It was tempting for many Kentuckians to join the Confederacy. It was a slave state with a long southern border with the Confederate state of Tennessee. Also, about one half of the legislature was in favor of the Confederacy. To make things worse, not a single county within Kentucky was won by Abraham Lincoln.
Three states, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were slave holding states but did not join the Confederacy. Each of these states have complex reasons for remaining in the Union and yet retained their slaves. Tennessee was a slave state and joined the Confederacy. The latter was late, joining the South in May of 1861.
Kentucky was officially a border state during the Civil War, remaining neutral at the war's outset and not formally joining either the Confederacy or the Union. However, it was a slave state and had divided loyalties, with both Union and Confederate governments claiming it at different times. Ultimately, Kentucky's status was complex, as it had factions supporting both sides.
In one respect, both General McClellan and President Lincoln did have a solid agreement on keeping Kentucky from joining the Confederacy. Kentucky was a slave state and long after McClellan had been relived of military duties, Lincoln allowed what McClellan had suggested before he took control of the Army of the Potomac. Kentucky was in delicate balance. McClellan believed that as long as Kentucky remained in a so-called state of neutrality, Union troops not be sent there, as to do otherwise might lean Kentucky towards the Confederacy. Only if the South invaded Kentucky, should Union forces be sent to drive them out.
there are no negative things
Good question. Kentucky was one of the Border States - slave-states that had narrowly voted against joining the Confederacy, but clearly still at risk of doing so. Lincoln was so sensitive about this that he allowed Kentucky to stay neutral for the first year of the war. In 1862, the Confederates invaded the state, and their commander, Braxton Bragg, was able to set up a Southern government there. At this point, the Confederates sewed a twelfth star into their flag, representing Kentucky. However, this government collapsed as soon as Bragg retreated, and Kentucky finally, if reluctantly, declared for the Union.
the united states had been formed by a voluntary joining of states
break into 2 parts wit Western Maryland joining the confederacy
It was a slave-state that had voted against joining the Confederacy. Lincoln allowed it to remain neutral at the beginning of the war. When the Confederates under Braxton Bragg invaded, he was able to set-up a Confederate government, but it collapsed as soon as he left.
In the terms of the 1860's the "border states" were slave holding states that did not join the Confederacy but were allowed to retain their slaves. Geographically, Kentucky and Missouri were a buffer of sorts between the South and the North. Maryland surrounded the city of Washington DC making it necessary to prevent it from joining the Confederacy. Delaware's location and very small slave population were not important.
No, it was a slave-state that had narrowly voted against joining the Confederacy.
They were slave-states that had narrowly voted against joining the Confederacy.
That could be Kentucky or Missouri, which both had three borders with free-soil states. But they had also stayed in the Union, as 'buffer states' that had voted against joining he Confederacy.