Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Kelly, Edward" to "Kite" by Various
1822. A court decision denying the legal tender quality of the notes
5375 words | Chapter 10
issued by the Bank of the Commonwealth gave rise to a bitter
controversy which had considerable influence upon the political
history of the state. This bank failed in 1829. In 1834 the
legislature chartered the Bank of Kentucky, the Bank of Louisville and
the Northern Bank of Kentucky. These institutions survived the panic
of 1837 and soon came to be recognized as among the most prosperous
and the most conservative banks west of the Alleghanies. The state
banking laws are stringent and most of the business is still
controlled by banks operating under state charters.
_History._--The settlement and the development of that part of the
United States west of the Alleghany Mountains has probably been the most
notable feature of American history since the close of the Seven Years'
War (1763). Kentucky was the first settlement in this movement, the
first state west of the Alleghany Mountains admitted into the Union. In
1763 the Kentucky country was claimed by the Cherokees as a part of
their hunting grounds, by the Six Nations (Iroquois) as a part of their
western conquests, and by Virginia as a part of the territory granted to
her by her charter of 1609, although it was actually inhabited only by a
few Chickasaws near the Mississippi river and by a small tribe of
Shawnees in the north, opposite what is now Portsmouth, Ohio. The early
settlers were often attacked by Indian raiders from what is now
Tennessee or from the country north of the Ohio, but the work of
colonization would have been far more difficult if those Indians had
lived in the Kentucky region itself. Dr Thomas Walker (1715-1794), as an
agent and surveyor of the Loyal Land Company, made an exploration in
1750 into the present state from the Cumberland Gap, in search of a
suitable place for settlement but did not get beyond the mountain
region. In the next year Christopher Gist, while on a similar mission
for the Ohio Company, explored the country westward from the mouth of
the Scioto river. In 1752 John Finley, an Indian trader, descended the
Ohio river in a canoe to the site of Louisville. It was Finley's
descriptions that attracted Daniel Boone, and soon after Boone's first
visit, in 1767, travellers through the Kentucky region became numerous.
The first permanent English settlement was established at Harrodsburg in
1774 by James Harrod, and in October of the same year the Ohio Indians,
having been defeated by Virginia troops in the battle of Point Pleasant
(in what is now West Virginia), signed a treaty by which they
surrendered their claims south of the Ohio river. In March 1775 Richard
Henderson and some North Carolina land speculators met about 1200
Cherokee Indians in council on the Watauga river and concluded a treaty
with them for the purchase of all the territory south of the Ohio river
and between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. The purchase was named
Transylvania, and within less than a month after the treaty was signed,
Boone, under its auspices, founded a settlement at Boonesborough which
became the headquarters of the colony. The title was declared void by
the Virginia government in 1778, but Henderson and his associates
received 200,000 acres in compensation, and all sales made to actual
settlers were confirmed. During the War of Independence the colonists
were almost entirely neglected by Virginia and were compelled to defend
themselves against the Indians who were often under British leadership.
Boonesborough was attacked in April and in July 1777 and in August 1778.
Bryant's (or Bryan's) Station, near Lexington, was besieged in August
1782 by about 600 Indians under the notorious Simon Girty, who after
raising the siege drew the defenders, numbering fewer than 200, into an
ambush and in the battle of Blue Licks which ensued the Kentuckians lost
about 67 killed and 7 prisoners. Kentucky county, practically
coterminous with the present state of Kentucky and embracing all the
territory claimed by Virginia south of the Ohio river and west of Big
Sandy Creek and the ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, was one of three
counties which was formed out of Fincastle county in 1776. Four years
later, this in turn was divided into three counties, Jefferson, Lincoln
and Fayette, but the name Kentucky was revived in 1782 and was given to
the judicial district which was then organized for these three counties.
