USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
It may be of interest to note, in brief, the history of the above named officers. Lieu- tenant Colonel Thomas L. Crittenden, a son of Senator John J. Crittenden, later was a
major general in the regular army of the L'nited States, winning his stars in the War Petween the States, in which great contest his brother, George B. Crittenden, was a ma- jor general in the Confederate army.
Major John C. Breckinridge was afterwards a member of congress from the Ashland dis- trict of Kentucky; vice president of the United States ; senator from Kentucky ; major general in the Confederate army and secretary of war in the cabinet of President Jefferson Davis.
Colonel John S. Williams of the Fourth Kentucky regiment (Cerro Gordo), as has been hitherto stated, became a brigadier gen- eral in the Confederate army, and senator from Kentucky in the United States senate.
Lieutenant Colonel William Preston, of the Fourth regiment, advanced $50,000 for the equipment and forwarding to the front of the First Kentucky Infantry and the First Ken- tucky Cavalry. After the war, he served in congress from the Louisville district; was minister of the United States at the court of Spain, and later, a major general in the Con- federate army. At Shiloh, he held in his arms his dying brother-in-law, General Albert Sidney Johnston, another distinguished Ken- tuckjan.
Major William T. Ward, of the Fourth Kentucky, was later a brigadier general of volunteers in the Federal army, a distin- guished lawyer and an excellent citizen.
This brief recital, which covers only the field officers of the two regiments, indicates the character of the Kentuckians who an- swered their country's call. Among the line officers, and, indeed, among the private sol- diers, there were many who in later years, rose to prominence and, in civil and in mili- tary positions, proved their high character and devotion to the state. Few of the living Ken- tuckians who had enlisted for the war with Mexico, failed to see service a few years later in either the Federal or Confederate army.
CHAPTER XLIV.
TAYLOR, LAST WHIG PRESIDENT-SKETCHI OF ZACHARY TAYLOR-HISTORIC "COMRADES-IN- ARMS"-THE CONSTITUTION OF 1849-LAST OF THE WHIGS-KNOW NOTHING (AMERI- CAN ) PARTY-LOUISVILLE "REIGN OF TERROR"-DOWNFALL OF KNOW NOTHING PARTY.
General Zachary Taylor, a grim old fight- ing man, had won such distinction in the war with Mexico, that the politicians at once turned their eyes towards him. The Whig par- ty, from one cause or another, was waning and sought to recover its wasted strength by ap- pealing to the popular sentiment of the people with a military hero. General Taylor, it was believed by the masses, had been unjustly treated in Mexico when the greater part of his regular army support had been taken from him for the attack on Vera Cruz, leaving him with a mere handful of raw volunteers with which to meet the twenty thousand trained troops of Santa Anna at Buena Vista. Not- withstanding this handicap, he had declined to accept the advice of the War Department and withdraw to Monterey, but had boldly marched to the front, where finding an advan- tageous position, he had sat down and, in effect, invited Santa Anna to call and get ac- quainted. The result has been stated herein. It is known of all men.
General Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready," was the idol of the people of the United States who had then and have now an intense admiration for the man who says but little and does much.
The Whig party, always able but not always victorious, saw its opportunity and when its national convention met June 8, 1848, in Phil- adelphia, it recognized that the psychological inoment for a victory had arrived, and with
a foresight not always seen in national con- ventions, it nominated for president General Zachary Taylor, a Kentuckian, but then a resi- dent of Louisiana, and for vice president, Mil- lard Fillmore, of New York. It is extremely doubtful if General Taylor, at the time of his nomination, owed allegiance to either the Whig or the Democratic party. He was then and for most of his years had been a soldier seeing his duty and doing it, as a true soldier always does, and giving little heed to the petty and pestilent divisions of party politics. He accepted the nomination as he would have accepted an order from the war department to proceed to make war upon any enemy threatening the country.
