A New History of Kentucky, Chapter 11 PDF

Chapter Title: Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 Book Title: A New History of Kentucky Book Author(s): JAMES C. KLOTTER and CRAIG THOMPSON FRIEND Published by: University Press of Kentucky Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5npjz4.15 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service th...

Chapter Title: Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 Book Title: A New History of Kentucky Book Author(s): JAMES C. KLOTTER and CRAIG THOMPSON FRIEND Published by: University Press of Kentucky Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5npjz4.15 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms University Press of Kentucky is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to A New History of Kentucky This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  11 Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 Despite much continuity in the postwar lives opportunity to grasp emancipation with com- of Kentuckians, some major changes occurred pensation but had totally rejected that course. immediately, chiefly in the areas of race rela- They could not envision a world without slav- tions and politics. The end of slavery destroyed ery. But had such a route been taken, much of many of the old racial rules, and new relation- the heartbreak that followed could have been ships developed. In the defeated South these avoided. new relations were forged under the aegis of In March 1865, shortly before the war’s federal Reconstruction. But Kentucky had offi- end, the US Congress passed an act proclaim- cially been a loyal, Union state and did not fall ing that all slaves serving as Union soldiers “are under those controls. Many of the same prob- made free,” and their wives and children were lems and concerns existed in the common- freed as well. Kentucky law did not recognize wealth as in the states of the former Confeder- slave marriages, however, so the whole mat- acy, but solutions resulted from a different set ter became very complicated. Circuit judges of circumstances. Kentucky’s example suggest- in the state quickly declared the law that ap- ed what might have occurred in a South with- plied to spouses and offspring unconstitu- out Reconstruction. The results proved dis- tional, and the case went to appeal before the couraging. In the end, the federal government state’s highest court. That process would take did have to intervene, to ensure that blacks re- eight months. In the interim, Kentucky-born ceived basic rights in this new postwar world. general John M. Palmer of Illinois, as Feder- Under these circumstances, Kentucky went al military commander of the commonwealth, through a period not of Reconstruction but of consciously disregarded the circuit court rul- Readjustment. ing and enforced the congressional decree in- stead. As a result of that and other actions, an Freedom estimated 70 percent of the 225,000 slaves in the state considered their bondage terminated. Many problems grew out of the piecemeal Most white Kentuckians refused to acknowl- way slavery ended in Kentucky. The Emanci- edge the legality of that situation, and the sta- pation Proclamation of 1863 had not affect- tus of blacks in the commonwealth remained ed the commonwealth, since the wartime or- unclear. Were they fugitives or free? der applied only to states in rebellion. That fact Unquestionably, however, some sixty-five did not keep some sympathetic Union soldiers thousand Kentucky slaves remained in bond- and officials from encouraging Kentucky slaves age after the war concluded. Kentucky and to leave their masters, but equally unsympa- Delaware had not ended slavery, and the insti- thetic local and state courts ordered their re- tution remained legal in those two states lon- turn. Since enforcement of such court decrees ger than anywhere else in the country. Deter- could be sporadic, a kind of de facto freedom mined to deal with the situation by action if existed. Slaveholders in Kentucky had had the not by law, General Palmer used his powers un- 223 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY der the martial law still in force in Kentucky Still, for former slaves, the immediate fact was and in May 1865 issued what became known as that they were free at last. Liberty came in de- “Palmer passes.” These permits lifted the tight grees, in different ways and at different times at travel restrictions of the old slave codes and per- various places across the state. In some isolated mitted virtually free movement. Some ten thou- areas news came slowly, and it might be pre- sand or more slaves took matters into their own sented in confusing ways or withheld entirely. hands—or feet—and simply walked to a boat As late as 1867 cases were reported of children and crossed the Ohio River to a free state. Oth- who were still held in bondage. One woman re- ers went to Federal army camps, where a forced membered finally hearing the news: “I got hap- return to their owners would be less likely. At py and sung, but I didn’t know for a long time a July 4 rally, General Palmer was understood what to be free was.” She learned. to have told a massive crowd of twenty thou- When freedom did come, former slaves sand African Americans that they were free, and generally experienced similar emotions: “When they took him at his word. Again, most white the news came we were free every body was Kentuckians bitterly opposed the words and the glad,” one remembered. A contemporary ob- passes as arbitrary and illegal actions. A Louis- server wrote that “the consciousness of freedom ville court indicted the general for violating the has got hold of them and abides with them.” slave code. As one author accurately concluded, Some white families, long convinced of the “Slavery died hard in Kentucky.” loyalty of their slaves to them, were genuine- In an attempt to provide some order to the ly shocked when they arose not to the smell of chaos as well as protection to blacks, the state breakfast being prepared by slaves but to the remained under martial law for five months silence of an empty house. Their servants had following the surrender of the last Confederate slipped away in the night. One man who lived army. On October 12, 1865, however, Presi- at the time remembered that in his area only dent Andrew Johnson ordered the end of mili- a very few slaves did not leave. Such changes tary rule in the state. This was one of the few added to labor problems and angered white federal actions white Kentuckians applauded. Kentuckians. The situation in some households Some African Americans still remained slaves, changed little, however, as former slaves will- and others lived in an uncertain legal status, ingly stayed on, working for wages and con- awaiting court decisions to uphold the free- tinuing close relationships with white families. dom they understood they had. Now they all But there was a crucial difference: they stayed lacked the protection of the US Army. More- because they had chosen to do so and could over, on December 15, the Kentucky Court leave when they desired. The working situation of Appeals upheld the earlier lower court deci- may not have been openly modified on the sur- sion declaring illegal the federal law regarding face, but everyone knew it was different. The the emancipation of black wives and children. former slaves were free. These people were still slaves, according to the Freedom brought with it a mobility un- state decision, and could be returned to their known under slavery, and African Americans owners. Three days later, however, the entire flocked to towns and cities to get away from issue became moot. On December 18, 1865, former masters, rural violence, and unpleasant seven months after the war’s end, when the memories. Like others, they sought new lives Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution and better opportunities in an urban setting. was declared ratified, all Kentucky slaves be- As a result, the black population of Lexing- came free. It affected really only the two states ton, for instance, increased over 130 percent in which slavery remained legal. One was Ken- between 1860 and 1870. During that same tucky. But the legal question of slavery or free- time, the city’s white population grew only dom had at last been answered. a little over 20 percent. Black migrants lived Yet the question of black rights persisted. wherever they could—integrated into white Finding answers would take a century or more. areas through housing in back alleys, out-of- 224 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 A black family in Glasgow in the post–Civil War period. (J. Winston Coleman Photographic Collection, Transylvania University Library, Lexington, KY) the-way streets, and older houses, or self-segre- marriages of slaves, those who had been living gated in newly built shantytowns on the city’s together before the war sought to solemnize edge. The same pattern developed in Louisville their relationships. An 1866 Kentucky law pro- and in most towns across the state. But the in- hibited interracial marriages, with a five-year dependence blacks found in cities and towns jail term as penalty, but it also allowed former came at a high cost. They lived in dilapidat- slaves to purchase marriage certificates. The ed housing, endured inadequate food and fuel, law, therefore, recognized antebellum cohabi- and suffered widespread disease. Fever took its tation as a legal marriage and offspring as legit- toll in Owensboro, where a quarter of its pop- imate. Many, many Kentucky blacks paid with ulation was African American by 1880, and in scarce money to formalize their marriage ties. Paducah, where a third was. Destitute people In spite of all the family divisions and disrup- died in the streets. Some white Kentuckians tions as a result of slavery, black families within provided aid and support, but anger directed at a half decade after war’s end were basically sim- the newly freed slaves represented a more typi- ilar in structure to white families. cal response. Black attempts at self-uplift were The 1866 marriage law proved to be one viewed almost as an attack on the status quo. of only a few concessions made to the former When desperate former slaves stole food in or- slaves. A white minister in western Kentucky, der to survive, whites condemned them, and on hearing of a black barn dance, remarked in this condemnation became a part of a self-ful- his diary, “This is almost an insult to the moral filling prophecy. It seemed as if many whites sense & sentiment of our community.” Such wanted to prove slavery had been good by see- attitudes were prevalent. Whites had been ing former slaves fail. reared on stories about the anarchy that would Strong black families, however, helped the result from the removal of the guiding controls former slaves survive and succeed in the end. of slavery: blacks would rise up and kill whites, First of all, freedmen who had been separated so the stories went, or intermarry with them, by sales or distance from spouses and children or utterly disrupt the labor system. But none of searched them out and reunited their families. that happened on the scale predicted, and one A study of housing in Louisville showed that farmer wrote two years after the end of slavery 70 percent of black children lived with both that “we have tried the system of Free Negro parents by 1880, a figure similar to the white labor... and they are doing better than the average. Since the law had not recognized the most sanguine of us had hoped.” Yet despite ev- 225 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY idence to the contrary, white Kentuckians con- bering well over a hundred each, used violence tinued to paint dire pictures of the awful con- to try to give them control over a new world sequences should blacks have anything but a they did not want. They lynched people of subordinate, slave-like status. As a result, one both races and drove off entire communities of race had public education; the other did not. blacks. A harried farmer pleaded for aid from One race could sit on juries; the other could the governor: “We cannot lay down at Night not. One race could testify against the other in in peace we are aroused Shooting and yeling court; the other could not. And one race could like mad or Derainged men.” All across the use violence to oppose any action that sought state such groups or even more formal bands to advance black equality. of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized the country- Kentucky was a violent state for both rac- side. A Freedmen’s Bureau teacher in Bowl- es in the 1860s and beyond, but the intensity ing Green received a warning: “KU KLUX of the actions directed against former slaves ex- KLANS! Blood! Poison! Powder! Torch! Leave ceeded anything experienced by whites. Some- in five days or hells your portion!” A study of times white antagonism emerged as econom- Klan violence in the period concluded that ic opposition, such as a refusal to sell land to “outrages in Kentucky equaled those elsewhere blacks for them to build schools or churches. in size, frequency, and brutality,” and a histo- At other times and places threats preceded vio- rian recently noted that the commonwealth lent outbursts, and blacks were forced to leave was the only one of the non-seceding states whole areas of the state. A band of five hun- that had any significant KKK violence. In July dred whites in Gallatin County, for example, 1869, a newspaper reported that the Klan had drove hundreds of blacks to flee across the hanged twenty-five people within a central Ohio River. Finally, white hostility could ex- Kentucky area that was twenty-five miles in plode directly into physical force. During a diameter and had beaten a hundred more dur- two-week period in 1867 some sixteen whites ing the previous two years. While some lead- in Kentucky were arrested on separate charges ing citizens and newspapers attacked such ex- of beating former slaves. The next year brought tralegal violence, and towns like Henderson the account of a black woman who accidental- outlawed the wearing of masks, others in the ly brushed against the dress of a county judge’s state media praised “Judge Lynch.” People of- wife and was caned so hard by the judge that ten remarked in stories they wrote that “many she acquired a scar. Such events unfortunate- of the best citizens of the city were members ly were not rare. In a single month in 1868 a of the clan.” In Central Kentucky state mili- black school was