xt73r20rrd0b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73r20rrd0b/data/mets.xml 1868 books b92-63-27078882 English Printed at the Kentucky Yeoman Office, : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Helm, John Larne, 1802-1867. Kentucky History. Biographical sketch of the Hon. John L. Helm, late governor of Kentucky : published by direction of the General Assembly of Kentucky. text Biographical sketch of the Hon. John L. Helm, late governor of Kentucky : published by direction of the General Assembly of Kentucky. 1868 2002 true xt73r20rrd0b section xt73r20rrd0b itLe :hia / g fff X,0 t:0X0O tt/ s) 1 U Dra, ntd Egt grave4 I y Joe New York bureau orf 1at0t, E wA at. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Or ruH. HON. JOHN L. HELM, LATE GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY. PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF KENTUCKY. FRANKFORT, KY.: PRINTED AT THE KENTUCKY YEOMAN OFFICE. a L 3L X.XJOB. PUBLO PINMTRE. 1868. This page in the original text is blank. IN THE SENATE OF KENTUCKY, MARCH 6, 18i8. MR. ALEXANDER moved the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That a Committee of two of the Senate be appointed by the Chair, to act in conjunction with a similar Committee of the House, to prepare Biographical Sketches of the HON. L. W. POWELL and the Holw. JOHN L. HELM, and that the Public Printer be directed to print three thousand eight hundred copies of each Biography for the use of the Sen- ate, together with the speeches delivered on the passage of the resolu- tions in regard to their death in the Senate and the House, the same to be published in pamphlet form, accompanied with lithographic portraits of the deceased, and that they be mailed to the members of both Houses, postage paid. Which was twice read and adopted. Senators JOSEPH M. ALEXANDER, of the county of Fleming, and BEN. J. WEBB, of the City of Louisville, were appointed, in pur- suance of the resolution, to perform the duty assigned thereunder. On the same day Mr. McKENZIE presented the above resolution in the House of Representatives, where it was unanimously adopted, and the following named gentle- men were appointed to perform the duty indicated by the resolution, viz: Messrs. J. A. McKENziE, of Christian county; S. I. M. MAJOR, of Franklin county; and R. M. SPALDING, of Marion county. This page in the original text is blank. INTRODUCTION. IT is a well-established fact, that success has rarely resulted from the efforts of even able and experienced writers, when they have attempted to bring before their readers personations of individual character and habit. Few have been the really readable biographies that have appeared in our language, and of these, immeasurably the best was written and compiled by one whose literary rep- utation has no other foundation for its support. Writers of biography are apt to have too little regard for details. They write in the style of the historian, and appear to contemn every circumstance in the lives of those whose characters they would depict which has not a direct con- nection with certain grand purposes in the pursuit of which their years were passed. The great Lexicographer and Essayist, Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, though he possessed a mind immeasurably supe- rior to that of his biographer, could not have written a book of the kind that would have held its place in the world of letters as has his own Life by JAMES BOSWELL. As the inferior mental organism of BOSWELL had no ca- pacity for learned display, so the superior one of Dr. JOHNSON had none for that which was merely postprandial. The latter's ponderous intellect would have held in con- tempt the club-conversations and table-talk which, in the former's work, are found so charming to the great mass of readers. Just as the aggregate of human miseries is made up, for the most part, of little cares and annoyances, so true human happiness has much affinity with little things. There is a certain charm about the conversations-the trivial incidents of every-day life-of men who have filled high places in the State, or in the world of science, which INTRODUCTION. is appreciable by everybody. But these, as connected with great numbers of eminent men, have all been lost for want of a chronicler. Hence it is, that biographers are so often obliged to assume in style the dead level of compact history, which is altogether unsuited to such writings; and hence, too, their works are little read and less appreciated. In justice to one of the most useful-as he was certain- ly one of the most esteemed-men of our day, we have sought diligently to remedy, in the present instance, this usual defect of all modern biography, but with results, we cannot but acknowledge, by no means commensurate with our wishes. Governor HELM'S was a mind of no common order; and dying, as he did, in the zenith of his fame, it is not to be wondered at that his fellow-citizens should desire to pre- serve the record of his life. We, who have been commis- sioned to perform this duty, may well fear that the result of our labors will be found very imperfect by those who had the honor of the late Governor's intimate acquaint- ance. They will believe us, however, when we state that we have given to our work such attention as was in our power and such ability as we could command. It is due to the members of Governor HELM'S family to state that they have furnished us with almost the entire. details of his private life contained in the following pages. We are indebted, likewise, to the Hion. CHARLES WINTER- SMITIH, of Elizabethtown, for much valuable information that has either been embodied in the text of our work or in the copious notes which will be found appended. JOS. M. ALEXANDER, BEN. J. WEBB, Senate Committee. J. A. McKENZIE, S. I. M. MAJOR, R. M. SPALDING, House Committee. 