8                  JOHN L. HELM.

as have " done the State some service," or have advanced
the general interests of their race. The neglect, in this
particular, which has heretofore characterized the State
of Kentucky, certainly does her no credit, but is a stain
on her otherwise bright escutcheon. Her record is one of
which her people need not be ashamed, but of which, in
many things, they may entertain a just sense of pride.
This record may be greatly attributable to what was form-
erly called Kentucky stump speaking, which was nothing
else than a free interchange of opinions among the people.
In its widest acceptation, the distinction between large
employers and dependent employes has never obtained
in Kentucky; but every man has considered himself a free-
man, and the equal of any other, legally, socially, and
politically, whether he lived in a cabin or a stately man-
sion-whether he cultivated a few acres or was the lord
over a vast domain-whether he labored in the workshop,
was engaged in commerce, or was eminent in professional
life. Amongst us, however, public opinion has ever been
led by men of mark, and the actions and characteristics
of such, their modes of thought and life, claim such illus-
trations of them as will convey a proper idea of what
they were and are, and the means by which they attained
their eminent positions over others who had before ranked
as their equals. The only nobility they claimed, or could
claim, was private worth or merit, and the only distinc-
tion that has been paid them was a just homage to their
virtues.
  In seeking to keep alive in the hearts of the people the
benefits conferred upon their State and the country by
two of their eminent departed citizens, the General As-
sembly has acted wisely and well. Thousands of our
youth, the future hope of the Republic, who are to become
in due time the custodians of the priceless liberties which
we trust to bequeath them, as we ourselves inherited them
from our fathers, will read the records of their lives, and