said arrested his attention
and his hands from their work of putting the watch in its fob.

"There was something, sir, in his eye," said he, "which startled me,
and then the words came bubbling up spontaneously as spring water, so
full of power, so intensely brilliant, and his figures so bold,
original, and illustrating, and the one following the other in such
quick succession; the flights of imagination, so new, so eloquent, and
so heart-searching--that I found it impossible to take my eyes from his
face, or my ears from drinking in every word. At one time, so intense
were my feelings under the effect of his words and the powerful
impression they were making on my mind, that I thought I should faint.
I forgot the presence of the crowd, and, though seventy years of age,
felt no fatigue from my standing position. In truth, sir, I was
unconscious of the time--equally so of the presence of any one but the
speaker. I perceived that his physical man was failing under his
effort, and so intense was my sympathy that I found myself breathing
rapidly and painfully; and yet, when he exclaimed, 'My powers fail!'
and sank into his seat completely exhausted, I regretted the necessity
which compelled him to stop. It was not until then that I found my hand
still holding my watch at the opening of its pocket, where, in my
excitement, I had forgotten to deposit it. I looked, and I had been
standing unmoved in the same position and intently listening for three
hours and fifteen minutes. Near me stood one old as myself--a friend, a
neighbor, and a minister of the gospel; he was livid with excitement,
and his lips trembled as he said to me: 'Will you ever doubt again that
God inspires man?'"

Notwithstanding the immense Democratic majority in the State, the Whigs
determined to run Prentiss for Congress: the election, at that time,
was by general ticket, and there were two members to be elected: the
Whig nomination was Prentiss and Wood; the Democratic, Claiborne and
Gholson.

Claiborne was a native of the State, and the son of General Ferdinand
Claiborne, a young man of very superior abilities, and at the time a
member of Congress. McNutt was the Democratic candidate for Governor.
The campaign was a most animated one, and Prentiss addressed the people
in very nearly every county in the State; the people, _en masse_,
flocked to hear him, and his name was in every mouth. The Democratic
nominees did not attempt to meet him on the stump. Hi