That history shows the
following among other facts: In January, the House of
Representatives of Kentucky passed anti-coercion
resolutions--only four dissenting. The Governor, in May, issued
his neutrality proclamation. The address of the Union Central
Committee, including Mr. James Speed, Mr. Prentice, and other
prominent Union men, in April, proclaimed neutrality as the
policy of Kentucky, and claimed that an attempt to coerce the
South should induce Kentucky to make common cause with her, and
take part in the contest on her side, 'without counting the
cost.' The Union speakers and papers, with few exceptions,
claimed, up to the last election, that the Union vote was strict
neutrality and peace. These facts and events gave assurance of
the integrity of the avowed purpose of your State, and we were
content with the position she assumed.
"Since the election, however, she has allowed the seizure in her
port (Paducah) of property of citizens of the Confederate
States; she has, by her members in the Congress of the United
States, voted supplies of men and money to carry on the war
against the Confederate States; she has allowed the Federal
Government to cut timber from her forests for the purpose of
building armed boats for the invasion of the Southern States;
she is permitting to be enlisted in her territory, troops, not
only of her own citizens, but of the citizens of other States,
for the purpose of being armed and used in offensive warfare
against the Confederate States.
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