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RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE

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Richard Hickman Menefee

BY
JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND
Member of The Filson Club and of The Kentucky Historical Society

"Ambition, thy name is man"

New York and Washington
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1907

Copyright, 1907, by
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY

Crnfj^S-d

To the memory of a lawyer-journalist —
My Father

CONTENTS. Page.
I. First Years,  ,. . . . . .  . ., ii
II. Education,  .1. .,. .,. .,. . 23
III. The Young Lawyer-Politician,  39
IV. In the Kentucky Legislature, . . . .,  60
V. In Congress, . ... .1.  81
VI. Webster and Menefee, ....... .,. .,. . . .,. . 196
VII. In Congress (Concluded),  204
VIII. Return to Kentucky, ....,..,. .,..,. .1. .|. . 232
IX. Sundown, ................. .1.  255
X. Memorials,  ,...  ,  271
XL Menefee, The Man,  ,  ..,..,.. 316
Index,  . . . . . .,. . . . . . 321

PREFACE.
Some seven years ago at a little Kentucky country
school, a youth read for the first time about Richard Hick
man Menefee. The school history of Kentucky that the
youth was reading called Menefee "the young Patrick
Henry of the West," and this title, with the face of Mene
fee, the youth carried in his memory, dreaming that he
might some day write the biography of the hero of Ken
tucky history. In the fall of 1904, the youth, now a stu
dent at the institution that succeeded Menefee's univer
sity, wrote for the college magazine a short sketch of his
hero. Since then he has been collecting the materials for
a complete biography of Menefee, which is now incor
porated into book form.
This book has been written for two reasons : first, the
admiration that the author has for the man ; second, the
great need of such a book. Menefee alone, of the three
great Kentucky orators, has found no adequate bi
ographer. With the exception of Marshall's eulogy, and
many sketches, full and just recognition in the form of
a complete "life," with a collection of his speeches, has
been denied him. If this book succeeds in making vivid
and definite what has been merely tradition, I shall not
consider my work done in vain.
My thanks are due to so many persons for assistance in
the preparation of this biography that it would be im
possible to recount all of them here. Some, however,
have assisted me so materially that they deserve to be
mentioned at this time. First, to Mr. Richard H. Mene
fee, of Louisville, the namesake and grandson of Mene
fee, my sincerest thanks are due. Without his assistance
no true estimate of Menefee could have been formed.
To Col. Reuben T. Durrett, founder and president of the
Filson Club, for permission to work at will in the largest
private library in Kentucky, I am very grateful.
The following persons have also assisted me greatly:

ID RICHARD HICKMAN MENES'BE
Dr. R. G. Thwaites, of Madison, Wisconsin; Senator
Jos. C. S. Blackburn, of Washington; Judge Edward
Mayes, of Jackson, Mississippi; Professor Thomas S.
Noble, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mr. Clarke Tandy, of Ox
ford England, and Miss Mary Louise Dalton, St. Louis,
Missouri. The following Kentuckians have aided me in
various ways : Governor J. C. W. Beckham and Assist
ant State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of Frankfort;
Mr. LaVega Clements, of Owensboro; Captain John A.
Steele, of Midway; Miss Johanna Peter, of Fayette
County ; Mr. Lucien Beckner and Mr. James French, of
Winchester ; Judge John A. Ramsey and Mr. William H.
Daugherty, of Owingsville; Mrs. Albert Hoffman and
Mr. Davis Reid, of Mt. Sterling; Mrs. Robert Harding,
of Danville ; Dr. Edward O. Guerrant, of Wihnore, and
the Misses Kinkead, of Lexington, one of whom is the
only woman historian that Kentucky has produced, have
given me the kindest encouragement that it was my for
tune to receive from any source while this work was in
preparation. Also to the librarians of the Lexington
Public Library, I am very grateful for the courtesies that
they have seen fit to show me. Two Yale men, both
Kentuckians, the readers of this book may, with me,
thank. One, Dr. Hubert G. Shearin, Ph. D., of Ken
tucky University, for many valuable suggestions; the
other, Mr. Charles Fennell, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, for
assistance in obtaining several of Menefee's speeches.
Direct bibliographical reference to the authorities con
sulted, except to such general works as Collins' History
of Kentucky and biographical encyclopedias, will be
found at the bottom of the pages.
John Wii<son Townsend,
Lexington, Kentucky.
November 8, 1906.

RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
CHAPTER I
FIRST YEARS
Richard Hickman Menefee was born in
Owingsville, Kentucky, December 4, 1809, and
died in Lexington, Kentucky, February 20,
1841. The name of Menefee is of Irish derivation,
and the American founder of the family was
George Menifie,^ who, in 1629, was one of the
Burgesses that represented James City, in the
Virginia House of Burgesses. Later in life
he became a prosperous merchant. That
George Menifie was an ancestor of Richard
H. Menefee, there is very little doubt. At any
rate, the Menefees were Virginians, and came
to Kentucky in the latter half of the eighteenth
century. The first Kentucky Menefees that did
enough in the world to have their deeds re
corded, were four private soldiers. In the
pioneer companies that were organized in Ken
tucky in 1778 on up into the nineteenth cen
tury, in the company of Capt. Benjamin Logan,
who had charge of a Lincoln County company,
the names of James, Jarrett, and Joseph Meni
fee are found. In Capt. John Boyle's company,
which was scattered over that part of Ken
tucky that is now included in the counties of
Garrard, Lincoln, and Boyle, the name of Wil-
^ Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol. i, pp. 282, 297.

12 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
liam Menifee is found. And, although the il
literate roll-keeper spelled the name with an
"i," instead of an "e," as many cultured Ken
tuckians have since done, it is almost certain
that these four soldiers were kinsmen of Rich
ard H. Menefee, and the founders of the Mene
fee family living in Lincoln County to-day.
Richard Menefee, the father of the subject of
this biography, was a Virginian by birth and
removed to Kentucky in the last decade of the
eighteenth century. He was by trade a potter
and worked for many years at the old Bourbon
furnace. Richard Menefee finally entered poli
tics, and in 1801-1802 was elected as the rep
resentative from Montgomery County in the
Kentucky House of Representatives. In 1806
he was returned to the House, and two years
later was State Senator from Montgomery in
the Kentucky Senate. This office, which
Menefee held for the next four years, is mem
orable as being the time in which his great son
was born.
As has been stated, it was on the 4th of De
cember, 1809, that Richard H. Menefee was
born, in a log-house situated near a spring.
One or two years after his birth his father tore
down the log-house and built a brick one di
rectly over the spring. Owingsville tradition
says that Col. Thomas Dye Owings and Rich
ard Menefee agreed that the future town
should be named for the one who built the
finest house on the clearing they had made.
Owings built a finer house than did Menefee
and we consequently have "Owingsville" in
stead of "Menefeesville," as it might have been.
Besides being the birth place of Richard H.

FIRST YEARS 13
Menefee, Owingsville was also the birth place
of John Bell Hood (1831-1879), commander of
the Army of the Tennessee, and author of "Ad
vance and Retreat," and William Lightfoot
Visscher, the Kentucky poet, who was born the
year after Menefee's death.
In this competitive brick house Richard H.
Menefee passed his first years. This house,
which was torn down shortly after the civil
war, was situated in the western part of
Owingsville, fronting on Main street. To
day not a single brick remains to tell the his
torically inclined Kentuckian that here, nearly
a century ago, the youngest of the three great
Kentucky orators passed his first years. The
spring from which Menefee drank for the first
twelve years of his life is still flowing, and sup
plies a fish pond covering about one-eighth of
an acre. Across the State another young Ken
tuckian, some months older than Menefee, was
drinking water from a spring not as large as
the Menefee spring, but the spring from which
Abraham Lincoln drank has become associa-
ated with his name, while the spring from
which Richard H. Menefee drank is seldom
mentioned in connection with his name.
Menefee's mother's maiden name was Mary
Lonsdale. She was born in Harford County,
Maryland,^ in 1788, and came to Kentucky
when a young woman. She met Richard
Menefee, who had just returned from the
Kentucky House of Representatives, and,
about 1806, in her eighteenth year, she mar
ried him. Their first-born children were twins,
and were named Alfred and Alvin Menefee.
' Mrs. Dr. Robert Peter is my authority for this statement

14 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
They were born on September 29, 1807. They
emigrated to Missouri in the early thirties and
became farmers. Alfred Menefee married
there and thirteen children were born to him.
He was a consistent member of the Church of
the Disciples for forty years. One of Mene
fee's letters to him is given in this book.
He died in Perry, Ralls County, Missouri, April
26, 1895. Alvin Menefee died shortly after the
civil war.
The old Menefee family Bible, which con
tained the register of the births of the five sons,
has been lost. But Richard H. Menefee was
undoubtedly the third son, and he left the rec
ord of his own birthday. The opening sen
tence of his Diary, which is dated December 4,
1840, reads as follows: "My birthday 31
years old." This statement settles all contro
versy in regard to the day of his birth.
Another of his brothers, and probably the
fourth-born son, was John Menefee, who was
shot in a duel with Alexander McClung at
Vicksburg, Mississippi, on December 29, 1838.
The duel was fought with rifles at a distance of
thirty paces, and Menefee was shot in the head
at the second fire. He died a few days later.
McClung was the challenger.
The youngest son was Allen Menefee, who
came into the world afilicted with infant par
alysis. Dr. Edward O. Guerrant, D. D., of
Wilmore, Kentucky, remembers Allen Mene
fee as a small man, with blue eyes, sandy hair,
and fair complexion — almost a double of Rich
ard H. Menefee. Before going to Missouri
with his brothers, Alfred and Alvin Menefee,
he was a frequent visitor at the home of Dr.

First years 15
Guerrant's father. Dr. H. S. Guerrant, in
Sharpsburg, Kentucky. A letter that Menefee
wrote when he was a member of Congress, to
Dr. H. S. Guerrant, is preserved in this book.
Thomas F. Marshall, in his eulogy on Mene
fee, said that Menefee supported an orphan sis
ter, but his father's will mentioned only Mene
fee and his four brothers. At this point in the
eulogy Marshall begins to be historically faulty
and continues to be so, with a few exceptions,
to the end of his panegyric.
1809, the year in which Menefee was born,
is the annus mirabilis of the nineteenth century.
In this "wonderful year" there was born the
greatest group of men that appeared during
the century. Tennyson, Poe, Holmes, Fitzger
ald, Lord Houghton, Gladstone, Darwin,
Chopin, Mendelssohn, Blackie, Hunter, and
many other distinguished men were born on
both sides of the Atlantic. In Kentucky, Lin
coln, Edwards, Bledsoe, Mitchel, Steele, Kin
kead, and Carson, were all born during this
year. The year is also famous for other things
than the birth of great men. Mammoth Cave
was discovered by the hunter Hutchins, and
in Danville, Kentucky, Dr. Ephraim McDowell
extirpated the ovary, which was the first op
eration of this kind that had ever been per
formed in the world. Washington Irving pub
lished the "Knickerbocker's History of New
York" during this year, which marked the be
ginning of a national literature in America.
James Madison began his first term as the
fourth President of the United States in March
of this truly wonderful year. So it may be

1 6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
easily seen that Menefee was born at a time
when the men of the world were doing great
things. Of all the years of the past century in
which a man of ambition could wish to be born,
it seems to me that 1809 was the year.
On the day that Menefee was born the Ken
tucky legislature, for that year, assembled at
Frankfort. His father, Richard Menefee, as
a Senator from Montgomery and Floyd Coun
ties, was, of course, at the seat of government,
and was away from home at the time young
Menefee came into the world.
A young Virginian, Henry Clay, had come
to Kentucky about a decade before the birth of
Menefee and had been sent to the legislature
in 1803-1804, and then to the United States
Senate in 1806 to serve out the unexpired term
of Gen. John Adair. In the winter of 1807
Clay was the Speaker of the Kentucky House
of Representatives, and in 1809 had been re
turned to the Senate to fill out the Hon. John
Buckner Thurston's term, who had resigned.
Menefee's mother, who has been described
by the historian of Montgomery County^ as
being a very beautiful and attractive woman,
educated far in advance of the Kentucky
women of her time, had no doubt heard of the
young Virginian who was just at the begin
ning of a career that is unparalleled in Ameri
can history. Mrs. Menefee was a devout Pres
byterian, and a member of the Rev. Joseph P.
Howe's church. When Richard was quite
young she had Howe baptize him, and when
the good man asked the mother to "Name this
'¦ Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by Rich
ard Reid. 1882.

FIRST YEARS 17
child," she replied, "Henry Clay Menefee."
This name young Menefee wore until the re
turn of his father from the Kentucky legisla
ture, in February, 1810.
During the winter of 1809-1810, Richard
Menefee served on the Committee of Proposi
tions and Grievances with Richard Hickman,
who was the Senator from Clark and Estill
Counties. He became very much attached to
Hickman and roomed with him during the
legislative session. The legislature adjourned
on January 31, 1810, and on his return home
Richard Menefee changed the name of the son,
who up to that time he had never seen, from
Henry Clay to Richard Hickman Menefee.
American history, so far as I have been able to
ascertain, does not afford a parallel case to this
incident in Menefee's early life. Gen. U. S.
Grant and John Fiske had their Christian
names juggled with, but not in the same man
ner in which Menefee had his changed.
The man for whom he was finally named.
Gen. Richard Hickman, was born in Cul-
peper County, Virginia, on November 5, 1757,
and died at his country home, "Cave Land," in
Clark County, Kentucky, on July 3, 1832.^
His education was meager, and on his arrival
in Kentucky he became a farmer, and a few
years later married Lydia Calloway (Irvine).
She was a sister of the two Calloway girls who,
with Jamina Boone, were captured by the
Indians while boating on the Kentucky River.
Hickman was Clark County's first repre
sentative in the Kentucky House of Repre-
' Lewis Family in America.
2

1 8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
sentatives, serving from 1793 to 1798. He was
one of the Clark County members to the Sec
ond Constitutional Convention which met at
Frankfort in August, 1799, and which was
presided over by Alexander S. Bullitt, member
from Jefferson County. Many distinguished
men of early Kentucky history were members
of this convention. The main objection to the
first Kentucky Constitution of 1792 was the
mode of choosing United States Senators and
Governors. The second Constitution gave the
election of United States Senators and Gover
nors to the direct vote of the people, and
changed the time of holding elections from
May to August. The office of Lieutenant-Gov
ernor was created and President Bullitt was
the first to fill it. The manner of voting was
changed to a viva voce, which was continued
for the next ninety years and was only changed
by the fourth and present Constitution in 1891.
This information in regard to the second Con
stitution is given here because it was the Con
stitution under which Menefee's life work was
done, and because the knowledge of it will
throw a flood of light on conditions as they
existed in Kentucky during that period of our
history. In 1812 Hickman was elected Lieutenant-
Governor with Isaac Shelby, when the first
Kentucky Governor was elected as the sixth
Governor. During the year 1813 Shelby was
compelled to take up his sword and go on the
field of battle. During his absence Hickman
acted as Governor of the Commonwealth. In
1819 he was returned as a Senator from Clark,
and served for the next four years. The last

First years 19
years of his life were spent on his beautiful
"Cave Land," near Winchester, Kentucky.
Hickman was an old gentleman of the black
stock, and a man whose name Menefee, no
doubt, was proud to wear.
When Richard H. Menefee' was about thir
teen months of age, or on January 15, 1811, the
northeastern part of Montgomery was formed
into Bath County — so named because of its
medicinal springs. In. October of the same
year the town of Owingsville, situated on a
high tableland, and commanding a splendid
view of the surrounding country, was chosen
as the county-seat of this new county of Bath.
The first circuit court was held at the home of
Capt. James Young in May, 1811, and three
sessions of the court were held at his house.
On the seventh of November, 1811, it was
ordered that the next session of the court
should be held at the brick residence of Rich
ard Menefee. Accordingly, on May 4, 1812,
the court convened in Menefee's house, situ
ated over the spring. This court continued to
meet at the Menefee home for the next four
years, and was also held there three times after
Richard Menefee's death. From the Menefee
house it convened in the new Bath County
court-house, which had been erected.
Thomas Marshall thought that Menefee be
came a lawyer because he was inspired by the
fact that he had at one time borne the name of
Henry Clay. It is my opinion, however, that
Menefee got his first law lessons from these
crude courts which were held in his father's
house, and that he liked the law and coolly and
' Young's History of Bath County.

20 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
calmly, with his boyish logic, decided to be
come a barrister. Another influence that was
probably brought to bear on young Menefee's
decision to become a lawyer was exercised by
Samuel T. Davenport, who was one of the first
lawyers to hang out his shingle in Owingsville.
Davenport was an educated lawyer for his day
and generation and he settled in Owingsville
some time in 1811. He boarded with Richard
Menefee, and at the building of the Menefee
brick house, which was very pretentious
for those days, Davenport wrote a poem
on it. He was finally captured by the Indians
and married a squaw by whom he had several
children. That Davenport encouraged young
Menefee to study law is almost certain. At
any rate, I believe that Davenport and the
backwoods court that was held in his father's
house had more to do with making Richard H.
Menefee decide to become a lawyer, than did
the fact that he had, for several weeks, borne
the name of Henry Clay. This fact did, no
doubt, have some influence with his decision.
In 1812 Richard Menefee's term as Senator
from Montgomery and Floyd Counties was
over, and he returned to his family. He was
a man of action as well as a man of mind, and,
after spending some months with his family,
he was enlisted in Owingsville, on August 26,
1813, as a soldier in the war of 1812, and ren
dezvoused at Newport, Kentucky, five days
later. He was immediately elected captain of
Company A in the regiment known as Col.
John Donaldson's Kentucky Mounted Volun
teer Militia. Richard Menefee gallantly led
his company at the battle of the Thames, which

FIRST YEARS 21
was fought on October 5, 1813. After the
battle Donaldson's regiment was ordered to
return to Kentucky, and Menefee was mus
tered out at Newport, Kentucky, on November
4, 1813. He returned to his home in Owings
ville, and in the following year was elected as
Bath County's representative in the Kentucky
House of Representatives.
During the year 1814, Louis Philippe, King
of France, visited Bath County. He was the
guest of Col. Thomas Dye Owings, and spent
his time in hunting and fishing. The citizens
of Bath called him "King Philip," and during
the eighteen months which he spent in Bath,
they became very much attached to him. The
attachment was mutual as the French Govern
ment sent twice for him to return before he did
so. He tried to persuade Colonel Owings to
return to France with him, but Owings de
clined to do so. One can easily imagine the
"Citizen King" patting young Menefee on the
head and bestowing upon him the proverbial,
"God bless you, my son."
Richard Menefee died at his home in Ow
ingsville, Kentucky, in August, 1815,' when his
son was nearly six, and not "about four years of
age," as Marshall said. In his will, which was
written on August 18, and recorded in Septem
ber, 1815, Richard Menefee appointed his wife,
with the assistance of two of his friends, Ed
ward and Robert Stockton, as his executors.
He requested that his farm and tavern should
be rented, but that the brick house over the
spring should be kept as the family home.
He gave to his wife one-third of his real estate
^Will Book A, in Bath County Clerk's Office.

22 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
and to his cripple son Allen he gave a double
portion of his estate. He left to his sister-in-
law. Patsy Lonsdale, who was an unmarried
woman, an old negro servant named Caroline.
By this gift Richard Menefee saved his wife's
maiden name to Kentucky history, as he
simply called her, in his will, "Mary." The
slaves he left to his five sons, but they were not
divided and sold until 1829. Richard Menefee,
one of the founders of Owingsville, one of the
wisest law makers of Kentucky's earlier years,
and the father of one of the three great orators
of Kentucky, sleeps to-day in an unknown
grave. On October 24, 1819, when Menefee was
nearly ten years of age, his mother married
Col. George Lansdowne,' who was for many
years proprietor of the Olympian Springs, in
Bath County, Kentucky.
^ Marriage Record Book i, Bath County Clerk's Office.

CHAPTER II
EDUCATION
The first twelve years of Richard H. Mene
fee's life were spent under his mother's watch
ful eye, and it is certain that she took the advice
of the wisest man of antiquity, and brought up
her child in the way he should go. She also
lived to see that he did not depart from it. His
elementary education was received at her
hands and, in the fall of 1821, in his twelfth
year, he was sent to the preparatory school of
Walker Bourne, and not to "a gentleman
whose name was Tompkins." Marshall de
scribed the characteristics of Menefee's
teacher, but in some way got his name incor
rect. Perhaps the famous Kentucky orator
and wit would ask, Juliet-like, "what's in a
name?" In love a name is perhaps nil, but in
history a name amounts to a great deal. Elo
quence and accuracy do not always go hand in
hand. The first school in Montgomery County was
opened in 1794, and taught by Robert Trimble,'
who afterward became associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court. He taught
school the entire year, five days in the week.
Trimble's school was located near the Spring
field church, which had been opened the same
year that the school was founded, by Rev.
Joseph P. Howe. A few years after Trimble
'Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by
Richard Ried. 1882.

24 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
began to teach, Bourne opened his school in the
same neighborhood.
Walker Bourne was born on the banks of
the Rapidan River, in Virginia, on May 5, 1790.
He was brought to Kentucky at the age of
seven years by his father, James Bourne, who
was a Revolutionary soldier. Bourne served
as a private soldier in Richard Menefee's com
pany at the battle of the Thames. He was
also elected as a magistrate in Mt. Sterling,
and was familiarly known as "Squire" Bourne.
His reputation rests, however, on his ability
as a teacher. For years he labored in the
schoolroom and some of the State's most dis
tinguished men were, at some period of their
lives, his pupils. He is the Kentucky Doctor
Thomas Arnold. One of Bourne's most distin
guished pupils. Dr. Preston W. W. Hill, M. D.,
and one of Menefee's classmates, wrote an
article on Menefee for the Kentucky Journal of
Education,'^ many years ago, in which he testified
to the excellent influence that Bourne exer
cised upon Menefee. Dr. Hill said that
Bourne was quick to see that Menefee had the
stuff in him out of which a great man could
be made, and he did everything to encourage
him to study and to think. He would take long
walks out into the country with Menefee, as
Professor James Woodrow did with a young
Georgian, many years later, and whom the lit
erary world loves as Sidney Lanier. He told
Menefee of the arduous boyhood of nearly all
the great Americans, how they had struggled
with poverty and had overcome it. Bourne
'Article in Mrs. Robert Harding's Scrap Book. Begun in 1863.

EDUCATION 25
read to Menefee North's translation of "Plu
tarch's Lives," which undoubtedly encouraged
the young Kentuckian to aim at greatness.
Bourne used only three text-books in his
school: Thomas Dilworth's Arithmetic and
Speller and the King James Version of the
Bible. Bourne was a Christian for nearly half
a century and it is safe to say that his students
were instructed in the principles of a catholic
Christianity. He lived to see Menefee attain
his fame, and also to have him testify, to Dr.
Hill, after making one of his most brilliant
speeches, that he was greatly indebted to his
old teacher for his success.
Richard H. Menefee's classmate that at
tained celebrity far in advance of any other of
his classmates, was Henry Smith Lane, who
was two years younger than himself. Lane
attended Bourne's school until he was sixteen
years of age, when he studied law and removed
to Indiana. He began practice at Crawfords-
ville, in 1837, and was sent to the legislature.
In 1838 he was elected to the 25th Congress
and served through the second regular session
with Menefee. In Washington the two Ken
tucky schoolmates no doubt renewed their
friendship, and must have passed many a
happy hour talking over their boyhood school
days spent at Bourne's school. Lane served in
Congress until 1842, when Clay's defeat retired
him from political life for the next sixteen
years. He, like Menefee, was a Whig. In 1860
he was elected Governor of Indiana, and a few
months later he was elected to the United
States Senate, where he served six years. Lane

26 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
died in Crawfordsville, Indiana, June 11, 1881.
'Over in Indiana, Lane used to tell the Hoosiers
of the wonderful young Kentucky orator
whose eloquence fascinated the people of his
native State, and captured the 25th Congress.
Two other of Bourne's pupils, although
only one of them was Menefee's classmate,
achieved greatness: Albert G. Harrison and
John Jameison. Harrison left Bourne's school
one or two years before Menefee became a
student there, and at the age of eighteen years
entered Transylvania University at Lexington,
where he graduated in the arts and in law.
After a few years of practice at Mt. Sterling, he
removed to Fulton, Missouri, and in 1837 was
elected as a member of the 25th Congress —
Menefee's Congress. In Congress Harrison
made several good speeches on the public land
question. He died in Fulton, Missouri, Sep
tember 7, 1839.
Jameison, who was a student at Bourne's
school at the same time that Menefee was a
student there, emigrated to Missouri in 1825,
and five years later was elected to the legis
lature, and served one term as Speaker of the
House. In 1839 he was elected to Congress to
serve out Harrison's term. After leaving Con
gress Jameison studied divinity and became a
preacher in the Church of the Disciples.^ He
died in 1855 or 1856.
Menefee's other classmate. Dr. Preston Hill,
was a leading physician in Montgomery
' Article on Menefee by P. S. Kent, of Crawfordsville, in Mene
fee Scrap Book.
'Judge Bay's "Reminiscences of the Missouri Bench and Bar.''
1878.

EDUCATION 27
County for many years, and wrote many valu
able articles on men of history. His article on
Menefee, already referred to, brought out the
fact that Marshall had Menefee's teacher's
name wrong, which has also been noticed; and
a few weeks later, Reid's History of Montgom
ery County, a copy of which was found by
the author in the great Wisconsin Historical
Library, corroborated Hill's statement in this
particular. Walker Bourne lived to see five of his "boys"
become celebrated men: Menefee, Lane, Har
rison, Jameison and Hill. He died February
6, 1873, in his eighty-third year. He was a
Democrat and Harrison and Jameison ac
cepted his political faith, but Menefee and Lane
became Whigs.
Menefee completed his first year at Bourne's
school with great credit to himself. In the
summer of 1822 he probably labored in the
fields of some friendly farmer, and in the fall
of the same year returned to Bourne's school.
'One day, in the latter half of his second year
at Bourne's school, he came home and found
his mother in tears. Inquiring for the cause of
her sorrow he was told that she had been mis
treated by his step-father, and, seizing a carv
ing knife he made ready to repay the injury
that Lansdowne had inflicted upon his mother.
A relation, who happened to be in the house at
the time, interfered and serious trouble was
averted. This difficulty caused "the lion of his
nature to first break out."
Menefee now left the home of his mother,
'ly. V. Clement's speech on Menefee. Incident related by
Menefee's widow.

28 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
and at the age of fourteen years started out to
face the cold and uncongenial world. I fancy
that I can hear him pray the prayer that a Ken
tucky novelist of the present time put into the
mouth of the "Little Shepherd of Kingdom
Come," when he, at the same age as Menefee,
was turned out into the. world: "God, I am
nothing but a boy, but I have got to act like a
man now!"
Nothing else presenting itself, Menefee ac
cepted the position as bar-keeper at a tavern
bar in Owingsville. This tavern was probably
his father's old tavern which had been rented
at his death. Here the young Kentuckian sold
drinks at the prices fixed by the Bath County
court, on April 1, 1811.' He sold one-half pint
of whiskey or peach or apple brandy at twelve
and one-half cents, and one-half pint of French
brandy or rum at fifty cents. He, no doubt,
also assisted the tavern-keeper with his various
duties, when there was nothing to do behind
the bar. One night's lodging, supper, or
breakfast cost sixteen and two-thirds cents;
twenty-five cents was charged for dinner.
Twelve and one-half cents was charged to keep
a traveler's horse in the tavern barn over night,
and the same amount was charged to let him
graze, for twelve hours, in the tavern pasture.
Richard H. Menefee and Patrick Henry are the
only Americans that ever developed from bar
keepers into orators, within my knowledge.
Although he was willing to stoop to con
quer, Menefee was not willing to occupy such a
menial position during his entire life. So, after
attending the bar for about one year, he gave
' Young's History of Bath County.

EDUCATION 29
it Up, and at the age of fifteen years became a
teacher. It was not an uncommon thing for a
district school teacher, of a half century ago,
to be under sixteen years of age. He drilled
the principles of arithmetic and spelHng, as laid
down by Thomas Dilworth and Noah Webster,
and as he had learned them from Bourne, into
his pupils in a vigorous manner. He received
probably not as much money for teaching this
school as for serving at the bar, but dauntlessly
he taught it for one term and then went to Mt.
Sterling, to live with his father's friend, Ed
ward Stockton.' Menefee taught in Stockton's
family and attended the Mt. Sterling public
school for over a year. Thus, by teaching and
studying he prepared himself for the great
Transylvania University which was located in
Lexington, Kentucky. It was the foremost in
stitution of learning west of the Alleghenies.
In September, 1826, when he was in his
seventeenth year, Menefee went to Lexington
and entered Transylvania University. He
matriculated as an irregular student, we may
be sure, because of the irregular manner of his
preparation. Marshall is perhaps correct when
he said that Menefee entered Transylvania as
an irregular junior. He was undoubtedly
farther advanced in the humanities than he was
in the sciences. Menefee is remembered, as he
appeared on the streets of Lexington, by Mrs.
Dr. Robert Peter, whose distinguished hus
band was professor of chemistry in the Tran
sylvania University Medical School, as a very
^ Historical Sketches of Montgomery County, prepared by
Richard Reid. 1882.

30 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
bashful young fellow, dressed in jeans clothes
that were probably made by his mother.
The famous scientist, Constantine Samuel
Rafinesque, had left Transylvania the year be
fore Menefee entered the University, but the
most distinguished of the Transylvania presi
dents, Horace Holley, a Yale valedictorian and
Unitarian minister of Boston, who had raised
Transylvania from a high school to a leading
American institution of learning, was presi
dent of the University at this time. The faculty
consisted of four professors, besides President
Holley. Rev. George T. Chapman occupied
the chair of History, Geography, Chronology,
and Antiquities; Thomas J. Matthews, A. M.,
was professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy; John Roche, A. M., occupied the
chair of the (jreek and Latin languages. The
other professor, Rev. Benjamin O. Peers, an
Episcopalian minister, gave up his chair to be
come acting-president when Holley resigned.'
Menefee was required to pay thirty dollars
tuition fee, and five dollars for the use of the
library and other incidentals. He lived in the
dormitory and ate at the refectory, the Uni
versity dining hall. Board and lodging were
furnished him at one dollar and fifty cents per
week, which was to be paid, as he stated in the
letter to Lansdowne, quarterly. He was re
quired to furnish his own bed and bed-clothing,
fire-wood, candles, and washing. Breakfast
was served at seven o'clock from spring to fall,
and from fall to spring at eight o'clock. Din-
' Dr. Peters's History of Transylvania University, Filson Club
Publication No. ii.

Education 31
ner was served at two o'clock, and supper at
sunset.' The earliest extant letter of Menefee's was
written to his stepfather. Col. George Lans
downe, with whom he had become reconciled.
It was written after he had been at the Uni
versity, several months, and is as follows :
Lexington, December 30th, 1826
Dear Col : — I should be glad if you would inform
me as soon as you can conveniently whether or not you
intend that I should pay what remains of the money
which I have to Mr. Brooks for boarding, or whether
yourself and Mr. Brooks have arranged it yourselves.
If you recollect, John Fletcher loaned me all the books
which are necessary in College and thus far I have
been obliged to purchase but one or two; Owing,
however, to a different arrangement in the studies of
the different classes all the books (excepting one or
two) which I borrowed from Fletcher have become
entirely useless; those of them which are still neces
sary, he has sent for, and I shall be under the necessity
of purchasing. I think it is very probable that I could
sell all the books which I shall buy for almost the
same sum for which I buy them. I have been obliged
to be at far more expense than I expected to have been
by getting shirts, shoes, etc.
College will not be open for the students until Tues
day and I should like to hear your advice before that
time. If you think it advisable I will either get the books
and sell them again or keep them for Jackson ; / think,
however, it would be advisable to dispose of them, as
there is almost every year a change in books, though I
^Transylvania Record Book from 1827-1839.

32 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
leave this entirely to your own wishes. My respects
to Ma and the family. Yours with gratitude R. H. Menefee.
N. B. The reason of my wishing to know the
agreement of Mr. Brooks and yourself is that the
boarders who are here at this time make quarterly
payments ; and if I am also to do it, as I have been here
three months, I should be about it. After getting a
college receipt of $20, books and other necessaries I
have yet remaining $22.50 which I shall expend in
any manner you may advise.
I am anxious for an immediate answer as I am en
tirely at a loss how to act. R. H. M.
The Mr. Brooks referred to in the letter was
James A. Brooks, who had charge of the Uni
versity refectory during the entire time that
Menefee was at Transylvania. "Jackson" was
Andrew Jackson Lansdowne, Colonel Lans-
downe's only son, born to him by his first wife.
By Menefee's mother he had two daughters,
one of whom married B. F. Tomlinson and the
other one married Harrison Gill. Gill's daugh
ters have assisted in the preparation of this
biography. President Holley' resigned on Monday,
March 12, 1827, as he could not stand the cru
sade that had been waged against him. He
was accused of being an atheist, deist, agnostic,
all because he defined religion as the love of
God and man. Holley had been elected as
president of the University in 1818, and was
warmly received at first ; but a year or two later
' Peters's History of Transylvania University, Filson Club
Publication No. 11.

EDUCATION 33
the crusade began and, although he fought it
for a long time, he became discouraged, re
signed, and died of yellow fever some months
later. He was one of the most eminent edu
cators that has ever been in Kentucky.
• Holley's resignation left the four professors.
Chapman, Matthews, Roche, and Peers, in
charge of the University. And, as has already
been stated. Peers was chosen as acting presi
dent, and he presided over the affairs of the
University until the Rev. Alva Woods
became president in 1828. Woods had resigned
as president of Brown University at Provi
dence, Rhode Island, to accept the presidency
of Transylvania. Some months before he took
charge of the University, Professor Chapman
had resigned to cut down the expenses of the
University, as it was in great financial trouble.
Professor Matthews was giving one-third of
his salary to Professor Roche, and as Peers was
acting president, the entire faculty for Mene
fee's second year at the University consisted of
only three professors — Matthews, Roche, and
John Brown, A. M., who was principal of the
Academy. A short time after Holley's resignation Rich
ard H. Menefee wrote a letter to his eldest
brother, Alfred Menefee, which is dated five
weeks before the time that is usually given as
the day upon which Holley resigned. Menefee
tells his brother of Holley's resignation and the
appointment of Peers, and the action of the
board of trustees. These different dates I have
been unable to reconcile.

34 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Lexington, February 6, 1827
Dear Alfred, I have deferred writing so long, wish
ing to know whether or not the present continuance
of the session would be changed. The trustees of the
University met yesterday and contrary to the expecta
tions of all the students, the session was continued
until the first of July. I had been expecting thus far
to have gone home in March, for I can assure you,
having been from home so long, I feel very much like
seeing you all ; but as you see, by this change it will
be impossible until the close of the session in July. —
There has been considerable difficulty in selecting a
president pro tern to fill the chair, after the resigna
tion of President Holley; they have after much con
fusion appointed a young man named Peers to act as
president until the end of this session, when there is
expected a president from the Eastward who will re
main permanently. Mr. Peers from what I have
heard is a young man of fine talents, yet by no means
equal to those of Dr. Caldwell who has been spoken
of as president; though for reasons which I have
mentioned in a letter to Ma, he has been refused.
I saw Dr. Paul in town some time since, on his way
to Alabama; he appeared to be in very bad health,
though he appeared confident of better health in a
Southern climate; I heard the news of all the folks
from him, which is the only time since Christmas. —
As you intend coming to Lexington shortly, I
should be very glad if you could come by the 22nd of
this month, as it is probable there will be a recess of a
few days. There is one thing, however, which I wish
you to attend to : if you recollect in a letter to you a
month or two since I informed you that on entering
College I had to advance $20 for a college receipt for
the session as it was then arranged viz. ending on
the first of March, there being two sessions of five
months each in the year; but now since it is altered
to but one session consisting of nine months I shall

EDUCATION 35
have to advance the remaining $20 on the first day of
March, the tuition fees amounting to $40 per year.
I wish you, Alfred, to attend particularly to the man
agement of this, and to relate the situation to the
Colonel who will, I am confident, send me the money,
if it be possibly in his power; but if he is in such a
situation as to render it impossible without seriously in
juring himself, I would certainly not insist on it ; for al
though I should receive no greater mark of his friend
ship and should receive no more assistance from him
than I already have, there is still sufficient to make
me always his friend, and grateful for the interest and
activity he has displayed in the completion of my edu
cation. I have already received far more than I could
have reasonably expected; and if as I said, he is con
scious of his inability in his present circumstances to
continue my education I leave it entirely to his own
choice ; though for my own part, I had rather my edu
cation should be completed by him, who has expressed
so great an anxiety for it.
I have nothing more except my respects to all.
Remaining at the same time your brother with af
fection,
Richard H. MenEFEE.
Mr. A. Menefee.
The reason of my saying this is, that I have been
told by Dr. Paul and I believe the Colonel told me him
self, that through the dullness of the Virginia market,
he had been forced to sell his stock on credit ; and as I
know his calculations were different, he must neces
sarily be embarrassed at this time. — I do not wish by
what I have said that you should take upon yourself
any or at most, any considerable expense; because I
know your situation will not allow it; But as you
know my determination either to finish my education
or spend the last four pence in the endeavor, I hope
you, Alfred, will attend to it strictly. — If you find it
impossible to come to Lexington by the last day of

36 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
this month, I hope you will forward by mail about
$25, since besides the College ticket of $20 I shall
have to purchase more books having finished those I
last bought.
R. H. M.
This second earliest extant letter shows
Menefee to be, as did his first letter, anxious
about financial matters. The Dr. Paul men
tioned in the letter was probably Mrs. Mene
fee's family physician. Menefee's original
punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph
structure have been retained in these two let
ters and will be retained in other letters that
will be found in this book, and also in his
speeches and diary.
The two literary societies at Transylvania,
at the time that Menefee became a student
there, were the Union Philosophical and the
Whig. Some time during his first year he
joined the Union Philosophical and took a
deep interest in the work. It is safe to say that
this society was of more benefit to him than
any one class he may have had.
When the University closed in the summer
of 1827, Menefee returned to his home and, we
may be sure, spent the vacation period in work
ing on the farm and in reading whatever books
that may have fallen into his hands. He prob
ably returned to Transylvania in the fall of
1827 and matriculated as a full junior, having
made up his back work. I have examined the
files of practically all of the Kentucky news
papers from 1826-1841 and in none of the com
mencement programmes, or in the old Tran
sylvania record book from 1827-1839, does
Menefee's name appear as having received the

EDUCATION 37
degree of Bachelor of Arts. Marshall said that
Menefee did receive the baccalaureate degree,
but Judge Kinkead is nearer the truth when he
said, "He went through the junior year at the
University with the highest honor." If Mene
fee had returned to Transylvania in the fall of
1828 he would have graduated in August, 1829,
but the only bachelor's degree conferred in that
year was upon George W. Johnson, who was
afterward a classmate of Menefee's in the
Transylvania Law School.
At the end of his junior year he returned to
Mt. Sterling and, in the fall of 1828, if our con
clusions are correct, taught a school there for
two years. One of his pupils was a young girl,
about fifteen years of age, whose name was
Sarah Bell Jouett. At the same time that he
was teaching her the common school subjects,
he was also learning to love her. The affection
was mutual, and about three years later she
became his life companion.
At the time that he was teaching this school
there lived in Montgomery County a Scotch-
Irishman, Josiah Davis. Every Friday after
noon, when the week's work was done, Mene
fee walked out to the Davis farm, which was
located five miles from Mt. Sterling, and stayed
with him until Monday morning in order to
get the benefits of his library, which was one
of the best in Kentucky at that time.' It con
tained copies of Shakespeare and Burns. _
Scotchmen have always worshiped at the
shrine of Burns and Davis was no exception.
Here Menefee revelled in the mighty dramas
'Mr. Davis Reid, grandson of Davis, is my authority for this
incident.

38 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of the king of all Hterature, and read of the
many sweethearts and love lyrics of Scotland's
greatest bard.
In 1829 the commissioners of Menefee's
father's estate divided and sold the slaves that
Richard Menefee had left to his five sons.'
Four of the boys, Richard H., Alfred, Alvin and
John, each received two hundred and fifty-three
dollars and sixty-six cents, while Allen, the
cripple son, according to his father's will, was
to receive twice as much as any of the others,
and he therefore received five hundred and
seven dollars and thirty-two cents. That
Richard Menefee's sons received only two
hundred and fifty dollars each from an estate
which, at one time, comprised one-half of the
land upon vv^hich Owingsville was built, simply
shows that mismanagement was at work.
Some one was responsible for the fact that
Richard H. Menefee received only a few
hundred dollars from this vast estate. We now
come to a very important step in Menefee's
career. 'Will Book B, in Bath County Clerk's Office.

CHAPTER HI
THE YOUNG lyAWYER-POElTlCIAN
Menefee's second year as teacher of this
little Mt. SterHng school was over in the early
summer of 1830, and, after having finally de
cided to become a lawyer, he began the study
of law under Judge James Trimble, one of the
early judges of Montgomery County, who at
this time was the Commonwealth's Attorney
for the eleventh judicial district.
Trimble lives in Kentucky history, how
ever, as the law preceptor of Richard H. Mene
fee. Menefee spent the summer of 1830 study
ing Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws
of England," Kent's and Story's Commen
taries, and the other law books that Trimble
may have had in his library.
Late in 1830 Menefee's friend, Edward
Stockton, died, and if Marshall is correct he
obtained a license to practice law and under
took, as his first law case, to settle up Stock
ton's estate, which was in a bad condition. He
then began to practice regularly at the Mont
gomery bar, and during the spring and sum
mer of 1831 he took many cases before that
court. That Menefee realized the need of having
more, systematic training in law than Trimble
had been able to give him is certain, as he left
Mt. Sterling and came to Lexington in Octo
ber, 1831, and entered the Transylvania Law
School. This law school had been established

40 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
when Transylvania University was founded,
in 1799, and George Nicholas, author of the
First Kentucky Constitution, was the first
dean. It is the fourth oldest law school in
the United States.' The Litchfield Law School
of Connecticut, founded in 1784, is the oldest,
with Columbia and the University of Pennsyl
vania following. Henry Clay was dean of the
school in 1805. The school had been discon
tinued for a short time before Menefee entered
it, but now, under the leadership of Judge
Daniel Mayes, it was as good as the Litchfield
School, which was discontinued in 1833. The
school began on the first Monday in Novem
ber, and commencement was held on the first of
the following March. The fees were $35 per
session, with $5 extra for use of text-books and
law library. Moot courts were held on Satur
day. The course covered two years, but Mene
fee was given credit for the work he had done
under Judge Trimble and permitted to enter
the second year. The school began on Mon
day, November 7, 1831, and closed on Satur
day, March 3, 1832.
On November 15, 1831, Governor Thomas
Metcalfe, the eleventh Governor of Kentucky,
nominated to the Kentucky Senate, for their
advice and consent, the name of Richard H.
Menefee, to succeed Judge Trimble, who re
signed as Commonwealth's Attorney for his
district. The Senate confirmed Governor Met
calfe's selection and Menefee was therefore
elected as the fourth Commonwealth's Attor
ney of the eleventh judicial district. Menefee
had been appointed since the adjournment of
' Dexter's History of Education in United States.

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POWTICIAN 41
the legislature in January, 1831, and had there
fore been acting as the attorney for the Com-
wealth for some months before he came to
Lexington to enter the Law School. Trimble
probably looked after his duties when Mene
fee left them to make a more thorough study
of law.
As all of the Kentucky historians have re
corded Judge Mayes's life with many inaccu
racies, I wrote to his son, Judge Edward
Mayes, of Mississippi, the biographer of
Lamar, asking him to prepare a sketch of his
distinguished father, especially for this book,
and the following sketch is based on the infor
mation that he sent me.
Daniel Mayes was born in Dinwiddie
County, Virginia, on February 12, 1792. His
father, Robert C. Mayes, married Agnes T.
Locke, a descendant of a brother of John
Locke, author of the "Essay on the Human
Understanding." Robert C. Mayes removed
from Dinwiddie County when Daniel was two
years of age, to Lexington, Kentucky, but
after a short stay then settled permanently in
Christian County, Kentucky.
Daniel Mayes was reared and educated in
Christian County and began the practice of
law there. Toward the close of the war of
1812 he enlisted in the Kentucky troops but
saw no active service. In 1817 he married
Cynthia Bowmar, daughter of Herman Bow-
mar, of Versailles, Kentucky. The following
year he was the editor of the Hopkinsville
Western Hemisphere. He was the only editor in
Kentucky who opposed the organization of
State banks. In 1825 he represented Christian

42 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
County in the legislature, and about 1828 was
elected Circuit Judge. He became dean of
Transylvania Law School in the fall of 1830,
and when Menefee entered the school Mayes
was serving his second year as dean. His
wife died in 1831, and two years later he mar
ried Elizabeth Riggs Humphreys, of Fayette
County, the widow of Hon. Chas. W. Hum
phreys. In June, 1838, Mayes resigned as dean of the
law school and moved to Jackson, Mississippi,
where he practiced his profession. In politics
he was an ardent Henry Clay Whig, and he
instilled, no doubt. Whig principles into the
mind of Menefee in a way that they had never
been before. When Clay visited Mississippi
Mayes delivered the address of welcome at
Jackson. In 1845 he was defeated for Attorney-Gen
eral of Mississippi, and five years later was
elected lecturer on the common law in the
University of Louisiana Law School, and he
removed to New Orleans, where he also prac
ticed. He did not like New Orleans and after
two years there he returned to Jackson, where
he resided until his death, which occurred from
pneumonia, February 6, 1861. He left children
by both marriages and has many descendants
in Mississippi.
Henry S. Foote in his "Bench and Bar of
the South and Southwest" and also Lynch's
"Bench and Bar of Mississippi," eulogizes
Mayes as a lawyer and as a man.
Judge William B. Kinkead, who was a mem
ber of the first-year class, in a sketch of Mene
fee, gives the following account of Menefee's

THE YOUNG I^AWYER-POUTICIAN 43
first night at the Law Society: "When Mene
fee joined the law class he was unknown to
most of the members. My attention was first
called to him on the evening of the meeting of
the debating society. He took his seat in a
retired part of the room. The debate pro
gressed some time. He was silent. A mem
ber went to him and proposed that he should
take part in the debate. When an opportunity
offered, he arose, and in a calm, deliberative
way proceeded to discuss the question, and
that speech stamped him at once as the lead
ing debater of the class."
On Saturday, March 3, 1832, twelve young
gentlemen, all natives of Kentucky, were
graduated from the Transylvania Law School
with the L. B. degree:', James W. Allen of
Shelby County and William C. Bullock of
Shelbyville; J. W. Andrews of Mason County
and Jos. W. Bashaw of Henry County; Her
man Bowmar, Jr., of Versailles and William N.
Bullitt of Louisville; Richard F. Richmond of
Frankfort and William J. Steele of Woodford
County; Larkin B. Smith and George W.
Johnson of Lexington; Oscar White of Paris
and Richard H. Menefee of Mt. Sterling.
Of these eleven classmates of Menefee's the
one that afterward became more distinguished
than any of the others was George W. John
son. Johnson was born near Georgetown,
Kentucky, May 27,. 1811, and was a tutor for
some time in Transylvania University before
his graduation in law. After graduating he
returned to Georgetown, where he practiced
law for a short time, but finally gave it up for
' Transylvania University Record Book, 1827-1839.

44 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
agricultural pursuits in Kentucky and Arkan
sas. He represented Scott County in the Ken
tucky legislature from 1838 to 1840. At the
beginning of the civil war he labored earnestly
to place Kentucky in the Confederacy, but in
September, 1861, he went South in Gen.
John C. Breckinridge's command. He re
turned from the South some weeks later and
finally succeeded in getting representatives
from sixty-five Kentucky counties to meet at
Russellville, in Logan County, from November
10th to the 21st, and a constitution was formed
for a provisional government. Bowling Green
was chosen for the seat of government and
Johnson was chosen Governor. The Confed
erate Congress admitted Kentucky on Decem
ber 10 as a Confederate State.
Johnson returned to the battlefield and was
mortally wounded at Shiloh on April 7, 1862,
and died two years later. He was the only Gov
ernor, either from the North or South, that fell
in battle during the civil war.
Another of Menefee's classmates, William
J. Steele, was born a few months before Mene
fee. The year after his graduation he re
moved to Alabama, and engaged in the prac
tice of law with Governor Metcalfe's son.
Steele returned to Kentucky in 1852 and served
for a number of years as judge of the Wood
ford County Court. He died in 1886. He was
a very impulsive man and very sympathetic.
Of the other members of the class. Bashaw,
Bullock, and Smith represented their respective
counties in the Kentucky legislature for one
term each. Richmond practiced law at Frank
fort with Benjamin F. Hickman for a number

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POElTiaAN 45
of years, and married his daughter, who was
the most noted beauty of her time. He was
unhappy with her, however, and late in life
removed to Missouri, where he finally died.
William N. Bullitt gave up the law after
graduating and became a merchant. Of the re
maining members of the class, Allen, Andrews,
Bowmar, and White, not enough has been
found out to warrant a record of it in this
book. Immediately after his graduation, Richard
H. Menefee returned to Mt. Sterling, where he
again took up his duties as Commonwealth's
Attorney for the eleventh judicial district.
Professor Mayes began another session of
the law school on the first Monday in April,
and continued it for six months. Menefee did
not stay for this session, but returned to the
school for some special work about three years
later. One of the members of the first-year class
that Menefee became intimate with was Rich
ard Pindell (1812-1870). Pindell was in the
Kentucky House of Representatives in 1838,
and was one of the most prominent young men
of his day.
After the school was over Pindell went East
on an extended visit. He wrote to Menefee of
the public men that he had seen in Baltimore
and Washington and Menefee wrote him the
following letter in reply. May 19, 1832, ad
dressed to him while he was in Baltimore.
Dear Pindell : —
I received with great pleasure your letter of the 5th
May. It gave me an account of matters with which I

46 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
am perhaps as little acquainted as any person in the
country. The parts of it which describe and compare
the respective talents of our public characters were
especially interesting to me. In this latter particular
I must ask you to make as minute and as just observa
tions as you can and I shall expect you to communicate
to me the result of them. When I consider your emi
nent capacity to hate as well as admire I shall of course
not calculate on infallibility in your opinions. And in
your description of their persons, I shall be inclined
from imperfection of your physical sight to tolerate
almost any inaccuracy. But recollect that I concede
no such excuse for your intellectual vision with re
spect either to its perfection or its extent and I shall
accordingly expect a close approximation to truth in
the description of character. Nor, have I any fear of
disappointment. I am a little apprehensive that you are disposed to
regard the men and affairs around you with too severe
an eye. I think it probable that a young man trans
lated at once from retirement and the contemplation
of government and its theoretical administration to
the great center of power and the practical exercise
of it, is exposed in some degree to erroneous impres
sions. He necessarily discovers a multitude of de
partures from the purity he had thought himself en
titled to expect, and his error most frequently consists
in attaching too much consequence to these departures
not remembering that the wisdom and virtue of our
public characters are but those of frail man, and that
all theories committed to the hands of men for. prac
tical display suffer greatly in their purity by the opera
tion. I fear, however, that after making every state
ment that either these or any other causes, or even
charity itself could claim, your representation is lam
entably correct. And if so, I am not at all surprised
that you should somewhat regret your visit to Wash-

THE YOUNG IvAWYER-POWTlCIAN 47
ington — as having been the means of bringing you to
the knowledge of a very painful tho undoubtedly an
important truth. I cannot fail to admire the spirit
that blazes at even the suspicion of corruption, if it
were merely suspicion ; but I must repeat to you what
we all joined in recommending to Riley on the famous
occasion alluded to by you — be moderate. —
_ Having thus performed the modest task of advising
him who is to sit in judgment over the Executive and
Legislative functionaries of the Nation, I proceed to
the more humble but not less pleasant task of telling
you that I shall be in Lexington at the races on the
24th, where I shall expect to see many of our fellow
soldiers, and only regret that you will not be amongst
them. I calculate on great pleasure from a visit of
this kind. Indeed, I regard it as one of the most im
portant of my last winter's acquisitions, that my inter
course with the Law class has contributed in a very
high degree towards making me a gregarious animal,
to which I thought for a long time I was constitution
ally averse. In fact, Dick, with due and my accus
tomed modesty, I say it, I am as social and practical
a man as you could desire to see.
Write to me about everything from the fate of the
Republic down to  Amos Kendall, always re
membering that the visible enters largely into my
philosophy. With the highest regard,
Your friend and ob't servant
Rich'd H. Menefee
R. Pindell, Esq.
In the early part of August, Menefee came
to Lexington to claim his pupil-sweetheart
as his wife. At the Jouett residence, about
two miles from Lexington,' on the 14th day
^ Register in the old Jouett family Bible.

48 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of August, 1832, Sarah Bell Jouett was united
in marriage to Richard Hickman Menefee.
Rev. Nathan H. Hall, pastor of the First Pres
byterian Church and the most powerful
exhorter that has appeared in the Presbyterian
Church in Kentucky, performed the ceremony.
Martha B. Mitchell, who afterward became the
wife of Oliver Frazer, was the maid of honor.
After the ceremony the happy couple went
back to Mt. Sterling to live, where Menefee
had provided a home.
Sarah Bell Jouett, the second child and eldest
daughter of Matthew Harris Jouett, the most
distinguished painter that Kentucky has given
to the world, was born on April 2, 1815, and
was therefore nearly six years younger than
her husband. When LaFayette visited Lex
ington in 1825 she and Martha Mitchell pre
sented him with a basket of fruit and in return
received the blessing of the great Frenchman.
Menefee and his wife were married sweet
hearts for nearly a decade, when his death
separated them. About a quarter of a cen
tury after his death, Mrs. Menefee returned
to Mt. Sterling on a visit, and the older people
of the town gathered around her and talked
with her of the man whom they idolized. She
was a noted conversationalist and had an ex
cellent memory. Like the wives of Clay,
Davis, Jackson, Breckinridge, Polk and many
other great Americans have done, Mrs. Mene
fee survived her husband many years — over a
half century. She died in Louisville, Ken
tucky, December 13, 1898.
On January 28, 1833, Governor John Breath
itt, who had been elected in August, 1832,

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN 49
sent Menefee's name to the State Senate again
for their vote of confirmation as Common
wealth's Attorney for the eleventh judicial dis
trict. The law creating the office of Common
wealth's Attorney was first enacted in 1813,
and it laid down three rules, by the observance
of which a man could hold the office : that his
behavior must be good; the court must be con
tinued; and, of course, his office must be con
tinued. The committee, composed of Ben
Hardin, the famous Kentucky lawyer, and
others, decided that Menefee's behavior had
been good and the court before which he prac
ticed and his office had both been continued.
The law of 1813 did not place a time limit on
any of the attorneys, one man having served
for ten years, therefore Menefee was entitled
to keep his office. As all of Breathitt's prede
cessors in the executive chair had continued
the attorneys in office, it clearly seems that the
twelfth Kentucky Governor was not informed
in regard to the law.
On February 8, Menefee and his wife
entered into a playful contract, drawn up by
Menefee, in his own handwriting, in regard to
rising early in the morning. The contract is
given under the respective seals, and they both
agreed that the mind and body are seriously
impaired by sleeping late; that they were de
sirous of correcting their habits in this par
ticular; that they each had the strongest of all
interests in the preservation of the mind and
health of the other; now they had agreed that,
from and after this time they will rise early (at
all events, ill health and Sundays excepted, by

50 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
sun-rise), and if either of said parties should
violate said contract, such violation should
mean a penalty, to be paid to the other,
amounting to one dollar.
Menefee's mother died on June 21, 1833, at
the age of forty-six years, and was buried at
the famous Olympia Springs. Menefee's grief
was terrible and he was inconsolable for some
time. He literally worshiped his mother, and
thought her to be "the smartest and best
woman God ever made."'
Menefee's stepfather. Col. George Lans
downe, died on October 3, 1851, and a beauti
ful monument marks the spot where he and
the mother of Menefee sleep, side by side, in
the cemetery at Olympia Springs.
From Mt. Sterling, on August U, 1833,
Menefee wrote the following letter to his wife,
who was probably visiting at her father's
home, near Lexington. The opening para
graph has been eliminated because of its af
fectionate tone. About forty of Menefee's let
ters to his wife are extant and they show him
to be a very delightful fellow indeed.
Mt. Sterling, nth Aug. 1833.
I labor to persuade myself that an absence like the
present one ought not to be regarded, that you are
not far from me and that I shall soon see you. It
is in vain a feeling of gloom comes over me that I can
but seldom resist. This may be owing to some secret
contemplation of my circumstances which render my
absence necessary. Why have I not command of my
time? Why is it that I am compelled to drag myself
'Mrs. Menefee's letter, February i8, 1898, to Mr. Clements.

