keep, who felt entirely compensated for his losses in its relation. ultimately reached Wickliffe's ears, and, after all, had the effect desired.*

Mr. Hardin was not personally fond of Mr. Clay, yet he had great admiration of his abilities as a lawyer, politician, and, especially, as a card-player. He said he had often played cards with Mr. Clay, but always on his side-never against him. In early life he acquired a taste for card-playing. In his first journeys around the circuit he spent more time in this sport than in professional duties. Truth to say, the competition of older and abler lawyers prevented him from getting an encouraging share of practice at the outset; while at the card-table he was quite able to hold trumps over the leaders of the bar. Chief-Justice George Robertson, in his Autobiography, confesses that he could not have survived his early years at the law if he had not added to his professional income the profits which rewarded his skill at the gaming table. Mr. Hardin realized steady gains from play, and in later life applauded himself for resigning a pursuit in which pleasure and profit were alluringly combined.

He was fond of meeting the crowds resorting to the hotel, and gathering from them items of local news. His faculty for wit and humor made him attractive, and he had an abundant and attentive auditory when in a colloquial mood. So it was when a session of court was held at Elizabethtown, he had to encounter competitors from abroad, and he, in turn, following the custom of the time, joined the practitioners on the circuit.

One of the most important incidents of his early career was his marriage, March 31, 1807. to Elizabeth Pendleton Barbour, daughter of Colonel Ambrose Barbour, of Washington county. Colonel Barbour was a wealthy farmer who had emigrated from Virginia some years before, and was connected by blood with the distinguished family of that State bearing his name. He was brother of Thomas Barbour, whose distinguished sons, Phillip P. and James, attained the highest civic honors. Phillip P. Barbour was Speaker of the Lower House of Congress and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, while James was Governor of Virginia, United States Senator, and Minister to the Court of St. James. The belle of all the country around was the beautiful daughter of Colonel Barbour, known to her intimate friends and admirers as "Betsy Barbour," the abbreviation common to the name Elizabeth in those days. Among the crowd of suitors who laid their hearts at her feet was young Ben Hardin, who, so she

Related to author by Hon, J. C. Wickliffe.

once said, compared very advantageously with the rest. His ready wit rendered him entertaining, and, with his fair complexion, bright blue eyes, and hair of reddish tint, dressed handsomely, with lace ruffles on his shirt bosom, and at his wrist, falling over small, white hands, he was no uncommon suitor.

Said his wife in after years: "He was very fastidious in his dress in those days, and continued so until some time after our marriage, when one day as he sat busily writing, the ruffle at his wrist dabbled in the ink and on his paper, so much to his annoyance that he impatiently tore it off. He would never in future wear ruffles, and gradually fell into indifference in regard to his dress.” *

When he commenced the study of law at twenty, Betsy Barbour had plighted her faith to him, and in March, 1807, they were married. Mr. Hardin took his bride to his new home and set up housekeeping in the primitive way of the period. Whatever talents the young lawyer may possess, the beginning of his career is a strong trial to his patience and equanimity. The patronage of the public is capricious and somewhat like the wind "that bloweth where it listeth." That irresponsible entity is extremely fond of depreciating the talents of young men generally, but of the bar particularly. The veriest ignoramus would cheapen the abilities of Pitt were he suing for its favor. With some there is a tinge of criminality in being a young man.

One day, in the year 1808, while Mr. Hardin was engaged in his office, the officers of the law were passing by, having in custody one Bray charged with having committed a murder in the "Level Woods" -a part of Hardin county, subsequently added to Larue. It is related that the homicide was committed in the following peculiar way: A party of young men were engaged in an all night debauch. One of the number had drunk spirits so excessively as to become insensibly drunk. An overburdened stomach finally yielded its contents. While this was going on, Bray, having some curiosity on the subject, took a candle to demonstrate by ignition whether the drunken man was discharging pure spirits. The outflowing stream caught fire and so burned the unfortunate inebriate that he died. For this the prisoner was arrested on the charge of murder. He asked of the officers having him in charge permission to consult Mr. Hardin.

During the consultation he inquired what fee would be charged, and the reply was three hundred dollars. The prisoner complained of this as excessive, saying that he could get a Bardstown lawyer for that That remark had a decisive effect on Mr. Hardin's future career. Miss Lucinda B. Helm, in Lebanon Times.

sum.

He immediately went home and notified his wife to prepare to move to Bardstown. Within a week he was domiciled in the latter place. He had been retained in Bray's case, and the latter, after all, had the services of a Bardstown lawyer.* As Mr. Hardin came to Bardstown his old preceptor, Felix Grundy, was leaving for a fresh field of fame -the rising young State of Tennessee. But Rowan, Duvall, Charles Wickliffe, and others remained to contest the triumphs of the bar. Dr. Henry Chapeze, father of the subsequently-distinguished lawyer, Ben Chapeze, told Hardin that he would find success at Bardstown. difficult on account of the legal talent already there. "But," said the doctor, "I have seen a little bull crowded from a haystack by larger cattle, who kept trying to get in so persistently that finally the older and stronger yielded him a place. So you will find it." The talented and popular William P. Duvall was county attorney in Nelson at that time-a post filled annually by the justices-and to which Duvall had been frequently re-elected. A short time before this office was to be filled Mr. Hardin visited the various justices and obtained the promise of each to vote for him. This they did somewhat unexpectedly to Duvall.

