USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 22
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sea of wild and angry passion, everywhere in his speeches preserved a dignified self-respect and a grand equipoise in bear- ing. Neither by words nor acts did he do anything that he could not have answered for before the august tribunal of history. His speeches were masterpieces of argument and dig- nified eloquence, occasionally enlivened by humor and the .most refined but withering sarcasm.
Of his power, the following illustration may be given :
Mr. Johnson on one occasion, and possibly on more than one, twitted him with having ceased "praying for Rome," and having left his retirement on his "Sabine farm," and come forth in search of office. Mr. Gentry showed in reply that Mr. Johnson had been a candidate for office many more times than he; that so anxious had he (Johnson) been to be a candidate, that two years before, he had cheated Andrew Ewing, who was the choice of the party, out of the nomination for Governor and had forced himself on his party. And as for himself he had not announced himself a candidate until it became manifest, by pub- lic meetings and the press, that a majority of the people de- sired it. He told the following anecdote illustrative of the reason why he was not then on his farm praying for the good of his country: A fearful drought once afflicted Spain. For a whole summer the earth was parched up with the heat without one drop of rain; the streams dried up, the cattle were dying, and many of the people also were perishing. Then a body of Catholics, headed by a devout priest, traveled over the country praying for rain. One day they came to a field par- ticularly needing rain. The priest looked at it a moment, and then raised his hands and closed his eyes, but said nothing. Opening his eyes he again carefully surveyed the field and again closed them and raised his hands, but said nothing. For the third time he carefully surveyed the field and then said: "Breth- ren, praying will do no good for soil so cursed and blighted as this has been. This field must have Manure."
Mr. Gentry with wonderful humor, said: "Tennessee does not need prayers. There is a curse resting on the State which has marred its fair face, and parched and dried up its prosperity. I have come forth from my retirement and my prayers to help remove this curse. This curse is Andrew Johnson." As Mr. Gentry made the application, my informant, who was present, and a distinguished Johnson Democrat, says it was the most
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powerfully dramatic piece of oratory, as well as the most withering he had ever heard from the lips of a man.
Mr. Johnson was elected and Mr. Gentry defeated. In an- other place, I have described this canvass, and discussed Mr. Gentry and Mr. Johnson in full, and cannot therefore go into these matters now.
After the defeat of Mr. Gentry in 1855, he retired to his farm, where he lived a quiet life until 1861, though still comparatively young. He loved his ease. If not an indolent man, he was certainly far from being a pushing, ambitious one. He had none of the restless ambition which characterized Mr. Johnson. If he had been inspired with the latter's vaulting love of power, and endowed with temperate and industrious habits, his fame would have filled and echoed throughout the land. But he was unfortunately addicted to the excessive use of liquor-a habit so often the companion of genius. In my time I have seen the lives of the four most brilliant and gifted men in the State marred, and their brightness obscured, and that of at least three of them blasted by this fatal habit; and two of them cut off in the full meridian of their glory as if by an untimely "killing" frost. But notwithstanding the habits of Mr. Gentry, men loved him with something akin to idolatry. He was so grand, so noble, so magnanimous in bearing, so true and gener- ous in action, so bright and genial in his life, so pure and transparent in purpose and lofty in aim, and so dazzling in speech and conversation that men could not but love
"Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man."
When the Civil War came on, Mr. Gentry, in common with Mr. Bell, and the old Whig leaders of the State, was a Union man. He left his retirement and made a few speeches, two or three perhaps, in favor of the Union, and in opposition to the Harris movement. But when Fort Sumter was fired on, con- trary to all reason, like Mr. Bell and other Middle Tennessee leaders, he plunged into the raging current of secession and drifted off into the sea of blood. Afterward Mr. Gentry be- came a candidate for the Confederate Congress, was elected, and served as a member for one term. He made but one speech in Congress, and that was in opposition to enforcing the con- script law in East Tennessee. On account of ill health he broke
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down before finishing it. He urged that men who were in favor of the cause would volunteer, that those whose hearts were not in it would not fight. He recalled how Tennessee had earned the title of the "Volunteer State," by the conduct of her sons ever since the days of the Revolution, and that they needed no conscription to make them do their duty if their hearts were in the cause. This, his only speech, as one of his colleagues said, showed that he was the great orator of the Confederate Congress.
