USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 11
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In the meantime, there were serious defects to be overcome in both the inventions of Kelly and Bessemer. This was successfully done by R. F. Mushet, of Cheltenham, England, who, on September 22, 1856, took out a patent for an improved process of adding to the pneumatized molten iron a molten triple compound of iron, carbon, and manganese, of from one to five per cent., overcoming the obstacle. It was in time found to the interest of all to consolidate the patents of Kelly, Bessemer, and Mushet, which was done: and Mr. Kelly, long residing in Louisville, received a royalty on his interests in the inventions. The incalculable importance of this invention
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RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE GOVERNOR
may be conceived in noting the fact that, before the process, steel com- manded five times the price of iron; now, steel rails, with four times the wear of iron, are made at a difference of only three dollars per ton. The United States, which formerly imported nearly all her steel, is now the largest steel-producing country in the world.
In 1816, George Madison was elected governor and Gabriel Slaughter lieu- tenant-governor of Kentucky. In October, Madison having died, Slaughter succeeded him, and was duly installed, after an excited controversy as to whether he should become governor by succession, or the Legislature should order a new election. Among the topics of interest in his message, he alludes to, and furnishes, correspondence which he had with the governors of Ohio and Indiana, touching the difficulties experienced by citizens in regaining their slaves who escaped over the Ohio river, which was of the most satisfactory character. The advisability of establishing an armory is mentioned, and also that the condition of the pecuniary affairs of the peni- tentiary were prosperous.
He suggests the renovation and extension of the prison, the urgency of a more efficient guard, and the furnishing of prisoners with Bibles and books of moral literature, and with religious instruction ; advising that all who learn good trades and conduct themselves well should have, at their discharge, a small compensation out of the profits of the institution, to pur- chase tools and enable them to commence business. He very lengthily ad- vocates aid and encouragement, both to higher institutions of learning and to a system of popular schools over the State. He recommends a revision of the laws of escheat, under the belief that a large quantity of the lands of the Commonwealth is held by individuals or unsettled. A State library, he thinks, should be established at the capital; presses upon the attention of the Legislature to correct a growing evil in the sale of offices, by sheriffs and clerks, throughout the State, as a most reprehensible and immoral, as well as injurious, practice. In view of the increase of steam navigation on the large rivers, he suggests that smaller streams might be made available for the same use, by an expenditure of a reasonable amount of money to remove obstructions and improve them. Steps also should promptly be taken, in co-operation with the Federal Government, to extinguish the In- dian title to that part of Kentucky Territory lying west of the Tennessee river.
This last was a question of importance; and now that the frontiersmen had extended the white settlements westward to, or within, the borders of this country, the last eastward of the Mississippi and southward of the Ohio of the original Virginia grant, now transferred to Kentucky, to which the aboriginal tribes had not forfeited their claim by treaty stipulations, the demand for negotiation and purchase of the same had become imperative. The Chickasaw nation owned the territory in both Kentucky and Tennessee between the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers, embracing some seven million
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
acres of fertile lands. In October, 1818, the General Government effected a purchase of all this country, and the transfer of title from the Chickasaws to the United States, for an annuity of twenty thousand dollars, to be paid for fifteen years. The portion that fell to the jurisdiction of Kentucky now embraces, in solid body, the counties of McCracken, Marshall, Hickman, Ballard, Fulton, Graves, and Calloway, a section yet designated as "The Purchase." 1 In May, 1822, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, as commissioner from the State of Virginia, appeared before the Legislature of. Kentucky, and solicited the appointment of commissioners, under the eighth article of the compact between the two States, to decide points of difference and interests yet remaining open. Among these points of importance, Virginia claimed the right to locate on the lands of the Chickasaw purchase, and west of the Tennessee river, the unsatisfied military bounty warrants of the officers and soldiers of the Virginia State line. Henry Clay was unanimously elected to act in conjunction with Mr. Leigh, and to make all necessary arrangements for such commission. By June 5th, they had agreed upon articles of con- vention, which the Legislature ratified on the 16th following.
