LAZARUS W. POWELL

'Lazarus Whitehead Powell' (October 6 1812 - July 3 1867) was the nineteenth Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1851 to 1855. He was later elected to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate from 1859 to 1865.
The reforms enacted during Powell's term as governor gave Kentucky one of the top educational systems in the antebellum South. He also improved Kentucky's transportation system and vetoed legislation that he felt would have created an overabundance of banks in the Commonwealth. Powell's election as governor marked the end of Whig dominance in Kentucky. Powell's predecessor, John J. Crittenden, was the last governor elected from the party of the Commonwealth's favorite son, Henry Clay.
Following his term as governor, Powell was elected to the U.S. Senate. Before he could assume office, President James Buchanan dispatched Powell and Major Benjamin McCulloch to Utah to ease tensions with Brigham Young and the Mormons. Powell assumed his Senate seat on his return from Utah, just prior to the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. Powell became an outspoken critic of Lincoln's administration, so much so that the Kentucky General Assembly asked for his resignation and some of his fellow senators tried to have him expelled from the body. Both groups later renounced their actions.
Powell died at his home near Henderson, Kentucky shortly following a failed bid to return to the Senate in 1867.

Contents

Early life

Political career

Governor of Kentucky

United States Senator

Later life and legacy

References

External links

Early life

Powell was born on October 6, 1812 near Henderson, Kentucky, the third son of Lazarus and Ann McMahon^[1] Powell. Biographical sketch of the Hon. Lazarus W. Powell, (of Henderson, Ky.) : governor of the state of Kentucky from 1851-1855 and a senator in Congress from 1859-1865, , , , Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1868, He attended the common schools of Henderson, and was tutored by George Gayle. ''Kentucky Governors'', , Robert A., Powell, Kentucky Images, 1976, He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Joseph College in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1833, and began studying law under John Rowan. ''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'', , , , The University Press of Kentucky, 1992, He then enrolled in the Transylvania University School of Law, studying under Justice George Robertson and Judge Daniel Mayes. He was admitted to the bar in 1835, and partnered with Archibald Dixon to start a law practice in Henderson. The two remained partners until 1839.
On November 8, 1837, Powell married Harriet Ann Jennings. The couple had three sons^[2] before Jennings died on July 30, 1846.

Political career

His political career began in 1836 when he was elected to a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. A Democrat in a Whig district, he was defeated in his re-election bid in 1838. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket 1844.

Governor of Kentucky

In 1848, Kentucky Democrats nominated Linn Boyd for governor, but Boyd declined the nomination. Powell was chosen to replace Boyd on the ticket, largely due to the influence of James Guthrie, but lost the election to John J. Crittenden.
In the gubernatorial election of 1851, however, Powell defeated his friend and law partner, Archibald Dixon, by fewer than 1,000 votes. He was the first Democrat elected to the office in almost twenty years. ''The Encyclopedia of Kentucky'', , , , Somerset Publishers, 1987, (John L. Helm had ascended to the governorship on Crittenden's resignation.) A third candidate, abolitionist Cassius M. Clay, received 3,621 votes.
Powell implemented the use of the state's sinking fund to pay interest on school bonds, a measure which had passed over Governor Helm's veto, but Helm refused to carry out. During his tenure, the school tax was from two cents per hundred dollars of taxable property to five cents per hundred dollars. Under his leadership, Kentucky's school system became among the strongest in the antebellum South.
Powell also encouraged private investment in transportation in the state. ''Kentucky's Governors'', , , , The University Press of Kentucky, 2004, During his term, the state went from having 78 miles of railroad track in operation to having 242 miles in operation.
Powell successfully lobbied the legislature to conduct a geological survey in 1854, and vetoed legislation that he felt would have created an overabundance of banks in the Commonwealth. The apportionment of the state into ten congressional districts was sanctioned over Powell's veto. (The districts were gerrymandered to give the fading Whig party control over the state delegation.)
Powell was also critical of Northern states that refused to abide by the Fugitive Slave Act,

United States Senator

In January of 1858, Powell was elected to the United States Senate. In April of that year, President James Buchanan appointed Powell and Major Benjamin McCulloch commissioners to negotiate settlements with the Mormons in Utah. On arriving in Utah, Powell and McCulloch issued a proclamation by President Buchanan offering clemency to Mormons who agreed to submit to Federal authority. The offer was accepted, and violence was averted.
Powell favored Kentucky's neutrality policy during the Civil War. As a Senator, he was an outspoken critic of President Abraham Lincoln, and condemned Ulysses S. Grant's edict barring Jews from the Department of Tennessee. These stances led to calls for his resignation by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1861, and some of his colleagues, led by Kentucky's other senator, Garrett Davis, unsuccessfully attempted to have him expelled from the Senate. Before the end of the war, both the General Assembly and Davis admitted being wrong in their attempts to remove him.

Later life and legacy

Following his term in the Senate, he returned to Henderson and resumed his law practice. He was a delegate to the Union National Convention in 1866. In 1867, he was again nominated to the U.S. Senate, but after several ballots over several months, the General Assembly had not elected him. Powell believed that many of the legislators had been elected as a result of election interference by Northern forces, and that their intent was to prevent Kentucky from electing a senator at all, diminishing her influence nationally. In light of this belief, he urged the Democrats to withdraw his name and nominate someone more palatable to Union sympathizers. This they did, putting forth the name of Garrett Davis, who was subsequently elected.
Powell died in his home on July 3, 1867. The cause of death was apoplexy, apparently the result of the toll years of rheumatism had exacted on his nervous system. He is buried at the Fernwood Cemetery in Henderson, Kentucky. The state erected a 22-foot high marble monument over his grave in 1870.
Powell County, Kentucky, is named in honor of Governor Powell.

References

1. ''The Encyclopedia of Kentucky'' lists the name as "Mahon."
2. ''The Encyclopedia of Kentucky'' records that the couple had four children.

External links

★ Find-A-Grave profile for Lazarus Powell

★ Speech of Honorable Lazarus W. Powell of Kentucky on Arbitrary Arrests: In Reply to Mr. Wright, of Indiana; in the Senate, January 19, 1863

★ Biography from Memorial Record of Western Kentucky

★ Biography from Kentucky: History of Henderson County