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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by GrahamColm 13:59, 17 March 2012 [1].

James Garrard

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James Garrard (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Acdixon (talk · contribs) 17:06, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Recently re-written after obtaining a hard-to-find biography of Garrard. (Merry Christmas to me!) Chronicles the life of Kentucky's second governor – from Revolutionary War soldier to excommunicated Baptist minister to shunned abolitionist to the only Kentucky governor to succeed himself in office for a span of 200 years, I hope you'll enjoy the article. Hope to respond to concerns quickly. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 17:06, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Source review - spotchecks not done. Nikkimaria (talk) 04:27, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Image review: Five images in total, all five clearly in the public domain. I'll try to get a prose review done soon as well. Wizardman Operation Big Bear 21:17, 11 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support Comments:
    • I'd include a link for "common schools".
    • At one point you say his home was in Fayette County, then later in the same paragraph you say that his home was in the new Bourbon County, which was formed out of Kentucky County. It's a bit confusing. Did Bourbon arise from Fayette or Kentucky (or both)?
      • Technically, both. Kentucky County was first, created from Fincastle County, Virginia. Then Kentucky County was split into three counties, including Fayette. Part of Fayette was then carved out to form Bourbon. I've tried to clarify. See if it makes sense now. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:30, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • In "Political career in Kentucky", I think "before" sounds better than "prior to". It means the same thing. It's a personal preference, though, and I won't withhold support if you stick with your wording -- just my two cents.
    • I'll return with more later. --Coemgenus (talk) 23:15, 12 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • I have been told in some of my FA nominations that "re-elected" is the British spelling and "reelected" is American. I don't totally agree, but someone else might bring it up, so it might be best to standardize them in non-hyphenated form.
    • In "First term as governor", I think the last two words of this sentence are unnecessary: "Over the course of his tenure as governor, Garrard approved enabling acts for the creation of twenty-six new Kentucky counties; no other Kentucky governor oversaw the creation of as many new counties."
    • You use the word "opined" four times. It kind of sticks out.
    • In "1799 gubernatorial election", there seems to be a word missing in this sentence: "Garrard Todd to fill the next vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals after the election, which occurred in 1801." --Coemgenus (talk) 00:28, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your review. Hope I can address any additional issues and gain your support. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:30, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
All resolved, changed to support. Good luck!

Comments. Some of these are explained at WP:MHU. - Dank (push to talk)

We may have a few lingering issues to sort out on a couple of these, but I hope you will be able to support soon. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:38, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support

  • Structure, prose, referencing, images and level of detail all seem fine; been a long time since I've read over a FAC and couldn't find any wording that I wanted to alter...
  • Also performed a quick spotcheck of two online sources, the Dictionary of American Biography and Kentucky Encyclopedia entries, and saw no inaccuracies or close paraphrasing. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:39, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the support and kind comments. Was really afraid this was going to fail with 2 supports and no opposes. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:59, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Ian. - Dank (push to talk) 16:34, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No prob, been meaning to review it for ages but other things always seemed to get in the way... ;-) Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 21:37, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Review on 1(a), (b), (c) (source quality only, no comprehensiveness or spot checks), (d), and (e); 2 (a) and (b); and 4: Basically support (to the point that if a delegate needs to either archive or promote before my comments are addressed, I favour promotion). Comments:

  • Did some copyediting; revert what you don't like (except my correction of "tenants" to "tenets", which is nonnegotiable). I'm going to try to come back within a couple of days to do another sweep through, as I'm a little groggy at the moment and may have missed some stuff.
  • "Early in life, he associated himself with the Hartwood Baptist Church..." Is there a reason "joined" wouldn't work here? I almost made the change myself, but there is some change in meaning and I don't have access to the source, so I thought I'd better check. The current wording is somewhat awkward.
    • This may be me nitpicking as a Baptist personally, but we don't know exactly when Garrard was baptized, which is the method for obtaining membership in a Baptist church. (Thereafter, membership can be transferred to another church of like faith by letter of recommendation; few Baptist congregations that I know of actually re-baptize people coming from another church of like faith.) So, if he was baptized by Hartwood Baptist, he was a member. However, if he was not baptized there but merely attended, he technically was not a member, unless he was previously baptized and joined Hartwood by letter. Confused yet? The source, as best I recall, doesn't explicitly say he was a member. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • If all of his surviving sons served in the Assembly, why are they not linked in the Infobox under "relations"?
    • None of them have wiki-articles, so I thought they would just be cluttering the inbox. William seems to have been the most politically active, but even then, I doubt he'd ever have more than a stub or start-class article. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Delegate David Rice, a Presbyterian minister, was the leading voice against the inclusion of slavery in the new constitution, while George Nicholas argued most strenuously in favor of it." It's not clear here what's meant by the "inclusion" of slavery in the constitution.
  • "Five Baptist laymen defied Garrard's instructions and voted to retain Article 9; their votes provided the necessary margin for its inclusion." By my math, if they had switched sides the vote would have been 21-21 - still a defeated motion.
  • "Both Logan and Garrard were chosen as electors from their respective counties." I gather from this that Todd did not. Do we know if he ran?
    • I don't have any more information about that at present. Like you, I assume since the source didn't mention him, he wasn't chosen. This was very early in what would become an outstanding political career for Todd, so he may not have had the necessary support to be chosen an elector yet. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Do we know anything about the dynamics that made Garrand the preferred candidate of most Todd electors?
  • "Although he did not retain outgoing Attorney General John Breckinridge, who had sided with Logan in the disputed gubernatorial election..." This seems slightly misleading, since when it most counted, he sided with Garrard (by refusing to intervene in the election results).
    • Seems strange in today's world of political gamesmanship, but my impression is that at least some elected officials let their understanding of constitutional limits override the personal desires. Breckinridge was clearly and publicly of the opinion that Logan was the winner, but he refused to overstep what he perceived as a constitutional limit on his power to do anything about it. Politically, Garrard and Breckinridge disagreed more than they agreed, but they still respected each other enough to consult each other on difficult political matters. Can you imagine that happening with any kind of regularity today? Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • "To that end, he signed legislation combining Transylvania Seminary and Kentucky Academy into a single institution." What was this new institution called?
  • Since all parties apparently agreed that the constitution needed amending, why was there such opposition to a convention?
    • There was some language about this in Everman's book – something about the aristocracy fearing its power would be reduced if a new convention was called. Basically, they thought some things needed to change, but they would rather live with those than risk holding a convention that might include more populist notions in a new constitution. I can try to dig up a few specifics. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

All in all, another fine piece of work, Mr. Dixon. Steve Smith (talk) 05:11, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your review, especially the excellent copyediting. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support, well written and well sourced article. However in the sentence Most of Todd's electors supported Garrard on the second vote, giving him a majority could you provide the exact number? Ruslik_Zero 12:52, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • I wish. I have been looking for this for a while with an eye toward creating an article about the 1796 election, but no source mentions it, and best I can remember, Everman implied that the final vote may not have ever been published. Bummer! Thanks for the support. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:03, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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