Kentucky:  History of Henderson County, Edmund L. Starling, 1887 Reprinted 
Unigraphic, Inc., Evansville, IN, 1965. [Henderson Co.]

LAZARUS W. POWELL was born in Henderson County on the sixth day of October, 
1812.  His father, Captain Lazarus W. Powell, only a few years previous to 
the birth of the subject of our memoir, had settled on a tract of land 
lying twelve miles south of Henderson, on the Morganfield road, and it may 
be said continued to reside thereon until April, 1869, when at the advanced 
age of ninety-two years he died.  His mother was the daughter of Captain 
James McMahon, of Henderson County, a gentleman who had served in the ranks 
of the Kentucky volunteers in the War of 1812.  He was a man of strong 
native intellect, but exceedingly eccentric in manner and habits.  Though 
both of the late Governor's parents were possessed of average natural 
talents, neither had ever enjoyed the benefits of intellectual culture 
beyond its simplest rudiments.  Lazarus was their third son.  Lazarus W. 
Powell at a very early age began to exhibit those traits of character 
which, in their fuller development, caused him to be loved and respected 
wherever he was known.  When he had arrived at an age to be able to 
appreciate the advantages of education, he used diligently the very 
inadequate means that were within his reach to acquire knowledge.  The 
school he first attended was a primary one kept by a Mr. Ewell Wilson, in 
the village of Henderson.  Here he learned to read and write.  Later he 
became a pupil of the late George Gayle, Esq., a gentleman of rare talents 
and attainments, under whose tuition he acquired a fair academical {sic} 
education.
     Young Powell was a manly youth, ingenious and truthful, and not a 
little ambitious.  He had scarcely reached the age of eighteen years before
he had marked out for himself a pathway in life and chosen the profession 
by which he hoped to acquire a moderate competency and possibly the other 
results of a reasonable ambition.  He did not say-for his aspirations were
all civic-
			" - The world's mine oyster,
			"Which I with my sword will open;"
but with a like spirit that breathes through this immortal sentiment of the
world's greatest poet, he pursued his course and allowed no obstacle to 
interpose between his will to do and the accomplishment of the act he so 
willed.  Few farmers in Kentucky, at the time to which we refer (1830), 
were possessed of any great abundance of ready means, and thus it turned 
out when young Powell was preparing to carry out his design of entering 
upon the study of the law, that his father was only enabled to furnish him
with a sum of money that was quite insufficient to cover the expenses 
incident to the position he expected to occupy.  Early in the month of 
Jun, 1830, the young man rode over to the town of Owensboro, the county
seat of the adjoining county of Daviess, for the purpose of consulting with
an old legal friend of his father, the Hon. Philip Thompson.  Mr. Thompson
readily assented to Powell's wish to enter his office as a student.  He 
soon discovered, however, that the insufficiency of his young friend's 
educational attainments would be a great drawback to his hoped for success
in the undertaking upon which he had entered, and he urged upon him the 
necessity of suspending his legal studies until he could avail himself of
the advantages of a classical education.
     This was a great blow to Powell's hopes.  He had the good sense, 
however, to see that the advice that had been given him was the result of a
kindly interest in his affairs.  Returning home, he set about revolving 
{sic} in his mind the unlooked for difficulty and the means at his disposal
for overcoming it.  The result of his self-communing was a determination to
visit Bardstown, then the seat of one of the best literary institutions in 
the State.  Having obtained from Mr. Thompson a letter of introduction to 
the Hon. John Rowan, an old friend of the writer, he set out for Bardstown,
at which place he arrived in the first week of September, 1830.  His entire
riches consisted of the horse he rode and less than one hundred dollars in 
money.  He took early occasion to present his friend's letter to Judge 
Rowan, and was by that true gentleman treated with a degree of kindness and
interest which he ever afterward remembered and spoke of in terms of the 
deepest gratitude.  Judge Rowan was perhaps the most learned man of his 
profession in the State.  In order to test the qualifications of the young
man for the profession he had chosen, he introduced into their conversation
certain literary, scientific and historical questions which he deemed it 
important that every one should be acquainted with who had any thought of 
entering upon the study of the law.  The result was as unsatisfactory in 
regard to young Powell's scholastic attainments as had been his former 
trial before Mr. Thompson.  His natural good sense, however, and his 
evident candor made a most favorable impression on the erudite statesman, 
and again he was strongly advised to apply himself to the acquisition of a
thorough collegiate education.
