would seem that those who recall his early half-fledged wing, destined soon to soar in character, portray in a subdued degree that the regions of unrivalled eloquence. It was of his maturer years. There is sprightliness, in the mention of the demure face, and the humor, keen wit, biting sarcasm, strong orchard stripped of fruit, except in the most natural sense, great kindness and impulsive remote and inaccessible branches, that we feeling; at the same time as affectionate as distinguish the love of fun and the thoughta maiden, and as brave as a youthful Cæsar. less daring, that ripened finally into the At school and at home he mingled his studies keenest wit and the bravest front. in apparent confusion, yet learned every thing well and in order, garnishing holiday hours from severe labor by the most attentive perusal of Shakspeare, and a thoughtful study of the Sacred Volume. A picture of the youthful Prentiss is beautifully portrayed by his own exquisite mind in his address before the New-Orleans "New-England Society." On that occasion he said: "The common village school is New-England's fairest boast -the brightest jewel that adorns her brow. Behold," said he, "yonder simple building near the crossing of the village roads! It is of small and rude construction, but stands in a pleasant and quiet spot. A magnificent old elm spreads its broad arms above and seems to lean towards It, as a strong man bends to shelter and protect a child. A brook runs through the meadow near, and hard by there is an orchard; but the trees have suffered much, and bear no fruit, except upon the most remote and inaccessible branches. From within its walls comes a busy hum, such as you may hear in a disturbed bee hive. Now peep through yonder window, and you will see a hundred children, with rosy cheeks, mischievous eyes, and demure faces, all engaged, or pretending to be engaged, in their little lessons. It is the public school-the free, the common school-provided by law; open to all; claimed from the community as a right, not accepted as a bounty. Here the children of the rich and poor, high and low, meet upon perfect equality, and commence under the same auspices the race of life. Here the sustenance of the mind is served up to all alike, as Spartans served their food upon the public table. Here young ambition climbs its little ladder, and boyish genius plumes his half-fledged wings. From among these laughing children will go forth the men who are to control their age and country; the statesman, whose wisdom is to guide the Senate; the poet, who will take captive the hearts of the people, and bind them together with im mortal song; the philosopher, who, coldly seizing upon the elements themselves, will compel them to his wishes, and, through new combinations of their primal laws, by some great discovery, revolutionize both art and science." The Having been thoroughly prepared in all rudimentary studies, he entered Bowdoin College, and in due course graduated with honor in 1826. It is evident that he had at an early day decided upon his profession; for, with the receipt of his scholastic honors, he returned to Gorham, and at once commenced the study of law. It can easily be imagined that the now maturing mind of the youthful Prentiss conceived a wider field than that offered among the staid and practical people of his early associations. great West, no doubt, flitted through his fancy as the Dorado of wealth and intellectual conquest. With a scanty allowance of this world's goods, but a brave heart, he set out upon his adventure. The "Queen City of the West" became his temporary home. Here he made the acquaintance of an eminent lawyer, who must, judging from Mr. Prentiss's letters, instinctively have discovered that the fiery temperament, the chivalrous thought, and the prompt action of the young adventurer, latent though they were, would best ripen under a southern sun; for this new-made friend directed his steps toward that field on which he was to win so many brilliant victories, and unhappily find an early grave. It was most fortunate that in the South he found inducements to remain in Natchez, then the most splendid city in Mississippi. Perhaps no part of the Union could boast a greater amount of wealth, among the same number of inhabitants, than was to be found in the vicinity of the "City of the Bluffs." No place in the South has more attractive scenery, or is more rich in legendary lore. Here it was, amid the associations of affluence' sake," pursued his studies by the ence, that the future orator, "for independmidnight lamp, and devoted his daylight hours to the task of teaching youth. Little, indeed, is recorded of those now forgotten days of the gifted Prentiss. It is no doubt a fact, that he was for a short while unnoticed and unknown. The picture is complete. It was in the public school of New-England that the boy Prentiss first climbed ambition's little ladder, that was eventually to take him to the height of a noble profession, and plumed his. Familiar as I am with the scenes and the loose legislation with regard to the rights and immunities of citizens, that is so common to all newly-settled countries, by becoming suddenly confronted by the nicer rules that prevail where the population is dense, opened up a field for litigation fresh in its character, and constantly increasing in its importance; such, perhaps, as was never before presented to a master mind. Prentiss was equal to the day; and there was soon to be heard through the wide-spread land the voice of eloquence, and witnessed the wisdom of deep research, and the profound associations about Natchez, I have heard no reminiscence regarding these days of obscurity; but I have often imagined the shrinking but proud boy, living unnoticed and unknown, among the wealthiest citizens of the South. Buried in the quiet of his humble school, there cannot be a doubt that he looked out upon the busy world, and measured the mighty capacities of his soul with those whom society had placed above him. I think I can