By Todd Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-980766.mp3
Murray, KY – As important as they are, no race for Kentucky's General Assembly has likely generated the attention of the one in 1861. Today on the Kentucky Civil War Dispatch, we'll hear how the closely watched and hotly contested vote would affect the Commonwealth's path through the war.
On this date in 1861, Kentuckians voted in the most important election for the General Assembly in Bluegrass State history.
The stakes could hardly have been higher.
Would Kentucky remain neutral under the old Stars and Stripes or fully embrace the Union war effort with troops? Or would Kentucky finally join 11 other slave states in the Confederacy?
The old Unionist legislature, which rejected secession and declared Kentucky neutral, had been elected in 1857 and 1859, long before the secession crisis and Civil War.
Kentucky secessionists, who called themselves the Southern Rights Party, denounced neutrality as a craven policy unworthy of a fighting state like Kentucky. The Southern Rights men also claimed that most Kentuckians were pro-secession.
Yet all signs pointed to a big Union victory on Aug. 5, 1861. The secessionists were obviously worried.
They feared if the voters enhanced the Unionist majorities in the House and Senate, the Union Party would abandon neutrality for full support of the Union, including entering the war against the Confederates.
Thus, the Southern Rights brass hastily endorsed neutrality, reasoning it was better for their side than Kentucky fighting the Confederates.
The pro-Confederate Frankfort Yeoman said the Southern Rights party now understood that most Kentuckians wanted neutrality. The paper promised that Southern Rights lawmakers would abide by neutrality "till it be violated palpably and unendurably by others." The paper expected "others" would be Union troops.
Even so, voters decisively rejected the Southern Rights Party, even with its new neutrality stand. The Union Party won 75 of 100 House seats. The Unionist majority in the Senate increased to 27-11.
Obviously some secessionists boycotted the election, but not enough to change the outcome. Region-wise, the Jackson Purchase was the only bright spot for the Southern Rights side. All seven of the party's candidates won in Kentucky's "South Carolina."
Five of the six Purchase House candidates had no Union Party opposition. In Marshall County, Jesse C. Gilbert drubbed John Wesley Minter, the Unionist.
Also, Sen. John M. Johnson of Paducah cruised to victory unopposed.
Predictably, the pro-Confederate press tried to alibi the election results. The Louisville Courier claimed Unionists won big in the Falls City only because so many local many men were away in the Confederate Army and because the Union party cheated.
Few Louisville men were in Rebel gray. The paper offered no proof of Unionist voter fraud. Instead, the Courier jabbed that the Unionist victors were welcome to the allegedly bogus ballots "for such men are fit to bear the yoke a tyrant may impose."
The Courier predicted that soon, Lincoln would order his soldiers into Kentucky, a prospect that would force the state "to unsheath her sword, and make common cause with the South."
The paper soon would be proved wrong again. In early September, Confederate forces would seize Hickman and Columbus, and Union troops would capture Paducah and Smithland.
The legislature would order only the Confederates to leave and would make common cause with the North.
WKMS produces Kentucky Civil War Dispatches from West Kentucky Community and Technical College history professor Berry Craig. The Murray State alumnus is the author of Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War, Hidden History of Kentucky Soldiers and True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon, and Burgoo.