Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in KentuckyUniversity of Kentucky Press, 1955 - 392 pages "The Bluegrass region of Kentucky was the only part of the slaveholding South that Abraham Lincoln knew intimately. Even before the young Illinois lawyer had married a daughter of one of Lexington's leading statesmen, he had taken Robert Todd's close friend, Henry Clay, as his political idol. Mary Todd, who had grown to young womanhood in Lexington, widened Lincoln's circle of acquaintances in the Bluegrass to include such diverse personalitites as Judge George Robertson, Lincoln's counsel, who supported emancipation in the abstract but indignantly demanded that the President protect his slave property; the fiery Cassius M. Clay, who urged Lincoln to proclaim immediate emancipation and who raised a motley battalion in Washington, D.C., to defend the Captial; Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge, the doughty Presbyterian minister who refused to ask special treatment for the members of his family in the Confederacy; and the Doctor's nephew, Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, who rejected a demand that he use his position to thwart Lincoln's election but immediately took up arms agains him."--Page 2 of cover |
Contents
Athens of the West | 1 |
The Lincolns of Fayette | 16 |
The Early Todds | 25 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln April August Bluegrass bowie knife Breckinridge brother candidate Captain Cassius Cincinnati citizens Clay's coln Colonel Confederate Congress courthouse Crittenden crowd death Denton Denton Offutt Douglas election Elizabeth emancipation Emilie Todd Helm Fayette Circuit Court Fayette County February File friends George hands Henry Clay Herndon horse husband Ibid Illinois ington John John Hunt Morgan Journal Judge July June Kentuckians Kentucky Statesman later letter Lexington Observer lived Louisville March Mary Todd Mentelle Missouri Compromise morning Negro never newspapers Ninian W November Observer & Reporter Offutt Parker party political Pratt President proslavery replied Robards Robert Todd Lincoln Robert Wickliffe Senate September September 28 slavery slaves South speech Springfield Street Thomas Lincoln tion Todd's town Townsend Collection Transylvania Transylvania University True American tucky Union Washington weeks Whig White House Wickliffe wife William wrote young