65 Facts About Joseph Desha

Joseph Desha was an American politician who was a US Representative from Kentucky from 1807 to 1819 and the ninth governor of Kentucky from 1824 to 1828.

Two of Joseph Desha's brothers were killed in these encounters, motivating him to volunteer for "Mad" Anthony Wayne's campaign against the Indians during the Northwest Indian War.

In 1807, Joseph Desha was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the US House of Representatives.

Joseph Desha did not seek reelection in 1818, and made an unsuccessful run for governor in 1820, losing to John Adair.

Joseph Desha was elected by a large majority, and debt relief partisans captured both houses of the General Assembly.

Joseph Desha was of part French Huguenot ancestry, and his ancestors had fled from France to Pennsylvania after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had largely protected the Huguenots from religious persecution.

Joseph Desha obtained a limited education in the state's rural schools.

In 1792, the family moved to Mason County, Kentucky, where Joseph Desha worked as a farmer.

Joseph Desha entered politics in 1797, when he was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Joseph Desha again served in the House from 1799 to 1802, and was elected to the Kentucky Senate from 1802 to 1807.

Joseph Desha was promoted to colonel on March 23,1799, and on September 5,1805, he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 7th Brigade of the Kentucky Militia.

Joseph Desha was elected without opposition to the first of six consecutive terms in the US House of Representatives in 1807.

Early in his career, Joseph Desha advocated an adequate army to defend American territory from Great Britain and France.

Joseph Desha supported President Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 and related enforcement legislation.

Joseph Desha was considered a war hawk, and House Speaker Henry Clay, a fellow Kentuckian and leader of the War Hawks in the House, selected him to serve on the House Foreign Relations Committee during the Twelfth Congress.

Consistent with Clay's expectations, Joseph Desha consistently supported the war measures brought before the House, including bills to arm merchant ships, increase the number of regular troops in US Army, and authorize President James Madison to accept volunteer units for military service.

Joseph Desha responded to Governor Isaac Shelby's call for volunteers to serve in William Henry Harrison's campaign into Upper Canada.

Joseph Desha was commissioned a major general and given command of the 2nd Division of Kentucky militia.

Joseph Desha resumed his service in Congress at its next term.

Joseph Desha was disappointed at the decision not to pursue the annexation of Upper Canada and to ignore British impressment of American mariners in favor of pursuing peace with the British.

When William Henry Harrison was being considered by Congress for the position of general-in-chief in late 1813 and early 1814, Joseph Desha opposed giving him the title because he claimed that Harrison had determined not to pursue British General Henry Procter following the Battle of the Thames and had only done so after strenuous urging by Isaac Shelby.

Joseph Desha's charge was a contributing factor in Congress's decision to remove Harrison's name from a resolution of thanks for service in the Northwest Army and withhold from him a Congressional Gold Medal.

Joseph Desha claimed that he had only told some friends that Harrison was wary of pursuit during a council of war held at Sandwich, Ontario, after the battle, but that he had not personally witnessed a disagreement over the pursuit between Harrison and Shelby.

Joseph Desha gradually became more conservative after his return to the House, consistently resisting expansion of the US Navy.

Joseph Desha opposed Secretary of War James Monroe's request to maintain a standing peacetime army of 20,000 men.

Joseph Desha argued that a large standing army provided the advocates of a larger federal government with an excuse to increase taxes, and proposed that the standing army should consist of only 6,000 men.

Joseph Desha served as chairman of the Committee on Public Expenditures during the Fifteenth Congress.

Joseph Desha was one of four candidates who sought the governorship of Kentucky in 1820.

Joseph Desha began his campaign in late 1823 and faced little opposition until Christopher Tompkins declared his candidacy in May 1824.

Joseph Desha was generally acknowledged as the candidate of the Relief Party, but historian Arndt M Stickles has noted that he used Anti-Relief rhetoric in some counties.

Joseph Desha attacked Tompkins' record as a judge, claiming that he had consistently supported the Second Bank of the United States and the current Court of Appeals.

