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General Abner Lacock, intimate friend of Editor Henry of the Western Argus, was accused of writing many of the bitter partisan articles which appeared in the paper some eighty or ninety years ago. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1813, and served in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Congresses. He was a warm friend of Presidents Madison and Monroe, but an uncompromising foe of Andrew Jackson.
The General came to reside in Beaver in 1796, and died at his home near Freedom in 1837.
The following extract from an article in the Western Argus of April 19, 1837, was printed a few days after his death:
"In 18 10 the question of a war with Great Britain agitated the country in every quarter, and the strong feeling of indignation in the minds of the people against usurpations of that government, the repeated insults she had cast upon our flag, impressing our seamen, and crippling our commerce, brought many men of high character and talents into the national councils, and among them was Abner Lacock. The people of his district called him out as the "war candidate," and secured his election by a triumphant majority. His friends were not deceived in their expectations. In Congress he took a bold stand for war measures, and in that period of gloom and despondency stood firmly by the Democratic administration of James Madison in the noble effort to sustain the character and independence of the Republic and the rights of our citizens. While in the House he took part in the proceedings on most questions of public policy, and at all times showed forth with good effect the natural sound sense and statesmanlike views of his strong and vigorous mind. In that with the Chief Magistrate to an extraordinary degree. So honorably had he acquitted himself in the House that, in the spring of 1813, the Legislature of Pennsylvania, with great unanimity, elected him a Senator of the United States, which station he filled with credit and ability for six years. During all this time, when not called from home in the public service, with true republican plainness, like Cincinnatus of old, he followed the plow, and tilled the soil with laboriously assiduity, attending to all the duties of an American farmer; at the same time endeavoring by observation and extensive reading to make up for the want of an early education."