Prudently willing to quit these
subjects, he was, doubtless, desirous of fastening on others, which
could not be transferred south of Mason and Dixon's line. The politics
of New England became his theme; and it was in this part of his speech,
I think, that he menaced me with such sore discomfiture. Discomfiture!
Why, Sir, when he attacks any thing which I maintain, and overthrows it,
when he turns the right or left of any position which I take up, when he
drives me from any ground I choose to occupy, he may then talk of
discomfiture, but not till that distant day. What has he done? Has he
maintained his own charges? Has he proved what he alleged? Has he
sustained himself in his attack on the government, and on the history of
the North, in the matter of the public lands? Has he disproved a fact,
refuted a proposition, weakened an argument, maintained by me? Has he
come within beat of drum of any position of mine? O, no; but he has
"carried the war into the enemy's country"! Carried the war into the
enemy's country! Yes, Sir, and what sort of a war has he made of it?
Why, Sir, he has stretched a drag-net over the whole surface of perished
pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy paragraphs, and fuming popular
addresses,--over whatever the pulpit in its moments of alarm, the press
in its heats, and parties in their extravagance, have severally thrown
off in times of general excitement and violence. He has thus swept
together a mass of such things as, but that they are now old and cold,
the public health would have required him rather to leave in their
state of dispersion.
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