punged' by the people of the United States from the journal of the Senate, uttered the following well-known words, which have become imperishably associated with his name:

"Solitary and alone I set this ball in motion!"

"This is the moment that the artist has selected as the most strikingly illustrative of the character of the Senator from Missouri; and no one who has ever seen and heard Col. Benton, will hesitate in recognizing the features, air, and attitude of the Great Expunger.'

"Col. Benton is about fifty-four (64) years of age. His senatorial life dates from the year 1820, when he was elected by the Legislature of Missouri, before the formal admission of that State into the Union by Congress. He had removed to Missouri about five years before, from Tennessee; where he had immediately arisen to distinction at the bar. It will be remembered that the Representatives from that State were not admitted to their seats in Congress till the succeeding year. The interval Col. Benton devoted to study, in preparation for the career which a worthy ambition had already, doubtless, marked out before him, in public life. Within that time he made himself master, in particular, of the Spanish language, and, to a considerable extent, of its literature.

"He early rose to a prominent position in the Senate; and his speech at the session of 1823-4, on the bill which (as chairman of a select committee) he introduced, to amend the Constitution with respect to the mode of the Presidential election, was one of remarkable ability and force. It contained but one erroneous

position, of which experience was not long in demonstrating the fallacy. Though he was opposed to the practice of choosing the Presidential electors by general ticket, or by the legislatures of the States, as he was, in fact, to the whole system of an intermediate electoral body between the people themselves, and the object of their choice for that high dignity, yet he was in favor of the umpirage of Congress, in the case of a failure to elect a majority candidate by the people on the first trial, with a single equal vote to every State, without reference to population. This was, in our opinion, carrying the State-Rights' principle (our sheet anchor, when not abused,) to an improper extreme, and implied a confidence in Congress, for the exercise of that dangerous power, neither justified by first principles, nor by subsequent experience. On this latter point he found himself in natural opposition to Mr. Van Buren, being representatives, the one from one of the largest, and the other from one of the least populous States in the Union. Mr. Van Buren was then, as he has ever since been, in favor of a second appeal to the popular vote. In the course of his speech, however, Col. Benton paid a handsome personal tribute to his eminent opponent. Col. Benton sat on the same committee (Military Affairs) with General Jackson, of which they were both very industrious and valuable members, the latter being the chairman. Here was necessarily renewed some portion of that intercourse which had in former years been of the most friendly and intimate character, but which had received an unhappy interruption from an occurrence too well known to the public to need further allusion.

It was still many years, however, before it did, or could resume a tone at all resembling its former character; and, in fact, no personal explanation of that occurrence, nor allusion to it, ever passed between them until one or two evenings before President Jackson's departure from this city to the Hermitage, last March. That conversation was of a very solemn and affecting character. Long since, indeed, had every trace disappeared from the bosom of each, of that hostile feeling which had had its origin, on Col. Benton's part, only in the exasperated affections of a brother, and the pernicious influence of that pest of society-mischief makers; and which, on the part of Ceneral Jackson, the frank, manly, warmhearted soldier, may be said never to have had an existence; and its place had been resumed by the memory of early friendship, mutual services, and the equal confidence of each in the honor and integrity of the other.

"Col. Benton continued a determined member of the opposition during the term of Mr. Adams, as he has been one of the main pillars of support to the democratic administration which succeeded it. It is not necessary to specify the particular occasions on which he has distinguished himself in his parliamentary life. The events are so recent, as they were striking, that they are doubtless fresh within the memory of most of our readers. The panic session cannot be passed, however, without a brief notice. In this Col. Benton sustained, unaided, except by the support of two or three gallant friends, (of whom the present Secretary of State was, perhaps, the most effective in impromptu debate,) the whole brunt of the tremendous attack with which the admin