The War of Independence was followed by an extensive immigration from
Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina[6] of a population of which fully
95%, excluding negro slaves, were of pure English, Scotch or
Scotch-Irish descent. The manners, customs and institutions of Virginia
were transplanted beyond the mountains. There was the same political
rivalry between the slave-holding farmers of the Blue Grass Region and
the "poor whites" of the mountain districts that there was in Virginia
between the tide-water planters and the mountaineers. Between these
extremes were the small farmers of the "Barrens"[7] in Kentucky and of
the Piedmont Region in Virginia. The aristocratic influences in both
states have always been on the Southern and Democratic side, but while
they were strong enough in Virginia to lead the state into secession
they were unable to do so in Kentucky.
At the close of the War of Independence the Kentuckians complained
because the mother state did not protect them against their enemies and
did not give them an adequate system of local government. Nine
conventions were held at Danville from 1784 to 1790 to demand separation
from Virginia. The Virginia authorities expressed a willingness to grant
the demand provided Congress would admit the new district into the Union
as a state. The delay, together with the proposal of John Jay, the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs and commissioner to negotiate a commercial
treaty with the Spanish envoy, to surrender navigation rights on the
lower Mississippi for twenty-five years in order to remove the one
obstacle to the negotiations, aroused so much feeling that General James
Wilkinson and a few other leaders began to intrigue not only for a
separation from Virginia, but also from the United States, and for the
formation of a close alliance with the Spanish at New Orleans. Although
most of the settlers were too loyal to be led into any such plot they
generally agreed that it might have a good effect by bringing pressure
to bear upon the Federal government. Congress passed a preliminary act
in February 1791, and the state was formally admitted into the Union on
the 1st of June 1792. In the Act of 1776 for dividing Fincastle county,
Virginia, the ridge of the Cumberland Mountains was named as a part of
the east boundary of Kentucky; and now that this ridge had become a part
of the boundary between the states of Virginia and Kentucky they, in
1799, appointed a joint commission to run the boundary line on this
ridge. A dispute with Tennessee over the southern boundary was settled
in a similar manner in 1820.[8] The constitution of 1792 provided for
manhood suffrage and for the election of the governor and of senators by
an electoral college. General Isaac Shelby was the first governor. The
people still continued to have troubles with the Indians and with the
Spanish at New Orleans. The Federal government was slow to act, but its
action when taken was effective. The power of the Indians was overthrown
by General Anthony Wayne's victory in the battle of Fallen Timbers,
fought the 20th of August 1794 near the rapids of the Maumee river a few
miles above the site of Toledo, Ohio; and the Mississippi question was
settled temporarily by the treaty of 1795 and permanently by the
purchase of Louisiana in 1803. In 1798-1799 the legislature passed the
famous Kentucky Resolutions in protest against the alien and sedition
acts.
For several years the Anti-Federalists or Republicans had contended that
the administration at Washington had been exercising powers not
warranted by the constitution, and when Congress had passed the alien
and sedition laws the leaders of that party seized upon the event as a
proper occasion for a spirited public protest which took shape
principally in resolutions passed by the legislatures of Kentucky and
Virginia. The original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 was
prepared by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, although the fact that he
was the author of them was kept from the public until he acknowledged it
in 1821. They were introduced in the House of Representatives by John
Breckinridge on the 8th of November, were passed by that body with some
amendments but with only one dissenting vote on the 10th, were
unanimously concurred in by the Senate on the 13th, and were approved by
Governor James Garrard on the 16th. The first resolution was a statement
of the ultra states'-rights view of the relation of the states to the
Federal government[9] and subsequent resolutions declare the alien and
sedition laws unconstitutional and therefore "void and of no force,"
principally on the ground that they provided for an exercise of powers
which were reserved to the state. The resolutions further declare that
"this Commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are,
tamely to submit to undelegated and therefore unlimited powers in no man
or body of men on earth," and that "these and successive acts of the
same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive
these states into revolution and blood." Copies of the resolutions were
sent to the governors of the various states, to be laid before the
different state legislatures, and replies were received from
Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode
Island, Vermont and Virginia, but all except that from Virginia were
unfavourable. Nevertheless the Kentucky legislature on the 22nd of
November 1799 reaffirmed in a new resolution the principles it had laid
down in the first series, asserting in this new resolution that the
state "does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and
to that compact [the Constitution], agreeably to its obvious and real
intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution," but that
"the principle and construction contended for by sundry of the state
legislatures, that the General Government is the exclusive judge of the
extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing [short] of
_despotism_--since the discretion of those who administer the
government, and not the _Constitution_, would be the measure of their
powers," "that the several states who formed that instrument, being
sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the
infraction," and "that a _nullification by those sovereignties of all
unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument is the rightful
remedy_." These measures show that the state was Democratic-Republican
in its politics and pro-French in its sympathies, and that it was
inclined to follow the leadership of that state from which most of its
people had come.
