USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 78
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bottom layer of the Boyle (Kiddville layer) is rich in fish remains. The thickness west of the geanticline varies from practically noth- ing to 48 feet ; on the east side, from 10 to 20 feet.
Economic Materials: Petroleum, gas, salt brine, phosphatic nodules and layers, cement rock, marbles for indoor work. The Black shale, when burnt, makes fine road material, and clay resulting from its decay makes good drain tile and deep red brick. The shale is an inviting source of fuel gas (by distillation) for future generations. The Boyle limestone is pre-eminent among the oil producing rocks of the State.
VII. SILURIAN
I. Niagaran .- The following members of the series occur on the west side of the Cin- cinnati geanticline: (a) Louisville limestone beds; thickness, 40 to 50 feet. (b) Waldron shaly clays; thickness 4 to 10 feet. (c) Lan- rel limestone beds ; thickness 35 feet. (d) Crab Orchard formation; shales, clays, and lime- stones, correlating with the Osgood shales ; thickness about 25 feet.
On the east side occur: (a) Limestones in Fleming and Lewis counties which are tenta- tively correlated with the Greenfield or Mon- roe formation of Ohio, by Dr. Foerste. (b) Crab Orchard formation (including the In- dian Fields and Alger divisions) ; thickness, IIO to 180 feet.
2. Clinton (of Ohio) .- The precise relation that the limestones forming the base of the Silurian in Kentucky and in Ohio bear to the Clinton of New York geology is an unsettled question. In the older Kentucky reports, in- fortunately, Silurian beds referred to Clinton age are not always identical; in Ohio, how- ever, such confusion does not exist, hence the qualifications indicated here. To the Ken- tucky representatives of the Clinton of Ohio, the name Brassfield limestones has been given. On the east side of the geanticline, the thick- ness ranges from 13 to 19 feet.
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Economic Materials: Clay suitable for low- grade terra cotta, for "vitrified" paving brick, for common brick, for sewer pipe, and for ce- ment; spring waters charged with magnesium sulphate and sodium sulphate, together with other mineral salts, from which are derived "Crab Orchard salts;" excellent iron ores (hematite), such as are now mined in Bath county.
The Devonian and Silurian beds cover an area of about 1,200 square miles.
VIII. ORDOVICIAN (LOWER SILURIAN)
I. Cincinnatian. - Richmond group; thick- ness, 140 to 210 feet. (b) Maysville (Lorraine ) group; thickness, 280 feet. (c) Eden group (including three feet of shale at the base that has been tentatively referred to Utica age) ; thickness, 120 to 263 feet. (d) Cynthiana (Winchester or Lower Winchester of some ge- ologists) ; thickness 20 to 90 feet.
Under the name Cincinnatian is included the so-called Hudson River series of some of the older literature dealing with the geology of Kentucky ; also the "Hudson River" of the Kentucky oil-well driller.
2. Mohawkian .- (a) Lexington (Trenton) limestone group; thickness, 275 feet. (b) Highbridge (Stones River of Tennessee) ; partly under cover but the thickness is prob- ably about 500 feet.
The Highbridge group includes the "Birds- eye" (now named Tyrone), the "Kentucky River Marble" (now known as the Oregon), and the "Chazy" (now Campnelson), of some of the older reports of the State Geological Survey. The first two of the older names were discarded by the Survey, in recent time, because they were in conflict with present rules governing geologic nomenclature. While identification of the Chazy is not discarded, it is deemed best, for the present, to use the name Campnelson for the beds included under the older name.
Economic Materials: (a) In the Richmond : Blue limestones, petroleum.
(b) In the Maysville: Good building stone, brick clays.
(c) In the Eden: Petroleum.
(d) In the Cynthiana : Blue limestones.
(e) In the Lexington: Excellent building stones, large workable deposits of exception- ally pure barytes, carrying at many places con- siderable galena and zinc blende; some fluor- spar in veins, pockets of gas, possibly some petroleum, phosphatic limestones (they afford the typical "blue-grass" soils), and lime phos- phate deposits of commercial value. The latter result from the natural leaching of, usually, twenty-five to fifty-five feet of beds (result- ing in the removal of lime carbonate ), and the concentration of the residual insoluble lime phosphate into accumulations ranging front two to four and six feet in thickness. The barytes deposits occur in long, nearly vertical veins, of which there are hundreds, extending through many counties. Central Kentucky is deemed, by those most familiar with the sub- ject, the richest barytes field in the United States.
