union seems once more to occupy the weak imagination of fanatics, at either extremity of the Union. "Mr. President, if the friends of nullification should be able to propagate their opinions, and give them practical effect, they would, in my judgment, prove themselves the most skilful architects of ruin, the most effectual extinguishers of high-raised expectation, the greatest blasters of human hopes, which any age has produced. They would stand up to proclaim, in tones which would pierce the ears of half the human race, that the last great experiment of representative government had failed. They would send forth sounds, at the hearing of which, the doctrine of the divine right of kings would feel, even in its grave, a returning sensation of vitality and resuscitation. Millions of eyes, of those who now feed their inherent love of liberty on the success of the American example, would turn away from beholding our dismemberment, and find no place on earth whereon to rest their gratified sight. Amidst the incantations and orgies of nullification, secession, disunion, and revolution, would be celebrated the funereal rites of constitutional and republican liberty."

The thronged Senate-chamber, while it listened to the deep tones of the speaker, as in his most impressive manner he pronounced this eloquent admonition, surged like the sea. You saw the undulating motion of the crowd, leaning forward to catch each word as it fell, and forced back to its original position. It was late in the evening when the orator got through his speech. The emotions of the multitude, which

had been repressed during the day did not hesitate to find articulate and forcible expression under the protecting shadows of night; and hardly had the speaker concluded his remarks, before the galleries, rising to a man, gave a hearty, vociferous cheer, for "Daniel Webster, the defender of the Constitution."

Mr. Poindexter immediately started to his feet and moved an adjournment. But the presiding officer ordered the galleries to be cleared, refusing to put the motion to adjourn till after order had been restored; and then the Senate adjourned.

CHAPTER XII.

THE debate languished after the conclusion of Mr. Calhoun's and Mr. Webster's speeches. The crowd that had filled the Senate Chamber daily to hear them, gradually thinned. The public curiosity to listen to the debate, which had grown stronger from its first opening to the GREAT ARGument, reached its highest point at the conclusion thereof, ard thence subsided into its ordinary character of indifference. There were some good speeches on the subject, however, made later. Mr. Forsyth made an able argument for the bill, and refuted, with brief but emphatic logic, the objections urged against it. He had not prepared himself fully for the discussion, but he spoke enough to convince his audience of his ability to say more, equally well. Mr. Miller, of South Carolina, followed him on the other side, as briefly if not as ably. Speaking of Mr. Webster's position towards the administration as compared with his position in the Hayne controversy, he said: "The Senator from Massachusetts is now the alpha with the powers that be; it is not long since he was the omega." Mr. Poindexter also made a speech. How much or little of other

merit it possessed, it wanted one sadly—the merit of brevity. There was but little in his constitutional argument not better expressed by Mr. Calhoun or Mr. Tyler: in personal invective, however, he borrowed from neither of those gentlemen. He drew his inspiration therein from his disposition. Mr. Grundy spoke with a good deal of plausibility and ingenuity of argument, particularly against the assumed right of any State to secede from the Union, at its option. Mr. Ewing of Ohio followed, and closed the debate. He rose to speak about six o'clock in the evening, spoke half an hour, and then gave way to a motion for adjournment. The motion was lost. It was the determination of the managers of the bill to take a vote upon it before adjournment. Against such intention, Mr. Calhoun protested. He said that as the debate was closed on the part of the opponents of the bill, and as there was no disposition on their part to delay its passage, he hoped that the gentlemen on the other side would consent to postpone the final question until the morning, as the Senate was thin, and a bill of such importance ought to pass in a full Senate. Several gentlemen, he said, had retired from indisposition.

Mr. Wilkins rendered a tribute to the liberality of the gentleman from South Carolina, who had postponed his intention of addressing the Senate, and had thus facilitated the termination of the debate. But as the Senate had been notified that the bill would be urged through this evening, and as it was therefore to be presumed that every Senator was prepared to

vote, and as the public mind was desirous that this question should be disposed of, he could not consent to delay.

Mr. Calhoun then moved that the Senate adjourn, but, after some interlocution with members near him, withdrew the motion.

Mr. Ewing then resumed, and continued his remarks till half-past nine o'clock, when he yielded the floor to Mr Holmes, who moved an adjournment.

By this time, Senators exhibited conclusive indications of exhaustion. Some nodded in their seats; others were strown upon the sofas behind the bar; a few had left the Senate, and gone to their lodgings. There were none who felt not fatigued, and almost overborne by the protracted and ardent contest. But the confidential friends of the President, Messrs. Wilkins and Grundy, would listen to no entreaty for adjournment. This was the day, this the hour, to determine the fate of the bill. Senators had suffered, perhaps, but they could suffer a little more, for their country. Their merit would be the greater from their present sacrifice.

Mr. Wilkins demanded the yeas and nays on Mr. Holmes' motion to adjourn; which, being taken, stood, thirteen for adjournment, twenty-three against it.

Mr. Ewing again took the floor, and spoke an hour longer. In the meanwhile, several Senators, some favorable and some adverse to the bill, left the Senate, unwilling or unable to await the termination of the debate; the two Senators from Missouri among others, thereby avoiding a record of their vote.