John L. Helm
John L. Helm | |
|---|---|
Lazarus W. Powell | |
| 14th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky | |
| In office September 6, 1848 – July 31, 1850 | |
| Governor | John J. Crittenden |
| Preceded by | Archibald Dixon |
| Succeeded by | John Burton Thompson |
| Other offices | |
| 1844 | Member of the Kentucky Senate |
| 1826–1843 | Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John LaRue Helm July 4, 1802 Hardin County, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | September 8, 1867 (aged 65) Elizabethtown, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Political party | Democrat (from 1865) Whig (1826–1865) |
| Spouse |
Lucinda Barbour Hardin
(m. 1830) |
| Relations | Benjamin Hardin (Father-in-law) |
| Children | 11, including Benjamin and Lucinda |
| Residence | Helm Place |
| Profession | |
| Signature |  |
John LaRue Helm (July 4, 1802 – September 8, 1867) was the
Helm was first elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1826; between 1826 and 1843 he served eleven one-year terms in the state house. In 1844, he was elected to the state senate, where he served continuously until he was chosen as the Whig Party nominee for lieutenant governor on a ticket with John J. Crittenden, famous for the Crittenden Compromise. The Whigs won the general election and Helm was elevated to governor on July 31, 1850, when Crittenden resigned to accept an appointment as United States Attorney General in President Millard Fillmore's cabinet. After his service as governor Helm became president of the struggling Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He invested thousands of dollars of his own money in the project and convinced residents along the line's main route to buy stock in the company. In 1859, the line was completed, but the next year Helm resigned over of differences with the board of directors regarding a proposed branch that would extend the line to Memphis, Tennessee.
Although he openly opposed
Early life
In 1780, Helm's grandfather, Thomas Helm, emigrated to Kentucky from Prince William County, Virginia, and founded the settlement of Helm Station near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in Hardin County, where John L. Helm was born on July 4, 1802.[1][2][3] He was the eldest of nine children born to George B. Helm, a farmer and politician, and Rebecca LaRue Helm, a descendant of a prominent local pioneer family.[2][4]
Helm attended the area's public schools and studied with noted educator
At about this time, Helm's father traveled to Texas to enter into business and rebuild his finances, but he died there in 1822,
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In 1823, Helm called on
Political career
The major political issue in Kentucky during Helm's legal training was the
Throughout 1825, Helm made speeches and distributed pamphlets in Hardin and surrounding counties, espousing the Old Court position.
Helm was re-elected to the state House in 1827 and 1830, and was re-elected every year from 1833 to 1837.
Helm made his only run for federal office in 1838 and was defeated by
Lieutenant governor and governor
In 1844, Helm was elected to the Kentucky Senate, where he served until 1848.[3] That year he was the Whig candidate for lieutenant governor on a ticket with John J. Crittenden.[1] Helm defeated Democrat John Preston Martin in the general election.[18] The major political question in the state during Helm's time as lieutenant governor was whether to adopt a new state constitution.[17] As a state senator in 1848, Helm had voted to allow the state's citizens to decide the matter in a referendum, but after seeing the document produced by the constitutional convention, he opposed its ratification.[17] In an address to the state senate in 1850, he declared, "I was for reform, and not for revolution. I was for amending the Constitution, and not for obliterating every vital principle in contained."[19] He especially opposed creating an elective judiciary.[20] His antagonism to the constitution put him at odds with his father-in-law, Benjamin Hardin.[19] The two did not reconcile until 1852, as Hardin lay on his deathbed.[19] The new constitution was adopted in 1850 and in June of that year Helm encouraged the people to accept it.[21]
Governor Crittenden resigned on July 31, 1850, to accept President Millard Fillmore's appointment as attorney general, and Helm ascended to the governorship.[1] As governor, Helm vetoed a legislative plan to cover deficits in the public school fund by drawing money from the state's sinking fund, but the General Assembly overrode the veto.[14] He urged the legislature to fund a survey of the state's mineral reserves and a census of the state's agricultural and manufacturing resources.[14] He called for spending on internal improvements and for raising judges' salaries to attract more qualified jurists to the bench.[14][18] He also sought a ban on the carrying of concealed deadly weapons.[14] The legislature did not act on any of these proposed reforms.[14] The only part of Helm's agenda that did progress through the General Assembly was election reform.[14]
President of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Helm was a