(f) In the Highbridge : Fine building stones, fluorspar, wide veins of pure calcite (upon which has been established an important in- dustry), petroleum, gas. One of the note- worthy beds is a compact, peculiarly white limestone having "birdseye" structure. This was used in the construction of the old Cap- itol, and of other large old buildings in Frank- fort. A more important bed is a beautiful cream colored, smooth-grained limestone. This is admirably suited for both structural and sculptural purposes ; it should be in de- mand as a finishing stone for buildings. The original Clay Monument at Lexington, by Hart, was carved out of this stone; the grace- ful colonnade forming the front of the old Capitol is another example of its use. This is the "Kentucky River marble."
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about 8,500 square miles.
In its physiography, its geologic features, and its mineral stores, Kentucky has the foun- dation upon which may be built one of the
The Ordovician rocks cover an area of greatest and wealthiest manufacturing states in the Union; its agricultural possibilities may be so developed as to readily sustain a mighty population. Indeed, nature has here provided a wonderful inheritance for the children of the future. What will they do with it?
CHAPTER LXVI.
THREE REPRESENTATIVE KENTUCKIANS-JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN-SOME NOTABLE OPIN- IONS-SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER-NON-PARTISAN RESOLUTIONS-J. PROCTOR KNOTT- HIS ADMINISTRATION.
Kentucky has not been wanting in distin- guished sons who have honored the State by attaining to the Supreme Court of the United States. The list of those who have thus served is as follows: John McLean, John Cat- ron, John McKinley, Samuel F. Miller, Thomas Todd, Robert Trimble and John M. Harlan. Of these Justice Miller was at first a physician but subsequently studied law and was appointed to the Supreme bench by Mr. Lincoln in 1862 and attained high distinction as a just and learned jurist.
The senior Justice of that high tribunal, at this time, both in age and years of service, is Justice John M. Harlan who has thirty-four useful years on the Supreme bench to his credit. No apology is due for the extended sketch of the man and his service which follows :
John Marshall Harlan was born in what is now Boyle county, Kentucky, June 1, 1833. Before the Revolution, two Harlan brothers- James and Silas-living in Chester county, Pennsylvania, changed their residence to what is now Berkley county, West Virginia. A de- scendant of one was James Harlan ( the grand- father of John Marshall Harlan) who with his brother Silas and about thirty other young men, all living on or near the headwaters of the Potomac and Monongahela rivers in Berkley county, conceived the idea of settling in Ken- tucky, then a wilderness inhabited by Indians. They went down the Ohio river in small boats,
arriving in Kentucky in 1774, two years before the adoption of the Declaration of Independ- ence. James and Silas settled on Clark's run of Salt river, about seven miles from where Harrodsburg now stands. James Harlan (the second ), the father of John, was born and reared there, as were all his children. He rep- resented the Boyle District in Congress, 1835- 1839. In the latter year, he removed with his family from his farm in Boyle county to Har- rodsburg to practice law. In 1840, he was re- quested by Governor Letcher to become Sec- retary of State; he accepted the position. and changed his residence to Frankfort, the cap- ital, when John was in his seventh year. Here the boy attended the celebrated private school of B. B. Sayre until he was fifteen. While in that school there arose one of those peculiar situations which so vitally affect the destinies of men. Sayre, the teacher, earnestly be- sought the father of this lad to have him trained for mercantile pursuits, urging that three of John's brothers were lawyers, and that was quite enough for one family. Now James Harlan was a Whig; he had steadily op- posed the theories and policies of the Demo- cratic party as founded by Jefferson and the principles of constitutional law maintained by him. He was a devoted follower and the confidential friend and admirer of Clay ; was a great admirer of Webster, whose views as to the nature of the National and State govern- ments were in entire accord with his own. He
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was an earnest believer in the principles of con- stitutional law as announced by Marshall. The father had other and fonder hopes for the son than mercantile pursuits. He would not give his consent ; said that he had always intended that John should be a lawyer, and so fixed had he been in that purpose that he named him John Marshall!
