"A Weak and Imbecile Man"

According to the Senate's website, on this day in 1863, during a contentious Senate debate, Senator Willard Saulsbury (DE) referred to President Abraham Lincoln as a "weak and imbecile man." In the furor that followed these remarks, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, as presiding officer, ordered Saulsbury to take his seat. After further discussion and resistance by the Delaware senator, Hamlin instructed the Sergeant at Arms to arrest him. Saulsbury responded, "Let him do it at his expense," as he drew a pistol and threatened to shoot the surprised officer. Tempers quickly cooled, however, and Saulsbury subsequently apologized, prompting the Senate set aside a pending resolution of expulsion.

An Alabamian's Perspective on The Great Triumvirate in 1839

Henry Washington Hilliard was born in 1808 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and attended South Carolina College (the University of South Carolina) in Columbia, graduating in 1826. After graduation, he moved to Athens, Georgia, thence to Alabama where he became a professor of literature at the University of Alabama, retaining this role form 1831-1834. He then decided to move to Montgomery and practice his chosen profession, law. He was a member of the Alabama State House of Representatives from 1826-1838 and was chosen as an Alabama member of the Whig National Convention that took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1839. On his way to the convention, he stopped off in Washington, D.C., and for the first time, as a guest of Senator William Preston of South Carolina, stepped into visitor gallery encircling the great forum known as the United States Senate.

Hilliard gazed down from the gallery and immediately glanced at the great Daniel Webster, sitting quietly in his chair. Although Webster was not engaged in a great speech on the day Hilliard visited, he described, in detail, the honorable senator from Massachusetts, known by so many as "Black Dan."

He recalled to me the idea of classic grandeur; there was in him a blended dignity and power, most impressive; his head was magnificent, the arch of imagination rising above the brows, surrounded by the development of veneration resembling that of the bust of Plato; and as he sat in his place, surrounded by his peers, it seemed as if the whole weight of the government might rest securely on his broad shoulders. His large, dark eyes were full of expression, even in repose; the cheeks were square and strong; his dark hair and swarthy complexion heightened the impression of strength which his whole person made upon me as I saw him for the first time, an impression that was deepened when he rose to his feet and walked the floor of the Senate-chamber. There was in his appearance something leonine. He was in full dress; he never neglected this. when he delivered his great speech in reply to Hayne, it is known that he wore a dress-coat of dark blue cloth with gilt buttons, buff vest, and white cravat, so that, some one has said, he displayed the colors of the Revolution.

This was also the first day Hilliard looked upon the "Great Pacificator," Henry Clay of Kentucky. He stated that Clay was unlike Webster due to "his light complexion, blue eyes, and animated manner." Hilliard goes on to describe the senator's physical appearance while watching from the gallery.

His appearance was not less intellectual that that of the other great statesman; his forehead was high and finely proportioned, and his features expressed intellect, ardor, and courage; his nose and mouth were large, and of the Roman Cast. when he rose to speak, standing over six feet in height, spare and vigorous, his appearance was most commanding; and certainly with his singularly clear, sonorous, and musical voice, that rose and fell with perfect cadence, one felt that never in ancient or modern assemblies had a greater master of popular thought and passion stood in the midst of men. He was attentive in dress, and when I saw him for the first time he wore a dress-coat of brown broadcloth, a heavy black cravat, and the collar of his shirt was of the largest style, touching his ears.

Hilliard eyes next rested upon the favored son of the South, the "Cast Iron Man," John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. The young Hillard previously saw Calhoun, during his vice presidency, while a student at South Carolina College. The Alabamian was no less impressed by the appearance of the South Carolina senator during his 1839 visit to the senate.

He stood quite six feet in height, spare, but vigorous and erect, the impersonation of intellectual grandeur; his face was Grecian, the brow square, and the forehead finely developed, from which the thick hair was brushed upward; the mouth resolute; and the chin, in its shape and firmness giving an expression of purpose and determination, recalled the but of Caesar; his eyes, dark gray, were full of fire, and when he was animated blazed with the ardor of his great soul. Mr. Calhoun was habitually dressed in black, and in the Senate-chamber, at all times, wore a morning costume.