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN 5 1
from (I might say) a sick wife? But all such reflec
tions I am soon ashamed of. I would not be rich this
moment if I could be so; that is, for my own sake, I
would not be rich. I wish to pass through the wis
dom-imparting paths, and scenes that lead a man to
wealth. I wish my powers called forth in pursuit; so
that when a few years shall have given me wealth, I
may be found in possession of a high fame — acquired
in the pursuit of it. Practical wisdom grows out of a
practical intercourse with man; an intercourse to
which one must be in fact a party. Not an occasional
participation in the common affairs of man, but con
stant and from necessity. It is certainly desirable that
all conditions of life should, if possible, be understood ;
the highest and the lowest. No condition can be thor
oughly comprehended and realized unless we are
actually parties to it. It is obvious that in under
standing these various conditions of life by experi
ence — it is the most rational as well as the most ad
vantageous to begin with the humblest. All nature —
everything — proceeds in this way. Besides, it but
seldom occurs that he who from a high has been pre
cipitated by misfortune or otherwise to a low condi
tion, can preserve sufficient philosophy to profit by the
experience which his new condition might supply him.
He will not observe; he is apt to regard himself as
lost. But if a young man can be convinced in the
outset of life that observation and reflection upon men
and manners are all important to him in his ulterior
plans; if he can once contract a habit of observation,
I consider him in the highway to success in any pur
suit he may choose to adopt — I have been led to believe
that many, very many, who have the most sufficient
capacity to observe and reflect, pass through a life
time of facilities without doing so, merely because
they have never thought of it. It will appear forcibly
to any who choose to make the experiment, how many
opportunities we forego by remissness, if he will go
into a company with the express view of making ob-

52 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
servations. He will see and reflect upon a thousand
things which he otherwise would never have noticed;
things, too, that may shed a volume of light upon the
character either of ourselves or others. It is a most
happy position to sit in the midst of actors of every
kind governed and wafted about by emotions of all
descriptions — you an independent, and to them an un
known observer ; prying, as it were, unseen, into their
hearts. I set out to write a love letter and find I have
written a moral essay — I am pretty much of a d  •
fool. On October 27, 1833, Menefee's first child
was born, a son, and he was named Alexander
Hamilton Menefee. Richard H. Menefee, like
another distinguished Kentuckian, Gertrude
Atherton, believed that Hamilton was the
greatest of our statesmen. He placed him
above Washington, Jefferson, or any of the
other illustrious founders of our Republic.
Menefee's joy was to be ephemeral, for on
December 6, 1834, his son died. But a few
years later he was given a son who was to
perpetuate his name and carry on his tradi
tions. The catalogue of the Transylvania Law
School for January, 1835, shows that Menefee
was again in attendance at the school, prob
ably doing some special work. A mistake oc
curred in the catalogue by which his middle
name was abbreviated with a "B" instead of
with an "H." The catalogue also shows that
he was still living in Mt. Sterling, and the L. B.
which he had won three years before was
printed after his name.
The famous Kentucky Chief Justice, George

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN 53
Robertson was assisting Professor Mayes in
the school at this time. Joshua F. Bell, of
Danville, who was afterward one of the six
Kentucky Commissioners to the Washington
Peace Conference of 1861, and Lazarus W.
Powell, of Henderson, afterward the twentieth
Governor of Kentucky, were matriculates of
the school during the time that Menefee was
there. Menefee returned to Mt. Sterling, where he
continued to practice and attend to his duties
as Commonwealth's Attorney for his dis
trict. Some time in the winter of 1835-1836
he sent his resignation to Governor James T.
Morehead, who had become Governor at the
death of Breathitt, which occurred February
21, 1834, as Commonwealth's Attorney for the
eleventh judicial district, and announced him
self as a candidate for the Kentucky House of
Representatives, from Montgomery County,
to succeed David Heron and James McKee.
His candidacy was received favorably by his
people, and he, with Gen. Samuel L. Williams,
who had been at the battle of River Raisin, and
who was to serve for nearly a quarter of a
century in the legislature, were sent as dele
gates from Montgomery County to the State
Convention of Kentucky Whigs, which met
in Lexington on April 19, 1836.
Judge John Green,' of Lincoln County, who
had studied law under Henry Clay and who
was a prominent circuit judge for many years,
was chosen as president of the convention.
Five vice-presidents and five secretaries were
^Lexington Observer and Kentucky Reporter for April 27,
1836.

54 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
then appointed and the convention got down
to business.
Green's first appointment was to select a
committee of fifteen men to propose suitable
resolutions of Whig principles for the consid
eration of the convention. The secretaries
were appointed to ascertain and report to the
convention the names of the delegates in at
tendance and the counties that they repre
sented. Such prominent Kentuckians as Gar
rett Davis of Bourbon, Richard Hawes of
Clark, Leslie Combs, Edwin Byrant, Charl
ton Hunt, and the Wickliffes of Fayette, Rob
ert P. Letcher of Garrard, Cassius M. Clay
from Madison, John B. Thompson from Mer
cer, and William B. Kinkead from Woodford
County, were present.
Clay took a prominent part in the delibera
tions of the convention. His first motion was
that a committee of thirteen should be ap
pointed to report a plan for the complete union
of the Kentucky Whigs in the coming August
elections. His motion was adopted. The con
vention then went into a committee of the
whole with a view of adopting such measures
that would insure harmony in the ranks of the
Whigs of Kentucky. Through its chairman
It resolved to raise a committee of general
consultation to consist of as many members
from each county represented in the conven
tion as such county may have representatives
in the State legislature. It was further re
solved that the county delegates appoint the
member or members of said committee for
each county, whose duty it shall be to ascer
tain the public sentiment of their respective

The young lawyer-politician 55
counties by conference with their colleagues
in the convention now assembled. And said
committee is ordered to report upon such sub
jects as it shall deem proper to the conven
tion. It was further provided that each county
represented in the convention have at least one
member upon the committee. For Fayette
County, Charlton Hunt, Judge A. K. Wooley
and Robert Wickliffe, Jr., were appointed to
serve on the committee, and from Montgom
ery County General Williams and Menefee
were appointed, with many others.
As a second resolution the chairman of the
committee thought it expedient for the con
vention to recommend to the people a suitable
person for Vice-President of the United States.
Both resolutions were adopted and the conven
tion adjourned until the next day.
At the beginning of the second session of
the convention. President Green read letters
from James Clark and Charles Wickliffe, say
ing that, although they had been nominated
by the legislature for Governor and Lieuten
ant-Governor, if the convention did not sanc
tion the legislature's action they would with
draw. General Williams, Menefee's colleague, of
fered a resolution that Gen. William H. Har
rison for President, Francis Granger for Vice-
President, James Clark for Governor and
Chas. A. Wickliffe for Lieutenant-Governor,
be recommended by the convention to the
people of Kentucky as suitable persons
for the positions. His resolution was
unanimously concurred in, and he then moved
that a committee of four be appointed to notify

56 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Clark and Wickliffe of the convention's action.
Gen. Leslie Combs, with General Williams and
two other gentlemen, were appointed by Green
as a committee of notification.
The services of Acting-Governor Morehead
and of United States Senator Henry Clay were
commended. After the adoption of a resolu
tion to the effect that the Harrison committee
of Louisville be requested to combine their
labors to promote the Whig cause in Ken
tucky, in co-operation with the Central com
mittee of Lexington, and a committee ap
pointed to see that the business transacted by
the convention be printed, the convention ad
journed, sine die, and Menefee went back to
Mt. Sterling to begin an active campaign for
the legislature. That he spoke at every corner
and cross-roads of Montgomery County is cer
tain. Although the name of his opponent for
the legislature is lost to history we may be sure
that the Van Buren Democrats put up the
strongest man in Montgomery against the
young Whig, who was just at the beginning
of his career. Practically all of the Kentucky
newspapers were at this time devoted to the
Whig cause, and, of course, did not give the
name of Menefee's opponent. Kentucky at
one time in her history had a Secretary of State
who could not see that the election returns for
1836 might be valuable for a historian of that
period, and he destroyed them as so much rub
bish. Surely the State's foremost novelist is
right when he said : "Write the biographies of
the Kentuckians who have been engaged in
national and local politics, and you have
largely the history of the State of Kentucky.

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN 57
Write the lives of all its scientists, artists,
musicians, actors, poets, novelists, and you
find many weary milestones between the
chapters." Or, as Bishop A. Coke Smith said:
"The Southern people are the greatest history
makers that have ever lived upon the earth,
but are the poorest history preservers that the
sun has ever shone upon." Both of these state
ments I have found to be too true.
The candidate for Lieutenant-Governor,
Charles A. Wickliffe, spoke in Mt. Sterling on
Monday, July 4, and at Owingsville on the fol
lowing day. He was probably introduced by
Menefee to the people of the two towns, or, at
any rate, delivered a speech at the conclusion
of Wickliffe's.
In 1835 the second Seminole war broke out
and was waged on the Southwestern frontier.
Maj.-Gen. Edward P. Gaines was in command
of the United States troops, and the famous
Seminole warrior, Osceola, was leading the
Indians. The war was caused by the Indians
breaking a treaty with the Government by
which they had promised to give up their lands
and move to Indian Territory. This war con
tinued until 1842 and was the fiercest Indian
war in which the United States was ever en
gaged. In the summer of 1836 it was at its highest
point, and on July 16 Governor Morehead is
sued a proclamation, at the request of Presi
dent Jackson and General Gaines, calling for
1,000 mounted Kentuckians to rendezvous at
Frankfort on August 17 to proceed to Camp
Sabine. Before August 3, forty-five companies
offered their services, but only ten were ac-

58 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
cepted, composed of one hundred men each.
The company raised in Montgomery County
elected Richard H. Menefee as their captain,
but as only a thousand men were needed, and
as ten companies reached Governor Morehead
before Menefee's did, his company was refused.
Although he was making a bitter fight for a
position that would require a man of mind, he
was, like his father, ready to become a man of
action. Governor Morehead appointed Gen. Leslie
Combs, of Fayette County, as colonel of the
Kentucky regiment, but before he got his com
mand ready to march, orders were received for
their discharge. General Combs assured his
regiment that they should have pay for their
loss of time, and a resolution was passed by
the legislature on December 7 ., 1836, asking
the Kentucky Congressmen to use their in
fluence to obtain the pay for the Kentucky
troops that had been raised for the second
Seminole war. Although they saw no active
service they had suffered a loss of time from
their various duties.
On August 3 the election began and, accord
ing to the second Kentucky Constitution, con
tinued three days. The Kentucky Gazette for Au
gust 8 announced Menefee's election as rep
resentative from Montgomery County to the
next legislature. Although Montgomery
County thus gave Menefee, a Whig, a large
majority, they elected a Van Buren man as
State Senator, Aquila Young. It would seem
as if those sturdy Montgomery County farm
ers were, even at that early date, voting for the
man and not for the ticket. They offer one of

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN 59
the earliest examples of the "independent"
vote in Kentucky history.
Clark and Wickliffe were elected by large
majorities, and forty-six Whig representatives
were elected to the House of Representatives
against twenty-three Van Buren Democrats.
On August 31 Clark and Wickliffe were in
augurated as Governor and Lieutenant-Gover
nor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The
inauguration took place in the hall of the
House of Representatives, and Charles S.
Morehead delivered the address of welcome on
behalf of the citizens of Frankfort, and both
Clark and Wickliffe made speeches in reply,
assuring the people that they would preside
over the destinies of Kentucky as God showed
them the way. Kentucky, too, was just on
the eve of a financial panic which was to con
tinue for the next five years.

CHAPTER IV
IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE
Late in November, Menefee, in company
with his wife, left his home in Mt. Sterling, and
arrived in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky,
to discharge those legislative duties which were
before him, and which the people of Montgom
ery had elected him to perform.
The Kentucky legislature convened in
Frankfort on Monday, December 5, 1836.'
The Senate was called to order by Lieutenant-
Governor Charles A. Wickliffe, and the House
was called to order by Thomas J. Helm, former
clerk. A quorum was present and the election
of a Speaker was immediately gone into.
Christopher Tompkins, Jr., of Barren County,
nominated Robert P. Letcher, of Garrard, for
Speaker, and Thomas J. Riley, of Bullitt, nomi
nated John L. Helm, of Hardin County. Helm
was elected by a vote of forty-eight to forty-
five. Menefee voted for Letcher. Helm took
the Speaker's chair and returned his thanks for
the honor that had been conferred upon him.
Thomas J. Helm was elected Clerk of the
House and messages were then interchanged
between the Senate and House, saying that
both bodies were ready for legislative busi
ness. The leading legislative lights of the session
of 1836-1837 were, in the Senate, men like
Archibald Dixon, of Henderson, Henry Clay's
^ House Journal for 1836-1837.

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 6l
successor in the United States Senate in 1852;
James Guthrie, of Louisville, Secretary of the
Treasury under Franklin Pierce; Samuel Han
son, one of the most distinguished lawyers that
Clark County has ever produced; Thomas
Metcalfe, of Nicholas, the eleventh Governor
of Kentucky, and Aaron K. Wooley, a re
nowned jurist of Fayette County. In the
House, we find men like Menefee, Rob
ert Wickliffe, and Henry Daniel of Fayette;
Fountain F. Fox, of Pulaski; Ben Hardin, of
Marion ; Richard Hawes, of Clark ; Robert P.
Letcher, of Garrard; Thomas F. Marshall, of
Louisville; William W. Southgate, of Camp
bell; Christopher Tompkins, Jr., of Barren,
and the "baby" of the House, Lazarus W.
Powell, who was afterward elected Governor
of Kentucky.
The second Kentucky Constitution of 1799
plainly said that "No person shall be a repre
sentative who, at the time of his election, is
before the legislature convened, and he was
born October 6, 1812, and at the time of his
election, in August, 1836, he was not twenty-
four years of age, and was just old enough to
enter the legislature about two months before
it assembled. His age was not discussed, how
ever, and he was permitted to take his seat.
Menefee was twenty-seven years of age the day
before the legislature convened, and he was
therefore the second youngest member of the
House. Thomas F. Marshall offered resolutions of
respect on the death of Francis K. Buford, of
Woodford County, a representative-elect of
this legislature, who had died on December 3,

62 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
from a stab received in an encounter with a Mr.
Smith. His resolution was passed.
On Tuesday, December 6, Governor James
Clark transmitted to both branches of the
legislature his annual message, in which he in
formed them that they had assembled to ex
ercise the highest privilege known to freemen.
That God had been good to Kentucky and
filled her hills and valleys with many natural
resources. The public finances were not in
as good condition as he desired them to be,
which was the most important paragraph in
his message, as the awful Panic of 1837 was
just beginning. The laws in general seem to
be adequate, and the love of law seems to exist
among the people. The judiciary, however,
should be improved, he thought, and the pub
lic school system should be strengthened. He
was also glad to see the decline of abolitionism.
The various Kentucky asylums for defectives
should be improved, and he closes his message
by assuring them of his hearty co-operation.
Leave was then given to the different repre
sentatives to bring in bills and Menefee intro
duced his first bill in the House, "For the bene
fit of the Owingsville and Big Sandy Turnpike
Road Company." The first section of the bill
repealed the former acts of the legislature in
authorizing the repair of the road and the
building of a turnpike gate, and took the con
trol of the road out of the hands of the board
of commissioners, and put it into the hands of a
company. The second section said that the
commissioners and keeper of the gate should
pay over all funds for which they may be re
sponsible, and on their failure to do so, suit

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 63
would be brought, when the Board of Internal
Improvement thought that the public interest
required it, and that the gate and the company
should be discontinued. It was also pro
vided that the company should apply the
moneys coming from said gate to the same
objects to which the commissioners had
applied them. Section three said that the com
pany may, by suit or suits, coerce the payment
of the calls on stock that was subscribed by in
dividuals or corporations. Section four re
pealed the act to amend the act creating the
company, which Governor Morehead had of
fered February 12, 1836, and the fifth and last
section of Menefee's first bill increased the
capital stock of the company to two hundred
thousand dollars. This act was passed and
approved by Governor Clark on February 16,
1832. This was the first pike built in Bath
County.' Bills by Marshall, Tompkins, Powell and
others were introduced, and resolutions to
wear crape on the left arm for thirty days in
remembrance of John W. Anderson of Union
County and George Morris of Christian
County, were adopted. It was further decided
to proceed to an election, by joint vote of the
two houses on December 15, of a United States
Senator for six years to succeed Henry Clay,
whose term expired March 3, 1837. After
some minor business the House then ad
journed. On December 7 Speaker Helm appointed the
standing committees, and Menefee was ap
pointed on the Committee of Ways and Means,
^ Young's History of Bath County.

64 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
with David Meriwether of Jefferson County,
George W. WiUiams of Bourbon, Tucker
Woodson of Jessamine, Roger F. Kelly of
Christian, Edward B. Cheatham of Adair, and
WilHam C. McNary of Muhlenberg County.
Woodson was later to have the pleasure of
casting his vote for Menefee for the highest
office in the gift of the legislature, the United
States Senate.
A motion was then made to instruct the
Board of Internal Improvement to send an
engineer to survey the Big South Fork of the
Cumberland River with a view to making the
stream navigable for flat boats, and to also see
what the mineral prospects were in that
region. The House then adjourned.
On December 8 a resolution was passed to
ask Kentucky Congressmen to do all in their
power to procure the acknowledgment of the
independence of the Republic of Texas by
the United States. Governor Clark was in
structed to send a copy of the resolutions
passed to each of the Kentucky Senators and
representatives. The Committee of Ways and Means, Mene
fee's committee, was instructed to propose the
act to equalize taxation. While Menefee had
the assistance of his six colleagues, it is cer
tain that he was almost wholly the author of
the "equalizing act." On the following day
the committee reported the bill, and the first
section of it was passed without amendment,
but the provisional clause was amended by
Pleasant Bush, of Clark County. The body of
the bill, then, was the work of Menefee, while
the conditional clause was the work of Bush.

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 65
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Com
monwealth of Kentucky, That all persons, from and
after the tenth day of January eighteen hundred and
thirty-eight, when giving in their lists of taxable prop
erty, shall be, and they are hereby required to fix, on
oath, a sum sufficient to cover what they shall be re
spectively worth, from all sources, on the day to which
said lists relate, exclusive of the property required by
law to be listed for taxation, (not computing therein
the first three hundred dollars in value, nor lands not
within this State, nor other property out of this State,
subject to taxation by the laws of the country where
situated,) upon which the same tax shall be paid, and
the same proceedings in all respects had, as upon other
property subject to the ad valorem tax : Provided,
That nothing herein contained shall be so construed
as to include the growing crop on land listed for taxa
tion, or one year's crop then on hand, or articles manu
factured in the family for family consumption.
On February 11, Robert P. Letcher, from
the Committee for Courts of Justice, to whom
was referred the Senate bill, entitled, "An act
to repeal an act entitled, 'An act to amend the
law prohibiting the importation of slaves into
Kentucky,' " which was approved February 2,
1833, reported the bill without amendment.
And, after some discussion, it was decided to
table the bill until June 1. Menefee resisted
the repeal of the act, and voted to table it.
His speech on this bill Marshall called "the
master effort of his mind that winter." I have
examined the files of the old Frankfort
Commonwealth, trying to find this speech, but
neither this one nor any other of Menefee's
speeches in the Kentucky legislature have been
preserved. 5

'66 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
On the following day, Menefee, with Mar
shall, Southgate, and several other men, were
appointed as a committee on the part of the
Governor's message that related to the
judiciary. On December 15, according to the resolu
tion of the 6th, the House proceeded to the
election of a United States Senator in the place
of Henry Clay, whose term was almost ex
pired. In the House, Clay was nominated by
John Kincaid of Lincoln County, and James
Guthrie was nominated by Patterson C. Lan
der of Livingston County. The House vote
resulted in fifty-five votes for Clay and forty-
four votes for Guthrie. Marshall, from the
committee to compare the joint vote of the two
houses, reported the result to be, sixty-seven
votes for Clay and fifty-four for Guthrie. Clay
was then declared elected for the next six
years. Richard H. Menefee cast his vote for
Henry Clay.
On December 17 Menefee presented the
petition of sundry citizens of Mercer and Lin
coln Counties praying for the foundation of a
new county out of parts of said counties. The
struggle for this new county had been going
on in the legislature for twenty-five years and
was to be consummated five years later.
Menefee then had an important part in the
foundation of the new county which, in 1842,
was formed, and named Boyle County, in
honor of the distinguished Kentucky Chief
Justice, John Boyle.
Speaker Helm appointed a committee of
four representatives, David Trimble of
Greenup County; Franklin A. Andrews of

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 67
Fleming; Samuel Stone of Bath, and Richard
H. Menefee of Montgomery County, to bring
in a bill founding a system of general educa
tion in Kentucky. A day or so later Menefee
reported this bill, and after being read three
times, one hundred and fifty copies were or
dered to be printed for the use of members of
the House.
I have been unable to obtain a copy of this
bill, but Judge William F. Bullock, of Louis
ville, the following year, certainly used it to
advantage in drafting the present system of
education in Kentucky. While Judge Bullock
lives in Kentucky history as the founder of the
common school system, Richard H. Menefee
was the originator of the present system. It
is the same story of one man originating a
thing and another man perfecting it. The per-
fecter always gets the honor of being the
founder. For instance. Fitch and Fulton, in
regard to the steamboat.
Before Menefee introduced his education bill
in the legislature,' the legislature had, at dif
ferent times, sent agents to visit other States
and report in regard to the various systems.
These visits had amounted to nothing, how
ever, as up to 1836 Kentucky had no money
with which to establish a system. But in 1836
the State got its share of the surplus resulting
from the sale of public lands, and with one-
half of it, which was $850,000, plans to estab
lish the system were begun. On the last day of
the legislature, of which Menefee was a mem
ber. Governor Clark approved Menefee's edu
cation bill. At the next session of the legis-
* Baber's Popular Education in Kentucky, 1881.

68 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
lature Judge Bullock "worked over" Menefee's
bill and had it passed, permanently establish
ing the present system of common school edu
cation in Kentucky.
When Speaker Helm let his gavel fall the
day before Christmas, 1836, a quorum was not
present and he adjourned the House until
January 2, 1837. Menefee probably spent the
holidays with his wife's mother, Mrs. Jouett,
in Lexington. When the House assembled
after the holidays, Thomas F. Marshall, from
the committee composed of himself, Menefee,
Southgate, and several others, which had been
appointed by Speaker Helm as a committee on
that part of the Governor's message relating
to the judiciary, made his report. Marshall
commended Governor Clark's attitude toward
the judiciary of Kentucky, and the famous
orator went into the history of all time in so
doing. He was preparing himself for the de
livery of those unique history lectures that he
was to give during the last years of his life.
On January 3 a bill was tabled asking the
Kentucky Congressmen to vote for Richard
M. Johnson, a Kentuckian, for Vice-President
in preference to Francis Granger of New York.
In February, 1836, Governor Morehead had
approved a bill, authorizing Henry C. Harris,
guardian of Emeline May, the infant heir of
Samuel May, deceased, to sell May's real estate
and pay his (May's) debts, and for other pur
poses. James Franklin had bought the prop
erty, and had executed bonds for the purchase
money. Harris had lost the bond for the title,
and besides, to sell May's property would be
an injury and loss to the infant heir, Emeline

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 69
May. On January 10, Menefee presented the
petition of Harris, praying for an amendment
of this act of February, 1836.
Marshall said in his eulogy that it was upon
this bill "that he was first heard to speak." As
a matter of fact, it was one of the last speeches
that Menefee delivered in the Kentucky House
of Representatives.' Menefee's wife sat in the
gallery and did not know that her husband was
going to speak until he arose and she heard
his flute-like voice. "She felt the blood rush to
her face, and with feverish anxiety she waited
for the climax, and drew a large veil over her
face to hide her blushes and confusion, should
he fail. Fail? That was not written in his
category of words." The petition asking for
the amendment was passed.
On January 14 he presented a bill to incor
porate the Mount Sterling academy for the
education of females, which was passed and
approved February 23. This academy did
good work for many years.
On January 18, Menefee moved the follow
ing: "That, His Excellency, the Governor, be
and hereby is requested to inform the House
what proportion of the Internal Improvement
fund set apart by the act of February 28, 1835,
for the three great sections has been ex
pended — how much in the southern section —
how much in the middle section and how much
in the northern section; also, what amount of
the same remains subject to appropriation or
subscription by the State in each of the said
sections respectively; and whether the
$200,000 set apart for either of the said sec-

" Clement's speech. Related to him by Mrs. Menefee.

70 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tions, or the distribution to either, for roads on
any part thereof has been expended or sub
scribed in any other sections, and whether
either of said sections has ever received more
than its ratable amount, and if so, by what au
thority was such expenditures or subscrip
tion made." His motion was carried. He
then moved the following, which was also
adopted: "That the committee for courts of
justice — composed of Letcher, Marshall, and
others — be instructed to inquire into the ex
pedience of providing by law for the exemption
of the coal of blacksmiths from execution; and
to report by bill or otherwise."
On January 21 the joint committees of the
two houses, composed of seven representatives
and two senators, Menefee being one of them,
that had been appointed to examine into the
condition of the Northern Bank in Kentucky,
reported that the bank was in good condition
and was entitled to the confidence of the people
of Kentucky.
On February 26 the House resumed the con
sideration of the bill to amend the Louisville,
Cincinnati and Charleston R. R. Co., and the
amendment of Marshall, striking out Lexing
ton and inserting Louisville, to be the terminus
of the road. The Frankfort correspondent
of the Lexington Intelligencer, in the issue for
February 10, gave the following account of
Menefee's speech on this bill:
Marshall concluded after candle lighting, and Mr.
Menefee addressed the House for an hour. His speech
evidenced great reasoning powers. He contended that
it was not so much a Louisville and Charleston work,
as a Carolina and ICentucky connection. He showed

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 7I
what were the elements and objects of commerce, and
by an able examination of these, deduced the result
that more advantage would come to Kentucky, and to
the consumers of articles of consumption of a growth
beyond her limits, by bringing the road to Lexington,
than to Louisville. He contended that the road was
to find business, not merely at extreme points, but at
every point of its passage. New business would be
created, more consumption of articles for foreign use.
He believed Carolina's policy on this subject was right,
even if she should make the road to Cincinnati, as the
gentlemen deemed it to be her design. It ought to go
to the Ohio River there. And he predicted and called
marked attention to the prophecy, that Louisville
would make the branch to the Cumberland Gap, or to
the road in that region by her own means and re
sources, whenever Carolina's means and resources, or
those of the Company, were employed in carrying on
the branch to Covington.
Mr. Menefee is one of the most talented young men
in our country, and I doubt not he is destined, should
not death or misfortune thwart the aspirations of a
mind of vast power and intellectual wealth, to take a
high stand in the councils of that great country in
which Carolina and Kentucky are only component
parts. After Menefee's speech the vote on Mar
shall's amendment was taken, and lost, fifty-
three to thirty-nine, Menefee voting in the
negative. Two days later, Menefee presented the fol
lowing resolution : "That, The use of the Hall
of the House of Representatives be tendered to
the Wandering Piper this evening." The
House granted his resolution and then ad
journed. This early Kentucky minstrel per
formed on the Scotch and Irish bagpipes, and

72 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
was a descendant, according to the spirit, of
those minstrels of the Middle Ages who wan
dered from town to town to play for the great
and mighty of the earth. The Wandering
Piper performed in Lexington before going to
Frankfort, and later went to Washington City,
where he was cordially received.
. Practically every measure that Richard H.
Menefee presented to the Kentucky legislature
of 1836-37 was passed, excepting his petition
for the citizens of Lincoln and Mercer Coun
ties, asking for the new county of Boyle to be
created out of parts of their respective counties.
This fight for a new county, as has already
been stated, had been going on for twenty-five
years before he entered the legislature, and he
did as much as any other one man to get the
new county formed. Boyle County was
formed five years later. Besides the bills men
tioned in detail, Menefee had many other
measures, of minor importance, passed, which
it has not been deemed worthy to mention in
this book. His term in the Kentucky legis
lature is without a parallel in the State's his
tory. No man ever fulfilled the expectations of
his constituency better than did he.
Speaker John L. Helm delivered his vale
dictory and adjourned the House, sine die,
February 23, 1837. The session had lasted
nearly fifteen weeks. Menefee returned to
Lexington with many of the other representa
tives and was given a public dinner by the
citizens of Lexington on February 25 at Col.
John Reiser's Hotel, which was situated at the
corner of North Broadway and Short streets.
This dinner was to show the appreciation of

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 73
the citizens of Lexington and Fayette Counties
for the very efficient manner in which the rep
resentatives had discharged their duties. The
legislature was notified before it adjourned
and the members were requested to invite
their friends. Colonel Keiser had his best
cooks in the kitchen on that day, and an ex
cellent dinner was served. Party spirit was
banished and good feeling prevailed. Maj.
John Tilford acted as president and he was as
sisted by the three vice-presidents. Col. Benja
min Taylor, Henry C. Pogue, and John Brand.
After the cloth was removed such toasts as the
following were responded to and drunk : "The
State of Kentucky," "International Improve
ments," "Our Senator — A. K. Wooley," and
"Our Representatives — William Rhodes,
Henry Daniels, and Robert Wickliffe, Jr."
This toast provoked such applause that the
above-named gentlemen were obliged to rise
and address the meeting. Other toasts were:
"The Citizens of Kentucky," and "The Ladies
of Kentucky — Oh beautiful! and rare as
beautiful !" Then, "By the Committee on Ar
rangements to Our Guest, R. H. Menefee,"
which read as follows : "Proud of him as the
County of Montgomery may be as a faithful
and honest representative, we are still prouder
of him as a talented and native-born son of
Kentucky. The fearless eloquence and states
manlike views which he has displayed in the
councils of the State commend at the hands
of the people a seat in the councils of the
nation." Menefee returned his thanks for this
"honorable notice" to the committee in an elo
quent speech which was greeted with cheers.

74 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
He then responded to the toast — "A general
system of public instruction — practicable, be
cause consistent with the theory of our politi
cal institutions; its foundations have been laid
by the late legislature — the people demand
that it should be carried into execution." At
this meeting Richard H. Menefee's "congres
sional boom" was launched. After a few other
toasts the meeting adjourned.
If Menefee had been contemplating making
a race for Congress,' this banquet finally de
cided him to announce himself, for in the
Frankfort Commonwealth, of April 19, about
three weeks after the banquet, he announced
his candidacy to succeed Judge Richard
French, as Congressman from the eleventh
congressional district. French also announced
himself to succeed himself, and the Kentucky
newspapers predicted the race between the
brilliant young Whig and the distinguished
Democrat would be a bitter one.
Richard French, Menefee's opponent for the
twenty-fifth Congress, was born in Madi
son County, in 1792, the year that Ken
tucky was admitted into the Union. He
studied law under the Honorable Samuel Han
son, a distinguished lawyer, and began prac
ticing at Winchester, Kentucky. After prac
ticing law a few years he entered politics and
was elected as Clark County's representative
to the Kentucky legislature of 1820-1822. He
was elected to the twenty-fourth Congress in
1835, and in 1837 announced himself as a can
didate for the same office. In 1840, as the
Democratic candidate for Governor of Ken
tucky, he was defeated by Robert P. Letcher.

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 75
French died in Kenton County in 1854. He
was an able speaker and debater, and a good
citizen. When it was known throughout the eleventh
congressional district, that was composed of
the counties of Montgomery, Bath, Fleming,
Lawrence, Lewis, Morgan, and Greenup, that
Menefee and French were the opposing candi
dates for Congress, the excitement was intense.
In the latter part of May, 1837, the famous
American orator, Daniel Webster, accom
panied by his family, visited Kentucky. At
Louisville, Lexington, Maysville, and Ver
sailles he was given public dinners and a per
fect ovation. There is a legend in Kentucky
that, at Lexington or Maysville, he heard
Menefee deliver a speech and was so delighted
with the young Kentuckian that, at the close of
the meeting, he took Menefee in his arms and
embraced him. I have been unable to verify
this legend. Webster probably did take him
in his arms on a memorable night in July of
the following year when Menefee responded to
the toast on Kentucky at the Faneuil Hall ban
quet, in Boston, given in honor of New Hamp
shire's mighty son.
One of Menefee's most distinguished sup
porters for Congressional honors was the
famous preacher "Raccoon John Smith," of the
Church of the Disciples. His biographer, John
A. Williams, tells us "that Smith loved Mene
fee with almost parental fondness." He was
as decided in his poHtical as he was in his re
ligious opinions. Williams gives the most
vivid description of the campaign that I have
been able to find, and I shall quote it verbatim :

^6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
"The poHtical strife of that year was intensely
earnest. As the day for the election drew
nigh, almost every other interest was forgot
ten; quiet neighbors waxed warm with dis
putations; partisan remarks were mingled
with their harvest songs, and political wran
gling profaned, on Sunday, the very precincts
of the sanctuary. The brilliant Menefee, with
his boyish face and delicate form, moved Hke a
meteor from one neighborhood barbecue to an
other, and the mountains sent up their shouts
of enthusiasm when he appeared. The voice
of the people at length prevailed, and the popu
lar honors rested on the brow of the young
statesman." The old preacher was a staunch Whig, and
the position that he took almost rent his church
asunder. He finally vindicated himself, how
ever, and in October following the election, his
fifteenth child was born and he immediately
named him Menefee Smith. The young name
sake of the eminent Kentuckian was to suffer
death at the age of five years, in a way that was
more cruel than the death that Menefee himself
suffered. The little fellow was scalded to death
and the old preacher carried his grief with him
to his grave.
Many stories are told of the campaign be
tween French and Menefee. I have tried to
sift them all, and have decided to retain two
of them which were related to Mr. LaVega
Clements by Menefee's widow, a few years
before her death, and one that Maj. O. S.
Tenny tells. One day, while this "bushwhack
ing canvass" was at its highest point, Menefee,
in company with a companion, was riding in a

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE "JJ
mountainous part of his district, he came to a
farm-house. "Ah, we will stop here and see
our friends," said Menefee to his companion.
"Pshaw, Dick, that's the home of old man
Davis and his five sons. They are all Demo
crats and would as soon think of voting for
Satan as a Whig." Menefee, however, insisted
on stopping and his companion agreed. Davis
invited them to a dinner of corn bread, bacon
and coffee, without sugar, and fed their horses.
After dinner, Menefee informed Davis that he
was Judge French's opponent for Congress.
Davis asked him why the Whigs did not put
up a man and not a mere boy against French,
and proceeded to joke him about his boyish
appearance. Menefee then suggested that he
and Davis should wrestle, and if he (Menefee)
gained the first fall, that Davis should vote for
him for Congress. Davis agreed and he and
Menefee repaired to the front yard, where
Whigism and Democracy locked arms. In a
few moments Whigism was astride of Democ
racy. After having gained one vote so easily
Menefee suggested that the five sons of Davis
should wrestle with him, with the same agree
ment to hold. The sons consented and in a
few minutes Menefee had won six votes. After
having thrown the men of the family, he jok
ingly suggested to Davis that he never liked
to do things by halves, and for him to bring
forth the old woman and he would win another
vote. Besides gaining six votes, the story also
reveals that Menefee was a man physically, as
well as mentally, and not a weakling, as the
popular conception has it.
Menefee played many tricks on French, but

78 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Judge Tenny, who was long a resident of Mt.
Sterling, tells the best one. On one occasion
Menefee and French met at a dance. The
young Whig captured all the fair partners and
French was compelled to sit by and see his op
ponent win the hearts of the wives and sweet
hearts of the voters. The old Judge stood it
as long as he could, when he left and went to
another dance some miles away. One of
Menefee's friends advised him of French's
action and told him of a "short cut" road to the
place that French had started for, which, if he
would take, although it was rough, he would
arrive at the next dance ahead of his opponent.
Menefee immediately left, taking the rough
road, and when French arrived, he found Mene
fee again ahead of him, and swore that he had
been led around in a circle and brought back to
the place that he had left. His wife was also
very angry, and affirmed that if her husband
did not beat the "yellow-headed boy for Con
gress" she would get a divorce. But she saw
French defeated and did not carry out her
threat. The best-known story of the campaign is the
Grimes bear story. Owen Grimes kept a tav
ern and was also postmaster at the Olympian
Springs in Bath County. His wife was an
ardent supporter of Menefee. Grimes had a
pet bear. One day, French and Menefee met at
the Springs to present their claims for the
people's consideration. Menefee led off and
French followed. When the Judge had gotten
started, Mrs. Grimes called to her husband,
"Owen, turn that bear loose!" Owen did not
do so. Again she shouted, "Owen, I say turn

IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE 79
that bear loose, and do it quick !" Owen under
stood that command and complied. The crowd
scattered in every direction and left French
speaking to the empty air. Madam Grimes
then returned to the tavern, where she no
doubt prepared an excellent dinner for her
hero. On August 9 the election began and lasted
three days. On the second day of the election,
Menefee was beating French so badly that it
was thought his majority would be upward of
500. The Lexington Intelligencer received the fol
lowing note from a correspondent in Owings
ville, dated August 9, 1837: "Thinking that
you would like to hear from our Congressional
election, I avail myself of a leisure moment to
assure you that Mr. Menefee, our Whig candi
date, is certainly safe — he must get a majority
of from three to five hundred. He made a
speech here to-day, or rather expressed his
great gratitude to his friends and supporters.
Our county candidate, Trumbo, is also elected.
His majority will be upwards of 500. Is
not this glorious? Yours,  ." He was
wrong, however, as Menefee's majority after
three days of voting, was 234. The official
vote, by counties, was as follows. Fleming,
Menefee 1160, French 806; Bath, Menefee 763,
French 671 ; Montgomery, Menefee 744,
French 552; Greenup, Menefee 543, French
538, and in the three other counties French
polled a majority over Menefee as fol
lows: Lewis, Menefee 393, French 422; Law
rence, Menefee 279, French 500; and in Mor
gan County French got 415 votes to Menefee's
232. In the district Menefee obtained 4084

8o RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
votes to French's 3850, giving him a majority
of 234
A short time after his election, Menefee, with
his wife, came to Lexington, where, on August
24, 1837, his second child was born, and named
Richard Jouett Menefee. On the same day
that his son was born, Menefee, in company
with Hon. James Harlan, left Lexington for
Washington, going by the way of Maysville,
Kentucky, to serve in the called session of the
25th Congress.
At the August election of 1837, twelve
Whigs and only one Democrat were elected as
Kentucky's representatives in the National
House. Kentucky was then divided into thir
teen Congressional districts instead of eleven,
as now. Henry Clay and John J. Crittenden
were the Senators from Kentucky. Besides
Menefee and James Harlan, who was from
Harrodsburg and the father of Associate Jus
tice John M. Harlan of the United States
Supreme Court, Kentucky had eleven repre
sentatives in the lower house of Congress:
John Calhoun, John Chambers, William J.
Graves, Cilley's slayer; Richard Hawes, John
L. Murray, John Pope, William W. Southgate,
Joseph R. Underwood, afterward United
States Senator, and Menefee's most distin
guished colleague from Kentucky ; John White,
Sherrod Williams, and Edward Rumsey.
The National Intelligencer for September 2 an
nounced that Menefee had arrived in Wash
ington.

CHAPTER V
IN CONGRESS
On March 4, 1837, Martin Van Buren had
succeeded Andrew Jackson as President of the
United States. He had taken Jackson's cabi
net and announced his intention of carrying
out his ideas. He caught the full effect of
Jackson's financial policy. The excessive
amount of paper money in circulation had en
couraged reckless speculation; and the specie
circular of 1836 had, by reviving the demand
for gold and silver, destroyed nearly all the
banks which had no government deposits at
their command. "The demand for deposits for
distribution among the States caused the ruin
of many of the 'pet banks.' They had treated
the deposits as capital, to be used in loans to
business men, and now had to return them.
The sudden calling in of these loans began the
Panic of 1837, to which nothing comparable
had before been seen in America. Early in
May the New York City banks refused to pay
gold or silver for their notes, and the New
York legislature authorized a suspension of
specie payments for one year. Banks in other
cities at once suspended."'
Credit was accepted by no one, and prices
rose all over America. Flour rose from five
dollars in 1834 to eleven dollars in 1837, per
barrel, and corn went up from fifty-three cents
"^ Johnston's American Politics.
6

82 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
to one dollar and fifteen cents per bushel.
There were bread riots in New York City dur
ing the months of February and March, 1837.
On May 15, President Van Buren, by procla
mation, called an extra session of Congress to
meet September 4, to consider measures of re
lief. All through the summer of 1837 the panic
continued its course, wrecking banks and ruin
ing business men.'
Congress assembled according to Van
Buren's proclamation, on Monday, September
4, 1837, and at noon of that day Vice-President
Richard M. Johnson ^of Kentucky called the
Senate to order, and Walter S. Franklin, clerk
of the 24th Congress, called the House to order.
The Democrats had a majority in the Senate,
but in the House, although most of the Cal
houn Democracy were supporting the admin
istration, the Whigs were strong enough to
demand consideration in all measures that
might come before the House. Before going
into this chapter proper, I desire to say that I
am simply writing the history of Richard H.
Menefee, and not a history of the Congress
proper. The main bibliography used for this
chapter is the Congressional Globe, which was
founded in 1830 by Francis Blair, of Kentucky,
in time to catch the eloquence of Menefee.
Richard H. Menefee was the youngest member
of the 25th Congress. Sargent S. Prentiss of
Mississippi was born September 30, 1808, but
his seat was contested and the House refused
to permit him to take it. He was elected at a
new election, however, and took his seat May
30, 1838. Robert M. T. Hunter was born on
' Wilson's Division and Reunion (1829-1889).

IN CONGRESS 83
April 21, 1809. Menefee was the "baby" of the
House in years only; in many ways he was the
giant of the House. A general description of
the personnel of the 25th Congress is found in
Mr. C. H. Peck's history of the times.'
The personnel of the 25th Congress was reasonably
strong and brilliant. The prolonged political contests
had directed the ambitions of many able men toward
public life, and neither the Senate nor the House has
ever contained a greater number of men already dis
tinguished and to obtain distinction than met on the
first Monday of September, 1837, to deal with the un
precedented condition of the country and the national
finances, that would doubtless have been better had
there been less political animosity, ambition and insist
ence ; for such conditions are extremely adverse to the
national solution of financial problems. The chief
benefit of the political struggles about to be renewed
in Congress were the lessons that they were to teach
in the future.
A more specific account is found in Joseph
D. Shields' biography of S. S. Prentiss.
The old Hall of Representatives was a grand-looking
chamber, with its lofty dome, its Speaker's chair be
neath the eagle draped in the folds of our flag, its
oval shape and its tapered pillars supporting the lofty
gallery. Before the young aspirant (Prentiss) sat an
array of talent of our country which has rarely, if
ever, been equalled. Near him sat the wit, diplomatist,
statesman, sage, who reversed the maxim "Jack of all
trades," for he seemed to be an "admirable Crichton"
and good at all, Ex-President John Quincy Adams.
There sat against him the short but heavy-bodied ac
complished orator and scholar, Hugh Swinton Legare
^The "Jacksonian Epoch," by C. H. Peck, pp. 3S6-3S7-

84 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEli
of South Carolina. On his side was Thomas Corwin,
one of the greatest orators of his age. There was the
brilliant Menefee of Kentucky, hovering near him was
the Harry Percy of the House, Henry A. Wise of Vir
ginia, and his own phlegmatic colleague, R. M. T.
Hunter. There sat Cilley of Maine, who also was so
soon to fall, another victim to the "code of honor."
There was the eloquent Dawson of Georgia, whose
prediction about Prentiss I have before given (Dawson
predicted great things for Prentiss). There sat How
ard of Maryland, the head and front of the opposition
to him, and near him sat Bronson of New York, who
was almost persuaded to be in his favor. There was
Millard Fillmore, clarem et venerahile noinen; Evans
of Maine ; Levi Lincoln and Caleb Cushing of Massa
chusetts ; Sergeant of Pennsylvania and Bell of Ten
nessee, who, as we have seen, was in this case the "bell
wether of the flock." The colleagues of Prentiss,
Goldson, and Word were d.Uo able men.
Shields then adds a statement that is as true
of Menefee as it is of Prentiss:
He had before addressed people by the thousand;
he had spoken before justices of the peace, judges of
the Circuit and Supreme Courts and juries; he had
harangued the masses from the hustings ; he had
spoken to the legislature of his State ; but this was the
first time that he was to stand before the American
people. Through the ear of Congress the nation was
his auditor.
The old hall of the House of Representatives
was an imposing building, but it was an
acoustic failure. Ordinarily the voice of the
Representatives reverberated to the dome.
Late in the fifties, the new hall was completed
and the question as to the final disposition of

IN CONGRESS 85
the old hall was agitated. Justin S. Morrill of
Vermont, the father of the State Colleges, on
July 2, 1864, had a bill passed setting aside the
old building as the National Statuary Hall.
Morrill's act said that each State should have
the right to place two statues of her distin
guished sons in the Statuary Hall. About
twenty States have sent statues. Kentucky
has not decided upon her representatives.
Henry Clay has been sufficiently honored by
Kentucky; Lincoln and Davis have been
honored by their adopted States. Why not
place statues of Richard H. Menefee, the ora
tor, and Ephraim McDowell, the surgeon, rep
resentatives of two great fields of human
activity, in the National Statuary Hall, as
Kentucky's representatives in the American
Valhalla? The first duty of the House was to elect a
Speaker, and it proceeded to do so. The whole
number of votes cast was 224; 113 was neces
sary for a choice. James K. Polk, a Democrat,
of Tennessee, received 116 votes, and John Bell,
of the same State, received 103; scattering 5.
Polk was therefore declared elected and in an
appropriate speech returned thanks to the
House for the honor conferred upon him.
Polk is the only Speaker of the National House
that was ever elected President. After the
Speaker was elected, the members were quali
fied by taking the oath prescribed by the Con
stitution. Mr. Walter S. Franklin of Pennsyl
vania, clerk of the 24th Congress, was then re
elected clerk of the 25th Congress. The door
keepers and sergeant-at-arms were then ap
pointed and the House of Representatives of

86 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the 25th Congress was ready to exercise its
legislative power.
In his message. Van Buren recommended
that the Government should not directly inter
fere with the awful panic, but permit it to right
itself. He recommended the "Sub-Treasury or
Independent Treasury plan." The measure
was regarded by the Whigs as an endeavor to
break down the banks of the country, and while
it passed the Senate, it was tabled in the House.
The first mention of Menefee is made on
September 11, when the standing committees
were announced. Menefee, with Robert B.
Cranston of Rhode Island, George H. Dunn of
Indiana, Joseph Ridgeway of Ohio, and
Samuel T. Sawyer of North Carolina, formed
the committee "On Expenditures of the Public
Buildings." On this committee Menefee
served through the entire Congress, and at the
first regular session he was appointed to also
serve on the Committee on Patents with Ben
nett Bicknell of New York, Isaac Fletcher of
Vermont, Mathias Morris of Pennsylvania,
and Lancelot Phelps of Connecticut.
On September 19 Menefee wrote the follow
ing letter to Dr. H. S. Guerrant, of Sharpsburg,
Kentucky. Washington City, Sept. 19, 1837.
Dear Doctor: —
Yours of the nth was received yesterday and I am
greatly obliged to you for the spirit of personal kind
ness towards me which it manifests. Suffer me to
hope that when your more important engagements will
allow of it, you will write to me during the session of
Congress. It was rather of some surprise to me that
you had not received the President's message at the

IN CONGRESS 87
date of your letter (the nth). As soon as printed
copies could be procured, I despatched it to every post-
ofhce in the district. I was apprised of the general
anxiety to see what measures of relief the President
would recommend to the country. I confess I partici
pated in the general anxiety. You have all doubtless
seen the message before this time, and I hazard, I
think, but little or nothing to suppose that your ex
pectations were as much disappointed as those of the
rest of the nation. Congress was summoned for the
first time in peace at an unusual period of the year in
anticipation of its regular session, for the considera
tion of "great and weighty matters." The condition
of the country was extraordinary — not for prosperity
as it for years before had been, but for a distress which
it had scarcely ever before experienced, brought upon
it, as admitted by all, by the action of the general gov
ernment. The eyes of the people turned to Congress
for relief. The friends of the administration promised
it — ^well. Congress obeyed the Executive summons and
concurred; and is met with a message which admits
in the most distinct manner the deep distress of the
country, and even the overwhelming catastrophe that
has befallen it, yet recommends no manner of relief —
immediate or remote — but barely seeks through some
further action of Congress to enable him to pay off the
office holders and other dependants on the federal
treasury, promptly and in specie, denying at the same
time all right in Congress to administer relief to the
people in any form known to the Constitution. The
government is to be detached from the people; and
Congress is deliberately instructed to save the spoils
men sinking under their extravagance and corruption ;
and commanded to stand off and witness, with folded
hands, the perishing of every substantial interest of
the people. The message is atrocious.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Menefee.

88 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Dr. Guerrant was of Huguenot descent and
was born in Buckingham County, Virginia.
He was educated at Washington College (now
Washington and Lee University) and came to
Kentucky about 1835 to practice his profession.
He settled near Owingsville and he and Mene
fee became intimate friends. He was an ardent
Whig, and obtained the respect of his fellow-
citizens. His son is the distinguished divine,
Edward O. Guerrant, D. D.
On September 26, Menefee presented a peti
tion or memorial, the nature of which the
Globe does not state.
One of the most important measures that
was to come before the 25th Congress was the
question of the surplus revenue. The law of
1836 gave the surplus to the States, and three
"deposits," or gifts as they really were, had
been distributed.' In 1837 a bill, with Van
Buren back of it, to cause this distribution to
cease, was passed. On September 27, Menefee
made his first speech in Congress on this bill.
He was preceded by Daniel Jenifer of Mary
land, and both speakers opposed the bill.
menefee's speech on the postponement of the
FOURTH instalment^
Mr. Speaker: After the protracted discussion
which the bill has already undergone, I should refrain
from taking the wide range in which gentlemen on
both sides have indulged. I should content myself
with a consideration of the proposition immediately
before them — a proposition, in my opinion, quite suf-
^ Shepard's "Van Buren."
^ Speech in National Intelligencer.

in congress 89
ficient for one debate. Nor, indeed, am I sure that I
should have trespassed on the House at all, had the
question been one of exclusive national bearing.
But, sir, it concerns, nearly and deeply, the govern
ment and the people of Kentucky: to a degree render
ing it inexcusable in her representatives to witness the
passage of this bill, without, at least, protesting against
it on behalf of that State. Among the numerous ob
jections to this bill, it may, not without reason, be
urged as it has been, that the act of Congress of the
23rd of June, 1836, directing certain money belonging
to the United States to be transferred to the several
States on their complying with the prescribed terms,
bears the character of a legislative contract, from the
obligations of which this Government cannot rightfully
discharge itself by such an interference with its pro
visions as the bill under consideration proposes. The
act carried with it certain propositions to the States,
which they accepted, respecting the public money. Its
mere custody, if nothing more was intended, undoubt
edly involved both expense and responsibility, inde
pendently of the express and formal stipulations to
restore it when demanded according to the terms of
the act. It is not pretended that the States have failed,
in the smallest particular, to observe the requisitions
of the act, as far as transfers have already been made;
nor is their readiness or ability to comply, with respect
to the instalment yet due, at all questioned.
It is perfectly competent to a Government to create,
in the form of laws, contracts binding upon it. The
practice often occurs. All our acts of incorporation
are instances of this kind of legislation.
If, then, the act of 1836 be, as it is represented, and
insisted on, a contract — and it is difficult, if not impos
sible, to distinguish it from a contract — the objection
to the bill, for that cause alone, is altogether sufficient.
If a contract, it must be fulfilled. The Government
cannot escape from the obligations it imposes, except
by the consent of the other contracting party — the

90 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
States. The violation by Congress of such a contract
could not, I know, be redressed by a resort to the
judicial tribunals. Yet the imputation of tyranny and
perfidy would justly await such a violation: a posi
tion which no one supposes an American Congress
capable of occupying.
But, sir, I do not rest by opposition to this bill ex
clusively, or even mainly, on the ground of a sup
posed violation of contract involved in it. This I deem
a narrow view of the matter. I place it on higher and
more commanding reasons : on the true nature and
spirit of the act; not as evidenced by its language or
its form, but by the principles in which it was con
ceived, the ends it aimed at, and the whole context of
circumstances which attended its enactment.
What, sir, I ask, are the nature and spirit of that
act? It is attempted to be maintained that it was
merely intended as a measure of finance ; that the pub
lic money was to be transferred, for the advantage of
the Treasury of the United States, to the State treas
uries, there to be held on deposit strictly — not contem
plating the use of it by the States for their own benefit,
even temporarily. In other words, that the States
were, as such, substantially converted, by that act, into
so many agents and instruments of the Federal Treas
ury. Under this pretension, the use of the money, by
the States, even for the shortest periods, or to the least
extent, was wholly forbidden. For if Congress could
authorize the use of it by the States, without interest
or equivalent, for an indefinite time, they might, upon
the same principle, and with equal propriety, wholly
relinquish it to the States; the constitutional power
to do which the advocates of this construction deny.
The idea of the general Government collecting its
vast revenue, from its innumerable source, all over the
Union, with its multitude of collecting officers lining
our seaboard, and of receivers of public money scat
tered over the whole West, and all the expense and
machinery belonging to so extended a system, to divide

IN CONGRESS 91
out amongst the twenty-six States, to be held without
use by them, or interest to the Government, for the
purpose of being returned when demanded, is utterly
inadmissible as a measure of finance purely. But a
small advance would be needed under a system like
this, to require the revenue, after its collection, to be
returned to the individuals from whom collected, to
be by them held as agents of the Treasury, and repaid
when wanted for the immediate use of Government.
Its clumsiness, and utter imbecility, as a system of
finance, would justly fix reproach on any nation that
should adopt it.
But, sir, the error of this construction is still more
manifest, when it is remembered that Congress, in the
antecedent part of the same act, formally and mi
nutely provides for the deposit of the Public money in
the State banks ; another addition to the deformed and
unnatural system attempted to be found in that act.
As a system of finance, who, with a proper respect for
his reputation, will consent to stand forth as its
champion? Who will endure the paternity of such a
financial monster? Who so reckless of the opinions
of the world as publicly, in his place here, to hold
fellowship with it? I dismiss this view of the ques
tion. Gravely to refute such a construction, would be
an act of violence to the wisdom of Congress and the
national character.
No, sir, the act of the 23rd of June was no financial
expedient, it is more imposing. It is the offspring of
considerations tenderly affecting the Federal Consti
tution and the purity and its administration.
By a course of Federal legislation, whether consti
tutional or unconstitutional, wise or unwise, is of no
moment here, a large revenue had accumulated beyond
the wants of the Treasury. Large, however, as this
surplus was, it cannot be pretended that its mere cus
tody by the Government was impracticable, or even
difficult. Its full competency to this end was never
questioned. Yet, from the earliest period of this accu-

92 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
mulation, it was universally regarded with an eye not
only of distrust and apprehension, but of absolute
abhorrence. It was viewed as the dread fountain from
which were destined to flow extravagance in the
Federal expenditures, augmentation of Executive
power, and all else that was hostile to the Constitu
tion and dangerous to public liberty. Nor, sir, was
it viewed in any false light. No fear was entertained
that was not just ; no abhorrence felt that the frightful
visage of the evil did not fully warrant. The worst
predictions of its pernicious influences fast ripened
into fulfillment. Government extravagance, impelled
by this surplus, progressed without check, and with
the utmost rapidity, to the point not only of profusion,
but of profligacy, verging on actual corruption. Ex
ecutive power, already expanded to its fullest consti
tutional dimensions, seated on this same surplus, and
wielded by a popular hand, wrenched from its co
ordinate departments every check, and demolished
every balance designed for its restraint. Under an
abused, if not unconstitutional power of removal from
office, the independence of public officers, so necessary
to a pure administration, broken down to the basest
servility, and the whole corps transformed from ser
vants of the people and officers of the law into an army
of mercenaries, obedient to Executive command, no
matter what commanding. The Senate — prostrated,
utterly. The Judiciary contemned, defied and prin
ciples advanced openly by the Executive abolishing
every vestige of restraint through that department.
Congress — a seducing patronage perpetually playing
upon it — the veto lightly and capriciously hurled at
it — the practice of withholding bills, insulting and de
frauding it — the purse violently wrested from it — the
regulation of the currency usurped — its spirit broken —
and at last subjugated and outstretched at the feet of
the Executive. The people — deceived, despised, most
grievously distressed. Their most highly favored
measures — the bank bill, the land bill, the currency

IN CONGRESS 93
bill, successively perishing under the veto, or that
other more terrible power. Their currency, in rage,
torn asunder by the hand that had snatched it from
Congress. I do not insist, sir, that all these evils, or the most
of them even, flowed from the surplus. But I do in
sist that the tendency of that surplus, whenever and
however it operated — and in some form or other it
incessantly operated — was pernicious in every aspect,
and in the extreme.
Was it, then, in the least surprising, that the states
men of the United States should have striven to relieve
the Government of this surplus? The subject of its
disposition accordingly became, as early as 1829, suf
ficiently important to find a place in the annual mes
sage of the President.
As then, the period approaches when the application
of revenue to the payment of the public debt will
cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a sub
ject for the serious consideration of Congress.
That this recommendation may be duly estimated,
it is of importance to remember that it was contained
in his first message, whilst flaming with ardor to
signalize his Administration by a radical reformation
of the Government, then supposed to teem with abuses.
It was meant as a measure of purification. But it is
remarkable, that, notwithstanding the astonishing in
crease of the surplus subsequently, its disposition
never afterwards attracted his attention; its employ
ment for evil having unfortunately entered into the
plan of his Administration.
The notice of Congress and the American People
having been thus formally and officially drawn to a
disposition of the surplus, it forms, up to the present
year, a prominent subject of their consideration. In
condemning the surplus as a lamentable evil, and in
the propriety of some effectual disposition of it, there
was but one opinion. The Divisions found to prevail,
related only to the mode of disposition. The Message

94 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of 1829 had distinctly announced the mode then most
acceptable to the Executive.
To avoid these evils, it appears to me that the most
safe, just, and federal disposition which could be made
of the surplus revenue, would be its apportionment
among the States.
And so fixed was his preference of that to all other
modes, that, in his opinion, if that mode "should not
be found warranted by the Constitution, it would be
expedient to propose to the States an amendment au
thorizing it." This also occurred in the pure, or com
paratively pure, days of his Administration, and, like
the subject of disposition itself, from having been a
favored measure, soon became an object of his hatred.
Other counsels predominated. Plans were formed
under the eyes of the President, if not countenanced by
him, for its employment in a vast system of military de
fences. Our whole national confines were to be walled
in by fortifications ; for the construction, arming, and
preservation of which, countless millions would have
been required, and for the manning of which an
overgrown standing army kept up — alike useless and
oppressive to the People, and dangerous to their lib
erties. Numerous other plans were conceived and
pressed forward, as wrong in principle, though not so
stupendous — all contemplating a disposition of the
surplus by wasting it. To these schemes the Adminis
tration at length decidedly inclined, if forced to relin
quish the surplus at all.
But, sir, the People of the United States were un
willing to abandon the subject, or even their favorite
mode of disposing of the surplus, notwithstanding the
abandonment of both by the Executive. They con
stantly and resolutely urged it. State after State
pressed it — New York and Pennsylvania in the lead.
Their sentiments were unequivocal for such a disposi
tion of the surplus as would relieve the Federal Gov
ernment of the dangers which its possession tlireat-

IN CONGRESS 95
ened, and, at the same time, render it beneficial to the
State, by preserving instead of destroying it.
Its abstraction from the Federal Government was
the principle common to all these plans, and kept
steadily in view. It looked to a divestment of the sur
plus as a sanitary measure — a depletion indispensable
to the health of the Constitution.
The principle of preserving the surplus for the States
. first acquired form and consistency in the land bill of
Mr. Clay. That measure, from its first conception,'
was dear to the people and dear to their representatives.
It received majorities in Congress seldom, if ever, com
manded by so grave a measure; and it might have
been reasonably supposed that such majorities, backed
by the almost undivided voice of the nation, would
have ensured success. Yet, sir, it perished — under the
frown of one man. Not by the veto, but that more de
testable engine of withholding bills. Its fate was
calamitous to the country, and the calamity was ag
gravated by the general conviction that it was induced
by no constitutional objection really existing in the
breast of the Executive, but by the relentless hatred he
bore the author of that measure, and an insuperable
repugnance to do or permit anything tending to ad
vance his fame.
The determination of the country to relieve the Gov
ernment of this malady did not, however, perish with
that bill. It survived and flourished. It presented
itself next in the form of the deposit bill of the Senate,
in the spring of 1836, proposing to transfer the sur
plus to the States, upon the execution to the General
Government of certificates of deposit bearing an in
terest, and negotiable by the Secretary of the Treasury.
That bill found its way to this House, and finally grew
into the act of the 23rd of June, 1836.
This, sir, is a concise view of the history of that act,
and of the principles which lie at its foundation. That
history and those principles, I think, prove — the de
bates upon it, the general understanding of the coun-

96 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
try, everything that attended its passage, all could
characterize such a proceeding, its contemporaneous
exposition drawn from every source, manifestly
prove — that this transfer of money to the States was
but colorably a deposit, having been meant, in fact, as
distribution. Upon its constitutionality as an act of
distribution, some, I know, expressed doubts ; and, for
that reason, opposed it. We have, therefore, their au
thority for asserting that it involved distribution. The
serious hues it assumes, between its first Germination
in the land bill and its maturity, arose from a desire on
the part of its friends to mould it to the views and
constitutional opinions of those who favored the prin
ciple of distribution, but hesitated upon the mode of
effecting it. Sir, that great act experienced much
tribulation in struggling into life. The organs of the
Executive, in both houses of Congress, denounced it —
reviled it, warred against it in every shape, by all
means, and without quarter. Their published speeches,
now before me, breathe the utmost violence towards it.
It is notorious that it experienced the frowns of the
Executive ; for even in the third generation, it labored,
in his eye, under the curse which he had pronounced
on its forefather, the land bill. And when, at last,
after passing by most striking majorities, it was pre
sented to the Executive, a reluctant signature was
wrung from him. He did not, in the language of the
Constitution, approve the bill; he barely tolerated its
passage — the first and the last instance, during his ad
ministration, of his yielding, even in his caprices, to
the will of Congress, of the people ! He repented sign
ing the bill the moment after he had done it. His spirit
of unbridled rule construed it into an act of Executive
humiliation; to soothe which he followed the act of
signing the bill with an extraordinary annunciation,
through the official paper, of his determination to pub
lish to the world the secret necessity which had forced
it upon him. His growling and ill-suppressed wrath
pursued the measure ever after.

