too chary of truth in its
composition, no partisan manoeuvre was too openly dishonest, no
political pathway was too dangerous, if it afforded an opportunity
for making a point for Douglas. He was industrious and sagacious,
clothing his brilliant ideas in energetic and emphatic language,
and standing like a lion at bay when opposed. He had a herculean
frame, with the exception of his lower limbs, which were short and
small, dwarfing what otherwise would have been a conspicuous figure,
and he was popularly known as "the Little Giant." His large, round
head surmounted a massive neck, and his features were symmetrical,
although his small nose deprived them of dignity. His dark eyes,
peering from beneath projecting brows, gleamed with energy, mixed
with an expression of slyness and sagacity, and his full lips were
generally stained at the corners of his mouth with tobacco juice.
His voice was neither musical nor soft, and his gestures were not
graceful. But he would speak for hours in clear, well-enunciated
tones, and the sharp Illinois attorney soon developed into the
statesman at Washington.

The House of Representatives, at that period, could boast of more
ability than the Senate. Among the most prominent members were
the accomplished Robert C. Winthrop, who so well sustained the
reputation of his distinguished ancestors; Hamilton Fish, the
representative Knickerbocker from the State of New York; Alexander
Ramsey, a worthy descendant of the Pennsylvania Dutchmen; the
loquacious Garrett Davis, of Kentucky; the emaciated Alexander H.
Stephens of Georgia, who apparently had not a month to live, yet
who rivaled Talleyrand in political intrigue; John Wentworth, a
tall son of New Hampshire, transplanted to the prairies of Illinois;
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, a born demagogue and self-constituted
champion of the people; John Slidell, of New Orleans; Robert Dale
Owen, the visionary communist from Indiana; Howell Cobb, of Georgia,
and Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, who were busily laying the
foundations for the Southern Confederacy, "with slavery as its
corner-stone;" the brilliant Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio, and the
genial Isaac E. Holmes, of South Carolina, who softened the asperities
of debate by many kindly comments made in an undertone.

One of General Schenck's stories was told by him to illustrate the
"change of base" by those Whigs who had enlisted in the Tyler guard,
yet declared that they had not shifted the