John Griffin Carlisle

US statesman and senator, born in Kenton Co, Kentucky, USA. A self-educated lawyer, he was elected to the US House of Representatives (Democrat, Kentucky, 1877–90). He served as Speaker of the House (1883–90) before appointment to the US Senate (1890–3), and became secretary of the treasury (1893–7) under President Grover Cleveland. A renowned orator, he was so outspoken in support for free trade and ‘sound money’ that he antagonized his fellow Kentuckians, and spent his last years practising law in New York City.

Despite the political difficulties that taking a neutral position during the American Civil War caused him, Carlisle spent most of the 1860s in the Kentucky General Assembly, serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives and two terms in the Kentucky State Senate, and was elected Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky in 1871, succeeding his former law mentor Stevenson.

After Carlisle's term as Lieutenant Governor ended in 1875, he ran for and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Kentucky's 6th district.

Carlisle became a leader of the conservative Bourbon Democrats and was mentioned as a presidential candidate but the Democrats passed him over at their conventions for Winfield S. In 1892 Carlisle was again proposed as a candidate for president at the Democratic convention, but this time Carlisle asked that he not be considered.

Carlisle's tenure as Secretary was marred by the Panic of 1893, a financial and economic disaster so severe that it ended Carlisle's political career. In 1896 Carlisle strenuously opposed 1896 Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, supporting a third National Democratic Party (United States) ("Gold Democrat") candidate instead.

Preceded by: Thomas Laurens Jones	United States Representative (District 6) from Kentucky 1877 - 1889	Succeeded by: William Worth Dickerson
Preceded by: J. Warren Keifer	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives December 3, 1883 - March 4, 1885; December 7, 1885–March 4, 1887; December 5, 1887–March 4, 1889	Succeeded by: Thomas B. Reed
Preceded by: James B. Beck	United States Senator (Class 2) from Kentucky 1890 - 1892	Succeeded by: William Lindsay
Preceded by: Charles Foster	U.S. Secretary of the Treasury 1893 - 1897	Succeeded by: Lyman J. Gage
Preceded by: John W. Stevenson	Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky 1871 - 1875	Succeeded by: John C.