James Guthrie (December 5, 1792 – March 13, 1869) was an American lawyer, plantation owner, railroad president and Democratic Party politician in Kentucky.

Guthrie strongly opposed proposals for Kentucky to secede from the United States and attended the Peace Conference of 1861.

As one of Kentucky's senators after the war, Guthrie supported President Andrew Johnson and opposed Congressional Reconstruction.

During the Civil War, Guthrie resisted federal pressure to nationalize the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, but allowed the Union to use it to move troops and supplies.

Having fought Native peoples until they left the area after the American Revolutionary War, the senior Guthrie developed a large plantation in Nelson County, and twice won election to the Kentucky General Assembly (serving from 1800 to 1805, and again in 1808).

[4] In 1812, young James Guthrie took a job on a flatboat transporting goods (and slaves) down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, Louisiana.

[1][3] After three such trips, he decided to change careers, and began to study law under Judge John Rowan, along with Ben Hardin and Charles A.

However, although Kentucky's long-time Senator Henry Clay supported such internal improvements, his political opponent Andrew Jackson when elected president, cut off these funds shortly after taking office in 1829.

[10] Back in Louisville, Guthrie advocated constructing a new building to house both city and county government offices.

However, the Panic of 1837 halted the courthouse's construction, as well as the water works and a bridge over the Ohio River connecting Louisville to Indiana.

[16] The Kentucky Constitution of 1850 included explicit protections for slave property, and stipulated that no amendments could be proposed for a period of eight years.

[23] He also accused Corwin of conspiring with a New York port master to under-report duties collected and deposit them into a trust.

[15] He also purchased silver bullion for coinage which aided struggling banks by returning money to circulation and increasing their depleted reserves.

[24] In 1853, Guthrie employed Captain Alexander Bowman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction of an extension to the Treasury Building's south wing.

[26] Meanwhile, Kentucky, delegates to the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, favored Guthrie for the office of President.

Guthrie was offered the job of Secretary of War by President Lincoln, but he declined because of age and failing health.

He believed the Southern states, if they did not secede, would control Congress and the judiciary, and render Lincoln powerless to impose his agenda upon them.

[30] At age 70, Guthrie was elected as one of Kentucky's six delegates to the Peace Conference of 1861 in Washington, D.C., to devise means to prevent the impending Civil War.

[30] He failed in his attempt to re-work and re-introduce the Crittenden Compromise earlier proposed in Congress by fellow Kentuckian John J.

Despite pressure to relinquish control to the federal government, Guthrie remained president of the railroad, which became a frequent target for guerrilla attacks.

[3] He voted for the ticket of General George B. McClellan and former Kentucky governor Thomas Bramlette for president and vice-president, respectively.

[31] Guthrie supported President Andrew Johnson, opposed the Freedmen's Bureau and the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.

[16][32] On June 11, 1868, he resigned as president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, recommending General William Tecumseh Sherman to be his successor.

[33] The United States Revenue Cutter Service, a branch of the Treasury, named small patrol vessels after Guthrie, in 1868, 1888 and 1895.