John Pettit (June 24, 1807January 17, 1877) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician. A

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, 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 Artic ...

and

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

from

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, he also served in the court systems of Indiana and Kansas. Born in Sackets Harbor, New York, he completed preparatory studies and admitted to the bar in 1831. He moved to Lafayette, Indiana, where he commenced practice in 1838; he was a member of the

Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...

in 1838-1839 and was United States district attorney from 1839 to 1843. Pettit was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Congresses (March 4, 1843 - March 3, 1849); he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1848. In 1850 he was a delegate to the Indiana state constitutional convention and a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Whitcomb and served from January 18, 1853, to March 4, 1855; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1854. During his tenure in Congress Pettit was known for annually objecting to the appointment of congressional chaplains on constitutional grounds, arguing that as Congress had no power to legislate in matters of religion, it could not pay for its preaching. Instead, he proposed that chaplains be hired and paid for by voluntary contributions from the members. His objections were routinely overridden. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-third Congress). During the Senate debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Pettit argued in favor of expanding slavery to Kansas, and famously said that Jefferson's idea (in the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

) that "all men are created equal" was not a "self-evident truth" but instead "is nothing more to me than a self-evident lie."Codevilla, Angelo (2010-07-16
America's Ruling Class
'' The American Spectator'' The debate over Pettit's inflammatory words is credited with reviving Abraham Lincoln's interest in national politics. After his time in Congress, Pettit was chief justice of the United States courts in the Territory of Kansas from 1859 to 1861, and was a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court from 1870 to 1877. He died in Lafayette, Indiana, aged 69, and was interred in Greenbush Cemetery.

References

External links

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Text of 1854 speech by Abraham Lincoln against the extension of slavery, quoting Pettit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettit, John Kansas Territory judges Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court Democratic Party members of the Indiana House of Representatives People from Sackets Harbor, New York 1807 births 1877 deaths American proslavery activists Union College (New York) alumni Delegates to the 1851 Indiana constitutional convention Democratic Party United States senators from Indiana United States attorneys for the District of Indiana 19th-century Indiana state court judges 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century United States senators 19th-century members of the Indiana General Assembly