The constitution of 1799 adopted the system of choosing the governor and
senators by popular vote and deprived the supreme court of its original
jurisdiction in land cases. The Burr conspiracy (1804-1806) aroused some
excitement in the state. Many would have followed Burr in a
filibustering attack upon the Spanish in the South-West, but scarcely
any would have approved of a separation of Kentucky from the Federal
Union. No battles were fought in Kentucky during the War of 1812, but
her troops constituted the greater part of the forces under General
William Henry Harrison. They took part in the operations at Fort Wayne,
Fort Meigs, the river Raisin and the Thames.
The Democratic-Republicans controlled the politics of the state without
any serious opposition until the conflict in 1820-1826, arising from the
demands for a more adequate system of currency and other measures for
the relief of delinquent debtors divided the state into what were known
as the relief and anti-relief parties. After nearly all the forty-six
banks chartered by the legislature in 1818 had been wrecked in the
financial panic of 1819, the legislature in 1820 passed a series of laws
designed for the benefit of the debtor class, among them one making
state bank notes a legal tender for all debts. A decision of the Clark
county district court declaring this measure unconstitutional was
affirmed by the court of appeals. The legislature in 1824 repealed all
of the laws creating the existing court of appeals and then established
a new one. This precipitated a bitter campaign between the anti-relief
or "old court" party and the relief or "new court" party, in which the
former was successful. The old court party followed the lead of Henry
Clay and John Quincy Adams in national politics, and became National
Republicans and later Whigs. The new court party followed Andrew Jackson
and Martin Van Buren and became Democrats. The electoral vote of the
state was cast for Jackson in 1828 and for Clay in 1832. During the next
thirty years Clay's conservative influence dominated the politics of the
state.[10] Kentucky voted the Whig ticket in every presidential election
from 1832 until the party made its last campaign in 1852. When the Whigs
were destroyed by the slavery issue some of them immediately became
Democrats, but the majority became Americans, or Know-Nothings. They
elected the governor in 1855 and almost succeeded in carrying the state
for their presidential ticket in 1856. In 1860 the people of Kentucky
were drawn toward the South by their interest in slavery and by their
social relations, and toward the North by business ties and by a
national sentiment which was fostered by the Clay traditions. They
naturally assumed the leadership in the Constitutional Union movement of
1860, casting the vote of the state for Bell and Everett. After the
election of President Lincoln they also led in the movement to secure
the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise or some other peaceful
solution of the difficulties between the North and the South.
