Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-08-30
BENTON AND WEBSTER,
HOW They Became Warm Friends
After Years of Estrangement.

IN the United States Senate of the Olden
time was Colonel Thomas III. Benton.
with as many faults of character and
as many good traits as any man that
ever held a seat In that body. He was
bitter perhaps malignant is the better
word In his politics, and neither wish
ed nor cared to have friends who disa-
greed with him in his political faith.
By marriage he was connected with
Henry Clay, and was the intimate
friend of the great orator. Facts grow
ing out of the presidential contest of
1924, when, through the influence of
Mr.. Clay, John Quincy Adams, a
minority candidate, was elected presi-
dent by the house of Representatives
over General Jackson, who received
the highest electoral vote, the friend
ship between Benton and Clay cooled.
and the part Benton took in the great
canvass of 1923 against Adams and
Clay brought a hatred between them
that never healed. At one time, Colon
ell Benton espousing the quarrel be-
tween his brother, Jesse Benton, and
General Jackson, they became bitter
enemies and had street fight, and to
the day of his death Jackson suffered
from a ball in his arm from Benton's
pistol. They became friends. Benton
was too much a man not to espouse
the cause of his brother, and Jackson
could not in his heart blame him for
so doing. Once this quarrel, during a
hot debate, Mr.. Clay alluded to, when
Benton promptly replied: True, we
quarreled, and we fought like men,
and became friends without leaving
any adjourned question of veracity
between us, " abiding to a former dis
pute between Adams and Clay, in
which the latter made statements re
garding Mr.. Adams, while one of the
commissioners to settle the terms of
peace with England at Client, in
which Mr.. Clay charged him with an
attempt to barter away the free navi-
cation of the Mississippi river, and
when Mr.. Adams Indignantly denied
Clay, IN the controversy, professed to
to be able to prove it by one of the
commissioners not then in the country,
and announced his intention of doing
SO at some future date. This was the
last of it.
Between Webster and Benton, ex-
cept acrimonious debate in the senate,
there had been no quarrel and no per-
sOnal intercourse. For years as mem
bers of the senate, day after day,
they passed each other without recog-
milton. Benton, except to his intimate
friends, was unsOcial. He would not
speak to dog if the animal belonged
to a man he did not like.
At the time of the explosion of the
then largest cannon, called the Peace
maker, ever cast in the United States,
Mr.. Benton was on board the Prince
ton with party to witness its being
fired, on trip down the Potomac. It
was during the Administration of
President Tyler. The vessel was
crowded by the presidential party, by
members of the cabinet and of CON
gress, and by the leading men and
women of Washington. In giving an
account of the affair, Colonel Benton
said he was standing near the gun, in
the best possible position to see the
effects of the shot. Suddenly some
one touched him on the shoulder who
wanted to speak to him, and he was
elbowed out of the place and another
took it. The gun was fired and burst
dealing death and destruction all
around. Ex-Governor Gilmer, of Vir-
ginia, then secretary of the navy, who
stood where Benton stood but mo-
ment before, was instantly killed, as
was also Abel P. Usher, the secretary
of state; Mr., Gardner, the father of
the lady who was afterward Mrs
Tyler, and others of prominence.
The scene had great effect on Sena-
tor Benton, who by the conclusion
was thrown to the deck, but not
materially injured. He then realized
that if the Almighty would forgive us
our trespasses we must forgive
those who trespass against US,
and he determined to be recon
ciled to those who he had been
at outs with, and Daniel Webster was
among the first to whom Benton. ten
dered the olive-branch of peace. Mr..
Webster, in describing the scene, said
that Mr.. Benton told him that it seem
ed as if that touch on the shoulder, q
moment before the gun was fired,
saved his life, by drawing him away
from that which would have been
instantaneous death, and that fact had
changed the whole course of his
thoughts in life. He felt" he said,
las if he was different man, and he
wished, in the first place, to be at
peace with all those with whom he
had been at variances, and so, Mr..
Webster, have come to you. Let us
bury the Ratchet" Of course Mr..
Webster responded to the invitation.
The old political enemies shook hands,
and ever after, their intercourse was
cordial and pleasant. And, in relating
this experience, Mr.. Webster added
| that their was no man in the United
States Senate, of whom he could have
asked reasonable or proper favor
with more assurance of obtaining it.
than from Colonel Thomas II. Ben
! ton.
Mrs Spaggins was boasting of hel