"The gentleman from Massachusetts has said that those who voted against the appropriation of the three millions last session had but one step more to take, and that was to open the doors of the capital to the enemy, and then join them; that he was prouder of his vote last session, in favor of the appropriation, than any act of his whole life. How flaming is the zeal of the new convert. He was secretary of State eight years during the administration of Mr. Monroe, and was four years President himself, during all which time the French refused to indemnify us for our losses, and yet then he was not so full of fight. I recollect in the play of Cato, when he called his little Senate together at Utica, just as Cæsar was marching on the city, the fury and impetuous zeal of Sempronius, how he exclaimed:

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My voice is still for war.

Gods! can a Roman Senate long debate

Which of the two to choose, slavery or death!
No, let us rise at once, gird on our swords,
And, at the head of our remaining troops,
Attack the foe, break through the thick array

Of his throng'd legions, and charge home upon him.
Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest,

May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.'

And how Lucius modestly replied:

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My thoughts, I must confess, are turned on peace.'

"I also well recollect the sequel, and I beg the House to mark it, and I hope it will somewhat attract the attention of the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts: Sempronius deserted to Cæsar the next night, and Lucius remained with Cato, and fought it out like a man. This same Sempronius whispered to Cato to beware of Lucius-that he was a traitor.

"Who are the men the gentleman from Massachusetts has attacked in his resolution? Whom has he abused in his speech, and whom has he denounced as traitors? for I disdain to notice his pitiful subterfuge, by say ing he meant no one-it was only a personification, a figure of speech. They were his old friends and political supporters, who stood by him in former times and faced the battle and breeze; who, on account of their supporting him, have been proscribed by the government and party in power, and are in a state of exile as it respects their own government and the administration thereof; they are an abused and vilified set of men; their only fault, endeavoring to sustain him. In this situation, what a deplorable spectacle does the gentleman exhibit; the very man for whom they are now suffering has turned against them and joined the ranks of their enemies; has become their fiercest assailant, most inexorable foe; driven them to the wall, and then attempting to pin them up against it. How base the treach ery, how black the ingratitude, and, at the same time, how melancholy the

sight, to see an old man, with the frost of seventy winters on his head, pushed on by a blind ambition and love of office, or rather the emoluments of office, thus to prostrate and degrade himself, and forever blast the reputation acquired by fifty years of honorable public service! When I recollect how, in 1828, in the contest for President between the honorable gentleman and General Jackson, I labored in his cause, rode over Kentucky, and addressed the people for hours together, with what indignation am I fired at his conduct now! In a spirit of true repentance do I declare, that if God will forgive me for what I then did, I promise never to do the like again.

"The gentleman from Massachusetts says we (meaning himself and others) have been accused of man-worship-alluding to his worshiping General Jackson. I do not believe that any gentleman ever accused him of such devotion to any man or friend in the world as to amount to man-worship. Cæsar, Bonaparte, and Washington were said never to forget a favor or desert a friend; if any person has ever charged the gentleman with that quality of the heart, I never heard it. I expect it is not the man the gentleman worships; it is office and its emoluments.

"The Senate, late on the night of the last session of Congress, sent a polite note or resolution to this House, apprising it of the result of the agreement of the conferees, and inviting the attention of the House to the subject. This, the gentleman says, was a gross insult to this House; and, if there had been time, he would have asked of the House to have sent him with the resolution back to the Senate, and, if he had taken it there. he would have thrown it on the floor with ineffable contempt (accompanying that expression with a remarkable contortion of his body, by squatting, then jumping up with a jerk and a violent inclination of the body to the left). How ridiculous would such behavior have been in a gentleman of his age and standing; and with what pity would that dignified body have witnessed the impotent rage of an old man displaying such fantastic antics!

"Mr. Speaker, when we take a view of the present condition of the United States, there is everything to deplore, and nothing to console us. We appropriate every year millions upon millions for our navy, and it has gone to decay; scarcely a vessel fit for service. We have appropriated, since the last war, about fourteen millions for fortifications; they are now in a state of wretched dilapidation, but few guns mounted, and generally unmanned. No energy in our army, as our late disasters in Florida bear melancholy testimony; no spirit and love of enterprise in the officers. While the war is raging in Florida with all its horrors, and in its most frightful forms, and we are in the daily expectation of a war with France, what do we behold here, in this city, and in this hall? Day after day are we importuned to surrender this chamber to the Secretary of the Department of War, to deliver a lecture on history; I suppose the ancient history of the

Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Carthaginians, and Grecians. Instead of studying the plans of campaigns, marches, and battles, he is poring over the history of nations twenty-five hundred years gone by.* The general-in-chief of our army is president of the assembly balls, as our daily papers tell us, and, report says, night after night waltzing with little misses in their teens; and, when not at that, writing miserable plays for the stage. † There is no laudable spirit of enterprise and emulation in the army, navy, or any part of the public service. Why this state of things? Because promotion to office does not now depend on merit, but by bowing, fawning, and cringing, in the palace; for all power is there. When the chief there frowns and stamps his foot, the whole menial pack fear and tremble. We are thrown upon evii and degenerate times; our government has every symptom of a speedy dissolution.

