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On the 29th day of December, 1829, Mr. Foote of Conn. offered, in the Senate of the United States, the following resolution :

"Resolved, that the Committee on Public Lands be instructed to enquire into the expediency of limiting for a certain period the sales of the public lands to such lands only, as have been heretofore offered for sale, and are subject to entry at the minimum price. Also, whether the office of Surveyor General may not be abolished without detriment to the public interest."

Some skirmishing immediately occurred on the introduction of the resolution between Benton, Noble, Woodbury, Holmes, and Foote; but no one imagined it was soon to be followed by a regular engagement. A motion being made and carried to postpone the consideration of the resolution till the next Monday, the excitement for the time subsided.

When the resolution on the day specified came up for discussion, Mr. Foote remarked that in twelve years' experience in legislative assemblies, it was not within his recollection that a resolution merely for enquiry had been made a special order. As he could not discover any benefit which could possibly

arise from introducing this practice, he should decline giving it his sanction, by taking the lead in the debate.

Some insignificant discussion hereupon having taken place among Senators, the resolution passed over for the day.

When it next came up for consideration on Monday the 18th, Mr. Benton took the floor and made a speech bearing evident indications of study and preparation. In the course of his remarks, he made a violent attack upon New England, its men and institutions. He denounced the policy of New England towards the West as illiberal and unjust-but extolled the generosity of the South. "The West must still look," he said, "to the solid phalanx of the South for

succor."

The whole character of the speech revealed a previous intention to attack New England; and, in one he made subsequent to this, he asserted that he had been informed, during the vacation, of a design to introduce such a resolution, and declared his determination to meet it. It was brought in, he said, to forestall his own purpose. "It was introduced to check-mate my graduation bill! It was an offer of battle to the West! I accepted the offer; I am fighting the battle; some are crying out and hauling off; but I am standing to it, and mean to stand to it. I call upon the adversary to come on and lay on, and I tell him

"Damned be he, that first cries hold, enough !”

This sentiment and the style of its utterance, are severely

Bentonian. A harmless resolution of inquiry respecting a measure of public policy was converted, in the alembic of his egotism, into a studied attack upon himself, or, it may be, he sought to make another seem the aggressor, in order to cover his own hostile intent.

He was followed by Col. Hayne, who, after returning his complimentary salute, "The South would always sympathize with the West," poured also a broadside into New England.

He placed in unpleasant contrast to the conduct of the South, the action of the Eastern States upon the question of the public lands, which he characterized as selfish and unprincipled. The East was unwilling-he said that the public lands should be thrown open on easy terms to settlers, for fear of its being drained of population. It sought to retain its population at home for manufacturing purposes. "To create a manufactory of paupers, who should supply the manufactories of rich proprietors, and enable them to amass great wealth."

The suddenness of this attack upon New England, its warmth, and evident malice, took Mr. Webster by surprise. He could not but feel that the onslaught upon the East was intended as a personal attack. Yet he was conscious of having given no provocation to either of the aggressors. He had neither sought nor accepted an opportunity to annoy them.

He was not even aware of Mr. Foote's intention to introduce any such resolution; but yet he could see no harm in its terms or purpose, por impropriety in its introduction. His

relations with the two Senators, though not intimate, were not hostile. He had neither given nor taken offence. It has indeed been said, that at the close of the preceding session, Colonel Hayne had made a wanton and somewhat intemperate attack upon his opinions and conduct, which would have elicited a suitable reply, but for the interposition and entreaties of the Hon. John Reed and other members from Massachusetts, who feared a controversy between them at that time would endanger the satisfactory adjustment of some Massachusetts claim then on its passage though the Senate. Yielding to their solicitations, Mr. Webster discarded all resentful feeling and withheld a reply. To this, or some similar circumstance, he may be supposed to allude in the earlier part of his great speech, when speaking of Colonel Hayne's assault upon him. Some passages, it is true, had occurred since our acquaintance in this body, which I could have wished might have been otherwise; but I had used philosophy and forgotten them." With Mr. Benton he had never been on terms of social or personal intimacy, yet bore towards him a relation of senatorial courtesy.

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As soon as Colonel Hayne concluded his speech, Mr. Webster took the floor in reply. It was late, however, in the day, and he gave way on a motion from Mr. Benton to adjourn. In making the motion, Mr. Benton said he was unwilling that the harmony of the sounds which had just pervaded the Senate-chamber, and which still lingered upon the delighted

tympanum of Senators, should be broken in upon by aught discordant.

The next day Mr. Webster replied to the speech of Colonel Hayne. The growing interest of the controversy attracted a more than usual crowd to the Senate. It appeared evident to every one, a drama of some importance was going on.

Mr. Webster defended the conduct of the Eastern States towards the West as regarded the question of the public lands, and disproved, by historical analysis, the accusation of neglect or hostility on their part. All that he said in this speech on the public lands, forms an admirable state paper. He had evidently carried the subject before in his mind. Alluding to the beneficial influence of the action of the general government upon the settlement of Ohio, and in the development of its vast natural resources, an action which he showed had been stimulated and directed by New England votes-he said, comparing the Ohio of 1794 with the Ohio of 1830: “And here, sir, at the epoch of 1794, let us pause and survey the scene. It is now thirty-five years since that scene actually existed. Let us, sir, look back and behold it. Over all that is now Ohio, there then stretched one vast wilderness, unbroken, except by two small spots of civilized culture, the one at Marietta, the other at Cincinnati. At these little openings, hardly a pin's point upon the map, the arm of the frontiersman had levelled the forest and let in the sun. These little patches of earth, themselves almost shadowed by the overhanging boughs of that wilderness, which had stood and per

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