Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 167.  Nelson County.

JOHN ROWAN.  Among the eminent lawyers and statesmen of Kentucky whose
names have shed luster upon the state, that of John Rowan deservedly
stands pre-eminent.  He rose early to prominence at the bar, and for
nearly fifty years, during which he filled many high offices,--on the
bench and in the state and national councils,--he was recognized as the
peer of the ablest of that galaxy of lawyers and statesmen of his day,
whose lives and talents have given to the commonwealth an enduring fame.
     He was born in York county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1771, his
father and mother having been born in the same county and neighborhood.
He came, on his father's side, of a sturdy Scotch-Irish descent so largely
represented in the early history of Kentucky, while his mother, whose
maiden name was Cooper, was of Quaker descent.  His father, William Rowan,
held a valuable office under the crown, but this did not have the effect
in the least of weakening his patriotism, for he raised and commanded a
company in that struggle.  His generous nature had led him to impair,
through assistance to others, his own and his wife's very ample fortune,
and he lost from the ravages of the war much of the little that he had
left.  At the close of the war, with the hope of repairing his shattered
fortune, he emigrated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky (then a district of
Virginia) in the wild lands of which he had invested the remnant of his
fortune.  He arrived at Louisville in March, 1783, and finding the
locality uninviting from prevailing sickness, he resumed his journey
the following spring, and settled at the falls of Green river, on land
which he had bought before leaving Pennsylvania.  After remaining there
several years amid the exciting scenes of the frontier, he removed to
the vicinity of Bardstown, for better educational opportunities for his
children.  At Bardstown John Rowan attended the celebrated school of Dr.
Priestly, where he received a classical education, having as schoolmates
Felix Grundy, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, John Allen and others who rose to
distinction.  Here his mind began to give evidence of his future greatness.
He mastered with ease all the studies of the school, and earned from his
accomplished teacher the encomium of "a good scholar, a man of genius."
By the light of a cedar torch he studied the classics, and drank in those
treasures of the ancients which abided with him to the last. Learning was
with him an ambition,--not pursued merely for momentary gratification,
but to give nourishment and stimulus to his strong natural mind, that it
might grow and expand under the culture of the great masters of antiquity.
He exhausted the authors studied by him, the intimate thoughts of the
Greek and Latin poets and prose writers became familiar to him, and he
acquired from these that Roman majesty of character so uniquely his in
after life.
     After quitting the school of Dr. Priestly, Mr. Rowan was sent by
his father to study the law under that master of jurisconsults, George
Nicholas, at Lexington.  Nicholas was the personal and political friend
and confidant of Thomas Jefferson, and was a man of commanding abilities
and great professional learning.  This is clearly proven by the fact that
the young men who were his pupils became the most successful and
celebrated lawyers of their generation.  Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Isham
Talbot, Jesse Bledsoe, Solomon P. Sharp, William T. Barry, John Pope,
Robert Wickliffe, John Rowan and others of almost equal celebrity were
pupils in his office, and constituted a group of most remarkable men
and lawyers.
     In the study of the law his progress was equal to the wishes of his
most sanguine friends, so much so that Nicholas--a man who never
flattered--after due probation, pronounced him a thorough lawyer and
sent him forth, in his emphatic language, "to succeed."
     He was admitted to the bar in 1795 and soon attained a high rank in
his profession.  In 1799 he was elected a member of the convention
which framed the second constitution of Kentucky.  In 1803 he became
involved in a personal difficulty with one Dr. Chambers, of Bardstown,
and although he sought to avoid a duel, being forced into it by his
adversary, he killed him.  Felix Grundy, who was the commonwealth's
attorney at the time, resigned his office to avoid prosecuting.  In 1804
he was appointed by Governor Greenup, secretary of state, and served
until 1806, when he was elected to congress from the Bardstown district,
in which he did not reside,--a compliment accorded to no other, it is
believed, in the history of the state.  He took his seat in 1807, and
served with distinction in the eleventh congress.  He then devoted himself
to the practice of law.  His success in civil causes was great, for he was
a thorough lawyer, and he brought to their investigation an uncommon fund
of learning, which, though not usually possessed by lawyers, is largely
auxiliary to the attainment of success.  "His mental organization," says
one of his early biographers, an eminent member of the bar, "was fitted for
advocacy more than the duties of a mere barrister in civil causes, and his
wonderful success in defending criminals marks him as having been one of
the greatest advocates of America.  It may seem to some that this is
claiming too much for him, but the annals of the profession, neither in
England nor the United States, present a parallel to his success.
* * *  In defense of life, Rowan stands alone.  * * *  There was no
resisting him, either with the torrent force of his reasoning he tore away
the obstruction of prejudice and convinced the jury, or, with the deep
and impassioned relation of the wrongs which had induced the commission of
an apparent crime, he so filled their hearts that they gave way to mercy
in tears.  Many jurymen who sat under his eloquence, have said that there
was in the manner and the oratory of Rowan a force that overcame them ere
they could steel themselves against it,--nay, that they believed to resist
him in a capital case was almost impossible."
     All of his efforts at the bar were in defense and not in the
prosecution of unfortunates, with one exception.  When very young and
poor, he was appointed public prosecutor by, perhaps, Judge Crosby; the
place was a sure road to eminence and a lucrative practice.  He accepted
it, and the first case was a charge of larceny against a widow's son.
