The Court of Appeals of Kentucky. his term expired. He was a candidate for re-election but General Stephen G. Burbridge, then commanding the Federal troops in Kentucky, charged him with disloyalty to the Union, had his name stricken from the poll books and refused to allow him to be voted for. He even ordered the arrest of Judge Duvall, thus forcing him to leave the State and go to Canada. So great was the indignation in Ken tucky over the intervention of the Federal troops in a state election, that ex-Chief Jus tice Robertson was brought out in opposi tion to the candidate of the military power and triumphantly elected, though the voters of the district had only a few hours' notice of his candidacy. After his return from Canada, Judge Duvall resumed the practice of law at George town. In 1866 he was appointed reporter of the Court of Appeals and he removed to Frankfort. He edited and published the two volumes of Kentucky reports bearing his name under specially difficult circum stances, the records of the courts having been destroyed by fire in the clerk's office that year, with the exception of such opinions as were in Judge Duvall's posses sion and reported by him. In August, 1866, the election of the clerk of the Court of Appeals came on. This was the first state election after the Civil War and the Democrats throughout the State were aroused in a determined effort to regain their ascendency. Judge Duvall was put forward by them as their strongest candi date and, despite the bayonet rule that had once prevailed against him (possibly, be cause of it), he was chosen by an over whelming majority of 50,000 votes. It took nearly thirty years for the Republicans of the State to recover from the effects of the defeat. After his term of office as clerk expired, Judge Duvall again took up the practice of law in Frankfort, being retained in many important cases before the Court of Ap
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peals. He died in 1898, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. In his person, Judge Duvall was a very small man, less than five feet in height. He had, however, a powerful voice and he was a most eloquent stump speaker. It is said that in one of his political canvasses, he had just finished a very strong appeal to the voters assembled at an old-time barbecue and had retired to the shade of a neighbor ing tree to rest on the grass, when a sturdy six-footer rural citizen came up and after cir culating around him slowly, said, " Well, I'll be darned, if you ain't the biggest man to be such a little one, that I ever seen!" In this estimate the people of Kentucky have agreed with the countryman. JOSHUA F. BULLITT.
On March 20, 186 1, the subject of this sketch was elected Judge of the Court of Appeals to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge Henry C. Wood. He had previously been a candidate for the same office in 1857, against Judge Wheat, but he had then been defeated by the narrow mar gin of thirty-seven votes. In August, 1864, he became Chief Jus tice of the court, but, along with Judge Duvall and many other prominent citizens of the State, he had incurred the displeasure of the military dictator then in power in Ken tucky and he was arrested and sent out of the State. He returned and resumed his place on the bench but after two or three weeks he was compelled by threats of execution to fly to Canada for safety. While he was absent and wholly undefended, the State Legislature under military pressure, on June 3, 1855, passed a joint resolution "addressing" him out of office. This is the only instance of the kind in the history of Kentucky. It could not have occurred in this case except for the passions of war and the despotic military power that had been imported into the State.
