required of electors. Benton stated that he owned slaves paid a tax upon them, and was qualified; and concluded by calling Lucas an insolent puppy. Mr. Lucas thereupon challenged him, and they met on Bloody Island on August 12, 1817; Luke E. Lawless being the second of Colonel Benton, and Joshua Barton of Mr. Lucas. But one fire took place, Lucas receiving a pistol-shot in the neck, and Benton one a little below the right knee. Mr. Lucas bled so profusely that he was unable to renew the combat, and it was postponed to a future time. This gave rise to various rumors disparaging to Benton, which he supposed originated with the friends of Lucas, and on September 23d following he addressed Mr. Lucas the following note:

"ST. LOUIS, September, 23, 1817. "SIR: When I. released you from your engagement to return to the island, I yielded to a feeling of generosity in my own bosom, and to a sentiment of deference to the judgment of others. From the reports which now fill the country it would seem that yourself and some of your friends have placed my conduct to very different motives. The object of this is to bring these calumnies to an end, and to give you an opportunity of justifying the great expectation which has been excited. Colonel Lawless will receive your terms, and I expect your distance not to exceed nine feet.

"Charles Lucas, Esq."

"T. H. BENTON.

Mr. Lucas had gone to Jackson, Cape Girardeau County, on a business trip, and did not receive this note until the 26th, but on that day returned the following answer:

"ST. LOUIS, September 26, 1817.

"SIR: I received your note of the 23d instant this morning, on my arrival from below. Although I am conscious that a respectable man in society cannot be found who will say he has heard any of these reports from me, and that I think it more probable they have been fabricated by your own friends than circulated by any who call themselves mine, yet, without even knowing what reports you have heard, I shall give you an opportunity of gratifying your wishes, and the wishes of your news-carrier. My friend, Mr. Barton, has full authority to act for me."

T. H. Benton, Esq."

"CHARLES LUCAS.

The parties again met on the morning of the next day, on the same island, took positions at ten paces, both fired at the

same time, and Mr. Lucas fell mortally wounded, and died within an hour. Colonel Benton approached Mr. Lucas and expressed his sorrow at what had happened, when Mr. Lucas said, "I forgive you;" and gave him his hand.

Had the friends of both exerted themselves to bring about an amicable settlement of the difficulty, it could no doubt have been accomplished; but in those days dueling was very common, and seemed to be sanctioned by public opinion. In fact, no public man could remain in the country if he failed to respond to a call emanating from one who was entitled to the appellation of a gentleman; but that Colonel Benton was opposed in principle to dueling we know from what we have heard him say on that subject. Indeed, he exerted himself to prevent the meeting between Mr. Randolph and Mr. Clay, and, though present at the exchange of shots, refused to participate as second when asked to do so by Mr. Randolph.

The reader has no doubt already asked himself how two persons so far apart in years and position as Colonel Benton and the author should be on such friendly terms. Our reply is that, when a member of the General Assembly, and one of the youngest, we exerted ourselves to the utmost to secure his reëlection to the Senate, and at a time when a part of his own party were conspiring to defeat him. Afterwards, when occupying a seat in Congress, we alone of the entire Missouri delegation adhered to him, and he manifested his gratitude by extending to us his confidence.

Colonel Benton never could stand, with any composure, an imposition of any kind, particularly if it involved, or had any reference to, a member of his own family. Upon one occasion a shrewd Yankee, while on a visit to Washington City, became somewhat reduced in his finances, and struck upon an odd and ingenious plan to replenish them. He learned that in some part of Maryland there was a horse that had a most remarkable coat of hair-long, shaggy, and bearing a striking resemblance to wool. He bought him, brought him to Washington, and exhibited him under a tent within two blocks of Colonel Benton's residence. Over the entrance was a large placard stating that the woolly horse

therein exhibited was caught in a wild state, on the plains, by General Frémont, and was regarded by naturalists as the greatest living curiosity of the age. Admittance, 25 cents; children, half-price. Thousands called to see the woolly horse captured by General Frémont, and our enterprising Yankee began to think that he had struck a gold mine, when out came a card from Colonel Benton denouncing it as a gross imposition. This only increased the public curiosity to see the wonderful animal, and the tent was crowded from morning till night. The colonel could stand it no longer, and took a warrant out against him charging him with a criminal offense-had him arrested and thrown into jail, and thus put an end to the exhibition of the woolly horse. The Yankee certainly deserved some credit for his bold attempt to humbug the intelligence of the nation assembled at the capital.

