Crittenden, John Jordan (1787–1863)

US politician. He was a senator 1835–41, and in 1841 became Attorney General in William Harrison's cabinet. He served as governor of Kentucky 1848–50. He was Attorney General again 1850–53, under Millard Fillmore, and returned to the Senate 1854–61.

Crittenden was born in Versailles, Kentucky. In the Civil War his influence was marked in keeping Kentucky from seceding from the Union. He was elected 1861 to the House of Representatives, where he supported the government's war policies but opposed the division of Virginia into two states and the enrolment of black slaves as soldiers.