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Whereas, The majority of the Legislature of Kentucky have violated their most solemn pledges, made before the election, and deceived and betrayed the people; have abandoned the position of neutrality assumed by themselves and the people, and invited into the State the organized armies of Lincoln; have abdicated the Government in favor of the military despotism which they have placed around themselves, but cannot control, and have abandoned the duty of shielding the citizen with their protection; have thrown upon our people and the State the horrors and ravages of war, instead of attempting to preserve the peace, and have voted men and money for the war waged by the North for the destruction of our constitutional rights; have violated the express words of the Constitution, by borrowing five millions of money for the support of the war, without a vote of the people : have permitted the arrest and imprisonment of our citizens, and transferred the constitutional prerogatives of the Executive to a military commission of partisans ; have seen the right of " habeas corpus" suspended without an effort for its preservation, and permitted our people to be driven in exile from their homes ; have subjected our property to confiscation, and our persons to confinement in the penitentiary as felons, because we may choose to take part in a contest for civil liberty, and constitutional government, against a sectional majority waging war against the people and institutions of fifteen independent States of the old Federal Union, and have done all these things deliberately against the warnings and vetoes of the Governor, and the solemn remonstrances of the minority in the Senate and House of Representatives.   Therefore   

Be it further ordained, That the unconstitutional edicts of a factious majority of a Legislature, thus false to their pledges, their honor, and their interests, are not law, and that such Government is unworthy of the support of a brave and free people, and that we do, therefore, declare that the people are thereby absolved from all allegiance to said Government, and that they have a right to establish any Government which to them, may seem best adapted to the preservation of their rights and liberties.

Sec. 1. The supreme executive and legislative power of the Provisional Government of this Commonwealth, hereby established, shall be vested in a Governor and ten Council-men   one from each of the present Congressional Districts, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum, to transact