vindication was had could any one of the judges be induced to resign, but after the storm had abated, Chief Justice Boyle to the great regret of lawyers and judges throughout the State retired from the court in November, 1826. His associates Judges Owsley and Mills resigned on the same day in December, 1828. Chief Justice Boyle died in 1834 and after his death the legislature organized a new county in the central portion of the State and named it in his honor. So great was his modesty that notwithstanding his emi nent services in the Kentucky Court of Ap peals, he declined to enter a wider field of usefulness. He twice refused appointment as associate justice of the United States Su preme Court, once as successor of Justice Thomas Todd and once as successor of Jus tice Robert Trimble. In his domestic life he was specially blessed. When in his twenty-third year, he married Elizabeth Tilforcl and the young couple went to house keeping in a small buck eye log house of two rooms which they built near Lancaster, Kentucky. This house had a most remarkable history. Its first occupant was John Boyle who was three times elected to congress, serving from 1803 to 1809, declining a fourth election and then becoming chief justice of Court of Ap peals. Samuel McKec next began housekeeping in the same house and he succeeded Boyle in congress serving from 1809 to 1817. George Robertson next began housekeeping in the same house and he succeeded McKee in congress, being elected to serve from 1817 to 1823, but declining the last term and subsequently becoming chief justice of the Court of Appeals. Finally Robert P. Letcher began house keeping in the same house and he was five times elected to congress, serving from 1823 to 1833, and later he was elected Governor of the State from 1840 to 1844. It is a matter of regret that so far as known
there is no picture of Chief Justice Boyle in existence. For many years a portrait of him hung in the Boyle County Court House at Danville, Kentucky, but it was destroyed or lost in a fire in 1858. The judicial career of Chief Justice Boyle is so closely blended with that of his asso ciates, Judges Owsley and Mills, that it would be unjust to omit mention of them, though no extended review of their lives can here be given. Many of the opinions of the court are given simply " per curiam," such was the unity of sentiment and expres sion in that tribunal. One of the most notable of their decisions is the case of Amy (a woman of color) v. Smith, decided June 19, 1822, and reported in i Littell, 326. This case was the fore runner of the " Dred Scott " decision made about thirty-five years later. In an elaborate opinion the Kentucky court held that a negro could not, under the Constitution of the Uni ted States, become a citizen of any State. The case is an interesting one, and is well worth the reading. The courage of the court, in holding cer tain acts of the legislature for the relief of delinquent debtors unconstitutional and void, marks an epoch in the history of the State judiciary to which all its citizens to this day point with pride. Despite numerous throats of popular vengeance the three judges boldly delivered separate opinions concurring in the result. The private lives of these men were in keeping with the public record made by them. In December, 1828, Judges Owsley and Mills resigned their offices. Governor Metcalfe immediately reappointed them, but the senate failed to confirm the nominations because of a lingering belief that good feel ing would be sooner restored throughout the State by the selection of other judges. Thereupon they both retired to private life and subsequently took up the practice of law. Judge Mills soon died of an apo plectic stroke on December 6, 1831, but Judge Owsley survived to the ripe old age
