USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 54
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General William Russell.
Great earthquake at New Madrid and Fulton county, in 1811.
Legislative grants.
Shelby re-elected governor.
His message.
The notable event of 1800, in which the people of Kentucky interested themselves with intense zeal, was the election of a president of the United States to succeed Mr. Adams. The party lines were strictly drawn over the old issues of the Federal and Democratic parties. The agitations growing out of the alien and sedition laws and the resolutions upon States' rights, by Kentucky and Virginia, had inflamed party sentiment to an extent unprece- dented in any previous national political campaign. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson were the champions and leaders of the respective divisions. In Kentucky, the mass of the people, with great unanimity, were not in sym- pathy with the administration of President Adams, and, on the other hand, Mr. Jefferson with them was a favorite. He was of Virginia, from whence had emigrated the majority of the political leaders of the State. He had been governor of the Old Dominion when Kentucky was a part of it, and had always shown a friendly interest to the West. The respective merits of France and England were yet, in large measure. engaging the attention of the men of either party, to the interference of their duties and affections to their own country-foreign partialities which appear to us too puerile for the dignity of American citizenship, and which are not likely again to be re- vived in the politics of this country.
1The Federal Congressmen, in caucus, presented the names of John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney for president and vice-president, and the Democrats, or Republicans, those of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. As
I Statesman's Manual.
419
THE FEDERAL PARTY DEFEATED.
most of the electors were to be chosen by the State Legislatures, the contest began mainly in these bodies at their respective capitals. One of the earliest and most important was that in New York, in May of this year. The result was favorable to Jefferson and Burr, thus reversing the vote that had been given to Adams and Pinckney four years before. President Adams abruptly dismissed from his cabinet Mr. Pinckney, secretary of state, and Mr. Mc- Henry, secretary of war, in consequence of alleged or supposed party sympathy, an event that had an effect to weaken his party in the contest, it was thought. Alexander Hamilton, hitherto a powerful Federal leader, came out in a letter censuring the public character and conduct of Mr. Adams, which further broke the party prestige and demoralized its self- assurance. The aim of Hamilton appeared to be to defeat both Adams and Jefferson and to elect Mr. Pinckney, believing that the vote of South Caro- lina would be a balance of power, and would be cast for Jefferson and Pinckney. When it became known that this State had voted for Jefferson and Burr, the defeat of the Federal ticket was settled. The pluralities of seventy-three each made a tie between Jefferson and Burr, thus throwing the election into Congress. The Federalists now concentrated their entire vote on Burr, in the hope of Jefferson's defeat. Eight States, with fifty-one votes, all Republican, voted for Jefferson, and six States, with fifty-three votes, for Burr, with two States divided. The same result continued through thirty-five ballots. On the thirty-sixth ballot, a number of members mani- fested their withdrawal of hostility to Mr. Jefferson's election by putting in blank votes, when, on announcement, it was shown that ten States had voted for Jefferson, and four States-Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island-for Burr. The former was thereupon elected president and the latter vice-president for four years. Thus, the tidal wave of political sentiment and the powerful factors of political mutation, after years of agi- tation and contest, fixedly established the Democratic party in administrative control of the Government, and for the succeeding twenty-four years.
The disinterested student of history can not but be thoughtfully impressed that the administration of the government for the first twelve years, under Washington and Adams, was fortunate for its peace, prosperity, and stabil- ity. The policy of Washington was eminently prudent, cautious, and con- servative. Mr. Adams endeavored to continue in the same paths of safety and reserve. That foreign wars from foreign entanglements without, and anarchy from impatient and imprudent factionism at home, were avoided, deserve the gratitude of the generation of to day, to whom the heritage of republican liberty and a grand nationality, in their purest integrity. are preserved and perpetuated. An author of note says of this experimental era of national administration : 1 " By the prudent and pacific. yet firm and decided, measures of the Federal Government for these twelve years, the character of the United States had become highly respectable among the
I Bradford's History of the Federal Government.
420
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
greatest statesmen of Europe. Its policy exhibited a happy union of energy and magnanimity. and it was respected alike for its wisdom and power. The nation was placed in a commanding attitude of defense, while liberty, peace, and improvement were everywhere witnessed within its jurisdiction."
1 The opportune time, perhaps, had come for a change. The enactment of the alien and sedition laws, and other sectional and proscriptive meas- ures, shows that the sentiment and policy of the party, too successfully in power, however patriotic, were drifting from the moorings of personal lib- erty toward the license of unwarranted assumption. Providence decreed a change, and in fit time. Nowhere in the Union was the elevation of Mr. Jefferson hailed with more enthusiastic joy than by the people of Ken- tucky.
