John J.
Crittenden
(1786-1863)
“The
emotions of defeat, at the close of a struggle in which I felt more than a
merely selfish interest, and to which defeat the use of your name contributed
largely, are fresh upon me; but, even in this mood, I can not for a moment
suspect you of anything dishonorable.” — Abraham Lincoln to John J. Crittenden,
November 4, 1858
Kentucky statesman John J. Crittenden was born on September 10,
1786, in present-day Woodford County,
Kentucky. He graduated from the College of William
and Mary and proceeded to study law under Judge George M. Bibb, beginning his
practice in Russellville. Crittenden had
three wives and nine children. In 1809,
he was appointed attorney for the Illinois
territory and served as an aide-de-camp to several officers during the War of
1812, the last being Kentucky’s
governor, Isaac Shelby. A strongly
entrenched member of the Whig Party, Crittenden was elected to the Kentucky legislature and the United States Senate, and he
was also elected governor of Kentucky
in 1848. He served as attorney general of the United States under presidents
William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore.
Crittenden
had a direct impact on Abraham Lincoln’s political aspirations and
policies. During the Lincoln and Stephen
Douglas Illinois senate race in 1858, Crittenden created an “October surprise”
for Lincoln,
when he was attributed in newspapers as supporting the Democratic
candidate. Crittenden’s support brought
the old-line Whigs into Douglas’s political camp, therefore electing enough
Democrats to the Illinois legislature to
reelect Douglas.
Also, as
heir apparent to the “Great Compromiser” Henry Clay, Crittenden attempted to
craft a last-minute compromise in 1861 to avert war. The two main points were to strictly enforce
the Fugitive Slave Act and to reestablish the Missouri Compromise line in order
to protect slavery in the South. It
failed in the end because of political squabbling.
Portrait
of John J. Crittenden by Ferdinand Walker, ca. 1909
Kentucky Historical Society Collections