Since the irreconcilable differences between Dr. Walker, commissioner for Virginia, and Judge Richard Henderson, for North Carolina, appointed to run and locate the westward boundary line between Kentucky and Ten- nessee, no mutual and satisfactory agreement could be arrived at between the two States, although several times the subject of legislative action and negotiation. In the Legislature of Kentucky, in January, 1818. a memorial to Congress was introduced, asking that body to adopt measures to deter- mine this annoying question. It seems to have been conceded that latitude 36° 30' north was the proper line. The objection or delay on the part of Tennessee was on account of the effect it would have on individual rights to lands lying between the said latitude and what was Walker's line, in which strip of territory both States were exercising jurisdiction. This un- settled state was having a disorderly effect upon the establishment of new counties and other interests. However, by agreement, in 1821. William Steele, on the part of Kentucky, and Absalom Looney, for Tennessee, were constituted a commission, who finally effected the location upon the line named.
2 In the meantime, the financial affairs of the civilized world were in a painful state of disorder. The long wars of the French revolution had ban- ished gold and silver from circulation as money, and had substituted an inflated paper currency, by which nominal prices were immensely enhanced. At the advent of peace, a restoration of specie payments, and the return of Europe to industrial pursuits, caused a great fall in the nominal value of commodities, accompanied by bankruptcy upon an enormous scale. In Kentucky, the violence of this crisis was enhanced by the charter of forty independent banks, with an aggregate capital of nearly ten million dollars.
I Collins, Vol I., p. 30.
2 Collins, Vol. 1., p. 318.
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THE NEW STATE BANK.
which were by law permitted to redeem their notes with the paper of the bank of Kentucky, instead of specie.
These banks were chartered at the session of 1817-18. The bank of Kentucky had then resumed specie payments, and was in good credit. In the summer of 1818, the State was flooded with the paper of these banks. Their managers were generally without experience or knowledge of finance, and in some instances, destitute of common honesty. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated. Speculation sprang up in all directions. Large loans were rashly made and as rashly expended. Most of these bubbles exploded within a year, and few were alive at the end of two years. In the meantime, the pressure of debt became terrible, and the power to replevy judgments was extended by the Legislature from three to twelve months by an act passed at the session of 1819-20. During the summer of 1820, the cry for further relief became overwhelming. and large majorities of both houses were pledged to some measure which should relieve the debtor from the consequences of his rashness.
General Adair had been elected governor of Kentucky in 1820, and heartily concurred with the Legislature in the acts passed at the ensuing session. The great cry of the people was for money, and their heaviest complaint was debt. Therefore, the Legislature of 1820-21 chartered the Bank of the Commonwealth. which was relieved from all danger of suspen- sion, by not being required even to redeem its notes in specie. Its paper was made payable and receivable in the public debts and taxes, and certain lands owned by the State, south of Tennessee river, were pledged for the final redemption of its notes. Its business was to pour out paper in pro- fusion, in order to make money plenty. The creditor was required to receive this bank paper in payment of his debt, and if he refused to do so, the debtor was authorized to replevy the debt for the space of two years.
But these were not the only acts of this extravagant session. They had already one bank, the old Bank of Kentucky, then in good credit, its paper redeemable in specie, and its stock at par or nearly so. By the terms of its charter, the Legislature had the power of electing a number of directors, which gave the control of the board. This power was eagerly exercised during this winter. An experienced conservative president and board were turned out by the Legislature, and a president and board elected who stood pledged, before their election, to receive the paper of the Bank of the Com- monwealth in payment of the debts due the Bank of Kentucky. This was no doubt intended to buoy up their bank. and sustain the credit of its paper. But the effect was instantly to strike down the value of the stock of the Bank of Kentucky to one-half its nominal value. and to entail upon it a suspension of specie payments.
