at his conclusion, he thundered his invocation to the sister States.

It is said that Webster, who was seated near, as Prentiss's last words thrilled the hall, in enthusiastic admiration, exclaimed, "That can't be beat!"

Taking up the thread from Wise's letter where we left it, we find the following eulogium :

"The day at length arrived: Prentiss's turn came. He threw himself into the arena at a single bound, but not in the least like a harlequin. He stepped no stranger on the boards of high debate: 'he raised the eye to heaven, and trod with giant steps.' Never did I see the gaudia certamenis so beam and shine and glow from mortal face. I never shall forget the feelings he inspired and the triumph he won. But there's the speech, or at least a fragment of it, surviving him; there's the figure of the star and the stripe; go read it,-read it now, that his eye is dim and his muscles cease to move the action to the word, then imagine what it was as his tongue spoke it, his eye looked it, and his hand gesticulated its thoughts."

Passing on from this, one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in that hall, we shall trace his subsequent career in the grave category by which he was now environed. Again the title of Bulwer's novel comes up, "What will He do with It?"

A pleasing episode occurred before he left Washington City, one rarely accorded to so young a man: the distinguished men of his party, whose names still glitter in our history as stars of the first magnitude, tendered him and his colleague a complimentary dinner on the eve of their departure. Let Wise describe the scene, as taken from his reminiscences in the "Memoirs" of S. S. Prentiss by his brother:

"It was as élite an assembly as I ever saw gathered at the metropolis. The Hon. Hugh L. White, the Cato of the country, presided. And Clay was there, and Webster, and their peers from both houses of Congress, and the most select visitors of the populace. Prentiss that night was reserved, both in sentiment and style. He assumed that he was yet to win his spurs, and would not dare or deign to talk of deeds until he had returned from the crusade of the canvass, a knight of the holy war for popular and States' rights against the worse than Turk of a party.

"But that night's speeches I shall never forget, for it sealed my intimacy with him. Many members spoke when toasted, and many toasted to draw out speeches. Clay utterly failed to charm the assembly. His wings seemed to be wet, and they flapped and floundered in the dust. Webster

rose and gaped and yawned a bad apology for not trying to entertain us. After a while he was called on again, and he responded to the call by punning on the names of Senators from Mississippi. That State, he said, had sent a Walker, then a Trotter, and next she was like to go off in a galloping consumption. He sipped his toast and down he sat, to the disappointment of everybody. The scene was dull, it began to grow late, and Judge White called me to the chair and retired. Two- or threescore guests remained till past twelve o'clock, and about one o'clock some one, I think General Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, rose and said the speeches of the occasion had been execrable, that no one had tried to touch a chord of feeling or to draw a cork even of wit. He upbraided Webster especially with failing to attempt to speak with effect, and, as a Southern man, appealed to him, a Northern man, to touch the theme of the Union. Clapping of hands commenced,- Webster!' 'Webster! The Union!' 'Webster! The Union !'

"He rose and commenced in strains of solemn earnestness. As he went on he warmed, he grew taller, his large ox eyes expanded, his complexion grew darker, his heavy arm and hand worked like a tilt-hammer of Vulcan beating out thoughts for the gods. He rose to the empyrean and yet seemed low down to us, because his thoughts were so large that, though high enough, if small, to be out of sight, they compassed us all about with their shadows, and the very clouds of them were luminous with auroralike light. He brought forty men to their feet, their hands resting on the dining-table, their eyes gazing at him, their lips parted as if they were panting for breath. By and by he came to point the speech with its moral and exclaimed, 'And you, Southern brethren, shall my children be aliens to your children, and shall your children be aliens to my children?'

"This he said so touchingly, so appealingly to the heart, so generously tendering love and confidence, that, heavens, what a burst of feeling! The great tears rolled down many a manly cheek, and of Georgia,

9

exclaimed, 'There, now, didn't I know it! But my people wouldn't believe this. I'll tell them as soon as I go home.' In the midst of the excitement, of Kentucky, in a perfect frenzy, seized an empty champagne-bottle and, crying out, Reform! Revolution! Liberty or death!' threw it at Webster's head, which he would doubtless have hit but for my jarring his arm by catching at it as he threw. What a magnificent structure he would have destroyed had he hit it!

"Thus ended the last act of that night, and he (Prentiss) went to my room and lodged with me until morning. He then, for the first time, gave me his private history. I perceived that his feelings were morbid respecting his lameness. Indeed, he told me that he had gone out alone at the midnight hour and bewailed in despair the marring of his fair proportions. I begged him to get married, assuring him that he was wholly mistaken in virtuous, intelligent woman if he imagined that his lameness forbade the bans of matrimony to him. He was much soothed by this assurance,

and promised to seek more the humanizing society of woman and to try to love. He did so, and I always thought he was drawn to me by this persuasion and by my always refusing to join him in his conviviality."

The whole of those reminiscences of Wise, as given in the "Memoirs," is one of its brightest gems, and really sparkles with beauty and pathos from the beginning to the close.

In genius, in intellectual power, in fiery eloquence, in lofty scorn of all that was low and mean, in unflinching valor, in unswerving integrity, and in tender-heartedness, Prentiss and Wise were not unlike, and hence the sympathy between them. There is a secret intellectual magnetism which draws kindred spirits towards each other, and so it was in this case, "spirit responded to spirit at first sight, without a word."

