Isaac Shelby, a native of Maryland, but who had spent his early life in North Carolina with the frontiersmen, fighting the Indians and rendering valiant service in the [pg 24]War of the Revolution, after the conclusion of peace with England had come to Kentucky in 1783. He, like Clark, was a great leader of men. He took an active interest in political, civil, military and social affairs in Kentucky, and was elected the first Governor of the State. On the fourth of June, 1792, the Legislature assembled at Lexington. The chief business of the first Legislature seems to have been the selection of a site for a permanent seat of government, or capital. Frankfort was finally decided upon, and a State House of stone was erected.

Intrigue on the part of foreign governments, however, did not cease with the organization of State government. The Spanish governor at New Orleans continued to send emissaries into the State, seeking to arouse a spirit of discontent, and if possible bring about a separation of the State from the Union. So successful were these agents that they were able to secure the good will of some men in high places, by paying as high as two thousand dollars a year salary. One Thomas Power seems to have been the most active agent of the Spanish government, and he held out as an inducement the great commercial privileges that would come to Kentucky through the free navigation of the Mississippi River, and he further offered to place two hundred thousand dollars at the disposal of his friends if they would bring about a separation from the nation. These treasonable offers, however, were spurned, with one or two exceptions, by the sturdy and loyal manhood of Kentucky.

After the overtures of the Spanish agents, came the royal offers of an English protectorate, and later the offensive scheme of Genet and his French agents to arm and equip a flotilla of two thousand Kentuckians for the [pg 25]purpose of capturing New Orleans, and thus reopen the Mississippi River for navigation, which had been so profitable to Kentuckians prior to the withdrawal of that privilege by the Spanish government.

In 1805, Aaron Burr, whose term as Vice-President of the United States had expired, became unpopular because of his criticisms of the administration of President Jefferson, and because of his having killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Being ambitious, Burr was morbidly restless because of the turn his fortunes had taken. He visited Kentucky and different points between New Orleans and St. Louis. He succeeded in drawing into his plans one Blennerhassett, a wealthy man who lived on a beautiful island in the Ohio River. It is supposed that his plan was to found an empire in the West, and to make himself the ruler of the same. During Burr’s visits to Kentucky, it is said that he frequently made his headquarters at an old brick residence in Eddyville, overlooking the Cumberland River. In November, 1806, Burr was brought into court at Frankfort, charged with organizing a military expedition against Mexico. He was defended by Henry Clay and the grand jury failed to indict him. This acquittal was celebrated by a ball at Frankfort. A few months later he was arrested in Alabama, taken to Richmond, Va., and acquitted of treason after a trial lasting six months.