From the testimony of his intimate friends who are yet alive, and who knew his thoughts and feelings perfectly, it can be safely affirmed that the heart of Mr. Gentry was never on the side of secession. His judgment, too, condemned it as an act of supreme folly. When it first started, he warned his neighbors that it would be disastrous to the South, and could in no con- ceivable manner benefit anybody. After the war he said to an old and ardent admirer: "I sympathize with my neighbors and kindred who were in the Confederate army; I always de- plored secession. I knew it was no remedy for any real or imaginary grievance. I always felt that secession would result in evil, and only evil, to the South. The war ended as I antici- pated it would from the beginning, but after I espoused the cause, I did all I could for it. I sympathized with my neighbors and kindred who were in the Confederate army." These words reveal the cause of the strength of secession. Sym- pathy with friends and kindred became the bond that united the South. Tens of thousands of men who had no heart for secession, did have a heart for their neighbors and kindred. This almost universal fellowship and sympathy drew men to- gether in behalf of a cause which one-half of them disapproved. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
Who shall condemn the feeling, so commendable, and, under the circumstances, so sublime ?
The celebrated Henry Watterson in February, 1894, de- livered a lecture in Washington to an immense crowd. Among other things he said that the brutalities which he had seen when a child inflicted on Southern plantations upon the negroes, had given him a horror of slavery, and that he loved the Union and was opposed to secession. He said in substance: "You will naturally ask why I joined the rebellion, which was started to perpetuate slavery. I can only reply in the words of Meredith
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P. Gentry, of Tennessee, who was long a member of Congress from that State, and the greatest orator of his generation in Congress. After Gentry had served in the Confederate Con- gress, General Rousseau, of the Union army, while his troops occupied the county in which Gentry resided, dined with him one day. Gentry said he had always loved the Union, never believed that a State had a right to secede, never believed that secession would be otherwise than ruinous to the South, never believed that it could be a remedy for any evil, either real or imaginary, but, said Gentry, 'a d-d old worm-eaten, rickety, stern-wheel boat, Secession, came along, and, contrary to my feelings and warnings, my friends, neigh- bors, and kinsmen, all rushed pell-mell aboard. I looked around, and saw myself alone on the bank of the stream, and they were pulling in the gang plank. I shouted to the captain: "Hold on! Hold on! I'll get aboard too, and we'll all go to hell together." ' "
On one occasion a crowd of original secessionists surrounded Mr. Gentry, and asked him if the States could not peaceably secede. He replied with that lofty eloquence and power of condensation so peculiar to him: "Peaceable secession! My God, gentlemen! Do you think this Union can be peaceably dissolved? No rivers of blood will flow, but seas incarnadine will mark and eternize the mighty conflict." This awful prophecy was uttered before a gun had been fired.
Mr. Gentry was not a party leader. Perhaps he did not wish to be. Certainly his honesty, his independence, his habits and thoughts did not qualify him for leadership. Besides, he was too indolent, he loved his ease and his pleasures too much for such a position.
During the war, in a moment of folly, he sold his fine farm, in which he had only a life estate, and received in payment Confederate notes and bonds. When the Confederacy went to pieces, both he and his children were left impoverished. He was afterward advised by his old friend Dr. John W. Richard- son, the father of James D. Richardson, the present distin- guished Member of Congress from Gentry's old district, that, as the consideration given for the land was Confederate money, and his children were minors, he could recover it back, under the recent decisions of the courts of the State. Gentry proudly straightened himself up and said: "I staked my fortune on
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the losing card, and we will starve before we will plead the baby act, or take advantage of a technicality in law." He lived only a short time after this, dying in 1866. But he still lives in the hearts of his countless friends, Union men and seces- sionists alike.
Mr. Gentry was one of the few Southern men who was not pardoned by President Johnson, and who would not ask for a pardon. This did not arise from any hatred of the Govern- ment, for he never hated it, but his proud spirit would not stoop to ask for any favor at the hands of a man for whom he had so much contempt as he had for Andrew Johnson. As one of his admirers stated it, "Gentry would have been cruci- fied rather than ask a pardon of Andrew Johnson."
