regret that certain States had furnished men and money for the coercion of the seceded States, and requesting the Governor of Kentucky to notify such States that should attempts be made to coerce these commonwealths, Kentucky would join the South.[22] This resolution passed the House but did not pass the whole legislature as so many have said.  A resolution for calling a convention to amend the Constitution of the United States was passed.[23] Several distinguished men of Kentucky sat in this convention which was in session from the fourth to the twenty-second of February without accomplishing anything.

The majority of Kentuckians were then neutral.  There were two classes of neutrals, however.  This was easily possible since neutrality meant one thing to one man and a different thing to another.  Each faction looked forward to the adoption of this policy as a victory over the other.  The Unionists accepted it as the best policy, not knowing that, taking such a position, they would aid the Confederacy.  Even John J. Crittenden had this idea.  He said:  “If Kentucky and the other border States should assume this attitude, war between the two sections of the country would be averted and the Confederate states after a few years’ trial of their experiment would return voluntarily to the Union.” [24]

Neutrality was considered a necessity for another reason; namely, the expected short duration of the war.  No one believed at first that the war would last long.  Even Lincoln thought that it would be over in ninety days.  Some, therefore, felt that Kentucky would be foolish to cause blood to be shed on her soil when the war could easily be kept out of the State three months.  This sentiment, however, must not be misunderstood as evincing a lack of interest in the Union, for in the address declaring for neutrality these same leaders said that the dismemberment of the Union was no remedy for existing evils but an aggravation of them all.[25] To many Unionists neutrality meant going slowly in the right direction.  It was in keeping with Lincoln’s plan not to go so rapidly toward “coercion” in Kentucky as he had in the other border States.

How then did the neutrality policy work out?  On the twenty-ninth of January R. T. Jacob introduced in the lower house of the legislature a resolution declaring that the proper position of Kentucky was that of a mediator between the sections, and that as an umpire she would remain firm and impartial in that day of trial to their “beloved country that by counsel and mediation she might aid in restoring peace and harmony and brotherly love.”  Giving the reasons for adopting such a policy Jacob said: