The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-04

IN REPLY TO MR.. kHETT,
IN SENATE.-February 81, 1852.

about two o'clock, when at my room, | received
the following formidable missye:
SENATE CHAMBER, Feb. 26, 1852
DEAR SIR: have been directed by the Hon.
Barnwell Rhett to inform you that to- morrow
he will address the Senate upon the subject OF
personalities between you and himself, and that
he has given notice this morning to the Senate
| to that effect.
| / have the honor to be, most respectfully,
your obedient servant,
r. BEALE, Sergeant at Arms.
| Hon. J. CLEMENS, United States Senator.
| If that notice had been given to me alone, l
might have supposed that the Senator from
South Carolina intended to give me an opportu
nifty of preparing to die with decency. But not
satisfied with directing this note to me, | see
from the morning papers that he gave, in add
| ton, formal notice to the Senate to the gale
RES to the reporters, and the letter writer's, in
order that they might all appear on the present
occasion to witness his triumph and my discom-
| li;ure 1t may happen that the vain self conceit
which has induced him to overlook the means of
assault has equally induced him to undervnue
those of the defence. The Senator from South
Carolina has manifested an'ignorance Of the his
tory Of this compromse-an ignorance of my
position in relation to it; he has drawn deduc.
tons from it so false, and SO uhjustiiable that
can attribute it to nothing but that blind and
rabid spirit of disunion which prevents him from
seeing things that to other men, apparent
as the noon-day sun. He says that called him
n knave and traitor. No man who heard that
speech Of mine ever entertained such an opinion
but himself The allusion TO knavery was an
illustration, not charge. But if | had done so,
the subs quent course of that Senator justifies
me in adding the epithet of coward to that Of
kuave and traitor.
The PRESIDENT The Senator must not
use expressions of that kind
Mr.. CLEMENS am not out of order, Mr.
President, and intend, if can, to keep within
the rules of order. But there are some things
which | must say, and which will say. If,
when he believed that the charge of knavery
was pending against him, he brooded over it, and
took more than two months to prepare himself
for deliberate speech to answer it on the floor
of the Senate, he does not deserve the character
of man. No man, with the feeling of man
in his bosom, who believed such charge was
pending against him, would have sought redress
here. He would have looked for it elsewhere
| He submitted to it then, and now comes here,
not to ask redress in the only way he should
have sought it, but as he says, to discredit the
witness; and how does he propose to do it {?
He begins with the evidence Of two of his CO.
conspirators. Now, in my State, they are not
allowed by law to give evidence for one another.
But this is not all He has evaded the point.
He has sought to create false impression upon
the Senate and the country. He has endeav
ored to make this Senate believe that intended
to charge them with open applause of his con-
duct. meant no such thing, and every man
knew that did not mean it. But will he deny
that they went to him and shook hands with
him. congratulating him upon the speech that he
had made?
Mr.. RIIETT. deny it.
Mr.. CLEMENS. Mr.. CHASE, did you not do
lit?
Mr.. CHASE. do not recoect what did,
so far as shaking hands is concerned. know
expressed then, as express now, my concur
renee in the doctrines of the speech so far as il
inculcated the doctrines of State rights; and
when the Senator from Alabama, the other day
gave us the pleasure of hearing very beautiful
speech upon another occasion, | expressed tc
him my qualification with that speech, 80 far as
| concurred in it. And now ask the Senator
from Alabama upon what ground he says an
a co cOnspiratOr with any one upon this floor?
Mr.. CLEMENS. | will attend to one at
time. Now, what witness is discredited? The
, Senator from South Carolina alleges that there
was no such congratulation. Before the words
are cold upon his lips the Senator from Ohio
contradcts him. Where, then, is the witness
} who is discredited Hero are witnesses who
, saw it. The Senator from Ohio does not pre-
tend to say that he did not do it. He does moi
pretend to say anything of the sort. He says
) merely he does not remember shaking hands
But, sir, it is no extraordinary thing-itis moth
ing extraordinary for the senator to be upon
friendly and intimate terms with those whom
| h,x avts i
not saying anything disrespectfu of these gen.
temen. The point which mean to make is
this that the Senator from South Carolina al
home denounces them as traitors-that every.
where throughout the land he has assumed the
ground that they were worse than Arnolds-
and yet in the face of all this we find his per.
sonal relations with them so warm that they can
afford to go and congratulate him upon his efforts
in favor of disurion. do not mean to say there
is anything discreditabe tothem in that associa.
ton: but what mean to say is, that it is extra.
ordnary-that it is something which is strange
to the country-that this uncommon intimacy
should exist between them. But that is not all
The Senator has given us another illustration OF
his facility for forming such associations. In
that very speech which he made here in the
course of his reply to Mr.. FooTE, he let out the
fact that he had private consultations with THos
II. BENTON behind one of the columns of this
capitol in relation to Mr.. FooTEs conduct tow
ards Mr. CALHOUN. Who in South Carolina
would have believed that BARNwELL RHETT
would have gone to THOMAS H. BENTON to con.
suit about the interests of j. G.. CALHOUN?
/ There was another witness whom the Senator
did not call to the stand-possibly because he is
not here possibly because his testimony would
not have suited him quite so well and that is
the honorable Senator from New Hampshire
Mr.. HALE. who was actually SO delighted
that he left his seat and came over to this side
of the House to listen to the whole of that
harangue. Yet the Senator from South Caro-
lima now attempts to create the impression upor
the country that | have made false charge
against him, of being on terms of intimacy will
these gentlemen. There is one thing which VIC
all know: if there is concord of sentiment
beween him and them, there is no concord O
sentiment between him and those whom they
represent. We all know that the Abolitionist.
have declared that the Constitution of the
United States is "a covenant with death ant