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cut short by the action of the Senate, in taking up the special
order of the day.

Of the nature of an episode, too, was the scene that occurred
when Mr. Webster undertook to prove that the bill and the
message of the President contained the same identical recom-
mendations; and that, consequently, anathemas instead of
being confined to the first, should be directed equally against
the latter.

A warm controversy had risen on the measure, he said, and it was but proper to understand between what parties it existed.

Soon after the declaration of war by the United States against England, an American vessel fell in at sea with one of England, and gave information of the declaration. The English master inquired, with no little warmth of manner and expression, why the United States had gone to war with England? The American answered him, that difficulties had existed, for a good while, between the two Governments, and that it was at length thought, in America, to be high time for the parties to come to a better understanding.

"I incline to think, Mr. President," continued Mr. Web

ster,
"that a war has broken out here, which is very likely,
before it closes, to bring the parties to a better understanding.

* Now, sir, let it be known, once for all, that this is
an Administration measure; that it is the President's own
measure; and I pray gentlemen to have the goodness, if they
call it hard names, and talk boldly against its friends, not to

overlook its source. Let them attack it, if they choose to attack it, in its origin."

Messrs. Tyler, Bibb, and Brown, of North Carolina, answered with some heat-the latter particularly-the suggestion that they hesitated to denounce the message, from fear of its author. Mr. Tyler said it was not the first time he had been placed in opposition to measures of which the President was the source, or of which the President approved. If the President has sent a Botany Bill, he would call it so, and as such oppose it. Mr. Bibb said, if the President desired that any such power should be given him, as the bill before them gave, he could find no expression of such desire in the message. He could not imagine that any President would have the daring effrontery to ask of Congress to give him such powers. Mr. Brown said, he had never looked to any quarter for instructions in regard to his vote on this bill, neither to the President nor Judiciary Committee-and he should not.

These interludes-if thus they may be called-added much to the interest of the main piece. They gave time, too, to the actors in the drama to better prepare their parts, to study their speeches, arrange their dresses, and a thing not unattended to even by Senators-prepare good houses. For Senators, no more than professional actors, love not to appear to "empty boxes."

When the curtain again rose, in the regular piece, Mr. `Dallas, of Pennsylvania, appeared, and spoke his speech "trippingly on the tongue." His personal appearance aided

him no little. It was, punctually, that of a gentleman. His rubicund countenance, surmounted by hair white as the snowflakes, bleached, but not thinned; his elaborate and improving manner, self-respecting yet not presumptuous; his scrupulous dress, subdued voice, and harmonious gesture, all bespoke the man of cultivated intellect and habits; and, in an assembly like the Senate of those days, could not fail to produce an earnest impression.

His language was consonant with his manner and bearing; it illustrated both. "Let us," said he, "inquire into the nature of our political structure. What is this political being the Union, commonly styled 'the United States ?' A consolidated multitude? Certainly not a federation merely of totally distinct masses of people? Certainly not. It is something then of a complicated character between these two, or combining them both. To be justly appreciated, it must be well understood, and not flimsily considered. Generalization and vague abstractions delude us, and necessarily lead to false conclusions. No one denies or doubts that the Constitution was formed by the people of the United States; and no one denies or doubts that it acts directly upon the people. Its origin and action are therefore popular or national. But was it not formed by the people as distinct aggregates called States in their sovereign capacities? Clearly it was. And is it not carried on, through some of its essential processes, by the separate States as sovereigns? Clearly it is. Its origin and action are then federative. Thus it is both popular and fede

rative; or, in other words, it is an entire national government, of which both the union and the distinctiveness of the sovereign States are fundamental and inherent qualities."

Mr. Miller, of South Carolina, followed Mr. Dallas, in a speech of some power, against the bill; and Mr. Rives, of Virginia, followed Mr. Miller, in favor of the bill. It was Mr. Rives maiden speech, and a very creditable effort. He came out from the shadowy, spectral region of abstractions, where no life is visible, into the world of sense and action. There was a meaning and warmth in his language that gained sympathy and response in the breasts, no less than in the understandings, of his hearers. He nationalized Virginia, giving it more than " a local habitation and a name."

It was late in the evening of the fourteenth day of February, that Mr. Rives concluded his speech. On his resuming his seat, Mr. Calhoun said he had waited to see if any other member of the committee desired to speak on the bill. Wishing to be heard himself on its merits, he would move that the Senate adjourn-and the Senate adjourned.

CHAPTER XI

Ir was on the fifteenth day of February, 1833, that Mr. Calhoun addressed the Senate against the Force Bill. All were silent as he rose, and, intent upon every word he uttered, directed their eyes and ears towards him. There was no one in the country at the time whose every act was watched with so much care. He was, indeed, an object of fearful curiosity. What he meditated was unknown in those days, and may never be revealed. But the current and specious voice attributed to him no less than treason against the government, It was known he was ambitious; and, in the pursuit of his ambitious projects, it was believed he was unscrupulous. "What thou would'st highly, that would'st thou holily," was the confession by Lady Macbeth of her husband's character. But opinion at this time conceded no such doubtful compliment to Mr Calhoun. It was generally credited that no consideration of private or public morality, no restriction of personal or constitutional obligation, no recollections of the past, or fears of the future could control his mad ambition.

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