USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 19
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In the same year, 1848, John J. Crittenden and John I .. Helm were elected governor and lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, upon the whig ticket, over Lazarus W. Powell and John P. Martin, democrats, by an average ma- jority of about eight thousand.
In August, 1848, the poll for calling a convention to change the Consti- tution of Kentucky, resulted in 101, 828 votes for, and 39,792 against; and on January 13, 1849, the Legislature passed an act "To call a convention, at Frankfort, October 1, 1849, to change the Constitution of the State." On the opening of the campaign for the choice of delegates to this conven- tion, the sentiment for the gradual emancipation of the slaves was called into intense activity. Meetings of the friends took place in a number of counties; and on April 25th, a State convention of the same was held at Frankfort. It was there resolved that candidates be brought out, in favor: First, of the absolute prohibition of the importation of any more slaves in Kentucky; and, second, of the complete power to enforce and effect. under the new constitution, whenever the people desire it. a system of gradual prospective emancipation of slaves. The excitement and bitterness of party feeling was intense. Cassius M. Clay was the leading spirit of the campaign among the friends of emancipation. The result showed practically almost a solid delegation for the pro-slavery party in the convention.
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578
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
1 Two features of the Constitution of 1799 seemed to render it unsatis- factory to the people. The appointment of the judiciary by the governor became unpopular. By the existing constitution, all judges, clerks of courts, justices of the peace, and attorneys for the Commonwealth, were appointed by the governor or by the courts. It was complained that this separated the people too much from a control of that part of the government with which they had the most to do; that it gave the governor, in times of political excitement, too much power to exercise his partialism in the appointment of these officers. Though the same policy has been pursued in other States, and for like reasons, it is questioned by many thoughtful and good men, whether this change was for the better, on the whole. Yet, once adopted in the constitution of the State, it is not likely that there will ever be a re- turn to the old appointing method.
Another evil of moment was the power of the Legislature to raise money on the credit of the State. According to the exhibit made in the message of Governor Crittenden. of this year, the debt of the State was $4.497,652, mainly incurred in internal improvements projected and made in the specu- lative years of the preceding decade. There was a desire to arrest this indiscriminate power to incur debts for future payment, the burdens of which the people had been made to feel.
On the Ist of October. the convention met at Frankfort, and proceeded to organize, by the election of a president. The members stood, respect . ively, for James Guthrie, democrat, fifty; Archibald Dixon, forty-three votes.
2 The changes were made in the two objectionable features mentioned. Besides, the provisions for changing the new constitution, before very diffi- cult, were now made so complicated that. though repeated efforts have been made, it has been found so far practically impossible to assemble a conven- tion for the purpose. The apprehensions of the possible and dangerous agitations on the questions of the emancipation of the slaves, had much to do with the erection of the barriers to a change. By shaping the law so that the people should be required to continue favorable to a change for a number of years, and finally arrive at a conclusion through a series of legis- lative acts, and popular elections, in which a majority of both bodies should approve, they secured the instrument from the jeopardy of impulsive public sentiment or hasty action. The result is that the constitution of Kentucky. in its relations to a revolutionized condition of society, of property interests. and of civil relations, is one of the most remarkable anomalies of American politics. Constructed in an era of intense pro-slavery sentiment, and mainly with features of protection and perpetuation of the institution. now, after the abolishment of slavery and the restoration of peaceful government for nearly a quarter of a century. it stands untouched and unmarred, a grim
I Shaler's American Commonwealths. p. 214
2 Shaler's American Commonwealths, p 216.
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579
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.
monument of an eventful past, with its living and dead provisions inter- twined among the masonry of its articles and sections. When it may be changed, no augury of statesmanship is able to forecast. The people seem indifferent to change, and move on in the pursuits and followings of life with contentment, as apparent as in the era suited to the instrument.
