River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-06-25
THOMAS 4. MARSHALL.
Anecdotes of the Most Brilliant Orator Ken
lucky Has Produced-The Crushing
Defeat He Administered TO
Rival Many Years Ago


Rival Many Years Ago.
Z have alluded to John Quincy Adj
j ans, writes correspondent to The
/ Louisville CoaTier-J0ur7sat. His name
recalls that of Thomas L. Marshall, the
most brilliant man that even Kentucky
has produced In an evil hour Mar
shall had a discussion with the "old
man eloquent" upon matter of fact,
and as a result was badly worsted, as
Henry Clay himself was worsted by
an appeal to Adams inevitable diary,
which the eX-president invoked on all
such occasions. Marshall was the
most oloqaent man OF his day. His
speech had the dulcet sweetness of the
harp of OrpheuS, and was as per
suasiye as the plea of Phryne before
I the hostile court. 1t would have soft
ened the marble bosom of Rhadaman-
thus and planted the germ of mercy
in his ilinty heart. Marshall was
singular genius, as erratic as Peters
boro and as gifted as Admirable
Crichton, though slave to his pas
slons and without individuality of
character sufficient to resist te.a pta-
+ ton or reform a broken life. Like
/ Sir William Yonge, nothing but such
a character could drag down such
parts, and nothing but such parts
could sustain such a character.
Until he was elected To congress
Marshall's convivial habits had not
obtained the mastery over him.
/ lie once went to Philadelphia to de-
/ liver a lecture. the subject Of which
was the Life and Character of Ma
I poIeon the Great" There was much
/ curiosity to hear him, for his fame as
/ an orator was national, and the lect-
/ are had remarkable excellencies in a
I literary, historical aud critical point
I of view. The hall was filled with the
beauty, grace, and culture OF the Qua
! ker city When the lecturer appeared
/ before his audience he was pretty far
SOUTH" that is.
lie was no fu' but just had plenty,
and he began to repeat his lecture af-
Ter first interpolating the following:
Ladies and gentlemen, / have not
a doubt that Napoleon Bonaparte was
a direct lineal descendant and heir at
law of a woods colt of Julius Caesar
begottten while that hero was sowing
his crop of wild oats on the banks OF
the Adriatic or in one of the isles of
the Mediterranean
The thought was well received, and
he delivered his lecture with his ac-
customed eloquence. He was a great
lover of Shakespeare, and knew the
best plays from stem 10 stern. lie
possessed brilliant, luXuriant, gOr9
eous imagination, which gave a hue to
everything that emanated from him,
while there was a happy originality
exempliiied in all his utterances. lie
illustrated Cables sentence: You
may dwarf a man till he be the mere
stump OF what he should be and he
will yet put forth green leaves"
He defended Matt Ward for the
murder of Prof. Butler in Louisville
about thirty years ago. 1t was indeed
a celebrated case. Communities all
over the state were divided. His guilt
or innocence became political issue.
The interest was great beyond the
limits of the state, George ID. Prem
tice, the life long friend of the father
Of the acussed, championed the son of
his friend in the columns of Tile Louis
UiLle Journal and narrowly escaped
mob vengeance. His Office was sacked
and Quilted. A change of venue was had
and an array of counsel, such as has
idIGIN DCCi IHudICb, ttppGdLtd 4Ol the
defense. Besides Marshall there were
Crittenden, Helm, Wolfe, Wood, and
others, but it was universally conced-
ed that Marshall's speech surpassed
all others. An eyewitness says that
one sentence in his speech cleared the
accused. With an attitude Garrick
would have studied and a tone Tdlma
would have envied, and at the close
of climax, he exclaimed: "Will you
tear him from his girl wife?' There |
was not dry eye in the room, and |
the judge upon the bench sobbed like |
q child. He was once one of a party |
of hunters in the mountains of Ken |
lucky. They had been encamped for
more than a week, and were composed /
of the flower of Lexington. cultured |
gentlemen, yong aud old. When |
night overlook them, and the evening |
meal prepared and eaten, the party |
gathered around the campfire and dis |
cussed every subject that offered food |
for the cOntemplative mind. At that |
hour Marshall was the leader. No other |
member of the party was so daring in !
speculation or illustrated his theories !
with such splendor and copiousness |
of imagery. Till long past midnight |
he held his audience of more than a |
score of cultured and learned gentle
men entranced. lie was more eloquent |
than when on the stump, and often /
his listeners were still enchanted when |
dawn appeared in the east. One night |
it was proposed that he preach a SER |
mon from any text that he might Sc
lect. He chose the passage: The |
foxes have holes and the birds of the |
air have nests, but the son of man has |
not where to lay his head. For a |
long time he commented on the life |
and character OF the Savior. He pre- |
scented the theology of the Nazarene |
IN a novel and attractive light. He |
discoursed OF love and preached all of |
humanity, all of human longing for /
peace and security. He brought a tear !
TO every eve, and seut thrill through |
every heart in that company, more |
than one of whom had been skeptical |
until that day, but were SO no more |
forever
When Henry Clay died, Marshall
delivered an eulogy upon his life and |
character that has bee me a classic. |
Longfellow acclaimed that it surpassed /
ANYTHING ever uttered by the lips of /
man, and Daniel 5. Dickinson said |
that he had rather have been the /
author of it than to have written |
Hamlet"
With one or two anecdotes | will I
close this sketch of this most gifted 4
man. Marshall went into the town of !
Versailles one day when John j. Crit
ten had an appointment to make
stump-speech. Marshall asked and /
received division of time, and the |
''wool- pulling began. Many ladies |
were present, and to show their dis
pleasure with Marshall's course, as
we'll as to compliment Crittenden, |
they covered the latter gentleman with /
flowers and waved their handkerchicfs /
in approval. Crittenden acknowl- /
edged the compliment in graceful /
and happy manner, and Marshall rose /
to reply. He was more than usually /
eloquent, and made a splendid speech. |
At its close he turned to the ladies and /
SAID:
mo bouquets for me! Ladies, was
born at that early day in Kentucky /
when the aesthetic had not supplanted |
the unitarian, when girls, instead OF |
cultivating the useless graccs that at
tract the frivolous. practiced those |
habits of usefulness that fitted them to |
be wives of brave men and mothers OF /
sturdy children. In that primitive I
dav the maiden had no bower where /
Flora held her court, but, on the con
trary, they planted and nOurisned am