IN CONGRESS 97
Those who regard this act with such utter abhor
rence, as involving a flagrant violation of the Consti
tution do not, in my opinion, justly discriminate.
They maintain that it is unconstitutional to raise
revenue for the mere purpose of distribution. Granted.
But that doctrine has no application to the act in ques
tion; it proposed no such thing. The constitutional
sin,' if any, had been committed long before. The sur
plus was found in existence, and the act sought to
operate upon it. It contemplated no creation of a sur
plus. It looked to it, isolated from the means by which
it had been raised. It formed no system, but termi
nated with the disposition of the existing surplus, no
matter whether rightfully or wrongfully acquired.
Congress has express power "to dispose of the prop
erty belonging to the United States." Does any just
distinction exist, in a constitutional way, between
property and money? The late President, in his far
famed protest, thought not : and he had high author
ity, if not strong reason for his opinion. Besides, sir,
a deposit of this surplus with the States, without in
terest, and for an indefinite time, must obviously en
counter the full force of the constitutional objections
against a direct distribution. The right to distribute
the use — the interest — of the surplus, cannot be as
sumed without yielding the right to distribute the sur
plus itself. Nor, in principle, can any difference be
found between an investment of the surplus in stocks
and a distribution of the dividends among the States,
and a transfer of the principal surplus to the States
without interest. In both cases, the States have its
use without equivalent.
But, sir, I forbear to discuss the constitutional ques
tion, or even to allude to the rights of the States to the
surplus, founded on their interest in the public lands.
It is not incumbent on those who oppose the bill under
consideration, to maintain the constitutionality of the
act of June, 1836. The true question is, was it not an
7

98 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
act of distribution, in fact, right or wrong? For the
reasons assigned, I boldly claim that it was.
Nor, sir, in reaching this conclusion, by compelling
the letter of the act to yield to its nature and spirit,
as manifested by the consideration to which I have
referred, am I without authority or precedent in the
legislation of Congress. This mode of interpretation,
though from its nature seldom authorized, is well
established. No government can be wise or just with
out it. Our tariff laws, especially our protective
tariffs, are all thus interpreted. Investments of capital
are made in the branches of industry invited into exist
ence under promises of protection, to which the faith
of the Government is committed. A sudden repeal or
disturbance of such laws, though not forbidden by
their letter, would undoubtedly expose the Government
to the just imputation of the perfidy and injustice.
The great compromise act of 1833 presents a striking
illustration. It differs, upon its face, in no respect,
from an ordinary act of Congress. Yet, who views it
as such, liable to be extended, modified or repealed, at
the pleasure of Congress? Who, that values his
country's institutions or tranquility, can regard it other
wise than as a great and extraordinary act, sacred
beyond just interference by Congress? Still its lan
guage imports no contract, no treaty, pledge, or even
intimation. Whence, then, its inviolable character?
It lies, sir, deepier than its language — in its history. It
is not recited in that act that this Confederacy, being
convulsed to its centre — a disruption of the Union
impending — the national sword delivered over by Con
gress to a military Executive, who, if patriotic, was
revengeful too, and flaming in his hand over a devoted
State — the awful epoch opening in our constitutional
history of subjugating by arms a sovereign State — the
common blood of our ancestors, which had flowed in
the revolution in the common cause of freedom, about
to flow from the veins of their descendants, after little
over half a century, in deadly civil strife — the sword

IN CONGRESS 99
or an ignominious gallows awaiting much of the
genius and flower of the land — it is not recited. I
repeat, that, in this portentous exigency, the compro
mise act came as an angel of peace, silently and invisi
bly, to compose and hush the trouble elements of the
Republic 1 None of this appears in the act ; yet it all
existed. It was the offspring of all this. Nor is its
nature the less sacred from this silence. Sir, its sub
lime spirit would have been degraded by the shackles
of language. Too real to be embodied, it never
theless hovers around that act, and sanctifies it.
I maintain, sir, that the act of June, 1836, though
certainly not so important, is of a kindred nature to the
one referred to ; that Congress has no more just right
to disturb the one than the other; and that its obliga
tion, in either case, to abstain from such an attempt,
is derived from considerations more exalted, if pos
sible, than contract, treaty, or pledge — the duty, I
mean, which it owes to the cause of free institutions,
which could not fail to incur the deepest reproach by
its violation. It is of no moment whether these cir
cumstances are allowed to enter into the construction
of the act, or merely to afford reasons operating on
the discretion of Congress. The mode in which they
shall be permitted to influence our action, I am indif
ferent upon; their influence — -decisive and irre
sistible — in some mode, is what I contend for.
What action, by the States, ensued the passage of
this law? In their reception of their respective pro
portions of the surplus, none of them either viewed or
treated it as a deposit merely; though, for the sake
of the appearances which the act had been compelled
to assume, they, too, observed the forms prescribed by
it. The general policy adopted by them respecting the
application of the surplus, was the same. In the West,
in particular, as in all new countries, a great demand
existed for capital, the want of which repressed their
enterprise, and stifled the development of the boundless
resources profusely scattered around them. This act

lOO RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
was hailed as measurably supplying that capital.
Their Legislatures, previously limited to the means
afforded by direct taxation, felt freed from their
former restraints, and at once launched into a bold and
incautious policy. Popular instruction and internal
improvement were the predominating objects of their
regard. The whole energy of their legislation was
bent towards laying, deep and broad, the foundations
of that policy; and the systems devised for the pur
pose, became intimately connected with every ramifi
cation of business. They, in many instances, were
connected with the local banks, by an investment of the
surplus in capital ; through the banks, with the trading
and mercantile interests; and ultimately with all
classes. In Kentucky, struggle after struggle had been made,
through a series of years, for the establishment of an
efficient system of public instruction. Scheme after
scheme had been devised; but they all failed for want
of money to sustain them. The occasion presented
by this act was embraced with the utmost avidity ; and
upon it now rests a liberal and enlightened system, to
which the poorer classes of her citizens have been
taught to look as the only inheritance of their children.
Although a system of internal improvements was in
operation in Kentucky prior to the act of 1836, yet,
from deficiency of means, it was unavoidably partial
and inefficient. Under the impulse of that act, it
sprang at once into strength and activity, and promised
its advantages, at no distant day, in the improvement
of rivers, and the construction of roads and canals,
throughout every section of that great State.
In these systems, sir, the people of Kentucky not
only feel a deep interest, but have embarked in them
their affections and the tenderest hopes of their pos
terity. The influence of this act on the Western country
could never, I am sure, have been duly estimated by

IN CONGRESS 10 1
the friends of this bill. Tested by the ordinary prog
ress of nations, the States, at one session of their
Legislatures, advanced nearly half a century. They
literally bounded forward, as if steam-impelled.
Its operations in other respects, to which too much
importance can not, in my opinion, be attached, were
peculiarly beneficial. The advantages of the ordinary
legislation of Congress were, for the most part, general
and remote. Many of the States, from their interior
position, and policy of this Government of doubtful
justice, were excluded from a participation in the
annual expenditures of the millions which they con
tribute their full share to raise. They were all, or
nearly all, absorbed on the seaboard. Although the
power of Congress to regulate commerce "with foreign
nations" and "among the several States," is granted
in the same clause of the Constitution, it had been ex
ercised almost exclusively in reference to commerce
with foreign nations. Our whole Atlantic frontier
attests it. It is not wonderful, therefore, that discon
tents should have arisen in the West, from this sup
posed inequality of legislation. But this act instantly
dispelled them. It was hailed with general joy, and
was deemed a measure of justice, though slow in its
arrival. It came home to them, was embraced, domes
ticated, and cherished, as it deserved to be, as the
future pageant of a means of most beneficent legisla
tion. And, sir, it now stands indissolubly incorporated
with their domestic policy, which must perish under its
withdrawal, and droop, if not perish, under its sus
pension. Taking into view this application of the surplus by
the States, and supposing it liable, as contended for, to
be recalled, at the pleasure of the Secretary of the
Treasury, is it not plain that the act, instead of abridg
ing executive power, as was intended, must greatly
augment it? It confers upon the Executive the most
dangerous power over the States — ^no less a power
than that of direct taxation; for to that a recall of the

I02 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
surplus must lead, the States having no other expe
dient to sustain the interests shown thus to rest upon
it. Even admitting then, that Congress may have the
right to extort from the States the surplus already paid,
and to withhold that now due, the exercise of the right
would not be warranted, except on the most urgent and
irresistible necessity.
What, sir, is that necessity, as alleged by the Presi
dent and assumed by this bill ? It is, that the Treasury
of the United States is unable to sustain itself in its
embarrassments without resorting to the fourth instal
ment intended for the States, amounting to $9,367,-
214.98; the proportion of which transferable to Ken
tucky being nearly half a million. I have looked in
the spirit of sincere inquiry into the evidences upon
which this alleged financial necessity rests, and have
looked in vain. The report of the Secretary of the
Treasury, submitted to Congress at the opening of the
session, though obviously meant to magnify, as far as
possible, our financial difficulties, has, I think, utterly
failed to establish it. Information derived officially
from that Department since, under resolutions of this
House, still further weakens the attempt.
Without entering minutely into the condition of the
Treasury, it is, in my opinion, plainly demonstrable,
that by converting into cash (which can readily be
done) the bonds held by the Government on the Penn
sylvania Bank of the United States, amounting to
$7,946,356.16 besides interest, means may be com
manded fully adequate to the wants of the Treasury,
without violating the act of 1836.
Without aiming at exact accuracy, the following is
believed to present, substantially, the condition of the
Treasury :
It is chargeable with —

IN CONGRESS 103
Balances of appropriations, on the
31st of December 1836,  $16,752,283.09
Appropriations for 1837,  , 28,575,837. 10
Other appropriations, specific and in
definite,  ,. ...... 2,724,250.40
October instalment due the States, . ., 9,367,214.98

Making,  $57,519,585-57
From which deduct —
Amount paid up to
nth September,
1837,   $24,077,031 .22
Postponed appropri
ations,  15,000,000.00
Estimated receipts
for the balance of
the year,  ,. 4,500,000.00
In banks, the mint,
and hands of col
lecting officers, .. 14,596,311.00

Making,  58,173,342.22

Leaving excess of means of ........ $ 563,756.65
To which, in case of obstacles in col
lecting from banks, or other causes
of unavailability, &c. add the bonds
(readily convertible into cash) held
by the Government on the Bank of
the United States, payable in four
annual instalments, commencing on
the 1st of October next, deducting
the interest of the navy pension
fund,  ., 7,204,995 . 16

Exhibiting a total excess of means of $ 7,858,751 .81
The proposition to withhold this surplus would be
more tolerable if it were intended, to prevent the crea-

I04 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tion of a new national debt ; my aversion to which, if
any thing could, might induce me to support it. But
it intends no such thing. The President boldly
announces to the people of the United States the start
ling purpose of fixing upon them a new public debt —
not in a direct form, but under the insidious disguise
of Treasury notes. The employment of these notes is,
in the end, more pernicious than any other expedient
of finance that could be adopted. Under its cover a
public debt steals upon the nation by degrees, imper
ceptible to the people ; and the first signal of approach
ing danger is, depreciated Government paper, and
public credit prostrated, with impending burdens and
taxation in the rear.
The plan of the Administration, then being not only
to withhold the fourth instalment, but to lay the foun
dations of a public debt also, if a deficit in the means of
the Treasury should be found actually to exist, why
may it not be supplied by an increased issue of
Treasury notes ? The principle having been assumed,
a mere question of amount can be of but secondary
consideration. Sir, if the Treasury were reduced to the greatest
conceivable wretchedness, the present times and condi
tion of the country imperatively forbid the measure
now proposed. The opening of a new Administra
tion, or perhaps, more properly the beginning of a con
tinuation of the past Administration, finds this nation
plunged into universal distress, reaching, indiscrimi
nately, every class, condition, and pursuit of life.
The actual condition of the country has, until very
recently, been a subject of much controversy. By one
party it has been represented as I have described it.
The Administration took the ground as a party meas
ure — that the country was, in fact, in the highest state
of prosperity; the official organ taking the lead, by
declaring that "there was no pressure which an honest
man need fear." The thousand satellites revolving
around it, reflecting the light, or darkness, thus im-

IN CONGRESS 105
parted, united in the strain. Under these siren songs,
multitudes of the friends of the Administration,
shutting their eyes to what was transpiring around
them, and closing their ears to the cries of surrounding
misery, remained insensible of the real condition of the
country, until themselves fell victims to the distress,
the existence of which they were taught to deny. The
suspension of specie payments by the banks, the over
throw of the financial system, founded on the deposit
banks, and the Proclamation of the President, conven
ing Congress, to consider of "grave and weighty
matters," bred some suspicion among the faithful that
all was not well; and the Message fully settled the
question. The President's manner of unfolding,
through the Message, the state of the country, is singu
lar, though probably characteristic. He breaks to the
nation, the subjects of its griefs with a parental tender
ness, and by degrees. The blunt and frightful truth,
it was feared, might shock the sensibilities of a party
long habituated to the deafening note of "unexampled
prosperity." "Embarrassments in the pecuniary
affairs of the country"' are first gently hinted at; "the
difficulties experienced," shortly after grow into
"unexpected exigencies" ; and they, again, into "a
revulsion." "Destructive consequences" "wide
spread and calamitous embarrassments," "plunged into
distress," and "disastrous derangement," are revealed
in rapid and dread succession; and the dismal climax
at last terminated in an "overwhelming catastrophe!"
His country's misery is recurred to with a mournful
frequency; and every touch deepens the picture, and,
as the ghost of a nation's murdered prosperity rises up
before him, he has hardly resolution to plead, like
Macbeth, Thou can'st not say I did it; shake not
Thy gory locks at me.
He confesses "the unpromising truth," and his con
fession, like those of another class, less enviably ele-

^ Extract from the Message.

I06 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
vated, dwells with a melancholy satisfaction upon the
most dreadful particulars; and, as in other cases, the
fulness of the confession is relied on, in his applica
tion for mercy, where he reminds the People that they
will "never desert a public functionary laboring for the
public good." Of the pecuniary condition of the
country then, we have the highest official information.
Nor is its condition in other respects less deplorable.
Pillar after pillar, and column after column, of the
Federal Constitution, struck down by repeated
assaults, and now in fragments at the feet of the
Executive; an extravagant and profuse, if not cor
rupt, administration of the Government; an Indian
war prosecuting at enormous expense, with extreme
imbecility, and disgracefully to the American arms —
all subjects of loud and just complaint by the people.
The standard of national morals lowered, under the
example of lawlessness set by the Federal Executive,
and the influence of a policy which convulsed and upset
the regular business of the country, by turning loose
a spirit of wild and reckless speculation; riots, mobs,
insubordination, and bloodshed, marking almost every
day of our recent history. In short, sir, when the con
dition of the country is such, that the Secretary of the
Treasury, enabled to discover no green spot in its
affairs not blighted by "the evils occasioned by the
waywardness of man," with every appearance of com
placency consoles himself with the reflection that the
country has not fallen a victim to some great "physical
calamity" ! When it has come to be a subject of offi
cial gratulation that our beloved country is spared us !
That no tornado has overswept it! No pestilence de
populated or earthquakes swallowed it ! To which, let
it be added, that the people are now looking to Con
gress with an intense and almost morbid anxiety for re
lief — -speedy and effectual.
Now, sir, suppose, in the midst of all these troubled
and stormy elements, roused by the misdeeds of our
own rulers, and these just expectations of relief, that

IN CONGRESS 107
the government, instead of administering that relief,
shall go forth, as this bill proposes, with sword and
torch in hand, in quest of that same dreaded —
detested — discarded surplus; threatening to tear up
by the roots the most cherished systems of the States,
by holding out an early abandonment of them for want
of means, or the dismal prospect of supporting them
by grievous and interminable taxation ; and when it is
remembered, too, that with the State Governments,
taxation is such in fact — direct — and seen and felt in
every step of its progress ; not like that of the Federal
Government, unperceived and unknown by the people,
except as announced from time to time in the reports
on the finances — can any one doubt, under such cir
cumstances, its disastrous tendency, and utter inexpe
diency as a financial measure ? But it is of no purpose
to enlarge on this view of the question.
In representing the effects of this bill, if passed,
upon the States, I speak of it as looking to the entire
revocation of the act of June, 1836. For, sir, I now
warn the States that if that act is suffered to be vio
lated in one jot or tittle, it is lost to them — wholly — and
forever. Once divest it of the sacred character which
I have ascribed to it, construe it as a mere deposit act,
and treat the States as other officers of the Treasury
with funds in their possession and it will be infatuation
to hope to retain, for any considerable time, the money
already received. Their only deliverance lies in the
defeat of this bill; for even if the repayment of the
amount now with States should not be shortly exacted,
the act will be so far shaken by this bill that they can
not wisely or prudently rest any public measures upon
it. Yet, sir, intense as might be their suffering under
such an operation, the people might endure it with
some appearance of patience, if its object were dif
ferent. But it is one of a system of measures devised
by the Administration, and recommended in the Mes
sage, and now in the shape of bills before Congress,

I08 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
to sustain and relieve the Government, without the
least reference to the fate of the people. To justify
himself in this selfish and unnatural policy, and to
silence the murmurings of a suffering and supplicating
people, they are met with the chilling and repulsive in
formation by the President that "they look to the Gov
ernment for too much," and that the Constitution was
framed on "a sounder principle" than to authorize Con
gress to extend them relief; in other words, that the
Government, which they have lately seen prove itself
so almighty for the purpose of mischief and distress,
is, under this self denying doctrine, utterly imbecile
for the purposes of good. Its own relief and preser
vation alone occupy the mind of the Government.
The "grave and weighty matters" which Congress has
been convened to consider, thus resolve themselves into
measures to discharge in specie the demands of all the
office-holders, contractors, and other dependants on the
Treasury, from the Chief Magistrate down: being,
substantially, an increase of their compensations, to
the extent of the premium on specie, now between eight
and ten per cent.
I trust, Mr. Speaker — I know — that I sympathize
from my very heart with the people in their present ad
versity, and deeply deplore, "more in sorrow than in
anger," the folly and madness which inflicted it. I
stand ready, by my vote, to alleviate it by every means
known to the Constitution. I condemn and sincerely
lament the determination of the Government to sepa
rate, in the hour of tribulation, its fortunes from those
of the people, and, from its secure position on a specie
medium, witness without emotion their calamities.
But, sir, in the midst of this general gloom there is one
ray of consolation. The Government, under the same
policy which has brought distress upon the people, is
itself fast approaching a point of financial weakness,
which, under wise counsels in this House, may ensure
a real, substantial and permanent reformation of its
abuses. The extravagance and profusion of expendi-

IN CONGRESS 109
tures which have marked the late years of its Admin
istration, and in greater or less degrees, forced the
State Governments into an imitation of its pernicious
example, may be effectually arrested. Its retrenching
influence has already been manifested in a report of the
Secretary of the Treasury, under a resolution of this
House, that appropriations of former years, to the
amount of fifteen millions of dollars, might be post
poned without material injury to the public service.
Governments, like individuals, are not sensible of what
they can dispense with, untfl instructed by the hand of
adversity. In this respect, the present exigency is
peculiarly favorable. Maintain the inviolability of the
act of June, 1836, and the fourth instalment may be
held up in terrorem over the Government. The States
will be enlisted on the side of retrenchment and
economy, as the only means of securing the benefits of
that instalment, and of escaping the load of direct taxa
tion which awaits a recall of the instalments already
received ; and that recall must ensue at no distant day,
if the Government persists in its profusion. I am
solemnly convinced that the Federal Government,
administered with an eye to direct taxation for its sup
port, would be conducted, in all its constitutional
efficiency, upon an annual expenditure of twelve
millions and a half of dollars — scarcely half the sum
now applied. Its tendency to abridge Executive
power — the great bane of the Republic — is no less
apparent. For one, then, sir, I embrace the occasion; and,
without respect to the course of others, shall cleave to
it resolutely, obstinately, and to the very last. I had
no hand in producing the wreck our finances now
exhibit. I view it as an existing "result of the dis
asters of the times," and but seek to convert it into
an instrument of good. Left to its own action — un-
smitten itself by the hand of misfortune — the Govern
ment would never have returned of choice, nor could
have been brought back by force, to the simplicity and

I IO RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
economy which lie at the root of our institutions ; for
no Government, when once fleshed into profusion, is
ever satiated, but rushes on, ravening more vora
ciously every step it advances : of which the history of
our own affords trumpet-tongued proofs. In this
House all revenue bills must originate. It is the con
stitutional guardian of the people's money. I wish to
make it such in fact. Of late years, the voting of
millions at a time, without debate, inquiry, official esti
mates, or time for deliberations, has been a scene regu
larly recurring at the close of every session of Con
gress. This should not be ; and I entertain a strong,
and, I trust, patriotic anxiety to witness the day, at no
distant period, when a demand by the Administration
for money shall involve high and substantial respon
sibility ; an event inconceivably important to the purity
of the Government.
Considerations like these, if no others existed, would
at once decide my opposition to this bill. But I am
taxing too heavily the attention you have so flatter
ingly extended. I take leave, sir, of this wretched
expedient. At the evening session of Friday, October 6,
1837, the House resumed the consideration of
the bill reported from the committee of the
whole on the proposition "to authorize the is
sue of Treasury notes" — the Treasury Note
Bill. Menefee arose and said it was believed
that the nature of the bill was such that it
would not affect the currency. But he would
ask if the gentlemen who said so had not been
rebuked officially for so doing. He went on
to show why he thought the notes would form
'a constituent part of the currency, and de
clared his objection to the measure, as giving
a dangerous power to the President. The bill,

IN CONGRESS III
however, to issue $10,000,000 in notes was
finally passed.
On October 10 the Merchant's Bonds Bill,
which was a "bill extending the time on
merchant's bonds," came up. The ques
tion pending was, on concurring with the
committee in the following amendment:
"And it be further enacted. That a credit of three
to six months shall be allowed on the duty on
all merchandise which shall be imported on or
before the first day of November next, upon
which the duties are payable in cash, and that
the bonds used for such duties shall be pay
able in equal instalments, bearing interest at
the rate of six per cent, per annum, and shall
be in the form and upon the conditions pre
scribed by existing laws and by this act." This
was adopted and then Menefee moved to add
to the third section, the following proviso:
"Provided further. That all others, in any wise
indebted to the United States, except for the
public moneys used, shall be entitled to the
benefits of this act, on the terms and considera
tions hereinbefore prescribed." His proviso
was adopted. Adams and Dunn offered
further amendments which were rejected, and
the bill was ordered to be read a third time and
was then passed.
On October 14 the clerk read several reso
lutions of the Senate, authorizing the printing
of certain documents relating to the cession of
the District of Columbia to the United States
and other subjects. Menefee with Duncan and
Cushing made some remarks on these resolu
tions.

112 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
On October 16, 1837, the extra session of the
25th Congress adjourned, after having passed
acts to cause the distribution of the revenues
among the States to cease, to authorize the is
sue of $10,000,000 in Treasury notes, and to
give merchants more time on the revenue
bonds. While in Washington, Menefee boarded at
one of the Congressional messes, as was the
custom at that day among pubUc men.' He
boarded at the same mess with Henry Clay,
and Clay gave Mrs. Menefee a little pink vase
that is still in the Menefee family. After
the extra session was over, Menefee returned
to Kentucky, where he remained about a
month, and then returned to Washington for
the regular session of Congress.
On Monday, December 4, 1837, Speaker
Polk called the House to order, at noon of that
day. Menefee began the regular session as he
had begun the extra session, by presenting a
petition or memorial.
When Van Buren entered office there was
an insurrection in progress against the author
ity of Great Britain in Lower Canada. Lyon
McKenzie had started a sympathetic revolt,
and being driven from the country, made good
his escape to Buffalo, New York. He sur
rounded himself with 310 "patriots." The
chief of the "patriots" was R. Van Rensselaer,
and he, with 150 supernumeraries, seized
and fortified Navy Island. The steamboat
Caroline, owned by William Wells, of Buffalo,
was used to carry arms and provisions for the
insurgents from the New York shore to the
' B. H. Wise's Life of Henry A. Wise.

IN CONGRESS 113
island. On the night of December 28, 1837.
this boat was lying at Fort Schlosser on the
Niagara River. There were thirty-three sail
ors on board. At midnight, between seventy
and eighty armed men put out from the Chip-
peway Coast, in boats, and fell upon the
Caroline's crew, and killed five of the sailors.
The boat was detached from the wharf to
which it had been secured, set on fire, and per
mitted to dash down the Niagara Falls. This
outrage created great excitement in the United
States.' Governor Marcy, of New York, sent
State troops to the scene of disturbance, and
President Van Buren sent Gen. Winfield Scott
with orders to command all United States
troops on the island. Navy Island was evacu
ated by the insurgents on January 13, 1838, and
their leaders, after crossing to the American
shore, surrendered to the United States Dis
trict Attorney. Van Buren sent a special
message to Congress on January 5 in regard
to the attack on the Caroline, and on Monday,
January 8, 1838, Richard H. Menefee arose and
delivered his speech. This speech is his great
est congressional effort. The first expression
in American oratory, of Anglo-American
brotherhood, is found in this speech.
menefee's SPEECH ON THE ATTACK ON THE
CAROLINE.^
Mr. Speaker: Any debate on the present proposi
tion, which was merely to refer the message of the
President to the appropriate committees, involving no
' Marcy's message to the New York Legislature.
^ Speech in Niles's National Register, January 27, 1838.
8

114 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
consideration of the merits of the subject to which it
relates, would, in my opinion, be premature, and cal
culated to produce injury without the possibility of
any corresponding good. It would, I am sure, have
been impossible for the house to have listened to the
debates which have thus arisen, unfortunately, with
out at least a portion of the surprise and regret with
which they have inspired me.
The attack on the Caroline, if made as described,
may warrant much of the excitement represented as
now prevailing amongst the people of New York, and
even justify a deep and general sensation in that
quarter. But the liability of transactions of this sort
to be perverted and exaggerated on the one hand,
whilst the possible circumstances of justification or
palliation on the other are suppressed, must admonish
us of the hazard of founding either direct legislation
or public declarations of opinion by individuals so
nearly connected with government as ourselves, upon
facts which have so recently occurred, and are so im
perfectly ascertained.
Confining ourselves to facts, upon the existence of
which there is no dispute, and upon which, of course,
an opinion may be now allowed, it is substantially
acknowledged by our government, in the message of
the President of the 5th inst., his letters to the Execu
tives of New York and Vermont, his proclamation,
and in his instructions to the law officers of the United
States, that our citizens on the Canada frontier are
strongly -disposed to violate their neutral obligations to
Great Britain, as those obligations are recognized by
this government, and that movements of a hostile
character were already made by them ; that the execu
tive is incapable, under the existing laws, of enforcing
these obligations, and therefore appeals to Congress
to arm him with the requisite powers. In none of these
documents, it will be perceived, was the slightest ap
prehension expressed of a violation by the subjects of
Great Britain of their neutral obligations to us. The

IN CONGRESS 115
elements of mischief were admitted to be confined
exclusively to our people, and every measure of the
executive was designed for their repression.
If citizens of the United States have thus violated
their neutral obligations, that of itself constitutes, on
every principle, an offence complete against Great Bri
tain, for which this nation is responsible. It is of
no avail, in ascertaining the existence of the offence on
the one hand, or of our national responsibility on the
other, that those violations occurred without the in
stigation or countenance of the government, and even
in violation of the positive municipal laws of the
United States. As between foreign nations and this
ours is answerable if it fail to enforce an observance
by its citizens of our national obligations. Any other
rule would render neutrality insecure, and the mainte
nance of peace between contiguous nations difficult if
not impracticable, left, as it thus would be, at the
mercy of the irritations and collisions unavoidably in
cident to a frontier. It is national responsibility only,
which, by exciting the vigilance of government over
unauthorized acts of its citizens, can check and repress
this spirit and thereby avert war. Such oUr position,
and our responsibilities, as already acknowledged by
the Government.
It must be recollected, sir, that a resort to arms, on
account of illegal acts of the citizens, cannot be con
sidered until reparation by his government has been
demanded and refused.
It is now represented that the subjects of Great Bri
tain have, likewise, in the case of the Caroline, violated
their neutral obligations to us, under circumstances of
great atrocity. Still, so far as appears, it was, as in
the case of our citizens, an illegal and unauthorized act
of the subjects of Great Britain. We have no more
just right to presume, in the absence of the fullest
proof to the contrary, that this proceeding of British
subjects was instigated, or in the remotest manner
countenanced, by the British authorities, than would

Il6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
their government, to presume, under like circum
stances, that the officially acknowledged aggressions
against them by our citizens was the deliberate act of
our Government.
It is reasonable to conclude, from the present state
of our information, that neutrality has been violated
and wrong done by the people of both nations. For
the honor of ours, I hope it may ultimately appear that
the offence of our people has not been so flagrant as
that of the opposite side. Yet the information already
communicated by the executive leaves no room to hope
that the first aggressions did not proceed from uS; and
serve as a pretext, though I can hardly suppose a justi
fication, of what succeeded. If we have been most
wronged, it is certain that Great Britain has been first
wronged. Now in the midst of this popular ferment, before the
governments on either side are implicated, does not
every consideration recommend self-possession and
wisdom here? The right of individuals, and even
nations, to sympathize in the cause, real or imagined,
of freedom, is not contested ; but it must be exercised
in subserviency to justice and law, not at their expense.
In an exigency like this, the public have a right to look
to Congress for a proper tone of opinion. It must be
expected that the lead will be taken, to a great extent,
by this house, the proceedings of which (our debates
forming a part) will necessarily be regarded with
peculiar interest by both nations. It is therefore, I
conceive, of the highest consequence that our views, as
here publicly expressed, should rise to the magnitude
as well as the dignity of the occasion ; and that the
subject should be placed at once beyond the influence,
and, if possible, the suspicion of the influence of
passion or precipitation. Not that I imagine there is
danger of war with Great Britain ; of that, gentlemen
may dismiss all apprehensions ; for, sir, there will be
no war over these border collisions. To imagine such
an event, is ridiculous and absurd. A course of in-

IN CONGRESS 117
temperate discussion here, may, nevertheless, greatly
embarrass the two governments, by inflaming still
further the public mind, already too highly excited.
But it will merely embarrass; for war, I repeat, will
not come.
It would be superfluous to enter at large, in the
present state of the controversy, into the numerous
reasons which pronounce such a war utterly out of the
question. It is enough, almost, to remember that the
spirit of the age, and the religious and moral as well as
political illumination of the world, stand opposed to
war, especially between highly civilized Christian na
tions. The advance of mankind could by nothing be
more strikingly illustrated than the prevailing aversion
and abhorrence with which war is now regarded,
except in the last deplorable extremity, as the only
means of securing repose in honorable peace. War is
now viewed as but an instrument of peace. In this
condition of the world, is it to be credited that the two
nations foremost, by universal acknowledgment, in
the career of civilization, religion, liberty, and law can
except from absolute madness engage in the barbarities
of war? Why should they? Is it not admitted, by
both, that war is the last dread resort; not to be
adopted till every peaceful appeal for justice has
failed? Has such failure actually occurred? Has
either evinced an intention to deny to the other the
fullest justice, be their mutual injuries what they may?
Who can, without a blush, suppose the existence of
such an intention on our part possible? Does not
generosity, then, as well as justice, require us, at the
same time, to presump that a similar desire for peace,
whilst it demands justice, animates the government of
Great Britain?
If any great contested principle of international
law or national rights were involved in the existing
difficulties between the two powers, such as the right of
search on the high seas, or of impressment of seamen,
as claimed and exercised by Great Britain prior to the

Il8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
war of 1812, their repose, and probably their peace
might be disturbed now, as then. These were the
principles contested by us from the first ; and presented
a case where peace was neither secured nor honorable,
so long as the pretensions of Great Britain under them
were tolerated. That war, on our part, was, I never
doubted, both justifiable and necessary. That justifi
cation and necessity, however, did not rest on a de
tached aggression on an acknowledged right, but on the
assertion by Great Britain, I repeat, of principles, with
the maintenance of which she deemed her existence
almost to be identified, but which our honor and in
terests as strongly impelled us not to tolerate; princi
ples which would have authorized her to follow up her
aggressions indefinitely, as to repetition and duration.
Granting, therefore, the late aggressions, on either
side, to have been as atrocious as the ascertained facts
will warrant, or as the imagination of the most bellig
erent there can paint, still there is no contested princi
ple involved. Neither power claims, or ever has
claimed, the right to violate, in this manner, the prop
erty, or lives, or territory, of the other. Both, on the
contrary, now admit, as they always have done, that
such violations are wrong, for the reparation of which
the respective powers are liable. All the principles
which govern the present difficulty are simple and
admitted. It is but a question about facts, which,
when ascertained and reciprocally presented, are dis
posed of by uncontested principles common to both
powers. Can either then, I demand, without national
reproach, for an instant, in such a case, tolerate the
idea that a resort to arms is possible? They are hold
ing themselves aloft among the nations of the earth as
the patrons and champions of human civilization and
liberty throughout the world. The liberal spirit which
they have breathed, and are daily breathing, into
the institutions of mankind, has placed them already
far beyond all others — and side by side — in the noble
work of advancing the high destinies of our race.

IN CONGRESS 119
Extinguish these lights ; or turn them to glare on each
other in barbarity and blood, instead of shining in
co-operation, as heretofore, for the illumination of
mankind ; and can the vision of any be so confined and
imperfect as not to foresee the disasters to which such
an event would expose the world; or, at least, all it
contains worth preserving — its Christian civilized
liberty ?
But, sir, I repeat, we shall have no war with Great
Britain. Nations under such high responsibilities to
mankind, dare not go to war on an occasion like this.
They cannot, without a portion of dishonor and dis
grace, encounter and breast, as they would by a war,
the enlightened and liberal spirit of this age, which
their own efforts and example have so largely contrib
uted to produce, and now mainly impel.
Their characters and positions, in other respects,
give the amplest assurance that a resort to force is not
now to be expected. No two separate nations have,
perhaps, ever existed, at any period of time, between
whom has prevailed, of what is valuable, so much that
is common to both. Language, laws, religion, an
cestry, historical renown, and the most intimate rela
tions of commerce and pervading interchange of cap
ital in other forms — all conspire to condemn war
between them as peculiarly calamitous and unnatural.
It is true, as I have stated, that, notwithstanding all
this, war has, in fact, occurred between them. Yet
this multitude of kindred principles soon triumphed
over temporary hostility, and reunited them, as the
necessities of their relative positions ever must, as the
high priests of human civilization and freedom.
They defy their destiny, when their arms are turned
against each other. The cause of human nature suf
fers under every blow they strike.
Such being the relative positions of the two powers,
for the reasons and for the high purposes which I have
mentioned, the simple fact that difficulties like the
present now exist must strike every observer as to a

120 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
high degree extraordinary. Whence, then, these dis
turbances, whilst every enlightened motive is against
them? It was admitted by the President, almost in terms,
before the affair of the Caroline, that our citizens, by
the violation of their neutral obligations, were endan
gering the peace of the two nations ; and, in effect, that
retaliation by the other side might be provoked. The
danger was alleged by him to proceed, in the first in
stance, from our citizens, and the enactment of laws
recommended to restrain them; treating throughout
as a domestic cause of difficulty to be removed by
domestic measures. What, I ask, produced this law
less spirit amongst our people? For in that, and not
in the defenceless state of our frontier, or in the seizure
of the Caroline, lies the true cause of this emergency.
Pains, I know, have been taken in this debate, by the
friends of the administration, to cast the whole blame
upon the people, to the entire exoneration of the gov
ernment; a course not without a late precedent, from
the same quarter, on another subject. This con
demnation of the people is scarcely less unjust than
the acquittal of the government. These errors of the
people, (for such I readily admit them to be) find
their palliation, if not justification, in the antecedent
and more flagrant wrongs of the government itself.
When the head of a government like ours becomes
lawless and unjust, upon whom, in the eye of reason,
rests the blame, if those who lived under that govern
ment, taking shelter under the example, are infected
with a similar spirit ? Is not the influence natural and
unavoidable? Does not the moral condition, in many
respects, of our people, mournfully attest that a law
less spirit has found its way into our national councils ?
To all those whose judgments, and affections, and im
aginations, are united as they ought to be, and as I
hope mine are, in devotion to their country, it is a
source of humiliation and pain to be compelled to
arraign their government in a matter so delicate as

IN CONGRESS 121
the conduct of its relations towards a foreign nation.
But, sir, there is a stage in the progress of inter
national controversies when to condemn one's own
government, if in the wrong, is not only becoming the
citizen, but rises into a solemn duty of patriotism.
Not to do so, would be blindly to sanction and follow
whithersoever the caprice, ambition or injustice, of
weak or wicked rulers might lead. The voice of the
citizen exposing and denouncing pernicious and un
just measures towards other nations, should be raised
with freedom and constancy, up to the period when
the appeal to arms is actually made, or becomes
clearly inevitable. Then the patriotic citizen adheres
to, and maintains to the utmost, his country, right or
wrong. Always a delicate ground, it is peculiarly so
from the critical relations now existing between this
government and Mexico. Considerations of national
pride might even now restrain the expression of senti
ments which I most firmly entertain, were not the con
tending nation, Mexico, whose weakness, from inter
nal dissensions, is so generally conceded that nothing
I might say could be construed into undue concession
to her power. And, in the recurrence which I shall
make to the conduct of our government towards
Mexico during the Texas revolt, nothing of unfriend
liness or disrespect is intended towards the new re
public which has emerged from the revolt. On the
contrary, it is the profound wish of my heart that its
political institutions may be speedily and firmly con
solidated, and that its civil career may be as tranquil
and prosperous as its military has been striking and
glorious. Now, sir, I extend my view beyond what has re
cently transpired on the Canadian frontier, and, in
searching for the real causes and authors of this crisis,
recognize them in the conduct of our own administra
tion. Them I now here solemnly accuse, and hold, as
the country and mankind will, responsible, to the last
degree, for every consequence of treasure, or blood.

122 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
or fame, to which the present disturbances may lead;
as fairly and naturally resulting from its dishonorable
and perfidious failure to enforce our neutral and ex
press treaty obligations to Mexico, under similar cir
cumstances of provincial revolt. Whose devotion is
headlong enough to deny the shameless supineness, if
not positive connivance and instigation, displayed by
the administration over the most audacious and re
iterated breaches by our citizens of their obligations to
that power?
The West and Southwest, from the beginning of the
Texas revolt to our recognition of its independence,
exhibited, in almost every city and village, the aspect
of a national war. Military array in no concealed
form, but in all "Pomp and circumstance" of war,
was the spectacle of every day. The agents and emis
saries of Texas, sensible of the gross impropriety and
illegality of raising forces and fitting out military ex
peditions against a nation with which the United
States were at peace, sought, at first, to cover their
operations under the pretext of embodying emigrants,
whose voluntary expatriation the government was sup
posed to have had no right to prohibit. But, sir, em
boldened by impunity, that pretext, as troublesome,
was soon laid aside, and a direct military recruiting
for the defence of Texas openly substituted. Bodies
of men, with arms, uniforms, and standards, and
every quality of organized military force, breathing
war and vengeance against a friendly power, were
publicly displayed in the heart of our country! Are
proofs required? The representatives on this floor
from that section of the Union are my witnesses to
attest the literal truth of what is here declared.
And how, sir, was all this met by the administra
tion? Instructions were despatched to the law of
ficers of the United States, and perhaps others, an
nouncing the existence of a state of peace between
the two nations, and enjoining the enforcement of
the obligations on our part which that state as well as

IN CONGRESS 123
a treaty imposed. But these obligations were not en
forced. They were in no instance attempted to be
enforced. Yet all this the administration knew, and
knew from the beginning ; and tolerated it, against, as
I understand, the solemn and reiterated remonstrances
of Mexico.
Notwithstanding this, sir, charity, aided by a natural,
and perhaps just, prepossession in favor of one's own
country, might possibly have exculpated the adminis
tration of the infamy of unworthy motive, and as
cribed to inattention and remissness what, to
Mexico, was equivalent in its effects to perfidy and
dishonor. But, sir, the recent action of our govern
ment towards another power under like circumstances
strikes away every remaining hope of reconciling its
proceedings towards Mexico with any other supposi
tion than of perfidy and dishonor. What, I demand
of the adherents of the administration here, has been
its recent action towards Great Britain? A province
of hers contiguous to us, as in the case of Mexico, is
in a state of revolt. Instructions were issued, enjoin
ing on our law officers and others an enforcement of
the neutral obligations of our people, as in the case
of Mexico. But the administration does not stop at
that point, as in the case of Mexico. A solemn procla
mation is published by the President, enjoining on our
citizens the sacred observance of neutrality, and warn
ing them against the consequences of disobedience, in
addition to what was done when Mexico was con
cerned. Officers of government are despatched to
the scene of the disorders, with special instructions,
unknown in the case of Mexico. Not even content
with an enforcement of the existing law, (not i3ne
clause of which was enforced, or in good faith at
tempted to be enforced, when Mexico was concerned,)
the President, by a pressing message to Congress, en
treats an extension of the law to cases not now em
braced, in order to coerce our citizens into a more
effectual respect for their obligations to Great

124 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Britain; none of which occurred when Mexico was
concerned. All which strikingly commendable zeal
for maintaining our neutral duties, when Great Britain
was concerned, transpired, it will be borne in mind,
prior to the affair of the Caroline.
Why this prompt and energetic action when Great
Britain is concerned, so directly opposite to that when
Mexico was concerned? Is not peace as sweet, and
are not treaties as sacred in the one case as in the
other? Is our measure of justice graduated by the
power of the nations to whom we administer it? Do
you deny to the weakness of an infant and distracted
republic, what you grant, with a haste almost indecent,
to the power of a great monarchy? Do you reverse
the principles which govern brave and magnanimous
nations? True bravery, sir, exalts itself into mag
nanimity in the intercourse of the powerful with the
weak. In proportion to the weakness of Mexico,
should have been the punctilious observance of every
obligation we owed her. Did the administration avail
itself of that very weakness to disregard all its obli
gations ? On the other hand, brave nations are apt to
poise themselves when in collision with their equals
or superiors in power, and are prone, from fear of im
putation of undue concession to power, to a slow and
stately port. Such is our posture towards Great
Britain, the power of whose arms and the glory of
whose name place her in the front rank of the nations
of the earth. She is our peer. With her, when the
nations exact justice, they must also perform it.
In the late executive proceedings in regard to Great
Britain, to which I have referred, I rejoice to recog
nize a disposition to enforce, in good faith, the
national obligations. But how humiliating the con
trast between the treatment which the two nations re
spectively received ! What can save the national honor
from the just suspicion, both at home and abroad, of
the government having done, in regard to Great
Britain, from fear, what it perfidiously omitted to do.

IN CONGRESS 125
from principle, in regard to Mexico? Yet, sir, as no
nation ought to be allowed to persist in a course of
injustice, I perceive, in looking to the ultimate results
of this emergency the elements of remote advantage
affecting the national character, more than compen
sating for any immediate mischief it may occasion.
This last precedent of faith and justice will, I trust,
obviate, to some extent, the evils of the former prece
dent of perfidy and injustice. There is nothing dis
honorable in doing justice to Great Britain — nothing
humiliating. The dishonor and humiliation consist in
having withheld it from Mexico. It is better for our
youthful nation of free institutions, that an occasion
has arisen thus early to reinstate its character by recti
fying its policy, than after persisting in error for a
series of years, to confess and correct it, perhaps after
fruitless and exhausting contests.
Am I not justified then, in maintaining that, had the
same promptness and energy been displayed by the
government, in behalf of Mexico, whilst her province
was in revolt, which it has displayed in behalf of Great
Britain, now that a province of hers is in that state,
the present difficulties would, in human probability, not
have existed? Would not our citizens have been
taught to respect the laws and their duty, instead of
violating both, under the impunity which like con
duct towards Mexico had experienced? Were they
not, by the previous passiveness of the government, in
substance told that their sympathy (perhaps com
mendable in itself) might, without impropriety, be ex
ercised by fighting for others the battles of revolt?
Did they not thus, in the first instance, thrust them
selves into this Canadian revolt, with scarcely a sus
picion of illegality ?
If, sir, the indignation of mankind could fasten ex
clusively on the administration, by whom this per
nicious policy has been practiced, I should experience
the less sensibility; it might sink into quiet infamy,
without a tear of mine, and hardly a regret over its

126 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
fall. But the national honor is implicated, and, un
fortunately, tarnished by the process which has in
famized the hands to which it was committed.
My purpose, sir, in rising, was not to discuss now
the merits of the subject to which the President's mes
sage immediately relates.; but to offer my opinion of
the principles and considerations by which the two
powers ought to be, and I think, must be, governed in
its adjustment; and to avail myself of the earliest
occasion that presented to recall the administration
itself, to the unfortunate and disastrous policy which
marked our relations with Mexico during the Texas
revolt; to the striking contrast it exhibited with our
present policy towards Great Britain; to the expecta
tion which our citizens on the frontier naturally enter
tained, that, as the laws and their obligations were
the same, the course of the administration would be
the same, by allowing similar impunity to similar vio
lations; to the precipitate change in its policy by the
administration, and the attempt it now makes to cast
the whole blame on citizens whom it has substantially
betrayed into their present proceedings ; and to the re
sponsibility of the administration for whatever of out
rage has occurred on the Canada frontier, either by or
against our people, arising from the fair operation of
remote causes, to be found in the pernicious example
it had previously set in regard to Mexico.
Sir, neither nations nor individuals can be too early
or profoundly penetrated with the sentiment, that in
flexible justice to others, under all conceivable cir
cumstances, is their true glory as well as interest. An
immediate and temporary advantage may be gained,
as experience has shown, by its violation; but experi
ence has equally shown that, sooner or later, in some
form or other, through the wise though often in
scrutable dispensations of a just Providence, retribu
tion will come, as it ought to. The application of that
sentiment to the present conjuncture is simple and
easy. For the injuries which are admitted by the

IN CONGRESS 127
President, to have been done Great Britain by our citi
zens, we trust, in proper time and form, to afford her
justice. The attack on the Caroline, on the other hand,
presents an occasion for the most scrupulous examina
tion by the government into the facts of that transac
tion, which, if found as now represented, exhibits an
aggression upon us, which Great Britain, in proper time
and form, must redress. And that this reciprocal jus
tice will be extended by both powers, who is authorized
to entertain the slightest doubt?
I must be allowed, then, to express my utter dissent
from any attempt which may be here made, either by
the friends or the enemies of the administration, under
a state of information admitted to be doubtful and im
perfect, on grounds of acknowledged passion, to force
the two nations into false positions. Let us display
calmness, moderation, and dignity, which are not only
consistent with a firm and inflexible purpose to exact
the most scrupulous justice, but afford the best proof
of a determination to do so. Yet if, after all, against
human expectations, the government of Great Britain
shall, on proper application, refuse to disavow the late
aggression of her subjects, and seasonably redress it,
and force the necessity of an appeal to arms, our
present power and past history leave on my mind no
apprehensions of any result inconsistent with the na
tional glory, and the complete vindication of a just
cause. And when that deplorable contingency shall
arise, it will be seen who are foremost to vindicate by
arms the violated rights and offended honor of the
country — those under whose auspices that honor has
been stained, by withholding justice from an infant
republic, because weak, or those who will tolerate no
denial of justice by others, because they deny justice
to none.
I am sensible, Mr. Speaker, that I may seem to
evince an unreasonable solicitude on this subject. I
persuade myself, however, that I entertain a sincere
and profound devotion to the preservation of the

128 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
national honor, upon principles which will ever ensure,
at the hands of other nations, a scrupulous respect for
our national rights. If our internal policy is doomed
to perpetual vacillation, amidst the clouds of party and
faction, I trust that at least the policy which governs
our intercourse with foreign nations may, in the sight
of all mankind, tower, like the mountain peak, above
the region of change or cloud, reposing on its founda
tion, not of passion, of rash and headlong excitement,
with their floods and sand, or short-sighted temporary
expediency, but the everlasting rock of undeviating
justice. On January 11, 1838, Menefee spoke on the
resolution submitted by Mr. Adams, which
was to the effect that Van Buren be requested
to communicate to the House a copy and
translation of the pamphlet in the Spanish
language which was mentioned in the report of
the Secretary of State to have been printed
and circulated by the late minister from the
Republic of Mexico, M. Govostiza, before his
departure from this country, and the name of
the diplomatic functionary from a foreign gov
ernment who communicated a copy of said
pamphlet to the Secretary of State, was also
requested by Adams. Benjamin C. Howard,
chairman of the Committee on Foreig-n Rela-
tions, moved to amend that part of it referring
to the disclosure of the functionary who gave
the Secretary of State a copy of M. Govostiza's
letter. Mr. Adams objected to this and spoke
at length on his resolution. Mr. Howard re
fused to withdraw his amendment, and then
Mr. Menefee spoke "On our relations with
Mexico."

IN CONGRESS 129
THE MEXICAN SPEECH
Mr. Speaker:
I presume that the chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Relations (Mr. Howard) has honored me by
his allusion to the conduct of the Government in the
maintenance of the neutrality of our citizens toward
Mexico in the progress of the Texas revolt.
The frightful forms of libel and detraction, excited
in his imagination by the pamphlet of Govostiza, seems
to impart in his eye, a sort of libellous coloring to all
that is here said which denies to the Government a
title to canonization for its saintship throughout our
Mexican relations. I should not complain of the
gentleman for indulging in this manner an imagination
morbidly, it strikes me, inflamed, over matters of na
tional scandal. It was innocent enough, though per
haps not exactly amiable. But the gentleman at last
ventures, rashly, to deny in cold blood the imputation
against the Government, of either culpable remissness,
or the least bad faith in the performance of our neutral
and treaty obligations to Mexico. But, more rashly
still, he ventures to proclaim, in all the solemn forms
of political, and, from his position, semi-official
flourish, that gentlemen in the opposition who cast
such grievous and unmerited reproach upon the Gov
ernment will, in due time, be required to specify and
establish the grounds which justify such accusations.
It is to me a source of profound satisfaction, that the
Government had thus, in substance, invited public
scrutiny into its transactions in that quarter. Now,
to me it presented no difficulty whatever to specify or
establish more than enough to infamize, utterly, the
course of the Administration. My difficulty lay in
crediting that any intelligent citizen of the United
States, much less the distinguished head of the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, could be found willing to
deny or doubt that the course of the Administration,
9

130 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
both as to omission and commission, had been as we
have described it. I even yet hoped that the honorable
chairman was, in what he said, disposed to be face
tious. Why, sir, when I affirm that our citizens
throughout the whole West and Southwest violated
flagrantly their obligations of neutrality to Mexico, by
affording public succor, in men and arms, to Texas,
from the first stage of the revolt to the recognition of
its independence, I have but to refer to the Representa
tives from that section of the Union. That military
array, in no concealed form, but in all "the pomp and
circumstance" of war, was the spectacle of every day ;
that avowed military recruiting, by commissioned
officers, for the defence of Texas ; that the character
of emigrant, claiming the right of expatriation, first
assumed, soon rose to that of soldier; that bodies of
men with arms, uniforms, and standards, and every
quality of organized military force, breathing war and
vengeance against a friendly power, were publicly
displayed in the heart of this country, in almost every
city and village in its confines ; that all this was known
to the Government from the beginning of the revolt;
that it transpired under the immediate observation,
and often under the express countenance of the law
officers of the Government; that a pretence of boun
dary was most unreasonably set up by the Govern
ment; that a military force was passed into Mexican
territory at a most critical period of the revolt ; these,
sir, and multitudes of others, are my specifications, and
the West and Southwest here assembled are my
proofs !
Let gentlemen beware : there is more in these Mexi
can relations than this intemperate justification of
them seems to perceive. On a fit occasion tliey may
be developed.
But the chairman says there was no law which the
Executive did not enforce; nothing undone which he
could do. Does not the act of 1818, for the enforce
ment of neutral obligations, authorize the suppression

IN CONGRESS 131
of military expeditions, or preparations here, against
a power with whom we are at peace? Look at it.
Every provision almost has been violated, and not one
clause enforced, or attempted, except in empty form.
But suppose the law was not sufficiently comprehen
sive in its provisions? Why did not the Executive,
charged with the conduct of our foreign relations,
communicate the fact to Congress, and ask their ex
tension? It is our duty to compel our citizens to do
justice to other nations. Other nations have a right
to demand that we should, and we are nationally re
sponsible if we do not. Have you not lately done so
in the case of the Canada revolt? Were not the
aggressions of our citizens against Mexico more
reiterated in number, and longer persisted in, than they
have been against Great Britain? Why, then, dis
tinguish between the two powers? Is it because
Mexico was weak that you declined this course
towards her? Is it because Great Britain is powerful
that you fly with this haste — almost indecent — to the
frontier, find the laws not adequate, and present your
self before Congress for increased authority? This is
but justice to Great Britain. Yet why was not the
same measure of justice extended to Mexico? How
can you, under these circumstances, escape the sus
picion of the civilized world, that you have at once
yielded to the power of a great monarchy what you
denied to an infant and distracted republic? That the
power of Great Britain has wrung from you a justice
which, under your sense of principle and treaty, you
would not allow to Mexico? That your measure of
justice is graduated by the power of the nations to
whom you administer it? There is no humiliation or
dishonor in doing justice to Great Britain now; the
humiliation and dishonor lie in having withheld it from
Mexico under like circumstances.
Before this affair is closed, I hope to be able to do
myself the honor to afford the honorable chairman
specifications quite as exact as he may desire, "accom-

132 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
panied with competent proofs," for his due considera
tion of which, I shall feel at liberty to allow him more
than a week, if required — the time lately allowed a
foreign Government, not so powerful as Great Britain,
to determine on a multitude of intricate and complex
subjects, involving the issues of peace and war.
In the House on Tuesday, January 30, 1838,
on motion of Menefee, 5,000 extra copies of the
annual report of the Commissioner of Patents
were ordered to be printed.
On February 1 the Mississippi contested
election case came up. The motion before
the House was one made by Mr. Howard:
"Resolved, That Sargent S. Prentiss and
Thomas J. Word are not members of the 25th
Congress." Messrs. Underwood of Kentucky,
Cilley of Maine and others spoke for and
against the resolution. Menefee replied to
James M. Mason of Virginia. Mason was in
favor of sending the election back. Menefee
replied to him and insisted that Messrs. Pren
tiss and Word were the duly elected members
of the House from Mississippi. On the next
day the same motion came up and he obtained
the floor, but before proceeding with his re
marks moved an adjournment. Mr. Cushman
called for the yeas and nays on the motion.
The Speaker ordered them and the result was
the motion was lost — ninety yeas and one hun
dred and eighteen nays. . Menefee then pro
ceeded with his remarks in reply to Hugh S.
Legare of South Carolina. He contended as he
had done the day before, that Messrs. Prentiss
and Word were constitutionally elected and
entitled to their seats in the House of Repre
sentatives. Menefee's speech in favor of Pren-

IN CONGRESS 133
tiss undoubtedly did the Mississippian good,
as he was permitted to take his seat three
months later. John Bell, of Tennessee, foL
lowed Menefee, but he moved an adjournment
before proceeding with his remarks and it was
carried. The House was willing to be denied
the privilege of hearing Bell, but to miss an
opportunity to hear the Kentuckian was not to
be thought of.
On February 20 the House took up the bill
on neutral relations. The bill was approved
April 20, 1818, and was an act to amend an
act, entitled "An act in addition to the act for
the punishment of certain crimes against the
United States and to repeal the act therein
mentioned." Howard moved an additional
section, that the crimes of sedition against the
United States should be considered as misde
meanors with a fine of $3,000 and so many
years in prison, the number of years to be
agreed upon later. The merits of the bill were
discussed by Millard Fillmore of New York,
John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, and
Menefee of Kentucky. On motion of Adams
the bill was ordered to be printed.
SPEECH ON THE NEUTRAXITY BIEI-'
I have regarded this bill with great interest from
the moment of its first introduction into the House.
From that moment it has undergone the most frequent
and fundamental alterations both in its form and sub
stance ; and is now in a rapid course of transition from
its present to some other shape. Judging from the
past, no one can undertake to know,, or even to hazard
a rational conjecture, in what it is destined to termi-
' Speech in National Intelligencer.

