Preston Leslie

Preston Leslie

Preston Hopkins Leslie (born March 8, 1819 in what is now Clinton County , Kentucky , †  February 7, 1907 in Helena , Montana ) was an American politician and governor of Kentucky and the Montana Territory , the forerunner of the later state of Montana.

Early years and political advancement

Preston Leslie attended local schools in his home country. He then went on to law school, and after his admission to the bar in 1840, he began a legal career as a district attorney for Monroe County . His political rise began in 1844 with his election as a Whig candidate for the Kentucky House of Representatives . He stayed there until 1850. Between 1851 and 1855 he was State Senator . When his party broke up in the 1850s, Leslie turned to the Democrats . After serving in the Senate of his state, he turned down several political offers and worked on his farm. Although he was a slave owner himself, he was neutral in the civil war. He refused to go to war for either side.

Kentucky governor

Between 1867 and 1871, Leslie was again in the Kentucky Senate; since 1869 he was its president ( speaker ). When Governor John W. Stevenson resigned from office on February 3, 1871 to become a US Senator in Washington, DC , Leslie fell to his post. Since Stevenson himself was lieutenant governor at the beginning of the legislative term and he rose to governor after the death of John L. Helm , there was no longer a lieutenant governor. Leslie was next in line as Chairman of the Senate. He first ended his predecessor's term of office and was then elected in the summer of the same year with 58.6% of the vote against John Marshall Harlan (41.4%). These were the first gubernatorial elections in Kentucky in which African Americans were eligible to vote.

During his term of office, which lasted until August 31, 1875, the governor ensured the establishment of a school system for the black population. He introduced laws to control the alcohol trade and made it possible for African Americans to stand as witnesses in court. At the same time he commissioned a geological survey of Kentucky. He also improved the country's penal system. In his day the railroad network was connected to other networks in Ohio and the deep south. It was expected that this would lead to a further economic upturn. Another problem at the time was violence, which also emanated from the Ku Klux Klan , and the fight against which has been a problem for all governments in Kentucky since the end of the Civil War. Between 1881 and 1887 Leslie served as a judge on the Court of Justice of Glasgow, Kentucky .

According to him, Leslie County named in Kentucky.

Territorial governor in Montana

In 1887, Leslie was named governor of the Montana Territory by US President Grover Cleveland . He held this office until 1889. Soon he got into political trouble. The general conditions in Montana could not be compared to those in Kentucky. Kentucky was still struggling to overcome the aftermath of the Civil War. In part, the state still followed the structures of the old south. One problem was violence, especially from the Ku Klux Klan. The integration of the former slaves posed a further problem. On the other hand, the infrastructure in Kentucky was considerably better than in Montana due to a good railroad network. Leslie was familiar with all of these Kentucky-specific procedures. Montana, on the other hand, was a state in the Wild West . Here there was mainly cattle breeding and the problems associated with it. The infrastructure was not yet well developed. The development of the west by the railroad was just beginning and there was hardly any industry. In addition, the Republican Party was in the majority, and that gave the Democrat Leslie additional problems. Under pressure from the press and opposition Republicans, he was recalled by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 .

He then opened a law firm in Helena . In 1889, the Montana Territory was converted to the state of Montana and officially incorporated as a state in the United States. Between 1894 and 1898, Leslie was federal attorney for Montana, an office that President Cleveland had given him in his second term. Preston Leslie died on February 7, 1907. His first marriage, from 1841 until her death in 1858, was to Louisa Black, with whom he had seven children. He had three other children with his second wife, whom he married in 1859, Mary Maupin Kuykendall.

Web links

• Preston Leslie in the National Governors Association (English)
• Preston Leslie in the database of Find a Grave (English)