CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  Franklin W. Bowdon - Rusk County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
6 June 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson, pages 212-214 

FRANKLIN W. BOWDON.

In an unmarked grave in the cemetery of historic old Henderson, in 
Rusk county, sleeps the genius who by common consent is ranked the 
mightiest of Texan orators. Franklin W. Bowdon was born in Chester 
district, South Carolina, Feb.17, 1817.  He was graduated from the 
Uni­versity of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in the class of 1836, of which 
the late Gov. 0. M. Roberts of Texas was a member. He was admitted 
to the bar and began the practice in 1838 in Talladega.  Six years 
later he was elected to the legisla­lature, and there, by the force 
of his talents and his skill in debate, he at once became prominent.  
In 1846 he defeated Gen. Thos. A. Walker and Hon. Benj. Goodman for 
congress, and later he was re-elected, defeating Hon. S. F. Rice in 
1847, and Gen. Bradford in 1849.  In congress Mr. Bowdon became 
known as a debater in a class by himself.  An Eng­lish peer who heard 
him in Washington said that he had listened to most of the great 
orators of his day in Europe and America and that Mr. Bowdon excelled 
them all.  He retired from congress in 1851, and soon afterwards 
removed to Texas, locating in the town of Henderson, where he built
success before the state supreme court and federal courts in Tyler,
while in trial courts throughout the state he won a series of 
victories the tradition of which yet lives.

In the campaign of 1855, in opposition to Know-Nothing­ism, one bright 
particular star blazed with unusual lustre.  Franklin Bowdon was 
easily the most inspiring and captivat­ing speaker heard in Texas 
during that contest, and not even that mighty leader of men, Gen.
Sam Houston, could per­suade the people when this magnetic orator 
mounted the rostrum.  This writer when a boy over fifty-one years ago 
heard the debate at Rusk between Gen. Houston and Mr. Bowdon.  
"The Father of Texas" had become a member of the American 
("Know Nothing") party, and, being severely criticised by the 
Democrats for his votes in the United States senate, he returned home 
to appeal to his people with the logic and force peculiar to Houston 
alone.  He was of hand­some person, an orator of the first class, the 
hero of San Jacinto, full of magnetic power to draw people to him.  
And he was a statesman of national repute.  His speech on this 
occasion was sound in logic, rhetoric and forensic eloquence, and 
immensely pleased his devoted followers.  Bowdon re­plied in a 
masterly address.  His words came without effort and his influence 
over the audience was wondrous. The mesmerism of his genius and the 
witchery of his eloquence was such that men were lifted from their 
seats, and stood unconsciously drinking in the inspiration of his 
flowing words.  His hearers wept like children.  The Texan orator 
swept like a cyclone the structure built by the great Houston in his 
opening speech, scattered his logic to the four winds, and fairly 
captured the minds and hearts of the thousands who heard him on that 
memorable day.  The late John H. Reagan, Postmaster General of the 
Confederate States, who had heard Henry Clay, Prentiss, Ben Hill, 
Toombs, Grady and many of the lesser lights, pronounced Bowdon the 
most phenomenal orator he had heard.  He was indeed a prodigy. In 
the forum and on the stump he was without an equa1. He fully met 
Macauley's definition of eloquence in that he was master of the art 
of persuasion.  Nor was he less sound and learned, for his briefs 
were pronounced by the courts to be models of legal acumen.  In 
appearance Mr. Bowdon was prepossessing.  Six feet high and well 
proportioned, his features were handsome and well developed.  His 
tempera­ment was sanguine, and he was sgreeable, polished, and full 
of generous impulses.  He was by birth and training a strict states
rights democrat.  He had an intense love for Texas, gloried in her 
unique and heroic history, prophesied for her a wondrous future, 
and frequently expressed the wish that when he died he might be 
buried in Texas soil.  He was married to the daughter of Hon. 
Thomas Chilton, formerly a congressman from Kentucky, and they had
several children. Bowdon College in Carroll county, Ga., is named 
in honor of the subject of this sketch. The death of Mr. Bowdon 
occurred June 8, 1857, in Henderson, Texas, and he was buried there 
the following day.  There have been numerous Texans whose power of 
eloquence has brought glory to the Lone Star state, but it is no 
exaggeration to say that none excelled Franklin Bowdon.  His 
speeches were specimens of forensic oratory unequalled in matter 
and delivery by any one of the titanic men who lit up the pages of 
early Texan history.  It is said that the sensations he aroused were 
at times akin to those produced on the mind by a great actor or a 
great singer in the supreme climax of a thrilling tragedy or opera. 
Genius indeed templed in him.  Fame crowned him.  And the years only 
make more secure the aureole that circles his brief career.