Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-04-15

G-The Abridged Debat es OF Congress
which have occupied the last days OF Mr..
BENTON, are finished down 10 1850, through
The exciting debates of that stormy year.
The uniyring energy with which he pros
ecu,ed his work even up to his death may
be gathered from the following from the
Tribune,s Washington correspondent
"Col. Benton is dying, His disease can
Ger of the bowels, has made such progress
that be cannot survive much longer. He
suffers extreme pain, and is exhausted to
almost the last degree of physical! prostra-
ton. But his mind is as clear and as pow
er,ul as ever, and The high, resolute, Roman
donitable energy and furtitude agains, sick
ness and weakness and the awful preserve
or the king OF terrors. He dies in harness,
working to the last Tor his Country and
mankind. An old and intimate friend from
Missouri ca lied upon him TIL morning.
Benton was in bed, scarcely able to move
hand or foot, aud not able to speak much
above a whisper. Blu. he was hard at work
closing up his Arrangement of the Debates
of Congress, which he has brought down to
1850, to the passage Of the Compromise
measures. He was debating the closing
chapter of the work. His daughter, Mrs.
Jones, sitting beside the bed, received it,
sentence by sentence, whispered in her ear,
and repeated it aloud to her husband, who
wrote il down. 1t was then read over TO
Col. Benton, and received his corrections
made with as n.uoh snxious particularly rs
If it were the maiden work of a young su-
thor.
Resting a few minutes from his task, Col.
Benton entered into conversation with his
Missouri friend. He told him that in review
ing the events of 1850 he was glad to find
that the animositIes OF the past had died out
in his heart, and he was not only ready but
eager TO do justice to his former rivals and
opponents. He spoke with much feeling vi
Mr.. Clay, TO whose merits AID services he
had awarded the highest praise in what he
was writing about the Compromise period
of 1850. He dwelt particularly on the ser
vice, the great service, Mr.. Clay had rem
dered TO the Repub .ic at that time by baf-
fling and putting down the traiterous Seces-
sionists of the House Gho were seeking TO
destroy the Union and plunge the country
INTO civil war for their own selfish and am
b'tious purposes.
The inspiration of this theme fired the
languid blood and reanina:ed for a moment
the failing frame of the dying patriot. In
energetic whispers, he told his visitor thai
the same men who had sought 10 destroy
the Republic in 1850 were at the bottom OF
the a~ccursed Lncompton business. Among
the greatest Of his consultations in dying
was the consciousness that the House OF
Representatives had baf1ed these treason
able schemers, and put the heels of the peo-
pie on the neck Of the traitors. Few events
in our history had given him 50 much salts
faction as the defeat of LecomPtun. He
Warmly praised the int epid and incorrupti-
BILE Douglas Democrats who had resisted the
power and the wiles OF a corrupt and dDlu-
ded Administration.
In taking leave Of his friend, Col. Benton
sail til at, although there was much in his
lie that he regretted, he could honestly feel
proud on his death-bed of his devotion to
his country, in whose service he had never
been .aithless or negligent"