Edward Valentine's recumbent statue of General Robert E. Lee
Lee Chapel, Washington and Lee University Lexington, Virginia
Posted on 08/19/2003 6:14:00 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
The death of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Oct. 12, 1870, prompted a host of public meetings and gatherings and an outpouring of feelings about a hero of the era.
In Kentucky, one of the largest gatherings took place in Louisville where two speakers were chosen to give the main talks.
One was an obvious selection: John Cabell Breckinridge, a former U.S. vice president and senator, fellow Confederate general and former Confederate Secretary of War.
The other speaker, however, was not so obvious in the years immediately following the war when feelings still ran high.
He had been a strong Union supporter during the Civil War. He had proudly proclaimed himself an abolitionist. As a state legislator, he had authored a resolution calling for the state to "expel the invaders" when Confederate troops entered the commonwealth in September 1861. Moreover, he served as adjutant general for the commonwealth during the war in charge of Home Guard defenses against rebel troops.
His name was John W. Finnell.
Finnell's speech honoring Lee showed an abiding respect for the South's most distinguished general that could only help heal the war's scars and underscored that even enemies remain brothers in arms.
Finnell was born in Winchester on Dec. 24, 1821, the son of Nimrod L. Finnell, a printer by trade.
He graduated from Transylvania University while still a teen-ager, learned the printing business and then switched to law and politics.
He served in the state House of Representatives as representative from Nicholas County in 1845 and 1846. As a young, up-and-coming member of the Whig Party, he caught the eye of Gov. John J. Crittenden who in 1848 made him secretary of state. Finnell was only 27 years old.
By the 1850s, Finnell had moved to Covington where he opened a law office and married Elizabeth Tureman, whom he had met while living in Nicolas County.
The year 1861 proved pivotal for Finnell. He again sought a seat in the state House of Representatives but this time from Kenton County. He ran and won as a pro-Union supporter.
Of more importance, on Oct.12, 1861 as the hostilities began their sixth month, Finnell was appointed by Gov. Beriah MaGoffin to be state adjutant general.
The appointment put him in charge of state military operations, including the organization and use of Home Guards, made up usually of Union supporters too young or too old for regular military service.
The Louisville Journal, some months after his appointment, praised Magoffin's choice of Finnell as the "happiest possible one'' and called Finnell "a patriot of unimpeachable purity, a ready and accomplished man of affairs, a gentleman and a Kentuckian without reproach.''
Finnell gained local support when he announced plans to purchase underclothing for the Home Guard from Covington suppliers, with the Ladies Soldier's Relief Society overseeing the operations. The writer noted the work would be timely for poor, unemployed women in Covington.
Among Finnell's first orders were to merge Home Guard units that had lost members to either the Union or Confederate armies to restore their strength, arrest Union deserters and restrict the use of alcohol by his troops.
Finnell served as state adjutant general until September 1863, when his benefactor, Gov. Magoffin, resigned and James Fisher Robinson was appointed to complete his term.
Finnell's speech honoring Lee came just five years after the war's end.
He called the Confederate general a tower of strength, whose life was not diminished by defeat.
He termed Lee a Christian gentleman, who turned to teaching after the war and who embarked on that new career with the same enthusiasm he had shown as a soldier.
Finally, Finnell said Lee was not a man of one section of the country or of one time, but rather a man who belonged to all of the country and all ages.
The study of Northern Kentucky history is an avocation of staff writer Jim Reis, who covers suburban Kenton County for The Kentucky Post.
"During the Civil War, traitors fought for the Confederacy and patriots fought for the United States of America."
497 posted on 07/30/2003 8:21 AM EDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
What's your point? Are you making the assumption Southerners are less American than those of the North?
Indeed. And he would have probably opted for red had he lived here about 225 years ago.
I expect you'll keep that in mind the next time another General Sherman comes along. You can even offer him your assistance by torching your house in advance. That way he will have more matches to use on others who are less willing than yourself to bow down to and worship at the feet of tyrants.
"The ostensible supporters of [all governments] are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes -- a large class, no doubt -- each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a "free man," a "sovereign"; that this is "a free government"; "a government of equal rights," "the best government on earth," and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change." - Lysander Spooner, 1870
What do you expect from a nut and a drunk? Anyways, I know that is not nice to say, but tell me, since the South were all Democrats in those days ( as you vehemently express yourself, and since you equate them to the Democrats of today on your numerous posts ), why do 90 % of the blacks vote for Democrats to this very day at every chance they get since the civil war my Republican savior?
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