MR. MARCH'S DESCRIPTION.

271

stantly called forth from Mr. Webster that final, condensed reply, which has the force of a moral demonstration.”

This statement, however, authentic and comprehensive as it is, does not meet the demand which exists everywhere, and always will exist, to have a more particular description of the scene. The great artist, George P. A. Healey, has put the scene on canvas; but painting, graphic and striking in such portraitures, is too limited in its range. The universal mind of the age wants the word-picture, a picture that can be indefinitely multiplied, and universally exhibited; and such a picture has been given, with what precise accuracy persons not present will never be able entirely to determine, but which, if accurate, is certainly brilliant, and satisfactory:

"It was on Tuesday, January the 26th, 1830"-says the writer, Mr. C. W. March, whom all subsequent historians and biographers will be compelled to quote*" a day to be hereafter forever memorable in senatorial annals,-that the seuate resumed the consideration of Foote's resolution. There never was before, in the city, an occasion of so much excitement. To witness this great intellectual contest, multitudes of strangers had for two or three days previous been rushing into the city, and the hotels overflowed. As early as nine o'clock of this morning, crowds poured into the capitol, in hot haste; at twelve o'clock, the hour of meeting, the senate-chamber,—its galleries, floor, and even lobbies,—was filled to its utmost capacity. The very stairways were dark with men, who hung on to one another, like bees in a swarm.

"The house of representatives was early deserted. An adjournment would have hardly made it emptier. The speaker, it is true, retained his chair, but no business of moment was, or

* Mr Everett's abridgment of Mr. March's pages is adopted. Those who wish te read the account entire, can do so in Mr. March's work-"Reminiscences f Cor gress"--which will well repay a perusal.

could be, attended to. Members all rushed in to hear Mr. Webster, and no call of the house or other parliamentary proceedings could compel them back. The floor of the senate was so densely crowded, that persons once in could not get out, nor change their position; in the rear of the vice-presidential chair, the crowd was particularly intense. Dixon H. Lewis, then a representative from Alabama, became wedged in here. From his enormous size, it was impossible for him to move without displacing a vast portion of the multitude. Unfortunately, too, for him, he was jammed in directly behind the chair of the vicepresident, where he could not see, and hardly hear, the speaker. By slow and laborious effort—pausing occasionally to breathe --he gained one of the windows, which, constructed of painted glass, flank the chair of the vice-president on either side. Here he paused, unable to make more headway. But determined to see Mr. Webster as he spoke, with his knife he made a large hole in one of the panes of the glass; which is still visible as he made it. Many were so placed, as not to be able to see the speaker at all.

"The courtesy of senators accorded to the fairer sex room on the floor-the most gallant of them their own seats. The gay bonnets and brilliant dresses threw a varied and picturesque beauty over the scene, softening and embellishing it.

"Seldom, if ever, has speaker in this or any other country had more powerful incentives to exertion; a subject, the determination of which involved the most important interests, and even duration, of the republic; competitors, unequaled in reputation, ability, or position; a name to make still more glori ous, or lose forever; and an audience, comprising not only persons of this country most eminent in intellectual greatness, but representatives of other nations, where the art of eloquence had flourished for ages. All the soldier seeks in opportunity was here.

"Mr. Webster perceived, and felt equal to, the destinies of

MARCH'S DESCRIPTION CONTINUED.

273

He awaited the time

He felt like the war

the moment. The very greatness of the hazard exhilerated him. His spirits rose with the occasion. of onset with a stern and impatient joy. horse of the Scriptures,-who 'paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: who goeth on to meet the armed men; who sayeth among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and who smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.'

"A confidence in his own resources, springing from no vain estimate of his power, but the legitimate offspring of previous severe mental discipline, sustained and excited him. He had guaged his opponents, his subject, and himself.

"He was, too, at this period, in the very prime of manhood. He had reached middle age—an era in the life of man, when the faculties, physical or intellectual, may be supposed to attain their fullest organization, and most perfect development. Whatever there was in him of intellectual energy and vitality, the occasion, his full life and high ambition, might well bring forth.

"He never rose on an ordinary occasion to address an ordinary audience more self-possessed. There was no tremulousness in his voice or manner; nothing hurried, nothing simulated. The calmness of superior strength was visible everywhere; in countenance, voice and bearing. A deep-seated conviction of the extraordinary character of the emergency, and of his ability to control it, seemed to possess him wholly. If an observer, more than ordinarily keen-sighted, detected at times something like exultation in his eye, he presumed it sprang from the excitement of the moment, and the anticipation of victory.

"The anxiety to hear the speech was so intense, irrepressi ble, and universal, that no sooner had the vice-president as sumed the chair, than a motion was made and unanimously carried, to postpone the ordinary preliminaries of senatorial ac tion, and to take up immediately the consideration of the reso lution.

"Mr. Webster rose and addressed the senate. dium is known by heart, everywhere:

His exor

Mr. President, when

the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence; and before we float further, on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may, at least, be able to form some conjecture where we now are. reading of the resolution.'

I ask for the

"There wanted no more to enchain the attention. There was a spontaneous, though silent, expression of eager approbation, as the orator concluded these opening remarks. And while the clerk read the resolution, many attempted the impossibility of getting nearer the speaker. Every head was inclined closer towards him, every ear turned in the direction of his voice-and that deep, sudden, mysterious silence followed, which always attends fullness of emotion. From the sea of upturned faces before him, the orator beheld his thoughts reflected as from a mirror. The varying countenance, the suffused eye, the earnest smile, and ever-attentive look, assured him of his audience's entire sympathy. If among his hearers there were those who affected at first an indifference to his glowing thoughts and fervent periods, the difficult mask was soon laid aside, and profound, undisguised, devoted attention followed. In the earlier part of his speech, one of his principal opponents seemed deeply engrossed in the careful perusal of a newspaper he held before his face; but this, on nearer approach, proved to be upside down. In truth, all, sooner or later, voluntarily, or in spite of themselves, were wholly carried away by the eloquence of the

orator.

Those who had doubted Mr. Webster's ability to cope with and overcome his opponents, were fully satisfied of their

ARCH JESCRIPTION CONTINUED.

275

error before he had proceeded far in his speech. Their fears soon took another direction. When they heard his sentences of powerful thought, towering in accumulative grandeur, one above the other, as if the orator surove, Titan-like, to reach the very heavens themselves, they were giddy with an apprehension that he would break down in his flight. They dared not believe that genius, learning, any intellectual endowment however uncommon, that was simply mortal, could sustain itself long in a career seemingly so perilous. They feared an Icarian fall.

"What New England heart was there but throbbed with vehement, tumultuous, irrepressible emotion, as he dwelt upon New England sufferings, New England struggles, and New England triumphs during the war of the revolution? There was scarcely a dry eye in the senate; all hearts were overcome; grave judges and men grown old in dignified life, turned aside their heads, to conceal the evidences of their emotion.

"In one corner of the gallery was clustered a group of Massachusetts men. They had hung from the first moment upon the words of the speaker, with feelings variously but always warmly excited, deepening in intensity as he proceeded. At first, while the orator was going through his exordium, they held their breath and hid their faces, mindful of the savage attack upon him and New England, and the fearful odds against him, her champion; as he went deeper into his speech, they felt easier, when he turned Hayne's flank on Banquo's ghost, they breathed freer and deeper. But now, as he alluded to Massachusetts, their feelings were strained to their highest tension; and when the orator, concluding his encomium upon the land of their birth, turned, intentionally, or otherwise, his burning eye full upon them-they shed tears like girls!

"No one who was not present can understand the excitement of the scene. No one who was, can give an adequate

VOL. I.

L*

18