USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 26
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A constitution written and adopted in twenty-seven days! Evidently the absence of stenographers and a printing-press at imme- diate command, tends to shorten the work of statesmen who build organic structures. Ken- tucky has been known to suffer the infliction of a constitutional convention which assem-
bled on September 8, 1890, and adjourned September 28, 1891, and which, during its sessions, filled four large volumes, the whole containing 6,480 pages, with what that body was pleased to term "discussion." And there have been criticisms of the work they turned out, notwithstanding the extended sessions and the continuous discussion on points both large and small. The day is perhaps not far distant when Kentucky will have a constitu- tion in keeping with the spirit of the age and which will attract, rather than repel, the atten- tion of those whose presence and capital would add to the dignity and importance of the State.
Reference has been made in preceding pages to the sympathy of the people with the French and to the formation in certain towns of what were called Democratic clubs. This sympathy was a natural one. La Fayette, a boy soldier of nineteen years, had left the sunny fields of France and the ease of an aristocratic circle, to suffer amid the priva- tions of the Continental soldiers struggling for freedom ; Rochambeau, with a French fleet of war vessels, had sailed up the James River and lent powerful physical and moral support to General Washington when his ragged troops invested Yorktown and forced Corn- wallis to surrender. That the people should be kindly disposed to France was not only natural, but greatly to their credit. Then too, they did not look with approval on the treaty with England for which country they had not yet cultivated feelings of affection, remember- ing, as they did, the recent war and more than all else the atrocities of the Indian tribes in- cited thereto by the English commanders on the border. The bitter sentiment against England was as natural as was that of affec- tionate regard for France. Yet France was not behaving very nicely towards the United States. Incensed at the treaty with England, when Charles Pinckney succeeded James Monroe as Minister to that country, the
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French government haughtily refused to re- ceive him. An extra session of congress was called which assembled June 15, 1797. The president in his message referring to the speech of the president of the French direct- ory on the departure of Mr. Monroe, said : "Sentiments are disclosed more alarming than the refusal of a minister, because more dan- gerous to our independence and union, and, at the same time studiously marked with in- dignities towards the government of the United States."
President Adams knew the meaning of war. Though not serving actively in the field dur- ing the Revolution, he had rendered service in the Continental congress which was of great value to the struggling soldiery follow- ing Washington through the sternest priva- tions and sufferings ever known to an army of that day, and only equalled afterwards by those which were so cheerfully endured by the ragged soldiers who starved and fought in the armies of the Confederacy. The presi- dent, earnestly desirous of peace with France, as with all the world, sent a commission com- posed of Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry to France, with instructions to use all proper efforts towards peace. The French cabinet was yet in an inflamed state and re- fused to receive them. War seemed to be imminent. Only the greatest forbearance could prevent it. The country was in no con- dition for war, neither was it then, nor will it ever be, in a condition to avoid a war when insult and injury are heaped upon it.
The French were committing depredations upon American shipping ; decrees from the French directory, subjected to seizure all American vessels carrying British goods or sailing from British ports. This decree was tantamount to a declaration of war by France. Congress passed an act suspending all com- mercial intercourse between the United States and France and the latter's possessions ; mer- chant vessels were ordered to be armed ; the
president was authorized to increase the army and navy, placing each on a war footing.
Kentucky was divided upon this vital ques- tion. The Republicans, or Democrats as they were now coming to be called, sympathized with the French and opposed the administra- tion of President Adams to whose election they had never become reconciled. The Fed- eralists, of course, supported Mr. Adams, who was of their number.
The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting held at Lexington :
"Resolved. That the present war with France is impolitic, unnecessary and unjust, inasmuch as the means of reconciliation have not been unremittingly and sincerely pursued, hostilities having been un- authorized against France by law, while a negotiation was pending.
"Resolved, That a war with France will only be necessary and proper when engaged in for the de- fense of our territory, and to take any part in the present political commotions in Europe will en- danger our liberty and independence. Any intimate connection with the corrupt and sinking monarchy of England ought to be abhorred and avoided."
