in 1844 to accept the French mission, now
returned, and remained until he was chosen Vice-President in 1852.
Hannibal Hamlin had entered the preceding year, and was still
leading a bitter fight on the slavery question against a formidable
element in his own party headed at home by Nathan Clifford and
represented in the Senate by his colleague, James W. Bradbury.
John P. Hale, a New-Hampshire Democrat whom Franklin Pierce had
attempted to discipline because as representative in Congress he
had opposed the annexation of Texas, had beaten Pierce before the
people, defied the Democratic party, and was promoted to the Senate
an outspoken Free-Soiler. Willie P. Mangum and George E. Badger,
able, graceful, experienced statesmen, represented the steadfast
Union sentiment of the "Old North State" Whigs; while Andrew P.
Butler, impulsive and generous, learned and able, embodied all the
heresies of the South-Carolina Nullifiers. James M. Mason, who
seemed to court the hatred of the North, and Robert M. T. Hunter,
who had the cordial respect of all sections, spoke for Virginia.
Pierre Soule came from Louisiana, eloquent even in a language he
could not pronounce, but better fitted by temperament for the
turbulence of a revolutionary assembly in his native land than for
the decorous conservatism of the American Senate. Sam Houston was
present from Texas, with a history full of adventure and singular
fortune, while his colleague, Thomas J. Rusk, was daily increasing
a reputation which had already marked him in the judgment of Mr.
Webster as first among the younger statesmen of the South. Dodge
of Wisconsin and Dodge of Iowa, father and son, represented the
Democracy of the remotest outposts in the North-West, and, most
striking of all, William M. Gwin and John C. Fremont, men of Southern
birth and pro-slavery training, stood at the door of the Senate
with the constitution of California in their hands to demand her
admission to the Union as a free State. At no time before or since
in the history of the Senate has its membership been so illustrious,
its weight of character and ability so great. The period marked
the meeting and dividing line between two generations of statesmen.
The eminent men who had succeeded the leaders of the Revolutionary
era were passing away, but the most brilliant of their number were
still lingering, unabated in natural force, resplendent in personal
fame. Their successors in public responsibility, if