Page images
PDF
EPUB

ADDRESSES

ON THE

DEATH OF LEWIS V. BOGY.

Address of Mr. COCKRELL, of Missouri.

Mr. PRESIDENT: At eleven o'clock in the forenoon of September 20, 1877, at his family residence, in the city of Saint Louis, surrounded by his loving, weeping family and devoted, grief-stricken friends, Hon. LEWIS VITAL BOGY, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, departed this life, calmly, painlessly, and in the possession of all his faculties, thus yielding another victory to death, the conquering hero of the human family.

Again is manifested infallible proof of the truth of the divinely inspired words, "It is appointed unto men once to die.”

LEWIS VITAL BOGY was born on the 9th day of April, in the year 1813, in Sainte Genevieve, now in Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri, and was a descendant of the early French pioneers who came to that region of country when it belonged to France.

His father, Joseph Bogy, was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, and removed to the then Missouri Territory in 1805, and settled in Sainte Genevieve, then an important town, and married Marie Beauvais, the daughter of Vital Beauvais, and mother of LEWIS VITAL BOGY.

Mr. Joseph Bogy was private secretary to Governor Morales under the Spanish dominion over that country, and when Missouri was organized as a Territory became a member of the territorial Legislature, and after Missouri was admitted as a State in the Union became a member of the State Legislature and filled many other positions of trust and confidence.

In the early youth of LEWIS V. BOGY the French was the language spoken by all the inhabitants of his town, and educational advantages were very limited. Very few persons of this day, born and reared under our present well-organized and widely-spread system of public schools, academies, colleges and universities everywhere accessible, can realize or appreciate the many obstacles and inconveniences which then beset the pathway and frustrated the efforts of the youth to obtain an education. Under innumerable difficulties and disadvantages LEWIS V. BOGY prosecuted his education in such schools as were then accessible in that new country, manifesting that indomitable will and perseverance which yield to no obstacles however formidable. About 1822 he attended a school in his native town taught by John D. Grafton, from Connecticut. He was then sent to a Catholic school in Perryville, now in Perry County, Missouri, taught by a Swiss, where he remained until attacked by a "white swelling" which confined him to his bed for some eighteen months. He was skillfully treated by Dr. Lewis F. Linn, afterward United States Senator from Missouri, who died on October 31, 1843, while Senator. Dr. Linn was a Senator in the same line or class in which Mr. BOGY afterward became a Senator.

During this confinement he read constantly, and thus made rapid progress. He was afterward a clerk in a store at a salary of $200 per year, under a contract to take out in trade one-half of that salary. By frugality in his habits and economy in expenditure he

managed to purchase books and study elementary law, and begin the study of Latin. On January 16, 1832, a young man, with limited education and means, he left his home under charge of Mr. William Shannon, an old friend of his father, to go to Kaskaskia, Illinois, to read law in the office of the late Judge Nathaniel Pope, judge of the United States district court.

At or prior to this time he had formed the determination to continue the study of law and to return to his native State to practice and to qualify himself to become United States Senator from his native State, and to work for this position until he became sixty years old. This determination was communicated to his mother in a letter dated January 16, 1832. He lived to attain the goal of his laudable ambition a few months before the end of his sixtieth year. He studied law under Judge Pope till May, 1832. He then volunteered as a private soldier in the war with the Indians, known as the Black Hawk war, and participated in two hotly contested engagements. Having served faithfully and gallantly to the close of that war, he returned to Kaskaskia and continued his study of law. In 1833 he became a student in the law school at Lexington, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1835, with the highest encomiums, having devoted himself to his studies with the most assiduous attention.

On April 1, 1835, he located in Saint Louis and opened a law office and began his professional career.

By diligent and close attention to business, and earnest application to study, he soon won distinction and eminence in his profession and secured a lucrative practice.

In 1840 he was elected a member of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, and, although among the youngest members, if not the youngest, he was an efficient and useful member and

2

served with distinction. In 1849, having acquired large means by his profession, he removed to his native county, Sainte Genevieve, and was the anti-Benton democratic candidate for the Legislature and was defeated.

Colonel Benton, having failed to secure his re-election to the United States Senate at the next congressional election in 1852, announced himself a candidate for Representative in Congress. LEWIS V. BOGY was nominated as his opponent, and although defeated acquired prestige from his contest with the great Senator, and at the succeeding election in 1854 was elected a member of the General Assembly from his native county and served with marked ability and distinction. In 1863, having returned to Saint Louis, he was the democratic candidate for Congress against the late Senator Francis P. Blair, jr., and Samuel Knox, and was defeated.

In 1867 he was appointed by the late President Andrew Johnson Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and discharged the duties with signal ability and fidelity for about six months, when, not being confirmed by the Senate, he retired from the office.

In 1873 he became a candidate for the United States Senate, and having received the caucus nomination by a vote of 64 to 57 for the late distinguished Senator, General Frank P. Blair, was elected over Hon. John B. Henderson, late United States Senator, by a majority of 59 votes, and became the successor of General Blair in this body for the term from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879. His career as a Senator in this body is familiar to most of the present Senators.

Colonel Bogy during his long career occupied a very conspicuous position among the public men of his State, and in addition to the political offices named occupied many important positions of trust and honor. He was president of the Saint Louis and Iron Mount

« PreviousContinue »