Mr. Webster.—­“What he means he is very apt to say.”

Mr. Calhoun.—­“Always, always.”

Mr. Webster.—­“And I honor him for it.”

And this:—­

Mr. Webster.—­

“I see an honorable member of this body [Mason of Virginia] paying me the honor of listening to my remarks; he brings to my mind, Sir, freshly and vividly, what I learned of his great ancestor, so much distinguished in his day and generation, so worthy to be succeeded by so worthy a grandson.”

And this:—­

Mr. Webster.—­

“An honorable member from Louisiana addressed us the other day on this subject.  I suppose there is not a more amiable and worthy gentleman in this chamber, nor a gentleman who would be more slow to give offence to anybody, and he did not mean in his remarks to give offence.  But what did he say?  Why, Sir, he took pains to run a contrast between the slaves of the South and the laboring people of the North, giving the preference in all points of condition and comfort and happiness to the slaves.”

In the course of this speech there is one most palpable contradiction.  In the beginning of it, the orator mentioned the change of feeling and opinion that had occurred as to the institution of slavery,—­“the North growing much more warm and strong against slavery, and the South growing much more warm and strong in its support.”  “Once,” he said, “the most eminent men, and nearly all the conspicuous politicians of the South, held the same sentiments,—­that slavery was an evil, a blight, a scourge, and a curse”; but now it is “a cherished institution in that quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great religious, social, and moral blessing.”  He then asked how this change of opinion had been brought about, and thus answered the question:  “I suppose, sir, this is owing to the rapid growth and sudden extension of the COTTON plantations in the South.”  And to make the statement more emphatic, he caused the word cotton to be printed in capitals in the authorized edition of his works.  But later in the speech, when he came to add his ponderous condemnation to the odium in which the handful of Abolitionists were held,—­the elite of the nation from Franklin’s day to this,—­then he attributed this remarkable change to their zealous efforts to awaken the nobler conscience of the country.  After giving his own version of their proceedings, he said: 

“Well, what was the result?  The bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more strongly fastened.  Public opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle.”

But all would not do.  He bent the knee in vain.  Vain too were his personal efforts, his Southern tour, his Astor House wooings,—­the politicians would have none of him; and he had the cutting mortification of seeing himself set aside for a Winfield Scott.