     With becoming modesty the young man acknowledged to Judge Rowan that 
he had not sufficient means to defray the necessary expenses of a college 
course of studies.  Having arrived at the details of his present means and
future prospects, Judge Rowan gave him hopes that the particular difficulty
might be overcome.  He told him that he was well acquainted with the 
Faculty and Professors of St. Joseph's College, and that, having some 
influence with them, he thought it highly probable that he would be able to
arrange with them for his immediate matriculation and subsequent tuition.
     Early the following morning Judge Rowan accompanied the young man to 
the college where he was formally introduced to the President, the late 
Rev. George A. M. Elder.  Mr. Elder was a man of the kindest impulses.  He
was also an excellent judge of character.  The manly appearance of young 
Powell, his candor in stating his wishes and the inadequate means he 
possessed toward their realization, together with his evident 
disinclination to accept of unusual terms or such as would compromise his
own independence, all deeply interested the good ecclesiastic.  Other 
members of the Faculty were called to the consultation, and, before they 
separated, the name of Lazarus W. Powell was duly entered on the college 
register.  It is scarcely necessary to state that every obligation entered
into by Mr. Powell was afterwards fully redeemed.
     To say that young Powell was what is termed popular with both his 
Professors and his fellow-students, would inadequately express the general
sentiment with which he was regarded in college.  By the former he was 
beloved to a degree that can only be fully understood when reference is 
made to the bond that exists between parent and child.  He was the pride of
the latter, admired and looked up to as something to be made much of and 
copied after.  There was no waywardness {sic} in their feelings toward 
their idol, because there was no blot upon his escutcheon.  He was listened
to and his advice followed, because of their respect for his character and 
their confidence in his judgment.  Who can measure the restraining 
influence of such a mind over the weaknesses and latent propensities to 
evil of less steadfast associates? His young companions learned to respect 
virtue, principle, assiduity and goodness, because of all these their 
friend was ever the consistent exponent.
     Early in August of the year 1833, only a few days after his 
graduation, Mr. Powell entered the law office of the Hon. John Rowan, of 
Bardstown, Kentucky, for the purpose of resuming his legal studies, which 
had been interrupted by his college course.  The studious habits, which so
remarkably distinguished him while passing though college, equally 
characterized him in his new position.  He brought all the powers of his 
mind to bear upon the acquirement, within the least possible period of 
time, of that sum of knowledge of his profession which would enable him to
look forward to an honorable career in life.  He was happy in having for 
his legal preceptor one of the master minds of his day and the country.  
Judge Rowan was not only a well read lawyer, but he was also a profound 
scholar and a man of the rarest natural intelligence.  His diction was 
always elegant, and he spoke without seeming effort.
     Mr. Powell remained in the office of Judge Rowan until in the winter
of 1834, '35, when he repaired to Lexington with the view of attending a 
course of law lectures at Transylvania University.  Not only was Powell 
assiduous in study during his stay in Lexington, and prompt in his 
attendance at the University lectures, but he let no occasion pass in which
it was possible for him to acquire a knowledge of the practical part of his
profession by making himself familiar with the proceedings of the Courts of
Law when these happened to be in session.  The bar of Lexington had one 
advantage over that of Bardstown - the number of its prominent members was
much greater.  Among the resident practicing attorneys then in Lexington 
could be named such men as the Hon. Henry Clay, the Hon. Robert Wickliffe,
Judge Thomas M. Hickey, A. K. Woolley, Esq., Charlton Hunt, Esq., James 
Cowan, Esq., and Madison C. Johnson, Esq., the later being then a young 
man, but giving promise of the high reputation in his profession which he 
has since acquired.