6 JOHN L. HELM. "VITA ENIM MORTUORUM IN MEMORIAM VIVORUM UST POSITA."-CiCero. The above sentiment of the great exponent of ancient Roman law is peculiarly applicable among a people whose liberties and liberal institutions are the fruits of the blood and labors of a truly virtuous ancestry: "The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." In other words, a virtuous people will always seek to perpetuate the memory of its virtuous dead. It is only by doing this that progress is at all possible, whether in social elevation or government, in science or morals. Example is the best of teachers. For the ninety years of our existence as a nation, we are indebted for the liberties we have enjoyed, more than to any other cause, to the fact that we have kept constantly before our eyes the examples of virtue, of patriotism, of courage and endurance, left to us by WASH- INGTON and the Fathers of the Republic. The biographies of the eminent men who have illus- trated the periods in which they lived, make up a large portion of the history of the world. They are the land- marks of past centuries. The positions in which the in- dividuals they commemorate were placed, whether in the confidences reposed in them, the persecutions to which they were subjected, the uprisings against their misrule, or the patient submissions to their prowess, are facts from which we may infer much of the character of the people among whom their lives were cast. But their memories stand as living and grouped monuments, whose shafts point to their cotemporaries and after generations the way to fame and eminence, and incite to emulation when good, or to avoidance when bad. It is meet and appropriate that each State and Govern- ment should, in some form, preserve the records of such 8 JOHN L. HELM. as have " done the State some service," or have advanced the general interests of their race. The neglect, in this particular, which has heretofore characterized the State of Kentucky, certainly does her no credit, but is a stain on her otherwise bright escutcheon. Her record is one of which her people need not be ashamed, but of which, in many things, they may entertain a just sense of pride. This record may be greatly attributable to what was form- erly called Kentucky stump speaking, which was nothing else than a free interchange of opinions among the people. In its widest acceptation, the distinction between large employers and dependent employes has never obtained in Kentucky; but every man has considered himself a free- man, and the equal of any other, legally, socially, and politically, whether he lived in a cabin or a stately man- sion-whether he cultivated a few acres or was the lord over a vast domain-whether he labored in the workshop, was engaged in commerce, or was eminent in professional life. Amongst us, however, public opinion has ever been led by men of mark, and the actions and characteristics of such, their modes of thought and life, claim such illus- trations of them as will convey a proper idea of what they were and are, and the means by which they attained their eminent positions over others who had before ranked as their equals. The only nobility they claimed, or could claim, was private worth or merit, and the only distinc- tion that has been paid them was a just homage to their virtues. In seeking to keep alive in the hearts of the people the benefits conferred upon their State and the country by two of their eminent departed citizens, the General As- sembly has acted wisely and well. Thousands of our youth, the future hope of the Republic, who are to become in due time the custodians of the priceless liberties which we trust to bequeath them, as we ourselves inherited them from our fathers, will read the records of their lives, and JOHN L. HELM. be thereby stimulated to walk in their footsteps and be- come, as they were, men worthy to be intrusted with powers over the rights and the interests of a free people. Some may be disposed to doubt if it would not have been better to await the development of a more assured public sentiment in regard to the value of their services to the State and the country before publishing their lives. We do not think so. Ours is a progressive people-progress- ive especially in material ideas and their solution-and, like all such, we are too much given to thoughts of self to bear in mind and transmit to our children, in the form of oral traditions, the life-records of those among our co- temporaries who have deserved well of their country. A good and a great man dies, and after the first outburst of our genuine lamentation and somewhat showy grief, our thoughts are diverted into other channels, and, after a few short years, unless it be prevented by the very means that