GIFT OF 
 
 
INDING C< 
 
MEMOIRS AND SERVICES 
 
 > 
 
 OF 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS 
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 First New Hampshire Line. War of the Revolution 
 
 JONATHAN LONGFELLOW 
 Father of Sarah, wife of General Joseph Cilley 
 
 COLONEL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 U. S. Senator and Officer in the War of 1812 
 
 HONORABLE JONATHAN CILLEY 
 Member of Congress from Maine 
 
 COMMANDER GREENLEAF CILLEY 
 War with Mexico and War of 1861 
 
 GENERAL JONATHAN P. CILLEY 
 First Maine Cavalry, War of the Rebellion 
 
 REPRINT FROM THE COURIER-GAZETTE 
 
 ROCKLAND, MAINE 
 1 909 
 
God of our fathers, known of old, 
 Lord of our far-flung battle line 
 
 Beneath whose awful hand we hold 
 Dominion over palm and pine 
 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 
 Lest we forget lest we forget. 
 
 359130 
 
GEN. JONATHAN P. CILLEY 
 
The Cilley-Graves Affair 
 
 Being a Concise Account of the Tragedy Which 
 Ended the Career of a Famous Member of a 
 Famous New England Family. 
 
 From time to time in the last 50 years 
 items and brief articles have been pub 
 lished in the local press relating to the 
 famous duel in which Jonathan Cilley 
 of Thomaston was killed by William J. 
 Graves of Kentucky. Next to the duel 
 between Alexander Hamilton and 
 Aaron Burr, no event of the character 
 ever attracted more attention, than 
 that beween Graves and Cilley, and it 
 is accordingly a matter of national in 
 terest, to say nothing of the connect 
 ions which make it of pronounced local 
 importance. 
 
 The Lewiston Journal a few weeks 
 ago published a short account of the 
 affair, but with this issue The Courier- 
 Gazette publishes an installment of the 
 first story which has ever been com 
 piled especially for the convenience of 
 the newspaper readers of the present 
 day. The Journal s story, with some 
 corrections is used as the foundation 
 of this article, and the cuts published 
 by that paper have been remodelled for 
 the purpose of illustration. 
 
 One of the most noted families in all 
 New England is the one from which 
 Gen. Jonathan P. Cilley of Rockland 
 originated. For more than a full cen 
 tury not a single member of that fam 
 
 ily has been unknown to fame, and 
 some of them have written their names 
 high up in the temple of fame. While 
 dating back several hundred years the 
 family tree has been most conspicuous 
 since the time of Gen. Joseph Cilley of 
 Revolutionary fame. This patriot 
 fought at the battles of Lexington, 
 Stony Point, Monmouth and Bemis s 
 Heights, and with his command was 
 present at the capture of Burgoyne. 
 After the close of the Revolution he 
 was commissioned major general. In 
 the engagement of Saratoga he ac 
 quired national fame. The enemy had 
 posted a piece of artillery in a position 
 that was doing great damage to his 
 regiment. Becoming irritated at the 
 havoc, Col. Joseph called his regiment 
 around him and boldly charged the po 
 sition, capturing the piece. In order to 
 encourage the men to hold fast to their 
 prize the gallant colonel ordered the 
 gun loaded and then leaping upon it 
 and drawing his sword he shouted: 
 
 "I now consecrate this gun to the 
 cause of American liberty!" 
 
 The effect was electrical and the 
 position was held, while the incident 
 became one of the traditions of the 
 war. At the close of the war he re- 
 
THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 turned to his home in Nottingham, N. 
 H., where the remainder of his life 
 was passed in peace and quiet. 
 
 Battle of Monmouth 
 
 We present as a matter of historic 
 interest, a letter written by General 
 Joseph Cilley, who took part in the 
 Revolutionary battle of Monmouth 
 the famous battle at which Washington 
 swore roundly at Gen. Lee: 
 
 Camp 4 miles above White Plains, 
 New York, July 22, 1778. 
 
 Col. Thomas Bartlett, Nottingham, 
 New England, State of New Hampshire 
 Dear Colonel: Your favor of the lOi.h 
 of July came safe to hand by Major 
 Titcomb; am much obliged to you for 
 its contents. I left Valley Forge the 
 18th of June with the right wing of the 
 armv under the command of Gen Lee, 
 in pursuit of the enemy who left Phila- 
 delchia the 18th. The whole of the 
 army pursued with his Excellency Gen 
 eral Washington. Crossed the Dela 
 ware at a ferry called Cold Corels, 
 when it was thought best to send over 
 several parties to harass the enemy s 
 rear. Gen. Scott was sent first with 
 1600 picked men from the whole army 
 in order to watch the enemy s motions. 
 I was ordered on this party. Soon it 
 was thought best to give the enemy 
 battle. General Lee was sent on this 
 errand. He called in General Scott, in 
 short he had 5,000 Continental troops 
 besides a number of militia. On the 
 28th of June he was ordered to attack 
 the enemy with his party, and that 
 General Washington with the whole 
 army would support him. 
 
 We were at a small town, called Eng- 
 lishtown, about four miles from Mon 
 mouth Courthouse, where the enemy 
 lay. We began our march before sun 
 
 rise; proceeded towards the field of bat 
 tle; came to the plain the enemy gave 
 way, seeming to be in great confusion 
 without making any opposition, except 
 some scattering musketry and a few 
 field-pieces playing on both sides at 
 long range when to my great surprise 
 I saw the right wing of our party giv 
 ing away in great confusion. There 
 was a morass in our rear. I thought 
 whether it was not intended to cross 
 that in order to take better ground. 
 There was a wood in the rear of u>e 
 party I was with. We were ordered to 
 cross and form in that wood, where we 
 lay some time. The enemy observing 
 this, halted, came to the ri^ht-about 
 and pursued us about two miles, when 
 General Washington came up, ordered 
 our party to make a stand to check the 
 enemy, while the army could form, 
 which was done immediately. The se 
 verest cannonading ensued as ever was 
 in America. Our men behaved with 
 great fortitude. The cannonading last 
 ed two or three hours. I was in the 
 front line of our army on the left 
 wing. 
 
 His excellency ordered me to take 
 the battalion I then commanded, con 
 sisting of 350 rank and file, detached 
 from Poor s, Patterson s, Larnai d s 
 and Varnam s brigades, with Li<mt. 
 Col. Dearborn and Major Thayer who 
 were with me, to go and see what I 
 could do with the enemy s right wing, 
 which was found in an orchard in oui 
 front. I marched on towards them un 
 til I came within about forty rods, 
 when I ordered my battalion to form 
 the line of battle, which was done. The 
 enemy began a scattering fire. I or 
 dered my men to advance, which thev 
 did in good order. When the enemv 
 saw that we were determined to push 
 close to them, they gave way and took 
 post in scouts of woods and gave me a 
 
GEN. J. CILLEY 
 
 Colonel 1st N. H. Line in the Revolu 
 tion, Great-Great-Grandfather 
 of J. P. Cilley. 
 
 COL. JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 U. S. Senator and Officer in War of 
 
 1812, Uncle of J. P. Cilley. 
 
BATTLE OF MONiMOUTH 
 
 very heavy fire under the cover of sev 
 eral pieces of artillery. I advanced 
 within a few rods; gave them a heavy 
 fire which put them in confusion. Th<>y 
 ran off. I killed a number on the field, 
 took between twenty and thirty prison 
 ers and should have pursued further 
 but the extreme heat of the weathtr 
 was such that several of my men died 
 with the heat. We took possession of 
 the field; about 300 of the enemy dead, 
 with several officers, among them was 
 Col. Moncktonwho commanded the first 
 battalion granadiers. They retreated 
 that night about 11 o clock in srreat 
 confusion, leaving at the court house 
 five wounded officers and about 40 sol 
 diers. We should have pursued, but 
 our army was so overcome with the 
 heat that the General thought not ad 
 visable to pursue. 
 
 Desertions still continue from the 
 enemy. At the least computation their 
 army has weakened 2,500 since they 
 left Philadedphia. I think Clinton has 
 brought himself into a fine hobble. He 
 has now a French fleet in his front 
 and General Washington in his rear. I 
 think we shall "Burgoyne" him in a 
 few weeks, which God grant may be 
 the case. Doubtless the particulars of 
 the strength of the French fleet will 
 come to your hand long before this, or 
 I would write you some account of 
 them. This may suffice. They are able 
 to flog all the British sheep in America. 
 
 Mv love to your wife and mother, I 
 am, sir, with respect, your friend and 
 humble servant, J. Cillev. 
 
 N. B. General Lee s behavior is now 
 on trial for his conduct. How it will 
 turn is uncertain. It is my opinion that 
 if he had behaved well we should have 
 destroyed the major part of Clinton s 
 army. 
 
 Anti-Slave Senator. 
 
 Nearly as famous was his grandson, 
 Col. Joseph Cilley, whose life has well 
 been portraited by John R. French, ex- 
 sergeant-at-arms of the U. S. Senate. 
 He wrote: 
 
 Now was the first election of a sena 
 tor of the United States on the direct 
 anti- slavery issue. 
 
 Colonel Joseph Cilley was his name 
 and title; a name honored in all the 
 histoiy of New England; a title won on 
 the battle-fields of his country. He 
 was a Democrat, but no longer in party 
 affiliation, for his Democracy knew no 
 color line, and in principle was as uni 
 versal as the human family. He had 
 not the eloquence of Woodbury and 
 Hubbard and Pierce, and nothing of 
 their elegance of manners, and, what 
 was of vital importance in this hour, 
 nothing of their obsequiousness of 
 spirit. 
 
 The gallant General Cilley, of Revo 
 lutionary fame, was his ancestor. "C?l- 
 ley of Maine," the noble young man 
 who dared some utterance in the House 
 of Representatives hostile to slavery, 
 whereupon Henry Clay marked him as 
 "a dangerous man to have about Con 
 gress," and so set Graves of Ken 
 tucky up to his butchering on the 
 duel field of Bladensburg he was this 
 new senator s youngest brother. 
 
 Joseph Cilley, at his election to the 
 Senate, was an old man. Not only 
 broken and shattered by the contests of 
 three-score years and ten, but by the 
 strife of his country s battle-fields, in 
 which he had borne gallant part. He 
 was with Scott and Miller in all the 
 bloody conflicts of the Canadian border 
 in the war of 1812; and from those 
 fields he had come with but one eye 
 left, and his body weighted with the 
 
THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 leaden bullets of his country s enemy. 
 
 Such was the man, the half blind, 
 limping hero whom New Hampshire 
 sent to the Senate, as the vanguard of 
 liberty, on the 13th of June in the year 
 1846. A new type of a man in that 
 body. Ah! and so different from men 
 lately there from New Hampshire. No 
 one would lead him to his seat. The 
 doorkeepers, usually so obsequious, 
 turned their backs to this man. But he 
 found the vacant seat belonging to 
 New Hampshire, laid his trusty staff 
 across the desk, and sat down with the 
 air of rightful possession. He looked 
 about the hull scowling upon him from 
 all sides and though he had but one 
 eye, that blazed with such manly inde 
 pendence that no shrinking fellow that 
 day thought him blind. His voice was 
 not like that of his predecessors. It 
 had not been trained in the schools, 
 nor had it learned the dulcet tones of 
 suppliant waiting in the salons of the 
 rich and haughty. It had been exer 
 cised in sterner duties. At Lurdy s 
 Lane, at Chippewa, and at Niagara, 
 amid the roar of cannon it shouted de 
 fiance to British soldiery, and called 
 his countrymen to the deadly charge. 
 Its honest tones, rough they may have 
 been, were now lifted in the nation s 
 Senate for Liberty, unconditional and 
 universal, without concealment and 
 without compromise. 
 
 Right of Petition. 
 
 He spoke for a state which had met 
 with a "new birth." He demanded the 
 right of petition, and commenced pre 
 senting them by the thousand, asking 
 for the abolition of slavery in the Dis 
 trict of Columbia and in the territories. 
 Speak he would, and demanded the 
 freedom of speech for every citizen. He 
 
 planted himself on the Declaration of 
 Independence, and called the nation to 
 judgment. He stood there for a fact 
 namely, the determination of the peo 
 ple that slavery should go down. 
 
 He stood there alone, shattered and 
 broken in limb and body, this old sol 
 dier, but his veins throbbed with rare 
 blood; the blood of one of the most gal 
 lant families of the state; blood which 
 baptized Revolutionary fields, and with 
 its purple gore marked the front of 
 every battle of the nation from Bunker 
 Hill to Appomattox. Of the more than 
 three-score senators around the board 
 he alorfe stood for Liberty. 
 
 But beneath that national sounding- 
 board, which Charles Sumner in after 
 years described as "the sounding- 
 board of the nation s pulpit," he knew 
 his voice would find reverberations 
 which would carry it through the land, 
 and that in good time others would 
 come trooping to his side, until the for 
 lorn hope he led would become the in 
 spiring shout of the mighty majority. 
 
 Insolence and flattery alike were 
 wasted upon this man. No clamor 
 could alarm him. Patronage could not 
 sway him. "Social influence," always 
 so abounding at Washington, in all its 
 riotous luxury couldn t sweep high 
 enough to reach the serene atmosphere 
 of this trusty soldier. 
 
 The day Joseph Cilley took his seat in 
 the Senate, slavery was doomed. Here 
 an old, crippled soldier had come to 
 ring its knell; and he bid them listen to 
 the tolling; peradventure through 
 counsel and legislation the Nation and 
 Liberty might be saved, and there re 
 main no occasion for the arbitrament 
 of war. 
 
 But the slaveholder was proud. He 
 defied God and sneered at his prophet. 
 He would not listen to the warning un- 
 
JONATHAN CILLEY 
 Killed in a Duel by Grave* of Kentucky, Feb. 24, 1838. 
 
JONATHAN 
 
 til it broke upon his startled ear from 
 the brazen throats of a thousand can 
 non. 
 
 Joseph Cllley was the first of his par 
 ty in the Senate of the United States. 
 This gallant old soldier, limping from 
 battle wounds, half blind by the car 
 nage of war, led the way to the Senate 
 for that grand company of statesmen 
 who, hearing his bugle call, followed 
 after, until they were a majority in the 
 highest forum of the earth, and em 
 blazoning upon the pages of the world s 
 history its most luminous record, made 
 this nation a republic of freedom. 
 
 Jonathan Cilley. 
 
 The member of this family who pos 
 sesses the deepest and most melan 
 choly interest for the people of Maine 
 is Jonathan Cilley who was shot in a 
 duel with Congressman Graves of Ken 
 tucky in 1838. This gentleman was 
 born in Nottingham, N. H., in 1802, and 
 was graduated from Bowdoin college in 
 the celebrated class of 1825. Even then 
 he was noted for his brilliant talents 
 and his oratorical powers marked him 
 for a great career. 
 
 Immediately after quitting college 
 young Cilley settled in the village of 
 Thomaston and began the study of law 
 in the office of the late Senator Rug- 
 gles. It was but natural that amidst 
 such surroundings he should imbibe a 
 love for politics, and in a short time ha 
 became thoroughly identified with the 
 Democratic party and its policies. In 
 1829 he was admitted to the Lincoln bar 
 and shortly afterward married Miss 
 Debora-h Prince, daughter of Hon. 
 Hezekiah Prince of Thomaston. He 
 then entered actively on the practice of 
 his profession and by his superb ability 
 soon gained a prominent position both 
 as: a lawyer and political leader. 
 
 In the latter line Mr. Cilley rose rap 
 idly and soon became a member of the 
 legislature. Here he served for five 
 terms, part of which time he was 
 speaker of the house and always its 
 leader. By that time his reputation 
 was so firmly established that in 183 6, 
 he received the nomination for Con 
 gress and secured a triumphant elec 
 tion in a district which at that time 
 was strongly Whig in its political lean 
 ings. The campaign waged had been a 
 bitter one and the glory of his triumph 
 was more marked from the fact that 
 he was opposed by a powerful section 
 of his own party. Scars were made 
 that even time could not heal, and in 
 one sense his very victory carried with 
 it the seeds of a fatal ending. The 
 gloom of a dark pitfall lay across 
 his path, and even the brilliancy of his 
 triumph was clouded by the prophetic 
 presentiment of some untimely fate. In 
 speaking of the character and personal 
 peculiarities of Mr. Cilley, at that time 
 a college classmate, Nathaniel Haw 
 thorne wrote as follows: 
 
 Hawthorne s Tribute. 
 
