From that day forward, many of these men became most prominent citizens of the State.  The son of Johnson—­one of the leaders—­became its Governor.  Thomas was frequently a member of the Legislature, and once a member of Congress, from the Baton Rouge district, where he resided, and where he now sleeps in an honored grave.  Morgan and Moore were frequently members of the Legislature.  But of all the participants in this affair, Thomas was most conspicuous and most remarkable.  He was almost entirely without education; but was gifted with great good sense, a bold and honest soul, and a remarkable natural eloquence.  His manner was always natural and genial—­never, under any circumstances, embarrassed or affected; and in whatever company he was thrown, or however much a stranger to the company, somehow he became the conspicuous man in a short time.  The character in his face, the flash of his eye, the remarkable self-possession, the natural dignity of deportment, and his great good sense, attracted, and won upon every one.  In all his transactions, he was the same plain, honest man—­never, under any circumstances, deviating from truth—­plain, unvarnished truth; rigidly stern in morals, but eminently charitable to the shortcomings of others.  He was, from childhood, reared in a new country, amid rude, uncultivated people, and was a noble specimen of a frontier man; without the amenities of cultivated life, or the polish of education, yet with all the virtues of the Christian heart, and these, perhaps, the more prominently, because of the absence of the others.  It was frequently remarked by him that he did not think education would have been of any advantage to him.  It enabled men, with pretty words, to hide their thoughts, and deceive their fellow-men with a grace and an ease he despised; and it might have acted so with him, but it would have made him a worse and a more unhappy man.  He now never did or said anything that he was ashamed to think of.  He did not want to conceal his feelings and opinions, because he did not know how to do it; and he was sure if he attempted it he should make a fool of himself; for lies required so much dressing up in pretty words to make them look like truth, that he should fail for want of words; and truth was always prettiest when naked.  In the main, the General was correct; but there are some who lie with a naivete so perfect that even he would have deemed it truth naked and unadorned.

Larry Moore was a different man, but quite as illiterate and bold as Thomas, without his abilities; yet he was by no means devoid of mind.  He resided upon the lake border, in the flat pine country, where the land is poor, and the people are ignorant and bigoted.  Larry was far from being bigoted, save in his politics.  He had been a Jeffersonian Democrat, he knew; but he did not know why.  He lived off the road, and did not take the papers.  He knew Jefferson had bought Louisiana and her people, and, as he understood,