mob in Boston, and declaring that he had always thought and asserted that no law which was so much opposed to local public sentiment as this could ever be enforced. Upon his ceasing to speak, I rose and announced to the Senate the manly and patriotic assurances which I had just received from the lips of Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Webster, and concluded by declaring that, before the termination of the day that was then passing away, all America would learn that there were high-spirited and fearless men now in power who would dare to do their duty to the Constitution and the country, despite all that sectional factionists might essay to bring the government and its laws into contempt. I had not taken my seat before Mr. Clay came in. He rose when I sat down, and confirmed all I had previously stated in regard to the intended action of the government, and uttered an earnest and thrilling invocation in favor of vindicating

addition, that his sister, a charming young lady from New Hampshire, had just reached Washington for the purpose of procuring, if possible, her brother's release; and did me the honor to say that he thought that if I would make personal application to Secretary Walker and President Polk, this interesting object would be easily attained. Becoming satisfied from his statement that it was a proper case for executive clemency, I immediately undertook the duty of visiting my friend, Mr. Walker, and the President, as he desired, and in an hour or two the young man was released, and placed in the affectionate custody of his weeping sister, to be escorted without delay to his own New England home. Before they departed, though, Mr. Hale said to the young lady, "When you get home, tell your friends that your brother owes his liberation to the kindness of a United States senator from the South, who is at this moment receiving a great deal of unjust abuse in the North. The person who procured your brother's discharge is the individual so often spoken of as Hangman Foote. Go home and tell your friends to abuse Mr. Foote no more."

FILLMORE-WEBSTER-CLAY.

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the violated majesty of the law. While he was speaking he paused for a moment, beckoned me to his position, and whispered to me that he desired a short legislative proposition to be drawn immediately, which he would offer to the Senate before he yielded the floor, the contents of which he specified. I prepared the rough draft of it at once, had it neatly copied, and handed it to him. Just before closing he presented it for the consideration of the Senate. He declared it to have become necessary to arm the President with fuller powers than he was then supposed to possess, for the enforcement of the law for the recapture and restoration of fugitives from service. A warm debate sprang up upon this proposition, which I remember brought my senatorial colleague, Mr. Davis, and myself into sharp collision. This gentleman indignantly scouted the idea of giving the President any additional power, and declared that he would not vote a dollar or a man for coercing the sovereign State of Massachusetts into respect for the law which had been just violated. When the final action of the Senate upon this interesting question occurred I chanced to be absent, having been invited to the city of New York to deliver an oration, on the 22d of February, in honor of Washington; but I well remember being deeply pained, though I was certainly not much astonished at finding, from the publications made in the newspapers, that when the vote was taken at last upon the proposition to sustain President Fillmore in carrying out the commendable policy which he had set forth in a special message, addressed to the two houses of Congress, extremists of the North and extremists of the South

united their efforts to defeat that policy, being evidently bent upon giving evidence to the world that the "irrepressible conflict" so much bruited at the time was not a mere figment of fancy, but a solid and fearful reality!

QUIET UNDER THE COMPROMISE.

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CHAPTER X.

Country completely restored to Quiet under the Compromise Measures, except in several of the Southern States.-Exciting Contest in Georgia and Mississippi in 1850, '1, upon the Disunion Issue, in both of which States the Union Cause is finally triumphant.-South Carolina, failing to obtain co-operative Aid, at last subsides into a State of Quietude.The Election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency as an avowed Supporter of the Finality Principle, who calls Mr. Davis to the Department of War, and the Slavery Agitation is at once renewed. - Mr. Pierce's gross Infidelity to his Pledges, by whose Indiscretion and Misconduct the Conflict of sectional Factions is again revived.-Mr. Douglas unfortunately yields to the Counsels addressed to him from various Quarters, and introduces the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.-Sectional Excitement greatly increased and intensified by that Measure.-Notice of the Decease of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and of their commanding intellectual Powers and interesting Traits of Character.

THE compromise struggle terminated in Congress during the summer of 1850, and gradually made its way into the affections of the people every where, a great majority of whom were well pleased with the work performed by Mr. Clay and his patriotic co-operators. Fanatical agitators in several of the Northern States still continued for a time to rail against what had been done, and to accuse the wisest and most conservative statesmen that the republic contained of having perpetrated the most criminal violation of the great and fundamental principles of universal liberty and equality; while in the far South, agitators equally excited, and bent upon disturbing the public peace, were pouring forth fierce and violent harangues for states' rights, secession, and a sep

H

arate Southern republic. In Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, the compromise enactments were cordially acquiesced in. In Alabama, after a very short struggle, the governor and Legislature imitated the noble example of the states just named. In South Carolina movements soon occurred which clearly indicated that a majority of her people, misled by the delusory teachings of some of the most ingenious and plausible political agitators that our hemisphere has yet known, were fast making up their mind no longer to remain in a Federal Union which they had learned to detest, or submit to the authority of a government which they regarded as menacing them with intolerable oppression. There were public men even in South Carolina who were exceedingly opposed to all rash and fatal measures, and who were by no means ready to try the rash hazards of such an experiment as that in which they were now invited to participate. Among these was the present provisional governor of South Carolina, Mr. Perry, so judiciously selected a few months since by President Johnson to assist in the important work of reconstruction, now in such successful progress, and whose conduct in this high and responsible station has gained for him a position so enviable in the estimation of his countrymen every where. It is a somewhat curious and pleasing coincidence that Governor Perry, of South Carolina, and Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, without knowing each other personally, as I am informed, not only took the same moderate and patriotic course in 1850 and 1851, but some six or seven years later distin