A large majority of the state legislature, however, were Democrats, and
in his message to this body, in January 1861, Governor Magoffin, also a
Democrat, proposed that a convention be called to determine "the future
of Federal and inter-state relations of Kentucky;" later too, in reply
to the president's call for volunteers, he declared, "Kentucky will
furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern
States." Under these conditions the Unionists asked only for the
maintenance of neutrality, and a resolution to this effect was carried
by a bare majority--48 to 47. Some of the secessionists took this as a
defeat and left the state immediately to join the Confederate ranks. In
the next month there was an election of congressmen, and an
anti-secession candidate was chosen in nine out of ten districts. An
election in August of one-half the Senate and all of the House of
Representatives resulted in a Unionist majority in the new legislature
of 103 to 35, and in September, after Confederate troops had begun to
invade the state, Kentucky formally declared its allegiance to the
Union. From September 1861 to the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862
that part of Kentucky which is south and west of the Green River was
occupied by the Confederate army under General A. S. Johnston, and at
Russellville in that district a so-called "sovereignty convention"
assembled on the 18th of November. This body, composed mostly of
Kentucky men who had joined the Confederate army, passed an ordinance of
secession, elected state officers, and sent commissioners to the
Confederate Congress, which body voted on the 9th of December to admit
Kentucky into the Confederacy. Throughout the war Kentucky was
represented in the Confederate Congress--representatives and senators
being elected by Confederate soldiers from the state. The officers of
this "provisional government," headed by G. W. Johnson, who had been
elected "governor," left the state when General A. S. Johnston withdrew;
Johnson himself was killed at Shiloh, but an attempt was subsequently
made by General Bragg to install this government at Frankfort. General
Felix K. Zollicoffer (1812-1862) had entered the south-east part of the
state through Cumberland Gap in September, and later with a Confederate
force of about 7000 men attempted the invasion of central Kentucky, but
in October 1861 he met with a slight repulse at Wild Cat Mountain, near
London, Laurel county, and on the 19th of January 1862, in an engagement
near Mill Springs, Wayne county, with about an equal force under General
George H. Thomas, he was killed and his force was utterly routed. In
1862 General Braxton Bragg in command of the Confederates in eastern
Tennessee, eluded General Don Carlos Buell, in command of the Federal
Army of the Ohio stationed there, and entering Kentucky in August 1862
proceeded slowly toward Louisville, hoping to win the state to the
Confederate cause and gain recruits for the Confederacy in the state.
His main army was preceded by a division of about 15,000 men under
General Edmund Kirby Smith, who on the 30th of August defeated a Federal
force under General Wm. Nelson near Richmond and threatened Cincinnati.
Bragg met with little opposition on his march, but Buell, also marching
from eastern Tennessee, reached Louisville first (Sept. 24), turned on
Bragg, and forced him to withdraw. On his retreat, Bragg attempted to
set up a Confederate government at Frankfort, and Richard J. Hawes, who
had been chosen as G. W. Johnson's successor, was actually
"inaugurated," but naturally this state "government" immediately
collapsed. On the 8th of October Buell and Bragg fought an engagement at
Perryville which, though tactically indecisive, was a strategic victory
for Buell; and thereafter Bragg withdrew entirely from the state into
Tennessee. This was the last serious attempt on a large scale by the
Confederates to win Kentucky; but in February 1863 one of General John
H. Morgan's brigades made a raid on Mount Sterling and captured it; in
March General Pegram made a raid into Pulaski county; in March 1864
General N. B. Forrest assaulted Fort Anderson at Paducah but failed to
capture it; and in June General Morgan made an unsuccessful attempt to
take Lexington.
Although the majority of the people sympathized with the Union, the
emancipation of the slaves without compensation even to loyal owners,
the arming of negro troops, the arbitrary imprisonment of citizens and
the interference of Federal military officials in purely civil affairs
aroused so much feeling that the state became strongly Democratic, and
has remained so almost uniformly since the war. Owing to the panic of
1893, distrust of the free silver movement and the expenditure of large
campaign funds, the Republicans were successful in the gubernational
election of 1895 and the presidential election of 1896. The election of
1899 was disputed. William S. Taylor, Republican, was inaugurated
governor on the 12th of December, but the legislative committee on
contests decided in favour of the Democrats. Governor-elect Goebel was
shot by an assassin on the 30th of January 1900, was sworn into office
on his deathbed, and died on the 3rd of February. Taylor fled the state
to escape trial on the charge of murder. Lieutenant-Governor Beckham
filled out the unexpired term and was re-elected in 1903. In 1907 the
Republicans again elected their candidate for governor.
