By Berry Craig
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-986537.mp3
Murray, KY – On the Kentucky Civil War Dispatch, author and history professor Berry Craig and Todd Hatton bring us the stories of what was happening in the Commonwealth 150 years ago. This week, with Federals occupying Paducah and Confederates in Columbus, state lawmakers debate what to do in a Kentucky no longer neutral.
On this date in 1861, the General Assembly was continuing the process of abandoning neutrality in favor of all out support for the Union war effort. On Sept. 9, Unionist Sen. Walter Whittaker of Shelbyville had introduced a resolution in the upper chamber ordering only the Confederate troops to leave Kentucky and asking Washington for aid. By a vote of 25 to 8, the Senate passed the bill two days later.
All three Purchase senators, John Johnson of Paducah, Samuel Jenkins of Blandville and John Irvan of Murray, voted "nay."
On September 11, the House passed a similar resolution while rejecting a measure demanding the withdrawal of both armies. The Purchase House members, W.R. Coffee of Ballard County; Daniel Matthewson, Calloway; George Silvertooth, Fulton and Hickman; Andrew R. Boone, Graves; Jesse Gilbert, Marshall; and John Quincy Adams King, McCracken, voted with the Southern Rights minority.
On September 13, Magoffin vetoed the Unionists' bills but was overridden. Five days later, the legislature approved the raising of troops for the Union. Kentucky native and the Hero of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, was to be their commander.
Again, Magoffin wielded his veto pen. And again, lawmakers overrode him. Meanwhile, the Southern Rights Party-sponsored Peace Convention met in Frankfort as planned. Not surprisingly, nothing came of it.
Delegates demanded both armies vacate the state. But they knew Polk had already promised Governor Magoffin and Senator Johnson he would lead troops back to Tennessee if Union forces would also withdraw from Kentucky.
In addition, delegates showed their Southern sympathies by charging the North started the war. They denounced General John C. Fremont for his order freeing the slaves of Missouri's Confederate sympathizers.
The state's Rebel press predictably castigated Kentucky's Unionist lawmakers. Union papers cheered.
Louisville Journal Editor George Prentice wrote, "Well, thank God, we have at last weighed anchor, and set out for the haven of safety and of honor. Now, let all possible sail be spread, and the noble ship of state be driven into the lines of her insolent foe with the whole might of the valor and devotion of her true men."
Louisville Courier editor Walter N. Haldeman urged Kentucky "to adopt an honest and manly neutrality," claiming "this can be done only by separating from the Northern Union." Haldeman declared that Kentucky "is under no obligation to remain in the Union, but under many to leave it. The truth is that the United States of America no longer exists in fact, and that the constitutional compact can no longer be enforced."
Within hours, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward learned of Haldeman's editorial. At his suggestion, Kentucky-born Postmaster General Montgomery Blair immediately banned the Courier from the mails on the grounds that it advocated "treasonable hostility to the Government and authorities of the United States."
WKMS produces Kentucky Civil War Dispatches from West Kentucky Community and Technical College history professor Berry Craig. The Murray State alumnus is the author of Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War, Hidden History of Kentucky Soldiers and True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon, and Burgoo.