Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-08-01
CASSIUS CLAWS DUELS
Noted Kentuckian's Recollec-
tons of His Encounters.
BOWIE KNIFE A FAvORITE WEAPON


the Man Selected to Kill Him-Out-
come of His Battle with Turner.
His Reasons For Gaming DIR. De-
clRrey.
AS a duelist, always victorious, the
late General CaSsius Marcellus Clay,
minister to Russia under Presidents
Lincoln and Johnson, noted abolitionist
and author, was said to have been
implicated in more encounters and to
have killed more men than any other
fighter living.
When he was asked not long ago to
tell about his first fight he said it was
with a rival for the haIRl of Miss War
| field. When the wedding day of the
young woman and the general was
approaching the rival, DR.. Declarey,
wrote to her family a letter abusing
the successful sutton. The general
sought him out. with a second, and
! gave him a cowhiding. Then he sent
a challenge, but Declarey, after failing
to respond, committed suicide.
He next recalled the case of Tom
Marshall. The CIays and the Marshalls
had been at feud for long time. Tom,
according to General Clay, would not
! fight when challenged to do so while
they were both fighting against the
MeXicans. Instead of agreeing to a
| duel, Tom jumped into the river and
tried to drown himself
1t was during his campaign for con-
| gress against Wickliffe that General
Clay had his bloodiest encounter, in
which his only weapon was a bowie
| knife. He once told the story to n
newspaper man in these words:
During the campaign Wickliffe in
! troduced my wifeS name into one of
! his speeches. 1 challenged him and
we fired at ten PAGES. Both of us
missed, and 1 raised my pistol up into
! the air and demanded a second fire.
! The seconds would not permit this and
we left the grounds without a recon
Citation or an apology on either side.
"Well, Wickliffe here had the worst Of
| the fight, and during the canvass for
! congress 1 was making a very good
! opposition to him, much to the disgust
OF the proslavery party. He had q
| handful which he read during his
| speech. We had our speeches together,
and when he brought out this bill L
! always arose and asked if 1 might
| interrupt him. He Would politely con-
sent, and would then say the handful
he had read was untrue and had been
proved so.
1.-The proslavery men got tired of
| this. and they decided to kill me. They
| sent for Sam Brown, who was one of
! the most noted DULLES in Kentucky. It
| is said that he had had forty fights and
! had never lost a battle. Brown came,
and he and Wickliffe. a fellow named
Jacob Ashton and Ben Wood, a police
bully, held a consultation at which they
| loaded a pistol which Brown was to
use on me the next day. 1 knew moth
ing of this, and had not my dueling
pistol with me. 1 interrupted Wick
life, as usual, and as 1 did so Brown
struck me with his umbrella and told
me that my statement was n lie.
II saw at once that it meant fight
and. when l recognized Brown l knew
it meant a fight to the death. 1 had
long, sharp bowie knife in the breast
of my coat and l jerked this out, but
| before 1 could strike, Browns friends
grabbed my arms from behind and
hauled me back about fifteen feet from
Brown. Brown now pulled his re-
volver and told them to get out of the
way and let him kill me. The crowd
got back and 1 stood alone. Brown
had his pistol pointed at me and 1
started toward him. 1 could see him
looking along the barrel of the re-
volver. He took aim and waited until
he thought 1 was near enough to give
him a sure shot and then fired. 1 felt
the ball strike me in the breast and L
thought it had gone through me, and
determined to kill him if l could before
1 died. l came down on his head with
tremendous blow of the bowie knife,
but did not split open the skull. 1
struck him again and again and
stunned him so that he was not able
to fire. With one cut of the knife
sliced his nose right in two, so that it
separated in the middle, and came out
as fiat as a pancake. With another
blow I cut off his ear so that it hung
/ by Il shred, and with Il third put out
his eye. The conspiratOrs now seized
me and l was struck with hickory
sticks and chairs.
Il broke loose from my captors and
again made for Brown, and they, to
keep him out of my way, picked him
up and threw him over stone fence
about seven feet high, and this ended
the fight. Though l was the assaulted
party, they afterward tried me for
mayhem and at his trial Brown con-
fessed the conspiracy and Henry Clay
defended me. OF course was not con-
victed."
Although General Clay never trav-
eled withouEa brace of pistols in his
satchel his favorite weapon was a
bowie knife, which he always carried
concealed under his coat. During a
fight at a political meeting once he
was stabbed in the lung. He drew his
bowie knife and rushed upon a man
named Turner, who had been response
BILE for the outbreak. The crowd got
out of his way and he found clear