could be made popular on the plea that the South had fired the first gun and begun the war.
The responses to the call for troops from the "war governors" were as prompt as the proclamation itself; but the governor of Kentucky replied, "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister States." The governor of Virginia responded that "the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. The governor of Tennessee said, "Tennessee not a man for coercion, but 50,000 for defense of our rights and those of our Southern brothers. The governor of North Carolina replied tartly, "I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina." Missouri’s governor answered, "The requisition is illegal, inhuman, diabolical and cannot be complied with." Governor Hicks, of Maryland, replied by stating the condition of affairs in his State.
The proclamation dispelled all doubt of the purpose of the administration at Washington to enforce the claims by actual war by land as well as by sea, and preparations were therefore at once made in the Confederacy to defend the States from invasion. Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas necessarily seceded, while Missouri and Kentucky announced their purpose to be neutral. The States thus late in the Southern movement against sectional abuse of the United States government held to and maintained the right of resistance even by separation but their actual exercise of the right was a forced and emphatic denial of coercion and a firm refusal to be made parties to an unlawful attempt to subjugate the Southern States which had seceded. They joined these States in secession, not to make war for conquest, nor for National aggrandizement, nor to destroy the Union, but to repel an invasion already imminent and to defend themselves
