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قراءة كتاب The story of Kentucky
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student at the Seminary.
The spirit of the times led young Davis to choose a military career, and he entered West Point from which he graduated in 1828. We find him soon as a captain in the regiment commanded by General Zachary Taylor. While [pg 30]stationed at Louisville, he met, wooed, and wed the beautiful daughter of General Taylor—not, however, with the consent and blessing of the General. A pretty story is told of Davis and Taylor concerning their reconciliation. During the Mexican War, Davis commanded a company of artillery. On one occasion, General Taylor ordered Captain Bragg to unlimber and fire at the enemy, and Bragg was disposed to urge the futility of the effort, since it would result in presenting the battery to the Mexicans and he thought there was no hope of holding the position. With the coolness for which he was noted, Captain Davis was seen to wheel his battery into line, and he directed the maneuvres in such manner as soon to be in complete control, and the battle was won. The next morning, says the story, General Taylor sent an orderly to the tent of Captain Davis, commanding him to report at headquarters. The order was obeyed; and when Davis had saluted his superior officer and stood at attention, the crusty old general stepped forward and, with a moistened eye, extended his hand and said, “Captain Davis, my daughter was a better judge of a man than I.” They were the warmest friends ever afterward.
While Davis was Secretary of War of the United States, he practically reorganized the army and revised the tactics. After the close of the Mexican War, he became a Congressman from Mississippi, and afterward was sent to the United States Senate from that State. When he resigned his seat in the United States Senate, he delivered a farewell speech setting forth his reasons for so doing. This is said to be one of the greatest addresses ever delivered before the Senate. He was chosen President of the Southern Confederacy at a time when another [pg 31]great Kentuckian, who had been born in the same section of the state, was President of the United States.
In a rude log hut, not many miles from the place where Jefferson Davis first saw the light, was born a boy whom the world has placed on the highest pedestal of fame. Abraham Lincoln was born in Larue County on February 12, 1809; his life is so well known that there is little of it not familiar to the average school boy.
The Civil War and Later
When the Civil War between the States of the Union was about to begin, Kentucky refused to take sides in the controversy, and in the strict sense of the term was never out of the Union. When the President of the United States called on Kentucky to furnish men and equipment for the Union army, the Governor replied that the State was neutral and would take no steps toward secession, nor would it espouse coercion by force of arms. The people, however, chose for themselves, and enlisted in the Union or in the Confederate army, as they believed to be in the right of the controversy. The result was that about an equal number enlisted with both armies. Hence the State became a common battleground during the struggle, very much as it was in the days when the Indian tribes from the North and from the South met on our soil as a common battleground. Families were divided as to their espousal of the respective sides of the contest, father and son frequently taking up arms on opposite sides. When the war closed, the people went to work with a will to repair the damages incident to the struggle, and no state has shown greater progress in the development of its natural resources.
Probably no state has greater resources capable of development. The coal beds of Eastern Kentucky comprise an area of more than ten thousand square miles or about [pg 32]one-fourth the area of the whole state, and the western coal fields underlie four thousand square miles, or about one-tenth of the area of the state. Inexhaustible deposits of iron ore are found, and the forests are exceedingly rich in fine lumber.
The state has made wonderful progress in the development of the school system. In fact, no other state has a more practical and efficient school system, nor has any state a more determined set of school workers.
Kentucky has had three permanent Capitol buildings. The last was completed in 1909 at a cost of $1,750,000, and is considered one of the handsomest structures of its kind in the Union.
Great virtues are sometimes accompanied by great faults; but Kentucky’s faults have been those born of isolation and inaccessibility. Now that her railways are penetrating into even the remotest districts, bringing her citizens into closer and quicker communication with the outside world, her people rapidly are becoming united in their efforts to make her future eclipse her glorious past. With the purest Anglo-Saxon blood in the United States forming the greater part of her citizenship, and the riches of her forests and mountains even now just beginning to pour into the laps of the people, a great future is inevitable for Kentucky, “The land of the China Brier.”
