A
Democrat in a
Whig district, Powell's political career began with an 1836 bid for a seat in the
Kentucky House of Representatives. He campaigned vigorously while his opponent, John G. Holloway, relied largely on his party affiliation to carry the election. This proved a critical misstep for Holloway, as Powell secured the surprise victory. Holloway apparently learned from his mistake. Upon the completion of Powell's term in 1838, Holloway challenged Powell again, and defeated him by a considerable majority.
Governor of Kentucky In 1848, Kentucky Democrats nominated
Linn Boyd for governor, but Boyd declined the nomination. Powell was chosen to replace Boyd on the ticket, largely due to the influence of
James Guthrie. The Whig party nominated Senator
John J. Crittenden, and the race was complicated by former Vice President
Richard Mentor Johnson's announcement that he would run as an independent Democratic candidate. Knowing the Democrats' chances were dimmed by having two candidates in the race, Powell arranged a meeting with Johnson, following which the latter withdrew his candidacy and pledged his support to Powell. A third candidate for governor,
abolitionist Cassius M. Clay, received 3,621 votes. (
John L. Helm had ascended to the governorship on Crittenden's resignation.) Powell implemented the use of the state's
sinking fund to pay interest on school bonds, a measure which had passed over Governor Helm's veto, but Helm refused to carry out. In 1855, Kentucky's voters passed by landslide a measure to raise the school tax from two cents per hundred dollars of taxable property to five cents per hundred dollars. The measure enjoyed the support of both Governor Powell and superintendent of public schools
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge. Under the leadership of Powell and Breckinridge, Kentucky's school system became among the strongest in the antebellum South. Among Powell's other successes as governor was his successful lobbying of the legislature to conduct a geological survey in 1854. He also encouraged private investment in transportation in the state. During his term, the state went from having of railroad track in operation to having in operation. The offer was accepted, and violence was averted. Senator Powell favored Kentucky's neutrality policy during the
Civil War, but nationally, the conflict put him in a tenuous political situation. On one hand, he favored a strong national government and a strict interpretation of the
U.S. Constitution. On the other hand, he was an opponent of coercion, and due to Kentucky's proximity to and being a part of the Southern states, maintained a more sympathetic view of the southern cause than legislators from northern states. During his term as governor, Powell had been critical of Northern states that refused to abide by the
Fugitive Slave Act. In 1861, Senator Powell vigorously condemned President
Lincoln's decision to suspend the writ of
habeas corpus. In 1862, he denounced the arrest of some citizens of
Delaware—officially, the arrests were called "resolutions of inquiry" — as a violation of constitutional rights. These stances led to calls for his resignation by the
Kentucky General Assembly in 1861, and some of his colleagues, led by Kentucky's other senator,
Garrett Davis, unsuccessfully attempted to have him expelled from the Senate. Before the end of the war, both the General Assembly and Davis admitted being wrong in their attempts to remove him. Following his successful defense against calls for his removal, Powell continued speaking against what he saw as violations of constitutional rights. In January 1863, he condemned
General Order No. 11, an edict by
Ulysses S. Grant that barred Jews from the Department of Tennessee, which included regions of Kentucky. In the same speech, he rebuked federal military interference with the elections in Kentucky. In 1864, he opposed a constitutional amendment aimed at freeing the slaves. ==Later life and legacy==