Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-02-07
Distoriral
BENTON'S
SENATORIAL "REMINISCENCES

SENATOREAL REMlN lSCENCES.
Debate det,reea M. Clay and M. Calhoun,
Personal and Political, and leading to
Erpositioas and indications Of Public
Conduct achich belong to History.
From the Second Volume of'sThe Thirty Years
View" in the press of D. Appleton & Col
For seven years past, Mr.. Calhoun,
while disclaiming connection with any par
ty, had acted on leading measures with the
opposition, headed by Messrs. Clay and
Webster. Still disclaiming any such con-
2 nection, he was found at the extra session
cooperating with the administration. His
cooperation with the opposition had given
it the victory in many eventful contests in
that long period his cooperation with the
Van Buren, administration might turn the
tide of victory. The loss or gain of chief
who, in nearly balanced state of parties,
could carry victory to the side which he es-
poused, was an event not to be viewed with
outvexation by the party which he left. Re-
sentiment was as natural on one side as gra-
tiGcation was On the other The Democra-
tic party had made no reproaches q speak
of the debates in Congress)-when Mr..
Calhoun left them they debated questions
with him as if there had been no cause for
personal complaint
Not so with the opposition now, when the
course of his transit was reversed, and the
lsGeiaae .exent. occurred to .themselyes--T They
took deeply to heart this withdrawal of one
of their leaders; and his appearance on the
other side. It created feeling Of personal
resentment against Mr.. Calhoun, which had
manifested itself in several small side-blows
at the extra session and it broke out into
systematic attack at the regular one. Some
sharp passages took place between himself
to anything historical. He (Mr. Webster)
was but slightly inclined towards that kind
of speaking which mingles personality with
argument, and lessons the weight of the ad-
versary argument by reducing the weight of
the speakers character.
Mr.. Clay had a turn that way; and, GER
tainly, great ability for it. Invective,
mingled with sarcasm, was one of the pha-
ses of his oratory. He was supreme at a
phalippic (taken in the sense of Demosthenes
and Cicero) where the political attack on a
public mans measure was to be enforced
and heightened by personal attack on his
conduct. He owed much of his fascinating
power over his hearers to the exercise of this
talent-always so captivating in a popular
assembly, and in the galleries of the Senate;
not so much SO in the Senate itself; and to
him it naturally fell to become the organ of
the feelings ofhis party toward Mr.. Calhoun.
And very cordially, and carefully, and am
ply, did he make preparation for it.
The storm had been gathering since Sep
tember it burst in February. Ithad been
evidently waiting for an occasion and found
it in the first speech Of Mr.. Calhoun, of that
session, in favor of Mr.. Van Buren's recon-
mendation for an independent treasury and
a federal hard meney currency. This
speech was delivered on the 18th of Febru-
ary, and was strictly argumentative, and
wholly confined to its subject. Four days
thereafter Mr.. Clay answered it and, al
though ready at an extemporaneous speech,
he had the merit, when time permitted, of
considering well both the matter and the
words of what he intended to deliver.
Ou lllS OCCdSlDI It Udu l1aG ample tlmC {.
for the speech Of Mr.. Calhoun could not be
essentially different from the one he deliver
ed on the same subject at the extra session;
and the personal act which had excited his
resentment was Of the same date There
had been six months for preparation, and
fully had preparation been made. The
whole speech bore the impress of careful
elaboration, and especially the last part; for
it consisted of two distinct parasitic first
augmentative and addressed to the measure
before the Senate and was in fact, as well
as in name, reply. The second part was
an attack, under the name of reply, and
was addressed to the personal conduct Of
Mr.. Calhoun, reproaching him with his de-
sertion, Gas it was called, J and taunting him
with the company he had got into-taking
care to remind him of his own former sad
account of that company then, launching
into wider field, he threw up to him all
TIE imputed political delinquencies of bis
life for near twenty years-skipring none