Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10

the TACT that Mr. Clay ever fought duel at ALL
HIS first blographer George ID. Prentice, who
was brought TO Kentucky from Connecticut for
the express purpose of writing Life Of
Henry Clay" gives the fullest account which
has yet been printed of the duel with Marshall
and is but meager. This present sketch may
be called not only the fullest, but in fact the
first full account of the duel between Clay and
Marshall which has ever been given in print
There is no need to attempt TO give to the
readers of The STAR any account of Mr. Clay
for his name is household word throughout
America; but. owing to many peculiar circum-
stances, Mr.. Marshals fame is scarcely known
outside of Kentucky, and even there it is al
most forgotten. So brief sketch of the man
may not be amiss in this place.
SKETCH OF MARSHALL.
Humphrey Marshall was fret cousin Of
Chief Justice John Marshall, and went from
Virginia and settled in Kentucky at an early
date-11S2-after having served as a captain in
the revolutionary war. He was a man of the
first order of character as well as of intellect
but rugged, stern and unconquerable in will
He was an intimate friend of Washington's and
an ardent federalist all his days; and although
he was exceedingly prominent in Kentucky at
hrst, being elected to various distinguished po-
sltons, his extreme federalism. added to other
causes, eventually caused him to become polit-
lcally as dead as a door nail in the grand old
commonwealth"
oDIoUs FEDERALISM
As an example of the odous complexion of
federalism in Kentucky and the west in early
times 1 will repeat here an example given by
Warfeld in his work on THE Kentucky Revo-
lutlons of 1893" In early times in Indiana a
political libel suit was tried in the Franklin
circuit court The principal allegation was
that the defendant had called the plaintiff ian
OLD federalist." The issue Was made ND on
this as an agreed statement of facts, and proof
was taken as to whether the offense constituted
a libel. The chief witness was an old man
named Herndon, who had moved to Indiana
from Kentucky He swore that he considered
1t libelous to call man Il federalst; that he
would shoot man who called him either a
horse thief or q federaist; that he would
rather be called anything under heaven
than federalist, and regarded a thou
sand dollars as the least measure of dam
ages; that he considered the term equivalent.
to tory. enemy of his country and from the
earliest days of Kentucky such he believed to
have been tie common acceptation of the term.
Other witnesses corrobOrated this testimony
and the jury found Verdict TO the effect that
Ito call man tederalist was libelous," and
fixed the damages at 81 900.
EXPOSING CONsPIRACIEs
But much of Humphrey Marshalrs unpopu-
larity in Kentucky arose from the fact that he
defeated two or three formidable conspiracies
Gin which a number of the leading men of the
was he who defeated and prevented the almost
successful conspiracy of Gen. James Wilkin-
son, Judge Benz amin Sebastian and other
prominent kentuckians OF the day to turn over
to the omissaries of the King of Spain. then
regnant in Louisiana. all that territory west of
the Allegheny mountains. east of the Missis-
slppi river and north of the YaZoo river which,
by the terms OF the conspiracy, was to be held
as a dependency of the Spanish crown. 1t was
also Humphrey Marshall who. in 1906, took the
first steps toward the arrest of Aaron Burr and
the consequent exposure and defeat of his
gigantic conspiracy for erecting all the coun-
try ives; of the Allegheny mountains, includ-
ing the Louisiana country and Mexico, into
magnificent empire, OF which he was
to be the emperor. These matters are all
treated at leng IN in Humphrey Marshalrs His
tory of Kentucky" published in lS24-a work
which has been 80 persistently destroyed by in
terested parties and their descendants as to be
now one of the rarest OF American books
Aaron Burr was arrested first in Lexington
KY, in 1906, and shortly afterward was
brought up for trial in the United States couI
! at Frankfort, where upon some informally or
technically, the judge being his friend and
his ally, he was discharged with u splendid
certificate of character, only to be shortly
afterward brought more severely to grief by a
higher tribunal
ENMITY OF CLAY AND MARSHALL.
In the affair at Frankfort Henry CLAY. then
a United States Senator, WAS one of Burr's
counsel fact which Humphrey Marshall af-
terward harped upon so persistently as portent
OF evil and guilt upon the part Of Clay as to
make the two men deadly enemies As has
been stated, both Clay and Marshall were
elected members of the Kentucky legislature
of loOo-09. Mr.. Clay was then a democrat and
Mr.. Marshall was the only federalist in the
house and even he had been elected in a dem
ocratic county. 1t was believed that the two
men would engage Ill an alteration upon al
most any provocation so bitter was their known
enmity to each other. 1t has been stated by
Prentice that Mr.. Clay was defeated for the
| speakership of the house, to which he aspired,
| III order that he might be upon the floor the
| the more efectually to crush and put
down odd Humphrey Marshall as he. though
| still young man, was then called
A casus beili was not long wanting between
| two men determined from the first upon war
| and the following resolution, introduced by
| Dir. Clay. apparently in all sincerity, was made
| the ostensible occasion of the beginning OF
| hostilities, viz:
| 1.-The members OF the general assembly will
| clothe themselves in productions of American
| manufacture, and will abstain from the use OF
c!oth or linens OF European fabric until the belg
elent halons respect the rights of neutrals by re-
Iehhhg such OF their orders and DEGREES relate
| 10 the United States"
| Writing OF this resolution many years otter.
| ward Whsn the matter had again been brought
upon the tapis by the publication OF Prentice's
Lille OF Clay" Mr.. Marshall said:
And is this the basis of the American system.
- IL me terfhpln system only: Did 1 ridicu!e it.
III had possessed talents for ridicule 1 would
lld say IL was the project of a deinag que? So
| me biography has 1t; and this was vituperat.on
| ana oven ho"-so correct was the remark thai
even row / might repeat the des.ription MIR
| Clay. then dressed iii bellgerent cIoth-British
| DeneVe-deClalmed most manfully and pa trioti,.
ally against the use OF it. In the habit Of wearina
| IomesPun IN thc summer, and then i'm a pair of
| panraoons OF 1t, felt no necessity of giving sim
liar proofs Of my love of country"
| 1t is fact that at the time Mr. CLAW intro
duced this resolution Mr.. Marshall did exercis,
upon it to the full extent his highly deyelopei
TALENTS FOR RIDICULE AND SARCASM.
The resolution was under debate for severa
days At the beginning Mr. Clay, as was hi,
| wont, was dressed in imported broadcloth. Mr.
| Marshall as was his custom, in homespun. o,
partly so. As the debate progressed, Mr. CLAW
to be consistent. shed his broadcloth and bios
somed out in homespun. Upon this Mr. Mar
shall, who was man of immense fortune. lait
aside his homespun and donned the most gor
geous suit OF English broadcoth that could bt
had FOR money on short notice. Resplendcn
IN these imported goods, which set of his mag
nitcent form to great advantage he struttet
imperiously down the aisles of the house. ana
which for invective and sarcasm probably the
gifted MIR. ingalls, Of Kansas could not approach
even in his happiest moods. Mr. CLAY wa,
stung to the quick and, springing to his feet
attempted to spit in Mr.. Marshalrs face