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shamed any Puritan face in the days of the Roundheads. Was such unblushing hypocrisy ever before witnessed." Sir, it can scarcely be necessary to say that no such ceremony was performed. It is a reflection upon the memory of the dead, and a calumny of the living. I call upon the distinguished Sen- ator from Michigan [Mr. Cass] to say whether any such ceremony was performed, or whether any member of the committee, except the chairman, the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Jones], I be- lieve, approached the coffin of the deceased. Sir, with every member of that committee, I thought that a "great man had fallen in Israel;" that one of the great lights of the country had been extinguished in the death of that illus- trious man. It was not a new sentiment with me. When he was living and a cloud seemed to have passed over him, I dared to assert in the Senate that he had rendered his country never- to-be-forgotten services. In his life he had my respect, and our relations were as intimate as could be expected between one so humble as myself, and one so illustrious as Henry Clay. But, sir, the time of the Senate is too precious to be taken up by comments on the character of this man. I will not offend respectable ears with an allusion to dark reminiscences connected with his character and private life in Texas. From the time the lash was inflicted upon him by Jesse A Bynum, in North Carolina, to the last act of swindling to which he resorted in Texas and Mexico, his notoriety has been unenviable. I am sorry that I have mentioned his name in the honorable Senate. He has obtruded tt here. I would not advise any decent and respectable person to touch him with a fifteen-foot pole, unless he had gloves upon his hands of double thickness, and then he should cast away the pole to avoid the influence of the contaminating shock. I call upon the Senator from Michigan to corroborate any statement in opposition to what I have read from this pamphlet.
1congressional Globe, 1854-1855, Part 1, p. 742.
To "DEAR GENERAL" 1 New Haven, Conn., 20th February, 1855. Dear General : Your note was handed to me as I got in the cars at New York and was read on my way here. It might have had some weight with me if I had received it with the note accom- panying it, but it came too late. I appreciate your advice as well
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