American orator; born in Portland, ME, on the 30th of September 1808. He was educated at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1826. The next year he emigrated to Mississippi, and at once became the idol of the people of that state. He was sent repeatedly to the state legislature, and in 1837 he was elected to Congress, but the seat was contested by Colonel Claiborne. This gave rise to the celebrated investigation in which Prentiss defended his claims in a speech before the House of three days’ duration, the effect of which was to materially enhance his reputation and give him more than a local fame. His claim was rejected by the casting vote of the speaker, and on his return to his constituency he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. He was the beau-ideal of Southern chivalry, and his social qualifications made him the object of the affections of all with whom he came in contact. Two of his most noted orations were one delivered in Boston, in Fanueil Hall, on the occasion of a dinner given in honor of Daniel Webster, and another made before a Kentucky court in a successful defense of Judge Wilkinson, his friend, who was charged with murder. In 1845 he left Mississippi for Louisiana because the former state had in his mind forever disgraced itself by the repudiation of its bonded indebtedness. He died in Longwood, MS, on the 1st of July 1850. See also “On the Death of Lafayette.”
