USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 41
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sought to settle peaceably, were being tried out at the cannon's mouth. Mr. Clay lived and died as a statesman rather than a politi- cian, and Kentucky owes no greater debt to Virginia than that which she assumed when Henry Clay left the Old Dominion to make his home in Kentucky and make illustrious the name of that new state, wherever states- manship and oratory are known and honored. Mr. Clay did not need the presidency to make
an independent sovereignty. General Jack- son, who had but recently defeated Mr. Clay for the presidency, announced that "By the Eternal, the Union must and shall be pre- served," and served notice upon South Caro- lina as to what would happen to it, should it oppose the execution of the federal laws. He issued a proclamation which closed as follows :
"Fellow citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish you, as the first magistrate of our
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his name illustrious and honored among men.
It was not alone in 1861, that South Caro- lina set herself in opposition to the federal government, and refused to obey its laws. In 1832, in convention assembled, the people of that state declared unconstitutional, null and void, certain acts of congress levying duties on certain foreign importations within that state, further declaring that if the federal government showed attempt to use coercive power in the collection of such duties, she would withdraw from the Union and become
common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. You are free members of a flourishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to oppress you. You have, indeed, felt the unequal operation of laws which may have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally, passed; but that inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in pub- lic opinion has commenced. I adjure you, as you value the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your state the dis-
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organizing edict of its convention; bid its members to reassemble and promulgate the decided expres- sions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor. Tell them that compared to disunion all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you, and that you will not be stigmatized, when dead and dishonored, and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack upon the con- stitution of your country. Its destroyer you cannot be. You may disturb the peace; you may interrupt the course of its prosperity ; you may cloud its rep- utation for stability; but its tranquillity will be re- stored; its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred and remain an eternal blot upon the memory of those who caused the disorder."
One who, like the historian of today, must delve into ancient documents, must be im- pressed with the flambuoyant style of the writers of official communications three gen- erations ago, as compared with those of to- day. The style of sixty or seventy years ago was, in large part, that of the soldier who sought to arouse the martial spirit of the peo- ple by the use of high-sounding phrases. Those who recall the military documents of the War Between the States, can remember the addresses that were issued to secure en- listments and the tremendous terms in which they were couched. One could well imagine the authors marching into "the imminent deadly breach" to lay their lives upon the altar of their country, and it was amusing later to learn that some of them did not go to the war at all, because those whom they sought to en- tice either refused to offer themselves as food for "villainous gunpowder," or objected to having as officers those in whom they had no confidence.
South Carolina, conscious, perhaps, that if the state withdrew from the Union, it would be followed by other states whose men would do the major part of the fighting, paid no at- tention to the proclamation by President Jack- son ; still paid no heed to the authority of
the general government, and proceeded to the organization of troops in defiance of the gov- ernment.
The president sent a message to congress informing that body of the condition of af- fairs in South Carolina. Mr. Clay, not that he cared for Andrew Jackson (for he did not), saw the "American system" which is now known as the protective system, in dan- ger, and introduced a bill in the senate to meet the danger. He proposed in this meas- ure, an annual reduction of duties for several years, until the tariff reached a revenue basis. It is a singular fact that those who denounce the protective tariff as robbery and declare for a "tariff for revenue only" have never re- inforced their arguments by selections from the speeches of Mr. Clay, the father of the protective system. The vehemence of those who attack the system is so great as to lead to the belief that the opponents of that system have never read a tariff enactment. One of the most eloquent of the advocates of a "tariff for revenue only" declares for "wiping out the schedules" profoundly ignorant of the fact that the schedules are merely conveniences of administration and, of themselves, put no duty upon any article imported.
Mr. Clay, for the reason that he feared the attacks upon the American system, intro- duced in the senate, the measure referred to, and in his speech in its favor said: "I be- lieve the American system to be in great dan- ger, and I believe it can be placed on a better and safer foundation at this session than the next. I heard with surprise my friend from Massachusetts say that nothing had occurred within the last six months to increase its haz- ard. I entreat him to review that opinion. Is it correct ? Is the issue of numerous elec- tions, including that of the highest officer of the government, nothing? Is the explicit rec- ommendation of that officer, in his message at the opening of the session, sustained, as he is, by a recent triumphant election, nothing? Is
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his declaration in his proclamation, that the burdens of the south ought to be relieved, nothing? Is the introduction of the bill in the house of representatives during this ses- sion sanctioned by the head of the treasury and the administration, prostrating the greater part of the manufactures of the country noth-
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ing ? Are the increasing discontents noth- ing? Is the tendency of recent events to unite the whole south nothing? Let us not deceive ourselves. Now is the time to adjust the question in a manner satisfactory to both par- ties. Put it off until the next session and the alternative may and probably then would be a speedy and ruinous reduction of the tariff, or a civil war with the entire south."
