1. John Adair was an American pioneer, slave trader, soldier, and politician.
52 Facts About John Adair
1. 2.
John Adair was the eighth Governor of Kentucky and represented the state in both the US House and Senate.
3.
John Adair was elected to a total of eight terms in the state House of Representatives between 1793 and 1803.
4.
John Adair served as Speaker of the Kentucky House in 1802 and 1803, and was a delegate to the state's Second Constitutional Convention in 1799.
5.
John Adair returned to the State House in 1817, and Isaac Shelby, his commanding officer in the War who was serving a second term as governor, appointed him adjutant general of the state militia.
6.
In 1820, John Adair was elected eighth governor on a platform of financial relief for Kentuckians hit hard by the Panic of 1819, and the ensuing economic recession.
7.
John Adair was assigned to the regiment of his friend, Edward Lacey, under the command of Colonel Thomas Sumter and participated in the failed Colonial assault on a Loyalist outpost at the Battle of Rocky Mount and the subsequent Colonial victory at the Battle of Hanging Rock.
8.
John Adair contracted smallpox and was treated harshly by his captors during his months-long imprisonment.
9.
Edward Lacey was elected sheriff of Chester County after the war, and John Adair replaced him in his former capacity as the county's justice of the peace.
10.
John Adair was chosen as a delegate to the South Carolina convention to ratify the US Constitution.
11.
Six of John Adair's men were killed; another four were missing and five were wounded.
12.
John Adair was assigned to the command of Charles Scott, who would eventually serve as Kentucky's fourth governor.
13.
John Adair assisted in the construction of Fort Greeneville in 1794, forwarding supplies to Anthony Wayne during his operations which ended in a decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
14.
John Adair returned to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1798.
15.
When Kentuckians voted to hold another constitutional convention in 1799 to correct weaknesses in their first constitution, John Adair was chosen as a delegate.
16.
John Adair was elected to the Kentucky House again from 1800 to 1803.
17.
John Adair continued to serve as Speaker for the duration of his tenure in the House.
18.
John Adair's was the seventh name submitted by Garrard to the state Senate for the position; his approval by the Senate marked the end of a two-month imbroglio between Garrard and the legislature over the appointment.
19.
John Adair won a plurality, but not a majority, of the votes cast in six consecutive ballots.
20.
Grundy's influence in the legislature continued to grow, and when John Breckinridge resigned to accept President Thomas Jefferson's appointment as US Attorney General in August 1805, the Senate chose Adair to fill the vacancy.
21.
John Adair believed this too, having received letters from his former commander, James Wilkinson, which appeared to confirm it.
22.
John Adair had traveled to Louisiana to inspect a tract of land he had recently purchased there.
23.
John Adair rejoined the Kentucky militia at the outset of the War of 1812.
24.
John Adair rendered commendable service in the campaign, most notably at the American victory in the Battle of the Thames on October 5,1813.
25.
John Adair quickly raised three regiments, but the federal government provided them no weapons and no means of transportation.
26.
The number of men with John Adair was later disputed; sources variously give numbers between 700 and 1,500.
27.
John Thomas, to whom Adair was an adjunct, fell ill just before the battle commenced, leaving Adair responsible for all the Kentuckians present at the battle.
28.
On January 7,1815, John Adair traveled to New Orleans and requested that the city's leaders lend him several stands of arms from the city armory to arm his militiamen.
29.
Helm, secretary to John Adair Thomas, forwarded to a Frankfort newspaper remarks from "the general" that had been annexed to the official report.
30.
John Adair wrote to the Kentucky Reporter at that time, denouncing the remarks as a forgery.
31.
In Jackson's April 1817 response, he implied that John Adair had intentionally misrepresented the remarks, and reasserted that they had been forged, possibly by John Adair himself.
32.
John Adair believed Jackson's references to the remarks as a "forged dish, dressed in the true Spanish style" was a thinly veiled reference to John Adair's alleged participation in the Burr conspiracy.
33.
John Adair flatly denied the existence of a conspiracy, and chastised Jackson for making charges without supporting evidence.
34.
Unable to provide tangible evidence of John Adair's alleged misdeeds, Jackson provided indirect evidence that a conspiracy was possible.
35.
John Adair's response, delayed by his treaty negotiations with the Cherokee, was printed September 3,1817, and used complicated calculations based on spacing and distance, to argue that Adair had only half the number of men he claimed to have commanded at the Battle of New Orleans.
36.
Further, he claimed that John Adair had ordered Davis to New Orleans to obtain weapons knowing that the arms had already been taken by other brigades under John Adair's command.
37.
Either John Adair had given a foolish order, or he did not have as many men in his main force as he claimed.
38.
John Adair closed by promising that this would be his last statement on the matter.
39.
John Adair defended his account of the number of troops under his command, which he had consistently reported as being near 1,000, and asked why Jackson had not challenged it until now.
40.
Tensions between the two eventually eased, and John Adair came to comfort Jackson after his wife Rachel's death in 1828.
41.
John Adair campaigned for Jackson during his presidential campaigns in 1824,1828, and 1832.
42.
John Adair continued to serve as adjutant general until 1817, when the voters returned him to the state House of Representatives.
43.
John Adair was nominated for Speaker of the House during that term, and, although he was not elected, he drew support from members of both parties, largely because of his correspondence with Jackson.
44.
John Adair was the clear leader of the Relief faction, and his popularity had been enhanced thanks to his lengthy and public dispute with Jackson.
45.
John Adair garnered 20,493 votes; US Senator William Logan finished second with 19,497, fellow veteran Joseph Desha received 12,419, and Colonel Anthony Butler mustered only 9,567 votes.
46.
John Adair oversaw the abolition of the practice of incarceration for debt, and sanctioned rigorous anti-gambling legislation.
47.
John Adair denounced this decision in an 1823 message to the legislature, warning against federal and judicial interference in the will of the people, expressed through the legislature.
48.
John Adair advocated prison reform and better treatment of the insane.
49.
John Adair oversaw the enactment of a plan for internal improvements, including improved navigation on the Ohio River.
50.
John Adair made one final contribution to the public when he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Jackson Democrat in 1831.
51.
John Adair did not run for re-election in 1833, and left public life for good.
52.
John Adair died at home in Harrodsburg on May 19,1840, and was buried on the grounds of his estate, White Hall.