GOVERNORS OF KENTUCKY
Isaac Shelby Democratic-Republican 1792-1796
James Garrard " " 1796-1804
Christopher Greenup " " 1804-1808
Charles Scott " " 1808-1812
Isaac Shelby " " 1812-1816
George Madison* " " 1816
Gabriel Slaughter (acting) " " 1816-1820
John Adair " " 1820-1824
Joseph Desha " " 1824-1828
Thomas Metcalfe National " 1828-1832
John Breathitt* Democrat 1832-1834
James T. Morehead (acting) " 1834-1836
James Clark* Whig 1836
Charles A. Wickliffe (acting) " 1836-1840
Robert P. Letcher " 1840-1844
William Owsley " 1844-1848
John J. Crittenden[+] " 1848-1850
John L. Helm[+] Democrat 1850-1851
Lazarus W. Powell " 1851-1855
Charles S. Morehead American 1855-1859
Beriah Magoffin Democrat 1859-1862
James F. Robinson " 1862-1863
Thomas E. Bramlette " 1863-1867
John L. Helm* " 1867
John W. Stevenson[++] " 1867-1871
Preston H. Leslie[++] " 1871-1875
James B. McCreary " 1875-1879
Luke P. Blackburn " 1879-1883
J. Proctor Knott " 1883-1887
Simon B. Buckner " 1887-1891
John Y. Brown " 1891-1895
William O. Bradley Republican 1895-1899
William S. Taylor§ " 1899-1900
William Goebel* Democrat 1900
J. C. W. Beckham " 1900-1907
Augustus E. Willson Republican 1907-
* Died in office.
[+] Governor Crittenden resigned on the 31st of July to become
Attorney-General of the United States and John L. Helm served out
the unexpired term.
[++] Governor Stevenson resigned on the 13th of February 1871 to
become U.S. Senator from Kentucky. P. H. Leslie filled out the
remainder of the term and was elected in 1871 for a full term.
§ Taylor's election was contested by Goebel, who received the
certificate of election.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For descriptions of physical features and accounts of
natural resources see _Reports of the Kentucky Geological Survey_, the
_Biennial Reports of the Bureau of Agriculture, Labor and Statistics_,
the _Reports_ of the United States Census and various publications of
the U.S. Geological Survey, and other publications listed in Bulletin
301 (_Bibliography and Index of North American Geology_ for 1901-1905)
and other bibliographies of the Survey. For an early description, see
Gilbert Imlay, _A Topographical Description of the Western Territory
of North America_ (London, 3rd ed., 1797), in which John Filson's
"Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke" (1784) is
reprinted. For a brief description of the Blue Grass Region, see James
Lane Allen's _The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky and other Kentucky
Articles_ (New York, 1900). An account of the social and industrial
life of the people in the "mountain" districts is given in William H.
Haney's _The Mountain People of Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1906). For
administration, see the _Official Manual for the Use of the Courts,
State and County Officials and General Assembly of the State of
Kentucky_ (Lexington), which contains the Constitution of 1891; _The
Report of the Debates and Proceedings of the Convention ... of 1849_
(Frankfort, 1849); _The Official Report of the Proceedings and Debates
of the Constitutional Convention of 1890_ (4 vols., Frankfort, 1890);
B. H. Young, _History and Texts of Three Constitutions of Kentucky_
(Louisville, 1890); J. F. Bullitt and John Feland, _The General
Statutes of Kentucky_ (Frankfort and Louisville, 1877, revised
editions, 1881, 1887); and the _Annual Reports_ of state officers and
boards. For history see R. M. McElroy's _Kentucky in the Nation's
History_ (New York, 1909, with bibliography); or (more briefly) N. S.