134 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
nate. I have chosen to forbear to express my opinion
upon the measure, until it shall have assumed, if it
ever shall, some consistency — until it shall be brought
to a stand. But the course which the debate seems
now to take demands, I think, that some attempt
should be made by some one, to infuse into our pro
ceedings on this question, if possible, a different spirit
from that which, in my opinion, has thus far character
ized them. The general sentiments and opinions
which I entertain on the subject of the maintenance of
our neutral obligations to other Powers, it is the duty,
and as I think, among the most important of the duties
of Governments to enforce, to enforce by municipal
laws, the observance by their citizens, of the obligation
to which the nations to which they belong are subject.
This duty, and the importance of its enforcement, are
general and applicable to all nations ; but in an eminent
and peculiar degree applicable to this nation. Our
political institutions are, to a marked extent, peculiar,
and possess, in theory, anything but the quality of
sympathy with those of other nations. Indeed, our
political institutions, although they have served in
other countries in some instances to excite and sustain
the spirit of freedom ; yet, from that very effect, have
served to arouse the distrust and jealousy, if not to
provoke the hate of nations whose political institu
tions are essentially alien and hostile to our own. We
have, therefore, all to lose, and nothing whatever to
gain, by a departure, even in the slightest particular,
from steady, inflexible, and stern adherence to the
principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of
other nations. To comprehend justly the principles
which should lie at the foundation of any legislation of
ours on this subject, it should be borne in mind that
the duties and obligations of the citizen, in all these
respects, are precisely those of the nation of which he
is a member, and of which he forms a part. Nations,
in their relation to each other, are unities; and their
character, ^yhen once ascertained — as pacific or bellig-

IN CONGRESS 135
erent — is imparted to and governs that of the citizen.
In the language of Mr. Jefferson, "if one citizen has
a right to go to war, of his own authority, every citi
zen has the same. If every citizen has that right, then
the nation (which is composed of all its citizens) has
a right to go to war by the authority of its individual
citizens. But this is not true, either on the general
principles of society, or by our Constitution, which
gives that power to Congress alone." "Indeed, noth
ing could be more obviously absurd than to say that
all the citizens may be at war and yet the nation at
peace." With my opinions then on the duties of
nations and the corresponding duties of the citizen, I
am, of course, prepared to enforce, by municipal law,
whatever can be fairly demonstrated to be our duty
under the established law of nations.
But, sir, whilst nations have duties to perform, they
have also rights to maintain, and should not be less
ready to fulfill the one than prompt to vindicate the
other. And even in the discharge, by nations, of
duties of this sort, they should not be unmindful of the
circumstances which surround them while they thus
act. Even justice, sir, should, when nations admin
ister it, be reasonably administered. A just redress of
acknowledged wrongs can not be granted, consistently
with national honor, if demanded under a menace.
Many other instances might and often do exist, where
nations, as well as individuals, are required to judge of
the propriety of the mode, manner, and time of an act,
as well as of the substance of the act.
Now it is to this point that I desire to direct the
attention of the House. I wish that the nation should
regard her obligations, the act of fulfilling them as
others have done. But I am not content to circum
scribe my view to those considerations only : I insist
that the circumstances of this proposed legislation shall
also be regarded. I entertain a strong desire and
fixed purpose that this nation shall, so far as any act
of mine is concerned, bear itself erect, perfectly erect.

136 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
towards all nations, at all times, and towards Great
Britain in particular at the present time. Now, sir, it
can scarcely be pretended that the bill, as introduced
originally, was meant for any other purpose than the
repression of the disorders now existing on the Cana
dian frontier. This bill originated in the recommenda
tion in the President's message early in January, hav
ing immediate reference, by name, to these disorders.
It is an affair between this nation and Great Britain, to
which this legislation is to relate. The measure does
not propose, as it should, a general law declaratory of,
and designed to enforce our obligations to all nations :
it is confined to conterminous nations — adjacent na
tions. In other words, viewing the bill geographic
ally, (for its operation is geographical) it is not con
ceivable that its provisions can enure to any other
nation, on any reasonable contingency, than to Great
Britain. It is, in its original form, substantially a bill
for the benefit of Great Britain, and would not be
unaptly entitled : "A bill for the more effectual mainte
nance of the royal authority in the British provinces in
North America." I repeat that I stand prepared to
enforce, to the utmost verge, every duty we owe to
other nations, and all nations alike. But this measure,
as it proceeds from the hands of the Executive (for it
came from the Senate through a committee which must
be presumed to have been fully acquainted with his
opinions of a measure like this, arising from his special
recommendation), not only advanced to the line of our
duty, but, by the admission of many of the friends of
the Executive in this House not likely to make incon
siderate admissions, greatly transcended that duty. It
not only performs duty, but surrenders rights. It is
admitted that the universally acknowledged right to
trade in contraband is surrendered to Great Britain by
this bill — a commercial right of high consideration,
and not to be renounced without equivalent. It is
further admitted and contended by a strenuous ad
herent of the Administration, that the bill not only

IN CONGRESS 137
surrenders this commercial right, but involves a gross
and most alarming violation of more provisions than
one of the Constitution, meant to secure the citizens
from unreasonable seizure and searches, their right to
bear arms, the protection of property, and the right of
trial by jury.
Now, sir, without inquiring into the provisions of
the bill in detail, whether justly exposed to the stric
tures and even denunciations to their full extent with
which the friends of the Administration themselves
have visited it, I proceed to state what I rose exclu
sively to state, the reasons why, in my opinion, the
House should not allow itself, in the present conjunc
ture of affairs, to be influenced by the appeals which
the friends of the Administration are incessantly ring
ing in its ears, for speedy, immediate, instant action on
this subject, under the terrors of a rupture with Great
Britain. Sir, I feel no dismay. I mean to do justice
to Great Britain, but I shall not forget the rights of
my own nation, or of its citizens, or my duty to the
Constitution, or the dignity of this Republic. I shall
endeavor to rise to the summit, and to survey, com
posed and self-possessed, the whole field which this
emergency opens. I will bear in mind that our rela
tions with Mexico are in a highly disturbed state ; and
I will remember that we have unadjusted difficulties, if
not unredressed wrongs, with Great Britain, both of
ancient and recent origin. I will not fail to remem
ber, for history will not, how the Administration con
ducted itself towards the Republic which I have men
tioned, on an occasion nearly resembling the present.
I shall not now enter upon the merits of the ques
tion, whether, in the maintenance of the national obli
gations towards Mexico, the Administration vindi
cated or sullied the honor of the nation. It is referred
to for the sole purpose of showing, that if it shall
appear that any striking contrast shall be found
between our action then, in regard to that Republic,
and what is now proposed in regard to Great Britain,

138 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the world and posterity will not fail to observe it, and
demand the causes of the discrimination. It is matter
of history, that from the foundation of our present
Government, the Executive has always felt it incum
bent to promulgate, in solemn form, his proclamation,
announcing to the citizens their duty, whenever it was
probable that, from temporary excitement or other
wise, they were in danger of violating it. The prac
tice began with General Washington in his celebrated
proclamation of neutrality with respect to France, on
the 22nd of April, 1793. It was followed by another
for the suppression of the Pennsylvania insurrection
on the 7th of August, 1794; by that of Mr. Jefferson
in 1806, in relation to the apprehended movements of
Burr on the Southwest ; by that of Mr. Monroe, on the
1st of September, 1815, enjoining the most sacred
observance of neutrality in the contest between Spain
and her South American dependencies; by that of
President Jackson, on the loth of December, 1832,
declaring to the people of South Carolina his opinion
of the law, and requiring them to return to their alle
giance ; and finally, sir, by that of Mr. Van Buren, of
the 5th of January, 1838, in relation to the very sub
ject which now engages our consideration. Through
out the whole career of the American Executives from
the 22nd of April, 1793, to the 5th of January, 1838,
the practice has been uniform, and throughout that
whole unbroken, except in one instance. A province
of the Republic of Mexico was in revolt — rightfully or
wrongfully ; it was inhabited by immigrants from the
United States, who took with them from thence the
love of liberty, the national pride, admiration of insti
tutions, common interest in history — all that was
worth loving or admiring. They were, for all the pur
poses of sympathy or feeling, "bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh" ; and when they threw off what they
at least termed the chains of the oppressor, was any
thing less to have been expected of the Executive than
that a more intense interest should have been felt by

IN CONGRESS 139
our people in their struggle, and a keener desire should
prevail to engage in it, than had ever been before
experienced in the United States? In point of fact,
all this interest and all this anxiety did exist; not in
one section only but throughout the whole confines of
the Republic. Yet in the midst of all this, with the
ancient and modern and entire practice of his prede
cessors before him, the Executive folds his arms in
composure, and views unmoved the rising, raging and
spending of this storm upon the bosom of a contigu
ous republic. I do not now complain of this : I barely
remind you of it. Upon the first appearance of a
cloud in an opposite quarter, the ancient and salutory
practice of the Executive is resumed, and a proclama
tion warns us to abstain from interference in the dis
putes of Great Britain and her subjects, complaining
though they were of the yoke of the foreign oppressor,
as did Texas, and appealing to freemen for sympathy
in a struggle for freedom. In the case of Mexico, the
Executive refused to do what had never been refused
to any other nation : he refused because he was ex
pressly requested by the District Attorney of Ken
tucky, in 1836, to issue a proclamation. You now
propose to do for Great Britain what you have never
done for any other nation. You were solemnly
appealed to by the District Attorney in New York in
November, 1835, for an amendment of the existing
laws, to prevent outrages alleged to be in course of
preparation against Mexico, but which those laws
could not reach. This application, though made just
before the convening of Congress, was disregarded by
the Executive, and no amendment recommended.
Now you clamorously demand an amendment of the
laws, without delay, at once, for the benefit of Great
Britain under the same circumstances ; an amendment,
too, confessedly going much farther than any nation
has a right to require ; and the patriotism almost ques
tioned of those who are for deliberating calmly, neither
courting, nor dreading, nor injuring Great Britain,

140 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
but administering to her that justice, and not the
smallest particle beyond what we should administer to
the most insignificant Power. Great Britain has no
right to complain if we take our own good time for
fulfilling our duties. All she has a right to require is
good faith. Under the present emergency, she may
expect that whatever is meant to be done should be
done with reasonable dispatch. She has no right to
expect precipitancy on our part, even in a matter of
justice, especially upon so grave a question as the
legislative expression of our duty to other powers,
under the international law, with a municipal enforce
ment of it involving high penalties. But if notwith
standing this, Great Britain shall complain, why, sir,
I shall listen to her complaints as serenely as I now do
to the appeals made for precipitate legislation : I shall
believe them ill-founded, and shall disregard them.
But, it is contended that, under the existing laws, the
Executive can not authorize the seizure of vessels, etc.
designed to provide the Canadian rebels with arms and
munitions of war. It is quite probable he has not.
But the Secretary of the Treasury, by his order of
January last, to the revenue officers on that frontier,
has expressly commanded such seizure, and the Exec
utive thus, at this instant, in the full fruition and
exercise of the very power which it was the chief
object of the original bill to confer — he is exercising it
not under the laws but over them. He is not execu
ting the law, but anticipating your bill : he has enacted
law. The Executive could not execute a law which
he was bound and sworn to execute, on another occa
sion : he can transcend all law on this. The parties
concerned are different.
I am not opposed to a proper bill on this subject. I
doubt, however, whether the existing law is not en
tirely efficacious if duly administered; but if it is not,
agree upon what our obligations to other Powers are,
under our system of non-intervention, and I will, by
legislation, advance to their utmost limits. To that

IN CONGRESS 141
point I will ^o for all nations — for Mexico. Beyond
it I will not go for any nation — not for Great Britain.
I quote the following as an interesting ac
count of a celebrated duel:
On the 24th day of February, 1838, occurred a duel
between two members of Congress,' which, owing to
the prominence of the parties engaged and the sad
termination of the affair, created more excitement,
perhaps, than has ever been aroused in consequence of
a similar catastrophe, in this country, with the single
exception of the notable meeting between Burr and
Hamilton. Matthew L. Davis, a newspaper corres
pondent at Washington, wrote a letter to the New
York Courier and Enquirer, in which he charged that
it was in his power to convict a member of the House
of Representatives, whose name he did not give, of
having accepted a bribe. A motion by Wise to in
vestigate the charge gave rise to a discussion on the
floor of the House, in the course of which Hon. Jona
than Cilley, a prominent member of the Democratic
side and representative from Maine, urged that it was
ill-advised for the House to go into an investigation
of the matter on a mere newspaper assertion, and
alluded in severe terms to James Watson Webb, the
editor of the paper. The result was a communication
from Mr. Webb to Cilley, which he placed in the hands
of the Hon. William J. Graves, a member of the House
from Kentucky. Mr. Cilley declined to receive
Webb's note on the ground that he would not be held
responsible for the words spoken in his representative
capacity, as a member of Congress, but at the same
time stated that he meant no disrespect to, Mr. Graves
and did not decline on account of any personal objec
tion to Mr. Webb as a gentleman. Graves subse
quently called upon Wise to consult him in the matter,
and was informed by the latter, in response to a ques-
' Life of H. A. Wise, by B. H. Wise.

142 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tion from Graves, that he considered Cilley's answer
entirely satisfactory. Graves, however, determined
that it was proper to secure a written answer from
Cilley, and accordingly addressed him a note calling
upon him to put in writing what he had previously
stated in the interviews between them. Cilley replied
by saying that he declined to receive Webb's note
because he did not choose to be drawn into any con
troversy with him, and went on to state that he had
neither affirmed nor denied anything in regard to his
character, and that he intended by the refusal no disre
spect to him, Mr. Graves. Graves was not satisfied
with his answer, and addressed a second note to Cilley
requesting a categorical answer as to whether he had
declined to receive Webb's note on the ground of any
personal exception to him as a gentleman or man of
honor. To this Cilley replied by denying Graves's
right to propound the question contained in his note.
Thereupon Graves, who considered that Mr. Cilley had
refused in writing a satisfactory answer which he had
made verbally, and furthermore that he had impeached
the honor of Mr. Webb, for whom as a gentleman
Mr. Graves had by bearing his note undertaken to
vouch, sent a challenge to Cilley which the latter
accepted. Graves had never been intimate with Wise,
and when he first called upon Wise to bear the chal
lenge. Wise declined, but yielded when Graves re
minded him that on a certain occasion he (Graves) had
defended him when he was attacked on the floor qf the
House during his absence. The preliminary note of in
quiry, which was so framed that it forced a duel, and
the challenge itself, were drafted by Henry Clay, an in
timate friend of Graves, though he did not accompany
him to the field. Wise, with the assistance of John j.
Crittenden, Senator, and Richard H. INIenefee, M. C.
from Kentucky, arranged the preliminaries, as seconds
to Graves, with George W. Jones, M. C. from Wis
consin, for Cilley, associated with Messrs. Bynum of
North Carolina and Duncan of Illinois. Rifles were

IN CONGRESS 143
named as the weapons with which the duel was to be
fought, at a distance of eighty yards, to which Wise
objected, as unusual and necessarily fatal; but Mr.
Clay, upon being consulted, remarked, "He (Graves)
is a Kentuckian and can never back from a rifle."
Various pretexts were resorted to by Wise, designed
to delay and prevent the meeting which he considered
unnecessary, as the affair turned upon a mere punctilio,
and the real quarrel, if any, was between Cilley and
Webb. These, however, proved futile, and on the
afternoon of February 24, the parties met in a field on
the Benning's road, near Washington, about a quarter
of a mile north of where it intersects with the Marl
boro turnpike. A coin was tossed up for the choice
of positions, which Wise won and Jones gave the word.
Three shots were fired on each side, and at the third
exchange Cilley fell mortally wounded, Graves's bullet
having passed through the groin and severed the
femoral artery.
Wise in a letter concerning the duel, written to
Jones, Cilley's second, correcting some newspaper
accounts, gives the following description of what
occurred on the field, which, though written years
afterward, is remarkably accurate as to details and
confirmed by contemporary reports as well as by Gen
eral Jones, to the author in person. "All fairness and
every courtesy were observed. The preliminaries
were settled without a jar ; you won the word, and the
choice of position fell to me. You fronted me half
way the line of fire, held yourself in position to be
equally heard, and delivered the word aloud, distinctly
and fairly, as prescribed. My eyes were turned upon
Mr. Cilley to see that he observed the terms, and he
fired first, nearly about the count 'one,' Graves last,
about the word 'two.' Mr. Cilley's ball struck the
ground between your position and mine, forty steps
from his stand. Graves missed him the first shot.
Mr. Cilley was evidently disturbed by losing his shot
and firing too quickly. You ran to him, and some-

144 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
thing passed which showed Mr. Cilley was excited,
and I knew would make no concession without another
fire. Then in turn Mr. Graves lost his shot at the
second exchange. He had a large coarse hand, no
sense of touch fine enough for a hair-trigger, and no
experience with firearms. My orders to him there
fore, were to hold his rifle cocked, hair-trigger set,
according to terms, horizontal; at the word 'fire' to
push his gun forward, so as to bring the breech firmly
to his shoulder, and then level the sight on the vertical,
covering his antagonist's person, and to fire when he
raised as high as the hip of his antagonist; and to
insure deliberation and to prevent losing his shot, to
keep his finger out of the spanner until the instant of
pulling his trigger. This he did the first time, and he
fired plenty quick enough. But before the second shot,
whilst I was forty yards off at my position, Mr. Mene
fee (he and Crittenden stood on either side of Graves,
as Duncan and Bynum did on either side of Cilley),
when he put the rifle in Graves's hands, told him he
fired too slow the first time, and upon Graves's telling
him of my orders, he, Menefee, objected to them
prevailed on him to put his finger in the spanner.
The consequences were as I had expected. At the
word 'fire,' and as he pushed his gun forward, and
raised the breech to his shoulder, his gun was dis
charged not three feet from his toes. With his gun
fixed on Cilley, seeing no smoke and feeling no recoil,
he was unconscious that his gun was fired, and raised
and stood pulling at his trigger, when he received
Cilley's fire again about the count 'two.' He still
stood pulling at his trigger until the count was out.
Thinking he was writhing from a wound, I ran to him
and he dropped the breech of his rifle to the ground,
blew in the muzzle, and exclaimed, 'Why, this gun is
discharged!' He and Menefee at once explained the
cause. But he was very much mystified and nothing
could have prevented him from demanding another
exchange of shots. When you came up, as you did

IN CONGRESS 145
every time to inquire whether Graves was satisfied, you
could receive but one answer, not without some dis
claimer ; and Graves's awkwardness caused me to give
you the notice I did, so much denounced, that after
the third fire I would demand a shortening of the
distance. By the time of the third exchange of shots,
both were well trained, were deliberate, and Graves
strictly obeyed my orders. At the count 'two,' a mo
ment before, Mr. Cilley fired, and about an instant
after 'two' Graves fired, and made the vertical line
shot just above the hip. Thus ended the fight. Both
of Cilley's last two shots were very fine; they passed
through the fence logs just behind Graves, one at the
elevation of the breast, the other a space below, per
pendicular to the upper, and at the elevation of the hip.
If his coat had been unbuttoned, both balls would have
perforated its lapels. His life was saved by his posi
tion. The wind blew steadily fresh obliquely against
Mr. Cilley's ball. I was sure the aim would be at the
centre of Graves's body, and allowing about from
four to six inches for the deflection to the left of Cilley
and right of Graves, I selected the position I did,
though disadvantageous in other respects."
It is well-nigh impossible to conceive at this day the
storm of indignation that broke out, at news of the
duel and its fatal result. Cilley was not only a promi
nent, but a popular man in his section, and the further
fact that the duel was fought over what was regarded
as a mere punctilio, rather than a real cause of differ
ence between the two combatants, tended greatly to
aggravate the popular odium which was visited upon
the participants. Although Henry Clay had been
Graves's chief adviser, and Messrs. Crittenden and
Menefee had acted as seconds on the field with Wise,
as Messrs. Bynum and Duncan had with Jones as Cil
ley's seconds, yet Wise and Jones, who had had the
arrangement of the details, were looked upon as the
main actors in that capacity; and the former espe-

146 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
cially, as the bearer of the challenge, which, however,
he had neither written nor approved, was fiercely
assailed in the press at the time as the instigator of
the duel, Colonel Webb, the editor of the Courier and
Enquirer, also coming in for a full share of censure, as
being the proper party to have fought Cilley, assuming
there was ground for a difficulty.
An investigation was ordered by the House of
Representatives upon the announcement of the duel,
two days after its occurrence, to inquire into the cir
cumstances of Mr. Cilley's death, and as to whether
there had been any breach of the privileges of the
House. A committee of seven members was
appointed, who, after an investigation, declared in
their report : "It is a breach of the highest constitu
tional privilege of the House, and of the most sacred
rights of the people in the person of their representa
tive, to demand in a hostile manner an explanation of
words in debate." They also submitted resolutions
for the expulsion of Graves, and censure of Wise and
Jones, but after a long debate the whole subject was
laid on the table. Popular feeling, however, found
vent in the enactment by Congress of the Anti-duelling
Act not long after.
Cordial political relations existed at the time
between Clay and Wise, and the friends of the former
were very anxious lest his part in the affair should be
disclosed in the public prints, and mar his chances for
the presidency. Several years afterward Wise wrote :
"Mr. Clay's friends particularly were very anxious,
for obvious reasons, not to involve his name in the
affair. Thus, many confidential facts remained
unknown on both sides. Mr. Clay himself, it is true,
whilst all his friends were trembling lest the part he
took in it should be disclosed, boldly came to me and
said : 'Sir, it is a nine days' bubble ! If they want to
know what I did in the matter, tell them to call me
before them, and I will tell them!' This excited my
admiration at the time, and was effectual to prevent

IN CONGRESS 147
me from unnecessarily bringing his name before the
committee." For several years succeeding the duel. Wise con
tinued to bear the opprobrium visited upon him, — until
early in 1842, during the debate in the House of Repre
sentatives, upon the resolution to censure John Quincy
Adams, which arose from the presentation by the latter
of the Haverhill petition. Adams attacked Wise with
great bitterness in regard to his connection with the
duel, and declared that he had come intO' that hall "with
his hands dripping with human gore, and a blotch of
human blood upon his face," which provoked the
latter into replying that "the charge was as base and
black a lie as the traitor was base and black who
uttered it." Wise, whose relations with Clay were no
longer friendly, published the circumstances of the
duel in the Madisonian and Intelligencer, and called on
Clay to declare the part which he had taken in it. This
the latter admitted, in a letter over his signature, of
which full use was made by the New England Demo
cratic press in the ensuing presidential campaign, and
it was instrumental in defeating him for that office.
On March 2 the Neutrality Bill was again
brought before the House and Menefee spoke
at some length in opposition to it, on the
ground of its unconstitutionality. He then de
bated with Legare of South Carolina and Un
derwood of Kentucky on the merits of the bill.
Monday, March 5, was "resolution day";
the Speaker proceeded to call the States, begin
ning with Wisconsin Territory. In the call of
States Kentucky was called after Tennessee.
Graves, Southgate, Hawes, Williams, Cham
bers, Harlan, White, Calhoun and Underwood
introduced resolutions dealing wholly with
Kentucky or Kentuckians. Menefee's resolu
tion dealt with a national question, the burn-

148 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
ing of the Caroline: "Resolved, That the Presi
dent of the United States be and is hereby re
quested to communicate to the House if not in
compatible with the public interest, such infor
mation as he may possess relative to the seiz
ure of the steamboat Caroline acquired since
the date of his last message on that subject;
the measures which the government have
adopted to obtain from the government of
Great Britain an explanation of the seizure;
and the ground which the diplomatic repre
sentatives of Great Britain here and the provin
cial authorities of upper Canada, have assumed
in relation thereto."
On March 8 the Committee on Patents re
ported several bills to authorize the Commis
sioner of the Patent Office to issue certain
patents. And on March 10 and 13 the com
mittee reported several other bills authorizing
the Commissioner of Patents to grant certain
individual patents.
Some time in the latter part of March Presi
dent Van Buren sent his message to Congress
on the state of the country, and Menefee de
livered the following speech upon it:
Mr. Speaker :
No one could have been shocked more than myself
by the communication to this House, by the President
of the United States of the offensive documents to
which the resolution of the gentleman from New York
(Mr. Hoffman) related. Such a procedure on the
part of the Executive undoubtedly demands the instant
notice of the House of Representatives; and in the
absence of an instant explanation, their marked repro
bation. That notice was attracted and explanation
demanded by the resolution; but I must suppose all

IN CONGRESS 149
reprobation to have been averted by the Message which
the House has this morning received from the Presi
dent, in which he states that the communication to the
House of the exceptionable documents was not inten
tional. For myself I am fully satisfied with this expla
nation; and do not, therefore, require the supplica
tory appeals on the part of the friends of the President
for an extension to him of the charity of the House.
I extend to him what is more substantial than
charity — justice; and justice simply, in my opinion, is
all that is requisite to his defence under such circum
stances. This, sir, is but an instance of inattention to
duty, or its violation in one of the Executive Depart
ments, by an insubordinate officer, whose powers and
duties are assigned by law — the President neither
knowing nbr participating. The just ground of com
plaint against the President, in such a case, is the con
tinuance in office of the subordinate after the delin
quency is known, rather than the original delinquency
itself. It must be acknowledged, however, that the Presi
dent of the United States, judged in this instance by
his own principles of presidential responsibility, has
no right to demand, nor perhaps even a decent pretext
for asking, the exoneration which has been thus
promptly conceded; and I can not allow to pass, un
improved, an occasion so appropriate for inviting the
attention of the House to what those principles are —
a task of no difficulty, as it consists merely in a refer
ence to a document of no great antiquity, in which
they are embodied in the most authentic form. On
the 17th of April, 1834, sir, the then President of the
United States, whose principles and opinions are, by
adoption, those of the present incumbent, promulgated
to the nation a paper among the most celebrated in its
history: I mean his "solemn protest," of that date,
addressed to the Senate of the United States. In that
remarkable state paper, the origin and history of which

150 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
it is now useless to review, are expressed fully the prin
ciples of that period, as entertained by that party, in
regard to Executive responsibility for the conduct of
subordinate officers. Nor was that paper a mere
abstract declaration of principles. It was, on the con
trary, a practical display of principles, in upholding a
high executive act: the highest indeed, and the most
high-handed executive act that disfigures our history.
What are those principles? That the whole "Execu
tive power is vested in the President" ; that "he is
responsible for its exercise" ; that all subordinate offi
cers are but agents and instruments to "aid him in the
performance of his duties" ; that the power of removal
and appointment "is an original Executive power" ;
and that, for the conduct of all Executive officers, the
"President is responsible" — all in turn being "respon
sible to him."
Now, sir, in a land of laws under a limited Constitu
tion, these must be admitted to be extraordinary doc
trines, which it is not my present purpose to expose,
but merely, by referring to them, to show what they
are. Executive unity was claimed, with all the qualities
of individuality; and all the thousands of Executive
officers in the civil, military, and iiaval service, in peace
and in war, at home and abroad, on sea and land, in
all their ramifications of Government, were but bones
and sinews, and muscles and nerves, of that vast con
stitutional unit of which they were parts — the Presi
dent the whole. They were the eyes by which he saw,
the ears by which he heard, the nerves by which he
felt, and the bones, sinews, and muscles by which he
moved forward and, sir, by which he struck. The
President as the sensorium, directing all, moving all,
responsible for all.
'This was the doctrine maintained when an attempt
was made to hold a high Executive officer (the Secre
tary of the Treasury) responsible to the law, in a most

IN CONGRESS 151
critical period of our public affairs. The President
interposed himself as the whole, undivided, indivisible
Executive, responsible for the conduct of all his aids in
the performance of his duties. He demanded to be
held responsible for their delinquencies. In the career
which that remarkable man was then running, he
sought, with avidity, the responsibility of atoning for
all the sins, if but allowed the pleasure of wielding all
the power of the whole Executive Department.
Yet now the President who represents these princi
ples, and is committed to the execution of them, claims
of the House exoneration from responsibility for an
acknowledged delinquency of the head of an Executive
Department ; and of the same Department.
It is well, I think, sir, to revert occasionally to the
doctrines of yesterday; it inspires circumspection in
the actors of to-morrow. In the present instance,
there seems to be a striking propriety in drawing,
though rapidly, across the vision of the President a
picture of the past. It may serve to convince him that
it is given to but a few to demolish a free Constitution
and erect out of its strewn fragments an Executive
stronghold so stupendous as that erected, in practice,
by his predecessor.
Sir, without expressing any opinion respecting tlie
Secretary of the Treasury or others, I wholly excul
pate the President, and do not, in a case like this,
choose to withhold a public expression of the gratifi
cation which his late message has afforded. I recog
nize in that act, with profound satisfaction, the prompt
performance of what was due, in my opinion, to the
private citizen, to the House of Representatives, and to
a Chief Magistrate of the United States.
On April 9 Representative Homer intro
duced the following resolution (in substance),
that the business of the country was in a dam-

152 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
aged condition, and considering that a part of
the banks of the country have expressed a de
sire to resume specie payments, it is the duty
of the Government to aid such banks in regain
ing the public confidence. This resolution pro
duced great excitement in the House.
On April 16, this resolution being under dis
cussion, Menefee rose and said that he merely
wanted to make one single remark. It was
simply this — at this point a gentleman rose and
objected. Menefee then moved a suspension of
the rule to enable him to make his remark.
Luther C. Peck, of New York, called for the
yeas and nays. They were ordered and re
sulted, yeas 85, nays 71. This was not the re
quired two-thirds, but the motion was decided
in the negative.
On April 20, Menefee, on leave, submitted
two resolutions, which were agreed to. The
first one was that the Committee on Revolu
tionary Pensions be instructed to inquire into
the expediency of granting a pension to an old
Revolutionary captain of Fleming County,
Kentucky. The second one was that the Com
mittee on the Post Office and Post Roads be
instructed to inquire into the expediency of
establishing a post route from Poplar Flat in
Lewis County to Mount Carmel in Fleming
County, Kentucky. Thus was Menefee look
ing out for the interests of Kentuckians and
Kentucky. On April 23, 28 and 30, Menefee made his
speech on the Graves-Cilley duel reports. He
made it in three parts and it was the longest
speech that he ever delivered.

IN CONGRESS 153
menefee's speech ON THE ANTI-DUELING LAW^
Mr. speaker:
I am certainly, as every member must be, apprized of
the general condition of the finances, and of the par
ticular exigencies of the Treasury at this time; but I
am not prepared for the annunciation just made by the
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means.
He tells us that there is no time for trial; to enter
upon which would be wholly incompatible with a
proper despatch of the public business. No time for
trial! Sir, when did the gentleman make that dis
covery ? Was not the state of the public business and
of the Treasury fully known, all along, to the gentle
man who originated this inquiry, and by whom it has
been pressed, the chairman himself amongst them?
No one will doubt it. All, therefore, who contributed
to set this inquiry on foot intended, I am justified in
pronouncing, that it should thus conflict with the dis
charge by this House of other public duties ; for they
foresaw — must have foreseen — from the first, the
direction which it was eventually to take; which was
formal trials, separately, before the House — ^with
accusers confronting the accused, and witnesses face
to face with parties — of each member against whom
any accusation should be made or punishment aimed.
Indeed, raising a committee, of itself, implied such
final action; for the office of a committee is but pre
liminary, preparatory to the action of the House, and
its acts are nugatory except as conducting to such
ulterior action. All looked to the Committee as the
means, the end of which was the action of the House.
This course of proceeding, nevertheless, presented,
at that time, no obstacle.
Has anything intervened since this inquiry was thus
instituted, disclosing the impracticability of its further
prosecution ? Are we to understand, from the position
^ Speech in Congressional Globe

154 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
which the gentleman holds, that in what he has just
uttered are presented the wishes of the Administration
and the intention of its friends here, respecting this
subject, namely to urge it to the point of a report, in
volving, to the deepest degree, the characters of dis
tinguished gentlemen of the opposition, members of
the House, and suspending over them resolutions of
censure and expulsion, and then to arrest the proceed
ings altogether ? In other words, to raise a committee,
and employ it for two months in preparing accusations
and elaborating arguments against gentlemen, with a
view to promulgation, and now actually promulgated
all over the Republic; and then, by instantly arresting
the proceedings, to deprive the accused of the oppor
tunity of vindication in the regular course of investiga
tion and trial !
No time! Sir, they have found time, the amplest
time, to accuse, to criminate; have they not time to
hear and try? They can, without the slightest preju
dice to the public interest, inculpate ; have they no time
to hear evidence in defence and exculpation? Is, there
time for calumny ; none for truth ?
I admit, sir, that a disposition of these proceedings
in the only justifiable mode — -after full opportunity of
defence — will conflict with the just demands of the
public interest. Their prosecution up to this point has
already produced such conflict. But this does not at
all prove that they should be arrested now, having al
ready gone so far ; but it may prove that they should
never have been instituted. As a question of privilege,
this excludes the consideration of all other business,
no matter how urgent. The Treasury, now scarcely
sustaining itself, may soon, for want of supplies, close
against the public creditors, to the infinite prejudice of
the public credit. Other alarming embarrassments
may overtake the Government. Yet, sir, should such
results appear, they will be ascribable altogether, in
their fullest measure of responsibility, to the friends of
the administration themselves, with whom these pro-

IN CONGRESS 155
ceedings originated. I desire to enforce upon the
House and the country the truth, which no gentleman
here will venture to contradict, that this measure, in its
commencement, progress, and consequences, is a meas
ure of the friends of the Administration, designed, at
the hazard of great public injury, to attain objects to
which I shall hereafter advert.
Why, sir, what is the nature of the proceeding in
which the House now finds itself involved ! For fifty
years the Government has existed under the present
Constitution; in the lapse of which, the nation has
passed through all the vicissitudes of peace and war,
of prosperity and adversity, of tranquility and excite
ment, and all else, save civil war (and that it has
scarcely escaped), to which republics are exposed. Yet
our history is without a precedent for this proceeding.
It is new, wholly new. It presents an epoch in that
history certainly an epoch in the history of this House ?
What is it?
On the 26th of February last, sir, the death of the
Hon. Jonathan Cilley, a member from the State of
Maine, was announced to the House by one of his col
leagues (Mr. Fairfield), and .the customary funeral
honors awarded. For this there was precedent. Two
days afterwards, however, that same colleague intro
duced resolutions proposing an investigation into the
cause which led to the death, and the circumstances
attending it. For this there was no precedent. Here,
sir, the extraordinary features of the proceeding com
menced. The gentleman from Maine and others now asso
ciated with him maintain that the extraordinary nature
of the event warranted and demanded such an extra
ordinary investigation. Sir, extraordinary in what?
It involved a duel between members of the House of
Representatives. Well, suppose it did. How many
such duels had previously occurred, publicly and no
toriously? Need I, sir, enumerate the instances in
which gentlemen, now members of this House, par-

156 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
ticipated? It is in vain to pretend that any solid dis
tinction exists between those instances and the present,
that death ensued from the latter. The offence, so far
as this House is authorized to recognize it, consists in
the challenge, its acceptance, and the combat. The re
sult is wholly immaterial.
But, sir, if the proceeding itself was extraordinary,
its form was still more so. It was a general inquiry.
It pointed to nothing particularly. Its scope was not
announced. It was believed by many who supported
the resolutions, that they were designed merely to ex
hibit the lamentable event to which they related in such
a light as to insure the enactment by Congress of some
law, or the adoption of this House of some rule, cal
culated to suppress the practice, out of which it orig
inated. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Adams) has clearly signified to the House that this
main purpose in supporting the inquiry did not extend
beyond such measures; and that it could in no other
aspect have commanded his support. Other gentlemen
have declared the same sentiments. Such, I am war
ranted in saying, were the sentiments of the House
when adopting the resolutions.
It is nevertheless now insisted by the mover of the
resolutions (Mr. Fairfield) and others, that such was
no part of what was meditated; that they looked to
that case only, and not to future cases ; that their object
was the punishment of offenders ; and that they aimed
at members of this House. The committee have mani
festly proceeded with the same view ; and, as appears
from the range of their investigation and the report
they have offered, having supposed their powers plen
ary to that end, both as to matters and persons, have
acted up to that supposition. The report which pre
sents the results of their operations is now submitted
to the House, and the proposition immediately before
us is the printing of this report, and the postponement
of its consideration for two weeks.

IN CONGRESS 157
This proposition, sir, is resisted. Amongst others,
I resist it. I admit, at the same time, that the course
proposed is the customary course, not to be deviated
from without strong reason. Such reason, however,
does, in my opinion, exist. If it cannot be shown to
exist, I am quite willing that the customary course
shall be adhered to, and the proposition prevail. On
what grounds, then, sir, is the proposition resisted ?
The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Robertson)
maintains that the action of the committee is wholly
irregular and unauthorized; that they had no power
to extend their investigations as they have done, or to
report what they have reported. Such, too, is my
opinion. Should this view be just it is plain that the
report should not be printed, or in any form, receive
the sanction or countenance of the House ; for if it be
printed, it must be for the purpose of ulterior use. If
it cannot, from its obvious irregularity and defects, be
used in any event, to print it would be nugatory. It
would be worse ; it would operate as an implied sanc
tion by the House of the irregularity and defects to
which I have referred. To prove, therefore, that the
whole proceeding of the committee was irregular and
destitute of authority from the House, is to prove that
the report ought not to be printed. This I propose to
prove. A committee of the House of Representatives have
preferred formal accusations against three members of
this House for high delinquencies, and have accom
panied these accusations with elaborate arguments and
a display of proofs, closing with resolutions for the
expulsion of one and the censure of others. Had the
committee the right or power to prefer such accusa
tions, is the true inquiry. It is nakedly a question of
power in the committee.
Is it no inconsiderable matter, sir, with a citizen,
especially one occupying the station of a representa
tive of the people, to have an accusation framed against
him, and promulgated amongst his countrymen? By

RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
e accusation, his reputation, which is a portion,
le best portion, of all that belongs to him, is not
:xposed to injury, but oftentimes to absolute de-
ion. It connects him in the minds of men with
an offence. A few may be philosophical or just
enough to suspend their judgments, and remain un
affected even in their feelings, until evidence and de
fence shall have been heard. But, sir, none regard the
accused in a more favorable light because accused.
Men's minds are so organized that they turn away,
not only from what is disagreeable, but from the idea
with which it is associated. This, however, is but the
private view of the mischiefs of an accusation. I rest
it on higher reasons of a public nature.
The accusing power in a State, sir, is a great power.
It is liable, by abuse, to administer to the worst
tyranny. In most free countries, England and the
United States especially, the greatest circumspection
has, for that reason, been observed in deposing this
formidable power. It may be affirmed of both these
enlightened nations, that the limitations and restraints
which they have imposed on this power in the institu
tion of the grand jury, class justly among the firmest
and strongest pillars of civil liberty. I will not trace
the history of this institution, nor expose, at length,
the deep policy on which in my opinion, it reposes, nor
review the mass of blessing it has conferred, and of
misery and oppression it has averted, in its progress.
This must be fresh in the memory of all who have
studied the rise of modern freedom, and the instru
ments by which it has advanced, and maintained itself.
It is true, sir, that a private individual may impute,
charge an offence. Proceedings may be adopted
against the supposed offender, in the form of warrant
and arrest. But this does not constitute in strictness
an accusation, which can be made only through a
regular tribunal — the grand jury — the sanction of
which is interposed as a condition to the accusation.
The protection which is thus afforded to liberty, results

IN CONGRESS 159
necessarily from the composition of that body, without
adverting to other causes.
I trust, however, that, in the United States, an argu
ment is not required, at this advanced period of its in
stitutions, to establish the proposition that the accusing
power is of vast magnitude, that it should be jealously
circumscribed and most vigilantly guarded; that the
institution of the grand jury is the only instrument
known, which presents adequate guarantees against
the abuse of the power to the ends of tyranny and
oppression; and that not only that institution itself,
where it operates, but all its analogies where it does
not operate, should be anxiously cherished as portions
of the armor of freedom.
So far, sir, as the House of Representatives of the
United States assumes the power of proceeding, crimi
nally, by its separate action, against its own members,
it is manifest that it cannot employ a grand jury as
the organ of accusation, no matter how faint or deep
the delinquency. There is plainly no adaptation. If
the accusing power, therefore, is, in such cases, limited
at all, it must be by other means. Do such means
exist? Is there no safeguard against irresponsible
and oppressive accusation, analogous to that afforded
by the grand jury? Are the representatives of the
people exposed, to the extent of the criminal jurisdic
tion of the House, to all the mischiefs which the Con
stitutions of the United States and of every State in
the Union have sought so sedulously to avert from the
private citizens by the employment of the grand jury?
I maintain that an analogous safeguard has been pro
vided by the House, which, if fairly exerted, is ample.
It consists, sir, in the law of Parliament and of this
House, that no member shall be proceeded against, in
such cases, for an alleged offence, without a direct
charge against him, by name, before the House, in
writing, under the sanction and authority of the House
expressly given; and this, too, usually in a form
authorizing the members to be heard in exculpation in

l6o RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
advance of any action of the House tending to an accu
sation. This is deducible, clearly, from the estab
lished usage of Parliament, fortified by a series of
precedents in the House and in the Senate, and from
the rules of the House.
The effect of this provision for the protection of
members is, by requiring the imputation to be directly
announced to the House itself in the first instance, to
enable the House to consider the imputation, and de
termine for itself whether it will authorize an accusa
tion to be instituted; in other words, to bring the
House to a preliminary trial, in which the member is
entitled to be heard, not in his defence, for no accusa
tion exists, but to show, if he can, that he ought not to
he accused.
The point, sir, from which, in the absence of the
security which I have stated, pernicious accusations
might be most effectively aimed at members, is
through committees. Being part of the organization
of the House, the subjects embraced by their sphere of
duty are co-extensive with the powers of the House,
and nearly with the transactions of life. It would be
against uniform experience that the committee if
armed with an accusing power, should not, in so wide
a range, seize some occasion to connect the names of
members become offensive by their opposition, or for
midable by their talents, with some delinquency, or
abuse, or crime, and present them to their countrymen
in the light of accused culprits, with the \\e.\\- to the de
struction of their influence. Such is the tendency of
party everywhere. The principles on which commit
tees of this House are composed are notorious ; they
relate, sir, as you know, chiefly, if not altogether, to the
distribution of party honors, or the advancement of
party ends. As, therefore, the greatest danger was to
be apprehended from committees, so against them pro
tection has been most cautiously extended by the laws
of the House.

IN CONGRESS l6l
Accordingly, sir, it is expressly provided in Jeffer
son's compilation of Parliamentary law, (adopted by
our rules as the law of the House) that
"When a committee is charged with an inquiry, if a
member prove to be involved, they cannot proceed
against him, but must make a special report to the
House : whereupon, the member is heard in his place,
or at the bar, or a special authority is given to the com
mittee to inquire concerning him."
Sir, can anything be more explicit, directly appli
cable, or decisive than this ? Here the committee was
"charged with an inquiry," and "a member proved to
be involved." This no one contests. What then was
the duty, the simple duty, of the committee in that con
tingency? To "make a special report," unquestion
ably. But they did not make such a report. "They
cannot proceed against" a member. Did they pause,
much less stop short? No, sir; but did proceed
against him to the extreme point of resolutions of
expulsion ! The member was entitled to be "heard in
his place at the bar." He was not heard. "A special
authority" was to have been given to the committee to
inquire concerning him. Yet it was wo ^ given; never
applied for! Is this, sir, in conformity to the law
stated! No man of understanding, I think, can sup
pose so. It is the exact opposite of the law in every
essential particular; and that, I had imagined until
now, involved a violation of law.
Sir, this law has not been answered ; and it cannot be
answered. I shall not undertake to account for this extraordi
nary deportment of the committee. That they have
transcended their powers, in a form disreputable to the
House, and flagrantly injurious and unjust to indi
viduals, is plain. The explanation most compatible
with their honor, in my opinion, is ignorance of the
extent of their powers and duties, and of the right of
the House and its members. To suppose them advised

1 62 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of the foregoing law limiting those powers and duties,
and defining those rights, is to pronounce that they
have wilfully trampled it under foot, for purposes
which neither the House nor the public will be at a loss
to discover. Inadvertance on the one hand, and de
liberate outrage on the other, lie before them. I leave
them to their choice.
It is apparent, however, I think, sir, that no matter
by what influence, sinister or upright, the committee
were impelled, they had no knowledge of the law which
has been referred to. Indeed, one of the committee,
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Grantland,) has
admitted, very cordially, that he was not informed of
the existence of such a law; that he had no suspicion
that the circumstances of a member being involved
could operate an abridgement of the powers of the
committee ; that they were persuaded from the begin
ning on the supposition that those powers were plen
ary ; and complain that those who now urge this law
did not state it before the committee proceeded to act.
What that gentleman thus admits, with respect to
himself, was doubtless true of his associates of the
majority, who, I regret, have not displayed equal
candor ; it might have spared the House much debate.
That the law in question was not pressed at the time,
is readily explained by reflecting that no one had a
right to assume, in advance, that the committee would
violate it.
The committee notwithstanding, still persist in
urging their report upon the House, by laboring to
reconcile their action with the law now that it is
known; not that they acted in reference t© the law,
but conformed to it by accidental coincidence! By
what arguments, sir, is this newly conceived pretence
sought to be maintained ?
It is contended that the committee were "specially
authorized'' by the House to proceed against the mem
bers whom they have accused, by the resolutions of
28th of February, by which the committee were raised.
Look, sir, at these resolutions. What are they?

IN CONGRESS 163
"Resolved, That a committee, consisting of seven
members, be appointed to investigate the cause which
led to the death of the Honorable Jonathan Cilley, late
a member of this House, and the circumstances con
nected therewith ; and, further, to inquire whether
there has been, in the case alluded to, a breach of the
privileges of this House.
"Resolved, That the said committee be instructed to
inquire into the means more effectually to suppress the
practice of duelling, and report a bill for that purpose
at as early a period as may be practicable."
Where, sir, in these resolutions, is found a special
authority to proceed against members, or a special
authority of any kind? They warrant, I admit, an
inquiry into a supposed breach of the privileges of the
House; but, in a form no more special than in cases
of inquiry into any other subject. In all, the subject
of inquiry is stated, as in this ; but stated generally, as
in this. Here, no individual is named, no offence
charged, either in respect to members or others.
Members may have been involved; they may not.
This, like any other subject of investigation, may have
embraced the transactions of members ; it may not.
Either supposition is perfectly consistent with the
terms of the resolutions. Had the inquiry been into
supposed abuses in the Indian affairs of the public
lands, instead of breach of privilege, the authority to
the committee would have been precisely the same.
The subject of investigation would have been specific;
all else general. Yet, who would risk his character
for intelligence, by maintaining in his place that, under
a general inquiry of the kind, the delinquencies, real
or fabricated, of members of this House, could without
further authority, be investigated, and those members
proceeded against, accused, and presented to the na
tion, by the report of a committee, as culprits unworthy
of honorable association, and meriting instant expul
sion from their seats? In such a case it is manifest
that the House must be immediately notified of the

164 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
implication of members, by a special report, that the
House itself might take action, either in arresting the
investigation, or specially authorizing the committee
to proceed. Well, sir, what distinguishes such an in
quiry from the present? In both the subject of in
quiry is stated — ^abuses in the one, breach of privilege
in the other; but nothing special in either. Neither
supposed the implication of members. Both are
essentially general.
It is gravely argued, however, by gentlemen, that
no matter what the resolutions may express, the
House well knew the facts of the transaction to which
the inquiry related, and, of course, that members were
involved ; that they were notorious ! If such an
argument merited a serious refutation, it would, I
think, be sufficient to ask, why, if all was known and
notorious, institute an inquiry at all? Why not
proceed at once upon this knowledge? If the House
be justified in assuming the facts for one purpose, it
certainly may be for all. Why not instantly expel?
I concede, sir, that the public rumor and notoriety of
facts are quite sufficient for many purposes. In the
language of the parliamentary law, "common fame is
a good ground for the House to proceed by inquiry,
and even to accusation." The House, acting on the
common fame of the event, might, undoubtedly, have
directly instituted proceedings against such members
as that common fame may have indicated as criminally
connected with it. The mover of these resolutions
acting upon the same authority, would as clearly have
been warranted in exhibiting appropriate charges
against the members by name, and demanding a com
mittee, with special authority, to proceed against them.
But, sir, the question is, not what the House upon
such authority might have done, but what it in point of
fact has done. It can, with no reason, be pretended
that the resolutions as they stand on the journal admit
of the slightest abridgement or enlargemeit by refer
ence to fame, rumor, or anything else extraneous. I

IN CONGRESS 165
repeat, sir, the House is now required to ascertain, not
what its powers in given cases would be, but what its
action in this case has been. Our successors, in re
viewing this proceeding, will do so through the records
of the House. They will look to nothing else. Fame,
rumor, common understanding are fugitives, perish
able; the resolutions, the records are permanent and
perpetual, and, like other records, impart absolute
verity. They only will speak; and they must speak
for themselves.
Driven, sir, as I think all candid men must
acknowledge, from the positions that accusatory power
was specifically conferred on them by the language of
the resolutions, and that the effect of the resolutions
admitted of extension by reference to matter not con
tained in them, the committee now seek to derive the
power from a different source altogether. The refer
ence of certain petitions and memorials is relied on as
operating an enlargement of their original powers
under the resolutions. That no such effort was pro
duced or intended to such reference, I leave the House
to the very able and extended arguments of others,
especially of those by whom most of the petitions were
presented. If any thing, however, were wanting to
pro ire that the committee acted independently of the
petitions, and without the smallest reference to them,
so far as their powers are concerned, it will be found,
in the most convincing form, in their own journal;
from which it appears that the mass of the evidence,
indeed all that is essential to their accusation, was
taken, and the whole course of the committee distinctly
indicated, before the first petition was referred. They
had sat more than two weeks, before any reference of
the kind was made ; and then it produced no deviation
from the direction which was given to the inquiry in
the first instance.
But, sir, frustrated in their efforts to deduce the
power of the committee from any positive delegation
by the House, it is claimed as derived by surrender of

1 66 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the parties accused, who it is insisted, voluntarily ap
peared before the committee and offered testimony in
defence, and thereby waived rights which they might
otherwise possess. The answer to this pretension is,
that it does not appear by the journal or otherwise that
the members involved received, at any time, the
slightest intimation that an accusation against them
was meditated by the committee. But if they had been
notified of the facts in the most formal manner, and
had, in a manner equally formal, signified their consent
to the assumption by the committee of the power to
accuse by a distinct waiver of their privileges, whatever
they might be, still the question of power on the part
of the committee would remain unaffected ; for by the
law of the House "the privilege of a member is the
privilege of the House. If the member waive it
without leave, it is a ground for punishing him, but
cannot, in effect, waive the privilege of the House."
This law, sir, requires neither enforcement nor com
ment. That last resort, sir, is, that no matter how irregular
or unjustifiable the proceedings of the committee may
be, the public voice demands their ratification by the
House. That voice I trust always most profoundly to
respect. I acknowledge, sir, that a deep sensation
amongst the people of the United States has been pro
duced by the transaction to which these proceedings
relate. So far from deploring, I take the highest sat
isfaction in beholding it. It is the spontaneous tribute
of the nation to the tause of law, morality, and religion.
It affords occasion for patriotic exultation. I do
exult. But, sir, the feeling of which I speak is not
what some gentlemen suppose it to be. It is no partial
or party feeling. It looks not to this particular case,
or to particular persons. It looks to the practice, to
the future, to the enactment of laws, and the correc
tion of public sentiment. It rests its condemnation, so
far as condemnation is passed, alike upon the survivor
and the deceased. It regards the wrong, or misfor-

IN CONGRESS 167
tune, or crime, or whatever you denominate it, as one
of mutual agreement, to settle by violence and blood a
private misunderstanding. One fell; it was no fault
or merit of his that the survivor did not. Whose de
linquency was greatest? The fatal resort was the
fruit, certainly of the coercion of a vitiated public
opinion; and individual guilt depends upon the in
tensity of the coercion. Which party could most
easily have resisted that coercion? Amongst whose
constituents did public opinion demand such a resort.
Amongst whose did it forbid? Who most defied the
laws, the religion, the ancient and established usages,
and opinions, and prejudices of those who surrounded
him, and to whom he was responsible ? The survivor
or the fallen? Sir, these considerations enter, unless
I greatly misconceive, into that public feeling of which
the House has heard so much in this debate. Whilst
you sit in judgment upon the living, and condemn him,
that same public opinion will visit a like measure of
condemnation on the memory of the dead.
Yet, sir, this deep, this just feeling of the people
has, in my opinion, been disappointed, bitterly, by the
action of this committee. Weeping over an event
which could not be recalled, the nation hoped, as it had
a right to hope, that the committee would act in a
spirit and adopt measures calculated, by rectifying
public opinion, to bless the country in the suppression
of a practice replete with woe. But the painful spec
tacle has been exhibited of a transformation of a com
mittee occupying the position of ministers of peace,
into a lawless gang, trampling down, in the furious
pursuit of a victim, all the restraints and forms that
opposed their career of ferocity! Forgetting almost,
in their eagerness, even to allude to the practice, and in
their report doing nothing, recommending nothing for
its suppression !
It is equally an error, sir, in my opinion, to imagine
that men of intelligence in the United States regard
this transaction as involving, on either side, the guilt

