The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1847-09-02
For the National Whig.l
THOMAS II. BENTON

leagues in the Senate, or by General Jackson, his
very singular conduct on various occasions within
the last few years, namely the conclusion of his
brain, produced by the explosion of the great gun,
which resulted SO fatally and horribly 10 so many
on board the Princeton. Il is possible that his
mind may have been affected by this cause, and
that has not since reganed, aud will never again
recover, its former tone. But there are elements
in his character which original, and have never
changed; and these are intense selfshness, inordi-
nate vanity, overbearing and dictatorial insoence
For these traits he has been distinguished during
the long period Of his Senatorial life, and they
have rather increased than diminished by age.
AS speaker, he is dull, pressing, and tedious.
sometimes violent, and always dictatoral and OPP
pressive. He wants imagination to ornament and
embellish what he says, or to give polish to the
rough weapons he employs He is equally def
cient in taste. His sarcasm has no grace, and but
little point; and his manner is almost always that
of rude bully, DESTROYS to domineer over and
browbeat all with whom he comes in contact. No
man can listen to him with pleasure, and almost
all are disguised with tho rudeness and violence of
his manner, and his frequently low and vulgar de-
nunciation. His excessive vanity leads him to
place himself at ga sightless distance" above his
peers, and to regard his Senatorial associates as
mere pigmies, whose inferiority he seems to look
down upon with scorn and contempt Hence, in
his public speeches as well as in his private con-
versation, the everlasting ego is predominant l., l.
l, figures in every sentence he utters, and is bel
lowed forth in the most pompous and grandiloquent
manner in every period he declaims. He
~" Assumes the god, -'-
" Affects to nod, ...s. ........ s.
And seems to shake the spheres"
His only merit is intense labor To this quality
he is indebted for all the reputation he enjoys He
plods with interchangeable perseverance, and rakes
up old and antiquated facts which he uses occa-
sionally to some purpose, and applies with some
efiect but they are presented without elegance,
and arranged without order. He has no =" dazzling
force" Of argument, no elegance or purity of die
tion no felicity of Illustration, and no beauty of
elocution. His language, though grammatical, is
not elegant and greatly deficient in ornament
and in his addresses to the Senate, he never rises
to the dignity orp power Of eloquence. He cannot
please the ear, charm the imagination, or rouse
and control the passions though the facts his la
Dor has enabled him to collect and embody, may
occasionally satisfy The judgment, Memory is the
prominent faculty Of his mind, and this enables
him to retain and employ all that his laborious re-
search may furnish but the information thus OBJ
tanned is presented without the graces of rhetoric
and often even without the force of logic.
Mr.. Benton's inordinatc vanity leads him 10 be-
leye, and boldly assert, that he is the author of
almost all the leading measures of the past Loco
foco administrations, and that the whole Repub-
lie would crumble TO ruin without his Herculean
powers and surprising genus--which, while it
yields the thunderbolt Of Jupiter can MARBLE forth
in the dulce ridend d,lice ioquenten" strains OF
Horace. Of his excessive vanity, striking illus
traton is given in his late letter 10 the President
of the United States, on the subject a, his appoint
ment Of MAJOR General Of tile army. The man
who had scarcely ever seen battle, and whose
whole military career was confined to the super
ntendency of the reel uiting service in Tennessee
during the last war, in whiih he became defaul-
ter to the Government Of several thousand dollars,
and for which a judgment was rendered against
him by the Court in St. Loujs-presumptuousl
undertakes 10 DECLARE, that he " dsapproves of
the plans both Of the late and Of the present com.
mander"-of men who have devoted their whole
lives to their profession, and who have distinguish
ed themselves on many well fought and bloody
field. False, as well as arrogant and vain, he as
serts too in the very face of historical truth that
he had been three times virtually elected, by the
Hnnc nf Pnn ,f,t;y
the army of Mexico.n The utmost rlgor of party
discipline, and its most abject and crnging subser-
viency, could not so far bend the minds of what is
called the Democracy of the House, as 10 sanction
80 iniquitous and outrageous measure /; and, till
it was brought into saape less Objectionable,
every one knows that 1t was thrice rejected, by a
majority sufficient to satisfy any man not absolute
~ satisfied, that it was offering an insult to the
dignity and common sense of the House, as well
as the Nation, to advance another step in so disre
putable and revolving measure The weak and
pusillanmous Head of the Government was either
bulled into belief that the Missouri Senator was
like the Earl of Warwick, q King-maker-or find
ing him an absolute pest, was DESTROYS to get rid
OF him in as easy manner as possible He, there
fore, first tried to buy him over, by eleyating his
son-in-law from the rank of Lieutenant to that
of Lieut. Colonel in The army, over the heads Of
several officers Of equal merit and of older date
another outrage which the Senate should at once
have frowned down Indignantly. This, however,
ii would seem, was not sufficient bait for so
enormous gudgeon, and he flew off from the sup
port of the Administration, and made war upon
the eEtrayagant claim Of the President to the Ore
gon boundary of 81 4l-an instance, il was thought,
of independence, which entitled him to infinite
credit; but the true motive for this strange devia-
ton from party lines was, belief that such
course would be more popular, and perhaps push
him forward more rapidly to the Presidency of the
United States, 70 whfh his wild ambition, as well
as his measureless vanity, had long led him to as
Pire. The proposed bride of the Lieut.. General
ship was, however, too powerful for his virtue
especially when connected with three millions OF
dollars which he took for granted would be placed
at his disposal Armed with the tbunderbolt in