George Robertson was a congressman who represent United States from Kentucky, born on 18. 11. 1790 near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. He was a lawyer with a high reputation, an able orator, and a writer of some note.
Background
George Robertson was born on 18. 11. 1790 near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. He was the son of Alexander and Margaret (Robinson) Robertson who had moved to the Kentucky region from old Virginia in 1779. He was the grandson of James Robertson who, with his father of the same name, emigrated from the north of Ireland about 1737 and settled in western Virginia.
Education
After receiving an elementary education in his community, the boy was sent to Joshua Fry's school five miles from Danville, where he was taught Latin, French, and geography. He then studied at Transylvania University for about a year before going to Lancaster to enter the Rev. Samuel Finley's classical school. In this school he studied for about four months and taught for the following six months. Deciding to study law, he went to Frankfort to begin under Martin D. Hardin, but, changing his mind, he returned to Lancaster to complete his course. In September 1809 he received his license to practise
Career
He was first elected to the federal Congress. Elected to the Fifteenth Congress and two years later returned to the Sixteenth he served from 1817 until his resignation in 1821. He declined a third term. In Congress he developed a reputation as an able debater and fearless leader, connecting his name with at least three important questions. He introduced and helped push through the bill organizing the territory of Arkansas, and in the debate that followed he opposed the restrictions the antislavery members attempted to fasten upon the region; he initiated the legislation, passed in 1820, changing the land system, whereby the minimum acreage that could be bought was reduced to eighty and the price to $1. 25 an acre; and he took a prominent part in opposing the attempt made to force the president to recognize the revolted South American countries, in spite of the facts that Clay was strongly advocating it and that Robertson was a Whig and had never before supported an administration measure. He returned to Kentucky to pursue his own desires, resolutely refusing to be enticed away by high position either at home or abroad. Among the honors he pushed aside were the attorney-generalship of Kentucky, the governorship of the Territory of Arkansas, and a ministership to each of the countries of Colombia and Peru. Instead he served in the lower house of the kentucky legislature, from 1822 to 1826 for Garrard County and in 1848 and 1851 to 1853 for Fayette County, and during the years 1823, 1825, 1826, and 1851 to 1853 he was the speaker. He took especial interest in the development of a common-school system of education for the state, and in 1823, as chairman of a committee on education, he made a detailed report to the legislature. In 1828 he accepted the appointment by Thomas Metcalfe of the secretaryship of state, but he soon relinquished it for a more important and congenial position. Back in the early twenties, when attempts had been made to legislate people out of their property, he had been a leader in the anti-relief party organized to combat the money heresies. In the old-court and the new-court troubles that followed, he introduced a powerful protest in the legislature against banishing the old court. By 1828 the contest had been largely settled, and he was appointed to the court of appeals. The next year he was elevated to the chief justiceship, where he remained until 1843, when he resigned from the court. In 1834 he agreed to become a lecturer in the law school of Transylvania University, and this position he held for twenty-three years. He opposed emancipation as a cure for slavery; but when the Civil War came, he supported the Union. With the passing of time, in common with many other loyal Kentuckians, he became increasingly impatient with the military rgime that was settled down upon the state. By 1864 many Kentuckians, having reached the limits of their patience, sent out, on the day of the election of a judge to the court of appeals, the name of Robertson in opposition to the military candidate. He was elected. He held his judgeship until 1870 when he became again the chief justice. The next year he was stricken with paralysis, and he became almost totally blind. He resigned on September 5, 1871.
Politics
He introduced and helped push through the bill organizing the territory of Arkansas, and in the debate that followed he opposed the restrictions the antislavery members attempted to fasten upon the region; he initiated the legislation, passed in 1820, changing the land system, whereby the minimum acreage that could be bought was reduced to eighty and the price to $1. 25 an acre; and he took a prominent part in opposing the attempt made to force the president to recognize the revolted South American countries, in spite of the facts that Clay was strongly advocating it and that Robertson was a Whig and had never before supported an administration measure.
Membership
member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
Connections
November 28 1809 he married Eleanor Bainbridge and began housekeeping in the small two-room house in which John Boyle, Samuel McKee, his brother-in-law, and later Robert P. Letcher also set up housekeeping