George Robertson

(1780-1870)

President Abraham Lincoln tangled with many Kentuckians about slavery. These included George Robertson, a prominent judge who was also Lincoln’s friend and correspondent.

Born in Mercer County in 1780, Robertson was a lawyer, speaker of the Kentucky House, Kentucky secretary of state, congressman, and chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. A prominent Whig politician, he and Lincoln became friends in the 1840s.

Their relationship became troubled in September 1862, when Lincoln issued a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation. Robertson complained to Lincoln that Union troops were “forcibly detaining the slaves of Union Kentuckians.” Robertson asked Lincoln to prevent this, and the president drafted (but never sent) an irritated response, noting that “I may as well surrender this contest, directly, as to make any order, the obvious purpose of which would be to return fugitive slaves.”

Lincoln’s policies affected Robertson when one of his slaves fled to the camp of the 22nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel William Utley. The colonel refused to return the slave and banned the judge from the camp. Robertson had Utley indicted for harboring a slave and sued the officer in U. S. District Court.

An exasperated Utley wrote Lincoln about the situation, and Lincoln offered Robertson $500 if Utley could free the slave. Robertson refused, and in 1871, he received a $935 judgment against Utley. Two years later, however, the U. S. Treasury paid the bill. Thus, six years after the Civil War, the federal government reimbursed Robertson for his lost slave.

George Robertson

Kentucky Historical Society Collections