destroyed in Monroe County, tia forces operated as a political paramilitary a school and two churches were burned in Bul- to intimidate blacks, especially when African litt County, and a teacher of a black school in Americans got the ballot. Mayfield was driven from town by a mob. It is little wonder that African Ameri- Hatred also brought death. Between 1867 cans such as former Union soldier Elijah Marrs and 1871 more than one hundred blacks were formed Loyal Leagues for protection. Living lynched in Kentucky, and dozens more were at the time in Henry County, a place “overrun killed by other violent means. As author Robert with the K.K.K.,” Marrs had windows broken Penn Warren later wrote, “To a certain number in his house, but by sleeping with a pistol un- of contemporary citizens the Civil War seemed der his pillow, a rifle by his side, “and a corn- to have been fought for the right to lynch with- knife at the door,” he remained unharmed. out legal interference.” Marrs would go on to be a teacher, minister, Groups of self-styled “Regulators” virtu- civic leader, and political activist, speaking out ally controlled the central Kentucky counties later against segregation. But an atmosphere of of Anderson, Mercer, Marion, Lincoln, and violence like the one in which he lived could Boyle. Groups called Skaggs Men, the Crab only beget more violence. Orchard Gang, and the Bull Pups, often num- The bitter, unrelenting opposition to black 226 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 education, advancement, or rights—indeed, to ed, Kentucky usually ranked third or fourth in anything that hinted at the possibility of equal- attendance and first or second in the percent- ity—brought forth a response from the feder- age of school-age blacks in school. In fact, by al government. The extent of the resistance to 1869 probably a greater part of the black stu- black self-help efforts and the defiant hostili- dent population attended classes than did the ty to efforts at economic independence neces- white. Freedmen’s Bureau schools provided ba- sitated outside aid if blacks were to have any sic instruction only, but they fulfilled a funda- reasonable opportunities. The Bureau of Ref- mental need for former slaves. ugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands had It is remarkable the Freedmen’s Bureau been organized to deal with the former Con- schools did as well as they did, for almost every federacy, but its jurisdiction did not extend to effort met resistance. An agent was murdered, Kentucky. With the state’s recent history, how- schoolhouses were burned, teachers were beat- ever, the head of the organization, General Ol- en, and students were threatened and killed. iver O. Howard, directed that it supervise the Reports repeated the same story over and over: former slaves of Kentucky as well. Opposition in 1867 former slaves had been the victims of was immediate, for the Freedmen’s Bureau, aid- 20 killings, 18 shootings, 11 rapes, and 270 ed by a few soldiers, quickly took a limited but other cases of mistreatment; in January 1868, active role in trying to secure fair contracts and “there is certainly a very determined and a very proper treatment for the state’s blacks. Between bitter opposition to the education of the ne- 1866, when the organization began to oper- gro”; in November, “Armed and Masked bands ate in the state, and 1869, when its main du- of men exercise unlimited sway.” ties ended, the Freedmen’s Bureau proved to be The Freedmen’s Bureau had been estab- about the best friend former slaves had. lished in Kentucky because the state’s citizens The always underfunded and understaffed had not accepted “responsibility for the human Freedmen’s Bureau, which never had more needs of freedmen.” The commonwealth’s in- than fifty-seven officials for what was then action or opposition had brought federal in- the 110 counties of the state, provided small tervention, but the Bureau itself grew to be so amounts of food and clothing to destitute hated that even greater violence resulted. The blacks. It operated a hospital in Louisville, and organization became both part of the solution it supervised and, if necessary, voided appren- and part of the problem. One study concluded ticeship contracts, which seemed almost an at- that “Kentucky had the dubious distinction of tempt to reestablish slavery. One such typical being in the forefront in its violent opposition 1866 contract in Warren County ordered that to the activities of the Freedmen’s Bureau.” James Watthall, “a freed boy of color of the age Whites who were already angry over mili- of seven,” be bound to a white man “until he tary rule, federal resistance to state court de- arrives at the age of 21 years, to learn the trade, crees, and what they perceived as unconstitu- art, or mystery of farming.” Most important, tional actions concerning slavery struck out however, the Bureau helped establish schools against the Bureau as yet another interference across Kentucky, which were in most instanc- in their lives. Unfortunately, white Kentuckians es the only educational facilities available for did not see that they could have avoided much blacks. By November 1867, 97 schools, em- of the tragedy that they brought on themselves ploying 117 teachers, had 5,610 pupils; a year through some basic humanitarianism and fair- and a half later, nearly 250 schools had an at- ness. But for black Kentuckians, without some tendance of 10,360. Unlike the situation in of the rights provided in the North and with- the former Confederacy, where white northern out the federal protection given to African teachers tended to predominate, 80 percent of Americans in the defeated South, they existed the teachers at the Freedmen’s Bureau schools in what one historian called “a new, raw kind in Kentucky were African American. Among of middle ground both north and south of free- the seventeen states where the Bureau operat- dom and equality.” 227 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY Political Decisions, 1865–1868 Opponents sought to tar Republicans with the brush of radicalism. Calling them Red If racial adjustments constituted a major part of Republicans, Radicals, Radical Abolitionists, the shifting ground that made up postwar Ken- or Jacobins (referring to revolutionary France), tucky life, political readjustments took place al- those in opposition pictured Kentucky Re- most in quicksand. The fluid political situation publicans as bloodthirsty militarists who were was uncertain, unstable, and unsteady, and for seeking, as the Flemingsburg Democrat stated, a time Kentuckians tried to make sense of a a nation “where liberty is swallowed up by... world that featured three virtually new politi- anarchy.” Attackers proclaimed that these radi- cal parties. cals wanted black suffrage, even racial equality, In antebellum times, the Whig Party of and would support any actions, constitution- Henry Clay had dominated, but with Clay’s al or otherwise, to destroy the rights of white and his party’s death in the 1850s, new chal- southerners and to promote black privilege. lenges had come forth. These were not met be- The Conservative or Southern Rights Par- fore the war came, and the conflict changed all ty, as it was sometimes termed but more of- the