Before this time, Colonel Adam L. Bingaman, of Adams County, had been the acknowledged leader of this party.  He was a man of rare qualifications for a popular leader—­highly gifted by nature in mind and personal appearance, which was most splendid and commanding, with a polished education and fascinating manners, and by nature an orator.  Added to these advantages, he was a native of the State, the representative of great wealth, and with extensive family influence.  These two met as friends personally and politically in the Legislature.

Prentiss—­though known as a great lawyer and a powerful advocate at the Bar—­had until now taken but little part in politics.  None knew of his proficiency as a politician or as a popular political orator, and, long accustomed to the eloquence and the debating abilities of Bingaman, the lead was accorded to him as usual.  Party excitement was fierce, and involved every one.  The Democracy, armed with numbers and men of great abilities, felt secure in their position.  They had no fears that any powers possessed by any man or set of men could operate a change in public opinion dangerous to their supremacy in the State.

Socially, Prentiss knew no party distinction.  With all who were gentlemen he mingled, not as a partisan, but as a man.  The kindness of his nature won upon all equally, and it was soon discovered that a personal favor to Prentiss would sometimes override party allegiance.  His personal friends were all gentlemen, and once within the magic influence of his social circle was enough to bind him to the heart of every one.  The session had made but little progress before his powers as an orator were beginning to be felt.

During an exciting debate, in which Bingaman had, as usual, taken the lead, when all the ablest of the Democracy had, as they supposed, exhausted the argument and demolished the position of their adversaries, and the House seemed impatient for the question, Prentiss rose, and claimed the attention of the chair.  His clear and succinct statement of the pending question put a new phase upon it, and the House seemed surprised.

He proceeded then to debate the question; and very soon he was in medias res, and his bold and lucid argument won the attention of every one.  The position of the Democracy was dissected to the separation of every fibre; its character and future effects denounced and exposed in a strain of invective eloquence which thrilled to every heart.  Turning from this to the national policy of the Democracy, then in power, and which the measure under consideration was intended to aid and sustain, his powers seemed to expand with the magnitude of the subject, as he went on to analyze the policy and the measures of the Government, and to demonstrate the disastrous consequences which must follow these remotely, if not immediately, corrupting, undermining, and ultimately destroying the Constitution, and, of consequence, the Government.  He spoke for three hours; his peroration was so grandly eloquent as to bring down the House and galleries in a round of applause.