Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 9.djvu/28

18 position on the slavery question, and while the sentiment of sympathy with the South and its principles was almost unanimous, it is not to be inferred that this extended to an approval of secession as a practical remedy of existing troubles.

In January, 1861, a called session of the general assembly was held to consider the status of affairs, but a proposition to call a convention to decide as to Kentucky's ultimate action was promptly voted down. On the 21st of January a series of resolutions was introduced, declaring first, "that the General Assembly had heard with profound regret of the resolutions of the States of New York, Ohio, Maine and Massachusetts, tendering to the President men and money to be used in coercing sovereign States of the South into the Federal government;" second, requesting the governor of Kentucky to inform the executives of each of said States "that whenever the authorities of those 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 the invasion of the soil of the South at all hazards and to the last extremity. "The first resolution was adopted unanimously, and the second by a vote of eighty-seven to six. This was unquestionably a fair reflex of the sentiment of Kentucky at this juncture. It was further shown by the action of the joint convention of the Bell and Everett or Constitutional Union party and the Douglas or Union Democratic party, held shortly before this, when the following clause was adopted as part of the platform: "That we deplore the existence of a Union to be held together by the sword, with laws to be enforced by standing armies." A Union State central committee was then appointed, consisting of the following persons, all of whom were the most pronounced and active Union men in the State: John H. Harney, William F. Bullock, Geo. D. Prentice, James Speed, Charles Ripley, William P. Boone, Philip