Carlisle was born in what is now Kenton County,Kentucky. He was well educated and took a post as a teacher in Covington,Kentucky. His father died in 1853 and he was left to support his family. He studied law under John W. Stevenson,and joined the law firm of William Kinkeard in Covington at the age of 23. Carlisle married Mary Jane Goodson on January 15,1857,and they had five children,all of whom predeceased them.[1]
As Speaker,Carlisle was both admired for and handicapped by his fairness and congeniality:
His name belongs in the short list of great Speakers. His opinions read like the decisions of an eminent judge. His impartiality and the sweetness of his manner prompted the minority members to present him a loving-cup as an evidence of their affection. But dilatory motions, the disappearing quorum, and his refusal to ascertain the presence of a quorum by counting the House made him the slave of filibusters.[2]
"[H]e is the ablest man they have on that side of the House," said his Republican rival and successor Thomas Brackett Reed, "[b]ut no Speaker could do any better with his hands tied by the rules we are working under."[3]
Carlisle became a leader of the conservative Bourbon Democrats and was mentioned as a presidential candidate but the Democrats passed him over at their conventions for Winfield S. Hancock in 1880 and Grover Cleveland in 1884. Discomfort with nominating a southerner after the Civil War played a role in Carlisle's failure to win either nomination. In 1892 Carlisle was again proposed as a candidate for president at the Democratic convention, but this time Carlisle asked that he not be considered. It was reported at the time that Carlisle dropped out with the understanding that Cleveland, once re-elected, would appoint him to his Cabinet.
Senate and Treasury Department
In May 1890, the Kentucky legislature elected Carlisle to the United States Senate to fill the nearly four years remaining in the unexpired term of the late Sen. James B. Beck. He served until February 1893, when he resigned to become Secretary of the Treasury under Cleveland, who had been elected president in November 1892.
Carlisle's tenure as Secretary was marred by the Panic of 1893, a financial and economic disaster so severe that it ended Carlisle's political career. In response to a run on the American gold supply, Carlisle felt forced to end silver coinage. He also felt compelled to oppose the 1894 Wilson–Gorman Tariff bill. These two stands were widely unpopular among agrarian Democrats. In 1896 Carlisle strenuously opposed Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, supporting a splinter Gold Democrat candidate, once-Illinois Governor Palmer, instead.[4]
By 1896, the once remarkably popular Carlisle was so disliked due to his stewardship of the currency that he was forced to leave the stage in the middle of a speech in his home town of Covington due to a barrage of abuse. Feeling rejected, he retired from public life and sold his house in Covington.[1]
Encyclopedia of Kentucky. New York: Somerset Publishers. 1987. pp.127–129. ISBN0-403-09981-1.
Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes. American National Biography, vol. 4, "Carlisle, John G.". New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ( ISBN0-19-512783-8)
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