Preston Leslie

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Preston H. Leslie
Territorial Governor of Montana
In office
February 18, 1887 – April 13, 1889
Preceded bySamuel Thomas Hauser
Succeeded byBenjamin F. White
26th Governor of Kentucky
In office
February 13, 1871 – August 31, 1875
LieutenantJohn G. Carlisle
Preceded byJohn W. Stevenson
Succeeded byJames B. McCreary
Member of the Kentucky Senate
In office
1850–1855
Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
In office
1844–1850
Personal details
Born(1819-03-08)March 8, 1819
Wayne County, Kentucky
DiedFebruary 7, 1907(1907-02-07) (aged 87)
Helena, Montana
Resting placeForestvale Cemetery
Political partyWhig, Democrat
Spouse(s)Louisa Black
Mary Kuykendall
OccupationFarmer
ProfessionLawyer
Signature

Preston Hopkins Leslie (March 8, 1819 – February 7, 1907) was the

territorial governor of Montana from 1887 to 1889. He ascended to the office of governor by three different means. First, he succeeded Kentucky governor John W. Stevenson upon the latter's resignation to accept a seat in the United States Senate in 1871. Later that year, he was elected to a full term as governor, defeating John Marshall Harlan in the general election. Finally, he was appointed territorial governor by President Grover Cleveland
.

Leslie was a

blacks in court and providing for an educational system for recently freed slaves. He also helped quell violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan
in many areas of the state.

As territorial governor of Montana, Leslie quickly drew the ire of the press for his pro-temperance position. The territory's political machinery also turned against him, and he was removed from office by President Benjamin Harrison. When Grover Cleveland succeeded Harrison for a second term in office, he appointed Leslie district attorney for Montana. Leslie continued to practice law well into his eighties, and was being considered for a district court judgeship in Montana when he fell ill with pneumonia and died on February 7, 1907, at the age of 87.

Early life

Preston Leslie was born in

county attorney of Monroe County in 1842.[1]

On November 11, 1841, Leslie married Louisa Black; they had seven children. Louisa died on August 9, 1858. Leslie married the widowed Mary Maupin Kuykendall on November 17, 1859, fathering three more children.[2] Mary Leslie died September 3, 1900.[3]

Political career

Leslie began his political career by being elected as a Whig to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1844. He was defeated for a seat in the state Senate in 1846 by a single vote. He continued serving in the House until 1850, when he won election to the Senate representing Monroe and Barren counties. He then served in the Senate until 1855.[4] In the 1850s, the Whig Party gradually faded in Kentucky, and Leslie became a Democrat.[4] He declined nominations for a seats in the United States Congress and on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, preferring 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 26 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.[5]

Leslie's feelings were mixed on the issues central to the

president of that body from 1869 to 1871.[6]

Governor of Kentucky

On February 13, 1871, Governor

Bourbon Democrats in the state, as well as the state's tobacco interests and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.[8]

During the campaign, Leslie's opponent

blacks were allowed to vote.[6]

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 that would create a connection between the railroads of Cincinnati, Ohio, and 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.[11] Leslie was also faced with the issue of post-war violence by the Ku Klux Klan.[12] The legislature had refused to pass a law against mob violence in 1871.[12] In his address to the legislature on December 6, 1871, Leslie endorsed legislation that made it illegal to write or post threatening notices and to band together and wear disguises.[12][13] This proposal enjoyed favorable public opinion, and was passed during the legislature's next session.[14] 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.[15]

Devout Baptists and teetotalers, Governor and Mrs. Leslie did not serve alcohol in the governor's mansion and were given a silver service set at the expiration of his term by the Good Templars of Kentucky for their charity to the needy.[15] Following his term in office, Leslie 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]

Governor of Montana

In 1887,

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.[17] Leslie soon ran afoul of the local press, who labeled him the "Coldwater Governor" for his stands in favor of temperance. The press's opinion of 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 the 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.[16]

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.[18]

Later life and death

Following his removal from office, Leslie opened a legal practice in Helena, Montana, partnering with A. J. Craven.[17] President Cleveland in his second term appointed Leslie U.S. district attorney of Montana.[19] He served from 1894 to 1898.[19]

During his final years practicing law in Helena, Leslie gained widespread acclaim and served as president of the Montana State

Montana governor Joseph Toole was circulating a petition to have Leslie named a district court judge when Leslie fell ill with pneumonia.[20] He died February 7, 1907, and was buried at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena.[16]

Memorials

Leslie County, Kentucky, was formed in 1878 and was named in his honor.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c Webb, p. 101.
  2. ^ a b c d Powell, p. 60.
  3. ^ Ward, p. 204.
  4. ^ a b Harrison, p. 544.
  5. ^ Webb, pp. 101–102.
  6. ^ a b c d Webb, p. 102.
  7. ^ a b c d e Tapp, p. 37.
  8. ^ Tapp, p. 38.
  9. ^ a b c Tapp, p. 45.
  10. ^ Tapp, p. 46.
  11. ^ Webb, pp. 102–103.
  12. ^ a b c Wright, p. 27.
  13. ^ Tapp, p. 49.
  14. ^ Tapp, p. 50.
  15. ^ a b Webb, p. 103.
  16. ^ a b c d Webb, p. 104.
  17. ^ a b Ward, p. 206.
  18. ^ McQueen, p. 76.
  19. ^ a b c Harrison, p. 545.
  20. ^ Ward, p. 207.

Bibliography

  • ISBN 0-8131-1772-0
    .
  • "Kentucky Governor Preston Hopkins Leslie". National Governors Association. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  • McQueen, Keven (2001). Offbeat Kentuckians: Legends to Lunatics. Ill. by Kyle McQueen. Kuttawa, Kentucky: McClanahan Publishing House.
    ISBN 0-913383-80-5
    .
  • Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Danville, Kentucky: Bluegrass Printing Company.
    OCLC 2690774
    .
  • Tapp, Hambleton; James C. Klotter (1977). Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865–1900. The University Press of Kentucky.
    ISBN 0-916968-05-7
    . Retrieved May 30, 2009.
  • Wade, John W. (1910). "Hon. Preston H. Leslie, A Short Sketch of His Life". Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana. 7. Rocky Mountain Publishing Company. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
  • Webb, Ross A. (2004). Lowell Hayes Harrison (ed.). Kentucky's Governors. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.
    ISBN 0-8131-2326-7
    . Retrieved May 30, 2009.
  • Wright, George C. (1990). Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865–1940 : Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings". Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-8071-2073-6
    .

Further reading

  • Morton, Jennie C. (September 1907). "Sketch and Picture of Governor Preston H. Leslie". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 5: 13–16.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Preston Leslie.
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Governor of Kentucky
1871 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Kentucky
1871–1875 		Succeeded by

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Preston_Leslie&oldid=1149098630"