rty, and by the aid of the democratic administration, in having the
dogma adopted, and it became an accepted rule in the democratic party.
Resolutions were now invoked and obtained from State legislatures
instructing their senators to vote for the 'Expunging Resolutions,' or
resign. Some obeyed; some resigned. Benton carried his point; but it was
at the sacrifice of the spirit of that part of the Constitution which
gave to United States senators a term of six years, for the purpose of
protecting the Senate from frequent fluctuations of popular feeling, and
securing steadiness in legislation. Benton was the apostle of this
unwise and destructive innovation upon the constitutional tenure of
senators. He was doomed to be a conspicuous victim of his own error.
When the 'Jackson resolutions' were passed by the legislature of
Missouri, instructing Benton to endorse measures that led to
nullification and disunion, he saw the dilemma in which he was placed,
and did the best he could to extricate himself. He presented the
resolutions from his seat in the Senate; denounced their treasonable
character, and declared his purpose to appeal from the legislature to
the people of Missouri.

On the adjournment of Congress, Benton returned to Missouri and
commenced a canvass in vindication of his own cause, and in opposition
to the democratic majority of the legislature that passed the Jackson
resolutions, which has had few if any parallels in the history of the
government for heat and bitterness. The senator did not return to argue
and convert, but to fulminate and destroy. He appointed times and places
for public speaking in the most populous counties of the State, and
where the opposition to him had grown boldest. He allowed no 'division
of time' to opponents wishing to controvert the positions assumed in his
speeches. On the contrary, he treated every interruption, whether for
inquiry or retort, on the part of any one opposed to him, as an insult,
and proceeded to pour upon the head of the offender a torrent of
denunciation and abuse, unmeasured and appalling. The extraordinary
course adopted by Benton in urging his 'appeal,' excited astonishment
and indignation among the democratic partisans that had, in many cases,
thoughtlessly become arrayed against him.[A] They might have yielded to
expostulation; they were stung to resentment by unsparing vilification.
The rumor of Benton's manner preceded him through the State, after the
first