impeded its progress and became such intolerable nuisances to judges, juries and litigants, that the law was speedily repealed and the complete authority of the court placed where it properly belonged, in the hands of the single judge on the bench.

One should not too strongly criticize the efforts of these pioneer fathers of the state to arrive at a proper medium of justice and of government. Not many years had elapsed since they had emerged from the dominion of a king. The system of the Republic was new to them as it was to the world, and they must, perforce, feel their way. That they sometimes tottered and fell, as does the child in its first efforts to walk, is not surprising. That from those totterings came the almost perfect system of government this country now enjoys is the surprise of the old world, wedded to monarchical systems, and quick to predict the inability of the young Republic to stand alone. Those who have read the preceding pages will understand the importance to Kentucky of unrestricted navigation of the Mississippi river. They will also appreciate the surprise experienced by the people when, in 1802, on the termination of the terms of the treaty with Spain, it was learned that it would not be renewed and that there was no relief from this unexpected condition. The Spanish intendant, Morales, at New Orleans, issued a proclamation declaring that the privileges heretofore existing would be no longer extended though the stipulations of the former convention promised a continuance. Kentuckians were greatly excited by this information of a situation against which they were powerless. Not only in Kentucky was there a feeling of indignation but throughout the United States the people were aroused at this evidence of bad faith. But time at last makes all things even, and in 1898 Spain paid her indebtedness to the United States when her armed bands quitted forever the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. The indignation felt at the

bad faith of Spain was not diminished when it was learned that she had ceded her Louisiana possessions to France by the secret treaty of Ildefonso in 1800. So intense was the feeling in the United States that at the next meeting of congress the senate endeavored to adopt measures looking to the seizure of New Orleans and the adjacent territory of Louisiana, but this effort fortunately failed, as after events proved. From the bad faith of Spain in the matter of a continuation of the treaty guaranteeing the free navigation of the Mississippi river, and the subsequent secret sale of its Louisiana possessions to France, there finally resulted the acquisition by the United States of the vast territory included in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase. President Jefferson, with that wise foresight which characterized his political action, saw the great opportunities lying before him, and at once took the proper steps to acquire this territory. As Kentucky was more directly interested than any other state, Governor Garrard was kept advised of every move made by the federal government. There was sent to France as minister at this time, James Monroe of Virginia, a wise man of the sterling business qualities which fitted him for the commercial task submitted to him. That he was subsequently to become president of the young Republic had probably never entered his head when he sailed away to France. However that may be, when he reached France he lost no time in bringing to a conclusion the important task submitted to him. Napoleon, beset by foes on every hand, great genius that he was, could not conduct his campaigns with an empty military chest. Money he must have and in his commercial stock there was but little which he could sell. He needed millions and Monroe had millions to offer for Louisiana. April 30, 1803, the negotiations were closed and when Napoleon accepted the sixteen millions paid him for almost an empire, he said: "I renounce the control of this territory with

regret; to attempt to hold it against my enemies would be folly." The territory thus added to the United States amounted to about two million square miles of the richest and most productive acres now within the borders of the Union-Kentucky's blue grass lands alone excepted. General Wilkinson, representing the army, and Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi Territory, took formal possession of the new possessions in the name of the United States on December 20, 1803, and for the first time in the history of Kentucky's enterprising citizens, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers flowed unvexed to the sea.

It may be, as was charged at the time by those who were in opposition to everything, that President Jefferson had no constitutional right to involve the United States in this purchase nor to expend what was then deemed a vast sum in an unwarranted extension of the public territory. These persons may have been right under a strict construction of the Constitution. Upon this question much useless discussion has been had, but it has long since sunk into desuetude, the general public, if not the world at large, having agreed that in this instance, at least, the end justified the means. The man of today who would question the propriety of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory would be considered as fit for admission into an institute for the feebleminded.

In 1804, Mr. Jefferson was re-elected president, the contest for the position not having been marked by the excitement and bitterness of his initial campaign. The good people of Kentucky and elsewhere in the Union who have no particular fondness for the word Republican when used to designate a political

party, will be pleased to know that about this time the party represented by Mr. Jefferson began to be called the Democratic party, instead of the Republican party as it had hitherto been known. Shakespeare says "there's nothing in a name" but there are some people who do not agree with the poet.

