Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/84

Rh his character in the eyes of many. He belongs to the population of “the Borderers,” in America, to that class which springs up on the outskirts of the wilderness, and among a half-savage people, he has evidently accustomed himself to club-law; has accustomed himself to go with pistol and bowie-knife (a kind of crooked knife universal as a weapon in the Slave States, and called after its inventor), and which is carried, as our gentlemen carry a penknife and pencil, in the breast pocket. And Colonel Benton is a suitable representative of a Slave State, where the wild Missouri pours its turbid waters along its perilous course, forming the western boundaries of the savage mountain-land of the Indian tribes, and extending eastward to the gigantic Mississippi, where heathenism still contends for dominion with Christian law,—of that yet only half-civilised Missouri may a cold-blooded duellist like Colonel Benton very well be regarded as a worthy representative, where he can, by his resolute will and his determined behaviour, make himself both esteemed and feared as a political character. In exterior he is a strong-built, powerful, broad-shouldered, broad-chested man; the forehead is lofty, and the somewhat grey hair rises thin and slightly curled above it; below gleam out a pair of lively, but cold, grey eyes, and between them shoots forth an aquiline nose; the lower part of the countenance is strong, and shows a strong will and strong animal propensities. The figure and expression are powerful, but somewhat heavy, and are deficient in nobility. He has advocated in the Senate the freedom of California, but has opposed Mr. Clay's “Omnibus Bill.” In society I have found him candid, extremely polite, and kind; nevertheless there was a something within me which felt a repulsion to that cool, blood-stained hand. If it were not for this, I should like to see more of the man. His unreserved acknowledgment in the Senate that, although the