a single term. He was chosen clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1808. In 1810, he published Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, covering the proceedings of the court between the years of 1805 and 1808. On January 20, 1809, he married Elizabeth Logan, daughter of famed Kentucky pioneer Benjamin Logan. Their eldest son, John J. Hardin, represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives and was killed in the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican–American War. In his work Life of Lincoln, Ward Hill Lamon promoted the notion that Abraham Lincoln was an illegitimate child of Nancy Hanks; Hardin was proffered as Lincoln's potential father. In a 1920 essay, William Barton opines that Hardin's paternity was unlikely since both he and Hanks were married at the time, and because Hardin's usual travels – to his law practice in Richmond and to state business in Frankfort – took him in the opposite direction of Nancy Hanks-Lincoln's house. The rumor arose from an inability to locate Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks' marriage license at the courthouse in Hardin County, Kentucky; the license was later found in the courthouse in Washington County, effectively discrediting the rumor. Political career Politically, Hardin favored the construction of internal improvements at federal expense and adhered to a loose interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. His entry in the 1936 Dictionary of American Biography notes that, while some of his fellow Kentuckians believed he was a Federalist, Hardin was actually a national Democrat who probably would have associated with the Whig Party had he lived long enough to see its formation. In April 1812, as the War of 1812 became more imminent, Hardin wrote to Isaac Shelby, Kentucky's first governor and a hero of the Revolutionary War, asking him to consent to being a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Shelby went on to win the election, and Hardin, who had by this time relocated to Frankfort, was elected to represent Franklin County in the Kentucky House. In August 1812, shortly after the election, Shelby appointed Hardin Secretary of State. According to Shelby's executive journal, Hardin resigned on or before February 3, 1813. The next day, Shelby nominated Hardin's assistant, former Governor Christopher Greenup, to replace him. Greenup served only a month, resigning on March 11, 1813, after which Hardin was re-appointed and served for the remainder of