have been adopted with reference to the lamented dead whose biographies we have been commissioned to write, he is no more remembered by even those amongst whom he lived and labored, than the man that fills the smallest point in the history of the nation. If our children should happen to hear his name mentioned, it will only be in connection with the office he once filled, and the whole example of his life is lost. The services that an individual may have rendered to his country, or to society, are pro- portionally valuable as they are remembered or lost sight of after his career is closed; and as it is only by the aid of the press that it is possible for us, under the circumstances in which we are placed, to extend beyond our own brief spans of existence the memory of such services, so do we confer a real benefit upon our children when we seek to preserve for them the examples of virtue, patriotism, cour- age, and the like, which have been set before us by the good and the great of our own day and generation. The family from which the late Governor HELM de- scended was one among the most respected and influen- 9 JOHN L. HELM. tial of those that originally settled the Old Dominion Colony. His grandfather, THOMAS IIEI.M, was born in Prince William county, Virginia, where he continued to reside up to the year 1780. In February of the year named, he joined a colony of emigrants, consisting of his own family and those of WILLIAM POPE, HENRY FLOYD, and BENJAMIN POPE, who had determined to seek their fortunes in the yet unexplored wilderness of Kentucky. The emigrants reached the Falls of the Ohio, now Louis- ville, in March, 1780, in the vicinity of which the POPE families finally settled, and where their numerous de- scendants are still to be found, highly respected citizens of the community of which they form a part. Mr. FLOYD, with his family, first settled near Bardstown, in Nelson county; but a few years later he removed to the lower part of the State, into the district now known as Union county. Mr. HELM remained at the Falls for about one year, his family suffering greatly, during the summer and fall after his arrival, from the bilious diseases so common to the first settlers of the place. Having lost four of his children by death, he determined to seek for a home in a more healthy locality. Mounting his horse, he set his face inland, with the determination not to return until he had selected a permanent abiding place for his family. On the third day of his search, he reached the foot of the hill in the vicinity of the present village of Elizabethtown, which commands the site upon which he afterwards lived and died, as well as that of the cemetery where he now rests, surrounded by his descendants to the fifth genera- tion. A singular circumstance is related in connection with the selection made by Mr. HELM of his future place of residence. Before leaving Virginia, but while deliberating on the subject of a removal, he had dreamed of just such a spot as that upon which his eye rested when he ascended the hill spoken of in the text. The very spring at which he had slaked his thirst, rushing out of its rocky bed, strong, clear, and sparkling, was as the visionary foun- 10 JOHN L. HELM. THOMAS HELM was just the kind of man to make his way in a new country. Daring, active, and possessing habits and tastes that were well suited to the life of a pioneer, he was soon the occupant of a strongly-built Fort, which he had erected for the protection of his family against the then frequent predatory excursions of roving bands of Indians. This Fort was situated in the small valley which intersects the hills traversing the farm now known as the " Helm Place." Mrs. HELM, nee Miss JENNY POPE, a near relative of the gentlemen of that name that had accompanied her husband to Kentucky, was a re- markable contrast to the head of the family. While her husband's ordinary weight was considerably over two hundred pounds, her own was little over eighty. Small as she was in stature, her courage was equal to the situ- ation in which she found herself placed, as was abun- dantly proved on several occasions when hostile rifles, in the hands of Indian marauders, were directed against the stronghold which contained her household gods. JENNY POPE HELM is still remembered by several of her surviving grand-children and others of the older members of the settlement, as she appeared during the last years of her life, an infant in size beside the almost gigantic proportions of her husband-quick of movement, erect as in her youth, always busy and always good-tempered. tain that had appeared to him in his dream. The coincidence startled him greatly; and, though anything but a superstitious man, he accepted the omen as a happy one, and concluded to search no further. On a certain occasion, one of her sons, in company with a party from an adjoining settlement, had been dispatched to the Bullitt Licks, near Shep- herdsville, for a supply of salt. The party was attacked by Indians, and her son killed. The body was recovered by one of his companions, who bound it on his horse and brought it to the Fort. The mother was on the watch for her returning boy; and seeing the horseman approaching with his strange-looking burden slung across the shoulders of his beast, she hastened to