Greene County NcArchives Biographies.....Speight, Hon. Jesse 1847 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Cliff Darden cliffdarden@cs.com October 20, 2014, 5:32 pm Source: The Wilmington Journal Author: The Wilmington Journal Friday, June 18,1847 THE LATE HON. JESSE SPEIGHT. We find the following interesting sketch of some of the passages in the life of the late Hon. Jesse Speight, in the New York correspondence of the Boston Post, and think that they will interest our readers. We have certainly read the article with interest: New York, May 27, 1847. I noticed in the newspapers, a short time since, the death of the Hon Jesse Speight, of Mississippi, and a member of the United Slates senate. 1 had many years the pleasure of his personal acquaintance and friendship, and had intended before this to have done justice to his merits as a man and a statesman. He was a native of North Carolina, a son of the late Governor Speight, and early in life devoted himself to politics. He was often in the legislature of his native state, where he maintained a commanding influence. I do not at what time he entered the U. S. house of representatives, but I found him there in the year 1832. He was then a thoroughgoing Jackson democrat; and up to the last day of his life was a consistent and an independent politician. Gen. Jackson had unlimited confidence in his public and private integrity, and regarded him as one of his most valuable friends. Immediately after he came to congress, he manifested a fondness for parliamentary law, and seemed to make it his study. 'In the end, he became a proficient in the rules and law of parliament, and was usually placed in the chair, when the house resolved itself in committee of the whole, if some hard and knotty hill was called up tor consideration. It was for such scenes and strife and turmoil that he appeared to be eminently fitted; and beside, he evidently liked to revel in them. When Mr. Speaker Stevenson resigned his seat, as speaker, Mr. Speight was a candidate for the succession in caucus, as was also Mr. Polk; but; as everybody knows, both were distanced in the house, and Mr. John Pell, by forming a coalition with the whigs, then called national republicans, was successful. The coalition for Mr. Bell then pretended to he a Jacksonian ---was the most unfortunate incident in the successful man's life, tor it sealed his political ruin. One day. Mr. Speaker Stevenson being quite ill, placed Mr. Speight in the chair as acting speaker. A bill of some consequence was called up, and gave rise to a warm debate. Mr. John Quincy Adams, for whom Mr. Speight entertained an inveterate political detestation, got the floor, and had proceeded for an hour and upwards to speak, in his usually emphatic and eloquent manner, without apparently attracting the immediate attention of Mr. Speaker or any one else not a usual thing with Mr. Adams when he suddenly paused, and looking up to the speaker, said "Sir! did you call me to order?" "I did," was the laconic reply. "What for, sir?" "Because you were out of order." "Do you persist, sir, in calling me to order?" "Well, sir, then I appeal to the house from the decision of the chair." "I don't care a damn if you do. The gentleman from Indiana is entitled to the floor and will proceed!" An incident so abrupt and crude failed not to produce intense excitement. All was confusion; whilst some swelled with indignation, at what they regarded a personal insult to Mr. Adams, a majority were convulsed with laughter at the ludicrous passage of the combatants. In the midst of the turmoil that ensued, a special messenger was dispatched to Brown's hotel for Mr. Speaker Stevenson, who soon made his appearance, with his head encased in his night cap, pale, languid and nervous, demanded order, and brought the house to a state of sober complacency. Although Mr. Speight entertained a political detestation for Mr. Adams, he personally esteemed him, and on all private occasions treated him with all the respect he so readily commanded. As a dispenser of parliamentary law, Mr. Adams was not a whit more accommodating or courteous than Mr. Speight. In the year 1840, when the house was unable to organize because of its inability to elect a speaker in consequence of the appearance in its hall of two sets of representatives from the state of New Jersey, and the refusal of Mr. Hugh H.Garland, the clerk, to call the roll beyond the state of New York,' Mr. Adams was made of the kind invariably failed. If a vote was temporary speaker, vi et armis, and placed the chair by actual force, he soon made those had elected him repentant of their acts, He was speaker, by the courtesy of the mob, and, as such, was. like old Lear, -----"every inch a king." He would not he seated because, as he said, the chair did not belong to him, and he held his place by involuntary usurpation. For three long and tedious days did he act as speaker, standing in front of the speaker's chair. One day Mr. Richard Barnwell Rhett, of S. Carolina, at whose instance Mr. Adams had been made acting speaker, and who supposed