Helm worked diligently to convince residents along the line's main route of the economic benefits it would bring.[25] He persuaded many of them to help clear and grade land for the line and accept company stock as payment, and succeeded in selling stock subscriptions to people in the same area.[14][25] Rising labor costs and troubles transporting materials raised expenses far above the projected budget, and at one point Helm personally redeemed $20,000 ($680,000 as of 2024) of the company's bonds.[26] Meanwhile, some observers accused Helm of mismanaging the company.[26] The company's fortunes improved in 1857 when the city of Louisville provided $300,000 ($9.81 million as of 2024) in financial aid and the line was completed on October 18, 1859.[27] Due to Helm's influence, the railroad's charter required all trains traveling through Elizabethtown to stop there.[28]
By the time the line was finished, there were public calls from inside and outside the company for Helm to resign, mostly because of his support for a proposed Memphis branch of the railroad.[29] To complete the branch, the Louisville and Nashville would have to complete a line from Bowling Green to Guthrie, Kentucky.[30] There it would join a line owned by the Memphis and Ohio Railroad that began across the state line at Clarksville, Tennessee, and extended to Memphis.[30] Supporters believed the branch would economically help both Louisville and Memphis and would lessen their dependence on trade along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.[31] Opponents argued that the project was simply a ploy to whip up new support for the struggling railroad.[31] Helm endorsed the Memphis branch in his annual report in 1857.[30]
On February 4, 1860, two members of the company's board of directors wrote a letter requesting Helm's resignation; they claimed they had voted for his re-election as president of the company with the understanding that he would resign when the main line between Louisville and Nashville was finished.
Civil War and second term as governor
On January 8, 1861, Helm chaired a meeting in Louisville that advocated for Kentucky's neutrality in the Civil War.[1][9] Helm was an outspoken opponent of secession, but also denounced the election of Abraham Lincoln and his use of military force to subdue the southern states.[9] Because Helm did not condemn his son, Benjamin, for joining the Confederate Army, federal authorities classified him as a southern sympathizer.[34]
After learning of the arrest of former governor Charles S. Morehead by federal authorities, Helm fled to Bowling Green, fearing his own arrest. Through the intervention of Warner Underwood he was able to return home on the condition that he swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. Nevertheless, federal soldiers repeatedly entered his home, encouraging his slaves to abandon him, and consuming or destroying his crops. Because the state's courts were closed on account of the war, he was unable to earn a living by practicing law. In short order, his once-substantial fortune was expended, and he resorted to borrowing money to support his family.[35]
In September 1863, Helm and several other citizens from Hardin County were arrested by Colonel Knox. After several days of confinement in Elizabethtown the prisoners were conducted to Louisville. By chance, Kentucky governor James F. Robinson recognized Helm in the group and negotiated with General Jeremiah Boyle to have him released. Shortly after returning home, Helm learned of Benjamin's death at the Battle of Chickamauga.[36]
After the war Helm identified with the Democratic Party, and he returned to the state senate in 1865.[3] During his tenure he chaired the Committee on Federal Relations and fought against punitive and restrictive laws against ex-Confederates.[14] On January 22, 1866, he presented to the state senate a protest against the actions of the United States Congress during the Civil War.[37] It denounced the Reconstruction Amendments on the grounds that they granted powers to the federal government that were reserved for the states, and that they were passed while many southern states were not represented in Congress.[38] He also decried the creation and operation of the Freedmen's Bureau.[39] On January 29, 1867, Helm introduced legislation to organize a meeting in Louisville to rally support for President Andrew Johnson and his efforts to restore the Union.[40]
The state Democratic Convention met on February 22, 1867, in Frankfort and chose Helm and John W. Stevenson as the party's candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.[40] Helm resigned his seat in the state senate to accept the nomination.[18] Though his health was frail, he determined to canvass the entire state.[41] He continued his call for an end to Civil War bitterness and proscriptions against those who had sided with the Confederacy.[18] He won the general election over Republican Sidney Barnes and a third-party candidate, Judge William B. Kinkead.[18]
The strenuous campaign took a decisive toll on Helm's already weakened body. He was too weak to travel to Frankfort for his inauguration, so the oath of office was administered at his home on September 3, 1867.
