Kentucky. Governor (1863-1867 : Bramlette)

Thomas E. Bramlette became governor of Kentucky in 1863 as a Union Democrat. Elected in the middle of the Civil War, he served through the rest of the war and into the recovery period.

Bramlette was born in 1817, in what was then Cumberland County, Kentucky. He attended local common schools, and eventually studied law, becoming a member of the bar in 1837. In 1841, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives for one term as a Whig. He later served as commonwealth's attorney and as judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

A staunch Unionist, Bramlette organized the Third Kentucky Volunteer Infantry when the Civil War began. In 1862, he received a presidential appointment as a United States District Attorney for Kentucky. The Union Democrats nominated Bramlette for governor in 1863, and he handily defeated former governor Charles Wickliffe, the candidate for the regular Democrats.

As governor, Bramlette strongly proclaimed his support for the Union. He announced that southern sympathizers were to be held accountable for Confederate guerilla activities in the state, and successfully advocated legislation making it a criminal offense to give support to the guerillas. Governor Bramlette did have some serious reservations, as had his predecessors, about federal interference in the state's affairs. He protested the influence of troops on state elections, and vigorously opposed the federal recruitment of blacks for military service, as did the majority of Kentuckians. The governor also objected to the lack of due process in the arrest and imprisonment of Kentucky citizens by federal authorities.

As the war drew to an end in early 1865, Governor Bramlette suggested that the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution be ratified, but the General Assembly refused. The legislature did agree to Bramlette's proposal to create an agricultural and mechanical college, which would later become the University of Kentucky.

In late 1865, President Andrew Johnson revoked martial law in the state and reinstated the writ of habeus corpus. The Kentucky legislature passed the Thirteenth Amendment and, in January 1866, endorsed Governor Bramlette's decision to pardon everyone indicted for treason against the federal government. The governor and the General Assembly refused to ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, but did enact legislation granting certain civil rights to black Kentuckians.

By the time Governor Bramlette left office in Septemtber 1867, Kentucky's economy was thriving, despite the loss of slave labor, and the lawlessness of the war years had diminished somewhat. Bramlette urged the state to continue upon its course of recovery.

Thomas Bramlette lived in Louisville and practiced law until his death in 1875. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville,

From the description of Subunit history. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145416065