I have thus presented the case of Kentucky, not because it was the only
State where false promises lulled the people into delusive security,
until, by gradual approaches, usurpation had bound them hand and foot,
and where despotic power crushed all the muniments of civil liberty
which the Union was formed to secure, but because of the attempt, which
has been noticed, to arraign the Confederacy for invasion of the State
in disregard of her sovereignty.
The occupation of Columbus by the Confederate forces was only just soon
enough to anticipate the predetermined purpose of the Federal
Government, all of which was plainly set forth in the letter of General
Polk to the Governor of Kentucky, and his subsequent letter to the
Kentucky commissioners.
Missouri, like Kentucky, had wished to preserve peaceful relations in
the contest which it was foreseen would soon occur between the Northern
and the Southern States. When the Federal Government denied to her the
privilege of choosing her own position, which betokened no hostility to
the General Government, and she was driven to the necessity of deciding
whether or not her citizens should be used for the subjugation of the
Southern States, her people and their representative, the State
government, repelled the arbitrary assumption of authority by military
force to control her government and her people.
Among other acts of invasion, the Federal troops had occupied Belmont, a
village in Missouri opposite to Columbus, and with artillery threatened
that town, inspiring terror in its peaceful inhabitants.
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