ence--standing there the impersonation of the State of Mississippi,
demanding justice for her at the hands of the nation--he seemed
conscious of the responsibility, and confident of his power to sustain
this. There was little preliminary in his remarks opening the matter.
He went at once, and as a strong man conscious of the right, to the
core. He demonstrated, beyond a doubt, his election, and proceeded in a
strain of burning invective to expose the fraud of the returning
officer, who had shamefully disregarded the popular voice, and
shamelessly violated the law he was sworn to obey, in giving the
certificate to his defeated competitors. Never did the corruption of
party receive so severe an exposition, or a more withering rebuke, than
in this speech.

Very soon after he commenced, the Senate chamber was deserted, and the
Vice-President and Secretary were left alone. Webster, Benton, Calhoun,
Clay, Wright, and Evans came in and ranged themselves near him. Every
space large enough, in the chamber, lobby, and galleries, was filled
with a listener, and all were still and unmoving, however painful their
position, until the enunciation of the last word of that wonderful
oration. The speech occupied two hours and forty minutes, and the
peroration was thrilling. When exhausted, and closing, he lifted his
eyes to the national flag, floating above the Speaker's chair, and
said, in an almost exhausted voice, "If, Mr. Speaker, in obedience to
the necessities and corrupt behest of party, you are determined to
wrest from Mississippi her rights as a sister, and coequal in this
union of States, and turn from their seats her representatives
constitutionally chosen, and place in their stead the repudiated of her
people, strike from the flag which waves above you the star which
represents her there; but leave the stripes, apt emblem of your
iniquity and her degradation."

An adjournment was immediately moved; the painful excitement was
relieved, the spell was broken, and from every side, and from every
party, came men to congratulate him. Webster was the first to stretch
forth his hand, and with more animation than was his wont, said, in his
deep, sonorous tones, "New England claims her own, and is proud of her
son."

The House, notwithstanding the demonstrative proof, and its enforcement
by the powerful and unanswerable argument of Prentiss, sent the
election back to the State, to be determined by a new election. In
this, Prentiss