Page:An Epistle to Posterity.djvu/65

42 war, and it had made him President; although, poor man! he would have been better off without that distinction. As we look back upon it now, we see that the time held the "irrepressible conflict" (the "immortal march" of Roger A. Pryor) in the rude Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise Resolutions, etc,; and I remember John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives, with his noble old head, battling for the North. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were "compromising," as were most of the Northern Whigs. It was intensely exciting, and rather mortifying to Northerners.

Mr. Lincoln, then obscure but for his great height, was towering physically above everybody, as he was later on to tower mentally and morally above us all; but no one suspected his greatness then.

John Wentworth, of Chicago, six feet seven; Caleb Cushing, and George Ashmun, with his bright black eyes burning with genius, his fine, shining bald head, were among those who were on the floor of the House. I have forgotten many of the others, but these were the days when I knew the House of Representatives very well and heard many good speeches.

Mr. Winthrop, prince of Speakers, was in the chair. General Scott, fresh from triumphs in Mexico, walked about outside. I once saw him, Mr. Lincoln, John Wentworth, and my father talking together in the lobby, and my father, who was six feet four, was the shortest of the quartet.

In the Senate, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Benton, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Berrian made that scene notable. Rufus Choate was in the Senate in the John Tyler days, a very fervid orator and man of genius. Later on Mr. Polk was in the White House surrounded by an army of Southern sympathizers. This was in 1847.