USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 20
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8 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, II, 462.
9 See American Almanac, 1831, II, 244-247. The Bank of the Commonwealth was winding up its affairs. Many of the branches had been recalled or were con- tinued only through a resident agent, and the paper notes were being gathered up and burned. Niles' Register, Vol. 32, pp. 37, 421.
10 Niles' Register, Vol. 40, p. 194.
11 Annals of Congress, 18 Cong., I Sess., I, 1035.
12 Annals of Congress, 18 Cong., 1 Sess., I, 1315; Colton, Private Correspondence of Clay, 81.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
extension of a branch of the National Road (Cumberland Road) from Zanesville, Ohio, by way of Maysville and Lexington in Kentucky through Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi to New Orleans. A bill looking toward the construction of a link in this highway passed the House of Representatives and failed in the Senate only the vote of John Rowan, a Kentuckian. Adams was yet President and, had the bill passed, he would undoubtedly have signed it.13
Undaunted by this defeat, the citizens of Maysville secured the pas- sage through the Kentucky Legislature of a bill chartering the Maysville and Washington turnpike, running for four miles between the two towns named. With commendable energy and speed this road was pushed to completion by November, 1830. This was a link of the Maysville, Wash- ington, Paris and Lexington turnpike which had been chartered in 1827, with a capital stock of $320,000. The bill for Federal aid, having been defeated in 1828, was introduced again in 1830. This bill authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the United States 1,500 shares at $100 each. It passed the House by a vote of 102 to 84 and was suc- cessfully pushed through the Senate 24 to 18, with George M. Bibb, a Kentuckian, voting "nay" in this instance. John Rowan had been suffi- ciently "instructed" to vote for it this time.14 Against the wishes of many of his closest counsellors Jackson boldly vetoed the bill and thereby risked the loss of some of his strongest support in Pennsylvania and the West. He based his argument against the Government appropriating money for local enterprises, not only on its unconstitutionality but also upon its inexpediency.15 He refused to be blinded by the scheme of making this turnpike a link in a great national project-as much so as the National Road. He knew that only Kentucky, and largely that part between Maysville and Lexington, would be benefited, and, regardless of the fact that his support was particularly strong in this part of the state, he refused to be moved. This veto made the "Maysville Road" famous throughout the country long before it was actually constructed, and it served notice on the states that all such projects would receive like treat- ment.16
There was profound disappointment in Kentucky. Both the Jackson men as well as the Clay men had expected the President to sign the bill. In fact, on the passage of the bill by Congress, jubilation had reigned among Kentuckians, irrespective of parties, and Bibb had been severely condemned for his vote and burned in effigy at places. The Jackson dem- ocrats were undoubtedly surprised and chagrined, despite the claims of some that all opposition in Kentucky to Jackson's veto came from the Clay party. Trying to forestall any capital for Clay out of the veto, the Charleston Mercury said: "The friends of Mr. Clay in Kentucky, it seems, have burnt Senator Bibb of that state in effigy, because of his opposition to the Maysville road bill. This proceeding is equally silly and indecorous. Mr. Clay can no more burn his way to the Presidency than he can eat it. The principles upon which that bill was rejected by the President are such as must make a deep impression upon the minds of the people, and the only effect of burning its opponents in effigy will be to light them on to new popularity and power." 17 The South, which was strongly against the tariff and Federal aid to internal improvements,
18 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 539.
14 Ibid., 539, 540.
15 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, II, 483-493.
16 The story is told that Jackson was influenced in his veto of the Maysville bill because of a practical joke that had been played upon him on his way to be in- augurated in 1829. On leaving Paris, Kentucky, Jackson was misled by some Adams men changing the sign-board, "To Maysville" to a point to Mount Sterling. The Jackson party passed on a considerable distance toward the latter town before the mistake was discovered. Collins, History of Kentucky, II, 73.