The nomination of General Taylor was as wormwood and gall to General Scott, who was soldier and politician too, and who went to his honored grave with the feeling that Re- publics are ungrateful. He had rendered soldierly service to his country for all the years of his manhood and the reward to which he deemed himself entitled was the presidency. He had triumphed in Mexico, as had General Taylor, but being superior to the latter in com- mand, his imperious spirit could ill brook the selection of his subordinate for the highest honors in the gift of the people. Later, he was to have tendered him a like nomination, only to see the great honor of the presidency given to another of his subordinates in Mex- ico, a mere brigadier general of volunteers,
271
272
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
while he was a major general in the United States army. One can readily find sympathy for the old veteran while, at the same time, recognizing his unfitness for the presidency.
The Democratic national convention non- inated Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for president, and General William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for vice president. General Butler had been a major general of volunteers in the Mexican war, serving under the command of General Taylor, and had been wounded while gallantly leading his troups at the battle of Monterey. He was a gentleman of much ability and would have honored the high position for which he was nominated, no doubt, in the belief that he could control a certain portion of the vote of those who had served in Mex- ico, and without any especial reference to his fitness for the position. National conven- tions sometimes make strange nominations. For instance, there was Sewell of Maine, named for vice president on the ticket with Mr. Bryan in 1896. All that anyone in the convention seemed to know about Mr. Sewell was that he was a wealthy man and would probably make an interesting contribution to the campaign fund. Politics not only makes strange bedfellows but also strange nomina- tions, but this reflection in no wise refers to the naming of General Wm. O. Butler for the vice presidency in 1848. He was entirely competent, an able man.
It is known to everyone that the Whig ticket was elected and that General Taylor succeeded to the presidency, as the last man ever elected president by that party. In Ken- tucky, the vote for Taylor was 67,486; for Cass, 49,865. General Taylor was inaugu- rated March 4. 1849, and died July 9, 1850, after having served but a few days more than sixteen months, and was, of course, succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
In his history, Smith says: "The father of General Zachary Taylor, one of the most emi-
nent and worthy of the sons of Kentucky, was Colonel Richard Taylor of Virginia, a gallant officer in the Continental army throughout the Revolutionary war (one of ten brothers in the same service). In 1785 he removed with his family to Kentucky and set- tled in Jefferson county, and for years dis- tinguished himself by his services in defense of the border against the Indians. Zachary Taylor was nine months old at the date of this removal. He grew to manhood amid the din of Indian warfare and received such education as the country afforded. In 1808, he was appointed a first lieutenant in the reg- ular army and soon after joined the command of General Wilkinson at New Orleans. In the war with England, in 1812-15, he served with distinguished gallantry and success. His most noted achievement here was the success- ful defense of Fort Harrison against the for- midable investment and assaults of a greatly superior body of Indians, aided by their white allies from Canada. He bore the rank of major at the close of the war. He was pro- moted to the rank of colonel in 1832, and ren- dered most effective service in the Black Hawk war which broke out at that time. Af- terwards, in the war against the Seminole tribes of Florida, which became so noted for its long continuance and the great trouble and expense the Indians gave the government from the Everglade swamps of that country, the leading military operations were under the command of Colonel Taylor. His subsequent achievements in the Mexican war and his elevation to the presidency of the United States left nothing more for human ambi- tion and fame to be sought or desired."
The Black Hawk war in 1832, in which General Taylor rendered soldierly service to his country, possesses a singular interest for Kentucky. Among the Illinois volunteers serving in that war was a lean, lank Kentuck- ian who was captain of a company. Twenty-
273
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
eight years later this modest captain was elected president of the United States and, as Abraham Lincoln took his high place in the history of the world. A younger Kentuckian was in the same war as his comrade, a gradu- ate of West Point and a lieutenant in the reg-
GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR'S MONUMENT, LOUISVILLE
ular army. He married the daughter of Gen- eral Taylor, left the army and was afterwards a colonel of volunteers in the war with Mex- ico; a United States senator from Mississippi, secretary of war in the cabinet of President Pierce, again a United States senator, and when his former comrade, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I-18.
was president of the United States, Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate states. There seems to be no station to which the youth of this great country may not aspire, as the fortunes of these two great Kentuck- ians seem to prove.
