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John Jordan Crittenden
15th United States Attorney General 22nd United States Attorney General
In office March 5, 1841 – September 12, 1841 July 22, 1850 – March 4, 1853
Preceded by	Henry D. Gilpin Reverdy Johnson
Succeeded by	Hugh S. Legaré Caleb Cushing
Born	September 10, 1786(1786-09-10) Versailles, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	July 26, 1863 (aged 76) Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S.
Political party	Whig, Unionist
Spouse	Sarah O. Lee Maria Todd Elizabeth Ashley
Profession	Lawyer, Politician

John Jordan Crittenden (September 10, 1786 – July 26, 1863) was an American statesman from Kentucky.

He was born near Versailles, Kentucky, the son of American Revolution veteran John Crittenden. He attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, and graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1806. Thereafter he studied law and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1807.

He was attorney general of Illinois Territory from 1809-1810; served in the War of 1812 as an aide to the governor; and resumed the practice of law in Russellville, Kentucky, after the end of the war.

Contents 1 Political career 2 Civil War 3 References 4 External links

He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1811 to 1817, and served as Speaker of the House during his last term in that body. He was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1819, when he resigned. During his tenure in the 15th Congress he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary.

After leaving Congress he moved to Frankfort, Kentucky. He briefly rejoined the Kentucky House in 1825, and then 1829 to 1832. He 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.

He was appointed Attorney General of the United States by President William Henry Harrison from March to September 1841; appointed and subsequently elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Clay and served from March 31, 1842, to June 12, 1848, when he resigned.

During this period (27th Congress and 28th Congress) he served on the U.S. Senate Committee on Military Affairs. From 1848 to 1850 he was the Governor of Kentucky and then resigned to again become Attorney General, this time appointed by Millard Fillmore. He served in that position from 1850 to 1853 and then was again elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4 1855, to March 3, 1861.

Crittenden was torn by loyalties during the Civil War, with one son, Thomas, leaving to join the Union and the other, George, enlisting with the Confederate States of America. In December, 1860 he promoted a last minute compromise to hold the Union together, the Crittenden Compromise. It consisted of six unamendable amendments to the Constitution. These amendments would have made permanent the Missouri Compromise of 1820, denied Congress any power to interfere with the interstate slave trade, compelled Congress to compensate owners who lost slaves in the North through illegal interference with the fugitive slave laws, made perpetual the fugitive slave law and three-fifths compromise to the Constitution, and denied to Congress any power to interfere with slavery in the existing Southern states.

But Republicans, especially president-elect Abraham Lincoln, rejected it and it never came to a vote. Crittenden then tried to salvage his plan by recommending to the full Senate that it be submitted to the people in referendum, but a majority of the Republicans in the Senate again voted against the measure.

His next compromise the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution was adopted by Congress on July 22, 1861, immediately after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, Congress gave official definition to the object of the war: the war was prosecuted on the part of the federal government not to conquer or subjugate the Southern States, that is, not to reduce them to provinces, nor to interfere with slavery in those states; but to preserve the Union and to defend and maintain the Constitution and the laws, "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." [Congressional Globe, July 22, 1861] The resolutions were repealed in December.

He was elected as a Unionist to the 37th Congress (March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863). He was a candidate for reelection to that office at the time of his death. He died in Frankfort, Kentucky, and is interred at the State Cemetery there.

Crittenden had two sons, George Crittenden and Thomas Leonidas Crittenden. He was also uncle of Congressman Thomas Theodore Crittenden of Missouri and of Union General Thomas Turpin Crittenden.

