Change in Public Sentiment

The March 2, 1861 edition of the Covington Journal included the following article about public sentiment in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, a town and county in the central part of the state, not far from Lexington.


Change in Public Sentiment
The Georgetown Gazette notices a marked revolution in the public sentiment of Georgetown and Scott County. It says:

" Very many men who a few weeks since were loud in denunciation of the seceding States, and enthusiastic in hope for the Union, are now either silent or zealous in the belief and expression, that the proper place for our State, in the event of a total dissolution, is with her Southern sisters, with whom her interests and institutions have so long identified her. The revolution of which we speak will never go backward, and by the 4th of March we expect to see the county and town almost, if not quite a unit for the South "at all hazards and to the last extremity;" and then we shall have the proud satisfaction of knowing, that although we took the initiative in the matter, we have spoken the sentiments of not only a majority, but of almost the entire mass of our fellow citizens."

---
The Georgetown web site, on its "history" page makes the following statement about the region during this era: "While Kentucky remained officially neutral during the Civil War, Scott County's leanings were Southern."

Also note that the 1861 article does refer to "institutions" that Kentucky shared with the south, but did not identify which institutions they meant.