LLIAM ROSCOE--DUKE OF ARGYLE--LOUIS McLEAN--WHIG
AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES.

It was at the last session of the fifteenth Congress, in the winter of
1820-21, when the famous Compromise measure, known as the Missouri
Compromise, was effected. A portion of that winter was spent by the
writer at Washington. Congress was then composed of the first
intellects of the nation, and the measure was causing great excitement
throughout the entire country.

Missouri, in obedience to a permissory statute, had framed a
constitution, and demanded admission into the Union as a State. By this
constitution slavery was recognized as an institution of the State.
Objection was made to this clause on the part of the Northern members,
which led to protracted and sometimes acrimonious debate. At the first
session of the Congress the admission of the State had been postponed,
and during the entire second session it had been the agitating
question; nor was it until the very end of the session settled by this
famous compromise.

The debates were conducted by the ablest men in Congress, in both the
Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate, William
Pinkney, of Maryland; Rufus King, of New York; Harrison Gray Otis, of
Massachusetts; James Barbour, of Virginia; William Smith, of South
Carolina, and Freeman Walker, of Georgia, were most conspicuous. In the
House were John Randolph, of Virginia; William Lowndes, of South
Carolina; Louis McLean, of Delaware; Thomas W. Cobb, of Georgia, and
Louis Williams, of North Carolina, and many others of less note. Henry
Clay, of Kentucky, was Speaker of the House during the first session of
the Congress; but resigned before the meeting of the succeeding
Congress, and John Taylor, of New York, was elected to preside as
Speaker for the second session. Mr. Clay was absent from his seat
during the early part of this session; and notwithstanding the eminent
men composing the Congress, there seemed a want of some leading and
controlling mind to master the difficulty, and calm the threatening
excitement which was intensifying as the debate progressed. Mr.
Randolph was the leader in the debates of the House, and occupied the
floor frequently in the delivery of lengthy and almost always very
interesting speeches. These touched every subject connected with the
Government, its history, and its powers. They were brilliant and
beautiful; full of classical learning and allusion, and sparkling as a
casket of diamo