May it please the Court:
    I am not a lawyer, and therefore want to thank
you for your kindness in granting me the privilege
of appearing before you to defend the Kentucky
Confederate pension law. This suit was not brought
in my name, and the personal pecuniary interest I
have in the law is a very small part of the considera-
tion that has induced me to ask of you this great
privilege. But it is the strong love I have for my
comrades and the great concern I have for the wel-
fare of those who are living and the widows of those
who are dead and who are now indigent, disabled,
and dependent.
  During all the years since the war ended I have
lost no opportunity to befriend one or all of my
comrades in every possible way, in every right am-
bition or honorable effort. And since the constitu-
tionality of this law has been questioned, I have felt
it my duty to do all within my power, to see that the
action of the Legislature in passing the law was sus-
tained. I therefore feel honored that I am permitted
to stand in this honorable presence and discuss this
great question; the question that means so much to
the shortening line of heroes that pass with halting
step and war-worn, toil-bowed, emaciated frames to-
ward the sunset of life.
  I am aware of the fact that it is the sworn duty of
the Court to uphold by their decisions the constitu-
tion and the law; but when the two conflict, and it is
impossible to enforce both, the constitution being the
supreme law, the Court must of reeessity follow the
constitution rather than the statutes, and that the