When the house was preparing for an ad-
journment for the session, Mr. Letcher, of Kentucky, moved to strike out of the bill then pending before that body, all but the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof, the senate bill offered in that body by Mr. Clay and there adopted. The motion was adopted and the bill, as amended, sent, at once to the senate, in which body it was concurred in and sent to the president who gave it his immediate approval. The senators from South Carolina voted for the measure and were rewarded by the approval of the people of their state.
Thus Mr. Clay, by his compromise meas- ure, had calmed the storm of nullification in South Carolina and brought peace where war was feared. Happy would it have been for our country, when South Carolina, a second time, threatened its peace, had the compromise measures of that other great Kentuckian, Mr. Crittenden, met the approval of the congress and of the people. The red deluge of war which swept over the country with all its hor- rors of death and devastation would then have been averted, as they were in 1832 when Mr. Clay had the support of the congress for his measure. Peace came after the adoption of the Clay Compromise, but it was the calm before the storm. The irrepressible conflict was not many years in the future, but, happily for Mr. Clay, he had gone to his reward before the storin burst upon the country.
A historian of that period has so beauti- fully summed up the character and services of Mr. Clay in his public life, that one can do no better than to copy it here: "Of the meas- ures advocated by Mr. Clay during his active career in congress, were the incorporation of a United States bank; the principle of a pro- tective tariff, applied until the manufacturing interests of the country could be nursed to compete with those of Europe; the aid of the government to internal improvements of a national character ; the disposition of the pub- lic lands of the United States, and others of lesser note. On the 3Ist of March, 1842, the
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Nestor of American politics executed his long cherished wish to retire from public life, and to spend the remainder of his days in the tran- quil shades of Ashland. Tendering his resig- nation in the senate, the scenes of parting were thrilling and affecting beyond description. Had the guardian genius of congress and the nation been about to depart, deeper sensa- tions of sadness and regret could not have been manifested than when Mr. Clay arose, for the last time, as every mind was im- pressed, to address his compeers. All felt that the master spirit was bidding them adieu, per- haps forever, and were grieved that the pride and ornament of the senate, and the glory of the nation was being removed, creating a void that would never again be filled.
"Failing as he did in the contest of 1844, he gave up all hopes of the presidency, and resigned himself to the retirement he had cho- sen. In 1847 he publicly avowed his faith in the Christian religion and united with the Protestant Episcopal church at Lexington that he might dwell in communion with his God and Heaven. From the privacy and repose the venerable sage and chieftain had sought, the ominous mutterings of the storm-cloud of the slavery issue, threatening already to sever the Union and to drench the land with fratri- cidal blood, the popular voice of alarm called him rudely forth to perform the last acts in the drama of a wondrous life, upon the great theater of politics where he had so long been the greatest of the nation's great. The emer- gency was one which respected not persons nor conditions, and the decree went forth that the laureled chieftain must against clothe himself with the armor of battle, bear it forth through the struggle and die with it on. Bearing upon his shoulders the burden of years, he bowed submissive obedience to the stern demand, did his duty faithfully and heroically and then died, as he had lived, in the service of his country and of humanity."
In 1848 Mr. Clay found himself again a
member of the senate, from which body he had, as he then supposed, retired forever in 1842. He took his seat in that august body, but was never again the potent influence that he had formerly been; not from any failure of his splendid mental powers, but from the physical debility consequent upon his advanc- ing years. His voice, now as always before, was for peace, and he sought by all proper means to avert the dangers that threatened the country, but without avail. On July 29, 1852, this greatest of Kentucky's statesmen laid down the burden of life in Washington, where he had fought so long and so well for the pros- perity and peace of his country.
Lazarus W. Powell was the Democratic governor of Kentucky at the time of Mr. Clay's death, and the legislature not being in session, he appointed David Meriwether, of Jefferson county, to succeed him in the senate. Mr. Meriwether, at the time of his appoint- ment, was secretary of state in Kentucky, had served in the legislature many times and had been speaker of the house. He served in the senate until the next succeeding session of the legislature, when the Hon. Archibald Dixon, of Henderson. was chosen to succeed him. Subsequently, Mr. Meriwether was appointed governor of the territory of New Mexico, at the conclusion of the term of which office he returned to his farm near Louisville and subsequently was elected to the legislature, term after term, until advancing years forced him to retire from public life.
