Kennedy published a pamphlet entitled The Border States on December 15, 1860, that suggested the secession and confederation of the Border States of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, North Carolina, and Maryland. Hicks advocated the plan during a January 2, 1861, letter to Delaware Governor William Burton. As the southern Confederacy peacefully formed, sentiment among the newspapers and people of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York were at its highest for the formation of a Central Confederacy. However, this rhetoric reversed following the southern attack on Fort Sumter.
