Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1858-04-17
Re STA poaf
DEATHkO OF Mr. BENTON.

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DEATH sOF Mr. BENTON.
y Mr BENTON fiisd Il hs residences in this city yes
teray morning after illness Of several days Lnes
event was not mex ected by his family and the
country 1,as been long prepared for the announce
ment Up toswithin single day OF ms aemlse no
continued to labor 1t the great work ne nad anee,
taken-the Condensed Congressional Debates when,
- balaye. ne had nearly brought TO close His
spe vas extreme--we believe about seventy ,nve.
AZ his life had been full of honors the award OF nis
fslow.men; SO did he die full Of pears. the doom q
Providence. 49,, NJ h.d
.ndnred severe surgical treatment few months pc
Sora his DEATH and obtained temporary relief. HIS
.fct;on returned upon him, however, in more az
orayted FORM and resulted in lingering ana pam
ri death. His intellect renamed unimpared to the
1 end, and he made every arrangement ana prepara'
tion for his demise with Roman fortitude.
: The President, hearing of the extreme illness
h;s ancient compeer, called upon him on Friday
evening. The diving statesman declared afterwards
his exceeding qualification at the visit Inc inter-
view is said to have been protracted. Mr.. benton
Ia said to have expressed his extreme solictude for
The condition of public affairs and painful sense o.
the imminent dangers which threaten the country
He is said to have exhorted the President to rely
unon Divine support and guidance, and not upon that
Of men, who would deceive him.
Mr.. Benton was native of North Carolina, where
he was reared His ancestors we're aWoqGs 1ss
Of f Hg descended on the maternal side, were
among the early emigrants from North Carolina who
settled in Kentucky under the name of the Tran
sylvanis colony, and who were supporters of Daniel
Room It was through this circumstance that Col
Benton was led to choose the West for his home
when he had grown to manhood and left the army.
He established himself at Nashville rather than IN
Kentucky. where he Immediately rose to distinction
At the bar. About the year 1915, he emigrated
again still westward to st. Louis, Missouri. His
senatorial life which lasted for the unprecedented
period of thirty years, commenced in 1920, when
he was elected by the legislature of Missouri an
terror to the formal admission of that State into the
Union. His history since that event has been in
timatey interviewer with that of the country; and
for twenty five years constituted of the most
thrilling and ustrious pages for the history of The
democratic party.
At the beginning of his senatorial career COL
Benton sat on the same committee MILITARY Atfairs
with Gen. jackson, of which they were both indus
trious and valuable members, General jackson being
the chairman. Here was necessarily renewed that
intercourse which had in former years in Tennessee
been most friendly and intimate, but which had re-
ceived an unhappy Interruption from an occurrence
which became historical This second intimacy and
mutual confidence and reliance continued thencefor-
ward, as is well known, during the whole of General
Jacksons eventful and conspicuous public service.
The early alienation was never alluded to between
the two friends until one or two evenings before
General Jackson's final departure from Washington
for the Hermitage in March, 1885, when very
solemn and affecting conversation occurred the ma
ture of which we may readily conjecture, but which
of course has never TRANSFERRED.
Mr.. Benton was determined member of the op-
position to Mr.. Adams administration during its
whole term. He warmly support General Jackson
for the presidency and was one of the main pillars
Of support to his two administrations. 1t is I'M
necessary to specify the particular occasions on
which he distinguished himself in his conspicuous
parliamentary service. The panic session, however,
cannot be passed without special notice. In this
Mr.. Benton sustained, aided by few powerful
democratic debaters, among them our now President
the whole brunt Of the tremendous attack BY which
General Jackson's administration was then assailed
with fury and powerful array of talent and clio.
quence never before or since witnessed in any
legislative body. His services then rendered to
the democratic cause ranked him among the first
intellec.s and statesmen of his age, and have pac
ed his name among those of our first American
statesmen.
His controversy with Mr.. Clay, in the famous veto
debate in 1882, affords, perhaps, striking speci-
men of his pow ers in the gadiaton of debate as any
that could be selected. If either knight in that
celebrated encounter was borne worsted from the
ground, it was certainly not the democratic orator.
The measure upon which he won the largest de-
gree Of popular eclat, was however, that of the
punging resolution, measure which he himself con-
ceived, and without broaching the subject to hui
man being, moved in the Senate. 1t was on the 18th
of January, 1857, at the close of the long debate
which had occurred on this famous resolve, shortly
before the vote was to be taken, that Col. Benton
rose in his place, and-addressing himself to the
chair in the course of brief and emphatic speech
referring back to the which had been enacted
in the Senate chamber three years before, on the
adoption of Mr.. Cays memorable resolution of con.
6e sR fSE the snsS Of
~ hazarded that that resolution should be erpunoed
by the people Of the United States from the Journal
Of the Senate-uttered the well-known words, which
j are synonyms of his name, "SoL1TARY AND ALONE I
SET THIS BALL IN NOTION"
We believe thatit was in 1851 that Mr.. Benton
retired from the Senate. During the last dozen
years. though the mortal part has fingered amongst
the living yet has the esteem of our generation for
him been chiefly retrospective, and been chiefly con.
centrated in the historical man as he was in the
pride of intellect and in the prime of manhood
These later years of Mr.. Benton's eventful life
have been appropriately devoted to registering the
events of those in which his intellect and his fame
were at their zenith His two great historical
works. the Thirty years' View and the Abridgment,
though they may not be exempt from defects and
: oemshes, are valuable repositories of political
knowledge, and the former will popnlsrize a period
OF the history of our institutions that will exert as
great an influence upon the destiny of our country
as ony Of equal length through which it has vet
passed.
1t would be superauous to dwell upon the charac.
ter OF man whose name and history are as familiar
as household words among the American people,
VI gigantic intellect strong physical constitution
and imposing presence, of inAexble will, undaunted
courage, immense application, vast erudton, capa-
z clous memory direct manner of thought and nery.
GUS emphatic eloquence-it was impossible that he
should have lived under institutions like ours
and tailed to reach, and to figure upon, the most
conspicuous theatres Of action-impossible that he
could have failed to stamp the impress Of bis genius
inGsnoiy upon our public policy The history of no
century which interviewed from 1920 to 1s45 IL mora
closely interviewer with the history of our country