THOMAS HART BENTON
In the closest call to murder in the Senate, Stuart Foote of Mississippi drew a pistol and aimed it at Benton in the heat of a debate:. Foote reconsidered and was overpowered on the Senate floor and was disarmed. There was no disciplinary action taken however. During slavery debates guns in the Congress were so common that Vice President Martin Van Buren once presided over the Senate for two weeks with a loaded pistol in each pocket.
Benton's solution was for the people to elect the President and Vice President directly.
Like the Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera, he produced gigantic murals with historical and social themes. He actually included lynchings and KKK meetings and Mormon persecution in his works which offended many Missouri politicians, but then he was probably in a better position to do so than any artist in Missouri.
Adams, after his presidency, served in the House of Representatives for many years. He collapsed at his desk in the House and died in the Speaker’s office.
Benton hated John Calhoun, and when the latter died, a reporter asked Benton if he cared to make any comment about his departed Senate colleague. Benton replied:
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. The fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States. His work is strongly associated with the Midwestern United States, the region in which he was born and which he called home for most of his life. He also studied in Paris, lived in New York City for more than 20 years and painted scores of works there, summered for 50 years on Martha's Vineyard off the New England coast, and also painted scenes of the American South and West.
