The Court of Appeals of Kentucky. and ten, he retired to spend his last days in the home of his early manhood. The sixteen years of his service on the bench of the highest court of the State covered the most critical point in its history. The so-called "armed neutrality," which the State at first adopted in the Civil War, proved wholly ineffectual for its protection. Its soil was invaded by first one force then another. When at last the Federal power gained the ascendancy, the most stringent war methods were resorted to and had Ken tucky been a " rebellious " State or a con quered territory, it could scarcely have suf fered more from military despots. When the actual clash of arms had ceased, there came the weighty problems of the reconstruction period, when the crum bling institutions of the Southland were made to give way before the iron hand of a fate that had willed it so, and the citizens called on the judiciary for the protection of their lives, liberties and rights of property, more loudly than ever before. The growth of our civilization has through all time been gradual and the institutions that we boast of as the cornerstone of our liberties are the product of centuries of de velopment. Not so the changed conditions imposed by the Civil War upon Kentucky and the South. Without time for adaptation to circumstances, the statesmen of the South were forced to accept a policy that their people knew not, and the courts of the land, where fortunes had been swept away and sacred contracts broken, were called on to lay aside all fear and favor and to dispense equal and impartial justice. That Belvard J. Peters was equal to this responsibility can be said without qualifica tion. More than this cannot be said of any man. His ripened judgment, his purity of life and his integrity of purpose peculiarly fitted him for judicial service in times that try men's souls. Sixteen volumes of Kentucky re ports (from 3 Metcalfe to 12 Bush, inclusive), show his labors and his judicial fitness.
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He was twice Chief Justice of the court, 1866-1868, and 1874-1876. Judge Peters was born in Virginia on November 3, 1805, in the dawn of the cen tury, and he lived until its closing twilight, passing away in 1899, the oldest and the most venerated of Kentucky lawyers. It is not the purpose of these sketches to eulogize any of the honored men whose names are mentioned here. Even if it were it would be difficult to cull from Judge Peters' long life of good works, special deeds for special mention. He was an able, just and fearless Judge and an upright citizen. RUFUS K. WILLIAMS.
Rufus K. Williams was in August, 1862, elected from the western district of the State a Judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. He served a full term of eight years and by the Constitution was Chief Jus tice from 1868 to 1870. He had long been prominent in the affairs of his section and in 1860 took part in the convention that nominated John C. Breckinbriclge for president. He was, however, op posed to disunion and during the Civil War his sympathies were on the northern side. Though entirely free from bias, his opinions on questions of a political character coming before the court showed the tendency of his mind to sustain the measures of the domi nant party in Congress. His dissenting opinion in Griswold v. Hepburn, (2 Duvall, )in which he upheld the constitutionality of the " Legal Tender Act" shows at once the bent of his mind and the force of his argument. He also dissented in the case of Grigsby v. Breckinridge cited in the sketch of Chief Justice Robertson. His opinions are always vigorous and strong and he added much to the prestige of the court. After his term of office expired he left Ken tucky and located in Utah. He was succeeded on the bench by Hon. William Lindsay.