 "In private intercourse, Cilley pos 
 sessed a remarkable fascination. It 
 was impossible not to regard him with 
 the kindliest feelings, because his com 
 panions were intuitively certain of a 
 like kindliness on his part. He had a 
 power of sympathy which enabled him 
 to understand every character and 
 hold communion with human nature in 
 all its varieties. He never shrank from 
 the intercourse of man with man; and 
 it was to his freedom in this particular 
 that he owed much of his popularity. 
 In a few words, let us characterize him 
 at the outset of life as a young men of 
 quick and powerful intellect; endowed 
 with sagacity and tact, yet frank and 
 
10 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 free in his mode of action, ambitious of 
 good influence, earnest, active and per 
 severing 1 ; with an elasticity and cheer 
 ful strength of mind which made dif 
 ficulties easy, and the struggles with 
 them a pleasure. Mingled with the 
 amiable qualities which were like sun 
 shine to his friends, there were harsher 
 and sterner traits which fitted him to 
 make head against an adverse world, 
 but it was only at the moment of need 
 that the iron framework of his char 
 acter become perceptible. 
 
 "In the summer of 1837, a few months 
 after his election to Congress, I met 
 Mr. Cilley for the first time since early 
 youth, when he had been to me almost 
 as an elder brother. The few days 
 which I spent in his neighborhood en 
 abled us to renew our former intimacy. 
 In his person there was very little 
 change, and even that was for the bet 
 ter. He had an impending brow, deep- 
 set eyes, and a thin and thoughtful 
 countenance, which in his abstracted 
 moments seemed to be almost stern. 
 In the intercourse of society it was 
 brightened with a kindly smile that 
 will live in the recollection of all who 
 knew him. 
 
 "His manners had not a fastidious 
 polish, but were characterized by the 
 simplicity of one who had dwelt remote 
 from cities, holding free companionship 
 with the yeomen of the land. I 
 thought him as true a representative 
 of the people as ever theory could por 
 tray; his earlier and latter habits of 
 life, his feelings, partialities and pre 
 judices were those of the common peo 
 ple; the strong and shrewd sense, 
 which constituted so marked a feature 
 of his mind was but a higher degree of 
 the popular intellect. He loved the peo 
 ple and respected them, and was 
 prouder of nothing than of his brother 
 
 hood with those who had intrusted 
 their public interests to his care. His 
 continual struggles in the political 
 arena had strengthened his bones and 
 sinews; opposition had kept .him ar 
 dent; while success had cherished the 
 generous warmth of his nature and as 
 sisted the growth both of his powers 
 and sympathies. I was aware, indeed, 
 that his harsher traits had grown 
 apace with his milder ones that he 
 possessed iron resolution, indomitable 
 perseverence, and an almost terrible 
 energy but these features had im 
 parted no hardness to his character in 
 private intercourse. In the hour of 
 public need these strong qualities 
 would have shown themselves the most 
 prominent ones, and would have en 
 couraged his countrymen to rally 
 around him as one of their natural 
 leaders." 
 
 Such is the pen portrait of Jonathan 
 Cilley that has been given us by one of 
 the most brilliant of his contemporaries 
 and personal friends. The universal 
 verdict even of his political enemies is 
 that he was one of the most brilliant 
 sons of Maine, and had it not been for 
 his untimely end he would have been 
 the worthy peer oi the ablest men 
 whose records adorn the history of our 
 state. In the very bcginndnig of his na 
 tional fame he was cut down by the 
 hand of a. man who was no better than 
 an assassin, and all the proud hopes of 
 his brilliant future perished. Brief al 
 though his career may have been, his 
 name is written high in the temple of 
 fame and will long be treasured as one 
 of the most brilliant that has added 
 glory to our state and nation. 
 
 The following account of the fatal 
 duel was written by Hon. Horatio 
 King, late postmaster general, in his 
 valuable work "Turning on the Light," 
 
CILLEY S SPEECH 
 
 11 
 
 which account has been pronounced by 
 ex-Governor Hugh J. Anderson as the 
 most complete ever written. 
 
 The Fatal Duel, 
 
 A charge of corruption against a 
 Senator in Congress, made by "The 
 Spy in Washington," Matthew L,. 
 Davis, correspondent of the New York 
 Courier and Enquirer, was the basis of 
 the trouble which led to the fatal ren 
 counter. He was the intimate friend 
 and biographer of Aaron Burr, and 
 while acting as correspondent at the 
 capital, he was excluded, I remember, 
 from the ladies gallery on account of 
 alleged gross immorality there. In a 
 letter to his paper the charge referred 
 to was set forth as follows; 
 
 "The more brief my statement the 
 better it will be understood. It is in 
 my power, if brought to the bar of 
 either house, or before a committee, 
 and process allowed me to compel the 
 attendance of witnesses, to prove by 
 the oath of a respectable and unim 
 peachable citizen, as well as by written 
 documentary evidence, that there is at 
 least one member of Congress who has 
 offered to barter his services and his 
 influence with a department or depart 
 ments for a compensation. Why, sir, 
 said the applicant for a contract, if 
 my proposition has merit, it will be 
 received; if it has not, I do not expect 
 it will be accepted. And what do you 
 think was the answer of the honorable 
 member? I will give it to you in ma 
 own emphatic language: Merit? said 
 he; why, things do not go here by 
 merit, but by pulling the right strings. 
 Make it my interest and I will pull the 
 strings for you. " 
 
 The editor of the Courier and En 
 quirer, James Watson Webb, vouched 
 for the character and standing of his 
 
 correspondent, and called upon Con 
 gress promptly to initiate the investi 
 gation thus challenged, both as an act 
 of justice to itself and the country. 
 Whereupon Henry A. Wise, of Vir 
 ginia, offered in the House of Represen 
 tatives, on the H2th of February, a mo 
 tion for a committee of inquiry, em 
 bodying in the preamble of his resolu 
 tion both the above extract 
 and the editorial comments there 
 on. The resolution gave rise to 
 a warm debate, and resulted in 
 a determination to bring Mr. Davis be 
 fore the bar of the House. He appear 
 ed accordingly, and, having declared 
 that the person alluded to in his letter 
 was not a member of the House, he 
 was discharged. 
 
 On the 13th of February, John Rug- 
 gles, Senator from (Thomaston) Maine, 
 addressed a letter to the Washington 
 Globe, stating that he had been inform 
 ed that the charge referred to "was a 
 blow aimed at him." In explanation, 
 he said that a Mr. Jones, of New Jer 
 sey, had applied to him to draw up a 
 specification and claim for a patent for 
 a trunk-lock. He had consented to do 
 it, "as it was a strictly professional 
 matter." Subsequently he had agreed 
 to take an assignment of one-fourth 
 part of the patent for his services; the 
 papers were drawn and assented to by 
 Joneis, but never executed, nor had any 
 compensation ever been allowed for his 
 services. 
 
 On the 16th of February, at Mr. Rug- 
 gles s request, a committee to investi 
 gate the charge against him was ap 
 pointed in the Senate, and he was en 
 tirely exonerated. 
 
 In the debate on Mr. Wise s resolu 
 tion, Mr. Cilley said: 
 
 "As the course proposed to be pursu 
 ed on this occasion was novel and ex- 
 
12 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 traordinary, he hoped the House would 
 pause before it embarked in this busi 
 ness on such authority as was pro 
 duced. This charge comes from the 
 editor of a newspaper, and we all know 
 that in a country where the press is 
 free, few men can expect to escape 
 abuse and charges of a similar descrip 
 tion. Ordinarily, when we are about 
 entering upon a business of this kind 
 before a magistrate, a conservator of 
 the peace, the charges submitted are 
 obliged to be made distinctly, clearly, 
 andunderthe solemnityof an oath; and 
 why should we now depart from this 
 well-known and well-settled rule? He 
 knew nothing of this editor, but it was 
 the same editor who had made grave 
 charges against an institution of this 
 country (the old United States Bank in 
 183(1), and afterwards was said to have 
 received facilities to the amount of 
 fifty-two thousand dollars from the 
 same institution and gave it his hearty 
 support; he did not think his charges 
 were entitled to much credit in an Am 
 erican Congress. If he has charges to 
 make, let him make them distinctly 
 and not vaguely; let him make them 
 under the solemnity of an oath, and 
 then it will be quite time enough to 
 act. He trusted the House would not 
 go into an investigation of this kind on 
 a mere newspaper statement without 
 any proof." 
 
 It was the subject of pointed com 
 ment at the time that, whereas, the re* 
 marks of Mr. Cilley were published in 
 the Globe of the 12th, Mr. Webb waited 
 until the 21st of February before de 
 manding an explanation. Therefore, 
 the presumption was, and it was dis 
 tinctly charged, that "the offence was 
 taken at Washington, the plot arranged 
 there, and Mr. Webb sent for, after 
 full consultation, and notified that he 
 
 must take offence at Mr. Cilley s re 
 marks. This supposition was the more 
 
 readily credited not only because the 
 same imputation against Mr. Webb 
 had "been thousands of times made 
 on innumerable occasions in Congress" 
 without his ever resenting it in any 
 such manner, but also from the fact 
 that Mr. Cilley s ability and fearless 
 bearing in debate had aroused a deter 
 mination on the part of certain South 
 ern gentlemen, if possible, to intimi 
 date him and destroy his influence. As 
 an illustration of this feeling the fol 
 lowing extract from the Democratic 
 Review is in point. Referring to the 
 discussion upon Mr. Wise s resolution, 
 above mentioned, the editor, J. L. 
 O Sullivan, afterwards United States 
 minister to Portugal, and who, I am 
 glad to know, still survives, said: 
 
 "An altercation of a very acrimoni 
 ous character on the part of Mr. Wise 
 arose upon this occasion. In reply to 
 Mr. Cilley, Mr. Wise, among general 
 remarks upon the opposition of the 
 friends of the administration to all in 
 vestigation without specific charges, 
 etc., remarked, Every man careful of 
 his honor, when such charges as these 
 are made, will not wait to have them 
 specifically framed, and in the present 
 instance he would say to the gentle 
 man from Maine that a member of the 
 party (Democratic) to which that gen 
 tleman belongs should be the last man 
 to oppose the investigation of a charge 
 like this, for it was much more likely 
 to be him that was meant by the au 
 thor of the charge than himself (Mr. 
 W.). I, sir, said Mr. Wise, have no 
 influence with the executive or any of 
 its branches, to sell for a price, " etc. 
 
 Afterwards, in the course of the de 
 bate, the following altercation took 
 place, as we find it reported in the In 
 telligencer: 
 
THE DEBATE 
 
 13 
 
 " But now, because he (Mr. C.) had 
 stood up to defend the character of 
 the House against that anonymous 
 imputation, he was to hear the basest 
 charges against himself. 
 
 " Mr. Wise here asked if the gentle 
 man from Maine meant to say that he 
 (Mr. W.) had made base charges in re 
 lation to himself? 
 
 " Mr. Cilley would explain. He did 
 feel that it was ungenerous for that 
 gentleman to have said that the pre 
 sumption was rather it was he (Mr. 
 C.) than himself (Mr. W.) to whom 
 this charge alluded. 
 
 " Mr. Wise had made no personal 
 charge against the member from 
 Maine, false or true, none whatever; 
 and he again asked that gentleman if 
 he meant to say that he had insin 
 uated base charges against him. 
 
 " Mr. Cilley responded in substance 
 what he had said. 
 
 " Mr. Wise. Then the gentleman 
 from Maine designs deliberately to in 
 sult me. 
 
 " Mr. Cilley certainly did not; he 
 had not made any charge against the 
 gentleman from Virginia. He knew 
 his rights and those of his constituents 
 on that floor. 
 
 " Mr. Wise understood, and did not 
 understand the gentleman from Maine 
 as disclaiming the charge, that he had 
 made base charges against that gen 
 tleman. 
 
 " Mr. Cilley said that he had dis 
 tinctly remarked that the gentleman 
 from Virginia had said he (Mr, C ) 
 was more obnoxious to the charge con 
 tained in the resolution before the 
 House than he (Mr. W.) was; and he 
 could say no less than he had said, 
 fearless of all cor>eequences>, but he 
 had no intention to insult any one. The 
 
 gentleman from Virginia just remark 
 ed that he had been informed of the 
 name of the member alluded to; why 
 not disclose it? 
 
 " Mr. Wise rose and said that he 
 could never again treat that gentle 
 man with confidence who could risa in 
 his place and repeat to the House 
 what a member had said in private 
 conversation in his seat. 
 
 " Mr. Cilley had not intended to vio 
 late confidence. The gentleman from 
 Virginia had said openly in his seat 
 that he knew the name of the member 
 meant. 
 
 " Mr. Wise. But it was in reply to 
 an express question of another mem 
 ber. 
 
 " Some further explanation than 
 took place between Mr. Cilley and Mr. 
 Wise, etc. 
 
 The report of it is here cut off. Mr. 
 Cilley sustained himself with perfect 
 firmness and dignity to the end, his 
 manner being, according to our infor 
 mation, in highly advantageous con 
 trast with that of his assailant. The 
 latter concluded by the following re 
 mark, spoken so openly and loud as to 
 be heard at some distance, a remark 
 which Mr. Cilley never affected 10 no 
 tice or to hear: But what is the use 
 of bandying words with a man who 
 won t hold himself personally account 
 able for his words? " 
 
 Fully to appreciate this scene, one 
 needs to have known its principal act 
 ors and observed the calm, firm, and 
 dignified manner of Cilley, in contrast 
 with the fierce look and aggressive 
 bearing of his opponent, as the writer 
 more than once saw him in debate in 
 the House during the winter of 1S3S- 
 39, while Graves, looking sad and de 
 sponding, was also still a member of 
 that body. 
 
14 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 We will next present the correspond 
 ence, etc., as it appeared in a paper 
 signed by the seconds in the duel, 
 George W. Jones, of Iowa, and Henry 
 A. Wise, of Virginia, which they pub 
 lished as their 
 
 "STATEMENT. 
 
 "Washing-ton City, D. C., Feb. 26, 1838 
 "The following is a statement of the 
 facts of the duel between the Honor 
 able William J. Graves, of Kentucky, 
 and the Honorable Jonathan Cilley, of 
 Maine, agreed upon by George W. 
 Jones and Henry A. Wise, the seconds 
 of the parties, committed to writing- 
 bet ween the hours of 10.30 o clock a. m., 
 February 26th, and 12 o clock m. this 
 day. The seconds propose, first, to 
 state the correspondence which oc 
 curred before the challenge and which 
 was communicated through others than 
 themselves, neither second having 
 borne any message, verbal or written, 
 to or from either of the principals, un 
 til Mr. Wise bore the challenge and 
 Mr. Jones bore the acceptance. This 
 correspondence, as it has been placed 
 in the hands of the seconds, is as fol 
 lows, to wit: 
 
 "Mr. Graves to Mr. Cilley. 
 
 "House of Representatives, February 
 21, 1838. In the interview which I had 
 with you this morning-, when you de 
 clined receiving from me the note of 
 Colonel J. W. Webb, asking whether 
 you were correctly reported in the 
 Globe in what you are there represent 
 ed to have said of him in this House 
 upon the l 2th instant, you will please 
 say whether you did not remark, in 
 substance, that in declining to receive 
 the note, you hoped I would not con 
 sider it in any respect disrespectful to 
 me, and that the ground on which you 
 
 rested your declining to receive the 
 note was distinctly this: That you 
 could not consent to get yourself into 
 personal difficulties with conductors of 
 public journals for what you might 
 think proper to say in debate upon this 
 floor, in discharge of your duties as a 
 representative of the people, and that 
 you did not rest your objection in our 
 interview upon any personal objection 
 to Colonel Webb as a gentleman. Very 
 nespectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 "W. J. Graves. 
 
 "Honorable Jonathan Cilley. 
 "Mr. Cilley to Mr. Graves. 
 
 "House of Representatives, February 
 
 21, 1838. The note which you just 
 placed in my hands has been received. 
 In reply I have to state that in your 
 interview with me this morning-, when 
 you proposed to deliver a communica 
 tion from Colonel Webb, of the New 
 York Courier and Enquirer, I declined 
 to receive it because I chose to be 
 drawn into no controversy with him. I 
 neither affirmed nor denied anything in 
 regard to his character; but when you 
 remarked that this course on my part 
 might place you in an unpleasant 
 situation, I stated to you, and now re 
 peat, that I intended by the refusal no 
 disrespect to you. Very respectfully, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 "Jona. Cilley. 
 
 "Honorable W. J. Graves. 
 
 "Mr. Graves to Mr. Cilley. 
 
 "House of Representatives, February 
 
 22, 1838. Sir, Your note of yesterday, 
 in reply to mine of that date, is inex 
 plicit, unsatisfactory, and insufficient; 
 among other things in this, that in 
 
LETTERS 
 
 15 
 
 your declining- to receive Colonel 
 Webb s communication, it does not dis 
 claim any exception to him personally 
 as a gentleman. I have therefore to in 
 quire whether you declined to receive 
 his communication on the ground of 
 any personal exception to him as a 
 gentleman or a man of honor? A 
 categorical answer is expected. Very 
 respectfully, 
 
 "William J. Graves. 
 
