Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet

Missouri Enquirer
. It is stated that this enterprise
involved him in several duels, one of which resulted fatally to his opponent,
Mr. Lucas. Mr. Benton took a leading part in the admission of his adopted
State into the Union, and in 1820 he was elected one of her first senators,
and remained a member of the national government for thirty consecutive
years; a leader of his party in debate.
He warmly supported Jackson in his administration of the affairs of the
government, and as is well-known rendered him valuable and efficient
service by his speech on the expunging resolution which he successfully
carried through the senate. In 1829 he made a speech on the salt tax, which
was a masterly production, and through its influence is due largely the
repeal of the same.
He was among the foremost who advocated a railroad to the Pacific coast,
and it was Thomas Benton who first introduced the idea of congress
granting pre-emption rights to actual settlers. He favored trade with New

---

Mexico, and establishing commerce on the great lakes. He was an eminent
specie advocate; so vehement was he that he became known as "
," and it was through his influence that the forty-ninth parallel was
decided upon as the northern boundary of Oregon. He opposed the fugitive
slave law, and openly denounced nullification views wherever expressed.
Nothing but his known opposition to the extension of slavery caused his
final defeat in the legislature when that body chose another to succeed him
in the United States senate.
Thus in defence of human liberty ended his splendid career of thirty years
in the upper house, struck down by the frown of demagogism. Two years
later he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he did noble
work in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska act, denouncing it as a violation
of the Missouri Compromise, and was defeated as a candidate for congress
in the next campaign. After two years devotion to literature he was a
candidate for governor of his State, but was defeated by a third ticket being
placed in the field. He was the popular candidate, however, of the three,
against great odds being defeated by only a few votes.
During this year he supported Mr. Buchanan for the presidency against his
son-in-law, Mr. Fremont. He now retired permanently from public life,
devoting his exclusive attention to literature, and his "Thirty Years View; or
a History of the Working of the United States Government for Thirty Years
from 1820 to 1850," was a masterly piece of literature, and reached a
mammoth sale; more than sixty thousand copies being sold when first
issued. When this was finished he immediately began another, "An
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1850." Although at
the advanced age of seventy-six, he labored at this task daily, the latter part
of which was dictated while on his death-bed, and while he could speak
only in whispers. Surely he deserved the success which had attended his
efforts. He died in Washington on the 10th day of April, 1858.
He had a large and grandly proportioned head, and was a most aggressive
debater. It was in the Expunging Resolution and the exciting debates in
which he bore so prominent a part that he gained his greatest reputation.
This bill and the manner in which he managed its course through the senate,
securing its adoption against the combined effort of such men as Clay,

---

Webster and Calhoun illustrates the characteristics of the man more clearly
than anything that could be said of him. When reading the life of Andrew
Jackson the reader will remember that the senate passed a resolution
condemning the action of the president, Mr. Jackson, in regard to the
distribution of the public funds in the following language: