USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 12
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1 The interest in State affairs, of late so exciting, seemed now to yield to the more absorbing issues of national politics. In the presidential contest of 1824, Mr. Adams had been elected over General Jackson by the vote of Mr. Clay and his friends from Kentucky and Missouri. The sentiment and sympathy of the West were mainly for Jackson, and this action under the lead of Clay gave great umbrage to the friends of the defeated contestant. On the appointment of Mr. Clay as secretary of state by Mr. Adams, and bis identification with his administration, the resentful spirit of the opposi- tion fiercely and openly alleged that there were bargain and intrigue behind this support by Clay and appointment by Adams, and this charge entered largely into the discussions of the day. The old distrust of Massachusetts by
I Collins, Vol. I., p. 323.
515
METCALFE ELECTED GOVERNOR.
Kentucky was yet strong in the breasts of the people, and this had much to do with the prejudice to Adams.
The new-court party zealously opposed the administration, and de- nounced Mr. Clay as an apostate from the ancient republican party, not- withstanding Adams himself had been of that party for twenty years. As earnestly and passionately did the old-court party rally to the support of Mr. Clay in the vote he gave, adhering to the administration. It soon became apparent that the old-court party was losing the predominance it had won in the former contest. The attraction and glare of military renown and the wondrous magnetism of Jackson gave inspiration to his friends, while the unpopular name of Adams was proving a dead weight to their opponents.
1 The great contest of 1828 was coming on, and nowhere was the excite- ment greater than in Kentucky. The gubernatorial election came off in August, and the National Republican, or old-court party. selected General Thomas Metcalfe as their candidate for governor. and the opposition, under the popular name of Democratic Republican, put forward William T. Barry as their leader. Metcalfe had begun life as a stonemason, and by his energy and talents had arisen to honor and distinction, having served ten years in Congress. His personal popularity was very great. Metcalfe was elected, but by a small majority, while the opposition carried their lieutenant-gov- ernor and a majority of the Legislature. In November, Jackson swept the State by a majority of eight thousand. and Adams was beaten in the United States by an overwhelming vote. Although Clay was not directly involved in the contest, yet the popular verdict was felt to have compromised him. Not- withstanding the plausible defense of friends of the course of Mr. Clay, the charges of collusion were reiterated by his enemies, and even openly re- peated by General Jackson himself. The intense feeling of the mutual hos- tility of parties, and the questionable influence of other leaders, led the party that had supported Mr. Adams to promptly rally on Clay as the most available man for the presidential struggle of 1832, in which indications already made it certain that Jackson would be a candidate for re-election.
2 With Clay directly before the people, the "National Republican " party in Kentucky felt confident of regaining their ascendency in the State. His brilliant eloquence. his courage, his energy of character, his indomitable spirit, made him a fit competitor for Jackson, who possessed some of the same qualities in an equal degree. During the conflicts of 1829 and 1830, the Jackson supremacy was maintained in the Legislature and in the dele- gates to Congress, but in the fall of 1831, the Clay party, as it was called by many, obtained a majority in the Legislature, and this was strikingly made manifest to the Union by the election of Clay to the Senate of the United States. A majority of the congressional delegation, however, were still of the Democratic or Jackson party, and it was uncertain which party had ob- tained a majority of the popular vote.
I Collins, Vol. I., p 322
2 Collins, Vol 1 p 374.
516
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
The great contest of 1832 came on. Jackson and Clay were the competitors for the presidency, and Kentucky had to choose a suc- cessor to Metcalfe in the guberna- torial chair. Judge Buckner was the candidate selected by the Na- tionals, and Breathitt by the Dem- ocrats or Jackson party. Great efforts were made by both parties, and Breathitt was elected by more than one thousand votes. Immense rejoicings upon one side and bitter mortification upon the other were occasioned by this result. But the Nationals instantly called a con- vention, which was well attended, HENRY CLAY. and organized for a decisive strug- gle in November, with a spirit exasperated, but not cowed, by their recent defeat. The Democrats also held a convention, and it became obvious that the preliminary trial of strength in August was only a prelude to the decisive conflict which was to come off in November. The intervening months were marked by prodigious activity on both sides, and the excitement became so engrossing that all ages and both sexes were drawn into the vortex. The result was a signal and overwhelming triumph of the National Republicans. The popular majority exceeded seven thousand, and the party which then triumphed held uninterrupted possession of political power in the State long years after. Although the triumph of Clay was complimentary in Kentucky. he was totally defeated by Jackson in the general election, and that popular chieftain was re-elected by a great majority.
