
 by all the mass meetings of the Union men, as 
 well as southern rights men, throughout the Com- 
 monwealth. The Governor's proclamation is 
 dated May 20, 1861. 
 
 My colleague states that one of the objects of 
 the convention at Frankfort, on the lOtli of Sep- 
 tember, was to intimidate the Legislature. Allow 
 me to say to my colleague that tht; Legislature 
 was composed of many gentlemen of eminent 
 ability — men who could not be intimidated — and 
 I will venture the assertion that not a delegate to 
 that convention ever thought so poorly of the 
 
 Legislatttrc as to believe they could be intiini- 
 dated. The members of the convention had loo 
 much respect for the intelligence and manhood of 
 the Legislature to harbor such a thought for a 
 moment. I regard the charge of intimidation as 
 unjust, both to the convention and to the Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 My colleague staled yesterday to the Senate 
 that eight or nine months ago a majority of the 
 people of Kentuclcy , if the question had been sub- 
 mitted to them, would have gone South. How 
 does he reconcile that statement with the asser- 
 tion that I misrepresented the people by entertain- 
 ing sentiments that were loo strongly southern, 
 in the session of Congress that commenced on the 
 4ih of July last — more than eight months since.' 
 The larger number — nearly all — of the votes given 
 and speeches made about which he complains, 
 were made before the 20th of July last, the date 
 of the battle of Bull Run. 
 
 There was one resolution passed in the Hen- 
 derson ineeting that my colleague did not put in 
 his indictment, for he carefully culled them. He 
 only used those that he thought would induce the 
 Senate to vote with him. That resolution is this: 
 
 "That all honorable etforts for the conciliation of tb'^ 
 belligerent sections and the reconstruction of the Union 
 are desirable, and we will heartily second and further sucli 
 elforts." 
 
 There we distinctly declared that we would do 
 everything we could to reconstruct the Union. 
 We thought it could best be done by peace, and 
 hence we declared it. We were opposed lo co- 
 ercion, and we so distinctly slated. I will say 
 here in relation to that meeting that I was merely 
 called to preside over it. It was called to nom- 
 inate a candidate for the Legislature. Resolutions 
 were jiassed with very great rapidity, and without 
 inuch notice from me. I have always been for 
 the reconstruction of the Union and for peace, and 
 opposed to coercion. 
 
 Then there was another resolution which rny 
 colleague cited, and which I will now read: 
 
 "That the recall of the invading armies and the recog- 
 nition of the confederate States is the true policy to restore 
 peace and preserve the relationsof fraternal love and amity 
 between the States." 
 
 That resolution does not contemplate a perma- 
 nent dissolution of the Union, as its very terms 
 show. It says, " in order to restore peace and 
 preserve the relations of fraternal love and amity 
 between the States," they advocate the withdraw- 
 ing of the troo)is. Then llnre was another reso- 
 lution, which I read a moment since, declaring 
 that we would do everything we could to recon- 
 struct the Union; that we would use every effort 
 for that purpose. But the whole intent and mean- 
 ing of that resolution was, that rather than attempt 
 to reconstruct by coercion, which was thonglit 
 could not be done, but if persisted in, would result 
 in disunion and eternal severance of the Stales of 
 the Union, it would be better to withdraw the 
 troops; in other words, that you should make 
 every honorable effort to reconstruct the Union by 
 peaceable adjustment and compromise; and if you 
 failed, then, rather than have a long, exhausting 
 civil war, acknowledge the independence of the 
 confederate States, and make as close a treaty of 
 amity and commerce as possible with them, and 
 
14 
 
 perhaps in a short time both sections would find 
 by experience tiiey could live more prosperously 
 united, and the Union would again be recon- 
 structed with such constitutional guarantees as 
 would satisfy both the North and the South. Tlial 
 is an idea I have heard advanced by many men 
 of ability and ox|ierience; that was the whole idea 
 of that resokuion. The resolution speaks of re- 
 storing the relations of fraternal lovo. What 
 fraternal love could there be, if we were parted 
 eternally in separate and independent States? The 
 resolution manifestly contemplated a reconstruc- 
 tion of the Union; the terms of the resolution 
 clearly indicate that. My colleague, however, 
 when he offered his resolution on tlie 8th of Jan- 
 uary , to establish a union of sucli States as would 
 adopt the Crittenden compromise, never talked 
 about reconstruction, and he certainly ought not 
 to object to this resolution. I have given you my 
 interpretation of that resolution. 1 must confess 
 I thought but little about it at the time; but the 
 whole idea and intention of it was peace and a 
 reconstruction of the Union. 
 
 One word, sir, as to the resolutions adopted at 
 the meeting at Frankfort. I have shown that in 
 the meeting at Henderson we declared our pur- 
 pose to use every effort for the reconstruction of 
 the Union, and declared for neutrality in just such 
 terms as all parties in Kentucky declared for it. 
 Among the Frankfort resolutions I find the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 " Resolved, That every material interest of Kentucky, as 
 well as tlie liigliest dictates of patriotism, demand that peace 
 sliould be maintained within her borders, and this conven- 
 tion solemnly pledges the honor of its meinl)ersto do all in 
 their power to promote this end." 
 
 The object of that convention, as expressly de- 
 clared in their resolutions, was to maintain peace 
 within the borders of the State. Tlien they go on' 
 in the next resolution and declare that they believe 
 a large majority of the people of Kentucky are in 
 favor of the neutrality of Kentucky. Then follows 
 a resolution, upon which I shall comment briefly, 
 as it seems to be offensive to some persons: 
 
 "That the organization and presence npon the territory 
 of Kentucky of a military force of either of the belligerents 
 is a violation of the netitraiity indorsed by the people, and 
 we believe can be attended with none otiier than the most 
 fatal and disastrous results; and in that belief we earnestly 
 advise the removal, by the proper authorities, of all such 
 force from the limits of the State." 
 
 Now, what is that.' The resolution but declares 
 that the neutrality of Kentucky should be enforced 
 by the proper authorities. Who are the proper 
 autliorities.' The Legislature and the Governor 
 of the State. It never was intended to mean any- 
 thing else but that. 
 
 But my colleague takes exception to a resolu- 
 tion that was offered by me appointing certain gen- 
 tlemen a central committee. That resolution was 
 in these words: 
 
 " ResoU'cd, That Colonel William Preston, George \V. 
 Johnson, Esq., General Lucius Deshca, Captain Richard 
 Ilawes, and Thomas P. Porter, Esq., be, and they are 
 hereby, appointed a committee of organization, in order to 
 carry out the purposes of this convention ; and full powers 
 are conferred upon them for that object." 
 
 My colleague tries to construe that into a mili- 
 tary organization. Why, sir, I never dreamed of 
 a military organization when I introduced that 
 
 resolution. That convention was organized for 
 the purpose of keeping the peace; it was a polit- 
 ical organization; and that resolution was designed 
 merely to organize the ordinary cential committee 
 to call meetings, »&:c. The object of the meeting 
 was to preserve the peace, and the resolution ex- 
 pressly declared that if the State should be invaded 
 and it should be necessary to drive out tiie invad- 
 ers, it should be done by the legal authorities, that 
 is, by the State authorities in obedience to the act 
 of the Legislatui'e. I venture to say that there 
 never was a mass political meeting, the object of 
 which was the organization of a political party, 
 but adopted some such resolution forming a cen- 
 tral committee for the purpose of general organi- 
 zation; and yet nay colleague is trying to torture 
 that resolution into a design to create a military 
 organization. There never was any such inten- 
 tion. Whatever any one of the members of that 
 commit tee may have done individually after wards, 
 certainly it was never contemplated by me that 
 they should exercise any power under that reso- 
 lution other than that usually exercised by com- 
 mittees of political parties in the various States. 
 
 When was the neutrality of Kentucky annulled 
 by the State .' On the lOih of September last that 
 convention was in session. After that time the 
 Kentucky Legislature invited in troops. They 
 invited General Anderson, and they overthrew 
 their neutrality; but up to the lOtli of September, 
 and for several days afterwards, the doctrine of 
 neutrality stood unrepealed on the statute-books 
 in the resolves of the Kentucky Legislature. I 
 stood fairly on them up to that time. A few days 
 after that meeting, the Legislature of Kentucky 
 got off neutrality. What did I do.' Did I ever 
 advocate it afterwards? No, sir. I stood where 
 the State stood, and when the Legislature went 
 against it I acquiesced. 
 
 But my colleague says many of those men who 
 were with me in that convention have gone South. 
 That is true; and one of those who were v/itli him 
 on the committee on resolutions at Louisville has 
 gone South, and is a member of the confederate 
 congress. I know that many of those gentlemen 
 have gone South; but I am not responsible for 
 that. After the Legislature got off its neutrality, 
 there was organized in Kentucky a provisional 
 government at Russelville. I had nothing to do 
 with that government. I never acknowledged it. 
 I adhered to the old State oi-ganization, and am 
 here to represent it. Those who did not adhere 
 to the old organization followed that provisional 
 government and acknowledged it. I did not. iVIy 
 colleague twits me with Breckinridge and other 
 of my friends having gone South. They went 
 South, and they acknowledged the provisional 
 government. 1 did not. I remained here true to 
 the Constitution, and loyal to what 1 conceived to 
 be the proper legitimate government of Kentucky; 
 and I intend to remain loyal to it, notwithstanding 
 the assaults of my colleague. I inteiul to abide 
 the action of the majority of the people of Ken- 
 tucky properly and legitimately expressed. 
 
