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February, 1862, Buckner and many of the Kentucky “State Guard” were captured at Fort Donelson, and he was sent a prisoner to Fort Warren, many of those who were deceived by the belief that the Guard was “the bulwark of the Commonwealth,” demanded his delivery to the civil authorities of Kentucky, to be tried for treason against the State.
It has been claimed that the position taken by the Conditional Unionists in Kentucky at that time, saved the State from “drifting into secession.”
The President, estimating the importance of preserving the attachment of the Border Slave-labor States to the Union, at that crisis, and especially the populous and powerful Commonwealth of Kentucky, accepted the plea of expediency as sufficient, and acted accordingly for a long time.
It was alleged and believed that a more decided and radical course would alienate the sympathies of the predominating slaveholding class in particular from the Union, and possibly drive them into alliance with their political and social affinities, the insurgents of the Cotton-growing States; and that only by assuming the attitude of neutrality, in deference to the slaveholders, could the State be kept out of the vortex of revolution.
On the other hand, it is argued that such a course was not only not necessary; but unwise and mischievous.
That the Unconditional Unionists in Kentucky and throughout the Slave-labor States were disheartened by that neutrality of leading politicians, cannot be denied; and that it amazed, disappointed, and perplexed the loyalists of the Free-labor States, is well known.
It is alleged that it hurtfully restrained the patriotism of the great mass of the people of Kentucky, at the outset of the struggle, who showed their loyalty to the Union by giving a majority of fifty thousand votes in its favor at an election, in May, for delegates to a Border State Convention.1 It is alleged that the Unconditional Unionists had the pledges of the Governors of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to give them all needful military aid to keep their State out of the hands of its enemies; and that had the patriotic instincts of the people been allowed full play, regiment after regiment of loyal troops would have sprung into existence at the President's call, shortened the period of the war, and spared the State the sacrifice of millions of treasure and the more precious lives of thousands of her sons — the flower of her youth.
It is declared that
1 That election was held on the 4th of May. At a special election of Congressmen, held on the 20th of June, when only four-sevenths of the total vote of the State was cast, the Unionists had a majority of over fifty thousand. They elected nine representatives, and the secessionists only one. That one was Henry C. Burnet, who afterward joined the “Confederates.” The Border State Convention was proposed by Virginians, and was held at Frankfort, Kentucky, on the 27th of May. It was a failure. There were no delegates present from Virginia, and only five beside those of Kentucky. Four of these were from Missouri and one from Tennessee. John J. Crittenden presided. The convention was as “neutral” as possible. It very properly deprecated civil war as. terrible and ruinous to every interest, and exhorted the people to hold fast “to that sheet-anchor of republican liberty,” the right of the majority, whose will has been constitutionally expressed, to govern. The wrongs of “the South,” and the “sectionalism of the North,” were spoken of as chief causes of the trouble at hand; but while it condemned the rebellion, it failed to exhort the loyal people to put it down. It recommended a voluntary convention of all the States, and to ask Congress to propose “such constitutional amendments” as should “secure to the slaveholders their legal rights, and allay their apprehensions in regard to possible encroachments in the future.” They regarded this result — the National protection and fostering of the Slave system — as “essential to the best hopes of our country ;” and in the event of Congress refusing to propose such amendments, then a convention of all the States should be held to effect it.
It is a notable fact that while the National Government, on no occasion, ever exhibited the slightest intention to interfere with the rights of the slaveholders, or of any other class of citizens, the Conditional Unionists assumed that the Government was, or was about to be, an aggressor on the rights of that class in it minority of the States, who seemed to think that their interest was paramount to all others; even to the life of the nation. This obeisance to the selfish demands of that interest was the stumbling-block in the way of many a true patriot in every part of the Republic.
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