CHAPTER VIII

RETURN TO KENTUCKY

In the Maysville Eagle for March 13 the editor, Lewis Collins, the beginner of the greatest of Kentucky histories, noticed that on Saturday, March 9, R. H. Menefee, in company with Clay, Crittenden, Chambers, and Hawes, reached Maysville, Kentucky, on their way back to their respective homes. All of them, with the exception of Clay, who was detained a day on account of illness, departed for their homes immediately, and Menefee, Crittenden, and Hawes reached Lexington on the same day.

Menefee, with his wife, did not return to Mt. Sterling, but decided to live, in the future, in Lexington. They boarded with Mrs. Menefee's mother, Mrs. Matthew H. Jouett, at number 46 East Main street. Matthew H. Jouett, the greatest of Kentucky artists, had died in 1827, and had left his family very little money. His widow was compelled to keep boarders, and during the years of 1839 and 1840 she had as boarders Menefee and his wife, Oliver Frazer, the Kentucky artist who was to paint a picture of Menefee that has contributed toward his immortality, and his wife, and Col. William R. McKee, a gallant Mexican soldier, who fell at Buena Vista, and his wife. These three couples, Mrs. Frazer used to tell her daughter, formed "a delightful dinner party." On the 1st day of April, 1839, Menefee quali

fied as an attorney and counsellor at law, at the Fayette Circuit Court. Judge Aaron K. Wooley was on the bench.

As Menefee had been in politics for three years, and had received only one dollar and a half a day as a representative in the Kentucky House, and only five dollars per day in the National House, he had been able to save very little money, and now he was determined to practice law and increase his bank account. As a prominent Kentuckian has said, Menefee had learned how it pays to eschew politics and stay at home, and, although he was to be identified with Kentucky politics for the next year, he refused, as the Flemingsburg Kentuckian said, to make the race for the 26th Congress. "Mr. Menefee declines to run for a seat in the next Congress. This will certainly be a matter of no little regret to the whole country. During his term of service in the last Congress of the United States, Mr. Menefee has had but few equals and scarcely any superiors in point of ability. He has proven himself a statesman of the very first order and a Representative faithful to his constituency, and untiring in his efforts to advance the best interests of our common country. Considerations of a private nature are alleged as the reasons for declining a canvass at the ensuing election."

Richard H. Menefee practiced law at the Fayette bar during the summer of 1839, and he built up a lucrative practice. During the months of June and July he had his professional card in the Frankfort Commonwealth.

1

1 Record Book No. 26, in Fayette Circuit Clerk's Office.

It appeared at the top of the column, which was devoted to professional notices, and simply stated that he had resumed the practice of law, and would attend, besides the courts held in Lexington, the Court of Appeals, the Federal Court, and the Circuit Courts of Bourbon and Scott Counties. Below Menefee's card appeared such distinguished Kentuckians as John Calhoun and James Harlan, two of Menefee's colleagues in the 25th Congress, who, like Menefee, had given up politics for law. John J. Crittenden announced his intention of practicing during the summer, in Frankfort. Three men, who had been or were to be, Governors of Kentucky-William Owsley, James T. Morehead and James F. Robinson,-also had their notices in the Commonwealth. So it may be easily seen from the above list that Kentucky had lawyers in those days.

On August 12, 1839, the Whig Central Committee, composed of Benjamin W. Dudley, Gen. Leslie Combs, Harry I. Bodley, Richard Pindell, and Richard H. Menefee, which was appointed in 1838 at a meeting held in Frankfort, over which Governor Thomas Metcalfe had presided, published in the Kentucky newspapers an address to the Whigs of Kentucky, urging the appointment of delegates to the Whig National Convention which was to meet in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1839, and to the Whig State Convention, which was to meet in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in August of the same year. The committee urged "harmony and concert of action as indispensable conditions to the success of our cause, lying at the foundations of both."

The Harrodsburg State Whig Convention met in the old Baptist Church, August 26, 1839. Gen. Leslie Combs was appointed temporary chairman and he called the meeting to order. About four hundred delegates, representing fifty-nine Kentucky counties, were present. Governor Thomas Metcalfe was elected permanent chairman of the convention, and he addressed the convention after the counties had been called. Fayette County sent eighteen delegates, among them Richard H. Menefee, Henry Clay, Jr., R. S. Todd, Robert Wickliffe, Jr., and Gen. Leslie Combs. From Woodford County, Thomas F. Marshall and William B. and George B. Kinkaid, and from Mercer County, James Harlan and John B. Thompson. These were the leading men of the convention.

The afternoon was taken up with various resolutions as to how they should proceed to nominate the gubernatorial candidates, and, after much discussion the convention adjourned to meet the following morning at nine o'clock.

The next day James Harlan nominated Robert P. Letcher of Garrard County for Governor, and O. G. Cates, Crittenden's law partner, nominated William Owsley of Franklin County. The vote resulted in forty-eight votes for Letcher and twenty-six for Owsley. Letcher was then declared to be the Whig candidate for Governor of Kentucky. John L. Helm of Hardin, Archibald Dixon of Henderson, John F. Todd and J. R. Skiles of Warren, Manlius V. Thompson of Scott, and Robert S. Todd of Fayette were

then nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. Menefee rose and said that he was desired by Mr. R. S. Todd to express his thanks for the honor done him by the gentleman who had nominated him, but that he must ask him to withdraw his name from before the convention. James Shelby of Fayette immediately arose and withdrew his name. Robert S. Todd had two daughters, one of whom married Abraham Lincoln and the other one married Ninian Edwards. After several ballots had been taken, Manlius V. Thompson of Scott was unanimously nominated for LieutenantGovernor. Chairman Metcalfe then appointed a committee to inform Letcher and Thompson of their nomination.

The delegations were ordered to select their presidential elector, and a committee of thirteen, one from each Congressional district, was also appointed to select two delegates-at-large. The electors-at-large were Richard A. Buckner' and James T. Morehead. The Fayette delegation chose Richard H. Menefee as the presidential elector for the tenth congressional district. Two of Menefee's old congressional colleagues, James Harlan and William W. Southgate, were chosen electors for their congressional districts.

After the electors were chosen the convention called on Thomas F. Marshall, William J. Graves and Richard H. Menefee to address them, "which they did in a most forcible and appropriate manner."

A young man, who was afterward to become the most distinguished criminal lawyer that

'Lexington Intelligencer, September, 1839.