KENTUCKY
623
KENTUCKY
1790, that the territory was formally separated. By
an Act of 1 February, 1791, Congress authorized the
admission of Kentucky into the Union, the Act to be-
come effective 1 June, 1792. In April, 1792, the first
Constitutional Convention assembled at Danville in
what is now Boyle County, and adopted a constitu-
tion. The first Legislature met at Lexington in June,
1792, elected Isaac Shelby governor, and decided upon
Frankfort as the capital of the state. In 1799 a
second Constitution was adopted, which made the
governor and other state officers elective by the people.
The second Constitution remained in force from 1800
to 1S50, at which time a new Constitution was adopted
which remained in force until 1S91, when the present
Constitution became effective, upon its ratification by
the people.
One of the most interesting incidents in the history of Kentucky was what is known as the Old-Court and New-Court controversy. In the early days of Ken- tucky coin had been very scarce, and commerce among the people had been carried on generally by the l)ar- tering of merchandise. In 1S02, under the pretext of forming a company for insuring cargoes on the western wafers, the Kentucky Insurance Company obtained a chiirter from the Legislature in which there was fraud- ulently inserted a clause giving it the right to issue paper money. Thus commenced a period of wild-cat money. Between 1S06 and 1S20 more than forty banks were chartered with similar power and with an aggregate capital of $9,920,000. These banks were generally conducted in a very loose and unbusinesslike manner. The state was flooded with paper money, and a period of wild speculation foUowetl, resulting m the inevitable panic. To afford relief, the Legislature, between the years 1S22 and 1826, passed various laws, but the Court of .Appeals held them unconstitutional. In 1824 the Legislature, exasperated by the action of the Court of .\ppeals, attempted to legislate the court nut of ofhce and to establish a new court. One of the bitterest fights in the history of the state followed. The old court declined to recognize the right of the Legislature to oust it from office, and refuse to recog- nize as constitutional the court, established by the Legislature. In 1826 the issue of the old court and the new court brought about an election, characterized by the most intense excitement, which resulted in the triumph of the Old-Court party, and the election of a Legislature which repealed the Acts attempting to establish the new court.
Kentucky has taken a very active part in the mili- tary affairs of the nation. In the war of 1812 about 7000 troop.s — a number far in excess of Kentucky's
- )ro rata — served in the Federal army. A portion of
these soldiers served in the North under Harrison, and the balance in the South under Jackson. At the bat- tle of New Orleans fully one-fourth of Jackson's army was made up of Kentuckians. In the Mexican War Kentucky's quota should have been 2400 men, but she sent more than 10,000. And in the Civil War, when the people of the state were divided in their sympa- thies, about 80,000 men enlisted in the Federal army and about 40,000 in the Confederate army.
Tlie Know-nothing lodges made their appearance in Kentucky in 1854, and spread with the utmost rapidity; so much so that in 1855 the American, or Know-nothing. Party elected its candidates for gover- nor and the other state offices. Intense bitterness towards Catholics was manifested all over the state at this election, but in the city of Louisville fanatical frenzy reached its climax. A mob dominated the city on election day (Bloody Monday), Catholics were as- saulted, their property plundered, and their houses de- stroyed. Twenty-two persons killed, many wounded, and more than twenty houses of Catholics destroyed, was the sum of the outrages of this flay of horrors. The city government was under the control of the Ivnow-nothings and no serious effort was made to pro-
tect life or property. Insult and violence were the lot
of the Catholic people on all sides. Fortunately, the
good sense of the people rebelled against the domina-
tion of this party of violence; its candidates were de-
feated in the general election of the following year,
and within a few years the last vestige of the party dis-
appeared. (See also Louisville, Diocese of.)
Religio.n'. — Growth of the Church in Kcnluckii. — The Boone family were among the first Catholic set- tlers of Maryland, and upon the strength of this fact it has been contended that Daniel Boone was a Cath- oHc. Nothing, however, that is reconled of the life of this famous Kentucky pioneer seems to support this contention. In all probability. Dr. George Hart and William Coombes, who accompanied John Harrod, and settled at Harrodsburg in 1774, were the first
tPrestnt cathedral)
Catholic settlers. Dr. Hart, if not the first, was cer-
tainly one of the first physicians to settle in Kentucky.
He practised his profession at Harrodsburg until about
the year 1786, when he moved to the vicinity of
Bardstown, in what is now Nelson County, in order to
join his co-religionists who had recently emigrated
from Maryland.
The first distinctively Catholic body of immigrants came from Maryland in the year 1785. A league of sixty families, mostly from St. Mary's County in that state, was formed for the purpose of emigrating to Kentucky, and in the same year twent>'-five of these families, under the leadership of Basil Hayden, ar- rived in Kentucky and .settled near the present site of Bardstown (.N'clson County). In the following year a second settlement, about ten miles distant from the first, but on better lands, was begun liy Ftlward and Charles Beaven. Between this date and 1795 five separate bodies of Catholic immigrants settled in the vicinity of these earlier settlements, and a thriving Catholic colony was begun. In 17S6 one of the com- panies of immigrants, while on its way to join the first settlers in Nelson County, attracted liy the beauty and fertility of the country through which they were pass- ing, decided to go no farther, and .settled in what is now Scott County, near the centre of the famous Blue-
