Major in Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1790-1805
Source:
Political Graveyard internet siteHe came to Virginia in about 1770. In 1783 he became an early pioneer settler
of Woodford Co., Ky. He was an adjutant-major with General George Rogers Clark in the Northwest. He became a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia in 1784.
BIOGRAPHY: Crittenden Compromise,
in U.S. history, unsuccessful last-minute effort to avert the Civil War.
It was proposed in Congress as a constitutional amendment in Dec., 1860, by Sen. John J. Crittenden of Kentucky with support from the National Union party. Basically, it accepted the boundary between free and slave states that had been set by the Missouri Compromise (1820-21), extended the line to California, and assured the continuation of slavery where it already existed. In addition, it advocated slavery in the District of Columbia, upheld the fugitive slave law (1850) with minor modifications, and called for vigorous suppression of the African slave trade. At a peace conference called by the Virginia legislature in 1861, the compromise gained support from four border state delegations.
Nevertheless, it failed in the House of Representatives in Jan., 1861, by a vote of 113 to 80 and in the Senate in March by a vote of 20 to 19. Its defeat made clear the inevitability of the Civil War.
Crittenden, John Jordan (1786-1863) of Russellville, Logan County, Ky.;
Frankfort, Franklin County, Ky. Son of John Crittenden; brother of Robert Crittenden; uncle of Thomas Theodore Crittenden; granduncle of Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Jr.. Born near Versailles, Woodford County, Ky.,
September 10, 1786. Illinois territory attorney general, 1809-10; member of Kentucky state house of representatives, 1811-17, 1825-29; served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812; U.S. Senator from Kentucky, 1817-19, 1835-41, 1842-48, 1855-61; Presidential Elector for Kentucky, 1824; U.S. District Attorney for Kentucky, 1827-29; U.S. Attorney General, 1841, 1850-53; Governor of Kentucky, 1848-50; U.S.
Representative from Kentucky 8th District, 1861-63. Two of his sons were generals on opposite sides in the Civil War; a grandson of his was killed in Gen. Custer's expedition against the Sioux in 1876. Died in Frankfort, Franklin County, Ky., July 26, 1863. Interment at Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Ky. Crittenden County, Ky. is named for him. See also:
congressional biography.
CRITTENDEN, John Jordan, 1786-1863
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Years of Service: 1817-1819; 1835-1837; 1837-1841; 1842-1848; 1855-1857; 1857-1861
Party: Republican; Anti-Jackson; Whig; Whig; Opposition; American
(Know-Nothing)
CRITTENDEN, John Jordan, (uncle of Thomas Theodore Crittenden), a Senator and a Representative from Kentucky; born near Versailles, Woodford County, Ky., September 10, 1786; completed preparatory studies; attended Pisgah Academy, Woodford County, Ky., Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., and was graduated from William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., in 1806; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Woodford County, Ky., in 1807; attorney general of Illinois Territory 1809-1810; served in the War of 1812 as aide to the Governor; resumed the practice of law in Russellville, Ky.; member, State house of representatives 1811-1817, and served as speaker the last term; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1819, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Judiciary (Fifteenth Congress); moved to Frankfort, Ky., in 1819; member, State house of representatives 1825, 1829-1832; appointed and was confirmed as United States district attorney in 1827, but was removed by President Andrew Jackson in 1829; nominated in 1828 by President John Quincy Adams as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but was not confirmed by the Senate; again elected to the United States Senate as a Whig and served from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1841; appointed Attorney General of the United States by President William Henry Harrison March to September 1841; appointed and subsequently elected to it.