USA > Kentucky > Henderson County > History of Henderson County, Kentucky > Part 57
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when reference is made to the bond that exists between parent and child. He was the pride of the latter, admired and looked up to as some- thing to be made much of and copied after. There was no wayward- ness in their feelings toward their idol, because there was no blot upon his escutcheon. He was listened to and his advice followed, because of their respect for his character and their confidence in his judgment. Who can measure the restraining influence of such a mind over the weaknesses and latent propensities to evil of less steadfast associates ? His young companions learned to respect virtue, principle, assiduity and goodness, because of all these their friend was ever the consistent exponent.
Early in August of the year 1833, only a few days after his gradua- tion, Mr. Powell entered the law office of the Hon. John Rowan, of Bardstown, Kentucky, for the purpose of resuming his legal studies, which had been interrupted by his college course. The studious habits, which so remarkably distinguished him while passing through college, equally characterized him in his new position. He brought all the powers of his mind to bear upon the acquirement, within the least possible period of time, of that sum of knowledge of his profession which would enable him to look forward to an honorable career in life. He was happy in having for his legal preceptor one of the master minds of his day and the country. Judge Rowan was not only a well read lawyer, but he was also a profound scholar and a man of the rarest natural intelligence. His diction was always elegant, and he spoke without seeming effort.
Mr. Powell remained in the office of Judge Rowan until in the winter of 1834, '35, when he repaired to Lexington with the view of attending a course of law lectures at Transylvania University. Not only was Powell assiduous in study during his stay in Lexington, and prompt in his attendance at the University lectures, but he let no occasion pass in which it was possible for him to acquire a knowledge of the practical part of his profession by making himself familiar with the proceedings of the Courts of Law when these happened to be in session. The bar of Lexington had one advantage over that of Bardstown-the number of its prominent members was much greater. Among the resident practicing attorneys then in Lexington could be named such men as the Hon. Henry Clay, the Hon. Robert Wickliffe, Judge Thomas M. Hickey, A. K. Woolley, Esq., Charlton Hunt, Esq., James Cowan, Esq., and Madison C. Johnson, Esq., the latter being then a young man, but giving promise of the high reputation in his profession which he has since acquired.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
The law session at Transylvania over, Mr. Powell returned to Henderson in the spring of 1835, where he opened a law office and sought for business in the line of his profession. His success equalled his expectations from the first, but a few months later, having formed a partnership with the leading practitioner at the Henderson bar, Archibald Dixon, Esq., he was at once placed on the high road to that eminence as a lawyer which he afterwards attained, as well as to the substantial remunerative benefits of an extended practice. His business connection with Mr. Dixon continued till the year 1839.
Governor Powell's reputation as a lawyer was not built upon any peculiar talent possessed by him for forensic display. In his addresses, to be sure, whether to the court or to the jury, he was always forcible and sometimes eloquent. But he depended more for his legal triumphs upon the careful analysis of his cases. It was his invariable custom to come into court fully prepared to meet the objections of the opposing counsel with his authoritities before him, whether as to the law bearing upon the case or to previous judicial decisions. Owing to this custom, he was always a formidable antag- onist in the courts in which he practiced. What he lacked in readi- ness of suggestion, had its full compensation in the preliminary care in which he never failed to bestow upon each particular cause as it came into his hands. His wonderful success in his profession is more to be attributed to this fact than to any other.
On the eighth day of November, 1837, Lazarus W. Powell was united in marriage to Miss Harriett Ann Jennings, the orphan daughter of Captain Charles Jennings, deceased, who had been an esteemed and prosperous citizen of Henderson County. During her life, Mrs. Powell bore to her husband three sons, two of whom are still living. The death of Mrs. Powell took place on the thirtieth day of July, 1846, and, to use the expression of one of the late Governor's eulogists, "for her sake he ever afterwards devoted to the children she had left to his care, all the wealth of his manly and magnanimous heart."
