B. F. Butler to Beriah Magoffin
1861-07-04
- Date of Creation
- July 4, 1861
- Place of Creation
- Todd County, Kentucky
- Document Genre
- Correspondence
- Repository
- Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
- Collection
- Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, 1859-1862
- Box / Folder
- MG1-255 to MG1-256
- CWGK Accession Number
- KYR-0001-023-0063
- Rights
- This image and its transcription are freely available to the public. Images appear courtesy of Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Transcriptions and annotations were created by Kentucky Historical Society staff, volunteers, and interns. When referencing this document, please use our preferred citation.; The use of transcriptions, images, or annotations from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce any material on CWGK is required.
- FTP Identifier
- 32210918
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- Dates
- 1861-07-04
Citation
B. F. Butler to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-07-04, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-023-0063 (November 13, 2026).
Private
Todd county Ky
Hon. B. Magoffin
Governor of Kentucky
Dr Sir
An humble citizen feeling a deep interest in the peace & welfare of the State and especially of my own County and neighborhood, I will make no apology for addressing you. As you are the chief Executive officer of the Commonwealth, the guardian alike of the rights of the humblest as of the greatest of her citizens, I desire to direct your attention to a state of facts in regard to the organization of the "Home Guards" in the northern half of this county. They are organizing in every civil district composed exclusively of Unionmen. Southern Rights men have been denied
admission and told that they were not wanted. The character of the material of which they are ^mainly^ composed is morally and intellectually of a low order. Men notorious for the threats they have made against southern rights men — of how they will shut their mouths when they get their guns — that "secession talk" will be stopped &c. &c. These companies are being organized under the auspices of the leaders of the union party and I doubt not they are fully aware of the outrages threatened and of the fearful consequences that will inevitably ensue if they are armed. Why the necessity of arming the portion of the County I am speaking of atall! The idea of an insurrection among the slaves is simply preposterous there being not more
than one slave to a hundred whites In that secluded region there is no probability of invasion from abroad. For what then are the union men to be armed, to the exclusion of all others, if it is not to silence investigation to suprress freedom of speech and when it suits their masters to inaugurate a reign of Terror.
My dear Sir I most earnestly invoke your official influence as far as it can be exerted to prevent if possible arms being given to the Home Guards of the northern half of Todd County. Actuated solely by a desire to prevent scenes of violence in a yet peaceful community I hope your Excellency will give my suggestions that consideration which the importance of ^the^ subject claims.
Your obt. Servt.
B. F. Butler