S. M. Berniss to Beriah Magoffin

KYR-0001-017-0516.xml

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Accession Number

KYR-0001-017-0516

Document Genre

Correspondence

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Civil Appointments, 1859-1862

Item Location

MG4-536 to MG4-537

Place of Creation

Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee

Date of Creation

16 August 1862

Dates Mentioned

1862-08-16

1859

1860

1862-08-25

S. M. Berniss to Beriah Magoffin, 16 August 1862, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Civil Appointments, 1859-1862, MG4-536 to MG4-537, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-017-0516, (accessed April 25, 2024).

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Clarksville Tenn. August 16^th 1862
Hon. B. Magoffin
Gov. Ky --
Sir.

Two years ago Your Excellency was pleased to bestow upon me the office of Registrar of the State of Kentucky -- an appointment to me the most grateful within your bestowal: and one in the discharge of whose duties I felt unusual interest and pride, The returns for 1859 were made up in conformity with custom and submitted to your Excellency within the usual period, and I have now to report to you the cause of so ~~great~~ much delay in making up those for 1860. First the excited political condition of the state and derangement of the mails occasioned delay in forwarding the returns to Frankfort; next the tabulated portions of the work were completed and I only awaited the arrivals of the similar works ordered from other states and from Europe, that I might by aid of comparison
with their results, elicit in the most advantageous manner the questions of political economy or sanitary science involved in the returns, At this time however I received information from a prominent member of the "Union" party that an order for my arrest had been issued by the Military Governor, and that I was in momentary danger of imprisonment, Feeling that I could not Conscientiously take the form of oath which the party now in power prescribes to their political opponents. I have fled the state for I saw no other mode of escape from the only alternative offered me of incarceration or degrading submission to sworn obligations which to my belief positively controvert the leading principles of our Government,

Your Excellency will permit me to state here that the only charge upon which the Military Governor sought my arrest was that of "Talking," and to further aver that the only language I can call to mind calculated to provoke this act of tryranny was
a declaration of my belief that the Government would not be administered with a national spirit so as to ensure security and tranquility, until the present administration was removed from power and the abolition, Republican or So styled "Union" party was overthrown and the Democratic party reinstated,

Your Excellency will please accept this report as containing the causes for my delay in the discharge of an important duty and as further showing that I am not able to place a limit upon this delay, since upon correspondence thro, a third person, with the military authorities at Louisville they deny me the right to return to my home and usual pursuits unless I agree to take an objectionable oath and give bond like a felon for future conduct,

I pray Your Excellency to bestow upon this report such consideration and action as your high sense of justice and true "rigors of the times" may indicate,

Respectfully Your Excellency's
Most obedient servant
S. M. Berniss State Registrar

Dr. Berniss

Report

Filed Aug 25. 1862

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