rules. Now, three groups—former Whigs, ten simply identified as the Democratic Par- former Unionists, and former Confederates— ty, spearheaded this attack. A Frankfort paper were the prizes the parties sought to gain. Even said the group was led by rebels “subdued, but the causes prewar Democrats had supported, not repentant.” Called “the secession Democra- North or South, divided them. In the politi- cy” by its enemies, the party did include many cal card game, all earlier bets were off, and new former Confederates and their supporters. But hands were being dealt. All parties wanted to from the beginning it also numbered in its make certain they could win. ranks former Unionists who had turned against What were really all-new parties emerged. the national administration over questions in- The Union Party, as it was sometimes called, volving military, constitutional, and racial mat- had the best-defined principles and was the ters. Both Democrats and Republicans had most stable. It soon became known as the Re- former Whigs and former Unionists in their publican Party. Representing the victors in the parties, and both parties attempted to attract war and the party that controlled national pol- those former voting blocs. Democrats made icy, Kentucky Republicans supported Recon- their appeals by calling for what amounted to a struction in the South and the adoption of the return to the past, as they opposed, in general, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amend- all the constitutional amendments, and fought ments, giving former slaves rights as citizens at first any movement toward extending black and voters. They also early waved the “bloody rights. They also indicated that they—and Ken- shirt” and reminded voters that theirs was “the tucky—must speak for the South because only party of the patriot soldiers who saved the gov- their “free” and “unconquered” state could rep- ernment... the party of the widows and or- resent southern interests against the national phans,” whose husbands and fathers had died radicals. While Republicans looked northward putting down the rebellion. Consisting chief- for their model, Democrats looked southward. ly of former Unionists, and with some former The Kentucky Gazette, published in Lexington, Whigs in its ranks, the state party consciously presented the Democratic arguments clearly in adopted more moderate stances than did the its July 4, 1866, issue. It proclaimed that the Radical Republicans at the national level. Yet question was “whether we will yield up the last it also sought to have Kentucky perceived na- vestige of the institutions reared by Washing- tionally as a loyal state deserving of rewards. ton and Jefferson, and bid adieu to that con- Republicans in the commonwealth saw them- stitutional liberty... or whether we will listen selves as the progressive, “modern” force in the to the syren song of the Jacobins [Republi- state, the faction that would reshape Kentucky cans], and... overturn the Constitution of the along the lines of the developing North. country.” In response, Kentucky Republicans 228 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 praised their martyred hero Lincoln and said elected a state treasurer, five of nine congress- that his more modern vision must be followed, men, and a majority of the legislature. Repub- rather than that of the recent traitors who had licans were worried. sought to destroy the Union. Well might they be. The new general as- In all this, however, a third party lurked, sembly again refused to ratify the Thirteenth seeking votes. Called the Conservative Union Amendment, then angered some Unionists or Constitutional Union Democratic Party, it by repealing the Wartime Act of Expatriation, sought to build its base among former Whigs which had deprived Confederates of political who disagreed with both the “radical” policies and civil rights. As a result, former Confeder- of the Republicans and the reactionary ones of ates suffered no reprisals, and the governor be- the Democrats. It also wooed Unionists who gan granting pardons to soldiers under indict- could not stomach alliance with either the in- ment for actions taken during the war. Former creasingly Confederate-dominated Democrats Confederates quickly began to retake leader- or the black-oriented Republicans. Samuel ship posts in their communities and state. An Haycraft, in a May 1866 letter to a newspaper official of the Freedmen’s Bureau noted that editor, spoke for those who feared, as he did, in Christian County, nothing had been done voting for an “Abolition” party or a secessionist about the shooting of a former Union soldier one. He belonged to “a class of men, old-line because “our county officials are all rebel.” At Whigs and Democrats” who had supported the the state level, the next six governors would Union, but not the end of slavery as it was now either be former Confederate soldiers or men occurring. Should either the Democrats or the who had been wartime southern sympathizers. Republicans adopt extreme stances, then the The new heroes were not those who had victo- Constitutional Unionists might develop into a riously defended a now less-popular vision, but major force. rather those who had waged war against it. The The three parties engaged in a propaganda pro-Union narrative faded; the victors lost the war to sell their viewpoints to undecided vot- peace. And in the longer struggle over interpre- ers, and the issues were chiefly national ones— tation and memory, the southern version won Reconstruction in the South, racial concerns, out as well. and constitutional matters. Kentucky’s political That fact became even clearer in what future was being shaped not on state questions would normally have been a minor, off-year but on even broader ones. Citizens had to de- race, the race for clerk of the Kentucky Court cide what they wanted their future to be. They of Appeals in 1866. Instead it became a test- made their choice very clear, very quickly. ing ground regarding the meaning of the con- The initial opportunity to test the strength flict, with the Democrats running Judge Alvin of the various groups came in the state elec- Duvall of Georgetown. He quickly attacked tion held in August 1865. (Some federal elec- the “Yankee agents” of the Freedmen’s Bureau tions were held separately, in November.) Some and that group’s “vile usurpation” of state pow- months earlier, the Kentucky General Assem- ers. Both the Conservative Union Party and bly had rejected the Thirteenth Amendment the Union (Republican) Party had candidates freeing the slaves, by a vote of fifty-six to eigh- in the field, but just five weeks before the elec- teen in the house and twenty-three to ten in tion, the two parties united behind former the senate. The only support for it had come Union general Edward H. Hobson of Greens- from northeastern and southeastern Kentucky. burg, a man who had captured the Confeder- The Thirteenth Amendment remained a key is- ate John Hunt Morgan. But Unionist hero sta- sue; Unionists (Republicans) supported it, and tus meant less than Hobson’s advocacy of the Conservatives (Democrats) opposed it. