Charles Slaughter MOREHEAD, Congress, KY (1802-1868)

MOREHEAD, Charles Slaughter, a Representative from Kentucky; born near Bardstown, Nelson County, Ky., July 7, 1802; attended the public schools and Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky.; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Christian County, Ky.; was also a planter, having plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana; member of the State house of representatives in 1828 and 1829; moved to Frankfort, Ky.; attorney general of Kentucky 1830-1835; again a member of the State house of representatives 1838-1842 and 1844, and served as speaker in 1841, 1842, and 1844; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1851); resumed the practice of law and the management of his plantations; again a member of the State house of representatives in 1853; elected Governor on the American Party ticket and served from 1855 to 1859; moved to Louisville in 1859 and continued the practice of his profession; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; arrested by the Federal authorities on the charge of disloyalty in September 1861 and confined in Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, until January 1862; traveled in Europe until the close of the war, when he settled in Greenville, Miss.; died on one of his plantations near Greenville, Miss., December 21, 1868; interment in Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Ky.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present