Though the intrepid spirit of Henry Clay sustained his prestige as the undaunted and unrivaled leader of his party and famed him as the most gifted orator and statesman of America, there was just appearing above the political and public horizon in Kentucky, in the decade of 1830-40, two characters whose genius, learning, and eloquence promised to rival the forensic splendors and powers of the Great Commoner himself. The mas- terly logic, the vast and varied classical learning. the marvelous wealth of trope and metaphor, the beauty of rhetoric, the graceful elegance of phras- ing, the flights of fancy, and the keen shafts of satire with which the ora- tions and speeches of Thomas F. Marshall entranced his audiences are as familiar to many now living as household words. Nor do these forget how sadly the dazzling sun of this brilliant intellect too early sank behind the somber clouds of intemperance, whose holocaust of ruin has brought more of woe and desolation to the people of Kentucky than all wars, pesti-
517
RICHARD H. MENEFEE.
lences, and famines, and yet exists a blight upon our society and a dis- grace to our civilization. Fewer remember young Richard H. Men- efee, rivaling Patrick Henry in the fervor, and passion, and eloquence of oratory, and surpassing him in logic and in learning. With the flash of the meteor, his genius blazed athwart the political heavens for a little while, then faded out of view at the touch of that fell de- stroyer, consumption, in premature death. An extract from the eulogy of Thomas F. Marshall «on the character of his rival-the tribute of one genius to the memory and virtues of another-will best de- THOMAS F. MARSHALL. scribe the two great orators. who then illustrated the forum of Kentucky.
1 "It is a public misfortune and an injustice to the fame of Richard H. Menefee, brilliant as it is, that his speeches in the Legislature were not pre- served. Regarding him, as I have already said, with the deepest interest, and under circumstances very favorable for observation, I described him as he impressed himself upon me. The great characteristic of his mind was strength, his predominant faculty was reason, the aim of his eloquence was to convince. With an imagination rich, but severe and chaste, of an elocution clear, nervous, and perfectly ready, he employed the one as the minister, and the other as the vehicle. of demonstration. He dealt not in gaudy ornaments or florid exhibition; no gilded shower of metaphors drowned the sense of his discourse. He was capable of fervid invective, vehement declamation, and scathing scarcasm; but strength-strength was the pervading quality ; and there was argument even in his denunciation. No giant form set forth his common height, no stentor voice proclaimed a braggart in debate ; yet he did possess the power of impression-deep. lasting impression-of in- teresting you, not only in what he said, but in himself, of stamping upon the memory his own image, in the most eminent degree, and the most ex- traordinary manner, of any man of his age whom it has been my fortune to encounter.
"The same destiny attended him in Congress which had marked his en- trance upon State legislation. There were no gradations in his congressional history. He comprehended at once, and as if by instinct. the new scene in which he was called to act. and no sooner did he appear than he was recog-
t Eulogy on Menefee, dehvered before the Law Society of Transylvania University, at Lexington. April 12, 1841.
518
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
nized as a statesman and a leader. The intrepid boldness of his character, and surpassing strength of his genius, seemed to have smitten all parties with astonishment. Some of the leading men of the political party to which he was opposed pronounced him the most extraordinary man of his age who had till then appeared in Congress. He encountered hostility in his upward flight (when did soaring genius fail to do it?), and meaner birds would have barred him from his pathway to the skies. With crimson beak and bloody talons, he rent his way through the carrion crew, and moved majestically up to bathe his plumage in the sun. Never did a career more dazzlingly splendid open upon the eye of young ambition than burst upon Menefee. The presses teemed with his praise, the whole country was full of his name ; yet did he wear his honors with the ease of a familiar dress. He trod the new and dizzy path with a steady eye, and that same veteran step which was so eminently his characteristic. Around his path there seems to have been thrown none of those delusions which haunt the steps of youth and in- experience. All was stern reality and truth. He maintained his character undimmed, and position unshaken, till the end of his term, and then this wonderful man imposed upon himself, his spirit, and his ambition, that iron control of which I have spoken, and voluntarily retired from a theater the most elevated and commanding upon which genius and ambition, like his, could engage in the gigantic strife for undying honor.
