The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-25


Mother" promised he. "I'l come back
with the first honors of the university"
And he did. He went to the battle of
life and had for capital splendid intel
lect. an indomitable courage, and lofty
aspiration.
Another morn
Risen on mid noon.
Stephens positively hated him. Hill
was fighter and that best OF fighters, an
aggressive one. Secure in Gibraltar, he
would have scorned to receive attack,
but would have sailed from his fortress
and in placid seas, OF on mountain waves,
he would have striven with an adversary
ON even terms. Though the pass were
Thermopylae, and the defenders Spartans,
he would not halt or hesitate to attack
and fight to the last. jeff Davis called
him Hill the faithful and he was to
Davis all Douglas was to Bruce.
Perhaps it was a discussion of the
Kansas-N Nebraska bill that was the youth
full Hills first meeting with the veteran
Stephens. Both had been Wings and
Hill was yet a Wing. Stephens was fot
the Kansas-Nebraska legislation, and Hill
marrow and both pro-slavery in sentiment
1t was a battle of the giants, and there
We're not two opinions as to whom was
the victor, and Stephens confirmed that
opinion by his loss of temper. He was
overmatched, and in revenge he
Not only hated David, but the King
So exasperated was, Stephens that he
engaged in a correspondence with Hill
that he intended should lead to a hostile
meeting, and, indeed he did send chal-
lenge. AT that time in the South the
code was the higher law. From the east
ern shore of Virginia to the western
boundary of Texas gentlemen appealed to
it for the settlement of personal dispute.
The code was repealed at the North be
cause the meeting between Burr and
Hamilton was fatal. A like meeting be-
tween Jackson and Clay would have
abolished it at the South. He was a very
brave man who would refuse challenge
in Georgia the year 1856, and he was an
extraordinary man whom such refusal
would not utterly and forever undo, but
Hill was a brave man and an extraordi-
nary man. In reply to Stephens he said
he was member of the Christian
Church and no hypocrite, and had no dis
position to appear before his Maker with
blood on his hands that he had deliber.
ately shed; that he had wife and child
rem to shield, protect, and support and
a conscience to guard from remorse, while
Stephens had neither family nor con-
science, and the contest being thus UNI
equal, he declined to engage in it.
Stephens then posted him as braggart,
liar, and poltroon. He replied in a
scorching letter, and his invective was as
fierce as his ridicule had been irresistible.
He closed with these significant words:
IF any gentleman doubts that l have not
the courages to defend myself anywhere
and everywhere, there is a short and easy
way to test it," 1t was not tested"
Georgia knew Ben Hill, and he did not
have to fight to be a brave man.
In 1857 the Democrats nominated Joe
Brown for Governor and the Wings nomi-
mated Hill. They who heard them on the
stump saw in Hill the Montrose who
fought the battles of giants at the head
OF Highland clans, and when reconstruc-
ton came there were those who thought
they saw in Brown the Scot who sold his
master for goat. Hill was the lion,
Brown the fox. Had Hill been an as
sassin, the dagger would have been his
weapon; Brown would have employed the
cup. Hill was a pronounced Union man;
Brown was an ayowed seceSsionist.
Georgia was Democratic, but Hill greatly
reduced the majority. He was then but
thirty-four years of age and the most
interesting figure in Georgia. When
secession came and he and Stephens strove
against it. but they were then and ever
after bitter personal enemies. If all the
South had hearkened to these two men
what an iliad of woes would she have
avoided,
Though he was a strong Union man,
Troup County unanimously sent him TO
the State convention that adopted the
ordinance OF secession over his solemn
warning; but when war came Ben Hill
was the Southern Cato. We fondly call
ed Allen G.. Thurman THE Old Roman,
but the most Roman of all American
statesmen was BENJAMIN Harvey Hill. He