In 1856, Kentucky cast its popular vote for the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president, Buchanan and Breckinridge receiving 69,509 votes; Fillmore and Donel- son, 63,391 votes, and Jolin C. Fremont and William L. Dayton, the first presidential ticket presented by the Republican party, 314 votes. Fillmore had received the vote of the Know Nothing party and those who had remained faithful to the old Whig organization, but the falling off in this vote told all too plainly that
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not only the old party but the new Know Nothing party was doomed to destruction.
The small vote cast for Fremont was but a poor indication of the political changes that forty years were to bring. In 1896 Kentucky cast all but one of her electoral votes for Will- iam McKinley, the Republican candidate for president, and since the war has thrice elected the Republican candidate for governor. Of course the votes of the colored men, en- franchised since the war, played an important part in these elections, but it is not to be de- nied that the white Republican vote in Ken- tucky is a factor to be considered by all aspir- ing politicians. The congressional district of the state in which the heaviest republican vote is cast, the Eleventh, is inhabited almost en- tirely by white voters, there being compara- tively few negroes in the mountains.
The majority for the Democratic candi- dates on the presidential ticket in Kentucky in 1856 had been 6,118. In 1857, in the guber- natorial contest, James H. Garrard, Demo- cratic candidate, had a majority of 12,114 votes over the candidate opposing him on the American or Know Nothing ticket. In the congressional delegation chosen at this elec- tion there were eight Democrats and two members of the American party.
In 1858 Lazarus W. Powell, a former Dem- ocratic governor, was elected to the United States senate ; a judge of the court of appeals and the clerk of the tribunal; both Democrats, being chosen at the August election in that year.
The Mormons in Utah, having displayed a rebellious attitude towards the United States, the government determined to send a military expedition to that territory to teach these re- fractory people a much-needed lesson. In ad- dition to a force of regular troops, under com- mand of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston of the regular army, a Kentuckian by birth and training, it was determined to send a column of volunteers, the quota of Kentucky being
fixed at one regiment. The governor issued his call for volunteers, to which twenty-one companies promptly responded. Of course all of these men could not be accepted, as there were enough for two full regiments, while but one had been called for. The governor was forced to select those who should be ac- cepted, which he did, the companies chosen being from widely separated sections of the state. These men, however, saw no active service, as a Peace Commission, composed of Senator Lazarus W. Powell, of Kentucky, and Benjamin Mccullough, of Texas, had so adjusted the differences with the Mormons as to obviate the use of troops and the volun- teers were mustered out of the service.
These young Kentuckians, thirsting for mil- itary glory, had but a little time to wait when their opportunity came in a larger form than most of them ever dreamed of in their most martial moments. Ben Mccullough, one of the two commissioners to arrange terms with the Mormons, later became a brigadier gen- eral in the Confederate army, falling at the head of his command, early in the great strug- gle between the states.
In 1859 the Whig party in Kentucky made its last great struggle for power and was thereafter heard of no more. Its candidate for governor was Joshua F. Bell of Boyle, a man of winning personality and perhaps the most pleasing orator in the state; and oratory counted for much more then than now. To- day Kentucky has no orators of the old school. It has a few men, some of them in congress, who on the hustings emit "sound and fury sig- nifying nothing" and who, for argument, sub- stitute abuse of their opponents, thus tickling the ears of the groundlings, imagining them- selves legitimate successors of the Kentucky intellectual giants of our earlier and better days. Joshua F. Bell was an orator, and it is remembered to this late day that his friends and political followers were fond of referring to him as "the silver-tongued." The Demo-
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crats nominated as his opponent, Beriah Ma- the party in power for all panics occurring goffin, of Mercer, a neighboring county to Boyle, in which Mr. Bell lived. Mr. Ma- goffin was not an orator, but as a steady, all- day-long talker, there was 110 man his supe- rior in the state. He was a man of ability and, as subsequent events were soon to prove, a man of strong will and steady nerve.
The Democratic party was above suspicion on the question of slavery; every one knew where it stood; there was a doubt as to the Whig party, or the remnant of what still was known by that name. The few remaining "Old Line Whigs," as these very respectable gentlemen were pleased to call themselves, and the voters who still clung to the Know Nothing party, were warm in support of Mr. Bell. The campaign was a spirited one ; party feeling ran high and the followers of each ticket exerted themselves to the utmost in be- half of their favorites. The Democratic ticket was successful by a majority of about nine thousand.