It has been truly said by some writer that the inside view of the character of a great man is never disclosed to the public until long after his death. This is certainly true of Colonel Benton. It was generally supposed that he had very little reverence for the Christian religion, but there never was the least foundation for such a charge. During his thirty years in the Senate he always had a pew in churchgenerally the Presbyterian-and attended the service very regularly, and required the same of his family. We are not posted as to his peculiar religious tenets, but his moral life, and entire freedom from vice of all kinds, furnish the best refutation of this charge. We have often heard him allude to his wonderful escape at the time of the bursting of the big gun on the steamer Princeton as a providential interposition. We shall again allude to this in connection with another charge imputed to him, equally unfounded.

He was undoubtedly a man of strong prejudices, and often very vindictive, which led him frequently to do great injustice to others; but that he possessed a cold, unforgiving, and unrelenting heart is not true- and we could give many incidents that came under our personal observation to prove the contrary, but we prefer to let another speak of him in

this respect, whose word and authority will carry conviction to the minds of all. We allude to Mr. Webster, who was his compeer in the Senate, always opposed to him politically, and between whom, until late in life, there was but little feeling of kindness or friendship. The extract we give is from a most interesting book recently published, and entitled "Peter Harvey's Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster." Mr. Harvey was through life a warm personal and confidential friend of Mr. Webster, and his reminiscences are entitled to the highest credit. Mr. Harvey says that a year or two before Mr. Webster's death he related to him an incident which illustrated the great change that came over Mr. Benton at one period of his life. Mr. Benton carried his political and party prejudices to the extreme.

"We had had," said Mr. Webster, "a great many political controversies; we were hardly on bowing terms. For many years we had been members of the same body, and passed in and out at the same door, without even bowing to each other, and without the slightest mutual recognition; and we never had any intercourse except such as was official, and where it could not be avoided. There was no social relation whatever between us.

"At the time of the terrible gun explosion on board the 'Princeton,' during Mr. Tyler's administration, Mr. Benton was on board, and he related to me, with tears, this incident. He said he was standing near the gun, in the very best position to see the experiment. The deck of the steamer was crowded, and, with the scramble for places to witness the discharge of the gun, his position was perhaps the most. favorable on the deck. Suddenly he felt a hand laid upon his shoulder, and turned; some one wished to speak to him, and he was elbowed out of his place and another person took it, very much to his annoyance. The person who took his place was ex-Governor Gilmer, of Virginia, then secretary of the navy. Just at that instant the gun was fired, and the explosion took place. Governor Gilmer was killed instantly. Mr. Upshur, then secretary of state, was also killed, as was one other man of considerable prominence. Colonel Ben

ton, in relating this circumstance, said: 'It seemed to me, Mr. Webster, as if that touch on my shoulder was the hand of the Almighty stretched down there, drawing me away from what otherwise would have been instantaneous death. I was merely prostrated on the deck, and recovered in a very short time. That one circumstance has changed the whole current of my thoughts and life. I feel that I am a different man, and I want, in the first place, to be at peace with all those with whom I have been so sharply at variance; and so I have come to you. Let us bury the hatchet, Mr. Webster.' 'Nothing,' replied I, 'could be more in accordance with my own feelings.' We shook hands and agreed to let the past be past, and from that time our intercourse was pleasant and cordial. After this time there was no person in the Senate of the United States of whom I would have asked a favor any reasonable and proper thing-with more assurance of obtaining it than of Mr. Benton."

In the year of 1847, just after the discovery of gold in California, and after Colonel Frémont had wrested the territory from Mexican rule, a great deal was said about the glory of his achievements. There was a great rush of settlers to the newly-acquired territory, and universal excitement about it. Colonel Benton was in "high feather" at the success of his son-in-law, Colonel Frémont, and was full of the topic, talking of nothing else. In almost every debate in the Senate he alluded to it. Colonel Frémont's name was in everybody's mouth, and his wonderful deeds were the subject of general laudation. Everybody who went to California sought Benton to get letters to Frémont, who was a sort of viceroy out there.

One day after dinner, as Mr. Webster was seated in his library, the servant announced "Mr. Wilson, of St. Louis," and John Wilson came into the library. Mr. Webster at once rose and greeted him. Narrating the visit to Mr. Harvey, he said:

"Mr. Wilson was a gentleman whom I had known more or less for a quarter of a century; a lawyer of pretty extensive practice, and with a good deal of talent; a man of very