Micah Taul memoir

44 [top right of page covered by next page] self possessed, after rising, I paused for some time, bowed respectfully to the audience & with as pleasing a countenance as I could assume, requested their attention for a short time, as I [?] red to address them partly as a candidate & partly in self defence having been arraigned at the bar of old Lincoln as a criminal. Everybody seemed willing to hear me, & I proceeded. I made the best speech I was capable of. I told them I was a candidate for congress, that my name was Micah Taul named in the transcript of the record, read in their hearing - that I was a young man, having no relations & but a few personal [ac-] quaintances in the county; that the present is my first visit to their town & county, the oldest in the state - that my opponent resided here - surrounded by friends, relations & persons acquainted with him, from his boyhood up, & altho' I had received no marks of civility from him in other parts of the district, I had expected at least some tenderness, some forbearance from him here at his own home - in old Stanford but had been disappointed. I had had the presumption to become a candidate for congress, in opposition to Mr. M., exercising what all would admit to be an undoubted right - & for this all the courtesies of life were to be sacrificed - the character of your town & county injured by a wanton & disgraceful attack up the character of a stranger, simply because he was in Mr. M's way. I told them of the conversation between Colo. Newelle & Mr. Quarles. I supposed Mr. M. considered he had the preemptive right to the office of representative from this district & that Mr. Quarles was the residuary legatee - they had both been in the legislature - were both aspiring & ambitious & had laid off the land to suit themselves & they considered me to be an intruding

45 (My few friends had collected near, & I saw that they were pleased so far) I proceeded & said that when I became a candidate, I was not so silly as to flatter myself, that I would escape the arrows of calumny & detraction. No candidate that I knew of had yet been so fortunate in this country - no- not even the venerable, hero of Kings Mountain then present, who had consented to become a candidate for the office of Governor, on the sole condition that war was declared against England. He had not escaped - foul charges had been made against him - but he cared as little for them, as the stag did, for the gad flies, that lit upon his horns. And young & humble and friendless, as I might be supposed to be, I could say to my accusers - to my opponent, that their attacks upon me had created in me not one moments [uncareness?] - on the contrary I ought to be thankful to them for affording me, a good excuse for proving to the peoples, who I was & what I was - to prove to them in fact, that I had a character of which I had a right to be proud - & of which I was proud, [lined out words] but in relation to which under ordinary circumstances, I would be indelicate to speak (Here I read various letters, certificates &c. to prove my character from my boyhood up) I then remarked, that I had never thought about their charges against me, & of the instruments used in collecting evidence & propagating it - the one being a lame pedlar & the other a hopping deputy Clerk with out having my risibility excited, & it always brought to my recollection Homers description of the Prince of Slanderers. "Thersites clamoured only in the throng "Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue "Awed by no shame, by no respect controlled "In scandal busy, in reproaches bold

46 [Tight binding - right side hard to read] "His figure such, as might his soul proclaim "One eye was blinkie, & one leg was lame" (My friends shouted & roared at the top of their [?] The crowd were taken by surprise & laughed [hea?] Mr. M. & his aides around him was completely crossfallen. One of the lame gentlemen spoke up (they were both present & said, his eyes was not blinkie, to whom I replied, that Thersites, was a much handsomer man than he was - the cheering [?] renewed & lasted for some time). I proceeded, & told the people that my opponent was not only a good common law lawyer, but had the reputation of being an able Chancery Lawyer. It is (said I) one of the first principles in a Court of Equity that a complainant must recover upon the strength of his own case & not upon the weakness of his adversary's - that Mr. M. certainly must have considered that he had not very strong claims upon the people [people], for the office he is seeking for, or he would not have attempted to prove to them, that his opponent was so morally degraded that he was unfit for it. I expected the proud, high minded substantial man of old Lincoln will do me justice. You are not, to be sure, a jury of my county, but I am willing to be tried by you. (I here commented upon the particular charges against me & read various certificates in relation to it). Having disposed of these personal matters, I addressed them on the state & condition of the country etc. the great absorbing question then was the war with G. Britain, that was about this time declared. I am satisfied that I was fortunate in my peroration. My friends were delighted. Mr. M. replied very ill naturedly. I rejoined good humoredly - but during my rejoinder my opponent left the courthouse. I concluded by saying, the battle "was

47 over & won" that I was the victor - the enemy had retreated & bowing to the people as gracefully as I was capable took leave (I was this more particular in this, as Mr. M. was a very ungraceful man). I have given the foregoing sketch of my speech at Stanford, in Lincoln County, from memory, but I am sure that it is in the very words in which it was delivered. I acquitted myself to my entire satisfaction. My friends were more than satisfied, & it made me many friends & many votes. We spoke after this in Adair, Casey & Pulaski. Mr. M attended the Wayne Court, but did not address the people. He was elected by a majority of 62 (sixty two) - he got only 18 votes in Wayne - out of upwards of 1200. I don't remember the number of votes I received in Lincoln, but it was over 100. In 1814, we were again opposing candidates, & I was elected by a majority of 1262 - loosing precisely the same number of votes in my county (Wayne, that I did before [?], 18. I got a large vote in Lincoln.

About the last of August 1812, the Kentucky Volunteers were called for - my company was attached to Col. Joshua Barbee's Regiment & at the time of receiving marching orders, we were ordered to Indiana, under Gov Harrison it was said. Our services would not be required for more than 3 months. The Regiment rendezvouyed at Danville, the residence of Col. Barbee. The next morning our route was changed for the North West, in consequence of the surrender of Detroit, & the Army at that place under Gen. Hale. As our march was thro Nicholasville in Jessamine County, near to which I was raised, I left my company & went to my brother Samuel's in Fayette, where I met with all my brothers, they having come there from Clarke & Montgomery to

48 [Tight binding, right hand side of page hidden] take leave of me. The sensation in the the country [?] where, at the news of "Hulls surrender" was [very?] great. I was in Lexington, & I saw Mr. Clay, at a [pub-?] lic [public] house, while there he received a letter from [?] Meigs of Ohio, containing certain intellengence [?] the fact. Allens & Lewis's Regiments had been [?] [dered?] out some time before to re-enforce Genl. [?] but they had not reached his head quarters [before?] the surrender - they were some where in the [state?] of Ohio. Jennings & Poague's Regiments, were [also?] ordered to join the North Western Army. Poague's Reg. was ahead of ours - Jennings in the rear. We were encamped near New-port, opposite Cincinnati, a few days - our encampment was [?] the ground, where the town of Covington now stands. It was then a farm, owned & occupied by a man of the name of Kennedy. From this place, we marched to Piqua on the Miami, where as remained [remained] a week or ten days, & then moved to [?] Mary's 30 miles, where we were stationed all winter. Piqua at that time was a frontier settlement & was a very [inconsiderable?] village. Johnson the Indian Agent resided near it. The [?] around is level & rest - water good. The probability [probability] is, that there is a large town there, at this time. We marched thro' Lebanon & Dayton both small towns. An incident occurred, early one morning a few miles from Lebanon, that is worth [reserding?]. My company was that day in front. An old lady, probably at least 60 years of age, & her daughter, a good looking young woman, came from a cabin near the road each with a pail filled with butter milk on her head and in an Irish or Scotch Irish dialect [dialect], the elder lady addressed us & asked if we would accept a [underlined: "treat"] of butter milk from an old woman; it was all she had to offer us. [?] many thanks to her & her daughter; saying to them it was the most acceptable treat we could possibly [possibly] have received, we drank the milk, [?]