"In the summer of 1839 he located himself in Lexington for the practice of law. There was no dreary novitiate with him. He stepped into the forum armed at all points, and business flowed in upon him in a full and rich tide. Never did any man occupy such a position in Kentucky as did Menefee in the opening of his professional career in Lexington. The public sympathies rallied around to cheer and support him, in a manner utterly un- known in any other case. Each step of his progress but deepened the interest and vindicated more triumphantly the opinion entertained of him. Men flocked in crowds to hear him speak; his counsel was sought and relied upon, and his services engaged RICHARD H. MENEFEE. whenever it was practicable, at points distant from the scene of his immediate operations. At a period of life when most men are just rising into business, he was steeped, actually overwhelmed. with the weightiest. most honorable, and most profitable causes. The sun of prosperity broke out upon him with a warmth and brilliancy entirely without example. All difficulties had vanished from before him.
" He, in a grand and final effort, exalted himself; and in that effort, pour- ing forth huis genius and his life, reached the consummation of his first wishes.
1
519
SEVERAL NEW BANKS ESTABLISHED.
the utmost point of his childhood's prayer. He was measured and found a match for one whose thunders long have shaken the American Senate, and who was erst the monarch of the forum. Mr. Menefee declined gradually from September. His waning life sank, not his spirit. When apprised at last that his hour had arrived, . Brief summons!' was the reply, and he manned himself to die with dignity.
" Thus perished, in the thirty-second year of his life, Richard H. Menefee, a man designated by nature and himself, for inevitable greatness. A man of the rarest talents and of the most commanding character. A man whose moral qualities were as faultless as his intellectual constitution was vigorous and brilliant. A man to whose advancing eminence there was no limit but the constitution of his country, had not the energies of his mind proved too mighty for the material element which enclosed them."
1 The fate of the Commonwealth's Bank, and the replevin laws connected with it, was sealed by the triumph of the old-court party. The latter were repealed, and the former was gradually extinguished by successive acts of the Legislature, which directed that its paper should be gradually burned, instead of being reissued. In a very few years its paper disappeared from circulation, and was replaced by the issue of the United States Bank, of which two branches had been established in Kentucky, the one at Lexing- ton and the other at Louisville. It was the policy of the great Jackson party of the United States to destroy this institution entirely, and the re- election of Jackson, in 1832, sealed its doom. It became obvious to all that its charter would not be renewed, and the favorite policy of that party was then to establish State banks throughout the Union, which were to supply its place.
As soon as it became obvious that the charter of the Bank of the United States would not be renewed, the Legislature of Kentucky, at its sessions of 1833 and 1834, established the Bank of Kentucky, the Northern Bank of Kentucky, and the Bank of Louisville; the first with a capital of five million, the second with a capital of three million, the third with a capital of two million dollars. The result of this simultaneous and enormous multiplication of State banks throughout the United States, consequent on the fall of the National Bank, was vastly to increase the quantity of paper money afloat, and to stimulate the wildest spirit of speculation. The nom- inal prices of all commodities rose with portentous rapidity; and States, cities, and individuals embarked heedlessly and with feverish ardor in schemes of internal improvement and private speculation, upon the most gigantic scale. During the years of 1835 and 1836, the history of one State is the history of all. Each rushed into the market to borrow money, and eagerly-projected plans of railroads, canals, slack-water navigation, and turn- pike roads, far beyond the demands of commerce, and in general without making any solid provision for the payment of the accruing interest, or re-
I Collins, Vol. I., p. 325.
520
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
imbursement of the principal. This fabric of credit was too baseless and unreal to endure.
In the spring of 1837, all the banks of Kentucky and of the Union sus- pended specie payments. Kentucky was then in the midst of a scheme of internal improvement, upon which she was spending about one million dollars annually, embracing the construction of turnpike roads and the im- provement of her rivers, and she was eagerly discussing railroad projects on a princely scale. Her citizens were generally involved in private spec- ulations, based upon the idea that the present buoyant prices would be permanent, and both public and private credit had been strained to the utmost.
In this state of things the Legislature of 1837 met, and legalized the sus- pension of the banks, refusing to compel them to resume specie payments. and refusing to exact the forfeiture of their charters. A general effort was made by banks, government. and individuals to relax the pressure of the crisis as much as possible, and great forbearance and moderation were exer- cised by all parties. The effect was to mitigate the present pressure, to delay the day of reckoning. but not to remove the evil. Specie disappeared from circulation entirely, and the smaller coin was replaced by paper tick- ets, issued by cities, towns, and individuals, having a local currency, but worthless beyond the range of their immediate neighborhood. The banks, in the meantime, were conducted with prudence and ability. They forbore to press their debtors severely, but cautiously and gradually lessened their circulation and increased their specie, till after a suspension of rather more than one year they ventured to resume specie payment. This resumption was general throughout the United States, and business and speculation again became buoyant. The latter part of 1838, and nearly the whole of 1839, witnessed an activity in business, and a transient prosperity, which somewhat resembled the feverish ardor of 1835 and 1836. But the fatal disease still lurked in the system, and it was the hectic flush of an uncured malady, not the ruddy glow of health, which deluded the eye of the ob- server.
In the autumn of 1839, there was a second general suspension of specie payments, with the exception of a few Eastern banks. It became obvious that the mass of debt could not much longer be staved off. Bankruptcies multiplied in every direction. All public improvements were suspended : many States were unable to pay the interest of their respective debts. and Kentucky was compelled to add fifty per cent. to her direct tax, or forfeit her integrity. In the latter part of 1841, and in the year 1842, the tempest so long suspended burst in full force over Kentucky. The dockets of her courts groaned under the enormous load of lawsuits, and the most frightful sacrifices of property were incurred by forced sales under execution. All at once the long-forgotten cry of relief again arose from thousands of har- assed voters, and a new project of a Bank of the Commonwealth, like the
52I
TURNPIKE AND MACADAM ROADS.
old one. was agitated, with a blind and fierce ardor, which mocked at the lessons of experience, and sought present relief at any expense.
This revival of the ancient relief party assumed a formidable appearance in the elections of 1842, but was encountered in the Legislature with equal skill and firmness. The specific measures of the relief party were rejected, but liberal concessions were made to them in other forms, which proved satisfactory to the more rational members, and warded off the fury of the tempest which at first threatened the most mischievous results. The middle term of the circuit courts was abolished. The magistrates were compelled to hold four terms annually, and forbidden to give judgment save at their regular terms. The existing banks were required to issue more paper, and give certain accommodations for a longer time and a regular apportionment. These concessions proved satisfactory, and at the expense of vast suffering during 1843 and 1844, society gradually assumed a more settled and pros- perous state.
The subject of internal improvements in various forms and places en- gaged the early attention of the people of Kentucky. The first organized efforts in this direction were suggested by the natural obstructions to travel. and the almost impassable condition at certain seasons of the year. which made the passage of wagons and other vehicles of conveyance so difficult and unpleasant upon the main inland lines of immigration, and along the main thoroughfares. As far back as 1797-1802, parties were authorized to construct and maintain turnpikes on the road from Crab Orchard to Cum- berland Gap, from Paris to Big Sandy, and other lines. The common designation of turnpike. applied to roads graded and bottomed with stone or gravel, is very different from the original and literal meaning of the word. The specific meaning of turnpike refers only to the toll gate established by law, and where money is collected for the use of any improved road. The first turnpike roads, therefore, were formed by throwing the earth from the sides to the center, in a rounded form, and in keeping them in this state of repair.
The bedding of roads with stone and gravel was an invention of Mac- Adam, and hence such are properly known as Macadamiced roads. 1 In December, 1826, Governor Desha, in his annual message, advocated in very decided language the extension of State aid to a main highway from Maysville, via Paris, Lexington, and Frankfort, to Louisville, and also to other similar lines. He says: "The subjects of common schools and in- ternal improvements may be made auxiliary to each other. Let the school , fund now in the Bank of the Commonwealth, $140.917, the proceeds of the sales of vacant lands, the bank stock held by the State, $781, 238. and all other funds which can be raised by other means than taxes on the people, be vested in the turnpike roads; and the net profits from tolls on these be sacredly devoted to the interests of education."
I Collins, Vol. I., p. 537.
522
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
In May, 1827, the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike-road Company was incorporated anew, with a capital of three hundred and twenty thou- sand dollars. The General Government was expected to subscribe for one hundred thousand dollars, and the State government for another one hun- dred thousand dollars, of this. The secretary of war ordered a survey of the route for a great national highway from Zanesville, Ohio, through Mays- ville, Lexington, Nashville (Tennessee), and Florence (Alabama), to New Orleans. In February, 1828, the Legislature of Kentucky recommended Congress to facilitate and aid the construction of this important national highway, and instructed our delegation in Congress to support the measure. The bills passed the House, but, by the coincidence of a very close vote, it was defeated in the Senate by the unfortunate vote in opposition, by Senator John Rowan, of Kentucky, and at a time when President John Adams would readily have signed it.
In May, 1830, a bill passed Congress authorizing the United States Gov- ernment to subscribe one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the stock of the Maysville, Paris, and Lexington macadamized road, which bill, to the consternation of the friends, as well as to all friends of internal improve- ment, was vetoed by President Andrew Jackson. This determination was accepted as a precedent to govern the future policy of the administration on such measures, and hence became an exciting and absorbing topic of dis- cussion throughout the country. This paralyzing blow was but temporary in its effect. The energy of the friends along the route seems only to have gathered new vitality and impetus, and most liberal private subscriptions were made. From January, 1830, until five years after, the State Legislature appropriated $213, 200 toward the construction from Maysville to Lexington. one-half the cost. The system of State aid to macadamized roads, thus fairly inaugurated, was extended in succeeding years, until the subscriptions by the Commonwealth to all such reached an aggregate of $2.539.473. In 1837, three hundred and forty-three miles of these roads had been com- pleted, and two hundred and thirty-six miles more were under way. It may be interesting to note here that in March, 1827. the Legislature of Maryland chartered the first railroad in the United States-the Baltimore & Ohio. It was not completed through to the Ohio river until March, 1853, twenty- six years after.
The broader and more formidable work of improving the navigable streams within the State began to attract attention as early as 1793. Until the year 1833. these enterprises did not extend to a further improvement than the clearing of the channels of such streams of all obstruction to such navigation as was in vogue at the time. Transportation by water was mainly done as yet by flat-boats and barges, and the smaller streams were for a long time the channels of transportation by these only. During the two decades from 1790 to isto, the channel improvement of Licking, Hinkson, and Stoner, the Kentucky and its three forks, Red river, Green and Barren
523
THE OHIO CANAL COMPANY INCORPORATED.
rivers. Mud and Pond rivers, and Rough creek were the subject of legis- lative enactment. Green and Barren rivers, however, were the first to receive the serious attention of the State Government. This was begun in surveys for locking and damming those streams, so as to make them naviga- ble by slack-water continuously. This work was inaugurated in 1833, and by 1836, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars had been appropri- ated, and mainly expended in engineering and upon the first locks. By this date only some $5, 108 were expended on the Kentucky river, and $1, 273 on the Licking.
The total amount expended on the permanent improvement of naviga- tion on Green and Barren rivers to Bowling Green, requiring four locks in Green and one in Barren, was $859, 126. From 1843 to 1865, twenty-two years, thirteen annual dividends were paid out of the tolls on these rivers, yet, on the whole, the expenses were $269. 813, against $265, 002 of receipts, showing a total excess of $4,811 of expenses in twenty-two years. In the report of 1844, the Board of Internal Improvements asserted that the works on Green river cost the State five times the estimate of 1833. and on Ken- tucky river, three to four times the estimate. The average cost per mile on Green river was $5,010, against the estimate of $1, 283, for one hundred and eighty miles, or nearly fourfold.
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