424 



KENTUCKY. 



the political organization in which they vote, 

 etc., and that otherwise they are guilty of a 

 misdemeanor, and can be fined. An amend- 

 ment to the law exempting property from exe- 

 cution exempts the tools, materials, and pro- 

 ductions of mechanics with families to the 

 value of $200. The articles to be exempted 

 shall be appraised by three disinterested house- 

 keepers. Another law requires a horse worth 

 more than $150, or a cow and calf worth more 

 than $60, claimed to be exempt under the gen- 

 eral law of executions, to be appraised in like 

 manner and sold, the excess going to the cred- 

 itor. Liens on foundries and manufactories 

 for labor or supplies were abolished except 

 for wages due within sixty days of an assign- 

 ment. A /bill was passed allowing salvage to 

 the taker-up of timber, etc., adrift on rivers. 



The act of 1873 authorizing a reward for the 

 killing of wolves, foxes, and wildcats was re- 

 pealed. A poison bill, which was passed, re- 

 quires every person who sells a poison to label 

 it with the name of the article, the word 

 " poison," and his name and address ; to satis- 

 fy himself that the purchaser is of age and 

 desires the article for a lawful purpose, and to 

 keep a register in which each sale and the ad- 

 dress of the buyer is entered. 



The act to enable the United States to ac- 

 quire lands for the purpose of constructing 

 canals, locks, dams, etc., for the establishment 

 of slack-water navigation on the rivers of the 

 State, provides that the Government can pur- 

 chase land for such purposes whenever appro- 

 priations are made by Congress for locks, per- 

 manent or movable dams, dams with adjustable 

 chutes, or canals for the improvement of any 

 navigable river; and that, in case the Govern- 

 ment can not come to an agreement with the 

 owners, it can apply to a court of record in or 

 nearest to the county for the condemnation of 

 the land. The same act imposes a penalty for 

 injuring the property acquired under its pro- 

 visions. It also transfers to the United States 

 the five locks and dams constructed "by the 

 State in the Kentucky River. For the im- 

 provement of this river the last Congress ap- 

 propriated $100,000, and a further appropria- 

 tion of about $130,000 was made by Congress 

 in 1880. Other special acts were passed to 

 cede the right to acquire and condemn land, 

 giving concurrent jurisdiction over the same, 

 to the United States, for the improvement of 

 Big Sandy and Licking Rivers, for the construc- 

 tion of a canal around the falls of Cumberland 

 River, and for other similar improvements. 



A large number of railroad charters were 

 granted to companies engaging to carry through 

 lines between the Atlantic and the Western 

 States, through the State, and to others prom- 

 ising to develop the valuable, but backward, 

 eastern section of the State. , 



Among the appropriations made were $30,000 

 for additional buildings for the Institution for 

 the Deaf and Dumb; $38,650 for an exten- 

 sion of the Lunatic Asylum at Anchorage; 



$500 per annum for the Agricultural Bureau. 

 The Geological Survey was continued, for 

 which $10,600 was appropriated $4,000 for 

 the geological survey, $2,000 for topographi- 

 cal labors and the State map, and the rest 

 for photography, office expenses, examina- 

 tion of water-power and forest resources and 

 of building-stones, and for chemical analysis. 

 The State Geologist, who is also the Com- 

 missioner of Emigration, is to hold his office 

 two years, one being appointed by the Gover- 

 nor and approved by the Senate at each meet- 

 ing of the Legislature. He is to keep in his 

 office a record of lands for sale, lease, or colo- 

 nization, the owners paying a fee of $2 for 

 each entry, and to collect and disseminate in- 

 formation regarding the utilization of the raw 

 products of the State. The Fish Commission 

 was continued, and $5,000 appropriated for its 

 objects. 



A bill to strike out the word " white " from 

 the jury law was passed by the Senate on the 

 last day of the session, but was not acted upon 

 by the House. The question of the constitu- 

 tionality of the law came up in the courts dur- 

 ing the year on writs of habeas corpus sued out 

 by negroes indicted and sentenced under the ex- 

 isting law. The subject first arose in the Unit- 

 ed States Circuit Court at Covington. Judge 

 Barr granted a writ of habeas corpus to two col- 

 ored men, William Gillis and John Davies, in- 

 dicted in the Bourbon County Circuit Court 

 for malicious shooting, on the ground that they 

 could not be legally indicted and tried in that 

 Court. The Governor was requested by many 

 to call an extra session of the Legislature for 

 the particular purpose of amending the law to 

 make it conform to the fourteenth amendment 

 of the United States Constitution, as it was 

 feared that no negro malefactors could be tried 

 or convicted before that was done. But the 

 difficulty was obviated by the decision rendered 

 by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In this 

 Court the constitutionality of the statutes pro- 

 viding that grand and petit jurors must be white 

 citizens was tested in the case, on appeal, of 

 Commonwealth vs. James Johnson. Follow- 

 ing the decision of the United States Supreme 

 Court in the case of Strander w. the State of 

 West Virginia, the Court decided that portion 

 of the jury law excluding colored persons from 

 jury service unconstitutional ; the other quali- 

 fications that jurors shall be "housekeepers, 

 at least twenty-one years of age, sober, tem- 

 perate, and of good demeanor " remaining in 

 force. In the opinion, Judge Cofer explained 

 the import of the decision as follows : 



This question has not been heretofore passed on by 

 this Court, and as the duty of selecting: and summon- 

 ing jurors is devolved upon merely ministerial officers, 

 we ought to assume that, in performing their duties, 

 they obeyed the statute as enacted by the Legislature, 

 and that they excluded colored persons from the jury 

 because the statute declared them to be incompetent, 

 and consequently that the appellee was deprived by 

 the statute of a right which the Supreme Court holds 

 is secured to hirn'l>y the Constitution. 