The people of Kentucky seeming desirous of a change in their organic law, the Consti- tution of 1799 had apparently outlived its usefulness, while certain of its provisions, ac- ceptable enough at the time of its adoption, were no longer approved by the people. The question of calling a convention being sub- mitted to the popular voice, there were cast in favor of the calling of a constitutional con- vention 101,828 votes as against 39.792 in op- position. In obedience to this popular senti- ment, the general assembly called a conven- tion to meet in Frankfort October 1, 1849, "to change the constitution of the state." The contest for delegates to this convention was a spirited one, especially as regarded the ques- tion of the gradual emancipation of the slaves, or the immediate abolishment of slavery. Those in favor of either of these propositions held meetings throughout the state and re- solved to bring out candidates wherever there was any possibility of their election. As was shown in a previous chapter, any question in- volving the emancipation of the slaves caused excitement to rise to a high pitch and in this campaign there was no lack of feeling. Cas- sius M. Clay, who has been referred to as the chief apostle of emancipation, was a candi- date for delegate to the convention, but was not elected. The general result showed that but few of those favoring emancipation were successful in their candidacy, and whatever the new organic system might be, there was no fear that under its provisions there could ever be any interference with the system of slavery. As a matter of fact, when the new constitution was completed, it was found that its framers, to guard against any interference with slavery, had inserted such provisions as
274
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
made it almost impossible to assemble another convention to revise it, by any other than rev- olutionary procedure. Under the constitution of 1799, the appointment of judges and minor officers was vested in the governor. This system, which had come down from the col- onial governments, was but a following of the system then and now in vogue in the mother country of England. The theory of our Re- publican form of government was that the people should rule and they had begun to look with . disapproval on this concentration of power in the hands of the governor.
This and the slavery question were the most important measures to be considered by the convention. The final result was that the power of making these appointments was taken from the governor and lodged in the people at the polls. This section of the con- stitution was not adopted without much dis- cussion. Many of the well-informed men of that day opposed the idea of an elective judi- ciary and there are not lacking today many equally well-informed persons who would ap- prove a return to the old system of an ap- pointive judiciary. At the period of this writing, an accomplished lawyer has present- ed before the Bar Association of Louisville an argument for the appointment of judges by the governor, such officials to have a life tenure or during good behavior. It is not the purpose of this work to enter into the discus- sion of this question. which is an academic one and not apt to engage the attention of the law- making power of the state at any near-by pe- riod.
When the convention met at Frankfort, James Guthrie of Louisville was chosen for president, over Archibald Dixon of Hender- son. It is a coincidence that each of these distinguished gentlemen subsequently served in the senate of the United States, Mr. Guthrie having also been secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President Pierce.
It has been omitted heretofore to state that
in 1848 John J. Crittenden was elected gov- ernor of Kentucky and John L. Helm, lieu- tenant governor, upon the Whig ticket. It was the habit of the people of Kentucky, at that time, to select the foremost of their cit- izens for the highest official positions within their gift, but in later years they sometimes have preferred to select in their conventions men whom they thought could be elected, re- gardless of their capacity or lack of it for the office for which they were named.
The constitutional convention finally con- cluded its work which received the approval of the people. Smith, in his history of Ken- tucky, not looking far into the future, says of the constitution of 1849: "The result is that the constitution of Kentucky, in its re- lations to a revolutionized condition of soci- ety, of property interests and of civil relations, is one of the most remarkable anomalies of American politics. Constructed in an era of intense pro-slavery sentiment, and mainly with features of protection and perpetuation of the institution, now, after the abolishment of slavery and the restoration of peaceful gov- ernment for nearly a quarter of a century, it stands untouched and unmarred, a grim mon- ument of an eventful past with its living and dead provisions intertwined among the ma- sonry of its articles and sections. When it may be changed, no angury of statesmanship is able to forecast. The people seem indiffer- ent to change and move on in the pursuits and followings of life with contentment as in the era suited to the instrument." This state- ment was made before a new constitution was offered to the people and accepted by then without knowing what its provisions meant. It is a matter for important consideration when a new organic law is submitted to a peo- ple for their acceptance or the rejection, and the acceptance of the present constitution in- evitably tends to the fear that the people are not always as careful as they should be, since they go to the polls without a full knowledge
275
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
of the question upon which they are called to from utter annihilation it aligned itself with a vote. The present constitution, adopted in a popular vote by a large majority, is found to be contrary to the best interests of the state and to have reduced the population as well as to have driven capital from the state.
