On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union! Secessionists believed that the United States (the Union), was a confederation, allowing each state to “go its own way” and thus giving each state the right to secede. Although various sections of the country had been disagreeing for several years over the issues of slavery, tariffs, states’ rights and the differences between agrarian and industrial lifestyles, the magnitude of the Republican Party victory and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 created a secessionist response from the Deep South. Lincoln’s winning meant that approximately three quarters of the elected officials in the next Congress would represent the “Yankee” and antislavery viewpoint. South Carolina lawmakers’ reaction to Lincoln’s election was to convene and pass a secession ordinance before Lincoln could take office. The U.S. Government rejected South Carolina’s secession as illegal.
In December 1860, the Congressional Representative for the First District of Kentucky, which encompassed the entire Jackson Purchase, was Henry C. Burnett, a Democrat-States Right advocate. Burnett was elected first in March 1855 and would serve until December 1861 when he was expelled from Congress for his actions in support of the Confederacy. Burnett had presided over the Russellville Convention in 1861 that formed a Confederate government for Kentucky. Burnett was succeeded by Samuel L. Casey, a Republican Unionist. Before the Civil War ended, Burnett raised a Confederate regiment at Hopkinsville and briefly served in the Confederate States Army. The Confederate recruiting site, Camp Burnett, located in Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky was named for him.
In December 1860, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was Beriah Magoffin, a Democrat, who had been elected August 30, 1859 on a platform of states rights (right to secede) and slavery and had supported the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision. Magoffin sought compromise to avoid the country’s sectional divisions and wrote to an Alabama representative in December 1860: “You seek a remedy in secession from the Union. We wish the united action of the slave states, assembled in convention with the Union.” Magoffin would eventually resign on August 18, 1862 because the Unionists distrust of him and their repeated overriding of his vetos had put a tight rein on his powers and made his situation intolerable. Magoffin was succeeded by James F. Robinson. Magoffin would later serve a term in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1867-69).
EVENT: Our Civil War Sesquicentennial Celebration will kickoff at our Winter Meeting, January 22, 2011. Dr. Mulligan will be our speaker and those attending will have the opportunity to win a special prize; won’t you make your plans now to attend?
(This posting created using the following resources: Kentucky’s Civil War, 1861-1865, Back Home in Kentucky, Inc. publisher, ISBN 0976923122; The Jackson Purchase Sesquicentennial Publication, 1819-1869; Internet website at http://en. wikipedia.org)