of selecting the one judge, that must be adopted in selecting the four, is all that is requisite.

Permit me, Mr. Speaker, to beg, beseech, and conjure the members of this House to use their best effort to settle this question without pushing matters to extremities. Our common country is distracted with this question. Party spirit rages with great violence. The State is nearly divided as to numbers and talents. A victory ought not to be desired by either party. The pride of victory on the one side, and the mortification of defeat on the other, widens the breach between them; and, instead of restoring peace, harmony, and concord to the country, increases that bad state of feeling which already too much exists. We are all members of the same political family; let us bury the hatchet and brighten the chain of peace; embrace as brothers, and then, in a state of good feeling, turn our attention to internal improvements and the amelioration of our common country."

The closing scenes of the debate were marked with tumult and disorder. It was complained that the governor and others (not members) were on the floor of the House exerting their personal influence for the passage of the bill. "The scene," said an eye-witness, “resembled a camp-meeting in confusion and clamor, but lacked its holy impulses." The bill passed like a whirlwind. The result, however, showed that in debate the advantage had been with the Anti-Relief leaders. Galloway, Cosby, Martin Hardin, Triplett, and Watkins had voted for the address. On the bill to reorganize, Galloway did not vote, and the others named voted against it. An intelligent writer has observed very truly that in these debates the Relief party received its death stab. The bill was promptly approved by the governor, and (as its friends supposed) became a law. Thus, for the first time in this State, was witnessed an attempt by one department of government to overthrow a co-ordinate department. The real purpose of the majority of the Legislature, it need hardly be remarked, was to reorganize the court, not because its existing organization was defective, but solely to remove judges who differed with the Legislature as to the just limit of the law-making power.

During this period partisan feeling grew exceedingly bitter. Mr. Hardin spared neither sarcasm, wit, nor ridicule. So exasperated did one Haskins become that on one occasion, armed with a hickory bludgeon, he attacked Mr. Hardin, as he emerged from the capitol, inflicting personal injury. This was regarded as an amusing episode by "Relief" partisans, and celebrated in cotemporary doggerel:

"A hickory stick and a Haskins lad,

They make the old tom-cat so mad."

The late Chief Justice George Robertson.

CHAPTER XII.

Θ

A CASE AFFIRMED.

N January 10, 1825, Governor Desha appointed for chief-justice of the new Court of Appeals William Taylor Barry, and for associate justices James Haggin, John Trimble, and Benjamin W. Patton. Shortly afterward, Patton died, and Rezin H. Davidge was appointed in his place.

Of Barry mention has already been made. His talents were those of an advocate, rather than a jurist. He shone at the bar, and was

Trimble, who died while a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and of whom Judge Story said: "Men might differ with respect to the rank of other lawyers, but all admitted that no one was superior to Robert Trimble in talents, in learning, in acuteness, in sagacity." But the relationship existing between these brothers was of blood only, not of genius. The educational advantages of John, in carly life, were inferior to those enjoyed by his distinguished. brother. When nineteen, he was secretary of Robert Evans, governor of Indiana Territory. After this, he studied law with that renowned preceptor, George Nicholas, of Lexington. He practiced law at Paris from 1807 to 1816. He was then appointed Circuit

judge, upon which he removed to Cynthiana. His ability was questioned by some while he was acting as Appellate judge. This may have resulted from partisan rancor, or because (as Collins says) only those who knew him intimately "suspected the general variety of his knowledge and his severely-critical judgment." Davidge's sole claim to distinction seems to have been his appointment to the vacancy caused by Patton's death. These men did not measure in ability with the bench of the "old" court. The danger of such a comparison seems to have been overlooked by the Relief governor. The Legislature also committed another serious mistake to the party detriment. The majority chose their leader, John Rowan, United States Senator. They thus not only lost the benefit of his personal leadership, a loss that was irreparable, but his influence was diminished by the charge that ambition had been his spring of action.

The success of the Relief party (henceforth known as the New Court party) did not bring tranquillity to the State. The new court fell into an undignified struggle with Achilles Sneed, clerk of the old court, for possession of his records. Bloodshed was narrowly avoided. The records were only obtained by violence. For this, the grand jury of Franklin county indicted the new court, its judges, and officers. The grand juries of several counties found indictments against the majority in the Legislature for passing the reorganization act. A motion to admit Madison C. Johnson to the Woodford bar, on faith of license granted by Boyle and Owsley, judges of the old court, after the new court was established, caused a heated debate of a day or so in duration. The circuit judge, Jesse Bledsoe, evaded the question, and admitted Johnson as a matter of courtesy.