Shaler's _Kentucky_ (Boston, 1885), in the American Commonwealths
Series. John M. Brown's _The Political Beginnings of Kentucky_
(Louisville, 1889) is a good monograph dealing with the period before
1792; it should be compared with Thomas M. Green's _The Spanish
Conspiracy: A Review of Early Spanish Movements in the Southwest_
(Cincinnati, 1891), written in reply to it. Among older histories are
Humphrey Marshall, _The History of Kentucky ... and the Present State
of the Country_ (2 vols., Frankfort, 1812, 1824), extremely
Federalistic in tone; Mann Butler, _History of Kentucky from its
Exploration and Settlement by the Whites to the close of the
Southwestern Campaign of 1813_ (Louisville, 1834; 2nd ed., Cincinnati,
1836), and Lewis Collins, _The History of Kentucky_ (2 vols., revised
edition, Covington, Ky., 1874), a valuable store-house of facts, the
basis of Shaler's work. E. D. Warfield's _The Kentucky Resolutions_ of
1798 (New York, 2nd ed., 1887) is an excellent monograph. For the
Civil War history see "Campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee," in the
7th volume of _Papers of the Military Historical Society of
Massachusetts_ (Boston, 1908); Thomas Speed, _The Union Cause in
Kentucky_ (New York, 1907); Basil W. Duke, _History of Morgan's
Cavalry_ (Cincinnati, 1867), and general works on the history of the
war. See also Alvin F. Lewis, _History of Higher Education in
Kentucky_, in Circulars of Information of the U.S. Bureau of Education
(Washington, 1899), and R. G. Thwaites, _Daniel Boone_ (New York,
1902). There is much valuable material in the _Register_ (Frankfort,
1903 seq.) of the Kentucky State Historical Society, and especially in
the publications of the Filson Club of Louisville. Among the latter
are R. T. Durrett's _John Filson, the first Historian of Kentucky_
(1884); Thomas Speed, _The Wilderness Road_ (1886); W. H. Perrin, _The
Pioneer Press of Kentucky_ (1888); G. W. Ranck, _Boonesborough: Its
Founding, Pioneer Struggles, Indian Experiences, Transylvania Days and
Revolutionary Annals_ (1901), and _The Centenary of Kentucky_ (1892),
containing an address, "The State of Kentucky: its Discovery,
Settlement, Autonomy and Progress in a Hundred Years," by Reuben T.
Durrett.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] North of the Black Patch is a district in which is grown a
heavy-leaf tobacco, a large part of which is shipped to Great
Britain; and farther north and east a dark tobacco is grown for the
American market.
[2] In the census of 1905 statistics for other than factory-made
products, such as those of the hand trades, were not included.
[3] For a full account of the "licks," see vol. i. pt. ii. of the
_Memoirs of the Kentucky Geological Survey_ (1876).
[4] The population of the state at the previous censuses was: 73,677
in 1790; 220,955 in 1800; 406,511 in 1810; 564,317 in 1820; 687,917
in 1830; 779,828 in 1840; 982,405 in 1850; 1,155,684 in 1860 and
1,321,011 in 1870.
[5] There were three previous constitutions--those of 1792, 1799 and
1850.
[6] Most of the early settlers of Kentucky made their way thither
either by the Ohio river (from Fort Pitt) or--the far larger
number--by way of the Cumberland Gap and the "Wilderness Road." This
latter route began at Inglis's Ferry, on the New river, in what is
now West Virginia, and proceeded west by south to the Cumberland Gap.
The "Wilderness Road," as marked by Daniel Boone in 1775, was a mere
trail, running from the Watauga settlement in east Tennessee to the
Cumberland Gap, and thence by way of what are now Crab Orchard,
Danville and Bardstown, to the Falls of the Ohio, and was passable
only for men and horses until 1795, when the state made it a wagon
road. Consult Thomas Speed, _The Wilderness Road_ (Louisville, Ky.,
1886), and Archer B. Hulbert, _Boone's Wilderness Road_ (Cleveland,
O., 1903).
[7] The "Barrens" were in the north part of the state west of the
Blue Grass Region, and were so called merely because the Indians had
burned most of the forests here in order to provide better pasturage
for buffaloes and other game.
[8] The southern boundary to the Tennessee river was surveyed in
1779-1780 by commissioners representing Virginia and North Carolina,
and was supposed to be run along the parallel of latitude 36° 30´,
but by mistake was actually run north of that parallel. By a treaty
of 1819 the Indian title to the territory west of the Tennessee was
extinguished, and commissioners then ran a line along the parallel of
36° 30´ from the Mississippi to the Tennessee. In 1820 commissioners
representing Kentucky and Tennessee formally adopted the line of
1779-1780 and the line of 1819 as the boundary between the two
states.
[9] This resolution read as follows: Resolved, that the several
states composing the United States of America are not united on the
principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but
that by compact under the style of a Constitution for the United
States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general
government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain
definite powers, reserving each state to itself the residuary mass of
right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general
government assumes undelegated powers its acts are unauthoritative,
void, and of no force: That to this compact each state acceded as a
state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming, as to itself,
the other party: That the government created by this compact was not
made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers
delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and
not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all
other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each
party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions
as of the mode and measure of redress.