Perhaps in one or two grand qualities, other men in the State equaled, possibly in some excelled Mr. Gentry ; Foster, Peyton, and Nelson were his equals in courage; Henry his peer or above him in elegant accomplishment ; Haskell his superior in brilliant rhetoric; and Bell and Jarnagin in logical analysis and far- seeing statesmanship. But in Gentry there was a combination of grand qualities, with no great defects, seldom united in one man, and certainly not in any of these distinguished men. All in all, he was the grandest and the noblest, and by nature one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, excepting Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee's distinguished men. The greatest Ro- man said, "I am always Caesar." So, too, he was always the same proud, generous, magnanimous Gentry.
THE RACES OF JONES AND POLK IN 1841 AND 1843.
Jones' Limited Education-In Legislature, 1839-Nominated for Governor by Whigs in 1841 at Age of Thirty-two-His Personality-His Oppo- nent, Polk, Highly Educated and an Experienced Politician-Polk Not a Great Orator- Jones Not a Buffoon-His Debates with Polk-Polk's Personality-Polk's Secret Trip to East Tennessee-Discovered by Jones-Jones' Stinging Reproaches-Jones' Election-Jones in United States Senate, 1851-Votes to Repeal Missouri Compromise-Becomes a Democrat-Polk's Nomination for Presidency-A Strict Party Man- His Election.
THIS sketch was written in response to a letter from a friend which contained the following paragraph:
"I hope you will now tell us all you can about Governor James C. Jones. He is one character in Tennessee politics I can't understand. * * How was it possible, having little education and no experience as a public speaker, for him to meet and cope with such a man as Polk, whose knowledge of public affairs must have been up to that of Jim Blaine in his day."
Now, here is a question that has long puzzled the politicians of Tennessee, and one as to which perhaps no large number of them would give the same answer. The impression seems to be gaining ground at this day, among the younger generation of men, that Jones' triumph over Polk was owing to what may be summed up in one word-his buffoonery. There are other equally objectionable qualities attributed to him, but this term will probably convey the general idea. With all deference I can- not concur in this opinion.
I heard Polk speak once or twice in 1839; I heard both Polk and Jones speak three or four times in their joint discussions in 1841 and 1843; and I heard Jones several times afterward. I therefore became tolerably familiar with their style of speak- ing.
First, briefly, as to the history, appearance and character- istics of Jones. He was just thirty-two years of age in 1841, when he was first put forward as a candidate for Governor. He was a farmer, with limited education, never having been to college a day, so far as I know. In 1839 he was a member
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of the Legislature of Tennessee. His first speech that attracted attention was made in Nashville in 1840, at a meeting ratifying the nomination of Harrison for the presidency. In the suc- ceeding canvass he was one of the electors on the Harrison ticket. And in 1841 he was nominated for Governor by the Whig party, as the competitor of James K. Polk, the most adroit and successful stump speaker, as Mr. Phelan says, in the southwest.
Mr. Jones was 6 feet 2 inches high and weighed 125 pounds. He was not, as supposed by some, a "gangling, gawky," loose- jointed man, swaying like a reed in the wind. On the contrary, he was straight, round and erect in body, and elastic in move- ment. "He walked with a precise, military step," says one who has described him. In a word he had the physical form for the grandest and most effective oratory, such as was possessed by Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and in the most marvelous degree by Tennessee's greatest orator, that prodigy of genius and bril- liancy, William T. Haskell. Jones' complexion was swarthy, which gave him a peculiar and decidedly distinguished look. He was dignified in bearing, and always dressed like a gentleman. In conversation he was sociable and genial. But his voice was his organ of consummate power. It was deep, solemn, melodious, flexible and of the widest compass, not musical like Mr. Clay's, not of the clarion ring of Gentry's, not like the shrill piercing notes of Haskell, but always charming, delightful, high sound- ing, and even flowing. But before I heard Mr. Jones, or knew much about him, knowing the power of Mr. Polk, I was uneasy about the result of a joint discussion between them, but the moment I heard his solemn and impressive voice in his open- ing remarks, in tender allusion to the death of one of his children, I was reassured and all fear of the result was forever gone.
