Kentucky history, will likewise correct many errors that have been indulged in for more than a century. The invaluable collection of manuscripts belonging to Miss Lucretia Hart Clay, of Lexington, for the first time made accessible to a writer of Kentucky history, has been of incalculable benefit to the writers of this work. Miss Clay is a grand-daughter of Henry Clay and of Lucretia Hart, whose father was a director in the Transylvania Company, and many of the manuscripts bearing upon her distinguished ancestors can be found in none of the accessible sources of Kentucky history. The authors of this work feel especially indebted to Miss Clay for this mark of distinction, the wealth of whose collections will be best appreciated in the various references in the text and the footnotes to this source of information. No former history of Kentucky has undertaken to deal with the history of the eastern part of the state. While this defect has been remedied only to a small extent in the present work, because to do so would be of a local rather than a general character, at the same time there are some facts connected with that portion of the state that are treated herein at greater length than in any previous history of the state. Many very important matters, especially those relating to the Civil war, had to be omitted, since only a generalization account of that period of the state's history was undertaken. It is the hope of the authors and the editor that the wealth of material collected on this subject may be utilized by them in the not distant future, since this portion of the state must soon become the wealthiest section of the nation. In wealth, intelligence and political importance it must soon take equal rank with any portion of the state. Kentuckians may justly be proud of their state. In historical importance, wealth of natural resources, pride of ancestry, love of state, it has no superior. It has been the attempt of those who have labored for two years in the preparation of this work to give the people of Kentucky a record of their history from the first recorded incident in connection with the discovery and settlement of the country to the defeat of the "Evolution" bill by the vote of a mountain representative. It is a record of which all may be proud. While there may be found in her annals much that might be the subject of critical observations, no Kentuckian need blush for his state. "The past, at least, is secure." A better and a fuller knowledge of what her people have done, what they have accomplished, and the position which their state has held in the councils of the nation, must serve to increase the love and reverence which her sons and daughters bear her, under whatsoever sun they may dwell. Pride of state from the beginning has been a characteristic of the Kentuckian. No children ever showed greater parental affection. Among Kentuckians, no matter where found, there exists a fellowship to be found among no other people. Kentucky has not been a silent member of the sisterhood of states. The Union owes much to this first born of her daughters, she having been formed before the earlier admitted Vermont. George Rogers Clark gave to the Union the entire Northwest Territory. But for the action taken by Kentucky the purchase of the Louisiana Territory must have been doubtful, if not impossible. The so-called Spanish Conspiracies never affected the loyalty of the body of her people, and the individuals were affected far less than has been supposed. It has been the endeavor of those associated with the preparation of this work to give an impartial account of that era in our history and to make any future account unnecessary. As will be seen, political rivalry had the effect of not infrequently putting loyal acts in a disloyal light. A just estimate of the pioneer Kentuckians cannot be given by any historian. Those who would have betrayed the state into an allegiance with a foreign monarchy are negligible. When it is considered that all the wealth and diplomatic skill, as well as a flood of intrigue, were employed to lead a people who occupied an isolated and unprotected position from a position of hazard into one of apparent security and affluence, there is revealed in the failure of all these efforts a race that is full worthy of all the praise and admiration that may be lavished upon it. For strength and character and force of will, the Kentuckian of pre-state times may not be compared with any of the state-builders that have joined the Union. For the Kentucky that is to be, the Kentucky of the past must ever be an inspiration. In her ideals she has not soared above the unattainable. Should she ever suffer the misfortune of taking a downward course, it will not be because the accomplishments of the past have not been an incentive to travel upward. That her glorious past is but an earnest of her yet more glorious future is the anticipation of a faith too real to be marred by the spectre of doubt. Especial acknowledgment is made to those who have contributed to this work. The special articles that will be found in the text are among the most valuable that appear in the entire collection of historic data. Without these contributions the work would be irreparably deficient. THE EDITOR. |