he had a consequent influence with him, rose and sent to the chair a resolution. Mr. Adams received it, read it, and very quietly laid it on the table. Something intervened, and the body, for it could not, whilst it was speakerless, be called a house, was proceeding onward, when Mr. Rhett lose and said, "Mr. speaker, I ------- " "Mr. chairman," said Mr. Adams, interrupting him, "if you please, sir, I am no speaker." "Well, Mr. chairman," resumed Mr. Rhett, "I sent a resolution to the chair, and I will inquire if it was received?" "Yes, sir, I did receive it." "And will the chair be pleased to submit it to the House?" "No, sir, the chair will not." "Will the chair be pleased to cause it to be read for the information of the house?" "No, sir, the chair will do no such thing." "And may I be allowed to inquire the reason why?" "Because the resolution is unconstitutional. And we are taught, sir, by high authority, that we must not do an unconstitutional thing, 'though cannon of the enemy be pointed at the gates of the capitol.'" The resolution was sent back to the South Carolinian, amid the convulsing laughter of the whole assemblage. But to return to Mr. Speight. He was a candidate in caucus for the speakership in 1834, when Mr. Polk distanced him, and was elected by a large majority of the house. He was displeased with the result, and thought he had been unfairly treated in caucus. Alter the house was organized, he was placed on two very important committees, and much pains was taken to conciliate his wounded sensibilities. On all occasions, when there was a hard job to carry through the committee of the whole house on the state of the Union, he was placed in the chair. One day, one of these ugly affairs came up in the order of business, and Mr. Speight, was of course in his usual place as chairman. A long, tedious and profitless political debate ensued, which bored and teased every body to death. Night came on, and there was no prospect of its being terminated. Numerous attempts were made to get the committee to rise, but all in vain. At length the scene became languid and monotonous: some found relief in the library, others found it in the restaurants of the capitol, whilst others nodded and slept at their desks. The chairman nodded with the rest, and was only notified of his position by the cessation of the croaking voice of Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, who had concluded a long-winded speech for his constituents and that interesting individual, .Major General Bunkum. Immediately, the chairman was aroused by the common low tone and nasal twang of Mr. Amos Lane, of Indiana. "Mr. Cheerman!" exclaimed Mr. Lane. "Mr. Speight rubbed his eyes, and nodded recognition". Mr. Lane was a lawyer of the old school, and whose Randolph nose, pimpled face and oniony eye reminded one of the days of the old English bar, when law, liquor and loquacity were synonimous, opened his green bag. pulled out his notes, and rubbing his specks with a silk bandanna, was preparing himself for a regular set-to-an old fashioned political action, ye had adjusted his hair, placed a tumbler of water before him, placed his hand in his bosom, cleared out his pipes, and had half articulated, "Mr. Cheerman, I rise with diffidence ---- " when he was thunderstruck, confounded, blasted, by the voice of Mr. Speight, which, in clear and round notes, announced, "The gentleman from Virginia," (Mr. Mercer.) "Did I, I understand the cheerman,''' ejaculated Mr. Lane, " to announce the gentleman from Virginia, on my left I!" "Yes, sir, you certainly did." "And had I not the floor before that gentleman rose?" "You certainly had." "And may I then inquire, why it is taken from me and given to the gentleman from Virginia?" "Yes, sir ; and the chair will explain. After the gentleman from Indiana had addressed the chairman, he saw that the gentleman from Virginia was pregnant with a speech, and, in the language of the dramatist of the times of Charles the Second, was ' struggling with the big thought." The chairman was of opinion that that gentleman would ' suffer some," if he were not permitted to deliver himself. He well knew that the gentleman from Indiana wanted the floor; he also knew that the speech he had to deliver would not spoil by keeping -therefore, he gave the floor to the gentleman from Virginia!" "The gentleman from Virginia will proceed!" Mr. Lane--"But sir, I appeal--" Mr. Speight " The gentleman from Virginia has the floor! Order! Mr. Lane, equally amused with the rest of the house, joined in the laughter that ensued, quietly packed his green bag again, deposited his spectacles in their case, and said no more. In the month of June, 1836, a bill to admit, Arkansas and Michigan to the Union, was pending. It was especially important that it should be passed before congress adjourned. It was no small thing to the administration that was then to come, healed by Mr. Van Buren, to possess itself of four additional votes in the senate, and two in the house of representatives. The whigs were determined stave off the bill if possible, till