THOMAS H. BENTON AS A LAWYER public affairs. He was a man of strong convicti9ns, and he had the courage to stick to them in defiance of the press, his party, and public opinion. Five successive terms Missouri had elected him to the Senate, but when he was a candidate for the sixth time, the pro-slavery and ultra Southern men were in the majority of the legislature, and he suffered his first defeat. His active mind could not remain idle, and as he was too old to return to the practice of his pro fession, he determined to use his pen, as he could no longer use his voice at the bar or in the forum. He wrote his great work, "Thirty Years' View of the Working of the Government of the United States." In this work, which covered his entire period of service in the Senate, he presented a con
587
nected history of public affairs from the time of Adams to Pierce. After finishing this important work, he undertook the gigan tic task of condensing and revising the de bates in the Senate from the foundation of the government. This was a laborious task for a man of seventy-five, but he continued it daily until prostrated on his deathbed. The work was completed down to the great compromise debate of 1850, in which he had taken a prominent part, together with Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Seward, Davis, Chase, and other leaders of the Senate. The last pages of the work were dictated in whispers, on his deathbed, when he could no longer speak aloud, a remarkable example of mental energy surviving physical decay. BALTIMORE, MD., October, 1906.
