et
if upon careful consideration I should choose to do so, or if
possessing the recollections of past times and memories and reasons
and considerations that yet lay in my hidden memories I shall choose
to talk for a longer period, I shall claim the right to do so."

"I am anxious to give my views on this subject," said Mr. Davis. "I do
not feel able to give them at this late hour of the night; still, I
believe I could hang on for three or four hours if I was disposed to
do so, [laughter,] but I believe that to-morrow I should not occupy
more than at the farthest two hours of the time of the Senate."

Numerous amendments were proposed, much discursive talk was indulged
in, and many motions to adjourn were voted down. At length, three
o'clock of Saturday morning, February 16th, having arrived, an
adjournment was brought about by means of a very long amendment
proposed by Mr. Henderson as a substitute for the entire bill. This
opening up a new discussion, the friends of the pending bill saw the
impossibility of coming to a speedy vote, and consented to an
adjournment.

On the reaessembling of the Senate on Saturday, February 16th, Mr.
Doolittle delivered a very long speech in opposition to the bill, and
in vindication of his political course which had been called in
question by the "Radicals of Wisconsin." "I rise," said he, "to plead
for what I believe to be the life of the republic, and for that spirit
which gives it life. I stand here, also, to answer for myself;
because, foreseeing and resisting from the beginning what I knew must
follow as the logical consequences of the adoption of certain
fundamental heresies originating in Massachusetts, and of which the
honorable Senator upon my right [Mr. Sumner] is the advocate and
champion, I have been for more than eighteen months denounced in my
State by many of my former political associates and friends."

At the evening session of the Senate, Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Davis
delivered extended speeches against the measure. "I appeal to you,
sir," said Mr. Saulsbury; "I appeal to those who exercise political
power in this country now, by all the memories that cluster around the
glorious past; by the recollection of the noble deeds and heroic
sufferings of our ancestors, for you and for me, for your posterity
and for my posterity; by all the bright realizations which might be
ours in this present hour; by all the bright future and all the
glories which are in that immediate f