1 68 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of deliberate crime. In the eye of law, and perhaps of
reason, it may involve all the practical mischiefs of
crime. But, in general, such events proceed from no
felon source, but from a deep-seated vice of society
and manners, if not from an infirmity of nature itself.
I but speak the voice of history and experience when
I insist that any other judgment respecting the prac
tice of duelling is superficial and little to be trusted.
It cannot be forgotten that it has been, to a degree
almost peculiar, the fate of the great and virtuous of
mankind to bow to the demands of this practice.
Lafayette, Pitt, Fox, Castlereagh and multitudes like
them, rank as illustrious but deplorable examples, not
sir, of the wickedness, but of the infirmity in which
this pernicious practice is rooted. In our own coun
try, too, and in our own times, the same tribute has
been paid to the same infirmity by names not illustrious
enough, I grant, to transform a vice into virtue, but
certainly to dignify it above crime in its common
acceptation. Besides, sir, when a community of freemen like that
of the United States demand of this House, by petition
or otherwise, the punishment of delinquency, real or
supposed, they intend and expect it to be administered
under the forms of law. They cannot be supposed to
desire the law and all the analogies of the Constitution
to be violated, in order to reach an alleged violation of
law. To torture their petitions, or expressions of
opinion in other forms, into a demand for the ratifica
tion of proceedings admitted to be irregular and un
authorized, is, therefore, both to mistake and insult
tliem. From the public voice, then, sir, no aid can be de
rived. Mr. Speaker, all the difficulties with which the
House now finds itself surrounded plainly proceed
from an effort to impart a special character to a pro
ceeding essentially general. If these resolutions were
meant for a special effect, why were they not expressed

IN CONGRESS 169
in special terms? The gentleman from Maine, (Mr.
Fairfield), who introduced them, could have prevented
all difficulty by proceeding directly, by name, against
the members supposed to be implicated. Why did he
not thus proceed ? Such had been the unbroken prac
tice in such cases from the first exercise of such a
power by the House. Why, I demand of that gentle
man to know, was it departed from in this instance?
His colleague had fallen, within his knowledge, under
circumstances involving, as the gentleman then
believed and now contends, a violation, by members of
the House, of its highest privileges, so flagrant as to
merit expulsion, and to demand of him to adopt meas
ures to that end. All this he claims to have known.
Now, sir, why did not the gentleman specify the
offence? The perpetrators? The intended punish
ment ? Was he restrained by his modesty ? His deli
cacy towards the delinquents? Or an infirmity of
nerve? The country demands an answer.
No, sir; if reasons are to be sought to explain the
extraordinary form of these resolutions, they are to be
found in the extraordinary attitude of the party to
which the gentleman belongs, with respect to this sub
ject. That party has long since, in the most solemn
manner, denied the power of the House of Represen
tatives to punish, by its separate action, as a breach of
privilege, any offence not committed in the immediate
view of the House, or involving a direct disturbance
or obstructions of its proceedings.
I proceed, sir, to bring the attention of the House
and of the nation to the two most recent expositions
of the principles of that party in respect to this power
of the House. They are to be found in the celebrated
proceedings of the House of Representatives against
Samuel Houston, now President of the Republic of
Texas ; and in those disposing of the application of the
Hon. E. Cooke, a Representative from the State of
Ohio, demanding the exertion of the same power.
These expositions are peculiarly authoritative, or ought

170 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
to be, with the party. They are displays of its princi
ples when in their extreme proportion. They are pro
ductions of 1832, when the elements were boiling and
bubbling in a caldron more terrific than that of Mac-
beth's witches, combining and condensing the dreadful
mischiefs which have recently overwhelmed the coun
try. They occurred before the first inroad was made on
its ascendancy. It was the rank growth, then green and
waving; now become the stubble through which the
devouring flames of popular condemnation have of
late, like horizontal lightning, so fiercely swept. They
are precedents, sir, perfect in their kind.
On the 14th of April, 1832, the Speaker laid before
the House of Representatives the following communi
cation :
"To the Hon. Andrew Stevenson,
"Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"Sir, I was waylaid in the street, near my boarding
house, last night, about eight o'clock, and attacked,
knocked down by a bludgeon, and severely bruised and
wounded, by Samuel Houston, late of Tennessee, for
words spoken in my place in the House of Representa
tives; by reason of which I am confined to my bed,
and unable to discharge my duties in the House, and
attend to the interests of my constituents. I commu
nicate this information to you, and request that you
will lay it before the House.
"Very respectfully, yours,
"William Stanbery,
"Member of the House of Rep's, from Ohio.
"April 14th, 1832."
A resolution was thereupon offered by Mr. Vance,
of Ohio, the colleague of the gentleman, proposing that
the House should proceed against Houston for this
supposed breach of privilege.
On the 14th of May, sir, of the same year, the Hon.
E. Cooke, of Ohio, rose in his place, and said "that
he held in his hand a letter from a Dr. Davis, of South

IN CONGRESS 171
Carolina, one of the witnesses who had testified in the
late trial of Samuel Houston, which had been pre
sented to him by a person stating his name to be Alex
ander Dimitry, of Louisiana, as the friend of said
Davis, which, together with the statement of facts
connected with it, he asked leave to send it to the Chair,
that it might be read for the information of the House.
In submitting this request, Mr. Cooke said he wished
it to be distinctly understood that without in the least
waiving his personal rights as a member, or intending,
in any manner, to compromise either the rights or
constitutional powers of the House, it was, neverthe
less, not his purpose, individually, to claim the institu
tion of any proceeding whatever on his own account
upon the subject matter of that communication. Such
had not been his motives in presenting the letter ; his
personal rights formed no part in the object by which
he was governed. Other and higher motives
prompted him to this step — motives, which, overlook
ing every consideration of personal feeling and per
sonal security, regard the very existence of this House,
the inviolable rights of the people of this country, and
the dignity and honor of this nation." The letter was
as follows : "Brown's Hotel, May 12th, 1832.
"Sir : During my examination before the House of
Representatives, in the case of General Houston, you
very impertinently asked, among other questions, my
business in this city. Whilst the trial of General Hous
ton was pending, I deferred calling on you for the
explanation which I now demand, through my friend.
General Dimitry.
"I am, very respectfully, your most obedient, "E. S. Davis.
"Hon. E. Cooke."
Accompanying the foregoing letter, Mr. Cooke sub
mitted the following statement :
"On the trial of Samuel Houston for an assault on

172 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
a member of this House, which has just terminated, a
person by the name of E. S. Davis was examined as a
witness on behalf of the accused, and, on his cross
examination, I propounded to him several interroga
tories. After he had left the stand, and while on the
floor of the House, he said, apparently referring to
myself, and in a tone of menace, that 'there will be
another hauled up here' soon.
"On Saturday last the accompanying note was
handed me by a person calling himself Alexander
Dimitry. To the persons, character, and calling of
these individuals, I am an utter stranger.
"Had I considered this a mere personal matter, I
should have passed it by without this notice; but all
the circumstances of the case do, in my opinion, pre
clude the idea that it is so. And connected, as this is,
with other instances of attempts, by menace and vio
lence, to overawe the members of this body, and curb
the freedom of debate, I have thought it my duty, in
behalf of the American people, and especially that por
tion of them whom I represent, to present this matter
to the House. "E. Cooke, Rep. from Ohio.
"May 14th, 1832."
This communication, sir, was followed, as in the
case of Houston, by resolutions offered by Mr. Crane,
of Ohio, a colleague of Mr. Cooke, proposing to pro
ceed as for a breach of privilege.
It cannot be necessary, I think, to enforce the strict
analogy, in principle, between those cases and the
present; it must be manifest. That of Cooke is not
only analogous in principle, but nearly identical in
circumstances. It is, indeed, a stronger case than this ;
for the letter of Davis was a simple and direct chal
lenge, borne by his second, given, avowedly, for mat
ter transpiring in the House.
No just distinction, sir, can be established between
the proceedings referred to and the present, because in

IN CONGRESS 173
them the House contemplated action against private
citizens, not members; for, in all, the contested prin
ciple was the right and power of the House to punish,
as a breach of its privileges, an offence not committed
in its presence. It was accordingly argued through
out as a question of power on the part of the House,
without regard to the objects on which it was to be
exercised. To show that the committee in the present
case repudiate such a distinction, it is but necessary to
refer to ' their report, which expressly holds private
citizens connected with the transaction amenable to
this power of the House, but not meriting, for peculiar
reasons, an exercise of it.
Well, sir, how did the House dispose of the two
cases to which I have referred? Without fatiguing
the House with a review of all that was said and
acted in the progress of these memorable proceedings,
I shall content myself with referring you to the
speeches and conduct of a distinguished gentleman,
then and yet belonging to the party, and now, as then,
a member of the House ; who is, at this moment, in
the fruition of the highest honors that the House can
confer either as a tribute to talents and virtue, or as a
compensation for unscrupulous partisan devotion ; a
gentleman, sir, who whatever may be the feebleness of
his abilities, or the insignificance of his authority in
the estimation of others, with you, I know, possesses
commanding influence. That gentleman was the
champion selected by the party to denounce to the
nation its principles with respect to this power of the
House. He uttered, moreover, by his own declara
tion, the opinion of the head of the party himself, then
President of the United States. What were those
principles ? I answer, sir, in the exact language of the
distinguished gentleman himself :
"Every gentleman," said he, "must be aware that a
great difference of opinion always had existed as to
the power of that House to punish as a contempt any
act which did not interrupt or impede the business of

174 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the House. * * * He did not admit that the
House possessed any such power; and he believed that
a great majority of that House, upon a deliberate and
full examination of the question, would hold the same
distinguished gentleman himself :
"He would ask whether it was not equally a con
tempt of the House for a citizen to challenge one of its
members to mortal combat? Was that not as much a
breach of its privilege as the present case? Should a
member of a co-ordinate branch call a member of that
House into the field to mortal combat, would not that
be as much a contempt also as this ? And has not that
been done and passed by without notice? Or, if the
Head of an Executive Department should do the same
thing, would not the breach of privilege be as great?
And was not that done a few years ago ? Where was
the limit to such a power, if you take cognizance of
such cases as this? How was it to be defined or
restrained ? He could not perceive ; and he therefore
considered it as totally inconsistent with the spirit of
our institutions. * * * When this case was first
brought to our notice, &c, I expressed to the House
the opinion hastily formed, which I at that time enter
tained, in regard to its powers to try and punish for
this offence. Upon full examination of the question,
I am confirmed in the opinion that this House is in
vested with no authority under the Constitution or
laws of the land to punish as for a contempt, or viola
tion of its privileges, any offence committed not in the
presence of the House during its session, or in such
manner as to disturb its proceedings. * * * j^g^
us first examine the arguments of that class of gentle
men who maintain that the power may be found in the
Constitution. It is said that by the sixth section of
the first article, 'Senators and Representatives shall
be privileged from arrest,' &c ; 'and for any speech or
debate in either House, thev shall not be questioned in
any other place.' * * * The latter clause of the
sentence is equally clear. It intended to provide.

IN CONGRESS 175
simply, that for 'any speech or debate in either House,'
the member shall not be held to answer in any other
place. That he shall not, for example, be subject to
be prosecuted in the courts for libellous words spoken
in debate ; or be held to answer in an action of slander.
Do these exemptions to members of Congress, confer
the power on either House to punish? &c. * * *
What are your privileges ? The Constitution is silent
in regard to them. You have passed no law declaring
them. They are unknown and unidentified. If they
exist, no citizen can know what they are, nor the sanc
tion which attaches to a violation of them. Both their
nature and the punishment which you may inflict rest,
in the sovereign, arbitrary, and despotic discretion of
this House. * * * It is unquestionably true that,
for words spoken in debate, the member of Congress
can at no future period, however remote, be prosecuted
for a libel, or sued for slander. And should it be at
tempted, he may plead his constitutional exemption in
bar. But, because this is the case, it cannot, surely, be
contended that he is protected, more than any other
citizens, from personal violence. * * * jf t^g
doctrine of privilege in England is the law here, I
demand of them to show me how it has become the
law binding upon Congress. Has it been adopted, in
part or in whole, by the Constitution or laws? That
is not pretended. 'The truth is, they cannot be of any
sort of authority in either branch of Congress, either
as law, or guides for our proceeding. They have not
and in the nature of things they cannot have, any appli
cation in 'our Congress, and must be wholly rejected.
"The question submitted to the decision of the con
stituents of every gentleman here is, whether, under a
Government where there are no separate orders, the
public functionaries are to be elevated above the Con
stitution and laws, and take into their own hands the
despotic and odious pozver of avenging their own vio
lated dignity, whenever they may, in their unbounded
discretion, choose to consider that it has been
infringed.

176 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
"I undertake to show, sir, that the power which this
House now assumes to exercise without law is the
identical power which Congress attempted to assume
in the enactment of the 'alien and sedition laws' ; and
that the arguments adduced to sustain it are the same
arguments adduced in 1798 to sustain the constitution
ality of the 'alien and the sedition law.'
"The power is despotic, depending upon your whim,
caprice, or arbitrary will, and is, therefore, if possible,
a greater invasion of the rights of the citizen, and
more despotic and arbitrary than even these obnoxious
laws. * * * *
"But, if it be conceded that, in high party times, in
periods of high political excitement, or in cases where
the jurisdiction and power of the House were not
drawn in cjuestion, the House may have exercised the
power, the answer to any argument drawn from such
premises is an easy one. It is, that one usurpation can
never either justify or sanction another. * * *
"To show the absurdity of the exercise of such a
power by this House, if it possessed it, without law,
I ask the House what punishment it will inflict if the
accused be found guilty of a contempt or violation of
privilege in this case? * * * You have the same
power to impose one as another. You have the same
power to punish with death or the amputation of a
limb, that you have to inflict any other. * * *
"The evidence before us shows that when the mem
ber from Ohio first thought himself in danger of an
attack from the accused, he did not then bring his
complaint to this House, but prepared himself with
deadly weapons for mortal combat, and put himself on
his personal defence. By so doing, he waiz'cd the
privilege, if he had any, which it is now insisted has
been violated. He was, in fact, armed at the meeting,
and his adversary was unarmed. He happened to get
the zvorse of the rencontre, and then the complaint is
made to this House and we are called on to az'otgc the
wrongs which he has suffered. If the member from

IN CONGRESS 177
Ohio had been the victor in the combat; if his pistol
had not missed fire; and had he disabled or slain the
accused, this House would never have been troubled
with the case. But as he happened to be unfortunate
in the fight, we are told that our dignity has been
insulted, and our high privileges invaded. * * *
"Sir, I know that it is, at all times, an ungracious
argument to address to any body of men like this,
when you tell them that they possess no power to do
that which they are strongly desirous of doing. All
history instructs us that whenever the rulers of other
countries have strongly desired to possess and exer
cise a power of any kind, they have never failed to look
out for specious pretexts to do .ro. * * *
"I am sure I shall be borne out by gentlemen on all
sides of the House, when I say further that the whole
proceeding in this case shows us to be the most unfit
triers; and that, in periods of high party excitement,
this enormous power may be used, and probably will
be, to the great oppression of the citizen. What ex
citement and warmth of feeling have we witnessed on
this trial? How unlike grave judges have we occa
sionally appeared! * * * Here we have been, at
the most important period of the session, engaged near
a month in trying it. I take upon myself no part of
the responsibility of this useless consumption of the
time of the House. I voted against the arrest, and
have, from the commencement of the trial, viewed the
whole proceeding as a usurpation of power." * * *
Who, sir, was this "most righteous judge," this
"second Daniel," this Aaron, this "spokesman of his
party," to them "instead of a mouth," in this exposi
tion of the powers of the House and the principles of
the Constitution?
(The Speaker here interrupted him as he had re
peatedly done before whilst on this branch of the
subject.) In this oracle, sir, you make, I know, a kindred rec-

178 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
ognition. Yes, sir, in him you but behold yourself.
Your own consciousness whispers, what the public
voice will thunder, in your ear, "thou art the man!"
The review may be painful. Like him who had "done
the deed," you may exclaim —
"I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done ;
Look on't again 1 dare not."
Still, the deed is done. There stands the record.
Who could have supposed, sir, that, after all this,
these principles would, within so short a period, have
been abandoned, and those who maintained them be
found, as they now are, ostensibly urging the exercise
of a power then denounced as illegal, unconstitutional,
usurped, despotic, odious! Can it be possible — can
such shameless repudiation of opinions and principles
be credited as that the exercise of that same power by
that same party is really meditated in this case ? I do
not believe, sir, that it is meditated, or at any time has
been. I am, on the contrary, fully justified, by the
facts which I have just stated as connected with the
recent history of that party, in maintaining that the
Administration party in this House have been perfectly
sensible, from the commencement of this investigation
that, no matter how deep the criminality of those im
plicated, they, as a party, would be forced to deny to
the House any right or power whatever to punish it.
To take any other ground would, in them, be so
flagrantly and scandalously repugnant to their former
doctrines and action, as to expose them to imputations
which the most abandoned prostitution might desire to
avoid. I repeat, therefore, that the direct assertion
or exercise of such a pozver, by that party, was at no
time intended.
This view, sir, of the position of that party, in
regard to the power in question, will at once explain
the otherwise incomprehensible form of these resolu
tions ; why they are indefinite and general, and in that
respect, contrary to the established usage and express

IN CONGRESS 179
law of the House. For, sir, if they had been direct
and specific, meditating, in terms, an exercise of the
power which I have stated, they must have been in
stantly rejected by the House; certainly rejected if the
sentiments of that party could have prevailed. Many
;of the party whose names are recorded in support of
the doctrines which I have imputed to them, are now
members of the House, gentlemen high in station and
influence, all favoring these proceedings! This
general and indirect form of proceeding was accord
ingly adopted to escape an assertion of the power;
for to have instituted proceedings expressly . aiming
at punishment would necessarily have presupposed the
right and power to inflict it, and all this for what ?
With the intention, sir, of seizing the occasion which
it was supposed the death of one gentleman in a duel
with another who happened to be a political opponent
afforded, of diverting public attention for a season
from the wretched condition of public affairs, and of
effecting this under color of devotion to religion and
law ! To lend themselves to a proceeding to which they
sought, by its generality, to give the appearance of a
criminal procedure, without daring in terms, to give it
that shape! With a view to investigations, reports,
and accusations, against distinguished members of the
opposition, with a perfect knowledge all along that the
proceedings would be arrested, and arrested by that
party, the moment the work of accusation was done!
To the extent of accusation they could readily go, to
attain a party end ; to hear, to try, was no part of their
purpose;- to punish, under their interpretation, was no
part of their power.
How far the country will be disposed to countenance
this deliberate prostitution of the action and time of
the House, for such purposes cannot, I think, be diffi
cult to anticipate.
Any opinion, sir, which I may entertain with re
spect to the extent of the privileges of the House, or its
powers to punish violations of them, need not be now

l8o RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
expressed, as it is not demanded by the immediate
question. That those in opposition should hold, as
a party, that the power of the House was fully
adequate to any measure of punishment demanded by
them even in which these proceedings originated would
be altogether natural and consistent. They had so
held on former occasions when political adversaries
were implicated ; their opinion is unaltered, their con
duct is unaltered, though political friends may be im
plicated. I honor a constancy which contrasts so
strikingly. If any doubts, sir, could have remained respecting
the irregularity of this report, and the necessity of its
recommitment, they must have been wholly removed
by the extraordinary disclosure made, after a week's
discussion, by the chairman of the committee. In an
swer to a question propounded by a gentleman from
Virginia, (Mr. Wise) the chairman confessed, to the
amazement, doubtless, of all who heard him, that the
report had undergone alterations after it had been last
seen by those whose act it purports to be ! He states,
however, that the alterations, he thought, did not
m,aterially vary the sense; that they were, for the
most part, but critical alterations !
Sir, with respect to that report, "honor was the
subject of its story." It impugns, deeply, the honor
of gentlemen; an honor before spotless. Its texture
is too delicate for such a touch for even the chairman
of this committee. The utter impropriety of altering
a report, to any extent or for any purpose, in such a
case as this, must be manifest to all who duly estimate
the value of honor or the delicacy of sitting, as this
committee have assumed to do, in judgment upon its
laws. This the chairman should have known.
" 'Who governs freemen should himself be free.' "
The principle applies with even more truth to him
who would pass judgment on honorable men.

IN CONGRESS i8l
It is suggested, sir, that the report was softened by
the alterations. That does not at all palliate the out
rage. If the merits of this report shall ever become
(which they will not) the subject of review here, it will
be demonstrable that an alteration by which its vio
lence was mitigated is more prejudicial to the accused
than one aggravating it. From audacious, monstrous
injustice, innocence has nothing to fear; it defeats, by
its enormity, its own purpose. It is dangerous only
when it becomes plausible, when, though not the truth,
it is made to resemble it. So with this report.
But, sir, if the House were amazed by the annuncia
tion that an alteration of the report had been perpe
trated, it must have been astounded by the declaration
which accompanied it. The chairman proceeded, on
the occasion referred to, with the utmost complacency,
to disclose that the report had not been agreed to or
even seen by a majority in actual committee, but had
been privately exhibited, and privately acquiesced in !
Upon this I pass no judgment of my own; I deliver it
over to the rebuke and condemnation of a law of this
House, too solemn to require enforcement, and too
explicit for comment.
"A committee meet when and where they please, if
the House has not ordered time and place for them.
But they can only act zvhen together, and not by sep
arate consultation and consent, nothing being the
report of the committee but what has been agreed to in
committee actually assembled."
You, sir, might have protected the House against an
irregularity like this, by announcing, on the instant
that the fact was stated by the chairman, as your duty
clearly was, that the paper thus presented as a report
was, in point of Parliamentary law, no report; that it
was an unauthorized private writing, thrust, irrespon
sibly, upon the House; and that the only regular
course was, as a matter of order, at once to reject it.
Why was this not done ?

l82 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Will the applicability of this law, too, be contro
verted? Or will an exposition of the principles on
which it rests be required? Sir, it seems as if law,
standing by itself, and upon its own authority is of no
consideration, merely as law, with certain philosophic
jurists of this House. The principles, however, of
the law in question are neither obscure nor difficult of
exposition. The rule results necessarily from the
nature of legislative committees, which are organized
official bodies, with their peculiar privileges, powers,
and duties, as such. To the extent of their functions
they are as essentially organized and official as the
House of Representatives itself. In every parlia
mentary view it would be as indispensable to obtain the
consent of members of this House, separately and pri
vately, without entering this Hall, to the highest and
most responsible acts of legislation, and ascribe to
them the validity and effect of acts of the House, as
to obtain the consent of a member of a committee, in
the private and irresponsible manner stated by the
chairman, and insist on it as the act of the committee.
The amplest illustrations might be readily drawn from
the judicial and other tribunals ; but I will not suppose
them to be required in a matter so palpable.
Yet, sir, this interposition of the laws of the House
between the committee and their purpose is sagely
pronounced exception to form, technical, evasive of
substantial justice! Sir, when you hear those whose
province it is to ascertain and administer, the lazv as it
is, pronounce its provisions to be formal, or technical,
or evasive, and on that account to be disregarded,
especially in a criminal procedure, you have the
authority of history for pronouncing them either un
learned in the doctrines or faithless to the principles of
freedom. This expression, I admit, is strong ; but, sir,
it is just.
What is a free Constitution, what are laws, but
the forms, the technicality, the evasion interposed
between the weak and the powerful, between the tyrant

IN CONGRESS 183
and his purpose? Sir, in the vocabulary of freedom,
there is no justice, no right, no wrong, except as
known to the Constitution and laws, just as they are.
God forbid that there should be! The American
Representative who, for the miserable party ends at
which these proceedings aim, is unfortunate enough
to entertain, much less publicly to utter, sentiments
which this debate has elicited, is an object of real pity;
he has mine. These sentiments originate in a region
far, far below a just conception of the dignity of con
stitutional liberty; and there only, if anywhere, they
are doomed to flourish ; they perish by elevation.
These proceedings, sir, are intrinsically important;
they are infinitely more important as a precedent.
The attempt to signalize this case will, from that cause
alone, attract the observation and the keenest scrutiny
of our successors here and of posterity into the present
action of the House. For one, I prepare to encounter
that scrutiny, and to defy it; by firmly maintaining
the just privileges and powers of the House, on the
one hand, and maintaining with like firmness the laws
of the House and of the land, and the principles and
analogies of the Constitution, on the other; by recog
nizing the sentiment, that every public functionary
and tribunal — the House of Representatives pre-emi
nently — should by their example, inculcate a spirit of
respect for the laws — in substance, and form and
throughout — as the only means, in a free country, of
averting its precipitation into faction, violence, and
disorganization. The question, sir, is no longer, "what the law is,"
for that is manifest. The question now is, "shall it be
respected?" Sir, decide.
On May 11, Menefee, from the Committee on
Patents, reported, without amendment. Senate
bills authorizing the issue of patents to cer-

184 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tain persons therein named; which was or
dered to a third reading on the following day.
On May 12, G. W. Hopkins, of Virginia, in
troduced the following resolution: "Resolved,
by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress As
sembled: That the Secretary of the Treasury
be, and is hereby authorized to reissue to the
amount of two billions of dollars. Treasury
Notes, authorized by the act approved the 12th
of October, 1837, under the restrictions, condi
tions and limitations therein prescribed." John
Quincy Adams, representative from Massa
chusetts, sixth President of the United States,
wrote in his Diary^ of this bill: "The Treas
ury Note Bill was resumed, and Underwood's
amendment was debated by Hopkins, Wise,
Underwood, McKay, Robertson, Legare, Pat-
ton, Cushing, Foster, and Richard H. Menefee,
a young man of great promise from Kentucky,
successor to that oracle of judicial wisdom in
the last Congress, French. Menefee's Speech
struck me as the strongest that has been made
on this bill." Menefee replied to Representa
tive Rhett of South Carolina. He opposed the
bill. Again Adams wrote in his Diary:
"Menefee called R. Barnwell Rhett's speech 'a
volcanic eruption,' and immediately answered
him in his own style of blustering and de
fiance." menefee's speech on the treasury note bili,^
Mr. Speaker:
I do not rise to debate, now, the merits of the ques
tion before the House; but to relieve it on the first
^Adams's Memoirs, edited by his son. Vol. 9, page 394.
" Speech in Lexington Intelligencer, June 22, 1838.

IN congress 185
instant, simply and in a few words, from the false posi
tion in which the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Rhett) has, in the speech just delivered, sought to
place it.
Sir, that was a most surprising speech, greatly
deviating, I think, from the style of discussion which
should be cultivated here. What does the gentleman
mean? Does he mean menace? He must have so
meant, or he meant nothing. Sir, before resorting to
that expedient on an occasion like this, he should have
remembered that it has been heretofore so freely and
indiscriminately employed in the same quarter whence
it now proceeds, that, though clothed in its accus
tomed thunder, it no longer inspires terror; scarcely
excites notice. It is at length become a regular exhi
bition, which all expect, none regard.
But, sir, whence this present volcanic eruption,
whose flame and smoke so sublimely mingle with the
thunder and lightning of this new manace? The
cause that produces it is about as potent as the effect.
What is it?
The Government, sir, by a series of financial disas
ters, which popular opinion ascribes to a series of
financial enormities perpetrated by the Administration,
has at length reached a point requiring, in the opinion
of the President, that he should inform the House
(what it knew before) that the Treasury is in a deplor
able exigency, demanding the early adoption, of Con
gress, of measures for its relief, which he proceeds
most pressingly to recommend. Well, sir, this House,
whose peculiar province, under the Constitution, it is
to originate measures of the kind, is satisfied that such
exigency does exist; and, without distinction of par
ties, proclaims a readiness and determination to fur
nish the requisite supplies, and to proceed, at once,
to the consideration of the most eligible manner of
raising them. That they must be raised, in some
manner, is admitted on all sides ; the most appropriate

1 86 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
manner of doing so is the only question. Out of the
boundless field of expedients, a choice must be made.
The Executive, sir, as it was his right to do, has
recommended as most appropriate, the contraction of
a public debt of ten millions of dollars. The House
is likewise of opinion that a public debt is inevitable.
The Executive, however, proposes what gentlemen
please to denominate an indirect loan, in the form of
an emission of Treasury notes. Gentlemen in the
opposition suggest a direct loan, in the ordinary form.
They resist the measures which the President pro
poses, on the ground that, in the view of the Constitu
tion, it is no loan; that the proposed notes are meant
for circulation, are paper morTey, are bills of credit;
that, in employing the credit of the Government to
raise money. Congress is limited by the Constitution to
"borrowing" simply, no quality of which exists in the
proposed issue, which is but the common instance of a
creditor applying for payment, and the debtor for want
of money, liquidating the debt on it; that it is an
expedient by which nations may be overwhelmed with
debt, and their credit subverted, by insidious advancing
perceptible to the people ; that up to this period, it has
never been tolerated in time of peace, but reserved,
exclusively, for the calamities of war, when the Gov
ernment, unable to raise money by the Constitutional
means of "borrowing," was forced to the extremity of
making it by the emission of paper, as is now contem
plated. For which, and other insurmountable objec
tions, they insist that the manner which the President
recommends of raising supplies should not be resorted
to. In all which, if I do not agree, I certainly perceive
great force, fully demanding the maturest deliberation
of the House. A plain man, I think, would discover
nothing very objectionable in all this. But, sir, how
does the gentleman from South Carolina regard it?
Why, sir, that gentleman looks not to those or any
conceivable objections, deigns not to meet them,
assumes by instinct that to liquidate a debt of note
necessarily implies a borrowing, scorns deliberation,

IN congress 187
oversteps all obstacles, hearkens to nothing, but leaps,
right at once, by inspiration, thunderclad, to the con
clusion that any party, or any man of any party, that
dares to oppose a question the precise manner of rais
ing supplies recommended by the President, or to hesi
tate one instant, upon Constitution, or expediency, or
other grounds, are faithless to their trusts, devotees of
faction, and foes to the Government of their country!
That to decline to pass this bill, just as it is, and just
now, would present an example of lawlessness by this
House, unavoidably resulting in the immediate over
throw of the Government; in anarchy; in the exter
mination of all corporations, and the demolition, by
the hand of violence, of the edifices — -the marble pal
aces — which they inhabit! And all this to be accom
plished by the aroused loyalty of the nation !
Sir, is the dignity of this House best consulted by
giving too much language and place amongst the
habitual ravings of gentlemen, heard and forgotten?
Or by giving vent to the vengeance which it seems to
provoke? Sir, this language, proceeding from any
quarter would be inadmissible. But, sir, for that gen
tleman to speak, and so to speak, of example of law
lessness ; of attachment to the Constitution and laws ;
of faction ; of infidelity to the Government ; of loyalty,
sir! Whose examples? Whose loyalty? Loyalty
to what? Sir, within the memory of man, we have
had examples of the respect due, and, sir, the respect
paid to the Constitution and laws ! We have had ex
amples of the loyalty! They were memorable exam-,
pies. The nation remembers them, and will remem
ber. It remembers, sir, the part which the gentleman
took in setting those examples.
Examples ! Loyalty ! Why, sir, on a constitu
tional doubt incomparably weaker than that which
exists against this measure, that gentleman, a few
short years ago, showed himself not only willing that
the Government should suffer embarrassment by an
omission on his part to act, (the sin which he now im-

l88 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
putes to Others) but ready and willing, and striving in
open defiance of the laws, and in willing subversion of
the Constitution, to dissolve, with an eternal dissolu
tion by violence and in blood, the priceless union itself !
Are these the examples ; is this the loyalty, whose imi
tation is invoked? I know of no others with which
the Gentleman is so closely identified.
"The Government will stop!" exclaims the gentle
man. Does he think so ? I would be quite sorry if it
did stop. Why should it stop? Who will stop it?
Supplies, I understand, is all that is wanting. The
House on all sides, proposes to grant supplies to the
full extent required. Still the Government will stop!
Perhaps, sir, we are to understand from the Executive
by authority, though the gentleman who present loy
alty to his new ally, the Executive, so far exceeds his
former loyalty to the union, that the Government will
stop unless the House shall not only grant the requi
site supplies, and grant them in the precise form
recommended; that the President, when he recom
mends a form, means to prescribe it ; that the exhibits
is measures as his ultimatum, on the rejection of which
he will stop the Government. The gentleman, sir, in
his speech has freely employed the word dare. It is
bold and expressive. I have use for such a word, and
will use that. Sir, let the Executive dare to stop this
Government for such a cause! Let him dare to pre
scribe to the Representatives of the people a form of
supplies, in which, to the exclusion of all other forms,
he shall persist, against their will, at the hazard of
stopping the Government Let him dare to transcend
his appropriate sphere to seize or attempt to seize from
this House the inestimable right, and its undoubted
prerogative of raising supplies in the form of which he
shall judge most agreeable to the people! The Gentle
man talks of issues. Let the Executive dare to make
that issue ! If, under the impulse of a new infatuation,
or of an audacity inspired by his late alliance, the
Executive shall dare to stop the Government, on such

IN CONGRESS 189
an issue, I am prepared for it! Let it come! Its
decision by the people will not be doubted.
That the nation, sir, may be spared the display by
the Executive of such "Deeds of daring," my loyalty
leads me most devoutly to hope. I would devolve
somewhere, a responsibility, not great only, but awful ;
a responsibility resting, in my opinion, in undivided
force, and solely on the Executive, and those who
second his councils. Sir, the Executive and these
councils already sustain a volume of popular reproba
tion which bends them almost to the earth. Let them
not, by a measure so monstrous as that indicated,
augment the pressure which now overwhelms them.
They should be content to drag quietly to a close, now
not distant, an Administration which promises no
good to the country, and is too imbecile and crippled to
threaten further harm; without kindling, by fresh
outrage, a fever of real loyalty; which, though not
leading to the violent demolition or conflagration of
corporation or other edifices, might entail upon a pros
trate and expiring Administration pangs which might
be well escaped. The fruits of the works so disas
trously begun are bitter enough already, as well to the
actors as the sufferers. Sir, the succession of wrongs
by the Administration, and resulting distresses
amongst the people, require no such "crowning mercy"
as this.
"Your party zvill be prostrated!" threatens the gen
tleman. Sir, that party of my connection with which
I am not altogether free from pride, is a powerful
party, rapidly growing, talented in its composition, in
its principles, right. But by whom is it to be pros
trated? For what? Because, in this emergency,
looking steadfastly to its duty and responsibility to the
people, it plants itself on the most impregnable ram
part of the Constitution — the supply granting power;
and, defying the Executive, firmly upholds, and de
fends that power in its full vigor and dimensions.
Because it will not surrender that power, on the first

190 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
summons of the Executive and its now confederates, at
discretion, and without a blow! It can be nothing
else. That party, sir, stakes its existence on the Constitu
tion and a sound, enlightened national policy, looking
to the perpetuity of the nation. It means to stand
upon them. But, sir, it is prepared to fall, if it but
fall in their embrace. Its possible prostration, except
in that form, is never calculated when it is required to
act. The gentleman forgets of what party he speaks.
He appeals to sentiments which belongs to another
party, notorious of late. The question how "victory
zvill enure," or defeat, is one asked by that party before
it acts; not by that whose prostration is denounced.
The nation will comprehend me; I trust the gentle
man does.
Having thus, as I hope, sir, restored the question to
its true position, my object in rising is accomplished.
The House continued in session until a
quarter past one o'clock Sunday morning.
On May 18 the Senate bill to authorize the
Commissioner of Patents to issue a patent to
A. M. Perkins and J. H. Kyen was resumed,
the question being on its third reading. The
bill was discussed at great length by Menefee,
Logan, Cushing, and Fletcher. After the dis
cussion William Taylor of New York moved
that the bill be recommitted to the Committee
on Patents which reported it, with instructions
to report the reasons on which the report was
founded. The bill was finally passed.
On Monday, the 21st of May, petitions and
memorials were called for, in the order that the
States and Territories were on the House roll.
Menefee, Pope, and Murray presented a memo
rial or petition.

IN CONGRESS 191
On the 25th the House received by the hands
of President Van Buren's private secretary,
Abraham Van Buren, the report of the Secre
tary of the Treasury, Levi Woodbury, in
answer to a request of Van Buren to look into
some extract from a New York newspaper, re
lating to the manner in which foreign papers
were admitted into this country. Secretary
Woodbury replied that his department had
been engaged in collecting information on that
subject for the past two years ; that these ex
tracts, with others of like character, were
placed on file in the Secretary's office without
very much attention being paid to them.
Woodbury did not notice that these extracts
contained any personal reflection on the char
acter of the President, nor did he know any
thing about the connection of these reflections.
These papers had been submitted to the House,
but Woodbury said that if he had noticed the
reflections they would not have been communi
cated. Van Buren asked the House to with
draw these extracts.
After many members had commented on the
extracts being brought before the House,
Menefee arose and commented on the doctrine
maintained by the last administration, that the
President was responsible for the acts of his
secretaries, and said that he must, upon that
doctrine, be held responsible for this transac
tion. He was opposed to having the papers
withdrawn from the records. He wished to
have them stand. They would not go against
the President, for it appeared that as soon as
the President became aware of their character,
he took the earliest opportunity to disapprove

192 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
them. The Secretary, he would neither ex
cuse nor condemn at present, but he would de
sire that the record should stand complete, as,
in one form or another, they would furnish
proper ground for examination, if not for cen
sure. Finally, by an affirmative vote of 102, the
noes were not counted, the original papers
were ordered to be returned to the President.
On May 30, S. S. Prentiss took his seat as a
member of the 25th Congress.
June 11, being "resolution day," Menefee
offered the following resolution: "Resolved,
That the President be requested to communi
cate to this House such information as
he may possess relating to the alleged at
tack on the American steamboat Telegraph,
in the British waters, and to the al
leged destruction of the British steamboat
Sir Robert Peel, in the American waters; what
measures, if any, have been adopted in
consequence thereof; and, if not incom
patible with the public interest, such cor
respondence, if any, as may have occur
red betwen this Government and the British
minister or Canadian authorities in relation
thereto; and any information possessed by
him concerning the concentration and move
ments of foreign troops on the northern or
northeastern frontiers of the United States."
On June 14 the "bill to grant pre-emption
rights to settlers on the public lands" was then
taken up. This bill had been introduced some
days previous. At the evening session of this
day Mr. Underwood of Kentucky introduced a
resolution suggesting that this bill be recom-

IN CONGRESS 193
mitted with certain instructions. His motion
was warmly attacked and Mr. Sanson Mason
of Ohio asked Mr. Underwood to withdraw his
motion, which he declined to do.
Menefee then went at length into an argu
ment against a prospective system of pre-emp
tion rights, which he called a system of plun
der to the injury and wrong of the old States,
unless it could be properly restricted and
guarded. His argument was generally in favor
of the principle of Henry Clay's land bill.
Ratlifife Boon, of Indiana, replied to Mene
fee and said that he was not aware that the
subject before the House was Menefee's
speech, but Underwood's proposition. Mr.
Boon stated that he had always been opposed
to Clay's land bill, so he was, of course, op
posed to Menefee's speech.
When the vote on Underwood's proposition
was taken, it was defeated by the vote of 123 to
79. All of the Kentucky representatives except
John Pope and Sherrod Williams voted for
their colleague's proposition.
The original pre-emption bill was finally
passed and the House adjourned at a quarter
past nine o'clock.
At the evening session of Saturday, June 16,
the bill for the better security of the lives of
passengers on board vessels propelled in whole
or in part by steam, was taken up. Several
amendments were offered to this bill and some
of the members were not sure that Congress
had anything to do with this kind of naviga
tion. Menefee cited the opinion of Chief Jus
tice John Marshall in the celebrated case of

194 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Ogden vs. Gibbons, in support of those gen
eral views of the power of Congress over navi
gation, as an incident to commerce,^ in which
Marshall asserted the great constitutional
doctrine of the power of the General Govern
ment to regulate commerce, and held that the
word "commerce" in the Constitution compre
hends "navigation." He also defended and
sustained the applicability of this opinion of
Justice Marshall in this case, to the question
under consideration. The young Kentuckian
was quoting the foremost constitutional lawyer
that America has produced and the bill was
finally passed.
On June 25 Menefee offered the follow
ing resolution, which was read: "Resolved,
by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress As
sembled, That in compliance with the joint reso
lutions of the legislature of Kentucky of Febru
ary 16, 1838, the President of the United States
be, and he is hereby, directed to cause proper
examination to be made by competent officers,
of the town of Greenupsburg, and of the most
important locks and dams now being erected
on the Kentucky, Licking, and Green Rivers,
with a view to the selection of a site for the
contemplated national foundry on the western
waters; the location of which is hereby post
poned until said examinations shall have been
made." Mr. David Peterkin of Pennsylvania thought
Menefee's motion was a good one and moved
to amend the resolution by adding at the end
of it, the following: "Also to examine the
' Wheaton's 6, i.

IN CONGRESS 195
waters of the Susquehanna River for the same
purpose." Menefee asked Peterkin to make
his motion more definite, and to confine the
survey to some particular point on the river.
Peterkin replied that it was his purpose to have
a general survey of that river, and he could
not consent to modify his amendment to meet
Menefee's wishes. The House then took its
usual recess until half past three o'clock.
On July 3 the House resumed the considera
tion of the Senate bill "to modify the last clause
of the 5th section of the deposit act of June
23, 1836, and for other purposes." George N.
Briggs of Massachusetts moved that it be read
at large. After the reading C. C. Cumbreling
of New York explained its provisions and the
necessity of the measure, called for by the ex
isting circumstances of the State banks con
flicting with the imperative restrictions of the
deposit act of 1836.
Menefee replied to Cumbrehng and quoted
Mr. Wright's report to prove that the, Secre
tary of the Treasury had the power to desig
nate other depositories than tliose which had
already been employed, in which opinion Mene
fee expressed his own concurrence, and went
on at length to oppose the bill; the effect of
which, he insisted, was to put the whole
finances of the country within the arbitrary
control of the Executive. After many correc
tions the amendment passed.
The first regular session of the 25th Con
gress adjourned July 9, 1838. It was one of
the longest sessions of Congress that has ever
been held.

CHAPTER VI
WEBSTER AND MENEFEE
Although physically worn out by the long
session, Menefee, with Wise and Prentiss, ac
cepted an invitation to address a great gather
ing of people at Havre de Grace, Maryland, a
few days after Congress had adjourned. Wise
made the first speech and he was followed by
Menefee with " a brilliant speech," and Pren
tiss made the closing address. Prentiss began
his speech with the wonderful words : "Fellow
citizens : By the Father of Waters, at New Or
leans, I have said 'fellow citizens.' On the
banks of the beautiful Ohio I have said 'fellow
citizens.' Now I say 'fellow citizens,' and a
thousand miles beyond this, north, I can say
'fellow citizens.' "^ It was an initial note in a
universal song of American brotherhood.
From Maryland, Menefee, with Prentiss,
went to Boston, Massachusetts, where on July
24 he made the principal address at the great
Faneuil Hall banquet in honor of Daniel Web
ster. Edward Everett was chairman of the
meeting, and five thousand persons were in at
tendance. Everett made the address of wel
come and he was followed by the guest of the
meeting, Webster. S. S. Prentiss followed
Webster, and then Menefee arose. It was the
only time that the eloquent Kentuckian was
ever in Boston, and then he was heard in the
famous Faneuil Hall — the "Cradle of Ameri-
' Shields's Life of Prentiss

WEBSTER AND MENEFEE I97
can Liberty." The Boston newspapers said
Menefee was Hstened to with "joy." He
responded to the toast "Kentucky."
SPEECH ON KENTUCKY^
Mr. Chairman :
I can not remain silent under the sentiment which
has just been announced and so enthusiastically re
ceived. That sentiment relates not to myself but to
Kentucky — dearer to me than self. Of Kentucky I
have nothing to say. There she is. In her history,
from the period when first penetrated by the white man
as the dark and bloody ground, down to the present,
she speaks. The character to which that history enti
tles her is before the world. She is proud of it. She
is proud of the past; she is proud of the present.
And her pride is patriotic and just. As one of her
sons, I ask to express in her name, the acknowledge
ments due to the complimentary notice you have taken
of her, a notice not the less complimentary, from its
association with the name of Massachusetts.
There is much in the character and history of
Massachusetts, which should bind her in the strongest
bonds to Kentucky. Your sentiment places them
together: just where they ought to be. Kentucky is
willing to occupy the place you have assigned her.
Without respect now to subordinate differences in past
events, both States stand knit together by the highest
and strongest motives by which States can be impelled.
I mean the motive and purpose common to each of
maintaining and upholding, in every extremity and
to the very last, the Union of these States and the
Constitution. Massachusetts has proclaimed over and
over again her resolution not to survive them. Nor
will Kentucky survive them. She has embarked her
whole destiny — all she has and all she hopes for — in
the Union and the Constitution. Let come what may
^ Speech in Boston Transcript for July 25, 1838.

198 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of public calamity, of faction, of sectional seduction or
intimidation, of evil in any form the most dreadful to
man, Kentucky, like Massachusetts, regards the
overthrow of the Union as more frightful than all.
Kentucky acknowledges no justification for a disrup
tion of the Union, that is not a justification for revo
lution itself. In that Union, and under that Constitu
tion, Kentucky means to stand or fall. Kentucky
stands by the Union in her living efforts; she means
to hold fast to it in her expiring groans. With Massa
chusetts she means to perish, if perish she must, with
hands clenched, in death, upon the Union.
God knows, our institutions have of late been suf
ficiently shocked to excite the just fears of us all.
The very worst elements among us have been aroused
into the most terrific activity. Much of the public
virtue and intelligence of the country has been over
whelmed; and those whose exalted qualities of intel
lect and of patriotism should have designated them as
the fit agents of the people, in the administration of
a free Constitution, have been left in obscurity and
neglect and, in some degree, exiles in their own land.
Wave after wave has dashed over the country in a
succession too rapid almost to allow the Constitution,
or even Liberty itself, to breathe. Nearly every in
terest violently assailed, nearly every institution struck
at, nearly every principle, formerly held dear and
sacred, disregarded and trampled upon, innovation
and lawlessness dashing headlong over everything,
under the terrific guidance of the presumptuous ignor
ance and prescriptive vengeance of our rulers ; how
could the enlightened friend of freedom fail to tremble
for the country ? But the storm is over. The Genius
of our liberty and institutions is erecting himself, and
the first spectacle he beholds is the scattered and
shivered fragments of the lately overwhelming power
to which he had been forced temporarily to give place.
And on will these fragments drift, inert and uncon
trolled — into the insignificance and utter annihilation.

WEBSTER AND MENEFEE I99
to which they are tending, and from which no power,
short of God's, can rescue them. As they float down
to their inglorious destiny, they will be pursued till out
of sight, by the strained eyes of a people, whose inju
ries and insults force them to exult in administering a
long farewell of execration.
In these dark hours Kentucky and Massachusetts
stood together. They could not roll back the cloud.
Yet all that man could do, they did. Of the part
which Kentucky's most illustrious son took in that
gloomy period, it does not become me to speak.
His acts of that day are indelibly inscribed upon the
hearts of his countrymen. They are safe. But of
Massachusetts and of her illustrious champion in that
conflict — ^your guest — I am free to speak. Of him I
have a right to speak. In him, and in the like of him,
I hold common property with yourselves. He is my
fellow citizen as well as yours. He belongs to the
whole country. If you glory in him and honor him,
so do I. If you have seen him in the worst days of
the Republic, planted upon the Constitution, and
gloriously and triumphantly defending and vindicating
it, so have I. If you have seen him dealing in showers
his thunderbolts upon the foes of the Union — so have
I. His fame and his services, and the fame and
services of the illustrious associate to whom I have
referred; like the high seas, do not admit of appropria
tion. They are yours, they are mine, and they are the
nation's. In some sense they belong to mankind. I de
light no less than yourselves, in offering to your guest
this tribute of admiration and gratitude, who for years
has stood a massive, personified pillar of the Constitu
tion. But for his services in the exposition of the true
principles of the Constitution, when they were first
assaulted under the late administration, no man can
foresee the disasters which might have befallen the
Union, and with it the cause of liberty. The late
President, then in possession, in fact, of absolute
power, was notoriously arrayed against the principles

200 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Upon which, alone, the Union could stand. He was
the unreserved advocate of the doctrines which soon
after ripened into the frightful fruit of nullification.
And had he, with his vast power, stood firmly up for
the consequences to which his own principles infallibly
lead, and thrown himself into the scale against the
Union, this beauteous and glorious confederacy might
now exhibit a pile of magnificent ruins. But an influ
ence stronger than devotion to principles had in the
meantime wrought upon him. The strongest element
which his nature knew was elicited — his vengeance;
and, falling back upon the broad track of constitutional
truth which your illustrious guest had marked out and
illuminated, he wreaked his vengeance upon an enemy
by vindicating the Constitution. Impelled by iniquity
to embrace a righteousness which another hand had
provided. I said the storm was over and the country
safe. I say so still. Much I know yet has to be done;
but all that remains undone will follow, by necessity,
from what has already transpired. The people have
been deluded throughout the perilous career, which
they have lately run, by the only instrument capable of
deluding a people so free and enlightened. Every
step that has been taken, has been under some striking
appeal to the imagination of the country. The most
alluring promises have been perpetually employed, and
the most brilliant expectations excited. The nation
has followed under a heedless satisfaction with the last
and nearest object of delusion, without time, in the
quick transition and succession of measures, to esti
mate or even to distinctly see the object of pursuit.
Like a flashing meteor, the late President blinded his
votaries by the intensity of unnatural light: they fol
lowed, they adored, but saw not, judged not. Few in
history have acted upon that policy with success. He
did with complete success. It was the vital principle
of his power. It belonged to him only. It was per
sonal; and although, to the reproach of the nation he
has transmitted a succession, he has not transmitted to

WEBSTER AND MENEFEE 20I
the successor that quality. And the succession is
broken for want of that quality. When the upshot of
the elements of mischief which the administration had
condensed was exhibited in May, 1837, the want of
that quality was signally displayed. Instead of
launching out, immediately on that event, into some
still more striking promise, some intenser appeal to the
public imagination, as his predecessor had uniformly
done, the successor was panic-stricken and aghast.
He hesitated and faltered. The impetuous career of
popular delusion was arrested; the flood which gave
it life was withheld. They rubbed their light-
oppressed eyes and saw. It was all that was requisite
from the first. They reasoned — the administration
was ruined — it and all its appendages.
The nation is now substantially redeemed; because
that is aroused and free to act which must ensure its
redemption. If "my illustrious predecessor" had
been at the head of affairs when that catastrophe
occurred, his letter, written shortly afterwards, con
nected with his past acts, leaves no doubt as to the
stroke he would have made. He would have declared
a war of extermination against all banks; he would
have appealed to the worst passions and the worst
classes; he would have infused into his operations
that thunder and lightning which had been so often em
ployed to blind and astound ; and, if the exigency re
quired, would have insinuated, if not publicly pro
claimed, that the good work of reform could not be
accomplished, except by the plunder of eight hundred
banks and the five millions of capital — not a literal
plunder but a plunder under the form of law, as se
ductive to his followers, and as terrific to the country.
He would have buried the excitement caused by that
suspension, by a still higher excitement — ^buried, if he
could, the very liberties of his country. His nature
would have driven him to that resort.
From the conflict which might then have ensued,^ a
merciful Providence has spared us. As public affairs

202 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
now stand, the Executive is forced to obtain support to
his measures by addressing the understanding of the
people. That necessity is fatal. He is of course over
thrown. I pity him. What a spectacle! He is ex
pected by his adherents to wield the weapons of his
predecessor — he can not lift them ! He is expected to
wear his armor — the helmet alone enveloped him!
And he staggers along — too insignificant for a mag
nanimous enemy's hostility — to the close of the most
imbecile Administration which an American citizen
has ever been required to acknowledge. Yes, the
check that the Administration has sustained has over
thrown it. The exertions of the late session of Con
gress have largely contributed to the certainty of its
overthrow. It has been smitten. The Hydra has
been throttled against the walls of the Capitol. The
people stand ready, ready — with searing irons in
hand — to burn out the very inmost roots of the
monster! The work is done!
If the occasion allowed it, I should like to say some
thing of old Massachusetts. I should like to rekindle
my own patriotism at her altars. Here — on this very
spot — in this very hall — the sacred flame of revolu
tionary liberty first ascended. Here it has ever
ascended. It has never been smothered — never
dimmed. Perpetual — clear — holy! Behold its inspi
rations here in your midst! Where are the doctrines
of the Union and the Constitution so incessantly in
culcated as here? Where are those doctrines so en
thusiastically adopted as here? The principles of the
Union and the Constitution — for us another name for
the principles of a liberty which can not survive their
overthrow — will, in after ages, trace with delight their
lineage through you. The blood of freedom is here
pure. To be allied to it is to be ennobled. Massa
chusetts! Which of her multitude of virtues shall I
commend! How can I discriminate! I will not

WEBSTER AND MENEFEE 203
attempt it. I take her as she is and all together — I
give — Old Massachusetts! God bless her!
From Boston, Menefee returned to Ken
tucky, where he spent the remainder of the
summer and autumn recuperating.

CHAPTER VII
IN CONGRESS (concluded)
On Monday, December 3, 1838, the Senate
was called to order by Hon. William R. King,
of Alabama, President pro tempore, and the
House was called to order by Speaker James K.
Polk of Tennessee.
Menefee began his last term in the House,
as he had begun his first and second terms, by
presenting a memorial or petition. Five of the
other Kentucky Representatives did the same.
On December 28, 1838, Harry A. Wise, of
Virginia, offered a motion to print twenty thou
sand copies extra of documents numbers 111
and 297 of the second session of the 25th Con
gress. These documents dealt with public
defaulters. Edward Curtis of New York asked
Wise to modify his motion to include ten thou
sand extra copies of the Secretary of the Treas
ury's report in relation to the defalcation of
Mr. Swartwood. Wise modified. John O.
DeGroff, also of New York, suggested twenty
thousand copies of this latter document, and
Wise agreed. C. C. Cumbreling, of the same
State, presumed that Wise wished to have the
documents consist of five or six hundred pages,
which he thought it was very doubtful whether
any one would read. He hoped that they would
be printed separately and again Wise agreed.
Mr. Garland of Virginia had offered a proposi
tion asking that the Secretary of the Treasury
report to the House the defalcation of collect-

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 205
ors and receivers of the public money that had
occurred since October 1, 1837, the names of
the defaulters, when and where they took
place and what amount had been stolen.
Wise accepted this modification and further
modified Garland's motion by requesting that
the Secretary of the Treasury report to the
House all the correspondence touching the de
falcations of receivers and collectors of public
money since the Department furnished docu
ment 297. Evidently the gentleman from Vir
ginia was in a modifying mood on that day.
Menefee arose and delivered the following
speech, which is given in the Globe. S. S. Pren
tiss's reply to Menefee is so fine that it is also
given here.
On Motion to Reprint Documents (iii & spy) in
Relation to Public Defaulters. (December 28th,
1838.)
Mr. Speaker:
I am happy to witness such scenes as this in the
House of Representatives. I can perceive a feverish
anxiety in the party in power, which indicates that
after all the enormities that have come to light, there
are other and greater still behind.
Hence the anxiety to stifle debate, and quench the
light which was beginning to be shed on dark trans
actions long hidden from the public eye. After the
proof has come of iniquity after iniquity, which had
been plunged like avalanches from the heights of
power into the pure lake of our republican institutions,
now that liberty is looking to this House for help,
now comes a solemn tirade in the Globe against wast
ing time in this most villainous debate, and an appeal
to the liege subjects of the throne at once to put a stop
to it; and, while such intimation came from the offi-

2o6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
cial organ, simultaneously there was an effort in the
House to smother documentary light. It is vain to
hope for longer concealment; the deeds of the party
are rushing to the light with the resistless force of
destiny. The petty excuses of economy will not
answer the purpose; they have lost their charm; the
public begin too well to understand the economy of the
Administration. It might as well, at once, with arms
crossed and hearts resigned, come up to that bar
where the American people will pass on its deeds and
award their due recompense. That people will em
body the iniquities of ten long years, and, placing them
on the heads of the victims, will stretch the sacrificial
knife, and, calling on Heaven, will make one great
expiatory offering to the God of Liberty.
I deny that the documents give a false statement in
relation to defaulters; they only stated what appeared
on the record ; this is all they professed to do, and this
is all they did. These commencing groans of detected
guilt were as nothing; they were mere whispers, yea,
sweet sounds, in comparison to the outcries of national
agony that will soon fill the air as the whole truth
comes to view. Come it must. Let it affect this party
or that party, things have reached a point at which
concealment is any longer hopeless. Whether these
defaults are or are not an argument against the sub-
Treasury — let them be even the strongest argument in
its favor — still the people must have the truth. The
truth will go like a two-edged sword ; error must get
out of the way, or be cut in twain. Away with this
pitiful talk about the expense of printing a document !
Let the people be no longer insulted by an open at
tempt to stifle the light and hide the truth from them.
Have it they will, and have it all.
PRENTISS'S REPLY
Mr. Speaker:
I am as well pleased as the gentleman (Menefee)
who has just taken his seat at witnessing the sensa-

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 207
tion in certain parts of this House at every fresh haul
of truth from the great ddep of this Administration's
secrets. The great oyster bed has not been disturbed for
years, now, and I do not doubt that another grab wil!
bring upon water larger and fatter oysters than any
which have yet been opened. Yes, there are other fine
fish below, which have not yet been hooked up or
speared. I am for trying all ways to get at them, lines,
nets, spears, harpoons ; any means and all means I am
for trying, so that by some means the fish may be made
to appear above water. I am happy to perceive, from
some symptoms of compunction on the other side, that
the party is not as yet "desperately wicked" ; they are
not judicially hardened ; there is some little nucleus of
moral principle, around which better feelings may yet
cluster, so as to leave a hope that they may still be
snatched as brands from the burning. I had begun to
think that the skin of this Administration was like that
of the rhinoceros, insensible to all attacks, and proof
against the keenest dart ; but I begin to have a better
hope. The Globe may admonish and warn and entreat,
but it is in vain; the Globe can not stop this debate on
corruption. It will go on; the nation will hear it.
Gentlemen do not like this word "corruption" ; but if
I thought their ears were not callous, I would buy a
starling, and have it taught to cry nothing but "cor
ruption!" I would find the Administration when it
lay asleep, and in its ear would halloo "corruption!
corruption! corruption!" I would not, according to
the advice of the gentleman from New York over the
way, (Mr. Cumberling,) have the anatomical dissec
tions confined to dead subjects; no, there are plenty
of living ones whose imposthumes need the knife. I
trust these documents will be published ; I want them
for two purposes; first for lessons of morality, and
then as models of the King's English. My friend,
(Menefee) has said they would cut like a two-edged
sword ; ay, like a three-edged one.

