Show CASSIUS M CLAYS DUELS Sanguinary Record of the Old FireEating Kentuckian Louisville Correspondence St Louis GlobeDemocrat General Cassius Mar I cellus Clay statesman writer thinker duelist minister to Russia during the iiist administration of Abraham Lincoln Lin-coln a relic of days that are past whose recent troubles with the child wife that left him alone in his forted castle White Hall in Madison county Kentucky has again attracted public attention to his interesting personality has a coldblooded way of alluding to the numerous bloody affrays in which he has been a principal An old friend of his told me that he met the battle scarred arrior not long ago after along a-long separation He congratulated General Clay on his robust health Yes the age of White Hall replied I have not been confined to bed for over 30 years except once which was hem a slight indisposition occasioned by a rencounter with a man named Turner of Foxtown General Clay killed kill-ed Turner with a bowieknife in the rencounter and the slight indisposition indisposi-tion was caused by 16 knife wounds Ms antagonist having repeatedly i driven his bowie to the hilt in Clays breast and side Turner died in an hour confidently believing that his foe had preceded him to the unknown beyond be-yond General Clay is not communicative and the privilege of listening to him relate re-late his experiences on the field of hcnor is one accorded very few persons i and it is something long to ba remem barred My first duel said General Clay not long ago occurred when 1 was 23 years old early 65 years agoand terminated j ter-minated without either party firing a I shot I Was engaged to be married and a rival suitor who had been disappointed disap-pointed wrote a letter to my sweethearts sweet-hearts mother The man was a doctor and his name was Declarey I Went to Louisville to find him and took my friend James S Rollins who became General Rollins during the war with me As soon as I went there I went to a cooper shop and got a good tough hickory cane about as thick a your finger fngerVel sir I saw Dr Declarey on the street I went up to him and asked him if his name was Declare He replied that it was and then I told him that I would like to have a talk with him This was on one of the main streets of Louisville and although I intended to cane him I did not intend to do it where a crowd would rush in and prevent my giving him the punishment punish-ment he deserved So I quietly turned our promenade off into a side street In the meantime my friend walked along the other side of the street and watched me When we reached a side street I said Dr Declarey I am Cas sius I Clay about whom you have taken the trouble to write in this letter and I would like to know if you can give me any explanation of your acton ac-ton He said nothing so I raised my cane and began to strike him He cried out and a crowd soon collected but Rollins by spreading out his arms and I running in again and again pretended I to separate us actually kept the crowd I back until I wae able to give him a good caning A few hours later I got I a challenge from him We fixed a place in Indiana just over the river and the next day I was there on tIme A great mob of Declareys friends were on the ground and General Rollins refused I re-fused to allow the fight to go on We I thereupon chose another place but De I clareys mob followed us there The next day to be was my wedding day I and I had to be on hand Declarey wanted me to come after I was married I mar-ried but I had decided objections to breaking up my honeymoon in that I way He afterward said he intended to cowhide me the next time he saw I me and I went to Louisville to give him a chance I went into the dining I room of his hotel and leaned against a I pillar to wait for him As I stood there I heard some one behind me rise I turned and saw Declarey He was as pale as death and I saw the coward in his eye He walked out of the room and did not return A man who acted like that could not in those days be I respected in Kentucky and Declarey committed suicide the next morning by cutting his arteries Curious isnt it mused the general that a man will have the bravery to commit suicide and still not have enough physical courage to fight I have had a number of such instances I I In my life I was so with Tom Marshall I Mar-shall who was so famous as an orator I in Kentucky There had been for years I I a feud between the Clays and the MarI Mar-I shaHs Henry Clay you know had a duel with Humphrew Marshall and 1 i Tom Marshall and myself were enemies for years My first trouble with him was at the time I was editor of the j True American and Marshall headed the mob which was raised t kill me I and deiholish the paper Well the i mob attacked me but I was not killed I Soon after this I went to the Mexican I Mexi-can war as captain of another company j of the same regiment and I decided to i settle my trouble with him before we j got through the war He was drunk j I about half the time and I believed he I often cultivated drunkenness in order j t say mean things and not be expected expect-ed to account for them I expected to I have a duel with him and I got a stone and sharpened my sword until I i shone like silver and had an edge I like a razor I gave him one or two I I chances to challenge me but he did i not do so and at last one dM when we were pitching camp Marshall rode t into my quarters He may have been II drunk and he may have mistaken my company for his At any rate he came up to me and made some insulting remark I rose I and said Tom Marshall we may as well settle our feud and now is a good a time as any Get down frem I your horse and we will fight i out i He replied Not now Some other time timeI here drew my sword and said The time for men who wear swords is now You chose your own time to mob me at Lexington and you are a coward cow-ard if you refrain on account of your surroundings Marshall hereupon rode over to his tent In a few moments he came back with his pistol I saw him and went into my tent and got mine I came out