USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 20
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Thus, to the patriotic wisdom and leadership of Kentucky statesmen in the two houses of Congress directly, was due the conciliatory adjustment of the first bold attempt at nullification and secession in a disaffected State, based on a strained and untenable interpretation of the doctrine of States' rights, as set forth in the Kentucky resolutions of 1798. It will be interesting to know the views of John C. Calhoun, then a senator from South Carolina, and the great master of this political school in his day. Of his speech in this debate, the Register of Debates says :
" Mr. Calhoun arose and said he would make but one or two observa- tions. Entirely approving of the object for which this bill was introduced, he should give his vote in favor of the motion for leave to introduce it. He who loved the Union most desired to see this agitating question brought to a termination. He believed that to the unhappy divisions which had kept the Northern and Southern States apart from each other, the present entirely de- graded condition of the country (for entirely degraded he believed it to be), was solely attributable. The general principles of this bill received his approbation. He believed that if the present difficulties were to be adjusted, they must be adjusted on the principles embraced in the bill. of fixing ad valorem duties, except in the few cases in the bill to which specific duties were assigned. He said that it had been his fate to occupy a position as hostile as any one could, in reference to the protecting policy ; but, if it
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586
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
depended on his will, he would not give his vote for the prostration of the manufacturing interests. At this time, he did not rise to go into a consid- eration of any of the details of this bill, as such a course would be prema- ture and contrary to the practice of the Senate. There were some of the provisions which had his entire approbation, and there were some to which he objected. But he looked upon these minor points of difference as points in the settlement of which no difficulty would occur, when gentlemen met together in that spirit of mutual compromise which, he doubted not, would be brought into their deliberations without at all yielding the constitutional question as to the right of protection."
The catastrophe was averted, but the Dies Ira was bequeathed by the fathers of one generation to their children of the next.
Of the measures advocated by Mr. Clay during his active career in Con- gress, were the incorporation of a United States bank; the principle of a protective tariff, applied until the manufacturing interests of the country could be nursed to compete with those of Europe; the aid of the Govern- ment to internal improvements of a national character; the disposition of the public lands of the United States; and others of lesser note. On the 3Ist of March, 1842, the Nestor of American politics executed his long- cherished wish to retire from public life, and to spend the remainder of his days in the tranquil shades of Ashland. Tendering his resignation in the Senate, the scenes of parting were thrilling and affecting, beyond descrip- tion. Had the guardian genius of Congress and the nation been about to depart, deeper sensations of sadness and regret could not have been mani- fested, than when Mr. Clay arose, for the last time, as every mind was impressed, to address his compeers. All felt that the master spirit was bid- ding them adieu, and perhaps, forever; and were grieved that the pride and ornament of the Senate and the glory of the nation was being removed, creating a void that would never again be filled.
Failing as he did, in the contest of 1844. he gave up all hopes of the presidency, and resigned himself to the retirement he had chosen. In 1847, he publicly avowed his faith in the Christian religion, and united with the Protestant Episcopal church, at Lexington, that he might dwell in com- munion with his God and Heaven. From the privacy and repose the venerable sage and chieftain had sought, the ominous mutterings of the storm-cloud of the slavery issue, threatening already to sever the Union and to drench the land with fratricidal blood, the popular voice of alarm called him rudely forth to perform the last acts in the drama of a wondrous life, upon the great theater of politics, where he had so long been the greatest of the nation's great. The emergency was one that respected not persons or conditions; and the decree went forth, that the laureled chieftain must again clothe himself with the armor of battle, bear it forth through the strug- gle, and die with it on. Bearing upon his shoulders the burden of years, he bowed submissive obedience to the stern demand, did his duty faithfully
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ELECTION CONTESTS.
and heroically, and then died, as he had lived, in the service of his country and of humanity.
David Merriwether was appointed to the vacancy of Mr. Clay in the United States Senate, by Governor Powell, and served until the close of the session. Archibald Dixon, having been elected by the Legislature, on its next assembling, succeeded Mr. Merriwether, and served out the remainder of Mr. Clay's term.
