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Grass Land, Boyd Co. Ky
th 1861
Sir -- Eminent gentlemen will some times display their magninimity by soaring above extraneous considerations and using their influence in procuring an act of justice to an injured individual; and I trust you will pursue that course. You have been elevated to a high an honorable office by the vote of your fellow citizens, (mine included) and to use your influence in procuring justice for a much injured person, however humble he may be, will prove to the world that you are disposed to ornament the office you fill, and that you are not one of that class of governors who are willing to rest satisfied with the honor they derive from their official station. Permit me sir, to assure you, that, after a careful study of your character, so far as it has been developed by your messages and other
In 1852 The Board of Internal Improvements leased me a section of the owingsville & Big Sandy turn pike road, under the provissions of an act which had been passed authorising it to lease that road in sections. My bid was accepted, and I was instructed to take possession of the road as soon as my bond was executed and put in the post office, to be mailed. The Bond was executed on the th Oct. 1852 c The day it was executed I began to repair the road. I worked a number of hands, waggons, teams, ploughs scrapers, & c & c When I was nearly ready to set up a gate and collect toll, I recieved two letters from the Board, advising me not to proceed with my repairs on the road. The Board gave no reason for that advice, but it was understood to have been given in consequence of the passage of two acts, one giving the road to the counties through which it passed, the other giving part of it to a company which had been incorpoarted to construct a plank road from Catlettsburgh to Grayson. These Acts were passed subsequent to the passage of the act for leasing the road in sections.The county courts of
Greenup and Carter, at their first terms, after I began to repair the road it appointed overseers and began to exercise jurisdiction over it. Finding the matters involved in difficulty, I dismissed my hands, broke up my encampment and come home, on the th Nov 1852 c to do me justice. But my urgent appeal had no effect. Indeed the Board manefested so much apathy and indifference about the wrong it had done me as to create a strong suspicion of its integrity, in the opinion of some of my friends, one of whom, an able democratic lawyer, remarked: "The Board marked you for it, victim, for it knew when it leased the road it had no power to do it. Next I appealed to the legislature for justice, but it only passed an act authorizing me to sue the Sate for damages in the Franklin Circuit Court. I was advised by a democratic lawyer, Col. Rust, our Senator that the Act was a cheat, a humbug, & c I submitted a proposition to Mr. Harlan, Atty General, through Mr. Page, to this effect. That I would institute the suit if he would agree in writing that I might take judgement for a sum sufficient to cover the principal and interest of the money expended in repairing the road, provided I proved the repairs were worth the money expended, but he replied he would not enter into any compacts on the subject. I submitted the papers to Mr. John Rodman, who is understood to be a whig lawyer and took his opinon; and he replied that I could not recover, that the state was not bound, & c and concluding that I would have the cost to pay th Nov next since the $400 was expended on the road. Some members of the legislature, influenced I
fear by extraneous considerations may have favoured the passage of that Act for the purpose of involving me in cost, but I am pursuaded they were very few. I believe, however that the greater part of the members of the legislature did not understand the object and design of that act.
Now Sir, I appeal to you, not only as the governor of Ky. but as a gentleman and man of honor to do me the favour, and my wife and children the favour, to recommend to the legislature at its approaching extra session, on the th inst.
I am Sir,
Very Respectfully
You ob t Servt
George W. Kouns
His Excellency
B. Magoffin
Governor of Ky.