There are yet living men who recall the panic of 1857. There had been a long period of prosperity, money was plentiful and specu- lation was rife. Men who had what were called fortunes at that time, sought to increase those fortunes not by extending the legitimate business in which they were engaged, but by the more devious paths of speculation. Those of smaller means, naturally anxious to see them increased, emulated the example of the first-mentioned men, and the natural result followed in a financial crash. It is an anomal- ous condition of affairs that a surplus of money is a disadvantage to the country in which it is held. With long continued years of prosperity ; a plenitude of money which may be had from the banks for the asking, conservative men become radicals and, forget- ful of past caution, plunge into the pool of speculation. The smaller fish follow the larger and the panic follows both. It is the habit of the opposition political party to blame
during the latter's tenure of office, though pol- itics, as a rule, has no more to do with panics than it has with the summer solstice or equi- noctial storms. The people themselves are to blame for being led into speculative schemes which promise fortunes while you wait, but are never sufficiently explicit as to how long you have to wait. Thus it was that the peo- ple of Kentucky, as well as those of other states, brought upon themselves in 1857, a financial burden almost too heavy to be borne. Old and reliable business houses fell with a crash, and from the ruins of their fortunes many were never rescued; the newly formed banks in Kentucky met the common fate and were heard from no more. The older and more substantial banks withstood the strain "by the skin of their teeth" and happily emerged into the clearer financial day which afterward came, without a disastrous impair- ment of their capital. They had called in half of their paper while the storm was raging and when it had passed and the sun of legitimate prosperity was again shining, they found themselves at the head of the little financial world bounded by the Ohio valley. They had met every obligation in the day of stress and storm and had justly won the confidence of the people. Not for a moment had they sus- pended the payment of specie when demanded, even during the most distressing period of the panic. When this disturbance had passed into history, the business of these sturdy financial institutions, founded on the rock of confi- dence, was so extended as to require an in- crease of their circulation to the extent of five million dollars in the succeeding year.
Shaler in "The Commonwealth of Ken- tttcky," says of this period: "As we must shortly pass to the consideration of the events that immediately preceded the Civil war, which made a new era in Kentucky history, it will be well to make a brief survey of the political and social conditions of the common-
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wealth in the decade of 1850-60. So far, the life of Kentucky had been an indigenous growth, a development from its own condi- tions, singularly uninfluenced by any external forces. With only the germs of a society sown on this ground, there had sprung into existence a powerful commonwealth, that now, at the end of eighty years of time, felt strong enough to stand alone in the struggles that were soon to rage about her. No other
As before recounted, the original settlement and the subsequent increase of the Kentucky population were almost entirely drawn from the Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland colonies; at least ninety-five per cent of the population was from these districts. Probably more than half of this blood was of Scotch and North-English extraction-practically the whole of it was of British stock. The larger part of it was from the frontier region of
OLDEST HOUSE IN MIDDLESBOROUGH
state in the Mississippi valley-hardly any of the original southern states-had pursued its course with so little influence from external conditions. There had been relatively little contributions of population from other states, except from Virginia, North Carolina, Penn- sylvania and Maryland, and but a small immi- gration from European countries since 1800. This made an indigenous development not only possible, but necessary. From 1774 to 1860, eighty-five years had elapsed. This period measures the whole of Kentucky history, from the first settlement at Harrodsburg to the be- ginning of the great tragedy of the Civil war.
Virginia, where the people had never had much to do with slavery.
"The total number of these white settlers who entered Kentucky in the first eighty-five years, cannot be determined with any ap- proach to accuracy, but from a careful con- sideration of the imperfect statistics that are available ; it seems reasonable to estimate the whole number of white immigrants at not more than 120,000, while the slave population that was brought into the state probably did not amount to one-third this number. In 1860 the white population amounted to 919,- 484, and the slave population to 225,483; the
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free black population to 10,684. Of the white population of this census, 59.799 were born beyond the limits of the United States. This element of foreign folk was, in the main, a very recent addition to the state. It was mainly due to the sudden, development of manufacturing interests along the Ohio bor- der, principally in the towns of Louisville, Covington and Newport, and to certain set- tlements of agriculturist Germans in the counties forming the northern border of the state. The foreign-born people had not yet become to any degree mingled with the native people, either in the industries or in blood.
"Before we can estimate the fecundity of this population, we must note the fact that from 1820, or thereabouts, down to 1860 and later, there was a great tide of emigration from Kentucky to the states that were set- tled in the other portions of the Mississippi valley. The southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois received a large part of their blood from Kentucky. Missouri was so far a Kentucky settlement that it may be claimed as a child of the commonwealth. Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas also re- ceived a large share of the Kentucky emi- grants. The imperfect nature of the earlier statistics of the United States census makes it impossible to determine with any accuracy, the number of persons of Kentucky blood who were in 1860, residents in other states, but the data given makes it tolerably clear that the total contribution of Kentucky to the white population of the other states amounted in 1860 to at least one million souls. The increase in the black population was probably rather less than that of the white, but there is no data for its computation.
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