The people of Mason county in a far dif- ferent vein, presented an address to the presi- dent which brought grateful recognition. From that address these words are quoted : "We have seen with the anxiety inseparable from the love of our country, the situation of the United States under the aggressions of the French nation on our commerce, our rights and our sovereignty. As freemen, we do not hesitate; we will rally around the standard of our country and support the con- stituted authorities. An insidious enemy shall in vain attempt to divide us from the Govern- ment of the United States, to the support of which against any foreign enemy we pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Many other addresses of like character ac- companied that above quoted. However bit- ter might be political prejudice, one cannot conceive of a public meeting in the Lexington of today, failing to resent in the most forcible
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manner, an insult to our accredited minister or the unwarranted search of our merchant vessels by any foreign government under the sun.
In this gloomy hour when war with a peo- ple who had sympathized with and aided us, appeared no longer to be avoided, the eyes of the country turned with one accord to the shades of Mount Vernon, and the sturdy old soldier, under whose leadership the people had won their freedom, was forced from the ease and retirement his years of service had justified him in claiming. His country called him and George Washington answering the call which . from his earliest years he had had never failed to hear, rode once more at the head of an American army as its com- mander-in-chief. France was expected to at- tempt an invasion of our country. True there had been no formal declaration of war upon the part of either government.
While what might be termed the polite pre- liminaries to action had been omitted, the stern actualities had not been. February 19,
1799, the United States frigate "Constitution" of thirty-eight guns, met and engaged the French frigate, "La Insurgent," of forty guns, capturing her after a spirited engage- ment in one hour. February 1. 1800, the "Constitution" met the French ship, "La Ven- geance," of fifty-four guns, and after an ac- tion of five hours, the latter hastily withdrew having lost 160 of her men killed and wounded. Three hundred American mer- chant vessels were afloat and all were armed. The French had done much damage to our shipping, the war having been confined to the sea.
Napoleon's star now appeared. Becoming first consul, it was intimated to the United States that commissioners would now be received. Accordingly, Messrs. Murray, Ells- worth and Davis were appointed, proceeding in November, 1799, to France, but it was not until near the close of 1800 that a treaty be- tween the two countries was ratified and hostilities ceased.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR-SLAVERY IN KENTUCKY-NEGROES AS FREEMEN-CRUEL MASTERS THE EXCEPTION-KENTUCKY'S ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENT-BAPTISTS OPPOSE SLAVERY- FREED SLAVES SENT TO LIBERIA-FURTHER ACTION BY CHURCHES-BIRNEY AND HIS MISSION-PUNISHMENT OF SLAVE KIDNAPPERS -- "THE OLD LION OF WHITEHALL" -- FOR- TUNATE IN SEX-"KENTUCKY IN LIBERIA"-FOR AND AGAINST SLAVERY-CASSIUS M. CLAY AGAIN-REV. ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE-NEW CONSTITUTION ON "FREE NEGROES"- EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUTH-BEREA COLLEGE-ANTI-SLAVERY MEN BANISHED- UNION MEN EXPEL ABOLITIONISTS-LAST SLAVE SALE IN KENTUCKY-IRRITATING "UN- DERGROUND RAILWAY"-MARRIAGE OF SLAVES-THE DREADED "PATTER ROLLERS"-NEGRO SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION-SELLING VALUE OF SLAVES-NOT FIGHTING FOR SLAVERY.
A history of Kentucky must needs be also a history, in part, of African slavery, the greatest curse that a free people ever imposed upon themselves. It is too late now to in- veigh against the people of New England who first introduced human slavery into the colonies and later embroiled the sections in a tremendous struggle for its abolishment. Say what statesmen may as to the causes for the war between the states, every one must, in the final analysis, admit that, had there been no slaves there would have been no war. The right of the states to regulate their own in- ternal affairs without the interference of the Federal government, was, of course, involved, but the discussion of that right grew out of slavery and but for slavery would never have been. Other questions were involved, but the great central question, about which discussion revolved, was that of slavery disguise the facts as we may. The southern states with- drew from the Union and fought gallantly for the right to regulate their own affairs; a right which they believed then and now be- lieve, was guaranteed them by the constitu- tion.
A gentleman from Kentucky crossing the Atlantic to England was approached by an English gentleman who asked: "Why were the north and the south fighting each other in your great war?" "The answer is easy," re- plied the Kentuckian. "The New England states sent their slave vessels to Africa where they captured many unsuspecting natives, bringing them to America and enslaving them. The inhospitable climate of the eastern states was fatal to these people from the African shores, and many of them died from its sin- ister influences. The thrifty New Eng- landers, observing this, made haste to sell their slaves to the people of the warmer southern states, and later came down and made war upon those same people for buying them." The English gentleman appeared to be satisfied with the explanation offered and there are not lacking those today who accept it as correct.
