Description:

Civil War - Governor of Kentucky highly important secession ALS

Three pages of cream blue lined paper penned written in Louisville, KY on July 22, 1861. Under the dramatic heading "Strictly Confidential", Governor of Kentucky George W. Johnson (1811-1862) pens a letter to George D. Prentice (1802-1870), the vitriolic co-founder and editor of the Louisville Journal. Very good to fine condition with expected wear including paper folds, slightly bent corners, minor tears, and isolated stains, each page measuring 7.75" x 9.75

George W. Johnson still had serious reservations about Kentucky seceding from the Union even after the election of 16 th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) in 1860. Initially, Johnson explored the possibility of Kentucky's remaining neutral during the impending Civil War, but he eventually decided that his border state should join the Confederacy. In this letter to pro-Kentuckian neutrality George D. Prentice, Johnson asks the influential newspaper editor to join his camp, in exchange for $25,000 in gold if that would extricate him from any preexisting obligations.

"You have long since expressed the opinion, that the Southern States could not and should not be subdued by arms. If then subjugation is impossible and wrong, this war should not be sustained, unless it is a war of Defence by the 'U. States'", Johnson began his letter. "The terms on which the Southern Confederacy desire Peace, are the Union of the 15 Slave States and their Independence ... " The North and South would maintain a separate but co-existent diplomatic and economic relationship with the North, and boundaries would be clearly drawn. If not, an official policy of Kentuckian neutrality would cast the state into chaos, causing "a Civil War between Citizens of the State".

Johnson served as Confederate governor of Kentucky until his death at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Johnson enlisted as a private despite his advanced age and disabled arm.

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