404 



KENTUCKY. 



The first steps were, however, taken the bene- 

 fit, in fact, secured and, on being communi- 

 cated to the Government, led to the appointment 

 of the Hon. Caleb Gushing, as special envoy, by 

 President Tyler, in May, 1843, who proceeded 

 to China and there negotiated the treaty which 

 was ratified January 17, 1845, and proclaimed 

 April 18, 1846, by which treaty the right of 

 trade and other facilities proffered by the Chi- 

 nese authorities to Kearny were secured to 

 the citizens of the United States. On leaving 

 China, on his return home, he stopped at the 

 Sandwich Islands in June, 1843, in time to 

 learn that a provisional treaty had been made 

 between King Kamehameha and the repre- 

 sentative of the British Government, for the 

 transfer of his dominions to the British crown 

 without reference to the rights or interests of 

 the United States or her inhabitants. Against 

 such a cession he immediately protested, no- 

 tifying both the King and Captain Lord George 

 Paulet, the British representative, that they 

 would be held respectively liable for .all inju- 

 ries to American commerce and American mer- 

 chants. Without being able to remain until 

 a definite settlement of this difficulty could be 

 effected, he left the Sandwich Islands on his 

 return, and reached Norfolk April 30, 1844. 

 He was afterward engaged in various shore 

 duties, embracing the command of the New 

 York station; the presidency of one of the 

 naval courts of inquiry under the act of Jan- 

 uary 16, 1857, and member of the Light-house 

 Board. He was also a member of the New 

 Jersey Board of Pilot Commissioners, and spent 

 the last years of his life in Perth Amboy, where 

 he died, Nov. 29, 1868, in the paternal home- 

 stead, where he was born, and which he had 

 retained through life as his residence and home. 

 KENTUCKY. The Legislature of Ken- 

 tucky, which assembled on the first Monday 

 of December, 1867, continued its sessions until 

 the 10th of March, 1868, and during that time 

 enacted no less than 1,236 laws, and adopted 

 40 series of joint resolutions. A large number 

 of the statute's were for the relief or the benefit 

 of individuals, and many others simply author- 

 ized the formation of corporations for business 

 purposes or enterprises of internal improve- 

 ment. Several acts were passed providing for 

 an increase of the facilities of communication 

 from one part of the State to another, some in 

 the interest of railroads and turnpikes, and a 

 number for the improvement of the river navi- 

 gation. Some laws were made for the benefit 

 of the schools and benevolent institutions of 

 the Commonwealth, but none of these made 

 any material change in the organization or ex- 

 istence of such institutions, and no statutes of 

 great interest in general matters of govern- 

 ment and public administration were enacted 

 during the session. Mr. Guthrie, one of the 

 Senators of Kentucky in the Federal Congress, 

 sent his resignation to the Governor, and 

 Thomas C. McCreery was elected by the Gen- 

 eral Assembly as his successor. 



Some of the Representatives to Congress 

 chosen in the State of Kentucky having been 

 refused admittance to their seats on the first 

 presentation of their certificates of election, the 

 Legislature sent to Congress a memorial of 

 protest " against the great constitutional wrong 

 and manifest injustice " which had been done 

 the people of the State " in failing and refusing 

 to admit their just representation on the floor 

 of the House of Representatives of the Con- 

 gress of the United States, on the presenta- 

 tion of their legal certificates of election, duly 

 authenticated, and each of said Representatives 

 possessing all the qualifications prescribed by 

 the Constitution of the United States." The 

 memorial argues at some length respecting the 

 authority of Congress over the qualifications 

 of its own members, and ends with the follow- 

 ing declarations : 



1. That, in a Republican Government, the right of 

 representation is a franchise which the people may 

 not safely relinquish, and of which they cannot be 

 deprived and remain free. The right of a people to 

 representation implies the right for them to choose 

 their Representatives, and a denial of the latter in- 

 volves a destruction of the former ; hence, a govern- 

 ment is no longer republican when this right of the 

 people is destroyed. 



2. The Constitution of the United States, which is 

 the creature of the States, and which constitutes the 

 only bond of the Federal Union, prescribes the quali- 

 fications which must be possessed by members of 

 Congress, also the mode of choosing them, and the 

 right conferred by the Constitution on each House 

 of Congress to ''judge of the election, qualification, 

 and returns of its members," and does not authorize 

 the denial of representation to the people of a State or 

 district, nor authorize the application of any new or 

 additional tests or qualifications for membership. 



3. To reject a representative duly chosen, because 

 of any political sentiments which he may have held 

 or may hold, is at once a flagrant violation of the 

 Constitution, and a ruthless annihilation of freedom 

 itself; because freedom consists in the right to be 

 represented by whomsoever a majority may select : 

 Provided, There be no disqualification, in the mem- 

 ber so chosen, embraced within the provisions of the 

 Federal Constitution. 



4. Each and every of the Representatives elected 

 "by the people of the State of Kentucky to the For- 

 tieth Congress was not only duly elected, but pos- 

 sessed all the qualifications required by the Consti- 

 tution, and the exclusion for a single day of any one 

 of them ; upon the grounds alleged by the controlling 

 power in the House of Representatives, was an in- 

 fraction of the constitutional rights of the people, 

 which demands our most unqualified denunciation ; 

 and, in the name of an injured and outraged people, 

 we do most solemnlv and earnestly protest against 

 such action, which, if persisted in, and established as 

 the policy of the Government, will render the elec- 

 tive franchise a farce, and what we have been taught 

 to regard as constitutional liberty "but a solemn mock- 

 ery. 



Just before the close of the session, both 

 branches of the General Assembly joined in the 

 following resolutions on the subject of general 

 amnesty : 



Kentucky, as a sovereign State in the Federal 

 Union, and as deeply interested in the common weal 

 of the whole country, has not only the right, but it is 

 her solemn duty, to declare her convictions upon all 

 questions of public policy. The citizens of Kentucky 

 are deeply concerned in the peace, harmony, and 