When not occupied by official duties, during the progress of the civil war, Governor Powell spent most of his time at his home in Henderson and in overlooking the farming operations upon his plantations in the county. This was for him, as it was for thousands of others in the State, a period of great anxiety-suspected by the government military officials, who had, for the greater portion of the time, complete control in the river towns, on account of his well known antipathy to the bloody method that had been adopted to
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preserve the integrity of the Union ; saddened at the sight of the utter ruin which the war had brought upon many of his neighbors, and which was threatening others; disgusted with the cruelties of the vengeful military despots who were then ruling Kentucky, and whose so-called retaliatory measures were continually involving the lives and liberties of innocent men ; indignant at the shameful venality of some among these same despots and their pliant subordinates, and at their contemptuous disregard of even the forms of State laws in taking upon themselves all control over the elective franchise. Governor Powell, no doubt, felt these years of the war to be the saddest of his life.
Always circumspect in his conduct and for one of his known views, in a certain degree trusted in by the authorities at Washington, he was enabled to serve many who had become involved in the troubles of the times, not only in his own section, but throughout the South, and never was his influence asked for in vain by a worthy object. His means, too, were dispensed with a lavish hand to those who found them- selves reduced to poverty by the military raids which were of common occurrence in his own and the neighboring counties of Southern Ken- tucky. Whether the sufferer happened to be attached to one cause or the other, it was all the same with him. Human misery was a plea that never failed to awaken in him active sympathy, and with this plea he never permitted consideration of party affinity nor even of policy to interfere.
When the war finally closed, Governor Powell entered upon the practice of his profession with more energy than had ever before dis- tinguished him, save during the first years of his professional career. This was most probably done with the view of introducing his eldest son Col. J. Henry Powell, who had then become associated with him in the practice of the law, into the routine of his profession. Up to the time of his mission to Utah, in 1858, he had been a great sufferer from a rheumatic affection, and though he had since been apparently entirely relieved from the disorder, his nervous system, in conse- quence of its ravages, as he thought himself, had remained afterwards in an exceedingly delicate condition. Seeing him immersed in busi- ness, and to all appearance as anxious in its prosecution as he had been when starting out in life thirty years before, there were those among his friends who doubted if his physical strength was equal to the labor he was imposing on himself. On Wednesday of the last week in June, 1867, he appeared for the last time in the streets of Henderson a living man.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
After a day of some fatigue, induced possibly more from the shattered condition of his nerves than from any great amount of phy sical or mental labor, he returned to his house and immediately re- tired to his room. Nothing was thought of this circumstance until the following morning when he was found to be seriously ill. The family physician, Dr. Pinkney Thompson, was at once called in. The report made by this gentleman was sufficiently alarming, but neither did he nor the members of the Govornor's family at first apprehend a fatal termination of his sickness. It was at first supposed that his disease was a slight attack of congestion of the brain. A subsequent examina- tion proved that a blood vessel at the base of the brain had become ruptured and that this had induced apoplexy, followed by a partial paralysis of the right side, and eventually of the whole body. During Thursday and Friday he was enabled to distinguish his friends as they approached his bedside. His physician called to his assistance Dr. John T. Berry, of Henderson, and Dr. M. J. Bray, of Evansville, Ind. Their consultation took place on Saturday, and the result was a sorrowful acknowledgement that the case was hopeless.
When this opinion was made known among the Governor's neigh- bors and fellow citizens, the effect was as if an impending calamity were threatening their own hearth-stones. Business appeared to be forgotten, and men and women gathered together in knots, broodłng sadly and speaking in whispers of the one absorbing topic which filled their thoughts. In the meanwhile the Governor lay in a comatose state, from which it was difficult to arouse him at intervals, in order to administer such alleviatives as had been prescribed by his physi- cians. On Sunday, the last day of the month, his friend and neigh- bor, Grant Green Esq., made a persistent attempt to arouse him from the stupor by which he was overcome and with such success, that faint hopes were induced of his ultimate recovery. On the following morn- ing, however, he again relapsed into unconsciousness and thus con- tinued till death intervened about 3 o'clock in the evening of July 3d., 1867. Greater sympathy was never manifested by a community for one of its number when stricken, ill and dying, nor were ever sincerer tears shed than when it was announced among his friends and neigh- bors that his "spirit had gone to the God who gave it."
