Kentucky petition to the Confederate Congress
for admittance into the C.S.A.
From the Journal of the Confederate Congress
entry dated Saturday, December 7, 1861
Bowling Green, Ky., November 21, 1861.
His Excellency Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate States of America.
Sir: The convention which assembled at Russellville, Ky., on the 18th of this month, and which organized the provisional government of Kentucky, appointed the Hon. William Preston, the Hon. Henry C. Burnett, and the Hon. William E. Simms commissioners "to the Government of the Confederate States of America, with power to negotiate and treat with said Confederate States for the earliest practicable admission of Kentucky into the Government of said Confederate States of America," and I have the honor to accredit them to your Government for that purpose.
With assurances of my high regard and esteem, I am, sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE W. JOHNSON
Provisional Governor of Kentucky.
Bowling Green, Ky., November 21, 1861.
His Excellency Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate States of America.
Sir: The convention which assembled at Russellville on the 18th of this month, composed of delegates from sixty-eight counties, and which organized a provisional government for Kentucky, appointed the Hon. Henry C. Burnett, the Hon. William Preston, and the Hon. William E. Simms commissioners to treat with the Government of the Confederate States of America, for the recognition of this government and the admission of this State into said Confederacy upon an equal footing with the other States composing it.
The action of the people of this State, in thus organizing a provisional government for the protection of their rights of person and property, was based, as a necessity, upon the ultimate right of revolution possessed by all mankind against perfidious and despotic governments. A faction, which may be called "the war party of Kentucky," composed of the most of the members of the last Congress and a minority of the legislature, after surrounding themselves with an army of 8,000 Lincoln troops, forced a majority of their own body into caucus and there concocted and afterwards enacted in the legislature (against the vetoes of the governor and the remonstrances of the minority of the senate and house of representatives) a series of oppressive and despotic acts which have left us no alternatives except abject submission or manly resistance. The constitutional right of secession by the State, with organized government, from the ruins of the old Union, was not possible, because the power of adopting such manly and philosophic action was denied us by the enslaved members of the legislature, who not, only submitted themselves to the despotism of the army, but betrayed their political opponents who relied upon their honor, and their own constituents, and the great body of the people of Kentucky who relied upon their pledges of neutrality. Secession being thus impossible, we were compelled to plant ourselves on a doctrine universally recognized by all nations--that allegiance is due alone to such governments as protect society, and upon that right which God himself has given to mankind, and which is inalienable, the right to destroy any government whose existence is incompatible with the interest and liberties of society. The foundation, therefore, upon which the provisional government rests is a right, of revolution, instituted by the people, for the preservation of the liberty, the interests, and the honor of a vast majority of the citizens of Kentucky.
Our justification before the world for a resort to this ultimate right of revolution depends upon the facts constituting the necessity of its exercise. These facts will be placed before you by our commissioners, and to these facts we fearlessly invite your attention, and that of the great Government over which you preside. We considered our constitutional liberty and our personal honor Worth more than life or property, and we have confidently staked them both upon the issue.
It is believed that the Confederate States of America will not refuse admission to a State whose sympathies and whose interests are identical with their own and whose geographical position is so important to the Confederacy merely, because we have been unfortunately deprived of that right of constitutional secession which was so fortunately possessed, and so legitimately exercised, by themselves. There is no incompatibility between the right of secession by a State and the ultimate right of revolution by the people. The one is a civil right founded upon the Constitution; the other is a natural right resting upon the law of God. Mississippi legitimately exercised the right of secession for the preservation of her constitutional liberty. But if the State of Mississippi had corruptly refused to discharge her duty and treacherously made herself a part of the Northern despotism which threatens the
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liberties of her people, would any philosophy deny to her citizens the right of revolution or any theory refuse her protection and admission within the Confederate States?
It is, indeed, philosophic and true that a State should exercise its right of peacefull secession for the preservation of the rights and institutions of its people; but it is neither philosophic nor true that because a people are deprived, by a perfidious State government, of the power of secession, that they therefore have no right to maintain their liberty and their honor by revolution. The admiration of mankind may be excited by a State firmly maintaining the rights of its people; but the manly determination of a people to vindicate their own liberties, at the hazard of life and fortune, against the despotic Government of the North, and against the power and resources of a base and perfidious State government, is not less noble and praiseworthy.
The provisional government of Kentucky is now the index of an almost universal sentiment in the State in favor of a permanent connection with the Confederate States, and the history of the last year, attentively studied, will demonstrate the truth of this assertion, even to a stranger. Since the election of Abraham Lincoln, with the exception of a few thousand emancipators and Abolitionists, the State of Kentucky has been divided into only two parties--the States Rights party and the Union party. It will be unnecessary to do more than assert that the States Rights party were all, and at all times, in favor of a connection with the South, for all candid men will admit it.