     The law session at Transylvania over, Mr. Powell returned to Henderson
in the spring of 1835, where he opened a law office and sought for business
in the line of his profession.  His success equalled {sic} his expectations
from the first, but a few months later, having formed a partnership with 
the leading practitioner at the Henderson bar, Archibald Dixon, Esq., he 
was at once placed on the high road to that eminence as a lawyer which he 
afterwards attained, as well as to the substantial remunerative benefits of
an extended practice.  His business connection with Mr. Dixon continued 
till the year 1839.
     Governor Powell's reputation as a lawyer was not built upon any 
peculiar talent possessed by him for forensic display.  In his addresses, 
to be sure, whether to the court or to the jury, he was always forcible and
sometimes eloquent.  But he depended more for his legal triumphs upon the 
careful analysis of his cases.  It was his invariable custom to come into 
court fully prepared to meet the objections of the opposing counsel with 
his authorities before him, whether as to the law bearing upon the ease or
to previous judicial decisions.  Owing to this custom, he was always a 
formidable antagonist in the courts in which he practiced.  What he lacked
in readiness of suggestion, had its full compensation in the preliminary 
care in which he never failed to bestow upon each particular cause as it 
came into his hands.  His wonderful success in his profession is more to be
attributed to this fact than to any other.
     On the eighth day of November, 1837, Lazarus W. Powell was united in 
marriage to Miss Harriett Ann Jennings, the orphan daughter of Captain 
Charles Jennings, deceased, who had been an esteemed and prosperous citizen
of Henderson County.  During her life, Mrs. Powell bore to her husband three
sons, two of whom are still living.  The death of Mrs. Powell took place on
the thirtieth day of Jul, 1846, and to use the expression of one of the 
late Governor's eulogists [sic], "for her sake he ever afterwards devoted 
to the children she had left to his care, all the wealth of his manly and 
magnanimous heart."
     When not occupied by official duties, during the progress of the civil
war, Governor Powell spent most of his time at his home in Henderson and in
overlooking the farming operations upon his plantations in the county.  
This was for him, as it was for thousands of others in the State, a period
of great anxiety - suspected by the government military officials, who had,
for the greater portion of the time, complete control in the river towns, 
on account of his well know antipathy to the bloody method that had been 
adopted to preserve the integrity of the Union; saddened at the sight of 
the utter ruin which the war had brought upon many of his neighbors, and 
which was threatening others; disgusted with the cruelties of the vengeful
military despots who were then ruling Kentucky, and whose so-called 
retaliatory measures were continually involving the lives and liberties of
innocent men; indignant at the shameful venality of some among these same 
despots and their pliant subordinates, and at their contemptuous disregard
of even the forms of State laws in taking upon themselves all control over
the elective franchise.  Governor Powell, no doubt, felt these years of the
war to be the saddest of his life.
     Always circumspect in his conduct and for one of his known views, in a
certain degree trusted in by the authorities at Washington, he was enabled
to serve many who had become involved in the troubles of the times, not 
only in his own section, but throughout the South, and never was his 
influence asked for in vain by a worthy object.  His means too, were 
dispensed with a lavish hand to those who found themselves reduced to 
poverty by the military raids which were of common occurrence in his own 
and the neighboring counties of Southern Kentucky.  Whether the sufferer 
happened to be attached to one cause or the other, it was all the same with
him.  Human misery was a plea that never failed to awaken in him active 
sympathy, and with this plea he never permitted consideration of party 
affinity nor even of policy to interfere.
     When the war finally closed, Governor Powell entered upon the practice
of his profession with more energy than had ever before distinguished him, 
save during the first years of his professional career.  This was most 
probably done with the view of introducing his eldest son Col. J. Henry 
Powell, who had then become associated with him in the practice of the law,
into the routine of his profession.  Up to the time of his mission to Utah,
in 1858, he had been a great sufferer from rheumatic affection, and though
he had since been apparently entirely relieved from the disorder, his 
nervous system, in consequence of its ravages, as he thought himself, had
remained afterwards in an exceedingly delicate condition.  Seeing him 
immersed in business, and to all appearance as anxious in its prosecution 
as he had been when starting out in life thirty years before, there were 
those among his friends who doubted if his physical strength was equal to
the labor he was imposing on himself.  On Wednesday of the last week in 
Jun, 1867, he appeared for the last time in the streets of Henderson a 
living man.
