Background
James Proctor Knott was the son of Joseph Percy and Maria Irvine (McElroy) Knott. He was born on August 29, 1830 near Raywick, Kentucky, United States.
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James Proctor Knott was the son of Joseph Percy and Maria Irvine (McElroy) Knott. He was born on August 29, 1830 near Raywick, Kentucky, United States.
James was educated in Marion and Shelby counties. In 1846 he began the study of law, and continued his studies after he moved to Missouri in 1850. In the spring of 1851 he was admitted to the bar at Memphis, Scotland County, Missouri.
Knott served in the circuit and county clerk's offices and in 1857 was elected to the state legislature to represent Scotland County. In the legislature he served as chairman of the judiciary committee and conducted the impeachment of Judge Albert Jackson. The following year Governor Robert M. Stewart appointed Knott to be attorney-general to fill out the unexpired term of Ephraim B. Ewing. In 1860, Knott was the nominee of the Democratic party for attorney-general and was elected on the ticket headed by Claiborne F. Jackson.
Missouri at this time was a pro-slavery state but did not favor secession. The legislature in January 1861 called a convention to consider the relations of the state to the nation, and the secessionist party, although backed by Governor Jackson, lost the election by a popular majority of 80, 000. The convention which met February 28 voted not to secede, and Missouri was divided into two warring groups. Attorney-General Knott sympathized with the Southern cause but opposed the extreme measures of the secessionists. He failed to bring the two groups together, and in 1862 resigned his office, refusing to take the test oath of allegiance to the Federal government. After a short time in prison because of his Southern sympathies, he returned to his native state, Kentucky.
Knott opened his office for the practice of law at Lebanon, Kentucky, in 1863. After the war he was elected six times to the national House of Representatives, serving 1867-1871 and 1875-1883. In 1876 he was one of the managers appointed by the House to conduct the impeachment of W. W. Belknap, secretary of war. He was several times chairman of the judiciary committee, and his oratorical powers secured for him a national reputation. His most famous effort was his speech on Duluth, January 27, 1871, in which he opposed a bill authorizing an extensive land grant to a railroad proposed to run along the St. Croix River to Duluth, Minnesota, then a wilderness village. His weapons were ridicule and humor, and so well did he employ them that not only was the bill killed but the speech has continued to be cited as a specimen of satire and--such is the irony of life--to enhance the fame of Duluth, which attributes to this oration its patronymic of "the zenith city of the unsalted seas. " Years later Knott visited Duluth at the city's request, and was given a most gracious and enthusiastic reception.
In 1883 he was elected governor of Kentucky and served four years. After the expiration of his term of office in 1887, he resumed the practice of law, remaining in Frankfort, the capital, for the next five years. In 1891, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In 1892, he accepted the professorship of civics and economics at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, and in 1894, he and President William C. Young organized the law department of Centre College, of which he became the first dean and professor of law. After seven years' brilliant service as dean and lecturer, he was forced by ill health to retire in 1901, and he returned to his old home in Lebanon, Kentucky, where he lived quietly until his death.
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Knott was a member of the Democratic party. As a legislator, he opposed the Reconstruction agenda of the Radical Republicans and ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. He also opposed the methods of the secessionists during the America Civil War.
Knott married a Miss Forman of Missouri, and after her death he married, June 14, 1858, Sarah R. McElroy of Bowling Green, Kentucky.