On May 12, 1851, the first election of officers under the new constitu- tion was held. The returns showed that James Simpson, of the First district; Thomas A. Marshall, of the Second; B. Mills Crenshaw, of the Third; and Elijah Hise, of the Fourth, were the successful candidates for the appellate bench, and Philip Swigert clerk of that court. Twelve circuit judges, twelve Commonwealth attorneys, and in each county. a county judge, clerk, attor- ney, sheriff, jailor, assessor, coroner, surveyor. justices of the peace, and constables were, for the first time in Kentucky history, elected by the people.
The severe measures for the repression of the agitation of anti-slavery sentiment proved unavailing to altogether check the ardency and determina- tion of the friends of emancipation. It is true that many lips were sealed of those of favoring sentiment, who felt that it was but useless indiscretion to attempt to breast the tide of overwhelming popular feeling for the insti- tution ; but enough were bold and outspoken in their advocacy to justify the title given to the issue-"The Irrepressible Conflict." In the first political State campaign under the new constitution, in 1851, the Emancipation party placed a ticket before the people, with Cassius M. Clay for governor and George N. Blakey for lieutenant-governor. The result of the election was: For governor, Lazarus W. Powell, democrat, 54,613: for Archibald Dixon, whig, 53,763; for Cassius M. Clay, emancipationist, 3,621; for lieutenant,-governor, Robert N. Wickliffe, 47,454: John B. Thompson, 53,599 ; George D). Blakey, 1,670. Richard C. Wintersmith was elected treasurer; E. A. Macurdy, register of the land office; Thomas S. Page, auditor ; James Harlan, attorney-general ; Robert J. Breckinridge. superin- tendent of public instruction ; and David B. Haggard, president of the board of internal improvements; all Whigs elected, except the governor. Thus, it was pretty evident that the vote for Clay had drawn strength enough from Dixon to defeat a Whig candidate for governor ; yet Clay's vote by no means represented the numbers of the anti-slavery men of the State. The belief that the Whig party was in favor of some system of grad- ual emancipation led many of them to go over to the Democratic party, which had become the pronounced guardian and defender of the institution. From this time on, the decadence of the former party in Kentucky was marked, with perhaps the exception in the presidential vote in 1852, in which year Winfield Scott, whig, received a majority of thirty-two hundred and sixty-two over Franklin Pierce, democrat.
The rise, culmination, and rapid disintegration of the Native American party, or secret Know Nothing organization, over the entire country. includ-
580
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
ing Kentucky, about the period of 1854-6, yet more affected the strength and prestige of the old-Whig party. It was but a phenomenal outbreak of anti-Catholic and foreign feeling, which swept over the country like a wave of fire, and which burned as intensely in Kentucky as in any other State. For a time it absorbed all political interest, and even left the question of emancipation ignored in national and State politics. The great Know Noth- ing party was made up of local secret societies organized in every com- munity, much after the fashion of Masonry and other such. All persons entering a lodge and becoming members were sworn, after the most rigid and solemn forms of the ritual, that they would never reveal the mysteries of the lodge, and that they would not vote for a Roman Catholic, or a man foreign born, for any political office ; that they would vote for the party and men pledged to abridge or deny to foreigners the privileges of full citizen- ship and suffrage, and to do all in their power to eradicate foreign influence, and with it Roman Catholic influence, from the politics of our country.
So contrary were such sentiments and such a party, apparently, to the genius of American liberty, that even many Whigs declined to follow the great mass of their brethren who were inclined to such a political organiza- tion. Looking back upon this most remarkable phenomenon of sentimental politics, many persons characterize it as little else than a vagary, born of prejudice and rapidly consumed in the heat of its own passions; that it questioned the rights of a large and potent element of our citizenship, and could not but provoke the bitterest antagonism upon the part of those who were to be divested, and enlist the sympathies of the advocates of full liberty to all citizens. The issues of the American party absorbed the Whig, and were met in a life and death struggle by the Democratic, party. For a year, the phenomenal party was triumphant in Kentucky.
