The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-12-18
"Reminiscences of Sargent S. Prentiss.

| keMlnlScenCe OI SaFSeuC >. ETeItlSSs
A correspondent of the Union Times fur
nishes the annexed Renaissance of the great
Mississippi lawyer and orator:
Between thirty and forty years ago, a time
when this government had reached the zenith
of its greatness-alas alas! in little more than
ten years, it has sunk down to the Nadir, or
lowest point in the political hemisphere when
ture, and at the hustings, between the leading
men of the two great political parties into
which the country was then divided-namely,
Wings and Democrats-might be aptly denom-
mated the wars of the giants then it was, that
one of the most remarkable and highly gifted
men this country has ever produced, burst like
meteor upon the political arena-Sargent 5.
Prentiss.
By his contemporaries, including such men
as Webster, Clay, Everett, Wright, Benton,
Choate and others, he was ara roce, Pronoun-
ced the must eloquent man this country has yet
produced But it was not upon his oratorical
gifts alone that his fame was made to rest, for
although but youth, he was scarcely less dis
tinguished for the extent and accuracy of his
juridical and classical attainments than for his
unrivalled powers Of eloqueIce.
During an exciting political contest, Mr..
Prentiss delivered a speech in Fanuel Hall,
that celebrated arena of intellectual gladiator
ship, which was pronounced by the iluminati
of the hub as one of the fairest specimens of
eloquence ever listened to in that hall, even
surprising the best efforts of their greatest
orator. Fisher Ames.
Notwithstanding the large Democratic ma
jority at that time in the State Of Mississippi,
the Whig party determined to run Prentiss
tto;r
McNutt, by birth Virginian, and a man of
perate habits, was the Democratic nominee for
Governor Of all the candidates McNutt was
the only one who ventured TO meet Prentiss on
the stump but it was only once that he ven
tured to encounter so formidable an antagonist.
That memorable occasion is thus described by
one who was present.
Upon the only meeting between Prentiss and
McNutt, the latter in his speech urged, as a
reason for the rejection or defeat of the former,
his dissipated habits; admitted his great abli-
ties, his mastery genius, pronounced him the
first man of his age, intellectually, but deplored
his habits which We're rendering him useless,
with all his genius, learning and eloquence.
Prentiss, in reply, said:
"My fellow citizens, you have heard the
charge against my morals, sagely, and had
almost said, soberly, made by the gentleman,
the Democratic nominee for the chief execu-
tive office of this State Had I said this, it
would have been what the lawyers term mis-
nomer. 1t would be impossible for him to do
or say anything soberly, for he has been drunk
ten years; not yesterday, or last week, in
sroc or socially, with good fellows, his friends,
at the genial and generous board, but at home,
and by himself and demJohn; not upon the
rich wines of the Rhine or the Rhone, the
Saone or the Gaudelquiver; not with hig gh-
spirited or high-witted men, whose souls, when
mellowed with glorious wine, leap from their
lips sublimated in words swollen with wit, or
thought brilliant and dazzling as the blood of
self; selfish and apart from witty men, or en-
nobling spirits, in the secret secusion of a
dirty little back room, and on corn whiskey ;
these only communing in affectionate brother
hood the son of Virginia and the spirits of
old Kentucky! Why, fellow-citizens, as the
Governor of the State, he refused to sign the
gallon law until he had tested, by experiment,
that gallon would do him all day!
"Now will admit fellow citizens, that some
times, when in the enjoyment of social com
muuion with gentlemen, am made merry with
these, and the rich wines of glorius France
It is then / enjoy the romance of life lmagi-
nation, stimulated with the juice of the grape,
gave to the world the songs of the ancient
Poets.
"The immv. al verse of wandering old Ho-
mer, the blind son of Scioss, Isle, was the in
spiration of Samian wine; and good old Noah,
too would have sung some good and merry
song, from the inspiration of the juice of the
vine he planted, but having to wait so long his
thirst like the Democratic nominees here, be-
came so great that he was tempted to drink too
deeply, and got too drunk to sing; and this, =!
fancy, is the true reason why this dlstinglshc "a
gentleman never sings.
"Perhaps there is no music in his soul. The
glug-glug- -glug of his jug, as he tilts and pours
from its reluctant mouth the corn juice so loved
of his soul, is all the music dear to his ear un-
less it be the same glug-glugglug as it disap-
pears down his capacious throat. Now, fellow
citizens, during this ardent campaign, which
has been so fatiguing, have only been drunk
once. Over in Simpson County l was compel
led to sleep in the same bed with this distin-
guished nominee-this delight of the Democ
racy-this wonderful exponent of the princi-
plies and practice of the unwashed Democracy
and in the morning found myself drunk
on corn whiskey. l had lain too close to this
soaked mass of Democracy, and was drunk
from absorption"
It is said that before Prentiss closed his re-
ply, McNutt left the ground rather hastily, and
never again made his appearance on the hust-
ings during the balance of the canvass.
A ROSE THAT LIVED EIGHTEEN YEARS IN
CHILDs CoFFIN.--Mr. B. f. Remington, OF