He prosecuted and convicted him.  His feelings overcame him.  He resigned,
moved a new trial and obtained it; and at the next term acquitted the
offender.  From that day forward he resolved never to engaged in the
prosecution of his fellow man, and that he kept his resolve is shown by
his declaration in one of the greatest speeches of his life, made in
the successful defense of the Wilkinsons, at Harrodsburg in 1838,
(reproduced in "Carlton on Homicide"), that in his nearly fifty years of
practice he had never taken a fee nor appeared as an attorney for the
prosecution of a fellow man.  Whether the reasoning that influenced his
course can be sustained or not, his steadfast adherence to his resolve,
to his great pecuniary disadvantage, must challenge the admiration of all.
     He served in the legislature as a member from Nelson county five
consecutive terms--from 1813 to 1817--and in 1819 was appointed by
Governor Slaughter judge of the court of appeals.  While on the bench he
delivered, among other able opinions, on against the constitutionality of
the act of 1816 rechartering the Bank of the United States.  But the
confinement of the bench was distasteful to one of his active habits,
and he resigned, after serving two years.  The state was in a ferment,
growing out of the financial embarrassment which had long distressed the
people, and he became conspicuous as a member of the Relief party, which
sought to avert the disasters that seemed to threaten general bankruptcy.
His services at this juncture are a part of the history of the state; and
as an example of his logical power, as well as full presentation of the
views and reasons of those up-holding relief enactments, the preamble to
the legislation adopted in 1825, condemning the court of appeals for
their decision in the case of Lapsley versus Breashear, is commended to
the curious reader.
     In 1823, in conjunction with Mr. Clay, he was appointed by the
legislature a commissioner to represent the state before the supreme court,
in defense of what was known as the occupying-claimant laws of Kentucky.
The petition in the case was drawn by Judge Rowan, and was regarded as an
able vindication of those laws; but the court decided them to be in
conflict with the compact with Virginia at the time Kentucky became a
state.  In 1824 he was elected to the United States senate and served
until 1830.  The debates of the senate during the period of his service
show that he participated in the discussion of all the leading questions
of the day, and his speeches are largely quoted in Benton's "Abridged
Debates."  In the discussion upon the bill to abolish imprisonment for
debt, and that to amend the judiciary system of the United States, he
took a conspicuous part, while upon the resolutions of Mr. Foote, he
shared the honors of the debate with Webster, Hayne and Calhoun.  Mr.
Webster declared that his argument in support of the state-rights theory
was masterly in the extreme.
     One of his biographers has justly said of him: "In him centered the
chivalry of Kentucky character; not the gusty and evanescent spirit too
prevalent in some quarters, nor the staidness of demeanor approaching cant,
to be found in others, but that just medium which betokens sincerity,
kindness and resolution.  The characteristics of his constituents were
reflected in his senatorial career; and while Kentucky has a name in the
territorial divisions of our country she may look upon that career with
pride and point to that son as an object worthy of emulation."
     One of Judge Rowan's characteristics was the helping hand he gave to
young men in his profession.  Many of the most prominent lawyers and
jurists of their day read law with him, among them Governor Lazarus Powell,
James Guthrie, Judge Henry Pirtle, and Judge John McKinley of the United
States supreme court.
     The last public office he filled was that of commissioner under the
convention at Washington for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the
United States against Mexico, on the 11th of April, 1839.  In this he
labored with great assiduity; and when, upon an adjournment of the
commission he had returned to his family in Kentucky, and from a temporary
indisposition of health he was unable to return to Washington at the time
expected, he resigned his office for fear there might be some
disappointment to persons who had business before the tribunal, such was
his delicate appreciation of public duty.  On the organization of the
Kentucky Historical Society in 1838 he was elected its president and held
the position until his death.
     He was devoted in friendships and hated no man; was exceedingly
urbane in his manners; hospitable, kind in his habits; of uncommonly
interesting colloquial powers.
     In person Judge Rowan was six feet one and a half inches high, very
erect in carriage, with broad shoulders, large, massive head crowned
with thick hair.  His strongly marked face betokened the character of the
man and plainly hinted at his Scotch origin.  His presence was stately in
the extreme and imposing.  He has been described when in excitement of
debate as leonine in appearance.
     He was contemporary with Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Ben Hardin,
Richard M. Johnson, William T. Barry, and Solomon P. Sharp, and took
rank with the foremost as a leader in formulating public opinion and in
the defense of the institutions of a free and enlightened people.
     His wife, who was a sister of General William Lytle, a prominent
and wealthy citizen of Cincinnati, and the grandfather of the
distinguished young federal general of the same name, who lost his life
at Chickamauga, was a lady well fitted, in all the charms of womanly
grace and virtue, to be the wife of such a man; and their home, "Federal
Hill," in Nelson county, was the hospitable resort of all the prominent
persons of that period, and of their relatives and friends.  It is said
that it was a visit to that hospitable mansion that inspired Stephen C.
Foster to write "My Old Kentucky Home."  Although Judge Rowan retained his
home in Nelson county, he purchased a residence in Louisville about 1817,
and divided his time between the places.  He died in Louisville on the
13th day of July, 1843, and was buried in the family burying grounds at
Federal Hill.  Although he had a family of three sons and six daughters,
but four of his children survived him, viz: John Rowan Jr., Mrs. Ann R.
Buchanan, Mrs. Alice Wakefield, and Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes,--all of whom
have been dead many years.

Rowan Cooper Chambers Lytle Buchanan Wakefield Hughes
=
Jefferson-KY Fayette-KY York-PA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/nelson/rowan.j.txt