     After a day of some fatigue, induced possibly more from the shattered
condition of his nerves than from any great amount of physical or mental 
labor, he returned to his house and immediately retired to his room.  
Nothing was thought of this circumstance until the following morning when
hew was found to be seriously ill.  The family physician, Dr. Pickney 
Thompson, was at once called in.  The report made by this gentleman was 
sufficiently alarming, but neither did he nor the members of the Governor's
[sic] family at first apprehend a fatal termination of his sickness.  It 
was at first supposed that his disease was a slight attack of congestion of
the brain.  A subsequent examination proved that a blood vessel at the base
of the brain had become ruptured and that this had induced apoplexy, 
followed by a partial paralysis of the right side, and eventually of the 
whole body.  During Thursday and Friday he was enabled to distinguish his 
friends as they approached his bedside.  His physician called to his 
assistance Dr. John T. Berry, of Henderson, and Dr. M. J. Bray, of 
Evansville, Ind.  Their consultation took place on Saturday, and the result
was a sorrowful acknowledgement [sic] that the case was hopeless.
     When this opinion was made known among the Governor's neighbors and 
fellow citizens, the effect was as if an impending calamity were 
threatening their own hearth-stones.  Business appeared to be forgotten, 
and men and women gathered together in knots, brooding sadly and speaking 
in whispers of the one absorbing topic which filled their thoughts.  In the
meanwhile the Governor lay in a comatose state, from which it was difficult
to arouse him at intervals, in order to administer such alleviatives [sic] 
as had been prescribed by his physicians.  On Sunday, the last day of the 
month, his friend and neighbor, Grant Green Esq., made a persistent attempt
to arouse him from the stupor by which he was overcome and with such 
success, that faint hopes were induced of his ultimate recovery.  On the 
following morning, however, he again relapsed into unconsciousness and thus
continued till death intervened about 3 o'clock in the evening of Jul 3d.,
1867.  Greater sympathy was never manifested by a community for one of its
number when stricken, ill and dying, nor were ever sincerer tears shed than
when it was announced among his friends and neighbors that his "spirit had
gone to the God who gave it."
     The funeral took place on Thursday, the fourth day of Jul, 2867.  
Among the pall-bearers were the Hon. Archibald Dixon, the Hon. John Law, of
Indiana; Grant Green, Esq., and W. S. Holloway, Esq.
     The body was borne to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of which his 
brother-in-law, the Rev. D. H. Deacon, was Rector.  Every business house 
and office in the town was closed and almost all were draped in emblems of
mourning.  The Rev. Rector of the church was too much overcome to trust 
himself to speak on the occasion, and his place in the pulpit was supplied
by the Rev. Jahleel Woodbridge, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, of 
Henderson.  The text of the discourse preached by the reverend gentleman, 
was taken from the 46th.  Chapter of Psalms:  "Be still and know that I am
God."  On the announcement of the text, a solemn silence seemed to wrap the
entire auditory, and this till the close of the discourse, was only broken
at intervals by the stifled sobs and smothered sighs of stricken hearts, as
the eloquent divine glowingly pictured the exalted character of him whose 
cold remains lay coffined [sic] before them.
     The Masonic body of Henderson, although Governor Powell had never 
belonged to the order, formed in procession and accompanied his remains to
the grave.  The procession of citizens on the occasion was the largest ever
seen in Henderson.  In it walked the rich and the poor, women and men, and
even little children.  One division of the mourners deserves to be 
specially noticed.  This was composed of the newly-created freedmen, his 
own former slaves and those of his neighbors who had known him, many of 
them all their lives.  They had come, some of them from points ten and 
fifteen miles distant, trudging on foot in order to pay their tribute of
respect and gratitude over the grave of one who had never ceased to be 
their best friend and counselor.  No more genuine sorrow was exhibited on
that mournful day than was evinced by the blacks of whom he had once been
the master, and who up to the day of his death had been in the habit of 
addressing him by that title.