On the 4th day of August, 1856, Alvin Duvall was elected judge of the Court of Appeals, against Thomas A. Marshall; and on June 15th, of next year, Zachariah Wheat was elected to a seat on the same bench, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of B. Mills Crenshaw.
In the presidential election of 1856. Kentucky cast her vote as follows : For James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge, democratic, for president and vice-president, 69,509 votes; for Millard Fillmore and Andrew J. Don- elson, American or whig, 63.391; and for John C. Fremont and William Dayton, republican, 314. The tide of native American sentiment had evi- dently begun its ebb. For governor, in 1857, James H. Garrard, democrat, received a majority of 12, 114 votes over his American opponent. Eight democrats and two Americans were chosen for Congress, and sixty-one democrats, to thirty-nine Americans, for representatives in the Legislature.
In 1858, Lazarus W. Powell was elected United States Senator for the term of six years, from March 4, 1859; Rankin R. Revill, clerk of the Court of Appeals, over George R. McKee; and Henry C. Wood, judge of the same court, over Zachariah Wheat, in the Second district; all these being democrats.
A rebellion against the United States Government having been organized by the Mormons in Utah, a requisition for a regiment of volunteer troops was made upon Kentucky to aid in suppressing the same. Twenty-one companies were promptly offered, of which Governor Morehead selected ten, officered by Captains Wales, of Jefferson ; Hanks, of Anderson; Beard, of Fayette; Trapnall, of Mercer: Pearce, of Trimble; McHenry, of Daviess; Rogers, of Jefferson; Moore, of Pendleton; Adair, of Union; and Rees, of Kenton. But in April, a peace commission, composed of Lazarus W. Pow- ell, of Kentucky, and Benjamin Mccullough, of Texas, was sent by the Government, and negotiated terms of adjustment that allayed all strife, when the troops were disbanded.
In 1859, one of the most interesting contests which terminated the power and organization of the Whig party in Kentucky was witnessed in the gubernatorial campaign. Beriah Magoffin and Linn Boyd were the chosen nominees of the Democratic party, and Joshua F. Bell and Alfred Allen, of the Whig. The State was thoroughly and ably canvassed, and the candi- dates were favorites with the respective parties. The sentiment was pervading that the Democratic party was sound and stable on the slavery question, and that too many elements in the Whig party were in sympathy with the oppo-
588
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
sition. Nor had the latter party recovered the full confidence of the public, after the demoralizing experience with Know Nothingism, notwithstanding the selection of a candidate for governor, who was possessed of great prestige and popularity, and who was one of the most gifted and brilliant orators of the State. Magoffin and Boyd were elected by majorities approximating nine thousand votes.
The period from 1848 to 1857, in Kentucky, was one of steady prosper- ity, with but little to divert the people from the ordinary industrial pursuits. The first six years of this period estab- lished a business confidence and credit. which led to temptations to venture out into speculative enterprise, beyond the demands of legitimate business. This spirit of venture led to the inevitable inflation of values of all kinds of prop- erty, and the experience of fifteen years before was repeated. A flush tide of illusive gain and prosperity overflowed the country, and the great masses of men floated easily upon it. 1 This was general throughout JOSHUA F. BELL. the United States. The demand for money led to quite a percentage of increase in the banking capital of Kentucky; and the facility with which credit could be used in borrowing money led to an expansion of indebtedness abnormal to the conditions of general solvency and safety. The inevitable followed. The bubble burst, as it had done before, in 1837; as it did after, in 1873. Among the multiplied banks which had so extended circulation, several newly- chartered institutions suspended or went into insolvency; but the old established banks, on which the people depended for support, weathered the storm. In a few months they called in half their paper, and the remainder of their notes became the standard of circulation of the Ohio valley. They maintained specie payments throughout the crisis and to the end of the financial storm. The good credit thus secured enhanced the confidence and profit of these banks. So popular became their currency, that in 1859 their circulation amounted to over fourteen million dollars, being an increase of five million dollars within a year.
