The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-07-28
CASSIUS CLAY'S DUELS
Noted Kentuckian's Recollec-
tions of His Encounters.
BOWIE KNIFE A FAVoRITE WEAPON

Desperate Figkt with Sam Brown,
the Man selected to KIN Him-out-
come of His Battle With Turner.
His Reasons For Gaming Or. De-
clarey.
As q 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 1t was
with a rival for the hand 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 letter abusing
the successful sutton The general
sought him out with second, and
gave him cowhlding. Then he sent
a challenge, bEt Deelarey, after failing
/ to respond, committed suicide.
i He next recalled the case Of Tom
Marshall The Clays and the Marshalls
had been at feud for a long time. Tom,
according to General Clay, would not
hght when challenged to do SO while
they were both fighting against the
| BIexicans Instead Of agreeing TO a
duel Tom jumped into the river and
tried to drown himself
! 1t was during hts campaign for con
gress against WickliHe that General
Clay had his bloodiest encounter, in
which his only weapon was a bowie
knife. He once told the story to q
newspaper man in these words.
| During the campaign Wiekliife in
| trodueed my wife's name into one Of
| his speeches. / challenged him and
we fired dit ten PAGES. Both Of us
missed. and raised my pistol up into
the afr and demanded second fire.
| The seconds would not permit this and
we left the grounds without recon
cillation or an apology on either side.
well, Wickliffe here had the worst of
the fight, and during the canvass for
/ congress was making a. very good
/ opposition to him, much to the disgust
Of the proslayery party. He had a
handful which he read during his
| speech. We had our speeches together.
and when he brought out this bill
always arose and asked IL / might
interrupt him. He would politely con-
sent. and would then say the handbill
he had read was untrue and had been
proved 50.
'sThe proslayery men got tired OF
this, and they decided to kill me. They
sent for Sam Brown, who was one of
the most noted bullies I'm Kentucky. II
| 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, police
bully, held a consultation at which they
loaded a pistol which Brown was to
use on me the next day. knew moth
ing Of this, and | had not my duellng
pistol with me- / interrupted Wick
life, as usual, and as I did 50 Brown
struck me with his umbrella and told
me that my statement was a lie.
II saw at once that it meant fight.
and. when ! recognized Brown knew
1t meant a fight to the death. had a
long, sharp bowie knife In the breast
Of my coat and I jerked this out, but
before could strike Browns friends
grabbed my arms from behind and
hauled me back about fifteen feet from
Brown. Brown now pulled his re-
volyer and told them to get out of the
way and let him kill me. The crowd
got back and | stood alone Brown
had his pistol pointed at me and /
started toward him. l could see him
looking along the barrel OF the re.
volyer. He took aim and waited until
he thought | was near enough to give
him a sure shot and then fired felt
the bali strike me Ia the breast and
thought it had gone through me. and j
determined to kill him il / could before
died came down on his head with
a tremendous blow of the bowie knife
but did not split open the skull.
struck him again and again ana
stunned him so that he was not able
to fire. With one cut of file knife |
sliced his nose right in two, so that it
separated in the middle, and came out
ais fiat as pancake With another
blow | cut Off his ear SO that ii hung
by shred, and with a third put out
his eve. The conspirators now seized
me and was struck with hickory
sticks ard 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 / 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 tray
eled without a brace Of pistols ia his
satchel, his favorite weapon was 4
bowie knife, which he always carried |
concealed under his coat. During
fight at political meeting once he