     During the latter years of his life, the Governor seldom spent his 
evenings away from his own home.  When he had no visitors he was in the 
habit of retiring to his room for study, or in order to prepare the causes
in which he had been retained.  When wearied with these occupations, he 
would repair to the apartments of his daughter-in-law, and there amuse 
himself with the prattle of his little grand-children.  His family mansion
was surrounded by ornamental grounds and a large garden.  To the 
embellishment of these grounds, he devoted many of his leisure hours, and
found in such employment both health and enjoyment.
     One great source of care to Governor Powell, after the Proclamation of
Emancipation of President Lincoln, was a number of helpless blacks, 
formerly his slaves, who had no one else to look to for support and 
protection.  Had the Government, when it deprived him of his rights of 
property in those of his slaves, who were capable of performing manual 
labor, taken upon itself, at the same time, the support of those who were
incompetent to earn their own living, there would have been little hardship
in his individual case, as there would have been little in thousands of 
other cases, still more onerous.  He might, to be sure, had he been a 
brute, and no man, have evicted the aged and infants among his former 
slaves from his plantations, and have suffered them to die of hunger and 
exposure on the highway.  Had the war bereft him of all his property, as it
did hundreds of slave owners in the South, even his well known humanity 
could not have stood between these poor creatures and destruction.  As it 
was, he never thought of them otherwise than as dependents on his bounty, 
whom it was his duty to serve and protect.  Up to the day of his death they
were fed and clothed at his expense, and they are still cared for at the 
expense of his heirs.  Had the unmistakable tokens of profound sorrow that
characterized that portion of the mourners at Governor Powell's funeral, 
which was composed of his former slaves, been witnessed by those whose 
fanaticism brought on the late war and all its horrors, they might well 
have stood in astonishment at a sight so foreign to all their notions of 
the relations that often existed between master and slave.
     Governor Powell, though he never professed any particular form of 
Christian faith, was unquestionably a firm believer in the truths of Divine
Revelation.  Many expressions are to be found in his speeches which show 
that he was familiar with the Bible, and had for that Sacred Book the most
profound reverence.  There was no one in the community in which he lived 
that was more liberal of his means for objects connected with religion.  He
appeared to have no preference for one denomination over another, but gave 
to all with a large-hearted liberality that was at once the evidence of his
regard for religion in general, and of his esteem for those whose vocation 
it was to preach the Gospel.  His house was as free to all ministers of 
religion, without exception as to creed, who happened to be temporarily 
sojourning in the town, as it was t himself.  On one occasion, which has 
come to our knowledge, he spoke seriously of religion and of his regret 
that he had not identified himself, in profession, with the followers of 
Christ.  Conversing with a Christian neighbor, he remarked that he had long
desired to make himself better acquainted than he was with the peculiar
doctrines of the various Christian churches, and that it was his intention
to enter upon this study with the view to the profession of that form of 
faith which should commend itself to his more enlightened judgment.
     It is said, by some, that Governor Powell never exhibited any evidence
of extraordinary genius.  This may be true, though there are abundant 
reasons to doubt it.  The placidity of his mind was such as to foil 
observers in their attempts to detect the riches concealed in its depths. 
Of the erratic ingenius [sic] he was certainly totally void.  But even 
admitting that he gave to the world no extraordinary exhibition of genius,
it must be allowed that he gave to it what are ordinarily of much more 
value - exhibitions of determination in the assertion and defense of 
principles that were directly conservative of the best interests of society
and government - exhibitions of moderation and prudence in the performance 
of duty when called to the discharge of high functions in the State, and in
the hour of defeat, or of failure, of unshaken confidence in the ultimate 
triumph of his own and his party's patriotic purposes for the welfare of 
the nation.  He was no coward, and he never mistook present failure for 
final defeat.  In the darkest hours of the Republic he never lost hope, 
never relinquished his right to appeal to the reason of those who were 
permitting their passions and their prejudices to sway their judgments and
to control their policy.  He gave utterance to the convictions of his mind,
temperately, yet firmly, and never in language calculated to alienate the 
respect of his opponents.  However they may have doubted, or pretended to 
doubt, the correctness of his views, they were convinced of his candor, and
did homage to his manhood.
