Lieutenant governor Linn Boyd had died in office, and Magoffin refused to allow Speaker of the Senate John F. Fisk to succeed him as governor.
Magoffin County, Kentucky | Magoffin County | Beriah Magoffin | Beriah Botfield | Andy Magoffin |
It condemned President Lincoln for waging an unjust war, and praised Governor Beriah Magoffin for refusing Lincoln's call for troops.
However, atypically of such monuments, Magoffin's portrait bust draped in a toga recalls Neoclassical conventions, as in Houdon's sculptural portrait of George Washington; this parallel with a heroic Roman was intended by the builder of the Beriah Magoffin Monument.