These results of a banking experience which had been matured at home, and controlled entirely by men reared upon the soil, mainly separated from the business traditions of the world, and whose individ- uality had developed their own methods, give to Kentuckians a good claim for eminent capacity in this difficult task of dealing with the
1 Shaler's American Commonwealths, p. 220.
589
REFLECTIONS UPON KENTUCKY HISTORY.
monetary problems of the day. This claim was yet further established, as we note hereafter, by the conservative and skillful management of these banks during the perils and difficulties which beset them during the civil war. We quote here some very able and pertinent reflections of a recent author upon Kentucky history : 1
"As we must shortly pass to the consideration of the events that imme- diately preceded the civil war, which made a new era in Kentucky history, it will be well to make a brief survey of the political and social condition's of the Commonwealth in the decade of 1850-60. So far, the life of Ken- tucky had been an indigenous growth, a development from its own condi- tions, singularly uninfluenced by any external forces. With only the germs of a society sown on this ground, there had sprung into existence a power- ful Commonwealth, that now, at the end of eighty years of time, felt strong enough to stand alone in the struggles that were soon to rage about her. No other State in the Mississippi valley-hardly any of the original South- ern States-had pursued its course with so little influence from external conditions. There had been relatively little contributions of population from other States, except from Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and but a small immigration from European countries 'since 1800. This made an indigenous development not only possible, but necessary.
" From 1774 to 1860, eighty-five years had elapsed. This period meas- ures the whole course of Kentucky history, from the first settlement at Harrodsburg to the beginning of the great tragedy of the civil war. As before recounted, the original settlement and the subsequent increase of the Kentucky population were almost entirely drawn from the Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland colonies; at least nine-five per cent. of the popu- lation was from these districts. Probably more than half of this blood was of Scotch and North English extraction-practically the whole of it was of British stock. The larger part of it was from the frontier region of Virginia, where the people had never had much to do with slavery.
" The total number of these white settlers who entered Kentucky in the first eighty-five years can not be determined with any approach to accuracy ; but from a careful consideration of the imperfect statistics that are available, it seems reasonable to estimate the whole number of white immigrants at not more than one hundred and twenty thousand, while the slave popula- tion that was brought into the State probably did not amount to one-third this number. In 1860, the white population amounted to 919,484, and the slave population to 225,483 ; the free black population to 10,684. Of the white population of this census; 59,799 were born beyond the limits of the United States. This element of foreign folk was in the main a very recent addition to the State. It was mainly due to the sudden development of manufacturing interests along the Ohio border, principally in the towns
I Shaler's Kentucky Commonwealths, pp. 221-29.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
of Louisville, Covington, and Newport, and to certain new settlements of agriculturist Germans in the counties forming the northern border of the State. The foreign-born people had not yet become to any degree mingled with the native people, either in the industries or in blood.
" Before we can estimate the fecundity of this population, we must note the fact that from 1820 or thereabouts down to 1860 and later, there was a very great tide of emigration from Kentucky to the States that were settled in the other portions of the Mississippi valley. The southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois received a large part of their blood from Kentucky. Missouri was so far a Kentucky settlement that it may be claimed as a child of the Commonwealth. Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas, also received a large share of the Kentucky emigrants. The imperfect nature of the earlier statistics of the United States census makes it impossible to determine with any accuracy the number of persons of Kentucky blood who were in 1860 residents in other States; but the data given make it tolerably clear that the total contribution of Kentucky to the white population of the other States amounted in 1860 to at least one million souls. The increase in the black population was probably rather less than that of the white, but there is no data for its computation.
