On March 11, 1812, James Speed was born at Farmington, his family's plantation near Louisville. After graduating from Transylvania University's law school in 1833, Speed practiced as an attorney in Louisville. He was also active in state and local politics, serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1847-1848) and the state Senate (1861-1863) among other positions. He also held a professorship at the University of Louisville Law School both before and after the Civil War. Throughout the antebellum period, Speed advocated emancipation, and when the Civil War began, he worked diligently to keep Kentucky in the Union during the secession crisis. In December 1864, Lincoln appointed Speed as U.S. Attorney General. After Lincoln's assassination, Speed issued the legal opinion that allowed the conspirators to be tried by military tribunal rather than civilian courts. Speed served as Attorney General until July 1866, when he resigned because of political differences with President Andrew Johnson. Following his resignation, Speed returned to Louisville, where he continued his law practice and was active in Republican politics. He died on June 25, 1887.

James Speed, James Speed: A Personality (Louisville: J. P. Morton & Co., 1914); Jennifer Cole, "For the Sake of the Songs of the Men Made Free": James Speed and the Emancipationists' Dilemma in Nineteenth-century Kentucky," Ohio Valley History 4 (Winter 2004): 27-48.