and proceeded to pour upon the head of the offender a torrent of
denunciation and abuse, unmeasured and appalling. The extraordinary
course adopted by Benton in urging his 'appeal,' excited astonishment
and indignation among the democratic partisans that had, in many cases,
thoughtlessly become arrayed against him.[A] They might have yielded to
expostulation; they were stung to resentment by unsparing vilification.
The rumor of Benton's manner preceded him through the State, after the
first signal manifestations of his ruthless spirit; and he was warned
not to appear at some of the appointments he had made, else his life
would pay the forfeit of his personal assaults. These threats only made
the Missouri lion more fierce and untamable. He filled all his
appointments, bearing everywhere the same front, often surrounded by
enraged enemies armed and thirsting for his blood, but ever denunciatory
and defiant, and returned to St. Louis, still boiling with inexhaustible
choler, to await the judgment of the State upon his appeal. He failed.
The pro-slavery sentiment of the people had been too thoroughly evoked
in the controversy, and too many valuable party leaders had been
needlessly driven from his support by unsparing invective. An artful and
apparently honest appeal to the right of legislative instructions,--an
enlargement of popular rights which Benton himself had conferred upon
them,--and--the unfailing weapon of Southern demagogues against their
opponents--the charge that Benton had joined the 'Abolitionists,' and
was seeking to betray 'the rights of the South,' worked the overthrow of
the hitherto invincible senator. The Whigs of Missouri, though agreeing
mainly with Benton in the principles involved in this contest, had
received nothing at his hands, throughout his long career, but defeat
and total exclusion from all offices and honors, State and National.
This class of politicians were too glad of the prospective division of
his party and the downfall of his power, to be willing to re-assert
their principles through a support of Benton. The loyal Union sentiments