The paper of the new bank sank rapidly to one-half its nominal value, and the creditor had his choice of two evils. One was to receive one-half his debt in payment of the whole; and the other was to receive nothing at
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
all for two years, and at the end of that time, to run the risk of new delays and of the bankruptcy of his securities. Great was the indignation of the creditor at this wholesale confiscation of his property, and society rapidly arranged itself into two parties, called Relief and Anti-Relief. With the first party were the great mass of debtors, and some brilliant members of the bar, such as John Rowan, William T. Barry, and Solomon P. Sharp. A great majority of the voting population swelled its ranks, and it was counte- nanced by the governor, and furnished with plausible arguments by the eminent lawyers already named, to whom may be added the name of Bibb. With the anti-relief party were ranged nearly all the mercantile class, a vast majority of the bar and bench, and a great majority of the better class of farmers. The mass of property and intelligence was drawn up in array against the mass of numbers. and an angry conflict commenced in the news- papers, upon the stump, in the taverns and highways, which gradually in- vaded the most private and domestic circles. Robert Wickliffe, of Fayette, George Robertson, since chief-justice of Kentucky, then an eminent lawyer of Garrard county, and Chilton Allan, an eminent lawyer of Clark, were early engaged in the conflict, and were regarded as leaders of the anti. relief party.
The question of the power of the Legislature to pass the act was raised at an early day, and was quickly brought before the circuit courts. Judge Clark, of Clark county. boldly decided the act unconstitutional in the first case which came before him, and brought upon himself a tempest of indig- nation, which thoroughly tested the firmness of his character. He was sum- moned to appear before a called session of the Legislature, which was convened in the spring of 1822, and violent efforts were made to intimidate or remove him by address. The gallant judge defended his opinion with invincible firmness; and partly from a want of a constitutional majority, partly, perhaps, from the suggestion that the Legislature should await the decision of the Supreme Court of Kentucky upon the subject, the legisla- tive storm blew over, leaving the judge as it found him. He adhered steadily to his decision, and was quickly supported by Judge Blair, of Fay- ette, in an opinion replete with learning, temper, and eloquence.
But all awaited the decision of the Supreme Court. That high tribunal was then occupied by John Boyle, chief-justice, and William Owsley and Benjamin Mills, associate judges. These gentlemen had passed the merid- ian of life, and had been drilled for a long series of years to the patient and abstract severity of judicial investigation. In simplicity and purity of char- acter, in profound legal knowledge, and in Roman-like firmness of purpose, the old Court of Appeals of Kentucky has seldom been surpassed. The question came directly before them in the case of Lapsley es. Brashear, at the fall term, 1823, and their decision was awaited with intense anxiety by all parties. Terrible denunciations of popular vengeance in advance, if they dared to thwart the will of a vast majority of the people, were intended
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5II
DISSENSION AMONG THE PEOPLE.
to move their judgments or operate upon their fears. They had maintained an unbroken silence until called upon to act, but when the case came di- rectly before them, the judges delivered their opinion, seriatim and at length, and calmly concurred with their brethren of the circuit court that the act of the Legislature was in violation of the Constitution of the United States and totally void. The clause of the Constitution with which the act conflicted was that which prohibited the States from passing any law im- pairing the obligation of contracts. The opinion created an immense sen- sation in the State, and the conflict of parties was renewed with redoubled fury.
The judiciary, by the Constitution, held their offices during good be- havior. Nothing less than two-thirds of both houses could remove them. Could they hope to obtain this majority ? The canvass of 1824 was con- ducted with the hope of obtaining this result. General Joseph Desha was the candidate of the relief party for the office of governor, and canvassed the State with that energy and partisan vehemence for which he was remark- able. He was elected by an overwhelming majority. A vast majority of both houses were of the relief party. The governor and the Legislature met in December, with passions heated by the fierce canvass through which they had passed and the unsparing wounds which they had received from their enemies. The sword was fairly drawn, and the scabbard had been thrown away by both parties. So exasperated were the passions that the minority was as little disposed to ask quarter as the majority was to give it. The three judges were summoned before the legislative bar, and calmly assigned reasons at length for their decision. These reasons were replied to with great speciousness and subtlety, for the great talents of Rowan, Bibb, and Barry were at the command of the relief party, and their manifestoes were skillfully drawn. A vote was at length taken, and the constitutional major- ity of two-thirds could not be obtained. The minority exulted in the victory of the judges.
