rather because his genius, more than that of any other, was indigenous to his age and its surroundings. He was the product of his time, imbued with its spirit, and in sympathy with its thought and sentiment. His career was a long and successful one. At its outset he became famous. Until the end-at the bar, on the 'stump,' in State and national councils-he extended, widened, and strengthened his early prestige. Always a mighty, intellectual force, he had the good fortune to impress himself and his characteristics on his day and generation as few have done.'

To this appeal a generous response was made-so generous as greatly to encourage the author in the prosecution of his announced purpose. Nothing, it may be observed, has been discovered rendering it necessary to qualify this early, brief, and hasty estimate, but, on the other hand, everything learned of Mr. Hardin has tended to illustrate and confirm it.

How far the query of the reader first supposed may have been answered by what has just been said or by the contents of this volume will not be surmised, whatever hopes may be indulged. Not a little of American biography has been ancillary to political purposes, in which all the shaded lines of character have been studiously penciled out, and thereby a sort of moral emasculation effected. Such literature is objectionable, in that it makes its subjects monotonously great and gifted.

The present work will prove a marked contrast in this respect. The purpose has not been to write the life of a saint, or an impossible or improbable ideal, but rather faithfully to depict the manhood and character of one, who, with a full average of human infirmities, possessed great talents, which he faithfully devoted to his State and generation. To do this adequately, a sketch of his contemporaries and the events in which he and they bore part, was deemed necessary. To Mr. Hardin has been assigned the principal place in this portrayal, yet the noted men with whom he came in contact have had such brief justice done them as the exigency of the narrative would allow. In justification of this plan it must be remembered that many of the events and personages alluded to are not familiar to the general

reader, and are not discussed elsewhere, or if at all but briefly, and in books not usually accessible. So digressions and details became necessary, which would not have been the case if Kentucky, and the South and West, had had more of a literature of their own.

No effort will here be made to avoid or placate criticism. The work is imperfect, and no one can realize it more keenly and regretfully than its author. Perhaps, one so little equipped for the task; one whom the commoner but tyrannical cares of life left such brief intervals for its performance, should not have undertaken it. Confessing all, however, it is only claimed that, with such opportunity, material, and talent as he possessed, he has labored earnestly and faithfully to add to the store of knowledge something that will please, instruct, inspire, and elevate.

The author makes his grateful acknowledgements for kindnesses from many friends in the preparation of this work. While the anticipation is pleasant that these may, to some extent, find realized whatever expectation may have been indulged, there were others whom he hoped to please, who, during its progress, have been summoned to their final account, and this reflection restrains and tempers the satisfaction he would otherwise experience at the end of his task.

BEN HARDIN.

CHAPTER I.

T

ORIGIN OF THE HARDIN FAMILY IN AMERICA.

HERE are several families in America bearing the name of Har

din without a common origin. Some trace their source to Great Britain, others to the continent of Europe, while others stop on the hither shore of the. Atlantic. That family to which Ben Hardin belonged claims a Huguenot descent. This claim lies somewhat in tradition, but is so well authenticated as to amount to historical truth.

In 1706 it was estimated that by the persecutions of the Huguenots France had lost more than a million of her most active, enterprising, and industrious inhabitants. Deplorable as these persecutions were to their hapless victims, they proved the source of unmixed blessing to the new world. Hither the fugitives came by colonies, by companies, and one by one. The exchange of the comforts and luxuries of France for the privations and sufferings of the wilderness of America was a sore ordeal. Referring to their earlier experiences, it has been said that "the melancholy outline of Huguenot progress in the new world exhibits features of trial, strength, and suffering which render their career equally unique in both countries; a dark and bloody history, involving details of strife, of enterprise and sorrow, which denied them the securities of home in the parent land, and even the most. miserable refuge from persecution in the wilderness of a savage empire." The story of the Floridian Huguenots especially is one of the most pathetic in the early annals of America.

The time of their coming and the point of debarkation had much to do with the happiness and destiny of these emigrants. It has been said of a colony which settled at Mannakin, on the upper James river, in 1699, that it infused a stream of pure and rich blood into Virginia society." Transplanted in the new world, the French fugitives. became a vigorous, virtuous, and prosperous stock, from which some of the brightest names that adorn its history proudly trace their lineage.

Lilly and Totem, by W. Gilmore Sims, page —. +Cooke's Virginia, page 309.