The son of Jonathan and Jane (Black) Robinson, James Fisher Robinson, governor during 1862-63, was born on October 4, 1800, in Scott County . An 1818 graduate of Transylvania University , Robinson became a successful farmer- lawyer in Georgetown. In 1851 he won election to the state Senate as a Henry Clay Whig; in 1861 he was elected to the state Senate as a Democrat. Robinson supported the Crittenden compromise proposals and opposed war, but he realized that Kentucky's neutrality could not last. In the political deal that called for Gov. Beriah Magoffin's (1859-62) resignation, Robinson was elected Speaker of the Senate on August 16, 1862. Magoffin then resigned, and Robinson was sworn in as governor on August 18. After his term ended on September 1, 1863, Robinson became increasingly critical of the national administration. He supported George B. McClellan for president in 1864. Robinson practiced law, farmed in Scott County , headed the Farmers' Bank of Georgetown and chaired the Georgetown College Board of Trustees. He died on October 31, 1882, and was buried in the Georgetown Cemetery.

Robinson's short term was dominated by the Civil War , and the major Confederate invasion of Kentucky occurred soon after he took office. He sought higher taxes to revive the state militia and to preserve the educational progress that had been made, but he could do little in either area. Robinson boasted of the number of Kentuckians in Union service, but he complained that Federal authorities treated the state as if it were disloyal. He adamantly opposed the Union army's policy of sheltering runaway slaves, enlistment of blacks, and President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, although the latter did not apply to Kentucky. His fellow citizens, Robinson contended, should oppose both secession and abolition.

"Notes Concerning the Life and Death of Governor James F. Robinson," Register 5 (Jan. 1907): 14-22.

LOWELL H. HARRISON
Entry Author

In the print edition this entry appears on page 777