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and state continued under martial law, and the mil- Democrats labeled him a radical who had sup- itary did influence the vote in some places, but ported the “robbery” of one hundred million overall the Conservatives carried the day. They dollars’ worth of slave property through un- 229 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY compensated emancipation. Bitterness erupted and Lieutenant Governor Richard T. Jacob, or- on election day, and some twenty people were ganized a third-party convention, called them- killed in disputes across the state. Democrat selves the Conservative Union Democrats, and Duvall won a convincing victory, obtaining nominated William B. Kinkead of Lexington. 95,979 votes compared with Hobson’s 58,035. Both groups chastised Radical Reconstruction The pro-Union Frankfort Commonwealth sum- policies and opposed granting further rights to marized accurately the results: Unionists “have blacks. The main difference seemed to be that been out-numbered or out-generaled, the great the Conservative Unionists wanted recognition engine used against them having been, as usu- of their wartime accomplishments and a limit al, the negro.” on the growing strength of former Confeder- This election was but one of several pre- ates in the Democratic Party. Republicans had liminary skirmishes before the 1867 battle been unable to forge another merger with the for major political office, the governorship of so-called third party, for their differences on the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The victo- policy were too great, and the Republicans of- ries went consistently to the Democrats. First, fered instead a slate headed by former Union the legislature of January 1867 overwhelming colonel Sidney M. Barnes of Estill County. His defeated, by votes of sixty-two to twenty-six support for the unpopular Fourteenth Amend- and twenty-four to seven, the proposed Four- ment overshadowed moderate words that sug- teenth Amendment to the US Constitution, gested a quick end to military rule in the South. giving blacks citizenship and certain other pro- The results indicated how Kentuckians felt: tections. Next, in a three-way fight that ended “We have met the enemy, and—we are their’s,” with the Constitutional Union forces combin- wrote the editor of the Maysville Republican. ing this time with the Democrats, incumbent Democrat Helm won 90,225 votes, Republican US senator Garrett Davis of Bourbon Coun- Barnes got 33,939, and Conservative Union- ty won reelection for a six-year term. A former ist Kinkead polled but 13,167. Two-thirds of Whig and former Know-Nothing, Davis had the voters had gone Democratic, and Repub- become a wartime Democrat, and he made the licans won only 17 seats in the 138-person transition to peacetime victory. Then in May general assembly. Happy Democrats rejoiced 1867, in a special congressional election, Dem- that they had rid the state of “the Curse of ocrats won all nine seats in races that frequently Radicalism.” Republican editor William O. featured all three parties. A disgusted Republi- Goodloe of Lexington’s Kentucky Statesman can wrote, “Kentucky is today as effectually in spoke for his side when he angrily cried out, the hands of rebels as if they had every town “What [Confederate general] Bragg failed to and city garrisoned by their troops.... What do in 1862, with his army and banners, the is to become of the poor blacks and loyal white people of Kentucky, five years later, have done; men God only knows.” they have given the State over into the hands The answer become common knowledge of those who are and have been the enemies with the gubernatorial race decided in August of the Union.” Others lamented that “the foul- 1867. Sixty-five-year-old Democratic nomi- est and most inexcusable treason is rewarded.” nee John L. Helm of Elizabethtown had been a Some of the party called on Congress to bring Whig governor of the state in the 1850s. One in the military and initiate Reconstruction pol- of his sons had been killed fighting as a Con- icies. The Frankfort Commonwealth confessed, federate general in the Civil War. While the rest “The ‘Lost Cause’ is found again in Kentucky.” of the ticket included one former Union offi- Republicans erred in attributing Demo- cer, it also featured a Confederate who had rid- cratic success totally to the former Confeder- den with Morgan and several wartime south- ates in that party. The scope of the Democrat- ern sympathizers. Terming this ticket a “theft of ic victory showed that many former Unionists all the offices by the rebels,” old Unionists, in- simply could not support Republican policies cluding current governor Thomas E. Bramlette on race and other issues. These “belated Con- 230 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 federates” had joined the opposition instead. Bourbons and New Departure In the fight for the former Whigs, both parties Democrats had made gains, but that was not enough for the Republicans. To forge a winning coalition, Democrats forged an uneasy alliance, however. they had needed to bring in even more Whigs. They could usually unite at election time and A study of Caldwell County in western Ken- win victories, but many cracks and blemishes tucky showed that, of those who had opposed developed in their armor. the Democratic Party as Whigs in 1848, only Part of the problem lay in divisive section- 41 percent voted against the Democrats twen- alism and the divergent interest groups operat- ty years later. Similarly, a statewide survey of ing in Kentucky. People in different regions of two dozen prominent prewar Whigs found that the state—western, central, northern, and east- thirteen had become postwar Democrats and ern—had varied interests and sought to pro- eleven had become Republicans. In short, the tect and advocate their own positions. Com- powerful former Whig block had divided fairly mercial forces struggled with agricultural ones. equally. Of the twenty counties that had voted City competed with city, and leaders with lead- Whig consistently before the 1850s, only five— ers. The old hemp-growing Bluegrass and the all in the Unionist Kentucky mountains—had new tobacco-growing western Kentucky areas, voted Republican in 1867. In the struggle for the railroad towns and those without rails, the the hearts, minds, and votes of Unionists and old power blocs and the new all contested for Whigs, the Republicans had met defeat. power within the party. The year 1867 marked the effective demise Philosophical differences also arose, and, of the Conservative Union third-party move- for a time, two major factions split the party. ment. Ironically, it also marked the death of the Yet it would win almost all the elections for man responsible for their immediate defeat. Ill nearly thirty years. On one side stood the so- during the campaign, Governor Helm could called Bourbon Democrats. Like the Bour- not leave his home and was sworn in there. Just bon royal family of France, they forgot noth- five days later, on September 8, 1867, Helm ing and learned nothing. Led by conservatives, died, and his lieutenant governor, John White like J. Stoddard Johnston of Frankfort’s Ken- Stevenson, took over the gubernatorial term. A tucky Yeoman and former Whig George Wash- wealthy, fifty-five-year-old attorney from Cov- ington Craddock, the chairman of the Central ington, Stevenson was the son