17 Quoted in Niles' Register, Vol. 38, p. 302.
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was bitterly condemned for voting almost solidly against the Maysville bill. Kentucky, being a border state, was already being drawn away from the South in numerous ways, and this vote tended to intensify the feeling of separateness. The Frankfort Commentator said: "To 'the generous south' we are indebted for five votes, including some from Western Vir- ginia, which, in strictness, should not be reckoned with 'the generous south,' though Virginia is reckoned as a southern state. The four south- ern states (Va., N. C .. S. C. and Ga.) have given 43 votes against us." It then laid the credit for passing the bill to the Clay party: "Looking at the list of ayes and noes, with reference to the political classification of the members, we find a large majority of the ayes are opponents of the present administration, while among the 86 who voted against this bill, we recognize but three or four who are not of the Jackson party." 18
The parrying for party advantage and credit for the passage of the bill clearly shows that the Jackson party in the state was heartily in favor of Federal aid to internal improvements. Before the veto the Argus answered the Commentator in its claims of credit for Clay: "The appro- priation of $150,000 to the Maysville and Lexington turnpike, which has lately passed the House of Representatives, where there is a Jackson majority of 60 or 70, is also credited to Mr. Clay and his friends. When the bill receives sanction of the Jackson Senate it will be another feather in his cap, and when the President signs the bill, without which it could not become a law, the Commentator will exclaim: 'See what Mr. Clay has done !' and then we shall have a general shout in honor of Henry Clay, the great champion of the American system! During the whole time Mr. Clay was in Congress and the cabinet he could do nothing in favor of Kentucky; now that he is out, he does wonders! If his unqualified retirement brings down such blessings upon us, why not permit him to re- main in it?" 19 The Louisville Public Advertiser, innocently enough ex- pecting Jackson to sign the bill, remarked: "'A change we think has come over the scene'-'western interests will not now be neglected'-we shall now have more action and less talk?' Verily we think so too. The present administration acts on the principles it professes, and now western inter- ests will not be neglected. 'A change has,' indeed, 'come over the scene.' The real friends of the country are in power-and therefore 'we shall have more action and less talk.' We rejoice to hear the enemies of General Jackson speak thus favorably of his administration .- 'Truth is mighty and will prevail.' " 20
The disappointment at the veto was expressed in many meetings throughout the state, which bitterly attacked Jackson-and none were more bitter than those in the regions of the proposed road. A large meet- ing was held in Lexington on June 21, 1830, to protest against the veto, and weld together the state into a unit for Clay. It declared that Con- gress had the power to aid internal improvements, that it had done so for the past twenty-five years, and that they viewed "with deep surprise and just regret" the refusal of Jackson to co-operate with Congress on this subject. Jackson had been elected with the understanding that he would favor such projects. The Maysville road was not a local project at all, but one out of which the whole West would profit; neither was the Louisville canal, which Jackson had also refused to let Congress aid, of local benefit alone. The President had recklessly used his veto power. to the detriment of the people's interests; therefore, an amendment to the Constitution ought to be adopted making a mere majority, instead of two-thirds, sufficient to override a veto. Other acts of Jackson, includ- ing his dealings with the Indians in Georgia, were also attacked. And
