Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 114.  Franklin County.

JOHN JORDAN CRITTENDEN.  High on the roll of fame is written the name of
this man.  One of the chiefs among the illustrious sons of the nation,
he was instrumental in shaping the history of the republic, and rose to
an eminence which was a natural sequence of his noble life and wonderful
talents.  Kentucky is proud to count him among her native sons and loves
to do him honor.
     He was born in Woodford county, near the town of Versailles,
September 10, 1786, a son of John Crittenden, a Revolutionary officer
who removed to Kentucky soon after the conclusion of the war.  John J.
Crittenden obtained his elementary education in the schools of his native
state, continued his scholastic studies in Washington academy, Virginia,
and completed his education in the William and Mary College, in the same
state.  His law studies were prosecuted under the direction of Hon. George
M. Bibb, and he became thoroughly prepared for the practice of his
profession.  At that period the Green river country was the attractive
field for enterprise in the state, and Mr. Crittenden embarked in law
practice in Russellville.
     His brilliant oratory filled the country with his praise, and his
constituency demanded that he should represent his district in the
legislature.
     In 1811 he was the member from Logan county in the general assembly,
and the county conferred the honor upon him through six consecutive
terms.  In 1815-16, and again in 1829-32, he was elected speaker of the
house.  He was also in two campaigns of the war of 1812 as aide to
General Ramsey in the expedition commanded by General Hopkins.  During
his legislative career he had gained a state reputation, and in 1817 was
elected to the United States senate, where he at once made a reputation
as an orator.  He retired from the United States senate in 1819, and
removed from Russellville to establish his residence at Frankfort, which
thenceforth remained his home.  He was in sympathy with the anti-relief
party and the Old Court, giving his great influence in their behalf and
offering himself, in 1825, as a candidate for the lower house of the
Kentucky legislature from Franklin county, opposed by Colonel Solomon P.
Sharp.  He held the office of attorney general, and was one of the most
conspicuous and able of the New Court party.  After a spirited contest,
Mr. Crittenden was defeated.
     His opponent, Colonel Sharp, was assassinated November 7, 1825, on
the eve of the assembling of the legislature.  At the election held to
fill the vacancy thus caused, Mr. Crittenden was again a candidate and
was elected.  He held a seat in the lower house for several terms, and
from 1829 to 1832, was speaker of the house.  He was again elected to
the United States senate in 1835, resigning to accept the office of
attorney general at the hands of President William H. Harrison.  On Mr.
Harrison's death he resigned his office, and was again, in 1842, elected
by the state legislature to the United States senate, resigning his seat to
make sure of the success of his party in the pending election for governor,
sacrificing his own interests for his party; he became the candidate for
governor and was elected.
     He resigned as governor July 31, 1850, when he again entered the
office of the attorney general of the United States, at the request of
President Fillmore.  In 1855 he was again the choice of the legislature
and took his seat as senator for Kentucky, serving his full term, on
the expiration of which, in 1861, he was elected to the house of
representatives at Washington.  He died in Louisville July 25, 1863,
while a member of congress.
     His support was given the Whig party until is dissolution, when he
united with the forces of the American party; but that had but a brief
existence and he was then left without a political home.  He, however,
uniformly opposed the measures of the Democracy as contrary to his ideal
of the best interests of the country.
     A detailed account of the labors of Mr. Crittenden would involve
the history of the nation through a most important epoch; but conspicuous
as was his whole career his last efforts were the greatest.  True to the
conservative character of his nature, he offered, during his last
senatorial term, a plan to adjust the differences between the north and
south, known as "The Crittenden Propositions," which were discussed in
the peace convention as well as the senate.  By this plan he hoped to
stay the secession movement and avert civil war.  He proposed to renew
the Missouri line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; to prohibit
slavery north, and to permit it south of that line, as prescribed by the
inhabitants of the district; to admit new states with or without slavery
as the constituents might provide; to prohibit congress from abolishing
slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in Virginia or
Maryland; and to pay for fugitive slaves rescued after arrest. These were
the main provisions.  He advocated them with characteristic earnestness,
but his patriotic intentions were thwarted.
     Mr. Crittenden retired from the senate in March, 1861, but he did
not cease his efforts to avert a collision between the people of the two
sections.  He was the president of the Border States convention, held in
Frankfort, Kentucky, in May, 1861, in which it was sought to mediate
between the hostile parties.  An address was issued, but the time for
conciliation had passed; indeed, the war had already begun.  Mr. Crittenden
avowed himself in favor of maintaining the integrity of the Union at all
hazards.  He was elected to congress from the Ashland district, and took
his seat at the extra session in July, 1861, and frequently participated in
the debates.  He denounced the confiscation act, the emancipation
proclamation, and the enlistment of negroes as soldiers, as obnoxious and
dangerous, if not unconstitutional, measures; yet these, he admitted, were
minor considerations as compared with the preservation of the union of the
states.
     By profession a lawyer, the political arena was more congenial to him;
perhaps it would be more correct to say that he entered political life so
young that he acquired a taste for the one to the exclusion of the other.
As an advocate he stood almost without a rival at the bar, yet he was never
a profound lawyer; he was a generous, magnanimous and brave man, clear,
comprehensive and decided in his convictions, and one who never shrank from
the expression of them on any public question.  His patriotism was never
questioned by even his most bitter partisan enemy.  Few men, not even the
immortal Henry Clay, who was contemporary with Mr. Crittenden, have been so
honored by their state or so frequently sent as their representative to
the United States senate.  As a member of the Kentucky legislature, as
secretary of state of Kentucky in 1834, as governor in 1848, as United
States senator and as congressman, he acquitted himself with honor, and has
left his impress upon the laws of the state and nation.

Crittenden Bibb Sharp
=
Woodford-KY Logan-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/crittenden.jj.txt