of a Speaker of Committee, they initially controlled the Dem- the US House from Virginia and had followed ocratic Party and opposed almost any varia- his father’s path into Democratic politics as tions from the old, prewar order. They sought a Kentucky congressman and southern sym- security from the chaos of the present by seek- pathizer. Now he inherited a state divided on ing to return to earlier ways, refused to recog- race, inundated with violence, and mired in de- nize change brought about by Reconstruction, bates about federal-state relations. But his im- and, according to one writer, “seemed to wor- mediate task was to win a special election to fill ship at the shrine of the dead past.” On racial the rest of the unexpired term, a contest that issues, they agreed with the 1867 assertion of took place in August 1868. Even though the the Kentucky Gazette that an African American new governor proved to be a less-than-dynamic was only capable to be “a hewer of wood and speaker, he had no third-party opposition, for a drawer of water to the white man.” Strong a change, and numerous national issues to at- advocates of low taxation and limited state aid tack, as usual. The result was a landslide victo- to education, the Bourbons supported an ex- ry over Republican R. Tarvin Baker, on a vote tremely restricted role for government in the of 115,560 to 26,605. Winning more than 80 lives of Kentuckians. percent of the vote, the Democrats ruled su- The New Departure Democrats opposed preme in the state. For almost the next three them. So named because they sought to break decades they would continue to do so. away from old issues and forge a new Ken- 231 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY tucky, the New Departure forces counseled ac- to fill an unexpired US Senate term, the elec- ceptance of the federal amendments so that Re- tion of Democrats to all nine congressional construction could be hurried along and ended. seats in the 1868 fall elections, and the pres- They wanted not to refight the war in the press idential vote that year all showed trends. On but to put it all behind them and move ahead. national issues, Kentucky stood firmly with the Supporting a state and federal role in govern- southern Democratic viewpoint. As a result, ment and the economy that harkened back to war hero and Republican presidential candi- the philosophy of the old Whig Party, they ad- date Ulysses S. Grant received but 39,566 Ken- vocated a vision that included support for in- tucky votes in the 1868 race, while Democratic dustrialization, education, and, to a much more hopeful Horatio Seymour of New York carried limited extent, some black rights. The Bour- the state with 75 percent of the vote, a total of bons referred to “the humiliation of this new 115,889. Kentucky was one of only eight states departure, which is a surrender of the whole that supported Seymour (three southern states subject to radical usurpation and revolution.” did not vote in the election). President Grant But able New Departure leaders answered that brought the hated Radical Republican banner charge easily. On November 8, 1868, major to the White House. Louisville papers merged and formed the Cou- Overall, Governor Stevenson tried to steer rier-Journal. Led by its young editor Henry a middle-of-the-road course between his party’s Watterson, it soon became the leading newspa- two factions. The chief executive dispatched per in the South and made Watterson a nation- the state militia to various locales in a largely al spokesman for his party and his region. In fruitless effort to stem violence. He favored the the Bluegrass another former Confederate sol- establishment of a house of reform for juvenile dier, William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, delinquents and supported a successful school already was editing the Lexington Observer and referendum that provided more tax money for Reporter. Both men used their papers to spread education. The New Departure group support- the New Departure word. Neither man neces- ed all these moves. Yet at the same time Ste- sarily favored the federal Reconstruction pol- venson opposed almost all attempts to expand icy, and neither was a racial egalitarian. But black rights and did not speak out against ini- both called for acceptance of the amendments, tiatives designed to limit those rights even fur- both spoke out against the Klan and violence, ther, actions the Bourbons advocated. On the and both promoted internal improvements. In question of black testimony, for instance, Ste- October 1866, W. C. P. Breckinridge issued the venson first took the conservative stance. By call for a New South and a new Kentucky: “Ex- Kentucky law, blacks could not testify in court tend her railroads; open up her rivers...; dig against whites. But under the US Civil Rights into her mountain sides and develop her inex- Act of 1866, when African Americans were de- haustible mineral wealth; erect mills and man- nied their right to testify, the cases could be ufactories, and with zeal and energy compete taken to federal court, where black testimony with other parts of the country.” More agrar- would be allowed. Republicans and some of ian-oriented Bourbons attacked that vision as the group that would be called New Departure only a pale reflection of Republican philoso- Democrats advocated that Kentucky pass legis- phy, and the factional fight was on. lation allowing black testimony, thus returning Kentucky cases to Kentucky courts. The bill The Stevenson Administration failed in 1867, and that year the state’s highest and Black Rights court declared the Civil Rights Act unconstitu- tional in regard to the issue of testimony. Once The new governor, John W. Stevenson, repre- again the national and state judiciaries stood in sented a party that totally controlled the state. conflict, as a federal lower court soon upheld The selection of conservative Democratic attor- the Civil Rights Act as constitutional. In 1869 ney Thomas Clay McCreery of Daviess County the legislature once more refused to modify the 232 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 state law, and Governor Stevenson supported a move to take the issue to the US Supreme Court. State action thus was delayed for two more years. Meanwhile, individuals took stands on the issue, often at great political cost. New Depar- ture leader W. C. P. Breckinridge, for instance, ran for commonwealth’s attorney in 1868 and at a gathering was accused of supporting black testimony. He responded: “Fellow-citizens, the charge my opponents urge against me is true. I am aware that this avowal will most likely de- feat me in this canvass, for you are not ready to view this question calmly and dispassionately. Your prejudices blind your judgement.... In the after days, when the passions of this hour shall have cooled, when reason shall assert her sway... in that hour you will approve though now you condemn me.” Facing certain defeat after that open acknowledgment of his views, he withdrew from the race. Not until 1871 did Governor Stevenson support black testimony, Kentuckian and US Supreme Court Justice John Mar- but his last legislature defeated it once more. shall Harlan. (Library of Congress Prints and Photo- With local judges now being indicted