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

1966] Gabriel Slaughter, 1767-1830 341
he and David Flournoy had waited on the Governor and informed him
that the Senate was about to adjourn sine die.2s
On December 24, 1803, Gabriel Slaughter was commissioned Lieutenant
Colonel of the Fifth Regiment, Eighth Brigade, Kentucky Militia,
which comprised men from Mercer County.29
At the beginning of the legislative session of 1804 he was one of the
committee named by the Senate to prepare an address to the Governor
in reply to his speech on the state of the Commonwealth. On November
10, 1804, it was he who informed the Senate of the death of the
Lieutenant Governor. In the ensuing election of a Speaker pro tempore
of the Senate, he was one of the nominees for that position. Thomas
Posey and Green Clay were more popular candidates, however, and
Posey was elected on the second ballot,s°
When in 1805 there was an election by the Senate to fill out the
unexpired term in the United States Senate, Slaughter supported General
John Adair, who was to succeed him as governor of the state, in
opposition to John Pope, who was later to be his close associate,sl
The next year, 1806, following General Adair's resignation, Henry
Clay and George M. Bibb were nominees to fill the unexpired term.
Clay won by 68 votes to 10. Slaughter was one of his supporters,m
During the session of 1807-08, he was one of the five members of
the Committee of Propositions and Grievances and was apparently its
chairman since he usually made its reports. On the first day of the
session he moved the appointment of a joint committee to wait on the
Governor to inform him the General Assembly was ready to receive his
message in the House chamber and, with Green Clay and Philip Buckner,
was named to it. Among his stands on issues before the Senate
was his support of an Act to suspend the sale of lands for debts due the
state and his opposition to one designed to prevent the future migration
of mulattoes and free Negroes into Kentucky.83
II
In 1808 Gabriel Slaughter stood for election to the office of Lieutenant
Governor. He received a majority of the votes cast for the four
candidates in the race and more than three times as many as his nearest
opponent.8' Early in that year, prior to his election, he had endorsed
the candidacy of James Madison for President of the United States.
Following the signatures of the Governor, Secretary of State, and speakers
of the House and Senate, his name appeared first among a large
number of prominent Republicans.8s
During the next four years he presided over the Senate and executed
the other limited duties of that office.