208 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
On December 29, Speaker Polk laid before
the House a communication from the Secre
tary of the Treasury, in comphance with a
resolution of the House of July 7, in respect to
the donations of the pubhc lands and the quan
tity surveyed, the plans for dividing it in its
proceeds, the improvements most eligible in its
present system of sale and with other matters
of a character somewhat similar.
William C. Johnson of Maryland moved that
this document be laid on the table, and five
thousand extra copies be printed. Zadok
Casey of Illinois moved that the Speaker's re
port be referred to the Committee on Public
Lands. To the printing Mr. Casey had no ob
jection. Menefee opposed Casey's motion on
the ground that it was a subject that belonged
to the States exclusively in their separate in
terests. After further discussion, Casey's motion was
voted on and lost, 130 to 57. Menefee, with
all the other Kentucky Representatives, except
John L. Murray, voted against Casey's mo
tion. The report was then referred to a committee
to be composed of one member from each State,
as Menefee had desired, and five thousand
extra copies were ordered to be printed.
On Wednesday, January 2, 1839, Samuel
Cushman of New Hampshire, asked leave of
the House to make a statement in reference to
the Secretary of the Treasury. Objection be
ing made, Mr. Cushman moved a suspension
of the rules, assuring the House that he would
not occupy two minutes. The rules were sus
pended and, Mr. Cushman made the following

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 209
Statement: That on Monday last Henry A.
Wise of Virginia offered a resolution propos
ing a select committee to investigate the con
duct of the Secretary of the Treasury, and to
see if they can find sufficient evidence against
him to impeach him, and this committee was to
be chosen by ballot. Mr. Cushman then went
on to say that the Secretary would welcome an
investigation, and began to eulogize him. At
this point Menefee called him to order. Mene
fee then stated that Cushman had asked leave
to make a statement, and he was making an
argument. Cushman replied to the gentleman
from Kentucky, "I have done." Sargent S.
Prentiss of Mississippi inquired if the gentle
man's argument was a subject of reply. This
inquiry was greeted with cries of "Order,
order!" Prentiss then asked leave to make a
statement. Objection was made and Prentiss
moved a suspension of the rules. The yeas and
nays were then ordered and resulted in a tie —
97 to 97 — Menefee voting for Prentiss.
Wise then asked leave to ask the gentleman
from New Hampshire whether or no his state
ment was made by the authority of the Secre
tary of the Treasury. Wise's request lost by
one vote. The House then took up the reports
from committees.
On January 7 Menefee, with Chambers,
Southgate, and Murray presented petitions.
On the 9th the defalcation of Samuel Swart
wood, late collector of the New York port, came
up for discussion. C. C. Cumbreling, of New
York, had moved that the part of Van Buren's
message that related to the defalcation of
14

210 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Swartwood, except so much as relates to a
modification of the revenue laws, be referred
to a select committee. Wise had modified his
amendment by accepting, as a modification, an
amendment offered some time ago, by his col
league, James Garland. Garland's motion was
as follows: "Resolved, That a select commit
tee be appointed, to consist of nine members,
to be chosen by ballot, whose duty it shall be
to inquire into the causes and extent of the late
defalcations of the custom house at New York
and other places, the length of time they have
existed, the correctness of the returns which
have been made by the collector, naval and
other officers, and the deposit banks respect
ively; and all such acts connected with such
defalcations as may be deemed material to de
velop their true character. And be it further
resolved, That said committee be required to
inquire into and make report of any defalca
tions among the collectors, receivers and dis-
bursers of the public money, which may now
exist; who are the defaulters, the amount of
defalcation, the length of time they have ex
isted, and the causes which led to them; and
that said committee have power to send for
persons and papers." Menefee and John Rob
ertson of Virginia debated this resolution until
a very late hour. The House then adjourned.
On the next day the question of public defal
cation was again taken up. Wise had also
asked in his resolutions that twenty thousand
extra copies of documents numbers 297 and 13
be printed. Arphaxod Loomis of New York
had a motion before the House to amend
Wise's resolution, by striking out document

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 211
297, and print document 13, the one relating to
Swartwood. William J. Graves of Kentucky
moved a call of the House, and on this motion
Menefee demanded the yeas and nays, which
being ordered, resulted 95 nays to 88 yeas. So
the call was not ordered.
The question then before the House was on
agreeing with the amendment. Isaac H. Bron
son of New York demanded the yeas and nays,
which were ordered, and the amendment was
rejected by the vote of 112 to 89. Menefee
voted against it. Further consideration of the
public defalcation was cut off by the expiration
of the morning hour.
Monday, January 14, was "resolution day,"
and Menefee offered a resolution to the effect
that the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions
be instructed to inquire into the expediency of
granting pensions to three Revolutionary sol
diers, and of increasing the pensions of four
Revolutionary soldiers, all living in his con
gressional district in Kentucky. Menefee was
doing for those old soldiers as he would have
had one occupying his place do for his own
father, a soldier of the war of 1812, if he had
been living and needed assistance.
On the next day the defalcation of Swart
wood again came up for discussion. The ques
tion now was to strike from the proposition
that part of it proposing to raise the commit
tee by ballot and insert "viva voce." Hugh S.
Legare of South Carolina addressed the House
at length in opposition to the appointment of
the committee by the chair. The debate was
further continued by Menefee, Wise, and Pren
tiss, after which the House adjourned.

212 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
On January 17 it was finally agreed to elect
the committee to investigate the Swartwood
defalcation by ballot instead of by "viva voce."
Men like William C. Dawson of Georgia,
Henry A. Wise of Virginia, and James Harlan
of Kentucky were chosen to serve on this com
mittee. Menefee and Prentiss received only a
few votes for places on the committee.
On the following day Wise offered a resolu
tion to give the committee power to elect a
clerk, to employ a printer to print for its own
use its journal and other papers required to be
copied for its members, and to also give the
committee leave to go to New York or other
places for the purpose of prosecuting its in
quiries, and that the members of the committee
be excused from attendance upon the House,
until it shall have made its report.
Mr. Beatty of Pennsylvania and Charles G.
Haynes of Georgia objected to this resolution.
Wise then moved to suspend the rules, to allow
of the motion being offered. The resolution
was again read and then Beatty moved to ad
journ. Menefee demanded the yeas and nays,
but withdrew the call. The motion was nega
tived without a count, and Wise's resolution
was finally lost.
On January 22 several committees made
their reports and Menefee, from the Committee
on Patents, reported, with an amendment, the
Senate bill to renew the patent of Thomas
Blanchard. The amendment was concurred in,
and the bill ordered to a third reading.
. After some executive communications had
been passed on, the graduation bill, "a bill to
reduce and graduate the price of the public

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 213
lands," was taken up. Zadok Casey of Illinois
moved to refer it to the Committee on Public
Lands. Lewis Williams of North Carolina,
"the father of the House," moved to refer it
to the select committee of twenty-six on the
public lands, and asked for the yeas and nays,
which were ordered. Menefee made a few re
marks in favor of sending the bill to the select
committee of twenty-six, as proposed by Mr.
Williams. Casey followed Menefee and said
he had not been able to hear all the remarks
of the gentleman from Kentucky, but from the
whole tenor of the debate it was obvious that
the only object of the motion to refer this bill
to the select committee was to defeat the pas
sage of the bill at this session. This was a
measure of deep interest to the new States, and
indeed to the whole western country. It was
a subject that legitimately belonged to the
Committee on Public Lands, one that had here
tofore received the attention of that committee,
and if it was the intention of the House to act
on the subject at this session, it should go to
that committee. Casey spoke at great length,
giving his reason why the bill should go to
the Committee on Public Lands instead of the
select committee.
The debate was continued by Charles G.
Haynes of Georgia and Joshua L. Martin of
Alabama, who advocated Casey's motion, and
Menefee, and John Robertson of Virginia, who
advocated Williams's motion. The bill was
finally tabled by the vote of 102 to 97; with
Menefee voting affirmatively. On the next day
an attempt was made to reconsider the mo-

214 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tion to table the graduation bill, but without
success. On motion of Menefee, the bill to authorize
a renewal of the patent to Thomas Blanchard
was taken up on its third reading. Millard
Fillmore of New York, Benjamin C. Howard
of Maryland, and Menefee, with several other
Representatives, made some remarks on this
motion. Howard then moved that the bill be
postponed until Friday next, and then be
printed. Menefee demanded the previous
question. Ratliffe Boon of Indiana moved to
lay the bill on the table, which was not agreed
to. The demand of Menefee for the previous
question was then seconded. The main ques
tion being on the passage of the bill, William
Montgomery of North Carolina asked for the
yeas and nays, which were ordered. The ques
tion was then taken and resulted — yeas 89,
nays 72. So the bill was passed.
On January 28 Menefee offered the follow
ing resolution : "Resolved, . That the Secretary
of the Treasury be, and he is hereby directed
to communicate to this House a statement of
the sums respectively awarded, under the act of
July 13th, 1832, for carrying into effect the
convention with France of July 4th, 1831, in
favor of persons from whom sums of money
were due to the United States; the amounts
to which they were respectively entitled under
the ratable proportions provided for by said
act; the amounts respectively paid to them;
the amounts respectively entered to their
credit by reason of the deductions provided for
in said act; why, if the fact be so, said persons
did not receive the full benefit of said act, either

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 215
by payment or credits on their debts to the
United States; whether an agent was em
ployed by the Treasury Department to ascer
tain the persons thus indebted, and if so, who
he was, on what terms employed, and, if paid,
to what amount, how, and by what authority :
and whether all the facts necessary to enable
the Secretary to make said deductions did not
previously exist on the files of his department,
and were not actually furnished for that pur
pose by an officer thereof under his direc
tion." On February 4, Underwood, Graves, and
Menefee, Kentucky's leading Representatives
in the 25th Congress, presented petitions.
Ten days later, C. C. Cumbreling of New
York asked leave of the House to present and
lay on the table a memorial from Collector
Swartwood, complaining of the proceedings of
the select committee on defalcations. Cries of
"No! No!" greeted his request. Cumbreling
replied, saying that he "must then move a sus
pension of the rules for it as a matter involving
great injustice to the collector of New York,
and I now ask for the yeas and nays." Mene
fee asked Cumbreling what the memorial was.
Cumbreling replied to Menefee, saying he
would explain if the House would allow him to
do so. Again cries of "No! No!" greeted the
Representative from New York. Mark H. Sib
ley of New York intimated that he should pre
fer to have it read, as he wanted to know upon
what he would be voting. Cumbreling replied
to his colleague, and said that, with the consent
of the House, he would make a brief statement
of its contents. Renewed cries of "No! No!"

2l6 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
met his offer. Abraham P. Grant, also of New
York, moved a suspension of the rules, so that
Cumbreling might have leave to make the
statement; but being included in the motion
already made, he did not press his request.
Menefee then desired to know if this was a
memorial from the collector of the port of
New York protesting against the action of the
select committee of the House. Cumbreling
replied as follows: "Not protesting, but
merely stating his own case, and asking the
House to take measures to prosecute the in
quiry in relation to a witness." Menefee be
gan to reply: "That is to say, Mr. Speaker,"
at which point his voice was completely
drowned out by the loud cries of "Order!"
and the Globe reporter heard nothing more that
Menefee said — if he said anything more. John
Chambers of Kentucky expressed a hope that
the opposition to presenting the memorial
would be withdrawn. The question on the
suspension of the rules was then taken, and it
was voted not to suspend them, by the vote of
124 to 73, Menefee and Prentiss voting in the
negative. On February 18 Cumbreling asked the
House to take up the bill to extend the time of
the act authorizing the issue of Treasury
notes until May, and to issue the unissued bal
ance. Edward Stanley of North Carolina ob
jected. Menefee said that he should not op
pose this bill, but its necessity showed the fal
lacy of the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury on the state of the finances. Sherrod
Williams of Kentucky demanded the yeas and

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 217
nays upon the passage of the bill, which were
ordered, and the bill was passed by a vote of
102 to 88.
George N. Briggs of Massachusetts moved
that the title of the bill be so amended as to
read, "an act to revise and extend," the act
authorizing the issue of Treasury notes. On
motion of John P. Kennedy of Maryland the
House adjourned.
On February 19 there appeared in the Globe
Dr. Alexander Duncan's attack on Edward
Stanley of North Carolina and William W.
Southgate of Kentucky.
On the 21st Sargent S. Prentiss of Missis
sippi introduced a resolution saying that if
Duncan was the author of the attack on the
two gentlemen that he ought to be expelled
from the House. Clerk Garland then read the
publication in the Globe of the 19th. Prentiss
then commented on the article at length, and,
when he had finished, Duncan arose and ad
mitted that he was the author of the attack.
Prentiss was followed by Daniel Jenifer of
Maryland, who thought as Prentiss did. Dun
can followed Jenifer and stated that his retort
to Southgate and Stanley was warranted, as
they had first attacked him. Joseph L. Tillin-
ghast of Rhode Island moved that Prentiss's
motion be tabled but it was lost by the vote of
91 to 83. It was then that Menefee arose and
delivered one of the most sarcastic speeches
ever delivered in the National House^ — "The
Denunciation of Duncan."
^Speech in Baltimore Patriot of February 21,1839. reported
by a Washington correspondent

2l8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
He at once began to roll out the sentiments of his
most eloquent rebuke with a fervor and potency that
I have never Isnown surpassed. They made his pulse
quiver with emotion. 'The effect on the victim him
self was most striking. He first seized a pen and
began to take notes ; and then with a desperate effort
looked up, and around at his chastiser — but another
sweep of terrible words came upon him and his head
sunk in dismay. Dante says somewhere, "Even in the
wilderness the lion will tremble, if he hears the voice
of the just man." Mr. Menefee realized this idea,
though I have no notion of comparing Duncan to this
noble monarch of the forest. Mr. Prentiss, in a sub
sequent part of the debate, was nearer the point when
he said that his friend from Kentucky had stripped
the lion's skin from the body of the ass!
In the very first sentence Menefee placed Duncan
forever beyond the pale of "honor." "We are told
that the member considers himself amenable to the
code of honor. Now I desire that that code shall not
be polluted; and I here say, in my place, that from
first to last, in the whole business of this infamous
production, there is not one single step the member has
taken, in which he has not shown an entire destitution
of the principles that regulate men who acknowledge
the obligations and responsibilities of that code. This
must be obvious to every man whose heart beats a
single stroke to honor."
Menefee then reviewed and commented on all the
circumstances of this transaction as given by Duncan
himself ; and especially dwelt on Duncan's declaration
of the dire necessity that impelled the publication, and
the admission that Messrs. Stanley and Southgate had
insulted him. He spoke here most directly and point
edly. "Where was the gentleman's valor then?
Where was his honor? Smarting under these indig
nities, as he acknowledges, from the members, why
did he take in his hand the redress, which he says he
expected them to take for his retort? He admits he

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 219
was inexpressibly grieved by these 'insults,' but in
stead of making the call of their authors, which after
his professions and declarations and boastings, he
would have made if he had had one single fibre of
honor in his heart, he sits deliberately down, and col
lecting all the epithets of abuse, calumny, and vituper
ation, pours them out, in glorious vindication of his
honor! And then he comes here boasting of this
dignified act as the most glorious achievement of his
life; and talking as if it restored him with all the
insults and indignities still resting upon him unre-
paid, to rank among men of honor — as if it made him
again a peer."
The eloquent Kentuckian pressed home upon Dun
can the fact that he had withheld his publication until
the Anti-Duelling Bill passed, with such force, that he
started up suddenly and attempted an explanation.
He said the communication had been ready for two
weeks. "Ready for two weeks and yet it never saw the light
until the Anti-Duelling Bill became a law!" The
retort was responded to with clapping of hands and
other manifestations of applause in the galleries.
The Speaker declared that if the disorder was repeated
the galleries should be instantly cleared ; but the cries,
"No! No!" were so general and loud that the point
was not pressed.
Duncan, who was still on the floor, intimated a de
sire to speak, and Menefee permitted him. He made
a remark in which he applied his favorite words of
"false and calumnious" to the allegation that he had
wished to shield himself under the Anti-Duelling Bill.
Mr. Menefee replied without the slightest hesita
tion — but with a coldness of disdain more effective
than the strongest passion, "The day for vindicating
honor by offsets and compromises to attacks from such
a quarter, is gone ! The member from Ohio whenever
the principles of honor rule, stands estopped, disfran
chised, self-immolated, crucified. The nail has been

220 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
driven by himself through his own vitals. He has ex
hibited a signal instance of seeking redress by coolly
and deliberately sitting down to concoct something
more vituperative and abusive by way of answer than
that with which he had been assailed."
Never did detected meanness writhe so under the
full gaze of upright and generous men, as now when
Menefee presented, in detail, piece by piece, the whole
of this individual's conduct toward Messrs. Southgate
and Stanley. He was on the rack. At last in the
very agony of his deep humiliation, he suddenly
started to his feet and began to speak. This disor
derly interruption of the member on the floor was in
stantly met with such loud cries of order, that I could
not distinguish his first words.
Mr. Menefee, in a high piercing tone, exclaimed,
"Let him go on," and took his seat. But the whole
House was so impatient of the interruption, and prob
ably had already been so disgusted with the exhibition
already made of impotent blustering, that Duncan
could not be heard for a while.
The Speaker asked Menefee whether he yielded the
floor. Menefee assented. Duncan instantly em
ployed the occasion thus granted by the courtesy of his
chastiser, to express some affected contempt for Men
efee, and then applied to him some such choice words
as "puppy," "fake," et cetera, et cetera. The House
was in an uproar immediately, the Speaker and many
members calling loudly to order.
Mr. Menefee rose. He appeared the coolest man in
the whole body. The only sign of emotion was an in
tense paleness which I never saw on that masculine
cohtenance before. A smile, playful, beautiful,
brightened it all up for an instant ; but soon gave way
to looks of the greatest haughtiness and scorn. Then
came the sentiment with which a man of true honor
and genuine courage must look down from his eleva
tion on vulgar and swaggering ribaldry. Fixing his
eye on Duncan, he said, "There was a time" — the

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 221
Speaker here called out, "The gentleman from Ken
tucky must address the chair!" "How considerate is
Mr. Polk to administer this relief : — The fact of a just
and virtuous accuser is terrible to the wicked." Mr.
Menefee turned to the chair: "Mr. Speaker, there
was a time when if the gentleman from Ohio — I say
the gentleman — I am a man of forms, Mr. Speaker:
he will not think I am serious in thus designating
him — when if he had uttered such language as has
fallen from him in reference to me, it would have
created a sensation here — yes, sir," continued Mr.
Menefee, laying his hand on his breast — "it would
have fallen like a thunderbolt among the sparks which
honor emits ! But, sir, how is the case now? Every
imputation from such a quarter, sir, falls to the ground
harmless stingless, pointless, an object of general
loathing and disgust. From the moment after all his
boastings and professions, he allowed an acknowl
edged insult to pass unredressed, his name wa!s ex
punged from the scroll of honor, if indeed it was ever
inscribed there!"
This is, as well as I can recollect, the language Mr.
Menefee used. But I can give you no idea of the
manner, nor of the impression it produced on the
House — on those who had clustered together in the
aisle and passages near him and on the crowds in the
galleries. This speech, in manuscript notes, taken in
long hand by a person present in the House,
is in the possession of the Menefee family. It
is so mutilated and disconnected, however, that
it could not be used in this book.
After this terrible denunciation the debate
was continued, as the House refused to table
Prentiss's motion. Prentiss began the fight to
expel Duncan, and, with the exception of
Menefee, conducted it almost single handed.

222 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
On the next day, on the motion of Sherrod
Williams of Kentucky, the whole Duncan af
fair was laid on the table by the vote of 117 to
94, Menefee and Prentiss voting, of course, in
the negative.
On Friday, March 1, the Maine Boundary
question came up for discussion. It was a dis
cussion between the State of Maine and the
Province of New Brunswick over the north
eastern frontier. The United States did not
understand that the territory in question
should remain in Great Britain's jurisdiction
until the final settlement of the boundary
question. Both countries claimed that the
question could be satisfactorily arranged by a
friendly discussion.
The House went into the committee of the
whole on the state of the Union, with Levi
Lincoln of Massachusetts in the chair. The
title of the bill was : "A bill giving the Presi
dent of the United States additional powers for
the defense of the United States in certain
cases, against invasion, and for other pur
poses." Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina
moved to strike out the second section of the
bill, which gave the President power to raise
twenty new regiments. John Robertson of
Virginia suggested a modification of the first
section, so as not to assume that Great Britain
"set up a claim" to exclusive jurisdiction.
Menefee wished the phraseology made so clear
that the Executive should visit an occupation
of this territory, either on the part of the gov
ernment of Great Britain, directing and acting
on her own responsibility, or through her pro-

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 223
vincial authorities. Robert Craig of Virginia
and Benjamin C. Howard of Maryland did not
agree with the gentleman from Kentucky. At
the evening session, Menefee, following Mil
lard Fillmore of New York, "spoke with great
earnestness on the necessity of vindicating the
national honor."
menefee's speech on The MAINE boundary ques
tion^
Mr. Speaker:
The debates on this question have been characterized
by such ability and fullness of detail as to spare me
the necessity of going at length into the particulars of
the controversy between the two nations, or even into
the main points on which the fitle of the United States
to the territory in dispute is founded. I propose but
to state the conclusions to which I have come respect
ing this controversy — conclusions drawn from an
anxious and solemn consideration of all the informa
tion attainable through the protracted correspondence
between the two nations, their debates in Parliament
and Congress, or other sources within my reach, and
to express my opinion upon the measures which the
existing emergency demanded. That the whole terri
tory in dispute belonged rightfully to the United
States, under the treaty of 1783, I do not for one in
stant hesitate with the utmost confidence to pronounce.
It is demonstrable; it has been already demon
strated. Nor, sir, do I hesitate, with equal confidence,
to pronounce that the claim to that territory on the
part of Great Britain is altogether unfounded, and
attempted to be supported by arguments too untenable
and frivolous, in my opinion, to comport with either
the dignity or candor of a great nation. The right,
therefore, being most manifestly with the United
States, the party who contests it on the palpably un-
' Speech in Congressional Globe.

224 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
sufficient grounds assumed by Great Britain must be
held answerable before the world for whatever evils so
unfounded a pretension may tend to produce. All na
tions are tenacious of territory; and territorial dis
putes are, from their nature, more likely than almost
any other to engender mutual irritation and exaspera
tion, in which both parties are liable to err. But the
fault, and consequent responsibility for it all lie with
the party which, by the assertion of an unjust claim,
thus exposes both to such consequences. It is in this
view only that I now consider the question of right to
the disputed territory, and not as furnishing a reason
for the measures proposed now to be taken by the
United States; for these measures flow from other
reasons than those of conviction of the right, and of a
fixed resolution to maintain it. They flow from an
emergency which has lately arisen — ^new and peculiar.
Great Britain, sir, claims exclusive jurisdiction over
the disputed territory until the dispute shall have been
settled. Such a claim, urged merely in negotiation,
would, I think, be unreasonable enough. Assuming
that the right is doubtful (which it is not), it is mani
fest that the claim, merely as such, of one nation is en
titled to no higher respect than of another. It cannot
be presumed, in advance of negotiation and adjust
ment, that the claim of either is superior. Independent
Powers must, in this respect, be regarded as equals.
To concede that the undivided pretensions of either
shall be invested with a validity and force denied to
the other, is to concede away, in some sense, an essen
tial attribute of sovereignty. Yet Great Britain, by
her claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the subject of
dispute until it shall have been adjusted, arrogates to
herself, undoubtedly, this inadmissible superiority over
the United States. Nor is the reasoning by which this
claim is attempted to be maintained less objectionable
than the claim itself; a reasoning founded on the as
sumption of the principle so humiliating to the United
States, that their independence, nationality, territory,
were derived from Great Britain by grant imparted by

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 225
the treaty of peace of 1783 ; and that, therefore. Great
Britain is to be presumed to remain in possession un
til there has been a transfer in fact. Sir, the treaty
of ^7^3 granted nothing — ^neither independence, na
tionality, nor territory; that treaty but acknowledged
them. For the foundation of all their inestimable
rights, the United States point not to the treaty of
peace, but to the glorious war of independence which
preceded it — to occupation; and to the deeds of the
noblest ancestry that ever bled in the cause of free
dom — to conquest. Sir, I repeat. Great Britain
granted nothing; she but acknowledged and recog
nized what the United States themselves had accom
plished — without her and against her.
This claim, therefore, to exclusive jurisdiction, un
til the termination of the controversy, if urged by
Great Britain, on the general reasoning hitherto ad
vanced in its support, in the most unexceptionable
form of negotiation, it would be the duty of this Gov
ernment, under every obligation of interest and honor,
to repel. But, sir. Great Britain of late reposes her
claim to exclusive jurisdiction upon another founda
tion, which, if existing as represented by her, exhibits
it in an imposing if not irresistible light; which is
that the United States, in the progress of the negotia
tion, had conceded, by explicit agreement, the right
now contended for. This alleged agreement is as
serted, in positive terms, both by the provincial author
ities of New Brunswick and the British Minister here.
Sir, I (in common, I believe, with the whole country)
was surprised, absolutely astounded, by this annuncia
tion, so confidently made, and from sources so re
spectable, of the existence of such an agreement. If
this Government had so agreed, the nation was of
course bound, in faith and honor, to respect the agree
ment, no matter how injurious to our interests or hu
miliating to our character. Sir, I cannot express the
intensity of the solicitude I felt to hear the response
IS

226 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
which our Government should make to this alleged
agreement. Could it be possible that any Adminis
tration had been so unmindful of interest, and regard
less of honor, as to have made such a concession?
This suspense was of short duration. I now rejoice,
sir, profoundly, and with patriotic thankfulness (as
doubtless the nation does too), over the prompt and
unequivocal assurance of our Government that no such
agreement does, or ever did, exist. The British Min
ister is respectfully but earnestly invited to point to
the alleged agreement. He has failed to show it; he
cannot show it, nor can his Government. Sir, it does
not exist, and we are left to hope that its existence
has been urged under an unintentional misconception
of the negotiations between the two Governments.
Unsupported, therefore, by this pretended agreement,
the claim of Great Britain to exclusive jurisdiction is
thrown back upon the untenable and wholly inadmissi
ble reasoning in which it originated.
But, sir, if the grounds which this Government has
invariably assumed in resisting the claim by Great
Britain to exclusive jurisdiction needed additional sup
port, it is furnished by an explicit understanding be
tween the two Governments that neither party should
exert exclusive jurisdiction pending the negotiation,
but should be confined to the portions of the territory
in dispute, then in the possession and under the juris
diction of each, without the right to enlarge their then
existing possession of jurisdiction in any respect what
ever. This understanding (unlike the agreement set
up by the British functionaries) admits of being
pointed to and shown. It has been shown. The cor
respondence shows it. Nor can its existence be con
tested. This understanding, by itself, arms the United
States with an argument against the claim of Great
Britain (if the question is to be submitted to the ar
bitrament of argument) entirely irresistible, so long-
as the existing understanding shall remain unre-
scinded.

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 227
But, sir, it appears that argument and negotiation
are to be discontinued by Great Britain, and the more
cogent instrumentality of arms to be substituted in
the enforcement of this claim to exclusive jurisdiction.
It is announced, officially and unconditionally, by the
provincial authorities of New Brunswick that they
have peremptory instructions from the British Govern
ment to enforce this claim by arms, if arms be neces
sary, and that those instructions shall, at all hazards,
be executed, if the powers of the British arms in all
the provinces are adequate to their execution. Sir, this
new manifestation of purpose wholly alters the aspect
of the controversy. It proposes to deprive the United
States of the advantages which they obviously possess
under an original view of the respective claims of the
two nations, unaffected by any agreement or under
standing. It proposes to trample under foot an ex
plicit understanding, solemnly and formally recog
nized, forbidding the pretension now urged. It pro
poses, finally and worst, to withdraw the adjustment
of his claim from the field of reason and negotiation,
and to adjourn it over to the field of arms ! This, sir, is
the new position which Great Britain has chosen to
assume. It is altogether her act. She has a right to
assume that or any other position she pleases with
respect to this controversy; we cannot prevent that.
The question now, sir, is, "How shall the United States
meet this new position?"
Mr. Speaker, I am fully sensible of the comparative
insignificance of the territory in dispute. I have, I
trust, duly weighed the deep calamities of war in any
form, and especially between two nations as powerful
and as closely connected in commercial and other rela
tions as Great Britain and the United States. I know
that this nation is unprepared for war. I believe I
have soberly weighed all the motives to peace; nor
have the dangers to which war must ever expose in
stitutions like ours being unconsidered. All these
things have been calmly and resolutely looked in the

228 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
face; and, in the full view of them all, I stand in readi
ness to repel the pretensions of Great Britain by reason
and negotiation — peaceably, if she is disposed to rea
son and negotiate peaceably ; and in perfect readiness
to repel her pretensions by arms, if she is disposed to
compel us to that resort! Sir, if Great Britain persists
in backing her pretensions by arms, but one alterna
tive is left us — dishonor or war; and, sir, dishonor
the spirit of this nation will not endure. Choice of
peace or war is with Great Britain. She will manifest
her choice of war by persisting to execute the instruc
tions avowed by the provincial authorities. For, sir,
to the peaceable execution of these instructions this
country cannot submit and never will submit ; it is the
price of its honor to submit. In such an event war is
inevitable; on our part a righteous war, upon which
the smiles of the God of battles may be confidently in
voked. If Great Britain wills war, let war come!
This nation, armed in the righteousness of such a
cause, has nothing to fear — all to expect.
In the present posture of this controversy, sir, there
is no occasion, nor is it proper to animadvert upon the
course of our own Government for several years past,
in the conduct of these negotiations. That unjustifia
ble delays have been submitted to, may probably be
shown. False steps on minor points may have been
occasionally taken to our prejudice. This would but
afford cause of complaint by the nation against its own
Government; whilst at the same time, the position of
Great Britain is rendered, by that cause, still more in
defensible. Nor would this be an appropriate occa
sion for arraying the wrongs — still unredressed —
which this country has suffered from Great Britain by
encroachments on other portions of our territory, or
the unatoned outrage upon our territory and the lives
of our people in the affair of the Caroline. These are
subjects which stand open for discussion on their own
merits, and in the mode which becomes them. The

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 229
present emergency alone is now to be looked to, and
provided for — ^by itself and for itself; and the meas
ures of legislation taken by Congress should regard
the emergency in that light. I am happy, sir, that the
Committee on Foreign Relations, to which these mo
mentous subjects were committed, have so regarded it.
I agree with them generally in the reasoning of their
report — entirely agree with them in its tone.
With respect, sir, to the bill reported by the com
mittee, I regret that it is not, in my opinion, wholly
free from objection. The second section, providing
for so large a contingent augmentation of the regular
force is, I think, unnecessary at the present moment.
It confers vast discretjonary powers upon the Presi
dent. Those powers may not be abused, it is true ; but
it is no less true that they are liable to abuse, and may
be abused. It is in seasons like this that free nations
are most apt, in their efforts to guard against dangers
from abroad, to forego their accustomed jealousy of
power, by erecting precedents of discretion which
plant the seeds of fatal dangers from within. I trust
that the committee themselves, will, on reflection, per
ceive the inexpediency of this provision, and decline
further to press it. Nor should I have recommended
as the committee have done, a special embassy to Eng
land. I am not sure that the present posture of affairs
is such as, in strict delicacy, to require or even war
rant it. Yet in the spirit of forbearance and peace
which I hope may ever characterize the counsels of
this country, I shall interpose no resistance to the
measure, and shall be happy in the expectation that it,
amongst other measures, may conduce to a speedy
termination of this unfortunate controversy, peace
ably and honorably to both nations.
I have but to add, sir, the expression of my unaf
fected and profound desire for peace ; and at the same
time, my conviction, not less unaffected and profound,
that the enforcement by arms of the late pretensions of
Great Britain, as threatened by her provincial authori-

230 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
ties, is incompatible with honorable peace. If Great
Britain, in violation of our rights, in disregard of our
own solemn engagements, shall precipitate a war, this
nation, I believe, will, as one man, brace itself for the
conflict. Other gentlemen better understand than I
do the spirit existing in their respective sections of
the Union. The nation has, in the history of the past,
a guarantee that the region in which Kentucky is sit
uated will be found promptly obedient to the calls of
the national honor. Satisfy them that peace is dis
honorable, and they are for war. They will not in
quire how much or how little territory is involved in
the dispute, they will not surrender an inch, if it in
volves a sacrifice of the national honor. They will
never consent to graduate honor by interest. They
fought the battles of the country in the late war, from
the Thames to the Balize, over questions wholly mari
time, in which they had no direct interest. Yet, sir,
the national honor demanded that war; and maritime
in its origin as it was, it found nowhere in the Union
more ardent and steadfast votaries than were found a
thousand miles in the interior. Sir, as they were
prompt then, so they will be prompt now to vindicate
to the utmost, and to the last extremity, the honor of
the country. They will not now calculate, as in times
past they never calculated, the sacrifices which such a
contest may involve. They regard the maintenance of
the national character and honor as paramount to all
other considerations ; for they see in it the only means
of enjoying, in security, any of the inestimable bless
ings which Heaven has plainly reserved for their coun
try. For this they deem no sacrifice too dear. Money,
property, blood — count and measure it all — it is yours,
freely — if the vindication of the national honor de
mands it!
Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina re
plied to Menefee and said that national inter-

IN CONGRESS (concluded) 23 1
ests ought to be looked at as well as national
honor. He deprecated war, and thought peace
might be procured, but was prepared to go any
length when war was inevitable.
Prentiss replied to Pickens, defending Mene
fee's position, and "treated with ridicule the
idea of looking at interest when honor was at
stake." The debate was continued until mid
night, when it was decided to table it until the
next morning.
On March 2 the bill was passed, with the
second section stricken out.
On Sunday, March 3, in a few well-chosen
words. Speaker Polk took leave of the House,
and at ten o'clock adjourned it sine die. Thus
ended the 25th Congress, and Menefee came
back to Kentucky to meet Henry Clay, the
dream of his boyhood, the ambition of his man
hood, and then to die.

CHAPTER VIII
return to KENTUCKY
In the Maysville Eagle for March 13 the edi
tor, Lewis Collins, the beginner of the greatest
of Kentucky histories, noticed that on Satur
day, March 9, R. H. Menefee, in company with
Clay, Crittenden, Chambers, and Hawes,
reached Maysville, Kentucky, on their way
back to their respective homes. All of them,
with the exception of Clay, who was detained
a day on account of illness, departed for their
homes immediately, and Menefee, Crittenden,
and Hawes reached Lexington on the same
day. Menefee, with his wife, did not return to Mt.
Sterling, but decided to live, in the future, in
Lexington. They boarded with Mrs. Mene
fee's mother, Mrs. Matthew H. Jouett, at num
ber 46 East Main street. Matthew H. Jouett,
the greatest of Kentucky artists, had died in
1827, and had left his family very little money.
His widow was compelled to keep boarders,
and during the years of 1839 and 1840 she had
as boarders Menefee and his wife, Oliver
Frazer, the Kentucky artist who was to paint
a picture of Menefee that has contributed
toward his immortality, and his wife, and Col.
William R. McKee, a gallant Mexican soldier,
who fell at Buena Vista, and his wife. These
three couples, Mrs. Frazer used to tell her
daughter, formed "a delightful dinner party."
On the 1st day of April, 1839, Menefee quali-

RETURN To KENTUCKY 233
fied as an attorney and counsellor at law, at
the Fayette Circuit Court.^ Judge Aaron K.
Wooley was on the bench.
As Menefee had been in politics for three
years, and had received only one dollar and a
half a day as a representative in the Kentucky
House, and only five dollars per day in the
National House, he had been able to save very
little money, and now he was determined to
practice law and increase his bank account.
As a prominent Kentuckian has said, Menefee
had learned how it pays to eschew politics and
stay at home, and, although he was to be
identified with Kentucky politics for the
next year, he refused, as the Flemingsburg
Kentuckian said, to make the race for- the 26th
Congress. "Mr. Menefee declines to run for a
seat in the next Congress. This will certainly
be a matter of no little regret to the whole
country. During his term of service in the last
Congress of the United States, Mr. Menefee
has had but few equals and scarcely any super
iors in point of ability. He has proven himself
a statesman of the very first order and a Rep
resentative faithful to his constituency, and un
tiring in his efforts to advance the best inter
ests of our common country. Considerations
of a private nature are alleged as the reasons
for declining a canvass at the ensuing elec
tion." Richard H. Menefee practiced law at the
Fayette bar during the summer of 1839, and he
built up a lucrative practice. During the
months of June and July he had his profes
sional card in the Frankfort Commonwealth.
^Record Book No. 26, in Fayette Circuit Clerk's Office.

234 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
It appeared at the top of the column, which was
devoted to professional notices, and simply
stated that he had resumed the practice of law,
and would attend, besides the courts held in
Lexington, the Court of Appeals, the Federal
Court, and the Circuit Courts of Bourbon and
Scott Counties. Below Menefee's card ap
peared such distinguished Kentuckians as John
Calhoun and James Harlan, two of Menefee's
colleagues in the 25th Congress, who, like
Menefee, had given up politics for law. John J.
Crittenden announced his intention of practic
ing during the summer, in Frankfort. Three
men, who had been or were to be. Governors of
Kentucky — William Owsley, James T. More-
head and James F. Robinson, — also had their
notices in the Commonwealth. So it may be easily
seen from the above list that Kentucky had
lawyers in those days.
On August 12, 1839, the Whig Central Com
mittee, composed of Benjamin W. Dudley,
Gen. Leslie Combs, Harry I. Bodley, Rich
ard Pindell, and Richard H. Menefee, which
was appointed in 1838 at a meeting held in
Frankfort, over which Governor Thomas Met
calfe had presided, published in the Kentucky
newspapers an address to the Whigs of Ken
tucky, urging the appointment of delegates to
the Whig National Convention which was to
meet in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December
4, 1839, and to the Whig State Convention,
which was to meet in Harrodsburg, Kentucky,
in August of the same year. The committee
urged "harmony and concert of action as in
dispensable conditions to the success of our
cause, lying at the foundations of both."

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 23S
The Harrodsburg State Whig Convention
met in the old Baptist Church, August 26, 1839.
Gen. Leslie Combs was appointed temporary
chairman and he called the meeting to order.
About four hundred delegates, representing
fifty-nine Kentucky counties, were present.
Governor Thomas Metcalfe was elected perma
nent chairman of the convention, and he ad
dressed the convention after the counties had
been called. Fayette County sent eighteen
delegates, among them Richard H. Menefee,
Henry Clay, Jr., R. S. Todd, Robert Wickliffe,
Jr., and Gen. Leslie Combs. From Woodford
County, Thomas F. Marshall and William B.
and (George B. Kinkaid, and from Mercer
County, James Harlan and John B. Thompson.
These were the leading men of the conven
tion. The afternoon was taken up with various
resolutions as to how they should proceed to
nominate the gubernatorial candidates, and,
after much discussion the convention ad
journed to meet the following morning at nine
o'clock. The next day James Harlan nominated Rob
ert P. Letcher of Garrard County for Gover
nor, and O. G. Gates, Crittenden's law partner,
nominated William Owsley of Franklin
County. The vote resulted in forty-eight votes
for Letcher and twenty-six for Owsley.
Letcher was then declared to be the Whig
candidate for Governor of Kentucky. John L.
Helm of Hardin, Archibald Dixon of Hender
son, John F. Todd and J. R. Skiles of
Warren, Manlius V. Thompson of Scott,
and Robert S. Todd of Fayette were

236 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
then nominated for Lieutenant-Governor.
Menefee rose and said that he was desired by
Mr. R. S. Todd to express his thanks for the
honor done him by the gentleman who had
nominated him, but that he must ask him to
withdraw his name from before the conven
tion. James Shelby of Fayette immediately
arose and withdrew his name. Robert S. Todd
had two daughters, one of whom married
Abraham Lincoln and the other one married
Ninian Edwards. After several ballots had
been taken, Manhus V. Thompson of Scott
was unanimously nominated for Lieutenant-
Governor. Chairman Metcalfe then appointed
a committee to inform Letcher and Thompson
of their nomination.
The delegations were ordered to select their
presidential elector, and a committee of thir
teen, one from each Congressional district, was
also appointed to select two delegates-at-large.
The electors-at-large were Richard A. Buckner
and James T. Morehead. The Fayette delega
tion chose Richard H. Menefee as the presi
dential elector for the tenth congressional dis
trict. Two of Menefee's old congressional col
leagues, James Harlan and William W. South-
gate, were chosen electors for their congres
sional districts.
After the electors were chosen the conven
tion called on Thomas F. Marshall, William J.
Graves and Richard H. Menefee to address
them, "which they did in a most forcible and
appropriate manner."
A young man, who was afterward to become
the most distinguished criminal lawyer that
^ Lexington Intelligencer, September, 1839.

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 237
Kentucky has produced, heard Menefee de
liver his speech. To-day Capt. Philip B.
Thompson of Harrodsburg, nearly ninety
years of age, remembers Menefee's speech. He
told me some time ago that it was the greatest
political speech he had ever heard. The only
one he ever heard that was comparable to
it was one that Henry Clay delivered when he
was making his last race for the Presidency.
He also told me that Henry Clay, Jr., reminded
him more of Menefee than any other orator he
ever heard.
After passing resolutions of respect on the
death of Governor James Clark, who had died
on August 27, 1839, the convention adjourned,
and Menefee returned to Lexington.
On September 5 Lieutenant-Governor
Charles A. Wickliffe, according to the Ken
tucky Constitution, took the oath as Governor
of Kentucky. Clark died at a time when Ken
tucky needed a strong man in the executive
chair, as she had never needed one before or
since. The terrible financial panic, which was
to continue for the next year or so, was at its
very height. But Wickliffe probably did all in
a Governor's power to give his people assist
ance. At a meeting of the Fayette County Whigs,
held on October 14 to select a delegate to the
Whig National Convention which met at Har
risburg, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1839, Gen.
Leslie Combs was chosen to represent the tenth
congressional district. Menefee had been
away from home so much that he probably de
clined to go, or his health may have begun to
cause him anxiety at this time. Governor

238 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
James Barbour of Virginia was chosen presi
dent of the National Convention, and Governor
Thomas Metcalfe of Kentucky was chosen as
one of the vice-presidents. Governor Barbour
made an eloquent speech of acceptance, and in
the following words stated the principles upon
which the Whig party was founded: One
presidential term, the integrity of the public
servants, the safety of the public money, and
the general good of the people. Surely a very
good platform, we moderns will admit.
On December 6 the committee appointed to
vote on the candidates for President and Vice-
President of the United States reported,
through Governor John Owen of North Caro
lina, that 254 ballots had been cast and that
William H. Harrison had 148, Henry Clay 90,
and Winfield Scott 16. Harrison was then de
clared to be the convention's choice for Presi
dent. One of the delegates from Kentucky,
Mr. Banks, assured the convention tha't "Ken
tucky loved the country more than she loves
Clay," and that the State would give her elec
toral vote to Harrison. Gen. William Preston,
also of Kentucky, arose and asked General
Combs to read a letter from Clay, in which the
"Commoner" urged union among Whigs and
to disregard his position. He referred to Gen-
eal Harrison in eulogistic terms. John Tyler
was nominated for Vice-President without op
position. After passing a resolution asking the Whig
young men of the country to assemble in Balti
more in May, 1840, "for the purpose of ad
vancing the cause of sound principles," the con
vention adjourned without adopting a plat-

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 239
form. The Whigs had abandoned Henry Clay
for the purpose of uniting the Anti-Masonic
and other opposition elements, and had nomi
nated William H. Harrison of Ohio, who was
to lead them to victory.
On Saturday evening, January 11, 1840, the
Whigs of Lexington held a meeting in the
court-house, for the purpose of sounding the
local Whigs on Harrison. Dr. Joseph D.
Chinn was elected temporary chairman, and
Robert Wickliffe, Jr., D. M. Craig, and W. F.
Taft were appointed as a committee to report
proper officers for the meeting and suitable
resolutions for its consideration. Mr. Wick
liffe reported the nomination of James E. Davis
for president and Richard H. Menefee as one
of the vice-presidents, which was concurred in.
Editorially, D. C. Wickliffe, editor of the
Lexington Observer and Reporter, said that this
meeting "was one of the largest and most en
thusiastic assemblies that ever took place in
this city." He had announced the meeting in
his paper that morning, and, although the
weather was very inclement, men from all
classes of society were present. This was al
ways the case when it became known that
Richard H. Menefee was to speak. The court
room was crowded to its utmost capacity by
6.30 o'clock.
Wickliffe the younger addressed the meet
ing and painted a brilliant biographical sketch
of Harrison, and concluded by an appeal to
the Kentucky Whigs to support him. He
was followed by Menefee, "who occupied the
attention of the meeting for upward of an hour,
in a masterly and eloquent exposition of the

240 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
principles of the Whig party, and a review of
the history of Van Buren's political • career.
Mr. Menefee's manner in depicting the char
acter of Van Buren, his political history and
that of the clique by which he is surrounded,
was remarkably happy, and created infinite
merriment among his audience." When Mene
fee had done it was announced that General
Combs, the delegate to the National Conven
tion, was present, and he was called on for a
speech, but he arose and said, as it was after
ten o'clock, he would defer his remarks until
the meeting on the 18th.
The resolutions were then read and adopted.
They condemned Van Buren, eulogized Clay,
pledged Kentucky Whigism to Harrison, and
appointed a committee to select delegates to
the Whig young men's convention, which was
to be held in Baltimore on the first Monday in
May. The meeting then adjourned to meet
one week later.
Although the next day was Sunday, Menefee
left, probably on horseback, for his old home
and birthplace, Owingsville, Kentucky, to take
part in the second greatest law case in whch
he was ever engaged. This was also to be his
last visit to the place of his birth.
Late in 1839 William S. Lane, a citizen of
Bath County, had killed McClellan Ewing.
Both men claimed an ore bank, and Ewing
drove the men that Lane had working on it
away. Lane took them back and killed Ewing.
The case was tried at a special term of the
Bath County Circuit Court. Thomas F.
Marshall prosecuted Lane and Richard H.
Menefee defended him. After a trial which

RETURN To KENTUCKY 24I
lasted several days, the jury returned a ver
dict in favor of Menefee, acquitting Lane.
There are old men in Bath County to-day who
remember this legal battle, for such it was, be
tween the two great Kentucky orators and law
yers. Menefee was at his best and it was the
last legal speech he was to deliver in the full
bloom of his manhood. He returned to Lex
ington, and was probably present at the meet
ing of the Fayette County Whigs which was
held in Lexington on the 18th of January.
This meeting was held at noon for "the farm
ers of the county to add their voice to the gen
eral note of joy with which the land had been
gladdened since the convention at Harris
burg." The meeting was addressed by Leslie
Combs and Cassius M. Clay, two of Kentucky's
delegates to the National Convention. The
committee on resolutions upheld the resolu
tions of the Lexington Whigs with some
amendments, which brought up a debate, and
held the meeting until nightfall. Editor Wick
liffe warned the Whigs not to let there be any
difference of opinion on essentials.
On March 20, 1840, Menefee's third and last
child was born, a daughter. He gave her his
mother's name — Mary Lonsdale Menefee.
This is the child that he mentions in his Diary
as being anxious about her health. She was
to survive him, however, for about six weeks,
dying April 5, 1841.
The great convention of Whig young men
met at Baltimore on May 4, 1840, and 18,000
delegates were in attendance. Clay, Webster,
Wise, Preston, and Graves were present and
i6

242 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
addressed the young Whigs. The procession
was one hour and a quarter passing a given
point. This was the largest convention held in
America up to that time. The celebration was
marred, however, by the fact of a Whig mar
shal being killed by a Loco-Foco — a Demo
crat. Menefee, so far as I have been able to
ascertain, was not a delegate from Kentucky
to this convention.
The Democratic Convention met in Balti
more the day after the Whig Convention and
renominated Martin Van Buren for the Presi
dency, adopted a strict constructionist plat
form, and left the nomination of Vice-Presi
dent to be made by the various States. The
Liberty Party had met in November, 1839, and
nominated James G. Birney, a native Ken
tuckian, but then a citizen of New York, and
Francis Lemoyne of Pennsylvania, for Presi
dent and Vice-President. Thus, with these
parties in the field, the fight for the Presidency
was on in earnest.
On May 6, at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, a
convention was held to unite the Kentucky
Whigs for the gubernatorial and presidential
elections.^ Five or six thousand persons were
in attendance. A delegate from Christian
County presented to the convention a flag,
"the workmanship of his lady, representing
the hero of Tippecanoe, receiving two of his
comrades in arms in his log-cabin at North
Bend, Indiana, with appropriate symbolic de
vices." On the following day a resolution was
' Frankfort Commonwealth, May 26, 1840, copied from Hop
kinsville Gazette.

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 243
passed, which stated that the convention
deemed it a duty which they owed to their con
stituents to declare the high estimation which
they place upon the talents and political devo
tion and exertion displayed by General Combs,
the Honorable R. H. Menefee, and Archibald
Dixon, Esquire, in their attendance upon this
convention, and their able discussion of the
great political questions and matters at issue
before the American people, and to tender
them the thanks of this convention.
"The Honorable R. H. Menefee being pres
ent at the adoption of this resolution, arose,
and in a warm and appropriate manner re
sponded to the honor conferred upon him."
There was a man present who heard this
speech, and afterward described it to a news
paper correspondent.
Old Uncle Spotswood Wilkinson, long a
resident of this town, was said to have borne
a very strong personal resemblance to General
Jackson, and in disposition perhaps a greater
similitude than in person. He was a man of
very keen perception, well read, loved to talk,
and was a fine conversationalist. Nothing de
lighted him more than to get a group of boys
or young gentlemen together and rouse within
them a spirit of healthy and enthusiastic am
bition, by reference to events in history or re
counting some of the observations of his own
past life. We recollect to have been very much
interested upon one occasion by an incident he
related in the life of Richard H. Menefee.
It was in the memorable campaign of 1840.
when Mr. Menefee, Sargent S. Prentiss, and
Henry A. Wise were all members of Congress

244 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
together, and were regarded as the great tri
umvirate of the House, as Mr. Clay, Webster,
and Calhoun were of the Senate. A great
barbecue and convention of Whigs had been
called for at Hopkinsville, and it having been
announced that Mr. Menefee would be there,
determined that he would attend himself. The
occasion was never forgotten. It remained
fresh in his memory to his death, and in mak
ing mention of it always reported it as one of
the grand pleasures of his life. Sure enough
he found Mr. Menefee there. The day was
auspicious and the crowd was immense. After
a number of very fine speeches by Chas. S.
Morehead, Philip P. Triplett, and Robt. A.
Patterson, Mr. Menefee was conducted to the
stand and introduced to the vast audience. He
described him as pale, careworn, and percept
ibly exhausted by the immense labor of the ex
citing session of Congress through which he
had just passed. But with eyes beaming with
the inspiration of genius and a voice as mellow
as the octaves of a flute, he was the very picture
of an orator, and, like his great compeer, elec
trified every listener by his first utterance. He
arraigned the administration of Mr. Van Buren
with spirit and emphasis that recalled the bold
utterances of Cicero against Cataline ; and ex
hausted alike all the resources of satire, irony,
sarcasm and pathos. Referring to the great
ship of state as she rode majestically under the
guidance of Whig masters over the waves of
public opinion, he exhorted all to come aboard,
and with inimitable aptitude of illustration re
lated the anecdote of Noah and the skeptic at
the approach of the Deluge. As the story

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 245
goes, Noah requested the unbeliever to aid him
in the construction of the ark, and promised
him, as a reward for his labor, that he should
be borne safely over the great waters that were
destined to cover up all things. But he ridi
culed the wild prophecy and reproached him
for his temerity.
The scene changes ; the windows of Heaven
were opened and the waters began to pour
down. By and by, when the earth began to be
covered up and our hero could no longer wan
der about dry shod, his courage began to give
way and he asked to be taken aboard. Noah
refused. He returned when the waters had
increased to the depth of his waist and begged
for passage. He was refused again. The rain
continuing to pour and the waters still increas
ing, he found his way again to the doors of the
ark through water up to his chin, and impor
tuned the great Captain to take him on board.
Noah still refused. At last, when all vestige of
the earth's surface was fast disappearing, find
ing a temporary resting-place on the highest
mountains, as the ark majestically floated
away in the dim distance he was seen for the
last time calling with mournful importunities
to Noah for assistance.
By this time the audience was so completely
carried away, and the acting of the orator was
so perfectly inimitable when he tiptoed on the
stand and directed his vision in imitation of
the skeptic, beckoning and giving voice at the
same time to the exclamation of "This way
with your ark, Mr. Noah!" he says he saw
five thousand people rise hurriedly from their
seats at the same time, and turning completely

246 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
round, gaze intently to see the approach of the
vessel. Uncle Spott never forgot the impression
here made, and discharging the debt of grati
tude as best he could for the pleasure this great
effort had afforded him, at the birth of his next
son he christened him Menefee Wilkinson.
After Menefee's speech the convention
recommended that Todd's and Drake's biog
raphy of Harrison be purchased and dis
tributed throughout the State, to inform the
Whigs more specifically about their candidate,
and then adjourned.
The Frankfort Commonwealth for May 26
copied from the Lexington Intelligencer an ac
count of a meeting that was held in George
town, Kentucky, to select a candidate for the
legislature. Menefee's old classmate, G. W.
Johnson, was chosen.
It was announced that Menefee and Col.
John W. Tibbotts, a Democrat, were present.
Tibbotts arose and flayed the Whigs alive.
But, as soon as he had finished, Menefee arose
and was greeted with great applause. For
nearly two hours he replied to Tibbotts's accu
sations, in a speech of which Editor Bryant
said that, "for thrilling and impassioned elo
quence, biting sarcasm and keen satire, far sur
passed anything we ever heard before."
Colonel Tibbotts turned as pale as Duncan
had when Menefee denounced him in the Na
tional House of Representatives. Menefee re
futed every charge that Tibbotts made against
Harrison, and Bryant ventured the assertion
that he would never meet Menefee again. The
meeting was one of Tibbotts's own choosing,

RETURN TO KENTUCKY 247
as Shadrach Penn, editor of the Louisville
Advertiser, had dared Menefee, through his
paper, to meet Tibbotts, and predicted if he
ever did he would never do so again. But
Menefee flayed Tibbotts just as George D.
Prentice was flaying Penn nearly 'every day
through the Journal.
On Monday, June 8, the Whig young men of
Fayette held a meeting for the purpose of se
lecting delegates to the Harrodsburg, Ken
tucky, Convention. The meeting was ad
dressed in the "most eloquent manner by the
Honorable R. H. Menefee" and others. Reso
lutions were adopted setting forth the claims
of Harrison, and the reasons why Van Buren
should not be supported. About one hundred
and fifty delegates were appointed to represent
the county at the Harrodsburg Convention
which met on July 2, 1840. Menefee was ap
pointed as one of the delegates, and such dis
tinguished Kentuckians as Bryant, Combs,
Wickliffe the Younger, and Richard Pindell
were also appointed to accompany Menefee.
The Harrodsburg Convention met on July 2,
and Thomas F. Marshall was elected as the
presiding officer. It was addressed by the
leading Whigs of Kentucky and did a great
deal to advance the Whig cause in the State.
This was the second and last time that Menefee
was to visit the oldest town in Kentucky.
All through the summer of 1840 a campaign
was waged which, for enthusiasm, is un
equalled in American politics. Log-cabins and
hard cider were the symbolisms of the Whigs
and were displayed everywhere. "Tippecanoe
and Tyler too" was the Whig war-cry. The

248 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
political "stump-speaker" first became promi
nent during this campaign. Whig barbecues
were held in Kentucky during the summer at
Cumberland Gap, Olympian Springs, and
many other places. Menefee was in the thick
est of the fight, speaking at every opportunity
in favor of the Whig cause.
On August 5 the Kentucky State election
was held, and the Whig candidates, Letcher
and Thompson, were elected over French and
Helm, by large majorities. They were in
augurated at Frankfort on September 2, 1840.
On his way to the capital, Letcher passed
through Lexington, and was received by the
local military company and escorted to Bren-
nan's Hotel. Here, Menefee, Combs, Wick
liffe, and other distinguished Lexington Whigs
called to see him and to tell him how they
carried Fayette County by a majority of nearly
a thousand votes. Richard H. Menefee cast
his last gubernatorial vote for Robert P.
Letcher, the sixteenth Kentucky Governor, and
the first of the State's Executives to issue a
Thanksgiving Proclamation.
While Menefee had taken a very active part
in the campaign of 1840, he had also attended
to his law practice. The Lexington bar at that
time consisted of the ablest lawyers in Ken
tucky. Henry Clay was still practicing law,
and besides him, lawyers like Judge Thomas
M. Hickey, who was associated with Francis
K. Hunt; Robert Nelson Wickliffe, Jr., and
Emilius K. Sayre, Richard Pindell, and Rich
ard A. Buckner, Judge Aaron K. Wooley, who
practiced in connection with Robert N. Wick
liffe, Sr., and Larkin B. Smith. Menefee in

RETURN To KENTUCKY 249
many cases was associated with Madison C.
Johnson and Governor James F. Robinson.
This array of legal talent has only been before
the Lexington bar at one period of its history.
Practically all of the law offices of that day
were situated in the famous old street known
as Jordan's Row.
During 1839-1840 Menefee brought twenty
suits in the Fayette Circuit Court for debts,
and won all of them. He, of course, as his ad
vertisements in the Commonwealth stated, was
practicing before other Kentucky courts. One
of the most important suits for debt that he
was engaged in was one against the law firm
of Wickliffe & Sayre, which he brought for
George Fry, who claimed $1,000. Menefee was
assisted by Johnson and Robinson in this suit.
He gained it, defeating two of his most emi
nent brother lawyers. He also brought suit
and collected two notes amounting to nearly
$2,300, against Vice-President Richard M.
Johnson and David A. Sayre. These notes
Menefee collected for Thomas C. Barnes.
Menefee also drew up the contract transferring
the famous old Kentucky newspaper, the
Observer and Reporter, to David C. Wickliffe
from M. L. Findell, and, later, when Findell
complained that Wickliffe had not paid him
for his paper, Menefee brought suit and got
the money.
But the greatest law case that Richard H.
Menefee was ever associated in was the famous
James Rogers will case, which was tried before
Judge Wooley at the September term of the
Fayette Circuit Court, 1840.
On June 18, 1837, James Rogers of Fayette

250 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
County made his will, in which he recites that
to his five children by his first wife he has
already given, at different times, to each, per
sonal and real property amounting to nearly
five thousand dollars. That having so pro
vided for each of the five children of his first
marriage he now wishes to divide and dis
tribute the remainder of his real and personal
estate and effects between his second wife,
Susan T. Rogers, and his two children by his
second marriage, Adaline F. and Charles Flem
ing Rogers. In pursuance of which wish he
bequeathed certain property to his daughter,
Adaline F. Rogers, and then bequeathed the
balance of real and personal property to his
wife Susan T. Rogers and his son Charles
Fleming Rogers.
James Rogers died on February 8, 1840, and
left an estate valued at $50,000. His will was
probated at the March term of the Fayette Cir
cuit Court. On March 28, 1840, suit was
brought by the five children of the first mar
riage against the children and widow of the
second marriage to have the probate of said
will set aside. Menefee, Johnson, and Robin
son represented the five children, and Henry
Clay and Robert N. Wickliffe, Sr., represented
the widow and two children of the second mar
riage. Menefee's clients claimed that a few
days before making his will James Rogers had
suffered a severe stroke of apoplexy, which
rendered his mind inadequate to the task of
making a will, also that his widow and her two
children had influenced Rogers in dividing
his estate as he did. In other words, IMenefee
was to try and break the will on the grounds

RETURN To KENTUCKY 25 1
of insanity. The burden of proof then was on
his side.
The case was called in Judge Wooley's court
on October 2, and six days were consumed in
trying it. Menefee and Clay probably made
their speeches on October 7 , and the case was
given to the jury. On October 8 the jury re
turned the verdict, signed by Richard Har-
court, the foreman, which said that, in their
opinion, James Rogers was of sound mind and
memory when he made his will and it should
stand as probated. Richard H. Menefee's
darling ambition to defeat Henry Clay was
thus set aside. Wherever Menefee is known
in Kentucky, he is known as the man who low
ered Henry Clay's colors in a great law suit.
This belief is based on the statement to that
effect in Marshall's eulogy. But, as above
stated, Menefee lost the case. I have no doubt
that he made a greater speech than did Clay,
but the burden of proof was on his side, it was
too great, and he lost. He went into the case
against the medical advice of one of the most
distinguished physicians that Kentucky has
ever produced, Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, who
told him that his physical condition did not
permit of indulging in such great mental strain
as would be required to meet Clay; but he re
plied that this was the first and perhaps the
last opportunity that he would ever have to
meet the "Great Commoner," and, although he
had the hard end of the legal knot to untie, he
was going to make the attempt. He did make
it, nobly and gallantly, but failed.
Mr. La Vega Clements, in a speech on
Menefee, based wholly on Marshall's eulogy

252 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
and on Mrs. Menefee's recollections of her hus
band, said that, after the verdict of the jury
had been returned, "he hurried to her who
awaited the result. When asked if he was
tired after the struggle, with the smile of death
upon his face, as he sat dangling his feet from
the bedside on which he sat, the old ambition
and zeal creeping through his wasted frame, he
answered, 'No.' The same sweet smile that I
had marked when he came from the legislative
halls, triumphant, the same genial smile he
wore from the cradle to the grave."
On October 15 Menefee made application
for a new trial, setting forth six reasons for
asking for it, but Judge Wooley overruled
them. The case was then taken to the Ken
tucky Court of Appeals, which court, months
after Menefee's death, sustained the decision of
the lower court.
On October 23 Menefee bought from Wil
liam H. Rainey ten acres of ground, containing
a dwelling-house, on South Broadway, for
$2,790.25 — his fee, no doubt, in the Rogers
case. This property had been sold on August
15 by Commissioner Harry I. Bodley to
Rainey; but for one dollar and other consider
ations, Rainey transferred his bonds to Mene
fee. This was the only home that Menefee
ever owned, as he probably rented a house in
Mt. SterHng and boarded with Mrs. Jouett in
Lexington. After his death his devisees sold
the house to Isaac W. Scott, who in turn sold
it to Jacob Ashton, at one time proprietor of
the Dudley House, formerly Keiser's Hotel,
where Menefee received his "boom" for Con
gress. On July 13, 1846, John C. Breckinridge,

RETURN To KENTUCKY 253
the youngest of the Vice-Presidents, bought
the house for $4,500. About ten years later
General Breckinridge sold it to Rev. W. C.
Dandy, pastor of the Hill Street M. E. Church,
and he, in 1865, sold the house to Gen. John B.
Huston, a celebrated Kentucky lawyer. The
house has been recently sold to Dr. P. H. Mal-
loy, and is to-day in a good state of preser
vation. As the residence of three distin
guished Kentuckians, — Menefee, Breckinridge
and Huston,— it occupies a place among his
toric Kentucky homes second only to Henry
Clay's "Ashland."
On November 4, 1840, William H. Harrison
of Ohio and John Tyler of Virginia defeated
Martin Van Buren of New York and Richard
M. Johnson of Kentucky, by an overwhelm
ingly large vote. Menefee's vote for Harrison
was not only the last Presidential vote he was
ever to cast, but also the last he was ever to cast
for any candidate. Democratic electors were
chosen in only two Northern and five Southern
States. The new Liberty Party, led by James
G. Birney, one of Kentucky's sons, did not suc
ceed in choosing any electors, but polled nearly
eight thousand votes.
The Presidential electors for Kentucky,
chosen at the Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Con
vention of August, 1839, met in Frankfort,
Kentucky, on December 2, and cast their
fifteen electoral votes for Harrison and Tyler.
Through the efforts of Menefee, Combs, and
other men, the Whigs had swept the State.
All of the electors were present, and this was
the last time that Menefee was ever in the
Capitol of his native State, where he achieved

254 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
his first legislative triumphs. After the votes
had been cast for the Whig candidates, the
question arose as to the one who should carry
the vote to Washington. There were several
candidates for this honor, but Col. John
Payne, a soldier of the war of 1812, was finally
elected to carry the vote of Kentucky to the
national capital. In February, 1841, he went
to Washington, and there the electoral votes
were counted. The count showed that Harri
son and Tyler had received 234 votes, and that
Van Buren had received 60 and Johnson 48.
Accordingly, on March 4, 1841, Harrison and
Tyler were sworn into office. One month from
the day of his inauguration, Harrison died, and
Tyler, according to law, became President.
He was a Calhoun-Democrat and had been
elected to satisfy the Southern Whigs. Mene
fee, however, was not to live to see these events
come to pass, and they are given here simply
to round out the story of the great campaign
of 1840.
On December 3, Richard H. Menefee re
turned to Lexington, and retired to his re
cently purchased home. On the following day,
at sundown in his life, he began the only por
tion of his Diary that is extant. We shall now
let him tell his own story almost to the end.