The first position assumed by the Union party, after the Presidential election, embraced these ideas: First, the preservation of the Union; second, the protection of Southern institutions by amendments of the Constitution; third, opposition to coercion of the South by arms: and fourth, a continued connection and common destiny with the South. At this period the Union party could not have stood one day if the leaders had dared to avow themselves in favor of Northern sentiment, or an ultimate connection with the North, in the event of a permanent dissolution of the Union.
After the failure of the peace conference, in consequence of the refusal of the Abolitionists to vote amendments to the Constitution for the protection of Southern property, the Union leaders still avowed themselves opposed to the coercion of the South; but they now advanced the idea of neutrality and peace for Kentucky during the war, and declared themselves in favor of an ultimate connection of the State with the South by a vote of the people. Thus, after the refusal of their abolition allies to give constitutional protection to Southern property, we have again a confession of the "Union leaders," embodied in their creed, that their party was in favor of an ultimate connection of the State with the South. This was the party creed at the last election in Kentucky, when members of Congress and members of the State legislature were chosen.
The final change in the Union party was now near at hand. The President and his counsellors refused to respect the neutrality of Kentucky, and determined to organize a force in Kentucky to hold the State and to pass over its territory, to strike a blow at the heart of the Southern Confederacy. Congress met, the Union members threw off disguise and voted men and money for the war. The indignation of the whole State was excited. The people were aroused, and the denunciations of the war tax and enlistments for the North were violent and extreme. The members of Congress were now secretly engaged in introducing and organizing an army. The leaders of the Union party now clearly perceived that they must shield themselves, by an army, from the indignation of the people. This idea was soon impressed upon those members of the legislature who were really in favor of an honest neutrality of Kentucky. They met in caucus and soon determined to protect themselves with the army, overawe their own constituents, and to pursue, without mercy, their political opponents. This is a simple and true history of the Union party of Kentucky, and under all its phases, except the last, it avowed its preference for the South; and in its last, the leaders suppressed the sentiment of their own party by the sword.
This recital is made for one purpose alone, and that is, to show that the whole body of the people of Kentucky have in the last year, repeatedly avowed themselves in favor of an ultimate peaceful connection of the State, by a vote of the people, with the Confederate States. The Union leaders avowed the same intention until they had organized an army sufficient to protect themselves against the rage of the people.
The leaders of the States Rights party in Kentucky always knew that the people were with them on this question, and they hoped to the last that they would be able to expose the designs of the war faction, and thus carry with them the State government. The hope of being able to act with the forms of law made them risk everything till too late. No one could have anticipated the unparalleled audacity and treachery of the leaders of the Union party, when they violated their own position of neutrality and deliberately determined to plunge the State in war. Up to the last moment of safety we attempted to save the State by State action; and we did
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this because we knew the people were almost unanimously with us as to the ultimate destiny of the State. This fact is also admitted by General Thomas in his report as to the condition of Kentucky.
How, then, can Your Excellency refuse admission to our State because the State Government has itself dared to betray the people, and left them no hope except in their own manly determination to maintain with arms their own liberties? Your own theory of government was dear to us. We were habitually accustomed to look to the State and State action for the redress of Federal wrongs. We wished to secede from the old Federal Union, with all the rights of Kentuckians guarded by all the forms of State government. We pursued this idea to the last. We adhered to this determination until the theory itself was lost in the treachery of the legislature, and until the State government had abandoned its people and indissolubly united itself with the public enemy.
For nearly two years no election can take place in Kentucky for members of the legislature. Should we have submitted during all this period to an anarchy, or to laws hostile to our people? Even then the sword would still have to be drawn to solve the question. When hope had left us, and when, perhaps, the independence and boundaries of the Confederate States were acknowledged and established, and the struggle was over--then to inaugurate a hopeless civil war would have been criminal, and we would have been, by our own honor, forced to go in exile from our own native State.
No theory, however sound, can demand this sacrifice. We come to you now, when it is honorable to do so, to offer you our assistance in a common cause, while peril surrounds us both, and to share with you a common destiny. It is not possible, in an age of honor, that the strong will respect the weak, because the people have risen up to vindicate that cause which was betrayed by the State.
We, therefore, hope that you will feel disposed to throw around this provisional government, in its infancy, the protection of the Confederate States of America. Let the preservation of constitutional government be alike the destiny and the glory of your great Confederacy. As a people long connected with you, we ask admission to your Government. In such a struggle, however, we will not in any event despair; but, believing that God Himself has so organized human society and interests as to implant forever in truth an irresistible power, even if you abandon us, we will fearlessly struggle on to the consummation of our own destiny.
With assurances of my high regard, I am, sir, your obedient servant,
GEO. W. JOHNSON.
Mr. Crawford offered the following resolution, viz:
Resolved, That the Honorable Henry C. Burnett and the Honorable William E. Simms, commissioners from the State of Kentucky to, the Government of the Confederate States, be entitled to appear and communicate with this Congress on Monday next, at one o'clock, or at such other time as may be most agreeable to them, on the subject-matter of their mission; which was agreed to.
On motion of Mr. Bocock, the message and documents were laid on the table until Monday next, at 1 o'clock p. m.
