a public man.

At the second session of the same Congress, after a vain effort to confer
upon the country the benefit of a national bankrupt law, Mr. Webster was
again called upon to defend the Executive in a much more heated conflict
than that aroused by the Panama resolution. Georgia was engaged in
oppressing and robbing the Creek Indians, in open contempt of the treaties
and obligations of the United States. Mr. Adams sent in a message reciting
the facts and hinting pretty plainly that he intended to carry out the laws
by force unless Georgia desisted. The message was received with great wrath
by the Southern members. They objected to any reference to a committee, and
Mr. Forsyth of Georgia declared the whole business to be "base and
infamous," while a gentleman from Mississippi announced that Georgia would
act as she pleased. Mr. Webster, having said that she would do so at her
peril, was savagely attacked as the organ of the administration, daring to
menace and insult a sovereign State. This stirred Mr. Webster, although
slow to anger, to a determination to carry through the reference at all
hazards. He said:--

"He would tell the gentleman from Georgia that if there were rights
of the Indians which the United States were bound to protect, that
there were those in the House and in the country who would take
their part. If we have bound ourselves by any treaty to do certain
things, we must fulfil such obligation. High words will not terrify
us, loud declamation will not deter us from the discharge of that
duty. In my own course in this matter I shall not be dictated to by
any State or the representative of any State on this floor. I shall
not be frightened from my purpose nor will I suffer harsh language
to produce any reaction on my mind. I will examine with great and
equal care all the rights of both parties.... I have made these few
remarks to give the gentleman from Georgia to understand that it
was not by bold denunciation nor by bold assumption that the
members of this House are to be influenced in the decision of high
public concerns."

When Mr. Webster was thoroughly roused and indignant there was a darkness
in his face and a gleam of dusky light in his deep-set eyes which were not
altogether pleasant to contemplate. How well Mr. Forsyth and his friends
bore the words and look of Mr. Webster we have no means of knowing, but the
mes