Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1879 — CLAY’S REPLY TO CALHOUN. [ARTICLE]

CLAY’S REPLY TO CALHOUN.

A Great Scene in the Senate. [From Matthews’ ’* Orators and Oratory.”] Proceeding to the Senate, my attention was at once arrested by a voice that seemed like the music of the spheres. It came from the lips of a tall, well-formed man with a wide mouth, a flashing eye, and a countenance that revealed every thought within. His voice was one of extraordinary compass, melody and power. There was not one word of rant, not one tone of vociferation in the very climax of his passion. He spoke deliberately, and his outpouring of denunciation was as slow and steady as the tread of Nemesis. He gesticulated all over. As he spoke he stepped backward and forward with effect, and the nodding of his head, hung on a long neck—his arms, hands, fingers, feet and even his spectacles and blue handkerchief aided him in debate. It was Henry Clay, engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with another giant of the Senate, John C. Calhoun. Clay had just taunted him with a rumor that he had left the opposition ranks, and struck hands with the administration. He (Mr. Clay) “would like to know what compromises had been made between the honorable Senator from South Carolina and the Kinderhook fox” (meaning President Van Buren).

Calhoun replied: “No man ought to be more tender on the subject of compromise than the honorable Senator from Kentucky.” Then, alluding to the compromises effected by Clay in the nullification crisis of 1830, he added: “The Senator from Kentucky was flat on his back. I repeat it, sir, the Senator was flat on his back, and couldn’t move. I wrote home to my friends in South Carolina half a dozen letters, saying that the Senator from Kentucky was flat on his back and couldn’t move. I was his master on that occasion. I repeat it, sir, I was his master on that occasion. He went to my school. He learned of me.” The two antagonists sat at the extreme ends of the semi-circular rows of seats Calhoun sitting in the front row, on the President’s right, Clay in the rear row, on his left. “ The honorable Senator from South Carolina,” said Clay,.“ says that I was flat on my back, and that he wrote home to his friends in South Carolina stating that I was flat on my back and couldn’t move! Admirable evidence this in a court of law! First make an assertion, then quote your own letters to prove it! But the honorable Senator says that he was my master on that occasion! ” As he said this the speaker advanced down the aisle, directly in front of Calhoun, and, pointing to him with his quivering fingers, said, in tones in which were concentrated the utmost scorn and defiance, “He my master! He my master!” he continued in louder tones, with his finger still pointed, and retreating backward, while his manner indicated the intensest abhorrence. “He my master! ” he a third time cried, raising his voice to a still higher key, while retreating backward to the very lobby; then, suddenly changing his voice from a trumpet peal to almost a whisper, which yet was distinctly audible in every nook and corner of the Senate chamber, he added: “ Sir, I would not own him for my slave.” A hush of breathless silence: then followed a tempest of applause, which for a while checked all further debate, and came near causing an expulsion of the spectators from the gallery.