then gave a concert at Washington,
which was largely and fashionably attended. In the midst of one
of his most exquisite performances, while every breath was suspended,
and every ear attentive to catch the sounds of his magical instrument,
the silence was suddenly broken and the harmony harshly interrupted
by the well-known voice of General Felix Grundy McConnell, a
Representative from the Talladega district of Alabama, shouting,
"None of your high-falutin, but give us Hail Columbia, and bear
hard on the treble!" "Turn him out," was shouted from every part
of the house, and the police force in attendance undertook to remove
him from the hall. "Mac," as he was called, was not only one of
the handsomest men in Congress, but one of the most athletic, and
it was a difficult task for the policemen to overpower him, although
they used their clubs. After he was carried from the hall, some
of his Congressional friends interfered, and secured his release.

The publication of verbatim reports of the proceedings of Congress
was systematically begun during Polk's Administration by John C.
Rives, in the _Congressional Globe_, established a few years
previously as an offshoot from the old Democratic organ. This
unquestionably had a disastrous effect upon the eloquence of
Congress, which no longer hung upon the accents of its leading
members, and rarely read what appeared in the report of the debates.
Imitating Demosthenes and Cicero, Chatham and Burke, Mirabeau and
Lamartine, the Congressmen of the first fifty years of the Republic
poured forth their breathing thoughts and burning words in polished
and elegant language, and were listened to by their colleagues and
by spectators so alive to the beauties of eloquence that they were
entitled to the appellation of assemblages of trained critics.
The publication of verbatim reports of the debates put an end to
this, for Senators and Representatives addressed their respective
constituents through the _Congressional Globe_.

[Facsimile]
Felix Grundy
FELIX GRUNDY was born in Berkeley County, Virginia (now West
Virginia), September 11th, 1777; was a Representative from Tennessee,
1811-1814; was United States Senator, 1829-1838; was Attorney-
General under President Van Buren, 1838-1840; was again elected
Senator in 1840, and died at Nashville, December 19th of the same
year.

CHAPTER XXIII.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.

John Tyler, who was fifty-one years of age when he took possessi