Meetings were held throughout the State, some to approve and others to condemn. Addresses were published by the minority in the Legislature, by the old court judges, and by Sneed, its clerk. Pamphlets, discussing the merits of the controversy, were published, and the newspapers were burdened with the theme. Barry and Haggin were charged with various irregularities affecting their integrity. Mills was denounced because, while Appellate judge, he had rendered some service as counsel in a case in which he had been attorney before his appointment. Barry, after he was commissioned, but before he was sworn in, defended a son of Governor Desha for highway robbery and murder. Mills went armed to prayer-meeting to defend himself, as he claimed, from apprehended violence. All these topics were extensively discussed. The old court kept open

for business. Some appealed to it, some to its rival. The inferior courts and the legal profession were in a state of sore perplexity, from which no partisan logic or enthusiasm would relieve. "I should be glad," wrote Clay to Crittenden, in regard to some cases in the new court relating to the Morrison estate, "I should be glad if they were anywhere else, but, being there, I must beg that you will not allow the estate to suffer for want of counsel."

Mr. Hardin's speech in the Legislature had furnished the inspiration of many co-workers on the stump. Judge Trimble, in taking a mortgage on a poor debtor's property, had included the wife's sidesaddle. The popular uses of such a fact did not escape Hardin's observation. He had unearthed, in the Fayette Circuit Court, the case of Williamson vs. Haggin (the defendant being the new judge). Haggin had contracted to buy Mrs. Williamson a house and lot, but stipulated that he was "not to be hastened." He contended that he was entitled to his whole lifetime in which to perform his contract. Hardin's wit and ridicule found in this a theme suiting his genius. "Haggin must be hastened" became a household phrase. The Roman Catholic Bishop Flaget, of the Diocese of Bardstown, was exceedingly influential not only among his co-religionists, but among all of every faith with whom he came in contact. Being of foreign birth and a faithful churchman, he paid little attention to the political commotion about him. Mr. Hardin was anxious to enlist him, if ever so slightly, among the friends of the old court. He argued the matter with the good bishop, appealing to his conservatism, representing the new court as an infringement and innovation on the fundamental law. Overcome, at last. by these arguments: "I am for the old court," said the bishop. "I am opposed to all innovations from Martin Luther down."

The New Court party, meantime, hastened to its fall. At the election of 1825, sixty-five Old Court and thirty-five New Court representatives were chosen. The Senate was evenly divided. This decided majority was partly due to the efforts of the Old Court party, partly to the errors of the New Court party, and, in no small degree, to the inherent weakness of the latter. It naturally sank with the ebbing tide of feeling on which it first arose. The Old Court party had not only been successful in the elections, but had adhered to its policy of sending strong men to the Legislature. General Thomas Fletcher, of Bath; Daniel Mayes, of Christian; M. P. Marshall, of Fleming; Elijah Nuttall, of Henry; Samuel H. Woodson, of Jessa

mine; J. R. Underwood, of Warren; and W. B. Blackburn, of Woodford, were among the distinguished names of the Old Court party added to the roll of the House. Mr. Chapeze, of Nelson, was succeeded by James Allen, Esq.

The Legislature convened, November 7th, in the midst of great excitement. Solomon P. Sharpe, the attorney general, had been elected to the House, from Franklin, as a New Court man. The contest preceding his election had been marked by a degree of heat and bitterness exceptional in the asperity of those times. He was strong with his party, however, a superior lawyer, and an accomplished man of affairs. With the aid of his personal popularity, his friends hoped to elect him speaker. On the preceding day, a large number of the members had already arrived at Frankfort. Every stage and steamboat brought fresh accessions. On the chief roads, by twos or in larger numbers, members came horseback. The capital was alive again, after months of torpor. In this busy gathering, Colonel Sharpe was a prominent figure. He was justly regarded as the new leader of the New Court party. On Monday morning (the 7th), at an early hour, Frankfort was thrilled and appalled as never before. During the preceding night, Colonel Sharpe had been called to the door of his residence and stabbed to death by an unknown assassin, who had escaped in the darkness. His devoted wife, astounded and crushed, sank into insensibility when she realized her terrible bereavement.

All questions were dwarfed and all animosities silenced in the presence of this ghastly tragedy. The House met and organized. The New Court party put forward no candidate for speaker. George Robertson was unanimously chosen. The first business was a resolution requesting the governor to offer three thousand dollars reward for the detection, apprehension, and conviction of the assassin of Sharpe. Resolutions were also adopted reciting that "Kentucky and its Legislature are called upon to mourn the loss of one of their ablest and most distinguished citizens." Certain members from the southern part of the State, arriving by the Shelbyville turnpike during the forenoon, were not only shocked to hear of the assassination, but surprised that it was not mentioned by Jeroboam Beauchamp, a young lawyer of Warren county, whom they had encountered and talked with a short distance from the capital. Hearing this, Mr. Hardin, without a moment's hesitation and on this single fact, pronounced Beauchamp the assassin. His arrest followed, and the