and Mr. Benton was made auditor of the canal department. He immediately secured the passage of certain legislative enactments increasing the duties as well as the power of the office, and effecting radical changes and improvements. When the "American party" died„ Mr. Benton allied his fortunes with the republicans, but retained his office of auditor until 1868.
BENTON, Thomas Hart, statesman, b. near
Hillsborough, Orange co., N. C., 14 March, 1782;
d. in Washington, 10 April, 1858. He was the son
of Col. Jesse Benton, lawyer, of North Carolina,
who was private secretary to Gov. Tryon, the last
of the royal governors of North Carolina. His
mother was Ann Gooch, of the Gooch family of
Virginia. He was a cousin of the wife of Henry
Clay, and was consequently often quoted during
his public life as a relative of the great statesman
himself. He lost his father before he was eight
years of age, and was left with a large family of
brothers and sisters, all of tender age, to the care
of his mother. As Thomas was the eldest, his
opportunities for study were few. He was for some
time at a grammar-school, and afterward at the
university of North Carolina, but did not
complete a course of study there, as his mother
removed to Tennessee to occupy a tract of 40,000
acres that had been acquired by his father. The
family settled twenty-five miles south of Nashville,
where for several years the main work was the
opening a farm in the wilderness. The place, a
tract of 3,000 acres, was known as “The Widow
Benton's Settlement,” and was on the extreme
verge of civilization. The great war-trail of the
southern tribes led through the estate. Settlers
gradually came, and with them a better assured
protection. The place was called Bentontown, and the
name is retained to this day. Thomas studied law
with St. George Tucker, entered the U. S. army in
1810, and was admitted to the bar in Nashville in
1811 under the patronage of Andrew Jackson, at
that time a judge of the supreme court, and one of
his warmest friends. He was elected to the
legislature, where he obtained the passage of a law for
the reform of the judicial system of the state, and
another by which the right of trial by jury was
given to slaves. In the war of 1812 he was Jackson's
aide-de-camp, and he also raised a regiment of
volunteers. Owing to a quarrel in which his brother
Jesse and William (afterward Gen.) Carroll
became involved, he and his long-time friend Gen.
Jackson became bitterly estranged for many years.
A duel had been arranged between Jesse Benton and
Carroll, and Gen. Jackson was Carroll's second.
Jesse sent an offensive account of the matter to
Thomas, who was then serving under Gen. Jackson
in his military capacity. On 4 Sept., 1813, Jackson
with some friends happened to meet the Benton
brothers in the streets of Nashville. Jackson
advanced upon Col. Benton and struck him with a
horse-whip; a mêlée followed, and pistols and knives
were freely used, and Jackson received a ball in his
left shoulder, while Jesse Benton received severe
dirk-wounds and thrusts from a sword-cane. The
president appointed Col. Benton, in 1813,
a lieutenant-colonel in the U. S. army, and he set out to
serve in Canada, but peace having been declared,
he returned and resigned his commission. In 1815
he took up his residence in St. Louis, and resumed
the practice of law. He established a newspaper, the
“Missouri Inquirer,” by which he became involved
in several duels, and in one of them killed his
opponent, a Mr. Lucas. He deeply regretted the event,
and carefully destroyed all the private papers
connected with the matter. His journal took a vigor-
ous stand in favor of the admission of Missouri to
the union, notwithstanding her slavery constitution,
and at the end of the controversy he was
rewarded for his efforts by being chosen, in 1820, one
of the senators from the new state. For a year he
devoted himself to a close study of the Spanish
language, in order to accomplish his work more
thoroughly. Possessed of a commanding intellect and
liberal culture, an assiduous student, resolute,
temperate, industrious, and endowed with a memory
whose tenacity was marvellous, he soon placed
himself among the leaders in the national councils.
One of his earliest efforts was to secure a reform
in the disposition of the government lands to
settlers. A pioneer himself, he sympathized with
the demands of the pioneer, and in 1824, 1826,
and 1828 advocated new land laws. The general
distress that prevailed thnnighout the country,
and bore with especial hardship on the
land-purchasers of the west, forced attention to this
subject. Col. Benton demanded: 1, a pre-emptive
right to all actual settlers; 2, a periodic reduction
according to the time the land had been in
the market, so as to make the prices correspond
to the quality; 3, the donation of homesteads to
impoverished but industrious persons, who would
cultivate the land for a given period of years.
He presented a bill embracing these features, and
renewed it every year until it took hold upon
the public mind, and was at length substantially
embodied in one of President Jackson's messages,
which secured its final adoption. By his earnestness
in advocating this bill and securing its final
adoption, he gained the lasting friendship of every
pioneer and settler in the great west. His position
in the senate, and his firmness as a supporter of
Jackson's administration, gave him great influence
with the democratic party, and he impressed his
views upon the president on every occasion.
Col. Benton also caused the adoption of a bill throwing the saline and mineral lands of Missouri, which belonged to the United States, open for occupancy. There was at this time a certain tribute levied on the people of the Mississippi valley, which proved in many cases a most unequal burden and was frequently oppressive. One part, which met with more hostility than any other, was known as the salt-tax. Benton took up the matter, and in the session of 1829-'30 delivered such elaborate arguments against the tax, and followed them up with such success, that it was repealed. He was one of the earliest advocates of a railroad to the Pacific, and was prominent in directing adventure to explorations in the far west, in encouraging overland transit to the Pacific, and in working for the occupancy of the mouth of the Columbia. As early as 1819 he had written largely on these subjects, and on his entry into congress renewed his efforts to engage the nation in these great enterprises. He first elaborated the project of overland connection, listened to the reports of trappers and voyageurs, and as science expanded, and knowledge of the great wilderness toward the mountains became more definite, his views took form in the proposals that culminated in the opening of the great central Pacific railway. He also favored the opening up and protection of the trade with New Mexico; encouraged the establishment of military stations on the Missouri, and throughout the interior; and urged the cultivation of amicable relations with the Indian tribes, and the fostering of the commerce of our inland seas. He turned his attention to the marking out of the great system of post-roads, and providing for their
permanent maintenance.