 But my colleague wishes to oust me from the 
 Senate because 1 was opposed to coercion, and he 
 quotes a speech that I made on the 2d of March, 
 186h That is no new doctrine with me. It is 
 
15 
 
 possible that I may have erred in it; Ijut if I did, 
 I lioneslly erred. I liope the Senate will pardon 
 me for beini!; so tedious, for this is a matter of 
 deep moment to me, although it may be of little 
 interest to others. I hold in my hand a speech 
 that I made in the Senate on the 22d of January, 
 18G1, and I will read presently some portions of 
 it to the Senate. That speech was made on the 
 Crittenden compromise; and in it I expressed as 
 strongly as I could my attachment to the consti- 
 tutional Union. I had no stronger language in 
 which to express my attachment to it. 1 did the 
 same thing in the speech I made when I intro- 
 duced the resolution to raise a committee of thir- 
 teen. I defy my colleague, or my most inveterate 
 enemy, to find in any speech of mine any sentence 
 in which I ever uttered a sentiment of disloyalty 
 to the constitutional Union of our fathers. I have 
 every desire that this constitutional Union shall 
 be maintained, and I have said it on all occasions. 
 I now desire it to be reconstructed. I have de- 
 clared it in every speech that I ever made on the 
 subject in the Senate or elsewhere. I may have 
 been wrong in the means that I resorted to to save 
 it. I differed and now dift'er with Senators as to the 
 best means by which it should be saved. They 
 may have been right, and I wrong; but I was hon- 
 est in those opinions. I desired the constitutional 
 Union to be saved as a whole; and I would be will- 
 ing to yield my life to-day if I could preserve the 
 constitutional Union of our fathers, and transmit 
 it unimpaired to those who are to come after us. 
 
 In my speech in support of the proposition to 
 raise a committee of thirteen, after speaking of 
 the proposed amendments to the Constitution, I 
 said: 
 
 "Let lis follow the wortliy example of the noble patriots 
 who have gone before us. When the country was imper- 
 iled and surrounded by dangers that threatened its ruin 
 they never thougiit of a disruption of tlie Government as a 
 remedy. They went to work like sensible and i)atriotic 
 men to remedy the evils by providing additional securities 
 — by perfecting the Government; first, by the Articles of 
 Confederation ; then by the adoption of the present Consti- 
 tution ; and at three dift'erent times amending it in such 
 manner as to meet the e.Yigencies of the times, and give 
 more ample security to the people in their persons, prop- 
 erty, and religion, and curing such defects as experience 
 had pointed out. That is our duty to-day. Let us never 
 despair of the Republic ; but go to work promptly, and so 
 amend the Constitution as to give prompt, certain, and full 
 guarantees to the rights of every citizen in every State and 
 Territory of the Union. Unless we proceed to tliis work 
 without delay, and exhaust every effort to accomplish it, 
 we will not have discharged the duty we owe to ourselves, 
 our country, and those win) are to come after us. Let us 
 employ constitutional remedies for the correction of the 
 evils by which we are environed, and to avert tlie dangers 
 that threaten to ingulf us in inevitable ruin. Unless we ex- 
 haust every means within our reach to preserve and protect 
 tlie Constitution, and save our common country, we will 
 be degenerate sons of the noblest sires the world ever saw." 
 
 That speech 1 made on the 10th of December, 
 1860. In my speech on the Crittenden compro- 
 mise in January, 1861, I discussed this very doc- 
 trine of coercion. I will read one or two extracts 
 from it to show that that doctrine, whether right 
 or wrong, is no new thing with me: 
 
 " I do not believe that under the Constitution of the Uni- 
 ted States we have any right to make war upon a State. 
 We find, by reference to the proceedings of the convention 
 that framed the Constitution, that it was proposed to give 
 that power, and it was denied. 
 
 " In tlie debates on the Federal Constitution, (Madison 
 Papers, vol. 5, p. 139): 
 
 '• ' Tlie last clause of the sixth resolution, " authorizing 
 an exertion of the force of the whole against a deUn(iuent 
 State," came next in consideration. 
 
 "'Mr. Madison observed that the more lie reflected on 
 the use of force, the more he doubted the practicability, the 
 justice, and the efficacy of it, when applied to people col- 
 lectively, and not individually. A union of the States con- 
 taining sueli an ingredient seemed to provide for its own 
 destruction. The use of force against a SRite would look 
 more like a declaration of wartlian an infliction ofpunisli- 
 iiient, and would probably be considered by the party at- 
 tacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which 
 it might be bound. He hoped that such a system would be 
 framed as might render this resource unnecessary, and 
 moved that the clause be postponed. This motion was 
 agreed to, ncm. con.' 
 
 '•' Mr. Ellsworth, upon the same subject, said : 
 
 " ' I am for coercion by law — that coercion which acts 
 only upon delinquent individuals. Tliis Constitution does 
 not atteni|)t to coerce sovereign bodies — -States — in their 
 political capacity. No coercion is applicable to such bodies 
 Imt that of an armed force. If we should attempt to exe- 
 cute the laws of the Union by sending an armed force 
 against a delinquent State, it would involve the good and 
 bad, the innocent and guilty, in the same calamity.' — 
 EUioVs Debates, vol. i, p. 197. 
 
 "Alexander Ilamiltcm said: 
 
 " ' It has been observed, to coerce the State^.«, one of the 
 maddest projects that was ever devised. A failure of com- 
 pliance will never beconflned to a single State. Tliisbeirg 
 the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard a civil war .' 
 Suppose Massachusetts, or any large State, should refuse, 
 and Congress should attempt to compel them, would they 
 not have influence to procure assistance, especially from 
 those States which are in the same situation as themselves.' 
 What picture does this idea present to our view ? A com- 
 plying State at war with a non-complying State ; Congress 
 marching the troops of one State into the bosom of another; 
 this State collecting auxiliaries, and forming, perhaps, a 
 majority against its Federal head. Here is a nation at war 
 with itself. Can any reasonable man be well disposed to- 
 ward a government which makes war and carnage the 
 only means of supporting itself — a government that can 
 exist only by the sword .' Every such war must involve the 
 innocent with the guilty. This single consideration should 
 be sufficient to dispose every peaceable citizen against such 
 a government.' — Elliot's Deviates, vol. 2, p. 233. 
 
 " Mr. Mason, and other distinguished gentlemen in that 
 convention, uttered similar views. General Jackson has 
 been quoted as authority by those who advocate coercion. 
 In his farewell address he said : 
 
 "' The Constitution cannot be maintained, nor the Union 
 preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the mere ex- 
 ertion of the co(MCive power confided in the central Gov- 
 ernment. The foundations must be laid in the affections 
 of the people, in the security it gives to life, liberty, char- 
 acter, and property in every quarter of the country.' 
 
 " This Government, if preserved, must he maintained 
 upon the principle clearly and distinctly (enunciated by Gen- 
 eral Jackson in the clause of his farewell address which I 
 have just read. It is a Union that depends upon the con- 
 sent of the people governed. It can only be held together 
 by a faithful observance by all the States of the require- 
 ments of the Constitution, mutual interest and forbearance, 
 and the ties of fraternity. 
 
 " You speak. Senators, of executing the laws. I am as 
 much in favor of executing the laws as any Senator in this 
 Chamber. The laws ought to bi; honestly and faithfully 
 executed. Laws can be executed against individuals, but 
 not against sovereign States. How is it possible that you 
 can execute the laws when you have no civil officer in the 
 seceding States.' You can only constitutionally and law- 
 fully apply force in aid of the civil authority. You have 
 no judges, you have no marshals, you have no civil officers 
 in those States. Is there a citizen of one of the seceding 
 States who acknowledges the jurisdiction of the United 
 States.' I doubt if there be one. 
 
 " How, tlien, can you execute the laws there.' If you 
 resort to force, without that force being called in aid of the 
 civil authority, it would be war. War, of itselt', is equiva- 
 lent to dissolution. Suppose twenty-eight States were to 
 undertake by force to compel the five seceding States to 
 remain in the Union and to acknowle<lge and submit to the 
 jurisdiction of the United States, what would be the result.' 
 
16 
 
 When you liad acroinplisliKd everything you could expect 
 from tlie Army and Navy — bombarded and destroyed their 
 cities, laid waste their fields, slaushtered their people, 
 overrun and conquered them— would you, by that means, 
 have preserved the Union? No; you would have placed 
 it beyond the probability of reconstruction. So far from a 
 constitutional Union of thirty-three free sovereign States, 
 you would have twenty-eight States and five conquered 
 provinces. It is madness, worse than madnesR, to think 
 of preserving this Union by force. It cannot l)e done." 
 
 I said further: 
 
 "If you would resort to coercion and wnr, what will be 
 the result.' You would have a long, e.vhausting civil war, 
 and after it you would settle all your ditiicultics by nego- 
 tiation. If we have to separate, in God's name let us part 
 in peace. I trust, liowever, that all our riifiiculties may be 
 properly and honorably adjusted, and that this Union may 
 last for hundreds of years to come." 
 
 I said '^if we have to separate, in God's name 
 let us part in peace." Senators may think with 
 my colleague, tiiat that is very strange language. 
 Why, sir, I hold in my hand an extract from a 
 letter of Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, in 
 which he used this language: 
 
 "To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union by force 
 is preposterous. The idea of a civil war, accompanied as 
 it would be by servile insurrection, is too monstrous to be 
 entertained for a moment. If our sister States must leave 
 us, in the name of Heaven let them go in peace." — Edirard 
 Everett's Letter to the Boston Courier, February 22, 1861. 
 
