Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

[381] to the vengeance of the Federal Government, and almost all were embittered by exile, disappointment, and wounded patriotism. They saw the recreant Legislature registering orders from military headquarters as legislative acts against them, which, if impotent, were yet insulting --a burlesque on law-making-statutes for divorce from their wives, statutes threatening the penitentiary as a penalty, statutes condemning them to death. It was suggested that a provisional government, representing the Southern outlawed element of the people, would serve as a rallying-point for Confederate sentiment, and give color of legality to many things necessary to be done.

The plan of a provisional government was privately proposed to General Johnston, and the leaders of the movement were much astonished and disappointed to find that he disapproved of it. In fact, though he could not make known to them his reasons, he already contemplated the contingency of being driven from the State, and foresaw the aggravated force with which this disappointment would react on Kentuckians, and he did not desire the additional embarrassment of the perambulating pageant of a State government on wheels. Hence he offered such discouragement as he could to the project, without taking any open or active stand against it; recognizing indeed, too, the good side of the scheme. It was not possible to arrest the movement without an ungracious thwarting of men ardent in the cause of the South and devoted to its interests. Hence it was gradually determined, from the various motives that control men under such circumstances, to establish the provisional government.

A conference was held at Russellville, October 29th, in accordance with previous notice, which was numerously attended, and over which presided Henry C. Burnett, who had retired from the United States Congress. Resolutions were passed, denouncing the United States Government and the State government, and recommending that a convention should meet November 18th. Accordingly, a convention, irregularly chosen, it is true, and professedly revolutionary, met on November 18th at Russellville. Henry C. Burnett again presided, and Robert McKee was secretary. An ordinance of secession was passed, and a provisional government was set up, with a Governor and ten councilmen of ample powers, including authority to negotiate a treaty with the Confederate States, and to elect Senators and Representatives to its Congress.

The Governor elected by the convention was George W. Johnson, of Scott County. He was a nephew of Richard M. Johnson, who had been Vice-President under Van Buren, and belonged to a numerous, wealthy, and powerful connection, in Kentucky and the South. George W. Johnson was of a very lofty and noble nature. He was impetuous and sensitive, and his impassioned temperament sometimes warped the