arefully prepared speech, no one could
believe for a moment. It was the overflow of a full mind, swelling in
the joyous excitement of the friendly reception, kindling with the
glowing themes suggested by the occasion, and not unmoved by the genius
of the place. Sitting by Mr. Webster, I asked him if he had ever
heard anything like it? He answered, "Never, except from Mr. Prentiss
himself."

Political life was exceedingly distasteful to Mr. Prentiss and he
soon abandoned it and returned with fresh zeal to the practice of his
profession. The applauses of the world seemed never for an instant to
deceive him. He wrote after a great speech at Nashville, addressed, it
was estimated, to 40,000 people: "They heap compliments upon me till I
am almost crushed beneath them." And yet in the midst of such popular
ovations he wrote to his sister:

I laugh at those who look upon the uncertain, slight, and changeable
regards of the multitude, as worthy even of comparison with the true
affection of one warm heart. I have ever yearned for affection; I
believe it is the only thing of which I am avaricious. I never had any
personal ambition, and do not recollect the time when I would not
have exchanged the applause of thousands for the love of one of my
fellow-beings.

In 1842 his yearning for affection was satisfied by his marriage to Miss
Mary Jane Williams, of Natchez; and henceforth his life was full of the
sweetest domestic peace and joy. From the moment of first leaving home
he had carried on a constant correspondence with his mother, sisters,
and brothers, in the North; and he kept it up while he lived. He took a
special interest in the education of his youngest brother, and at one
time had planned to join him in Germany for purposes of study and
travel. All the later years of his life were years of unwearied toil and
struggle.

In 1845 a case involving the validity of his title to the "Commons"
property, was decided against him in the Supreme Court of the United
States; thus wresting from him at a blow that property and the costly
buildings which he had erected upon it. In consequence of this
misfortune and of his abhorrence of repudiation, which, in spite of his
determined opposition, had, unhappily, been foisted upon his adopted
State, he removed to New Orleans in 1846. Here, notwithstanding that he
had to master a new system of law, he at once took his natural position
as a leader of the bar; and but for failing health, wou