Last week we covered some of the key federal legislation from 1792. That year also saw the admission of a 15th state to the Union. Congress admitted Kentucky on June 1, 1792.
Kentucky’s road to statehood was a long and bumpy one - requiring a total of ten conventions in Kentucky and multiple cessions and agreements from Virginia. In the colonial era, Virginia claimed the territory as part of Virginia, but never really did anything with it.
There were a few explorations of the area. Daniel Boone was one of the earliest in 1769. The first settlements in Kentucky did not begin until 1775. The mountainous terrain made it impossible to bring wagons into the area. The Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw and other tribes claimed this mountainous region. When settlers did arrive, they referred to the land in reference to the Kentucky river that ran through it.
The origin of the word “Kentucky” is unclear. It comes from Native American languages, but historians disagree even over which language it originated. Some argue it is from the Iroquois, others say it is Algonquin. They also disagree on its meaning. Some say it means “land of meadows” others “land of tomorrow” still others, “land of our fathers”. So the short answer is that no one knows for certain where the name came from or what it means, but everyone started calling it Kentucky.
Virginia County
In 1776, when Virginia first established Kentucky County, the white population was less than 200 people. By that time, land companies were already set up and trying to sell land to settlers, based on the Cherokee cession of land in the 1775 Treaty of Sycamore Shoals.
George Rogers Clark helped defend the territory during the war, but he was mostly focused on the small area along the Mississippi River. The inland territory was mostly on its own and still dominated by Indians.
Almost from the beginning though, everyone seemed to think that Kentucky would eventually separate from Virginia. When Virginia formally ceded its lands north of the Ohio River to make up the Northwest Territory, it retained control of Kentucky County.
During the war, with no governments paying much attention, the settler population in Kentucky exploded. After Clark’s successes in 1778 reduced the threats of Indian attacks, western settlers poured into the region. By 1780, Virginia broke up the region into three counties, Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln.
When the war ended, Virginia made good on its land grants to veterans by providing land in Kentucky. By 1784, the population was estimated at around 30,000. By 1788, the population was estimated at 62,000.
Almost immediately, the people of Kentucky found their interests diverging from those in Virginia. The settlers had managed to find and develop good farm land in Kentucky. But getting crops to market to the east, over the Allegheny Mountains, was not practical. The easiest way to move crops to market was down the Mississippi River.
Mississippi River Dispute
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized the Mississippi as the boundary between the US and Spain. Of course Spain was not a party to that treaty, and was not bound by anything in it. The river flowed south into what is today Louisiana, where Spain controlled both sides of the river as part of West Florida.
In June 1784, Spain closed the river to US commercial traffic. Spanish officials were concerned about the rapid growth of the settler population, and were concerned it was only a matter of time before settlers would cross the Mississippi and begin threatening Spanish territory. By closing the river to commercial traffic, Spain hoped to discourage the westward expansion of settlers.
Spain’s refusal to allow traffic set off a dispute that would last for more than a decade. The action had an impact. Kentuckians were unable to sell much of what they produced. They began allowing the use of tobacco in the place of currency since no one could sell much of anything. After a new Spanish minister, Don Diego de Gardoqui, arrived in the US, negotiations began, but the Spanish crown refused to allow Gardoqui to negotiate the US use of the Mississippi. That was off the table.
For most Americans, the Mississippi was far off on the frontier and mattered little to them. To the people living on the frontier who required access to markets, this was a critical life or death issue.
Independence Movement
In November of 1784, Benjamin Logan, a veteran who had settled in Kentucky and was representing the area in the Virginia legislature, called a meeting of militia leaders. Although the primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss defenses against a possible attack by Cherokee and Chickamauga warriors, the issue of Kentucky statehood also came up at the meeting.
The next month, a larger convention met in Danville to identify key grievances, including surveying fees being diverted to eastern interests and unfairly extracting money from the cash-strapped region. They also demanded better roads for getting their crops to market and better support for frontier defense against Indian raids.
Delegates agreed to hold two more conventions in 1785, one in May and another in August, where they focused on the idea of separating Kentucky from Virginia and forming an independent state.
