In his speech in reply to Hayne he hinted that, if he were
imperatively called upon to meet blows with blows, he might be found
fully equal to his antagonists in that ignoble province of intellectual
pugilism; but that he preferred the more civilized struggle of brain
with brain, in a contest which was to decide questions of principle. In
the Senate, where he could meet his political opponents face to face,
few dared to venture to degrade the subject in debate from the
discussion of principles to the miserable subterfuge of imputing bad
motives as a sufficient answer to good arguments; but still many of
these dignified gentlemen smiled approval on the efforts of the
low-minded, small-minded caucus-speakers of their party, when they
declared that Webster's logic was unworthy of consideration, because he
was bought by the Bank, or bought by the manufacturers of Massachusetts,
or bought by some other combination of persons who were supposed to be
the deadly enemies of the laboring men of the country. On some rare
occasions Webster's wrath broke out in such smiting words that his
adversaries were cowed into silence, and cursed the infatuation which
had led them to overlook the fact that the "logic-machine" had in it
invectives more terrible than its reasonings. But generally he refrained
from using the giant's power "like a giant"; and it is almost pathetic
to remember that, when Mr. Everett undertook to edit, in 1851, the
standard edition of his works, Webster gave directions to expunge all
personalities from his speeches, even when those personalities were the
just punishment of unprovoked attacks on his integrity as a man.
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