The funeral took place on Thursday, the fourth day of July, 1867. Among the pall-bearers were the Hon. Archibald Dixon, the Hon. John Law, of Indiana; Grant Green, Esq., and W. S. Holloway, Esq.
· The body was borne to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of which his brother-in-law, the Rev. D. H. Deacon, was Rector. Every business
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house and office in the town was closed and almost all were draped in emblems of mourning. The Rev. Rector of the church was too much overcome to trust himself to speak on the occasion, and his place in the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. Jahleel Woodbridge, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, of Henderson. The text of the discourse preached by the reverend gentleman, was taken from the 46th. Chap- ter of Psalms: "Be still and know that I am God." On the announce- ment of the text, a solemn silence seemed to wrap the entire auditory, and this till the close of the discourse, was only broken at intervals by the stifled sobs and smothered sighs of stricken hearts, as the elo- quent divine glowingly pictured the exalted character of him whose cold remains lay coffined before them.
The Masonic body of Henderson, although Governor Powell had . never belonged to the order, formed in procession and accompanied his remains to the grave. The procession of citizens on the occasion was the largest ever seen in Henderson. In it walked the rich and the poor, women and men, and even little children. One division of the mourners deserves to be specially noticed. This was composed of the newly-created freedmen, his own former slaves and those of his neighbors who had known him, many of them all their lives. They had come, some of them from points ten and fifteen miles distant, trudging on foot in order to pay their tribute of respect and gratitude over the grave of one who had never ceased to be their best friend and counselor. No more genuine sorrow was exhibited on that mourn- ful day than was evinced by the blacks of whom he had once been the master, and who up to the day of his death had been in the habit of addressing him by that title.
During the latter years of his life, the Governor seldom spent his evenings away from his own home. When he had no visitors he was in the habit of retiring to his room for study, or in order to prepare the causes in which he had been retained. When wearied with these occupations, he would repair to the apartments of his daughter-in-law, and there amuse himself with the prattle of his little grand-children. His family mansion was surrounded by ornamental grounds and a large garden. To the embellishment of these grounds, he devoted many of his leisure hours, and found in such employment both health and enjoyment.
One great source of care to Governor Powell, after the Procla- mation of Emancipation of President Lincoln, was a number of help- less blacks, formerly his slaves, who had no one else to look to for support and protection. 'Had the Government, when it deprived him
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of his rights of property in those of his slaves, who were capable of performing manual labor, taken upon itself, at the same time, the support of those who were incompetent to earn their own living, there would have been little hardship in his individual case, as there would have been little in thousands of other cases, still more onerous. He might, to be sure, had he been a brute, and no man, have evicted the aged and infants among his former slaves from his plantations, and have suffered them to die of hunger and exposure on the highway. - Had the war bereft him of all his property, as it did hundreds of slave owners in the South, even his well known humanity could not have stood between these poor creatures and destruction. As it was, he never thought of them otherwise than as dependents on his bounty, whom it was his duty to serve and protect. Up to the day of his death they were fed and clothed at his expense, and they are still cared for at the expense of his heirs. Had the unmistakable tokens of profound sorrow that characterized that portion of the mourners at Governor Powell's funeral, which was composed of his former slaves, been witnessed by those whose fanaticism brought on the late war and all its horrors, they might well have stood in astonishment at a sight so foreign to all their notions of the relations that often ex- isted between master and slave.