in feder- graphs Division) al court for denying black testimony, however, the Kentucky General Assembly in 1872 finally passed a bill giving blacks the same legal rights ed to vote Republican—if they could. Some held by whites in the state’s courts. Ironically, towns and cities imposed lengthy residence re- only a few months later the US Supreme Court quirements for voting or changed their bound- gave some support to Kentucky’s appeal, but aries to omit areas of significant black popula- the matter had been decided by then. tion and thus remove potential voters. Those In the meantime, an even greater fight was subterfuges eventually failed. More commonly going on. The proposed Fifteenth Amendment blacks voted, amid some violence but without to the US Constitution gave black men the major problems. A few scratched the Demo- right to vote, but the state legislature in Janu- cratic ticket, but most voted for the party of ary 1869 had rejected the proposed measure by Lincoln. They and their descendants contin- votes of twenty-seven to six and eighty to five. ued to do so for the next seven decades. Many Yet as each month passed, more and more states previously Democratic areas with sizable black ratified the amendment, and it was only a mat- populations suddenly saw a two-party system ter of time before the proposition became the develop overnight, as blacks began to vote Re- law of the land. The Covington Journal protest- publican. In the 1870 election in Danville, ed the “infamy” of the idea, the Paris True Ken- for example, the winning Republican count tuckian called the proposal “a villainous inno- of 276 consisted of 59 votes from whites and vation,” and Bourbon leader Craddock termed 217 votes from blacks. The losing Democrats it unconstitutional. Angry Democrats said that had 203 votes; only 5 of these came from black theirs must be “a white man’s party,” free of any voters. black voters. When declared ratified on March Governor Stevenson would not have to 30, 1870, the amendment enfranchised thou- face these new voters directly in the future, for sands of blacks, most of whom were expect- he had been selected by a joint vote of both 233 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY houses of the legislature to replace incumbent the Freedmen’s Bureau, he had first joined the McCreery as US senator from Kentucky. Since postwar third-party forces but with their de- senators continued to be elected by the legis- mise went to the Republicans. Harlan was one lature and not by popular vote, and since the of those leaders who matured in politics. When Kentucky General Assembly remained heavi- his earlier, conservative racial stands were point- ly Democratic for decades, the US senatorship ed out, he replied simply: “Let it be said that I would stay solidly in that party’s hands. In Feb- am right rather than consistent.” He soon was ruary 1871 Stevenson resigned as governor to recognized as one of the most able Kentucki- take up his new position the next month, leav- ans and would be named to the US Supreme ing behind an administration constantly trou- Court in 1877. In his thirty-three years on the bled by turmoil and conflict. Since Stevenson bench there, Harlan became known as the Great had vacated the lieutenant governor’s post to Dissenter, famous for his defense of minor- become governor when Helm died, the presi- ity rights—a stance perhaps influenced by the dent of the Kentucky Senate, Preston H. Leslie, fact that he had grown up with a mulatto man now became governor—the third person to fill who may have been his half brother. “The Peo- the office in the four-year term. ple’s Judge,” Harlan took courageous stands and spoke for the future with dissents that stressed The Leslie Years, 1871–1875 “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among its citizens.” Facing an August 1871 election for a full four- He would later be named one of the Supreme year term, Governor Leslie tried not to alienate Court’s dozen greatest justices. either faction of his party, thus to ensure his re- By the 1871 governor’s race, the Republi- election. He had usually followed such a path. can Party, like its Democratic counterpart, had Born in present-day Clinton County, Leslie finally stabilized and had taken on the char- had overcome poverty and a limited educa- acteristics it would retain for the next sever- tion to enter the legal profession. A successful al decades. The Republican Party was a party Whig legislator, Leslie had turned to the Dem- of contrasts, made up chiefly of economical- ocrats after Clay’s death. He had gone through ly disadvantaged blacks and eastern Kentucky the war years as a slaveholder opposed to se- whites, but led by wealthy and pro-business ur- cession but sympathetic to the southern cause. banites such as James Speed and Benjamin H. Now in 1871, he ran on a states’ rights plat- Bristow, both of Louisville. The combination form that opposed the “revolutionary” spirit also included what were termed Post Office of the “unconstitutional” Fourteenth and Fif- Republicans, who joined the party primarily to teenth Amendments and just about everything benefit from the patronage of what were usual- connected with the Republican administration ly Republican administrations in Washington. of U. S. Grant. Some two thousand federal jobs came to the With African Americans voting in a gover- state. But fights over the spoils of office would nor’s race for the first time, Republicans voiced divide the party, as would disagreements over more optimism, particularly once their guberna- the role of African Americans. In the end, votes torial choice was made. John Marshall Harlan of blacks were accepted and sought, and some represented the “new” Republican of the com- further rights were advocated, but Republi- monwealth, although he came from an old Ken- can candidates statewide remained as white tucky family. Son of a Whig congressman, he as those the Democrats proposed. Even then, had been a prewar Whig state adjutant general for some in the commonwealth Republican- at age eighteen. When war came, the well-edu- ism was akin to heresy. One politician noted cated and capable Harlan had joined the Union much later that in one Democratic stronghold, Army, then resigned later to accept election as “If Christ came to Earth, even the strong Bap- attorney general of Kentucky. A slaveholder tists up there wouldn’t vote for him if he were who opposed the Thirteenth Amendment and on the Republican ticket.” 