after the presidential election was decided. When the bill came up, they contended that, inasmuch as it contained an appropriation in lands, for the erection of state houses, &c, it was a money bill, and must be committed to the committee of the whole house. This was denied by the democrats and the decision of the question was forced on Mr. Speaker Polk. He decided, and correctly too, against his party, and into the vortex of that maelstrom the bill went-- When it was called up, Mr. Speight was placed in the chair, and it was argued by the democratic party that the committee should not rise till the bill was passed and ordered to be reported to the house. It sat, accordingly, two days and two nights without interruption, and during the whole of that period Mr. Speight left the chair but once for nourishment. Every effort that human ingenuity could devise was resorted to, to compel the committee to rise; motion to that effect was an hundred time made, but as the ayes and noes cannot be demanded in committee, everything of the kind invariably failed. If a vote was taken viva voce, the chairman, as usual, knew how to count it; and when letters were demanded, he could easily drum up a majority. In this state of the case, Mr. Wise, of Virginia, became impatient and irritable, and after having delivered one of his peculiarly emphatic speeches, concluded by saying "that Michigan and Arkansas had been knocking at the door these last six months for admission, and might have been permitted to enter long ago but for the indolence of the administration.-Now, that time was precious, the session was drawing to a close, and a vast quantity of public business remained unattended to, the administration must lay everything aside, abandon the real interests of the country to admit Arkansas and Michigan at the midnight hour, because it wanted the votes they could give to the party. I rise, now, sir, to protest against this course of proceeding, and proclaim that this house stands adjourned till to-morrow. I demand, sir, that you, Jesse Speight, descend from that chair, which you hold by usurpation, that you yield it to James K. Polk, the speaker, and that he announce, what I now announce, that this house of representatives is adjourned till to-morrow. Come down from that chir, sir! How dare you hold it." "And I rise," said Mr. Speight, following Mr. Wise in his movement, "to say that this committee shall not rise, and that this house of representatives shall not be adjourned till the bill before both has been passed, signed by the proper officers, and proclaimed a law. I proclaim that I hold this chair legally and according to parliamentary rule; that I am no usurper, and that I cannot be intimidated. No power, save that of the Almighty, can dispossess me whilst I live!" "Exactly as I supposed," rejoined Mr. Wise, who had but enacted a playful part in disguise, "and I honor you for your patriotism. It's rather deeper than min is; and as I do not wish to become a joint tenant with you in your parliamentary life here, and as is now past twelve o'clock on the next day, the bill passed, and Michigan and Arkansas came into the Union. Mr. Speight was an excentric man. He possessed and iron mind and will, and was imbued with strong prejudices. He was exceedingly ultra on the slave question, and had a peculiar detestation for Mr. Wm. Slade, of Vermont. He spoke very indignantly of that gentleman, in public and private, and bestowed on him epithets which it cannot be necessary to repeat. If Mr. Slade had ever visited the district in which Mr. Speight resided, he would have been very rughly handled. About the year 1839 Mr. Speight migrated to Mississippi, and for several years was out of congress. He was soon a conspicuous man among the politicians of that state, was elected to the legislature, and subsequently to the office of speaker of one of its branches.-Two years ago he was elected to the senate of the United States, in which body he maintained a respectable estate. He was an honorable, high-minded man, a strong and violent partisan, ultra in all things, independent, bold and fearless-a warm friend, and an implacable opponent. note-Jesse Speight (9/22/1795-5/1/1847) was the youngest son of Capt Seth Speight (Revolutionary War, d 1800) and Elizabeth Vines Speight (d ca 1798). He was born @ Speight's Bridge. He lived in that area most of his life. He was raised by his eldest brother William Vines Speight (1778- 1836), after the death of their father & then uncle, William Speight, Esq (d 1803). William Vines Speight served in the NC senate 1808-1822 and also mentored his baby brother as a politician. Two of his brothers Seth Speight (1781-1854) and Thomas Speight (1787-1859) were Methodist ministers in NC & GA. He was also predeceased by his brothers Lemon Speight (1791-1830) and Henry Speight and sister Nancy Howe Speight Pope (1793-1812). In addition, he had sisters Fanny Speight and Polly Vines Speight. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/greene/bios/speight211bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 15.9 Kb