James Guthrie (Kentucky politician)

James Guthrie
United States Senator from Kentucky
In office March 5, 1865 – February 7, 1868
Preceded by	Lazarus W. Powell
Succeeded by	Thomas C. McCreery
21st United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office March 7, 1853 – March 6, 1857
President	Franklin Pierce James Buchanan
Preceded by	Thomas Corwin
Succeeded by	Howell Cobb
Personal details
Born	(1792-12-05)December 5, 1792 Bardstown, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	March 13, 1869(1869-03-13) (aged 76) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Resting place	Cave Hill Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Elizabeth Churchill Prather ​ ​ (m. 1821; died 1836)​
Children	3
Relatives	J. Lawrence Smith (Son-in-law)
Signature

James Guthrie (December 5, 1792 – March 13, 1869) was an American lawyer, plantation owner, railroad president and Democratic Party politician in Kentucky. He served as the 21st United States Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, and then became president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. After serving, part-time, in both houses of the Kentucky legislature as well as Louisville's City Council before the American Civil War (and failing to win his party's nomination in the presidential election of 1860), Guthrie became one of Kentucky's United States senators in 1865 (until resigning for health reasons in 1868 shortly before his death). Guthrie strongly opposed proposals for Kentucky to secede from the United States and attended the Peace Conference of 1861. Although he sided with the Union during the Civil War, he declined President Abraham Lincoln's offer to become the Secretary of War. As one of Kentucky's senators after the war, Guthrie supported President Andrew Johnson and opposed Congressional Reconstruction.

Guthrie also was a director of the Louisville and Portland Canal Company, the first president of the University of Louisville, and presided over the Kentucky Constitutional Convention of 1849 (which explicitly ratified slavery in the state until its abolition after the Civil War). During the Civil War, Guthrie resisted federal pressure to nationalize the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, but allowed the Union to use it to move troops and supplies.