Preston Leslie

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Preston H. Leslie
Preston Leslie
In office
1894 – 1898
Constituency Montana Territory
In office
February 18, 1887 – April 13, 1889
Preceded by Samuel Thomas Hauser
Succeeded by Benjamin F. White
In office
February 13, 1871 – August 31, 1875
Lieutenant John G. Carlisle
Preceded by John W. Stevenson
Succeeded by James B. McCreary
Born March 8, 1819(1819-03-08)
Wayne County, Kentucky
Died February 7, 1907 (aged 94)
Helena, Montana
Political party Whig, Democrat
Spouse Louisa Black
Mary Kuykendall
Occupation Farmer
Profession Lawyer
Religion Baptist

Preston Hopkins Leslie (8 March 1819 - 7 February 1907) was governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1871 to 1875.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Preston Leslie was born in Clinton County, Kentucky, (then a part of Wayne County) on March 8, 1819, the second son of Vachel and Sally Hopkins Leslie. He was educated in the public schools, then studied law under Judge Rice Maxey. He worked with his father on the family farm, until 1835, and supported himself by doing odd jobs including stagecoach driver, ferryman, and store clerk.[1]

Leslie was admitted to the bar on October 10, 1840, and served as the deputy clerk of the Clinton County courts. In 1841, he relocated to Tompkinsville, Kentucky, where he worked as a farmer. He became county attorney of Monroe County in 1842.[1]

On November 11, 1841, Leslie married Louisa Black; the couple had seven children. Black died on August 9, 1858. Leslie's second marriage, to widow Mary Maupin Kuykendall on November 17, 1859, produced three more children.[2]

[edit] Political career

Leslie began his political career by being elected as a Whig to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1844. He was defeated by a single vote for a seat in the state Senate in 1846, and continued his service in the House until 1850, when he won election to the Senate, representing Monroe and Barren counties. His first stint in the Senate lasted until 1855.[3]

During the 1850s, the Whig Party gradually faded from prominence in Kentucky, and Leslie became a Democrat.[3] Also during this time, he declined nominations for a seats in the United States Congress and on the Kentucky Court of appeals, choosing instead to work on his farm.[2] In 1859, he moved to Glasgow, Kentucky in Barren County.[1]

By 1861, Leslie had built up a prosperous estate, and added a plot of land in Texas to his holdings in Kentucky. In December of that year, he and his eldest son traveled to the property with twenty-six slaves and a large part of the family's possessions. After establishing his household, Leslie returned to Kentucky and left the Texas estate in the care of his son.[4]

Leslie's feelings were mixed on the issues central to the Civil War. Known as a "strong Union man" prior to the war, Leslie's sympathies switched to the southern cause at the outbreak of the war. However, he believed that the South should solve its differences with the North through diplomatic means, and did not support the idea of secession. During the war, he kept a low political profile, and refused military service for either side. He returned to the state Senate from 1867 to 1871, serving as president of that body from 1869 to 1871.[5]

[edit] Governor of Kentucky

On February 13, 1871, Governor John W. Stevenson resigned his post to accept a seat in the U.S. Senate. Stevenson had ascended to the governorship on the death of John L. Helm, and had no lieutenant governor. As president of the Senate, Leslie was the ex-officio lieutenant governor, and next in line to succeed Stevenson. Later that year, Leslie was chosen as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the regularly scheduled election. Because of Leslie's opposition to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, his candidacy was opposed by Henry Watterson, founder of the powerful Louisville Courier-Journal. Despite this, Leslie defeated Republican nominee John Marshall Harlan by a considerable margin in the first election in which blacks were allowed to vote.[5]

Leslie laid out an aggressive legislative agenda in his inaugural address to the General Assembly on September 5, 1871, but legislators were more concerned with passing the Southern Railroad bill. The bill would create a connection between the railroads of Cincinnati, Ohio with those of the Southern United States. The line would pass through central Kentucky, opening up trade to the region. It would be funded primarily by capital from Ohio, and would provide competition to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad's monopoly in the state. Though Leslie wasn't particularly supportive of the bill, he refused to veto it because of the potential economic benefits to the state.[6]

