New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-14

hinureu associations. Touched by the
magic of his genius, the driest and most
nnattractive technicality arose and walked
forth thing of life, miracle of beauty,
and "a joy forever" His taste was delicate,
correct and sensitive, to defect. appropriate
and preserve everything beautiful and noble
III nature, in life or in fancy. But his avid
lty for learning could not be stated. Indeed,
1t Is not too much to say that even he could
not have shown, with such transcendant
splendOr. above all his contemporaries at
the bar in Mississippi, as it was then CON-
posed, without extraordinary merits asa
jurist. To hold a hand among them, evfry
contestant required not only brilliant but
an impenetrable armOr. 1t has been said
of a celebrated English statesman that he
welded the club of Hercules, wreathed in
the most beautiful roses. 1t is believed that
this slmlle would apply more truthfully to
Mr.. Prentiss than to any man of his time.
In the summer of 1887, President Van
Buren, convoked a special session of Con
gress. The terms OF the representatives
OF Mississippi having expired with the close
,of the regular session on the third OF March
preceding, Governor Lynch issued writs Of
election to fill the vacancy The election
was held in July, and Messrs. S. J. GhOlsOn
and j. +. Ii. Claiborne were elected. At
the "regular election" in the November fol
lowing Mr.. Prentiss and Mr.. L. j. Word
were elected to the Twenty-ifth Congress
Mississippi was decidedly Democratic, but
the genius and eloguence of Prentiss, then
only twenty nine years old, swept down all
opposition, and he and his colleague
on the Wing ticket were elected
At the opening OF the session In
the following December, the Democrats
claimed that the election of Messrs. Ghol-
son and Claiborne to the special session in
July. should hold good for the succeeding
full term. Without any delegation from
Mississippi, the two parties were equally
divided, and the Speaker. Mr.. Polk, being
a Democrat. his casting vote would turn the
scale dor his party. 1t is foreign to the
present purpose to speak of the merits of
the question involved in the contest which
followed. Suffice it to say, that it was de-
cided solely upon party grounds: and Mr..
Prentiss and his colleague were rejected.
He was the champion of his own-Or rather,
to adopt his idea at the time-Of the States
cause The halls of Congress have never
resounded to purer or loftier eloquence 1t
was in the closing paragraph OF his perOra-
ton on this occasion that he said:
''You sit here, twenty-five sovereign
States, in Judgment upOn the most sacred
right of Il sister State-her right to repre-
sentation; that which is to State what
chastity is to woman or honor to man.
Should you decide against her you tear
from her brow the richest jewel that
spark les there. and bow her head in shame
and dishonOr. But if your determination
is taken; if the blow must fall if the vio
lated constitution must bleed, have but
one request to make. When you decide
that she shall not herself choose her own
representatives, then blot from the spangled
banner of the Union the star that glitters
to the name of Mississippi, but let the 4
stripe remain as tit emblem OF her degrad-
alton ~
But though the young orator was unable
Immediately to obtain the seats for himself
and colleague, Congress was unable wholly
to resist his fascinating and impetuous elo
guence. The whole question was referred
back to the people of Mississippi at the
polls. The, triumphant reelection of the
Wing candidates, and the unparalleled
splendor of Mr.. Prentiss' brief career of
two years in Congress especially his mas
terlv exposure of the defaulters" under
Mr. Van Buren's administration his dis
gust with and voluntary abandonment of
political life; his devotion to the federal
Union: his opposition to Mississippi De
mocracy, and especially to "repudiation -
his increasing fame as lawyer: his mar
rage to Miss Williams, of Natchez; his
residence at Vicksburg; his removal to
New Orleans; his errors his mistortunes
and his early death are all well known.
Indeed. SO illustri0us were his intellect, his
character and his achievements, that
nothing that relates to him can he foreign
to the history OF the State or of the times
in WHICH he lived.
In social and domestic life, Mr.. Prentiss
was the soul of gentleness, of poetry, of
wit,and of refinement His reDartee always
sparkled, but never stung His habits were
convivial, but never sensual.
Guarding always his own honor, and that
of his friends, he was instant and terrible
81, al IL. g
territorial injury; but he bore no malignity. |
and cherished no enmity against even those |
who had sighted or injured him.
The mists OF quarter of century and !
more have settled over the most memOra- |
BILE of his intellectual achievements. and, |
such was his strange indifference to postum |
nous fame, only very few, and they. very
Imperfect sketches o. any of them remain. |
He never wrote foI print. and to have re- |
ported one of his speeches would have
b flied the best photographic skill. The |
simple Saxon words he loved so well, |
when borne upon the wings Of his seraphic |
voice, were as tameless as the meteor's |
fash. or an eagle careering in the upper |
air; even the air in which he spoke was !
mesmeric of his genius. His elocution,
when he spoke of love, of beauty or of |
Eolean chords; but it fell with the tenn
pests wrath in invective upon treachery, |
upon meanness or upon crime.
OF the friends whose plaudits quickened |
the puIsations of bis noble ambition, many |
are gone. Some of them were swallowed up |
in the wave of that civil war which was |
seen by his prophetic eye long years before.
The rest are being rapidly swept away, like
ripened acorns before the autumn blast
The muse of history may forget or neglect |
their names and his; but his eloquence shall !
long live in the ear and heart of Mississippi. |
like the dmly remembered music of child |
hood, or the voice of a sister we have lost. |
He sleeps in the land Of the magnolia and |
the mocking Bird but the spot has no en-
during mark, save that noble river, whose |
current, in it's depths, its restlessness and |
grandeur so much resembles his spirit and |
his genius.