History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
George McCormick, H. W. McAuley, Revs. Ira Wilcox and Aaron Cooley, of the county, speak¬ ing in the debate, and I remember that I spoke once myself. There was also a gentleman who came down from Monroe county by the name of Rathburn, and who was, I believe, at that time the county judge of Monroe county, to speak in the debate, and one or two other gentlemen whose names I have forgotten, likewise where they came from, participated in the discussion. The debate was held in the old log court house, which was filled night after night to its utmost capacity with eager listeners, who came from far and near. Probably such a debate would not create much excitement in Vernon county now, but then it was something new to have such a debate there; it was the topic of conversation by the fireside, in the workshop and on the streets. People came from Springville, from Liberty Pole, and from the Kickapoo woods to listen. It was the first time that a subject had arisen that called out such a univer¬ sal expression of opinion, and it made the peo¬ ple acquainted with the scope of home talent in debate. In this respect it set the people, for¬ ward. I shall be pardoned for relating one in¬ cident that transpired during the progress of the discussion.
Capt. O. C. Smith, then a resident of the county, but now a citizen of Dodgeville, was at the first a strong anti-slavery man. He was raised in southern Ohio, and so near the line of the "underground railroad" that every fibre was imbued with hatred of slavery. But in the course of the discussion he became converted to the doctrine that the Bible justified slavery, and he proposed to maintain his views with a speech. So he came in one evening with a large Bible under his arm, and when the meeting was called to order, he ascended the platform that was "desk" for the school teacher, "pulpit" for the clergyman and "bench" for the court, and pre¬ faced his argument by reading this extract from Job: "I am young, and ye are very old; where¬ fore I was afraid, and durst not show you my
opinion. I said, days should speak, and multi¬ tude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Al¬ mighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise; neither do the aged under¬ stand judgment; therefore, I said, hearken to me; I also will show my opinion. Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your rea¬ sons, whilst ye searched out what to say. Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that consid¬ ered his words." And applying the quotation from the Bible to those who had maintained in debate that the Bible did not sanction human slavery, he went on and made a strong argu¬ ment that it did. Whether the captain was really convinced as he pretended to be, or not, I cannot say.
Another thing I wUl mention was the estab¬ lishment of a newspaper in the county. Al¬ though the Western Times did not do much towards leading public opinion, and did les^ towards forming it, still the columns of the Times afforded the people an opportunity to ex¬ press publicly their opinion on the current topics of the day, if they desired to do so, and it gave local tradesmen and mechanics a chance to advertise their wares and their trades. By means of the exchanges in the printing office. Bad Ax county was brought into connection with the rest of the world. The editor, as a general thing, made a judicious selection from other papers of articles for his, and the Western Times became quite a factor in the work of ed¬ ucating, bringing together and assimilating the pioneers of the county. It had a tendency to make the settlers one people. When they be¬ gan to assimilate they began to improve, morally> socially and intellectually.
Another event that greatly aided in the de¬ velopment of the county was the organization of the county agricultural society. I look upon the county agricultural society as one of the great educators of the day. It gives the farm¬ ers and mechanics and tradesmen, their wives.