Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-05-23

a
there it was However. l was not much
surprised to hear the crowd e.. out that
someone had been 3calDed. a group OF
Southerners made 4 rush at me. The
sergeant-at-arms bearing his mace came
up and in the name or the House com
manded me to take my seat. [ said
Take these fellows off. Just then one
of the Southern fellows struck me- Ny
friends cried out, You are wounded
a vein had been cut, and my face was
covered with blood. Finally order was
restored. Mott, Il brother Of Lucretia
Mott, was member of the House at
that time. He was one of those who
came up and spoke to me after the melee.
lie said, Thee must have taken lessons
III the pugilistic art No. | replied i
never took 4 lesson in my life TO this
he responded dryly, i noticed thy blows
were very eifectual.'
How He Won His Sobriquet.
The bowie-knife episode occurred in
1860, when Pennington of New Jersey
was speaker. The trouble originated dur
ing speech by Owen Loyejoy, who was
a brother of the Aboltionist martyr,
Elijah 2. Lovejoy, killed by a pro-slav-
cry mob at Alton in 1887. Owen Love
JOY was present when his brother was
murdered. He became pastor of Con-
gregational church at Princeton, H., and
prominent anti-slavery lecturer, and
Illinois from 1857 to 1865. Judge Pot
ter's recollection of the circumstances
fearing there would be fight and said
to Pryor. He is not on your side; you
are on our side The object of Pryor
and his clique was evidently to force a
fight, and to have it go out to the country
that LoveJoy had provoked trouble by
gong upon the Democratic side of the
House. The rule was that Il member
addressing, the House should speak from
ms own place or from the clerks desk.
Lovejoy did not insist upon his right to
stay where he was. but went TO the
clerks desk and finished his speech. He
SAID many things that eXasperatcd the
southern members. | remember this:
If any poor fugitive slave comes TO my
house asking bread, he shall have bread.
constitution or no constitution But
they let him finish The Congres~ ional
Globe was always several days behind
at that time. The custom was for mem
Ders who had made speeches to look over
the proofs and see that the reports were
correct LovejOy came to me some days
after this incident, and said: Do YOU
know what those fellows have ;lnnc with
your remarks lnterpOlatcd in MY speech?
They. went down TO the Congressional
printing office and linked out what N,,l
SAID ana tore out several pages of proof
| went down with Lovejoy to see about
it and found that Singleton, Pryor and
others had made changes i'll the report. rs
LoyejOy had stated. | said to the print
err: L would Ike TO restore those re
marks. He replied: All right and l
did so. When the Globe came out it was
so far behind that the matter had al
most passed from my mind. Someone
said to me: Pryor OF Virginia is calling
your attention to s>':,ething he is say
ing l looked up and listened. Pryor
had in his hand a copy of the Globe, and,
referring TO the report Of my interpola-
ton, SAID: no such remarks were male
" hen the proofs went to the speaker
they were not there | explained the
matter, and said: L don't know what
that gentleman's ideas of courtesy may
be, but If L had been in his place | would
have let my hand wither before | would
have done what he has done Pryor
turned upon me and asked: DO | under
stand the member from Wisconsin to say
that be did make these remarks! DO
did. Then he Kissed out, THE sequel
shall demonstrate whether you stand by
them or not | replied: Let it demon
strate Those words wore afterwards
placed on the gun John +. Potter, which
was used in Milwaukee to fire salutcs
during the war, Let it Demonstrated
Challenge to Mortal Combat.
That afternoon l got note from Pry-
or, challenging me to meet him in mortal
duel with member from West Virginia.
He had been a second in a duel between
Peasants and Ritchie, the terms of
which were that the principals were TO
exchange shots with pistols and then
take bowie-kniyes and fight it out. |
thought after all that had taken place it
was not my duty to decline to hight. L
believed that Pryor's object in proposing
a duel was to obtain an easy and
cheap renown and popularity IN his
own section. | was not good shot
with pistol, and | did not purpose to
have any hair-trigger business. | pro
posed to bring the combat down to the
first principles of human butchery. Pryor
having been concerned in i duel in which
bowic-kniveS were the weapons, could
not consistently refuse to fight with bow
ie-kniyes. | saw no reason why | should
accommodate him by going out of the
district to fight Therefore | accepted
his challenge with the stipulation that
the weapons should be bowie-knivcs, and
that the encounter should take place in
q closed room in the District of Column
bia, each Of the principals to have two
friends, both armed, and the fight to go
on until one or the other of the princi-
pals fell. My second was Col. Lander of
Pennsylvania. BY the advice of his
friends, one of whom was James NJ. Ma
son, Pryor refused to meet me, on the
ground that the terms were barbarouS.
Lander said: That reflects upon me- [
have consented to the terms. | will now
challenge your principal to meet me in
mortal combat and choose his own weap-
ons.' But Pryor said he had no quarrel
with Lander, and refused to fight him."
Judge Potter has in his possession two
bowe-knives which are souvenirs of the
Pryor affair One of them is a knife
that was purchased for use III case Pry-
or accepted the ch;tllenge.
Tn, Sofn f,
recollection to Congress by James S.
Brown, the Democrats having a tempo
rary advantage, it was claimed, owing
to the number of Republicans who had
enlisted and gone to the front, he was
offered the governorship of Dakota, but
declined to accept it. In the same year
he was appointed consul-general to Brit
ISL America at Montreal, which position
he held till 1866. Mr.. Potter's farm is :;
beautiful piece of property, 400 acres in
extent, on the shore of a pretty sheet of
water bearing the name of Potter's lake.
Mr.. Potter was for thirty years pro
bate judge. He was an honorary mem
Der Of the Henry Conklin post, G.. A. r.