James Garrard ( ; January 14, 1749 – January 9, 1822) was an American farmer, Baptist minister and politician who served as the second governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1804. Because of term limits imposed by the state constitution adopted in 1799, he was the last Kentucky governor elected to two consecutive terms until the restriction was eased by a 1992 amendment, allowing Paul E. Patton's re-election in 1999.
After serving in the Revolutionary War, Garrard moved west to the part of Virginia that is now Bourbon County, Kentucky. He held several local political offices and represented the area in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was chosen as a delegate to five of the ten statehood conventions that secured Kentucky's separation from Virginia and helped write the state's first constitution. Garrard was among the delegates who unsuccessfully tried to exclude guarantees of the continuance of slavery from the document. In 1795, he sought to succeed Isaac Shelby as governor. In a three-way race, Benjamin Logan received a plurality, but not a majority, of the electoral votes cast. Although the state constitution did not specify whether a plurality or a majority was required, the electors held another vote between the top two candidates – Logan and Garrard – and on this vote, Garrard received a majority. Logan protested Garrard's election to state attorney general John Breckinridge and the state senate, but both claimed they had no constitutional power to intervene.
A Democratic-Republican, Garrard opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts and favored passage of the Kentucky Resolutions. He lobbied for public education, militia and prison reforms, business subsidies, and legislation favorable to the state's large debtor class. In 1798, the state's first governor's mansion was constructed, and Garrard became its first resident. Due in part to the confusion resulting from the 1795 election, he favored calling a constitutional convention in 1799. Because of his anti-slavery views, he was not chosen as a delegate to the convention. Under the resulting constitution, the governor was popularly elected and was forbidden from succeeding himself in office, although Garrard was personally exempted from this provision and was re-elected in 1799. During his second term, he applauded Thomas Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana from France as a means of dealing with the closure of the port at New Orleans to U.S. goods. Late in his term, his Secretary of State, Harry Toulmin, persuaded him to adopt some doctrines of Unitarianism, and he was expelled from the Baptist church, ending his ministry. He also clashed with the legislature over the appointment of a registrar for the state land office, leaving him embittered and unwilling to continue in politics after the conclusion of his term. He retired to his estate, Mount Lebanon, and engaged in agricultural and commercial pursuits until his death on January 19, 1822. Garrard County, Kentucky, created during his first term, was named in his honor.
Early life and family
James Garrard was born in Stafford County, Virginia, on January 14, 1749. He was second of three children born to Colonel William and Mary (Naughty) Garrard. Garrard's mother died sometime between 1755 and 1760; afterward, his father married Elizabeth Moss, and the couple had four more children. During his childhood, James worked on his father's farm. He was educated in the common schools of Stafford County and studied at home, acquiring a fondness for books.
On December 20, 1769, Garrard married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Mountjoy. Shortly thereafter, his sister Mary Anne married Mountjoy's brother, Colonel John Mountjoy. Garrard and his wife had five sons and seven daughters. One son and two daughters died before reaching age two. A number of his grandsons served in the Civil War, including Union Generals Kenner Garrard and Theophilus T. Garrard. Another grandson, James H. Garrard, was elected to five consecutive terms as state treasurer, serving from 1857 until his death in 1865.
Garrard served in the Revolutionary War as a member of his father's Stafford County militia, although it is not known how much combat he participated in. While on board a schooner on the Potomac River, he was captured by British forces.
While serving in the militia in 1779, Garrard was elected to represent Stafford County at the Virginia House of Delegates, After the session, he returned to his military duties. Beginning in early 1783, Garrard made claims for family and friends, as well as for himself. There, he engaged in agriculture, opened a grist mill and a lumber mill, and distilled whiskey.
In 1785, Garrard was elected to represent Fayette County in the Virginia legislature. He was placed on a legislative committee with Benjamin Logan and Christopher Greenup to draft recommendations regarding the further division of Kentucky County.
Garrard's Mount Lebanon estate was designated as the temporary county seat of Bourbon County; the county court first convened there on May 15, 1786, and continued to meet there for many years. Upon Garrard's recommendation, the city's name was changed to Paris in 1790.
Religious leadership
As early as June 25, 1785, Garrard and his friend Augustine Eastin attended meetings of the Elkhorn Baptist Association. In 1787, he helped organize the Cooper's Run Baptist Church near his estate. Although he owned as many as 23 slaves to work on his vast agricultural and industrial works, Garrard condemned slavery from the pulpit, calling it a "horrid evil". Whites and blacks participated equally in worship at Cooper's Run. In 1789, Garrard and Eastin began working to reunite the more orthodox Regular Baptists in the area with the more liberal Separatist Baptists. Garrard's former church in Virginia had been a Regular Baptist congregation, and Garrard was considered a Regular Baptist despite his clear advocacy for religious toleration and his open expression of liberal views. Although he never succeeded in uniting the two factions, he was chosen moderator of the Elkhorn Baptist Association's annual meetings in 1790, 1791, and 1795 in recognition of his efforts.