 I suppose Mr. Everett will not be denounced as 
 disloyal for those sentiments. Those wei'e my 
 sentiments. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech in the Sen- 
 ate, remarked as follows upon coercion and civil 
 war: 
 
 "I do not understand how a man can claim to be a friend 
 of the Union, and yet be in favor of war upon ten millions 
 of people in the Union. You cannot cover it up much 
 longer under the pretext of love for the Union. 
 
 " War is disunion ; war is a final and eternal separation ; 
 and the man who is for prosecuting this war, though he 
 may have Union in his heart, is adisunionist." 
 
 Joiin duincy Adams, in 1838, in speaking of 
 the right of revolution, said: 
 
 "With these qualifications we may admit the same right 
 as vested in the people of every State in the Union, with 
 reference to the General Government, which was exercised 
 by the people of the United Colonies with reference to the 
 supreme head of the British empire, of which they formed 
 a part; and underthese limitations have the people of each 
 State in the Union a right to secede from the confederated 
 Union itself. Thus stands the right. But the indi^jsoluble 
 link of union between the people of the several States of 
 this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right, but in 
 the heart. If the day should ever come (may Heaven avert 
 it) when the affections of the people of these States shall 
 be alienated from each other; when the fraternal shall give 
 way to cold indifference or collision of interest, shallfester 
 into hatred, the bonds of political association will not long 
 hold together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of 
 conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; and far better 
 will it be for the people of Ibes'e disunited States to part in 
 friendship from each other than to beheld together by con- 
 straint. Then will be the time for reverting to the prece- 
 dents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the 
 Constitution, to form again a more perfect Union by dissolv- 
 ing that wiiich could no longer bind, and to leave the sepa- 
 rated parts to be united by the law of political gravitation 
 to the center." 
 
 Mr. Adams states distinctly, in the extract just 
 read, that it would be far better for the people of 
 disunited States to part in friendship from each 
 other than to be held together by coercion. 
 
 At the close of my speech just quoted, on the 
 
 Crittenden compromise, I stated my attitude to- 
 wards Kentucky as follows: 
 
 " I have been often asked what Kentucky will do in the 
 event of a refusal on the part of llie Nortli to'yield the guar- 
 antees she asks. Allow me to say that 1 am not authorized 
 to speak for Kentucky. She has convened her Legislature 
 in extraordinary session, to consider the condition of the 
 country. In a very short time her chosen representatives 
 will make known her |)osltion. I have every confidence 
 that she will meet thi;-. crisis, and that she will ..ct in the 
 midst of the great events by which she is surroumted, in a 
 manner becoming the honor and the digTiity of a l)rave 
 people, and the people of a free sovereign State, who know 
 their rights, and knowing, dare maintain them. When the 
 position of Kentucky shall be thus taken, when her sover- 
 eign will shall be legitimately made known, whether it be 
 according to my personal judument or not, I, as a true and 
 loyal son, will obey her high behests." 
 
 Kentucky did make known her will, and I, to 
 the best of my jioor ability, obeyed it, as I have 
 shown; and for that my colleague desires to visit 
 upon me the harsli censure of expulsion. In the 
 speech that I delivered here at the executive ses- 
 sion I declared that I was for maintaining the con- 
 stitutional Union. I have been true and loyal to 
 the Constitution. I have resisted and denounced 
 every infraction of that glorious instrument; yet 
 my colleague says I have violated it; he has not 
 pointed to a single instance in which I have not 
 observed it. 
 
 My colleague an-aigns me for voting against all 
 war supplies, and things of that sort. He inight 
 have saved himself that trouble. It was known 
 to the whole Senate. What I did I have not done 
 in a corner; it was hei-e in the Senate Chamber, 
 and I admit it. I acted conscientiously. I believed 
 I was right, and have no regrets in telling my col- 
 league that I did what I believed was right. I may 
 have been in error; but I have never regretted my 
 action when I believed that action was right, and 
 the duty was conscientiously performed. He read 
 extracts from my speech denouncing the President 
 for usurpation. I did, sir, in my place in the Sen- 
 ate censure the President for suspending the writ 
 of habeas corpus, and adding to the regular Army 
 and Navy without the authority of Congress, and 
 causing arrests to be made without warrant. I 
 then believed and now believe that I was right in 
 doing so; but even in that speech which perhaps 
 has called upon me most of this censure, I said: 
 
 " I still declare, to-day, that I desire these difficulties to 
 be settled in any other way than by a recourse to arms. I do 
 not believe this Union will ever be reinstated, or that it will 
 ever be held together by force of arms. 1 believe that those 
 who really love the Union, those who wish to restore the 
 Union of these States, those who wish to bring them back 
 in liarmony under the Constitution of the country, desire to 
 avert war. I said in my place last winter that I believed 
 war was equivalent to disunion. I solennily believe to-day 
 that every buttle you fight will widen and deepen the chasm 
 that divides the States of this Union. In my judgment, Sen- 
 ators, you can never reunite this distracted, broken Con- 
 federacy by force of arms. I do not believe that one sectiini 
 can ever conquer the other ; but if it could, so far from that 
 bringing about the result for which you go to war, you would 
 have produced the very opposite; you would have forever 
 destroyed the constitutional Union. 
 
 " Senators, in my Judgment, we should make every effort 
 to settle this matter peaceably. I would like to see this 
 war instantly cease oji both sides, and then see the States 
 that are now arriiyed in hostile attitude against each other, 
 exhaust every means possible for the peaceful settlement of 
 the difficulties by such amerulmetits to the Constitution as 
 would satisfy all parties, and allow us to live in peace and 
 harmony once inore a.i a united people. I desire to see this 
 
17 
 
 Union reunited, and lliis consUtutinnal Cnnfederacy Ro on 
 as a wliole, as niucli as any man in tliis Clianibcr. But F 
 feel confident that you can never effect tiiat by arms. You 
 must do it by compromise ; you must do it by conciliation. 
 Yon cannot do it l)y force. I heartily concurred with the 
 Senator from Illinois, (now. I regret, no more.) the late 
 Mr. DouL'las, in the speech which he made here on the 15tli 
 of March last. It so fully meets my views on this question 
 of coercion, that I will send it forward, and ask the Clerk 
 to read it. 
 
 "The Clerk read, as follows : 
 
 " 'I preft.T such an amicable settlement to peaceable dis- 
 solution ; and I pref(!r it a thousand times to civil war. If 
 we can adopt such amendments as will be satisfactory to 
 Virginia. North Carolina, Teimessee, and the other border 
 States, the plan of pacification which will satisfy them will 
 create a Union party in the cotton States which will soon 
 embrace a large majority of the people in those States, and 
 bring them back of their own free will and accord ; and thus 
 restore, strengthen, and perpetuate this glorious old Union 
 forever. I repeat, whatever guarantees will satisfy Mary- 
 land and the border States (the States now in the Union) 
 will create a Union party in tlie seceded States that will 
 bring them back by the voluntary action of their own people. 
 You can restore and preserve the Government in that mode. 
 You can do it in no other. 
 
 "'War is disunion. War is final, eternal separation. 
 Hence, disguise it as yon may, every Union man in Amer- 
 ica must advocate such amendments to the Constituiion as 
 will preserve peace and nistore the Union ; while every 
 disunioiiist, whether openly or secretly plotting its destruc- 
 tion, is the advocate of peaceful secession, or of war, as 
 the surest means of rendt.'ring reunion and reconstruction 
 impossible. 1 have too much respect for his intellect to be- 
 lieve, for one moment, that there is a man for war who is 
 not a disiinionist per se. Hence I do not mean, if I can pre- 
 vent it, that the enemies of the Union— men plotting to de- 
 stroy it— shall drag this country into war, under the pretext 
 of protecting the public property and enforcing the laws 
 and collecting revenue, when their object is disunion, and 
 war the means of accomplishing a cherished purpose. 
 " 'The disunionists, therefore, are divided into two classes : 
 the one open, the other secret disunionists. The one is in 
 favor of peaceful secession and a recognition of independ- 
 ence ; the other is in favor of war as the surest means of 
 accomplishing the object, and of making the separation 
 final and eternal. 1 am a Union man, and henc(! against 
 war; but if the Union must be temporarily broken by a rev- 
 olution, and the establishment of a de facto government by 
 some of the States, let no act be done that will prevent res- 
 toration and future preservation. Peace is the only policy 
 that can lead to that result. 
 
 " ' Hut we aretold.and we hear it repeated everywhere, 
 that we must find out whether we have got a Government. 
 " Have we a Government?" is the question, and we are told 
 we must test that (inestion by using the military power to 
 put down all discontented spirits. Sir, this question, " have 
 we a Government.'" has been propounded by every tyrant 
 who has tried to keep his feet on the necks of the people 
 since the world began. When the barons demanded Magna 
 Ghana from King John at Kunnjinede, he exclaimed, 
 " Have we a Government.'" and called for his army to put 
 down the discontented barons. When Charles I attempted 
 to collect the ship money in disregard of th.'; rights of the 
 people, and was resisted by them, he exclaimed, " Have we 
 a Government? We cannot treat with rebels ; put down 
 tlie traitors ; we must show that we have a Government." 
 When James II was driven from the throne of England for 
 trampling on the liberties of the people, he called for his 
 army, and exclaimed, " Let us show that we have a Gov- 
 ernment." When George III called upon his army to put 
 down the rebellion iti America, Lord North cried lustily, 
 " No compromise with traitors ; let us demonstrate that we 
 have a GovernuKUit." When, in 1848, the people rose upon 
 their tyrants all over Europe and demandeil guarantees for 
 their rights, every crowned head exclaimed, " Have we a 
 Government?" and appealed to the army to vindicate their 
 authority and enforce the law. 
 