There were essentially four different factions in Kentucky who looked at the relationship with Virginia differently. Some were perfectly happy to be part of Virginia. It ensured they would have support when they needed it against Indian attacks. As the population grew in Kentucky, so would its representation in the Virginia legislature which would have to accommodate Kentucky's concerns.
A second faction seemed fine with separation, but only if they received Virginia consent and could separate on mutually agreed terms. Many of these people tended to be large landowners with titles from Virginia. They feared that a new state might not recognize their Virginia land claims.
A third faction was ok with declaring independence, whether Virginia wanted it or not. They were their own people and could decide their own destiny. Not all settlers in Kentucky even came from Virginia. Many were from Pennsylvania or North Carolina. This faction saw Kentucky taking the same path as Vermont: asserting its own independence and eventually achieving its own statehood in the Union.
Finally, there was a fourth faction that wanted true independence, and had little interest in remaining part of the Union. Virginia dominated the US government. Congress seemed uninterested in fighting for the rights of Kentuckians to get their trade goods to market. If Kentucky became an independent nation, it might form an alliance with Britain who could use military force to open the Mississippi River for them, or perhaps an alliance with Spain would give them the access they needed.
Virginia Legislature
The Virginia Assembly was not opposed to allowing Kentucky to secede. Virginia had already ceded its claims to the Northwest territory. It realized that Kentucky was geographically isolated from the rest of Virginia and would have different interests. Separation would mean the Assembly would not have to deal with continuing calls for support against Indian incursions or a host of other complaints from the lack of infrastructure and state support.
There was some dissension. Leaders, including James Monroe, expressed concerns about Virginia's loss of power and prestige as it continued to shrink. There was also the fear that as western states proliferated, they would eventually outnumber the eastern states and be able to dictate national policy. As separate states, they might even break away from the Union entirely
Virginians wanted the separation to happen on reasonable terms. They wanted Kentucky to take a share of the state debt, to recognize the land titles already granted by Virginia, and to pay for the costs of expeditions against the Indians. Virginia also wanted a few more years of land grants to keep its promises to veterans. It also demanded that Kentucky join the Union.
In 1786, Virginia passed an enabling act granting permission for Kentucky’s separation. This act was contingent on the Continental Congress admitting Kentucky into the Union by June 1, 1787.
After Virginia passed the 1786 Enabling Act, Kentuckians held a fourth convention in September of 1786. Many of the more radical factions were unhappy with all the conditions that Virginia had placed on separation. One of the more radical leaders that grew in prominence was James Wilkinson. I’ve mentioned before that he had been an aide to Horatio Gates, been involved in the Conway Cabal and had been a leader of the Kentucky Militia who supported US forces during the 1790 and 1791 campaigns against the Indians in Ohio.
Wilkinson and the radicals simply wanted to declare independence and not ask permission. They were in no mood to agree to all the conditions Virginia wanted to place on their independence. The convention ended up not taking any action because it never reached a quorum. When it finally did meet with a quorum in January of 1787, Virginia’s deadline for action had already expired.
Second Enabling Act
At that point, Virginia passed a second enabling act, not changing any conditions but setting a new deadline for independence by January 1789 and Congressional approval of statehood by July 4, 1788.
A fifth convention met and accepted Virginia’s terms on September 17, 1787. Wilkinson did not attend this convention. He had left for New Orleans in August, with the hope of making a deal with the Spanish to support Kentucky’s separation from both Virginia and the United States.
The situation got even more tense when Kentuckians learned that John Jay had been negotiating a treaty with the new Spanish Minister Gardoqui. In those negotiations, Jay was willing to surrender on the issue of the Mississippi River rights in order to gain more fishing rights in the Atlantic Ocean. This only reaffirmed the belief of many Kentuckians that Congress did not care about the interests of those on the frontier.
Kentuckians convinced the Virginia legislature to add a Kentuckian to the state delegation to the Confederation Congress in New York. Virginia complied, nominating John Brown, who had been Kentucky’s representative in the Virginia State Senate for several years.
