Fort Sumter to Neutrality

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Berry Craig

Published:

2018

Publisher:

University Press of Kentucky

From the onset of the secession crisis, the pro-Confederate press misjudged sentiment in Kentucky. By championing a sovereignty convention that they believed would lead to secession, the rebel editors and publishers claimed to be speaking for most citizens. But a majority of Kentuckians never embraced disunion. After the war began, the rebel papers blamed the conflict on Lincoln and clamored more loudly for secession. The editors and publishers figured that in a shooting war between North and South, Kentucky would naturally side with the South. They were wrong again. The state legislature opted for neutrality, a position embraced by nearly every Kentuckian. The rebel papers condemned neutrality as cowardly and foolish. They also stepped up their central argument for secession—that slavery and white supremacy were doomed if the state stayed in the Union. All the while, the Confederate press continued to look toward the August state elections, which it expected—or hoped—would result in a pro-secession legislature.

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