t warrant does he undertake to say that a
brother Senator here is not serious, not in earnest. I should
like to know by what warrant he undertakes to do that. He says I
do not look serious. I have not perhaps been trained in the same
vinegar and persimmon school [laughter]; I have not been
doctrinated into the same solemn nasal twang which may
characterize the gentleman, and which may be considered to be the
evidence of seriousness and earnestness. I generally speak as a
man, and as a good-natured man, I think. I hope I entertain no
malice toward anybody. But the honorable gentleman thinks I want
to become a radical. Why, sir, common charity ought to have
taught the honorable Senator better than that. I think no such
imputation, even on the part of the most virulent opponent that I
may have, can with any justice be laid to my door. I have never
yielded to his radicalism; I have never truckled to it. Whether
it be right or wrong, I have never bowed the knee to it. From the
very word "go" I have been a conservative; I have endeavored to
save all in our institutions that I thought worth saving.

I suppose, in the opinion of the gentleman, I have made
sacrifices. I suppose I am in the condition of Dr. Caius: "I have
had losses." Certainly if any man has given evidence of the
sincerity of his doctrines, I have done so; I have lost all of
that, perhaps, which the Senator from Maine may think valuable; I
have lost all the feathers that might have adorned my cap by
opposition to radicalism; and now I stand perfectly free and
independent upon this floor; free, as I supposed, not only from
all imputation of interest, but free from all imputation of
dishonor. I am out of the contest. If I had chosen to play the
radical; if I had chosen to out-Herod Herod, I could have
out-Heroded Herod perhaps as well as the honorable gentleman, and
I could have had quite as stern and vigorous a following as he or
any other man, more than likely without asserting any very large
amount of vanity to myself [Mr. Morrill rose]; but now, when I
stand here, as, I think, free, unquestionably free from all
imputation either of interest or dishonor, to be told this is--If
the Senator wants to say anything I will hear him.

Mr. MORRILL: The honorable Senator will allow me to say