     Governor Powell well understood what few public men have seemed to 
learn, that every truly beneficial measure, every wholesome reform in 
government, is to be secured and permanently retained only through efforts
that have for their animus the general good, and not that of a section of 
the country, or a party among the people.  He may have been said to be a 
partisan, in so far as he had definite notions in regard to the structure 
of the government, and the proper policy to be pursued in order to promote
the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people, but he was 
no partisan in the general acceptation of the term.  He never deferred 
principle to party, or the good of the masses to party success.  Above all,
he could, and did, distinguish between the individual and his party 
predilections and never alienated the respect of the former by bitter 
denunciation of the latter.
     Courtesy, whether in speaking to, or about, his political opponents, 
was a habit of his mind, and this habit, except under the provocation of 
unmistakable insult, he carried with him through life.  A distinguished 
gentleman, occupying a high position at Washington, thus wrote:  "In 
Washington City.  Democrats and Radicals spoke of him as a friend whose 
loss they deplore.  No man was ever able to hate Powell long.  Several 
undertook it, but he outlived their resentment, and at the date of his 
death he probably had not an enemy on earth."
HIS PUBLIC LIFE.
     In Jul, 1836, at the earnest solicitation of a number of his political
friends, Mr. Powell announced himself as the Democratic candidate for the 
office of Representative of the County in the Lower House of the Kentucky 
Legislature.  The Whig party was largely in the ascendancy in Henderson at
the time, and it was more for the object of keeping up their organization,
than with any expectation of success, that the party in the minority 
proposed to place a candidate in the field.  Mr. Powell's Whig competitor 
for the place was John G. Holloway, Esq., a very estimable and popular 
citizen of Henderson.  While the former industriously canvassed every 
precinct and neighborhood of the county, making friends and securing votes
everywhere, the latter, relying upon the party bias of his proposed 
constituency, made little or no exertion to win their confidence, and thus
he lost his election.  The result was as unlooked [sic] for, by both 
parties, as it was highly honorable to the industry, and address of the 
successful candidate.
     During the session of the General Assembly, which followed his 
election Mr. Powell proved himself a careful legislator.  He was especially
attentive to his duties as a member of the various committees upon which he
had been placed, and was always alive to the interests of his constituency 
and those of the entire State.  At the next general election he was again a
candidate for the office which he had so creditably filled for two years.  
Whether it was, that by this time, party lines had been more closely drawn,
or that his old competitor had learned from his former experience to depend
more for success upon his personal exertions in the canvass, than upon the 
party predilections of the people of the county, certain it is, that Mr. 
Holloway beat him in the race by a considerable majority.
     In the Presidential canvass of 1844, Mr. Powell accepted from his 
party the position of District Elector, and canvassed his own and the 
neighboring districts for James K. Polk.  In this canvass he was brought 
prominently before the people of Western Kentucky, and thus far, he laid 
the foundation of that personal popularity which afterwards enabled him to
serve his party in more important positions.  Mr. Polk was elected over his
competitor, the Hon. Henry Clay; but the Democrats were defeated in 
Kentucky.
     In the spring of 1848, the State Democratic Convention met at 
Frankfort for the purpose of nominating candidates for the executive 
offices of the commonwealth, to be voted for at the coming August election.  
The choice of the convention fell upon the Hon. Linn Boyd, of McCracken 
County, for Governor, and the Hon. John P. Martin, of Floyd County, for 
Lieutenant Governor.  Before the dissolution of the convention, authority 
was given to the Democratic Central Committee of the State to fill all 
vacancies, if any, that should occur on the ticket proposed by declination 
or otherwise.  Upon being informed as to the action of the Convention, Mr. 
Boyd, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the State Central Committee 
- the Hon. James Guthrie - formerly declined the candidateship [sic] which 
his party friends had proposed; and it thus became necessary to put forward
some one in his stead.  A meeting of the committee was held a few days 
subsequently, and the name of Lazarus W. Powell was placed at the head of 
the ticket.  This result, it is said, was mainly due to the influence of 
Mr. Guthrie, whose sound, practical views of the situation, and whose clear
perception of the character and qualifications of the gentlemen whose names
had been mentioned in connection with the candidateship [sic], were never 
more forcibly illustrated than on this occasion.