18 Quoted in Niles' Register, Vol. 38, p. 286.
19 Quoted in Nites' Register, Vol. 38, p. 286.
20 Quoted in Niles' Register, Vol. 38, p. 286.
Vol. II-9
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then came the expression of the real purpose of the meeting: "Resolved, That this meeting, in forbearing at this time to make a formal nomination of the pre-eminently qualified, talented and patriotic individual in its judgment most suitable for the next presidency, is actuated by the un- willingness to be subjected to the imputation of precipitation in a case in which partiality towards a neighbor and a friend might be supposed to have too much influence. But the preference of the people here assembled cannot be doubted ; nor that they will manifest that preference on proper occasions hereafter." A "standing committee of correspondence" was to be appointed "to make manifest the truth and promote the success of the sentiments of this meeting, as now expressed, by all fair and honor- able means in their power." 21
The staunch and the unterrified of the Jackson party stood by the veto manfully, difficult as it was. A substitute set of resolutions was introduced in the Lexington meeting declaring that the Kentuckians had undiminished confidence "in the integrity, firmness and wisdom of the venerable president of the United States"; that they viewed the preserva- tion of the Constitution in its "true intent and meaning" as more im- portant than any "pecuniary advantage"; that they were opposed to new appropriations that would impede the time when the nation's debt should be paid off ; that the Maysville road was in fact "local and state, rather than national improvements, and as such, is not certainly embraced in the provisions of our constitution as an object of national concern"; and rather ambiguously that "we will, as citizens of Kentucky, and as per- sons who are interested in the said road, do as our fellow citizens of other states are now doing, put our own shoulders to the work, and when the proper time shall arrive, we will in a proper way, call on the general government for aid." These resolutions were promptly voted down.22
The Jackson democrats used the arguments contained in these resolu- tions to combat the Clay party, together with such other reasons, as that the rights of a state would be seriously interfered with in carrying out federal aid to state undertakings. The Federal Government could take control of a state and run canals and roads anywhere it pleased regardless of the wishes of the state. This would also be an interference with the rights of private companies to construct such improvements.23 They also accused the Clay party of trying to manufacture sentiment along the proposed road, and elsewhere, by holding meetings, and introducing a cut and dried set of resolutions-the same as were passed at Lexing- ton. The Argus said : "An excitement is got up along the route of Mays- ville Road, and the neighborhood of its termination ; public meetings are appointed by his friends in the towns, and his partisans from the country are particularly invited and pressed to attend; at their own home the managers of the business, send round a runner to rendezvous; a Chair- man and Secretary are installed by those thus rallied and a preamble of turnpike resolutions are ready by way of introduction, and Mr. Clay is nominated to the Presidency by way of conclusion." 24
As the issues were shaping and thoughts of a candidate were being indulged, Clay was instinctively looked to to make the race. After the election of 1828. when his term of secretary of state had expired with the going out of the Adams administration, he had retired to his home near Lexington, there to receive the plaudits of his fellow Kentuckians 25
21 Niles' Register, Vol. 38, pp. 360, 361. 364. The Lexington Reporter gave the following conundrum and answer: "Why is a man walking on a turnpike road like Gen. Jackson ?- D'ye give it up? Because he is trampling internal improvements under foot." Ibid., 354.
22 Niles' Register, Vol. 38, p. 360.
23 See Argus, June 30, et seq., 1830.
24 July 14, 1830.
25 At a dinner given to him in Louisville which it was supposed at least 3,000
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It was thought best by his friends. that he remain in retirement for a year or two, in order to be able to best make the race in 1832. The com- mittee of correspondence appointed by the Lexington meeting in June soon formulated a very lengthy address to the people of Kentucky, in which it opened the campaign against Jackson in favor of Clay. The former was bitterly attacked for his strong partisanship, and for his ruth- less application of the spoils system, through which the public press of the country had been corrupted by the appointment of more than fifty editors to office. The Maysville Road veto was assailed at great length and Jackson's reasons for the veto was taken up and answered. Other acts of the President were also attacked. He had greatly disappointed the people who had elected him and even those who had opposed him. He was on the wrong side of all the great questions of the times. "If any one can still doubt that this administration is anti-tariff, anti-internal improvement, anti-western, anti-northern, and a real southern administra- tion, let him look at its composition ; let him ask himself what counsels have the ascendency." It called on the people through the state to hold meetings and arouse public sentiment. "No government upon earth is absolutely beyond the reach of influence of public opinion. Those who affect to despise it are compelled to obey, if not to respect it. A general and strong manifestation of the public will may yet awe our public ser- vants, and preserve our rights. But if not, if they will persevere in error, and treat with contempt the feelings and the interests of the people, there is another more efficacious though more distant remedy. The application of that remedy is at the polls." It believed that the people should begin now to think of and prepare for this application. Clay was then suggested as the most suitable person to receive the nomin- ation against Jackson. 26
The Clay forces throughout the state were being steadily organized in county meetings and conventions, and the state-wide convention was held in December, 1830, for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the presidency. Believing that Jackson had largely destroyed his follow- ing in the state due to his Maysville Road veto and to others of his measure, the Clay party tried to make their appeal for support as all- inclusive as consistent with their principles. The Clay members of the Legislature in November wished to call a convention for the purpose of passing on the national issues and indicating a preference for President ; but the Jackson men, believing they had a majority, sought to use the Legislature itself for this purpose-such procedure having been common heretofore. The Clay party soon called the convention, at the time named above, supposedly non-partisan, but in fact to name Clay and support the principles he stood for. The party was referred to as "the friends of the union of the states and the American system" and "the friends of internal improvements, and the protection of domestic industry." 27 The convention was held with 290 delegates present, and Clay was nom- inated.28
At a convention held a year later, he was brought forward by the national party, which had taken the name, National Republican.
