The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-03
THURMAN, SOLDIER, LAWYER
The Great Debate at Sacramento in War
Cloud Days
The Most Stirring Episode Ever Seen In
the Halls Of Our State
Legislature

fully as discipline rather than mis-
fortune. He was 63 years of age, AZ of
which had been spent on the frontier.
Harry lnnes Thornton was born in 1882
at Huntsville, Alabama, and received a
collegiate education at Princeton, New
Jersey. His father was District Judge
in Alabama, and was appointed by Presi
dent Pierce as one of Board Of United
States Land Commissioners to determine
upon the validity of Mexican land grants
in California. He arrived here early in
1858 and his family followed HIM few
months later.
San Francisco did not suit young Harry
so he went up to Nevada City where he
was admitted to the bar and shortly after
wards removed to Downieville in Sierra
county, where the Democracy put him up
for District Attorney and elected him by
large majority. This office he took
merely as an advertisement and, at the
expiration of his term, declined a re-
election. But the Democracy knew the
value of so earnest man on their ticket,
and they ran him for State Senator. He
was elected by the biggest majority on
the ticket. This was in 1859 and the
rumblings Of the distant conflict. were
already family heard like the low growl of
the far-off thunder on sultry summer
afternoon.
In the winter of 1860-61 | was a deputy
IN the engrossing department of the SEN
ate and young Thornton and | were in
troduced by Humphrey Griffith, then
senator from Yolo. Everything pointed
then to civil war, although nobody had
the faintest idea of its duration. After the
secession ordinance was passed by South
carolina and Alabama prepared to get in
line, it was evident that there must be an
expression OF sentiment by the Legisla-
ture then in session.
Downey was Governor of the state, as
he had succeeded Latham, who had been
elected to the United States Senate. He
was asked how he stood upon the great
absorbing question of the day and an
-Swered II am a Democrat of the school
~ Andrew Jackson and with him | be-
Heve that the Federal Union must be pre-
S{rved.'
MThe Senate had eight war Democrats in
ms total of forty members and fourteen
Were avowed advocates of the right of Sc
cession. OF the nineteen Republicans on
the floor not one was enough of an orator
to lead the fight, so the choice fell upon
the young Senator from Napa county,
Henry Edgerton, war Democrat. He
Was native of Vermont and had worked
at carpenters bench for the first three
years he was in this state. The Bun
Combe battle (as Thornton used to call it
In after life) began over a series OF resolu-
tions introduced by Mr.. Edgerton but
really compiled and drafted by Humphrey
Griffith, Governor Downey, Henry Edger-
Nfon and Newton Booth, who afterwards
served. the state both as Governor and a
Senator in Congress. The resolutions
were too lengthy to be given in full in
tthese columns but can recall the word
~ fig OF one paragraph:
" Resolved, That we recognize in all civil
lied government the right of coercive
power, without which no government can
8bide or hope long to endure
~ 1t was over this one resolution that the
3greatest part of that exciting oratorical
$truggle was fought by the two young
1of age and Thornton trihe over %.
REdgerton was good sized man, with an
I athletic figure and splendid muscular de-
= velopment, while poor little Thornton
weighed less than 125 pounds. The affirm
ssatve of the proposition was led by Edger-
s1ton while Thornton had personal super
vision OF the Interruptions that prevailed
until he arose to reply to Mr.. Edgerton.
i&The one represented the New England
6. will power, struggling upwards from the
franks of labor and demanding its recog-
Snition from the aristocracy of intellect.
x The other was tiny Cicero, attenuated
@by centuries of a slowly-ripening civiliza-
= ton.
y All business in the other departments
'Nof that Legislature was suspended; and
q before the debate had progressed for
ishalf hour in the Senate, the House had adj
ajourned for want of quorum. The
y wrangle lasted two days, and never once
,Ndid either of the mighty champions lose
.ssight of the courtesy VIII CHI should be
sasynonymous with the name OF Senator,
!. Edgerton had a good deal the best of it.
4 lat the very outset, for California was a
free state and had been admitted into the
y Union without the stain of slavery on her
tnGNnfphnnn Thnrnfnn
y hand, was working over the theories of
,YCalhoun and other nullifers. The debate
,pended in the adoption of the resolutions
Z by vote of "a to Ia.
q Thornton practiced what he preached,
= and no man could accuse him of a lack OF
\ sincerity. He resigned his seat in the
!, Senate and started East, where he offered
y his services to the Confederacy, and Jeff
-~Davis wanted to make him a Colonel at
the very, outset. Thornton's modesty
would not permit that, however, so he ac-
Scepted a lieutenantcy and fought till the
with a brevet rank of Brigadier- General.
He was twice wounded and when the
great day of surrender came at Appomat-
tox Court House there was no man that
accepted the verdict of war in better faith
than Harry Thornton.
slSTIt was. an hour after dusk, one chilly
evening in October, 1865, that a dust
= covered figure rode up to livery stable
] in Austin, New, and left a tired horse to
'Sbe cared for. A few minutes afterwards
lie met Delos r. Ashley, a noted mining
lawyer and shook him by the hand.
Good Lord, is this you Harry?" asked
,..,s It's what's left Of me, . replied the lit
sstRe bundle Of nerves; "and never was as
{ hungry in my life. Can you lend me
4 MS Yes; fifty, if you need it. Here's ten.
8nd you come down to the Office in the
morning"
Thornton went off and ate a meal b,s
; enough for three men and then went to
bed. 1t was the first time he had slept
under roof in nearly nine weeks,
John CARRIER was Ashleys partner and
: had been on the bench when Thornton
was admitted to the bar twelve wears pre-
viously. By the time that Harry had
reached the Office in the morning, Ashley
and CARRIER had it all cut and dried to adj
init Thornton to a partnership. In the
ten years that followed they had one side
or the other of every important mining
case in Nevada. AS Reese River began to
decline, they removed first to Virginia
City and thence to San francisco. The
partnership was dissolved nearly ten years
ago, since which time Colonel Thornton
has devoted himself chiefly to stock breed
ing. Adescendant of the cavaliers that
followed in the train of the Merry Mon
hrch, what was more natural than that he
should become welded to that fascinating
ayocation of breeding the thoroughbred
horse, as his ancestors had done before