Mrs. Webster was in the gallery. He had not the delicacy to
desist, however, until he had fully emptied the vials of his wrath.
Then he set upon Mr. Speaker Taylor, and after abusing him soundly
he turned sarcastically to the gentleman who had informed him of
Mrs. Webster's presence, and asked, "Is Mrs. Taylor present also?"

Henry Clay was frequently the object of Mr. Randolph's denunciations,
which he bore patiently until the "Lord of Roanoke" spoke, one day,
of the reported alliance between the President and the Secretary
of State as the "coalition of Bilfil and Black George--the combination,
unheard of till then, of the Puritan and the blackleg." Mr. Clay
at once wrote to know whether he had intended to call him a political
gambler, or to attach the infamy of such epithets to his private
life. Mr. Randolph declined to give any explanation, and a duel
was fought without bloodshed.

Mr. Randolph, on another occasion, deliberately insulted Mr. James
Lloyd, one of "the solid men of Boston," then a Senator from
Massachusetts, who had, in accordance with the custom, introduced
upon the floor of the Senate one of his constituents, Major Benjamin
Russell, the editor of the _Columbian Sentinel_. The sight of a
Federal editor aroused Mr. Randolph's anger, and he at once insolently
demanded that the floor of the Senate be cleared, forcing Major
Russell to retire. Mr. Lloyd took the first opportunity to express
his opinion of this gratuitous insult, and declared, in very forcible
language, that, as he had introduced Major Russell on the floor,
he was responsible therefor. Mr. Randolph indulged in a little
gasconade, in which he announced that his carriage was waiting at
the door to convey him to Baltimore, and at the conclusion of his
remarks he left the Senate Chamber and the city. Mr. Calhoun, who
had not attempted to check Mr. Randolph, lamented from the chair
that anything should have happened to mar the harmony of the Senate,
and again declared that he had not power to call a Senator to order,
nor would he for ten thousand worlds look like a usurper.

Senator Tazewell, Mr. Randolph's colleague, was a first-class
Virginia abstractionist and an avowed hater of New England. Dining
one day at the White House, he provoked the President by offensively
asserting that he had "never known a Unitarian who did not believe
in the sea-serpent." Soon afterward Mr. Tazewell spoke of the
different kinds of wines, and declared