CHAPTER IX
SUNDOWN
Diary — December 4th — 1840.
My birthday 31 years old. This anniversary has
heretofore invited me to some review of the past as
well as meditation on the future, generally ending in
numerous resolutions of amendment of my past career,
and in as many new enterprises in the acquisition of
knowledge. One amongst which is the habitual use
of this book as a diary, commonplace, or as well for
cultivating and preserving the thoughts of others as
my own, together with all parts or other matters
proper to be noted and remembered without much
respect to order or arrangement. I am the rather per
suaded to this from having before me many months of
leisure (at least compulsory respite from business
made necessary by ill health) which fairly promises
to enable me to pursue something of a systematic
course of general studies, embracing the elements of
most of the important sciences and the most approved
of the ancient and modern (British) classics. If my
health shall be (in the space of a year) properly re
established, and I shall in the meantime have accom
plished what is here proposed, I shall not regard my
ill-health as a calamity, but rather as a disguised bless
ing. I find my religious opinions unsettled. An acknowl
edgement not reputable to one of my age in my condi
tion — This must not be.
Dec. 7th — ^After a conversation of some length with
my physician. Dr. Dudley, I have resolved henceforth
to observe the strictest regimen taking only so much
food as will support life in reasonable strength of

256 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
body — enough to prosecute my studies. This course
is adopted upon his opinion and my own belief that
my malady is seated in the organs of digestion and
that they can only be relieved by comparative rest
aided by medicines (in the smallest possible quantity
that will effect the object) for correcting the action of
the liver — My recovery probably depends on an in
flexible adherence; my speedy recovery certainly does.
I have some thought of drawing up a brief sketch
of my very obscure and unprofitable life; not for the
benefit of the present or future generations, but for
the personal advantage which I think might be drawn
from the review it would involve. These advantages
are, to my mind, so evident that it would be easy to
state them, if I feared the suspicion of having thought
of such a project as a matter of vanity. But I have
no fear of the kind for I care not what others might,
in the premises, suspect. In fact, it looks suspicious,
quite. December nth — I commenced a few days ago the
history of England from the close of the reign of
James the ist to the end of William the 3rd, as em
bracing its most interesting portion, especially in a
constitutional point of view. It interests me ex
tremely —
I must read Machiavelli's Works and Murphy's
Tacitus. December 12th — Having just read Bolingbrook's
letters on the study and use of History and his sketch
of the History and state of Europe, I conclude to ob
serve the impressions he has made upon me. If any
thing were wanting to satisfy me of the doubt which
hangs over the authenticity of nearly all history called
ancient (including the historical portions of the Scrip
ture) , he has confirmed me. True History is Philoso
phy teaching by example ; the end being to make men
wiser and better. History is the best substitute for
experience which cannot be obtained until one enters
upon the world. It is man's best introduction into the

SUNDOWN 257
world, if properly studied. The mere knowledge of
facts and dates is not a knowledge of history. The
causes, effects, consequences and dependencies must be
known. The office of the Historian is (amongst other
things) to suggest reflections, draw instructive lessons
to prove the events he narrates. Much history should
be read merely; much again should be studied. It is
not possible to master all ; men should therefore con
fine themselves somewhat to what relates more strictly
to their professions or employments. Modern history
should be studied from the Fifteenth Century down.
When causes have spent themselves in i their effects, it
is needless to attempt to go farther back. The links
are no longer traceable. History gives you a com
plete view — the cause, the effect — the beginning, the
end : whilst experience often, indeed generally, leaves
the event incomplete, because we may not live to see
the conclusion. Through History, therefore, more is
seen than by experience, though probably not so well
seen. The examples of virtue or vice which works of
fiction present are less beneficial than that of History,
because we are less apt to make the case of the actors
our own. On the same principle that which is really
seen is more impressive than what is but related. The
right study of History gives the mind a habit of com
prehensive observation; and is of much use even if
the events are not remembered. Like the study of
geometry, though the demonstration be forgotten —
Applications of particular incidents of history are un
safe always from the impossibility, in most instances,
of exactly knowing all the motives and circumstances
which produced and attended them. Xenophon,
Thucydides, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus highly com
mended — Bacon's History of Henry the Eighth and
Clarendon's History approved — strongly recom
mended to the Christian Clergy to cultivate the study
of history in order to vindicate the truth of their re
ligion; which he insists rests exclusively on historical
17

2S8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
proofs, which proofs were in his day not the clearest.
The intercourse through History with the great men
of the world and participation in their actions; the
view of States, rising, flourishing, falling; and that,
in general, of which true history consists; has the
same ennobling effect (though in a less degree) as if
a witness to it all, and acting in it all. In reading his
tory one should not be pyrrhonic any more than im
plicit. Machiavelli, Father Paul, Guicciardini, Davila,
real historians.
I have fallen into a habit of profane swearing which
I cannot tolerate in others. Why should I tolerate or
expect others to tolerate it in myself ? By the bones of
Becket I will quit it.
I feel greatly the need of a congenial circle in which
to spend profitably in conversation, a part of the time
which (by my being wholly withdrawn from business)
often hangs heavily upon me : Besides the importance
of such conversation to any man in my condition —
Lord Bacon affirms that an hour's conversation is
equal to a week of meditation: it gives activity and
vent to what otherwise stagnates.
December 14th — I have read most of Lord Bacon's
Works — To a man who is preparing himself for the
profession of law or the civil service of his country, I
do not think they contain much worthy to be studied :
excepting of course his admirable Essays which can
not be too deeply studied — -His labors were of ines
timable value to mankind by leading the way to the
wonderful progress since made in every department
of science and art ; But they contained the seed merely ;
the fruit of which may be gathered from later works. —
I scarcely know a greater benefactor of mankind ; for
whom rather than for himself or his own fame he
chiefly labored ; inasmuch as he completed hardly any
thing but prepared it for the hands of those who
should follow him. In the war which in that age was
opened against false learning he contented himself with
ordering the hosts for battle, leaving the attack and

SUNDOWN 259
victory to be led on and won by other leaders. I rever
ence his memory without (but little) abatement aris
ing from his faults (which were great) as a statesman
and magistrate: they have been over-expiated by his
services to mankind. — Had Newton been compelled to
waste his time and strength in the preparations which
Bacon placed ready to his hand, who can say that his
wonderful genius could ever have achieved what it
did ? He was at the outset armed cap-a-pie by Bacon.
I have resolved to study thoroughly and profoundly
the history of England, (especially its political his
tory) from the beginning of the reign of James ist to
the close of Queen Anne's ; but I fear shall want ma
terials to render the course complete — I shall not so
much desire to remember particular events, measures,
or characters as to become imbued with the true spirit
of the times (which I consider them to have been)
which established the present system of English lib
erty. The importance of this period of history to an
American statesman or jurist is extremely obvious. I
go so far as to affirm that our political institution can
not be tolerably understood without it. So with re
spect to our own history — ^Want of time will urge me
rapidly on, but I trust my deep sense of the value of
the labor will enable me quickly to master it.
I have had a thought of reading Sully's Memories
and other works containing (interspersed with other
matter) profound, moral and political reflections and
observations, in such a way as to note them as I pro
gress, by the pages where found, and afterwards
throwing them together in a suitable form in my com
monplace book either in literal extracts or in my own
language. I read for results which I take such reflec
tions and observations to be.
December 17th — It is proper that I should qualify
myself to the utmost in my retirement for practice in
the criminal department of my profession; to which
end the statutes of this State and the standard works
on criminal laws should be thoroughly studied. The

26o ¦ RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
body of the criminal law is fortunately not very ex
tensive. —
December iSth — My memory has not been suffi
ciently cultivated and is not the best. My fault has
been (if fault it be and so I regard it) to consider too
little of the past: My eyes have been intent on the
future. It is needful to a successful future that there
should be a well considered past. — I have entered upon
the correction of this fault : Amongst other means by
exercising my memory by miscellaneous and uncon
nected questions to myself — from time to time, upon
what I have read or done during the day or any period
past, although tried but a few days I am sensible of
improvement. — Many men have attained great emi
nence who had bad memories ; but a good memory is
of inestimable value. Yet, like all else that is good, it
may be excessive whereby men (trusting too much to
it) neglect other faculties of the mind, still more im
portant. Indeed it is remarkable that most extraordi
nary memory is frequently associated with feeble ca
pacity. December 19th — To insure a more perfect acquaint
ance with the constitution of the United States and
State of Kentucky I will shortly copy them into this
book. Such a practice in the case of writings of pecu
liar importance and not too voluminous is the best
means that I know of to acquire a critical knowledge
of them : besides strongly imprinting tliem on the
memory. —
Although I had often read it before, I was never
so forcibly struck, as when reading it again this morn
ing by the powerful sketch of Blackstone, in the fourth
volume of his commentaries, of the origin and prog
ress of the Papal ursurpations in Europe.
Painting, sculpture and other kindred arts have this
advantage over eloquence — in the former, the student
has the full benefit of the greatest works of the great
est masters as models; in the latter, it is otherwise.
In the first place, it is impossible by any human means

SUNDOWN 261
to place in an enduring form the high exploits of elo
quence : They are too setherial to be chained in a sta
tionary form, either on paper or canvass. By this the
student of eloquence necessarily loses the chief benefit
of the ancient masters. Secondly; — of the modern
masters he can profit but little more, (if as much, in
deed) because less nicety is observed in committing
their performances to writing (on which the ancient
bestowed incalculable pains). He may occasionally
have the benefit of "a sitting" by hearing and seeing a
great orator perform; but such orators are rare, and
rare are the occasions on which' they could be studied.
December i8th — Procure the most approved edition
of Plutarch's Lives and become and continue familiar
with them. Few books, in my opinion, have so much
aroused the ambition of the moderns, by infusing into
the minds of men the sublimity of antiquity. The eye
is directed to the noble forest trees; the undergrowth
is disregarded.
December 21 — As yet I have taken no steps towards
obtaining a regular miscellaneous library. Some books
I have that are valuable; but snatched up without
method. I shall endeavor to form not an extensive
but a well selected library, confined to the Classics in
the English language, and other works of solid matter ;
having an especial eye to the history and politics of my
own country; and to the most approved Encyclope
dias. I closed this morning the history of England by
Hume from the auspices of Charles the ist, to that of
Charles the Second, covering the stormy period of the
Civil war — It is the first history that I can be said to
have studied in its true sense. — I congratulate myself
on the profit I suppose myself to have derived
from it. — No period of history of the human
race, of the same duration, is more fruitful in
materials for profitable reflection. Never was human
nature laid barer to the observation of the philosopher :
indeed, it appears in a state so naked as rather to shock

262 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
by the exposure — Ages may pass before an oppor
tunity will again arise so favorable to the study of
man: the French Revolution has thus far approxi
mated nearest. Philosophy must await another arrival
of the kind for the study of the happiness of men, as
it does violent convulsions of nature for a knowledge
of physical phenomena; or the transit of the planets
for observations in Astronomy.
December 24th — ^Having taken an unusual amount
of exercise, I was betrayed by a ravenous appetite to
eat too much dinner. From the dinner itself I experi
enced some inconvenience, but the consciousness of
acting so madly (in my condition) has given me a
pain (arising from a sense of remorse) that I have not
lately felt. It will serve to warn me.
December 25th — I take my pen this morning with a
languid hand and a depressed mind. Want of sleep
for several nights (which until this morning I did not
feel the injury of) has at length shown itself in lan
guor disqualifying me from study. — The prospect,
too, of protracted ill-health and suffering, with no ab
solute certainty of recovery operates to aggravate this
(to me) first Christmas of sorrow. What a contrast
between this and every other Christmas I remember!
I stand in need, truly of every resource I possess to
bear me up. — ¦ God, dispel the clouds which have for
now near eight months hung over ine, and restore my
spirit and body again to their accustomed health ! My
wife, too, the most excellent woman that lives, is worn
into sickness by incessant watchings over a favorite
child long distressingly afflicted and whose death in a
short time must be added to the sum of my other mis
eries. Still, will I brace myself against all this and
more, and worse, if Heaven ordains it. — Already I
feel tranquilized and consoled  Should my disease
assume a form which would forbid books and study, I
confess I shall be without resources to support it:
desolate, helpless, pitiable! All that reconciles me to
my expulsion from the world is the consciousness tliat

SUNDOWN 263
an uninterrupted application to study will, when my
health shall be restored, place me, when I re-enter it,
far in advance of what I was when I left it. How
then, could I endure the reflection that all the time I
am confined, the world is leaving me rapidly behind!
which would be so if I shall become disqualified to
study. — ¦
December 28th — I think that I do not read fast
enough — dwelling too long. Matter, to be sure, worth
reading (and nothing else ought to be read) cannot be
too well digested. Yet there is such a thing as a waste
of time even upon the best matter. I will, in future
execute more; especially as I am forcing my memory
into better discipline; for in the rapidity of my per
ception I have some confidence. (Whilst on the
memory, I am reminded that mine has been injured by
running over matter supposed not to be worth reading
merely to prevent the possibility of anything of value
escaping. It would be better to teach the memory
implicitly to treasure up all you read. Yet I would
not be understood to aspire to the possession of a
wonderful memory; contenting myself with a good
sound one.
December 29th— I am rejoiced to discover this
morning that, the symptoms which lately gave me so
much concern, proceeded from using a diet which
(though generally considered light) proved not at all
to agree with me: a discontinuance of which for but
a single meal has almost restored me to the condition
I was in before the injury was received. This admon
ishes me to be still more strict in my regimen. To
guard against temptation to eat improperly, I resolved
yesterday upon the suggestion of my wife, to with
draw henceforth from my attendance at table, and to
take my meals — by allowance as to quantity — in my
own chamber — My spirits are quite up once more;
and I am now in the comfortable enjoyment of exist
ence. The consciousness of having mastered sick-

264 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
ness by self-denial is certainly delightful ; the more so
from its rarity.
December 30th — I am apt both in public speech and
in conversation to express myself too much in super
latives ; whereby I lack force. Like one who to give
emphasis to what he wrote should employ italics
altogether. Nature must be consulted in this as in all
things else — (And whilst in conversation, I will add
that I have a faulty habit of talking too much even to
the indecent interruption of others whilst actually
speaking. Nothing can be more unhandsome or im
polite. By judgment, you can always find time to
offer measurably all that it is proper for you to say;
which, when thus said carries the greater weight;
ingratiating yourself in the meantime. Lord Bacon
has an excellent essay on discourse which young men
would do well to study — To converse well being a rare
as well as valuable faculty (I hardly know one more
valuable) one who has the material cannot too ardu
ously cultivate it. My vanity suggests to me that I
am not destitute of it; though it now lays in a scat
tered and disordered state: still being within the
remedy of study, observation, and experience —
January 13th, 1841 — The interval since my last
note in this book has been one of great suffering to
me. No man, until he has himself tried it, can realize
the difficulty of controlling his appetite. All speak
flippantly enough of doing it: But I pronounce that
an inflexible adherence to a regimen so severe as to
allow food barely sufficient to support life, with any
tolerable amount of strength, is amongst that difficult
undertaking that the wise or simple can engage in.
Yet such regimen may all the time, be known to be
the sole means of escaping death. The cravings of
nature are immediate, animal ; whilst the necessity of
denial is remote, intellectual. — Without being fully
convinced by the fact that I shall be able to succeed to
the full extent, I hope and believe that I shall be able

SUNDOWN 265
to do SO in a very reasonable degree from this time
forward so long as my condition may require it. —
Amongst a variety of other resolutions formed for
the future, I have undertaken to cultivate more than
I have heretofore done, in social affections : wife,
children, relatives — friends — acquaintances. I am
sure that I have bent my endeavors too exclusively to
the cultivation of the understanding. The under
standing itself expands with the culture of the other
affections and cannot reach its last flights without this
aid: especially when the understanding (as with the
orator) must deal so often and momentarily with the
affections. —
A few days ago I took up Marshall's abridgement of
his life of Washington, at the 25th chapter which finds
Washington a private citizen at his plantation on the
Potomac, and read the ensuing part of the work.
Nothing can be more admirable! When before was
the life of such a man as Washington traced with such
a hand as that of Marshall ? Illustrious men !
January 15th — It is always painful to me to see a
long catalogue of valuable books that I have never
read; that, for example, of the Library of Congress.
Oh ! it discourages me to the last degree, to know how
much must be to me unknown! — But, wisely is it
ordained that it is not needful that all need be known,
for any purpose either of benevolence or renown.
Men are driven to select from the illimitable field of
knowledge some comparatively small space, and
thoroughly explore and cultivate it. Not confining
themselves, however, to one mathematical point of
knowledge some comparatively small space, and
the situation of your dominions from the vast conti
nent of knowledge, to appropriate enough not only
for your Capital (your main object — Law, for ex
ample) but for a multitude of Dependencies: not
occupied for their own sake, but as supports to the
principal possession. What to some is but the mathe
matical point, should be the centre of a wide circle :

266 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the apex of the pyramid. — Men must not rationally
aim at universal Conquest in knowledge — What a
wonderful difference there is between the mass of
Ancient and Modern Literature! An ordinary pri
vate library of the present day is often found to con
tain nearly all the remains of Ancient Literature; at
least to contain books equal to them in bulk. The
books of the Modern, would, if cultivated, tower into
mountains! After all, there is some consolation
afforded by the reflection that every book does not
necessarily contain new thoughts ; and that the knowl
edge of a few of the best may possess us of much that
is found in multitudes of others : so that it does not
follow that not to have read a book is to have lost the
wisdom it contained. You know the man : he but
wears a dress of a new fashion.
Menefee's extant Diary closed January 15,
and from then on to the end his suffering was
terrible. At first it was seated in the organs
of the digestion, and bad action of the liver.
Finally, contrary to the prevalent opinion
throughout Kentucky that he died of tubercu
losis of the lungs, consumption of the bowels
developed and this disease was the cause of his
death. His wife afterward insisted that "he
was killed by malpractice, starved to death."
On February 15, 1841, Governor Letcher
sent to the Kentucky legislature the resigna
tion of John J. Crittenden, United States Sena
tor from Kentucky, who had resigned to ac
cept the position of Attorney-General in Har
rison's cabinet.^ Crittenden's resignation was
accepted by the legislature, and they at once
proceeded to the election of his successor. The
' House Journal, 1841.

SUNDOWN 267
names of James T. Morehead, Charles A.
Wickliffe, William Owsley, John Calhoun,
Richard A. Buckner, and Thomas Metcalfe
were put in nomination. Morehead led on the
first vote but he did not obtain enough to elect.
On the 18th of February, after the fourteenth
ballot had been taken, with Morehead still
leading, Cassius M. Clay, representative from
Fayette County, nominated Richard H. Mene
fee. This was the greatest honor that Menefee
ever received, and it came to him when he was
on his death-bed, with only three more days to
live. Clay was ordered by the Speaker to in
form the Senate that he had put Menefee's
name in nomination. On the fifteenth ballot
Menefee received the vote of the Speaker,
Charles S. Morehead, and Representatives
Adams, Botts, Brent, Chenault, Clay, Curd,
Curie, Ford, Forman, Hawkins, Hazlerigg,
Latimer, Marshall, C. A. Morgan, Newell,
Raymond, Snyder, Waring, Williams and
Woodson — ^22. In the Senate on this ballot,
Menefee received only one vote, that of Charles
J. Walker, of the Twenty-third senatorial dis
trict. This ballot ended Calhoun 42, Buck
ner 34, Morehead 31, and Menefee 23. This
was the joint vote of the Senate and House.
None of the candidates had enough votes to
elect and the sixteenth ballot was taken. In
the House, Menefee received the votes of Rep
resentatives Adams, Bruton, Bullock, Chen
ault, Clay, Curd, Curie, Ford, Hazlerigg, Innes,
Morgan, Raymond, Skiles, Smith, H. H. ;
Waring and Woodson — 16. He had gained
some new votes but had lost some of the men
who voted for him on the fifteenth ballot. In

268 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
the Senate, Senator Walker again voted for
Menefee, and he also gained four new votes in
the upper House, Morgan, Rice, M. Williams,
and Young. The joint vote resulted: Calhoun
39, Buckner 36, Morehead 35, and Menefee 21.
On the seventeenth ballot Menefee received
in the House the votes of Representatives At
kins, Botts, Bruton, Bullock, Chenault, Clay,
Cunningham, Curd, Curie, Ford, Gabbert,
Hawkins, Hazlerigg, Innes, Marshall, C. A.;
Morgan, Newell, Raymond, Riffe, Rudd,
Skiles, Stephan, N. B.; Waring, Watts, WiL
Hams, and Woodson — 26. He had won
back some of the representatives who voted for
him on his first ballot and also gained a few
new ones. In the Senate, Young did not vote
for Menefee on this ballot, but the other four
Senators who had voted for him on the six
teenth ballot also voted for him on the seven
teenth, and he gained two extra votes in J. S.
Morgan and Gen. S. L. Williams, with whom
Menefee had represented Montgomery County
in the Whig State Convention of 1836. The
joint vote resulted: Calhoun 39, Menefee 32,
Morehead and Buckner 31 votes each. Then,
after Menefee had gained eleven votes on one
ballot, and with one vote ahead of the man who
was finally elected. Clay, for some reason un
known to me, withdrew his name.
On the twentieth ballot Joseph R. Under
wood was nominated, but on the twenty-first
ballot James T. Morehead was elected as Crit
tenden's successor in the Senate.
On Saturday morning, February 20, 1841,
Richard H. Menefee realized that only a few
hours remained before he would be called by

SUNDOWN 269
his Maker to join the Choir Invisible whose
music is the gladness of the world. He had
made a will before he purchased his home, and
as he desired to revoke it he sent for his friends,
Madison C. Johnson, Thomas A. Marshall,
Waller B. Redd, and Doctor Benjamin W.
Dudley, who was his physician, to draw up and
act as testators to a second will. The body of
the instrument was drawn by M. C. Johnson,
and was very brief. It simply stated that after
the payment of all his just debts, he devised
and bequeathed the whole of his estate to his
beloved wife, for her own support and main
tenance and for his children's support. He
gave her full and ample power over the whole
of his property in its disposition. He ap
pointed M. C. Johnson to be his executor and
gave him authority to settle, compromise, and
adjust all and every part of his business. He
then subscribed his hand. The testators to the
body of the will were Doctor Dudley and
Thomas A. Marshall. Although codicils had
been denounced by one of Menefee's most dis
tinguished contemporaries, Ben Hardin, who
rewrote his will before be would add a codicil,
Menefee, nevertheless, then asked Thomas A.
Marshall to add one, which stated that it was
his further will and desire that no security
should be required from his executor, M.
C. Johnson, for the discharge of the duties
which he had imposed upon him, as he had en
tire confidence in him. Menefee then sub
scribed his hand, a trembling, nervous one, to
the codicil, which was the last time he ever
wrote his name.
Years after Menefee's death, M. C. Johnson

270 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
(1806-1886) showed his appreciation of Mene
fee when he said, "Richard Menefee is the
greatest lawyer that I ever met." Johnson had
met all of the great Kentucky lawyers, and
many of the leading lawyers of Arnerica. His
opinion is, therefore, worth recording. John
son was eminent as a financier and suggested
to the Government the three per cent, bonds,
by which millions of dollars were saved to the
National Government.
During that day Doctor Dudley told Mene
fee that he could live for only a few hours, and
he replied, according to Marshall, "Brief sum
mons." Late that night, a few hours before
the dawn of a Sabbath day, it became evident to
the good doctor, Menefee's wife, Mrs. Matthew
Jouett, his mother-in-law, and the other
watchers at the bed-side, that the immortal
spirit of Richard Hickman Menefee was about
to ascend to his Master, and a few mo
ments before his death, Mrs. Jouett asked
him in what was his hope.^ He replied: "The
blood of Jesus," which were his last words.
He died at the age of thirty-one years, two
months, two weeks and two days. As he died
very late on Saturday night, some of the news
papers, who noticed his death, said that he
died early Sunday morning. The epitaph, on
the old Allen grave-yard tomb-stone, fixes the
date of his death on the twentieth, and this of
course settles all controversy in regard to this
point. On the day that Menefee died there was
born, in Kentucky, the great geologist. Dean
Nathaniel S. Shaler, who has been recently
gathered to his fathers.
' Mrs. Menefee's letter to Mr. Clements.

CHAPTER X
MEMORIALS
One of the most lasting Menefee memorials
is the portrait that Oliver Frazer (1808-1864),
the Kentucky artist who ranks just below his
master, Jouett, painted of Menefee, which he
sat for two days before his death. The picture
shows him to be greatly emaciated. It was
finished after his death. Frazer and Menefee
were friends, and when the former was in
Europe, studying art, he often referred to
Menefee in his letters home. Besides Mene
fee's portrait, he painted a picture of Henry
Clay, that the "Commoner" regarded as the
best picture that he had ever had painted.
Frazer also painted portraits of Joel T. Hart,
the famous Kentucky sculptor, and Chief- Jus
tice George Robertson, perhaps the brainiest
man that ever presided over the Kentucky
Supreme Court.
The first notice of Menefee's death appeared
in the Lexington Intelligencer for Tuesday
morning, February 23, 1841. The editor,
Edwin Bryant, gave a good biographical
sketch of Menefee, and then added the follow
ing beautiful tribute :
As a debater, he was peculiarly distinguished for his
candor, courtesy, and dignity; the lucidness and
beauty of his illustrations and the overwhelming force
of his reasoning and eloquence which seemed to sweep
away without an apparent effort every obstacle placed
in their course by his adversary and to carry convic-

272 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
tion to the heart of the most obdurate ; breaking into
fragments the panoply of prejudice and ignorance, and
penetrating to the most hidden recesses of the soul.
"Thou speakest as never man spake," was the involun
tary thought of the listener in those moments when
all his peculiar eloquence burst forth; and he seemed
then as one inspired by some superior agency.
Before a jury or a promiscuous audience, his power
was equally irresistible. He could mould them to his
will, and wield them to suit his pleasure. Never in a
forensic or popular encounter did his adversary come
off victorious. Wit and sarcasm were ever at his
command, and his persuasiveness rarely failed to ac
complish the end desired.
Great as were the merits of the distinguished sub
ject of this hasty and imperfect sketch, in that part of
his character which we have noticed they did not ex
ceed his moral and domestic virtues. He was
amiable, unpretending, kind, generous, noble. His
fidelity, truth, friendship and honor, could have been
tested by the sacrifices of his life. He has gone down
to his grave without spot or blemish to sully his repu
tation. So pure were his aspirations, and so blame
less the tenor of his life, that envy itself dared not raise
its voice or point its finger against him; and malice
if such, from wrong impressions were ever harbored
against him, was powerless and mute.
He has left a most amiable and interesting wife and
family to mourn his melancholy and untimely exit.
To them his loss is irreparable. The void can never
be filled up. The stern Destroyer has interposed
between them and him, and cut down, in the dawn of
his manhood, usefulness and greatness, the affectionate
and devoted husband, the kind father — their stay,
their hope — the object of their pride and their love.
But they, nor his immediate friends, are the sole
mourners. His native State, and the whole nation,
has suffered a bereavement which they most acutely
feel and long and deeply deplore. He was a star of

MEMORIALS 273
promise, that bid to outshine the most brilliant in the
moral firmament of greatness and fame. That star
has prematurely and eternally set in Death; and we
shall never be permitted to behold its meridian
splendor; or witness again its earlier glories. The
golden bowl is broken. His soul has taken its earth-
less flight.
Colonel Hodges, on the same day, in the
Frankfort Commonwealth, said: "We have just
heard, and announce it with deep regret, which
will be felt, not only in Kentucky but through
out the nation, that the Honorable Richard H.
Menefee died in Lexington on Sunday morn
ing at two o'clock of that day." Hodges got
the date of his death incorrect, as has already
been mentioned. His account of Menefee's
death was copied in Niles's National Register
(Washington, D. C.) for March 6, 1841.
The Hon. Thomas M. Hickey presented
the proceedings of a meeting of the members
of the Bar and ofificers of the Fayette Circuit
Court at the court-house in Lexington on Mon
day the 22d of February, 1841, on the occasion
of the death of Richard H. Menefee, Esq., be
fore the Court on February 23d. Judge Hickey
was called to the chair and Harry I. Bodley ap
pointed secretary. Madison C. Johnson, Esq.,
announced the melancholy event and offered
the following resolutions which were unani
mously adopted:
Resolved, That we deeply deplore, as a public
calamity and private bereavement, the untimely death
of our distinguished and highly gifted brother mem
ber of the bar, Richard H. Menefee, Esq., and that
18

274 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
our professional and personal association with him,
affords us the consolation upon this mournful dispen
sation of Providence to add our testimony to the voice
of the country in favor of his spotless honor and
integrity and to declare our very exalted respect and
admiration for his extraordinary talents and great
intellectual endowment.
Resolved, That we desire to express to the afflicted
widow and family of our deceased friend our com
miseration in their distress, and that M. C. Johnson,
J. R. Sloan, and H. I. Bodley be appointed on our
behalf to communicate to them our condolence in the
manner which may seem to them most appropriate.
Resolved, That as a manifestation of our regard
for the memory of the deceased, we will go into
mourning and wear crape on the left arm for thirty
days, and that we will attend his funeral this day.
Resolved, That the Judge of the Fayette Circuit
Court be requested to direct that the proceedings of
this meeting be made a part of the record of the court,
as a perpetual memorial of our veneration of our de
ceased brother, and that the same be published.
The Union Philosophical Society, of which
Menefee was a member while at Transylvania
University; the Transylvania University
Medical School and the Law Society, of which
he was a member while in the Law School, all
passed resolutions of respect upon his death,
and resolved to wear mourning on the left arm
for thirty days, and to attend his funeral in a
body. Of these resolutions, the one of the Law
Society amounted to more than either of the
other two. The last sentence of the Society's
resolutions was as follows : "That Thomas F.
Marshall shall be requested to deliver an ad
dress to this society on the character of the
deceased, at any time that may be convenient
to himself."

MEMORIALS 275
At his late home on South Broadway, at
three o'clock Tuesday afternoon, February 23,
1841, Richard H. Menefee's funeral occurred.
It was probably conducted by Rev. Nathan LI.
Hall, the Presbyterian minister who had per
formed his marriage ceremony, and of whose
church Menefee's wife was a member. There
was no funeral oration at the house or at the
grave. With the members of the Fayette bar,
the students of Transylvania University, and
hundreds of friends and admirers of his elo
quence and genius, the funeral procession
moved north to Main street and then west to
the old family burying-ground of William
Allen, Mrs. Jouett's father, situated on the
Georgetown road about two miles from Lex
ington. Here Menefee was buried, near the
grave of Kentucky's master artist, and his
father-in-law, Matthew Harris Jouett. Ken
tucky waited until Menefee's friend and con
temporary, Thomas F. Marshall, should pre
pare his eulogy on Menefee, which took him
about seven weeks to do.
Obituaries appeared in all of the Kentucky
newspapers and in papers of other States. In
the Maysville Eagle for February 24, Lewis
Collins, the Kentucky historian, recorded
Menefee's death and predicted that, had he
lived, he would have been Henry Clay's succes
sor in the United States Senate. Collins was
misinformed as to the cause of his death.
We learn by passengers in the Western Stage that
Richard H. Menefee, Esq., one of the ablest, if indeed
he were not the very ablest man of his age in Ken
tucky, in the Union — died in Lexington on Saturday
night. His disease was bronchitis. A brilliant star.

276 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
which had mounted, almost in a twinkling, .to the
zenith, has thus been stricken from the political firma
ment of Kentucky ! We mourn his death, as a State,
nay, as a National bereavement. Had an all-wise
but inscrutable Providence spared his life, the highest
honors of the Republic awaited him. He would have
filled the place in the councils and in the estimation of
his countrymen, which must soon be vacated, in the
ordinary course of things, by the distinguished patriot,
who has enriched Kentucky with a halo of unfading
glory. The Nashville, Tennessee, Whig for March 3,
1841, copied verbatim Collins's account of
Menefee's death. This fact shows that the
fame of Kentucky's young orator was pene
trating southward as it had already penetrated
northward. The Cincinnati, Ohio, Daily Times, edited by
Edwin R. Campbell, for Wednesday evening,
February 24, noticed Menefee's death in the
following words :
We learn from the morning papers that intelligence
has been received here of the death of Richard H.
Menefee, late a member of Congress from Kentucky,
and one of the candidates for United States Senator at
the recent election by the legislature of that State.
He died suddenly at Lexington on Saturday evening
last. Although for a year past the health of Mr.
Menefee has been so feeble as to preclude his entering
into the active public life which has characterized that
period, yet his friends hoped in the anticipated recov
ery of his health, that he might be spared through a
long life of usefulness of which the brilliant com
mencement of his public career gave such abundant
promise. It is well added by one of the morning
papers that "no man was more fitted to honor public

MEMORIALS 277
station or ornament private life! His efforts in Con
gress bear testimony to the former, and his numerous
friends will attest to the latter. In the halls of our
National Legislature he was regarded as one of the
brightest ornaments of the great Southwest, which,
with others, he represented. Although abounding as
that State does with talent of the highest order, Ken
tucky will not soon forget him."
The Washington, D. C, National Intelligencer
on March 3 said :
The last mail from the west brings- us the news of
the death of the Honorable R. H. Menefee, in whom
Kentucky has lost one of her proudest hopes. His
service for two years in Congress (from 1837 to
1839) commencing, we believe, before he had reached
his thirtieth year, in which he acquired a high charac
ter, afforded the promise of yet greater usefulness,
when time should have matured his abilities and
ripened his experience. Many, who looked forward
with pleased anticipation to his reappearance on the
stage of public life, will, with us, sincerely lament the
early decline which has snatched him from his family
and society, and left them only the odor of his virtues
and the memory of his estimable qualities for the con
solation of their griefs.
The Washington Madisonian, for the same
day, announced Menefee's death in the follow
ing language :
We sympathize most sincerely with the deep regret
which has been excited among the members of Con
gress, and his numerous friends in this city, by the
death of the Hon. Richard H. Menefee, formerly a
Representative from the nth District of Kentucky.
He died at Lexington on Saturday, February 20th.

278 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Mr. Menefee entered Congress at the Extra Session
of 1837; and at once distinguished himself by his
genius, intelligence and debating power; while his
amiable and generous disposition, and high-principled
and chivalric character gained him the personal re
gard and attachment of the best men of all parties.
No young man, within our recollection has_ ever
entered public life giving better promise of a brilliant
and illustrious career. His early death is a great loss
to his State, and to the whole country."
The Commencement exercises of the Tran
sylvania Law School were held a few days
after Menefee's death. The class was still
wearing mourning for him. John M. Bright,
of Tennessee, the valedictorian, at the close of
his exquisite valedictory, referred to Menefee
in the following beautiful language:
Respected fellow-students: May each one of you
become a distinguished gentleman and lawyer, and if
death should invade our ranks, while in the bloom of
life, may each one fall, reeking with professional
honors, as he did, for whom we wear these appendages
of mourning. The burning words of eloquence will
never again be heard from the fiery tongue of the
noble, the highly gifted Menefee. He now sleeps in
the cold, still house. May the clods rest lightly on his
generous bosom, and may his memory
" ' Grow greener with the years, —
And blossom thro' the flight of ages.' "
On April 12, 1841, in Morrison Chapel of
Transylvania University, the present main
building of Kentucky University, Thomas
' Copied from Lexington Intelligencer in Nashville Whig,
of Tennessee.

MEMORIALS 279
Francis Marshall (1801-1864), delivered before
the Law Society of the University his eulogy
on the "Life and Character of Richard H.
Menefee." The historical inaccuracies have
been noticed in the body of the book, and they
will not be further noticed in foot-notes.
Marshall's eulogy
Gentlemen of the Law Society :
I am not here to recount in set phrase and with that
courtesy which the living always pay to the dead, the
virtues, real or supposed, of one around whose fate,
youth and interesting private relations alone have cast
a transient interest. I come not merely to acquit me of
a duty to one whom I personally loved and admired, to
weave a fading garland for his tomb, or scatter affec
tion's incense over his ashes. Mine is a severer task,
a more important duty. I stand here, gentlemen, as
a member of a great commonwealth, amidst assembled
thousands of her citizens, to mourn with them the
blow sudden and overwhelming, which has fallen upon
the country. He about whose young brows there
clustered most of honor — he, around whose name and
character, there gathered most of public hope — the
flower of our Kentucky youth, "the rose and expec
tancy of the fair State" lies uprooted. He, who by
the unaided strength of his own great mind, had
spurned from his path each obstacle that impeded and
rolled back the clouds which darkened his morning
march — who in his fresh youth had reached an emi
nence of fame and of influence, which to a soul less
ardent might have seemed the topmost pinnacle, but
which to him, was only a momentary resting place,
from whence, with an undazzled eye and elastic limb,
he was preparing to spring still upwards and nearer to
the sun of glory, which glowed above him; while the
admiring crowd below were watching with intensest

280 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
interest each movement of his towering step, each
wave of his eagle wing,
" 'Why sudden droops his crest ?
The shaft is sped, the arrow's in his breast.' "
Death canonizes a great name and the seal of the
sepulchre excludes from its slumbering tenant the
breath of envy. I might fling the reins to fancy and
indulge in the utmost latitude of panegyric without
offence; the praises of the dead fret not the living.
But I am not here upon an ordinary occasion to pro
nounce a pompous eulogy in set terms of a vague and
general praise. You have directed me to draw the
life and character, to delineate the very form and
figure of the mind of one, whose moral likeness you
wish to inscribe in enduring and faithful colors upon
your archives, not only as a memorial of one loved and
lost, but as an example and model for the study and
imitation of yourselves and successors. It is not a
sample of rhetoric, but a perpetuation of his image,
that you seek, as the monument best suited to the sub
ject, as a real and historic standard by which the youth
of after times may measure and elevate the idea and
the stature of excellence. And surely, if ever there
were mirror in which young gepius could glass and
fashion itself; if ever there were mould in which the
forming intellect could be cast in the just and full
proportions of graceful energy and perfect strength;
he, of whom we are to speak this day, was that mirror
and that mould. Would that the artist were equal
to his work, would that his mind were fully up to the
dignity of his subject; then indeed would I gladly
obey your high command ; and give to posterity, em
bodied in my land's language, the very form and linea
ment, the breathing attitude, the intrepid port, the
beaming hope, the dauntless energy of a genius which
"poverty and disease could not impair, and which
death itself destroyed, rather than subdued." Ah,
had he but lived! on that broad pedestal laid already,
he would himself have raised a statue colossal and

MEMORIALS 281
historic, an individual likeness, but a national monu
ment, than which never did the Grecian chisel, from
out of the sleeping marble, awake a form of grander
proportions or of more enduring beauty. He medi
tated such a work and was fast gathering round him
the eternal materials. Type of his country, he sought
to mingle himself with her existence and her fame and
to transmit his name to remote generations as an
epitome of her early genius and her history, and as
the most signal example of the power of her institu
tions, not only for the production, but for the most
perfect development of the greatest talents and the
most exalted virtue.
Richard H. Menefee, whose death clothed this
immediate community with mourning, threw a shade
over Kentucky, and awakened the sympathies of the
whole American public, was born in the town of
Owingsville, and county of Bath, 4th December, 1809.
His father, Richard Menefee, was an early emigrant
from Virginia. He was a man by trade a potter, and
exercised his calling for many years in Bath.
Although of exceedingly limited education and origi
nally of very humble fortune, the native strength of
mind and the love of information raised him to very
respectable attainments in knowledge, while the integ
rity of his character, no less than his sagacity com
manded the confidence as well as the respect of all who
knew him. He was repeatedly elected to the legislature
of Kentucky and served one term in the Senate. The
characters and the career of distinguished men have
sometimes been traced to circumstances apparently
trifling; which even in infancy have been thought to
have settled the bent of the mind. The biographer of
Napoleon has noted among the earliest and most
prominent incidents of his infancy, that his first play
thing was a miniature cannon, with its mimic equip
ments. From this first impression, or early predilec
tion, the indelible image of war may have been
stamped upon the mind and decided forever the genius

282 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
and the passions of the conqueror of Europe. In
1809, Kentucky's great Senator was fast drawing
upon himself the gaze of men. The saffron tints of
morning had already announced the coming of that
orb which has since shone forth with such splendor
in the eyes of the civilized world. The father of our
Richard had at one time determined to call his son
Henry Clay, and indeed the infant statesman and
orator wore the name for the first two or three months
of his existence. It was subsequently altered to
Richard Hickman, from respect to a warm personal
and family friend, but the boy was apprised of the
praenomen of his infancy, and fired even in childhood
by the fame of his great countryman, breathed often to
heaven his fervent orison, that he might one day equal
the eloquence, the greatness and the reputation of Mr.
Clay. That the love of glory was the master-passion
of his nature, and that sooner or later some event or
circumstance must have roused it to life and action we
cannot doubt, and yet it may be that the simple cir
cumstance we have cited, may have marked out the
path and determined the object of his ambition. That
it made a deep impression upon his childish imagina
tion, is a veritable and very interesting fact in his
boyish biography. He was left by his father an
orphan at about four years of age and an estate never
large was almost entirely wrecked by mismanagement
and that bane of widows and orphans, a law suit — in
which it had been left involved. Richard's utmost in
heritance of worldly goods did not exceed a few hun
dred dollars. He seems till he was about twelve years
of age, to have been indebted almost exclusively to his
mother's instructions for the rudiments of knowledge
he received. For her he cherished to his latest hour
the fondest veneration. He was her champion in
boyhood, for sorrow and misfortune fell fast upon
her. It was in his mother's defence that the lion of
his nature first broke out. Incidents might here be
related, exhibiting in rare perfection the depth of

MEMORIALS 283
filial piety and dauntless heroism in a boy of fifteen,
but they involve circumstances and feeling too delicate
for a stranger's touch. In proof of the strength and
tenderness of his private affections, it may here be
stated, that after he commenced the practice of law,
though pressed by the claims of his own family, he
devoted a portion of his own slender means to the
support of a brother, overwhelmed with personal mis
fortunes, and an orphan sister, and continued it till his
death. At twelve years of age, so far as I have been
able to learn, he first entered a public school. Like
steel from flint, the collision of other minds struck
instant fire from his own. The first competition
brought into full play the passion for distinction,
which formed the master principle of his nature. His
teacher was astonished at the intense application, sur
passing progress and precocious genius of the boy. He
predicted to his pupil his future greatness, exhorted
him to perseverance and furnished him every facility
in his power. With this gentleman, whose name was
Tompkins, (it should be written in letters of gold,) he
seems to have remained without interruption for two
years, at which period his mother married a second
time, and he was removed from school. Clouds and
thick' darkness gathered now, over his fortunes and his
darling hopes. At fourteen, he was summoned to
attend at a tavern bar in Owingsville. But the omen
of his first name still cheered him on, and the fire
which had been first kindled within htm could not be
extinguished. He compromised the matter at home
and served at the bar or labored in the field during the
summer, for the privilege of school during the winter
months. Even this did not last, for want of means,
(mark that, ye of more prosperous fortunes;) for
want of means to defray his tuition fees, this uncon
querable boy exchanged the character of pupil for
preceptor at fifteen years of age and taught what he
had learned to others for hire during the winter
months, that he might accumulate a fund with which

284 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
to prosecute his own education thereafter. He con
tinued thus till about his sixteenth year; when, in
consequence of unpleasant difficulties with his step
father, he was taken to Mountsterling by Mr. Stockton,
an intimate friend of his deceased father. From this
time he seems to have been left to his own guidance,
and wrestled alone with his fortune. Upon the di
vision of the wreck of the paternal estate, a negro was
assigned to Richard, about the period of his removal
from home. He sold this slave to his friend, and with
the proceeds, together with what he had earned as a
preceptor, maintained himself at the public school in
Mountsterling till his eighteenth year, when he en
tered Transylvania as an irregular Junior. The rules
of college would have excluded him from the privilege
of examination and debarred him even from a trial
for the honors of his class. But that discipline which
fixes a given time for given accomplishments and
deems their attainment impossible, save within the
limits and in the mode prescribed, was not framed for
such as he. The hardy orphan who had been tutor
and instructor of others at fifteen, and absolute and
unheeded master of himself at sixteen, was not likely
to be damped or daunted from his not having passed
through a technical routine of studies, based upon
ordinary calculations and framed for ordinary minds.
He had already trampled upon the legal maxim which
fixes one and twenty as the age for self-government,
already "had his daring boyhood governed men."
He gazed in scorn upon the artificial impediment
which would have barred him from academic honors,
and cleared it at a bound. His intrepid genius, his in
tense application, and the bold and extra-collegiate
range of his information had attracted the eye and the
admiration of the celebrated President Holley.
Through his intercession and influence the strict canon
of the University was dispensed with in Richard's
behalf; he was admitted to an examination with his
class, and bore away the palm. Upon his return to

MEMORIALS 285
Mountsterling his funds were exhausted and he again
became a private tutor while he prosecuted the study
of law with Judge James Trimble. He persevered in
his labors and his studies till the year 1830, when
upon the death of his friend Stockton, whose affairs
required the superintendence of a lawyer and to whom
he held himself bound by a debt of gratitude, in his
twenty-first year he obtained a license to practice and
undertook as his first professional act, without charge,
to settle and arrange the complicated and embarrassed
affairs of his friends. In the fall of 1831 he was en
abled to attend the law lectures here, when he became
a distinguished member of your society. In the
spring of 1832 he received the appointment of Com
monwealth's Attorney, and in August before he had
attained his twenty-third year he was married to the
eldest daughter of the late Matthew Jouett. It is not
among the least interesting circumstances which con
centrate in the union of these two orphans, that the
dowerless daughter of Kentucky's most gifted artist
should have found a tutor in her childhood every way
adequate to form her taste and fashion her under
standing, and that in the dawning graces of her first
womanhood reflecting back upon its source the light
she had borrowed should have drawn and fastened to
her side as friend and protector through life, that same
boy preceptor from whose precocious mind her own
had drawn its nutriment and its strength. Jouett and
Menefee ! what an union of names, what a nucleus for
the public hopes and sympathies to grow and cluster
round, to cling and cleave to. And they are united in
the person of a boy, a glorious and beauteous boy —
upon whose young brow and every feature is stamped
the seal of his inheritance. I have seen this scion of
a double stock through whose young veins is poured
in blending currents the double tide of genius and of
art. Bless thee, Jouett Menefee, and may heaven
which has imparted the broad brow of the statesman
orator along with the painter's ambrosial head and

286 laCHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
glowing eye, may heaven shield and preserve the boy,
from the misfortunes of thy house.
Mr. Menefee retained his appointment, and located
at Mountsterling continued the practice of law with
extraordinary success in the various counties of that
mountainous district till August, 1836, when he was
returned the member from Montgomery to the House
of Representatives of Kentucky. It was the fortune of
your speaker to-day, to have served in the same body
during that session, and it was at this period that he
first saw and became acquainted with the illustrious
subject of this discourse. The impression which Mr.
Menefee then made was instantaneous, and inefface
able. He was in his twenty-seventh year, but the
lightness of his hair, his delicate complexion and
almost beardless face, and a certain juvenile outline of
person, made him look to a transient observer some
years younger than he really was. I knew nothing
then, nor till long after, of his private history. He
stood among his colleagues in legislation, almost an
entire stranger. He was surrounded by no peculiar
circumstances or associations of influence or of
interest. No pomp of heraldry blazened his hitherto
obscure name; no hereditary honors glittered around
his pale brow ; no troop of influential connections or
family partisans stood ready to puff him into prompt
notice, or to force him upon fame. Even the incidents
of his young life which would have won for his chiv
alric spirit an admiring and generous sympathy were
unknown. The storms through which his star had
waded in its ascent, the strife perpetual which he had
waged from infancy with evil circumstances and most
malignant fortune had rolled over him unknown or
unheeded by that world to whose service and applause
he had been fighting his way. He came into the lists
unattended, without device, armorial bearing, squire.
pursuivant, or herald. Entertaining the views which
Mr. Menefee did, it cannot be doubted that he
regarded the legislature of Kentuclcy as an important

MEMORIALS 287
theatre to him. It was the entrance into that temple
upon whose loftiest turret his eye had been fastened
from childhood. The scene was practically at least
an entirely new one to him. He was well aware, no
man more so, of the importance of first impressions
upon a body constituted as that of which he was a
member. One would naturally have expected from
a person situated as he was, great anxiety, not un
mixed with bashfulness and timidity in his debut.
You might have anticipated too, the selection of some
question of great and general interest, and the careful
and elaborate preparation, by so young and aspiring a
member, of a speech duly laden with flowers, and
studded with all the rhetorical gems of trope and
figure. No such thing. He threw himself easily and
naturally, and with apparent carelessness, into debate
for the first time, upon a bill entirely private in its
character and of not the smallest interest to the house.
No sooner had he risen however, and his bell tones
vibrated through the hall, than every eye and ear were
riveted into attention. There was about him an air of
practiced ease, a self-possession, a deliberation, as
utterly remote from affectation or impudence, as it was
entirely free from confusion or timidity. He wore
the cheek of a boy, and moved with the tread of a vet
eran. There was no impatience for display, no ambi
tious finery, no straining after effect about him, but
there was a precision and clearness in his statement,
an acuteness, a strength and clearness in his argument,
which bespoke a mind not only of the greatest original
power, but trained in the severest school of investiga
tion, and to which the closest reasoning was habitual
and easy. He seemed to move too, in his natural
element, as though he had so long and so carefully
revolved in his own mind the theatre of public affairs
as being the true stage for him that he stood there
albeit for the first time without surprise or anxiety.
It was upon a motion of his own to reverse a report
from the committee of courts of justice upon a bill