Althought laboring under a handicap, especially on account of Jack- son's hostility to federal aid to internal improvements, the democrats
persons attended, the following toast was offered: "Henry Clay-who 'by his pre- eminent talents; by his splendid services; by his ardent patriotism; by his all- embracing public spirit; by his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind,' has shed unfading glory on the country of his birth, and the age in which he lives." Among the other public dinners given him was one at Shelbyville, where 1,000 people gathered together. Niles' Register, Vol. 36, p. 349.
26 Niles' Register, Vol. 38, pp. 406-412.
27 Argus, Nov. 30, et seq., 1830; Niles' Register, Vol. 39, p. 90.
28 Niles' Register, Vol. 39, 302; Argus, Dec. 21, 1831. At a convention held in December, 1831, R. A. Buckner was nominated for governor.
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kept up a strong fight against the national republicans. Their party was less ably led, as they had no outstanding leader like Clay in the state. and the composition of the party lent itself less easily to organization and management. The democrats were predominately countrymen, and therefore scattered and less easily organized. The national republicans were, on the other hand, largely in the towns, and therefore more closely knit into a political organization. The Argus, admitting the superior organization of the national republicans, saw dangers in it for the people : "Ours is the popular side. It is the cause of the people and republican principles. The people then must act in its defense. Our opponents enjoy the only advantage which a monarchy has over a republic-which is a concentration of all power in the hands of one man. He directs their movements with sovereign control, and no man dare say nay to his man- dates. But there is more energy in our party, if that energy can be roused into action." 29 The national republicans knew many political tricks for securing support and were not slow in using them. The democrats kept their organizations continuous, ready for whatever election that should come. In 1829, they made a fight to elect congress- men friendly to Jackson, and succeeded in maintaining the enthusiastic support, which had given the state to him the preceding year. Out of the twelve congressmen, ten were secured for Jackson, which was a re- duction of the Clay members from four to two.30
There was no question that the democrats throughout the nation were resolved on Jackson to succeed himself. This was understood every- where, and in Kentucky as early as elsewhere. The same month in which the national republicans were meeting to bring Clay forward saw the democrats in a state convention in Frankfort for the purpose of boosting Jackson and his principles. Much activity had preceded this convention in the shape of an address to the people by the central organization, and of county meetings and conventions passing their long sets of resolutions. As a result an enthusiastic convention of 353 delegates from seventy-one counties came together. It was pre-eminently a people's convention, made up of honest toilers. There were between 290 and 300 farmers among the delegates, or according to the news account, "9 out of 10 are farmers, and mechanics, men who work for their support, and are prin- cipally clothed in the manufacturies of their families." 31 Jackson was declared the choice of the Kentucky democracy. The regular nominating convention came a year later (December, 1831), where about 400 dele- gates from seventy-two counties came together. They formally named Jackson for the presidency and brought forward their fellow-citizen. R. M. Johnson, for the vice presidency. John Breathitt, the lieutenant- governor, was nominated for governor. The political contest over the firing of a salute for New Orleans the previous January 8th, had resulted in the House of Representatives passing the resolution, but the governor successfully vetoing it.32 This convention now sought to undo this defeat as far as possible without arousing unnecessary hostility among those Kentuckians who still nursed the wounds of Jackson's censure. It had a salute fired December 23, as it was then in session, and as the skirmish on this day could hold no regrets for any Kentuckians.33
In the elections for the state legislature, party lines were less sharply drawn than in the other elections, and as a result the Clay forces with their superior knowledge of party tactics generally came out victorious. In the same election in 1829, which gave Jackson ten congressmen to
