Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Joseph Rogers Underwood - A Representative Nineteenth Century American, Ralph Ward Brashear

History Theses

Many men throughout history have been on the verge of greatness only to pass into oblivion because of convictions which would not let them compromise with expediency. Joseph Rogers Underwood was such a man, for he placed great importance upon duty, integrity and responsibility. The high values which he placed upon these virtues cost him the renomination for senator by the Kentucky Legislature in 1851. As the Louisville Daily Democrat, an opposition newspaper, so brilliantly stated about this election:

"The whig (sic) party in the Legislature have at last compromised the divisions among themselves, and elected a Senator nobody …