It is useful to remember that not until the eastern states had relieved themselves of an undesirable holding and filled the pockets of their people with southern gold in return for their slaves, did it appear to them that slavery
169
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was an unmixed evil, to be stamped out at any cost of blood and treasure. It is not intended here to make a plea for the enslavement of human beings, for the writer of these words never saw the day when he was an advocate of that "peculiar institution." He is a mere chronicler of facts as he sees them, setting them down as he believes correctly. In later pages, reference may be again made to this subject matter.
For the present it is desired to refer more particularly to slavery as it existed in Ken- tucky in the early as well as the later periods, anterior to the war. This chapter and others which may follow, is largely made up as to statistics from a careful study of an article entitled "Slavery in Kentucky." published in the Lexington ( Ky.) Herald and written by an accomplished journalist, Mr. Anderson Chenault Quisenberry, now, and for many years, connected with the inspector general's office of the war department at Washington. Mr. Quisenberry, a native of Kentucky, a trained newspaper man, has given much thought to matters connected with the earlier history of the state, and the writer of this history has no hesitancy in accepting and quoting many of his conclusions as his own.
When the first permanent settlement of Kentucky was made at Boonesborough in 1775, slavery existed in every one of the col- onies which shortly after combined to form the United States of America. The first set- tlers at Boonesborough, as at other of the transient settlements, had negroes as slaves. The colonists who founded Boonesborough, while en route thereto, had an encounter with Indians in which William Twetty and his negro slave were killed. Thus slavery began at the very beginning of Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and continued until the close of the war of 1861-5. Its increase is shown by: the census returns for 1860, the last of such returns in which slavery was shown to exist as, when the census of 1870 was taken,
there were no longer any negro slaves in the United States, the proclamation of President Lincoln and the results of the war having combined to free the white people of the southern states of the dark incubus which had so long weighed them down and made them, as a matter of fact, the slaves of their own slaves. That this incubus in another form, is still upon them, it is not proposed to touch upon here. The census returns from 1790 to 1860, as above referred to, were as follows :
Year.
No. of Slaves.
Increase in 1 0 years.
Free Colored.
Increase in 1 0 years.
1790
12,430
11.4
. ..
1800
40.343
27,913
739
625
1810
80,561
40,218
1,713
974
1820
126,732
46,171
2.759
1,046
1830
165,213
38.481
4.917
2,158
1840
182,258
17,045
7,317
2,400
1850
210,981
28.723
10,01 I
2,694
1860
225,483
14 502
10,684
673
. . .
During the period above noted the white population of Kentucky ranged from 61,193 in 1790 to 919.484 in 1860, and a general average of colored to white population during all this period, was approximately about one to five. In this period of seventy years the slave population had increased eighteen-fold and the free colored population had increased nearly one hundred fold, thus indicating that many people in Kentucky were freeing their slaves. It is an established fact that free negroes had very little natural increase since ; having no longer the paternal care of their former masters and mistresses, their children the more readily succumbed to the diseases incident to childhood and found early graves. This being true, it may be assumed that a great majority of the 18.684 free negroes in Kentucky in 1860, have been manumitted by their former owners. Kentucky did not await statehood, but began the freeing of her slaves while still a part of Virginia west of the moun- tains.
It is probable that the first negro ever
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
made a free man in Kentucky was Monk Es- till, a slave of Col. James Estill of Madison county. In 1782, in the battle known as "Estill's Defeat," which occurred on the ground where Mount Sterling is now situated, Colonel Estill, with twenty-five men, attacked a party of Wyandotte Indians by whom the slave. Monk Estill, was taken prisoner. In the thickest of the fight, Monk called out in a loud voice: "Don't give way, Marse Jim ; there's only twenty-five of the Injuns and you can whip them." Colonel Estill was killed and his men retreated. The brave Monk es- caped from the Indians, joined his white com- rades and, on his stalwart shoulders, carried a wounded man twenty-five miles to Estill station. His young master promptly gave him his freedom and supported him in comfort during the remainder of his life.
