line. In June an American
squadron was sent to Portugal to support the United States demand for
American war claims of 1812. The claims were refused and the American
Minister was recalled from Lisbon. The American fleet was withdrawn without
further hostile demonstrations. The American President, in pursuance of his
policy of peace, proclaimed neutrality in the civil war which had arisen in
Mexico.

[Sidenote: Shields' prophecy]

[Sidenote: Webster scourged]

The furious slavery debate was resumed when Clay's so-called "Omnibus Bill"
was offered for final consideration. It was during this debate that Senator
Shields of California uttered his famous prophecy that the United States,
so far from dissolving, would within a few generations send its soldiers to
Asia and into China. On July 9, Webster soothed the angry passions of the
legislators when he announced that President Taylor was dying. Webster's
support of the Compromise Act of 1850, with its fugitive slave bill,
dimmed his Presidential prospects. It was then that Whittier wrote the
scathing lines entitled "Ichabod":

So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn
Which once he wore!
The glory from his gray hairs gone
For evermore!

Revile him not! the tempter hath
A snare for all;
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath,
Befit his fall.

Oh, dumb be passion's stormy rage,
When he who might
Have lighted up and led his age
Falls back in night!

Scorn! would the angels laugh to mark
A bright soul driven,
Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark,
From hope and heaven?

Let not the land once proud of him
Insult him now,
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim
Dishonor'd brow!

But let its humbled sons, instead,
From sea to lake,
A long lament, as for the dead,
In sadness make!

Of all we loved and honor'd naught
Save power remains,
A fallen angel's pride of thought
Still strong in chains.

All else is gone; from those great eyes
The soul has fled:
When faith is lost, when honor dies.
The man is dead.

Then pay the reverence of old days
To his dead fame!
Walk backward, with averted gaze,
And hide the shame!

[Sidenote: Death of Calhoun]

John Caldwell Calhoun, after a final speech on the issues of the country,
died on the last day of March. He was the most prominent advocate of State
sovereignty. He was noted for his keen logic, his clear statemen