By Todd Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-945666.mp3
Murray, KY – We continue our look at what was happening in Kentucky 150 years ago as the nation descended into disunion. Here's today's Kentucky Civil War Dispatch.
On this date in 1861, the Kentucky General Assembly was about to meet in Frankfort for what would be the most critical session of the legislature in the Commonwealth's history.
The stakes have never been higher. Would Kentucky remain part of the United States of America? Or would Kentucky go with the soon-to-be organized Confederate States of America?
In December, the governors of Alabama and Mississippi sent representatives to Kentucky to press for secession. Stephen F. Hale, the Alabama commissioner, was a Crittenden County, Kentucky, native. He wrote Governor Beriah Magoffin a letter condemning President-elect Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans for representing "one dogma -- the equality of the races, white and black."
Hale said only secession could thwart what he called "Black Republicanism" and preserve slavery, thereby guaranteeing "the heaven-ordained superiority of the white over the black race."
Meanwhile, on December 27th, Magoffin had called for the legislature to meet in special session. Staunchly pro-slavery, he supported Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge for president the year before. Democrats were in the majority in the state House and Senate. Most of them had backed Breckinridge; a few had supported Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.
The minority in the legislature was the "Opposition," old-line Whigs and members of the also defunct American or "Know-Nothing" Party who had voted for Constitutional Unionist John Bell for president.
No sooner was the legislature gaveled into their January session than lawmakers split into the "Union Party" and the "Southern Rights Party." Most of the Union men were Bell and Douglas backers. Most "Southern Rights" legislators were Breckinridge men.
Ultimately, the Union Party would emerge as the new majority and represent majority opinion in every Kentucky region except one. Only in the far-west Jackson Purchase did the Southern Rights Party reflect the majority viewpoint. The region would later be dubbed "the South Carolina of Kentucky" for its strong Confederate sentiment.
Down in the Purchase, the region's newspapers - the Paducah Herald, Mayfield Southern Yeoman, Hickman Courier and Columbus Crescent, all clamored for secession. The Crescent's editor, Len G. Faxon, wrote, "The Rubicon is crossed and Kentucky may as well prepare immediately to go with the Southern states into a separate Confederacy."
Kentucky's Civil War Dispatches are produced by WKMS and written by West Kentucky Community and Technical College history professor Berry Craig. Craig is also the author of Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War and True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon and Burgoo.