Claiborne was a native of the State, and the son of General Ferdinand
Claiborne, a young man of very superior abilities, and at the time a
member of Congress. McNutt was the Democratic candidate for Governor.
The campaign was a most animated one, and Prentiss addressed the people
in very nearly every county in the State; the people, _en masse_,
flocked to hear him, and his name was in every mouth. The Democratic
nominees did not attempt to meet him on the stump. His march through
the State was over the heads of the people, hundreds following him from
county to county in his ovation. McNutt alone attempted to meet him and
speak with him, and he only once. McNutt was a Virginian, and was a man
of stupendous abilities; he was a lawyer by profession, and was
Governor of the State. Next to Poindexter, he was the ablest man who
ever filled the chair. Unfortunately, like most of the young and
talented of that day in the West, he was too much addicted to the
intoxicating bowl. Upon the only meeting of these, Prentiss and McNutt,
the latter, in his speech, urged as a reason for the rejection or
defeat of the former his dissipated habits, admitted his great
abilities, his masterly genius, pronounced him the first man of the age
intellectually, but deplored his habits, which were rendering him
useless, with all his genius, learning, and eloquence.
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