John Brown
John Brown, 1757-1837, Kentucky statesman, was born in Staunton, Virginia.[1] He was brother to James Brown, United States Senator for Louisiana, and related to the Clay and Breckinridge families.[2] Brown’s father, a distinguished Presbyterian minister, provided his early education.[3] John attended Princeton College, but his education was interrupted when the school closed due to the hostilities of the American Revolution.[4] He joined Washington’s forces and later served under Lafayette.[5] After his service, Brown resumed his education at William & Mary.[6]
In the winter of 1780, Brown attended George Wythe’s law lectures at William & Mary, despite financial difficulties that led him to drop other courses. [7] While at the school, Brown participated in Wythe’s newly created moot court and moot legislature, finding that “[t]hese exercises serve not only as the best amusements after severer studies, but are very useful & attended with many important advantages.” [8] At William & Mary, he was also a member of the parent chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.[9]
After completing his education, Brown settled in Kentucky in 1782 and became one of the state’s preeminent leaders and a leading statehood proponent.[10] At times, Brown’s support of Kentucky exceeded his loyalty to the United States.[11] In 1787, he had discussions with Spain in which the Spanish minister agreed to provide Kentucky free navigation of the Mississippi if Kentucky became independent of the United States.[12] Nevertheless, in 1787, Brown represented Kentucky in the Virginia legislature and the following year was elected a delegate to the Kentucky constitutional convention.[13] He was also elected a delegate to the Virginia convention where his Jeffersonian leanings led him to vote against ratifying the Federal Constitution.[14] In 1792, when Kentucky entered the Union, Brown became a United States Senator for the new state, a position he held until 1805.[15] Although Brown was on close terms with each of the first five presidents, he remained, throughout his life, an ardent supporter of Thomas Jefferson.[16] He died in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1837.[17]
References
- ↑ Ellis Merton Coulter, "John Brown" in vol. II, part 1 of Dictionary of American Biography ed. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958),130.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Lyon G. Tyler, “Glimpses of Old College Life,” William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 9, no. 1 (July 1900), 19.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ellis Merton Coulter, “John Brown,” 131.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ ”Glimpses of Old College Life,” William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 9, no. 2 (October 1900), 76.
- ↑ Ibid., 80
- ↑ ”Glimpses of Old College Life” William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 9, no. 1 (July 1900), 19.
- ↑ Ellis Merton Coulter, “John Brown,” 131.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