 "Honorable J. Cilley. 
 
 "Mr. Cilley to Mr. Graves. 
 
 "House of Representatives, February 
 22, 1838.- Sir, Your note of this date 
 has just been placed in my hands. I 
 regret that mine of yesterday was not 
 satisfactory to you, but J. cannot admit 
 the right on your part to propound the 
 question to which you ask a categorical 
 answer, and therefore decline any fur 
 ther response to it. Very respect 
 fully, 
 
 "Jonathan Cilley. 
 
 "Honorable W. J. Graves. 
 
 "Here follows the first paper borne 
 by Mr. Wise: 
 
 "As you have declined accepting a 
 communication which I bore to you 
 from Colonel Webb, and as, by your 
 note of yesterday, you have refused to 
 decline on grounds which would exon 
 erate me from all responsibility grow 
 ing out of the affair, I am left no other 
 alternative but to ask that satisfaction 
 which is recognized among gentlemen. 
 My friend, Honorable Henry A. Wise, 
 is authorized by me to make the ar 
 rangements suitable for the occasion. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 "W. J. Graves. 
 
 "Honorable J. Cilley. 
 
 "Mr. Wise states that he presented 
 
 the foregoing challenge to Mr. Cilley in 
 the parlor at Mr. Birth s boarding- 
 house a few minutes before twelve 
 o clock, on Friday, the twenty-third 
 instant. 
 
 "In addition to the foregoing corre 
 spondence the seconds propose to re 
 late only such facts and circumstances 
 as occurred within their joint knowl 
 edge, after their own participation in 
 the melancholy affair. 
 
 "On the evening- of the twenty-third 
 instant, about the hour of five o clock, 
 Mr. Jones, the second of Mr. Cilley, de 
 livered to Mr. Graves in the room of 
 Mr. Wise, and in his presence, the fol 
 lowing note, which was the first paper 
 borne by Mr. Jones, to wit: 
 
 "Washington City February 23, 1838. 
 Honorable W. J. Graves: Your note of 
 this morning ha been received. My 
 friend, General Jones, will make the 
 arrangements suitable to the occasion. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 "Jona. Cilley. 
 
 "Immediately upon the preparation 
 of the acceptance of the challenge, Mr. 
 Graves retired, leaving Mr. Jones with 
 Mr. Wise, who submitted to Mr. Wise 
 the following propositions for the ar 
 rangement of the meeting, to wit: 
 
 "Washington City, February 23, 1838. 
 Sir: Mr. Cilley proposes to meet Mr. 
 Graves at such place as may be agreed 
 upon between us to-morrow at twelve 
 o clock m. The (weapons to be used on 
 the occasion shall be rifles; the parties 
 placed side to side at eighty yards dis 
 tance from each other; to hold the 
 rifles horizontally at arm s length 
 downward; the rifles to be cocked and 
 triggers set; the word to be, Gentle 
 men, are you ready? after which, 
 neither answering no, the words shall 
 be in regular succession, Fire, one, 
 two, three, four. Neither party shall 
 
16 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 fire before the word fire, nor after the 
 word four. The positions of the par 
 ties at the ends of the line to be deter 
 mined by lot. The second of the party 
 losing 1 the position shall have the giv 
 ing: of the word. The dress to be ordi 
 nary winter clothing and subject to the 
 examination of both parties. Each 
 party may have on the ground, besides 
 his second, a surgeon and two other 
 friends. The second s, for the execution 
 of their respective trusts, are allowed 
 to have a pair of pistols each on the 
 ground, but no other persons shall 
 have any weapon. The rifles to be 
 loaded in the presence of the seconds. 
 Should Mr. Graves not be able to pro 
 cure a rifle in the time prescribed, time 
 shall be allowed for that purpose. 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 "George W. Jones. 
 
 "Honorable Henry A. Wise. . 
 
 "About nine o clock p. m., at Mr. 
 Jones <s room at Dawson s, Mr. Wise 
 returned to him the following answer, 
 to wit: 
 
 "Washington City, February 23, 1838. 
 Sir: The terms arranging the meet 
 ing between Mr. Graves and Mr. Cil- 
 ley, which you presented to me this 
 evening, though unusual and objec 
 tionable, are accepted with the under 
 standing that the rifle are to be load 
 ed with a single ball, and that neither 
 party is to raise his weapon from the 
 downward horizontal position Until the 
 word fire. I will inform you, sir, by 
 the hour of eleven o clock a. m. to 
 morrow whether Mr. Graves has been 
 able to procure a rifle, and, consequent 
 ly, whether he will require a postpone 
 ment of the time of meeting. Your 
 very obedient servant, 
 
 "Henry A. Wise. 
 
 "Honorable George W. Jones. 
 
 "About eight o clock a. m. on the 
 twenty-fourth instant, Mr. Jones left 
 at Mr. Wise s room the following note, 
 to wit: 
 
 "Washington City, February 24, 1838. 
 Sir: I will receive at Dr. Reilly s, on 
 F Street, any communication you may 
 see proper to make me until eleven 
 o clock a. m., to-day. Respectfully, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 "George W. Jones. 
 
 "Honorable H. A. Wise. 
 
 "Dr. Reilly s, F Street, February 24, 
 1838, 10 a. m. Sir: I have called at 
 this place in conformity to your note 
 of this morning, to inform you that Mr. 
 Graves has not as yet been able to pro 
 cure a rifle and put it in order, and 
 cannot be ready by twelve o clock m. 
 to-day. He is desirous, however, to 
 have the meeting to-day, if possible, 
 and I will inform you by half-past 
 twelve o clock m. to-day what time he 
 will require to procure and prepare a 
 weapon. Very respectfully, etc., 
 
 "Henry A. Wise. 
 
 "Honorable George W. Jones. 
 
 "Afterwards Mr. Jones left at Mr. 
 Wise s room the following note, to 
 wit: 
 
 "Washington, 10.30 a, m., February 
 24, 1838. Sir: Your note, dated at ten 
 o clock to-day, is received. In reply I 
 have the plea-Sure to inform you that I 
 have in my possession an excellent 
 rifle, in good order, which is at the 
 service of Mr. Graves. Very respect 
 fully, etc., 
 
 "George W. Jones. 
 
 "Honorable H. A. Wise. 
 
 "Afterwards Mr. Jones sent to Mr. 
 Wise s room the following- note, to wit: 
 
LETTERS 
 
 17 
 
 "Washington, February 24, 1838, 11 a. 
 m. Sir: Through the politeness of my 
 friend Dr. Duncan, I now tender to 
 you, for the use of Mr. Graves, the 
 rifle referred to in my note of ten 
 o clock this morning. Respectfully, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 "George W. Jones. 
 
 "Honorable H. A. Wise. 
 
 "And with this note a rifle and pow 
 der-flask and balls were left at Mr. 
 Wise s room. After the reception of 
 this note from Mr. Jones, Mr. Wise 
 called on him at Dr. Reilly s and in 
 formed Mr. Jones that Mr. Graves had 
 procured a rifle other than that left at 
 his room by Dr. Duncan, and would be 
 ready for the meeting at three o clock 
 p. m. It was then agreed that the 
 parties should meet at the Anacostia 
 bridge, on the road to Marlborough, 
 Maryland, between the hours of half- 
 past one and half-past two o clock p. 
 m., and if either got there first he 
 should wait for the other, and that 
 they would thence proceed out of the 
 District. Accordingly the parties met 
 at the bridge, Mr. Cilley and his party 
 arriving there first, and all proceeded, 
 about two o clock p. m., to the place of 
 meeting. On arriving at the place, Mr. 
 Jones and Mr. Wise immediately pro 
 ceeded to mark off the ground. They 
 then decided the choice of positions. 
 Mr. Wise won the position, and con 
 sequently Mr. Jones had the giving of 
 the word. At the time Mr. Jones was 
 informed by Mr. Wise that two gentle 
 men (Mr. Calhoun, of Kentucky, and 
 Mr. Hawes, of Kentucky) were at 
 some distance off, spectators, but they 
 should not approach upon the ground. 
 Mr. Jones replied that he objected to 
 their coming on the ground, as it was 
 against the articles of the meeting, but 
 he entertained for them the highest re 
 
 spect. Mr. Wise informed Mr. Jones 
 that, contrary to the terms, he had 
 brought on the ground two rifles; that 
 if he (Mr. Jones) required him to do 
 so, he would immediately send one of 
 them away. Upon Mr. Jones finding 
 that the rifle was unloaded, he con 
 sented that it should remain in one of 
 the carriages. There were, it is proper 
 to remark, several persons on the 
 ground (besides the hack-drivers and 
 the two gentlemen at a distance be 
 fore mentioned) who were there with 
 out the authority or consent of either 
 party or their friends, as far as is 
 known either to Mr. Jones or Mr. Wise, 
 and one of these persons was supposed 
 to be the owner of the field. Shortly 
 after the hour of three p. m. the rifles 
 were loaded in the presence of the sec 
 onds; the parties were called together; 
 they were fully instructed by Mr. 
 Jones as to their positions, and the 
 words were twice repeated to them as 
 they would be and as they were de 
 livered to them in the exchange of 
 shots. After they were ordered to their 
 respective positions, the seconds as 
 sumed their places, and the friends ac 
 companying the seconds were disposed 
 along the line of fire to observe that 
 each obeyed the terms of meeting. Mr. 
 Jones gave the word distinctly, audi 
 bly, and in regular succession, and the 
 parties exchanged shots without vio 
 lating in the least a single instruction. 
 They both missed. After which Mr. 
 Wise called upon the friends generally 
 to assemble and hear what was to be 
 said. Upon the assembling of the 
 friend, Mr. Jones inquired of Mr. 
 Wise whether his friend (Mr. Graves) 
 wag satisfied. Mr. Wise immediately 
 said in substance, Mr. Jones, these 
 gentlemen have come here without 
 animosity towards each other; they 
 are fighting merely upon a point of 
 
18 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 honor; cannot Mr. Cilley assign some 
 reason for not receiving at Mr. 
 Graves s hands Colonel "Webb s com 
 munication, or make some disclaimer 
 which will relieve Mr. Graves from his 
 position? Mr. Jones replied, in sub 
 stance, Whilst the challenge is im 
 pending, Mr. Cilley can make no ex 
 planation. Mr. Wise said, in sub 
 stance, The exchange of shots sus 
 pends the challenge, and the challenge 
 is suspended for the purpose of ex 
 planation. Mr. Jones therefore said 
 he would see Mr. Cilley, and did go to 
 him. He returned and asked Mr. Wise 
 again, Mr. Wise, do I understand 
 aright that the challenge is suspend 
 ed? Mr. Wise answered, It is. Mr. 
 Jones was then about to proceed, when 
 Mr. Wise suggested that it was best, 
 perhaps, to give the explanation or 
 reason in writing. Mr. Jones then 
 said, in substance, Mr. Wise, if you 
 require me to put what I have to say 
 in writing, I shall require you to put 
 what you have said and may say in 
 writing. Mr. Wise replied, Well, let 
 us hear the explanation beforehand, as 
 it may not be necessary to put it in 
 writing. Mr. Jones then proceeded, as 
 he now thinks, substantially to say, I 
 am authorized by my friend, Mr. Cil 
 ley, to say that, in declining to receive 
 the note from Mr. Graves, purporting 
 to be from Colonel Webb, he meant no 
 disrespect to Mr. Graves, because he 
 entertained for him then, as he now 
 does, the most kind feeling s; but that 
 he declined to receive the note because 
 he chose not to be drawn into contro 
 versy with Colonel Webb. Mr. Wise 
 thinks this answer of Mr. Jones s was, 
 in substance, as follows: I am author 
 ized by my friends, Mr. Cilley, to say 
 that, in declining to receive the note 
 from Mr. Graves purporting to be from 
 Colonel Webb, he meant no disrespect 
 
 to Mr. Graves, because he entertained 
 for him then, as he does now, the high 
 est respect and most kind feelings, but 
 my friend refuses to disclaim disre 
 spect for Colonel Webb, because he 
 does not choose to be drawn into an 
 expression of opinion as to him. Such 
 is the substantial difference between 
 the two seconds as to the answer of 
 Mr. Jones. The friends on each side, 
 with the seconds, then retired from 
 each other to consult upon this expla 
 nation. After consultation, Mr. Wise 
 returned to Mr. Jones and said, 
 Mr. Jones, this answer leaves Mr. 
 Graves precisely in the position in 
 which he stood when the challenge 
 was sent. Much conversation then 
 ensued between the seconds and their 
 friends, but, no nearer approach to 
 reconciliation being made, the chal 
 lenge was renewed and another shot 
 was exchanged in a manner perfectly 
 fair and honorable to all parties. 
 After this the seconds and their 
 friends again assembled and the chal 
 lenge was again withdrawn and very 
 similar conversations to that after the 
 first exchange of shots again ensued. 
 Mr. Jones then remarked, Mr. Wise, 
 my friend, in coming to the ground 
 and exchanging shots with Mr. Graves, 
 ha shown to the world that in de 
 clining to receive the note of Colonel 
 Webb he did not do .so because he 
 dreaded a controversy. He has shown 
 himself a brave man, and disposed to 
 render satisfaction to Mr. Graves. I 
 do think he hais done so, and that the 
 matter should end here. To this Mr. 
 Wise replied, in substance, Mr. Jones, 
 Mr. Cilley has already expressed his 
 respect for Mr. Graves in the written 
 correspondence, and Mr. Graves does 
 not require of Mr. Cilley a certificate 
 of character for Colonel Webb; he con 
 siders himself bound not only to pre- 
 
LETTERS 
 
 19 
 
 serve the respect due to himself, but to 
 defend the honor of his friend, Colonel 
 Webb. These words of Mr. Wise Mr. 
 Jones recollects, and Mr. Wise thinks 
 he added the words, Mr. Graves only 
 insists that he has not borne the note 
 of a man who is not a man of honor 
 and not a gentleman. After much 
 more conversation and ineffectual at 
 tempts to adjust the matter, the chal 
 lenge was again renewed, and, whilst 
 the friends were again loading the 
 rifles for the third exchange of shots, 
 Mr. Jones and Mr. Wise walked apart, 
 and each proposed to the other anx 
 iously to settle the affair. Mr. Wise 
 asked Mr. Jones if Mr. Cilley could not 
 assign the reason for declining to re 
 ceive the note of Colonel Webb, that he 
 did not hold himself accountable to 
 Colonel Webb for words spoken in de 
 bate? Mr. Jones replied, that Mr. 
 Cilley would not assign that reason, 
 because he did not wish to be under 
 stood as expressing the opinion wheth 
 er he was or was not accountable for 
 word spoken in debate. Mr. Wise 
 then, according to recollection, asked 
 Mr. Jones whether Mr. Cilley would 
 not say that in declining to receive the 
 note of Colonel Webb he meant no dis 
 respect to Mr. Graves, directly or indi 
 rectly? To which Mr. Jones replied 
 affirmatively, adding, Mr. Cilley enter 
 tains the highest respect for Mr. 
 Graves, but declines to receive the 
 note because he chose to be drawn into 
 no controversy with Colonel Webb. 
 After further explanatory conversation 
 the parties then exchanged the third 
 shot, fairly and honorably as in every 
 instance. Immediately previous to the 
 last exchange of shots Mr. Wise said 
 to Mr. Jones, If this matter is not ter 
 minated this shot, and is not settled, I 
 will propose to shorten the distance. 
 To which Mr. Jones replied, After this 
 
 shot, if without effect, I will entertain 
 the proposition. 
 
 "After Mr. Cilley fell, Mr. Wise, for 
 Mr. Graves, expressed a desire to Mr. 
 Jones to see Mr. Cilley. Mr. Jones re 
 plied to Mr. Wise, My friend is dead, 
 and went on to Mr. Graves and told 
 him that there was no objection to his 
 request to see Mr. Cilley. When Mr. 
 Jones approached Mr. Graves and in 
 formed him that his request should be 
 granted, Mr. Graves inquired, How is 
 he ? The reply was, My friend is dead, 
 sir. Mr. Graves then went to his car 
 riage. Mr. Wise inquired of Mr. Jones 
 before leaving the ground whether he 
 could render any service, and tendered 
 all the aid in his power. Mr. Wise and 
 Mr. Jones concur that there were three 
 shots exchanged. 
 