the gate in order to open it for his entrance. Who can paint the horror of the moment, when just as the heavy gate swung back upon its hinges, the mangled remains of her son, the bands breaking which had held them in their place, fell from the horse prone at her feet. I I JOHN L. HELM. Almost to the end of her days she was able to undergo fatigue that would now send to her sofa or to her bed many a woman of our own times of half her years. When she was eighty years old she thought nothing of springing from the ground to her horse's back without assistance. Though both had come of comparatively wealthy families, neither did THOMAS HELM nor his wife ever regret the hardships they encountered in the back- woods. Gradually the Indians were driven from the State, and a comfortable log house was built beside the old Fort, which served them for a residence for the re- mainder of their days, and where, surrounded by dutiful sons and daughters, they lived contented and happy, and died mourned by the entire community. Gov. HELM'S maternal grand-parents were JOHN LARUE and MARY BROOKS, who had emigrated from the Valley of the Shenandoah, Virginia, in the year 1784.t Mrs. LARUE W hen a boy of ten years, the late Governor HELM was a great favorite with his grand-parents. He often spoke of his grandmother's brisk ways, as she pattered about the house in her high-heeled shoes and short skirts. His grandfather HELM was the oracle of the whole neighborhood on all matters connected with the revolutionary era and the Indian troubles in Kentucky. It was at the knees of his venerable progenitor that Governor JHELM drank in the history of his country, and learned to appreciate the sacrifices made by the patriot-band that achieved our liberties. tJOHN LARVE settled on a knoll in the vicinity of a creek then unnamed, near the present town of Hodgenville. We mention this circumstance in order to notice a tradition that has come down to the present inhabitants of the vicinage, in relation to the name by which the creek is now known. A company of pioneers had agreed to meet on the knoll near LANUE'S house on a certain day, tor the purpose of giving a name and designation to the stream. One of the pioneers, named LYNN, failed to make his appearance. The last one that arrived, looking around, exclaimed, "Here we are on the knoll, but no LYNN.' Knowing LYNN'S character for punctuality, the re- mark seemed to rivet the attention of all present and to create disquiet in their minds, lest their absent friend had been waylaid and killed, and they, too. and their families, might be the unwarned victims of a lurking and merci- less foe. They instantly agreed to call the stream Nolynn; and it still rolls its beautiful and limped waters, by that cognomen, on by the Dismal Rock to Green River, into which stream it empties at the foot of the Indian Hill, one of the grandest curiosities in Kentucky. In connection with the name of JOHN LARUE we append an extract from 12 JOHN L. HELM. was not only a highly cultivated woman, but she was con- sidered the beauty of the settlements. It were impossible to doubt this, since she was thrice married, and survived all her husbands. They settled in what is now Larue county, adjoining that of Hardin. Mrs. LARUE, finding that the entire settlement contained not a single physi- cian, obtained the consent of her husband to apply herself to the study of medicine. With such text-books as were within her reach, she set to work, and soon became so noted for skill in the curative art that her services were in requisition far beyond the line within which she had designed to practice. Often, as the risk of danger from the prowling savages, she was known to ride for miles through the forests to reach the bedside of the sick, who had learned to depend upon her skill with as great faith as if she had carried a regular diploma pinned to her bon- net. Her first husband rather encouraged her charitable work; but her second husband, a Mr. ENLOW, fearing the danger to which she was constantly exposed in her too a letter addressed to one of the Committee, from an old and highly influential citizen of Hardin county: "HILN'S maternal grandfather came from the Shenandoah Valley, near Battletown-now called Berryville-at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. I have visited the spot, and it was then as lovely a portion of God's earth as eyes ever beheld. Since that day, alasl it has been swept of its beauties by fire and the desolating tread of a brutalized soldiery. There is a fact con- nected with the wanton destruction of property in this part of Virginia which I cannot forbear mentioning. The Valley of the Shenandoah had been the home of the LARUKS ever since the settlement oa the country, and many members of the family continue to reside there to this day. The late Mr. LINCOLN'S father lived close by those of them that had emigrated to Kentucky and settled on Nolynn. He was poor, and, at the time of Mr. LIN- COLN's birth, his family was aldiost subsisted by the charity of the LARXU familv. When the order was given to render desolate the Shenandoah Val- ley, it was an ukase against the near relatives of those who had given Mr. LINCOLN bread in his impoverished infancy. The LARUE family, though none of its members ever attained any marked eminence, was made up of indus- trious, quiet, unobtrusive people, who were not only excellent citizens, but also pious Christians." 