about which something has not been said in the speech, running through two days, by which the Senate has been entertained by the gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, 5 whether past or present-everything, general or local, whether belonging to national politics or party politics seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before the Senate. He has spoken of everything but the public 10 lands; they have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a passing glance. When this debate, Sir, was to be resumed on Thursday morning, it so happened that it would have been 15 convenient for me to be elsewhere. The honorable member, however, did not incline to put off the discussion to another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That shot, Sir, which he thus kindly informed us was coming, that we might stand out 20 of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall by it and die with decency, has now been received. Under all advantages, and with expectation awakened by the tone which. preceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of its effect, 25 than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or wounded, it is not the first time in the history of human affairs that the vigor and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto. 30 The gentleman, Sir, in declining to postpone the debate, told the Senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that there was something rankling here, which he wished to relieve. [Mr. Hayne rose, and disclaimed having used the word rank35 ling.] immediate reply. In this respect, Sir, I have a gi advantage over the honorable gentleman. There is n ing here, Sir, which gives me the slightest uneasine neither fear, nor anger, nor that which is sometimes m troublesome than either, the consciousness of having b in the wrong. There is nothing either originating h or now received here by the gentleman's shot. Noth originating here, for I had not the slightest feeling unkindness towards the honorable member. Some sages, it is true, had occurred since our acquaintance this body which I could have wished might have b otherwise; but I had used philosophy, and forgotten th I paid the honorable member the attention of listen with respect to his first speech; and when he sat do though surprised, and I must even say astonished some of his opinions, nothing was farther from my tention than to commence any personal warfare. Thro the whole of the few remarks I made in answer, I avoid studiously and carefully, everything which I thou possible to be construed into disrespect. And, Sir, w there is thus nothing originating here which I h wished at any time, or now wish, to discharge, I m repeat, also, that nothing has been received here wh rankles, or in any way gives me annoyance. I will accuse the honorable member of violating the rules civilized war I will not say that he poisoned his arro But whether his shafts were, or were not, dipped in t which would have caused rankling, if they had reac their destination, there was not, as it happened, quite strength enough in the bow to bring them to their mark. If he wishes now to gather up those shafts, he must look for them elsewhere; they will not be found fixed and 5 quivering in the object at which they were aimed. The honorable member complained that I had slept on his speech. I must have slept on it, or not slept at all. The moment the honorable member sat down, his friend from Missouri rose, and, with much honeyed com10 mendation of the speech, suggested that the impressions which it had produced were too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments or other sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn. Would it have been quite amiable in me, Sir, to interrupt this excellent 15 good feeling? Must I not have been absolutely malicious, if I could have thrust myself forward to destroy sensations thus pleasing? Was it not much better and kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others also the pleasure of sleeping upon them? But 20 if it be meant, by sleeping upon his speech, that I took time to prepare a reply to it, it is quite a mistake. Owing to other engagements I could not employ even the interval between the adjournment of the Senate and its meeting the next morning in attention to the subject of this 25 debate. Nevertheless, Sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubtedly true. I did sleep on the gentleman's speech, and slept soundly. And I slept equally well on his speech of yesterday, to which I am now replying. It is quite possible that in this respect, also, I possess some advan30 tage over the honorable member, attributable, doubtless, to a cooler temperament on my part; for, in truth, I slept upon his speeches remarkably well. But the gentleman inquires why he was made the object of such a reply? Why was he singled out? If an 35 attack has been made on the East, he, he assures us, did not begin it; it was made by the gentleman from Missouri. Sir, I answered the gentleman's speech because I happened to hear it; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech, which, if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce injurious impressions. I did not 5 stop to inquire who was the original drawer of the bill. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just responsibility without delay. But, Sir, this interrogatory of the honorable member was only introductory to another. 10 He proceeded to ask me whether I had turned upon him, in this debate, from the consciousness that I should find an overmatch, if I ventured on a contest with his friend from Missouri. If, Sir, the honorable member, modestia gratia, had chosen thus to defer to his friend, and to pay 15 him a compliment, without intentional disparagement to others, it would have been quite according to the friendly courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrateful to my own feelings. I am not one of those, Sir, who esteem any tribute of regard, whether light and occasional, or more 20 serious and deliberate, which may be bestowed on others, as so much unjustly withholden from themselves. But the tone and manner of the gentleman's question forbid me thus to interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing more than a civility to his friend. It had 25 an air of taunt and disparagement, something of the loftiness of asserted superiority, which does not allow me to pass it over without notice. It was put as a question for me to answer, and so put as if it were difficult for me to answer, whether I deemed the member from Mis- 30 souri an overmatch for myself in debate here. It seems to me, Sir, that this is extraordinary language, and an extraordinary tone, for the discussions of this body. 1 Matches and overmatches! Those terms are more applicable elsewhere than here, and fitter for other assem- 35 Sir, blies than this. Sir, the gentleman seems to forget where and what we are. This is a Senate a Senate of equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. We know no mas8 ters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for the exhibition of champions. I offer myself, Sir, as a match for no man; I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. But then, Sir, since the honorable member has put 10 the question in a manner that calls for an answer, I will give him an answer; and I tell him that, holding myself to be the humblest of the members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of his friend from Missouri, either alone, or when aided by the arm of his friend from South 15 Carolina, that need deter even me from espousing whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating whenever I may choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I may see fit to say, on the floor of the Senate. when uttered as matter of commendation or compliment, 20 I should dissent from nothing which the honorable member might say of his friend. Still less do I put forth any pretensions of my own. But when put to me as matter of taunt, I throw it back, and say to the gentleman that he could possibly say nothing less likely than 25 such a comparison to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of its tone rescued the remark from intentional irony, which otherwise, probably, would have been its general acceptation. But, Sir, if it be imagined that by this mutual quotation and commendation; if it 30 be supposed that, by casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part, to one the attack, to another the cry of onset; or if it be thought that, by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any laurels are to be won here; if it be imagined, especially, that any or all 35 these things will shake any purpose of mine, I can tell |