This, Joseph Desha said, put him in direct and open opposition to the state's farmers and ensured that, if he were elected, the state would be governed by the judicial branch, not the governor.

Joseph Desha claimed the state's newspapers persecuted him the same way the Anti-Relief party persecuted debtors.

Joseph Desha charged that Tompkins was not the true choice of the Anti-Relief party, but only gained its support by being the first candidate with that position to announce his candidacy.

The Frankfort Argus, a pro-Joseph Desha newspaper, remained confident predicting that the Relief candidate would win by a margin of 4-to-1.

Joseph Desha advocated using excess money earmarked for education to construct hard-surfaced roads in the state, but the General Assembly was less responsive to this suggestion.

On January 10,1825, Joseph Desha appointed four justices to the new court.

Joseph Desha chose his Secretary of State, former US Senator William T Barry, as chief justice.

Stickles records that Joseph Desha was sincere in his desire for a compromise, albeit one that would save face for the New Court Party.

Joseph Desha promised that, if the legislature would again authorize appointment of a new set of judges, he would appoint them equally from both parties.

Joseph Desha offered the appointments to three different individuals, all of whom ignored or rejected them.

Joseph Desha again encouraged the legislators to compromise to resolve the court impasse.

Joseph Desha vetoed the bill, and scolded the legislators for passing a blatantly partisan bill as opposed to a compromise measure.

Governor Joseph Desha's reputation was further tarnished because of a pardon issued to his son.

On November 2,1824, Isaac B Desha had brutally murdered Francis Baker, a Mississippian who was visiting Kentucky.

John Trimble was scheduled to hear the case, but Governor Joseph Desha appointed him to the New Court of Appeals following the "abolishment" of the Old Court in late 1824.

Governor Desha assembled a formidable defense team for his son, including his newly appointed Secretary of State, William T Barry; John Rowan, who had just been elected to the US Senate; and former congressmen William Brown and T P Taul.

Governor Joseph Desha attended each day of the proceedings, seated with the defense counsel.

The judge, Harry O Brown, had been temporarily appointed to his position by Governor Joseph Desha to fill a vacancy.

Joseph Desha was again found guilty, and sentenced to hang on July 14,1826.

The state argued that this was of no consequence, since a change of venue had already been granted, but the judge's ruling stood, and Governor Joseph Desha's reputation took a further hit.

Joseph Desha recovered, and in June 1827, faced a third trial.

The judge ordered him held without bail until the next session of the court, but Governor Joseph Desha, who was present at the proceedings, stood and issued a pardon for his son, as well as lambasting the judge in a lengthy impromptu speech.

Joseph Desha was identified based on family resemblance and the silver pipe that had earlier saved his life.

Joseph Desha died of a fever the day before his trial in August 1828.

Joseph Desha was criticized for spending time at the horse races and for furnishing his home with nude classical statues.

Joseph Desha was drawn into the Holley controversy during the 1824 presidential election.

Joseph Desha maintained that, because Holley had not silenced the student, he was at fault for tacitly condoning disrespectful criticism of the state's chief executive.

Joseph Desha vehemently attacked Transylvania and Holley in his annual message to the General Assembly in November 1825.

Joseph Desha claimed that the university had not made wise use of the public funding allocated to it by previous Assemblies, noting in particular that Holley's salary as president exceeded his own.

Finally, Joseph Desha claimed that under Holley, Transylvania had become too elitist and could not be otherwise, given the high cost of attendance.

Not only did Joseph Desha not agree with Metcalfe politically, he believed that the governorship should go to a high-born aristocrat.

Joseph Desha charged that Metcalfe was not allowing him to finish out his term and threatened not to vacate the governor's mansion until his term officially ended.

At the expiration of his term as governor, Joseph Desha retired from public life to his farm in Harrison County.

Joseph Desha died at his home in Georgetown, Kentucky, on October 11,1842, and was buried on the grounds.