James Harlan (June 22, 1800 – February 18, 1863) was an attorney and politician, a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. He also served as US Attorney for Kentucky and, prior to that, as Kentucky Secretary of State and Attorney General, the first to be elected to the latter office statewide.

Early life and career

Born in

Mercer County, Kentucky Mercer County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,772. Its county seat is Harrodsburg. The county was formed from Lincoln County, Virginia in 1785 and i ...

, Harlan attended school before working as a clerk in a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

store from 1817 to 1821. Deciding to embark upon a legal career, he

read law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...

under the guidance of a local judge before gaining

admission to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1823. Harlan commenced practice in

Harrodsburg, Kentucky Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census. Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the Virginia House of Burgesses after Boo ...

and enjoyed a busy but not especially-remunerative legal career. He served as a

Commonwealth's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

from 1829 to 1835.

Political career

A follower of

Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...

, Harlan was soon involved in local and state politics. In 1833, he managed the reelection campaign of Congressman Robert P. Letcher. When Letcher decided not to run for another term, Harlan ran successfully to replace him. Harlan was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress and reelected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth Congress (serving March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1839). In 1840, Letcher, who had won election as

governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; sinc ...

, appointed Harlan as

Secretary of State of Kentucky The secretary of state of Kentucky is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is now an elected office, but was an appointed office prior to 1891. The current secretary of state is Republican Michael Adams, who was ...

, an office he held for the duration of Letcher's term. In 1845, Harlan was elected to the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

, serving three terms until 1851. He was elected

Attorney General of Kentucky The attorney general of Kentucky is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of Kentucky, created by the Kentucky Constitution (Ky.Const. § 91). Under Kentucky law, they serve several roles, including the state's chief prosecutor (KRS 15.700), ...

in 1850, the first man elected statewide as attorney general. He served until 1859 as the state's attorney general (during which time he wrote ''The Code of Practice in Civil and Criminal Cases''). Two years later, Harlan was appointed U.S. Attorney for Kentucky by President Abraham Lincoln, and he served in that capacity until his death in Frankfort on February 18, 1863.

Marriage and family

James Harlan married Eliza Shannon Davenport (1805–70) on December 23, 1822. The couple had six sons and three daughters. One of their sons,

John Marshall Harlan John Marshall Harlan (June 1, 1833 – October 14, 1911) was an American lawyer and politician who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1877 until his death in 1911. He is often called "The Great Disse ...

(1833–1911), followed his father into the law, becoming an attorney and a judge. Ultimately he was appointed as a justice of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, where he dissented in the important ''

Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that ...

'' (1896) civil rights case, standing up for equal rights under the law. He was also a great-grandfather of another Supreme Court justice,

John Marshall Harlan II John Marshall Harlan (May 20, 1899 – December 29, 1971) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish hi ...

(1899–1971). In addition, Harlan may have had a relationship with a mulatto slave and a son by her, Robert James Harlan, born in 1816. He raised the

mixed-race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...

boy in his household, where Robert was tutored by two older half-brothers. After having a successful businesses in Harrodsburg and Lexington, Robert went to California during the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

and earned a fortune of $90,000. He returned to the Midwest, settling in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

in 1851 and investing in real estate. He was elected as a state legislator in 1886.Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., ''Dictionary of American Negro Biography'' (New York: W.W. Norton, 1982)

References

Biography of James Harlan at Kentucky Secretary of State website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harlan, James 1800 births 1863 deaths Members of the Kentucky House of Representatives Secretaries of state of Kentucky Kentucky attorneys general Kentucky Whigs United States attorneys for the District of Kentucky National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law American people of Scotch-Irish descent Harlan family 19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives Kentucky commonwealth's attorneys