John Adair was born in Chester County, S.C., in 1759, and was the son of Baron William Adair, of Scotland, whose wife was a Moore. After remaining some years in South Carolina, Baron Adair returned to Scotland. The son became a soldier in the Revolutionary War when quite a youth, and served with gallantry in the colonial army. He was made prisoner, and was treated with repeated cruelties by the enemy. He was a member of the convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States. He removed to Kentucky in 1787, and settled in Mercer County. He took an active and prominent part in the Indian border wars, having been appointed major by General Wilkinson. He was in many frays with the savages, in one of which, after several repulses of a body of Indians largely outnumbering his own forces, he was defeated by Chief Little Turtle, though he brought off his men after inflicting more serious losses on the enemy than his own. This was near Fort St. Clair, in Ohio. In 1793, General Scott appointed him a lieutenant-colonel. He represented Mercer County in the Legislature several times, and was once Speaker of the House.
Adair's name became involved with Aaron Burr's in the military movements in Kentucky and the Southwest which have become known in history as "Burr's Conspiracy," as did the names of Andrew Jackson and other prominent men of this country, of unquestioned loyalty to our nation. Burr's designs, with all the lights thrown upon the question, have remained a mystery to this day. If he contemplated ultimate treason, he did not fully disclose it to many who were disposed to sympathize with and to lend aid to what they were persuaded was a legitimate expedition to wrest from Spanish rule territory in dispute, or which "manifest destiny" determined should come under the rule of the United States as against the aggressions of Spain or England. Burr undoubtedly misled many good and patriotic men, who abandoned his fortunes when the intimations of treasonable designs were charged against him, which brought him to trial.
In 1805, when John Breckinridge resigned his seat in the United States Senate to become attorney-general under Jefferson, Adair was elected to fill the unexpired term. He entered the military service again, and at the battle of Thames River acted as volunteer aid to Governor Shelby. For gallant conduct on this occasion he was made a brigadier-general in 1814. He took a leading part in recruiting the volunteer troops for the reinforcement of Jackson's army at New Orleans, and in their transportation down the river. General Thomas, in chief command of these, being prostrated with illness, the command fell upon General Adair. He displayed courage and military skill in the disposition of his troops, and especially in the final contest on the eighth of January, under difficulties that were seriously embarrassing.
In 1820, he was elected governor of Kentucky, and held this office when the great questions of relief, and Old Court and New Court, began to disturb the peace and tranquility of the Commonwealth. In 1831, he was elected a member of Congress, and in the national house served on the Committee on Military Affairs. He died on the 19th of May, 1840, and was buried in the State cemetery at Frankfort, where a monument, erected at the cost of the State, with proper inscription, stands over his grave. A fine oil portrait of him hangs on the wall of the capitol, at Frankfort.
Colonel Gabriel Slaughter.
Who commanded a regiment of Kentucky troops in the battle of New Orleans, was a native of Virginia, but immigrated to Kentucky in pioneer days and settled in Mercer County, about four miles east of Harrodsburg, on the turnpike road leading to Lexington. Though a man of ability, and much esteemed, he seems to have lived in the retirement of private life until the maturity of middle age. He early became a member of the Baptist church, in which he led a consistent and zealous life, taking a prominent part as a layman in the promotion of the interests of religion and of the denomination with whom he fraternized. His character and worth made him prominent among the brotherhood. He often represented his church as its messenger, and was usually called to preside as moderator over the associations within the jurisdictions of which he lived. His hospitality was of that warm and generous kind which was characteristic of pioneer days. His ample and comfortable country mansion, situated upon a much-frequented highway, came to be known far and wide as the "Wayfarer's Rest."
Under the call of Governor Shelby, in 1814, he enlisted a regiment of volunteers for the army of the Southwest from Mercer County and the counties adjacent, which was one of three regiments accepted for this service. The gallant and distinguished part taken at New Orleans, in the great battle of the eighth of January, by Colonel Slaughter and his regiment, has been set forth in the pages of this book. No troops engaged on the American side on that day did more fatal execution upon the enemy's rank and file than did these. Every man of the regiment was in rifle-range, and all did deadly work.
Though courteous and gentle in manner, Colonel Slaughter was possessed of invincible firmness and independence when occasion required or a sense of duty urged. An incident illustrates. General Jackson, who held him in high esteem, appointed him to preside over a court-martial. The decision did not meet with the favor of the chief, and he ordered a reconsideration and reversal of proceedings. Colonel Slaughter declined to comply, saying: "I know my duty, and have performed it." Jackson's esteem was not lessened by the manliness of the answer.
His gallantry at New Orleans brought the name of Colonel Slaughter prominently to political notice, and the next year, 1816, he was nominated and elected lieutenant-governor, on the ticket with George Madison for governor. Madison was not destined to wear the civic honors which an ardent constituency had woven to crown him. He died in October, a few months after the election. Slaughter succeeded him, and was duly installed as governor. An active opposition party made an open issue of the question as to whether the lieutenant-governor was eligible to become governor by succession, under the Constitution, or that a successor should be chosen at an election to be called by act of the Legislature. There had been no precedent to this date. The question was fiercely agitated, in and out of the legislative halls, during two years of the executive term, before a subsidence of partisan feeling ended the contest. Governor Slaughter held firmly to his convictions of constitutional right, came safely through the angry waves of opposition, and served out his term of four years with credit to himself and the Commonwealth. The question was settled by this precedent, no more to be raised, that, under the constitutional provisions then in force, the lieutenant-governor should succeed to the office of governor upon the "death, resignation, or refusal to qualify" of the governor-elect.
