olonel Kenton read them
one by one to the twenty men who were crowded into the room. They were
appealing, insistent, urgent. Their tone might vary, but the tenor was
the same. They must take Kentucky out of the Union and take her out at
once. In the West the line of attack upon the South would lead through
Kentucky. But if the state threw in her fortunes with the South,
the advance of Lincoln's troops would be blocked. The force of example
would be immense, and a hundred thousand valiant Kentuckians could
easily turn the scale in favor of the Confederacy.

Harry listened to them a long time, but growing tired at last, went out
again into the fresh air. Young though he was, he realized that it was
one thing for the Southern leaders to ask, but it was another thing
for the Kentuckians to deliver. He saw all about him the signs of a
powerful opposition, and he saw, too, that these forces, scattered at
first, were consolidating fast, presenting a formidable front.

The struggle began and it was waged for days in the picturesque old
Capitol. There was no violence, but feeling deepened. Men put
restraint upon their words, but their hearts behind them were full of
bitterness, bitterness on one side because the Northern sympathizers
were so stubborn, and bitterness on the other, because the Southern
sympathizers showed the same stubbornness. Friends of a lifetime used
but cold words to each other and saw widening between then, a gulf which
none could cross. Supporters of either cause poured into the little
capital. Tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon House and Senate.
Members were compelled to strive with every kind of emotion or appeal,
love of the Union, cool judgment in the midst of alarms, state
patriotism, kinship, and all the conflicting ties which pull at those
who stand upon the border line on the eve of a great civil war. And
yet they could come to no decision. Day after day they fought back and
forth over points of order and resolutions and the result was always
the same. North and South were locked fast within the two rooms of one
little Capitol.

They were rimmed around meanwhile by a fiery horizon that steadily came
closer and closer. The guns reducing Sumter had been a sufficient
signal. North and South were sharply arrayed against each other.
The Southern volunteers, full of ardor and fire, continued to pour to
their standards. The North, larger and heavier, moved more slowly,
but i