see him brooding over his position, and longing to be free, as the suffocating man longs for the boundless air of heaven. Then it was that the lordly equip-responsibility that characterize important age rolled by, and over its sides leaned in careless ease the wealthy planter, who heeded not the presence of the nameless youth, that in comparatively a few days more was literally by his breath to confirm or destroy the titles of his lordly estate. His hour of triumph came, however, and surpassed, perhaps, his own aspirations. From the school-room he entered that of the Court: a chance offered; a position gained; the law his theme, he at once not only equalled, but soared even beyond the aim of the most favored of his compeers. Of him, among the multitude, there was no thought of the past, no inquiry as to the origin of the luminary, so complete was its splendor, so appropriate its sphere. events, occurring where, but a few years be fore, was found the nestling-place of the wolf and the home of the unfortunate savage. A few short months only passed before he was literally overwhelmed with business. The people by whom he was surrounded felt the same sympathy for him, as he unfolded the pent-up richness of his heretofore unknown mind, that they did for the generous soil on which they lived, which was so rapidly enriching all with the fertility of its primitive strength, and his triumphs were felt to be the victories of the spirit of the times. The favored sons of Mississippi, full as they were of natural talent, and possessed of every accomplishment of the mind, the heirs of princely fortunes, the descendants of heroes, men of power and place, of family pride, of national associations, received at once the gifted Prentiss, unheralded as he was, save by his own genius, as one who, in his pride, in his bearing, in every thing, deserved to be accepted of as one among the noblest Romans of them all. He did not, however, long remain in Natchez. The northern part of Mississippi had then but recently become the property of the white man, and there was pouring into that now wealthy section of the State a most active and energetic people, and one of the most prosperous that can be imagined. Lands purchased at Government prices As time wore on, each step he made in almost in a day rose to be worth enormous his career seemed only to elicit new qualisums, and the returns for the labor of the ties for admiration. At the forum he dazzled; enterprising were more than a hundred fold. the jury and the judge were alike conFvery body was positively or prospectively founded; the crowd carried him to the rich; the very atmosphere teemed with ex- stump, and the multitude listened as to one citement. Vicksburg was made the outlet inspired; fair ladies vied with each other in to the Mississippi river for all this newly-ac- waving tiny hands in token of admiration; quired territory, and it rapidly increased into these stolid judges of the Supreme Court' the City of the "Walnut Hills." To this wondered at the mind of the appeant boy. place of promise Prentiss repaired, and prob- His course was as rapid and brilliant as the ably one could not have been found better meteor that suddenly springs athwart the suited to his peculiar character. His glow-heavens, yet it seemed to promise, in spite of ing imagination found inexhaustible food in its splendor, to shine with all the steadiness the rapid growth of towns and cities, that of the unchanging stars. he saw springing up under his eye; the abundance of every man's substance seemed to add a sumptuousness to existence; while As might have been expected, he was soon engaged in the excitement of politics, naturally so congenial to his feelings. A ses sion in the Legislature prepared him a victory | shrewd worldlings who take advantage of in a wider field, and after one of the most such times "to coin money," was the prospirited contests ever known, he left his prietor of a travelling menagerie, and he home for our national capital, with his soon found out that the multitude followed claims to a seat, to be contested before the Prentiss. Getting the list of that remarkaproper tribunal, the members of the House ble man's "appointments," he filled up his of Representatives. own; and it was soon noticed, as a singular coincidence, that the orator always "arrived along with the other 'lions.' The reason of this meeting was discovered, and the "boys" decided that Prentiss should "next time" speak from the top of the lion's cage. Never was the menagerie more crowded. At the proper time, the candidate gratified his constituents, and mounted his singular rostrum. I was told by a person, who professed to be an eye-witness, that the whole affair presented a singular mixture of the terrible and the comical. Prentiss was, as usual, eloquent, and, as if ignorant of the novel circumstances with which he was sur Prentiss's appearance in Congress was a triumph that was never accorded under the same circumstances to any other individual. In his contest for his seat, there was created, as a matter of course, a strong sympathy in his favor among his political partisans; but when he rose to defend his rights against all combatants, when he poured forth his indignant feelings at the wrong he conceived was to be inflicted upon his State, by his rejection, he did it with an eloquence rarely equalled in the halls of Congress, and perhaps, the subject considered, never to be surpassed. Prentiss at once ranked among the great minds of Washington, as one en-rounded, went deeply into the matter in hand, titled to the highest honor as an orator and statesman. Rejected by the casting vote of the Speaker, (Mr. Polk,) Prentiss returned to the theatre of his triumphs and laid his case before the people. Mississippi was then one Congressional district, and he went through its vast territory appealing for justice. Pity indeed that some ready writer had not followed him, and recorded the brightest page in his eventful history. It was during this exciting canvass that Prentiss