 "Such is the naked statement of all 
 the material facts and circumstances 
 attending this unfortunate affair of 
 honor, which we make in justice to our 
 friends, to ourselves, and to all con 
 cerned, the living and the dead; and it 
 is made only for the purpose of allay 
 ing excitement in the public mind, and 
 to prevent any arid all further contro 
 versy upon the subject, which already 
 its full enough of woe. We have fully 
 and substantially stated wherein we 
 agree and disagree. We cordially agree, 
 at all events, in bearing unqualified 
 testimony to the fair and honorable 
 manner in which the duel was con 
 ducted. We endeavored to discharge 
 our duties according to that code under 
 which the parties met, regulated by 
 magnanimous principles and the laws 
 of humanity. Neither of us has taken 
 the least exception to the course of the 
 other; and we sincerely hope that here 
 all controversy whatever may cease. 
 We especially desire our respective 
 friends to make no publication on the 
 subject. None can regret the termina- 
 
20 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 tion of the affair more than ourselves, 
 and we hope again that the last of it 
 will be the signatures of our names to 
 this paper, which we now affix. 
 
 "George W. Jones. 
 
 "Henry A. "Wise." 
 
 Vain hope! Instead of this being 
 "the last of the affair," the supposed 
 instigators of it were met on all sides 
 with a perfect storm of indignation, 
 and an almost universal demand for a 
 searching investigation of the matter 
 and punishment of the guilty; and the 
 more the circumstances of the tragedy 
 became known the fiercer the cry for 
 retribution. Before proceeding, how 
 ever, to depict this feeling, I will intro 
 duce the sworn statement of William 
 H. Morrell and Daniel Jackson, two 
 chosen friends of Colonel Webb, who, 
 according to their testimony, "said that 
 it waJs utterly impossible that a meet 
 ing could be permitted to take place 
 between Messrs. Graves and Cilley un 
 til Mr. Cilley had first met him (Webb), 
 and that he was determined to force 
 such a meeting upon Mr. Cilley, be the 
 consequences what they might." It was 
 accordingly agreed that Col. Webb, 
 with two friends "properly armed, 
 should repair to Mr. Cilley s room, 
 when Mr. Webb should offer to 
 Mr. Cilley the choice of his duelling 
 pistols with, the following alter 
 natives: either then and there to set 
 tle the question or pledge hiis word of 
 honor that he would give Colonel Webb 
 a meeting before Mr. Graves at such 
 a place and time and with such weap 
 ons as Mr. Cilley might appoint; and 
 in the event of doing neither, then to 
 expect the most serious consequences 
 on the spot. Mr. Webb then added: 
 "Should he refuse either to fight me at 
 the time, or give the pledge required, I 
 shall have no alternative left but to 
 
 shatter his right arm and thereby pre 
 vent his meeting my friend." Before 
 this plan could be carried out, it was 
 found that Mr. Cilley had left his lodg 
 ings for the duelling ground, under 
 stood to be Bladensburg, to which 
 place Colonel Webb and his two friends 
 immediately repaired. On their way, 
 Colonel Webb designated the following 
 order of proceedings: 
 
 " On reaching the parties, said he, 
 I ll approach Mr. Cilley and tell him 
 this is my quarrel and he must fight 
 me, and that, if he aims his rifle at my 
 friend, I ll shoot him on the spot. We 
 know that, upon this, Messrs. Graves 
 and Wise will interfere, and that we 
 will be ordered off the ground; but I 
 shall tell them that we have come 
 prepared to lose our lives or prevent 
 the meeting, and that it cannot proceed 
 without first disposing of us. From 
 our knowledge of the parties, it is prob 
 able that some one of them will then 
 raise his weapon at me, when I shall 
 instantly shoot Cilley, and we must 
 proceed to defend ourselves in the best 
 way we can. " 
 
 After stating that they drove to the 
 usual duelling ground and several other 
 places without being able to find the 
 parties, the witnesses say: "It is un 
 necessary to add what would have been 
 the course of Colonel Webb if Mr. 
 Graves, instead of Mr. Cilley, had been 
 injured. Suffice it to say that his de 
 termination was sanctioned by us, and, 
 however much we deplore it, we could 
 not doubt but the extraordinary posi 
 tion in which he would then have been 
 placed would have warranted the 
 course determined upon." 
 
 Alluding to the dark intimation in 
 the last paragraph, an able editor, at 
 the time holding a high position under 
 the United States government, remark 
 ed, "Thus, then, it seems if Cilley had 
 
DEATH OP 
 
 21 
 
 escaped from the field with his life, he 
 would have been doubtless, assassinat 
 ed by Webb and his associates." 
 
 Colonel Schaumbourg, a friend of Mr. 
 Cilley, states that before the meeting, 
 Mr. Cilley said to him: 
 
 "Mr. Graves has taken upon himself 
 to demand of me to say, and that in 
 language dictated by himself, that 
 James Watson Webb is a gentleman 
 and a man of honor. Now, that is what 
 I am not going to disgrace myself by 
 saying. I see into the whole affair. 
 Webb has come on here to challenge 
 me because he and perhaps others 
 think that, as I am from New Eng 
 land, I am to be bluffed, and Mr. Webb 
 will proclaim himself a brave man, 
 and having obtained acknowledgment 
 on my part that he is a gentleman and 
 a man of honor. But they have calcu 
 lated without their host. Although I 
 know that the sentiment of New Eng 
 land is opposed to duelling, I am sure 
 that my people will be better pleased if 
 I stand the test than disgrace myself 
 by humiliating concessions. Sir, the 
 name I bear will never permit me to 
 cower beneath the frown of mortal 
 man. It is an attempt to browbeat u. 
 and they think that because I am from 
 the East, I will tamely submit." 
 
 Besides the two seconds, the friends 
 of each party on the ground were, on 
 the part of Mr. Cilley, Jesse A. Bynum, 
 member of Congress from North Caro 
 lina, Colonel W. Schaumbourg, of 
 Pennsylvania, and Alexander Duncan 
 (surgeon,) member of Congress from 
 Ohio; and, on the part of Mr. Graves, 
 John J. Crittenden, Senator, and Rich 
 ard H. Menifee, member of Congress 
 from Kentucky, and Dr. J. M. Poltz, 
 surgeon, of Washington City. These 
 gentlemen were quite as free from cen 
 sure in the affair as were some others 
 not present. The greater weight of 
 
 "public opprobrium and disgust" fell 
 upon Mr. Wise and Colonel Webb, as 
 will appear from quotations we will 
 see from the public records and the 
 press. 
 
 Mr. Cilley s death was announced in 
 the House of Representatives on the 
 26th of February by the Hon. John 
 Fairfield, of Maine, and in the Senate, 
 the same day, by the Hon. Reuel Wil 
 liams, of Maine, and appropriate reso 
 lutions provided for the appointment 
 of a committee of seven members to in 
 vestigate the causes which led to Mr. 
 Cilley s death and the circumstances 
 connected therewith; also to inquire 
 whether, in the matter, there had 
 been any breach of the privileges of 
 the House. The resolutions, after con 
 siderable opposition, were passed by 
 yeas one hundred and fifty-two, nays 
 forty-nine, and this committee was 
 composed of the following gentlemen: 
 Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, W. W. 
 Potter, of Pennsylvania, George Grin- 
 nell, Jr., of Massachusetts, F. H. El- 
 more, of South Carolina, A. D. W. 
 Bruyn, of New York, S. Grantland, of 
 Georgia, and J. Rariden, of Indiana. 
 The committee were divided in opinion 
 and made three reports, Mr. Toucey, 
 afterward Senator and member of both 
 President Folk s and President Buch 
 anan s Cabinet, presenting that of the 
 majority. It embraces the material 
 facts and circumstances of the duel, and 
 among other things, declares that "It 
 is a breach of the highest constitutional 
 privileges of the House, and of the most 
 sacred rights of the people in the per 
 son of their representative, to demand 
 in a hostile manner an explanation of 
 words spoke in debate." 
 
 The committee submitted resolutions 
 for the expulsion of William J. Graves, 
 Henry A. Wise, and George W. Jones. 
 Finally, after a long debate, the whole 
 
22 
 
 THREE 
 
 subject was laid on the table by a vote 
 of one hundred and two to seventy- 
 six, a vote of censure merely being- 
 passed. 
 
 Hig-h as party feeling- was at the time, 
 indignation and denunciation were by 
 no means confined to one side in poli 
 tics. "Never," said Charles G. Green, 
 editor of the Boston Post "was there a 
 more dastardly murder than that of the 
 unfortunate Cllley. The nation should 
 echo with indignation at this horrible 
 outrage, this cold-blooded assassina 
 tion." Naming- two of the principal ac 
 tors (Webb and Wise) in the affair, the 
 same editor calls the one "the miser 
 able poltroon," and the other "the 
 wretch," adding, "both of them are 
 equally a disgrace to human nature, 
 and will deceive the execration of man 
 kind; we hope that the penitentiary or 
 the gallows will soon relieve society of 
 their baneful presence." A Washing 
 ton correspondent of the Journal of 
 Commerce is quoted as saying that, 
 "After Jones returned the last time, 
 from the conference, with Wife s reply, 
 Mr. Cilley said, in a calm and collected 
 tone, They thirst for my blood! " In 
 a previous conference, as reported by 
 the seconds, Mr. Cilley said that "in 
 declining to receive the note from 
 Colonel Webb, he meant no disrespect 
 to Mr. Graves, because he entertained 
 for him then, as he now does, the high 
 est respect and most kind feelings." 
 "But," as remarked by the Democratic 
 Review, published by Lang-tree and 
 O Sullivan, at the time, "all this was 
 without avail." 
 
 Mr. Cilley fought under disadvan 
 tages which (says the Journal of Com 
 merce) must have been well known to 
 those on the other side, and which in 
 duced some persons to say that his 
 seconds ought never to have suffered 
 him to fight under them at all. These 
 
 disadvantage were stated to be that 
 Mr. Cilley, being-, as was personally 
 known to the present writer, very near 
 sighted, could not see to shoot at the 
 distance measured off, which was al 
 leged to be greater by twenty yards 
 than that agreed on; that his rifle was 
 so lig-ht only about one-half the cali 
 bre of that of his antagonist that it 
 would not carry that distance with ac 
 curacy; that he was shooting- against 
 the wind, which was blowing a gale; 
 and that he stood on rising- ground in 
 open light, presenting- a plain mark, 
 while his antagonist was shaded by a 
 copse of wood. Under all these disad 
 vantages, after disclaiming- all enmity 
 to Graves, and after technical requsi- 
 tion preliminary to accommodation in 
 honorable duelling, and even after he 
 had declared that he did not wish to 
 take Graves s life, but entertained for 
 him "the hig-hest respect and the most 
 kisd feelings," Mr. Cilley was shot 
 down! "What," asked the Eastern 
 Arg-us, "does this prove but that he 
 was foully murdered?" 
 
 At a great public meeting, held at the 
 capital of Maine, on the 9th of March, 
 1S38, "for the purpose of noticing in a 
 suitable manner the atrocious murder 
 of Hon. Jonathan Cilley." a series of 
 resolutions were unanimously adopted, 
 declaring-, among- other things, that the 
 duel was "the result of a foul con 
 spiracy, concerted and approved 
 among- a few political leaders, to take 
 advantage of Mr. Cilley and draw him 
 into a quarrel, in order that they 
 mig-ht seize upon the opportunity af 
 forded to gratify personal feelings of 
 private malice and revenge, and re 
 move out of the way an opponent 
 every day becoming more and more 
 formidable, whose eloquent appeals 
 and retorted sarcasms it would be 
 more easy to silence by the pistol than 
 
COURSE OF 1 HENRY A. WISE 
 
 answer in debate; that in the course 
 pursued by Henry A. Wise in man 
 aging- and conducting- the incidents of 
 the duel after the first fire, there is 
 evidence of deep and vindictive mal 
 ignity; and that he stands justly 
 chargeable before the world, upon his 
 own showing, of having violated every 
 recognized principle of chivalry by 
 availing- himself of his position and the 
 occasion to glut his own feeling s of 
 private grudge and ill-will against Mr. 
 Cilley for a former supposed offense 
 given by the deceased, not to his prin 
 cipal, Graves, but to himself, Wise, a 
 course of conduct worthy only of a re 
 creant and a dastard; that the studied 
 attempt made by Henry A. Wise to 
 palliate and gloss over his conduct 
 during the duel, apparent in the im 
 perfect but official account, so called, 
 of the doings, and the special desire 
 expressed in the account, that those 
 who witnessed the scene should make 
 no publication on the subject, afford 
 strong presumptive evidence of a con 
 sciousness that there were deeds of 
 darkness and treachery in the history 
 of the conflict which would not bear to 
 be told; while, on the other hand, the 
 careful insertion in that account of a 
 statement that Mr. Wise inquired of 
 Mr. Jones, before leaving the ground, 
 whether he could render any service, 
 and tendered all the aid in his power, 
 the murder having been already perpe 
 trated, and the lifeless corpse of Mr. 
 Cilley then lying 1 stretched out before 
 him, is a derision and a mockery upon 
 the better feelings of our nature, 
 worthy only of the man who could 
 coolly triumph over the fallen victim 
 of his own foul machinations; and 
 that in the transaction which termin 
 ated in the death of Mr. Cilley, con 
 sidered under the mildest and most 
 mitigated features given to it by those 
 
 who took part In it, there is presented 
 to the people of Maine a case of ruth 
 less assassination of preconcerted and 
 cold-blooded murder of one of their 
 representatives, for having boldly and 
 fearlessly done his duty, and being re 
 solved to continue to do so." 
 
 The editor of the Democratic Review, 
 in a position to obtain the most correct 
 information on the subject, was very 
 severe in his comments upon the whole 
 affair, and particularly with reference 
 to Wise s course in insisting, after the 
 second shot, either that Mr. Cilley 
 should "acknowledge Webb to be a 
 gentleman and a man of honor," or 
 that "blood should flow!" 
 
 "It is not enough that he (Mr. Cilley) 
 has said nothing to the disparagement 
 of Mr. Webb that he is free in expres 
 sion of the highest respect and best 
 feeling toward Graves; it is 1 not enough 
 that two shots have been interchanged 
 on this flimsy punctilio of honor, in the 
 language of one of the gentlemen on 
 the field, in his remonstrance, based 
 on an abstraction and assumed upon 
 an implication; it is not enough that 
 all persons on the ground the second, 
 the surgeon, and consulting friends of 
 the challenged party, the surgeon and 
 one at least of the friends of the chal 
 lenging side (Mr. Crittenden) are 
 unanimous in opinion that all has been 
 done that the most fastidious honor 
 can require; it is not, enough that he 
 (Wise) has put a distinct proposition, 
 in decisive terms, as if an ultimatum, 
 from an anxiety to bring an end to the 
 combat, that acknowledgment shall be 
 made that no disrespect was meant to 
 Mr. Graves, directly or indirectly, and 
 that it was, in terms, answered affirm 
 atively: nothing whatever will suffice 
 but a degrading acknowledgment con 
 trary to the conscience and truth of the 
 party, and to the well-known majority 
 
24 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 of society, and entirely extraneous to 
 the relation between the parties in the 
 field an acknowledgment which noth 
 ing 1 but a trembling cowardice, widely 
 unlike the brave bearing of poor Cilley, 
 could yield under such circumstances 
 an acknowledgment which he knew, 
 and could not but have known, could 
 not and would not be conceded. No, 
 nothing will suffice but this abject and 
 impossible submission or blood! The 
 spirit of malignant evil that ruled th 
 ascendant of that dark hour triumphed, 
 and the kind-hearted, the generous, the 
 peaceful, the manly, the noble, the 
 true, the brave, lay weltering in his 
 own blood!" 
 
 The following, says the editor of the 
 Review, are substantially the views of 
 the matter which Mr. Cilley expressed 
 freely to his friends on the morning of 
 the fatal encounter: 
 
 "I am driven to this meeting by a 
 positive compulsion. I have done all 
 that an honorable man could do to 
 avert it. Why should I acknowledge 
 that man to be a gentleman and a man 
 of honor? In truth and conscience I 
 could not do so, and still less can I 
 have it so unreasonably extorted from 
 me by force and threat. I have no ill- 
 will nor disrespect toward Mr. Graves. 
 He knows it, and I have repeatedly 
 and fully expressed it. I abhor the idea 
 of taking his life, and will do nothing 
 not forced upon me in self-defence. 
 The pretext of the challenge is absurd. 
 I understand the conspiracy to destroy 
 me as a public man. But New England 
 must not be trampled on, my name 
 must not be disgraced, and I go to this 
 field sustained by as high a motive of 
 patriotism as ever led my grandfather 
 or my brother to battle, as an unhappy 
 duty, not to be shrunk from, to my 
 honor, my principles, and my country." 
 
 On the evening 1 before the duel he 
 
 charged one of his lady friends, should 
 he not survive, to say to his wife that 
 he "had endeavored to pursue that 
 course in all things which she would 
 approve and his own conscience dic 
 tated." 
 
 In a biographical sketch of Mr. 
 Cilley, published in the Democratic 
 Review for September, 1838, Natihaniel 
 Hawthorne says: 
 
 "A challenge was never given on a 
 more shadowy pretext; a duel was 
 never pressed to a fatal close in the 
 face of such open kindness as was ex 
 pressed by Mr. Cilley; and the conclu 
 sion is inevitable that Mr. Grave and 
 his principal second, Mr. Wise, have 
 gone further than their own dreadful 
 code will warrant them, and overstepped 
 the imaginary distinction wihich, on 
 their own principles-, separates man 
 slaughter from murder." 
 
