The Journal (4)

The next day...

"Wednesday the 4th day of April 1792"

"The Convention met according to Adjournment"

"The Convention according to the order of the day resolved itself into a Committee of the whole to take into farther consideration the matters to them referred.  Mr. Garrard was elected to the Chair and after sometime the President resumed the Chair and the Chairman reported that the Committee of the whole had taken into their farther consideration the matters to them referred and had made some farther progress therein but not having time to go thro' the same had directed him to move for leave to sit again, which was granted."

"Resolved That this Convention will Tomorrow again resolve itself into a Committee of the whole to take into their farther consideration the matters to them referred."

Wonder what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall.  Remember they were discussing "An Act concerning the erection of the District of Kentucky into an Independent State".  This Act was passed 18th day of December 1789 by the Assembly of the State of Virginia.  This Convention in Danville had been four years in the making.

An Act of Separation 1785 (6)

The petition continues:

"We firmly rely, that the undiminished Lustre of that Spark, which kindled the flame of Liberty, and guided the United States of America to Peace & Independence, will direct the Honourable Body, to whom we Appeal for redress of Manifest grievances, to embrace the Singular Occasion, reserved for them, by Devine Providence; to Originate a precedent, which may Liberalize the Policy of Nations and lead to the emancipation of enslaved millions.-"

Almost to the end...what a group of individuals to join in this petition.  Will try and identify the signers who are from Jefferson, Fayette, Lincoln, and Nelson counties in the "district of Kentucky" 1785.

Some Safe Place

At the first "Supreme Court" meeting (1783) of this new District of Kentucky, the court instructed the Attorney General (Walker Daniel) and the Clerk (John May) to fix on some safe place near Crow's station for holding the court.  They were likewise authorized to contract for building a jail of hewed or sawed logs, at least nine inches thick.   This arrangement ultimately gave rise to the town of Danville.

In case the said Daniel and May at their own expense to be built a log house large enough for a courtroom in one end, and two jury rooms in the other on the same floor, together with a jail, "...they would adjourn to the place so to be fixed on, and promised a conditional re-imbursement, in case they removed to any other place, either out of the funds allowed for the support of the court, if sufficient, if not, by using their influence with the legislature to have them paid."

What a deal.  You built it and they will come.

Abstracted from : Valley of the Ohio, by Mann Butler, Published by Kentucky Historical Society, 1971, p. 191.

The District of Kentucky

In March 1783, an improvement of the judiciary in this distant (western) part of Virginia was directed by the  legislature (of Virginia).  This legislature united the three counties (Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln) into one judicial district.  This was to be called the District of Kentucky.  This new judiciary was to contain a court of common law and chancery jurisdiction coextensive with its limits.  It was also to have criminal jurisdiction.  The court first meet at Harrodsburg, March 3, 1783 as the new, improved court. (A county court had been meeting for Lincoln county at Harrodsburg since January, 16, 1781.)  Apparently there was no house at Harrodsburg that could conveniently accommodate the court; and it was adjourned to a meeting house near the Dutch station, six miles from its initial place of meeting.  John May was was appointed the first clerk, and Walker Daniel was appointed by the Governor of Virginia Attorney General for the District of Kentucky.