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KENTUCKY. 



of March. There were 1,015 acts and 41 joint 

 resolutions passed, a very large proportion of 

 which were of a private or special character, 

 and nearly all the rest of purely local interest. 

 Many of the special acts were to prohibit the 

 sale of spirituous liquors in particular locali- 

 ties, or to authorize a tax for schools in single 

 towns or counties. The bill which elicited 

 the greatest amount of discussion was one per- 

 mitting the Cincinnati Southern Railroad to 

 cross the State. This appears not to have be- 

 come a law, owing to the inability of the two 

 Houses to agree as to the restrictions to be 

 placed upon the company. An act was passed 

 "to regulate foreign corporations engaged in 

 operating railroads in the State of Kentucky." 

 It requires all such corporations to adopt an 

 order or resolution "authorizing its agents to 

 contract and be contracted with in the name 

 of such corporation, and further agreeing that 

 all citizens resident, and bodies corporate of 

 this State, having claims or demands against 

 said corporation, may sue for, and prosecute 

 to final judgment, all such matters in any of 

 the courts of competent jurisdiction in any of 

 the counties through which said road may be 

 constructed, subject, however, to the same 

 right of removal, by change of venue, as is or 

 may be given to citizens of this State, which 

 authority shall be put to record in the County 

 Court Clerk's office of some one of the coun- 

 ties through which said road runs, a certified 

 copy of which shall be competent evidence in 

 any of the courts of this Commonwealth." If 

 they fail to comply with this provision, or 

 cause any suit or matter of litigation with a 

 citizen or corporation of the State to be re- 

 moved from the State court to a United States 

 District or Circuit Court, they "shall there- 

 after be prohibited from doing business in this 

 State; and all contracts thereafter made by 

 such corporation, through its agents, shall be 

 null and void as to such parties ; and all par- 

 ties and persons continuing to contract and 

 do business in this State, either in their own 

 name or that of others, in violation of this act, 

 shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 for each day he or they shall so offend may, 

 upon indictment, be fined not less than fifty 

 dollars, and imprisoned not less than one week 

 for each day they so offend, either or both, in 

 the discretion of a petit jury." Any discrim- 

 ination in carrying freight on such roads is 

 prohibited. 



An act was also passed making some im- 

 portant changes in the laws of evidence. It 

 declares that no person shall be disqualified as 

 a witness in a suit on account of his interest 

 in the result, that "neither husband nor wife 

 shall be competent for or against each other, 

 or concerning any communication made by 

 one to the other during marriage," and that 

 no one shall be incompetent as a witness on 

 account of his or her race or color. 



An act was also passed providing for the 

 election of representatives in Congress by bal- 



lot, which makes the State law conform to an 

 act of Congress of February 28, 1871. All 

 other votes in Kentucky are still given vixa 

 voce. 



A provision is made for appointing persons 

 to take charge of pauper lunatics who cannot 

 be taken at either of the asylums, such per- 

 sons to be paid $200 a year. 



The State was laid off into ten districts, for 

 congressional representation. 



The subject of providing for the encourage- 

 ment of immigration occupied much attention, 

 but no plan was adopted. 



The law exempting homesteads from sale for 

 debt was extended in its operation to "every 

 lona-fide house-keeper with a family, irrespec- 

 tive of race or color." 



An act amending the charter of the city of 

 Lexington was vetoed by the Governor, on 

 account of the following provisions : 



That an act, entitled " An act to amend the char- 

 ter of the city of Lexington, approved March 3, 

 1870," be so amended that the councilmen elected 

 under the provisions of an act entitled "An act to 

 r,mend the charter of the city of Lexington, approved 

 January 24, 1870," shall remain in office for four 

 years from the first Thursday after the first Satur- 

 day in March, 1873, and until their successors are 

 duly elected and qualified: Provided, however, That 

 the term of office of one councilman from each ward 

 of the city shall expire on the first Thursday after 

 the first Saturday in March, 1873, and of each suc- 

 ceeding year ; and it shall be determined by lot, to 

 be drawn among the councilmen from each respec- 

 tive ward, who shall retire from office as above pre- 

 scribed : And provided further, That the councilmen 

 so retiring shall be deemed ineligible to the office of 

 councilman for one year thereafter. 



SECTION 2. That upon the termination of the term 

 of office of four councilmen, as provided for in the 

 first section of this act, the eight remaining council- 

 men shall, on the first Thursday after the"first Sat- 

 urday in March, 1873, and in each succeeding year, 

 elect, by ballot, one councilman from each ward in 

 the city, to fill the vacancies thus occasioned, and 

 whose term of office shall be three years from said 

 date, and until their successors are duly elected and 

 qualified. 



These elections, he said, contained "a legis- 

 lation which is not only extraordinary, but in 

 my opinion violative, if not of the letter, at 

 least the spirit, of the constitution ; a legis- 

 lation not in harmony with the genius of our 

 republican institutions, and certainly subver- 

 sive of the time-honored traditions and cher- 

 ished principles of American democracy. They 

 apply, as it seems to me, to a municipal 

 arena, measures kindred to those which we 

 have so strongly and justly reprobated when 

 imposed by Federal authority upon the South- 

 ern States. However grieved and indignant 

 we may be, that the real proprietors of a city 

 distinguished for its intelligence, culture, and 

 wealth, should be controlled by the mere 

 numerical strength of an ignorant and thrift- 

 less race, just emerged from slavery; and, 

 however anxious we may be to relieve them, 

 we should bear in mind that, though we nuiy 

 for a time repress, we can never truly and 

 effectually remedy a political evil by excep- 



