ll permit. If the Federal forces
will now withdraw from their menacing positions, the forces under my
command shall be immediately withdrawn.

Very respectfully,
F.K. ZOLLICOFFER,
_Brigadier General Commanding_."

It would seem that each one of these communications put the case very
clearly, and that, Kentucky having permitted her neutrality to be
violated by the one side, after her emphatic and definite declaration
that it was meant to be good against both, could consistently take no
action, unless it should be such as Generals Polk and Zollicoffer
suggested, viz: to provide for a simultaneous withdrawal of both Federal
and Confederate forces. Certainly Kentucky meant that neither of the
combatants should occupy her soil--as has been shown, her declarations
upon that head were clear and vigorous. If she intended that troops of
the United States should come into her territory, for any purpose
whatever, while the Confederate forces should be excluded, it is
unnecessary to say that she selected in "neutrality" a word, which very
inaccurately and lamely expressed her meaning. The people of Kentucky
had long since--two months at least, a long time in such a period,
before this correspondence between their Governor and the Confederate
Generals--ceased to do anything but blindly look to certain leaders, and
blindly follow their dictation. The Southern men of the State, and their
peculiar leaders, were sullen and inert; the mass of the people were
bewildered, utterly incompetent to arrive at a decision, and were
implicitly led by the Legislature to which all the politicians, who
aspired to influence, now resorted. In view of the history of this
neutrality, of the professions made, only a few weeks previously, by the
same men who returned an answer from the Capital of Kentucky to the
propositions of the Confederate authorities that Kentucky should act
fairly, and not declare one policy and clandestinely pursue another--in
view of the facts which are fastened in the record--what sort of men
does that answer prove them to have been? This was the answer:

"_Resolved, By the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky that
his Excellency, Governor Magoffin, be, and he is hereby instructed to
inform those concerned, that Kentucky expects the Confederate or
Tennessee troops to be withdrawn from her soil unconditionally._"

This, after a pledge to their own people, and a proclamation to both
sections, of