Prentiss was of course unutterably indignant at the way in which the State was treated, but, like all men of genuine wit, whose spirits alternate between the rise of exuberance and the ebb of despondency, he had a way of conquering defeat by draping it with raillery. He wrote in this way to his sister, and showed by an arithmetical calculation that he had at least gotten his "quota of time in that Congress." He could not help but express great disgust at politics, and but for his peculiar position he said he was disposed to resign and quit the business forever; but, like the animal harnessed to the tread-mill, he was bound to keep treading on.

He left Washington early in March, and en route home was invited to public receptions. His great effort, as we have before, expressed it, had struck the auditory nerve of the nation, which vibrated from Maine to Mississippi, and throughout all the wide borders of the Union. His reply to the invitations, in brief, was that as yet he was the Disinherited Knight, and therefore could not enter the lists.

He reached home on the 13th of March, amid the booming of cannon that "bayed their deep-mouthed welcome," more as though he were a returning conqueror than a defeated champion. His friends were enthusiastic in their reception, and overwhelmed him with their congratulations on his magnificent defence of their State's rights. There was a counselling as to what was to be done. He was extremely averse to another can

vass of the State, but it was evident to him that, unless he did this, the cause would be lost. Thus, being in, he was forced by the irresistible logic of events to go forward. He was tendered a dinner by his friends and neighbors, which was presided over by Judge Sharkey.

The governor issued his proclamation for the, so to speak, third election, to be held on the fourth Monday of April; there was, therefore, but a short time for action on either side. Mr. Gohlson declined to run, and General James Davis took his place, with Claiborne, on the Democratic ticket.

Prentiss opened this third campaign by a brief address to his constituents, plainly detailing the facts. The following epitome will show the points:

"That in November he was elected; received his credentials from the governor; presented them and demanded to be sworn in; the Speaker refused; the seats were occupied by Claiborne and Gohlson, who were in only for special term, but had been declared to be entitled to the full term. After a severe struggle they were ousted, but the November election was also declared void, and your Representatives rejected, and the State disfranchised at this most important epoch. Upon the question of the November election the vote stood a tie, and the Speaker had the glorious infamy of deciding it against you. Your right of election has been repudiated, but you will not submit. Had you chosen Representatives of the other political party it would not have resulted thus. The true contest now is whether you or the House of Representatives shall designate who shall serve you in that body. He appeals to high-minded of all political parties to assert their right of election. The usurpers have been driven from the Capitol by your Representatives, but they have been denied admittance. I have obeyed your high behest. It now devolves upon you to assert your rights."

This was the opening of the campaign, and, to follow it up, Prentiss once more appeared on the hustings at Vicksburg, and then at Natchez. Here the court-house was not large enough to hold the audience. A platform was erected in the court-yard. About fifty ladies of the elite of the county, for whom seats were prepared, mingled in the throng to hear him.

The following is a rude outline of his great two-hours' speech at Natchez, taken down by a young friend and recorded. in the "Memoirs":

"Fellow-citizens:-A great king of France once remarked, after a defeat

in battle, 'All is lost save honor.' Such may well be the exclamation of the people of Mississippi, 'All is lost save honor.'

"Not many months since, you are all aware, an election took place in this State for Representatives in Congress of the United States, and I, as one of the candidates for that high mission, addressed you on the great political questions agitating the country. I now appear before you in another view and on other grounds. I do not ask the support of any of my fellow-citizens of this State either on account of their personal friendship for me, or because they belong to the same political party with whose views I have generally coincided. I come before you as the advocate of a high constitutional principle,-a principle before which all the little political quarrels of the day sink into utter insignificance,-the great principle of representation.

"I believe I am one of the Representatives to Congress from Mississippi, -a Representative not merely of my political friends, but of every man, woman, and child in the State, for the number who did not vote for me at the polls were after my election equally bound with the larger number who did vote for me to support the laws and constitution of the State and to defend their right of representation.

"However some of you may differ from me on some of the questions, I trust, fellow-citizens, you will give me credit for candor in my political course. I am anxious that none should be in error regarding my view,I wish to leave no room for misapprehension or misrepresentation, and to such an extent do I carry this desire that I would not receive a single vote which I believe to be given from a mistaken idea of my principles.

"This is neither the time nor the place for discussing party questions, nor am I before you for that purpose. But, as it has been said that I am anxious to assume new ground in view of the April election, I will refer you to the unreserved expression of my opinions as I addressed them to you before the November election, and remark that they are unchanged, unmitigated in every respect. If any difference exists, it is that I am still firmer in my devotion to them. I return to you a messenger who has not been able to execute his trust. If you had sent in November as Representatives to Congress two good' Democrats,' as they are called, not the slightest breath from that House would have impeded their admission; but you dared to send men of your independent choice without consulting the presiding powers at the Capitol, and on that account are defrauded of the treasure of all others most dear to an American citizen. This is the real cause why my colleague and myself failed in our errand. The proud position which we held as defenders of your constitutional rights impelled us to the performance of our task with unbounded zeal; if there was any deficiency in maintaining those rights, want of ability, not of perseverance, was the cause. I, for my part, have done all I could do to urge the sanctity of your claims. It is for you now to act, and send me to act for you. The contest is yours, not mine. I have no personal interest