The Rebel Press, and Some Yankee Papers, Too

Kentucky’s press reflected the deep division in the Bluegrass State in 1860–1861. Many communities had rival pro-Union and pro-Confederate papers. In Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, the Democrat and the Journal sided with the Union. The latter was the state’s most important unionist organ. The Louisville Courier was Kentucky’s leading Confederate paper. Frankfort, the state capital, was home to the unionist Commonwealth and the secessionist Yeoman. In Lexington, the principal city in the Bluegrass, the state’s wealthiest region, the unionist Observer & Reporter and the Confederate Kentucky Statesman fought a fierce war of words. Most of the pro-Confederate press supported Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge for president in 1860. The Journal and the bulk of the unionist papers backed John Bell, the Constitutional Unionist candidate. The Democrat was for Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. Evidently, no Breckinridge sheets went over to the Union side, but some Bell papers, notably the Cynthiana News and Covington Journal, tilted toward secession. The pro-Douglas Hickman Courier became one of the first Kentucky papers to endorse secession.