Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... the senator with his compliments. On one occasion, Gen. Lewis Cass made a historical statement in the Senate. Col. Benton denied it, and asked his authority. Gen. Cass gave it. Col. Benton said it had been twenty years since he had read it, but he was confident Senator Cass was wrong. He told a boy to go to the library for a book, described the shelf, and in a few moments he found the place, and asked the General to read for himself. Gen. Cass acknowledged his error, and ever after bore in mind what more experienced senators knew before, that Benton carried the congressional library in his head. Col. Benton had fought many hard senatorial battles, had suffered many defeats, and won many victories. Clay had been his political opponent, and the defeat of one was necessarily the victory of the other. Benton was apt to be boastful in victory, and, Gen. Lewis Cass died at Detroit, Michigan, 17th June, 1866, in his 84th year, having resigned as President Buchanan's Secretary-of-State, 17th Dec., 1860. He was for a long time Governor of Michigan prior to being appointed Secretary of War, by Gen. Andrew Jackson, who afterward appointed him Minister to France. while undaunted, quite rnorose under defeat. ' Clay took matters more philosophically, and never lost an occasion to badger Benton. Clay was as much the idol of Kentucky as Benton was of Missouri, and neither could hope to keep the other from the Senate if he had wished to be elected. Thus their contests were ever of a party character. It was Calhounism that defeated Benton's reelection to the Senate, and it must have eventually defeated Mr. Clay, had he lived, as even his own son caught the mania. But while both were living, each was considered the great and permanent...