Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/76

60 Although John Breckinridge was thus, from the very beginning of his residence in Kentucky, connected with politics, it was not until December, 1795, that he held office, and the interval was full of activity in the prosecution of his profession. His practice was soon very large, both in civil and criminal law, but he turned his attention particularly to real-estate law. This was at once the most important and the most lucrative law business. The colony of Virginia under the crown had contained many large and unoccupied grants beyond the mountains. The State of Virginia early began to make others, and after the war immense tracts were given to the soldiery. These grants were made on worthless or mere paper surveys to a large extent, and late comers, finding this to be the case, and that it left many "gores" and corners unconveyed, even while the neighboring lands were covered by several conveyances, obtained "blanquet" grants covering immense tracts, for the purpose of obtaining the unconveyed portions. In addition to the complications naturally incident to such a state of things, further vexations had arisen out of the conflicting claims of Virginia and Kentucky. Virginia, in the acts enabling Kentucky to erect herself into a State, had always conditioned it upon the recognition of her land grants and the protection of the holders of those lands who remained in the mother State. Bickerings arose on this score, as was natural, from the vexatious questions that sprang up. Mr. Breckinridge bent his energies to thrid the mazes of this tangle,