[266] My personal friend and family physician, Dr. A. Y. P. Garnett, of Washington city, in a letter of the 17th of January last, recalls to my memory the application of himself and other friends to me to send military aid into Kentucky, there to support the friends of the Southern States. My letter of January 22d to Dr. Garnett, explains the principles that guided me on that occasion. In that letter I said:
Yours of the 17th instant has this day been received, and to your inquiry I reply that, though it is not in my power to recite the language employed in response to you and others who urged me to send Confederate troops into Kentucky to prevent the Federal government from intimidating the Legislature and people of that State by a military occupation, and thus to prevent Kentucky from passing an ordinance of secession, I do well remember that to you, as to others, I answered substantially that I would not do such violence to the rights of the State. No one could have felt a deeper interest or more affectionate regard for Kentucky than I did, and it may well be that I did not believe the people of Kentucky, the State especially distinguished in the early period of her history for the assertion of State rights and State remedies, could be driven from the maintenance of a creed which had ever been her point of pride.
My answer, as correctly stated by you, shows that my decision was not based on expediency, and however reluctant I may have been to reject the advice of yourself and other friends, in whose judgment and sincerity I had implicit confidence, I would not, for all the considerations involved, disregard the limitations of our Constitution and violate the cardinal principle which had been the guiding star of my political life.
The use made by General Sherman of an extract from a ‘Southern paper’ as evidence that I encouraged expressions of hostility to State sovereignty, and thus was preparing to subvert the very Confederacy of which I was President, has drawn forth from Mr. Nat. Tyler, the surviving editor of the Richmond (Va.) Enquirer, the following letter:
