Biography of Ambrose H Sevier, Arkansas

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        Date: 18 Dec 2007
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


AMBROSE H. SEVIER.

  Ambrose H., the son of Valentine Sevier and Ann Conway, was born in Greene county,
Tennessee, on the 4th of November, 1801. His mother was the daughter of Thomas Conway and
the celebrated Ann Rector, celebrated for being the noble mother of more distinguished
sons than any other matron in American annals. She was sister to our two governors, James
Sevier Conway and Elias Nelson Conway, and the four other distinguished brothers
mentioned in the history of the Conway family in this volume.

  In tracing and following up the ancestral roots of this noble family in the paternal
line, we are led to an ancient town in the French Pyrenees, Xavier, taking its name after
the family in the remote shadows of the past. Xavier was Anglicized into Sevier after the
American branch of the family expatriated themselves. This ancient seat of feudal lords
and heraldry was the home of St. Francis Xavier, who, for eminent virtue and exalted
piety, was after death canonized by papal fiat and enrolled in the roster of the saints.
The mother's ancestral line has a brilliant history, too, in two hemispheres. In
following up its historic renown, we are led down the tide of the centuries to the reign
of the first Edward and to the noble house of Conway in the north of Wales, in which we
find generals and statesmen high in the service of their country in both hemispheres. Her
uncle, George Conway, was the first major-general elected by the legislature of
Tennessee; he was succeeded by General Jackson. But it is more particularly with the
paternal line we are now dealing.

  After the revolt in central Europe against the abuses of papal power, the Xaviers
joined the Protestant standard and shared in its glories and in its bitter persecution.
After the revocation of the edict of Nantes the prominent leaders fled and found asylum
in London, where the name became Anglicized into Sevier.

  Hnguenot blood, nursed and absorbed in its Saxon crosses in America, has given us able
men in both field and senate.

  About 1740 three Sevier brothers crossed over from London and settled in the rich
Shenandoah valley. One of these brothers tarried a short time in Baltimore, and there
married a belle who bore him three celebrated sons, John, Valentine and Robert Sevier.
John was governor of the State of Franklin during its short and memorable existence; he
took his seat in congress in 1790, and became the first member of that body from the
great Mississippi valley, and in 1796 he became the first governor of Tennessee, and was
elected six times to that great office. Valentine became a colonel, and Robert a captain
in the revolution, and frontier wars, and John a general as well as governor, but of this
we will say more presently.

  These pioneer settlers in the Shenandoah valley were not strangers to the sword; all of
them were in the regiment commanded by Washington in the French and Indian wars before
the revolution, under Lord Dunmore, the last of Virginia's royal governors nominated by
the crown; and two of the three were officers in the revolution. They belonged to a line
which gave to freedom a dauntless race of soldiers and republican statesmen. Colonel
Valentine Sevier was the father of John Sevier, Jr., who was the father of Ambrose H.
Sevier, our subject.

  All of these brothers, John, Valentine and Robert, with four more of their kindred of
the same name were in the great battle of King's Mountain, where Ferguson's entire army
was annihilated, after one of the most obstinate conflicts ever fought in this or any
other age. Here, on the 7th of October, 1780, the tide of fortune and Lord Cornwallis'
line were turned. Valentine (the grandfather of Ambrose) and Robert, commanded companies
in the regiment commanded by their brother, then Colonel John Sevier.

  Robert fell mortally wounded in this battle at the head of his charging columns, and he
fills a soldier's and a patriot's grave on "fame's eternal camping ground."

  The legislature of North Carolina in January, 1781, unanimously voted a resolution of
thanks and sword and pistols to each - Colonels Sevier and Shelby - for their conspicuous
gallantry at King's Mountain, and the sword voted to the former now belongs to the State
of Tennessee, and is sacredly preserved in the cabinet of her heraldry to attest the
renown and chivalry of her sons.

  Shelby became the first governor of Kentucky, Sevier the first of Tennessee. Governor
Sevier and his two brothers immigrated from Virginia in 1773, and settled at the first
settlement in Tennessee known as Watauga on the Watauga river, planted in 1769, by one of
the most celebrated pioneers in American history, General James Robertson, one of the
ancestors of our honored Chief Justice, Stirling R. Cockrill. He was also founder of the
Cumberland settlements of which Nashville was the first and center. In this connection
the author calls attention to the slight discrepancy between this statement and that
given in the history of the Conway family as to the time and occasion attending the
advent of the Seviers in Tennessee. For the statement in that chapter, the author is
indebted to Governor Elias N. Conway; for those in this, he is indebted to Ramsey's
History of Tennessee, based on official sources which cannot be doubted. The Seviers were
all famous in the Indian wars. Governor Sevier has had no superior as an Indian fighter
on the continent. He and his brother Valentine fought an hundred battles and performed
prodigies of valor. Their influence for good in the advance guard of civilization in
which they lived, cannot be overestimated.

  About 1792 Colonel Valentine Sevier moved west to the Cumberland settlements and built
a station near the present town of Clarksville, Montgomery county, Tennessee. There, on
the 11th November, 1794, at an unguarded moment, the station was captured by Indians and
his son Joseph was killed, and his daughter, Rebecca, was scalped by the savages, but the
colonel held the enemy at bay for two hours, and was finally relieved by reinforcements.
In a letter written by him to his brother, Governor Sevier, he says:

  "Such a scene no man ever saw; nothing but screams and roaring of guns, and no man to
assist me; the Indians were in every house before discovered. All the men were out but
Smidt and me. They killed him, his wife, his son, Ann King, and her son James. I hope
Rebecca will recover. You will write our ancient father this horrid news; also tell my
son Johnny."
                        Your affectionate brother,
                                    VALENTINE SEVIER.

  The son John mentioned in this letter is the father of Ambrose H. Sevier. He married
Ann Conway, as we have stated. There is a curious history in the Knox county court, as
follows: " 1793, May 6 - John Sevier produced a license from Governor Blount to practice
law, and was admitted." See Ramsey's History of Tennessee, 569. Ambrose H. Sevier was
well educated in the English branches, and he studied law under the direction and
supervision of his father. In 1820 he settled in Missouri, but in the following year
moved to Little Rock and commenced the practice of his profession, but soon abandoned law
for the more enticing field of politics.

  In October, 1821, he was elected clerk of the territorial house of representatives. In
1823 he was elected from Pulaski county to the territorial house of representatives, and
succeeded himself in 1825 and 1827, being elected speaker of the house the latter term;
1827 was an eventful year in the life of the rising young man. In August he was elected
to the legislature. On the 4th of September be fought a duel with Thomas W. Newton; a few
days afterward he married Miss Juliet, the accomplished daughter of Judge Benjamin
Johnson and sister to the Hon. R. W. Johnson, who was afterward a member of both branches
of the national legislature; on the 1st of October he was elected speaker of the house,
and in November be became the successful candidate to succeed his uncle Henry W. Conway
in congress, after his tragic death in a duel with Robert Crittenden. Politics on the
Arkansas frontier was then a very robust and vigorous institution, and one method of
proving loyal adhesion to party creed and stern devotion to personal honor was by resort
to the code duello. An apt illustration of the punctilious bearing of gentlemen toward
each other in those days is found in the duel between Mr. Sevier and Thomas W. Newton.
Newton was then a high-strung young man, making his way in the world, on his own
responsibility without any adventitious or extrinsic factors of support or reliance, and
he banked on that capital with as much assurance as the directors of the Bank of England
do on the bullion in their vaults. He was a whig and the warm personal friend of Robert
Crittenden.

  Sevier on the streets in Little Rock, with language more robust and expressive than
elegant, applied, in the hearing of Newton, some harsh criticism to the political course
of Mr. Crittenden, not noticing, nor caring particularly who was present. Newton stepped
up to him and said: "Mr. Sevier, perhaps you are not aware that Mr. Crittenden is not
present?" To which Sevier replied: "Perhaps he has some friend present to represent him."
And Newton with a Chesterfield bow, and wave of the hand said: "Indeed he has, sir, and
you will soon hear from him." The duel was fought on the 4th of September, 1827, in the
Cherokee nation, now Conway county. The celebrated Geo. W. Jones of Iowa was Newton's
second, and the author is informed that Major Wharton Rector of the United States Army
was Sevier's second. The first and only fire resulted without injury, their seconds and
friends then interceded and prevented any further combat. Major Wharton Rector was also
second to Henry W. Conway in his fatal duel with Robert Crittenden, on the 29th of
October following, and Mr. Jones was second to Jonathan Cilley of Maine, who was killed
in the District of Columbia, in a duel with Graves of Kentucky in 1838.

