Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1852-09-18
old RnlIinn.

man In the United States, is Col.
THOMAS HART BENTON of Missouri. As our read
ers know, he has recently been elected to the
House of Representatives from the st. Louis Dis
trict Immediately after the result was known,
he made speech which was the richest specimen
of Bullion that ever came from the mind of the
'great Missourium." We regret that we have.
not room to publish this-truly Bentonian produc-.
ton. The Examiner, which has great knack at
seizing upon good things, published it entire on.
Friday.
A fine trait in the old Senator is his devotion to
his family. In the course of his speech at st.
Louis, he made some reference to that family, and
spoke of his wife as "a wife whom have never
neglected" Some of the papers accidentIy omit
ted the word tnever,' and it greatly excited the
old man. just arrived at Washington, he writes
asletter correcting the error to the Republic. In
this letter, he says: ''The sentence should read
n wife achona I have NEVER neglected. for that
is the fact of the case as well as the assertion in
the original speech; and it was some defective
copy, or haste of composition in the eompositor
which occasioned the omission of the word never'
with me the most valued word in the whole
speech. | am extremely tenacious of that
word tneoer' in relation to 'negEecting' Mrs. Ben
ton, having had her with me during the whole
THIRTY gears and never neglected her, the chill
dren, or my country, during the whole time q
"Or.my country" is faithfully and ardently Ben
tonian By the way, the passage of the speech
in which the aluslon to his family occurs, is too
entertaining to be omitted 1t occurs in connec-
ton with placid ausion to the close of his life,
in which he represents the undertaker's face as
having grown pheasant J to him:
have been through contest to which had
no heart, and into which have been forced, sore
ly against my will I have not conducted it like
other men. Who, since it began, has seen me
walk the streets of the city in which live? stand
at a corner? or visit public place? Who has
seen that? No one. Who has seen me talk to
any individual to conciliate his vote? No one
What have l done? Gone forth when too much
assaied to speak to the masses-those masses al
ways honest, sometimes mistaken, but always
ready to do justice. l have spoken the same
language to all, kindly and deferentially to the
good and mistaken; proudly and defyingly to the
false and wicked; and from the masses and the re-
pulse of assailants, have always returned to the
seclusion of my own house. Ny work has been
that of the sick lon-sck at heart-reposing in
his lair only leaving it when the hunters and their
pack bayed too closely; and then to slaughter or
disperse the assailants; and then return again to
the sick bed.
| have gone through contest to which l had
no heart, and into which was forced by combi-
nations against life and honor and from which
gladly escape. What is seat in Congress to me?
have sat thirty years in the highest branch of
Congress-have made name to which l can ex-
pect to add nothi g-and l should only be anxious
to save what has been gained | have domestic
affections sorey lacerated in these latter times;
wife whom l have never neglected. and who neels
my attention now more than ever; children, some
separated from me by the wide expanse of oceans
and continents others by the Slender bounds which
separate time from eternity. / touch the age
which the Psalmst assigns for the limit of manly
life; and must be thoughtless, indeed, if do not
think somewhat beyond the fleeing and shadowy
pursuits of this life of all which l have seen the
vanity. What is my occupation? Ask the un-
dertaker that good Mr. Lynch, whose face, pres
ent on so many mournful occasions, has become
pleasant to me. He knows what occupies my
thoughts and cares--gathering the bones of the
dead--a mother-a sister-two sons--a grand
child--planting the cypress over assembled graves,
and marking the spot where |, and those who are
dear to me- are soon to be laid; all on the sunset
side of the Father of Floods, the towering city Of
ST. Louis on one hand the rolling stream of the
Missouri on the other; and where cemetery o.
large dimensions is to be the future metropolis O.
unnumbered generations. These are my thought;
and cares, andth undertaken knows them.-Ri
naond Despatch,