 " ' Sir', the history of the world docs not fail to condemn 
 the folly, weakness, and wickedness of that Government 
 which draws its sword upon its own pi'ople when they (U- 
 manded guarantees lor their rights. This try, that we must 
 have aGoverninent, is m<>rely followina the exanipleof the 
 besotted liourbon, who ix'ver learned anything by mist'or- 
 tune, never forgave an injury, never (nrgotan alfront. Must 
 we demonstrate that we liave got a Government, and co- 
 
 erce obedience without reference to the justice or injustice 
 of the complaint? Sir, whenever ten millions of people pro- 
 claim to you, with one unanimous voice, that they appre- 
 hend their rights, their firesides, and their family altars are 
 in danger, it becomes a wise Government to listen to the 
 appeal, and to remove the apprehension. History does not 
 record an example where any human government has been 
 strong enough to crush t<'n millions of people into subjection 
 whei\ they believed their rights and liberties were imperiled 
 without first converting the Government itself into a des- 
 potism, and destroying the last vestige of freedom.' 
 
 " Mr. PowEi,!,. Mr. President, the sentiment expressed 
 in the extract just read from the speech of the idlustrious 
 Senator from Illinois, now no more, fully meets my ap- 
 proval. I approved it when it was uttered in this Chamber ; 
 I approve it now. I verily believe that those who propose 
 to maintain the Union of these States by arms are disunion- 
 ists. They may not wish to destroy the Union ; but the 
 very means to which they resort for the purpose of saving 
 it, will most assuredly accomplish its destruction. Hence 
 I have been I'rom the beginning opposed to war, and I am 
 now opposed to it. I think that, in this age, as a Christian, 
 enlightened people, we should settle these difficulties with- 
 out a resort to arms." 
 
 I declared in that speecli that I was in favor of 
 using every i\ieasure to reunite the Slates. I so 
 stated in every speech that I ever made on the sub- 
 ject. I defy any Senator to point to any speech 
 of mine in which I do not distinctly declare for the 
 constitutional Union. I have differed with Sena- 
 tors as to the best means to bring about that result. 
 Some thought it was best to do it by coercion. I 
 thought it could only be done by concession and 
 compromise. But, sir, I suppose this is the first 
 time in the history of this nation that it was ever 
 attempted to expel a Sc-nator because he held opin- 
 ions that were not palatable to the majority. Mr. 
 President, I am willing to stand by my congres- 
 sional record; I do not regret the speeches 1 have 
 made, or the votes I have given. I acted honestly 
 and conscientiously, with the single view and in- 
 tention of promoting the best interest of my coun- 
 try, and savingthe country from war, desolation, 
 and ruin. I am willing that impartial history shall 
 pass upon it. I will abide the verdict. 
 
 Mr. President, if my colleague would govern 
 his vote by the principle he himself announced 
 the other day, I should feel very sure that it would 
 be in my favor. In speaking of Mr. St.^rk's case, 
 he said: 
 
 " Mr. President, we had a case involving tliis principle 
 before the Senate a few weeks ago; and in the discussion 
 and adjudgment of that case the principle seenied to begen- 
 erallv conceded that an abstract opinion, however disloyal 
 it might be, unaccompanied by an overt act, was not suffi- 
 cient to expel a member from the Senate. 'J'hat was my 
 own propositi"!!, and my own principle, and I now adhere 
 to it ; I maintain it against all odds." 
 
 Well, sir, all the charges brought against nie are 
 but abstract opinions; and in truth there is but 
 little in the resolutions that have been quoted 
 against me, but what I have uttered here in my 
 place in the Senate; for the whole scope :\nd verge 
 of them was to maintain the neutrality of Ken- 
 tucky, and to reunite the States by peaceable 
 means. In this long listof charges brought against 
 me by my colleague charging disloyally he does 
 not point to overt acts. He says my purposes, if 
 not my acts, are disloyal. I had supposed that 
 there was no man who could look into the pur- 
 poses of his brother, and summon him to trial and 
 condemn him for what he proposed to do. I 
 thought it was left to the omnipotent God alone to 
 look into the hearts of men, and to find out their 
 
18 
 
 purposes. I believe if the great Jehovah wished 
 to make a vicegerent upon earth, and endow him 
 with power to look into the consciences and mo- 
 tives of men he would select a more amiable per- 
 son than my colleague, one who was not so hasty 
 to judge or quick to condemn; for my colleague is 
 as intense a gentleman as I know of. He is very 
 intense, very excitable, unrelenting, bitter, and 
 unforgiviiig. I have always accorded to him hon- 
 esty with his intensity; I do it now; but I do not 
 believe that the great Jehovah would make a vice- 
 gerent out of one who is so ill-natured, petulant, 
 and so unforgiving as my colleague sometimes is. 
 I think he would select a more benevolent, a more 
 amiable, and a more forgiving person. I protest 
 against my colleague sitting in judgment upon my 
 motives. He is so filled wiih animosity, spite, and 
 spleen, that he is incapable of doing me justice. 
 
 Senator.v, so far as the charges, innuendoes, and 
 deductions in this accusation, drawn up by my 
 colleague, about my loyalty are concerned, 1 deny 
 tiiat tiirrc is any truth in any of them. They are 
 utterly unl'iulnded; they do not exist in fact, but 
 only in my colleague's, I regret to say, prejudiced 
 brain. I have not been disloyal to this Govern- 
 ment, and [ do not intend to be. I liave always 
 desired, and I now desire, the constitutional Union 
 of our falliers restored. 1 desire to see all the stars 
 blaze on our flag forever, each representing a free 
 sovereign State, in the full enjoyment of every 
 constitutional right, and my youthful fancy was 
 that this might be a sea-girt Republic, and that the 
 stars and stripes might wave over the whole con- 
 tinent and all the islands thereunto adjacent. 
 
 Senat(n-.s know how zealously I labored to settle 
 this matitr in the beginning. I counseled with 
 those who left us. I told them that they should 
 stay and fii^lit the battle here. I believed, and hon- 
 estly beliived, that coercion was not the way to 
 bring them back. Others diOcred with me. They 
 may be rii,^iit; I may be wrong. Time alone will 
 determine that. I shall not discuss it. But I have 
 looked somewhat into the history of the world, 
 and I have seen no instance of confederate States 
 that have been held together by coercion. I read 
 in ancient history that the Amphictyonic league, 
 the wisest, perhaps, of Grecian confederacies, was 
 destroyed by an appeal to this doctrine of coer- 
 cion. The majority of the States undertook to co- 
 erce one of the States — the Phocians. They called 
 in Philip of Macedon, too ready to avenge their 
 quarrels. What was the result ? That celebrated 
 league was destroyed; Philip came and possessed 
 himself of a large portion ol' llie territories of the 
 Grecian States. In after time, in the history of 
 that justly celebrated people, the Achfean league 
 existed. Coercion was attempted on a delinquent 
 State; the Romans were called in; and that league 
 was overthrown, and the last hope of Grecian lib- 
 erty perished. 
 
 Philip ][, of Spain, instead of yielding to the 
 just demands of the people of the Netherlands, 
 undertook coercion, and after a war of over thirty 
 years, the Low Countries were wrested from his 
 dominions by the determined and heroic valor of 
 William the Silent and his successors and their 
 brave followers. 
 
 Great Britain turned a deaf ear to the just de- I 
 
 mands of our fathers, undertook to coerce them, 
 and lost forever the richest of her colonies. These 
 pertinent, and to me instructive, examples, con- 
 firm me in the opinion that our wisest and best 
 policy was compromise and conciliation, not co- 
 ercion and war. 
 
 1 believed that we could do more by compromise 
 and conciliation than by coercion. That was my 
 belief from the beginning. I counseled tiiat. My 
 advice was not taken. Other gentlemen quite as 
 patriotic, and I dare say — indeed I know — much 
 wiser than I, thought differently. I have to sub- 
 mit to their judgment. I am but one. My coun- 
 sels were not followed; my advice not taken. If 
 they had been, I am confident we should have 
 settled this matter by peaceful means, by adopt- 
 ing amendments to the Constitution that would 
 have satisfied the cotton States, the entire South, 
 and thus have saved the Union, and averted this 
 bloody and expensive civil war which so sorely 
 devastates our once prosperous, free, and happy 
 country. 
 
 Bat 1 am astonished that my colleague, after 
 laying down the very correct principle he did in 
 Mr. Stark's case, should think that I should be 
 expelled because I was opposed to coercion and 
 war. Why, sir, I remember that Lord Chatham 
 and Mr. Burke thundered in the cars of the Brit- 
 ish Parliament o]iposition to the war against our 
 fathers. Lord Chatham introduced resolutions 
 into the British Parliament, and discussed them 
 with great eloquence, great force, and great abil- 
 ity, demanding the recall of the troops from Bos- 
 ton; and yet they have been decreed by the judg- 
 ment of mankind ]iatriots and wise statesmen. 
 The lamented Douglas made a most able and elo- 
 quent speech against coercion in thi-s Chamber in 
 March last, extracts from which I have read to 
 the Senate. I have also read extracts from the 
 speeches of the most illustrious of our fathers — 
 statesmen eminent for their ability and patriotism 
 — who opposed this doctrine of coercion. In op- 
 posing coercion, I have but followed the teachings 
 of our wisest statesmen. 
 