 Mr. Wise was not a man to rest silent 
 under such opprobrium. On the 16th 
 of March, 1838, he issued a long ad 
 dress to his constituents in which he 
 gave his own account of the duel so far 
 as he himself was concerned. He be 
 gan by saying that "the catastrophe 
 had brought upon him much odium 
 and reproach," but claimed that he 
 was bound to act for Mr. Graves, be 
 cause, said he: 
 
 "I felt obliged to do for him what I 
 would have called on him to do for me. 
 It is said that I myself was hostile to 
 his antagonist. If so, I may have been 
 incompetent, but I solemnly deny that I 
 was hostile to Mr. Cilley. There had 
 been a slight misunderstanding between 
 us in debate, which passed off with 
 the moment and left no trace of ani 
 mosity behind. But hostile to him or 
 not, and though hostility might, per 
 haps, have incited another to take his 
 life dark and deadly sucih hate must 
 have been yet my conduct proves that 
 
CONDUCT OP WISE 
 
 I did earnestly endeavor to prevent the 
 shedding- of blood by reconciling- his 
 difference with my friend; and the his 
 tory of the tragedy proves that not 
 only I but two other gentlemen of 
 known character arid standing-, who 
 were never accused of hostility to him, 
 and who might have overruled me by 
 tlheir voices and influence, could not re 
 concile that difference or prevent its 
 result." 
 
 He says, also, that he rebuked Graves 
 for bearing the note from Mr. Webb, 
 and that toe told him that Mr. Cllley s 
 reasons, as repeated by Mr. Graves, 
 for refusing- to receive the note "were 
 very proper," and his answer, "cer 
 tainly satisfactory." Here is what he 
 said Mr. Graves represented Mr. Cilley 
 had in substance verbally declared: 
 That, "in declining- to receive the note 
 he hoped it would not be thought dis 
 respectful to him (Mr. Graves); that 
 he declined on the ground that he could 
 not consent to be involved in personal 
 difficulties with conductors of public 
 journals for what he had thought 
 proper to say in debate upon the floor, 
 and that he did not decline upon any 
 personal objection to Colonel Webb as 
 a gentleman." Mr. Wise appears to 
 have assented to the propriety of Mr. 
 Graves requiring- this answer to be put 
 in writing-, and so came the challeng-e, 
 the terms of which Mr. Wise said 
 were reg-arded as "barbarous and such 
 as might properly be declined; but it 
 was thought they were intended to in 
 timidate; that the distance was so 
 great as in some measure to mitigate 
 t/he severity of the weapon, and there 
 fore I was advised that they should be 
 accepted." It was likewise suggested 
 that the challenged party might be the 
 first to fly from these terms. 
 
 He speak of his difficulty in procur 
 ing a suitable rifle for Mr. Graves, and 
 
 admits that he had asked Mr. Jones to 
 assist him in that particular. At ttoe 
 same time he says, "I wished to g-ain 
 time not only to procure a fit rifle, but 
 to afford an opportunity, if possible, to 
 prevent the meeting." 
 
 He quotes from Mr. Jones s note the 
 passage in which he said to Mr. Wise 
 that he had the pleasure to inform him 
 that he had an excellent rifle in good 
 order which was at the service of Mr. 
 Graves, and remarks that, without 
 waiting- for an answer, Mr. Jones ten 
 dered to him "for the use of Mr. 
 Graves, the rifle referred to," and its 
 appendages. Thu s, Mr. Wise says, "A 
 weapon, not one of a pair, was ten 
 dered for the use of Mr. Graves in a 
 manner that was considered taunting." 
 Leaving- it be inferred, of course, that 
 one preferred to it had been reserved 
 for Mr. Cilley. He contends, too, that 
 Mr. Cilley "precipitated the time of 
 meeting when the second of Mr. Graves 
 was avowing a want of preparation and 
 a desire for delay." 
 
 He proceeds to say: 
 
 "The distance appointed was eighty 
 yards. It is my firm belief that the 
 distance stepped off by Mr. Jones and 
 myself, which we did pari pa-s su, was 
 nearer one hundred yards than eighty. 
 The ground was measured before the 
 choice of positions, and I believe that 
 we both stepped with a view of pre 
 venting the parties from hitting each 
 other. I kept my eye on Mr. Cilley. It 
 was my duty to see he obeyed the 
 ruleis. At the first exchange of shots I 
 thought he fired, though perfectly fair, 
 too hurriedly, and his ball did not 
 reach Mr. Graves, because he did not 
 raise his rifle sufficiently high. Mr. 
 Graves fired after Mr. Cilley." 
 
 At the second shot, he sayis: 
 
 "Mr. Graves s rifle went off quickly, 
 and, as he told me afterwards, acci- 
 
26 
 
 ^THREE GENERATION^. 
 
 dentally, and imto tihe ground. Mr. Cil- 
 ley drew up very deliberately, aimed, I 
 feared, a deadly shot, and fired. I 
 thought ihe had hit Mr. Graves. It wag 
 very apparent to me that Mr. Cilley 
 had shot at the life of Mr. Graves. If, 
 when Mr. Graves s rifle went off, with 
 out harm to him, ihe had discharged his 
 in the air or reserved his fire, the fight 
 would have been at an end." 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Cilley s friends 
 said that, even admitting that Mr. 
 Wise was correct in his assertion that 
 Mr. Cilley fired after the discharge of 
 Mr. Graves s rifle, it was equally true, 
 according to his own statement, that 
 Mr. Graves, on the first exchange of 
 shots, had done the same thing toward 
 Mr. Cilley. It does not appear how 
 Mr. Wise could reconcile his allegation 
 in this regard with his official state 
 ment, conjointly with Mr. Jones, that 
 the second shot was exchanged "in a 
 manner perfectly fair and honorable to 
 all parties," and that they bore their 
 unqualified testimony to the fair and 
 honorable manner in which the duel 
 was conducted. 
 
 Between the second and third shots, 
 in making the proposition he did, that 
 Cilley should say that "in declining to 
 receive Colonel Webb s note, he TV- nt 
 no disrespect to Mr. Graves, either di 
 rectly or indirectly," Mr. Wise says he 
 went beyond his instructions; and that 
 "he understood Mr. Jones to say that 
 "Mr. Cilley would not say these words 
 alone, nor without adding words which 
 did away the effect of the word indi 
 rectly, and which left the parties ex 
 actly where they were when they came 
 upon the ground." He says, "It was 
 at the instance of Mr. Graves himself 
 that I remarked to Mr. Jones, imme 
 diately previous to the last exchange of 
 shots, If this matter is not termin 
 ated- this shot, and is not settled, I 
 
 shall propose to shorten the distance. * 
 Later February, 1839 Mr. Wise 
 availed himself of an opportunity to 
 present his defence before the House of 
 Representatives. I was there and 
 heard it. He was wildly excited and 
 defiant. Said he: 
 
 "I am ready to be tried. Put me at 
 your bar, and I will plead instantly. I 
 am ready to say on the spot, I did on 
 that occasion just what I will do again 
 under similar circumstances. Let 
 Puritans shudder as they may, I pro 
 claim that I belong to the class of 
 Cavaliers, not to the Roundheads! 
 You shall not taunt me. What are you 
 doing? You have passed a penitentiary 
 act [the anti-duelling law]. You are 
 then bound to take the defence of 
 character into your own hand, as you 
 have taken arms from the hands of 
 the cavalier. Will you do it? No! I 
 call upon you, I call upon society, eith 
 er to defend me or give me back my 
 arms. In the face of an approaching 
 election, I say to my good constituents. 
 ... If you are determined I shall 
 not defend myself when assailed, like 
 a true knight, do not send me to Con 
 gress, for I shall just as surely fight, if 
 occasion is given, as you send me; and 
 so I shall ever continue until the holy 
 religion of the Cross takes possession 
 of my soul, which may God grant 
 right early." 
 
 Up to this time, and for nearly two 
 years afterwards, Mr. Wise, in public 
 estimation, stood out prominently as 
 the one individual altogether the most 
 deserving of censure in this matter. As 
 he himself aid in an appeal "to the 
 public," in March, 1842, "The whole 
 weight of an almost insupportable 
 odium fell upon my reputation for my 
 conduct in the affair." 
 
 But in the winter of that year, or 
 earlier, the relations of some of the 
 
CLAY. 
 
 parties to the transaction had become 
 changed. Mr. Wise ,had espoused the 
 cause of President Tyler, thus separ 
 ating himself from his old friend Henry 
 Clay, who was a candidate for the 
 presidency, and to whose fortunes 
 Messrs. Graves and Webb, wi:h the 
 Whig party generally, adhered. It be 
 gan to be whispered about that Mr. 
 Clay had been consulted and exercised 
 a controlling influence in the affair of 
 the duel, and a direct charge to this ef 
 fect brought out Mr. Graves, on a call 
 from Mr. Clay, in explanation. I will 
 not extend this narrative by going at 
 length into the particulars of the cor 
 respondence which followed, and in 
 which Messrs. Wise, Grave, Clay, 
 Reverdy Johnson, and Charles King 
 took part. Suffice it to say that, ex 
 cept so far as Wise was concerned, all 
 was said that could be to exculpate 
 Mr. Clay, but, as must be admitted, 
 not with entire success. It came out 
 that he was early consulted by all these 
 gentlemen, and that he actually "drew 
 the form of challenge which was final 
 ly adopted." It was a modification of 
 the form submitted to him by Wise and 
 Graves, and the latter states that "it 
 was rather calculated to soften the 
 language and not so completely to 
 close the door to an adjustment of the 
 difficulty." Mr. Wise says that when 
 he and Mr. Graves called on Mr. Clay, 
 in discussing the terms of the duel, 
 which he (Wise) "protested against as 
 unusual and barbarous," Mr. Clay re 
 marked that Mr. Graves was "a Ken- 
 tuckian, and that no Kentuckian could 
 back out from a rifle." 
 
 Mr. Wise stated that "Mr. Clay s 
 friends particularly were very anxijus, 
 for obvious reasons, not to involve his 
 name especially in the affair. Thus 
 many confidential facts remained un 
 known on both sides. Mr. Clay him 
 
 self, it is true, while all his friends 
 were trembling lest the part he took in 
 it should be disclosed, boldly came to 
 me and said, Sir, it is a nine days 
 bubble! If they want to know what I 
 did in the matter, tell them to call me 
 before them and I will tell them. This 
 excited my admiration at the time, and 
 was effectual to prevent me from un 
 necessarily bringing his name before 
 the committee." 
 
 After all, I think public sentiment, 
 as at first expressed, was not material 
 ly modified by these later develop 
 ments, and that it remains unchanged 
 as regards Wise s great culpability, 
 notwithstanding Graves, in the course 
 of their correspondence, declared to 
 him, "I always have, and now do, most 
 emphatically exempt you from all 
 blame or censure growing out of your 
 connection with the affair. I, and I 
 only, am justly responsible for what 
 ever was done by myself or those rep 
 resenting me as my friends on that oc 
 casion." 
 
 One of the most stinging accusations 
 against Mr. Wise was made by ex- 
 President John Quincy Adams, in the 
 House of Representatives on the 26th 
 of January, 1842, when a resolution, of 
 fered by Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia (killed 
 by the bursting of the "Peacemaker" 
 on the "Princeton," in February, 1844), 
 was under discussion, declaring that 
 Mr. Adams had wstly incurred the 
 censure of the Houtse in presenting for 
 its consideration an abolition petition 
 for the dissolution of the Union. Mr. 
 Wise took a leading part in the discus 
 sion, in the course of which the vener 
 able ex-President was led to say that, 
 "four or five years ago, there came to 
 the House a man [Wise] with his 
 hands and face dripping with the blood 
 of a murder, the blotches of which 
 were yet hanging upon him." This, in 
 
THREE 
 
 nearly the same language, he twice re 
 peated, and at the same time said: "I 
 never did beUeve but he [Wise] was 
 the guilty man, and that the man who 
 pulled the trigger was but an instru 
 ment in his hands. This was my belief 
 in the beginning." 
 
 Of the actors in this deplorable af 
 fair, the only survivor (December, 1891) 
 is George W. Jones, of Iowa, Mr. Cll- 
 ley ts second. Mr. Graves, after long 
 and intense suffering, both mental and 
 physical, died in Louisville, Ky., on the 
 27th of September, 1848, aged forty- 
 three years. 
 
 The public funerals held by Congress, 
 and also in Augusta, Thomaston and 
 other places -were deeply impressive in 
 their nature and called out a wealth of 
 eulogy, and showed only too plainly 
 the great hold that Jonathan Cilley 
 had upon the people of t(he entire 
 country. 
 
 "There is a curious psychological 
 fact connected with this matter," says 
 Gen. J. P. Cilley. "Father was killed 
 on Saturday, and tihe next day being 
 Sunday, my mother took down a copy 
 of Watts Hymns, and began to turn 
 the pages. She had not heard of fath 
 er s death, and after turning a few 
 leaves she found a hymn that impress 
 ed her so profoundly that she marked 
 the page, in order to refer to it again. 
 A short time afterward she learned 
 that the hymn in question .was the very 
 one sung at his funeral in the halls of 
 Congress. It was the poem com 
 mencing with these lines: 
 
 "Far, far o er hill and dale on the winds 
 
 stealing 
 
 List to the tolling bell, mournfully pealing; 
 Hark ! hark ! it seems to say, 
 As melts those sounds away, 
 So life s best joys decay 
 Whilst new their feeling. 
 O er a father s tomb see the orphan bending, 
 From the solemn churchyard s gloom hear the 
 
 dirge ascending; 
 
 Hark ! Hark ! it seems to say, 
 How short ambition s sway, 
 Life s joys and friendship s ray, 
 In the dark grave ending." 
 
 "In a few months my father s body 
 was brought home from the Congres 
 sional burying ground in Washington. 
 When the vessel reached Rockland, a 
 company of friends took the body from 
 the boat and carried it to Thomaston 
 on their shoulders, wihere elaborate and 
 impressive services were held. It al 
 most seems that I have a dim recollec 
 tion of t!he event, although this may be 
 my own imagination. Even the people 
 of the South denounced father s death 
 as a murder. In the Maysville, Ken 
 tucky, Monitor, a poem was printed a 
 short time after the duel, entitled "A 
 Lament for Hon. Jonathan Cilley." 
 Here is the poem, but I cannot tell you 
 the name of the author: 
 "And thou art dead and lowly laid, 
 The f oeman s dread, thy people s aid ; 
 And shall no requiem chant for thee, 
 Son of the bold, the brave, the free? 
 Thus saith the bard, as with trembling hand, 
 He touched his harp to a solemn sound ; 
 Then softly rose a mournful strain, 
 As those who weep for the early slain. 
 Son of the North of a hero s line, 
 Why bend they o er thy lowly shrine? 
 Why stand these mourners in mute array, 
 With weeds of woe in sad display, 
 While many a chieftain, tall and true, 
 With tears thy early fall bedew, 
 And silent awe and gloomy shades, 
 O er the vast multitude pervades? 
 Why waits that lady, so sad and lone, 
 In her bower afar, her loved one s return? 
 Tne swell of emotion is heard in her sighs. 
 Ah ! in vain, lovely lady, shalt thou listen to 
 
 hear 
 
 His accents of kindness again fall on thine ear, 
 In the hall of his fathers his footsteps no more, 
 He lies a pale corpse on a far distant shore. 
 Fell he in the battle as his fathers had done? 
 Or fell he in phalanx, the gallant among? 
 Ah ! as for the story too tragic to tell, 
 How the young and the noble so fatally fell : 
 Too honest to falter, too proud to deny, 
 Too brave to act craven, or dastardly fly, 
 His truth or his valor he never could yield, 
 A martyr to honor he sank in the field." 
 
SONS OF JONATHAN CILL/EY 
 
 29 
 
 Thus died the brave and gifted Jona 
 than Cilley. To our regret for the loss 
 of that splendid genius must be added 
 another grief that he threw away his 
 life for so senseless a cause. True to 
 his New England blood and training he 
 was ever staunch and steadfast until 
 he swerved in this final scene. If ho 
 had a mistaken sense of honor he paid 
 the forfeit, and we may now well 
 spread garlands above his grave. Had 
 not the grim messenger cut short that 
 brilliant genius we know not to what 
 splendid heights it might have mount 
 ed. In our imagination we will no 
 longer dwell upon his grave, but pic 
 ture him as still rising on triumphant 
 wing above all struggles and aspira 
 tions that may surround him on that 
 farther shore. 
 
