<P> I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game . Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor Maryland . These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us . We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol (Washington, which was surrounded by slave states: Confederate Virginia and Union - controlled Maryland). </P> <P> Lincoln reportedly also declared, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky ." </P> <P> Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin proposed that slave states such as Kentucky should conform to the US Constitution, and remain in the Union . When Lincoln requested 1,000,000 men to serve in the Union army, however, Magoffin, a Southern sympathizer, countered that Kentucky would "furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern states ." </P> <P> The Kentucky legislature did not vote on any bill to secede, but passed two resolutions of neutrality, issuing a neutrality proclamation May 20, 1861, asking both sides to keep out . In elections on June 20 and August 5, 1861, Unionists won enough additional seats in the legislature to overcome any veto by the governor . After the elections, the strongest supporters of neutrality were the Southern sympathizers . While both sides had already been openly enlisting troops from the state, after the elections the Union army established recruitment camps within Kentucky . </P>

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