The first measure of President Jefferson's administration that immediately affected Kentucky was the repeal of the circuit court system of the United States, and of the internal revenue taxes. This measure of judiciary repeal was canvassed with great ability and zeal, as it trenched on the tenure of judi- cial office, practically. The construction provided for the repeal of an office by a bare majority, while a vote of two-thirds was required to remove the occupant. It was an indirect removal from office by the vote of a major- ity. Judge McClung, of the Kentucky circuit, with his judicial brethren, was legislated out of office by the operation of the measure. The vacancies thus created were at once filled. The repeal of the internal taxes relieved the interior agricultural country, but poorly able to command specie, from the irritating offices of the excisemen. At the same time, by reducing the number of office-holders. it diminished the patronage of the administration, which deserves a tribute of praise for its disinterestedness. The measures were popular in their effect with the people throughout the country.
2 The first introduction of the methods of banking into Kentucky had its beginning about this time. An application was made to the Legislature to incorporate an insurance company, for the purpose of insuring produce in transit to market. In the charter was surreptitiously inserted a clause "to take and give bills, bonds, and obligations, in the course of their business ; also, to receive and pass them by assignment; and such of the notes as are payable to bearer shall be negotiable and assignable by delivery." Under this pregnant clause, the bills issued by the company were made payable to bearer, and became equivalent to bank bills. This intrusive and insidious insurance and banking measure was given artificial life until 1818, during which time the corporate monstrosity, without sufficient guards, exerted a monopoly of its vested powers, without any equivalent to the State for a surrender of its legislative discretion. The fate of the institution may be told in few words; it began in deceptive fraud, and ended in disastrous bankruptcy. The experience with this paper currency was no better than with continental money.
t Butler, p. 293-9.
2 Butler, p. 290
421
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.
At this session, a third radical change was made in the ordinary courts of the State. The district and general courts were abolished, and circuit courts for each county were substituted. The judges of the former, like the quarter session justices and the judges of the court of Oyer and Terminer, of a former period, followed the fate of the courts. To each of the cir- cuit judges were added two assistants. not learned in the law. This latter provision was found so habitually to impede the progress of business, by producing conflicts of opinion with the presiding judge. in overruling or rearguing his decisions, that the assistants were, after a brief trial, abolished, and without any general regrets.
1 The trade by the Mississippi river had become the life of Kentucky industry and enterprise, and the commercial advantages from such a source were felt everywhere. It was, therefore, quite a shock to the people when, in the year 1802, it came to an abrupt termination by the limitation of treaty privileges, and without any provision for relief. Although the stipulations by the treaty of 1795 promised a continuance by the former, or other satis- factory arrangement for the deposit of merchandise at New Orleans, the Spanish Intendant, Morales, by proclamation, declared the privileges to cease. This act of broken faith produced the highest indignation, not only in Kentucky, but throughout the United States. The excitement was re- doubled when the public heard of the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France, by the secret treaty of Ildefonso, in October, 1800. An effort was made in the Senate, on the meeting of Congress, in 1802, to authorize the president to take immediate possession of the island of New Orleans and the adjacent territory, but it failed. The executive then instantly adopted measures which led to the acquisition of the whole of that vast domain west of the Mississippi river, known then as Louisiana; and Congress, acting in sympathy, voted two millions of dollars to promote the negotiation. Mr. Monroe was appointed minister to France, with full instructions. Governor Garrard was kept fully advised by President Jefferson, in a matter of such profound interest to Kentucky, pending these events.
When Minister Monroe reached Paris, he found Napoleon, then First Consul of France, anticipating the loss of Louisiana by the preponderance of the English navy, disposed to sell the magnificent province to the United States. His utterance was: "I renounce it with the greatest regret. To attempt obstinately to retain it, would be folly." The negotiations termi- nated in an agreement, on the 30th of April, 1803, for a sale and cession. for the sum of sixteen millions of dollars. Thus was the area of the United States enlarged to two million square miles, and extended from sea to sea. On the 20th of December following. Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi Territory, and General Wilkinson, of the regular army, received formal possession of the purchased province from the French commissioner. M. Loussat. New and inestimable advantages thus opened up to Kentucky,
I Butler, pp. 303-305.
422
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
in common with the whole country. Under the auspicious smiles of this golden commerce, aided by the magic powers of steam as a motor, under the inventive powers of Fulton, West, and Fitch, the wilderness has been made to blossom as a garden; while a vast expanse of region and countless millions of people have been subjected to the benignant sway of religion, liberty, and enlightenment, with an indigenous and original outgrowth im- possible in the old world.