29 Nov. 9, 1831.
30 Argus, Aug. 19, 1829. Also see Ibid., April 22, 1829.
31 Argus, Dec. 15, 22, 1830.
32 Argus, Feb. 16, 1831.
33 Ibid., Dec. 29, 1831.
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Clay's two, an anti-Jackson Legislature was returned.34 The Clay party systematically worked to obscure and obliterate party lines here, and they were successful. In Franklin County, eighty Jackson men voted for Crittenden for the Legislature, through the feeling that had been aroused that the man was more important than the party. And due to the obscur- ity of parties, it was often impossible to define the party of the legis lators until they voted on some important political question. According to a Louisville newspaper, the Clay party "By singing the siren song of 'peace, peace-no party,' previous to the late August election, they suc- ceeded in obtaining a majority in the Legislature." 35 In the succeeding election for the Legislature, of 1830, the Clay forces won again, fighting for control particularly because a United States Senator would soon be elected. Directly after the election the Louisville Focus bet $500 that a Clay senator would be sent to Washington.36 An effort was made by this legislature through fifteen ballots to elect a senator, but both parties were so badly divided on candidates, that the election was postponed until the next session.37 The election of 1831, which also included con- gressmen, was more hotly fought, for the additional reason that the election of a United States Senator was also at stake. Being the first important election after the Maysville Road veto, it was looked upon by both parties as an important indication of public sentiment on the national questions, and as especially bearing on Clay's hold on the state. It was claimed by the Clay men that the Jackson party had sent into the moun- tains of the eastern part of the state, engineers to make a great noise and bustle in fictitious surveying to convince the people that Jackson was in favor of internal improvements. The results of the election were slightly in favor of Clay; but Jackson had failed to suffer the unpopu- larity that his enemies had expected and his friends feared. On a joint ballot in the Legislature the Clay forces could count on a majority of at least a dozen, which, thus, insured the election of a Clay senator. Of the congressmen, Jackson, claimed eight to Clay's four-an increase of two for the latter.38 It was determined upon that Clay, himself, should be elected to the Senate in order that he might better make his campaign for the presidency from this point of vantage. Accordingly on the meet- ing of the Legislature in November he was elected over Richard M. John- son by a vote of seventy-three to sixty-four.39
The election of 1832, coming in August just preceeding the presi- dential election and including the election of a governor, was looked upon as carrying not only an indication of the outcome of the next election but also an important moral effect. The Jackson men were greatly heartened, as they elected their candidate, Breathitt, by a majority of slightly over 1,000 votes. Their small majority was not discouraging, for
34 Argus, Aug. 19, 1829; Aug. 25, 1830; Niles' Register, Vol. 37, p. 68. It was in the heat of this campaign that Charles Wickliffe killed Benning, the editor of the Kentucky Gazette. Shortly afterwards, G. J. Trotter, who succeeded to the editorship, killed Wickliffe in a duel near the Scott County line, with the par- ticipants fighting eight feet apart. Colton, Life and Times of Henry Clay, I, 90-93; Niles' Register, Vol. 36, p. 65; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 35.
35 Louisville Public Advertiser quoted in Argus, April 21, 1830.
36 Niles' Register, Vol. 39, p. 55.
37 The highest votes for each candidate follows: J. J. Crittenden, 68; R. M. Johnson, 64; C. A. Wickliffe, 49; John Breathitt, 66. Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 36.
38 Argus, Aug. 17, 1831 ; Niles' Register, Vol. 40, p. 449; Vol. 41, p. I.
89 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 36; Niles' Register, Vol. 41, p. 237. This political maneuver was bitterly attacked. The Washington Globe declared: "He will stand in that body, not as the representative of Kentucky, but of a few base men rendered infamous by the fraud perpetrated in electing him. He will be but the shadow of what he was once in congress, when he stood upon the basis of the democratic principles which he then avowed, and which the people of Kentucky still maintain." Quoted in Niles' Register, Vol. 41, p. 237.
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