. Ben Hardin; his times and contemporaries, with selections from his speeches. e worst possible reputationfor a politician was a reputation for wit, he said that when he madea viva-voce argument, the logic is lost by the audience while they arewaiting for the humor. He esteemed wit as a valuable auxiliary to alocal fame, as, for instance, that of a lawyer upon his own circuit, butto one aspiring to larger fame it was an * Mr. Cox refers to the circumstance that in debate in Congress he had applied the epithet of snarl-ing Thersites to a colleague from Massachusetts, as Caleb Gushing i
. Ben Hardin; his times and contemporaries, with selections from his speeches. e worst possible reputationfor a politician was a reputation for wit, he said that when he madea viva-voce argument, the logic is lost by the audience while they arewaiting for the humor. He esteemed wit as a valuable auxiliary to alocal fame, as, for instance, that of a lawyer upon his own circuit, butto one aspiring to larger fame it was an * Mr. Cox refers to the circumstance that in debate in Congress he had applied the epithet of snarl-ing Thersites to a colleague from Massachusetts, as Caleb Gushing in 1835 had retorted the same epitheton Mr. Hardin. General James Wilkinson, in his Memoirs in 1816, thus referred to John Randolph,of Roanoke: Unoffending, absent, and defenseless, I became the favorite theme of this AmericanThersites. t If I were giving advice to a young fellow of talent, with two or three facets to his mind, I wouldtell him by all means to keep his wit in the background until after he had made a reputation by hismore solid qualities. (Autocrat, page 108.). The Coon Hunt. 280 BEN HARDIN. Mr. Hardin was fond of the late Charles G. Wintersmith, andadmired his legal skill and his accurate and extensive learning. Win-tersmith delighted in Hardins wit, and gave of him the followingdescriptive quotation : He is a chief who leads his merry sons,Full armed with points, antitheses, and puns. Repartee is the best test of wit, since no time is allowed for pre-meditation. It nearest approaches inspiration. The following is aspecimen of Mr. Hardins talent in that line : When a member of theconstitutional convention, he had a colleague, a young man of fineparts (though suspected of egotism), for whom he had great liking. He will here be called X . X delivered an excellent speech on one occasion, which Mr. Hardin praised. But, said he to the exult-ant young orator, you mispronounced a word. This was contro-verted, but a resort to the dictionary show^ed the criticism
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