With the introductory year of the nineteenth century came a great wave of religious awakening, attended with very marked and extraordinary phe- nomena. Kentucky seemed to be the center of agitation and excitement, though it extended its circumference to Tennessee and other States. Com- mencing in 1799, in Logan county, under the ministry of two brothers, John McGee, of the Methodist church, and William McGee, of the Presby- terian, The Great Revival. as it was called, spread over the State, chiefly manifesting its power in Fayette, Mercer, Nelson, Shelby, Montgomery. Madison, Harrison, Marion, and Logan counties. Among the preachers most prominent in it, besides the McGees, were William McKendree, Barton W. Stone, James McGready, and others. So absorbing was this religious fervor, and so pervading, that all else was subordinated to this one interest. Thousands attended the open meetings, and for ten, twenty, and thirty miles around. Along with the professors of religion, went the unsaved sinners, the scoffers and unbelievers, thronging the highways and camping-grounds. alike. The excitement seemed universally infectious. In the midst of re- ligious services and vehement exhortation, the exercises of falling prostrate. jerking with nervous motions, and involuntary dancing, would begin with a few, and spread to others, until they would finally embrace the audience of saints and sinners, alike. The wildest scenes of commotion were witnessed. beyond the power of analysis to explain, or the pen to adequately portray. At the great " Cane Ridge Meeting." from twenty to thirty thousand people were in camp for seven days. They came on foot and horseback, and in twelve hundred vehicles, a mighty host. Methodists, Baptists, and others, for the first time in Kentucky, heartily united in the godly work. A histo- rian aptly says of this revival : 1 .. Thousands were thrown into the convulsive state that was then believed to be a mark of the divine power. Although such exhibitions are not pleasant to those who take more sober views of re- ligion, there is no doubt that these violent revivals of the religious impulse. which for years marked the history of Kentucky, were very important ele- ments in determining the quality of the people. At one time or another. perhaps one-half the population was brought under the influence of an en- thusiasm that, for the while, took them away from material things. To a large part of the people who came under this strong influence of religious fervor, the result was momentary ; but a larger part yet, received from it effects that lasted all their lives."
I Shaler, Kentucky Commonwealth.
423
SKETCH OF HON. JOHN BRECKINRIDGE.
These phenomenal exercises were not peculiar to the age or country, nor to the ministerial work of that day. 1 The same effects were introduced into Scotland, when Mr. Whitefield was invited by the seceders, through the Erskines. Great excitement and extraordinary manifestations of swooning, convulsions, and cataleptic seizures attended his labors near Glasgow, where at one time the assemblage was estimated to consist of thirty thousand per- sons. Similar cases had previously occurred under Mr. Wesley's preaching, and have since been noted, as in the revivals under the preachings of Jona- than Edwards, in New England.
In 1804, Christopher Greenup was elected governor, and John Caldwell, lieutenant-governor, of Kentucky. By the governor's appointment, John Rowan was made secretary of state. Mr. Jefferson was also, this year, re- elected, with great unanimity, president of the United States. After his inauguration, in 1805, he appointed Hon. John Breckinridge attorney-gen eral of the United States. The latter served until 1806, when the people of Kentucky, and the whole country, were called to lament his untimely death in the very prime of his manhood. Such were the qualities of intel. lect and attainments, and such the distinguished and controlling influence in the political affairs of the State and nation, of this eminent statesman, that history demands more than the mention of the sad event of death. " He was born on, or near, the present site of Staunton, Virginia. in 1760, and hence was but forty-six years of age when he died. In 1785, he mar- ried Mary Hopkins Cabeil. of Buckingham county, Virginia, and settled in Albemarle county for the practice of the profession of law. Here he lived until 1793, when he moved to Kentucky, and settled in Lexington. At "Cabell's Dale," his home in the county of Fayette, he died on the 14th of December, 1806.
As a lawyer, no man of his day excelled him, and very few equaled him. Profoundly acquainted with his profession, gifted as a public speaker, la- borious and exact in the performance of his professional duties and engage- ments-these qualities, united to his blameless private character, gave him a position at the bar which few men attained, and enabled him, besides the distinction he acquired, to accumulate a large fortune. An event charac- teristic attended the disposition of his estate, for, on his death-bed, he refused to make a will, saying that he had done his best to have such pro- visions made by law for the distribution of estates as seemed to him wise and just. and he would adhere to it for his own family. At the end of sixty years, it is not unworthy to be recorded that his wisdom and foresight, in this remarkable transaction, did not lose their reward.
As a statesman, very few men of the country occupied a more command ing position, or engaged more controllingly with all the great questions of the day. and no one enjoyed more popularity, or maintained a more spotless
1 Richardson's Life of A Campbell, p. 73.
2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 99.
4190
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