and from nearly all the southern States, came to
behold its meeting, to see its members, and to hear the debates; and, as
if to invest the scene with a yet lovelier hue, beauty, brightened by
intelligence and glowing with patriotism, shed its softened light over
that imposing spectacle. In that body, in which an ex-president of the
United States presided, in which another ex-president was at the head of
a committee, in which the chief justice of the United States was at the
head of another committee, in which there was no place of honor for
judges, governors, ministers to foreign courts, speakers of the House of
Representatives, and senators of the United States, above their
fellow-members, the eye of the visitor soon singled out Mr. Tazewell. He
was the grandest figure of a man among them all. His fame was then at
the height, and his large stature, his full stern features, lighted by a
wide grave blue eye, his solemn gait, all inspiring awe as he leaned in
his seat or passed through the hall--were in fair keeping with that
intellectual image of him which had previously existed in the mind of
the beholder.

To trace with any minuteness the course of Mr. Tazewell through more
than three of the most anxious months of his life would far exceed my
present limits, and as I have already treated this topic in a separate
work, and have been required to treat it again, I shall simply say here,
that Mr. Tazewell made the opening speech in support of a resolution
which he offered, and which marked out the course of the campaign which
he believed to be best adapted to attain the general end in view. Had
that resolution been adopted, I now believe, as I believed then, that a
constitution would have been formed which would have lasted for half a
century, and that Tazewell, as a skilful and fearless mediator between
the East and West, would have performed the office with glorious
success. But the passions of men raged high; extremes were the order of
the day, and each party stood pledged to its favorite scheme. His first
regular effort on the floor of the Convention was in reply to Mr.
Monroe, and gave him the opportunity of expounding his theory of
interests as the basis of a political system--a system as beautiful as
true. His speech presented a fair specimen of what the discussions on
the basis question ought to have been--not of the elaborate dissertation
which lasted two days, but of the vigorous living speech, which, while
it re