13 JOHN L. HELM. lengthened journeys, and dreading the effects of the often inclement weather upon her health, absolutely forbade her any longer to practice her art. Her daughter, RE- BECCA LARUE, the eldest of thirteen children, was a babe in arms when her parents came to Kentucky, having been born in Frederick county, Virginia. She afterwards be- came the wife of GEORGE HELM and the mother of the late Governor JOHN L. HELM. It was in compliment to her, too, that the present county of Larue owes the name by which it is known.t A short time after she had ceased, in obedience to her husband's com- mands, to respond to the calls of her numerous patients, a woman living several miles away, and who was thought to be in great danger of death, sent her an urgent request to come to her assistance. The woman was very poor and helpless; and for this reason, she begged of her husband to be permitted to go. He told her no; he had made up his mind that she must give up all thought of resuming an avocation so unsuited to her sex. It was but a short time before the messenger returned, bringing with him still more urgent appeals from the suffering woman not to permit her to die unaided. With tears in her eyes, Mrs. ENLOW fell on her knees before her husband, and prayed that she might be permitted, for that one time, to go to the assistance of her stricken friend. This happened in the fore part of the night. Her husband, melted by her entreaties, agreed that, should the woman survive till morning, she might then go to her. Through the long hours of the night Mrs. ENLOW closed not her eyes, but patiently awaited for the dawn. With the earliest gleam of returning day, her watchful ear distinguished the distant galloping of a horse. It was the returning mes- seuger, and her heart bounded with joy when she thought of the possibility that she might yet reach her patient in time to save the poor woman's life, and to prevent her little ones from becoming orphans. She sprang from her bed, and in answer to her husband's deprecatory words and looks, exclaim- ed: "You promised that I might go, and you must stand by your word." Bounding on her horse, she soon reached the bed-side of the suffering woman, to whom she administered in such wise as to give her immediate relief, and contribute to her ultimate recovery. t This happened in this wise: When the new county was formed, the late Governor was a member of the Legislature, and out of compliment to him, it was proposed to call it HELM county. There were a few negative votes given against the resolution that was offered to this effect. These dissenting voices touched the pride of the Representative from Hardin, and rising to his feet, he declared he would not accept a compliment that was not unani- mously rendered. He suggested, at the same time, that the new county should be called after the maiden name of his mother. He thought this 14 JOHN L. HELM. 15 GEORGE HELM, the father of the late Governor JOHN L. HELM, was born in Prince William county, Virginia, in the year 1774, and was, consequently, six years of age when his father removed to Kentucky. Having taken an active part in redeeming from the wilderness the fruitful farm upon which his father lived and died, he remained an agriculturist all his life, superintending and directing, up to the year 1820, all the farming operations on the place. In 1801 hV was united in marriage with REBECCA LARUE, who bore to him nine children-four boys and five girls, only four of whom still survive. No man was more respected than he in Hardin county, and none had warmer personal friends. At one time or other he filled almost every office, civil and legislative, in the gift of his fellow-citizens. In 1821 GEORGE HELM, becoming embarrassed in his business operations, undertook a journey to Texas, with the expectation of entering into business in that then particularly appropriate, as the family of the LARUES, whose progenitors had been its first settlers, were numerous in the county. A resolution to this effect was afterwards unanimously carried. ELIZA HELM, the late Governor's eldest sister, at the age of seventeen, married her counsin, WARREN LARUE, Esq., and has ever since lived in Elizabethtown, where she is beloved and honored by every one. Wherever sickness and poverty have their abode, there oftenest may be seen "Mamma Eliza," as she is called by high and low, brisk, helpful, and overflowing with pity toward all that are sick and suffering. Wm. D. HELM is a highly respected physician residing in Bowling Green, Kentucky. THOs. P. HELM died young. LUCRETIA HELM married STEPHEN YEAm", Esq., and her sec- ond son, GEORGE H. YEAMAN, is now Minister from the United States to Denmark. She has also a son who is a highly respected Baptist Minister in New York City. LouisA HELM married Mr. ISAIAH MILLER, a well-to-do farmer of Hardin county. She died many years ago. MARY JANiE HELM married the Hon. PATRICK TOMPKINS, of Vicksburg, Miss., who was at one time a member of Congress. Both herself and her husband are long since dead. SQUIRE L. HELM and MALVINA HELM, who were quite young when their father died, were reared up and educated by the late Governor