KY-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest	26 May 2000		Volume 00 : Issue 196


______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:12:55 -0500
From: Nancy Trice <trice@vci.net>
Subject: HISTORY: History of Kentucky, Allen, 1872, pg 241-246


HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, Allen, 1872

[pg 241]

CHILTON ALLAN	

	Chilton Allan was born on the 6th day of April, 1786, in the county of Albemarle, in 
the State of Virginia. His father, Archibald Allan, died while Chilton was an infant, and 
his mother, a woman remarkable for her good sense and forethought, removed to Kentucky in 
1797.  At that period the means of education even to the rich in this new country were 
limited, and especially so to those in humble circumstances. The subject of this sketch was, 
for the most part, engaged in industrial pursuits to procure means of subsistence and an 
education, having opportunities of only a few months in the year to attend country schools. 
 While a boy, an incident occurred that excited in him new hopes, and awakened new exertions 
of mind.  Having gone to the shop of a country shoemaker to procure a pair of shoes, he 
discovered among the scraps upon the floor an old book, which, upon taking it up, he found 
to be the Life Of Franklin, a book he had never seen before, and on looking over several 
pages he became so interested that he immediately made a bargain for its purchase. He opened 
it at the part of the book in which Franklin's first appearance in Philadelphia is 
described, being unknown, possessed of but one Dutch dollar, &c.  This made  such an
impression on his mind as to give him the first aspirations for knowledge. He read the book 
over, and over again, until he became so enamored with its contents as often to embrace it, 
and to sleep with it under his pillow; and to the day of his
[pg 242]
death he rearded Franklin as the greatest man America had ever produced. His family and 
friends, when he was about fifteen years of age, concluded that it would be prudent that he 
should learn some useful occupation as a means of future support; and he was accordingly 
placed in an excellent family to learn the trade of a wheelwright, where he continued the
stipulated term of three years.  He acquired the business with such aptitude, and was so 
good a boy, that after the first year he was allowed to retain for himself all he could make 
over what was considered full work for an experienced workman.  Under this arrangement, 
during the last two years of his apprenticeship, he made three dollars and fifty cents every
week for his own use, which enabled him amply to provide himself with books and other 
necessaries. He devoted part of the night and Sundays to reading, having no taste for sports 
of boys aof his age, and being naturally fond of solitude he went on Sundays to the forests 
to read, and was in the habit there, without any special motive, of making speeches to the 
trees and the winds.
	These three years of his life he ever remembered with the greatest pleasure.  No 
ill-feeling, unkindness, or word of reproach was ever manifested by any member of the family 
toward him, and he never regretted the manner in which this portion of his life was 
occupied, believing that industry, with intervals for reading, afforded more solid means for 
the acquisitions of practical knowledge than was to be found in the schools of that day.
	At the end of this servitude as an apprentice he had arrived at eighteen years of 
age, and all the property he possessed was a horse, at that time regarded as a fine one. The 
first act of his uncontrolled mind, after finishing his trade, was to give his horse to the 
Rev. John Lysle, a Presbyterian clergyman and teacher of eminence, for a year's board and
tuition in his justly celebrated school.  The time and the means before him seemed so short, 
and being naturally of a feeble constitution, his grasping efforts and the toll of study he 
imposed upon himself made his health give way. His teacher being fully persuaded in his own 
mind that this result 
[page 243]
was attributable alone to intense study and close application to books, advised him to lay 
them aside, and told him he must die soon if he did not.
 	This announcement from his excellent and venerable teacher prostrated all
his hopes in the very morning of his life. Greatly depressed in feeling he quit the school, 
unable at that time either to study or work.  After some considerable time, however, still 
distressed with that inquietude that ever attends the mind having no fixed object in view, 
by the advice of friends he went to the Olympian Springs, where in a few weeks he 
experienced the most rapid recovery.  Having been accustomed from childhood to private
study, he again devoted himself to self-instruction.  While thus engaged it came in his way 
to form an intimate acquaintance with the late Governor Clark, who offered him the use of 
his law library. 
	While a student of law in the town of Winchester a circumstance occurred which gave 
him the first practical illustration of the liberality of our institutions. One Saturday 
evening, taking a walk for exercise, he saw a crowd of men in the suburbs, and curiosity 
attracting him thither he discovered that a gentleman of long residence in the town, and a 
lawyer by profession, had taken much pains to raise a company of light infantry, with
a view to its command, and the company had assembled that evening to elect their officers. 
While looking on as a spectator he was approached by several gentlemen in succession, who 
solicited him to stand as a candidate for the captaincy.  This was so unexpected, and seemed 
so unfit and even ludicrous to his own mind, that he regarded it as a joke, and merely
answered with a smile.  These approaches were soon repeated by others, and finally he was 
approached by a friend in whom he had unbounded confidence, whose entreaties he could not 
resist, and he yielded passively, and without taking time to weigh the consequences. The 
vote was taken, and he was elected by a vote nearly unanimous, only five or six out of the 
whole company dissenting. His commission from the Governor was soon received, and he now, 
for the first time, began to reflect upon the subject, and came to the conclusion in his own 
mind that he had been too
[pg 244 - CHILTON ALLAN, cont]
precipatate in yielding his assent.  He had been elected to an office of the duties of which 
he knew nothing; his exposure at the first muster, then a month off, he feared would be the 
