calling themselves Southern Whigs. The fourth was the party of the late John Quincy Adams, which, without a competent leader, held itself in readiness to throw its weight wherever its interests in the changing circumstances of the hour might appear.

The Democrats, wearied and alarmed, at length dropped Cobb for William J. Brown, from Indiana. The rules required a majority of all the members enrolled to elect a Speaker. Brown received the necessary vote but, on inquiry, it was detected that he had bargained with the Adams party. Before the completion of the roll call, a sufficient number of Democrats changed their votes to rebuke their candidate with defeat. Brown, from Mississippi, offered a resolution declaring Cobb Speaker. It was not a Constitutional resolution. Toombs took the floor in a scene of wild disorder. The Democrats, he

said, anxious to save the Republic, had become the victims of treachery in their own ranks; the faction setting themselves up as moralists, had been privy to the dishonorable act. "Give me the security (cried the impassioned Georgian) that the power of the organization you seek will not be used to the injury of my constituents, and you shall have my co-operation, but not until then." At the end of a month of disgraceful scenes on the floor, the Democrats and Winthrop Whigs appointed a committee of conference. Without the least authority in law, the committee reported, dispensing with a rule of the House for a mere resolution, to accomplish an election. The instant their report was read Toombs sprang to his feet to repudiate it. The Constitution required the House to establish and observe rules, and the rules of the last Congress were the rules of the present, until repealed. No organization had been effected by law, and no legislation was possible. Therefore, all motions to suspend or infract upon the rules were illegal. "Order: "" Order," was shouted from every quarter. The Clerk interposed: "Will the gentleman from Georgia allow me to put the question upon the motion to rescind the rule?" "No. I have the floor," was Toomb's reply. Vehement shouts, "Sit down;" "Silence," and calls for the yeas and nays rang through the hall. "You may cry order,' gentlemen (continued the orator) until the heavens fall, you cannot take the floor from me. I shall

continue to debate this question whether you call the roll or not. You must first be sworn to obey the Constitution before you can bind me or yourselves by your acts. You refuse to hear either the Constitution or the statute (cries of 'order'). The law is plain, clear and conclusive. You cannot answer it. Finding this illegal resolution inadequate to secure so vile an end, you resort to brutish yells and cries to stifle the words of those whom such demonstrations of your wrath cannot intimidate." The resolution was carried; Cobb was declared Speaker, but there was no law to make the declaration valid. Thus was enacted the first in order of those "compromises" for which the Thirty-First Congress became notable, and which hurried the country forward to irreparable disaster.

The Legislature entered with alacrity into the spirit of the letter of the Congressmen, transmitted by the Governor. Resolutions were passed publishing "to the Congress of the United States, to the States of this Union, and to the world the ground which self-respect, honor and Constitutional equality demand that this State shall occupy." Alabama would "never submit to any act of the government of the United States which excludes the South from a fair and just enjoyment of the territory acquired from Mexico, and which is the property of the States of this Union;" in the event of the passage of the Wilmot Proviso, or any similar act, "we call upon the people of the slave States to meet in Convention for taking such action as the defense of our common rights may demand." Senator John A. Winston moved to amend the resolutions with the following, which passed unanimously:

"That in the event of the passage by Congress of any act contemplated by the foregoing resolutions, the members of Congress from this State should no longer participate in the action of a body so regardless of our Constitutional rights."

There was neither Whig nor Democrat to raise a voice against this official response of Alabama to the united warning of the State representation in both Houses of Congress, save one. Before any other State had acted on the issue of the day, now for the second time, within two years, Alabama had spoken. The Legislature had vindicated the Democratic Convention of 1848. As that Convention had lead the

Democratic opinion of the day, expressed directly by the people, so the organized government of the people now sustained it. Alabama was in the lead. Yancey had triumphed. The angered sections stood with bated breath. If deliverance was hoped for, the deliverer must be found at once. Mr. Clay was appealed to by old friends and old foes. He was long past three score and ten, but his bearing was gallant still, and his mental faculties acute. He consented to leave the retirement of his farm to prepare a last "compromise." He was heard to say, he hoped it would endure for thirty years.

CHAPTER 11.

The Last "Compromise."

1850.

The long delay in organizing the Lower House, of the Thirty-First Congress, was endured by the Senate in silence. Mr. Clay was in his seat, while the country waited in acute tension the great task assigned to him. California, with a fully organized State Government in operation, was conscious of the mastery in herself of the situation. The State had more to give to the Union than the Union had to bestow on the State. What would be done by the federal government to stay the progress of revolution? Mr. Clay rose to speak, on January 29. From States near and remote, thousands had come to hear him, so that from early morning the space in the Capitol, allowed to the audience, and the space beyond earshot was crowded with an anxious throng. He spoke on two successive days with the fire of his prime. The Clayton "compromise" was before him, numerous resolutions offered on the exciting subject in both branches of Congress, also. At the conclusion of his remarks on the second day he read a series of resolutions prepared by himself. They were more equitable than the revolutionists would accept. There was a fixed purpose to prolong debate and foment discord. Mr. Bell, from Tennessee, introduced resolutions. Day by day, through weeks and months the angry tide of revolution flowed higher, absorbing the entire care of both Houses of Congress. All questions save the anti-slavery Constitution of California,

were dismissed by common consent. Ceaseless were threats of the people in both sections to settle for themselves the dispute of the sections on the floors of Congress. Mr. Foote, from Mississippi, in vain urged the Senate to refer the resolutions of Messrs. Clay and Bell to a select Committee. A petition from Abolitionists of Pennsylvania, and another from Abolitionists of Delaware prayed Congress to appoint a committee to draft terms of a dissolution of the Union. February 27th, a member from the West introduced in the House a resolution to admit California. The motion was promptly submitted to the Committee of the Whole House and the storm of passion, which had raged already three months, received fresh impulse. Mr. Toombs, from his place, said:

"We had our institutions when you, gentlemen of the North, sought our alliance. We were content with them. We have not sought to interfere with yours nor to thrust ours upon you. If you believe what you say, that yours are so much the best to promote the happiness and good government of society, why do you fear our equal competition with you in the Territories? We only ask that our common government shall protect us both, equally, until the Territories shall be ready to be admitted as States of the Union, and then to leave their citizens free to adopt any domestic policy, in reference to this subject, which in their judgment may best promote their interest and their happiness. Grant it, and you place your prosperity and ours on a solid foundation; you perpetuate the Union, so necessary to your prosperity: you solve the true problem of Republican government; you vindicate the power of Constitutional guarantees. * * In this emergency our duty is clear it is to stand by the Constitution and laws; to observe in good faith all its requirements, until the wrong is consummated; until the act of exclusion is put upon the statute book. It will then be demonstrated that the Constitution is powerless for our protection; it will be then not only the right but the duty of the slaveholding States to resume the powers which they have conferred upon this government and to seek new safeguards for their future security."

March 4th, Mr. Calhoun rose from his bed of death to appear in the Senate with the manuscript of a speech which he was unable to deliver. Senator Mason, from Virginia, read it to the body, while the animated countenance of the emaciated figure at his side interpreted each recurring sentence. The desperate condition of the country was not the work of time, in its normal action, the statesman declared. He had protested, in 1835, against giving Congress jurisdiction 'of