a letter condemning Beauchamp's attempt on his life and asking to see him again. Sharp suspected a trap, but replied that he would meet her at the planned time. Hoping to kill Sharp before the meeting, Beauchamp traveled to Bowling Green, but found his target had already left for Frankfort. He had eluded the trap. Beauchamp decided to finish his legal studies in Bowling Green and wait for Sharp to return there. Beauchamp was admitted to the bar in April 1823. He and Anna Cooke married in June 1824. Still determined to defend the honor of his wife, Beauchamp devised a ruse to lure Sharp to Bowling Green. He wrote letters to Sharp under various pseudonyms, each asking for his help in some sort of legal matter, and each sent from a different post office. When Sharp failed to respond, Beauchamp decided to go to Frankfort again and confront him. Murder of Solomon Sharp In Frankfort in 1825, Sharp was in the middle of a bitter political battle known as the Old Court-New Court controversy. He identified with the New Court, or Relief party, which promoted a legislative agenda favorable to debtors. In opposition was the Old Court, or Anti-Relief party, which worked to secure the rights of creditors to collect debts. Sharp had served as the state's attorney general under New Court governors John Adair, whose term lasted until August 1824, and Joseph Desha, who succeeded him in office. The New Court party's power was beginning to wane. In 1825, Sharp resigned to run for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. During the heated campaign, opponents raised the issue of his alleged seduction of Anna Cooke. Old Court partisan John U. Waring had handbills distributed that alleged that Sharp had denied paternity of Cooke's illegitimate child because it was a mulatto and likely fathered by a Cooke family slave. Sharp won the election, defeating John J. Crittenden. Whether Sharp had made the claim is uncertain, but Beauchamp believed he had. He planned to murder him and flee with Anna to Missouri. He would murder Sharp in the early morning of November 7, 1825, when the new legislature convened its session, as he hoped that suspicion would fall on Sharp's political enemies. Three weeks prior to that date, Beauchamp sold his property, telling his friends that he was planning to move to Missouri. He hired laborers to help