Beriah Magoffin (April 18, 1815 – February 28, 1885) was the 21st governor of Kentucky, serving during the early part of the Civil War. Personally, Magoffin supported slavery, believed in the right of a state to secede from the Union, and sympathized with the Confederacy. Nevertheless, when the Kentucky General Assembly adopted a position of neutrality in the war, Magoffin ardently held to it, refusing calls for aid from both the Union and Confederate governments.
In special elections held in June 1861, Unionists captured nine of Kentucky's ten congressional seats and obtained two-thirds majorities in both houses of the state legislature. Despite Magoffin's strict adherence to the policy of neutrality, the Unionist legislature did not trust him and routinely overrode his vetoes. Unable to provide effective leadership due to a hostile legislature, Magoffin agreed to resign as governor in 1862, provided he could choose his successor. Lieutenant governor Linn Boyd had died in office, and Magoffin refused to allow Speaker of the Senate John F. Fisk to succeed him as governor. Accordingly, Fisk resigned and the Kentucky Senate elected Magoffin's choice, James F. Robinson, as speaker. Magoffin then resigned, Robinson ascended to the governorship, and Fisk was re-elected as Speaker of the Senate.
After the war, he encouraged acceptance of the Union victory and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. He died February 28, 1885. Magoffin County, Kentucky, was named in his honor.
Early life
Beriah Magoffin was born on April 18, 1815, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. He was the son of Beriah and Jane (McAfee) Magoffin. His father was an immigrant from County Down, Ireland, and his mother was the daughter of Samuel McAfee, a prominent pioneer in early Kentucky.
Magoffin's early education was obtained in the common schools of Harrodsburg.
Magoffin's plan was to unite the slave states around a set of minimum concessions to see if the North would accept them as an alternative to war. After the slave state governors refused Magoffin's plan, he endorsed the Crittenden Compromise, authored by fellow Kentuckian John J. Crittenden. In response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for troops on April 15, 1861, Magoffin defiantly declared by telegram, "I will send not a man nor a dollar for the wicked purpose of subduing my sister Southern States."
Magoffin called another special session of the legislature in May 1861. Magoffin declared both sides equally guilty of violating Kentucky's neutrality and demanded that both sides withdraw. Despite his southern sympathies, Magoffin denounced the actions of this convention. Magoffin also opposed the military rule of Brigadier General Jeremiah T. Boyle, who he believed was violating the civil rights of states' rights advocates, even if they did not advocate secession. Because Lieutenant Governor Linn Boyd had died in office in 1859, Speaker of the Senate John F. Fisk was next in line for the governorship. Magoffin County, Kentucky, was created in 1860 and also named in his honor.