displayed his most extraordinary power of mind and endurance of body. As we have already hinted, he had the whole State to canvass, and the magnitude of the work seemed just what he desired. his election. For a while, the audience and the animals were quiet-the former listening, the latter eyeing the speaker with grave intensity. The first burst of applause electrified the menagerie; the elephant threw his trunk into the air, and echoed back the noise, while the tigers and bears significantly growled. On went Prentiss, and as each peculiar animal vented his rage or approbation, he most ingeniously wrought in his habits, as a fac-simile of some man or passion. In the meanwhile, the stately king of beasts, who had been quietly treading the mazes of his prison, became alarmed at the footsteps over his head, and placing his mouth upon the floor of his cage, made From what I have learned from anecdotes, every thing shake by his terrible roar. This, that canvass must have presented some joined with the already excited feelings of the scenes combining the highest mental and audience, caused the ladies to shriek, and a physical exertion that was ever witnessed in fearful commotion for a moment followed. the world. Prentiss was in perfect health, Prentiss, equal to every occasion, changed and in the first blush of success, and it can- his tone and manner; he commenced a not be doubted that his best efforts of oratory playful strain, and introduced the fox, the were then made, and now live recorded only jackal, and hyena, and capped the climax in the fading memories of his hearers. An by likening some well-known political opincident illustrative of the time is remem-ponent to a grave baboon that presided bered, that may bear repeating. The whole State of Mississippi was alive with excitement: for the moment, she felt that her sovereign dignity had been trifled with, and that her reputation demanded the return of Prentiss to Congress. Crowds followed him from place to place, making a gala time of weeks together. Among the over the " cage with monkeys." The resemblance was instantly recognized, and bursts of laughter followed, that literally set many into convulsions. The baboon, all unconscious of the attention he was attracting, suddenly assumed a grimace, and then a serious face, when Prentiss exclaimed: "I see, my fine fellow, that your feelings are hurt by my unjust comparison; and I humbly beg your pardon." The effect of all this may be vaguely imagined, but it cannot be described. He was returned again to Congress. The very difficulties he had to contend with only developed his character, as he became the "lion of the house." Public dinners were given him, at which vied in doing him honor the Clays, Websters and Mangums of our Senate, and the leading minds of the Lower House. On these festive occasions, no one had a more ready wit, a more polished manner, than Prentiss. To the world he seemed absorbed in the adulation of the hour, yet in the quiet hours of night he found time, in voluminous correspondence with his "beloved mother and sisters," to speak of the scenes around him, and seems to blush for the egotism of the recital of his triumphs, which he says he only records because it might give some pleasure to "his dear friends at home." The prominent political subject before Congress when Prentiss was a member, (1838,) was the "defalcations of certain government officers." His speech on “Harris's correspondence" is imperfectly reported in the journals, but there is enough about it to show the remarkable peculiarities of the author. The defalcation of public officers was his theme. He rose, his mind evidently teeming with a late perusal of the works of Scott, and his favorite Sacred Volume. I can trace the character of his reading, and name the page almost that had particularly attracted his attention. I find his speech, which is far from being equal to a hundred that were never noticed beyond the fleeting hour of their delivery, crowded with figures, all beautiful, but in many instances lacking that depth of thought for which he was so remarkable. To me it sounded, when I read it, more like his conversation when he was warmed up by social intercourse, than like a speech. Speaking of General Jackson's command over his party, he said— and his fierce blood-hounds buried their muzzles in the unfortunate victims of his wrath." With Prentiss, these dashing figures were given with a force such as Charles Kemble would have envied; the clarion notes of the Scottish chieftain could not have been more thrilling to his followers' ears, than were the fine intonations of the voice of Prentiss to his hearers, so much beauty was there in his style. The following passages are singularly characteristic: for like the the locusts of Egypt they plagued "Then were the saturnalia of the office-holders, the land. Few dared to whisper of compunctions or defalcations. Patronage waved like a huge magnet over the land, and demagogues, like iron filings, attracted by a law of their nature, gath have given you but three or four cases of defalcaered and clustered around its poles. *** Sir, I tions; would time permit I could give you a hundred. Like the fair Sultana of the Oriental legends, I could go on for a thousand and one nights; and even as in these eastern stories, so in the chronicles of the office-holders, the tale would ever be of heaps of gold, massive ingots, uncounted riches. Why, Aladdin's wonderful lamp is as nothing to it. They seem to possess the identical cap of Fortunatus; some wish for fifty thousand dollars, some for a hundred thousand, and some for a million, and behold it lies in glittering heaps before them. Not even The gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,' in such profuse abundance, as does this adminis tration upon its followers. Pizarro held not forth more dazzling lures to his robber band, when he led them to the conquest of the 'Children of the Sun.'" Speaking of the Sub-treasury, he used the following comparison, which more than any