In Mr. Jefferson's second cabinet, the Hon. John Breckinridge, author and mover of the celebrated Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, was appointed attorney general of the United States. His untimely death in 1806 robbed Kentucky and the Union of a man whose honesty of purpose and dignity of character, together with an intellect surpassed by none of his contemporaries, would have led to yet greater distinction, and the presidency was none too high a station for him to seek and win with the approval of an admiring and appreciative national constituency. Mr. Breckinridge was a native of Staunton, Virginia, and died at the early age of forty-six years. In his twenty-fifth year he married Miss Mary Hopkins Cabell, of Buckingham county, Virginia, and went to Albemarle county where he practised law for a time, subsequently removing to Kentucky and settling in Lexington, near which city, on his estate of Cabellsdale, he died in 1806. He was a great man with great possibilities; the first of his name in Kentucky to win distinction but by no means the last. It will be long until Kentucky forgets John Breckinridge, the lawyer and statesman; Robert J. Breckinridge, the great theologian; John C. Breckinridge, lawyer, statesman and soldier; Wm. C. P. Breckinridge, lawyer, soldier, statesman, and the most eloquent of Kentuckians, past or present.

Reference was made at an earlier period in this work of Aaron Burr, in connection with the "Spanish Conspiracy." During the summer of 1805, Burr appeared in Kentucky, visiting quietly for a time at Frankfort. He had prior to this fought the fatal duel with Hamilton, which, together with attacks upon the administration of Mr. Jefferson, had destroyed his political prospects. His was too active and brilliant a mind to remain quiescent. He must be always employed and must be first in every enterprise. After grasping at the presidency which for a time seemed within his reach, it must have been as gall and wormwood to sink to the second place and, as vice president, preside over the sleepy senate. How his eyes must have turned toward that other man higher up, and how he must have hated him.

Leaving Frankfort Burr leisurely visited the chief points in the then accessible West and finally turning southward from St. Louis, reached New Orleans. In August he was again in Kentucky, stopping for a time in Lexington. In 1806, he was again in the West. It would prove an interesting chapter could one write into history the thoughts, desires, and schemes of that haughty brain in which burned the fires of an insatiable ambition. It has been charged that in his dreams he saw himself an emperor seated upon a splendid throne surrounded by a court, the ruling prin

cess of which should be his beautiful daughter, Theodosia, the only being besides himself whom he ever truly loved. Sorrow's crown of sorrow was his to wear when this idol of his heart lost her life at sea. Whatever his dreams, whatever his ambitions, they came at last to naught and his name was writ in water, so far as success was concerned, and is remembered today, only to be execrated by most of those who choose to think of him at all. He ruined the lovable but gullible Irishman, Herman Blennerhassett, who listened and was lost. He brought suspicion upon General Wilkinson, whom the closest student of the history of that period, must hesitate to declare guiltless of complicity in Burr's schemes of empire; he drove from the bench of Kentucky's highest court Judge Sebastian; he escaped conviction on a charge of treason, and retiring to New York died at an advanced age, a disappointed man whose heart had been eaten by the desire for the highest place among men and burned to cinders by an unholy ambition.

Efforts to secure his indictment by the Federal grand jury at Frankfort proved unsuccessful though the brilliant United States district attorney, Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, represented the government. The magnetism of Burr, his attractiveness to the people of all classes, led to the failure to indict him being received with applause from those in the court room, while subsequently a public ball

was given in his honor. There were not lacking those who honored Daveiss for his brilliant efforts, unsuccessful though they were, and who had not been won by the personal graces of the wily Burr. To the district attorney, therefore, a public ball was also given. A somewhat unusual manner of expressing approval, one would say today, but one hundred years ago there were fewer people in Ken

HENRY CLAY

tucky than now by very many thousands, fewer means of entertainment, fewer opportunities for the coming together of kindred spirits. No trumpet's clarion call, summoning

a baron's retainers to the defense of his castle, met quicker response in the olden days, than did the sound of the violin's strings in those splendid days, one hundred years ago, when young Kentucky's heart beat rapturously and men were measured by their deeds and worth rather than by the miserable dollars they had accumulated.

In 1806, the legislature took up for consideration charges that Judge Sebastian of the court of appeals had, during his continuance in office, been a pensioner of the Spanish government, and appointed a committee of investigation. Judge Sebastian obligingly relieved this committee from the performance of some of its duties by promptly resigning when he

Vol. I-13.

learned that its report would be adverse to him and so he passed off the public stage.

