George Graham Vest was a U.S. politician. Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, he was known for his skills in oration and debate. Vest, a lawyer as well as a politician, served as a Missouri Congressman, a Confederate Congressman during the Civil War, and finally a US Senator. Vest was best known during his lifetime for his "a man's best friend" closing arguments from the trial in which damages were sought for the killing of a dog named Old Drum on October 18, 1869. But his greatest legacy is as the apparent originator of the phrase "history is written by the victors.” While its origin is not definitively known, Vest used it to promote the Lost Cause.
After the war he returned to Pettis County moving to Sedalia, Missouri, and resumed his law practice. It was at this time in 1869 that Vest was asked to represent Charles Burden and Old Drum in the case that would make him famous, Burden v. Hornsby. Vest took the case tried on September 23, 1870, in which he represented a client whose hunting dog, a foxhound named Drum, had been killed by a sheep farmer, Leonidas Hornsby. The farmer had previously announced his intentions to kill any dog found on his property; the dog's owner was suing for damages in the amount of $150, the maximum allowed by law. During the trial, Vest stated that he would "win the case or apologize to every dog in Missouri." Vest's closing argument to the jury made no reference to any of the testimony offered during the trial, and instead offered a eulogy of sorts. Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" is one of the most enduring passages of purple prose in American courtroom history : Vest won the case and also won its appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. A bust of the dog resides in the Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1958, a statue of the dog was erected on the Johnson County Courthouse lawn containing a summation of Vest’s closing speech, “A man’s best friend is his dog.”
Movie depictions
The speech has been used in movies which are set in Missouri and involve sheep owners who allegedly shoot the dog but are then shot themselves by the dog's owners, who are then tried for murder.
Tribute to the Dog, episode 9, season 13 of Death Valley Days, featuring Ronald Reagan in the role of George Vest – 1964
The Trial of Old Drum – 2000
U.S. Senate
In 1877 Vest moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was elected two years later in 1879 to the United States Senate. He was chairman on the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds and served on the Committee on Epidemic Diseases, Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine. He was re-elected for three more terms in 1885, 1891 and 1897 and remained a US Senator until March 4, 1903, when he retired from public life due to ill health.
Defender of Yellowstone
In 1882, Vest became aware of concession abuses and outright attempts at uncontrolled monopolies being proposed for Yellowstone National Park concessions by the railroads and other businessmen. He introduced and eventually helped pass legislation that required the Secretary of Interior to submit concession and construction contracts to the Senate for oversight thus stifling potential corruption and abuses. Throughout the remainder of his Senate career, Vest was considered the "Self-appointed Protector of Yellowstone National Park."
“History is written by the victors”
The first known use of the phrase “history is written by the victors” comes from Vest’s August 20, 1891 speech to the Missouri ex-confederate convention. Vest criticized those who disparaged the Confederacy: "In all revolutions the vanquished are the ones who are guilty of treason, even by the historians, for history is written by the victors and framed according to the prejudices and bias existing on their side."
