September 27, 1861. |
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| Simon Bolivar Buckner. |
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In this work the Governor gave him all the aid in his power.
He tried to induce the Legislature to appropriate three millions of dollars to be used by himself and Buckner in “arming the State” --in other words, as the sequel shows, for corrupting the young men of the Commonwealth, and preparing the State for an armed alliance with the conspirators.
Sustained by the declarations of the Conditional Unionists, and by resolutions of the lower house of the Legislature, which approved of the Governor's refusal to furnish troops to the National Government, and declared that the State should remain neutral during the impending contest,1 Magoffin issued a proclamation of neutrality, in which he denounced the war as “a horrid, unnatural, and lamentable strife,” and notified “all other States, separate or united, especially the United States and Confederate States,” that he not only forbade either of them invading the soil of Kentucky, but also forbade its own citizens making “any hostile demonstrations against any of the aforesaid sovereignties.”
Notwithstanding the position taken by the Legislature, that body, unwilling to assume so high a stand as the Governor, refused to indorse his proclamation, or to make the required appropriation of three millions of dollars.
On the contrary, they so amended the militia law as to require the State Guard to swear allegiance to the National Government as well as to Kentucky; and Senator Rousseau (afterward a Major-General in the National Army) and others denounced the disunionists and their schemes in unmeasured terms.2 As Buckner could not conscientiously allow his guard to take the new oath, it was not long before he led a large portion of them into the camp of the rebellion, and became a major-general in the “Confederate” army.
Then the Louisville Journal, the organ of the “Conservatives,” as the Conditional Unionists were called, indignantly cursed him,
saying :--“Away with your pledges and assurances — with your protestations, apologies, and proclamations, at once and altogether!
Away, parricide!
Away, and do
penance forever!--be shriven or be slain — away!
You have less palliation than Attila-less boldness, magnanimity, and nobleness than Coriolanus.
You are the Benedict Arnold of the day!
You are the Catiline of Kentucky!
Go, thou miscreant!”
And when, in
1 The Senate resolved that the State should not “sever its connection with the National Government, nor take up arms for either belligerent party; but arm herself for the preservation of peace within her borders;” and that her people should act as mediators “to effect a just and honorable peace.”
2 Lovell H. Rousseau was in the Kentucky Senate. On the occasion alluded to, he said, speaking to the disunionists in that body of the danger of the destruction of the Commonwealth:--“It is all your work; and whatever happens, it will be your work. We have more right to defend our Government than you have to over-turn it. Many of us are sworn to support it. Let our good Union brethren at the South stand their ground. I know that many patriotic hearts in the seceded States still beat warmly for the old Union--the old flag. The time will come when we shall all be together again. The politicians are having their day. The people will have theirs. I have an abiding confidence in the right, and I know this secession movement is all wrong.”
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