“For Want of a Scribe” II
The cone I nil in» insist 1 1
шеи
I of «in address
marie before (he Norlli Carolina Literary
anil Historical Society at Raleigh.
By glenn tucker
Thomas L. Clingman was nol built
to the statesmanlike proportions of the
other three, but he was a man of spur¬
ring enterprise and striking achieve¬
ment. and one who wins a student's
sympathy during the years of his de¬
cline. A stanch Asheville Whig in his
early days, he was elected to the state
senate in 1840 and then to the Twenty-
eighth Congress, the Congress which
annexed Texas. He foresaw the demise
of the Whig party, became a Demo¬
crat. and was returned to the House
for seven terms, then was sent twice
to the Senate.
Foster A. Sondlcy, the Asheville
scholar, biographer, and bibliophile, a
Buncombe County contemporary of
Clingman for nearly half a century
who dealt severely with him. con¬
ceded that he was courageous but a
man of the "most arrogant and ag¬
gressive character, greatest self confi¬
dence, unlimited assurance, prodigious
conceit, stupendous aspiration, im¬
mense claims, more than common
ability, no considerable attainments of
culture, great boastfulness, and much
curiosity." The Philadelphia Times
correspondent who knew him during
his early service in Congress gave a
more moderate picture, saying that in
the House he "plunged into debate
upon every question, sometimes with
more zeal than discretion, and fre¬
quently made himself the subject of
sarcasm. Many times he narrowly
escaped compulsory visits to the field
of honor. (He did go once with Wil¬
liam L. Yancey of Alabama). He was
really a most gentle and lovable man.
and preferred the pursuits of peace to
the wrangles of the legislative hall."
The last seems doubtful. He was a
bitter-end fighter, part of his resolution
no doubt resulting from his Cherokee
blood. His remark to General Jo¬
seph E. Johnston in 1865 is worth re¬
membering. When Johnston was sur¬
rounded by Sherman's army and was
THE STATE. AUQUST 1. 1966
George E. 8odger, one of the moit brilliant
Americans e»er to serve in the Congress.
going to the Bennett farmhouse near
Durham to surrender. Clingman came
to him. opposed treating and declared
grandiosely. "Let us make this a
Thermopylae!" The more prudent
Johnston retorted dryly. "I’m not in
the Thermopylae business." and went
on to surrender.
Clingman's war activities and per¬
haps his bitterness are better under¬
stood from his frustrated love of the
beautiful and only daughter of Wil¬
liam Wilson Corcoran, the wealthy
Washington banker and art collector,
who became his close friend during his
early congressional days before Cling¬
man had attained much fame or Cor¬
coran much affluence. The North
Carolinian pressed his suit ardently
and the father held aloof because the
young lady was attracted also to
George Eustis. Jr., the romantic private
secretary of Senator John Slidell of
Louisiana, and himself at times a con¬
gressman. When the charming heiress
decided in favor of the younger Louisi-
anan. Clingman withdrew gracefully
and nursed his defeat privately, but
he never married. Some believed the
loss of the girl was the cause of his
recklessness in battle during the Civil
War. That intrepidity led to his pro¬
motion to brigadier general despite his
utter lack of military education or ex¬
perience.
Corcoran's friendship for C lingman
endured after the daughter had chosen
Eustis and Corcoran had acquired
wealth. Clingman's portrait was hung
for years with those of the nation's
great when the Corcoran Art Gallery
became a Washington institution. It
could be viewed among the portraits
of the presidents, generals, leading
senators, and supreme court justices,
all on the same line and having in
elevation an equal precedence of posi¬
tion. A newspaper man noticed that
in his later years Clingman would steal
into the Corcoran gallery to look on
his likeness in his favorite pose, as he
was declaiming in the Senate, in order
to reassure himself from time to time
that he was still there in the company
of the noted. Eventually, in a shifting
of the portraits, someone hung it in a
back room. The reporter was on hand
when the pitiful old man entered and
saw that his portrait was no longer in
Tbomoi Clingmon, courogeoui. enogetie, moody
— ond neglected.
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