 Greenleaf Cilley, son of Jonathan, 
 born in Thomaston, Me., Oct. 27th, 1829 
 and died at San Isidro, Argentina, 
 South America, Feb. 5, 1899. He at 
 tended the school of the Rev. Mr. 
 Parkhurst of Stan-dish, Me. for one 
 year, subsequently the Bath High 
 school; was appointed as midshipman 
 in the U. S. Navy, Feb. 26th, 1841, and 
 was ordered to the frigate "Cumber 
 land," iSept. 1843. Sickness prevented his 
 sailing in the vessel, which he subse 
 quently rejoined by order of the Navy 
 Department in Naples, Italy. He 
 served in the Cumberland and sloop of 
 war "Plymouth" in the Mediterranian 
 Squadron until Nov., 1845, and in the 
 Plymouth on the Brazil station re 
 turning to New York in October, 1846, 
 and was ordered to .the Naval school at 
 Annapolis, Md. After a month s so 
 journ there, he sought for and obtained 
 orders for the seat of war in the Gulf 
 of Mexico in the line of battleship 
 "Ohio," 84 guns, was at the Naval bat 
 
 tery near Vera Cruz before and after 
 the capitulation. Assisted the army 
 division at the crossing of the Medelin 
 river on its march to and from Alvara- 
 do, was in the expedition to Tuspan, 
 Mexico, and at its capture, being 
 slightly wounded while storming the 
 shore battery nearest the town. De 
 tached from the Ohio and ordered to 
 the Naval academy, reporting ithere 
 Jan., 1848. Graduated as passed mid 
 shipman the following July, and re 
 ceived three months leave of absence. 
 At its expiration joined the frigate 
 Raritan and served in it on the Home 
 and Gulf station until detached in 
 April, 1850. After three months leave, 
 ordered to the transport "Fredonia," 
 and conveyed from New York to Beni- 
 cia, Cal., a battalion of the Fourth In 
 fantry. Made acting master in Callao, 
 Peru, and served as such till joining 
 the frigate St. Lawrence at Valparaiso, 
 Chili, when he was appointed acting 
 lieutenant in March, 1852, and finished 
 the cruise in this frigate, returning to 
 Norfolk, Va. in the spring of 1853. Af 
 ter a short leave was ordered to the 
 store ship Lexington and made the 
 trip to Spezzia, Italy, returning to New 
 York in Dec., 1853. As soon as detach 
 ed, ordered to .the coast survey steam 
 er Jefferson and left Philadelphia, Feb., 
 1854 for San Francisco, Cal. on the 25th 
 May of that year when about 120 miles 
 from Penguin Island, Patagonia, and 
 the third day of a heavy gale of wind, 
 the vessel broached to and the masts 
 were cut away to right her, fortunately 
 the following night the gale broke, and 
 the steamer the following day reached 
 Sea Bear bay and later Port Desire 
 river, Patagonia. Here she was sur 
 veyed and condemned as unseaworthy. 
 The captain, officers and crew took 
 passage in the French bark "Aristide" 
 
30 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 to Montevideo, and from there were 
 transferred to the store-ship Relief and 
 conveyed to New York, arriving there 
 Nov. 1854. Shortly after was ordered 
 to the steamer "Legare" and served till 
 June, 1855, surveying the Florida reef 
 and bays. Joined the sloop of war 
 "Saratoga" in Aug. as acting master, 
 promoted to master, Sept. 14th, and to 
 lieutenant, Sept. 15th, 1855. Served the 
 entire cruise in the "Saratoga," and 
 was in :the affair at Graytown, Nicara 
 gua, when Walker and his filibusters 
 were captured. After a short leave of 
 absence, joined the coast steamer Het- 
 zel and surveyed in the North Carolina 
 sound and Chesapeake bay until Nov., 
 1808, when was detached and ordered to 
 the steamer Metacomet, fitting out for 
 the Paraguay expedition at Pensacola, 
 Fla., took passage to her in the steam 
 er Arctic, arrived in Montevideo in the 
 spring of 1859, and shortly after was 
 ordered to the brig Dolphin and served 
 in her until re-ordered to the steamer 
 Pulaski (named changed from Meta 
 comet.) Served in this steamer as 
 watch, executive officer, lieutenant 
 commander and senior officer of the 
 station, except an intermission of a few 
 months in 1861, when attached to the 
 frigate Congress, until she was sold in 
 Jan., 1863. Promoted to lieutenant 
 commander, 16th July, 1862. Took pas 
 sage with his wife and child in the 
 bark John Wesley and arrived in New 
 York in June, 1863. As soon as his ac 
 counts were settled as acting pay 
 master, took a trip to Niagara Falls, 
 Thousand Islands,, Montreal, Quebec, 
 Saguenay, and White Mountains, " at 
 which latter place he received orders to 
 the gunboat Unadilla, South Atlantic 
 Blockading Squadron, taking passage 
 from Boston to Charleston, S. C. in the 
 steamer Cirassian. After a short time 
 
 in command of the Unadilla at Port 
 Royal, was ordered to command the 
 monitor Catskill off Charleston, S. C., 
 and was engaged in blockading the in 
 ner harbor, and at times cannonading 
 For.t Sumpter. In Jan., 1864 returned 
 North, ! his daughter having died the 
 previous month. In March, ordered to 
 the steamer Fort Jackson and served 
 in the North Atlantic Blockading 
 Squadron off Wilmington, N. C. In a 
 few months was ordered to the line of 
 battle ship "New Hampshire," and took 
 her from Portsmouth, N. H. to Port 
 Royal, S. C., returning in the "Ver 
 mont." In August, was ordered to the 
 "Colorado" siteam frigate as executive 
 officer; served in the North Atlantic 
 Squadron until detached in Nov., 1864. 
 Placed on the retired list 18th March, 
 1865. Promoted to commander 12th 
 May 1867. In May, 1866 he embarked 
 with his wife and son in :the bark 
 "Ocean Pearl" and went to Montevideo, 
 Uruguay, where he engaged in raising 
 sheep on the Estancia Esmeralda, near 
 Mercedes. On the breaking out of a 
 revolution removed with his family to 
 Buenos Ayres and resided in the city 
 for a while, then moved to San Isldro, 
 where he resided several years, a part 
 of which itime he cruised about the Del 
 ta of ithe Parana in the Chalana Luisa. 
 At the close of the Paraguayan war, he 
 navigated from Montevideo to Rio de 
 Janeiro and back, the siteamer Villette, 
 and subsequently commanded the 
 steamer Anges-tura from Ascencion, 
 Paraguay, to Colonia, Uruguay. In 
 July, 1874 he ascended the Parana and 
 Paraguay rivers to Corumba, Brazil, 
 and at that place engaged and fitted 
 out a party of five men, with whom, he 
 descended to the mouth of the river 
 Negra, and was four months exploring 
 the wilds of the Bahia Negra. Return- 
 
SONS OF JONATHAN CILLEY 
 
 31 
 
 ed to Corumba and paid off his men, 
 and in Jan., 1875, left for Central Boli 
 via, passing through Santiago, San 
 Jose and Eguez, ttowns of Chequitos 
 and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Samapata, 
 to Sucre, one of the capitals of Bolivia. 
 For many months he was employed 
 making- plans and estimates, and seek 
 ing from theBolivian Congress the con 
 cession of a railway from Bahia Negra 
 to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Congress 
 finally passed a bill authorizing the 
 supreme Government to make terms, 
 but before they could be executed a 
 revolution occurred and nothing could 
 be done. He then proceeded on to the 
 Pacific ocean via Misque, Cochaibamba, 
 Oruro, Tacna and Arica, w here vhe took 
 steamer to Valparaiso, and from that 
 port embarked in the P. M. S. "Acon 
 cagua" June 1875. 
 
 For many months engaged in bring 
 ing up the results of his surveys. Em 
 barking in iMarch, 1876 with his eldest 
 son, Jonathan for the U. S. and re 
 mained there eight years. 
 
 Captain Cilley returned to Buenos 
 Ayres in Jan., 1884 and resided in the 
 capital several years, moving to the 
 town of "Nueve de Julio" in 1891, and 
 .La Plata, Feb., 1893. In June the same 
 year came with his son, Joseph, via. 
 Southampton and London to the 
 United States and visited the Colum 
 bian World s Fair Exposition a;t Chica 
 go, 111., and his relatives. Returned to 
 Buenos Ayres in April, 1894. Mar 
 ried in Montevideo, Uruguay, S. A., 
 13th May, 1861, Malvina, daughter of 
 Gov. Luis and Maria (Saez) V ernet 01 
 iBuenos Ayres, born 5th Feb., 1830, in 
 the Malvina Islands, otherwise called 
 Falkland Islands. Gov. Vernet was 
 born in Hamburg, Ger. ; lived eleven 
 years in Philadelphia and from there 
 went to South America and married 
 
 and established himself in business in 
 Buenos Ayres. He was civil and mili 
 tary governor of the Malvina Islands 
 in 18 29- 31, when his colony was de 
 stroyed by Captain Duncan, command 
 ing the U. S. sloop of war, Lexington, 
 subsequently the English government 
 seized his possessions and have held 
 them ever since by right of force. 
 Capt. Cilley had six children, three 
 boys and three girls. 
 
 The present Gen. Jonathan Prince 
 Cilley has well sustained tlie reputation 
 of the family line for military valor 
 and intellectual vigor. He was born in 
 1835 and graduated from Bowdoin Col 
 lege in the Class of 1 868. Two years 
 later he was admitted to the practice 
 of law before the Knox county bar, 
 and at once formed a partnership with 
 Lysander Hill and opened an office in 
 Thomaston. 
 
 The practice of his profession was 
 followed but a short time. The smoul 
 dering fires of rebellion broke over the 
 nation and Mr. Cilley was one of the 
 first men to Spring to his country s 
 call. In the early part of 18 6rL he en 
 listed one hundred and fifty men and 
 his own name headed the list of volun 
 teers. It was intended that these men 
 should form a light battery and H. B. 
 Humphrey of Thomaston, offering- to 
 give the six guns required, provided 
 that the state would complete the 
 equipment of the battery. The War 
 Department declined the offer on the 
 ground that infantry only was needed 
 at that time. When, however, it was 
 known that cavalry also was to be 
 raised in Maine, Mr. Cilley enlisted, 
 and his name stands first on the rolls 
 of the First Maine Cavalry under late 
 Sept. 3d, 1861. He was subsequently 
 made captain of Co. B, raised by him 
 
32 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 in the counties of Knox and Waldo, of 
 which he remained in command until 
 he was severely wounded in his right 
 arm and shoulder, and taken prisoner 
 at Middletown, Va., during 1 the retreat 
 of Gen. Banks from the Shenandoa.h 
 Valley, May 24th, 1862. A short time 
 after this misfortune, he received the 
 commission of major, bearing date 
 April 14tih, 1862. 
 
 After being disabled by his wound 
 for several months, Major Cilley was 
 ordered by the War Department, April 
 1st, 18i63, to report to Gen. John H. 
 Martindale, military governor of Wash 
 ington, for special duty, and on the 7th 
 was assigned to duty as Judge Advo 
 cate and Examining officer at the Cen 
 tral Guard house. He remained on this 
 duty until Aug. 1st, when, although 
 his wound was still unhealed, he again 
 took the field and remained with his 
 regiment until June 24th, 1864, wlhen he 
 was once more wounded. He again re 
 ported for duty Sept. 24th, and took 
 command of the regiment, having been 
 promoted and . mustered Lieut. Col., to 
 rank from June 6th, 1864. From this 
 time until it was finally discharged and 
 paid at Augusta, Colonel Cilley was 
 constantly present with and in com 
 mand of his regiment and at a later 
 date received the brevet rank of briga 
 dier general for bravery at the battle 
 of Dinwiddie Court House and Appo- 
 mattox. 
 
 The history of the First Maine Cav 
 alry is known to all. It was especially 
 complimented by Gen. Sheridan and is 
 authorized to bear the names of three 
 more battles upon its standard than 
 any other regiment of the army of the 
 Potomac. This is the best evidence rf 
 his efficiency as a military leader. In 
 his regiment Gen. Cilley was the first 
 man that enlisted, the first man 
 wounded, and nearly the last mustered 
 
 out. He was wounded a third time at 
 Dinwiddie Court House, but kept with 
 his regiment. There are many anec 
 dotes of Gen. Cilley s services. His ac 
 count of the work of his regiment the 
 nigiht tefore and on the morning of 
 Lee s surrender is given for its cl^ar 
 presentation of its service on that 
 eventful day: 
 
 "The regiment moved rapidly at 
 first, but slowly as the hours of mid 
 night drew near and the rebel pickets 
 drew bead on us. Back and still back 
 we pressed them till our brigade, far 
 from all support at the time, lay on 
 the brow of Clover Hill before Appo- 
 mattox Court House, on the road on 
 which if he advanced at all, Lee must 
 come out in the morning. The rebel 
 pickets fired briskly at this point, but 
 stopped as our advance halted. The 
 hour was 1 a. m., April 9. We came 
 dismounted, front into line, with the 
 1st Maine on the left of the road and 
 the rest of the brigade on the right, 
 and one regiment in reserve. Behind a 
 slight barrier of rails, without blankets, 
 in the cold damp air of April, we wait 
 ed for morning and Gen. Lee s army. 
 A line of dismounted videttes was 
 thrown out in our front to give warn 
 ing of approaching danger. Knowing 
 the difficulty of placing such a line in 
 the darkness, I personally attended to 
 posting them, and when done a desire 
 possessed me to learn something of the 
 force in front. I advanced in front of 
 the line, and stooping to prevent my 
 body being seen against the line of the 
 horizon, for I knew now how near the 
 rebel videttes might be, I crept for 
 ward well, as far as I dared. I sat on 
 the ground and listened to the rebel 
 teamsters in tlhe valley below packing 
 their wagons, with oaths and impreca 
 tions savoring of tired Ihorses and 
 wearied, angry men. Thought of the 
 
Lazell, 1 yr., 8. mos. Walter, 3 yrs. Jonathan, 5 yrs. 
 
 GRANDCHILDREN OF GEN. J. P. CILLEY 
 
SONS OP JONATHAN CILLEY 
 
 33 
 
 morning; of what our small force could 
 do to keep back the retoel hosts in 
 front, not knowing that our infantry 
 were marching all that night to take 
 post in our rear. 
 
 "Lee forces tired and sleepy that 
 morning, did not wake early, and the 
 section of artillery accompanying us 
 moved to the brow of the hill and 
 caused them to open their eyes that 
 pleasant Sunday morning by dropping 
 shot and shell into the middle of their 
 camp. For an hour or more after sun 
 rise, we watched a column of their 
 cavalry move by our right, half a mile 
 or so away. Ais far as we were con 
 cerned, we could see nothing of any 
 force prepared or placed to support us. 
 It seemed as if we were alone and the 
 army of Lee in our front. When their 
 skirmishers and advance came in view, 
 never did the enemy more sluggishly 
 come forward. Their line extended be 
 yond ours by twice its length, but our 
 carbines held them in check till they 
 commenced to lap round our brigade on 
 the right and left, and sharp firing in 
 front told us the heavy effort made to 
 clear this road of its cavalry curtain. 
 Slowly they rolled us back. We re 
 ceived and we inflicted loss. In ten 
 short days, of which this was the end, 
 our regiment lost in killed and wound 
 ed of those present for duty (seven 
 killed or mortally wounded on this day) 
 one third its men and one-half its offi 
 cers. We were too sleepy to move rapidly 
 We were too cross to be shoved by bullets. 
 Back from the wooded crest of Clover 
 Hill; back over an open field and a lit 
 tle rise; back down a long sloping in 
 
 cline straightening our line at its foot 
 toy the aid of a rail fence, and with our 
 men in hand, we charged up the in 
 cline or hill, to be again ordered back, 
 and leaving one of our battery guns 
 stalled at its foot. Back up a long rise 
 of ground, covered with woods at the 
 top and the curtain of cavalry cover 
 ing the last scene or the rebellion was 
 rolled fully up, and before the 
 astonished vision of the rebel force 
 (Stood Griffin .with the 5th and Ord with 
 the 24th Corps and a part of the 25th 
 Corps. A colored division of the latter 
 stepped into the place of our regiment. 
 All night long had they marched, but 
 how refreshing the sight of their black 
 countenances at this time. At the 
 spectacle the rebel host staggered 
 back, and their whole line wavered as 
 if each particular man was terror 
 struck. The curtain fell on four years 
 fighting!" 
 
 Among the classmates of Gen. Cilley 
 were Col. Drew of Lewiston, Gen. 
 Frank Fessenden of Portland and Hon. 
 Edward B. Nealley of Bangor, and Gen. 
 Ellis Spear of Washington, D. C. 
 
