on. "Very
well!" cried another member, "we will give them another chance to save
themselves. But it is the last!" This was concurred in by a vast
majority. Not long after, Lieut.-Gov. Montague came in and announced the
passage of the ordinance by the other Convention! This was succeeded by
a moment too thrilling for utterance, but was followed by tears of
gladness and rapturous applause. Soon after, President Tyler and Gov.
Wise were conducted arm-in-arm, and bare-headed, down the center aisle
amid a din of cheers, while every member rose to his feet. They were led
to the platform, and called upon to address the Convention. The
venerable ex-President of the United States first rose responsive to the
call, but remarked that the exhaustion incident to his recent incessant
labors, and the nature of his emotions at such a momentous crisis,
superadded to the feebleness of age, rendered him physically unable to
utter what he felt and thought on such an occasion. Nevertheless, he
seemed to acquire supernatural strength as he proceeded, and he spoke
most effectively for the space of fifteen minutes. He gave a brief
history of all the struggles of our race for freedom, from _Magna
Charta_ to the present day; and he concluded with a solemn declaration
that at no period of our history were we engaged in a more just and holy
effort for the maintenance of liberty and independence than at the
present moment. The career of the dominant party at the North was but a
series of aggressions, which fully warranted the steps we were taking
for resistance and eternal separation; and if we performed our whole
duty as Christians and patriots, the same benign Providence which
favored the cause of our forefathers in the Revolution of 1776, would
again crown our efforts with similar success. He said he might not
survive to witness the consummation of the work begun that day; but
generations yet unborn would bless those who had the high privilege of
being participators in it.

He was succeeded by Gov. Wise, who, for a quarter of an hour,
electrified the assembly by a burst of eloquence, perhaps never
surpassed by mortal orator. During his pauses a silence reigned, pending
which the slightest breathing could be distinctly heard, while every eye
was bathed in tears. At times the vast assembly rose involuntarily to
their feet, and every emotion and expression of feature seemed
responsive to his own. During his speech he alluded to the reports of
the