From 1785 to 1799, Garrard served as a trustee of Transylvania Seminary (now Transylvania University). In 1794, the Baptist and more liberal trustees united against the orthodox Presbyterian members of the board to elect the seminary's first non-Presbyterian president. Toulmin's daughter Lucinda would later marry Garrard's son Daniel. As a result of Garrard's relationship with Toulmin, he began to accept some tenets of Unitarianism, specifically the doctrines of Socinianism. By 1802, Garrard and Augustine Eastin had not only adopted these beliefs, but had indoctrinated their Baptist congregations with them. At the August 1785 convention, the delegates unanimously approved a formal request for constitutional separation. As a member of the Virginia legislature, Garrard then traveled to Richmond for the legislative session and voted in favor of the act specifying the conditions under which Virginia would accept Kentucky's separation. Garrard encouraged his fellow ministers and Baptists to vote against its inclusion. The motion to delete Article 9 of the proposed document, which protected the rights of slave owners, failed by a vote of 16–26. Historian Lowell H. Harrison wrote that the anti-slavery votes of the ministers may have accounted for the adoption of a provision that forbade ministers from serving in the Kentucky General Assembly.
Aside from his opposition to slavery, Garrard did not take a particularly active role in the convention's proceedings. He resigned all of his county offices to focus on his work in the Elkhorn Baptist Convention and his agricultural pursuits. He was pleased, however, when his son William was chosen to represent the county in the state legislature in 1793. Logan was considered the favorite in the race due to his military heroism while helping settle the Kentucky frontier. Both Logan and Garrard were chosen as electors from their respective counties. On the first ballot, Logan received the votes of 21 electors, Garrard received 17, and Todd received 14. A lone elector cast his vote for John Brown, a Frankfort attorney who would soon be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Although he did not believe Garrard had personally done anything wrong, Logan formally protested the outcome of the election to Kentucky Attorney General John Breckinridge. By this time, Garrard had been serving as governor for five months, and Logan abandoned the quest to unseat him. He showed that he was willing to continue with Shelby's direction for the state by re-appointing Secretary of State James Brown, but the aging Brown retired in October 1796, only a few months into Garrard's term. Shortly after Garrard took office, the state commissioners of public buildings reported to the legislature that it would be more financially sensible to construct a house for the governor and his large family than to rent living quarters for them for the duration of his term. On December 4, 1796, the General Assembly passed legislation appropriating 1,200 pounds for the construction of such a house. Kentucky historian Thomas D. Clark also relates that Garrard's addition of carpeting to the mansion – a rare amenity at the time – drew many visitors and was described by one as "the envy and pride of the community".
Among the other acts passed during the first year of Garrard's term were laws establishing the Kentucky Court of Appeals and a system of lower district courts. For the first time, lawyers in the state were required to be licensed. Cognizant that the old law would expire November 30, 1797, Garrard issued a proclamation on November 3 calling the legislature into special session.
Garrard was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party and agreed with party founder Thomas Jefferson's condemnation of the Alien and Sedition Acts. He advocated the nullification of both laws, but also encouraged the legislature to reaffirm its loyalty to the federal government and the U.S. Constitution. He also secured the passage of laws reforming and expanding the militia.
A new constitution
thumb|right|upright|alt=A slightly portly, clean-shaven man with long gray hair wearing a high-collared, white shirt and black jacket|Garrard's son William introduced legislation to call a constitutional convention.
The difficulties with Garrard's election over Benjamin Logan in 1795 added to a litany of complaints about the state's first constitution. In February 1797, the General Assembly voted to put the question before the electorate in the upcoming May elections. When all of the irregularities were accounted for, the General Assembly determined that the vote had fallen short of the required majority. In May 1798, 9,188 of the 16,388 votes were in favor of calling a convention. The Assembly's vote rendered moot any doubts about the popular vote.
Delegates to the July 22, 1799, convention were elected in May 1799. Although the governor retained broad appointment powers, the state senate was given the power to approve or reject all gubernatorial nominees. New term limits were imposed on the governor, making him ineligible for reelection for seven years following the expiration of his term. Although the candidates themselves rarely spoke negatively of each other, opponents of each candidate independently raised issues that they felt would hurt that candidate.
With the advantages of incumbency and a generally popular record, Garrard garnered large majorities in the state's western counties, Jefferson County, and the Bluegrass region of central Kentucky. In 1801, Garrard nominated Todd to fill the next vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals after the election. Similarly, he appointed Greenup to a position on the Frankfort Circuit Court in 1802. The closure of the port to U.S. goods represented a major impediment to Garrard's hopes of establishing a vibrant trade between Kentucky and the other states and territories along the Mississippi River. Jefferson was unaware, however, that the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso had ceded control of Louisiana to the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800, although a formal transfer had not yet been made. Garrard first named Secretary of State Harry Toulmin, but the Senate rejected that nomination on December 7, 1803. Next, Garrard nominated former rival Christopher Greenup, but Greenup had designs on succeeding Garrard and asked Garrard to withdraw the nomination, which he did. The Senate then rejected Garrard's next nominee, John Coburn, and accused the next, Thomas Jones, of "high criminal offense" and barred him from any further appointive office. When the Senate rejected Willis Green in January 1804, Garrard declared that he would make no more nominations for the position. Although his sons William and James would continue running for public office into the 1830s, Garrard never indicated a desire to run again.
Garrard returned to Mount Lebanon, where he developed a reputation as a notable agriculturist. The Mount Lebanon estate was badly damaged by one of the New Madrid earthquakes in 1811, but Garrard insisted on repairing the damage as thoroughly as possible in order to reside there for the rest of his life. He was buried on the grounds of his Mount Lebanon estate, and the state of Kentucky erected a monument over his grave site.