death_date signature_alt birth_date alt residence signature term_end death_place term_start order spouse image name predecessor birth_place jr/sr party relatives office state district successor article_title
13 july 1843 signature of john rowan 12 july 1773 portrait of john rowan federal hill john rowan sig.jpg march 1 , 1807 4 , 1831 march 3 , 1809 march louisville , kentucky march 7 , 1804 4 , 1825 march 4 , 1807 september 3rd anne lytle john rowan.jpg john rowan isham talbot matthew walton harry toulmin york , pennsylvania united states senator democratic-republican uncle of robert todd lytle secretary of state of kentucky kentucky kentucky 3rd henry clay henry crist alfred william grayson john rowan -lrb- kentucky -rrb-

john rowan -lrb- kentucky -rrb-

john rowan -lrb- july 12 , 1773july 13 , 1843 -rrb- was a 19th-century politician and jurist from the u.s. state of kentucky .
rowan 's family moved from pennsylvania to the kentucky frontier when he was young .
from there , they moved to bardstown , kentucky , where rowan studied law with former kentucky attorney general george nicholas .
he was a representative to the state constitutional convention of 1799 , but his promising political career was almost derailed when he killed a man in a duel stemming from a drunken dispute during a game of cards .
although public sentiment was against him , a judge found insufficient evidence against him to convict him of murder .
in 1804 , governor christopher greenup appointed rowan secretary of state , and he went on to serve in the kentucky house of representatives and the u.s. house of representatives .
in 1819 , rowan was appointed to the kentucky court of appeals , serving until his resignation 1821 .
he was again elected to the state legislature in 1823 .
with the state reeling from the panic of 1819 , rowan became the leader of a group of legislators dedicated to enacting laws favorable to the state 's large debtor class .
he believed the will of the people was sovereign and roundly denounced the court of appeals for striking down debt relief legislation as unconstitutional .
he led the effort to impeach the offending justices , and when that effort failed , spearheaded a movement to abolish the court entirely and replace it with a new one , touching off the old court -- new court controversy .
new court partisans in the legislature elected rowan to the u.s. senate in 1824 .
during his term , the nascent whig party ascended to power in the state legislature , and at the expiration of his term in 1830 , the whigs replaced him with john j. crittenden , an ally of party founder henry clay .
after his term in the senate , rowan returned to kentucky , where he served as the first president of the louisville medical institute and the kentucky historical society .
in 1840 , he was appointed to a commission to prosecute land claims of u.s. citizens against the republic of mexico , but resigned his commission in 1842 because of failing health .
he died july 13 , 1843 and was buried on the grounds of federal hill , his estate in bardstown .
according to tradition , stephen collins foster , a distant relative of rowan 's , was inspired to write the ballad `` my old kentucky home '' after a visit to federal hill in 1852 , but later historians have been unable to conclude whether or not foster ever visited the mansion at all .
the mansion is now owned by the state of kentucky and forms the centerpiece of my old kentucky home state park .
