t
section of the act, was made felony and punishable by not less than one
nor more than two years in the penitentiary. A further resolution in the
spirit of the same kind of neutrality was approved September 23rd, "That
the Military Board be and they are hereby authorized to place any
portion of the arms, accouterments, equipments, camp equipage, baggage
trains, ammunition, and military stores of the State, not in use, under
the control of the commander of the Federal forces in Kentucky," etc.

Having once gotten on the right track (as they were compelled to believe
it, inasmuch as it was clearly the one which conducted to immediate
profit and safety) these gentlemen thought they could not go too fast.
"The people were educated to loyalty," now, and it was high time to
commence the punishment of those who had shown an inaptness to receive
the lessons, or a distaste for the method of instruction. The dignity of
Kentucky had been sacrificed by the avarice and cowardice of her own
sons, who sat in her councils--this is the way in which those
legislative-panders sought to assert it again. They passed an act
entitled "an act to prohibit and prevent rebellion by citizens of
Kentucky and others in this State." By this act it was provided that any
citizen of this State, who as a soldier or officer of the Confederate
army, should, as part of an armed force, enter the State to make war
upon it, should be punished by confinement in the penitentiary. "Making
war upon the State," doubtless meant any attack made upon the "Federal
soldiers assembled" (in the State) "for the purpose of preserving the
tranquillity of the State." And it was farther enacted that, "any person
who shall, within the limits of this State, persuade or induce any
person to enlist or take service in the army of the so-called
Confederate States, and the persons so persuaded or induced does enlist
or take service in the same, shall be deemed guilty of a high
misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding
one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months."
Whether, in passing this act, the Legislature of Kentucky was treating a
question involving belligerent rights, is a matter for lawyers to pass
upon; but that it was disgracing the State is patent. Such action might
have been proper and competent--against both belligerents--had Kentucky
adopted it as a measure necessary to the maintenance of her neutrality.
It would have been