reased bitterness
in return. The North could easily justify itself by argument, but
the statement without argument apparently showed that the South
had been deceived. The course pursued by the senators from Maine,
--John Holmes and John Chandler,--in voting steadily for the
admission of Missouri, tended greatly to check recrimination and
relieve asperity of feeling. Mr. Holmes was a man of ability, of
experience in public affairs, and of eminent distinction at home.
With a rare gift of humor, and with conversational talent almost
unrivaled, he exerted an influence over men in private and social
intercourse which gave him singular power in shaping public questions.
He was an intimate friend and political supporter of Mr. Clay, and
their cordial co-operation at this crisis evoked harmony from chaos,
and brought a happy solution to a question that was troubling every
patriotic heart. They united in a final effort, and through the
instrumentality of a joint committee of seven senators and twenty-
three representatives,--of which Mr. Holmes was chairman on the
part of the Senate, and Mr. Clay on the part of the House,--a second
and final compromise was effected, and the admission of Missouri
secured. This compromise declared that Missouri should be admitted
to the Union upon the fundamental condition that no law should ever
be passed by her Legislature enforcing the objectionable provision
in her constitution, and that by a solemn public act the State
should declare and record her assent to this condition, and transmit
to the President of the United States an authentic copy of the Act.
Missouri accepted the condition promptly but not cheerfully, feeling
that she entered the Union under a severe discipline, and with hard
and humiliating conditions. It was in this compromise, not in the
one of the preceding session, that Mr. Clay was the leading spirit.
Though the first was the more important, and dealt with larger
questions of a more enduring nature, it did not at the time create
so great an impression on the public mind as the second, nor did
its discussion produce so much antagonism between the North and
the South. Thirty years after these events Mr. Clay called attention
to the fact that he had received undeserved credit for the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, which he had supported but not originated. On
the other hand, he had received only the slightest mention for his
agency in the second compromise, which he had r