But their adversaries were too much inflamed to be diverted from their purpose by ordinary impediments. The party, rapidly recovering from their first defeat, renewed the assault in a formidable direction, which had not been foreseen, and where success was clearly within their reach. The ma- jority could not remove the judges by impeachment or address, because their majority, although large, was not two-thirds of each house. But they could repeal the act by which the Court of Appeals had been organized, and pass an act organizing the court anew. The judges would then follow the court as in the case of the District Court and Court of Quarter Sessions, and a bare majority would suffice to pass this act. A bill to this effect was drawn up and debated with intense excitement during three days, and three protracted night sessions. Wickliffe denounced the party, with fierce and passionate invective, as trampling upon the Constitution. Rowan replied with cold and stately subtlety. On the last night, the debate was protracted
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
until past midnight. The galleries were crowded with spectators as strongly excited as the members. The bill was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives, and by a nearly equal majority in the Senate.
No time was lost in organizing the new court, which consisted of four judges. William T. Barry was chief-justice, and John Trimble, James Hag- gin, and Rezin H. Davidge were associate justices. Francis P. Blair was appointed clerk, and took forcible possession of the records of Achilles Sneed. the old clerk. The old court. in the meantime, denied the constitutionality of the act, and still continued to sit as a court of appeals and decide such causes as were brought before them. A great majority of the bar of Ken- tucky recognized them as the true court, and brought their causes by appeal before their tribunal. A great majority of the circuit judges obeyed their mandates as implicitly as if no reorganizing act had passed. A certain proportion of cases, however, were taken up to the new court. and some of the circuit judges obeyed their mandates exclusively, even refusing to recog- nize the old court. A few judges obeyed both, declining to decide which was the true court.
This judicial anarchy could not possibly endure. The people, as the final arbiter, were again appealed to by both parties, and the names of relief and anti-relief became merged in the titles of new court and old court. Great activity was exerted in the canvass of 1825, and never were the passions of the people more violently excited. The result was the triumph of the old- court party by a large majority in the popular branch of the Legislature. while the Senate still remained attached to the new court, the reactionary impulse not having had time to remold it.
In consequence of this difference between the political complexion of the two houses, the reorganizing act still remained unrepealed, and the canvass of 1826 saw both parties again arrayed in a final struggle for the command of the Senate. The old-court party again triumphed, and at the ensuing session of the Legislature the obnoxious act was repealed, the opinion of the governor to the contrary notwithstanding, and the three old judges re- established, de facto as well as de jure. Their salaries were voted to them during the period of their forcible and illegal removal, and all the acts of the new court have ever been treated as a nullity.
The census of 1820 reported the population of Kentucky at 564, 317. an increase of thirty-six and one-third per cent. over that of the previous dec- ade. This ranked Kentucky as the sixth State in the Union in point of population. Of these, 434,644 were whites, 2.759 free colored, and 126 .- 732 slaves, showing the increase of the latter to be approximately fifty seven . per cent. The messages of the governors and other records of the time almost uninterruptedly point to the fact of uniformly propitious seasons and abundant harvests with which the generous and exuberant virgin soil of Kentucky rewarded the husbandman, and laid the foundation of general prosperity in all other industries.
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LOTTERY PRIVILEGES GRANTED.