  Our distinguished citizen Colonel Richard M. Johnson is the brother-in-law of Mr.
Sevier, and the son-in-law of Mr. Newton, and his parlors are adorned with splendid
protraits of each of these prominent actors in our early history. The election for a
successor to Mr. Conway was warmly contested by three able men, Richard Searcy of
Batesville, Judge Andrew Scott of Scotia (the name of his country seat), and Mr. Sevier.
The election was held in August, 1828, and resulted in a plurality of fifty-six in favor
of Mr. Sevier.

  In 1829 the contest for congress was renewed with great vigor, and pressed with much
ability on both sides. In this canvass Sevier was again opposed by Richard Searcy and was
elected by a majority of three hundred and eight. In 1831 the whigs tried the speed of
another competitor and put the popular and talented Ben Desha of Batesville on the track
with Mr. Sevier as a very promising antagonist, but he was defeated after a very thorough
and close contest by four hundred and fifty-three votes. In 1833 the whigs were still
undismayed, but fully recognized the fact that none but a man of splendid abilities could
reasonably expect to achieve success against Sevier, who added great personal magnetism
and a firm grasp on the popular heart to long service and acknowledged abilities, and
stood like Hercules in the pathway of all opposition.

  The leaders of the whig party, with great unanimity, centered on Robert Crittenden,
whose name became the rallying cry of the clans from the center to the circumference of
the territory. He, too, had a lineage written high on the crest of Kentucky's great name.
The physical man was moulded in the perfection of human symmetry; his eye sparkled in the
brilliancy of animation springing from a lofty nature; he possessed dauntless courage and
stood high on the roll as one of the most accomplished orators America ever produced.
Each had a rival worthy of his steel, and defeat meant no reproach in such a contest.
When the smoke of battle cleared away it disclosed a majority of one thousand nine
hundred and fifty-six for Sevier.

  Jackson's popularity was then at its flood, and no talent, however great, could stem
its tide in Arkansas. In connection with this ever memorable race, tradition has left us
one of her mournful, yet touchingly beautiful, legends, which in pagan Rome or classic
Greece would deify and immortalize the name of Crittenden. His lofty pride and high
ambition to serve his country, founded on and supported by delicate and acute mental
organism, finally gave way under the distress caused by defeat and released his great
soul from earthly bondage on the 18th of December, 1834, at Vicksburg, whither he had
gone to argue a great case with Sargeant S. Prentiss.

  In 1835 Sevier was elected to congress without opposition, so firmly was his influence
and popularity now established. On the 22d of March, 1836, James Buchanan introduced a
bill in the senate of the United States providing for the admission of Arkansas, and on
the 16th of June following she was admitted into the Federal compact. This led the way to
the national senate, and Sevier, and William S. Fulton were elected without opposition,
Sevier drawing the long term. He was again elected in 1842 and 1848. During the greater
part of President Polk's administration he was chairman of the committee on foreign
relations. He resigned his seat in the senate in 1848 to accept the appointment as
plenipotentiary extraordinary to Mexico in connection with Justice Clifford of the
supreme court of the United States, and they negotiated the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo
by which we acquired vast possessions from Mexico. On his return home he contracted a
disease at Vera Cruz which resulted in his death on the 31st of December, 1848, in the
forty-seventh year of his age.

  He was buried in Mount Holly cemetery, and the legislature of Arkansas, to the
everlasting honor of the State, builded a monument to the memory of her noble son. His
accomplished daughter, Miss Annie, married the gallant soldier General Thomas J.
Churchill, now one of our ex-governors. His son, Ambrose H. Sevier, married one of the
granddaughters of Governor Fulton.

  He died in the meridian of a useful life and a splendid fame without any spot on his
noble escutcheon.