It has been well said that in the solitudes of the wilderness and the isolation of the early settlements, the innate longings for the society of human-kind made the companion- ship of the masters and their households with the colored slaves an essential condition to the contentment and happiness of both. The white and colored elements were thus pleas- antly blended in the household unit; and, hence, while the relations were civilly and so- cially so distinct, they were mutually confid- ing and affectionate. The pleasant relations thus early established in pioneer days, contin- ued, as a rule, until slavery was happily no more, and to great extent, lingers yet among the descendants of those people-fifty years after slavery has ceased to be.
Of course, there were some in Kentucky who were cruel to their slaves but these were the exception, not the rule. Irresponsible power over others develops whatever mean- ness there may be in the nature of those who possess that power. In many asylums for the insane; for the orphan ; the almshouses, and similar institutions, flourishing in the centers of our civilization today, may be found more
cruelty and tyranny than was ever practiced by the most conscienceless master in Ken- tucky upon his slaves. The cruel and in- human master was ostracized and taught by the silent contempt of his neighbors a lesson which he seldom failed to heed.
There is not lacking the testimony of for- mer slaves, to the conditions of their servi- tude in Kentucky. George Brown, a colored man, long a slave, was in the years following the freedom of his people, the senior member of a firm known as "George and Dan," the latter being also a former slave, who con- ducted a noted restaurant in Louisville fre- quented by the best people of the city and the state. Some years before his death, Brown published in the Winchester (Ky.) Democrat an extended sketch entitled "Recollections of an Ex-Slave." In this sketch, he commented lovingly upon the kindness of his former owner, Mr. Allen, and his family, to their slaves, and adds: "I would not have the reader suppose that this kindness and human- ity was peculiar to the Allen family for it was not; for a constant endeavor to make slaves happy and comfortable was a feature common to many slave owners about Win- chester." The same may be truthfully said about every town and county in Kentucky.
Custom and usage invariably blunt the senses so that venerable wrongs are not recog- nized as such. In what one is born to and ac- customed to, and has accepted as a matter of course, one cannot, as a rule, see any wrong. So a great majority of Kentuckians in times past, could see no wrong in slavery. But there was always, from the beginning, an ele- ment in Kentucky respectable in num- ber and in every way, which recognized the wrong of slavery. Perhaps the most prominent of these was the elder Humphrey Marshall, Henry Clay, his fiery kinsman, Cas- sius M. Clay. James G. Birney, and Robert J. Breckinridge.
Before Kentucky became a state, a political
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club was formed at Danville, then, as now, a cultured community. This club numbered twenty-nine of the most prominent men of that day in the district. The club debated all the important questions then before the coun- try. At a meeting held prior to the adoption by the states of the constitution of the United States, which was then before them for ratifi- cation or rejection, the club resolved that the clause of the proposed constitution which pro- vided that congress should pass no act pro- hibiting the importation of slaves prior to 1808, should be expunged. The club was agreed that congress should deal with the odious business at any time and as soon as it saw fit to do so.
The first constitution of the state distinctly showed a prejudice against the commerce in slaves. It ordained that they should not be brought into the state as merchandise and none were to be brought in that were imported into America subsequent to 1789. It was also recommended that the legislature should enact laws (which it did) permitting the emancipa- tion of slaves under the limitation that they should not become a charge upon the county in which they lived. Thus at the very begin- ning of the state the difficulties of the slavery problem were already vexing the minds of Kentuckians, busy as they were with their im- mediate and pressing needs. Rev. Daniel Rice, an eminent Presbyterian minister, was a member of this constitutional convention and advocated a resolution for the gradual ex- tinction of slavery. This resolution was not adopted but it had warm sympathy and sup- port.
In 1798, the general assembly passed an act in which good treatment was enjoined upon the master, and all contracts between master and slave were positively forbidden. The execution of this law was within the jurisdic- tion of the county courts which were directed to admonish the master for any ill-treatment of his slave. If persisted in, the court had
the option and the power to declare free the abused slave. Moderate chastisement, as in the punishment of children, was not con- sidered ill-treatment. Under this same law white men could be sold into temporary slav- ery for vagrancy, or for being without visible means of support and making no effort to bet- ter their condition. The whites thus sold were placed upon the same footing as the colored slave, but the purchase of a white vagrant by a colored person or an Indian was expressly forbidden.