Leslie was also faced with the issue of post-war violence that persisted in parts of the state. He pressured local authorities to put down the offenders, and the General Assembly responded by passing a stringent law that helped curb the violence.[7]

With the railroad and violence issues resolved, Governor Leslie urged the legislature to improve the status of blacks in the state, including the creation of an educational system for blacks and the approval of the testimony of blacks in the state's courts. He commissioned a new geological survey, appointing native Kentuckian Nathaniel Southgate Shaler to head the work. An advocate of the temperance movement, he secured additional regulations on the sale of liquor. Also during Leslie's tenure, the penal system was improved. Devout Baptists, Governor and Mrs. Leslie were given a silver service set by the Good Templars of Kentucky for their charity to the needy.[7]

Following his term in office, he was elected to serve on the Glasgow circuit court, a position he held for six years, beginning in 1881. He failed in a re-election bid in 1886 by four votes.[2]

[edit] Governor of Montana

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland appointed Leslie to be the Territorial Governor of Montana. He soon ran afoul of the press, who labeled him the "Coldwater Governor" for his stands in favor of temperance. The press' opinion him further dimmed when he pardoned a prostitute convicted of grand larceny because the penitentiary was not equipped to accommodate women. He urged the territorial legislature to enact fiscal reforms and improve facilities for the insane and incarcerated, but he was no match for the political machinery in Montana Territory. His 1889 pocket veto of an appointment bill supported by the legislature was the final straw; under pressure from Republicans, President Benjamin Harrison replaced Leslie as territorial governor.[8]

Meanwhile in Kentucky, the state treasurer, "Honest Dick" Tate, had absconded with nearly $250,000 of the state's money in 1888. During the investigation that followed, it was discovered that Leslie, along with several other state officials, had procured personal loans from the state treasury through Tate.[9]

Following his removal from office, he opened a legal practice in Helena, Montana, and was appointed U.S. district attorney of Montana by President Cleveland in his second term. He served in this role from 1894 to 1898.[10]

[edit] Death and legacy

During his final years of legal practice in Helena, Leslie gained widespread acclaim, and served as president of the Montana State Bar Association.[2] On a return visit to Kentucky in 1906, he was addressed the legislature, noting how he had helped the state adjust to the "new order" following the Civil War.[8] He died February 7, 1907 and was buried at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena.

Leslie County, Kentucky was named in honor of Governor Leslie. His former residence in Glasgow, Kentucky is now a bed and breakfast.

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Webb, p. 101
  2. ^ a b c d Powell, p. 60
  3. ^ a b Harrison, p. 544
  4. ^ Webb, pp. 101–102
  5. ^ a b Webb, p. 102
  6. ^ Webb, pp. 102–103
  7. ^ a b Webb, p. 103
  8. ^ a b Webb, p. 104
  9. ^ McQueen
  10. ^ Harrison, pp. 544–545

[edit] External links

Preceded by
John W. Stevenson		 Governor of Kentucky
1871 - 1875		 Succeeded by
James B. McCreary
v • d • e
Governors of Kentucky
Shelby • Garrard • Greenup • Scott • Shelby • Madison • Slaughter • Adair • Desha • Metcalfe • J. Breathitt • J. Morehead • Clark • Wickliffe • Letcher • Owsley • Crittenden • Helm • Powell • C. Morehead • Magoffin • Robinson • Bramlette • Helm • Stevenson • Leslie • McCreary • Blackburn • Knott • Buckner • Brown • Bradley • Taylor • Goebel • Beckham • Willson • McCreary • Stanley • Black • Morrow • Fields • Sampson • Laffoon • Chandler • Johnson • Willis • Clements • Wetherby • Chandler • Combs • E. Breathitt • Nunn • Ford • Carroll • Brown Jr. • Collins • Wilkinson • Jones • Patton • Fletcher • Beshear

Kentucky also had two Confederate Governors: George W. Johnson and Richard Hawes.

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