James F. Robinson

Who was James F. Robinson?

James Fisher Robinson was the 22nd Governor of Kentucky, serving the remainder of the unfinished term of Governor Beriah Magoffin. Magoffin, a Confederate sympathizer, became increasingly ineffective after the elections of 1861 yielded a supermajority to pro-Union forces in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly. Magoffin agreed to resign the governorship, provided he could select his successor. He selected Robinson.

Politically, Robinson opposed both secession and abolition. Though he had Union sympathies, he was considered a moderate, opposing both fugitive slave laws and the enlistment of black soldiers. As a state senator, he supported the Crittenden Compromise and opposed the Civil War. As governor, he drew criticism from the administration of President Abraham Lincoln for opposing the Emancipation Proclamation.