DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY TOGETHER WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR

16pp, stiff printed wraps, Exceptionally clean and bright, inside and out. See Coleman's Bibliography of KY History # 1137 for the rare first edition, published 1861 in Bowling Green, after the Russellville, Kentucky convention. Fewer than five copies of the original are known to exist. From the introduction: "The establishment of a Confederate government of the State of Kentucky was desirable from the standpoint of the confederacy since it would provide a rallying point for Kentuckians who could then join the confederacy without technically being traitors to the state. It would also solve any legal and administrative problems confronting the Confederate commanders in the occupied area of Bowling Green. The Congress of the Confederacy accepted the Provisional Government on December 10, 1861, but it had an ineffective career. Within four months, George W. Johnson, its governor, was killed in a gunfight. But the Provisional Government continued a shadowy existence until Appomattox." Scarce. …