[10] He died in 1852, but the traditions which he represented
survived.
KENYA, a great volcanic mountain in British East Africa, situated just
south of the equator in 37° 20´ E. It is one of the highest mountains of
Africa, its highest peak reaching an altitude of 17,007 ft. (with a
possible error of 30 ft. either way). The central core, which consists
of several steep pyramids, is that of a very denuded old volcano, which
when its crater was complete may have reached 2000 ft. above the present
summit. Lavas dip in all directions from the central crystalline core,
pointing to the conclusion that the main portion of the mountain
represents a single volcanic mass. From the central peaks, of which the
axis runs from W.N.W. to S.S.E., ridges radiate outwards, separated by
broad valleys, ending upwards in vast cirques. The most important ridges
centre in the peak Lenana (16,300 ft.) at the eastern end of the central
group, and through it runs the chief water-parting of the mountain, in a
generally north to south direction. Three main valleys, known
respectively as Hinde, Gorges and Hobley valleys, run down from this to
the east, and four--Mackinder, Hausberg, Teleki and Höhnel--to the west.
From the central peaks fifteen glaciers, all lying west of the main
divide, descend to the north and south, the two largest being the Lewis
and Gregory glaciers, each about 1 m. long, which, with the smaller Kolb
glacier, lie immediately west of the main divide. Most of the glaciers
terminate at an altitude of 14,800-14,900 ft., but the small César
glacier, drained to the Hausberg valley, reaches to 14,450. Glaciation
was formerly much more extensive, old moraines being observed down to
12,000 ft. In the upper parts of the valleys a number of lakes occur,
occupying hollows and rock basins in the agglomerates and ashes, fed by
springs, and feeding many of the streams that drain the mountain slopes.
The largest of these are Lake Höhnel, lying at an altitude of 14,000
ft., at the head of the valley of the same name, and measuring 600 by
400 yds.; and Lake Michaelson (12,700 ft.?) in the Gorges Valley. At a
distance from the central core the radiating ridges become less abrupt
and descend with a gentle gradient, finally passing somewhat abruptly,
at a height of some 7000 ft., into the level plateau. These outer slopes
are clothed with dense forest and jungle, composed chiefly of junipers
and _Podocarpus_, and between 8000 and 9800 ft. of huge bamboos. The
forest zone extends to about 10,500 ft., above which is the steeper
alpine zone, in which pasturages alternate with rocks and crags. This
extends to a general height of about 15,000 ft., but in damp, sheltered
valleys the pasturages extend some distance higher. The only trees or
shrubs in this zone are the giant _Senecio_ (groundsel) and _Lobelia_,
and tree-heaths, the _Senecio_ forming groves in the upper valleys. Of
the fauna of the lower slopes, tracks of elephant, leopard and buffalo
have been seen, between 11,500 and 14,500 ft. That of the alpine zone
includes two species of dassy (_Procavia_), a coney (_Hyrax_), and a rat
(_Otomys_). The bird fauna is of considerable interest, the finest
species of the upper zone being an eagle-owl, met with at 14,000 ft. At
11,000 ft. was found a brown chat, with a good deal of white in the
tail. Both the fauna and flora of the higher levels present close
affinities with those of Mount Elgon, of other mountains of East Africa
and of Cameroon Mountain. The true native names of the mountain are said
to be Kilinyaga, Doenyo Ebor (white mountain) and Doenyo Egeri (spotted
mountain). It was first seen, from a distance, by the missionary Ludwig
Krapf in 1849; approached from the west by Joseph Thomson in 1883;
partially ascended by Count S. Teleki (1889), J. W. Gregory (1893) and
Georg Kolb (1896); and its summit reached by H. J. Mackinder in 1899.
See J. W. Gregory, _The Great Rift-Valley_ (London, 1896); H. J.
Mackinder, "Journey to the Summit of Mount Kenya," _Geog. Jnl._, May
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