The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13

voted for the war. The pig with his
head in the fence caused it all
Here is another case of what one
vote will do. General Andrew Jackson
defeated General John Sewer for the
major generalship of the Tennessee
militia by one vote. That gave us
the great victory at Horseshoe Bend
and the great victory at New Orleans.
That one vote changed the current of
events in this country for all time
James Parton says in his life of An
drew jackson that when Martin Van
Buren, rang Peggy O'Neill's doorbell
to call on her he changed the history
of the United States for twenty years.
But if it had not been for Andrew
Jackson he could not have changed
the history of anything for twenty
years.
Let us take another example. Ed
ward Everett was defeated for Gov
ernor of Massachusetts by one vote
in the popular vote, and the strange
thing about it was that the legislature
that counted him out was a Wing leg
islature, and it gave the office of gov
ernor to Martus Martin, Democrat.
That one vote put Barrett out of the
running for president OF course that
was not so important; for the Wings
had no chance of electing a president,
anyway.
LET us take another example of
what one vote will do. Rutherford B.
Hayes got into the presidential office
land I say got into deliberately by
one electoral vote; that is, majority
of one. Let US suppose case. Sup
pose the majority of one had been for
Samuel J. Tilden, one of the greatest
political organizers this country ever
saw. There is no question in my
mind that if he had been seated we,
the Democrats, should have run this
country for a quarter of a century
without break-and when | think of
that transaction I assure you it is
with none of that tranquility fitting to
Sunday morning quietude.
Here is another case. There is
planted in the public mind the impress
sion that Thomas H. Benton was the
first Senator from Missouri, and like
wise the conviction that he was the
most popular man in Missouri during
the first twenty-five years of her
statehood. Neither of these impress
sions is correct. He was not the first
senator, but the second. He was ad-
mired, but never popular.
THE most remarkable transaction
that ever took place in American poll
tics was, | think, with reference to
him. The first legislature elected Sen
ator Barton unanimously Then there
was a deadlock for about three weeks
on the other senator; for the new
state, of course, was to elect two. The
legislature finally allowed Barton to
select this senatorial partner. Barton
picked Benton; but the latter was so
unpopular that it took three weeks
after Barton picked him to get him
elected. And in the end he was elect
ed by only one majority. This one
vote was that of a sick member who
was carried in on a stretcher to cast
his vote and died half an hour later.
THAT one vote launched Thomas H.
Benton on thirty years career in
the Senate. 1t was the speeches Ben
ton made in Missouri during the TWEEN
ty years that followed that kept Mis-
souri, from seeding in 1861. If Mis-
souri, had seeded, Kentucky would
have done likewise. The South would
have won its independence and would
have been a flourishing nation today.
So the one vote by the man on the
stretcher cast in the Missouri legisla.
ture, in my opinion, saved the nation
at last.
kentucky furnishes good exam
pie of what one vote will do. Ken
lucky came into the nation as a slave
state by one vote in the constitutional
convention. Henry Clay and old Hum
phrey Marshall fought a duel about it
and shot each other through the calf
of the leg. Missouri, before the be-
ginning of the Civil War, was nothing
but Kentucky colony. If Kentucky
had come in a free state, Missouri
would have come in as free state, :