John J. Crittenden

Mitch McConnell's speech about Kentucky lawyer and statesman John J. Crittenden was very informative. I knew very little about Crittenden's life before the speech, but McConnell spoke about his early law career in Kentucky and his long role in government spent mostly in the shadow of Henry Clay. Crittenden was many times unjustly compared with Clay and is often forgotten. His compromises, like Clay, kept the Union together during the early 1800's. Clay died before seeing the country torn apart by war, but Crittenden died during the war, never seeing the country reunited. He took on many roles in his public service: US House of Representatives, US Senate, US Attorney General, governor of Kentucky, and the state legislature. He also once refused his parties nomination to run for the presidency. Crittenden and Clay tried to hold together the country through legislative acts instead of bloodshed, in the end change and unity only would come from the destruction of a way of life and no compromise.