The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-06-03
HENRY CLAY DEAN.
A Striking Character of Early Iowa
a Man of Natural Gifts.

5egG Henry 7CIayS lean was a ldiulllal
figure to the Hawkeye, of the COS. He
was a democrat of the democrats;
rabid in speech and sloyenly in per-
son, so much SO, in fact, that he ac-
CURED the application Of The Great
Unwashed."
He was, nevertheless, man of
wonderful personality, extensive
reading and endowed With great nat
ural gifts of oratory. He had an
antipathy to manual labor OF any
sort, end it is related that he would
lie in the weeds at his door yard for
hours at time, reading the Rights
of Man. or drinking in the philcs-
ophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
The writer first met this singular
character in tho late 50's, at VIII
lage in southern Iowa, under circum-
stances that will now be related.
A few months previous to this
time girl presented herself at the
door of a farm house in the vicinity,
asking for work. She was young,
handsome and stranger, and the
farmer gave her a situation as do
nestle in his family. She proved to
be competent, attended to her duties,
and altogether entitled to the conf
dcnce of her employer.
When the frost came and opened
the brown burs, (Rosa Ricnard)S~
for that was her name-used to go
out nutting, generally in company
with some member of the family
and many young swain in the
neighborhood cast furtive chances of
admiration at her as she passed.
81 nh
waylaid by two men, seized, bundled
into buggy and driven away. For
tunately, her cries attracted the at
stention of some hunters, who, rescu-
ed her and marched her assailants
off to the nearest magistrate under
cover of several double barreled shot
guns, where warrant charging
them with kidnapping was sworn out
against them.
The men were strangers, some
what fashily dressed, and came from
the neighboring state of Missouri,
where they claimed to reside. Ac-
cording to their story, Rosa was a
quintroon and a slave, and belonged
to one OF them. She ran away and
they had come to reclaim her,
The anti-slave sentiment was pow
erful in Iowa, and the fugitive slave
law was looked upon as an abomina-
ton and a disgrace not to be toler-
ated
Horny Clay Dean CHANGED to be
passing through the village, and was
led, partly through curiosity, to in
vestigate the charges against the
men. He saw the girl, listened to
her story, his sympathies were en-
listed in her behalf and he became
her champion and prosecutor for the
state.
A great concourse of people assem-
bled to hear the trial, which was held
in an abandoned church edifice, that
being the only available room ade-
quate for the occasion.
The justice was an old Scotch (Mil-
ler) pedagog with a bald pate and
copious knowledge of the English
literature; and he reserved with his
native brogue a native dignity and a
wholesome hatred of oppression. The
evidence was brief and tended to es-
tablish the fact already related; and
it also appeared that Rosa was born
in the state Of Iowa of slave moth
er. The chief interest Of the trial,
however, as was usual in those days,
centered in the speeches of counsel,
which we're long and strenuous.
A man of medium stature, heavy,
almost to obesity, head and neck
like a Hercules, deep set eyes, over
hung with bushy eyebrows, a mat of
black hair lying flat and low on the
forehead, a resolute chin, studded
with a short and stubby beard, red
face and no shirt, collar or cravat,
tho person enveloped in long, dirty
linen duster-such was the picture
of Henry Clay Dean on this -occa-
sion.
For three hours this uncouth per-
sonage wrought with tongue and
brain a matchless plea for the prose-
cution. He based it on. the natural
and imprescriptable rights of man, :"
which he claimed were superior to
all written laws and constitutions.
He maintained that ''as all men in
state Of nature were created free,
SO all men were born equal and with
equal natural rights, in the same
manner as though posterity had been
continued by creation instead of a
generation; that the world was as
new to this young girl as it was to
the first man that existed, and shehad
natural rights in this world OF the
same kind; that her natural rights
were the foundation of her civil
rights, and could not be abridged or
destroyed, except by law as punish
ment for crime, for man did not en-
ter into society, to become worse
than he was before, but to have these
rights better secured; that Rosa hay
ing been born in free state, her
civil condition was that of freedom,
and the accused in selling upon her
person with the intention of return
ing her to- slavery were guilty Of a
crime, which if committed upon the
high seas would be piracy and pun
ishable with death. = g8
$35 It was great speech for the time,
and the place; it would have been a
great speech in any tribunal on earth.
Some who listened to the torrent
of eloquence were reminded of the
gladiator's Immortal plea for liberty,
and thought they saw in the orator
before them another gladiator in the
cause OF human freedom. The grimy
face, the rough exterior Of the man
we're lost sight Of in the orator, on