mutually inflicted on that substance which was immortal in both. It was
a duel, or series of duels, in which mind was opposed to mind, and will
to will, and where the object appeared to be to inflict moral and mental
annihilation on one of the combatants. There never passed a word between
them on which the most ingenious Southern jurists, in their
interpretations of the "code" of honor, could have found matter for a
personal quarrel; and yet these two proud and strong personalities knew
that they were engaged in a mortal contest, in which neither gave
quarter nor expected quarter. Mr. Calhoun's intellectual egotism was as
great as his intellectual ability. He always supposed that he was the
victor in every close logical wrestle with any mind to which his own was
opposed. He never wrestled with a mind, until he met Webster's, which in
tenacity, grasp, and power was a match for his own. He, of course,
thought his antagonist was beaten by his superior strength and amplitude
of argumentation; but it is still to be noted that he, the most
redoubtable opponent that Webster ever encountered, testified, though in
equivocal terms, to Webster's intellectual honesty. When he crept, half
dead, into the Senate-Chamber to hear Webster's speech of the 7th of
March, 1850, he objected emphatically at the end to Webster's
declaration that the Union could not be dissolved. After declaring that
Calhoun's supposed case of justifiable resistance came within the
definition of the ultimate right of revolution, which is lodged in all
oppressed communities, Webster added that he did not at that time wish
to go into a discussion of the nature of the United States government.
"The honorable gentleman and myself," he said, "have broken lances
sufficiently often before on that subject." "I have no desire to do it
now," replied Calhoun; and Webster blandly retorted, "I presume the
gentleman has not, and I have quite as little." One is reminded here of
Dr. Johnson's remark, when he was stretched on a sick-bed, with his
gladiatorial powers of argument suspended by physical exhaustion. "If
that fellow Burke were now present," the Doctor humorously murmured, "he
would certainly kill me."

But to Webster's eminence as a lawyer and a statesman, it is proper to
add, that he has never been excelled as a writer of state papers among
the public men of the United States. Mr. Emerson has a phrase which is
exactly applicable to these efforts of Webster's mind. T