 Mr. President, this country has been engaged 
 in wars before this. The war of 1812 was going 
 on when I was an infant. I discover, in looking 
 into the congressional proceedings of that time, 
 that there were many members who voted against 
 supplies of men and money. Even last night, 
 after my colleague so fiercely arraigned me, 1 took 
 up the proceedings of Congress and I noticed that 
 an act to provide additional military force in the 
 year 1813, was opposed most vehemently by Mr. 
 .Tosiah GLuincy, of Massachusetts, and others. 
 They thought the force was going to be used to 
 invade Canada. I did not read the debate at large, 
 but I read enough to show that that was the lead- 
 ing idea upon which they based their opposition. 
 They opposed the increase of the Army, and the 
 vote on the passage of the bill stood — yeas 77, 
 nays 42. Would it have been just if those gen- 
 tlemen honestly entertained the sentiments they 
 expiessed, to have expelled them from the House 
 on the ground that they were not loyal to the 
 country ? 
 
 In the war with Mexico there were men who 
 voted against supplies for our Army, and my col- 
 
19 
 
 I 
 
 league, who was a member of the other House at 
 that time, declared in a speech, which I noticed 
 last night in the Globe, that he intended to vote 
 men and money, and yet lie denounced the Pres- 
 ident as a usur[)er for bringing on the war; and I 
 find that my colleague voted against the Treasury 
 note and loan bill at that day. I saw among the 
 names of those who voted against it a Mr. Foot. 
 I believe it is the honorable Senator who so wor- 
 thily represents the Slate of Vermont in this Hall. 
 The honorable Senator from New York [Mr. 
 King] was also among the nays. The vote on that 
 bill was, yeas 119, nays 47. It was a proposition 
 to borrow §10,000,000, and issue Treasury notes. 
 There are now three gentlemen in this House who 
 voted against that bill. I certainly would not 
 think of arraigning those honorable gentlemen for 
 that vote. I have no doubt they acted conscien- 
 tiously — did what they thought was right — and 
 perhaps their vote was right. I am not silling in 
 judgment upon it; but I merely note these things 
 to show you that honorable and patriotic gentle- 
 men might give a vote even against war supplies 
 without being justly obnoxious to the charge of 
 disloyally. 
 
 Then there were some gentlemen who voted 
 against a bill supplementary to an act providing 
 for the prosecution of the war, about the troops, 
 &c. This bill was of no great importance. My 
 colleague and those othergenllemen named voted 
 against that bill, and so did many members of the 
 Whig party at that day. I do not know the vole 
 on the main bill. I merely mention these things, 
 not to censure, but to show to the Senate that 
 honorable gentlemen, patriotic gentlemen, gentle- 
 men who love their country, may speak, and vote 
 even, against men and money without being cen- 
 sured and driven from their places on the ground 
 of disloyalty. 
 
 Senators, after listening attentively, as I did, to 
 the speech of my colleague, his whole ground is 
 tiiat I have not voted to carry out these war meas- 
 ures. In my action in thi.s body, I have on all 
 occasions spoken and voted in such manner as I 
 thought was right; and while I retain a seat here I 
 will continue to do so; I will utter my honest sen- 
 timents. I will vote for or against measures as I 
 may think them right or wrong. Tliat it is my 
 duty to do, and I should be an unworthy repre- 
 sentative of a free people unless I did so. While 
 I do that, I am not prepared, and do not intend, 
 to impeach the loyalty of others because they differ 
 from me. If it comes to that, that a Senator cannot 
 speak and vote as he thinks proper and right with 
 out expulsion, then the majority are masters and 
 the minority are slaves, and a seat in the American 
 Senate would no longer be desired by an honest 
 man or a patriot. I never have given a vote, I never 
 have made a speech, I never have uttered a senti- 
 ment, I never have advocated a principle that I did 
 not believe was calculated to promote the public 
 good, to preserve the constitutional Union, and to 
 reconstruct the broken Confederacy. That has 
 been my object, nothing else. I may have been I 
 wrong in many of the principles I have advocated; | 
 I have, at least, been sincere, honest, and patriotic. | 
 Senators, 1 am obliged to you for your atten- i 
 tion, I submit this case to your impartial judg- I 
 
 ments, and I feel that you will decide it in a man- 
 ner becoming your high character. After the 
 report of the committee I should not have said a 
 word but for the extraordinary speech of my col- 
 league. I was driven to reply to that speech. The 
 committee, consisting of gentlemen opposed tome 
 politically with one exception, five of them Re- 
 publicans, after a full investigation made a report 
 adverse to the resolution; and I certainly should 
 have rested the case on that report without say- 
 ing one word to the Senate; and if my colleague 
 had confined himself strictly to the record, I did 
 not propose to open my mouth. I again thank 
 you for the indulgent and patient attention with 
 which you have listened to me. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the Union State Convention 
 held in Louisville on the 8th of January, 1861. 
 The following resolutions were reported to the 
 Union Democratic Slate convention by a com- 
 mittee composed of the following gentlemen, to 
 wit: Governor Dixon, W. G. Thompson, Judge 
 Barkee, J. P. Barbour, Alexander Lusk, J. F. 
 Bullitt, John Jackson, V. B. Young, T. L.Jones; 
 and to the Union Stale convention by the follow- 
 ino- committee, to wit: Hon. Garrett Davis. Hon. 
 Jtishua F. Bi'U, J. L. Shackelford, AV. L. Under- 
 wood, .John W. Crocket, Z. Wheal, Thomas W. 
 Riley, W. C. Goodloc, P. B. Muir, J. B. Hus- 
 ton, Orlando Brown, James Taylor, were unani- 
 mously adopted by both meetings: 
 
 '' Rcsoh-ed, Tliat the people of Keiitucky place the liigli- 
 est estimate on the Union of these Suites, on terms fair and 
 just to all of its members; it is a Union made and com- 
 mended to us by our patriotic ancestors, as a priceless leg- 
 acy to be preserved by their children ; that it will not cost 
 a tithe of the patriotism and forbearance to save it that it 
 did our fathers to make it ; that it aflbrds us a better gov- 
 ernment for peace and liberty at home and defense against 
 aggression from abroad than is likely to be made out of its 
 parts. 
 
 '• Resolved, Th:\t although we of the slave States, and 
 especially of Kentucky, have great reason to complain of 
 bad fellowship and u nings done us both in character and 
 property by sonu; of the citizens of the free States, and the 
 States themselves, who have broken faith with us and gone 
 astray from the landmarks of our fathers, yet we are ar- 
 dentlv attached to our national Union ; and, trusting that 
 they will yet give us that justice we demand, and without 
 which we cannot be friends, we still proclaim ourselves in 
 favor of the Union, and so long as there is hope of preserv-* 
 ing it on the basis of the Constitution, we will maintain 
 and defend it. 
 
 '■ Resolved, That all laws of thefree States which nullify 
 and impair the full and fair operation of the fugitive slave 
 law are in conflict with the national Conslituti(ni, and we 
 demand their repeal at Uie earliest practicable moment. 
 
 " Resolved, That we consider the election of a President 
 by one section of the Union on the ground of opposition l» 
 the institutions of the other as a severe test ol'tlie patriotism 
 and forbearance of the minority; but that notwithstanding 
 this ill-advised experiment on tlie harmony of the Union, 
 we do not regard the election of Abraham Lincoln as a 
 cause for its dissolution. 
 
 " Resolved, That we have in the majority of botli Houses 
 of the next Congress a sufficient secmity against any de- 
 signs of airsression upon the rights of the South, and that it 
 is the ilnlv ol the southern Slates to avail themselves of this 
 fact in the uperation of our institutions, and not desert the 
 Union at this crisis, when we have a victory instead of a 
 defeat in the main departments of the Federal Government, 
 especially as those departments are sustained by a large 
 majorltv of the popular vote of the United States. 
 
 '• Resolved, That if this anti-slavery parly should increase 
 in strength, and be able to carry out its purposes in the use 
 
20 
 
 'of tlie Federal Government, iIk; South lias ample means of 
 resistance, and is fully able, at any time, to resist unconsti- 
 tutional aggressions ; and vvu have, therefore, no need to 
 adopt hastily this last resort. 
 
 " Resolrcil, That the claim set up by a majority of the free 
 States to all the territory, and the assumption "of the right 
 10 restrict the South from the occupancy of any of ihe com- 
 mon Territories with theirinstitutiuns, is unjust and uncon- 
 stitutional, and will not be submitted to by a free people 
 jealous of their rights. 
 
 " Kcsolred, That we hereby recommMid the adoption of 
 tlie proposition of our distinguished Senator, John J. (Crit- 
 tenden, as a fair and honorable adjustment of the difficul- 
 ties which divide and distract the people of our beloved 
 country, which are as follows : 
 
 '•Joint resolution proposing certain amendments to the 
 Constitution of the United States. 
 