In his first important case at Bardstown, one May was his client, and a large body of land was involved. He was alone on his side of the case, while the opposite side had retained several of the most distinguished attorneys at the bar. Hardin was diligent and laborious in preparation, and when the trial came on, he threw his whole soul into the contest. He scarcely ate or slept. He ransacked authorities, reviewed the evidence and record, and, in the adjournments of court, when not at work otherwise at the case, walked to and fro in wrapt revery, mentally reviewing, planning his argument, and conning over every detail of law and fact. To his wife's importunities to eat, sleep, and rest, he answered that if he won his case his fame was made, and he had resolved to win. Finally, the case was argued thoroughly and ably, but none surpassed Hardin. The verdict came, and his client was victor. It was a proud moment-the proudest of his life. It was pardonable for him to hasten from the court-room to bear the glad tidings to his anxious and expectant young wife, that she might share with him the luxury of success. He had, however, been anticipated. Father Baden, the warm-hearted French priest, and Barry, his old Irish preceptor, had witnessed the trial, and on its conclusion. had hastened to Hardin's house, feeling that his wife alone could sympathize with their excess of joy.

Letter of Mrs. Kate Riley.

When the stalwart young lawyer came, the enthusiastic little French priest embraced and kissed him (despite his protest), and the Irish teacher was scarcely less demonstrative. It ought not to be recorded how freely the wine flowed, or how the Irishman boasted that he was no less than the author and finisher of young Hardin, or how the French father had all the time predicted his certain, early, and magnificent success. Pleasurable as was this early triumph, the better part of it was the substantial results that followed. His fame went abroad, and an abundant practice came in. Neither dazzled nor puffed up by success, he remembered that it first came by diligence and study, and reasoned rightly that diligence and study would retain it.

March 19, 1810, he was appointed, by Judge Stephen Ormsby, Commonwealth's attorney for the district in place of Gabriel I. Johnson, Esq. This office he held for several years. How far the efficient discharge of its duties may have developed certain traits of character in Mr. Hardin is an interesting question. Whether a certain austerity of manner, and a certain real or apparent uncharitableness in dealing with an adversary may not have been developed in the exercise of the prosecutor's duties can neither be confidently affirmed nor denied. The affirmative theory is not improbable. The position of prosecutor was certainly not without its advantages. It gave a man of bright parts a chance to show his ability. It threw him in competition with the best talent at the bar. Mr. Hardin was one to profit by this opportunity. He laid the foundation of that fame as a prosecutor that made him the terror of the criminal class of his day. Not only did he profit in the way of reputation, but his receipts from official fees amounted to fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars per

annum.

CHAPTER V.

OUTSET IN POLITICAL LIFE.

N his twenty-seventh year, Mr. Hardin took his first step in political life. At the August election, 1810, he was chosen representative in the State Legislature, from Nelson county. Then, as later, a seat in the Legislature was deemed the proper beginning of an ambitious career the stepping-stone to something better. It afforded especial advantages to a good debater. It also brought one in familiar contact with the best talent and highest social life of the State. It enabled a man of parts to form associations and friendships helpful to higher aspirations. It was an arena in which Mr. Hardin immediately became conspicuous.

66

'During the first ten years of the present century," says a writer in Harper's Magazine, "the society of the little capital of Kentucky was very brilliant and amusing. The Federal Capital had not yet come to be regarded as the only field for the display of great genius, and the State courts and the Legislature frequently enlisted as much talent as was drawn to the support of the National administration. During the fall and winter months all the great men of our State were assembled in Frankfort, to attend the sittings of the House of Representatives or the Federal Court and Court of Appeals. Most of these, as we have said, were quite young-in the very heyday of health and spirits-none of them being over thirty-five years of age. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if they sometimes indulged in excesses which older men would have shunned. Here, it may be, we are violating the principal canon of modern biography, that bids us praise without ceasing, and always represent your hero without a blemish,' but these youthful statesmen were men, subject to like passions as we; and why should we expect of them a higher standard of morals than obtains at the present time? Public opinion, besides, was far less exacting on many points then than it is now; and gaming and drinking, in particular, were hardly regarded as vices, and were practiced openly by almost every one. Certain it is, their assemblies were often noisily, and even riotously, mirthful, and were sometimes the scenes of frolics which very proper persons might regard as scandalous. What would such a person think were he told that Mr. Clay was himself a rather wildish fellow in those days, and engaged in such freaks as the following:

"One night, after the bottle had circulated until a late hour, the great Compromiser announced his intention of finishing off the entertainment by