f
Mr. Calhoun, threatened disunion if their "peculiar institution"
was not let alone. The gifted South Carolinian having in January,
1838, paid a high compliment in debate to John Randolph for his
uncompromising hostility to the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Clay said:
"I well remember the Compromise Act and the part taken in that
discussion by the distinguished member from Virginia, whose name
has been mentioned, and whose death I most sincerely lament. At
that time we were members of the other House. Upon one occasion,
during a night session, another member from Virginia, through
fatigue and the offensive exhalations from one of the surrounding
lamps, fainted in his seat and was borne to the rear of the
Representatives' Hall. Calling some one to the Speaker's chair,
I left my place to learn the character and extent of his illness.
Returning to the desk, I was met in one of the aisles by Mr.
Randolph, to whom I had not spoken for several weeks. 'Ah, Mr.
Speaker,' said he, 'I wish you would leave Congress and go to
Kentucky. I will follow you there or anywhere else.' I well
understood what he meant, for at that time a proposition had been
made to the Southern members, and the matter partly discussed by
them, of leaving Congress in the possession of the Northern members
and returning home, each to his respective constituents. I told
Mr. Randolph that I could not then speak to him about the matter,
and requested him to meet me in the Speaker's room early the next
morning. With his usual punctuality he came. We talked over the
Compromise Act, he defending his favorite position and I defending
mine. We were together an hour, but to no purpose. Through the
whole he was unyielding and uncompromising to the last. We parted,
shook hands, and promised to be good friends, and I never met him
again during the session. Such," continued Mr. Clay, "was the part
Mr. Randolph took in that discussion, and such were his uncompromising
feelings of hostility to the North and all who did not believe with
him. His acts came near shaking this Union to the centre and
desolating this fair land. The measures before us now, and the
unyielding and uncompromising spirit are like then, and tend to
the same sad and dangerous end--dissolution and desolation, disunion
and ruin."

On the same day, in 1838, Mr. Webster gave in his opinion that
Congress had the power to abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia. That power, he said, was g