288 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
authorizing the sale of some infant's real estate, that
he was first heard to speak. The present Governor
of the Commonwealth was at the head of the com
mittee, and some of the most experienced members of
the house, and of the ablest professional men in the
country were members of it. The member from
Montgomery attacked their report with so much
vivacity and such remarkable ability, that they felt
themselves compelled to make a regular and formal
defence, which they did seriatim, and it is no reflec
tion upon their talent to state now, what all felt then
to be true, that their young antagonist was a match
for the whole. This debate and the occasion of it
would have passed from my memory long since, but
that they served to develop to my view for the first
time, the character and the powers of a man evidently
marked out for greatness, whose subsequent career
was one unbroken series of splendid successes, whose
genius then first fairly risen upon the public, within
three years from that date, shot into the zenith with an
horizon stretching to the utmost boundary of the
American States. After this first effort, trifling as
would seem the occasion, Mr. Menefee was no longer
considered in the light of a promising young man.
He did not climb gradually into favor and influence
with the House, but sprang at once and with an
elastic ease truly surprising, into the position, not only
of a debater of the highest order, but of a leading
mind, whose ripened judgment and matured thought
rendered his counsels as valuable, as the eloquence in
which they were conveyed was striking and delightful.
He was a member of the committee of finance, and
reported and carried in the face of the most violent
opposition, what is usually termed the "equalizing
law" by which the ordinary revenue without an
increase of taxation, but by including new subjects,
has gained upwards of thirty thousand dollars per
annum. The debates in the Kentucky legislature are
not reported, and little attention is paid, and little

MEMORIALS 289
interest manifested throughout the country in what is
passing at the capitol in Franl<fort. Yet upon the
narrower and more obscure theatre which he then
trod, did Mr. Menefee display during that winter,
powers and qualities which in Washington would, as
they afterwards did, have covered him with glory and
fixed his name. Compelled by the particular interest
which I then represented, (being a member from the
city of Louisville) to be thrown into frequent collision
with Mr. Menefee in the debates of the house, I had
ample opportunity both to know and to feel his intense
power as a disputant. Attracted powerfully by the
whole structure and style of the man, I studiously
sought occasions for a close and critical observation of
him. To men curious in such things he was a subject
altogether worthy of study. Accident threw rhe
somewhat into his personal confidence, which fur
nished better opportunities of ascertaining the dis
tinctive traits of his character and the habitual com
plexion of his mind, than the mere contests of argu
ment and public discussion would have afforded. In
the course of the session, he was heard upon every
question of state policy and always with an attention
which showed how deep he was in the confidence of the
House. Upon a proposition to reduce the salaries of
the State engineers, to which he was opposed, he took
occasion to discuss the system of internal improve
ment, as it is called, in which he showed that lawyer
as he was, he had found time to study deeply the
sources of national wealth, and the principles of public
economy. Upon a proposition of his own which he
lost, to place the salaries of the judges at Louisville
upon the same footing with the other judges of the
Commonwealth, he displayed in the most eminent
degree the peculiar traits of his genius. It was not
the discrimination in the amount of the salaries to
which he objected. It was that principle in the law,
which virtually made the Commonwealth's judges at
19

290 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Louisville to be paid by, and of course to be dependent
to a certain extent, upon that corporation, which he
resisted and exposed. But the master effort of his
mind that winter, was on the bill to repeal the law of
1833 prohibiting the importation of slaves. Never
yet have I heard or read among all the discussions to
which that law has given rise, an argument so mas
terly, so statesmanlike, so triumphant as that of Mr.
Menefee. Profoundly practical, and standing utterly
aloof from the extremes of fanaticism, he displayed
the deepest knowledge of the natural foundations of
social prosperity, and the most cautious regard for
existing institutions. Equally exempt from the rash
spirit of political empiricism which would tear the sub
sisting frame of society to pieces, in search of that
which is abstractly good, and from that worse than
cowardice, which shutting its eyes upon what is abso
lutely and demonstrably evil, would deepen and ex
tend it, for the wise reason that it is not perfectly
curable, that desperate quackery, which would spread
a cancer over the whole body, because it could not be
safely extirpated, he neither lauded slavery as a bless
ing, nor dreamed with crazy philanthropists, or mur
derous incendiaries of its sudden and violent extinc
tion. He adhered to the law of 1833 as a means of
checking the increase of an evil which could not now
be prevented. It is a public misfortune, and a draw
back upon Mr. Menefee's fame, brilliant as it is, that
his speeches in the legislature of Kentucky were not
preserved. Regarding him, as I have already said
with the deepest interest, and under circumstances
very favorable for observation, I describe him as he
impressed himself upon me. The great characteristic
of his mind was strength, his predominant faculty was
reason, the aim of his eloquence was to convince.
With an imagination rich, but severe and chaste, of an
elocution clear, nervous and perfectly ready, he em
ployed the one as the minister, and the other as the

MEMORIALS 291
vehicle of demonstration. He dealt not in gaudy
ornament or florid exhibition; no gilded shower of
metaphors drowned the sense of his discourse. He
was capable of fervid invective, vehement declamation,
and scathing sarcasm, but strength, strength was the
pervading quality, and there was argument even in
his denunciation. "No giant form set forth his com
mon height," no stentor voice proclaimed a bully in
debate; yet did he possess the power of impression,
deep, lasting impression, of interesting you not only
in what he said, but in himself, of stamping upon the
memory his own image, in the most eminent degree,
and in the most extraordinary manner, of any man of
his age whom it has been my fortune to encounter.
"Bonum viruni facile crederes, magnum libenter."
Although removed the farthest possible, from the
affection of mystery, or any asserted and offensive pre
tension to superiority over other men, and although
his manner was exempt entirely from the charge of
haughtiness, still as he appeared at that time, he loved
not familiarity and courted no intimacy. He was
bland, courteous, and perfectly respectful in his inter
course; still there was a distance, an undefinable sort
of reserve unmixed with pride, but full of dignity,
keeping frivolity aloof and attracting at once your
curiosity and your interest. Upon his forehead,
which was broad, and full and very commanding, were
traced the indisputable lines of intellect and genius.
His pale and delicate brow was stamped with the
gravity and the care of premature manhood. About
his lip and mouth were the slight, but living and in
delible traits of a resolved and ambitious spirit. The
whole countenance was that of a man who had suffered
and struggled, but who had conquered the past and
was prepared to grapple fearlessly with the future.
But the master expression, the natural language which
breathed from his face, from step, gesture, and even
the almost feminine tone of his voice and which con-

292 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
trasted so strangely with the delicacy of the whole,
was energy, unfainting, indomitable, though curbed
and regulated energy, which could sustain him
through all danger and under all fortune, and which
would and must bear him on to the utmost mark at
which his ambition might aim, and to which his talents
were at all adequate. There was nothing restless or
impatient about him. His was deliberate, concen
trated, disciplined energy. He had that managed
calmness of general manner, which so often betokens
a fiery and excitable temperament, but under the most
perfect control. Never man was more entirely master
of himself than Mr. Menefee. His conversation cor
responded with and deepened the impression made by
his public speeches and a close examination of his
whole appearance. He had all the quickness and
penetration of a man of true genius, but without a
spark of wildness or eccentricity. There was no
dreamy idealism, no shadowy romance, no morbid
sentimentalism about him. The occasional splendor
of his illustrations proved him to be sure possessed of
an imagination not only grand and lofty, but exqui
sitely sensible of the beautiful and the soft, but it was
the ally, not the principal ; and an ally upon which his
sovereign reason, abounding in its own resources,
leaned but little and drew but seldom. His fancy
drew her inspiration from the natural fountains
around and within him. It was not even tinged with
the sickly light of modern fiction. His whole mind
was eminently healthy. His was the seriousness of
determination, unmixed with gloom or melancholy.
The purity of his language, which was remarkable for
its beauty as well as its precision, declared a mind im
bued with elegant letters, but there was an antique
severity in his taste, a marble firmness as well as
smoothness in his style, which spoke of the hardihood
and muscle of the Grecian masters, those first teachers

MEMORIALS 293
and eternal fountains of poetry and eloquence.^ But
neither Mr. Menefee's conversation, nor his attain
ments, nor his talents, eminent as they all were, sur
prised me so much as the matured and almost rigid
tone of his character, the iron control which he exer
cised over himself, the cool, practical and experienced
views which he took of the world, and the elevation,
consistency and steadiness of his purposes. These
were the qualities which made his talents useful ; these
were the qualities which, young as he was, gave him
such absolute hold and command of the public confi
dence; these were the qualities which adapted him to
the genius and bound him to the hearts of his country
men, without which he might have been brilliant, but
could never have been great.
He had early ranged himself with that great party
in politics, whose protracted and arduous struggles
have at last found their consummation, and whose
principles have been ratified by the judgment of the
nation in the election of General Harrison to the
Presidency. He belonged to that class of minds, who
in every country and under every form of government,
are found the unflinching advocates of rational- and
regulated liberty, a liberty founded in principles fixed
and eternal, and which is only safe under the shield
and cover of a law changeless and inviolable by the
government, equally supreme and binding upon the
rulers and upon the people. The imperial maxim
"voluntas principis habet zngorem legis" he rejected
utterly. He loathed despotism in all its forms, and
wherever lodged, whether in the hands of one, the
many, or the few. Born in a monarchy, he would
have died as Hampden died, in the assertion of legal
limitations upon the prerogative. Born in a republic,
^That he was familiar with the historians and orators of an
tiquity, particularly of Athens, I am enabled to state of my own
knowledge. Those who knew him at college, say that he won
his academic honors by his superiority in Mathematics and the
languages.

294 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
he clung to the constitutional restrictions upon the
rapacious passions of faction. He regarded the
courtier cringing at the footstool of a throne, and the
demagogue lauding the absolute power of a mob, as
equally the foes of freedom, and the just objects of
patriot execration. He understood the term "people"
as comprehending every interest and every individual
and looked upon that system alone as free, which pro
tected each against the arbitrary power even of the
whole. He regarded government as something
framed for the defence of the weak against the strong,
of the few against the many, and considered human
rights as only safe, where fixed laws and not the
fluctuating caprices of men and parties were supreme.
Strength and numbers are absolute in a state of savage
nature, they need no laws nor magistracy for their
support. The rights of the weak and the few, can
only be secured by the incorporation of the eternal
principles of liberty and justice in a constitution im
passable to power and immutable by party. The
splendid popularity of a favorite chief, blinded not his
reason, the roar or triumphant faction deafened not
his conscience, the proscribing genius of a power
which punished with inexorable severity, or rewarded
with unbounded profusion, appalled not his moral
courage, nor shook for one moment his native in
tegrity. Young, poor, talented and aspiring, still he
followed where his principles led him and battled long
on the side of a feeble and almost overwhelmed
minority of his countrymen. To the cause which he
espoused, through all its fortunes he adhered with
unbroken faith and consistency and lived just long
enough to witness its final and complete success.
Mr. Menefee passed from the Legislature of Ken
tucky into the national councils, where he took his
seat in the lower house of Congress at the called
session of 1837. He is said to have exhibited during
the canvass, extraordinary powers of popular elo-

MEMORIALS 29s
quence, and unequalled grace and facility in mingling
with the great body of the people, demonstrating
thereby the versatility of a mind whose strength alone
I have been contemplating. The same destiny (for it
seemed no less) attended him in Congress, which had
marked his entrance upon state legislation. There
were no gradations in his congressional history. He
comprehended at once, and as if by instinct, the new
scene in which he was called to act; and no sooner
did he appear, than he was recognized as a statesman
and a leader. The intrepid boldness of his character
and precocious strength of his genius seem to have
smitten all parties with astonishment. Some of the
leading men of the political party to which he was
opposed, pronounced him the most extraordinary man
of his age, who had till then, appeared in Congress.
He encountered hostility in his upward flight, (when
did soaring genius fail to do it?) and meaner birds
would have barred him from his pathway to the skies.
With crimsoned beak and bloody talons, he rent his
way through the carrion crew and moved majestically
up to bathe his plumage in the sun. Never did a
career more dazzlingly splendid open upon the eye of
young ambition, than burst upon Mr. Menefee. The
presses teemed with his praise, the whole country was
full of his name ; yet did he wear his honors with the
ease of a familiar dress. He trod the new and dizzy
path with a steady eye and that same veteran step
which was so eminently his characteristic. Around
his path there seem to have been thrown none of those
delusions, which haunt the steps of youth and inex
perience. All was stern reality and truth. He main
tained his character undimmed, and his position un
shaken till the end of his term, and then this wonder
ful man imposed upon himself, his spirit and his am
bition, that iron control of which I have spoken and
voluntarily retired from a theatre the most elevated
and commanding, upon which genius and ambition

296 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
like his could engage in the gigantic strife for undying
honor. At twenty-nine years of age, Mr. Menefee
found himself upon a summit to which the dreams of
youth and hope could scarce have aspired. He alone
seemed neither astonished nor confounded by the
height to which he had arisen. In 1837 an obscure
young lawyer, scarce known beyond the precincts of
his native highland district; in 1839 he stood forth
on the world's great theatre in acknowledged great
ness, the predictions of his first tutor realized, the
prayer of his childhood granted. He stood on that
eminence so long and so gloriously occupied by the
man whose name he once bore, and whose fame had
been the pillar of fire by which he guided his footsteps
through the long, dark, perilous and unfriended night
of his boyhood, and he stood there at an age which
threw even that example into the shade. The draught
which he drank, so far from intoxicating his under
standing, served only to refresh and invigorate his
spirit for the work set before him. He surveyed
calmly from the height on which he stood, the pros
pect stretched beneath him, he quaffed the full beams
of the sun of glory which glowed about him, then turn
ing to the gentle flower at his side, which he had vowed
to shelter and defend, to her who had loved and trusted
him in obscurity and penury, before the world now
ready to do him homage, had learned his transcendant
talents and inestimable worth, and folding her, all
bright and blushing in the light of her husband's glory
to his bosom, he descended without a sigh, to vindicate
her confidence and toil for support.
He was now, though steeped in poverty, in the full
possession of fame. He was known universally.
Over his character there hung no doubt nor shadow.
He had but to select his ground, to choose his theatre.
His talents, his acquirements, his habits, all fitted him
eminently for the bar. A self-made scholar, he was of
indefatigable application — with a mind of singular
acuteness naturally and now much enlarged and

MEMORIALS 297
strengthened by the great topics it had grasped and
the powerful collisions into which it had been thrown,
he was peculiarly fitted for the largest and most com
prehensive views of jurisprudence. Of an integrity
stainless as the untrodden snow and without one vice
to consume his time or warp his career, he was sure to
devote himself to the interests of his clients. In the
summer of 1839 he located himself in Lexington.
There was no dreary noviciate with him. He stepped
into the forum armed at all points, and business flowed
in upon him in a full and rich tide. Never did any
man occupy such a position in Kentucky as did Mr.
Menefee in the opening of his professional career in
Lexington. The public sympathies rallied around to
cheer and to support him in a manner utterly un
known in any other case. Each step of his progress
but deepened the interest and vindicated more triumph
antly the opinion entertained for him. Men flocked
in crowds to hear him speak, his counsel was sought
and relied on, and his services engaged whenever
it was practicable at points distant from the scene
of his immediate operations. At a period of life when
most men are just rising into business, he was steeped,
actually overwhelmed with the weightiest, most hon
orable and most profitable causes. The sun of pros
perity broke out upon him with a warmth and bril
liancy entirely without example. All difficulties had
vanished from before him. In the past he found
nothing with which to upbraid himself. The rough
road through which he had journeyed from childhood
was marked throughout with trophies of his triumph
ant spirit. His country regarded him as public prop
erty, and waiting with fond impatience the attainment
of that pecuniary independence which his erect and
honorable nature deemed essential to his character,
stood ready with open arms to receive him into her
service and crown him with her choicest honors. For
tune was absolutely within his grasp. He was the
slave of honor, not the drudge of avarice. It was in-

298 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
dependence that he sought, independence for himself
and his nestlings. He had tasted the bitter fruits of
early poverty and although he had triumphed he
would not doom his little ones to their father's strug
gles and sufferings. He must have attained the object
of his pursuit even before he had reached his man
hood's prime, and then he could have turned him
again without a crime to the pursuits of ambition,
again have mounted the solar heights from whence
his moral nature had forced his intellectual down.
For one short year Mr. Menefee's delicate frame sus
tained the fiery energies of his mind. In the spring of
1840 in reply to a note from myself on professional
business, he alluded to the decline of his health in a
tone of sadness, not despondence — his was a soul that
never desponded — which struck me as ominous and
prophetic. Disease had indeed fastened its fangs upon
his body, its force was vain against his mind. With
rapidly declining health he persevered in his business
till in September in a case of vast magnitude, in which
Messrs. Clay and Wickliffe were both employed
against him, he put forth for the last time his inynor-
tal energies at the bar. Like the Hebrew giant his
last effort was the greatest. Oh, would to God that
he had been or could have been induced to spare him
self ! But the occasion had come, and the ruling pas
sion strong in death, broke out with irresistible force
to throw its radiance over his funeral pile. Ambition
has been called the last infirmity of noble minds. To
me it seems to constitute their essence and their
strength. I mean not the love of power, but that
higher ambition, the love, the yearning after that im
perishable fame, which shines through far generations
and with an increasing light over the memory of great
and glorious talents, greatly and gloriously exerted in
the cause of justice and mankind. This appeared to
me to be the master passion of Mr. Menefee's soul.
He must have been conscious of an extraordinary fate
and an extraordinary genius. He must have appeared

MEMORIALS 299
to himself as he certainly did to all others, a man
marked out from birth for great actions and the most
splendid distinction. What had he not achieved ? His
friends may challenge the history of this country for
a parallel. I have said that I had observed him closely
in 1836. I have had intimate opportunities since his re
tirement from Congress. I have conversed with him
since his disease was distinctly developed and the quali
ties which struck me with so much force upon our first
acquaintance appeared to gather strength with time.
There was an unsparing intensity in his mind, a concen
tration of the whole soul upon his pursuits, a haste, a
rapidity, as though he feared the sun of life should go
down ere the goal assigned to his genius had been at
tained. Was he conscious, (such a suspicion has some
times flashed across me, and from remembered conver
sations gathered strength,) could he have been con
scious that the seeds of early death were implanted in
his original constitution, and was it this which spurred
his fiery soul to such gigantic and unpausing strides
upon his road to greatness? Himself at all events he
did not and he would not spare. This was his only
crime ; the generous martyr ; for this and this alone can
his country reproach him. Perchance the opportunity
of measuring himself with that great genius, whom he
had proposed originally as his standard, struck upon
his heroic temperament, and roused the poetry of his
nature, as being a meet finale to a life like his. Be that
as it may, he dashed at the opportunity as new-fledged
eaglets dash into the sun. He did measure himself
and, in that effort, pouring forth his genius and his
life, reached the consummation of his first wishes, the
utmost point of his childhood's prayer. He was meas
ured and found a match for one whose thunders long
have shaken the American Senate and who was erst
the monarch of the forum. Mr. Menefee sunk grad
ually from September. His waning life sunk, not his
spirit. When apprised at last that his hour had ar
rived, "Brief summons" was the reply, and he manned

300 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
himself to die with dignity. His sense of duty, the
energy and collectedness of his nature and his cautious
regard for others, were strikingly manifested by the
last act of his life. He made his will, executed a mort
gage to indemnify a friend who was responsible for
him and ere the next sun had risen, his own had set
forever. Thus perished in the thirty-second year of his life,
Richard H. Menefee, a man designed by nature and
himself, for inevitable greatness. A man of the rarest
talents and of the most commanding character. A
man whose moral qualities were as faultless, as his in
tellectual constitution was vigorous and brilliant. A
man to whose advancing eminence there was no limit
but the Constitution of his country, had not the en
ergies of his mind proved too mighty for the material
elements which enclosed them.
" ' 'Twas his own genius gave the final blow,
And helped to plant the wound that laid him low.
So the struck Eagle stretched upon the plain.
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart.
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart.
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel.
And the same plumage that had warmed his nest.
Drank the last life-drop from his bleeding breast.' '"
Kentucky's first Cecil Rhodes scholar to
Oxford University, Mr. Clarke Tandy, in a
prize oration entitled, "The Hero as Orator,"
after calling the roll of the world's greatest
orators, said: "Why should we of Kentucky
turn to any land beneath the starry heavens
for examples of the hero as orator. John C.
Breckinridge, John J. Crittenden, Clay, Mar
shall, and Menefee have bequeathed to us their
' Lord Byron's "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," lines
824-834.

MEMORIALS 301
immortal names. Among their speeches may
be found specimens of matchless eloquence.
In our own proud heroic State was pronounced
one of the most exquisite eulogies in all the
annals of oratory. We have heard Pericles at
the graves of the Peloponnesian heroes;
we have heard Mark Antony speaking in
Caesar's funeral; we have heard Melancthon
delivering the funeral oration over Martin
Luther; we have heard Bishop Bossuet at the
burial of Louis de Bourbon; we have heard
'Light Horse Harry' Lee bemoaning the
Father of our Country, but where, where can
a more brilliant eulogy be found than that
crystal tear which Thomas Marshall wept for
Richard Menefee?"
Menefee's widow and his little four-year-old
son, Richard Jouett Menefee, sat on the plat
form while Marshall was delivering his pane
gyric. When Marshall referred to Jouett
Menefee, he took him in his arms and de
scribed his great physical beauty, as given in
the eulogy. As he returned him to his moth
er's arms, he said, "God bless thee, Jouett
Menefee." The word "God" is left out of the
eulogy through a very obvious typographical
error. The Law Society was so well pleased with
Marshall's effort that they appointed a com
mittee of three to communicate with Marshall
and obtain his manuscript for publication.
The famous orator took a month to answer
them, on account of "severe indisposition and
the most pressing engagements," but he sent
them the manuscript. It was immediately
published by the Finnells, printers, in pam-

302 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
phlet form, and in this form was preserved
until W. L. Barre in "Marshall's Speeches"
(1858), incorporated it into his book, prefac
ing it with the following notice: "In the
month of February, 1841, Kentucky was called
to mourn the death of Richard H. Menefee;
a champion in her legislature, and a star of
the first magnitude in the national councils,
he stood in the first ranks with those of the
list of fame. Though he had not attained his
thirty-second year, he already stood upon the
apex of an immortal pyramid of his own
erection. Of generous impulses, possessing
talents of the highest order, and an ardent
thirst for that glory he acquired, and having
'died ere he reached his prime,' the universal
sorrow of the time was but natural. On the
twelfth of the ensuing April, the members of
the Law Society of Transylvania University
met in the chapel of Morrison College, in Lex
ington, for the purpose of paying a tribute to
their lamented associate. Before a large audi
ence that felt deeply the solemnity of the occa
sion, Mr, Marshall arose and delivered the fol
lowing address. The annals of eulogy and
panegyric may be sought in vain for a happier
piece of composition. Rich in feeling, copious
in thought, and glowing with the eloquence
of a soul gushing its fervor at the grave of a
departed friend, it is a monument to the
genius and talents of the dead and of the liv
ing — equally imperishable to both."
Kentucky's foremost historian, R. H. Col
lins, said at the close of his sketch of Menefee:
"He was great as a lawyer and greater as a
statesman. The eulogy of Thomas F. Mar-

MEMORIALS 303
shall upon Menefee's life and services — the
tribute of genius to genius, of brilliant but
erratic genius to genius still more brilliant and
self-poised and commanding — is one of the
most graceful and eloquent in the whole field of
panegyric literature."
Marshall's eulogy and Frazer's picture were
the two greatest Menefee memorials until the
State of Kentucky decided to make a more
lasting memorial than even these. In 1869
the legislature of Kentucky created a new
county and named it for him. On February
24, 1869, Orlando C. Bowles, representative
from Pike County, introduced a bill to estab
lish the county of Menefee, out of parts of
Montgomery, Bath, Morgan, Powell, and
Wolfe Counties. The House passed the bill
and on March 8 the Senate did likewise. Two
days later Governor John W. Stephenson ap
proved the bill, and one more memorial to the
might of Menefee had been created. Commis
sioners were appointed to locate the county
seat, which was to be called Frenchburg, in
honor of the man whom Menefee defeated for
Congress. Menefee County is the one hundred
and thirteenth Kentucky county in the order of
formation, and is in the ninth Congressional
district. It has recently been brought into the
limelight because of the natural gas that has
been discovered in its hills. By a mistake the
name was incorrectly spelled, Menifee. Some
years ago a bill to change the "i" to "e" passed
the Kentucky Senate, but through an over
sight the House did not act upon it. A
statute should be enacted by the next legis
lature, to correct the spelling.

304 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
We come now to a most interesting fact.
Jouett Menefee, Menefee's son, heard of the
creation of this new county, and he thought it
would be an appropriate act to present the
new county with a picture of his father. He
accordingly commissioned his friend, Thomas
S. Noble, a native of Kentucky, superin
tendent of the Cincinnati Art School, to paint
the picture from the original one by Oliver
Frazer. Mr. Noble has written me that the
picture was presented by Jouett Menefee, to
the bar of Owingsville, conditionally, and that
it was to be removed to the court-house in
Menefee County as soon as it was completed.
The Bath County bar evidently understood
Mr. Menefee differently, as, on July 6, 1872,
the bar met and the picture was presented by
Capt. B. D. Lacy. Eloquent resolutions were
passed upon Menefee's greatness, and thanks
to his son for the very excellent copy that
Noble had made of Frazer's picture. Whether
Noble understood Jouett Menefee correctly,
or whether the Owingsville bar understood
him correctly, I do not know. At any rate,
the picture hangs to-day in the Owingsville
court-house, and there is no picture in French
burg. Jouett Menefee presented a portrait of his
father to the Lexington court-house, but it
was destroyed when the court-house was
burned in 1897. I have been unable to ascer
tain who made this copy of the Frazer picture,
but Judge William B. Kinkead began his
sketch of Menefee by referring to this copy
adversely. The presentation of the picture
provoked Judge Kinkead's sketch. It was

MEMORIALS 305
based on personal recollections, and extended
from the time that Kinkead met Menefee at
the Transylvania University Law School, in
1831, until his death. Many parts of it have
been used, but the second and last two para
graphs deserve to be given entire.
I have known personally or historically most of the
celebrated men of Kentucky, and am impressed with
the belief that Richard H. Menefee was the ablest man
ever born in the State. He died when only thirty-two
years old, having obtained a distinction above that ac
quired by any other man at so early an age. He pos
sessed more of the elements for great success than any
other I have ever known. With intellect quite equal
to Mr. Clay's he had a calmness and courage, a self-
reliance and perseverance rarely encountered, while he
was likewise remarkable for a genial kindness and de
votion to his friends. He became at once the idol of
the people.
Kinkead then traced his career and closed
with the words :
At the age of thirty-two, while the hopes of the
country were centered upon him in the full confidence
that he would more than supply the great place so
long occupied by Mr. Clay, and which must soon be
relinquished by him, he passed away. He was
mourned by the whole country. Tom Marshall deliv
ered his eulogy. He knew his greatness, for he had
felt his power. Every one recognized that there did
not remain in the State one man of so much ability.
But how fleeting and evanescent are all the honors
bestowed on even the rarest talents. The voice of
acclamation and praise which attends one through life,
soon becomes stilled and silent, when one ceases to act
among men. Unless a great character is associated

306 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
with some great event in history, some mighty epoch
in the nation, he is forgotten. The names that are im
perishable are such as Moses, Julius, Brutus, or Wash
ington — such only are immortal.
In a popular government, where parties rule, new
leaders will, for the time, obliterate the remembrance
of a greater and an abler, and on the questions which
may arise, in a few generations "our children's chil
dren will raise new idols — and cavil where their sires
adored." In the great convulsions which our country
has passed through, such seems now to be the fate of
Richard Menefee. The memory of this young man of
rare ability, around whom centered such lofty hopes,
seems almost to have perished from among his coun
trymen. Yet there still remain old men who knew
him, who bear testimony to his unrivaled talent, and
many years hereafter the curious antiquarian will find
among long forgotten records, some memorials of the
life and early death of one who possessed the greatest
ability of any of the sons of Kentucky.
In 1876 there appeared two county histories
that recorded Menefee's deeds. One of them,
"Historical Sketches of Montgomery County,"
prepared by Richard Reid, traced Menefee's
career, and then closed with this tribute:
"Menefee's death cast a gloom over the whole
State, and especially was the grief keen and
the mourning sincere in Montgomery, where
everybody loved him and felt that he was the
child of Montgomery, where his rare gifts and
powers had first come to the notice of men,
and where he had achieved his first triumphs."
Young's History of Bath County traced his
career from a local standpoint, and then added :
"Thus died in the bloom of youth, a man who,
by his transcendent genius and eloquence, had

MEMORIALS 307
the eyes of all America turned upon him, as
giving promise of being the greatest statesman
that she ever produced."
We must turn now to round out the career
of Menefee's distinguished son, Richard Jouett
Menefee. At the age of fifteen years, Jouett
Menefee left school and engaged in the
queensware business, in Chicago, in connec
tion with Arthur J. Burley. He sold out his
part in the business, after several years, and
went to Cincinnati. He again engaged in
business, and bought an interest in the Burnet
House. He was rapidly amassing a fortune,
but he quit business and made an extended
tour of the world in company with his mother.
They visited the great European art galleries
and became acquainted with George Healy
and other celebrated painters. He returned to
Louisville, and again engaged in business, and
retained an interest in it until within two years
of his death. The last two years of his life
were spent in a vain search for health. He
died in Louisville, June 12, 1893, and was
buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. He left a
widow and five children who are still living.
At the time of his death he was the ablest art
critic living in Kentucky, and was compiling a
biography of his famous grandfather, Mat
thew H. Jouett. He was an elder in the Pres
byterian Church, and one of the trustees of
Center College of Danville, Kentucky.
On August 18, 1893, a memorial service was
held in the Menefee Memorial Church, in
Owingsville, out of respect to Jouett Menefee.
This church had been erected by Menefee's
assistance because he loved the religion of

308 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
Jesus Christ, and also to perpetuate his
father's name more effectually in the place
of his birth. The pastor of the church.
Rev. R. A. Walton, presented a brief bio
graphical sketch of Jouett Menefee. J. H.
Herron, editor of the Owingsville Opinion, read a
sketch of Matthew H. Jouett, and then a
young Owingsville lawyer arose and delivered
a eulogy that, to me, is more exquisite than
even Marshall's "crystal tear."
This young man was William Goodpastor
Ramsey, son of Judge John A. Ramsey, and
was born in Owingsville, December 30, 1870.
He attended the common schools of the
town, and at the age of twelve years received
a certificate to teach school. He was further
prepared for college at the public schools of
San Antonio, Texas ; Thomasville, Georgia,
and Denver, Colorado, where he was with his
mother, who was seeking restoration of health.
He then attended the University of Virginia
two years, and then at the University of
Michigan for the same length of time. He
graduated in law at Michigan and then took a
post-graduate law course. In 1896, he was the
elector for the ninth congressional district,
and "stumped" every county in the district,
which was composed of thirteen counties.
The following year he was elected as judge of
Bath County, and died suddenly, at his home
in Owingsville, with apoplexy, October 21,
1898. Judge Ramsey is the only man that
Kentucky has produced that is, in any respect,
comparable to Menefee; j^oung and eloquent,
pure and noble, he followed in the footsteps of
the magnificent Menefee. The facts of his

MEMORIALS 309
eulogy are based on Marshall's, and are of
course incorrect at many points.
Ramsey's speech on richard menefee
Ladies and Gentlemen :
In this beautiful temple, this monument to mortal
man, we meet in solemn conclave. Unlike the multi
tude and Mark Antony around the great Caesar, we
come to praise the magnificent Menefee, not to bury
him. In recorded history we seldom find a village that
has produced a renowned soldier, a noted sculptor, and
an orator upon whose lips the goddess of eloquence
seemed to have nestled.
Yet, within almost a stone's throw of this assembly,
Joel T. Hart lived, John B. Hood and Richard Mene
fee moved and had their being; but the greatest of
these was the patriot lawyer, orator and statesman.
One bright December morning in eighteen hundred
and nine, the subject of this memorial first saw the
saffron tints of a cold uncongenial world, but the
Christian mother who yielded this helpless babe in her
morning orison prayed to the ever-merciful God to
make her son a man among men, and then it was writ
ten in the records of destiny that an intellectual giant
was born of woman, that a brilliant star was trembling
upon the horizon, which would rise to its place in the
zenith and there shine in undimmed glory until the
world should be no more, and time had passed into
eternity. At the tender age of four. Providence in its infinite
wisdom made this child an orphan, but the helpless
stage of infancy was but for a season ; for at the age
of twelve, he was the staff, the support and the hero of
his widowed mother.
Soon began that arduous struggle for undying
fame, and although the earliest part of life's tern-

310 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
pestuous journey was beset with trials, temptations
and vicissitudes galore, yet he rose superior to every
occasion, and forced the destinies to crown him with
a fadeless laurel and register his name in letters of
gold, in that great temple on that never changing
scroll of immortals. And ten decades hence, when
truth has a hearing, the muse of history will choose
Daniels of Virginia, Cochran of New York, Grady of
Georgia, IngersoU of Brooklyn ; then dipping her pen
in the sunlight, she will write in the clear blue above
them, the name of that bright consummate flower of
earlier orators— Richard Menefee. Educated in the
common schools of Bath and Montgomery, later on an
honor man of Transylvania University, then he began
the study of law, was admitted to the bar ere he had
attained his majority, and from his entrance was the
counsellor and advocate in the most important and
abstruse cases of the day — Oh, what a favorite of for
tune! By an admiring constituency, he was called to the
halls of the Kentucky legislature, at the age of twenty-
seven, and there it was he met in the arena of debate
the master minds of our grand Commonwealth, and as
a logical and convincing speaker his name will be
handed to generations not yet born, along with Clay's
and Webster's; but he was not to remain there long,
for the people, recognizing transcendent talents and
incomparable worth both as a citizen and as a states
man, elected him to a seat in the Federal Congress, two
years later ; then his reputation burst beyond the con
fines of his 'native State, and it was heralded and
flashed across our country that the brightest young
Solon that had yet appeared in the political firmament
was electrifying his auditors with the brilliancy of his
rhetorical flowers and the cogency of his invincible
logic. Orator, patriot, statesman, lawyer, beautifully
blended in one, is a theine worthy to be couched in

MEMORIALS 311
words of noble eloquence commemorated in most en
during marble and transmitted to our children and our
children's children, in poetry and in song — yea, it is
an infinite subject in finite hands.
With bated breath and attentive ear have I listened
to the aged sires of our community relate in exquisite
admiration the charms of this man's oratorical powers,
and in my childish fancy I could imagine him in his
flights of eloquence soaring like a mountain eagle or a
condor of the Andes, to the illimitable space, there to
"bathe its plumage in the thunder's home," and the
elysian hues of an iridescent rainbow.
One of the greatest legal battles ever fought in a
temple of justice was between Richard Menefee and
that immortal commoner Henry Clay and the great
Wickliffe. Standing in the forum, in the grandeur of
his young manhood with these great men as his un
compromising opponents, I can see him as Virgil was
wont to describe Mezentius surrounded by his enemies,
he "like a solid rock by seas inclosed, to raging winds
and the roaring waves exposed." From this proud
summit looking down he disdains their empty menace
and triumphant remains. Although he was the votary
of no particular creed, yet he communed constantly
with nature; and the breathing fragrance of Spring,
the soft voluptuousness of Summer, the golden pomp
of Autumn, and the sheeted earth of Winter, told him
that there was a God, who ruled the mutations of the
seasons and the destinies of man, and in Him he
placed implicit trust and sublime confidence, and his
Maker raised him to the grandest of human heights.
But the dread disease, consumption, which ever fixes
its relentless fangs upon the good, immaculate and
brilliant, claimed his pure breast as its unwelcome
home ; and when he was told by weeping, sympathetic
and sorrowing friends that his unsullied soul would
soon wing its flight from these terrestrial troubles to
its celestial abode, he remarked, "Brief summons," and
folding his arms he manned himself to die with dig-

312 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
nity, for he had so lived that when that "summons"
came to "join the innumerable caravan that moves to
the pale realms of shade, where each should take his
chamber in the silent hall of death, he went not like the
quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon; but
sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, he ap
proached his grave like one who wraps the drapery of
his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams."
He left a devoted wife and sorrowing son to mourn
his untimely end, and in that son's veins courses the
blood of two noted and illustrious families; for the
mother of Richard H. Menefee's boy was the daugh
ter of the great artist, grand connoisseur, Jouett, who
had the skill of a Michael Angelo, and the touch of a
Reynolds. Thus perished ere he had reached the
thirty-third milestone on life's journey — a man of
transcendent genius, a man who has immortalized
himself by his eloquence; a man of immeasurable
worth, and one whose mental qualities were as fault
less as his intellectual constitution was vigorous and
brilliant. And to the memory of the magnificent
Menefee, whose life from his twenty-first year was a
series of signal successes, I say, "Good-night," and
may we all meet him in that beautiful land, around
the white throne of Jehovah where the angels always
sing and the light of heaven shines eternal.
Richard H. Menefee had asked that his body
should never be removed from the old Allen
grave-yard, near Lexington. In pursuance of
this wish his body was permitted to sleep for
over half a century in a place that one of our
own poets has called "God's Acre." But after
the death of Jouett Menefee, his father's body,
with the bodies of Menefee's two children and
his father-in-law, Matthew H. Jouett, were dis
interred and brought to Louisville, and on Sat
urday, October 28, 1893, were buried in Cave

MEMORIALS 3x3
Hill Cemetery. To-day a magnificent monu
ment stands to tell Kentuckians that this is
hallowed ground, for it contains the ashes of
one of her greatest sons. He is buried near
Dr. A. H. Redford, D. D. (1818-1884), the his
torian of Kentucky Methodism, the biog
rapher of Kavanaugh. Across the driveway,
and over a little knoll, one comes to the red
granite monument to Gen. George Rogers
Clark, the distinguished conqueror of the
Northwest. Many stories have been told about Menefee,
but the best and most authentic one seems to
be the Phil Lee story that Vice-President Adlai
E. Stevenson, a native son of Kentucky, who is
never so happy as when telling about old times
and great men in the Blue Grass Common
wealth, has preserved. Stevenson told it some
years ago to a correspondent of the Kansas
City Times, and it is as follows : Col. Phil Lee,
who was for many years Commonwealth's
Attorney of Jefferson County, Kentucky, told
Stevenson the story of how he was once com
pared to Menefee. He had made his first great
speech to a jury. As he came out of the court
house, an old man took his hand and said,
"Lord, Phil, you just reminded me exactly of
Dick Menefee." Lee was immensely tickled
and invited the old fellow to take a drink.
"Yes, Phil, I could just see Dick Menefee."
Another drink. "When you come around Hke
that and riz your hand like this, I could see
Dick Menefee." Another drink. "There's
only a few points of difference 'twixt you and
Dick Menefee, Phil." Another drink, and
then Lee ventured to inquire about the points

314 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
of difference. "Well, Phil, it did seem to me
that you kinder lacked Dick Menefee's idees!"
In 1900 the new Lexington court-house
was opened and the county of Fayette had oil
paintings made to hang on the walls of the
court-room. Miss Mary Kinkead, a painter of
Lexington, was commissioned to copy Oliver
Frazer's portrait of Menefee to occupy a place
on the walls. Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, the
famous Kentucky orator and journalist, wrote
the following criticism of this copy: "Cut off
in the prime of life, Menefee yet left to his
State the heritage of a brilliant and honorable
career. In this face, unusual as it is, at
first glance far from handsome, there can be
seen something of the poetic quality of the
man who was, above all things, a lovable gen
tleman; and greater familiarity with the
picture will soon breed a warm affection.
Frazer gave to the figure the sloping shoulders
which were the fashion of the day, and which,
to some extent, mar also his otherwise remark
able picture of young Henry Clay, killed at
Buena Vista." What will probably be the
best picture of Richard H. Menefee will be a
copy of the Frazer picture that one of Mene
fee's grandsons, Mr. Speed S. IMenefee, upon
whom the mantle of Jouett has fallen, will
paint for the Kentucky Hall of Fame, which
will be in the new Kentucky Capitol. Mr.
Menefee is going to paint a full-length por
trait, using Frazer's picture for the bust, and
then make a study of Menefee's height, which
will result, no doubt, in a remarkably fine por
trait of the great Kentucky orator.
The following sonnet, published in a Cincin-

MEMORIALS 315
nati paper, is only signed with the initials. At
the time of its publication, Jouett Menefee
wrote to the editors, asking for the poet's full
name, but he received a reply stating that the
author signed only the initials — R. R.
"SONNET TO MENEFEE.
"A parent's gift from Heaven, O ! orphan child,
Ennobled thee above the kings of earth !
For truth and genius waited at thy birth,
And on thy toilsome youth a glory smile.
Illumining the work through years up-piled;
Self-raised, thou didst ascend to heights whose dearth
Of occupance bespeaks heroic worth —
Orator, patriot, statesman undefiled.
While at thy side was one whose loveliness —
Kentucky's artist's daughter, wife of thine —
Was wreathing round thy fame to cheer and bless.
Alas ! thy life at high ambition's shrine
Was sacrificed — a harp-string broken in stress
Of rendering some melody divine."
— R. R.

CHAPTER XI
MENEFEE, THE MAN.
Richard Hickman Menefee's personal ap
pearance was described by his widow to Ed
ward S. Jouett, the a,uthor of the sketch of
Menefee in "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Ken
tucky," substantially as follows: He was just
six feet in height, of slight build, yet erect, mus
cular and graceful. His eyes were dark blue,
bluer than the eyes of General Forrest. His
lashes were heavy and his hair light brown and
was getting darker as he grew older. His lips
were rather full, but he had a beautiful mouth,
and his teeth were perfect. His blond complex
ion Menefee inherited from his mother; his
height and rather muscular, although slender,
form, was his inheritance from his father.
Menefee and John Keats have sometimes been
looked at and pitied, as men of genius but
physical weaklings. This is an incorrect judg
ment. While Keats was subject to lung
trouble and was in ill health for many years,
Menefee was ill for only a year, and up to that
time he was as strong as he desired to be.
Richard Menefee is the most lovable
character in Kentucky history. Col. W. C. P.
Breckinridge called him "a lovable gentleman."
He had a sunny, playful disposition. When the
day's work was done he would go home and
romp for hours on the floor with his children.
Then he would study until midnight. "In all
his life he seemed to be driven by some unseen

MENEFEE, THE MAN 317
force to work, work, work; he seemed to be
sa3n[ng to himself, 'the night cometh when no
man can work.' Menefee knew men, and was
rarely ever deceived in any one. He was not
quick to judge men, but when he did pro
nounce judgment there was no appeal. He
was a patriot, a lover of his kind, and had he
lived, I verily believe he would never have be
come a corrupt politician as we have them to
day." Another gift of Menefee's, an essential
to political success, was his ability as a story
teller. Kentucky has produced no better
after-dinner speaker than he.
His Diary reveals many of his character
istics, a few of which may be tabulated here.
He was both retrospective and introspective,
though not morbid. He was also an optimist,
regarding his ill-health as a blessing in dis
guise, since it gave him an opportunity to
study history, which would have been denied
him had he been well and attending to his
practice. He defined history as being not a
knowledge of mere facts and dates, but a
knowledge obtained of the causes, effects, con
sequences and dependencies; in this he at
tained to the modern definition. On historical
subjects he was thinking far in advance of his
time, and had he lived he might have written
a history that would have added new lustre
to his name. He was especially fond of consti
tutional history.
Menefee was a very modest man. With all
the honors that Kentucky and the nation had
heaped upon him, he remained the same. He
was so very modest that for fear some one
would accuse him of egotism, he would not

3l8 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
write an autobiography. If he had written
one, it is safe to say it would have been the
great Kentucky autobiography, and one_ that
people of his State would not have willingly
let die. It would have been as charming to a
Kentuckian, at any rate, as "Franklin's Auto
biography." To-day when obscure men bring
themselves before the public eye by the aid of
their "own story," and when a man of Mene
fee's fame refuses to write a history of his life,
we may see this trait of his character empha
sized. Richard H. Menefee was a moral man.
Tradition has it that he never drank when
wine was served at his own table, except upon
one occasion, then he took a few sips of cham
pagne with a party of friends whom he was
entertaining. No historian can say of Mene
fee, as one has said, too truly, of Marshall, that
if his morality had been equal to his intellect
he would have been indeed a great man. No
matter to what heights he may attain, no man
is a really great man who is not moral as well.
Morality is greater than intellect.
He was known throughout Kentucky, and
especially on his native heath, as "Dick"
Menefee, just as Thomas F. Marshall and
Abraham Lincoln were known as "Tom" and
"Abe," and as to-day our strenuous President
is called "Teddy." But then, we of America
have little regard for dignified greatness. The
man who would lead the American people
must be one of the people.
Menefee was ambitious. He admits that he
had lived too much in the future. I have no
doubt that he had his eye fixed upon the high-

MENEFEE, THE MAN 319
est office within the gift of the people — the
Presidency itself. He did not take Shake
speare's advice to throw ambition away, al
though he may have realized by that sin fell
the angels. He was ambitious to be a great
lawyer and a distinguished statesman, but it
is as an orator that he holds his place in Ken
tucky history. Llis oratory was not the
proverbial flower-laden style that has been
characteristic of Southern orators. He spoke
right on — as a plain blunt man, and in his
simplicity there was great eloquence. Al
though he realized that painting and sculpture
were more lasting than oratory, he also real
ized that it was God's great gift to him, and
he made the most of that gift. As one of the
three great Kentucky orators, younger than
Marshall or Clay by many years, Menefee has
received from all of the Kentucky historians
one of their fairest pages. Henry Clay un
hesitatingly pronounced him the greatest
genius that Kentucky ever produced. Only
one other man in Kentucky history rivals him
for his place with Marshall and Clay, John
Hayes (1793-1836), an erratic, often intoxi
cated lawyer, who lived in Bardstown, Ken
tucky. Lie was murdered while in an intoxi
cated condition, and to-day mention of his
name only awakens sympathy. Menefee could
be as sarcastic as the late Senator from Kan
sas, John J. Ingalls. Unlike Ingalls, he "tem
pered his sarcasm with genial humor which
cured the wound which he had inflicted."
While he was not a communicant of any
church, Richard H. Menefee believed that Jesus
of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son of the

320 RICHARD HICKMAN MENEFEE
living God. A few months before his death
he was unsettled in his religious convictions,
but as the end drew near he became absolutely
certain that, though a man die, he will live
again. He belonged to the church which has
been described as "the church without the
church." While Menefee's biographer cannot
call him "a great Christian" as Lord Salis
bury called Gladstone, yet there is great truth
in the statement that a man of considerable
prominence wrote to Menefee's widow: "I
consider Menefee not only the greatest man
that Kentucky ever produced, but the best."
The fact remains, however, that he did not
unite with the visible church.
I desire to conclude this biography of Rich
ard Hickman Menefee with the final words of
Thomas Carlyle's life of his friend and brother
man of letters, John Sterling, who had many
characteristics in common with Menefee.
While I have not known Menefee in the flesh
as Carlyle knew Sterling, I believe that I know
this Kentuckian of Kentuckians. "Nay, what
of men or of the world? Here, visible to my
self, for some while, was a brilliant human
presence, distinguished, honorable and lov
able amid the din of common population;
among the million little beautiful, once moved
a beautiful human soul; whom I, among
others, recognized and lovingly walked with,
while the years and hours were. Sitting now
by his tomb in thoughtful mood, the times
bring a new duty for me. Why write the
Life of Menefee? I imagine I had a commis
sion higher than the world's, the dictate of
Nature herself, to do what is now done.
Sic prosit."

INDEX

Adair, John, i6.
Adams, John Q., 133, 184.
Allen, Jas. Lane, 57.
Allen, Jas. W., 43, 44.
Allen, Wm., 270, 275.
Andrews, J. W., 43, 44.
Arnold, Dr. Thos., 24.
Barbour, Gov. Jas., 238.
Barre, W. L., 302.
Bashaw, J. W., 43, 44.
Bell, John, 85, 132.
Bell, J. F., .S3-
Birney, Jas. G., 242, 253.
Blackie, Wm., 15.
Bledsoe, A. T., 15.
Boon, Ratliffe, 193.
Boone, Jamina, 17.
Bourne, Walker, 23, 24, 25.
Boyle, Capt. John, 11.
Boyle, Justice John, 66.
Breckenridge, John C, 252.
Breckinridge, W. C. P., 314.
Breathitt, Gov. John, 49.
Bright, John M., 278.
Brooks, Jas. A., 32.
Brown, John, 33.
Bryant, Edwin, 54, 246.
Buckner, R. A., 267.
Bulhtt, A. S., i8.
Bullitt, W. N., 43, 44.
Bullock, W. C, 43, 44.
Bullock, W. F., 67.
Bush, Pleasant, 64.
Calhoun, John, 80.
Carlyle, Thos., 320.
r*  T7-:^ _-

%^iiupill, 15.
Clay, C. M., S4, 241, 268.
Clay, Henry, 16, 40, 66, 80, 112,
232, 250, 319.
Clay, Henry, Jr., 237.
Clark, Gen. G. W., 313-
Clark, Gov. Jas., 55, 59, 62, 237.
Clements, L. V., 251.

Collins, Lewis, 232, 275.
Collins, R. H., 302.
Combs, Gen. Leslie, 54, 58, 241.
Crittenden, J. J., 80, 234, 266.
Cushman, Samuel, 208.
Cumbreling, C. C, 195, 204,
215-
Daniel, Henry, 61, 73.
Darwin, Charles, 15.
Davenport, S. T., 20.
Davis, Garrett, 55.
Davis, Josiah, 37.
Dawson, Wm. C., 212.
Dixon, Archibald, 61, 235.
Donaldson, Col. John, 20.
Dudley, Dr. B. W., 269.
Edwards, Ninian, 15.
Everett, Edward, 196.
Faneuil Hall, 75, 196.
Fillmore, Millard, 133, 214.
Fiske, John, 17.
Fitz Gerald, Edward, 15.
Forrest, Gen. N. B., 216.
Fox, Fountain, 61.
Frazer, Oliver, 232, 271.
French, Richard, 74, 80, 184.
Gaines, E. P., 57.
Gill, Harrison, 32.
Gladstone. Wm. E., i.S, 320.
Granger, Francis, 55, 68.
Grant, U. S., i7-
Graves-Cilley duel, 140.
Green, Judge John, 53, 54.
Grimes, Owen, 78.
Guerrant, Dr. H. S., 87, 88.
Guthrie, Jas., 61, 65.
Hall, Rev. N. H., 48, 275.
Hanson, Samuel, 61.
Hardin, Ben, 49, 61, 267.
Harlan, Jas., Sb, 212.
Harrison, A. G., 26.
Harrison, Gen. W. H., .S.S, 238,.
253-
Hart, Joel T., 271.

Index

Hawes, Richard, 80, 232.
Hays, John, 319.
Helm, Gov. John L., 60.
Henry, Patrick, 28.
Heron, David, 53.
Hickman, Richard, 17, 18, 19.
Hill, Dr. Preston, 26.
Holley, Horace, 30, 32, 33.
Holmes, O. W., 15.
Hood, Gen. John B., 13.
Houghton, Lord, 15.
Howe, Rev. Jos. F., 16, 23.
Hunt, Charlton, 55.
Hunter, R. M. T., 15, 82.
Huston, Gen. J. B., 253.
Ingalls, John J., 319.
Irving, Washington, 15.
Jackson, Pres. Andrew, 57.
Jameison, John, 26.
Johnson, Geo. W., 37, 43, 246.
Johnson, Madison C., 68, 82,
249.
Johnson, Richard N., 250, 269.
Jouett, Matthew H., 275.
Jouett, Mrs. M. H., 232, 270.
Jouett, Miss S. B. (Mrs. Mene
fee), Z7, 48, 112.
Keats, John, 216.
Keiser, Col. John, 72.
Kelley, R. F., 64.
Kinkead, Wm. B., 15, 37, 42,
304.
LaFayette, Count, 48.
Lane, Gov. H. S., 25, 26.
Lanier, Sidney, 24.
Lansdowne, Col. Geo., 22, 31,
.SO.
Letcher, Gov. R. P., 54, 60,
23s, 248.
Lincoln, Abraham, 13, 15, 318.
Litchfield Law School, 40.
Logan, Capt. Benj., 11.
Lonsdale, Mary, 13, 21, 50.
Madison, Pres. Jas., 15.
Marshall, Thos. A., 269.
Marshall, Thos. F., 15, 19, 61,
274, 318.
Matthews, T. J., 30, 33.
Mayes, Daniel, 41, 42.
Mendelssohn, 15.

Menefee, Alfred, 14, 34.
Menefee, Richard, 12, 16, 19,
20, 22.
Menefee, Richard Hickman,
address to Fayette Whigs,
247.
ambition, 20.
anti-dueling law, speech on,
152-
banqueted, 73.
bar-keeper, 28.
birth, II.
body removed, 312.
brothers, 14.
campaigning, 56.
campaign stories, 76, 78.
candidate for Congress, 74.
Caroline, speech, 114.
cast last votes, 253.
Captain, 58.
children, .S2, 80, 241.
classmates, 25, 26.
Commonwealth's Atty., 40.
Congressional committee
man, 86.
Congress, adjourns, 231.
contested election, a, 132.
contract, a, 49.
country's condition, speech
on, 148.
death, 270.
defeated for U. S. Senate,
268.
denounces Duncan, 217.
Diary, 2.SS.
Documents, speech on, 205.
drafts education bill, 67.
elected Representative, 58 .
equalizing act, author of, 64.
Fourth Instalment, speech
on, 88.
Frazier's picture, 271.
funeral, 275.
given name, 17.
graduation bill, the, 213.
great record, 72.
Hall of Fame, 85.
Havre de Grace, address, 196.
Hopkinsville speech, 243.
"Kentucky," ig6.
last session of Congress, 204.
last will of, 269.
lawyer, 233.
leading legislator, 61.
leaves home, 27.

Index

ill

Menefee, Richard Hickman,
leaves Transylvania, 36.
Lee's story, 313.
letters, 31, 34. 4S. SO, 86.
Main Boundary speech, 223.
marriage, 47.
Marshall's eulogy, 279.
meets Marshall, 240.
member Whig Committee,
234-
Menefee County, 303.
Mexican speech, 128.
neutrality bill speech, 133.
newspaper article, a, 190.
obituaries, 207.
preparatory education, 23.
Presidential elector, 236.
proviso, a. III.
quotes Justice Marshall, 193.
resolutions, 147, 194, 211, 214.
Rodgers's Will case, 249.
school teacher, 29, 37.
scores Van Buren, 239.
Swartwood defalcations, 210,
2IS-
Telegraph resolution, 192.
Transylvania University, 30,
„43.Treasury Note-bill speech,
184.
Washington residence, 112.
Menefee, Richard Jouett, 80,
307.
Menifee, Jas. Jarrett, Jos.,
Wm., II.
Menifie, Geo., 11.
McDowell, Ephraim, 15, 85.
McKee, Jas., 53.
McKee, Col. Wm. R., 232.
McNary, W. C, 64.
Meriwether, David, 64.
Metcalf, Gov. Thos., 61, 238,
267.
Mitchell, O. M., 15.
Mitchell, Martha, 48.
Morehead, Gov. jas. T., 53,
268.
Nichols, Geo., 40.
Osceola, Geo., 57.
Owings, Thos. D., 12, 21.
Owsley, Gov. Wm., 235, 267.
Peck, L. C, 152.

Peterkin, David, 194.
Phillipe, King Louis, 21.
. "Piper, The Wandering," 71.
Pindell, Richard, 45, 2.^.
Poe, E. A., IS.
Polk, Jas. K., 8s, 208.
Powell, Gov. L. W., S3.
Prentiss, S. S., 82, 132, ig6,
206, 217.
Rafinesque, C. S., 30.
Ramsey, Wm. G., 308.
Redford, Rev. A. H., 313.
Rhett, R. B., 184.
Richmond, R. F., 43, 44.
Robertson, Justice Geo., 52,
Robinson, Gov. Jas. F., 2S0.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 318.
Rumsey, Edwards, 80.
Shaler, N. S., 370.
Shelby, Isaac, 18.
Smith, "Raccoon" John, 75.
Smith, L. B., 43, 44.
Southgate, W. W., 61, 133, 184.
Steele, Wm. J., 15, 44.
Sterling, John, 320.
Stockton, E. and R., 21, 39.
Tennyson, Alfred, 15.
Thompson, M. V., 236, 248.
Thompson, J. B., S4, 23S.
Tibbotts, J. W., 246.
Todd, R. S., 236.
Transylvania University, 30, 40.
Trimble, Judge Jas., 39.
Tyler, John., 254.
Underwood, Jos. R., 80, 268.
Van Buren, Martin, 81, 242.
Visscher, Wm. L., 13.
Walker, C. J., 267.
Webster, Daniel, 7S, 196.
Wickliffe, Gov. C. A., 237, 267.
Wickliffe, R. N., Jr., 73, 239. '
Williams, Gen. S. L., S3, 268.
Wise, H. A., 196, 204, 212.
Woodson, Tucker, 64, 267.
Wooley, Judge A. K., 249.
Young, Aquila, s8.
Young, Jas., 19.