 Gen. Cilley is now seventy years of 
 age, but excellently preserved. He is 
 still in the harness and practicing law 
 with his wife s son, Edward B. Bur 
 pee, in Rockland. He has been twice 
 married, and two children have come to 
 bless his home. The son, Jonathan P., 
 Jr., is no w deceased, but the daughter, 
 Mrs. Walter G. Tibbetts, now residing 
 in Alameda, Cal., and her bright and 
 handsome children have been photo 
 graphed for this article. 
 
JONATHAN LONGFELLOW 
 
 The Father of Sarah, Wife of General 
 Joseph Cilley 
 
 [By John Scales, A. M.J 
 
 Jonathan Longfellow was born May 
 23, 1714, at Hampton Falls; he died in 
 1774 at Machias, Me.; so he was only 
 sixty years old, but during those three 
 score years he was one of the busiest 
 men in New Hampshire. His father, 
 Nathan Longfellow, was born in 1690, 
 the youngest of six children, being born 
 while his father, Ensign William Long 
 fellow, was away on a military expedi 
 tion, under Governor Phips, to capture 
 Quebec. They did not capture that city, 
 but instead lost some of the fleet by 
 shipwreck on Anticosti Island, and also 
 several lives were lost, among whom 
 was Ensign Longfellow. 
 
 William Longfellow was born at 
 Horsforth, Eng., in 1651, so when he 
 died in 1690 he was not quite forty 
 years old. He came to Newbury, Mass., 
 about 1670, and married Ann Sewall in 
 1678 and resided at Newbury the rest of 
 his years, engaged in trade, keeping a 
 store .at the first falls of Parker river, 
 at the head of tide water in that town. 
 Concerning his ancestors in England, 
 the Rev. Robert Collyer wrote an inter 
 esting article a few years ago. Mr. 
 Collyer had recently visited the poet, 
 Henry Waclsworth Longfellow, which 
 visit caused him to write of the Doet s 
 early ancestors in England, who lived 
 
 in the same section of the country as 
 Collyer s ancestors. In passing it may 
 be well to state that the great poet was 
 fifth in descent from the immigrant 
 William, through Stephen Longfellow, 
 the blacksmith; Stephen Longfellow, 
 the schoolmaster; Stephen Longfellow, 
 the judge; and Stephen Longfellow, one 
 of Maine s great lawyers. Henry Wads- 
 worth Longfellow s grandfather, 
 Stephen the Judge, was cousin to Jona 
 than the Judge, the subject of this pa 
 per. William Longfellow, the immi 
 grant, was son of William, grandson 
 of Edward, great-grandson of Thomas 
 and great-greatgrandson of Percival 
 Longfellow, who was born about A. D. 
 1500. Rev. Robert Collyer, English born, 
 but one of the greatest preachers Am 
 erica has had, often visited the poet 
 Longfellow. After one of these visits 
 he wrote: 
 
 "One reason for our meetings was 
 that we might wander together in 
 thought through the green lanes, past 
 the neat hedgerows and over the grassy 
 meadows that were familiar to the feet 
 of his ancestors three hundred years 
 ago. I had sat in the same old church 
 es they did; I had wondered, as they 
 had at the old warrior in his armor of 
 chain mail; I had stood at the same 
 
JONATHAN LONGFELLOW. 
 
 35 
 
 font at which the child (William the 
 immigrant) was baptized, from whom 
 our good poet had sprung; and in the 
 old churchyard the dust of his fore 
 fathers lay side by side with that of 
 mine. 
 
 "The old home was Ilkley, in York 
 shire. I have copies of the old charters 
 and surveys of the town that date back 
 almost to the Conquest, but no Loner- 
 fellow appears before 1510, and then 
 vrithin ten miles of Ilkley. Those Long- 
 fellows were simply sons of the soil. 
 The first one mentioned was a day la 
 borer, and he paid four pence as his 
 share to help Henry VIII. fight against 
 Prance. Later these Longfcllows be 
 came church wardens and overseers of 
 highways, and gradually climbed to 
 higher places. 
 
 "Those ancient Lonerfeliows were as 
 purely bits of nature as the oaks in the 
 woods or the heather on the hillside. 
 They had a certain old Saxon insistence 
 upon what they believed was their 
 right. They believed that game he- 
 longed to them as much as the great 
 lords and landowners, hence the Long- 
 fellows were leaders in raids on grame. 
 It was the fight of the Saxon aeainst 
 the Norman. Our Longfellow is the 
 flower of all the centuries of his family 
 history, and he makes the race immor 
 tal." 
 
 Jonathan Longfellow s mother was 
 Mary Green, daughter of Capt. Jacob 
 Green and grand-daughter of Judge 
 Henry Green, who was the earliest 
 owner of the falls, at Hampton Falls 
 river, where he built and the family for 
 four generations owned a grist-mill, 
 and a saw-mill, where now are 
 the mills owned by Mrs. John 
 W. Dodge. It was in the house 
 near these mills that Jonathan Longfel 
 low was born. Henry Green held vari 
 
 ous offices in the town and province, 
 being Justice of the Court of Common 
 Sessions: Royal Councellor, 1685-1698, 
 and Chief Justice of the Court of Com 
 mon Pleas, 1697-1698. His son, Capt. 
 Jacob Green, was prominent in town 
 affairs and captain of a military com- 
 nany from 1699 to 1720, a period when 
 the Indians and French made the office 
 of captain anything but a sinecure po 
 sition. 
 
 Jonathan Longfellow s grandmother, 
 Ann Sewall, was sister to Judge Samuel 
 Sewall one of Massachusetts 
 most distinguished jurists of 
 the Colonial period. She was 
 born while her parents were on the 
 voyage across the Atlantic, it being 
 their second passage. Her father, 
 Henry Sewall, Jr., and grandfather, 
 Henry Sewall, Sr., were the chief men 
 in founding Newbury, Mass., being very 
 wealthy and staunch Puritans. Ann 
 Sewall s great grandfather, Henry Sew- 
 all, was mayor of Coventry, Eng., 1589- 
 1606, being a very wealthy linen draper, 
 whose ancestry is traced back to before 
 the Conquest, to a Saxon Thane who 
 spelled his name "Saswald," and owned 
 great possessions in lands and at the 
 place of his residence built and owned a 
 church. Mayor Sewall died in 1628. 
 
 Such were the ancestors of Jonathan 
 Longfellow. He was a well-born, 
 thoroughbred Englishman. Being the 
 eldest of Nathan Longfellow s children, 
 he was the pet of his grandfather.Capt. 
 Jacob Green and at an early age was 
 instructed in the management of the 
 grist-mill and the saw-mill, which the 
 captain owned at the Falls, and his 
 education otherwise was carefully look 
 ed after. When Jonathan was twelve 
 years old his grandfather died, leaving 
 the larger part of his large property to 
 his daughter, Mary Longfellow. When 
 
36 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 Jonathan was seventeen years old his 
 father died, which entailed large busi 
 ness interests on the widow, but she 
 managed all with skill and good judg 
 ment, being assisted by her oldest son, 
 Jonathan. A few months before he was 
 eighteen years old he became united in 
 marriage with Mercy Clark, who was 
 of the same age as himself. They com 
 menced housekeeping with his mother, 
 and he managed the mills and the 
 farm. Thus nearly ten years of his life 
 was passed, busily and happily, and he 
 was known as "Jonathan Longfellow, 
 the Miller." 
 
 Just a few lines about Mercy Clark, 
 his wife. She was born in Nowbury, 
 Mass., December 26, 1714, where she re 
 sided till she married and settled at 
 Hampton Falls. She was a daughter of 
 Mr. Henry Clark and his wife, Eliza 
 beth Greenleaf. Henry was the son of 
 Ensign Nathaniel Clark of Rowley and 
 Elizabeth Somerby, his wife. Nathan 
 iel was naval officer at Newbury and 
 Salem for several years. He was en 
 sign of the Rowley company of militia, 
 which went with Sir William Phips on 
 the expedition to Quebec in 1690, the 
 same in which Ensign William Longfel- 
 tow lost his life. While at sea, before 
 reaching the St. Lawrence river, Ensign 
 Clark lost his life by accident. 
 
 Mercy Clark s mother, Elizabeth 
 Gre-enleaf was a daughter of Capt. 
 Stephen Greenleaf, Jr., and Elizabeth 
 Gerrish, his wife; and he was the son 
 of Capt. Stephen Greenleaf, S.r., and his 
 wife, Elizabeth Coffin, daughter of 
 Judge Tristram Coffin of Newbury and 
 Nantucket. Captain Stephen, Sr., com 
 manded a company of Newbury men in 
 Sir William Phips expedition of 1690, 
 already mentioned. He was shipwrecked 
 on Anticosti Island, with Ensign Long 
 fellow, but managed to get home alive. 
 
 These Greenleafa were distinguished in 
 military and civil affairs in the Massa 
 chusetts Bay Colony. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier, the poet, was a great-grand 
 son of Capt. Stephen Greenleaf, Jr. 
 Such were the ancestors of Mercy 
 Clark Longfellow. 
 
 Mary Green Longfellow died about 
 1741, and her death made it necessary 
 to divide the property which had been 
 held nearly intact from the death of her 
 father, Capt. Jacob Green, in 1726. Soon 
 after the death of his mother, Jona 
 than Longfellow s name appears in the 
 records relating to Nottingham, and for 
 more than a score of years he resided 
 in that part of the town now Deerfield, 
 but which was not made a separate 
 town till he had removed to Rye. He 
 was a land speculator and was one of 
 the active promoters in settling the 
 town of Nottingham, together with the 
 Bartletts, the Cilleys, the Batchelders, 
 the Butlers, the Marstons and other 
 noted families of that town, in its early 
 history. Soon after going there his 
 name appears as an officer of the mi 
 litia, which was required to keep guard 
 against attacks by Indians, and before 
 he left the town he had risen to be cap 
 tain. The first thing he had to do, 
 when he went to Nottingham to settle, 
 was to build a garrison, which he lo 
 cated on a little hill on the opposite 
 side of the road from the present Mars- 
 ton residence, about half a mile below 
 Deerfield Parade. This location was 
 then on the frontier of civilization. 
 Between that and Canada on the north 
 there was not the habitation of a whits 
 man. Through that vast wilderness 
 the Indians and their allies, 
 the French, ruthless foes of the 
 English settlements, came and were 
 ever on the watch, during that period, 
 to strike blows of destruction or to in- 
 
JONATHAN LONGFELLOW. 
 
 37 
 
 flict as much loss of property as possi 
 ble. Hence it is plain to be seen that 
 Captain Long-fellow and his brave wife 
 had no easy task on that frontier 
 guard-line. They were young people 
 then, just past thirty years of age, with 
 a family of six children, the eldest be 
 ing ten years old. Accompanying this 
 article is a picture of that old garrison, 
 which was torn down only a few years 
 ago. The garrison was the first house 
 built in what is now Deerfield. The farm, 
 one of the best in town was first owned 
 by a Mr. Leavitt, for about six months, 
 who then sold it to Jonathan Longfel 
 low, receiving in payment a certain 
 number of Negro slaves. Where Long 
 fellow got the slaves, or how he hap 
 pened to be dealing in such property 
 the writer has not been able to find 
 out; but the probability is that they 
 came from Africa on some of those 
 Newburyport or Salem ships which ex 
 ported New England rum to the Dark 
 Continent and exchanged it for young 
 Negroes. Sometimes the ship masters car 
 ried their cargoes of black men and 
 women to the West Indies and ex 
 changed them for sugar and molasses, 
 which they brought home. At other 
 times they brought them home direct 
 and sold them in Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire towns. From 1740 till 
 after the close of the Revolution slaves 
 were owned in nearly all the larger 
 towns in New Hampshire. Captain 
 Longfellow, being an enterprising and 
 hustling business man, bought and sold 
 the slaves. He did not give all he had 
 to Leavitt, as he had some left after he 
 built and dwelt in the garrison. His 
 sons-in-law, Joseph Cilley and Nathan 
 iel Batchelder, had some of them after 
 he had removed from the town. Some 
 of the descendants of those slaves live 
 in Exeter now, worthy citizens, un 
 
 mindful of their ancestry. 
 
 The garrison house was very long and 
 wide, but rather low story. It had 
 three large rooms and two smaller bed 
 rooms on the first floor; ascent to the 
 roof was made through the immense 
 garret by ladders, from which observa 
 tions could be made to all points of 
 compass, to watch the approach of any 
 enemy. The garret was used for a gen 
 eral storeroom, and for sleeping apart 
 ments when the guests were numerous, 
 as, no doubt, they often times were. The 
 walls were made of hewn timbers, of 
 great size. The rooms, except the kit 
 chen, were ceiled at the top and sides 
 with sheathing, sawed from old timber 
 pines of immense size. In the period of 
 Indian wars it. had a stockade which 
 enclosed a large yard; these timbers 
 standing on end reached above the 
 eaves of the house, so nothing of the 
 outer world could be seen. There was 
 a large gate to the stockade for ad 
 mittance to the yard. When this was 
 closed it was fastened on the inside 
 with a strong bar, so everything was 
 safe when that was closed. This yard 
 would enclose teams, if necessary; it 
 had sheltered many a family in time of 
 danger from the Indians. At one time 
 a family living in the vicinity of Rand s 
 Corner, by the name of Batchelder, was 
 forced to fiee to this garrison. The 
 family consisted of a husband, wife and 
 two children. One bright moonlight 
 night, while the husband and children 
 slept, the wife sat by the fire knitting; 
 she heard a noise in front of the house, 
 which sounded suspicious. She hastily 
 covered the fire with ashes, blew out 
 the candle and awakened her husfoand 
 with the least possible noise. In a few 
 moments a noise at the front door in 
 dicated plainly that the Indians were 
 about the house. Knowing that it 
 
38 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 would be folly to attempt to defend 
 their home, they wrapped the younger 
 child in blankets and took the older by 
 the hands and, seizing the trusty gun, 
 they quietly made their escape through 
 the back door to the forest near at 
 hand, and hastened to the Longfellow 
 garrison. They succeeded in getting in 
 side of that big gate and barred it se 
 curely, though the wife was nearly ex 
 hausted. Their house was burned by 
 the Indians, but they found a safe shel 
 ter at the garrison, together wilh sev 
 eral other families who had suffered in 
 the same Indian raid. 
 
 Col. Joseph Cilley, who was born in 
 1793, was grandson of General Joseph 
 and Sarah Longfellow Cilley. She died 
 in 1811, so that he ^emembered his 
 grandmother perfectly. Colonel Cilley 
 lived to be past ninety years of age, 
 and in his later days delighted to talk 
 of his grandmother. He said he had 
 visited the old garrison with her, in 
 which she lived during Indian times 
 with her parents. One thing that im 
 pressed his boyish mind strongly was 
 the huge chimney, with the immense 
 fireplaces, in the corners of which one 
 or two could sit comfortably. The kit 
 chen had a dresser, so called, which 
 [filled the place of the modern sideboard. 
 Its capacious shelves were filled . with 
 shining pewter platters and plates and 
 other household utensils. The floors 
 were sanded with white sea sand and 
 were kept scrupulously clean. Whon 
 company was to be entertained the 
 white sand was switched into pretty 
 figures with hemlock brooms, by the 
 skillful hands of the housewife or her 
 maids. 
 
 During the period from 1745 to 1760 
 the Indians made fi.ioiuent raids in thai 
 territory, stealing or killing cattle and 
 horses. They cut the flesh from the 
 
 bones and cut out the tongues, which 
 they cured in smoke to preserve for 
 food on their travels. Frequently it was 
 dangerous for housewives to go out to 
 milk the cows unless they had a man 
 on guard with a trusty gun. When one 
 neighbor visited another an armed man 
 had to go with her for protection. 
 
 From the Nottingham town records it 
 appears that, "At a meeting of the Pro. 
 prietors, held at the block house (on 
 the Square), September 8, 1742, Mr. 
 Jonathan Longfellow was chosen As 
 sessor for the Proprietors, and Lieut. 
 Joseph Cilley, Collector." These gen 
 tlemen continued to hold those offices 
 for several years in succession. Later 
 they were brothers-in-law, Lieutenant 
 Cilley s son, Joseph, the famous colonel 
 of the Revolution, marrying Mr. Long 
 fellow s daughter, Sarah, November 4, 
 1756. 
 
 Again, August 12, 1752, the records 
 say: "Ensign Jonathan Longfellow 
 was elected one of the Selectmen; also 
 was appointed one of a committee to 
 treat with authorities of the town of 
 Durham relative to building a highway 
 from Nottingham Square to Durham 
 village." 
 
 Frequently, in 1747, 1748 and 1749, the 
 Provincial Government stationed sol 
 diers at Longfellow s garrison and 
 placed him in command. It was their 
 duty to range back and forth over a 
 line fifteen miles in length, through the 
 forests from Rochester to Chester, and 
 to give protection to the farmers. Some 
 times as many as thirty soldiers were 
 on duty. The following from the Pro 
 vincial Records will give an idea of how 
 Gov. Benning Wentworth and his 
 Councillors conducted the war with the 
 Indians and French. It is copied from 
 the Journal of the House. 
 