In 1848, Harlan entered Centre College as a junior and graduated from that famous insti- tution with honor in 1850. Shortly after he left college he commenced the study of law at Frankfort under his father, spending part of the time in the Law School of Transylvania University, in which such distinguished men as George Robertson, Thomas A. Marshall, Mad- ison C. Johnson and Richard A. Buckner were professors or lecturers. On April 16, 1851, before he was eighteen, he was appointed by Gov. John L. Helm as Adjutant General of Kentucky, and as such was er-officio Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the two military schools, then in successful operation in Ken- tucky-the Kentucky Military School at Frank- fort, and the Western Military Institute at Drennon Springs. On the Board of Trustees of the latter, in 1851, were Gen. William O. Butler, Col. Humphrey Marshall, Col. William Preston and Judge Thomas B. Monroe. At the commencement exercises in June, 1851, Harlan first met James G. Blaine, then a pro- fessor in the military school at Drennon Springs at a salary of $1,200 a year. In 1855 Harlan got his first taste for public speaking; at the county seats of all the mountain coun- ties of the state he addressed public meetings in behalf of Charles S. Morehead, the Amer- ican candidate for governor. In 1856, the American Party of Kentucky selected him as an assistant Elector at Large for Fillmore and Donelson. In 1858, he was elected County Judge of Franklin county ; in 1859, he was un- expectedly to himself selected by what was then called the "Remains of the Old Whig Party of Kentucky," as its candidate for Congress in the
Ashland District. His opponent was William E. Simms, afterwards in the Confederate Sen- ate from Kentucky. The latter was returned as elected by only 67 majority, but Harlan al- ways strongly insisted, after careful investi- gation, that he was elected by more than 500 majority, and cheated out of the election by the importation of fraudulent and illegal voters, brought into the district from Coving- ton and Cincinnati. So firmly convinced were Harlan's followers that he was really elected that they raised $10,000 and put it in bank to his credit to defray the expense of a contested election ; but upon due consideration he con- cluded not to make the contest. He had then attracted the attention of the entire nation and become widely known as one of its foremost public speakers. And here again was seen that peculiar influence which the world calls destiny. Had he been elected to Congress in 1859, when he was 26, what a change in his public career there might have been! If des- tiny had then changed his course, that change probably would have turned him to the Exec- utive Department instead of the Judicial. In the contest of 1860, Harlan was placed on the Bell and Everett electoral ticket. They car- ried Kentucky and he cast his vote in the Electoral College for those candidates for Pres- ident and Vice-president.
The year 1861 had dawned and the election for Congress was near. It was conceded that unless Harlan was the opposing candidate the Democrats would carry the Ashland district. Harlan felt bound to stand by those who had stood so valiantly by him in 1859; but he longed for his profession and felt that his imperative duty was to pursue it. As a solution, he re- solved to disconnect himself from politics and to seek a larger field for practice. In Febru- ary, 1861, he removed to Louisville and formed a partnership with the Hon. William F. Bul- lock.
Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861, and shortly thereafter Sumter was fired upon; the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
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In tility
Forwell Aulac
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struggle was on. Harlan was for the Union "at all hazards." During May, June, July and August, 1861, he made speeches in every part of Louisville, earnestly urging the people to stand by the Union, and warning them against the dangers of every kind which would beset Kentucky if her people took sides against the Union and induced the State Government to support the cause of Secession. At his side, during all that time, stood James Speed, the Attorney-General of Lincoln. No two men did more than Speed and Harlan to prevent political managers in Kentucky from carrying that state into the Southern Confederacy. Ken- tucky was a doubtful state, and it is not too much to say that had Harlan and Speed ex- erted the same influence to take Kentucky out of the Union which they exerted to keep her in the Union, the verdict and judgment of the Civil war might have gone the other way. As an evidence of his zeal, in July, 1861, Harlan accepted the appointment of captain of a com- pany of Union Home Guards. It was well known as the Crittenden Union Zouaves. In the fall of 1861 he established a camp at Leb- anon, Kentucky, raised and organized the 10th Kentucky Infantry and became its colonel. His regiment became a part of the original division of Gen. George H. Thomas. In 1863, President Lincoln sent Harlan's name to the senate as brigadier general ; but, on his own re- quest to Senator Crittenden, based on his pur- pose to return to civil life on account of the death of his father, his nomination was not acted upon.
