Changes

===Political involvement===

===Political involvement===

Harlan was active in the Whig Party like his father, and then became a [[Know nothing party|Know-Nothing]] after the demise of the [[Whig Party]], and he was first elected as a county judge in 1858. He gave many recorded racist and states' rights speeches that became an embarrassment after the [[Civil War]], in which he served on the [[Union]].

Harlan started his political career as a member of the [[Whig Party]], like his father.<ref name="ANB"/> "In the spring of 1851, while he was still at Transylvania and not yet eighteen years old, he was offered the post of Kentucky adjutant general. Although Harlan, citing his age, demurred at the time, that autumn he was appointed to the post by the governor."<ref name="ANB"/>

 

In 1854, Harlan was elected city attorney of [[Frankfort, Kentucky]], and he was re-elected to the position in 1856.<ref name="ANB"/> When the Whig Party was dissolved around this time, Harlan became a member of the [[Know nothing party|Know Nothing Party]].<ref name="ANB"/> Harlan gave several speeches as a Know Nothing member that were anti-immigrant in nature "that would later haunt him."<ref name="ANB"/> In 1858, Harlan was elected as county judge of Franklin County, Kentucky as a Know Nothing.<ref name="ANB"/> Harlan later switched party affiliation to the Opposition Party, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1859.<ref name="ANB"/> In 1860, he switched parties again to the Constitutional Union Party and supported it's candidate, [[John Bell]], for president.<ref name="ANB"/>

 

He gave many recorded racist and states' rights speeches that became an embarrassment after the [[Civil War]], in which he served on the [[Union]].

===Supreme Court Justice===

===Supreme Court Justice===