Congressman John Test
c.1780 - 1849
The following is from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-1989 Bicentennial Edition
United States Government Printing Office (1989)Test, John, a Representative from Indiana; born in Salem, N.J., November 12, 1771; moved with his parents to Philadelphia, Pa., and attended the common schools; moved to Fayette County, Pa., and operated Fayette Chance Furnace for several years; moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and then to Brookville, Franklin County, Ind., and operated a grist mill; studied law; was admitted to the bar and began practice in Brookville, Ind,; held several local offices; judge of the third district circuit 1816-1819; elected to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Congresses (March 4, 1823 - March 3, 1827); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1826 to the Twentieth Congress; elected to the Twenty-first Congress (March 4, 1829 - March 3, 1831); presiding judge of the Indiana circuit court; moved to Mobile, Ala., and resumed the practice of law; died near Cambridge City, Wayne County, Ind., October 9, 1849; interment in Cambridge City, Ind."
The following is quoted by Julian Ellis Mack in Mack Family: The Ancestors and Some Other Relatives of the Grandchildren of Charles Samuel Mack (1856-1930) and Laura Gordon (Test) Mack (1856-1930) (Chicago, Illinois: Self-published manuscript printed under direction of Charles Standish Mack, 1961).
Mack attributes the source of the quote to a book titled "Abraham Lincoln" by Albert J. Beverage, p 98 footnote. However, J.E. Mack notes that his source is not the Beverage book but from someone else's use of the quote.
"Judge O. K. Smith says that stump speaking began in Indiana about 1826. As an example of popular ignorance and intolerance of what was considered extravagant statements by speakers, he relates that Judge John Test, a Representative in Congress from the eastern district of Indiana, told an audience that the speed of railway trains in England was thirty miles an hour. The crowd jeered and roared with laughter; and cried out, 'You are crazy, or do you think we are fools, a man could not live a moment (when going) at that speed!' For this assertation Judge Test was defeated for re-election. Smith 80."