ared in person in presence of the
legislators, in joint assembly, and read to the august body his first
message, formally delivering to the Speakers of each House a copy in
manuscript, and then retired in dignified state, when the Speakers each
adjourned the members to their respective halls. This was in imitation
of the custom of the British monarchs, followed by the colonial
governors in America, and by Washington himself in his first inaugural
ceremonies.

So much had Governor Shelby established himself in the esteem and
confidence of the people, that with unanimity he was elected a second
time to serve as Governor in the critical period of 1812, when a second
war with England became a certainty. His indomitable and patriotic zeal
counted no costs and reckoned at no sacrifice to punish the invaders and
drive them from our soil during the three years of hostilities. In this
time, under his several calls, over twenty thousand volunteers were sent
to the Army of the Northwest under Harrison, from Kentucky. By these
mainly, the shameful surrender of Hull, at Detroit, was retrieved, the
victory of the Thames won, and the British and their Indian allies
driven from the borders, from Detroit to Buffalo, for the remainder of
the war. At the battle of the Thames, won by Kentuckians, Governor
Shelby led the three thousand volunteers whom he had called out for this
campaign, in person, though in his sixty-fourth year of age. On his
return to the capital of his State, when a last requisition was made by
the Secretary of War, in 1814, thousands of volunteers answered his call
for troops to reinforce the army of General Jackson in the Southwest, of
whom three regiments, of twenty-two hundred men, were accepted and sent
to New Orleans. Governor Shelby notified the Government at Washington
that, if ten thousand soldiers were needed to repel the enemy and drive
him from our soil in the Southwest, Kentucky was ready to supply them on
brief notice.

Peace once again reigned when his second term as Governor ended. He
retired to his country home, where he spent the evening of his life,
honored and esteemed by a grateful and devoted constituency of
citizenship as few men were. He died at his home on the 26th of July,
1826, in the ripeness of years and of honors.

GENERAL JOHN ADAIR.

John Adair was born in Chester County, S.C., in 1759, and was the son of
Baron William Adair, of Scotland, whose wife was a Moore. After
remaining som