In 1863 the Hon. James Harlan, who had been twice elected Attorney General of the state, suddenly died, leaving a large practice, representing considerable money to clients and to his family. He left no other estate, and as upon its proper management much depended, Col. Harlan returned to civil life to take charge of his father's affairs. Major General Rose- crans, commanding the Army Corps to which Col. Harlan's regiment then belonged, advised
him to do this, and his resignation was ac- cepted with much regret by his superior offi- cers. His letter of resignation, addressed to Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, then on the staff of General Rosecrans, is self-explan- atory and speaks the real purpose of this man's life. In all the debates and state documents of history, there is none clearer in its language or stronger in its terms. There is no marvel that this man with these sentiments in his soul in later years became a great judge. It reads:
"I deeply regret that I am compelled, at this time, to return to civil life. It was my fixed purpose to remain in the Federal army until it had effectually suppressed the existing armed rebellion, and restored the authority of the National Government over every part of the Nation. No ordinary consideration would have induced me to depart from this purpose. Even the private interests to which I have al- luded would be regarded as nothing, in my es- timation, if I felt that my continuance in or retirement from the service would, to any ma- terial extent, affect the great struggle through which the country is now passing.
"If, therefore, I am permitted to retire from the army, I beg the Commanding General to feel assured that it is from no want of confi- dence either in the justice or ultimate triumph of the Union cause. That cause will always have the warmest sympathies of my heart, for there are no conditions upon which I will con- sent to a dissolution of the Union. Nor are there any concessions, consistent with a repub- lican form of government, which I am not pre- pared to make in order to maintain and per- petuate that Union."
Col. Harlan returned to Kentucky immedi- ately. Although still under thirty, the Union party of that state would not hear a refusal that he should go upon its ticket as the candi- date for Attorney General of the state. He was elected and discharged his official duties at Frankfort in connection with the continua- tion of the practice left by his father and that
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which he also acquired. At the conclusion of his term in the fall of 1867, he returned to Louisville and resumed the practice of his pro- fession. In 1868, he identified himself with the Republican party and voted for Grant and Colfax. In 1871, the Republican party called him as its candidate for Governor, and he made a thorough canvass of the state. In 1875, his party again called him as its candidate for Governor. He was prevailed upon to yield and again canvassed the state. During the cam- paigns of 1871 and 1875, he spoke in every county in the state except one. He was un- successful in both contests, as the majority of voters were Democrats. No one had before received as many votes as he did ( nearly 90,- 000) and been defeated.
In 1876, the Republican State Convention recommended Harlan for the Vice-presidency. He was chairman of the Kentucky Delegation in the National Republican Convention of 1876, which nominated Hayes. In 1877, while the Hayes-Tilden controversy was pending at Washington, Hayes determined that, if declared elected, he would appoint Harlan his Attorney- General. But when Hayes arrived in Wash- ington to take the oath of office as President, political complications of a peculiar character arose which compelled him to forego this de- termination. In the summer of 1877, President Hayes appointed Harlan a member of what is known as the Louisiana Commission, which was charged with settling certain disputes that threatened to disturb the peace of that state. The work of the commission-composed of Hon. Charles B. Lawrence, Hon. Joseph R. Hawley, Hon. John C. Brown, Hon. Wayne MacVeagh and Col. Harlan-accomplished great good for the country. About this time President Hayes offered to Colonel Harlan any mission abroad which he might select. In the fall of 1877, President Hayes tendered to Col- onel Harlan the office he now holds. It was not known to him that any one had presented, or would present, his name to the President.
His ambitions had not been towards the judicial life. But he accepted, was confirmed, and was installed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on December 10, 1877.
For nearly thirty-four years he has devoted himself to the discharge of his judicial duties. He is the only survivor of those who were members of the court when he joined it-Chief Justice Waite, Justices Clifford, Swayne, Mil- ler, Field, Strong, Bradley, Hunt, Woods. And he has survived many who were appointed after him-Chief Justice Fuller, Justices Matthews, Gray, Blatchford, Lamar, Brewer, Jackson, Peckham. Three other members also appointed after him-Shiras, Brown and Moody-are now in private life.