consequence.  In this dilemma he thought of an expedient, which he immediately carried into 
effect.  He went to a workshop, and made sixty small blocks of wood, with square ends, to
stand erect upon the table, making one side to indicate the front.  He then procured a gun, 
and the treatise of Baron Steuben on military tactics, the book then in use.  Thus prepared, 
he went to his room and placed his blocks on the table in a form to represent his company in 
single lines, then taking the book and looking at the words of command, by reiterated 
efforts moved his wooden men through all the evolutions of a company muster.  In the same 
manner, with the gun and book, he learned the manual exercise, so that by the first muster 
he was able to go through without any manifest blunder.  He managed to procure a box of 
muskets for his company, and they were soon brought to a good state of discipline.
	The duties of his office interfering considerably with his studies, he some time 
afterward sent his resignation to the company at a time when from indisposition he was 
unable to attend the muster, but he was again elected to the command, and thereby almost 
forced to retain the office.
	In the month of August, 1808, he obtained license, was admitted to the bar, and 
obtained a lucrative business in the very beginning of his professional career.  The first 
time he attended a court of an adjoining county he received the appointment of 
Commonwealth's Attorney.  The first year of his practice he made in fees seven hundred and 
sixty-five dollars, which more than enabled him to discharge the debts he had contracted 
while a student; for although without property he had no difficulty in obtaining credit.
	Our courts at that early day were fine schools in which to acquire the art of 
speaking. Free discussion was allowed, as well of the law as the facts, before the juries.  
Every question was discussed. There was more speaking then at a single term than there is 
now in a whole year. Readiness as a 
[pg 245]
speaker was as sure a means of reputation at the bar as a profound knowledge of the law is 
at this time.
	Mr. Allan's professional business so increased as soon to possess him, pecuniarily, 
with a competency.  As soon as he was eligible to a seat in the Legislature (in 1811) he was 
elected a Representative in that body by the people of Clark County by a handsome majority 
over respectable opposition.
	With the exception of a few years he continued in the legislature until the coming 
on of the celebrated Old and New Court controversy, which made so prominent a figure in the 
history of Kentucky.  I have elsewhere given a full history of this controversy, which 
brought the people of the State to the very brink of eivil strife.  It was in this memorable 
part of the history of Kentucky that Mr. Allan had first an opportunity of exhibiting
his profound knowledge of the structure of the American Government, and of coming into the 
favorable notice of the people of the whole State. During the pendency of this controversy 
he was transferred from the House of Representatives by the people of his district to the 
Senate of Kentucky, and that without opposition. He made there the first speech that was 
made in either house against what was called the Reorganizing Act.  This speech, and several 
others he made on the same subject, went through several editions in pamphlet form by the 
voluntary act of the people of different parts of the State.  They tended more to enlighten 
the minds of the people on that question than perhaps the speeches of any other man.  He 
continued from year to year, during the pendency of that controversy, to speak and write in 
favor of what he considered the constitutional rights of the people.  For the real question 
involved in the contest was, whether the rights of the people were based on stable organic 
law, or depended on the ever-shifting majorities that ruled the Legislature.  aT last he had 
the satisfaction to pen with his own hand the law which put down the New Court, and restored 
the constitutional Old Court to the undisputed exercise of its duties.
	The experience of the violence of unchecked majorities made such a profound 
impression on his mind in favor of an 
[pg 246]
independent judiciary, that he viewed with the depest regret the late changes in the 
constitutions of several of the States, by which the judges were made elective.  Previous to 
the last Convention in Kentucky to remodel the Constitution he wrote five essays on the 
subject, maintaining with great ability, that under an elective judiciary, in high party 
times, the minority has no safe protection.
	After the expiration of his senatorial term a convention of the people of his county 
offered him the nomination for reelection, which he declined, and returned to the duties of 
his profession, in which he continued until 1829, when he was again returned to the 
Legislature.  In 1831, without consulting him, he was announced in the Lexington papers as a 
candidate for Congress, and was elected by a very large majority over his opponent, 
receiving several hundred more votes than the usual strength of his party. In 1833 he was 
re-elected to Congress without opposition, and in 1835 again elected over an opponent of 
great popularity and influence.  At the close of this term of service he voluntarily retired 
to private life.  Of his speeches in Congress, those on the removal of the deposits, the 
division of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the States, internal
improvements, a review of President Jackson's administration, the retrenchment of public 
expenditures, the pension law, and the tariff, attracted most notice.  Many of his speeches 
were widely circulated, from the fact that they were subscribed for by members of Congress 
from different States and sent home to their constituents as valuable documents.  He brought 
to the consideration of Congress the propriety of conferring upon the old States, for 
educational purposes, as much of the public lands as had been given to the new; and after 
his retirement from Congress he often expressed his surprise that the old States did not yet 
make effort to enforce the justice of this claim. At the head of a select committee, he
was the author of a report on the pension law, which was an able document, and obtained a 
wide circulation. 
	The chief personal satisfaction that Mr. Allan enjoyed in Congress was the 
opportunity afforded him of becoming ac- 
 
End of ky-footsteps-digest V00 #196
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