The Divide of the 1850s
Throughout much of the antebellum period, Kentucky's political leaders, symbolized by Henry Clay, guided the nation through times of crisis. Clay, "The Great Compromiser," prominently led efforts to soothe national turmoil over Missouri statehood in 1820, nullification in the early 1830s, and a host of issues in 1850. However, the 1850s presented new challenges that compromise could not resolve. The Ohio River Valley, which had united the Border States through commerce and migration, increasingly marked the divide between North and South, slavery and freedom. The middle ground was eroding.
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Southern sympathizer John C. Breckinridge (left) and Emancipationist James Speed (right) |
Henry Clay's death in 1852 symbolized this widening divide. His Compromise of 1850, which many hoped would settle sectional differences, began to unravel. His beloved Whig party dissolved. Open warfare broke out in Kansas. The publication in 1852 of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry, and the continuing operations of the Underground Railroad - all of these polarized the region's people.
Kentuckians of varied political stripes attempted to defuse the situation. Know-Nothing and Unionist George Prentice sought to divert attention from the internal issue of slavery to the external threat of foreign immigration. Democrat and Unionist James Guthrie led the National Peace Conference of 1861. And Constitutional Unionist John J. Crittenden offered his Crittenden Compromise to avert war. All failed.
The presidential election of 1860 reflected the political disruptions. Abraham Lincoln (Republican) and John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat) were born in Kentucky. John Bell (Constitutional Union) was from Tennessee and Stephen A. Douglas (Northern Democrat) from Illinois. Lincoln finished last in Kentucky, but won the election. As his inauguration loomed, the national family began to disintegrate. By early 1861, war was imminent.