Under the constitution of 1849, there was held an election for certain state officers, in which James Simpson, Thomas A. Marshall, B. Mills Crenshaw and Elijah Hise were elected judges of the court of appeals, and Philip Swigert, clerk of that body. Circuit judges, commonwealth's attorneys and other minor officers were also chosen at this election for the first time in Kentucky so far as some of officers were. concerned.
Though in the election for delegates to the constitutional convention, the anti-slavery peo- ple had failed to elect any of their candidates, they had not given up the fight. In 1851, they put into the field for governor, Cassius M. Clay, the irrepressible, and George N. Blakey for lieutenant governor. The several candidates received votes as follows: L. W. Powell, 54,613; Archibald Dixon, 53.763; Cassius M. Clay, 3,621 ; for lieutenant govern- or, Robert N. Wickliffe, 47,474; John B. Thompson, 53,599; George N. Blakey, 1,670; R. C. Wintersmith was elected treasurer ; E. A. McCurdy, register of the land office ; Thomas S. Page, auditor ; James Harlan, at- torney general ; Robert J. Breckinridge, super- intendent of public instruction, and David R. Haggard, president of the Board of Internal Improvements, all of these latter named being Whigs, the governor being the only Democrat elected. This was the last real effective vic- tory for the fast decaying Whig party in Ken- tucky. True, they carried the state in 1852 in the presidential election, but this was of no avail as Scott, for whom they voted, was easi- ly defeated by Pierce, the Democratic candi- date for the presidency.
The Whig party was rapidly disintegrating at this time, and with a view to saving itself
sporadic political organization which sprang up about this time, known as the Native American party, which had for its basic prin- ciple opposition to the Catholic church and foreign voters. For a time this new party swept across the country as fires sweep the western plains ; the "Know Nothing" party as it came to be known, bade fair, for a time, to encompass the entire country, taking the place of the moribund Whig party and drawing re- cruits from the Democrats. It was a secret organization, with signs and passwords, and its lodges reached from one side of the coun- try to the other. No man of foreign birth could hope for political advancement where this party was in the majority ; no man who was a member of the Catholic church but was tabooed. There were many Whigs and more Democrats, who refused to subscribe to these proscriptive principles, but for a time, the American or Know Nothing party, seemed to have the ascendancy in Kentucky. Secret meetings were held at night ; passwords were necessary to secure admission to these meet- ings at which oaths of allegiance were admin- istered, and the members pledged to the sup- port of the candidates named by the superior authorities of the organization. At the Au- gust election in 1855 Charles S. Moorehead, the American, or Know Nothing candidate for governor, received 69,816 votes while Beverly L. Clark, the Democratic candidate, received but 65,413 votes. For lieutenant governor, James G. Hardy, Know Nothing candidate, defeated Beriah Magoffin, the Democratic candidate. The Know Nothing ticket was elected in its entirety and a legislature of the same complexion was also chosen. But this victory was but the herald of defeat to follow and the American or Know Nothing party, built upon a false foundation, had but a desul- tory existence and soon passed from view, never again to be heard of save for a short period when certain politicians more inter-
276
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
ested in the loaves and fishes of office than the freedom of the people attempted to bring into prominence an organization known as the American Protective Association, the chief object of which was the securing of offices for its members. Failing in this, it speedily dis- integrated and was heard of no more.
In the election of 1855, the city of Louisville was made the victim of religious proscription. The election held in August, was a scene of bloodshed which has ever since been a re- proach to the city. Houses belonging to for- eign-born citizens were burned; men who did not subscribe to the tenets of the Know Noth- ing party were driven from the polls ; twenty- two persons whose offense was that they were of foreign birth, were killed; many were wounded, and sixteen houses were burned. William Preston, later a distinguished officer of the Confederate army, risked his life many times on this awful day, in his efforts to pro- tect the people whose only offense was that they had been born under a foreign flag. It is difficult at this day of peace and quietude to realize that in Louisville in 1855. there was a Reign of Terror and that there is a "Bloodly Monday" to stain our records. And all for politics. It is not probable that those who brought this disgrace upon the city were men who, under any circumstances, could have profited by the success of the one party of the other ; men who would never have been chosen by the successful candidates for any subordinate positions under them. Years afterwards in 1905, when an election was
stolen in Louisville, it was done by men of the same class who, having no characters to lose, were careless as to the methods they employed to win a victory for the party to which they claimed to belong and about the principles of which they knew nothing and cared less.
