George Graham Vest, exquisite eulogist of man's good friend, the dog,
was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, December 6, 1830. At the age of
eighteen years Vest was graduated from Centre College, Danville,
Kentucky; and five years later Transylvania University granted him his
degree in law. The year of his graduation from Transylvania, 1853, Vest
went to Missouri, settling at Georgetown. He rapidly attained a
State-wide reputation as a lawyer and orator. In 1860 he was a
presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, and a member of the
Missouri House of Representatives. Vest's sympathy lay with the South
and he resigned his seat in the legislature in order to become a member
of the Confederate Congress. He served two years in the Confederate
House and one year in the Senate. After the war he resumed the practice
of his profession at Sedalia, but he later removed to Kansas City. In
1878 Vest was elected United States Senator from Missouri and this
position he held until 1903. In the Senate his powers as an orator and
debater were generally recognized, and he became a national figure. Of
the many speeches that Senator Vest made, his tribute to the dog, made
in a jury trial, is the one thing that will keep his memory green for
many years. It appears that Senator Vest was called into a case in which
one party was endeavoring to recover damages for the death of a favorite
dog, and when it came time for him to speak he arose and delivered his
tribute to the dog, and then resumed his seat without having mentioned
the case before the jury in any way whatsoever. The jury understood
however, and the Senator won his case. Senator Vest died at Sweet
Springs, Missouri, August 9, 1904.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New
York, 1888, v. vi); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta,
1910, v. xii).