f other States considered it a victory for the Confederacy.
This committee, however, stipulated this proposition to satisfy those
sympathizers with the South, who believed all the bad reports concerning
the functionaries of the Federal Government, circulated by the leaders of
the Confederacy. Hence, they said in this proposition not that Kentucky
would go with the South, but if at any time thereafter the President's
proclamation should assume the aspect of war, it would do so. They
evidently did not believe that it had or would assume such an aspect. They
were also trying to pacify those who misunderstood the issues of
"subjugation" and "coercion."[30] The relation of the States to the Union
was yet a problem to many a statesman. Many thought that the colonists
when in a state of nature came together and agreed to a compact, giving up
some of their sovereignty and retaining the other, and, therefore, had the
right to withdraw at pleasure, carrying a part of the national property
with them. Such thinkers contended too that the Union had no right to
"coerce" a seceded State. Calhoun had said that because the Union was a
compact it could be broken; on the other hand, Jackson had said that
because it was a compact it could not be broken. Now it was difficult for
Kentuckians to decide who was right. That the committee had no intention
of going with the Confederacy may be seen from the following declaration:
"Seditious leaders in the midst of us now appeal to her (Kentucky) to
furnish troops to uphold those combinations against the government of the
Union. Will she comply with this appeal? Ought she to comply with it? We
answer, no."[31]

While these things were going on, the great question of Fort Sumter was
before the people. When the fort was finally bombarded and Lincoln called
for seventy-five thousand troops Gov. Magoffin politely refused to comply.
His reply was: "I say emphatically Kentucky will furnish no troops for the
wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States."[32] He had already
been much moved by the large vote given the delegates to the Border States
Convention, indicating such a growth of Union sentiment that he called the
legislature together, hoping to win the day for secession by changing the
policy of the State from mediatorial to armed neutrality, resisting all
forces, whether Confederate or Federal, which might bring war into the
State. The body met on the sixteenth of May, passed a resolution o