795; was a Representative from New York in Congress, 1827-1829;
Comptroller of New York, 1829-1833; United States Senator, 1833-
1844; Governor of New York, 1844-1846; retired to his farm at
Canton, New York, and died there, August 27th, 1847.

CHAPTER VIII.
BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.

An unimportant resolution concerning the public lands, introduced
into the Senate early in 1830 by Senator Foote, of Connecticut (the
father of Admiral Foote), led to a general debate, which has been
since known as "the battle of the giants." The discussion embraced
all the partisan issues of the time, especially those of a sectional
nature, including the alleged rights of a State to set the Federal
Government at defiance. The State Rights men in South Carolina,
instigated by Mr. Calhoun, had been active during the preceding
summer in collecting material for this discussion, and they had
taken especial pains to request a search for evidence that Mr.
Webster had shown a willingness to have New England secede from
the Union during the second war with Great Britain. The vicinity
of Portsmouth, where he had resided when he entered public life,
was, to use his own words, "searched as with a candle. New Hampshire
was explored from the mouth of the Merrimack to the White Hills."

Nor had Mr. Webster been idle. He was not an extemporaneous speaker,
and he passed the summer in carefully studying, in his intervals
of professional duties, the great constitutional question which he
afterward so brilliantly discussed. A story is told at Providence
about a distinguished lawyer of that place--Mr. John Whipple--who
was at Washington when Webster replied to Hayne, but who did not
hear the speech, as he was engaged in a case before the Supreme
Court when it was delivered. When a report of what Mr. Webster
had said appeared in print, Mr. Whipple read it, and was haunted
by the idea that he had heard or read it before. Meeting Mr.
Webster soon afterward, he mentioned this idea to him and inquired
whether it could possibly have any foundation in fact. "Certainly
it has," replied Mr. Webster. "Don't you remember our conversations
during the long walks we took together last summer at Newport,
while in attendance on Story's court?" It flashed across Mr.
Whipple's mind that Mr. Webster had then rehearsed the legal argument
of his speech and had invited criticism.

As the debate on the Foote resolution progressed, it revealed an
evident intention to