ballots, but withdrew his name from consideration before the seventh ballot. The delegation from Owsley County switched their support to Knott, starting a wave of defections that resulted in Jones' withdrawal and Knott's unanimous nomination. Knott went on to win the general election and appointed Buckner to the board of trustees for the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College (later the University of Kentucky) in 1884. At that year's state Democratic convention, he served on the committee on credentials. Governor of Kentucky Delegates to the 1887 state Democratic convention nominated Buckner unanimously for the office of governor. A week later, the Republicans chose William O. Bradley as their candidate. The Prohibition Party and the Union Labor Party also nominated candidates for governor. The official results of the election gave Buckner a plurality of 16,797 over Bradley. Buckner proposed a number of progressive ideas, most of which were rejected by the legislature. Among his successful proposals were the creation of a state board of tax equalization, creation of a parole system for convicts, and codification of school laws. His failed proposals included creation of a department of justice, greater local support for education and better protection for forests. Much of Buckner's time was spent trying to curb violence in the eastern part of the state. Shortly after his inauguration, the Rowan County War escalated to vigilantism, when residents of the county organized a posse and killed several of the leaders of the feud. Though this essentially ended the feud, the violence had been so bad that Buckner's adjutant general recommended that the Kentucky General Assembly dissolve Rowan County, though this suggestion was not acted upon. In 1888, a posse from Kentucky entered West Virginia and killed a leader of the Hatfield clan in the Hatfield-McCoy feud. This caused a political conflict between Buckner and Governor Emanuel Willis Wilson of West Virginia, who complained that the raid was illegal. The matter was adjudicated in federal court, and Buckner was cleared of any connection to the raid. Later in Buckner's term, feuds broke out in Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Knott, and Breathitt counties. A major financial scandal erupted in 1888 when Buckner ordered a routine audit of the state's finances which had been neglected for years. The audit showed that the state's longtime treasurer, James "Honest Dick" Tate, had been mismanaging and embezzling the state's money since 1872. Faced with the prospect that his malfeasance