     The Whig party in Kentucky had nominated as its candidate for 
Governor, the Hon. John J. Crittenden, who was then a member of the United
States Senate from Kentucky, and undoubtedly one of the most deservedly 
popular men in the State.  At the outset of the canvass, Mr. Powell was 
encountered by a feud in his own party.  The Hon. Richard M. Johnson, of 
Scott County, had announced himself an independent Democratic candidate for
the office of Governor, and had already entered upon the canvass.  
Perceiving that success would be out of the question with two Democratic 
candidates in the field, Mr. Powell hastened to the home of his old friend,
with whom he sought and obtained an interview, the result of which was 
entirely satisfactory to both parties.  Col. Johnson not only declined to 
prosecute the race any further, but expressed his readiness to canvass his 
own district in behalf of the nominee of the convention.
     The energy with which the Gubernational [sic] canvass of 1848, was 
prosecuted in Kentucky by both Whigs and Democrats, was strongly indicative
of the fears of the party in the majority, on account of the personal 
popularity of the opposition candidate, and of the hopes raised in the 
minds of the Democratic minority, by having for its standard bearer one who
was known never to have addressed his fellow citizens without having made 
additions to the number of his friends.  The beginning of the decadence of 
the Whig party in Kentucky may be referred to this memorable canvass.  
Everywhere the zeal of its advocates abated and defections from its ranks 
were numerous.  Mr. Powell threw himself into the arena of political 
controversy with an energy that was resistless [sic].  Every part of the 
State was thoroughly canvassed, and every effort of the opposition was 
encountered and resisted.  The canvass was a substantial triumph, though it
ended in the defeat of the constitutional party.  The seed had been sown 
which was to spring forth, richly ladened [sic] with fruit for the coming 
harvest.
     In 1852, the claims of Mr. Powell were fully recognized by the 
nominating convention of the Democracy of the State.  He was again put 
forward by that Convention as its candidate for the office of Governor of 
the Commonwealth.  There were peculiar circumstances connected with the 
canvass of this year that rendered it in the highest degree extraordinary. 
Mr. Powell's Whig competitor in the race, was the Hon. Archibald Dixon, a 
resident of the same town - his life-long personal friend, and at one time 
his partner in the practice of law.  For not one moment whether before, 
during, or after the canvass, were the intimate personal relations between
the two interrupted.  They traveled together, spoke together, put up at the
same houses, and had their meals at the same table, and, except when 
brought into contact in the exposition of their dissimilar political 
dogmas, they exhibited toward each other and before the public, a 
cordiality of demeanor that is as rarely witnessed between political 
antagonists, as it was pleasant to contemplate.
     It was in this canvass, most likely, that Governor Powell learned that
perfection of self-control by which he was afterwards so greatly 
distinguished in the Senate of the United States.  Both candidates had an 
all-sufficient motive in their personal friendship-to shun displays of 
temper.  Courtesy thus became a habit of their minds, and its influence 
lived long beyond the occasion that called it into activity.  Mr. Powell 
secured his election by a small majority, while Robert N. Wickliffe, Esq., 
the candidate on the same ticket for the office of Lieutenant Governor, was
beaten several thousand votes by his opponent, the Hon. John B. Thompson.  
Lazarus W. Powell was inaugurated Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky 
on the morning of September 5th, 1851.  Accompanied by an escort, comprised
of three military companies of the city, and a large number of prominent 
citizens, he left Louisville early on the morning of the day named, and 
reached Frankfort before ten o'clock.  At the Frankfort depot, he was met 
by a large concourse of citizens and strangers, and, entering a carriage in
waiting, with the Lieutenant Governor elect, the Hon. John B. Thompson, he 
was driven to the State House building, when[sic] he was formally welcomed 
to the seat of his future magisterial labors in a congratulatory address by
the Hon. Judge Hewitt.  The Governor - elect, having been introduced to the
assembled multitude by the retiring Governor, the Hon. John L. Helm, 
replied briefly and appropriately to the address of Judge Hewitt and 
returned his thanks for the confidence reposed in him by the people.  He 
expressed his distrust of his ability to discharge properly the duties of 
the office to which he had been elevated, but declared his determination to
use such powers as he possessed for the maintenance of good government.  He
would administer the government to the best of his ability, in accordance 
with the constitution and law, and in the interests of the whole people of
the State.  The oath of office was administered by Judge Shannon.
