The inhabitants of Paducah were now seized with panic, and large numbers left the town, apprehending an attack from Pillow, in which case they expected the gunboats would freely use shell. On Saturday part of Colonel Oglesby’s Eighth regiment, the Forty-first Illinois, and the American Zouave regiment, from Cape Girandeau, entered the town, increasing the forces to about 5,000 men.
THE REBEL TROOPS ORDERED TO WITHDRAW FROM KENTUCKY.
On the 9th of September a dispatch from General Polk to Governor Magoffin was laid before the Legislature, the substance of which was that he had occupied Columbus and Hickman, on account of reliable information that the Federal forces were about to possess those points; that he considered the safety of Western Tennessee and of the rebel army in the vicinity of Hickman and Columbus demanded their occupation, and that, as a corroboration of that information, the Federal troops had been drawn up in line on the river opposite to Columbus prior to its occupation by them, causing many of the citizens of Columbus to flee from their homes for fear of the entrance of the Federal troops. General Polk proposed substantially that the Federal and rebel forces should be simultaneously withdrawn from Kentucky, and to enter into recognizances and stipulations to respect the neutrality of the State.
But it was well known that the cry of neutrality was only an invention of the enemy to work his plans in Kentucky, so that when the appointed time should come Kentucky would swarm with rebels from Tennessee and Virginia; and two days afterwards both branches of the Legislature, by a vote of 71 to 26, adopted a resolution directing the Governor to issue a proclamation ordering the rebel troops then encamped in the State to evacuate Kentucky. A counter-resolution, ordering both Federal and rebel troops to leave the soil, was negatived under the rules of order. Governor Magoffin accordingly issued a proclamation to the effect that “the government of the Confederate States, the State of Tennessee, and all others concerned, are hereby informed that Kentucky expects the Confederate or Tennessee troops to be withdrawn from her soil unconditionally.”
ATTEMPT TO FORM A REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE.
After this decisive action of the Legislature, which effectually destroyed the hopes entertained by the conspirators of obtaining a semblance of legal authority for their designs, their next expedient was to hold an informal meeting at Russelville, a small town in the southern portion of the State, on the 29th of October. Here they drew up a declaration of grievances, in which they charged the majority of the Legislature with having betrayed their solemn trust, by inviting into the State the “armies of Lincoln,” with having abdicated the government in favor of a military despotism, and thrown upon the people and the State the horrors and ravages of war. They recommended the immediate arming of a “Guard” in each county, of not less than one hundred men, to be paid as Confederate troops, subject to the orders of the “Commanding General.” Finally, they called for a Convention to be held at Russelville, on the 18th of November, to be “elected, or appointed in any manner possible,” by the people of the several counties, for the purpose of “severing forever our connection with the Federal Government.”
John C. Breckinridge, late Vice President of the United States, was appointed one of the commissioners to carry out the orders of the convention. This Convention met at the time designated, composed of about two hundred persons, professing to represent sixty-five counties, though self-appointed, and without any form of election. On the 20th of November they adopted a “Declaration of Independence, and an Ordinance of Secession,” and appointed a “Provisional Government, consisting of a Governor, and a Legislative Council of Ten,” and dispatched H. C. Burnett, W. E. Simms, and William Preston, as commissioners to the Confederate States. On the 9th of December, the “Congress’” of the Confederate States, in session at Richmond, passed an “Act for the admission of the State of Kentucky into the Confederate States of America,” as a member “on equal footing with the other States of the Confederacy.”
George W. Johnson, of Scott county, who was chosen as Provisional Governor, by the Convention, in his “Message,” declared his willingness to resign “whenever the regularly elected Governor [Magoffin] should escape from his virtual imprisonment at Frankfort.”
Governor Magoffin, in a letter, dated December 13, 1861, says of this Convention, “I condemn its action in unqualified terms. Situated as it was, and without authority from the people, it cannot be justified by similar revolutionary acts in other States, by minorities to overthrow the State Governments. My position is, and has been, and will continue to be, to abide by the will of the majority of the people of the State, to stand by the Constitution and laws of the State of Kentucky, as expounded by the Supreme Court of the State, and by the Constitution and laws of the United States, as expounded by the Supreme Court of the United States. To this position I shall cling in this trying hour as the last hope of society and of constitutional liberty.”