Excerpt from The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, Vol. 6 of 18: Illustrated With Portraits and Plates; Speeches in Congress

We have thus heard, Sir, what the resolution is which is ac tually before us for consideration; and it will readily occur to every one, that it is almost the only subject about which some thing has not been said in the speech, running through two days, by which the Senate has been entertained by the gentle man from South Carolina. Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, whether past or present, every thing, general or local, whether belonging to national politics or party politics, - seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable mem ber's attention, save only the resolution before the Senate. He has spoken of every thing but the public lands; they have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a passing glance.

When this debate, Sir, was to be resumed, on Thursday morning, it so happened that it would have been convenient for me to be elsewhere. The honorable member, however, did not incline to put Off the discussion to another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That shot, Sir, which he thus kindly informed us was coming, that we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall by it and die with decency, has now been received. Under all advan tages, and with expectation awakened by the tone which pre ceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of its effect, than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or wounded, it is not the first time, in the history of human affairs, that the vigor and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto.

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