The Know Nothing party had no basis but that of opposition to the Catholic church and the foreign born element. For the theory of the government, they cared nothing and knew less. What its members wanted above all else, was the offices and their emoluments. Of course, it was ephemeral. In Virginia, where, as in Kentucky, the new party had se- cured strong foothold, Henry A. Wise con- ducted a strenuous campaign against it, as a candidate for governor, the result being a complete defeat of the new party, its down- fall following soon afterwards, never again to Le heard of. The Whig party, which had, in large part, been assimilated by the American party, at the same time passed out of exist- ence, some of its members adhering to the Democratic party, it must be said, under pro- test, while in the north, they went over to the then newly-formed Republican party. In Ken- tucky, many of the late Whig party still claimed allegiance to that moribund organiza- tion which, having no ticket in the field at subsequent elections, left them no choice other than to remain silent at elections or else vote the Democratic ticket, which many of them did-even at so late a period as that follow- ing the war of 1861-5. when they still claimed not to be Democrats.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE GREATNESS OF CLAY-JACKSON AND SOUTH CAROLINA-CLAY, PROTECTOR OF AMERICAN SYSTEM-AVERTS CIVIL WAR-CLAY'S SUPPOSED RETIREMENT-RETURNS TO THE SENATE; DEATH-MERIWETHER, CLAY'S SUCCESSOR-ELECTIONS OF 1856-8 MILITARY DEMON- STRATION AGAINST MORMONS-KENTUCKY WHIG'S LAST STRUGGLE-PANIC OF 1857- KENTUCKY IN 1850-60 EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS' INCREASE-MOST FECUND PEOPLE OF HIS- TORY-INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL ADVANCEMENT.
On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay, then a sen- ator of Kentucky, died in the city of Washing- ton, a disappointed man. He had fixed his eyes upon the presidency, as his great powers, mental and political, had justified him in do- ing. He had seen the nomination of his party go to General Taylor when he had a right to expect it for himself. He had seen the non- ination he had won in 1844 turn to ashes on his lips, because of an ill-advised letter he had written regarding the admission of Texas to the Union. With a great heart and a great brain, he had rightly deemed himself fitted for the presidency and had more than once seen that great honor pass from him to be be- stowed upon others. A son of the soil, he was by virtue of his great intellect, a patri- cian, and it broke his spirit to see men his in- tellectual inferiors, pass him in the contest for the great honor on which his heart was set. It matters little to him now that Web- ster, Calhoun, Blaine and others of less de- gree, who, like him, hungered for the presi- dency, went to their graves with that hunger unappeased. He was a great man and the republic does not, as a rule, make presidents of its greatest men. Perhaps upon the shores of the Great Beyond, where Clay rests now, he has learned this lesson and is content.
His remains were brought to the home
which he had made illustrious and interred in the cemetery at Lexington in the presence of sorrowing thousands, many of them being men who had bitterly opposed him while liv- ing, but came to do him honor now that he was dead.
Clay's was an imperious mind, brooking op- position with but little of the spirit of com- promise, but as the shadows of the end came upon him, he put much of this feeling behind him and was the statesman, pure and simple, acting alone for the peace, the glory and the grandeur of his country, regardless of polit- ical differences. He was great enough to do this ; great enough to ignore the criticisms of those who had followed him, but were not equal to understanding his movements when he put behind him his party and exalted his country beyond all else. He looked with prophetic eye to the future and saw, with un- erring foresight, the dread specter of war be- tween the sections, north and south. He of- fered compromise measures to avert the divis- ion of the Union which he foresaw, and through these measures, for a time, the coun- try was tranquil. Perhaps the mighty spirit of the Great Commoner is happier today in that other sphere because he passed away be- fore that day when compromises were no longer recognized and the questions he had
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.