with one in each hand They were cocked and I said I am ready for I you He was a coward and he was afraid to fire He turned his horse and rode back to his tent That same evening he tred to drown himself in the Rio Grande river but the men saw him and prevented him He was afraid to fight but he was not afraid to commit suicide sui-cide Had we fought with swords I would have carved him up like a pancake pan-cake The story of General Clays canvass for congress against Wickliffe gives one a insight not only into the fighting fight-ing character of this fireeater but also affords a peep into that phase of southern south-ern life that is now happily extinct I He once told the story to a newspaperman newspaper-man in these words I During the campaign Wicklifie introduced in-troduced my wifes name into one of his speeches I challenged him and we fired at ten paces Both of us missed and I raised my pistol up into the air and demanded 3 second fire The seconds onds would not permit this and we left the grounds without a reconciliation oran or-an apology on either side As I look over the matter now I dont believe our seconds had loaded the pistols with balls and I did not see how I could have missed Well Wickliffe here had the worst of the fight and during the canvass for congress I was making a very good opposition op-position to him much to the disgust of the proslavery party He had a handbill hand-bill which he read during his gpeech We had our speeches together and I when he brought out this bill I always j arose and asked if I might interrupt him He would politely consent and I would then say the handbill he had I read was untrue and had been proven o The ProSlavery men got tired of I this and they decided to kill me They I sent for Sam Brown who was one of the most noted bullies in Kentucky I is said that he had 40 fights and had never lost n battle Brown came and i he and Wickliffe a fellow named Jacob Ashton and Ben Woqd a police bully load held a consultation at which they ed a pistol which Brown was to use on me the next day I knew nothing of this and had not my dueling pistol with me I Interrupted Wickliffe as usual and a I did so Brown struck me with his umbrella and told me that my statement was a leI le-I saw at once that it meant fight and when I recognized Brown I knew i meant a fight to the death I had my I long sharp bowie knife in the breast of my coat and 1 jerked this out but before be-fore I could fight Browns friends had grabbed my arms from behind and hauled me back about 15 feet from Brown I Brown now pulled his revolver and told them to get out of the way and let him i i kill me The crowd got back and I stood alone Brown had his pistol pointed at me and I started toward him 1 could j see him looking along the barrel of the revolver He took aim and waited until I he thought I was near enough to give j him 1 sure shot and tired 1 felt the rmll I I strike me in the breast and I thought i j had gone through me and I determined to I kill him if J could before 1 died I came j down on his head with a tremendous blow of the bowie knife but did not split i open the skull I struck him again and i again and stunned him 20 that he was f able to fire r et1Jt of the I knife 1 sliced his nose right in two so i that it separated in the middle and ame I i out as flat as a pancake Arth another I blow I cut off his ear so that it hung by a shred and with a third I put out his ere The conspirators now seized me I and I was struck with hickory sticks and i chairs some of the blows of which I still I feel I I broke loose from my captors and i again made for Brown and they to keep him out of my way picked hipi up and i I threw him over a stone fence seven feet i 1 I high and this ended the siht Though I was the assaulted party they afterwards tried me for mayhem and at this trial 1 Brown confessed the conspiracy and i t Henry Clay defended me Of course I was not convicted but I felt very friendly i to Brown and wrote him a note thank 1 ing him for his evidence and telling him I was willing to be friends with him if he care dto be so He refused however to i bury the hatchet and when I remember I his condition I do not wonder at i The doctors had patched him up pretty well I but he was a horrible looking object and I I expected that he would insist upon a duel with me or would attack me and have his revenge I met him several times afterward however and he never touched me I have no doubt that he stayed in Lexington intending to kill me but that the probability is that he had not the moral courage to attack me Where did Browns ball strike you general i I struck me just over the heart replied I re-plied General Clay and I would have been killed but for one thing The scabbard scab-bard of my bowie knife was tipped with silver and in jerking the knife I pulled this scabbard up so that it was just over my heart Browns bullet struck the scabbard and imbtdded itself in the slIver and we found the ball there There 1 was a red spot just over my heart and I the whole seemed almost providential Although General Clay never traveled 1 without a brace of pistols in his satchel i his favorite weapon was a bowie knife i he always carried concealed under his coat During a fight at a political meet I Ing once he was stabbed In the lung I He drew his bowie knife and rushed upon i the man who had been responsible for the outbreak The crowd got out of his I way and he found a clear path to the man who had incited the riot With a I shout of anger he plunger the knife into i the mans abdomen and then exclaiming I die for my country he fell fainting to the floor He was carried home and for many days hung between life and i death Upon the day that he was able i for the first time to leave his bed the man j whom he had stabbed died General Clays political career his I speeches his election to the Kentucky i legislature his part as minister to Rus i sia in bringing about the annexation of i Alaska all belong to the history of the nation The few incidents above narrated I nar-rated belong exclusively to himself |