While Kentucky’s acceptance of Virginia’s terms seemed to be an indication that the process would finally move forward, you may also recall that on that same date, September 17, a convention in Philadelphia finalized the proposed new US Constitution. When it came time for the Confederation Congress to act on Kentucky’s application for statehood, delegates had trouble even reaching a quorum. When they finally got one, a congressional committee put together a resolution to approve the agreement and admit Kentucky into the Union at the end of the year. That happened on July 3, 1788, the day before the deadline in the Virginia Enabling Act.
The full Congress, however, refused to act on the committee's recommendation. By that time nine states had ratified the new Constitution. Delegates believed it would be improper to take action at that time. They left the application to be handled by the new US Congress once it took over.
Spanish Option
Kentuckians saw this as a huge setback. The new Congress would not be in place for several more years, and probably wouldn’t make Kentucky statehood a priority, even when the Representatives got down to business. The radical secessionist movement gained popularity in the territory. Wilkinson had already approached Spanish officials about joining the Spanish Empire.
Gardoqui suggested to Kentucky’s representative in New York that Spain would grant access to the Mississippi River if Kentucky did not join the United States. Spain very much liked the idea of having a buffer country in between the US and Spain. Wilkinson did not make his plan public in Kentucky. He was well aware that efforts to join Spain were probably not popular with the majority of Kentuckians, and that he could be tried for sedition if the plan blew up before it could be finalized. Publicly Wilkinson spoke about negotiating commercial agreements with Spain that would allow use of the Mississippi River, something everyone in Kentucky wanted.
Despite his circumspection, rumors began to circulate that Wilkinson had made a secret deal with Spain and had become a paid Spanish agent. These rumors were true, but not proven.
Kentucky had set a date for a sixth convention in July of 1788, with hopes of ratifying Congress’ decision to admit Kentucky as a state. When news arrived that Congress had not approved admission, several radicals, including Wilkinson, called for unilateral secession and the defense of their position with force of arms.
The moderates, however, prevented movement in this direction. Instead, the convention called for a seventh convention to take place in November and that delegates be given broad power at that convention to take whatever steps were necessary to gain admission to the Union and to secure navigation of the Mississippi. These delegates would also draft a state constitution and begin organizing a government. This strategy continued to move the process forward without taking a violent break from Virginia and the US. The convention also extended the right to vote to all free male inhabitants of Kentucky, eliminating Virginia’s property requirements.
When the seventh convention met in November, no real progress had been made. Virginia had ratified the Constitution, of the objections of most people in Kentucky. There was no further action by Congress, which was still awaiting the election of a new U.S. Congress under the Constitution. Virginia also had not established a new enabling act after the last one had expired. Delegates all wanted separation from Virginia, but there was now a split as to whether they would join the Union. Calls for both violent separation and for joining the union were both voted down. In the end, the convention ended without doing much of anything, other than calling for a new enabling act from Virginia and planning for an eight convention in the summer of 1789.
A month after the seventh convention ended, Virginia passed a third enabling act, with new deadlines. The act also enraged Kentuckians by trying to dump more of Virginia's state debt onto Kentucky, and also Virginia retaining control of land grants in Kentucky until Kentucky joined the Union.
Many of the moderates did not bother to show up at the Eighth Convention in 1789. They were unwilling to move forward under the terms of the new enabling act. Also, the US Congress had just begun to meet and was not ready to consider Kentucky's application for statehood.
Delegates elected James Wilkinson as chairman of the Committee of the Whole, controlling debate. Despite this radical leadership, the delegates still were not willing to go along with violent separation. They realized that the state was not powerful enough. They also needed support against Indian incursions. Wilkinson still did not feel he had enough support to move the convention to consider a Spanish alliance. Instead, they petitioned Virginia to put back to the terms of the Second Enabling Act, and petitioned Congress to work towards navigation rights on the Mississippi.
Prominent Virginia leaders by this time, including men like George Washington and James Madison had heard reports of a movement toward Kentucky breaking away and forming an alliance with Spain. With more attention paid to that possible conspiracy, most people publicly denied any support. The movement seemed to wane. As the movement waned, so did Wilkinson’s popularity. Wilkinson faded from politics and began focusing on his private business and his work as a militia leader, leading several campaigns into the Ohio Territory.