As early as 1799, Henry Clay was an avowed advocate of the emancipation of slaves and the abolishment of the institution of slav- ery. There were many people then in the state who were averse to slavery from scru- ples of conscience, and from the conviction that it would prove a great social and political evil to the country.
In 1804, a formidable movement against slavery was begun under the leadership of six prominent Baptist ministers: David Barrow, Carter Tarrent, John Sutton, Donald Holmes, Jacob Gregg and George Smith, together with several other ministers of less importance and a considerable number of Baptist laymen, the Baptist church at that time being the most influential church organization in the state. There was no mistaking the purpose of these men. None of the Abolitionists of later days were more outspoken or stronger of speech. They openly declared for the abolition of slav- ery, alleging that no church fellowship should be had with slave-holders, as in principle and practice slavery was a sinful and abominable system fraught with peculiar evils and mis- eries which every good man should condemn. These earnest men are known in the records of that tine as "Emancipators" but they called themselves "Friends of Humanity." The Bap- tist Associations of the state adopted resolu- tions declaring it improper for ministers, churches or religious associations to meddle with the question of the emancipation of
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
slaves or with any other political questions. The "Emancipators" thereupon withdrew from the General Baptist Union, and in 1807 formed an association of their own called "The Baptist Licking-Locust Association of the Friends of Humanity" but despite this for- midable title and the objects of their associa- tion, they accomplished nothing and soon ceased to be heard of. But they had marked the beginning of the outspoken opposition to slavery which had a slow but sure growth in the following years. At this time, slavery had become an interest and a sentiment in Kentucky too deep-rooted and entwined in every branch and fiber of the commonwealth to be dissevered and torn away by any means less than the horrors of the war that was to come to divide and distract Kentucky and send her valiant sons forth to meet each other in deadly strife upon the field of battle.
Agitation of the slavery question was little heard of after the failure of the "Friends of Humanity" to reach any practical results, un- til 1833, when, on March 23d of that year, the Kentucky Colonization Society sent from Louisville to Liberia, Africa, 102 manumitted slaves from the counties of Logan, Adair, Bourbon, Fayette, and Mercer, paying $2,300 for their passage in the brig "Ajax" from New Orleans. This same year the general assembly prohibited the importation of slaves into the state, except when brought by bona fide emigrants, or where they were inherited by actual residents of the state.
In 1836, Rev. John C. Young, a distin- guished Presbyterian minister, in a pamphlet of sixty-four pages, made a strong argument for gradual emancipation. In this year, also, the Kentucky Annual Conference of the Meth- odist Episcopal church unanimously resolved against any interference with the subject of emancipation but at the same time, com- mended the rectitude, policy and operations of the American Colonization Society.
July 31, 1837, "the Abolition press" of
James G. Birney, was "carefully destroyed" as the chronicles of that period stated, at New Richmond, Ohio, on the north side of the Ohio river be it noted. James G. Birney was a na- tive of Kentucky, who was born at Danville in 1792, and who had the distinction of being the first candidate for the presidency of the United States on an anti-slavery ticket. In 1833, he aided in the formation of the Ameri- can Colonization Society, of which he was chosen president, he being at the same time a professor in the faculty of Center College at Danville, Ky. Birney's views were at first conservative, then progressive, and rapidly changed to anti-slavery of the most demon- strative kind. In 1834, in a letter addressed to the public, he advocated immediate emancipa- tion, at the same time illustrating his consist- ency by setting free his own slaves. He then removed to Cincinnati where he established The Philanthropist, a paper of a type which prudence prohibited him from publishing in Kentucky. So far in advance of the thought of the day, even in the free state of Ohio, was the Philanthropist, that, as has been stated, Birney's press was thrown into the river, but nothing daunted, with the courage of his con- victions, he revived the publication of his paper in connection with a Dr. Bailey who shared his views on the slavery question. Birney was first nominated for the presidency in 1840 by the Liberty, or Abolition, party, and a second time in 1844 by the same party. It is claimed by students of political history that at the election he drew from the Whig party enough votes to lose the state of New York to Mr. Clay, thereby causing the election of Mr. Polk to the presidency. Birney was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness," preaching a doctrine destined to lead to a dreadful war and to the signing, years after- wards, by another Kentuckian, of a proclama- tion of emancipation. Did he dream, as he saw his press and type sink beneath the waves of the Ohio in 1837 and the hopes of Mr. Clay
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