The town of Crittenden, Kentucky and Crittenden County, Kentucky is named for him. [1]

• John J. Crittenden at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches 2v 1873
• Albert D. Kirwan, John J. Crittenden: The Struggle for the Union (1962)
• John J. Crittenden at the National Governors Association

• Find-A-Grave profile for John J. Crittenden
• Biography from Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky

Preceded by Martin D. Hardin	United States Senator (Class 2) from Kentucky 1817–1819 Served alongside: Isham Talbot	Succeeded by Richard M. Johnson
Preceded by George M. Bibb	United States Senator (Class 2) from Kentucky 1835–1841 Served alongside: Henry Clay	Succeeded by James T. Morehead
Preceded by Henry D. Gilpin	United States Attorney General Served Under: William Harrison, John Tyler 1841	Succeeded by Hugh S. Legare
Preceded by Henry Clay	United States Senator (Class 3) from Kentucky 1842–1848 Served alongside: James T. Morehead, Joseph R. Underwood	Succeeded by Thomas Metcalfe
Preceded by William Owsley	Governor of Kentucky 1848 – 1850	Succeeded by John L. Helm
Preceded by Reverdy Johnson	United States Attorney General Served Under: Millard Fillmore 1850 – 1853	Succeeded by Caleb Cushing
Preceded by Archibald Dixon	United States Senator (Class 3) from Kentucky 1855–1861 Served alongside: John B. Thompson, Lazarus W. Powell	Succeeded by John C. Breckinridge
Preceded by George M. Bibb	Most Senior Living U.S. Senator (Sitting or Former) April 14, 1859 - July 26, 1863	Succeeded by Henry Johnson

v • d • e United States Senators from Kentucky

Class 2: Brown • Thruston • Clay • Bibb • Walker • Barry • Hardin • Crittenden • Johnson • Bibb • Crittenden • Morehead • J. Underwood • Thompson • Powell • Guthrie • McCreery • Stevenson • Beck • Carlisle • Lindsay • Blackburn • Paynter • James • Martin • Stanley • Sackett • Robsion • Williamson • M. Logan • Chandler • Stanfill • Cooper • Chapman • T. Underwood • Cooper • Barkley • Humphreys • Cooper • Huddleston • McConnell Class 3: Edwards • Marshall • J. Breckinridge • Adair • Clay • Pope • Bledsoe • Talbot • W. Logan • Talbot • Rowan • Clay • Crittenden • Metcalfe • Clay • Meriwether • Dixon • Crittenden • J.C. Breckinridge • Davis • Machen • McCreery • Williams • Blackburn • Deboe • McCreary • Bradley • Camden • Beckham • Ernst • Barkley • Withers • Clements • Morton • Cook • Ford • Bunning

v • d • e United States Attorneys General

Randolph • Bradford • Lee • Lincoln • R Smith • Breckinridge • Rodney • Pinkney • Rush • Wirt • Berrien • Taney • Butler • Grundy • Gilpin • Crittenden • Legaré • Nelson • Mason • Clifford • Toucey • Johnson • Crittenden • Cushing • Black • Stanton • Bates • Speed • Stanberry • Evarts • Hoar • Akerman • Williams • Pierrepont • Taft • Devens • MacVeagh • Brewster • Garland • Miller • Olney • Harmon • McKenna • Griggs • Knox • Moody • Bonaparte • Wickersham • McReynolds • Gregory • Palmer • Daugherty • Stone • Sargent • W Mitchell • Cummings • Murphy • Jackson • Biddle • T Clark • McGrath • McGranery • Brownell • Rogers • Kennedy • Katzenbach • R Clark • J Mitchell • Kleindienst • Richardson • Saxbe • Levi • Bell • Civiletti • W Smith • Meese • Thornburgh • Barr • Reno • Ashcroft • Gonzales • Mukasey

v • d • e Governors of Kentucky

Shelby • Garrard • Greenup • Scott • Shelby • Madison • Slaughter • Adair • Desha • Metcalfe • J. Breathitt • J. Morehead • Clark • Wickliffe • Letcher • Owsley • Crittenden • Helm • Powell • C. Morehead • Magoffin • Robinson • Bramlette • Helm • Stevenson • Leslie • McCreary • Blackburn • Knott • Buckner • Brown • Bradley • Taylor • Goebel • Beckham • Willson • McCreary • Stanley • Black • Morrow • Fields • Sampson • Laffoon • Chandler • Johnson • Willis • Clements • Wetherby • Chandler • Combs • E. Breathitt • Nunn • Ford • Carroll • Brown Jr. • Collins • Wilkinson • Jones • Patton • Fletcher • Beshear Kentucky also had two Confederate Governors: George W. Johnson and Richard Hawes.