A large majority of the people at the
May and August elections voted for the neutrality and peace of
Kentucky. The press, the public speakers, the candidates--with
exceptions in favor of the Government at Washington so rare as
not to need mention--planted themselves on this position. You
voted for it, and you meant it. You were promised it, and you
expected it.... Look now at the condition of Kentucky, and see
how your expectations have been realized--how these promises
have been redeemed.... General Anderson, the military dictator
of Kentucky, announces in one of his proclamations that he will
arrest no one who does not act, write, or speak in opposition to
Mr. Lincoln's Government. It would have completed the idea if he
had added, or think in opposition to it. Look at the condition
of our State under the rule of our new protectors. They have
suppressed the freedom of speech and of the press. They seize
people by military force upon mere suspicion, and impose on them
oaths unknown to the laws. Other citizens they imprison without
warrant, and carry them out of the State, so that the writ of
_habeas corpus_ can not reach them.
"Every day foreign armed bands are making seizures among the
people. Hundreds of citizens, old and young, venerable
magistrates, whose lives have been distinguished by the love of
the people, have been compelled to fly from their homes and
families to escape imprisonment and exile at the hands of
Northern and German soldiers, under the orders of Mr.
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