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“Governor Magoffin’s neutrality …”

Governor Magoffin's neutrality means holding the Cock of the Walk (Uncle Sam) while the Confederate Cat (Jeff Davis) kills off his Chickens.

It
was two months into the Civil War when this cartoon appeared, and
Kentucky was one of four slave states--along with Delaware, Maryland,
and Missouri--that remained in the Union. The loyalty of these
Border States was crucial both to the Union and the rebel
Confederacy. Union sentiment was assured only in tiny Delaware,
while vocal and determined secessionism pervaded Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri. If those three states seceded, they would enhance the
Confederacy's military manpower by increasing the region's white
population by 45 percent, its manufacturing capacity by 80 percent, and
its animal transport (horses and mules) by 40 percent.
The strategic importance of Kentucky
also lay in the Ohio River, the nation's major east-west waterway that
comprised the state's 500-mile border with three Midwestern
states--Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Furthermore, two of the Ohio
River's main tributaries, the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, flowed
into the southwest portion of the Confederacy. Whichever side
could control Kentucky possessed an excellent staging area for an
invasion into the heart of the enemy's territory. For all these
reasons, President Abraham Lincoln allegedly said that while he hoped to
have God on his side, he had to have Kentucky.
As this cartoon makes clear, Kentucky's
commitment to the Union was anything but certain in the early months of
the Civil War. On May 16, 1861, the Kentucky lower house
overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of the state's official neutrality
in the Civil War and a resolution refusing to heed President Lincoln's
call for military volunteers; Kentucky's upper house concurred five days
later. On May 20, Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation
recognizing and affirming Kentucky's neutrality.
Magoffin also urged his fellow governors
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to send delegates to
a conference intended to force the Union and the Confederacy to cease
hostilities and negotiate a settlement. The three northern state
governors refused to consider the proposal and busied themselves with
mobilizing for the Union cause, while Tennessee staked its claim with
the Confederacy. On June 8, only Missouri and Kentucky were
represented at the peace conference, which passed a few resolutions and
quickly adjourned.
Governor Magoffin rejected requests from both Lincoln and Jefferson
Davis, the Confederate president, to supply their respective armies with
troops from his state. The governor, however, was sympathetic to
the Confederate cause and looked the other way when Confederate
recruiters entered Kentucky. There was also a substantial and
lucrative trade in various wartime goods, such as horses, food, and even
munitions, flowing from the north through Kentucky into the
Confederacy. The Union army and Midwestern governors took steps to
curb the trade, but they could not eliminate it. President Lincoln
believed that theoretically he had the constitutional authority to
compel Kentucky's compliance with the Union, but recognized his "real world"
options were severely limited. Any premature show of force could
send Kentucky into the arms of the Confederacy. As bad as
neutrality was, that scenario would be far worse.
Lincoln's patience was finally rewarded. On June 20, 1861, (the
day after this postdated cartoon was published), Kentucky Unionists
secured five of six congressional seats in a special election (many
pro-Confederates boycotted the vote). That political victory was
reinforced in the legislative elections on August 5 when Unionists won
large majorities in both the state house and senate. On August 16,
President Lincoln issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with the
Confederacy.
The final turning point came on the battlefield. At the
westernmost edge of Kentucky, Confederate troops under Leonidas Polk
were stationed in northwestern Tennessee and Union forces under Ulysses
S. Grant manned Cairo, Illinois, fifty miles north. On September
3, 1861, Polk and his men invaded Kentucky to capture the railroad
terminal at Columbus. In reaction, Grant moved his troops into
Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky. Both sides had violated
Kentucky's neutrality, but the Confederates were the initial
aggressors. On September 18, the Kentucky legislature resolved
that the Confederate "invaders must be expelled." The
American flag was hoisted above the capital, and Governor Magoffin
resigned.
By the end of 1861, 50,000 Union soldiers occupied most of the state
except for the southwest corner controlled by 35,000 Confederate
troops. More than any other state, the idea that the Civil War was
a war between brothers was true in Kentucky. One example of many
was the family of the late Henry Clay, Kentucky's longtime congressman and senator who
forged sectional compromises in 1820 and 1850: four of his
grandsons fought for the
Confederacy, while three grandsons fought for the Union.
Robert C. Kennedy
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