This case arose at Frankfort, Franklin county, Ky., upon an indictment found against Crutcher, the plaintiff in error, in the Franklin circuit court, for acting and doing business as agent for the United States Express Company, alleged to be an express company not incorporated by the laws of Kentucky, but trading and doing business as a common carrier by express of goods, merchandise, money, and other things of value in and through the county and state aforesaid, without having any license so to do either for himself or the company. Crutcher, being arrested and brought before the court, tendered a special plea setting forth the facts with regard to his employment and the business of the company, and, among other things, that said company was a joint-stock company, incorporated and having its principal office in the city of New York in the state of New York, which plea was refused. He then pleaded 'not guilty,' and the parties filed an agreed statement of facts; and by consent the matters of law and fact were submitted to the court, and the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and the costs of prosecution. The agreed statement of facts was as follows: 'It is agreed that the defendant is agent of the United States Express Co., a foreign corporation doing the business ordinarily done by express companies in this country, of carrying goods and freight for hire, not only from points in this state to other points in this state, but also of carrying same character of freight from points within this state to points without this state, in divers parts of the United States, and Vice versa. And defendant, agent at Frankfort, Ky., never obtained any license to do such business, nor did said express company obtain any license from the state of Kentucky. The proportion of business done by the said company within and without this state for the month of November, 1888, is shown by a statement herewith filed, market 'X,' and the same proportion of business within and without this state, approximately, is generally done by said company.' The detailed statement referred to, market 'X,' showed the total amount of business done by the company at the Frankfort office in November, 1888, to have been $226.71, of which $56.14, or not quite one-fourth of the whole, was business done entirely within the state; and the remainder, $170.57, was done partly within and partly without the state; that is, the goods were brought into the state from places without the state, or were carried from the state to places without the state. Of course the latter, or largest, portion was comprised within the category of interstate commerce. The defendant upon these facts moved for a new trial, which was refused, and also for an arrest of judgment, which was denied, and a bill of exceptions was taken. The case was then appealed to the court of appeals of Kentucky, and the judgment was affirmed. The ground taken for reversing the judgment was that the statute of Kentucky under which the indictment was found was repugnant to the power given to congress by the constitution of the United States to regulate commerce among the several states.