other, perhaps, illustrates the completeness of his figures: like the Turks, with jealous care its golden harem; "Sir, this Government may determine to watch, but it will seek in vain for the financial eunuchs, who have the power to guard without the wish to enjoy." To the proposition to make up the losses of Government by retrenchment, he said: "Well, sir, what are these retrenchments? Pensions, harbors and light-houses. Yes, sir, these are recommended as proper subjects for retrench That the old hero had but to blow his whistle, ment. and 'Instant from copse and heath arose Bonnets and spears and bended bows ;' while his followers, like those of Roderick Dhu, started in every direction, ready and eager to perorm his bidding. He had but to point his finger, First of all, the scarred veterans of the Revolution are to be deprived of a portion of the scanty pittance doled out to them by the cold charity of the country. How many of them will you have to send forth as beggars on the very soil which they have wrenched from the hand of tyranny, to make up the amount of even one of these splendid robberies? How many harbors will it take those improvements dedicated no less to humanity than to interest-those nests of commerce to which the winged birds of the ocean may flock in safety? How many light-houses will it take? How many of those bright eyes of the ocean, as my friend from Virginia beautifully calls them, are to be plucked out? How many of those faithful sentinels, who stand along the coast, and, peering far out in the darkness, give timely warning to the hardy mariner where the lee shore threatens; how many of these, I ask, are to be discharged from their humane service? Why, the proposition is almost infamous. I should as soon wish to put out the stars of heaven. Sir, my blood boils at the cold-blooded atrocity with which this administration proposes thus to sacrifice the very family jewels of the country, to pay for the consequences of our own profligacy." The celebrated" Wilkinson trial," although not as remarkable as many others engaged in by Mr. Prentiss, has obtained a widespread notoriety, from the fact that it was reported, and therefore more perfectly brought before the public. The particulars were nearly these: Some time in December, 1838, three gentlemen of the highest social position in Mississippi, and of a professional reputation, stopped at the Galt House, Louisville. One of the party ordered from a fashionable tailor a suit of clothes, which, upon being tried on in the store, was found unsatisfactory by his friends; and upon the expression of this dissatisfaction arose a contest between the Mississippians and the tailor, at which blows were given and received; but the parties separated for the time, without any material personal injury to each other. The tailor, attacked in his own shop, and feeling himself deeply wronged, proceeded to the "Police Court" for warrants, but was obliged to go to the Galt House for the names of the offenders. On his way, he told the circumstances of what he conceived to be his unjust treatment to his friends, and soon elicited a strong feeling of sympathy, particularly among that class of persons who, full of generous impulses, are rather thoughtless, and "like a spree." Whatever might have been the original intention of the tailor and his friends, on going to the Galt House, the result was one of the most fearful of tragedies. The Mississippians, presuming an attack, were on their guard when the tailor and his friends came to the hotel; and when the Mississippians on their way to supper entered the "bar-room," they were recognized, and a general mêlée commenced, in which figured the different characters alluded to in Mr. Prentiss' speech. The Mississippians, although mole or less injured, escaped, but not before they had killed two of the friends of the tailor, while the person for whom they sacrificed their lives was "cut off" by the crowd, " and the whole occurred so quickly that he had not time to do any thing." The Mississippians were strangers in Louisville; the tailor and the deceased were substantial men, highly respectable in their connections, and in command of money and influence. The dead were remembered for their virtues, and lauded for the devotion they displayed in endeavoring to avenge the presumed wrongs done a friend. The excitement following the fight ran high among the people, and the Mississippians found the jail a necessary defense against the crowd that for a while swayed in tumultuous waves in its vicinity. But the substantial citizens maintained the dignity of the laws, and the Mississippians were peaceably brought before the proper tribunal, recognizances were taken, a change of venue obtained, and in a little over three months after the fatal meeting at the Galt House, the trial was had at Harrodsburg. The three Mississippians were included in the indictment; consequently the defense rested upon the proof of a conspiracy on the part of the tailor and his friends to kill or degrade the Mississippians, which justified the latter named in defending themselves to the death, and this justification had to be drawn from the witnesses in a mass. The examination of the witnesses, as reported in the printed trial, is characteristic of similar proceedings, except that many of the persons concerned in the foray were men of marked habits and original character: they therefore afforded Mr. Prentiss a fine field for his remarkable power to analyze. The consequence is, that the whole trial, under his magic influence, becomes like a perfectly conceived play, having every part sustained; mingling up subdued humor with infinite pathos. The characters seem complete, and perform their parts to the very consummation, as if but plastic heroes in his hands. There is the opening act at the tailor's store; then the preliminary excitement in the streets, the fearful utterings of revenge, and the comical braggadocia of "Bill Holmes" and his confederates; then the thrilling challenges between the principal |
