Ascension To The Governorship
In 1816, Slaughter was again elected to the post of lieutenant governor over Richard Hickman and James Garrard. George Madison was elected governor without opposition. Madison died October 14, 1816, and Slaughter ascended to the governorship. This was the first time a sitting governor had died in office in Kentucky, and some questioned the legality of Slaughter's status in the position.
Following Governor Madison's death, Secretary of State Charles Stewart Todd offered to step down if Slaughter preferred to appoint someone else to the post. The letter was not an explicit resignation, as Todd emphatically declared his intention to work with Slaughter should the governor choose to retain him. Slaughter did replace Todd with former Senator John Pope, however, apparently as a political favor. This move proved disastrous for Slaughter's political career. Todd was very popular by virtue of being the son-in-law of twice-governor Shelby. By contrast, Pope was extremely unpopular for his vote in the U.S. Senate against declaring war in the War of 1812.
The move was panned in the state's newspapers, and by prominent citizens such as future governor James Turner Morehead. Yet Slaughter followed up with another unpopular decision, appointing Martin D. Hardin, a member of the hated Federalist Party, to fill the Senate seat of William T. Barry. Despite this, the General Assembly made the appointment permanent when it convened in December 1816. However, the administration candidate for a full senatorial term, John Adair was defeated in the General Assembly, which opted for John J. Crittenden.
On January 27, 1817, a faction in the Kentucky House of Representatives led by Joseph Cabell Breckinridge proposed a bill calling for the election of "a governor to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of" Governor Madison. The measure failed, but the legislative elections of 1817 showed a popular mandate for a special gubernatorial election. The Kentucky House passed a bill calling for such elections by a vote of 56–30, but the measure died in the state senate. Nevertheless, Slaughter was never officially given the title of governor and was referred to as "lieutenant governor" or "acting governor" throughout his administration. The General Assembly censured both Slaughter and Pope for failing to require the proper security and oath of office for the state treasurer.
Slaughter's unpopularity led to the demise of many of his proposals, regardless of their merits. He suggested a comprehensive system of public schools and, though the idea had been proposed by previous governors, Slaughter devised a means of funding it. The hostile legislature refused the plan and overrode Slaughter's vetoes of bills that allowed individual schools to be supported by lotteries. Slaughter further proposed a reform of the penal system and recommended internal improvements, including the creation of a state library. These measures were also rejected.
Slaughter's governorship was further complicated by the financial panic of 1819, and he spent the majority of his term working to stabilize that state's economy. Politicians of the day generally divided into those who favored measures favorable to debtors – called the "relief" position or party – and those who insisted that creditors be paid in a timely manner – called the "anti-relief" position or party. On December 16, 1819, the General Assembly passed a law requiring a six-month moratorium on the collection of debts. Slaughter, an anti-relief partisan, vetoed the bill, but relief party legislators held a large majority in the General Assembly thanks to the previous fall's elections, and overrode the veto. The following February, the General Assembly passed an even more liberal stay law, preventing the collection of debts for one year if the creditor would accept payments in the devalued notes of the Bank of Kentucky and two years if they demanded payment in specie or specie-backed notes. These actions were a precursor to the Old Court-New Court controversy. While Slaughter clashed with the General Assembly over potential solutions to the crisis at the state level, he adopted a strong states' rights policy at the national level. He challenged the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States and the Supreme Court's ruling that individual states could not tax branches of the Bank.
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