Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/101

 CLAY visitings of conscience which a guilty violator of the Constitution and laws of the land ought to feel? Does he address himself to a high court with the respect, to say nothing of hu- mility, which a person accused or convicted would naturally feel? No, no. He comes as if the Senate were guilty, as if he were in the judgment-seat, and the Senate stood accused be- fore him. He arraigns the Senate ; puts it upon trial ; condemns it ; he comes as if he felt himself elevated far above the Senate, and beyond all reach of the law, surrounded by unapproachable impunity. He who professes to be an innocent and injured man gravely accuses the Senate, and modestly asks it to put upon its own record his sentence of condemnation ! When before did the arraigned or convicted party demand of the court which was to try, or had condemned him, to enter upon their records a severe denuncia- tion of their own conduct? The president pre- sents himself before the Senate, not in the garb of suffering innocence, but in imperial and royal costume — as a dictator, to rebuke a refractory Senate ; to command it to record his solemn pro- test; to chastise it for disobedience. ^'The hearts of princes kiss obedience, So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits They swell, and grow as terrible as storms. '* The president exhibits great irritation and impatience at the presumptuousness of a resolu- 91