Governor Powell, though he never professed any particular form of Christian faith, was unquestionably a firm believer in the truths of Divine Revelation. Many expressions are to be found in his speeches which show that he was familiar with the Bible, and had for that Sacred Book the most profound reverence There was no one in the community in which he lived that was more liberal of his means for objects connected with religion. He appeared to have no preference for one denomination over another, but gave to all with a large-hearted liberality that was at once the evidence of his regard for religion in general, and of his esteem for those whose vocation it was to preach the Gospel. His house was as free to all ministers of religion, without exception as to creed, who happened to be tempo- rarily sojourning in the town, as it was to himself. On one occasion, which has come to our knowledge, he spoke seriously of religion and of his regret that he had not identified himself, in profession, with the followers of Christ. Conversing with a Christian neighbor, he remarked that he had long desired to make himself better acquainted than he was with the peculiar doctrines of the various Christian churches, and that it was his intention to enter upon this study with the view to the profession of that form of faith which should com- mend itself to his more enlightened judgment.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
It is said, by some, that Governor Powell never exhibited any evidence of extraordinary genius. This may be true, though there are abundant reasons to doubt it. The placidity of his mind was such as to foil observers in their attempts to detect the riches con- cealed in its depths. Of the erratic ingenius he was certainly totally void. But even admitting that he gave to the world no extraordinary exhibition of genius, it must be allowed that he gave to it what are ordinarily of much more value-exhibitions of determination in the assertion and defense of principles that were directly conservative of the best interests of society and government -exhibitions of modera- tion and prudence in the performance of duty when called to the dis- charge of high functions in the State, and in the hour of defeat, or of failure, of unshaken confidence in the ultimate triumph of his own and his party's patriotic purposes for the welfare of the nation. He was no coward, and he never mistook present failure for final defeat. In the darkest hours of the Republic he never lost hope, never re- linquished his right to appeal to the reason of those who were permit- ting their passions and their prejudices to sway their judgments and to control their policy. He gave utterance to the convictions of his mind, temperately, yet firmly, and never in language calculated to alienate the respect of his opponents. However they may have doubted, or pretended to doubt, the correctness of his views, they were convinced of his candor, and did homage to his manhood.
Governor Powell well understood what few public men have seemed to learn, that every truly beneficial measure, every wholesome reform in government, is to be secured and permanently retained only through efforts that have for their animus the general good, and not that of a section of the country, or a party among the people. He may have been said to be a partisan, in so far as he had definite no- tions in regard to the structure of the government, and the proper policy to be pursued in order to promote the prosperity of the coun- try and the happiness of the people, but he was no partisan in the general acceptation of the term. He never deferred principle to party, or the good of the masses to party success. Above all, he could, and did, distinguish between the individual and his party pre- dilections and never alienated the respect of the former by bitter de- nunciation of the latter.
Courtesy, whether in speaking to, or about, his political oppo- nents, was a habit of his mind, and this habit, except under the prov- ocation of unmistakable insult, he carried with him through life. A
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distinguished gentleman, occupying a high position at Washington, thus wrote :
" In Washington City, Democrats and Radicals spoke of him as a friend whose loss they deplore. No mag was ever able to hate Powell long. Seve- ral undertook it, but he outlived their resentment, and at the date of his death he probably had not an enemy on earth."
What a noble eulogy is this ! It tells us, by implication, that he had a just perception of what was due to others and what was due to himself. It tells us, also, that he possessed a mind that was capable of rising above those paltry passions, which are with the majority of men so difficult of restraint, in the hearing of false representations of facts and motives of coarse invectives or tantalizing inuendoes coming from one's political or personal foes. It tells us, further, that he pos- sessed a heart that was all alive to those humane amenities that are resistless to propitiate good will and to curb dissension.
HIS PUBLIC LIFE.
In July, 1836, at the earnest solicitation of a number of his po- litical friends, Mr. Powell announced himself as the Democratic can- didate for the office of Representative of the County in the Lower House of the Kentucky Legislature. The Whig party was largely in the ascendancy in Henderson at the time, and it was more for the object of keeping up their organization, than with any expectation of success, that the party in the minority proposed to place a candidate in the field. Mr. Powell's Whig competitor for the the place was John G. Holloway, Esq., a very estimable and popular citizen of Hen- derson. While the former industriously canvassed every precinct and neighborhood of the county, making friends and securing votes everywhere, the latter, relying upon the party bias of his proposed constituency, made little or no exertion to win their confidence, and thus he lost his election. The result was as unlooked for, by both parties, as it was highly honorable to the industry, and address of the successful candidate.
