Senator Thomas Hart Benton 1821-1851   

Profile in Courage

Dante: The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

 Even Abe Lincoln hedged a bit about slavery while debating Stephen Douglas during the Illinois Senate race in 1856. Lincoln lost that race. But his words stood up well enough to reach delegates to the Republican Convention who nominated him for President four years later.

Then Lincoln led the country through its darkest days refusing to give up—the quintessential Profile in Courage. But when JFK wrote that book (or maybe worked with a ghostwriter), he didn’t focus on Lincoln. Although he might have if he’d ever had a serious discussion about history with his grandmother; she was alive when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.  

Instead, Kennedy chose a man who lived just prior to the Civil War– Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri (1782-1858). He served as a U.S. Senator from 1821 to 1851, completing five terms. He became one of eight men who embodied outstanding courage that Kennedy selected in 1956 for the book. (One would hope if the book were being written today the author would include some of America’s courageous women.)  

During the War of 1812, Benton served as an aide to America’s then hero, General Andrew Jackson. Just a year later, Benton defended his brother, Jessie, when General Jackson pulled a gun on him. Jessie fired back seriously wounding Jackson in the left arm, creating a rift between the Thomas Benton and the General (and helping strengthen Benton’s reputation as a brawler). Friends and foe alike knew Benton to be a “rough and tumble fighter off and on the Senate floor, not with pistols but with “stinging sarcasm, vituperative through learned oratory and bitterly heated debate,” according to Kennedy’s Profiles. (see below) With just one year at the University of North Carolina under his belt, Benton was said to carry the Congressional Library in his head, easily correcting other Senators when they forgot a name, date, or incorrectly quoted a passage from the Classics or Shakespeare.

The Senator belonged to the 1840s Democratic Party helping to orchestrate the nation’s westward expansion, now referred to as “Manifest Destiny.” Benton foresaw a nation that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. A man of boundless energy, Benton pushed through legislation for the Pony Express moving mail service westward and extending the telegraph lines to eventually tie the coasts together and promoted the development of highways (such as they were) that drew a path across the nation for the heroic settlers to follow. He shared Lincoln’s dream of a transcontinental railway to carry merchandise and people betwixt and between the nation’s settlements.

Kingpin of Missouri Politics

Benton wrongly believed that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which brought his state into the Union, also took the issue of slavery out of politics. He reigned supreme as the Kingpin of Missouri politics from 1821 to 1844. Then he broke with his Party by engineering the defeat of the annexation of Texas. He believed John Calhoun from North Carolina (vice president from 1824-1832) had cooked up a political plan to loop the Texas territories in with the slave state to increase Congressional votes in favor of slavery. His courage came as Benton did not hesitate, even on the eve of an election, to denounce his party’s policy. He managed to be re-elected but at the same time a pro-slavery candidate won to fill an unexpired Senate term by three times his tally. Benton continued his struggle against bringing Oregon and California into the Union as slave states—an opposite stance of Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson. Despite Senator Benton’s near defeat in 1844-45, he would not join the Whig party, saying the group “are no more able to comprehend me . . .than a rabbit, which breeds 12 times a year, could comprehend the gestation of an elephant, which carries for 2 years.”

In 1832, President Jackson and Benton faced a serious challenge from Henry Clay, who supported nullification. Under nullification the individual states could veto individual laws to meet the desires of individual states. But Jackson pointed out that the Union would have been dissolved in its infancy, during the War of 1812 with such a policy. “Nullification,” he wrote, “was incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.” It became an issue claimed by the South to win freedom from Washington. Here again, Benton did not side with the South, but with the Union.

Home in Missouri became his respite, but the death of two sons early in life and the long physical and mental illness of his wife, made this relief short-lived. Benton’s son-in-law, John Fremont, explored the West and became the original governor of California. Benton’s daughter, Jessie Benton Freemont, a well-educated and well-spoken force of nature herself, would later seek support from Lincoln to get her husband out of a jam during the Civil War.  (Like most things in politics, it was complicated, suffice to say. Lincoln had bumped Fremont up to General rank, based on his expeditions, despite his lack of military training, which created some problems due to Freemont’s failure to respect the chain of command.

Benton met his waterloo on February 19, 1847, when Calhoun read to the Senate his resolution insisting that Congress had no right to interfere with the development of slavery in the territories. Calhoun called for an immediate vote. Benton rose from his chair, accepting his fate.

Mr. Calhoun: I certainly supposed the Senator from Missouri, the representative of a slave state, would have supported these resolutions. . .

Mr. Benton: The Senator knows very well from my whole course in public life that I would never leave public business to take up firebrands to set the world on fire.

Mr. Calhoun: Then I shall know where to find the gentleman.

Mr. Benton: I shall be found in the right place . . . on the side of my country and the Union.   (An answer Benton noted later he “will wish posterity to remember.”

When the Missouri Senator was warned not to deliver a eulogy in appreciation of John Quincy Adams, a foe of slavery, Benton marched up and delivered a tribute for the ages.

What politicians do you know who exhibit courage?

