e, in
which he defended the State Rights party and ridiculed the Union
movement as un-necessary, no one then being in favor of either
disunion or secession. This, one of his colleagues, Mr. Wilcox,
denied. "Do you mean," said Mr. Brown, "to assert that what I have
said is false?" "If you say," bravely responded Mr. Wilcox, "that
there was no party in Mississippi at the recent election in favor
of secession or disunion, you say what is false!" The last word
was echoed by a ringing slap from Brown's open hand on the right
cheek of Wilcox, who promptly returned the blow, and then the two
men clinched each other in a fierce struggle. Many of the members,
leaving their seats, crowded around the combatants, while Mr.
Seymour, of Connecticut, who temporarily occupied the chair, pounded
with his mallet, shouting at the top of his voice, "Order! order!"
The Sergeant-at-Arms was loudly called for, but he was absent, and
before he could be found the parties had been separated. The
Speaker resumed the chair, and in a few moments the contestants,
still flushed, apologized to the House--not to each other. A duel
was regarded as inevitable, but mutual friends intervened, and the
next day it was formally announced in the House that the difficulty
"had been adjusted in a manner highly creditable to both parties,
who again occupied the same position of friendship which had existed
between them previous to the unpleasant affair of the day before."
Thus easily blew over the terrific tempests of honorable members.

Mr. Leutze, a talented artist, petitioned Congress to commission
him to paint for the Capitol copies of his works, "Washington
Crossing the Delaware," and "Washington Rallying his Troops at
Monmouth," but without success. Mr. Healy was equally unsuccessful
with his proposition to paint two large historical paintings for
the stairways of the extension of the Capitol, one representing
the "Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor," and the other the
"Battle of Bunker Hill;" but subsequently he received an order to
paint the portraits of the Presidents which now grace the White
House. Mr. Martin, a marine artist of recognized ability, also
proposed in vain to paint two large pictures, one representing the
famous action between the Constitution and the Guerriere, and the
other the night combat between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.
Indeed, there have been scores of meritorious works of art offered
to and declined by