     The General Assembly of the Commonwealth met on the third day of 
November, 1851, and, on the following day, the first message of Governor 
Powell was presented to and read before that body.  The local issues and 
interests discussed in that document need not be here referred to.
     During the entire term of Governor Powell's chief magistracy, his 
official duties were discharged with the most commendable fidelity and 
exactness.  For the greater part of his term of office, the General 
Assembly of the State had in it a majority of Whigs, yet at no time did his
relations with that body assume a partisan character.  The most exacting 
among his political opponents were obliged to acknowledge that his entire 
policy was conceived and carried out with due reference to his 
responsibility to the whole body of the people and the best interests of 
the State.
     In the spring of 1858, through the intervention of Thomas L. Kane, 
Esq., of Pennsylvania, President Buchanan was induced to dispatch a 
commission to Utah with the hope of arresting the rebellion that had broken
out in that Territory.  The Commissioners named were Governor Powell, of 
Kentucky, and major Ben McCullough, of Texas.  On the arrival of these 
gentlemen at the camp of the military expedition, they immediately issued 
the proclamation of the President, offering pardon to all Mormons who 
should submit to the Federal authority.  This offer was accepted by the 
heads of the Mormon church, and all trouble arrested.
     At the session of the General Assembly, which took place in 1859, 
Governor Powell was elected to the Senate of the United States for the full
term of six years.  Without extending this sketch to too great length, we 
find it impracticable to give the reader more than a general outline of 
Governor Powell's course while a member of the Senate.  His speeches to 
that body would of themselves fill a large volume, and these are all to be
found in the published reports of the congressional proceedings of the 
period. He entered the Senate at a time of great political excitement.  A 
party had arisen in the country and was daily growing stronger, which had,
for its main idea, the extinction of slavery as a national institution, or
as one recognized in the fundamental law of the land.  By the governments 
of several of the Northern States, the fugitive slave law had been openly 
proclaimed a measure which required from them no obedience.  The Southern 
States, disgusted at what they conceived to be want of faith on the part of
their Northern associates, and seeing, from the complexion of the 
Legislation of the country, that they would soon be powerless to protect 
their constitutional rights against the requirements of a constantly 
increasing majority in the National Legislature, already were contemplating
secession.  In both houses of Congress, fanaticism ruled one part of the 
people's representative, and, with but few exceptions, passion the 
remainder.
     Few of our public men possessed a clearer understanding of the causes
that led to the late conflict than Governor Powell.  In a speech on the 
"Bill Giving Freedom to the Families of Negro Soldiers," delivered in the
Senate on the ninth day of January, 1863, Mr. Powell remarked:  "Some call
this a war for the negro, but, in my opinion, those who look upon 
African slavery as the cause of the war are greatly mistaken.  This war was
not designed by the large slave holders of the South; they did not want the
war.  It is not war of the negro [sic]; it is not a war of tariffs; it is 
not a war of any particular line of policy, but it is a war of politicians
who were faithless to their constitutional obligations, and there the 
responsibility will be placed by the philosophical historian in all after 
time.  If I were to describe it in a sentence, I should say that it was a 
war of the politicians, both North and South-a war of ambitious, fanatical
zealots, and they existed North as well as South.  I speak of a class of 
politicians who are faithless to their oaths of office, and who claim to be
governed by a law higher than and above the Constitution."

Berry Boyd Bray Buchanan Clay Cowan Crittenden Deacon Dixon Elder Gayle
Green Guthrie Helm Hewitt Hickey Holloway Hunt Jennings Johnson Kane Law 
Martin McCullough McLean McMahon Polk Powell Rowan Shannon Thompson 
Wickliffe Wilson Woodbridge Woolley 
=
Owensboro-Daviess-KY UT IN McCracken-KY Floyd-KY TX

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/henderson/powell.lw.txt