The
Vol. XIV.
No. 5.
Green
BOSTON.
Bag.
May, 1902.
JAMES S. GREEN. By Charles W. Sloan. WHEN, some two years ago, the statue of Thomas H. Benton was received by Congress to be placed in the Hall of Fame in the Nation's Capitol, splendid eulogies were pronounced on the life and character of Missouri's illustrious statesman. The peo ple of Missouri were, however, then pain fully reminded of the fact that Benton's great rival and competitor, who also had represented the State in the United States Senate, lay buried in a neglected grave, in a cemetery near the little town of Canton, Missouri, his former home, without so much as a stone to mark his resting place; that for twenty-nine years he had slept with no monu ment to testify to the appreciation of his former friends and admirers. Then, too, was recalled what James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," had said of him: — that " No man among his contemporaries had made so profound an impression in so short a time. He was a very strong debater. He had peers, but no master in the Senate. Mr. Green, on the one side, and Mr. Fessenden, on the other, were the Senators whom Douglas most disliked to meet, and who were best fitted in readiness, in accuracy, in logic, to meet him. Douglas rarely had a debate with either in which he did not lose his temper in debate; and to lose one's tem per in debate is generally to lose one's cause." James Stephen Green was born in Vir ginia, February 17, 18 17. His early oppor
tunities for education were limited, being confined mainly to the common schools of his time. Seized, however, with an uncom mon desire to acquire knowledge, he became a hard student, a great reader, and finally a good classical scholar. Removing to Mis souri about 1836, he first worked on a farm, and then in a sawmill. While thus engaged he determined to study law; and amid such difficulties — borrowing law books to read — he qualified himself for admission to the bar in 1840. He soon attained prominence in his chosen profession, and became one of the ablest nisi prius lawyers in his section of the State, building up a large practice. In 1845 he was a member of the Missouri Constitutional Convention, where he demon strated signal ability as a constitutional law yer, and began to attract attention as such in his State. He had in the meantime acquired a taste for politics, being placed on the Democratic electoral ticket for 1844, and in his brilliant canvass of the State that year attracted considerable notice as a stump speaker. He was elected to Congress for two successive terms — in 1846 and 1848. He became the pronounced leader of that wing of the Democracy maintaining the doc trines advocated by John C. Calhoun, and necessarily the leading opponent of Thomas H. Benton. In 1849, when Mr. Benton made his celebrated " appeal " to the people of his State, in which, after thirty years' con tinuous service in the United States Senate,