In 1820 and after, the greater number of the steamboats that plied the Ohio and Mississippi and their navigable tributaries were owned by enter- prising citizens of the Commonwealth, engaged in a commerce of vast im- portance both in Europe and America. Already had there been developed a considerable amount of mechanical ingenuity, made of great practical utility and introduced into the industrial arts. Some of these inventions be- came of great value throughout the world. From 1817 to 1820, statistics show that there were some sixty factories in busy employ at Lexington, and about the same at Louisville. Over two millions of dollars of capital were invested in each city in these establishments, a considerable sum for that day. There were other important centers of manufacturing in the State, showing the early impetus and advantages, but which have not been fol- lowed up with that vigor and enterprise which might easily have made Ken- tucky, with her vast internal and natural resources of soil and climate, of mineral riches, and extended and varied forest growth, the first manufact- uring district west of the mountains.
Among the oddities and inconsistencies of the legislation of these years were the repeated granting of lottery privileges for educational, benevolent, and even religious purposes-an offense to all disinterested and pure public sentiment, and dishonoring the fair name of the Commonwealth with making the General Assembly and executive the instruments of one of the most in- sidious and revolting forms of social vice. We find amid the statutes a lottery authorized to raise ten thousand dollars to improve Kentucky river, one to raise five thousand dollars to improve the Maysville and Lexington road, another to raise four thousand dollars to build a union house of wor- ship in Frankfort, another of twenty-five thousand to build a medical college at Lexington, and another for draining the ponds about Louisville. Yet, while engaging in this very disreputable encouragement to one of the most universally demoralizing species of gambling, the most honorable Assembly, in December, 1823, passed very stringent laws against gambling. To the immemorial and pernicious habit of special legislation indulged in by that body, we may properly attribute the inconsistency.
Governor Joseph Desha, having entered upon his term of office in 1824, sought occasion to call attention to what appeared to be dangerous innova- tions or encroachments upon the rights of the State. He viewed with alarm the establishment of branches of the United States Bank within the Com- monwealth. When the laws of Kentucky demanded that these should be taxed, as other property, the judges of the Federal Court, assuming the prerogative of restricting the taxing power of the State, in a manner wholly unlimited, issued their order and restrained the collection of the tax imposed by the Legislature. It was complained that a majority of the late Court of Appeals of the State, after maintaining that the United States Bank was unconstitutional, refused to carry the law imposing the tax into effect, because the United States Supreme Court, in a Maryland decision, had expressed a
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
contrary opinion. These banks had acquired property and power in the State, and yet were exempt from bearing their proportion of the burdens of government.
These institutions had, for a series of years, carried on a systematic attack upon the legislative power of the State, for the double purpose of curtail- ing the sphere of its exercise and rendering themselves entirely free of its authority. In both State and Federal courts attacks were made on the validity of the State laws, in which the banks contended that they were not binding on the Federal courts, and could affect no contract which might be sued on in these tribunals. The power thus assumed and exercised by the Federal judges was viewed, both in principle and practice, as nothing short of despotism.
It was also complained that the wrongs suffered by the United States Su- preme Court decision, declaring the occupant laws to be unconstitutional, had not been redressed. In the meantime, the baneful influence of the decision was spreading. At every term of the Federal court sitting at Frankfort, judg- ments and decrees were given against citizens for lands, and the houses and improvements made on same, sacrificing all, and in despite of State laws to the contrary. Others of State acts were as stubbornly disregarded. The faithful citizen, losing title, must also pay rents upon his own improvements, upon eviction, or, if unable, he must go to prison, under the rules of the court. He urged that the doctrine that the opinion of the Federal court, on subjects involving the rights of States, is binding and conclusive on State authorities, is not only erroneous, but fatal to the sovereignty of the State.
Governor Desha also recommended the curtailment of salaries of officials, and of general expenditures, and by all means to avoid sinecures. The same policy of economy was suggested toward the officers of the Kentucky banks, as in many cases they seemed to be disproportioned to the services rendered. It was believed that many of the subordinate officers might be dispensed with, and the profits thus increased. These reductions were im- portant, as the improved value of the currency in which taxes were collected would much increase the burdens of the tax-payers.
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