When, therefore, on the 21st of January, Hayne rose to deliver his
_First Reply_, and Webster five days later took the floor to begin his
_Second Reply_--probably the greatest effort in the history of
American legislative oratory--the little chamber then used by the
Senate, but nowadays given over to the Supreme Court, presented a
spectacle fairly to be described as historic. Every senator who could
possibly be present answered at roll call. Here were Webster's more
notable fellow New Englanders--John Holmes of Maine, Levi Woodbury of
New Hampshire, Horatio Seymour of Vermont. There were Mahlon Dickerson
and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, and John M. Clayton of
Delaware. Here, John Tyler of Virginia, John Forsyth of Georgia,
William R. King of Alabama; there, Hugh L. White and Felix Grundy of
Tennessee, and Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. From the President's
chair Hayne's distinguished fellow South Carolinian, Calhoun, looked
down upon the assemblage with emotions which he vainly strove to
conceal.
During the later stages of the discussion people of prominence from
adjoining States filled the hotels of the city and bombarded the
senators with requests for tickets of admission to the senate
galleries.
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