Helm died on September 8, 1867, just five days after his inauguration.[3] He was buried in a family graveyard at Helm Place.[3] Helm Place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 1976.[43]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Powell, p. 46
- ^ a b c Allen, p. 107
- ^ a b c d e f g h i NGA Bio
- ^ a b Owen, p. 68
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 16–17
- ^ a b Biographical Sketch, p. 18
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 15–16
- ^ a b Allen, p. 108
- ^ a b c d Johnson, p. 929
- ^ Coleman, p. 51
- ^ a b c Alexander, p. 18
- ^ a b Biographical Sketch, p. 23
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 21–23
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Owen, p. 69
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 23–24
- ^ a b Owen, p. 56
- ^ a b c d NRHP nomination form, p. 10
- ^ a b c d e Harrison, p. 422
- ^ a b c Biographical Sketch, p. 34
- ^ Green, p. 217
- ^ NRHP nomination form, p. 11
- ^ NRHP nomination form, pp. 11–12
- ^ Klein, p. 9
- ^ Klein, pp. 8–9
- ^ a b Klein, p. 11
- ^ a b Klein, p. 12
- ^ Klein, pp. 12, 14
- ^ NRHP nomination form, p. 12
- ^ Herr, pp. 23, 26
- ^ a b c Klein, p. 20
- ^ a b Klein, p. 18
- ^ a b c Herr, p. 26
- ^ Klein, p. 22
- ^ Biographical Sketch, p. 73
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 73–75
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 75–77
- ^ Biographical Sketch, p. 79
- ^ Biographical Sketch, pp. 79–80
- ^ Biographical Sketch, p. 82
- ^ a b Biographical Sketch, p. 84
- ^ Biographical Sketch, p. 86
- ^ a b c Owen, p. 70
- ^ NRHP nomination form, p. 1
Bibliography
- Alexander, Arabel Wilbur (1898). The life and work of Lucinda B. Helm, founder of the Woman's parsonage and Home mission society of the M.E. church, South (PDF). Nashville, Tennessee: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
- Allen, William B. (1872). A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits. Bradley & Gilbert. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
- Biographical sketch of the Hon. John L. Helm, late governor of Kentucky. published by direction of the General Assembly of Kentucky. Frankfort, Kentucky: Kentucky Yeoman Office. 1868. Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - Coleman, John Winston (1968). Historic Kentucky. Henry Clay Press. ISBN 0-87642-000-5.
- Green, Thomas Marshall (1889). Historic Families of Kentucky. R. Clark and Company. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.
- Herr, Kincaid A. (2000). The Louisville and Nashville Railroad 1850–1963. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2184-1.
- Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Lewis Publishing Company. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
- "Kentucky Governor John Larue Helm". National Governors Association. Archived from the original on January 17, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
- Klein, Maury (2002). History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2263-5.
- Owen, Tom (2004). ISBN 0-8131-2326-7.
- Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Frankfort, Kentucky: Kentucky Images. OCLC 2690774.
- Terry, Mrs. Wilbur; Mrs. Edmund S. Richerson (1976). "NRHP Nomination Form" (PDF). Retrieved February 12, 2009.
Further reading
- Morton, Jennie Chinn (September 1905). "Sketch of Governor John L. Helm". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 3: 11–14.
External links
