James F. Robinson

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James Fisher Robinson (October 4, 1800 - October 31, 1882) was the twenty-second Governor of Kentucky.

[edit] Biography

Robinson was born in Scott County, Kentucky. He attended Forest Hill Academy and Transylvania University, graduating in 1818. He was a lawyer and farmer in Georgetown, Kentucky. He was a Baptist, and was married three times—his wives were Susan Mansell, Willina Herndon, and Caroline Hening. He had nine children. After leaving politics, Robinson practiced law, farmed, headed the Farmers' Bank of Georgetown, and served as the chair of the Georgetown College Board of Trustees. Robinson is buried in the Georgetown Cemetery in Georgetown, Kentucky.

[edit] Political career

In 1851, Robinson was elected to the state Senate as a Whig. In 1861 he returned to the state Senate as a Democrat. As a Senator, he supported the Crittenden Compromise and opposed the Civil War.

He was president of the state Senate for a short while in 1861, and as part of a political deal that led to Governor Beriah Magoffin's resignation, Robinson became speaker of the Senate on August 16, 1862. Magoffin resigned once Robinson became head of the Senate, and as there was no Lieutenant Governor at the time, Robinson assumed the governorship.

Robinson was took office August 18, 1862 and left it September 1, 1863. The Civil War was ongoing during his administration, and Robinson was pro-Union. However, he was anti-abolitionist, and opposed fugitive slave laws, enlistment of black soldiers, and the Emancipation Proclamation; these positions (then common in Kentucky), as well as conscription and other demands from the Union government, made Robinson and many other Kentuckians uneasy allies of the Union.

During Robinson's tenure, a Confederate shadow government was installed by the Russellville Convention, and Kentucky had Confederate Governors - George W. Johnson and Richard Hawes.