pable of self-government."

There beamed from every countenance a pleased satisfaction, as the
members of the Senate and the House came up to express their delight,
and their determination to support the measure proposed, and so ably
advocated. There was oil upon the waters, and the turbulent waves went
down. Men who had been estranged and angered for many months, met, and
with friendly smiles greeted each other again. The ladies in the
gallery above rose up as if by a common impulse, to look down, with
smiles, upon the great commoner. One whose silvered hair, parted
smoothly and modestly upon her aged forehead, fell in two massy folds
behind her ears, clasped her hands, and audibly uttered: "God bless
him."

The reconciliation seemed to be effected, and the confidence and
affection between the sections to be renewed with increased fervor and
intensity. There was rejoicing throughout the land. Dissatisfaction
only spake from the pulpits of New England, and there only from those
of the Puritan Congregationalists. But the public heart had received a
shock, and though it beat on, it was not with the healthful tone of
former days.

The men of the Revolution were rapidly passing to eternity. The cement
of blood which bound these as one was dissolving, and the fabric of
their creation was undermined in the hearts of the people, with
corroding prejudices, actively fomented by the bigotry of a selfish
superstition. A sectional struggle for supremacy had commenced. The
control of the Government was the aim, and patriotism was consuming in
the flame of ambition. The Government's security, the Government's
perpetuity, and the common good, were no longer prime considerations.
All its demonstrated blessings had remained as ever the same.
Stimulated by the same motives and the same ambitions, the new world
and the new Government were moving in the old groove; and the old world
saw repeating here the history of all the Governments which had arisen,
lived, and passed away, in her own borders. The mighty genius of Clay
and Webster, of Jackson and Calhoun, had, for a time, stayed the rapid
progress of ruin which had begun to show itself, but only for a time.
They have been gathered to their fathers, and the controlling influence
of their mighty minds being removed, confusion, war, and ruin have
followed.

The men conspicuous in the debates on the Missouri question were giants
in intellect, and perhaps few deliberative assemblies of