A Great American Hero
As the American Civil War wound down, Major General John Palmer, the military governor of Kentucky, found himself in position of enormous political, legal, and moral complexity. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed the slaves in the states that seceded from the Union. But Kentucky, a slave state, had never seceded. It had originally maintained its neutrality and then was invaded by the Confederacy, triggering a counter-invasion from the north and its subsequent military occupation: hence a military governor in a state which had a sitting governor and legislature. More importantly, even as Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Kentucky still owned slaves.
Slaves from all over Kentucky had run away from their “owners,” rightly sensing that the Age of American Servitude was drawing to an end. The fugitive slave laws remained in effect but Palmer and the Army refused to enforce them. This led to Army officers being prosecuted before state and local courts for the crime of obeying the orders of their superior officers. While popular sentiment in Kentucky was pro-union, state officials were pro-South in attitude – the real reason a military governor was needed.
As Palmer prepared for the ball in Lexington celebrating the North’s victory, word came to him that thousands of runaway slaves had gathered at the race track and were asking to see Palmer and petition for their freedom. Palmer went immediately, and his arrival in full dress uniform and riding a white charger created a sensation.
Palmer mounted the rostrum and later said it was his intention to explain that, since the national government would no longer enforce the Fugitive Slave laws, they were, “for all intents and purposes free.” The crowd heard “free” and exploded in celebration. It might have ended there, as a misunderstanding to be worked through later, but Palmer was so moved by the joy of the people in the race track that he raised his arms to gain their attention.
“As military governor of Kentucky, I FREE YOU!”
Of course, Palmer had no such authority, but he knew that once an act such as this was done, it could not easily be undone. He returned to his quarters, cabled Washington to inform Lincoln and Stanton of his actions, submitted his resignation, and began to pack.
A few hours later he received a telegraphic reply: The President would back his action to the full; the slaves of Kentucky were free. Palmer should unpack.
It was an extraordinary, unprecedented act by a genuinely extraordinary man.
Palmer left a broken home, penniless, at the age of 16, worked his way through college, read law, passed the bar examination, and became a force in southern Illinois Democratic politics in the 1840s and ’50s. He broke with his party over the issue of slavery, however. He resigned from the state senate (since he had been elected as a Democrat) and joined the newly-formed Republican Party, was president of the first Illinois Republican Convention, and worked hard to elect Lincoln president.
With the outbreak of war he raised the 14th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was elected its colonel. He proved one of the most charismatic and effective regimental commanders the North put in the field, and he was quickly promoted to brigadier general and then major general. He was a very good brigade commander, a solid division commander, but only a fair corps commander. He was not, after all, a military professional. He excelled at leading men he could see and who could hear his voice.
After clashing with Sherman during the Atlanta campaign he was relieved of command of his corps and submitted his resignation. His old friend Lincoln had other ideas however; he needed a skillful politician to serve as military governor of Kentucky. The rest is history.
But freeing the slaves of Kentucky was not John Palmer’s last mark in the history books. He returned to Illinois and organized the Grand Army of the Republic and was its first commandant. He was elected governor of Illinois and served from 1869-1873, developing a reputation for his meticulous attention to detail in legislation as well as his progressive, even radical, views. The Chicago fire took place while he was governor, and he led the state effort to rebuild and redefine the city. He also supported women’s suffrage, civil rights for blacks, and the rights of working people to organize in unions – all before it was politically fashionable or profitable to do so. That, of course, never carried any weight in Palmer’s decisions.
He later split with the Republican party over government corruption and support for moneyed interests, and he returned to the Democratic Party. He was elected Senator and served from 1891 to 1896.
He passed away in 1900 at the age of eighty-three. He was a politician who remained unswervingly true to his principles throughout his long life. He was a soldier who made up for his lack of training and experience with unstinting devotion to duty and remarkable personal bravery. But most of all, he was a man who found himself for one fleeting moment on the fulcrum of history, and who had the moral courage to do what was right instead of what was expected.
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