Let the reader bear in mind that I am not now considering Jones as a statesman, but as a popular stump speaker, and with reference to his races with Polk. And let it be kept in mind also who and what his competitor was. Mr. Polk was a gradu- ate with the highest honors of Chapel Hill; he had been in Congress fourteen years, and twice Speaker of the House, as well as Governor of the State for two years. Everywhere his high ability was acknowledged. In Tennessee he stood in the same class with Grundy, White and Bell. Being a diligent
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student, his information on all political topics was very great. As a debater and stump speaker he was considered, after his memorable canvass of 1839, the foremost man in Tennessee. He had wit and humor, the power of mimicry and ridicule, and the art of telling anecdotes all at his command, as well as the most effective oratory. With these he had cunning, subtlety, in- genuity, and sophistry, which could make "the worse appear the better reason." He had defeated Governor Newton Cannon in 1839 for Governor by three thousand majority, thus revolu- tionizing the State. In his canvass with Cannon he ridiculed his competitor until even the latter's enemies felt sorry for him. He told anecdotes, laughed at him, mimicked his manner of speaking, perverted the facts and finally drove him from the stump.
I do not say that Polk was a great orator. In the highest sense he was not. He had no imagination, without which to some extent the highest results of oratory cannot be achieved. But I do say he was a consummate debater, pleasing and en- tertaining in a marked degree, and capable of holding an audience spell-bound for three or four hours at a time, as he did in 1839. He discussed questions with the mental grasp of a statesman, and with a manner that commanded and held the attention, not infrequently, however, with unfairness and al- ways with the bitterness of a partisan. He repeated all the filthy and false charges then so common against the Whig party. He dwelt upon the slanderous charge against Mr. Clay, of "bargain, intrigue, and corruption," in the presidential elec- tion of 1824.
Jones in his speeches not only bore himself with a confident, masterly air, but he filled his followers with the same feeling. They were happy, buoyant, enthusiastic. While the speaking was going on they laughed and shouted and then went away full of joy and exultation. Mr. Polk had made such splendid speeches in his brilliant canvass in 1839, so masterful and over- whelming were they, so grandly and triumphantly had he swept over the State, that he confounded the Whigs, and carried dis- may into their minds. So confident and supreme had he been in manner when he swooped down on his enemies, that they dreaded him, and fled from him as the birds flee when the falcon is abroad. It was therefore with a feeling of timidity and defeat, already in their hearts, that they ventured out at first
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to the discussions between the all-conquering Polk and the un- known Jones. They expected him to win victories again, as he had always done over every opposer.
Now, I do not wish to be understood as saying that Mr. Polk did not in the canvass of 1841-43 make able, yes, sur- passingly able speeches. Nor do I mean to say that Mr. Jones' speeches were equal to his in breadth and depth and states- manship, nor that Jones always gained what may be termed overwhelming victories. These battles between them were al- ways desperately fought, with enough ability, ingenuity, and effective oratory to give each side in the early canvass reason for claiming the victory. But very soon the impression pro- duced on men's minds was that Jones had the advantage of Polk, and this impression grew until finally it became general. The discomfiture of Polk at last was evident in the countenance of his warmest friends. They did not boast as of old, they were not filled with boundless enthusiasm as they once were, they did not burst the very heavens with shouts and yells, as they did in 1839, when Polk was warming them up by portray- ing the Whigs in his most lively colors, nor did they go almost into convulsions of laughter, with tears streaming down their cheeks, as they did when Polk mimicked good old Newton Cannon and Bailie Peyton two years before.
The fact that Jones was daily gaining the advantage in popular estimation was manifest, by the additional fact that Mr. Polk was becoming irritable, that he was always complain- ing, that he was mad indeed. His doleful complaints, with the absence of the exuberant flow of spirits seen in 1839, told as plainly as an outburst of wailing could have done the bitter anguish he felt at his daily defeats. His party also were greatly depressed throughout the State. After the debates were over, his friends wore long, solemn faces, as though they had just returned from the funeral of a dear friend. They were peevish and out of humor. An incident is related by Phelan, the historian,-no friend of Jones,-of a man from Sommerville who was naturally good-tempered, and who on returning from one of these discussions, was asked what Polk had said. He answered fiercely, "Polk made an ass of himself, talking sense to a lot of d-d fools !" "And Jones?" "Jones-Jones! I don't know what Jones said! No more does anybody else. I know this much. If I were Mr. Polk I would not allow anyone
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to make a laughing stock of me." In addition to the sneers of his political enemies, the Democratic newspapers through the State were filled-were boiling over-with articles abusive of, and most derogatory to, the talents and conduct of Jones.
