CRITTENDEN, JOHN JORDAN

CRITTENDEN, JOHN JORDAN

John Jordan Crittenden served as attorney general of the United States in 1841 under President WILLIAM H. HARRISON, and again in 1850 under President MILLARD FILLMORE. He is also known for his efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union during the Civil War.

Crittenden was born September 10, 1787,
near Versailles,Woodford County, Kentucky.His
father was a Revolutionary War soldier and an
early Kentucky settler. Crittenden was schooled
near his home in Jessamine County, Kentucky.
He showed a great aptitude for learning and was
encouraged to pursue a career in the law. He
attended William and Mary College, and graduated
in 1807. His first law practice was established
in Logan County, Kentucky.

After two years as a struggling country
lawyer, Crittenden was appointed attorney general
for the Illinois Territory by Governor Vinian
Edwards, of Kentucky, in 1809. His first experience
as a public servant was cut short by the WAR
OF 1812. Crittenden returned to Kentucky and
enlisted as a volunteer; he served for three years
and experienced firsthand the tragedy of war.
In 1816 Crittenden was elected to a term in
the Kentucky state legislature. The following
year, he was elected to a seat in the U.S. Senate,
but he did not complete the term. Finding local
politics more to his liking, he resigned in 1819
and returned to Frankfort, Kentucky, to reclaim
his old seat in the statehouse.

Though he had little affection for national
politics, Crittenden did support fellow Kentuckian
HENRY CLAY in his unsuccessful 1824 bid for
the presidency. Crittenden respected Clay’s
views on a number of issues, and they became
political allies and lifelong friends. It was
because of his association with Clay that Crittenden
lost his next job. In 1827 Crittenden was
appointed U.S. district attorney for Kentucky by
President JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. He held the
post until 1829, when he was removed by President
Andrew Jackson—after Crittenden and
Clay had voiced their opposition to the financial
policies of the Jackson administration.
In 1835 Crittenden decided to give politics
another chance. Again, he sought and won a seat
in the U.S. Senate. Crittenden was beginning his
second Senate term when he was offered the
position of attorney general by President Harrison.
He accepted.

Crittenden had been an ardent Harrison
supporter and had campaigned for him in 1840.
When Harrison died of pneumonia shortly after
his inauguration and was succeeded by Vice
President JOHN TYLER, Crittenden was unable to
support the new president. Along with other
Whigs in the cabinet, Crittenden resigned in
September 1841. In 1842 Crittenden found himself
back in the U.S. Senate, appointed to fill the
seat left vacant by the retirement of Clay.He finished
Clay’s term and was subsequently
reelected in his own right.

Throughout his five separate terms in the
Senate, Crittenden was affiliated with the Whigs.
With the WHIG PARTY, he opposed the annexation
of Texas, discouraged animosity toward
Great Britain over the Oregon boundary, and
refused to give enthusiastic support to the Mexican
War.

In 1848 while still a U.S. senator, Crittenden
was elected governor of Kentucky; he resigned
his Senate seat to accept the job. His return to
Kentucky brought renewed contact with Clay,
who was again running for the presidency. Crittenden,
convinced that Clay was not a viable
candidate, threw his support to ZACHARY TAYLOR,
and caused a permanent rift between himself
and Clay.

Following the death of President Taylor and
the succession of Vice President Fillmore, Crittenden
was offered his old cabinet post as attorney
general.He again accepted, and through this
office he authored an opinion upholding the constitutionality of fugitive slave laws. Though
many of Crittenden’s writings were controversial,
he agreed with the view that attorney general
opinions were only advisory and could be
ignored by the president.

In 1855 Crittenden was elected to another
term in the U.S. Senate. There, he vigorously
opposed the KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT of 1854.
When the issue led to the breakup of the Whig
party, he joined the KNOW-NOTHING PARTY in
1856. Two years later, he joined the Constitutional
Union party, and campaigned on behalf
of JOHN BELL and Edward Everett in the 1860
presidential election that brought ABRAHAM
LINCOLN to the White House.

Although Crittenden did not agree with Lincoln
on all matters of policy, he did oppose
secession of the Southern states and he did support
Lincoln’s efforts to preserve the Union. As a
prominent political figure in both the North and
the South, Crittenden worked hard to effect a
compromise that would avert a civil war.
In December 1860, he proposed an amendment
to the Constitution that has come to be
known as the Crittenden Resolution. To bring
the Union together, he suggested that the Missouri
Compromise line be restored and continued
to California, that SLAVERY be guaranteed
indefinitely in the District of Columbia, and
that slaveholders be reimbursed for runaway
slaves.

Crittenden’s compromise effort was defeated
by Lincoln’s strong stand against any extension
of slavery into the territories, and by opposition
from strong Republican leaders in Congress.
Nevertheless, Crittenden stood with the government
and continued to support Lincoln’s position
that it was the right and duty of the
government to maintain the Union.

Returning to Kentucky in early 1861, Crittenden
traveled the state urging citizens to support
the Union cause and to remain neutral in
the escalating conflict. On May 27, 1861, he
acted as chairman of the Frankfort Convention
and successfully argued against leaders who
encouraged Kentucky to join the Southern
secessionists. For his efforts, Crittenden was
returned to Congress, but this time to the U.S.
House of Representatives.

As a representative, he opposed the confiscation
acts, the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION,
the military regime in Kentucky, the employment
of slaves as soldiers, and the war in general.
On July 19, 1861, he offered a resolution that
was adopted with only two dissenting votes:
Resolved by the house of representatives of
the CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
That the present deplorable civil war has
been forced upon the country by the disunionists
of the southern states, now in arms
against the constitutional government, and in
arms around the capital; that in this national
emergency congress, banishing all feelings of
mere passion or resentment, will recollect its
only duty to the whole country; this war is
not waged on their part in any spirit of
oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or
subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or
interfering with the rights of established
institutions of those states, but to defend and
maintain the supremacy of the constitution,
and to preserve the Union with all the dignity,
equality, and rights of the several states
unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects
are accomplished the war ought to cease.
By 1863 Crittenden had held political office
for almost forty-five years. He had served two
presidents as attorney general, completed five
terms as a U.S. senator, and finished a single term
as a U.S. representative. He was preparing to run
for another term in the House when he died. He
was remembered at his funeral as a man with fine
personal qualities, a gift for public speaking, and
a firm commitment to the Union.
Crittenden’s efforts to preserve the Union
were personal as well as political: two of his sons
were on opposite sides of the issues and the battle
lines. His youngest son, Thomas L. Crittenden,
was a commissioned officer in the Union army;
another son, George Bibb Crittenden, held similar
rank in the army of the Confederacy.