GABRIEL SLAUGHTER, 1767-1830 G•OVERNOR OF KENTUCKY ...

352 The Filson Club History Quarterly [V'ol. 40
Gandemen, the period during which it devolved on me ... to administer
the government, is about to expire. At the commencement of tl t period,
I solicited most earnesdy the aid and the forbearance of my fellow
citizens, thinking both alike necessary to the just and satisfactory dis.
charge of the high duties assigned me. I have to regret, that owing to
some unhappy fervours to which our frail natures are but too incident, I
did not experience either the assistance or the forbearance which I had
hoped, and which I so much needed. To administer the government upon
principles beneficial to all, and not according to the inclination of an excited
portion of the community, was no less my inclination than my duty.
It corresponded, moreover, with the anterior habits of my public life.
Ambitious from my first entrance upon the public theater, of public approbation,
I settled it with myself, that the best way to secure it, was to
endeavor to deserve it. Upon that principle I have endeavored to act in
every posture in which I have been pheed -- how far I have succeeded,
it is not for me to say. I have much cause of gratitude to heaven, for
sustaining me in the trying occurrences to which I have just alluded,
and for enabling me to maintain the even tenor of my way thus far,
without being seduced by the alhicements of apparent friendship, or
driven by the menaces of apparent'enemies from the course which I had
prescribed to myself. These matters are mentioned, not in a spirit of
acrimony, but of amity and the view of soliciting for my successor, whoever
he may be, the united support of all.
Gentlemen, I invoke the blessing of Heaven upon your labors for the
common good, and tender you the assurance of my prompt and cordial
concurrence in every labour of that character.100
V
At the end of his term of office Governor Slaughter returned to
Mercer County. He had failed to realize many of his dreams for progress
in Kentucky but he did not retire from politics. In 1823 he stood
for election to the Kentucky House of Representatives from Mercer
County and was returned with George C. Thompson and Samuel
Daviess. 1°7
The House convened on November 3, 1823, and the Journal for the
next day shows that he arrived late. °s The part he played in the
ensuing session was an active one, but rather as an elder statesman than
as a leader of any group. It was he who moved that the portions of the
Governor's message relating to various items be referred to committees
to study them and he was named to one of these to consider that portion
relating to the Bank of the Commonwealth. 1°9
Always interested in furthering the educational advantages of Kenmckians,
Slaughter devoted attention to such measure which came before
the House. He voted to ask Congress for aid for the Deaf and
Dumb School and to raise the Commonwealth's support to $150 for