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When the gentleman from Massachusetts charged treason upon a part of this House, the majority huzzahed, clapped their hands, and shouted, enacting just such scenes as took place in the convention during the Jacobinacal times of the reign of terror, in the days of Marat and Robespierre. When a man was denounced in the House by either of those blood-thirsty tyrants, the members of the convention applauded in a tumultuous manner, and immediately voted the arrest of the member denounced, however innocent. Before night the guillotine received its victim, and he was numbered with the dead.

The storms of misfortune and adversity have been threatening us from every quarter-east, west, north, and south. They have gathered over our heads, and threaten every moment to burst upon us, and destroy our liberties forever. I put my hope and trust in God, who has saved us in all our trials and difficulties heretofore, and that He will yet preserve us free and independent, and dispel the clouds now lowering over us; and that He will give us once more a clear, serene, political sky.”

After, and as it was believed as the result of this speech, Mr. Cambreleng, who had been a most useful member and the acknowledged leader of the administration party in the House to a very great extent, lost his controlling influence which, notwithstanding unquestioned talents, he was never able to regain.

The first session of the Twenty-fourth Congress ended July 4, 1836, and the closing or short session convened December 5th following. Mr. Hardin was present at its opening, and participated in discussing many of the questions before it. His first speech referred to the President's message. He opposed a reduction of the tariff that was urged because of a surplus in the treasury. He insisted that that surplus had not been produced by the tariff, but from sales of public lands, which had of late been specially active. When these sales fell

off, as they inevitably would, the tariff would produce no surplus." Thus he reasoned. He also made speeches on granting lands to revolutionary soldiers, against the admission of Michigan, on the establishment of a boundary between the United States and Texas, etc. None of his speeches are reported, except meagerly, and that against the admission of Michigan, which was of great length, not at all. In the last speech he ever made in Congress, February 28, 1837, he took occasion to manifest his sympathy for Texas, then struggling for independence. The following is from the report:

"The Government of the United States appears unwilling to step into the struggle between Texas and Mexico, and intends to leave them as they are. For his own part, if it was left to him, he would recognize Texas the moment she maintained her sovereignty, for her territory was large enough to constitute a separate and a great empire. She possessed more territory than Portugal or than Holland; less, it might be, than Spain and France, but certainly more than Great Britain and Ireland. Thus, her territory was large enough to form an independent nation, and, as to her government, that also was organized and in full operation, as much as was the government of these United States. He thought, therefore, we ought not to wait to make this recognition until Mexico consented to the act. In our own case, France acknowledged our independence four years before Great Britain abandoned her pretensions over us; and, at a posterior period, we ourselves recognized the republican government of France, when all Europe was in arms against her, refusing to acknowledge her, and asserting, sword in hand, the claims of the worn-down family of Bourbons. Also, in after periods of the French revolution, we acknowledged, from time to time, the different governments to which France was subjected, and why? Because they were governments de facto."

At midnight, March 3, 1837, the second session of the Twentyfourth Congress adjourned, and Mr. Hardin's congressional career was finally ended.

CHAPTER XXI.

MR. HARDIN'S HUMOR.

T is not proposed to dissect humor, nor deal with its anatomy or physiology. No kind of analysis of that insoluble quality will be attempted. No effort will be made to partition wit from humor or discuss their points of difference. The latter may be the atmosphere and the former the flash, as an excellent writer has said, but there is not a little uncertainty in the ideas conveyed by such metaphors.* Whoever attempts to run the dividing line between them will encounter that ancient cause of fruitful litigation in Kentucky courts—an "interference "-which, being interpreted, signifies the case where the boundary of one tract of land overlapped another.

What, indeed, is ridi-
Humor is a faculty

Wit and humor seem often an irregular species of logic-not to be classed either in the inductive or analytic category. They are the merry handmaids of argument, if no more. cule but a form of argumentum ad absurdum? that comes by nature. It can be cultivated and improved, it is true, but nature must first have provided the faculty. The enchanting voice of the prima donna is inherited, however much art may develop and educate it. The genius of humor dwells only with its elect. The faculty requires or concurs with certain mental aptitudes-close observation and acute discrimination, both as to character and events; a quick fancy, readiness at comparison and discerning similitudes and contrasts, as well as the power of accurate expression. There must exist a quick-an intuitive power of tracing effect to cause, the art of clear and ready reasoning, and a keen scent for sophistry. A prime quality in a wit is a deep and exact knowlege of human nature-its virtues and its frailties.

Humor has had its ages and fashions, and always its latitude, its nationality, and caste. The jest of the tropic would freeze in the arctic. The witticism of the cultured East seems emasculated in the rude and stalwart West. The humor of French and German jokes, for the most part, is not translatable to English perception. Bon mots are handed around on separate dishes in kitchen and drawing-room. If, as some say, the fun of the Pharaohs yet survives in modern anecdote, doubtless much of its Egyptian flavor has been lost.

*H. R. Haweis, in "American Humorists," page 7.