" If this estimate is correct the fecundity of the Kentucky population in the first eighty years of its life exceeds that which is recorded for any other region in the world. There are several reasons which may account for this rapid multiplication of this people. In the first place the original settlers of Kentucky were of vigorous constitution ; they were not brought upon the soil by any solicitations whatever, nor were they forced into immigration by the need of subsistence. Access to the country was difficult, and for some decades the region was exposed to dangers from which all weak-bodied men would shrink. The employment of the early population was principally in agriculture, upon a soil that gave very free returns. There was plenty of unoccupied land for the rising generations, so there were no considerations of a prudential nature to restrain the increase of population. For a long time children were a source of advantage to the land-tiller, and apart from pecuniary gain there was a curious patriarchal pride in a plenteous off- spring. The climate proved exceedingly healthy. There were no low-grade malarial fevers to enfeeble the body, and the principal disease of the early days, a high-grade bilious fever, though rather deadly, did not impoverish the life as the malarial troubles of other regions in the Mississippi valley have done. Thus the first population of Kentucky was from the purest spring that ever fertilized a country, and there was little to defile its waters. The principal evils that beset the population were two-first, the excessive use of tobacco and alcohol, which doubtless did something to lower the vitality of the population ; second, the extremely defective system of educa- tion, which left the people essentially without the means of getting a training proportionate to their natural abilities.
59
EFFECTS OF SLAVERY.
" The institution of slavery tended to keep the industrial and the related social development confined within narrow lines. At the beginning of the century the State had an industrial spirit that was fit to compare with that of New England and the other Northern free States. Many of the arts that were exercised by the whites took on a rapid advance, but the negro is not by nature a good general citizen, nor could he be expected to develop his capacities in the state of slavery. Gradually manual labor, except in agriculture, became in a way discreditable and distasteful to the mastering race. The mechanical industries, except those of the simpler domestic sort, were generally abandoned, even before northern and eastern competition came in. This want of manufacturing life was by no means an unmitigated evil, for it kept the people in more wholesale occupation ; but it served to restrain the growth of wealth, on which the progress of education and the development of capital much depend. The development of slavery was also marked by the progressive separation of society into a richer and a poorer class, though, from the failure of the slave element to increase with the rapidity normal in the more Southern States, the effect was not as great as in these districts. The middle class of farmers in Kentucky-those who, though fairly well to-do, were not slave-owners-always remained a very . strong, in fact, a controlling, element in the Kentucky population. The greater part of the tide of strong life that went from Kentucky to other States, in the four decades that preceded the civil war, was from the yeoman class, the reddest, if not the bluest, blood of the State.
" Despite these hindrances to social development, the commercial advance of Kentucky in the first eighty years of her history was marvelously great, especially as it was accomplished practically without the aid of any foreign capital whatever. This absence of immigrant capital in Kentucky in the first sixty or eighty years of its history is something that well deserves to be considered in measuring the development of the State. Until the close of the civil war there was scarcely an improvement in the Commonwealth that was not the result of the capital won by the people. In connection with this, it should be remembered that the expenditure of labor required to bring an acre of Kentucky land under tillage is many times as great as that required to subjugate prairie land. The mere felling of the forest and grubbing of the roots require at least twenty days' labor to the acre of ground.
" It requires a vivid imagination, or some personal experience, to conceive of the enormous amount of physical labor involved in the bringing of forest land into a shape for the use of civilized man. In all the Northern States, the work of subjugation and construction which is necessary on new ground was, in good part, accomplished by the aid of capital that was brought into the country in its settlement. None of these outside aids were offered to Kentucky. The first settlers had little capital beyond the price of their lands and a few household effects that could be packed on horses or wagoned
592
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
over the mountains. All their wealth they had to win from the soil and from their little factories.
"Two circumstances greatly helped this people to establish the foundation of their wealth. The settlements at the mouth of the Mississippi afforded, in a very early day, a considerable market for certain products of the soil, especially for tobacco. This plant, which had given a basis for the early commerce of Virginia, helped in turn the development of Kentucky. As early as 1790, there was a considerable shipment of this article. General Wilkinson, whose last shipments were in 1790, received, as was found in his court-martial, as much as $80,000 for a small part of his tobacco alone from the Spanish agents, and he was only the pioneer in this business, which afterward grew to be a great commerce, even before the cession of the Louisiana Territory to the United States.