234 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Reconstruction, Readjustment, and Race, 1865–1875 In the 1871 election Harlan appealed to less, passed the Kentucky House and gained the New Departure Democrats on mostly state a tie vote in the senate. Lieutenant Governor issues, as he called for support for education John G. Carlisle of Covington cast his decid- and railroads, an end to lawlessness, and accep- ing ballot in the bill’s favor, and it became law. tance of the federal amendments. Tall, muscu- Sectionalism and the L&N had been defeated. lar, and a strong speaker, the red-haired Harlan That would not always be the case. dominated his bearded friend, the less orator- Despite passage of this bill that he did not ical and less imposing Leslie, in joint debate, support, Leslie usually collaborated well with but, in the end, it did not matter. The Dem- the legislature during his term of office. Some ocrat began to take more moderate stands, much-needed legislation was enacted. Laws stressed federal instead of state issues, and passed during his tenure allowed black testimo- found that most Kentucky voters simply could ny, increased funding for asylums and correc- not bring themselves to endorse the Republi- tional institutions, implemented more stringent can record nationally. By a vote of 126,455 to laws against violence, established a geological 89,299, Leslie won the race. Even with a strong survey to determine the state’s resources, created candidate and the support of black voters, the a pharmacy board, and, in a particularly impor- Republican Party could not break free of the tant action, began a public system of “colored” shackles of the war and Readjustment. The Re- schools. An advocate of temperance who did not publicans’ immediate electoral future seemed serve liquor at state functions, the “Coldwater clear—continued defeat. Governor” also signed a law providing for local A Lexington newspaper had editorialized option elections to decide whether intoxicating earlier that “the Kentucky Democracy is a par- drink could be sold. ty that hangs very loosely together. The least Politically, Leslie’s administration held few difference, the smallest dissatisfaction creates a surprises. Former Confederate congressman split.” Governor Leslie quickly discovered the Willis B. Machen of Lyon County was select- truth of that conclusion, as a major conflict ed to fill an unexpired term in the US Senate, split not only his party but also the state. and on-again, off-again Senator McCreery won At issue was the Cincinnati Southern Rail- a full term in 1872. Democrats continued to road bill, which would support building a line control the congressional and legislative delega- through the central part of Kentucky and ty- tions. The only confusion appeared in the 1872 ing that area to the South via Chattanooga. presidential election, when reform-minded Re- Sectionalism quickly arose as supporters of the publicans at the national level rejected what they powerful Louisville and Nashville Railroad op- saw as Grant’s scandal-ridden administration posed this challenge to their near monopoly and nominated former Whig Horace Greeley of of the state’s rail system. They especially resist- New York as their candidate. They called them- ed a challenge led by “Yankee” commercial ri- selves the Liberal Republican Party. Nationally, val Cincinnati. The question was one of pow- the Democratic Party recognized that it could er, money, and sectional dominance, and the not win the election and endorsed Greeley as bitter battle lines divided parties and factions. well. Henry Watterson led a reluctant Kentucky Some usually pro-railroad New Departure into the Liberal Republican fold, but to no avail. leaders, such as Louisvillian Henry Watterson, Greeley carried the commonwealth by a vote opposed the bill, while more conservative cen- of 100,212 to 88,816, but of the thirty-seven tral Kentucky Bourbon Democrats favored it. states, he carried only five others. But in 1870 and 1871 votes, the legislature had At the conclusion of the Leslie years in 1875, rejected the bill, despite pleas from one-time then, the patterns for the next decades seemed es- presidential candidate and lionized Confeder- tablished. The Freedmen’s Bureau was gone, and ate hero John C. Breckinridge of Lexington. Reconstruction was fading as an issue. The third- Now in the 1872 Kentucky General Assem- party movement had died, for the moment. Par- bly, Leslie opposed the measure. It, neverthe- ty factionalism appeared to be receding, and the 235 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A NEW HISTORY OF KENTUCKY divisive Cincinnati Southern issue had been re- solved. All the voting blocs were now securely at- tached to one party or another. In short, many of the concerns troubling Kentucky in the Read- justment years now seemed solved. Much had been decided, but the role of African Americans had not. In some areas gains had been made. Whites in Kentucky now be- grudgingly accepted blacks as citizens and as voters and would not deprive them of their vot- ing rights (unlike the situation farther south). Blacks could now testify in court. By 1876 they sat on some federal juries, and by 1882 on state ones (although that would change). Black lawyers Nathaniel R. Harper of Louisville and George A. Griffith of Owensboro were accept- ed to the bar in 1871. A new cadre of lead- ers came to the forefront, including Dr. Henry Fitzbutler, Kentucky’s first black physician and editor of Louisville’s Ohio Falls Express. In Lou- isville, protests in 1870 caused the city street- cars to be open to all, and they remained so. Nathaniel R. Harper, admitted to the bar in 1871, prac- African Americans could attend an integrat- ticed law in Louisville. (A. P. Lipscomb, ed., The Com- ed institution at Berea College, where the 237 mercial History of the Southern States... Kentucky students enrolled in 1875 included 143 blacks. ) Blacks also lived physically among whites in cities across the state. Louisville in 1870 had black families residing on three of every four the Education of the Blind set up a separate blocks on average. People of color began to run “Colored Department.” Public schools started for and win minor political offices. In Hop- out segregated and remained so. Residential in- kinsville, for example, a black man sat on the tegration grew less prevalent, and increased seg- city council from 1895 to 1907, and others of regation in all areas seemed the future for Ken- his race served as deputy sheriff, county coro- tucky blacks. That situation and the continued ner, and county physician. In Mount Sterling presence of violence stimulated an out-migra- between 1901 and 1918, at least one African tion of thousands of black residents, particular- American won election to the city council. In ly to places like Nicodemus, Kansas, in the late certain locales, blacks and whites sat together at 1870s. The promised land lay elsewhere. religious services and worked beside each oth- With all that, black and white children er in coal mines. The integration of blacks into continued to play and eat together all across some facets of Kentucky life had occurred. the state. Strong bonds remained between Yet as the years wore on after 1875, seg- some adults in both races as well. But only an regation increased in other areas. There were optimistic leader such as W. C. P. Breckinridge no sudden changes, and just about every com- could look beyond a present without great munity had its own rules and exceptions. But hope for blacks to a time when “barriers will be some communities used vagrancy laws to en- removed, prejudices will die, class distinctions force a status for blacks not dissimilar to slav- be obliterated. Not at once; not in our day; not ery. More formally, the state penitentiary in without fierce contest; not without heroism 1882 segregated the races at its church services. and sacrifice; but yet slowly, surely [that] day Two years later, the Kentucky Institution for grows stronger.” 236 This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms