Kentucky's Lincoln Story
"[E]xperience and time has demonstrated that his was the only line of salvation for our country." --Kentucky Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, April 18, 1865
 Kentucky played a primary role in forging the family and political life of President Abraham Lincoln. Although he left the Bluegrass State as a boy, Lincoln’s wife, in-laws, and many of his friends, law partners, political associates, and mentors were Kentuckians. Although he was the Union commander-in-chief during the Civil War, Lincoln’s relationship with Kentucky can be viewed as a microcosm of what America experienced during this conflict. His in-laws, the Confederate Todds of Kentucky, show the fratricidal nature of the Civil War. In addition, Kentucky’s contentious relationship with Lincoln details how Unionist states sometimes viewed his administration.
Although most Kentuckians supported the Union, the commonwealth rejected Lincoln as a presidential candidate. Lincoln’s lack of political support in Kentucky was evident during Kentucky’s secession crisis, but the president ably managed the situation and prevented the commonwealth from seceding. The Federal military control of Kentucky during the Civil War, made difficult because the commonwealth was a divided, slaveholding state, was poorly managed, and Lincoln was forced to check abuses as politically appointed generals tangled with civil authorities. As military leaders viewed divided Kentucky with suspicion, their heavy-handed military policies in the state, coupled with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and enlistment of African American soldiers in the Union army, drove Kentucky into the Democratic camp after the war and gave Kentuckians a jaded view of their native son.
This website details the influences that Lincoln had on Kentucky and the influences that Kentucky had on him. It addresses several topics, including:
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