Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-19
JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT
IS DEAD IN KENTUCKY
Former Governor of State and
Famous in Congress as
an Orator.

LEBANON. KY. June 19.-James Proc
tor Knott. former Governor of kentucky
and prominent for many years in Con-
gress. died late yesterday afternoon at
his home in this city, at the age OF
eighty-two Years
Mr.. Knott had been enfeebled and part
~ blind for several years. His widow
survives him.
James Proctor Knott in 1868 gained
national reputation by his celebrated
railroad grant was before the House, and
the friends of the bill had prepared a
map which the Almost unknown city
of Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior,
was made to appear as the center of the
earth. with railroads running into it from
almost every imaginable point. The
speech of Mr. Knott IN opposition to the
BILL in which he referred to Duluth as
the zenith city of the unsalted sea-"
was so humorous and so full of points
that the measure was overwhelmingly de-
feated
Mr.. Knott was born in Kentucky In
1880. At the age of twenty he set out for
western Missouri, and. working his way
after his slender funds gave out at St.
Louis. reached memphis, the seat of
Scotland county, with a trunk full of
law books, two suits of clothes and a
five-franc piece.
Soon Secured Work.
During the first hour of his residence
he obtained work as writer in the
county clerks office. a position which he
held till, having attained his majority,
he could take out a license and practice
In 1853 he was elected to the Missouri
legislature as a states rights democrat
and served as chairman of the judiciary
committee With Charles Hardin. after
ward governor of the state, he managed
the Impeachment of Judge Albert Jack
son, then was appointed attorney gem
eral, and in 1860 was regularly elected to
that office.
He opposed secession as inexpedient.
while supporting the abstract right of a
state to secede. When Gen. Lyon took
hold of the government Mr.. Knott re-
fused to take an ironclad oath which was
prescribed for officers and was ousted
from office and debarred from practicing.
being further imprisoned in the ST. Louis
Arsenal for some time, and kept under
surveillance till he left the state, in
1859. Returning to Kentucky, Mr.. Knott
resumed practice at Lebanon. In 1867 he
was unexpectedly elected to Congress, to
which body he was not admitted for some
time.
His first speech in the House. in favor
of the admission of John Young Brown
despite his refusal to take the test oath.
was one of the ablest of his many ad-
tation as an authority on constitutional
law, while in another notable speech he
pointed out the dangers springing from
negro suffrage.
Humor Killed Bills.
Reelected to Congress in 1868, Mr.
Knott destroyed the Pennsylvania avenue
Improvement bill by a humorous speech,
and followed it with his Duluth master
piece.
Mr. Knott did not serve in the forty
second and forty-third congresses, but
was elected to the forty-fourth, where he
was chairman of the judiciary commit
tee and of the special committee on the
powers and privileges of the House in
the counting Of the presidential vote. He
was stubbornly opposed to the electoral
bill from first TO last. He was reelected
to Congress with little opposition until
1882 when he retired to make the cam
paign for governor. He was elected and
served till 1857. In 1891 he was a dele
gate to the Kentucky constitutional con-
vention.
E.x-Gov. Knott, in 1892, turned aside
from politics to take UP work as an edu-
Gator, occupying the chair of civics and
economics in Center College from 1892 to
1894 From 1894 to 1901 he was professor
of law and dean of the law faculty in
| that institution.