 " Whereas serious and alarming dissensions have arisen 
 between the northern and southern States concerning the 
 rights of the slaveholding States, and especially their rights 
 in the common territory of the United States ; and whereas 
 it is eminently desirable and proper that those dissensions 
 wliich now threaten the very existence of this Union should 
 be permanently quieted and settled by constitutional pro- 
 visions wiiich shall do equal justice to all sections, and 
 thereby restore to the people that peace and good will which 
 ought to prevail between all the citizens of the United 
 States : Therefore, 
 
 ''Rcsoh-cd by lite Senate and Houseof Rejiresenlatices of Ike 
 United States of America in Compress asseinljlcd, (two thirds 
 of both Houses concurring,) That the following articles be, 
 and are hereby, proposed and submitted as amendments to 
 the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid 
 to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution 
 when ratified by conventions of three fourths of the several 
 States. 
 
 "Art. 1. In all the territory of the United States now.held, 
 or hereafter acquired, situated north of latitude 36° 30', sla- 
 very, or involuntary servitude, except as a punislnnent for 
 crime, is prohibited while such territory shall remain under 
 territorial government, in all the territory south of said 
 line of latitude slavery of the African race is hereby recog- 
 nized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Con- 
 gress ; but shall be protected as property by all the depart- 
 ments of the territorial government during its continuance, 
 and when any territory'north or south of said line, within 
 sucli boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain 
 the population re(|nisite fora member of Congress, accord- 
 ing to the then Federal ratio of representation of tlie people 
 of tlie United States, it shall, if its t'orni of government be 
 republican, be admitted into this Union on an equal footing 
 with the original States, with or without slavery, as the 
 constitution of such new State may provide. 
 
 " Art. -2. Congress shall have no powerto abolish slavery 
 ill places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situated with- 
 in the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves. 
 
 " Art. 3. Congress shall have no powerto abolish slavery 
 from th(^ District of Cohimbia so long as it exists in the ad- 
 joining States of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor with- 
 out the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just com- 
 pensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not 
 ♦consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any 
 time prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or mem- 
 bers of Congress, whose duties require them to bo in said 
 District, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding 
 tliem as such, during the time their duties may require them 
 to remain there, and afterwards taking them from the Dis- 
 trict. 
 
 " ,'\rt. 4. Congress shall have nopower to prohibit or hin- 
 der the transportation of slaves from one State to another, 
 or to a Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be 
 lield, whether that transportation be by land, navigable riv- 
 ers, or by Ihe sea. 
 
 '•.*\Rr. 5. That, in addition to the provisions of tlie third 
 paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the 
 Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have 
 power to provide by law, and it shall be its duty to so pro- 
 vide, tliat the United States shall pay to the owner who 
 shall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave, in all 
 eases, when the marshal or other officer whose duty it was 
 to arrest said fugitive was prevented from so doing by vio- 
 lence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive 
 was rescued by force and the owner thereby prevented and 
 obstructed in the pursuit of his reme<ly for the recovi-ry of 
 his fugitive slave under the said clause of the Constitution 
 
 and the laws made in pursuance thereof. And in all such 
 cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, 
 they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the 
 county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was 
 committed, and to recover from it, with interest and dam- 
 ages, the amount paid by thein for said fugitive slave. And 
 the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United 
 States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the 
 wrong doers, or rescuers, by whom the owner was pre- 
 vented from the recovery of hiK fugitive slave, in like man- 
 ner as the ovi'ner himscif might have sued and recovered. 
 
 "Art. 6. No futureamendmentof the Constitution shall 
 afieet the five preceding articles, nor the third paragraph of 
 the second section of the first article of the Constitution, 
 nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth 
 article of said Constitution, and no amendment shall be 
 made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to 
 ('(ingress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in 
 any of the States by whose laws it is or may be allowed or 
 permitted. 
 
 " Resolied, That we tender cordial greeting to our faith- 
 ful allies of the North who have so long battled for our 
 rights and endeavored to beat back the tide of fanaticism, 
 in their midst ; we hail them as brethren good and true, and 
 bid them stand firmly by us in the preservation ofourGen- 
 eral Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the 
 ' sheet anchor' of our peace at home and our safety abroad. 
 
 " Resolved, That we cannot regard the Conslitution ot 
 the United States as a mere compact to be brok(^n at the 
 will of each, but as more and greater than that — the great 
 bond of the people, establishing a more perfect union for 
 themselves and their posterity, only to be dissolved by com- 
 mon consent or revolution. 
 
 '■'■Resolved, That we recommend to the Legislature of the 
 State to put these amendments in form, and submit them 
 to the other States; and that, if the disorganization of the 
 present Union is not arrested, that tlie States agreeing to 
 these amendments of the Federal Constitution shall forma 
 separate confederacy, with power to admit new States un- 
 der our glorious Constitution thus amended. 
 
 "■Resolved, That it is expedient to call a convention of 
 tiie border free and slave States, and such other States as 
 may see fit to unite with them, to consider the best mode 
 of settlement of the questions which now agitate and 
 threaten to destroy the union of these States. 
 
 " Resolved, That we deplore the existence of a Union to 
 be held together by the sword, with laws to be enforced by 
 standing armies ; it is not such a Union as our fathers in- 
 tended, and not worth preserving. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That if the State of Kentucky be represented 
 in any convention oi' the States, such representation should 
 be chosen by the people themselves." 
 
 Proceedings and Resolutions of a Mass Meeting of Five 
 
 Thousand Union Men, held at Louisville on the 18th of 
 
 April, 1861. 
 • "One of the grandest and largest public meetings ever held 
 in Louisville filled the great east hall of the court-house last 
 night, in response to a call for a sober expression as to thg 
 proper position for Ivenlucky to assume in the present 
 crisis. £t was a splendid meeting, both as regards num- 
 bers and material. It was a closely attentive and under- 
 standing assemblage, of the best intelligence of the city, 
 and its effect must b(; wide and wholesome. If the war- 
 ring sections will but respect Kentucky's position and her 
 advice, all may yet be well, civil war averted, and peace 
 restored. We were more than gratified with the meeting 
 and its work. The stars and stripes were on both sides of 
 the speaker's stand, and were frequently cheered as allu- 
 sions to the national banner were made. 
 
 "James Speed, Fsq., called the meeting to order, and 
 nominated Judge IMrlle as chairman. The nomination was 
 unanimously confirmed. 
 
 •' Mr. Speed then nominated Messrs. W. E. Glover, C. D. 
 Pennebaker, A. U. Sempic, G. W. Houghton, Phil. Tom- 
 pert, A. D. Hunt, Geo. Ainslie, and James Malona as vice 
 presidents, all of whom were elected by acclamation. 
 Lewis E. Harvie, Es(|., was appointed secretary. 
 
 '• Judge Pirtle briefly addressed the nieeting on taking the 
 chair, expressing his thanks for the honor conferred upon 
 him, and upon the importance of the occasion. He urged 
 that reason and reflection should govern the course of Ken- 
 tucky, and not passion and resentment. 
 
 " lion. Nat. \Volfe moved the appointment ofaeommittoc 
 on resolutions, and the following gentlemen were accord- 
 
21 
 
 ingly appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sen- 
 timents and sense of tlie meeting: Nat. Wolfe, Love) Uiis- 
 seaii, Josepli Speed, G. A. Hougiiton, J. H. Harney and 
 Judge Bullocl«. 
 
 " Hon. Nat. Wolfe, from llic ooniniittee on resolutions, 
 reported the following preainlile and n^solutions, which 
 were adopted with liardly a dissenting voice: 
 
 " Events of commanding importance to the future safely 
 and honor of Kentucky have occurred whicli call for action 
 on the part of her citizens ; and every consideration of self- 
 interest, and every dielate of wisdom and patriotism must 
 prompt our State to maintain most resolutely her |)Osition 
 of loyalty. Situated on tlie border of the slave States, with 
 seven hundred miles of territory exposed to tlii; hostile at- 
 tack, should the ITnion be divided into two separate sover- 
 eignties, and with but one million of population to oppose 
 the four or five millions of the States contiguous to her, 
 which might become unfriendly, Kentucky owes it to her- 
 self to exercise a wise precaution before she precipitates 
 any course of action which may involve h(;r in an interne- 
 cine war. She has no reason to distrust the present kindly 
 feelings of the people who reside on the north bank of the 
 Ohio river, long her friendly neighbors, and connected by 
 a thousand ties of business and consanguinity, but she must 
 realize the fact that if Kentucky separates from the Fed- 
 eral Union and assumes her sovereign powers as an inde- 
 pendent State, that Ohio, rndiaiia, and Illinois, remaining 
 loyal to the Federal Union, must become her political an- 
 tagonists. If Kentucky deserts the stars and stripes, and 
 those States adhere to the flag of the Union, it seems im- 
 possible to imagine a continuance of our old friendly rela- 
 tions when constantly recurring causes of irritation could 
 not be avoided. It is from no fear that Kentucky would not 
 always prove herself equal to the exigencies of any new 
 position she might see proper to assume, and from no dis- 
 trust of the bravery of hi,r sons that these sugirestions are 
 made, but as ' when in the course of human events it be- 
 comes necessary lor one people to dissolve the political 
 bands which have connected them with another, a decent 
 respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should 
 declare the causes which impel them to a separation,' so 
 an equal necessity exists that we should not dissolve tlifjse 
 bands with old friends and neighbors without calling to our 
 aid every suggestion of prudence, and exliausting every 
 etTort to reconcile difficullies.before taking steps which can- 
 not be retraced, and may h ad to exasperation, collisions, 
 and eventual war: Therefore, 
 
 " Be it resolved, 'i'liat as the confederate States have, 
 by overt acts, commenced war against the United States, 
 without consultation with Kentucky and their sister south- 
 ern States, Kentucky reserves to herself the right to choose 
 lier own position, and that, while her natural sympathies are 
 with those who have a common interest in the protection 
 of slavery, she still acknowh'dges her loyalty and fealty to 
 tlie Government of the United States, which she will cheer- 
 fully render until that Government becomes aggressive, 
 tyrannical, and regardless of our rights in slave property. 
 
