John L. Helm

John LaRue Helm (July 4, 1802 – September 8, 1867) was the 18th and 24th governor of Kentucky, although his service in that office totaled less than fourteen months. He also represented Hardin County in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly and was chosen to be the Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives four times. In 1838, his sole bid for federal office ended in defeat when his opponent, Willis Green, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Helm was first elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1826; between 1826 and 1843 he served eleven one-year terms in the state house. In 1844, he was elected to the state senate, where he served continuously until he was chosen as the Whig Party nominee for lieutenant governor on a ticket with John J. Crittenden, famous for the Crittenden Compromise. The Whigs won the general election and Helm was elevated to governor on July 31, 1850, when Crittenden resigned to accept an appointment as United States Attorney General in President Millard Fillmore's cabinet. After his service as governor Helm became president of the struggling Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He invested thousands of dollars of his own money in the project and convinced residents along the line's main route to buy stock in the company. In 1859, the line was completed, but the next year Helm resigned over differences with the board of directors regarding a proposed branch that would extend the line to Memphis, Tennessee.

Although he openly opposed secession during the American Civil War, federal military forces labeled Helm a Confederate sympathizer. In September 1862, he was arrested for this alleged sympathy, but Governor James F. Robinson recognized him as he was being transported to a prison in Louisville and had him released. After the war Helm identified with the Democratic Party, and in 1865, Hardin County voters returned him to the state senate. In 1867, he was the state's Democratic candidate for governor. Despite his failing health, Helm made a vigorous canvass of the state and won the general election. He was too weak to travel to Frankfort for his inauguration, so state officials administered the oath of office at his home on September 3, 1867. He died five days later.

Early life In 1780, Helm's grandfather, Thomas Helm, emigrated to Kentucky from Prince William County, Virginia, and founded the settlement of Helm Station near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in Hardin County, where John L. Helm was born on July 4, 1802. He was the eldest of nine children born to George B. Helm, a farmer and politician, and Rebecca LaRue Helm, a descendant of a prominent local pioneer family.

Helm attended the area's public schools and studied with noted educator Duff Green. When Helm was 14 his father fell on hard financial times and Helm returned to work on the family farm. In 1818, he took a better-paying job in the office of Samuel Haycraft, the circuit court clerk of Hardin County. leaving Helm responsible for his mother and siblings. He was admitted to the bar in 1823, the same year Meade County, Kentucky, was formed. There were no lawyers in the county yet, so although Helm continued living in Hardin County he was made Meade's county attorney.

In 1823, Helm called on Representative Benjamin Hardin. While Hardin and Helm discussed business, Hardin's 14-year-old daughter, Lucinda, entered the room to show her father a map she had drawn.

Throughout 1825, Helm made speeches and distributed pamphlets in Hardin and surrounding counties, espousing the Old Court position. In 1826, he campaigned as a Whig for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Helm won the election, and at the age of twenty-four became one of the youngest members to serve in the Kentucky General Assembly.

Helm was re-elected to the state House in 1827 and 1830, and was re-elected every year from 1833 to 1837. After nine ballots, Helm withdrew and Letcher was elected speaker. Because of the few dissenting votes on this question, Helm declined the honor and proposed instead that the county be called LaRue County after his mother's family, many of whom still lived in the proposed county. Helm's suggestion was unanimously adopted. The major political question in the state during Helm's time as lieutenant governor was whether to adopt a new state constitution. He especially opposed creating an elective judiciary. His antagonism to the constitution put him at odds with his father-in-law, Benjamin Hardin.

Governor Crittenden resigned on July 31, 1850, to accept President Millard Fillmore's appointment as attorney general, and Helm ascended to the governorship. On October 2, 1854, he became the railroad's second president. The previous president had been forced out of that position after a disagreement with Louisville's board of aldermen, and construction of the line had almost been abandoned.

Helm worked diligently to convince residents along the line's main route of the economic benefits it would bring. He persuaded many of them to help clear and grade land for the line and accept company stock as payment, and succeeded in selling stock subscriptions to people in the same area. Meanwhile, some observers accused Helm of mismanaging the company. Due to Helm's influence, the railroad's charter required all trains traveling through Elizabethtown to stop there.

By the time the line was finished, there were public calls from inside and outside the company for Helm to resign, mostly because of his support for a proposed Memphis branch of the railroad. To complete the branch, the Louisville and Nashville would have to complete a line from Bowling Green to Guthrie, Kentucky. There it would join a line owned by the Memphis and Ohio Railroad that began across the state line at Clarksville, Tennessee, and extended to Memphis. Opponents argued that the project was simply a ploy to whip up new support for the struggling railroad. Helm maintained that he felt an obligation to the citizens of Logan County – many of whom he had personally sold stock to – to remain president until the Memphis branch through their county was built.

Civil War and second term as governor

On January 8, 1861, Helm chaired a meeting in Louisville that advocated for Kentucky's neutrality in the Civil War.

After learning of the arrest of former governor Charles S. Morehead by federal authorities, Helm fled to Bowling Green, fearing his own arrest. Through the intervention of Warner Underwood he was able to return home on the condition that he swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. Nevertheless, federal soldiers repeatedly entered his home, encouraging his slaves to abandon him, and consuming or destroying his crops. Because the state's courts were closed on account of the war, he was unable to earn a living by practicing law. In short order, his once-substantial fortune was expended, and he resorted to borrowing money to support his family.

In September 1863, Helm and several other citizens from Hardin County were arrested by Colonel Knox. After several days of confinement in Elizabethtown the prisoners were conducted to Louisville. By chance, Kentucky governor James F. Robinson recognized Helm in the group and negotiated with General Jeremiah Boyle to have him released. Shortly after returning home, Helm learned of Benjamin's death at the Battle of Chickamauga.

After the war Helm identified with the Democratic Party, and he returned to the state senate in 1865. It denounced the Reconstruction Amendments on the grounds that they granted powers to the federal government that were reserved for the states, and that they were passed while many southern states were not represented in Congress. He also decried the creation and operation of the Freedmen's Bureau. On January 29, 1867, Helm introduced legislation to organize a meeting in Louisville to rally support for President Andrew Johnson and his efforts to restore the Union.

The state Democratic Convention met on February 22, 1867, in Frankfort and chose Helm and John W. Stevenson as the party's candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. He continued his call for an end to Civil War bitterness and proscriptions against those who had sided with the Confederacy. He also charged that Congress was meddling in the affairs of the states.