Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/137

 Lifty Services and Character of Jefferson Davis, 129

otherwise his constitutional views, and in the most part the politics which he advocated. Taking his seat in the House of Representa- tives in December, 1845, he at once launched into the work and debates of that body, and with his first address made that impression of eloquence and power which he maintained throughout his parlia- mentary career. John Quincy Adams is said to have predicted on hearing it that he would make his mark, and his prophecy was very soon fulfilled. He advocated, in a resolution offered by himself, the very first month of his service, the conversion of some of the military posts into schools of instruction, and the substitution of detachments furnished proportionately by the States for the garrisons of enlisted men ; and on the 29th of the same month made a forcible speech against Know-Nothingism, which was then becoming popular. He had barely risen into distinguished views by his positions and speeches on these and other subjects, such as the Mexican war and the Oregon question, ere he resigned to take the field in Mexico, and when he returned to public life after the Mexican war it was as a member of the United States Senate.

IN THE SENATE.

It was in that body that his rich learning, his ready information on current topics, and his shining abilities as an orator and debater were displayed to most striking advantage. The great triumvirate, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, were in the Senate then, as were also Cass, Douglas, Bright, Dickinson, King and others of renown, and when Calhoun ere long departed this life the leadership of the States*- Rights party fell upon Jefferson Davis.

The compromise measure of Mr. Clay of 1850 he opposed, and insisted on adhering to the line of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, on the ground that " pacification had been the fruit borne by that tree, and it should not have been ruthlessly hewn down and cast into the fire.*' Meeting Mr. Clay and Mr. Berrien, of Georgia, together in the Capitol grounds one day, Mr. Clay urged him in a friendly way to support his bill, saying he thought it would give peace to the country for thirty years, and then he added to Mr. Berrien, ** You and I will be under ground before that time, but our young friend here may have trouble to meet.*'

Mr. Davis replied : " I cannot consent to transfer to posterity an issue that is as much ours as theirs, when it is evident that the sec- tional inequality will be greater than now, and render hopeless the attainment of justice."