Kentucky in The American Civil War - Antebellum Kentucky

Antebellum Kentucky

Kentucky's citizens were split regarding the issues central to the Civil War. In 1860, slaves composed 19.5% of the Commonwealth's population, and many Unionist Kentuckians saw nothing wrong with the "peculiar institution". The Commonwealth was further bound to the South by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which were the main commercial outlet for her surplus produce, although railroad connections to the North were beginning to diminish the importance of this tie. The ancestors of many Kentuckians hailed from Southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but many Kentucky children were beginning to migrate toward the North.

Kentucky, along with North Carolina, also boasted the best educational systems in the South. Transylvania University had long been one of the most respected institutions of higher learning in the nation, and while its reputation had begun to fade by 1860, other Kentucky schools like Centre College and Georgetown College were gaining prominence.

Politically, the Commonwealth had produced some of the country's best known leaders. Former Vice-Presidents John C. Breckinridge and Richard M. Johnson both hailed from the Bluegrass state, as did Henry Clay and future president Abraham Lincoln. However, by the time of the Civil War, the Commonwealth was in a politically confused state. The decline of the Whig Party, which Clay had founded, had left many politicians looking for an identity. Many joined the increasingly popular Democratic Party, a few joined the newly-formed Republican Party, while still others associated with one of numerous minor parties such as the Know Nothing Party.

Kentucky was strategically important to both the North and South. The Commonwealth ranked ninth in population by 1860, and was a major producer of such agricultural commodities as tobacco, corn, wheat, hemp, and flax. Geographically, she was important to the South because the Ohio River would provide a defensible boundary along the entire length of the state.

Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin believed that the rights of the Southern states had been violated and favored the right of secession, but sought all possible avenues to avoid it. On December 9, 1860, he sent a letter to the other slave state governors suggesting that they come to an agreement with the North that would include strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, a division of common territories at the 37th parallel, a guarantee of free use of the Mississippi River, and a Southern veto over slave legislation. Magoffin proposed a conference of slave states, followed by a conference of all the states to secure these concessions. Due to the escalating pace of events, neither conference was ever held.

Magoffin called a special session of the Kentucky General Assembly on December 27, 1860 and asked legislators for a convention of Kentuckians to decide the Commonwealth's course regarding secession. The majority of the General Assembly had Unionist sympathies, however, and declined the governor's request, fearing that the state's voters would favor secession. The Assembly did, however, send six delegates to a February 4 Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., and asked Congress to call a national convention to consider potential resolutions to the secession crisis, including the Crittenden Compromise, authored by Kentuckian John J. Crittenden.

When the General Assembly convened again on March 20, it called for a convention of the border states in the Kentucky capital of Frankfort on May 27, 1861. Again, the call went unheeded. Legislators also passed a proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution that would have guaranteed slavery in states where it was already legal.