For governor, in August, 1855, Charles S. Morehead, American, received 69,816 votes, against 65,413 for Beverly L. Clarke, democrat; and for lieutenant-governor, James G. Hardy, American, defeated Beriah Magoffin, democrat. The entire American, or Know Nothing, State ticket was elected. The Legislature was of like complexion. So intensely bitter were the feel- ings of the contending parties. that a terrible riot broke out in Louisville on the day of the election, which, for the violence of the mob-spirit and the sanguinary results, caused that day to be known in our history as " Bloody Monday." There were fearful scenes of violence, of bloodshed, and of incendiarism, principally in the First and Eighth wards. At night, some sixteen houses on Main street, in the vicinity of Eleventh, were fired and burned. Shots were exchanged between the mob outside, and the occu- pants within, with destructive effect. Other buildings were fired, and similar scenes enacted in other parts of the city. Twenty-two persons were killed and many wounded, during the twenty-four hours reign of terror. about three-fourths Irish, and one-fourth Americans, the police of the city being inadequate to suppress or control the fury and riot of the factions.
581
DEATH OF HENRY CLAY.
It required but another twelve-month to mature the reaction which must surely come against a movement which seemed so little in accordance with all previous republican experience and institutions. In 1856, it met its Waterloo in Virginia, where Henry A. Wise, as the Democratic candidate for governor, signally defeated his American opponent by ten thousand majority. This seemed to be recognized as a test of the stability of the great Know Nothing party, and on the result the imposing fabric went to pieces. From this date, the Whig party lost precedence in Kentucky, and was wrecked amid the stormy events of the next decade.
On the 29th of June, 1852, while a member of the Senate of the United States, Henry Clay sank under the ravages of disease and the burden of years, and died in the city of Washington. The intelligence spread a pall of gloom over the entire country, with its deepest shadows upon the hearts of the people of Kentucky. His mortal remains were brought in state to his home at Ashland, near Lexington, and deposited in the cemetery there, in the midst of a concourse of thirty thousand people assembled. During the youth and maturity of his manhood, the imperious spirit and great qualities of leadership brought about unavoidable antagonisms, and made many ene- , mies. Nature had so endowed him that he could brook neither rivalry nor opposition with resigned patience. He was constituted to lead the one, to conquer the other, as he did in the tournaments of every debate in Congress, before jury, or on the public rostrum. But he was approaching his four score years, when his public career terminated with his death. The work of his later years had been non-partisan and less personally aggressive. The motives to ambition and fame had subsided with approaching age. and the spirit of the patriot and peacemaker became the supreme aim of his later life. A nation of people venerated and admired the virtues of his character, which now shone with more luster than ever before.
With gloomy forebodings, Mr. Clay foresaw the perils into which his beloved country was drifting. upon the "irrepressible conflict" of the slavery strife. The attitude of the North, and its encroachments on the South and her institutions, together with the fiery character of the people of the latter, presaged only evil; and already the talk of a resort to arms, as a last remedy, was indulged but too freely. He had calmed the lowering storm raised by the Missouri question, by the terms of compromise. Again, the hydra of the slavery issue appeared, in the disposal of the question of the admission as a State of California, and others of the provinces ceded by Mexico. Mr. Clay was returned to the Senate, in the hope that his wisdom and influence might effect a peaceful solution again. Shortly after taking his seat, he submitted a series of resolutions looking to this end, which are known in the history of Congressional legislation as the "Omnibus Bill." It proposed to admit California, without any restriction as to slavery ; that Congressional legislation therein is inexpedient ; to indemnify Texas for relinquishing her title to a part of New Mexico; that it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in the
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
District of Columbia, while it remains in Maryland; the rigid enforcement of the fugitive slave law, etc. This bill failed in the form presented; but its measures were subsequently adopted seriatim, except one provision for the prohibition of the trade in slaves in the District of Columbia. Once more the country was tranquil for a time.