 "2. That the national Government should be tried by its 
 acts, and that the several States, as its peers in their ap- 
 propriate spheres, will hold it to a rigid accountability, and 
 require that its acts should be fraternal, in their efforts to 
 bring back the seceding States, and not sanguinary or co- 
 ercive. 
 
 "3. That as we oppose the call of the President for v(d- 
 nnteers for the purpose of coercing the seceding States, so 
 we oppose the raising of troops in this State to coiiperate 
 with the southern confederacy, when the acknowledged 
 inteniion of tlie latter is to march upon the citv of Wash- 
 ington and capture the capital, and wlien in its march 
 tliither it must pass through States which have not yet 
 renounced their allegiance to the Union. 
 
 "4. Tiiat secession is a remedy for no evils, real or im- 
 aginary, but an aggravation and complication of existing 
 ditficuities. 
 
 " 5. That the memories of the past, the interests of the 
 present, and the solemn convictions of future duty and use- 
 fulness in the hope of mediation, prevent Kentucky from 
 taking part with the seceding States against the General 
 Government. 
 
 "6. That 'the present duty of Kentucky is to maintain 
 her present independent position, taking sides not with the 
 Administration nor with the sec-cding States, but with the 
 Union asainst them both, declaring her soil to be sacred 
 from the liostile tread of cither, and, if necessary, to make 
 tlie declaration good with her strong right arm.' 
 
 '•7. That to the end Kentucky maybe fully prepared for 
 
 any contingency, ' we would have her arm herselfthorough- 
 ly at the earliest practicable moment,' by regular legal ac- 
 tion. 
 
 "8. That we look to the young men of the Kentucky 
 State Guaiil as the bulwarks of the safety of our Common- 
 wealth, and that we conjure them to remember that tinty 
 are pledged equally to fidelity to the United States and Ken- 
 tucky. 
 
 •'9. That the Union and the Constitution, being mainly 
 the work of southern soldiers and statesmen, in our opin- 
 ion, furnishes a surer guarantee for ' southern riglits' than 
 can be found under any other system of government yet 
 devised by man." 
 
 Action of Kentucky Rcspecthi;:; Federal Relations. 
 
 January 21. 1861, Mr. George W. Ewing, representative 
 from Logan county, laid before the House the following 
 joint resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved litiihe General JJssemhly of the Commontvenlth 
 of Kentucky, 'I'liat this General Assembly has heard with 
 profound regret of the resolutions leeently adopted by the 
 States of New York, Maine, and Massachusetts, tendering 
 men and money to the President of the United Stales to 
 be used in coercing certain sovereign States of the South 
 into obedience to the Federal Government. 
 
 "Resolved, Thai this Geni'ral Assembly receives the 
 action of the Legislatnrts of New York, Ohio, Maine, and 
 I Massachusetts tis the indication of a purpose upon the part 
 I of the people of these States to further complicate existing 
 j difficulties by forcing the people of the South to the ex- 
 tremity of submission or resistance; and so regarding it, 
 the (Governor of the Slate of Kentucky is hereby requested 
 to inform the Executives of each of said States that it is the 
 opinion of this General Assembly that wheneverthe author- 
 ities of these States shall send armed forces to the South 
 for the purpose indicated in said resolutions, the p(!ople of 
 Kentticky, uniting with their breilnen of the South, will, 
 as one man, ri>sist such invasion of the soil of the South at 
 all hazards and to the last extremity." 
 
 The first resolution above was adopted — yeas 93-, nays 
 none ; and the second was adopted — yeas 87, nays 6. 
 
 Resolutions recommending call for a convention of the 
 United States. 
 
 Whereas the people of some of the States feel themselves 
 deeply aggrieved by the policy and measures which have 
 been adopted by the people of some of the other Stales ; and 
 whereas an amendnn-nt of the Constitution of the United 
 States is deemed indispensably necessary to secure them 
 against similar grievances in the future : Therefore, 
 
 Resolved by tlie General Assembly of the Commontcealtk 
 of Kentucky, That application to Ciingress to call a conven- 
 tion for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the 
 United Stales, pursuant to the fifth article thereof, be, and 
 the same is hereby, now made by this General Assembly of 
 Kentucky; and we hereby invite our sister Slates to unite 
 with us, without delay, in similar application to Congress. 
 
 Resolved, 'I'U^t the Governor of this Slate forthwith com 
 niunieate the foretioing resolution to the President of the 
 United States, with the request that he immedlatidy place 
 the same before Congress ami the Executives of the several 
 States, with the request that they lay them before their 
 respective Legislatures. 
 
 Resolved, If the convention be called in accordance with 
 the provisions of the foregoing resolutions, the Legislature 
 of the Commonwealth of Kentucky suggest for the consid- 
 eration of that convention, as a basis for settling existing 
 difficulties, the adoption, by way of ameinlments to the Con- 
 stitution, the resolutions offered in the Senate of the United 
 States by Hon. John J. Crittenden. • 
 
 Approved, January 25, 1861. 
 
 Resolutions appointing commissioners to attend confer- 
 ence at Wasliinglon city. February 4, in accordance with 
 the invitation of the Virginia Legislature. 
 Whereas, the General Assembly of Virginia, with a view 
 to m.ike an effort to preserve this (Tnion and the Constitu- 
 tion in the spirit in which they were established by the 
 fathers of the Republic, have, by resolution, invited all the 
 Slates who are willing to unite with her in an earnest effort 
 to adjust the present unhappy controversies, to appoint 
 commissioners, to meet on the 4th February next, to con- 
 sider, and, if i>raclicable, agree upon some suitable adjust- 
 ment. 
 Resolved, Thai we hereby accept the invitation of our old 
 
22 
 
 V 
 
 \o 
 
 mother Virginia, and that the following six commissioners, 
 William O. Butler, J. B. Clay, J. F. Bell, C. S. Morehead. 
 Charles A. VVicklitte, and James Guthrie, be appointed to 
 represetjt the State of Kentucky in the contemplated con- 
 vention ; whose duty it shall be to repair to the city of 
 Washington, on the day designated, to meet such commis- 
 sioners as may he appointed by any of the Slates in .accord- 
 ance with the foregoing invitation. 
 
 Resolved, That if said commissioners shall agree upon 
 any plan of adjustment requiring amendments to the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, they be requested to communicate the 
 proposed amendments to Congress for the purpose of having 
 the same submitted by that body, according to the forms of 
 that Constitution, to the several States for ratification. 
 
 Rcsoli-ed, That if said commissioners cannot agree in an 
 adjustment, and, if agreeing. Congress shall refuse to sub- 
 mit for ratification such amendments as they may propose, 
 tlie commissioners of this State shall immediately commu- 
 nicate tile result to the Executive of this Commonwealth, 
 to be by him laid before this General Assembly. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of the General Assembly 
 of Kentucl<y, the propositions embraced in the resolutions 
 presented to the Senate of tlie United States by the Hon. 
 John J. Crittenden, so construed that the first article pro- 
 posed as an an)endnient to the Constitution of the United 
 States shall apply to all the territory of the United States 
 now held or liereafter acquired, south of latitude 36° .30', and 
 provide that slavery of the African race shall be efl'ectually 
 protected as property therein during the continuance ofthe 
 territorial government, and the fourth article shall secure 
 to the owners of slaves the right of transit with their slaves 
 between and through the uon-slaveholding States and Ter- 
 ritories, constitute tiie basis of such an adjustment of the 
 unhappy controversy which now divides the States of this 
 Confederacy as would be acceptable to the people of this 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 Resolved, That the Governor be, and he is hereby, re- 
 quested to communicate information of the foregoing ap- 
 pointment to the commissioners above named, at as early 
 a day as practicable, and that he also communicate copies 
 of the foregoing resolutions to the Executives of the re- 
 spective States. 
 
 Approved January 29, 1861 . 
 
 Resolutions declaring further action by the Legislature 
 
 on political ali'airs unnecessary and inexpedient at this 
 
 time. 
 
 Resolved hy the General ^ssemhly of the Commonwealth 
 of Kentucky] That the people of Kentucky view with the 
 most lively apprehensions the dangers that now environ tlie 
 Union and threaten its perpetuity. 
 
 Resolved, That we appeal to our southern brethren to 
 stay the work of secession— to return and make one mighty 
 effort to perpetuate the noble work of our forefathers, hal- 
 lowed by the recollection of a thousand noble <lee(ls. 
 
 Resolved, That we protest against the use of force or co- 
 ercion by the General Government against the seceding 
 States as unwise and inexpedient, and tending to the de- 
 struction of our common country. 
 
