J. Proctor Knott

63
J. Proctor Knott bigraphy, stories - American politician

J. Proctor Knott : biography

August 29, 1830 – June 18, 1911

James Proctor Knott (August 29, 1830 – June 18, 1911) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky and served as the 29th Governor of Kentucky from 1883 to 1887. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Missouri in 1850 and began his political career there. He served as Missouri Attorney General from 1859 to 1861, when he resigned rather than swear an oath of allegiance to the federal government just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Knott was disbarred and briefly imprisoned for his refusal to take the oath of allegiance. He returned to Kentucky in 1863 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1871, he made a notable speech ridiculing a bill to subsidize westward expansion of railroads. In the speech, he lampooned the remote town of Duluth, Minnesota. The Duluth speech was eventually reprinted in several publications and brought Knott national acclaim. He did not stand for re-election in 1871, instead making a failed run for the office of governor. In 1875, he returned to the House and served as chair of the judiciary committee.

In 1883, Knott left Congress and made a successful run for governor. He secured major reforms in education, but was stymied in his pursuit of tax reform. After his term as governor, he was a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention in 1891. In 1892, he became a professor at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and helped organized the college’s law school in 1894. He served as dean of the law school until an illness forced him to retire in 1902. He died at his home in Lebanon, Kentucky on June 18, 1911.

Early life

J. Proctor Knott was born in Raywick, Marion County, Kentucky on August 29, 1830."J. Proctor Knott" He was the son of Joseph Percy and Maria Irvine (McElroy) Knott.Harrison, p. 522 He was tutored by his father from an early age, and later attended public school in Marion and Shelby counties."Kentucky Governor James Proctor Knott"Powell, p. 66 In 1846, he began to study law. In May 1850, he relocated to Memphis, Missouri, where he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1851. He also served in the offices of the circuit court and county clerks.

Knott married Mary E. Forman on November 17, 1852. Forman died during the birth of the couple’s first child in August 1853. On January 14, 1858, Knott married his cousin, Sarah R. McElroy.

Ancestors

Political career

Knott’s political career began in 1857 when he was elected to represent Scotland County in the Missouri House of Representatives. He served as chair of the judiciary committee and conducted the impeachment hearings against Judge Albert Jackson. Knott resigned his seat in the legislature in August 1858 to accept Governor Robert M. Stewart’s appointment to fill the unexpired term of Missouri’s attorney general, Ephraim B. Ewing. In 1860, he was elected to a full term as attorney general.

In January 1861, Missouri called a convention to determine whether it would follow the lead of other pro-slavery states and secede from the Union. Knott was sympathetic to the southern cause, but opposed the methods of the secessionists. The Unionist position carried the convention by an 80,000-vote majority. Knott resigned his position as attorney general rather than take an oath of allegiance required by the federal government. As a result of his refusal, he was disbarred from practice in the state of Missouri and imprisoned for a short time.

In the House of Representatives

In 1863, Knott returned to Kentucky and re-opened his legal practice in Lebanon. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1867. As a legislator, he opposed the Reconstruction agenda of the Radical Republicans and ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.Tapp in Decades of Discord, p. 33 He was re-elected to a second term, but did not stand for re-election in 1870.

Knott’s most notable action as a legislator occurred near the end of his first stint in Congress. On January 27, 1871, he delivered a satirical speech ridiculing a bill that would have provided fifty-seven land grants and financial concessions to railroads to further their westward expansion.Harrison, p. 273 In the speech, Knott singled out the Bayfield and St. Croix Railroad’s proposed line from the St. Croix River to Duluth, Minnesota to make his point. He derided the remoteness of the town and the need for a railroad to it by repeatedly referring to a map and asking where Duluth was located. Following the speech, the railroad bill was killed and Congress adjourned for the day.