Isaac Shelby, a native of Maryland, but who had spent his early life in
North Carolina with the frontiersmen, fighting the Indians and rendering
valiant service in the War of the Revolution, after the conclusion of
peace with England had come to Kentucky in 1783. He, like Clark, was a
great leader of men. He took an active interest in political, civil,
military and social affairs in Kentucky, and was elected the first
Governor of the State. On the fourth of June, 1792, the Legislature
assembled at Lexington. The chief business of the first Legislature seems
to have been the selection of a site for a permanent seat of government,
or capital. Frankfort was finally decided upon, and a State House of stone
was erected.
[Illustration: Gov. Isaac Shelby]
Intrigue on the part of foreign governments, however, did not cease with
the organization of State government. The Spanish governor at New Orleans
continued to send emissaries into the State, seeking to arouse a spirit of
discontent, and if possible bring about a separation of the State from the
Union. So successful were these agents that they were able to secure the
good will of some men in high places, by paying as high as two thousand
dollars a year salary. One Thomas Power seems to have been the most active
agent of the Spanish government, and he held out as an inducement the
great commercial privileges that would come to Kentucky through the free
navigation of the Mississippi River, and he further offered to place two
hundred thousand dollars at the disposal of his friends if they would
bring about a separation from the nation. These treasonable offers,
however, were spurned, with one or two exceptions, by the sturdy and loyal
manhood of Kentucky.
After the overtures of the Spanish agents, came the royal offers of an
English protectorate, and later the offensive scheme of Genet and his
French agents to arm and equip a flotilla of two thousand Kentuckians for
the purpose of capturing New Orleans, and thus reopen the Mississippi
River for navigation, which had been so profitable to Kentuckians prior to
the withdrawal of that privilege by the Spanish government.
In 1805, Aaron Burr, whose term as Vice-President of the United States had
expired, became unpopular because of his criticisms of the administration
of President Jefferson, and because of his having killed Alexander
Hamilton in a duel. Being ambitious, Burr was morbidly restless because of
the turn his fortunes had taken. He visited Kentucky and different points
between New Orleans and St. Louis. He succeeded in drawing into his plans
one Blennerhassett, a wealthy man who lived on a beautiful island in the
Ohio River. It is supposed that his plan was to found an empire in the
West, and to make himself the ruler of the same. During Burr’s visits to
Kentucky, it is said that he frequently made his headquarters at an old
brick residence in Eddyville, overlooking the Cumberland River. In
November, 1806, Burr was brought into court at Frankfort, charged with
organizing a military expedition against Mexico. He was defended by Henry
Clay and the grand jury failed to indict him. This acquittal was
celebrated by a ball at Frankfort. A few months later he was arrested in
Alabama, taken to Richmond, Va., and acquitted of treason after a trial
lasting six months.