 Resolved, That as this General Assembly has made an 
 application to Congress to call a national convention to 
 amend the Constitution of the United States, and requested 
 the Legislatures of all the other States to make similar ap- 
 plications, and has appointed connnissioners to meet those 
 which have been appointed by the State of Virginia, and 
 such as may be appointed by other States, at a designated 
 time and place, to consider and, if practicable, agree upon 
 some suitable adjustment of the present unhappy contro- 
 versy, it is unnecessary and inexpedient for this Legislature 
 to take any further action on this subject at the present 
 time ; and as an ^idence of the sincerity and good faith of 
 our propositions for an adjustment, and our expression of 
 devotion to the Union and desire for its preservation, Ken- 
 tucky awaits with deep solicitude the responses from her 
 sister States. 
 
 Approved February 11, 1861. 
 
 An act to provide for the election of delegates to a conven- 
 tion to be held at Frankfort. 
 Be if. eiiacleil hy the General Jlssembly of the Common- 
 wcaltk of Kentucky, That an election shall be held, on the 
 first Saturday in May next, at aH the election precincts iii 
 this State, to elect twelve delegates to a convention ofthe 
 border slave States, and such other slave States as have not 
 passed ordinances of secession, to meet at Frankfort, Ken- 
 
 tucky; and said delegates shall be voted for and elected by 
 the State at large, in the same manner that State officers 
 are now elected; and the same laws which apply to and 
 regulate the mode of the election of State officers by the 
 qualified voters of the whole State, shall apply to and govern 
 the election of said delegates. 
 
 Sec. 2. That the persons who may be thus elected shall 
 be commissioned by the Governor as delegates to said con- 
 vention, and are empowered to meet the delegates from the 
 States aforesaid, in convention, to consult on the critical 
 condition of the country, and agree upon some plan of 
 peaceable adjustment. 
 
 Sec. 3. 'J'lie convention shall be held on the 27th of May 
 next, or at such other time as a majority of the delegates 
 elected in this State may appoint, to suit the convenience 
 ofthe delesates from the other States. 
 
 Sec. 4. That one of the delegates to represent Kentucky 
 in the borxler slave State convention shall be required to 
 reside in each congressional district in this State. 
 
 Sec. 5. This act sliall take etiect from its passage. 
 
 Approved April 3, 1861. 
 
 May 16, 1861, the Committee on Federal Relations made 
 the following report: 
 
 A majority of your committee, consisting of Messrs. 
 Hodge, Buriiam, Wolfe, Carlisle, Lyne, Gowdy, Jacobs, 
 and Buckner, recommend tlie passage of the following pre- 
 amble an<l resolutions : 
 
 Considering the deplorable condition ofthe country, and 
 for which the State of Kentucky is in no way responsible, 
 and looking to the best means of preserving the internal 
 peace, and securing the lives, liberty, and property of the 
 citizens ofthe State: Therefore, 
 
 Resolved bythe House of Representatives, That this State 
 and the citizens thereof sliall take no part in the civil war 
 now being waged, except as mediators and friends to the 
 belligerent parties ; and that Kentucky should, during the 
 conti;st, occupy the position of strict neutrality; and your 
 committee unanimously recommend the adoption of the 
 following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That the act of the Governor in refusing to fur- 
 nish troops or military force upon the call ofthe executive 
 authority of the United States, under existing circum- 
 stances, is approved. 
 
 GEORGE B. HODGE, Chairman. 
 
 The first resolution above was adopted — yeas 69, nays 26 ; 
 and the second — yeas 89, nays 4. 
 
 May 24, 1861, under a suspension ofthe rules, Mr. Bruner 
 offered the following preamble and resolutions: 
 
 Whereas there exists a civil war between the national 
 Government and the seceded States, which Kentucky 
 deeply deplores; a war she had no voice in creating, and 
 in which she has hitherto refused to take a part, and she 
 now refuses. Being a part ofthe national Government, in 
 the enjoyment of its benefits — such as mail facilities, na- 
 tional hospitals, Federal courts, protection at home and 
 abroad, a garrison paid out of the national Treasury, into 
 which she is paying revenue — and having a repies(Mitation 
 in Congress, Kentucky ought, at least, to remain neutral till 
 the end ofthe controversy; neither hindering the initional 
 Government in the exercise of its authority, nor furnishing 
 men, as a State, to eitherof the belligerents; noraskingaid 
 from either to maintain her position ; she will, all the time, 
 be ready and anxious to mediate between the belligerents, 
 and will be profoundly happy, should she be able to recon- 
 cile the contending parties, and arrest the shedding of fra- 
 ternal blood by fraternal hands. With this position, Ken- 
 tucky is willing to go before the civilized world and let her 
 conduct pass into history, and await tjie candid and calm 
 judgment of future and disinterested generations. Being 
 connected with the seceded States geographically, and hav- 
 ing the same domestic institution, she is unwilling to take 
 up arms against them. Bijng atlachid lo the national Gov- 
 ernment, under which she has always lived and greatly pros- 
 pered, and having no cause for war against it, she cannot 
 take up arms to overthrow it. Having in good faith taken 
 this position, she asked the belligerents to respect it : There- 
 fore, 
 
 1. Resolved hy the General jlssembly of the Commonwealth 
 of Kentucky, That Kentucky will not sever her connection 
 with the national Government, nor will she take up arms 
 for cither ofthe belligerent parties, but will arm licrself for 
 the one purpose of preserving tranquillity and peace within 
 our own borders. 
 
 2. Resolved, That Kentucky now tenders, and to the end 
 ofthe war all the time will tender, herself as mediator, and 
 
23 
 
 tliat she will coiist:iiilly lie ri'ady to do all in her power to 
 bring abont a just and honorable peace. 
 
 3. ResoU'cd, That the Governor be directed to transmit 
 a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to the 
 Presidents of the United States and of the seceded States, 
 and to the Governors of each of the thirty-four States. 
 
 Adopted by the Senate — yeas 13, nays 9. 
 
 Letter from Hon. Garrett Davis. 
 
 Baltimore, JlpritilS, 1851. 
 Dear Sir: Early last week I determined, upon my own 
 reflection and impulse, to make a hurried run to Washing- 
 ton, to take a view of public affairs there, and from there; 
 and to talk with the President and some of the members of 
 his Cabinet in relation to our national troubles, and how 
 the Administration intended to treat them. 
 
 That if Kentucky made no demonstration of force against 
 the United Slates, lie would not molest lier. That he re- 
 gretted the necessity of marching troops across Maryland, 
 but forces to protect the seat of the United States Govern- 
 ment could not be concentrated there without doing so; 
 and he intended to keep open a line of coniniunieation 
 through that State to VVasliington city, at any risk, but in a 
 manner least calculated lo irritate and inflame her people. 
 
 In this time of gloom and danger, when the nation is 
 being rocked to its base, and so many States are leaping 
 headlong into the abyss of revolution, it is the paramount 
 duty of every true son of Kentucky to give all his efforts to 
 save her from the fatal plunge, and thus keep away from 
 her borders the most terrible of all scourges, a civil and ser- 
 vile war. Let her not become a party to t4iis most unneces- 
 sary, unnatural, and revolting sectional strife. She had 
 neither part nor lot in bring it on. It was precipitated by 
 its arrogant authors without condescending to consult her, 
 against her earnest remonstrances, and to put in peril all 
 her interests, every hearthstone within her borders, and all 
 her women and her children. Its flashes and thunders are 
 gleaming and breaking in the southern horizon over the 
 guilty heads of those who dared it, would have it, and there 
 let it rage and waste its fury. There is no call of interest. 
 
 of honor, or of duty upon us to rush into it and thus avert 
 it from the South, and bring down its tury upon ourselves. 
 Will we permit our sympathies for those who had none for 
 us, or our reckless knight errantry, to intervene at the cost 
 of having our fair and peaceful land ravaged with fire and 
 sword .' 
 
 I,et Kentucky look to herself and her own self-preserva- 
 tion in this dread hour. Let her stand immovable as a rock 
 peering above the tempest-tossed ocean, and as the red 
 waves of war, from North or South, beat against her firm 
 base, let her roll them back with all their desolation. To 
 enable her to perform this difficult and perilous duty, let 
 her clothe herself in full panoply. Let all her men andf 
 her youths procure for themselves the most etl'ective ar 
 and then themselves form an independent organizatif 
 companies, regiments, and divisions. Let them dril' 
 ouglily, and always be ready to defend their lioi 
 their State from all enemies, within or without. L 
 put themselves under the command of lirave and la 
 men who are known to have no object but the defense an» 
 preservation of our Commonwealth and the reconstruction 
 of the Union. Let us husband our resources and perfect 
 our military organization, and when the contending parties 
 become worn and wasted by a prolonged and bloody war, 
 we can then effectively interfere to command a general 
 peace. 
 
 Faithfully yours, G A RKETT DAVIS. 
 
 George D. Prentice, Esq. 
 
 The resolution was rejected by tlie following 
 vote: 
 
 YEAS — ^lessrs. Davis, Dixon, Harlan, Howard, Howe, 
 Lane of Indiana, Pomeroy, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade, 
 and Wilkinson — 11. 
 
 N.'WS — Messrs. Anthony, Browning, Carlile, Clark, 
 Cowan, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Hale, Harris, 
 Henderson, Kennedy, King, I/ane of Kansas, Latham, Mc- 
 Dougall, Nesmilh, Pearce, lUce, Saulsbury, Stark, Thom- 
 son, Trumbull, Willey, Wilson of JMassachusetts, Wilson 
 of Missouri, and Wright— 28. 
 
 Printed at the office of the Congressional Globe. 
 
r 
 
 iLS?"^ °^ CONGRESS 
 
 012 028 249 9