n debate, and it was the
sworn duty of its Locofoco President, Mr. Bright, to have called Mr.
Sumner to order for his abuse of Judge Butler. But as far back as thirty
years ago, under the auspices of JOHN C. CALHOUN as presiding officer, a
decision was made to the effect that the presiding officer of the Senate
was neither bound nor had he the power to call Senators to order! That
power, according to his decision, belonged wholly to the Senate
itself----thus delivering over the minority of that body to "the tender
mercies" of the majority! The object of Mr. CALHOUN at the time was to
play into the hands of a combination which had been formed to break down
the Administration of John Quincy Adams, and to cripple Henry Clay. The
instrument used was the sarcastic, irritating, and personal rhetoric of
John Randolph, then a member of the Senate. To this end, Randolph was
suffered to deliver in the Senate a long succession of tirades,
disgraceful to the Senate, abusive of New England and of Henry Clay.
Here is a specimen of Randolph's abuse, which led to a duel between him
and Mr. Clay:

"This man, (mankind, I crave pardon,) this worm, (little
animals, forgive the insult,) was raised to a higher life than
he was born to, for he was raised to the society of
blackguards. Some fortune--kind to him, cruel to us--has tossed
him to the Secretaryship of State. Contempt has the property of
descending, but stops far short of him. She would die before
she would reach him: he dwells below her fall. I would hate
him, if I did not despise him. It is not WHAT he is, but WHERE
he is, that puts my thoughts into action. The alphabet which
writes the name of Thersites, blackguard, squalidity, refuses
her letters for him. That mind which thinks on what it cannot
express, can scarcely think on him. An hyperbole for MEANNESS
would be an ellipsis for CLAY."

This was pleasing to Mr. Calhoun and the dominant party in the Senate,
and his decision which tolerated it never was questioned by any
authoritative precedent, until MILLARD FILLMORE was elected
Vice-President. With characteristic independence, he determined that a
precedent so unreasonable and absurd should not be binding on him as the
presiding officer of the Senate. He therefore, on assuming the duties of
his office, delivered an address to the Senate, in which he informed
that body that he considered it his sworn duty to pre