Yet Mr. Clay, from 1839 down to his death, hardly made a remarkable
speech of any kind, except on slavery. Mr. Webster, having indulged now
and then in a little easy rhetoric, as at Niblo's and elsewhere, opens
his mouth in 1840, generously contributing his aid to both sides, and
stops talking about it only when death closes his lips. Mr. Benton's
six or eight speeches in the United States Senate have all been on the
subject of slavery in the Southwestern section of the country, and form
the basis of whatever claim he has to the character of a statesman, and
he owes his seat in the next Congress somewhat, perhaps, to anti-slavery
pretentions! The Whig and Democratic parties pledged themselves just as
emphatically against the antislavery discussion,--against agitation and
free speech. These men said: "It sha'n't be talked about; it won't be
talked about!" These are your statesmen!--men who understand the present
that is, and mould the future! The man who understands his own time, and
whose genius moulds the future to his views, he is a statesman, is he
not? These men devoted themselves to banks, to the tariff, to internal
improvements, to constitutional and financial questions.
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