AHGP Transcription Project
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John Griffin Carlisle
Lieut. Gov. John Griffin Carlisle was born in Kenton County, Kentucky, September 5, 1835; educated in the best schools of the neighborhood, and himself a teacher at 15 and for five years after; studied law in Covington with ex-Gov. John W. Stevenson and Judge Wm. B. Kinkead; as the partner of the latter, began the practice in March, 1857, and took rank at once as one of the most analytical and clearest legal minds among the young men of Kentucky; was elected to the lower house of the legislature, 1859-61; took a "back seat" during the war of the rebellion, because of certain differences of opinion which were inconsistent with his promotion; but in Aug., 1865, again came to the front as the Democratic candidate for the state senate from Kenton county, but was beaten at the polls by Mortimer M. Benton. In February, 1866, the senate declared the seat of the latter vacant, because the election was "neither free nor equal in the sense required in the constitution, being regulated, controlled, and unduly influenced by armed soldiers in the service of the United States, in utter disregard of the law." Mr. Carlisle was elected to fill the vacancy, 1866-69, and triumphantly re-elected for another term, 1869-73, but resigned in 1871, to accept the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of the state—to which office he was elected, August, 1871, for four years, receiving 125,955 votes to 86,148 cast for the Radical nominee. In 1872, for a few months, he was the leading editor of the Louisville Daily Ledger. Few men, at the age of Mr. Carlisle, have received such continuous and marked evidences of popular favor. His views of public policy are liberal, conservative, and statesmanlike; as speaker of the senate, he is prompt, firm, dignified, and his rulings when appealed from always sustained; as a lawyer, he is clear, forcible, logical, and convincing; he is universally regarded as one of the strong young men of the state.
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