 "Saturday 29th August, 1747. Whereas 
 
JONATHAN LONGFELLOW. 
 
 39 
 
 Capt. Jonathan Longfellow, by a war 
 rant from ye Governor has Inlisted 
 thirty men to go out after ye Indians, 
 upon ye Scalp bounty. But represent 
 ing to the House that ye men cannot 
 furnish themselves with Provisions and 
 Ammunition, therefore: 
 
 "Voted, That Sd Longfellow be sup 
 plied with one month s Provisions & 
 fifteen pounds of powder & thirty 
 Pounds of Bullets for Sd men, he to re 
 ceive the Provisions from Coll. Gilman 
 at Exeter, Sd Long-fellow to give a 
 Rect for ye same & to account and 
 pay therefor if it appears Yt be not 
 used, or if the men recover any scalps, 
 ye price of ye Provisions and Ammun 
 ition to be deducted out of ye Bounty 
 on ye Scalps, & Yt Said Lonarfellow 
 keep a Journal of ye Time & Travel, 
 while he is out on this affair, to be ren 
 dered to ye Genl Assembly on Oath." 
 
 The writer has not been able to find 
 a copy of Captain Long-fellow s journal 
 nor any statement of how many Indian 
 scalps were captured and the amount 
 of bounty paid. 
 
 Captain Longfellow was one of the 
 first to start a movement which re 
 sulted in the division of the town of 
 Nottingham, and the incorporation of 
 the town of Deerfield. The act of in 
 corporation was not granted till Janu 
 ary 8, 1766, at which time Mr. Longfel 
 low was in Machias, Me., having left 
 New Hampshire two years before that. 
 The first petition for it is dated "Not 
 tingham, Febry 23, 1756;" the first 
 signer is Jonathan Longfellow; among 
 the other signers appears the name of 
 Green Longfellow, a younger brother of 
 Jonathan, who was then about twenty- 
 five years old, having been born Apri- 
 3, 1731. The petition was probably 
 drawn by Mr. Longfellow and its argu 
 ments are strong and well expressed, 
 
 the point of it all being that the in 
 habitants of the Deerfield parish were 
 not allowed to use their money raisetf 
 by taxation "for Preaching the Gospel 
 and teaching the Children, which are 
 matters of Great importance to all His 
 Majesties Good Subjects, etc." 
 
 Mr. Longfellow removed from Not 
 tingham to Rye about 1761, leaving two 
 of his daughters, Mary and Sarah, who 
 had married respectively Nathaniel 
 Batchelder and Joseph Cilley, and a 
 son, Jacob, and a brother, Green Long 
 fellow. Mary Longfellow Batchelder, 
 above mentioned, is the writer s great- 
 grandmother, being the grandmother of 
 his mother, Betsey True Scales. Not 
 much is known of his life at Rye. 
 
 Captain Longfellow removed from 
 Rye, N. H., to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, 
 in 1764, where he remained one year. In 
 1765 they sent for him to cross over the 
 bay to Machias, Me., to build a grist 
 mill and a saw-mill, locally called the 
 "Dublin" mills. He knew all about that 
 sort of work from his early training 
 and experience at Hampton Falls, 
 where he had been trained by his father 
 and grandfather. What induced him to 
 emigrate from New Hampshire to Nova 
 Scotia is not known by any of his de 
 scendants. After settling in Machiaa 
 he remained there till his death, in 
 1774: He brought with him to Machias 
 his wife arid three youngest sons, Dan 
 iel, David and Jonathan, aged respect 
 ively sixteen, fourteen and nine years. 
 Two or three of his children remained 
 at Cornwallis. There were twelve in 
 all, seven sons and five daughters. The 
 first-born was Stephen, 19 July, 1731; 
 the last-born was Jonathan, 28 April, 
 1756, who died young at Machias. De 
 scendants of two sons, Nathan, born 30 
 December, 1743, and Daniel, born 16 
 December, 1751, are living in Machias 
 
40 
 
 GENERATIONS. 
 
 and other parts of eastern Maine at 
 this time. 
 
 Captain Longfellow built the mills 
 and run them and took a leading part 
 in town affairs, holding at one time or 
 another all of the important town of 
 fices. In 1768 he was commissioned by 
 the Governor of Massachusetts a jus 
 tice, and held the first court ever held 
 in Maine, east of the Penobscot river. 
 The court records of Judge Longfellow 
 are extant at Machias, and manifest 
 knowledge of law and wisdom and 
 mercy in administering it. He was 
 moderator of the first proprietary meet 
 ing of the town of Machias, llth Sep 
 tember, 1710, and was one of their lead 
 ing men till his death, four years later. 
 
 According to tradition, Judge Long 
 fellow \vas a tall, well-proportioned, 
 fine-looking man. He possessed su 
 perior mental powers and was a man of 
 great executive ability as a business 
 manager. He was an extensive land 
 owner in Nottingham and was reputed 
 to be very wealthy, as men then rank 
 ed in riches. He disposed of all of his 
 holdings in that town before going to 
 Nova Scotia. That he was esteemed 
 by his immediate descendants is mani 
 fest by the fact that grandsons, great- 
 grandsons, and great-great-grandsons 
 were named for him, Jonathan Long 
 fellow, in families not otherwise bear 
 ing the Longfellow name. 
 
HENRY A. WISE S ACCOUNT OF THE DUEL 
 
 The following extracts from an article by Hon. John S. Wise in the Saturday 
 Evening Post of June 2, 1906, gives informatian concerning Henry Clay s 
 connection with the affair of Cilley and Graves, which, though alleged, has 
 never until this account been fully proved. Only that part of the article is 
 given which relates to Jonathan Cilley : 
 
 The most serious of my father s ex 
 periences in dueling was that in the fa 
 mous Cilley and Graves duel, into which 
 he was dragged, against his will, to act 
 as second for a man he knew but slight 
 ly and for whom he really cared noth 
 ing. 
 
 The Honora/ble Jonathan Cilley, a gal 
 lant, impetuous, high-tempered man, 
 entered Congress from Maine with the 
 oft-avowed feeling that the members of 
 Congress from the North allowed the 
 Southern members to hector and lord it 
 over them too freely that they ought 
 to respond to such attacks in kind, and 
 that, when they had done so a few 
 times, such arrogance would cease. 
 
 The following account of my father s 
 connection with the affair is cooied 
 from an original manuscript drawn up 
 by him and, as late as 1875, submitted 
 to and approved by his lifelong friend, 
 the Honorable George W. Jones, of 
 Iowa, who was Mr. Cilley s second. It 
 is valuable because it has never before 
 been published, and is instructive be 
 cause it shows some of the points of 
 finesse in the science of dueling. It is 
 not published in full because of sundry 
 strictures upon James Watson Webb, 
 
 which only tend to revive bitterness: 
 
 "According to my recollection I was 
 not at Washington, but at home in Ac- 
 comae, Virginia, when the speech of 
 Cilley was made and published. I re 
 turned to Washington after the time 
 when Webb engaged Mr. Graves ser 
 vices as a second and put the challenge 
 into Graves hands, and he, Graves, had 
 delivered it. At no time did I ever con 
 fer with Webb about the matter, either 
 alone or with Mr. Graves or others. He 
 knew nothing of my advice or counsel 
 to Mr. Graves. 
 
 "But whether I had returned to Wash 
 ington or not, I positively aver that the 
 challenge was delivered to Graves and 
 by him delivered to Cilley, without any 
 knowledge or information of the fact 
 on my part. It was only after the 
 challenge was tendered that I was in 
 formed by Mr. Graves or any one else 
 of its existence. I learned from Mr. 
 Graves himself, who sought my counsel, 
 all I ever knew, or was informed of be 
 fore the fight, of what occurred between 
 him, and Mr. Cilley on the presentation 
 of the challenge. Mr. Graves state 
 ment to me was in brief and in sub 
 stance as follows: He said, as soon as 
 
42 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. 
 
 he obtained a private interview with 
 Mr. Cilley, he announced the object of 
 his visit. He (Mr. Cilley) showed no 
 surprise and seemed to be prepared for 
 the call. He immediately declined to 
 accept the challenge, on the sole 
 ground that he would not admit his 
 responsibility for words spoken by him 
 in debate in the House. Mr. Graves 
 asked him to say whether he declined 
 on the ground that his principal, James 
 Watson Webb, was not a gentleman. 
 Mr. Cilley replied that he would not af 
 firm or disclaim any reason other than 
 that he was not responsible for words 
 spoken by him in debate in the House. 
 Mr. Graves then inquired whether that 
 was his only ground of declining. Mr. 
 Cilley replied that the only ground he 
 chose to stand upon "was his irresponsi 
 bility to an editor for words spoken in 
 debate in the House. Mr. Graves asked 
 him Whether that meant to disclaim 
 any other ground. Mr. Cilley repeated 
 that he meant not to affirm or disclaim 
 any other ground. 
 
 "Mr. Graves informed me that, upon 
 this, he reported to his principal that 
 Mr. Cilley did not put his refusal to 
 accept on the ground that James Wat 
 son Webb was not a gentleman but up 
 on the sole ground stated. My advice 
 to him was that the reason exoressed 
 was sufficient, but some one else ad 
 vised (whom I am not and never was 
 informed) that he ought to require Mr. 
 Cilley to put his reason for declining in 
 writing. I told him that was regular 
 and proper, but advised him to the pre 
 ferable course to report his own state 
 ment and submit it to Mr. Cilley for 
 affirmance or contradiction: that as 
 Mr. Gilley put his declining on the 
 ground solely of irresponsibility, he was 
 justified in saying that he did not put 
 it on the ground of Webb s character or 
 
 any other ground, and that he had no 
 right to demand of him a disclaimer of 
 any other ground. Upon this Mr. 
 Graves drew a paper in substance, re 
 citing his statement, and adding that, 
 upon that, he had reported and would 
 publish, if necessary, that Mr. Cilley 
 had not declined on the ground that 
 Webb was not a gentleman. What he 
 did with that paper I am not and never 
 was informed; but he returned it to me 
 saying that he could not prevail on Mr. 
 Cilley to affirm or to deny his state 
 ment, or to put his only reason asigned 
 for declining in writing. 
 
 "I told him neither was necessary, as 
 he had only to make and publish his 
 statement that Mr. Cilley did not put 
 himself on the ground that Webb was 
 not a gentleman, and leave the latter to 
 acquiesce in or contradict his state 
 ment. If he acquiesced in it, well; if 
 not, it would raise an issue of veracity 
 between him and Mr. Cilley, and I was 
 sure that Mr. Cilley would disclaim any 
 impeachment of his, Graves , veracity, 
 whilst he could easily explain any re 
 servation of his right to express any 
 other reason but the one assigned. Mr. 
 Graves had in fact drawn a challenge 
 on the ground that Mr. Cilley s course 
 impliedly, at least, impeached his ver- 
 acitv, but after conference with me 
 alone he asked me to meet him at Mr. 
 Clay s room early in the evening. 
 
 "After tea, I called with Mr. Graves 
 on Mr. Clay, and already assembled 
 there were Mr. Clay, Mr. John J. Crit- 
 tenden and Mr. Richard Menefee. They 
 were all consulted. Mr. Graves handed 
 to Mr. Clay the challenge he had writ 
 ten. Mr. Clay said immediately that 
 the call was not based on the true is 
 sues. Mr. Cilley had refused to dis 
 claim personal exceptions to Webb and 
 by the Code of Dueling: Graves was 
 
HENRY A. WISE S ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 43 
 
 bound to demand such disclaimer, or 
 stand in the shoes of his principal. He 
 cast aside the challenge drawn by 
 Graves, and with his own hand and pen 
 drew the challenge which was handed 
 to Mr. Cilley. I immediately objected 
 to the form drawn by Mr. Clay, for the 
 reason that it put the call upon a punc 
 tilio which never could be and never 
 was settled Without blood; that if Mr. 
 Graves put his call on the point of his 
 own veracity, Mr. Cilley had but to 
 disclaim that, and I was sure he would, 
 and that would end Graves interposi 
 tion in the affair. Mr. Crittenden and 
 Mr. Menefee sided with Mr. Clay. Mr. 
 Graves immediately copied the paper 
 written by Mr. Clay, the original of 
 which I have kept, and Mr. Graves de 
 stroyed the form of challenge written 
 by himself. 
 
 "I then declined to bear the note 
 drawn by Mr. Clay for reason of my 
 stated objection. It left no room for 
 adjustment or explanation and the 
 meeting would necessarily be fatal. 
 Messrs. Clay, Crittenden and Menefee 
 all three protested with me for declin 
 ing to act as second; and I persisted 
 until Mr. Graves with great feeling rose 
 erect on his feet from his chair, and 
 said: Mr. Wise, can you expect me to 
 be governed by your counsel alone 
 against that of both the Senators of my 
 state and colleague in the House of 
 Representatives, Mr. Menefee, after a 
 full hearing of your objections to the 
 ground of challenge, and after they have 
 been overruled by older heads than 
 your own? If you do, he continued, 
 with his finger pointed to me, I call 
 these colleagues to remember that when 
 you were absent from your seat in the 
 House, and from the city of Washing 
 ton, I took up your defense against an 
 attack upon you by Mr. Cilley and was 
 
 ready to stand in your place to meet 
 any and all responsibility for you. 
 [Note: Nothing in the printed debate 
 shows this alleged fact.] And now I 
 here say to you that I (have more confi 
 dence in your skill as second than I 
 have in any other person; and if you 
 will not serve me and I am brought 
 dead or wounded from the field, I call 
 these gentlemen to witness that I shall 
 attribute any disaster to me to the 
 want or absence of your skill and ex 
 perience. 
 
 "I was touched deeply by this appeal 
 and said at once with emotion: Mr. 
 Graves, if you put your request to act 
 for you on that ground, I am left no 
 election. I will carry the challenge. 
 
 "I did so the next morning, and was 
 careful to keep Mr. Clay s autograoh 
 original and it was well I did so, as 
 after events proved. You promptly 
 brought the acceptance by Mr. Cilley 
 and the terms of the duel to me at my 
 room. I was alone, with my case of 
 new English nine-inch dueling-pistols 
 open, examining their order and condi 
 tion. You quietly tapped at my door. I 
 answered, Come in. and I can see your 
 honest old face now, as you entered 
 brusquely, saying: Ha! You ll have no 
 use for them. You looked at the pis 
 tols and then handed me the accept 
 ance and terms. I reserved any reply 
 then, and after a little chat about the 
 rifle as a lawful weapon and my igno 
 rance where to procure a reliable one", 
 you retired. 
 
 "I sought Mr. Graves and told him 
 that I should object to the rifle. He 
 again took me to Mr. Clay. At once 
 Mr. Clay said: He is a Kentuckian 
 and can never back from a rifle. . . 
 
 "What occurred afterward, on the 
 field and elsewhere, our joint and sev 
 eral statements made immediately after- 
 
44 
 
 GENERATION^. 
 
 the duel show. But there was one 
 subject of reproach to you and myself, 
 which neither could explain withoui 
 damaging- our principals. Mr. Graves 
 had three seconds, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. 
 Menefee and myself; and Mr. Cilley had 
 two advisory seconds, Mr. Duncan and 
 Mr. Bynum, besides yourself. Now, no 
 step was taken by me without consul 
 tation and agreement with Messrs. 
 Crittenden and Menefee; and I am con 
 fident that you acted with the consent 
 and approval of Messrs. Duncan and 
 Bynum. These four gentlemen were 
 just as responsible for the whole con 
 duct of the affair as you and I, yet you 
 and I alone were ever assailed for the 
 barbarous three exchanges of shots. 
 Now you and I know that there was 
 really but one deliberate exchange of 
 shots; the third time after each party, 
 
 in turn Cilley in his first shot and 
 Graves in his second had blundered in 
 his fire, and they would not and could 
 not leave the ground under the acci 
 dents which would have caused misap 
 prehension and perhaps ridicule " 
 
 But the Cilley-Graves duel made a 
 tremendous storm throughout the coun 
 try. Nothing was done about it offi 
 cially, for dueling was countenanced, 
 more or less, but it fas a long time be 
 fore the bitterness and recrimination 
 about the Cilley-Graves duel subsided. 
 It was brought up against Clay in his 
 next candidacy, and his attempts to 
 shuffle oft responsibility upon others 
 caused a breach between him and my 
 father, who charged him with selfishly 
 seeking to relieve himself from the 
 odium of a duel for which he, more 
 than any living man, was responsible. 
 

 8 1935 
 
 10m-4, 23 
 
YD 12361 
 
 
 359130 
 
 
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