In the meantime, with the most placid temper and equanimity, Jones went on in his triumphant career, daily gaining victories before vast assemblies, such as had never been seen in the State, except during the ever memorable canvass of Ephraim H. Foster in 1840. The truth is, his speaking career was mar- velous. He kindled in his followers a boundless enthusiam, stirring the very depths of their souls with a sublime confidence, courage, hope. He at all times seemed in air and bearing an invincible conqueror. He laughed at the piteous complainings of Mr. Polk, and aggravated him to still greater display of irritability and peevishness.
This was the man that Jones, the farmer, the unknown, the comparatively inexperienced, was to meet in debate and over- come, or be himself destroyed. And when I say that in two of the most memorable and protracted canvasses ever conducted in the United States Jones did most signally overcome and triumph over his redoubtable opponent, I but reaffirm what was then the opinion of a majority of the people of the State and now of all.
Jones had great humor, great power of ridicule, great facility in turning a point against an adversary, imperturbable good temper, strong confidence in himself, a graveyard solemnity of voice and face, and apparent consciousness of mastery in his air and manner that helped to bring him victory. He was not a statesman in knowledge nor intellect. Yet, on the contrary, he was not a mere political puppet, a clown nor a mountebank, amusing his audience with tricks and grimaces. He had respectable ability and in a certain sense very superior ability, and could discuss, and did discuss, the questions of the day with clearness and force. His presentation of them was in the most plain, plausible, and fascinating manner. As before stated, but few public speakers I have heard had such an im- pressive, delightful voice, and none a better one, except Mr. Clay and possibly Mr. Gentry. He spoke with ardor, en- thusiasm, and with immense earnestness. He fired his words with great rapidity and precision, and with a distinct enuncia- tion. As they flowed from his lips there was no hesitation, no
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halting, the words and sentences following each other without a break or a pause in their rapid current. His voice, at all times clear and distinct, swelled, with grandeur when the dignity of the subject demanded it. He was emphatically a dashing, captivating orator, indeed wonderfully so.
The opinion I have expressed as to the decided ability of Jones is the one generally entertained at the time he was mak- ing his fame. Lately there has been a disposition, by men who never heard him speak, to underrate, to belittle him. This does injustice to the memory of Mr. Polk as well as to him. I repeat that Jones was not a statesman, that he was not a great man, except in a qualified sense. But at the same time I declare that he was a marvelous stump orator, especially in hurly-burly encounters in joint debate, in times of high political excitement. I further venture the opinion that any other Whig in Tennessee, except Jones-Bell, Peyton, Foster, Gentry, Henry-able and distinguished as they were-would have failed to triumph over Polk, or would have been discomfited by him. Foster was worsted by Aaron V. Brown, Henry by Johnson, and Gentry, great as he was, scarcely maintained his reputa- tion with Johnson.
There was something in Jones-I cannot analyze it, I cannot fully explain it-that peculiarly fitted him for hot aggressive contests. He seemed to delight in the noise and clangor of battle. The happy combination of voice, person, humor, good temper, earnestness, ardor, clear statement, remarkable fluency, a vocabulary never at fault, quickness in seizing weak points, aptness of expression, and a remarkable facility in telling anec- dotes-these were in part the qualities he possessed and the instruments he used with such phenomenal success in his great contests with James K. Polk. Attack him wheresoever, or how- soever his adversary might, he was always able in some way to repel the attack. His resources never failed, and he al- ways used them with an air of supreme confidence that he was absolutely right-that there could not possibly be two sides to the question. He was a master in fencing, equally expert in parrying a blow, or making a thrust. He fought with all the means at his command-anecdotes, raillery, burlesque, hu- mor, facts, arguments, or solemn appeal. When he saw the enemy entrenched in a strong position, it mattered not to him whether he made a feint or a flank movement, or opened with
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