Statesman; born in
Woodford county, Ky., Sept. 10, 1787; was aide-de-camp to
Governor Shelby at the battle of the
Thames; became a lawyer; entered the
Kentucky legislature in 1816, and was speaker several years, and was first a member of the United States Senate in 1817-19.
From 1835 to 1841 he was again in the Senate, when
President Harrison called him to his cabinet as
Attorney-General.
He was again in the Senate from 1842 to 1848, when he was elected governor of his State, which post he held when
President Fillmore appointed him
Attorney-General in 1850.
Mr. Crittenden was one of the most useful and trustworthy of the members of the national legislature, and was regarded as the “patriarch of the Senate.”
In the session of 1860-61 he introduced the “
Crittenden compromise,” which substantially proposed: 1.
To re-establish the line fixed in the
Missouri compromise (q. v.) as the boundary-line between free and slave territory; that Congress should by statute law protect slave property from interference by all the departments of the Territorial governments during their continuance as such; that such Territories should be admitted as States with or without slavery, as the
State constitutions should determine.
2. That Congress should not abolish slavery at any place within the limits of any slave State, or wherein slavery might thereafter be established.
3. That Congress should not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it should exist in the adjoining States of
Maryland and
Virginia, without the consent of the
inhabitants thereof, nor without just compensation made to the owners of slaves who should not consent to the abolishment; that Congress should not prevent government officers sojourning in the
District on business bringing their slaves with them, and taking them with them when they should depart.
4. That Congress should have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or into Territories where slavery should be allowed.
5. That the national government should pay to the owner of a fugitive slave, who might be rescued from the officers of the law, upon attempting to take him back to bondage, the full value of such “property” so lost; and that the amount should be refunded by the county in which the rescue might occur, that municipality having the power to sue for and recover the amount from the individual actors in the offence.
6. That no future amendments to the
Constitution should be made that might have an effect on the previous amendments, or on any sections of the
Constitution on the subject already existing; nor should any amendment be made that should give to the
Congress the right to
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abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the States where it existed by law, or might hereafter be allowed.
In addition to these amendments,
Senator Crittenden offered four joint resolutions, declaring substantially as follows: 1.
That the
Fugitive Slave act was constitutional and must be enforced, and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who should interfere with its due execution.
2. That all State laws which impeded the execution of the
Fugitive Slave act were null and void; that such laws had been mischievous in producing discord and commotion, and therefore the
Congress should respectfully and earnestly recommend the repeal of them, or by legislation make them harmless.
3. This resolution referred to the fees of commissioners acting under the
Fugitive Slave Law, and the modification of the section which required all citizens, when called upon, to aid the owner in capturing his runaway property.
4. This resolution declared that strong measures ought to be adopted for the suppression of the African slave-trade.
On March 2, two days before the close of the session,
Mason, of
Virginia, the author of the
Fugitive Slave Law, called up the Crittenden propositions and resolutions, when
Clarke's resolutions were reconsidered and rejected, for the purpose of obtaining a direct vote on the original proposition.
After a long debate, continued into the small hours of Sunday, March 3, 1861, the
Crittenden Compromise was rejected by a vote of twenty against nineteen.
A resolution of the House of Representatives was then adopted, to amend the
Constitution so as to prohibit forever any amendment of that instrument interfering with slavery in any State.
Senator Crittenden's term in the Senate expiring in March, 1861, he entered the
Lower House as a representative in July following, in which he was a very ardent but conservative Union man, but was opposed to the emancipation of slaves.
He died near
Frankfort, Ky., July 26, 1863.