1 Mr. Clay served in the lower house of Congress, with but brief inter- missions, from his retirement from the Senate, in 1811, until 1821, at which time the neglect of his private interest, and the impairment of his fortune, imperatively demanded his entire personal attention. During this ten years, he presided over the House of Representatives. Among the most brilliant and effective displays of his powers of oratory and statesmanship were his measures and speeches in support of the war of 1812-15, with England. Strange as it may now seem, there was a resisting party, by no means feeble and inert, made up mainly from New England and the seashore borders of other Northern States, who bitterly opposed the war, and were openly disposed to submit to all the indignities and outrages heaped on this country by Great Britain, rather than distract her efforts to marplot Napo- leon, the destined and commissioned iconoclast of Europe, in the zenith of his phenomenal career. Besides, these represented extensive maritime and mercantile interests which must be well-nigh obliterated by the necessities of military and naval belligerency. This party was potently represented in and out of Congress, and Mr. Clay became the central figure for its shafts of malice, as the leader and impersonation of the war party and policy. Among the brilliant efforts of his peerless oratory some of the best speci- mens may be found in his speeches at this time. His was the supreme and master spirit in that dark hour, which rallied all the boldness and chivalry of the nation, and inspired the patriotic ardor to avenge the honor of the nation, and to rebuke the intolerable insults of England.
In 1814, he resigned his seat in Congress, on his appointment, in con- nection with John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Albert Gallatin, and Jonathan Russell, as plenipotentiary, to meet a like commission on the part of England, to consider terms of treaty and peace between the two bellig- erent nations. The commissioners met at Ghent, and there negotiated such terms of adjustment as proved to become mutually acceptable to the govern- ments. The diplomatic ability of Mr. Clay during the sessions at Ghent won from his associates the highest encomiums of praise, and he returned to his people with his reputation enhanced from this new field of statecraft. It is believed that Mr. Clay's firmness and mastery of the occasion most probably saved the right of the navigation of the Mississippi river from being sacrificed for a very inconsiderable return.
The great Kentuckian availed himself of the opportunity of visiting the capitals and noted centers of Europe, on the pressing invitations and assur- ances of friends newly made. At every point visited, he was heralded by
I Collins, Vol. II., p. 209.
583
SOUTH CAROLINA'S THREAT.
his world-wide fame, and from potentates and distinguished personages, as well as from the people of every nation visited, he received tributes of respect and admiration, such as no other living citizen of America could have commanded. From the background of the western republic, at no time in its history did the individuality of any one person stand out before the admiring world with such conspicuous prominence as did Henry Clay. His genius and his fame more than partisan, or sectional, or national, illus- trated the universal history of his generation. The thunders of his oratory in behalf of the recognition of the republics of South America, the inde- pendence of Greece, and for the cause of liberty elsewhere, reverberated throughout the royal and diplomatic halls of Europe, and among potentates and people, and echoed across the continents and oceans to cheer and in- spire the patriot friends of free government, from the slopes of the Andes, in the West, to the shores of the Hellespont, in the East. No man of the continents that bordered the broad Atlantic lived more in the hearts and memories of all peoples.
It would leave even this brief record of the life and services of the great statesman imperfect and inadequate, not to make some mention of the part played by Mr. Clay and his Kentucky colleagues in that exciting episode of American history, known as the South Carolina nullification measures, and which seriously threatened a terrible civil war thirty years before the recent one, or a disintegration of the Union. We must group together around the point, and at the incidents, of the culmination, some of the leading charac- ters in the scenery of this dramatic event, so thrillingly exciting then, and so imperfectly understood now, behind the shadows of the civil war.
