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VOL. XIII.

No. 8.

BOSTON.

THOMAS

H.

AUGUST, 1901.

BENTON.

BY CHARLES W. SLOAN. WHEN in the closing hours of the United States Senate, in May, 1900, the statues of Thomas H. Benton and General Francis P. Blair were accepted from the State of Missouri, the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Hoar, spoke in part as follows: "The whole country approves the choice of Missouri. When the figure of Benton is unveiled the genius of Missouri— rather the genius of the West—has come. He is to stand among his peers the repre sentative, the embodiment of a great history. Missouri did well that she waited nearly half a century after his death before electing him to the greater and perpetual Senate which is to sit forever in yonder chamber. It would be well if this example were always followed. Thomas H. Benton was a sturdy and cour ageous champion. He understood, as no other man ever understood, the interest of the great West. He is beyond all question without competitor or rival, clown to this moment, the foremost statesman of the states beyond the Mississippi. He loved Missouri, he loved the West; he loved the South. From his first coming to manhood there was scarcely a pulsation of the West ern heart which he did not share. Yet when the time came for him to choose between office, party, his state, popularity, the love of old friends and companions, influence, power, the master passions of his soul, as it seemed on the one hand, and freedom and country upon the other, he did not hesitate in the choice. This is the character which the great State of Missouri, speaking through her Governor and honored Sen ators, gives to the American people today.

Certainly Massachusetts feels herself, and her great children of the days of the Puritan, and the days of the Revolution, honored by the companionship. Sam Adams, if need be, will draw a thought more nigh to John Winthrop to make room for him. Webster will greet his old antagonist. The marble lips of Charles Simmer, welcomed in the Senate in 1851, will return the greeting, now from yon der ante-chamber. The old strifes are for gotten. The old differences have vanished. But the love of liberty, the love of justice, the love of national honor, the spirit that 'prizes liberty and justice and honor above gain in trade or empire—the spirit of this great statesman of the West abides, and shall abide forever.1' Eloquent words—fitly spoken. Tilomas H. Benton was born in North Carolina, March 14, 1782. His father was of English lineage, and a lawyer of fair ability and good practice, who died in middle life. His mother was from Virginia, and was de scended indirectly from one of the best fam ilies of that state. He early attended a grammar school, and afterwards completed his education at Chapel Hill College, though for some reason he never graduated. He, obtained, however, a liberal education. His father on his death left a large tract of land near Nashville, Tenn., to which the widow and family removed. There, it is said, Mr. Benton studied law while teach ing school on Duck River, near Franklin. After his admission to the bar, in 1808, he opened an office in Franklin, but shortly after this removed to Nashville. He early showed a taste for politics, and in 1811 was elected to the Tennessee Legislature. On the break