During the session of the General Assembly, which followed his election Mr. Powell proved himself a careful legislator. He was es- pecially attentive to his duties as a member of the various committees upon which he had been placed, and was always alive to the interests of his constituency and those of the entire State. At the next gene- ral election he was again a candidate for the office which he had so creditably filled for two years. Whether it was, that by this time, party lines had been more closely drawn, or that his old competitor had learned from his former experience to depend more for success
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upon his personal exertions in the canvass, than upon the party pre- dilections of the people of the county, certain it is, that Mr. Hol- loway beat him in the race by a considerable majority.
In the Presidential canvass of 1844, Mr. Powell accepted from his party the position of District Elector, and canvassed his own and the neighboring districts for James K. Polk. In this canvass he was brought prominentiy before the people of Western Kentucky, and thus far, he laid the foundation of that personal popularity which afterwards enabled him to serve his party in more important positions. Mr. Polk was elected over his competitor, the Hon. Henry Clay ; but the Demo- crats were defeated in Kentucky.
In the spring of 1848, the State Democratic Convention met at Frankfort for the purpose of nominating candidates for the executive offices of the commonwealth, to be voted for at the coming August election. The choice of the convention fell upon the Hon. Linn Boyd, of McCracken County, for Governor, and the Hon. John P. Martin, of Floyd County, for Lieutenant Governor. Before the dis- solution of the convention, authority was given to the Democratic Central Committee of the State to fill all vacancies, if any, that should occur on the ticket proposed by declination or otherwise. Upon being informed as to the action of the Convention, Mr. Boyd, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the State Central Committee- the Hon. James Guthrie-formerly declined the candidateship which his party friends had proposed ; and it thus became necessary to put forward some one in his stead. A meeting of the committee was held a few days subsequently, and the name of Lazarus W. Powell was placed at the head of the ticket. This result, it is said, was mainly due to the influence of Mr. Guthrie, whose sound, practical views of the situation, and whose clear perception of the character and qualifications of the gentlemen whose names had been mentioned in connection with the candidateship, were never more forcibly illus- trated than on this occasion.
The Whig party in Kentucky had nominated as its candidate for Governor, the Hon. John J. Crittenden, who was then a member of the United States Senate from Kentucky, and undoubtedly one of the most deservedly popular men in the State. At the outset of the can- vass, Mr. Powell was encountered by a feud in his own party. The Hon. Richard M. Johnson, of Scott County, had announced himself an independent Democratic candidate for the office of Governor, and had already entered upon the canvass. Perceiving that success would be out of the question with two Democratic candidates in the
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field, Mr. Powell hastened to the home of his old friend, with whom he sought and obtained an interview, the result of which was entirely satisfactory to both parties. Col. Johnson not only declined to prose- cute the race any further, but expressed his readiness to canvass his own district in behalf of the nominee of the convention.
The energy with which the Gubernational canvass of 1848, was prosecuted in Kentucky by both Whigs and Democrats, was strongly indicative of the fears of the party in the majority, on account of the personal popularity of the opposition candidate, and of the hopes raised in the minds of the Democratic minority, by having for its standard bearer one who was known never to have addressed his fellow citizens without having made additions to the number of his friends. The beginning of the decadence of the Whig party in Ken- tucky may be referred to this memorable canvass. Everywhere the zeal of its advocates abated and defections from its ranks were numerous. Mr. Powell threw himself into the arena of political controversy with an energy that was resistless. Every part of the State was thoroughly canvassed, and every effort of the opposition was encountered and resisted. The canvass was a substantial triumph, though it ended in the defeat of the constitutional party. The seed had been sown which was to spring forth, richly ladened with fruit for the coming harvest.
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