University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 1972 The County Courts in Antebellum Kentucky Robert M. Ireland University of Kentucky Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Ireland, Robert M., "The County Courts in Antebellum Kentucky" (1972). United States History. 65. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/65 This page intentionally left blank ROBERT M. IRELAND County Courts in Antebellum Kentucky The University Press of KentacRy ISBN 978-0-8131-531 1-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 71-160045 COPYRIGHT 0 1972 BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky State College, Morehead State University, Murray State Univer- sity, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Ofices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 The Anatomy of the County Courts 7 2 The Judicial Business of the County Courts 18 3 The Financial Business of the County Courts 35 4 The Politics of the County Courts 62 5 County Court Patronage 79 6 The County Courts and the Legislature 105 7 Town and Country 123 8 Deficiencies and Reform I45 Conclusion 171 Governors of Kentucky, 1792-1851 '77 Kentucky County Maps 178 An Essay on Authorities 181 Index 187 This page intentionally left blank Preface r IS PERHAPS IRONIC that some of the most outstanding work in pre-Civil War American historiography con- I cerns national political institutions which touched only lightly the daily lives of most citizens. Still more ap- parent is the scholarly neglect of the forms of state and county government closest to the people, the institutions which affected their mundane but urgent problems, from business schemes to party patronage to the care of orphans and death settlements. Although a handful of historians have written monographs or essays on the subject of county government, their studies have been essentially digests of duties and powers based upon the dry bones of legislative statutes.l Two exceptions to this tendency are Charles S. Sydnor's works on county government in colonial Virginia and the antebellum South and Merle E. Curti's intensive examination of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, between 1854 and 1880. While both writers do identify basic themes of county constitutional politics, their accounts are nonethe- less parts of works much larger in scope and are necessarily brief and somewhat s~perficial.~Aside from Sydnor and Curti, historians of the last two decades have, in large part, left the study of county government to political scientists, whose efforts are usually devoted almost exclusively to anal- yses of the contemporary scene.3 As for Kentucky, studies of the history of her county gov- ernment are almost nonexistent. They invariably comprise an insubstantial part of larger discussions of current pro- cedures and weaknesses. In some cases these summaries of the historical background of county government are mis- leading and generally unsatisfactory, and all of them leave much work to be done. The numerous histories of Ken- [ viii ] Preface tucky's many counties are equally unenlightening with re- gard to the county courts. Most of them resort to a brief summary of delegated powers and lengthy quotations from court records. The purpose of this book is to correct partially this his- toriographical deficiency by identifying the place of the county courts in the constitution and politics of antebellum Kentucky. It seeks not only to define the powers and prac- tices of the county courts but also to establish their relation- ship with county officials, the legislature, the governor, the higher judicial tribunals, and the towns and cities of the state. An effort is made to estimate the socioeconomic posi- tion of the county court justices and to measure the pro- found impact of two-party politics on the processes of local government. Finally, the study explores the grievances and weaknesses which attached themselves to the county court system, thus revealing why at the mid-nineteenth century it became the object of major constitutional reform. 1 See, for example, Paul W. Wager, County Government and Administra- tion in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1928) and Albert Ogden Porter, County Government in Virginia: A Legislative History, 1607-1904 (New York, 1947). 2 Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making: Political Practices in Washington's Virginia (New Yo,rk, 1965), pp. 74-85, and The Development of Southern Sectionalism, 1819-1848 (Baton Rouge, La., 1948), pp. 33-53; Curti et al., The Making of an American Community: A Case Study of De- mocracy in a Frontier County (Stanford, Calif., 1959). pp. 259-94. 3 See, for example, Clyde F. Snider, Local Government in Rural America (New York, 1957) and Herbert Sydney Duncambe, County Government in America (Washington, D.C., 1966). ANY PEOPLE aided me in the preparation of this book. I am especially grateful to two of my col- M leagues at the University of Kentucky, to the late Dr. Albert D. Kirwan and to Dr. Steven A. Chan- ning, both of whom read my manuscript in its entirety and offered many valuable suggestions. I am indebted to Profes- sor Jack M. Sosin of the University of Nebraska who as my major advisor contributed immensely to my knowledge of history and my ability to deal with it. I am also grateful to Professor James A. Rawley of the University of Nebraska who served as an inspiring teacher and a helpful counselor. Dr. Jacqueline Bull, head of Special Collections at the Uni- versity of Kentucky Library, Paul A. Willis, librarian of the University of Kentucky College of Law, and their able asso- ciates assisted me in innumerable ways. Also helpful were the late G. Glenn Clift and Miss Joan Brookes-Smith of the Kentucky State Historical Society; James Bentley of the Fil- son Club; Professor James F. Hopkins, Professor Mary Wil- ma Hargreaves, and Burton Milward of the Papers of Henry Clay; and Charles L. Atcher, University of Kentucky Archi- vist. Dr. Thomas D. Clark, formerly of the University of Kentucky, currently Distinguished Professor of History at Indiana University, warmly endorsed my proposal to write on the county courts and enthusiastically supported my project throughout its preparation. I wish to thank the Uni- versity of Kentucky Research Foundation for providing me with two summer research fellowships and other funds which greatly facilitated the research, writing, and typing of my manuscript. Parts of Chapters 4, 5, and 6 appeared in The Reuiew of Politics, Mid-America, The Filson Club Quarterly, and The American Journal of Legal History, [XI Acknowledgments and I am grateful to the editors of these journals for per- mitting me to publish this material. The first two maps are reproduced from Kentucky: A Pictorial History, edited by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. (Lexington, 1971). I also extend recognition to my three daughters, Suzanne, Julie, and Betsy, whose ability to tangle up reels of micro- film never ceased to amaze me, and to my wife, Sandra, who on many occasions endured the battles of the county courts, typed several drafts of the manuscript, and contributed in countless other ways to its completion. I thank my wife's parents who, for the past eight summers, have provided a summer retreat for writing and reflection. Above all I am indebted to my mother and father whose support and un- derstanding made my transition from law to history infi- nitely more enjoyable. It is to them that I dedicate this book. This page intentionally left blank The Corny Courts in Antebellam Kentucky HE PRINCIPAL OFFICERS of county government in Kentucky, as throughout colonial America and Tthe antebellum South, were the justices of the peace, and the principal institution, which the magistrates formed collectively, was the county court. This institution as it existed in Kentucky was the end product of centuries of constitutional development, having been most strongly influenced by English tradition. Englishmen invented the county, the commission of peace, and the justices who im- plemented it. During the late middle ages and throughout the early modern period these local magistrates were em- powered individually or in groups to administer the poor laws, supervise the highways, hear petty criminal and civil cases, suppress riots, and generally to perform the business of governing the most significant local unit of the English constitution, the c0unty.l It is not surprising that colonial America adopted much of her local government from her imperial mistress, Eng- land. In the colonies of New England and the Middle At- lantic region, county courts, comprising justices of the peace, shared the responsibilities of local control with town- ships. In the southern colonies the courts completely over- shadowed the towns and were the principal agents of the local constitutions. American justices of the peace per- formed most of the main functions of their English fore- bears, including the licensing of ferries and taverns and the punishment of vagrants. In most of the colonies the justices of the peace were appointed, usually by the governor, with the advice and consent of his council. In Virginia the mag- istrates were self-perpetuating, filling vacancies on the county courts themselves. [21 Introduction With independence and maturing, the nature of county government in the new nation gradually changed, especial- ly in New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the Old West.