And now comes upon the stage one of the master spirits of his time, a man destined to write his name broadly upon the political history of his country and to make Kentucky known wherever greatness and statesmanship are recognized and honored. Henry Clay had come to Kentucky at an early age from Hanover county, Virginia, where he was born April 12, 1777. He was the son of a Baptist minister of some local prominence, who died when his son was but five years old, leaving the future statesman and orator to the loving care of the mother who had a large family to rear and educate. Baptist ministers in those days, as in these, were not given to the accumulation of the world's goods. The mother was poor in all save those high attributes which have given to the world so many illustrious sons, and her family of children in after days, had occasion to recall with filial gratitude the sacrifices she had made in their behalf and the advantages she had given them from her slender store.

Henry Clay great man that he was-was not greater than the good woman whom he honored himself by worshiping as his mother. He grew to manhood, inured to hardships; labored with his hands to eke out the scanty store at home, studied as opportunity came, laying firmly the foundations on which he afterwards erected the superstructure of his great public career. He was the friend of the people, the rich and the humble, the poor and the oppressed. He was a southerner to the manner born, yet was among the first of the statesmen of the country to advocate emancipation of the slaves, not only because it was right but because, with prophetic vision, he saw in the future the woes to flow from the curse of slavery. How fortunate for the country had his suggestions been adopted; what bloodshed averted; what bitter aftermath of the struggle which came so few years after his death would have been averted. Above all

else, Mr. Clay was a patriot; he gave his great talents for the benefit of the whole people, and was greater than any political party; broader than any political platform. He favored internal improvements because they would favorably affect for good the greatest number compared to the money expended; he was the father of what came to be known as the American System, which is but another name for a tariff upon foreign importations. In the days of Mr. Clay, men who favored the policy of protection were not commonly termed by the opponents of that policy, as "robbers" and "thieves." Perhaps men have grown less courteous as the years have passed.

Mr. Clay's legal education began when he was nineteen years old, when he took up his residence with the attorney general of Virginia, Robert Brooke, with whom he studied so assiduously that at the end of a year's devotion to the principles of the law, he obtained a license to practice law from the court of appeals of his native state. Notwithstanding this short period of time devoted to legal study, Mr. Clay was equal to the demands made upon him when he met in the courts men older in years and in the practice than himself. No man ever met Henry Clay at the bar, on the hustings or on the floor of the senate who did not recognize a foeman worthy of his steel.

When Mr. Clay came to Lexington, he was less than twenty-one years of age. He continued his studies, evidently recognizing that there was yet much for him to learn, but made no effort to engage in the practice of his profession. He was studying not only his books but the people among whom he had cast his lot and one of whom he was henceforth to be, the most distinguished of them all. At last, he went to the bar, with modesty and expecting no great success. The Lexington bar was then, as now, an able one, and the young Virginian, delicate in form and apparently not robust in health, had giants to encounter. He met them fairly and perhaps to his own sur

prise, successfully. He has said of himself, "that he immediately rushed into a lucrative practice." To follow Mr. Clay in his career is not the purpose of this work. Volume after volume has been written, telling in eloquent terms of the great successes and the great disappointments that came to him. Here only a passing reference can be made. When he came to Kentucky Lexington was a storm center of politics; the bitterness of the contest between the Republicanism of Mr. Jefferson and the Federalism of Hamilton was at its height. There was no such thing as neutrality in politics then. Had there been, it would not have appealed to the positive character of Mr. Clay. He found a place suited to his beliefs in the Republican, or Democratic party of Jefferson, as it had now come to be called. The senseless bitterness of partisan politics is shown in the fact that Mr. Clay's bitterest political enemies in later life, those who most rabidly reviled him, were members of that same Democratic party in which he had spent the earlier days of his young manhood. The sentence against the man who dares to think for himself and to vote as he honestly believes is "anathema maranatha," a sentence usually declared by men who know not a principle of the party to which they belong and who represent only its prejudices.

In 1803 and again in 1806, Mr. Clay represented Fayette county in the state house of representatives, and here began his remarkable political career. In 1806, when but twentynine years old, he was elected to serve out the unexpired term of General Adair in the United States senate. This term covered but a single session of the senate. Returning home after the adjournment of congress, he was a third time elected to represent Fayette county in the legislature. The people of Kentucky when next they are called upon to choose men to represent them at Frankfort would do well to consider the wise example set them by Fayette county more than a hundred years ago. They