John Rowan (Kentucky) - Service in The U.S. Senate

Service in The U.S. Senate

As a result of the 1824 elections, the Relief faction gained a 22–16 majority in the state Senate and a 61–39 majority in the House. The pro-Relief majority in the state Senate subsequently elected Rowan to the U.S. Senate, which had the inadvertent effect of weakening the faction's cause in the House by removing its leader there. Rowan served in the Senate from March 4, 1825 to March 3, 1831. During the Twenty-first Congress, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

On April 10, 1826, Rowan sponsored an amendment to legislation to reorganize the federal judiciary that would have required seven justices to concur with a decision in order to strike down a law as unconstitutional. The amendment, which ultimately failed, was offered in the aftermath of a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States declaring an occupying claimant law to be unconstitutional; Rowan personally disagreed with the Court's decision. Rowan offered another amendment providing that ministers of the federal courts would be subject to state laws when carrying out the decisions of the federal courts. After a month of debate, the entire bill was tabled.

An ally of Senator Richard Mentor Johnson, who was a primary voice against the practice of debt imprisonment, Rowan made a notable speech denouncing the practice on the Senate floor in 1828. A consistent opponent of internal improvements and tariffs, even those that would benefit his own constituents, he voted against a measure allocating federal funds for the construction of a road connecting the cities of Lexington and Maysville. The vote was ill-received by the people of the state, and Rowan's popularity took a significant hit. When the bill was re-introduced in the next congressional session, Rowan voted for it only after receiving significant pressure from the state legislature to do so. The bill passed in this session, but newly-elected president Andrew Jackson vetoed it.

In the state legislative elections of 1830, the ascendent Whig Party gained control of both houses of the General Assembly. Rowan's strict adherence to Jeffersonian democracy and leadership of the New Court faction during the court controversy of the 1820s had put him at odds with Whig founder Henry Clay. By this time, however, not even Rowan's fellow Democrats endorsed his re-election. John J. Crittenden, a prominent Whig leader, was elected instead.