Moderates Prevail
Things seem to improve at the end of the year. In December, 1789. Virginia restored the terms regarding debt that Kentucky considered more reasonable in its fourth enabling act. When the ninth convention met in Danville in July of 1790, the debt issue had become much less contentious since the federal government had agreed to assume all of the war debt. Statehood finally seemed within reach. The Convention set June 1, 1792 as the planned date for statehood.
In December of 1790, President Washington called on Congress to admit Kentucky in his second state of the union address. Congress complied. On February 4, 1791, Congress approved an act admitting Kentucky to the Union. This was two weeks before Congress passed a similar act admitting Vermont. While Vermont moved quickly, gaining statehood only a few weeks later, Kentucky still had more of a process in front of it. Vermont was already operating as an independent state for years, with a governor and a constitution. Kentucky had neither of those.
It was more than a year before delegates met again in April, 1792 to draft a state constitution. Delegates managed to complete the document in just 18 days. The new constitution granted the vote to all free white males over the age of 21, with no property requirements. Much of the rest was pretty similar, a house and senate along with a governor. They made the governor particularly powerful, with extensive veto and appointment powers. The constitution also explicitly protected slavery.
The convention approved the constitution. There was no need to send it to a statewide vote, although it did call for a statewide vote in 1797 to decide whether a new convention should make changes.
With the state constitution complete, Kentucky held its first elections a few weeks later, choosing Isaac Shelby as its first governor. Shelby had been a military leader during the war and had been one of the moderates who had opposed Wilkinson’s more radical proposals at most of the conventions.
On June 1, 1792 according to Virginia’s enabling act and Congress’s vote on statehood, Kentucky officially became a state. Three days later, on June 4, the state legislature met for the first time and got down to business.
It had taken more than a decade, ten state conventions and four enabling acts to complete the process of statehood. The work was finally complete.
Next Week: we cover the presidential election of 1792.
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Next Episode 379 Election of 1792 (coming soon)
Previous Episode 377 Washington's First Veto
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Further Reading
Websites
“The Admission of Kentucky and Vermont to the Union [Editorial Note],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-19-02-0103-0001
Hawthorne, Elizabeth L. “KENTUCKY IS BORN.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 49, no. 167, 1951, pp. 133–38. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23374051
Leadingham, Christopher L. “To Open ‘the Doors of Commerce’: The Mississippi River Question and the Shifting Politics of the Kentucky Statehood Movement.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 114, no. 3/4, 2016, pp. 341–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44980554
Leadingham, Christopher L. Forging a Bluegrass Commonwealth: The Kentucky Statehood Movement and the Politics of the Trans-Appalachian West, 1783–1792 [Master’s thesis] Marshall University, 2017. https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2113&context=etd
How and Why the Kentucky Counties Formed https://kygs.org/brief-history-of-kentucky-genealogists
“Act Concerning Statehood for the Kentucky District, 22 December 1785,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0236
“Bill Providing for Kentucky Statehood, [15 December] 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-09-02-0107.
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Collins, Lewis Historical Sketches of Kentucky, Vol. 1. Collins & Co. 1874.
Jacobs, James R. Tarnished warrior, Major-General James Wilkinson, New York: The Macmillan Co. 1938.
Kerr, Charles History of Kentucky, Vol. 1, Chicago: American Historical Society, 1922.
Kinkhead, Elizabeth S. A History of Kentucky, New York: American Book Company, 1896.
Marshall, Humphrey The History of Kentucky, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, Frankfort, Geo S. Robinson, 1824.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Chinn, George M. Kentucky Settlement and Statehood, 1750-1800, Kentucky Historical Society, 1975.
Harrison, Lowell H. Kentucky's Road to Statehood, Univ. Press of KY, 1992.
Harrison, Lowell H. & James Klotter A New History of Kentucky, Univ. Press of KY, 1997 (borrow on archive.org).
Linklater, Andro An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson, Walker Publishing Co. 2009.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