with his own children. The latter died in her girlhood, and the former is now a much esteemed Christian Minister, connected with the Baptist Church in Kentucky, and now acting in the capacity of "State Evangelist." JOHN L. HELM. wild dependency of the Mexican Government. There he died in 182'2. JOHN LARUE HELM, late Governor of Kentucky, was born on the 4th day of July, 1802, at the old HELM home- stead, near the summit of Muldrough's Mountain, one and a quarter miles north of the village of Elizabeth- town. Amid the bold, wild scenery of the mountain's northern face, and in the beautiful prairie which courses its southern slope, rich with its waving grasses, wild strawberries, and hazel shrubs, he spent his childhood and youth. The country at the time was sparsely peo- pled. The valley in which his paternal ancestry resided was distant eleven miles from the residence of his mater- nal grand-parents, and between the two localities was one vast prairie, with but a single house, situated on a small stream, to relieve the monotony of the panorama. The country, only a few years before, extended from the Rolling Fork of Salt River on the north to Green River on the south, and then embraced a territory which is now divided into three counties and parts of others, and which then contained scarcely as many hundred inhabi- tants as it now does thousands. The war-whoop of the red man had then scarcely ceased its echoes through the forests, and herds of wild animals and flocks of wild birds wandered and flew over woodland and prairie fearlessly and almost undisturbed. Such were the scenes and times in which the subject of our memoir was born and reared, only changed as time progressed by the continued flow of immigration and the labor of the strong arms which were opening the country to cultivation. He lived with his father and grandfather up to the age of sixteen, and, for about eight years of the time, attended various schools in the neighborhood. He had for his master during the latter years of his school life the afterwards celebrated Democratic politi- 18 JOHN L. HELM. cian and editor, DUFF GREEN, under whose instructions he made rapid advances in; his studies. Another one of his masters was a certain DOMINE RATHBONE, whose mem- ory is still preserved in the annals of Nolynn Valley. He was a ripe scholar, but singularly odd in appearance and manner. Like Goldsmith's Village Schoolmaster, he impressed every one with the idea that what he did not know was not worth learning. "Amazed, the gazing rustics ranged around, And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew. But past is all his fame; the very spot Where many a time he triumphed, is forgot.'; With a mind that was naturally bright, and with habits of industry that were remarkable in one of his years, the boy's advancement in knowledge was swift and easy. An anecdote illustrative of the Governor's character thus early in life is related in connection with his school davs under Mr. GREEN. On a certain occasion, when about thirteen vears of age, he refused obedience to a com- mand of the waster which he deemed tyrannical and unjust. For this his teacher determined to punish him. At the time referred to, discipline in the school-room was preserved only by one method-the use of the rod. The boy was decidedly averse to this method in his case, because he thought the punishment was both degrading and undeserved. After having received a single blow, he bounded to the door with the hope of escaping from the room. As is usual on such occasions, however, the teacher had his toadies among the larger boys, and these prevented his exit. Finding he had no power of resistance, he submitted to what he esteemed a degradation. With lips firmly set and eyes boldly bent on the face of his tormentor, he received without flinching or murmuring, many strokes of the rod, until the marks of blood appeared in blotches through his garments. His sisters and others of the school-girls beginning to cry, the teacher was forced to desist without having conquered his obstinate pupil. Years after be had reached manhood, HELM remembered and resented in his heart the insult, as he called it, whieh he had been forced to submit to. But he was himself gray-haired when he next met DurF GREEN, who was then an old man. When the latter recog_ nized his former pupil, who had then become a man of distinction in his native State, the tears rushed to his eyes, and grasping his hands with a warmth of affection that was indicative of the pride he took in his fcrmer pupil's advancement in life, all resentment vanished from HELM'S mind, and the two remained fast friends up to the late Governor's death. DUFF GRAVEN long since retired from the turmoil of partisan politics, and new resides in Baltimore, Maryland, beloved and respected by all who know him. 2 17 JOHN L. HELM. The fact that he had been born on the anniversary day of his country's independence appears to have influenced his entire life. Imperceptibly to himself, he was led thereby to study the history of his country, and make himself familiar with the lives of all those eminent men who had taken part in the events which preceded and immediately followed the formation of the Govern- ment. Certain it is, before he had attained the age of sixteen, he had accumulated a s