"In 1860, Kentuckians had already won nearly one-half of the State's surface to the plow. The remainder was still in forests. At no time had there been any pressure for means of subsistence upon the people. The soils of the first quality were now actively under tillage or in grass. Nearly one- third of the State was still covered with original forests, rich in the best timbers, and the mineral wealth of the State was essentially untouched. The geological survey of Dr. David Dale Owen had shown that this country was extraordinarily rich in coal-beds and iron-ore deposits, but the State, in the main, drew its supply of timber, coal and iron from beyond its bor- ders. All its principal industries were agricultural, and its exports were raw products and men-exports, as has been well remarked, that naturally go out together, and to impoverish a country.
- "Its growth of population was now, in the later decade of its existence, relatively slow; not that the people were less fecund than of old, but the trifling incoming of settlers along its northern borders did not in any degree replace the constant westward-setting tide of emigration."
EVENTS OF THE PERIOD FROM 1860 TO 1863. 593
CHAPTER XXVII.
(1860-63.)
Views and forebodings of the great civil war.
Feeling in Kentucky.
Clay and Crittenden as peicemakers.
Abduction of slaves.
The " Underground Railroad."
Disintegration and division of old par- ties.
Repeal of Missouri Compromise.
Squatter Sovereignty.
The Republicans elect Abraham Lincoln president.
Other candidates.
Leslie Combs, Union, elected clerk of Appellate Court.
Kentucky as a central border State.
Crittenden's compromise bill.
Acts of State convention and Legisla- ture, January, 1861.
National Peace Conference.
Fort Sumter fired on and surrenders.
General Robert Anderson.
Lincoln's call for troops.
Magoffin's defiant answer.
Pleas for "neutrality" for Kentucky.
Responses.
Provisions to maintain.
One million dollars voted to equip the
" Home Guards" and "State Guards." General Simon B. Buckner.
Elections. Anti-secession.
Partisan men and movements.
Abraham Lincoln.
Jefferson Davis.
The inevitable.
Manassas.
The war fury. Secession versus revolution.
Fallacy and fact.
Recruiting.
Camps for both.
Legislature calls for forty thousand vol- unteers.
Battle of New Madrid
General Albert Sidney Johnston at Bow- ling Green.
Polk at Columbus.
Noted Kentuckians arrested.
Others join the Southern army.
Zollicoffer at Wild Cat mountain.
Ivy mountain.
Anarchy and violence. .
Divided households, churches, and com- munities.
Lawless Home Guards.
Guerrillas.
Indictments for treason.
Confederate State Government organ- ized.
General Finnell, adjutant-general.
Garfield's campaign.
Battle of Mill Spring.
Defeat and death of Zollicoffer.
General Buell's command.
General Grant's.
Sherman's dismal report.
Relative forces.
Confederates badly armed.
Battles of Forts Henry and Donelson. Surrender.
General Buckner shares the fate of the soldiers.
His life.
General Johnston's retreat.
Columbus evacuated.
Federals occupy Nashville.
President Lincoln and Congress offer to
pay for slaves emancipated by any States. Refusals.
Why ?
Retreat and invasion further south.
Johnston and Grant meet at Pittsburgh Landing.
38
594
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Great battle of Shiloh.
Grant's army disastrously defeated.
General A. S. Johnston slain.
Buell rescues Grant and defeats Beaure- gard.
George W. Johnson killed.
Kentucky "Orphan " Brigade. Kentucky Federal troops engaged. South-west campaigns.
General John H. Morgan's cavalry. His methods.
Colonel Basil W. Duke.
Morgan's first raid through Kentucky.
Force and equipments.
Fight at Tompkinsville.
Ellsworth's telegraphic feats.
Capture of Lebanon.
At Midway.
To Georgetown. Battle of Cynthiana. Escapes south.
Pursuit.
Colonel J. J. Landrum.
Rigors of martial law.
General Boyle, commandant. Provost marshals.
Terms to rebels.
Rule of Stanton, secretary of war. Horrors of civil strife.
Federal enlistments.
Governor Magoffin resigns.
James F. Robinson governor.
Leniency. Battle of Hartsville.
Kirby Smith's invasion.
Routs the Federal army at Richmond.
Occupies all East Kentucky.
General Humphrey Marshall.
Escape from Cumberland Gap.
Bright omens for the Confederate cause.
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