On the 24th of November, 1832, South Carolina, in convention, declared unconstitutional, and to be null and void on and after the Ist day of February next, certain acts of Congress laying duties and imposts on foreign imports within the limits of that State; and that if the Federal Government should attempt to use coercive measures in the exercise of such power, she would withdraw from the Union, and assume the attitude of an independent sov- ereignty. General Jackson, who had just been re-elected president over Mr. Clay, issued a warning proclamation in response to this turbulent pro- ceeding, admonitory of the consequences, and closing with the following touching appeal :
1 " Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish you. as the first magistrate of our common country. not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin.
"You are free members of a flourishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to oppress you. You have, indeed. felt the unequal opera tion of laws, which may have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally, passed, but that inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when
I " Old Fogy" correspondent Courier-Journal, Statesman's Manual, Jackson's administration.
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584
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
you were madly urged on to the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in the public opinion has commenced.
"I adjure you, as you value the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its convention; bid its members to reassemble, and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, pros- perity, and honor. Tell them that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you; that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dis- honored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack upon the Constitution of your country. Its destroyer you can not be. You may disturb the peace, you may interrupt the course of its prosperity, you may cloud its reputation for stability, but its tranquillity will be restored, its pros- perity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be trans- ferred, and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder."
The authorities of South Carolina, in full view of the fact that the friends of the administration in Congress were maturing bills for the reduction of tariff taxes, still went on in their career, calling for troops and breathing defiance to the General Government. The president, early in January, sent a special message to Congress, setting forth these hostile proceedings, and making such recommendations to that body as he deemed to be wise.
Mr. Clay, on the 12th of February, introduced a bill in the Senate for the reduction of duties on imports. It proposed an annual reduction for nine years, or until the tariff reached a revenue standard. He accompanied this bill with a speech of some length, in which he gave the reasons that impelled him to introduce it. We copy a few of those reasons. Said Mr. Clay :
"I believe the American system to be in the greatest danger, and I be- lieve it can be placed on a better and safer foundation at this session than at the next. I heard, with surprise, my friend from Massachusetts say that nothing had occurred within the last six months to increase its hazard. I entreat him to review that opinion. Is it correct? Is the issue of numerous elections, including that of the highest officer of the government, nothing ? Is the explicit recommedation of that officer, in his message at the opening of the session, sustained, as he is, by a recent triumphant election, nothing ? Is his declaration in his proclamation, that the burdens of the South ought to be relieved, nothing? Is the introduction of the bill in the House of Representatives during this session sanctioned by the head of the Treasury and the administration, prostrating the greater part of the manufactures of the country, nothing? Are the increasing discontents nothing? Is the tendency of recent events to unite the whole South nothing ? Let us not
585
VIEWS OF JOHN C. CALHOUN.
deceive ourselves. Now is the time to adjust the question in a manner satisfactory to both parties. Put it off until the next session, and the alter- native may, and probably then would be, a speedy and ruinous reduction of the tariff, or a civil war with the entire South."
On the evening of the 25th of February, when the House of Representa- tives was nearly ready to adjourn, Mr. Letcher, of Kentucky, one of Mr. Clay's most devoted friends, arose in his place, and moved to strike out the whole bill, except the enacting clause, which had been reported by the com- mittee of ways and means, and insert in lieu of it the bill -offered by Mr. . Clay in the Senate. This motion struck many members with surprise, but not the majority, who had previously agreed to support it. The vote was at once taken, and the substitute passed-yeas, one hundred and five; nays, seventy-one. The members representing manufacturing States generally voted in the negative, and nearly all the Southern members voted in the affirmative. The bill was deemed a compromise of conflicting opinions, and was so received by the country. When it was sent back to the Senate indorsed by thirty-four majority in the House, it was passed by that body- yeas, twenty-nine; nays, sixteen-and soon signed by General Jackson. There was great rejoicing over the country, including South Carolina, whose senators and representatives, without a dissenting voice, had voted for the bill. The nullification storm was immediately hushed, and all was peace throughout the land. All honor to the patriots who brought about the set- tlement ; due honor to the immortal Clay !
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