OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.

at least to mitigate its horrors, or, if this were not possible, that she might be left to choose her destiny without disturbance from any quarter.

In obedience to the thrice repeated will of the people, as expressed at the polls and in their name I ask you to withdraw your forces from the soil of Kentucky.

I will say in conclusion that all the people of the State await in deep suspense your action in the premises.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

JOHN M. JOHNSTON, Chairman of Committee.

[Inclosure M.]

COLUMBUS, KY., September 9, 1861

To JOHN M. JOHNSTON, Chairman of Committee, Senate of Kentucky:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date [inclosure L], conveying to me a copy of a resolution of the senate of Kentucky, under which a committed (of which you are chairman) was raised "for the purpose of considering the reputed occupation of Hickman and other points in Kentucky by the Confederate troops, and that they take into consideration the reported occupation of Paducah and other points in Kentucky by the Federal authorities, and report thereon." Also "that they be directed to obtain all the facts they can in reference to the recent occupation of Kentucky soil by the Confederate and Federal forces, and report in writing at as early a day as practicable."

From the terms of the resolution it appears that your office as committee-men was restricted merely to collecting the facts in reference to the recent occupation of Kentucky soil by the Confederate and Federal forces, and the report thereon in writing at as early a day as possible. In answer to these resolutions I have respectfully to say that, so far as the Confederate forces are concerned, these facts are few and shortly stated.

The Government which they represent, recognizing as a fundamental principle the right of sovereign States to take such a position as they may choose in regard to their relations with other States, was compelled by that principle to concede to Kentucky the right to assume the position of neutrality which she had chose in the passing struggle. This it has done on all occasions and without an exception. The cases alluded to by his excellency Governor Magoffin, in his recent message as "raids" I presume are the cases of the steamers Cheney and Orr. The former was the unauthorized and unrecognized act of certain citizens of Alabama, the latter an act of citizens of Tennessee* and others, and was an act of reprisal. They cannot, therefore, be charged in any sense as acts of the Confederate Government.

The first and only instance in which the neutrality of Kentucky has been disregarded is that in which the troops under my command took possession of the place I now hold and so much of the territory between it and the Tennessee line as was necessary for me to pass over to reach it.

This act finds abundant justification in the history of the concessions granted to the Federal Government by Kentucky ever since the war began notwithstanding the position of neutrality which she has assumed and the firmness with which she proclaimed her intention to maintain it.

That history shows the following, among other facts:

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*This reference is to seizure of the Orr at Fort Heiman.

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