The name of Mr. Benton is inseparably connected with that of Missouri. To him the West, the fair land of promise, is deeply indebted, for wisely and lovingly he has ever watched over her interests, and devoted his energies to her cause. None is more thoroughly versed in the circumstances, historical, political and actual, of her position, and with effective eloquence he has vindicated her rights; with lofty faith and hope he has anticipated the eventful future, and has traced, in hues of light, the dawn of that day when the American race shall be one name, one language, and one people, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Mr. Benton has been, for a period of twenty seven years, a representative in the Federal Government of the United States. He possesses much weight in the Senate, and is considered a man of excellent judgment, of bold and original views and of statesmanlike practice. He is attached to the Democratic side, and is more of a sectional than of a party politician. The considerations of national power and extension are, perhaps, more highly estimated by Mr. Benton than those of wealth; he is the representative of a peculiar policy, arising naturally from the situation of an infant country, whose instincts, in the first stages of developement, must be those of growth and occupancy.