His term exceeds in number of years that of any member of the court since its organization, except Marshall, who served 34 years, 5 months and 5 days; Story, who served 33 years, 9 months and 22 days; and Field, who served 34 years, 6 months and 10 days. If Harlan should remain on the bench until June 11, 1912, he will have served longer than any other mem- ber of the Supreme Court in all its history. On June 1, 1911, he will be 78 years of age ; he is now discharging his judicial duties with great vigor and without any sign of failing health. His opinions of today are equal to any he has ever written. The reports, commencing with 95 U. S., contain more than one thousand opin- ions written by him, in nearly seven hundred and fifty of which he spoke for the court. The remainder were concurring and dissenting opinions. He has written more opinions in cases involving questions of constitutional law than any other American judge. He has also written more dissenting opinions than any other Justice, and is often referred to as the Great Dissenter. There does not appear to be a case in which the questions were of vital im- portance and he disagreed with the majority that he did not express his dissent. Being asked why he dissented so much, he answered
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that he only dissented when it seemed to be his absolute duty. His leading and most notable opinions for the court are:
Neal v. Delaware, holding that the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States rendered inoperative a statute of Dela- ware limiting the right of suffrage to the white race, and that the exclusion from grand and petit juries of persons, because of their race, was invalid; Hopt v. Utah, holding that the personal presence of the accused during the trial of challenges of jurors in a criminal case was vital to the authority to try him; Erparte Royall, holding that a Circuit court of the Uni- ted States has the discretion to say whether, in advance of a final trial in the state court, it will discharge on habeas corpus an accused charged with violating the state law, even where the accused alleges that he is held in custody for trial by State authorities in violation of the Constitution of the United States; Mugler v. Kansas, in which the power of a state to pro- hibit the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits, within its limits, was sustained; Minnesota v. Barber, holding that a certain statute of Min- nesota requiring the inspection, before slaugh- tering, of cattle, sheep and swine, designed for slaughter for human food, was, by its neces- sary operation, as to such animals slaughtered outside of the state, a burden on interstate com- merce, and, therefore, invalid; United States v. Te.ras, holding that the Supreme Court of the United States had original jurisdiction in a suit by the United States against one of the states involving the boundary between the Uni- ted States and such state; Sparf v. United States, holding that although a jury in a crim- inal case was entitled to determine the truth and weight of the evidence, its duty was to take the law from the court and apply that law to the facts as it found them from the evidence ; Davis v. United States, holding that in a case where the defense was insanity, if a jury has a reasonable doubt whether the accused, upon all the evidence, by whomsoever adduced, was
sane and responsible for the commission of crime, he was entitled to an acquittal ; Henning- ton v. Georgia, sustaining the validity, so far as the Federal Constitution was concerned, of a Georgia statute forbidding the running of freight trains on any railroad in the state on Sunday, making certain exceptions in respect to trains carrying live stock ; C. & L. Turn. P. Co. v. Covington, in which it was held that when the question was whether the legislature has exceeded its constitutional power in pre- scribing rates on a public highway controlled by a corporation, stockholders are not the only persons whose rights were to be considered, and that the public cannot be required to sub- mit to unreasonable exactions, in order simply that stockholders may earn dividends; New York, New Haven, &c. R. R. Co. v. New York, holding that statute of New York, regulating the heating of steam passenger cars and re- quiring guards and guardposts to be placed on railroad bridges, was a valid exercise of the State's police powers and, if Congress did not interfere, such statute could be applied to in- terstate railroad trains ; Smyth v. Ames, hold- ing that a suit in a Federal court to prevent the Railroad Commission of a state from en- forcing a statute fixing rates of transportation in such state, and which statute was alleged to be confiscatory in its operation, was not a suit, within the meaning of the Federal Constitution, against the state ; and in which it was also held that the public was entitled to demand that no higher rates be exacted from it for the use of a public highway than the services rendered by it are reasonably worth ; Baldy v. Hunter, holding that the transactions between persons actually residing within the Confederate States were not invalid for the reason only that they occurred under the laws of that government, or of any local government recognizing its authority ; and that preservation of order, the maintenance of police regulations, the prosecution of crimes, the protection of property, the enforcement of contracts, the celebration of marriages, the set-
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