Senator Thomas Hart Benton 1821-1851   

Profile in Courage

Dante: The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

 Even Abe Lincoln hedged a bit about slavery while debating Stephen Douglas during the Illinois Senate race in 1856. Lincoln lost that race. But his words stood up well enough to reach delegates to the Republican Convention who nominated him for President four years later.

Then Lincoln led the country through its darkest days refusing to give up—the quintessential Profile in Courage. But when JFK wrote that book (or maybe worked with a ghostwriter), he didn’t focus on Lincoln. Although he might have if he’d ever had a serious discussion about history with his grandmother; she was alive when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.  

Instead, Kennedy chose a man who lived just prior to the Civil War– Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri (1782-1858). He served as a U.S. Senator from 1821 to 1851, completing five terms. He became one of eight men who embodied outstanding courage that Kennedy selected in 1956 for the book. (One would hope if the book were being written today the author would include some of America’s courageous women.)  

During the War of 1812, Benton served as an aide to America’s then hero, General Andrew Jackson. Just a year later, Benton defended his brother, Jessie, when General Jackson pulled a gun on him. Jessie fired back seriously wounding Jackson in the left arm, creating a rift between the Thomas Benton and the General (and helping strengthen Benton’s reputation as a brawler). Friends and foe alike knew Benton to be a “rough and tumble fighter off and on the Senate floor, not with pistols but with “stinging sarcasm, vituperative through learned oratory and bitterly heated debate,” according to Kennedy’s Profiles. (see below) With just one year at the University of North Carolina under his belt, Benton was said to carry the Congressional Library in his head, easily correcting other Senators when they forgot a name, date, or incorrectly quoted a passage from the Classics or Shakespeare.

The Senator belonged to the 1840s Democratic Party helping to orchestrate the nation’s westward expansion, now referred to as “Manifest Destiny.” Benton foresaw a nation that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. A man of boundless energy, Benton pushed through legislation for the Pony Express moving mail service westward and extending the telegraph lines to eventually tie the coasts together and promoted the development of highways (such as they were) that drew a path across the nation for the heroic settlers to follow. He shared Lincoln’s dream of a transcontinental railway to carry merchandise and people betwixt and between the nation’s settlements.

Benton wrongly believed that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which brought his state into the Union, also took the issue of slavery out of politics. He reigned supreme as the Kingpin of Missouri politics from 1821 to 1844. Then he broke with his Party by engineering the defeat of the annexation of Texas. He believed John Calhoun from North Carolina (vice president from 1824-1832) had cooked up a political plan to loop the Texas territories in with the slave state to increase Congressional votes in favor of slavery. His courage came as Benton did not hesitate, even on the eve of an election, to denounce his party’s policy. He managed to be re-elected but at the same time a pro-slavery candidate won to fill an unexpired Senate term by three times his tally. Benton continued his struggle against bringing Oregon and California into the Union as slave states—an opposite stance of Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson. Despite Senator Benton’s near defeat in 1844-45, he would not join the Whig party, saying the group “are no more able to comprehend me . . .than a rabbit, which breeds 12 times a year, could comprehend the gestation of an elephant, which carries for 2 years.”

In 1832, President Jackson and Benton faced a serious challenge from Henry Clay, who supported nullification. Under nullification the individual states could veto individual laws to meet the desires of individual states. But Jackson pointed out that the Union would have been dissolved in its infancy, during the War of 1812 with such a policy. “Nullification,” he wrote, “was incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.” It became an issue claimed by the South to win freedom from Washington. Here again, Benton did not side with the South, but with the Union.

Home in Missouri became his respite, but the death of two sons early in life and the long physical and mental illness of his wife, made this relief short-lived. Benton’s son-in-law, John Fremont, explored the West and became the original governor of California. Benton’s daughter, Jessie Benton Freemont, a well-educated and well-spoken force of nature herself, would later seek support from Lincoln to get her husband out of a jam during the Civil War.  (Like most things in politics, it was complicated, suffice to say. Lincoln had bumped Fremont up to General rank, based on his expeditions, despite his lack of military training, which created some problems due to Freemont’s failure to respect the chain of command.

Benton met his waterloo on February 19, 1847, when Calhoun read to the Senate his resolution insisting that Congress had no right to interfere with the development of slavery in the territories. Calhoun called for an immediate vote. Benton rose from his chair, accepting his fate.

Mr. Calhoun: I certainly supposed the Senator from Missouri, the representative of a slave state, would have supported these resolutions. . .

Mr. Benton: The Senator knows very well from my whole course in public life that I would never leave public business to take up firebrands to set the world on fire.

Mr. Calhoun: Then I shall know where to find the gentleman.

Mr. Benton: I shall be found in the right place . . . on the side of my country and the Union.   (An answer Benton noted later he “will wish posterity to remember.”

When the Missouri Senator was warned not to deliver a eulogy in appreciation of John Quincy Adams, a foe of slavery, Benton marched up and delivered a tribute for the ages.

What politicians do you know who exhibit courage?