The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-01-21
INTELLIGENCE By THE MAILS,
FFAIRS In WASHINGTOU.
WARRINGTON, Jan. 10, l848.
The Speech Of Mr.. Foofe.


The speech in the Senate, to-day, on the war
bill, by General Foote, proves him to be man
OF education, a reader of politics, poetry, and
the classics, and wthal man of nerve. There
was one point in his speech significant enough.
Mr. Clayton had compared the designs of the ad-
mlnls'ratlon upon Mexico as equivalent to high
way robbery; and Mr. Foote, taking up the
charge, demanded to know the scope OF its ap-
pncstlon' Mr.. Clayton explained IT in the Pick
wicklan sense but after this admonition IL
would be as well that our whig friends be little
more cautious IN their allegations of highway
robbery.
In describing the visible effect of Mr.. Reverdv
Johnson's first position, that the war was begun
by the act OF Mexico, as argued by him to the
Senate, particularly its effect upon his whiR
friends, Mr.. Foote compared the gathering storm
upon their countenances to a scene in the Alps.
described by Byron, which the Senator recited
as follows:
"And this is in the night-most glorious night;
And, storm and darkness, ye wondrous strong
And if the Senator had stopped here, the quo
tation woul d have been apostle and effective;
but he continued
"Yet lovely in your strength Is the light of dark
eye in woman. Far along,
From peak to peak the rattling crsgs among
Leaps the live thunder-not from one lone cisud,
But every mountain now hath found tongue,
And Jura answers from her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloudn
The stanza was read with much dramatic ef-
feet, but the force of the application was lost
to the Senator's love of the sublime. For what
application have the Joyous Alps to the me-
lanchoy faces of the wings pending Mr.. John
sons argument on his first positions and what
analogy have the " rafting crags" to the silent
sorrow Of Mr. Webster, and those around him!
How much better and more striking, would have
been this verse, as applied to the wings, while
listening to Mr.. Johnson
81 have silent sorrow here,
Which cannot impsrt;
1t breathes no sigh, 1t sheds NO tear,
Yet 1t consumes nv heart"
Yet Mr.. Foote, captivated by Byron's thunder
storm, gave another stanZa-
"Now where the quick Rhone"&c
Beautiful, to be sure, but having no relation
either to Mr. Johnson or the bill from the Mill
tary Committee. There was, perhaps, little
vanity with Mr.. Foote, on the score Of his poeti-
cal readings, on which ground we absolve him.
The quotation from Goldsmith, descriptive of
ley of Mexico, and, a description of the coun-
try proposed to be annexed, was very inviting,
and presented very good reasons for the location
OF the Yankees down there fact which was
unnecessarily lamented by Mr. Clayton, as
certain TO lead to the absorption OF the republic
mines, mountains, Mestizzoes, Zamboes leperos
and all.
The drawback upon Mr. Foote'S peculiarly
striking defence of the war was, them that It
was too redundant of poetry, and the classics,
and moral philosophy, destroying the force or
the argument by dilation, and the thread Of tho
story by his frequent dgressions. We expect,
however, that it will have the effect of warm
ing, rather than cooling down the debate. w.