Leslie Combs, Clerk Of The Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Highlights His Unionist Efforts In Early Months Of Civil War

LESLIE COMBS (1793-1881). Combs was a long-time Kentucky lawyer and politician affiliated with the Whig and, later, Republican parties. He served under William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812, in the Kentucky House of Representatives for four nonconsecutive terms, including as Speaker in 1846, and was Clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1860 to 1866. His eldest son was Minister to Guatemala, Honduras and Peru under President Theodore Roosevelt. ALS. 1 pg. 8” x 10”. September 11, 1861. Frankfort. An autographed letter signed “Leslie Combs” to “G.D. Prentice & Co.”. “I congratulate you on your morning paper – It has already done good – I have this day distributed the inclosed [sic] Union hymn in both - Print with a word or two”. G.D. Prentice is George D. Prentice (1802-1870), the creator of the Louisville Journal. Though a slaveholder, Prentice turned the nativist Journal (he is blamed for inciting an anti-immigrant riot that killed 22 in 1855) into a Unionist mouthpiece before and in the early days of the Civil War. Prentice urged Kentucky not to secede from the Union, but instead establish itself as a neutral party in the war, as Kentucky’s governor, Beriah Magoffin, attempted to do. This stood in contrast to the state legislature, which wanted closer cooperation with the Lincoln government (and thus was the target of Combs’ hymn), and which forced Magoffin to resign in 1862. However, when the Union Army occupied Louisville, Prentice turned against the war and both of his sons joined the Confederate military. After the war, the newly consolidated Courier Journal (which only shut down in 2017) was a frequent critic of Reconstruction. Combs, on the other hand, remained loyal. Unfortunately, the hymn is not included, but a transcription of the letter is. The letter is in excellent condition.