Hilliard became an Alabama elector in 1840, supporting Henry Clay as the Whig nominee for president. Unfortunately, Clay's supporters did not get their candidate chosen. Instead, William Henry Harrison (W-OH) won the presidential nomination, while John Tyler (W-VA) won the vice presidential nomination. Needless to say, Clay was livid and Hilliard expressed this in his writings. After meeting with Senator Preston, Secretary of State Webster, and President Tyler, Henry Hilliard received the appointment as Charge de Affaires to Belgium, a post he held from 1842-1844. Upon his return to Alabama, Hillard was immediately elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses (1845-1851), but was not a candidate for reelection in 1850, that election being won by another Whig, James Abercrombie. Hilliard became an elector on the National American ticket in 1856. Although not a firm supporter of Southern secession, he reluctantly followed his state out of the Union in 1861 and received a commission as brigadier general during the Civil War. Hilliard raised a legion of infantry, cavalry, and artillery but never actively commanded these troops in battle. In 1876, he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate to the Forty-fifth Congress. However, he did serve the United States as Minister to Brazil from 1877-1881. Hilliard died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1892 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.

The quotations come from pages 2-4 of Henry Washington Hilliard's book, Politics and Pen Pictures (1892).

"Air and Simple Gifts" by John Williams

This is a wonderful song written for today's inauguration...It is great!!! God Bless America!!! Our Federal Union, It Must Be Preserved!!!!!!

H-SHEAR on Howe

In case you are not a memeber of H-SHEAR -- the H Net forum for historians of the early republic -- please take the time to register. The recent discussion of Howe's What Hath God Wrought was excellent and is still ongoing. Link to it here http://www.h-net.org/~shear/

Decorum in the House, or Lack Thereof....

In Senator Thomas Hart Benton's (D-MO) book, Thirty Years' View, he responded to what he believed was an error in Alexis de Tocqueville's view of why the House of Representatives was a less capable body than the Senate. Benton quotes de Tocqueville as saying:

On entering the House of Representatives at Washington, one is struck with the vulgar demeanor of that great assembly. The eye frequently does not discover a man of celebrity within its walls. Its members are almost all obscure individuals, whose names present no associations to the mind; they are mosty village lawyers, men in trade, or even persons belonging to the lower classes of society. In a country in which education is very general, it is said that the representatives of the people do not always know how to write correctly. At a few yards' distance from this spot is the door of the Senate, which contains within a small space a large proportion of the celebrated men in America. Scarcely an individual is to be found in it, who does not recall the idea of an active and illustrious career. The Senate is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguised generals, wise magistrates, and statesment of note, whose language would at all times do honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe. What the, is the cause of this strange contrast? and why are the most able citizens to be found in the one assembly rather than in the other? wy is the former body remarkable for its vulgarity, and its poverty of talent, whilst the latter seems to enjoy a monopoly of intelligence and of sound judgment? Both of these assemblies eminate from the people. From what cause, then, does so startling a difference arise? Teh only reason which appears to me adequately to account for it is, that the House of Representatives. is elected by the populace directly, and that of the Senate is elected by the indirect application of universal suffrage; but this transmission of the popular authority through an assembly of chosen men operates an important change in it, by refining its discretion and improving the forms which it adopts. Men who are chosen in this manner accurately represent the majority of the nation which governs them; but they represent the elevated thoughts which are current in the community, the generous propensities which prompt its nobler actions, rather than the petty passions witch disturb, or the vices which disgrace it. The time may be already anticipated as which the American republics will be obliged to introduce the plan of election by an elected body more frequently into their system of representation, or they will incur no small risk or perishing miserably among the shoals of democracy--Chapter 8 (205).

Of course, Benton stated that de Toqueville made an error because the Frenchmen saw the houses as "two different order of beings-different classes-a higher class and a lower class." The senator also expressed that "the Senate is almost entirely made up out of the House!" If Monsieur de Toqueville looked at the House some years prior, he would have witnessed almost all of the senators "to whom his exclusive praise is directed" sitting in the House (206).

Unfortunately, the House bashing does not stop at Alexis de Tocqueville's remarks. Charles Dickens visited the United States Capital in the 1840s and wrote the following passage concerning the House in his American Notes for General Circulation:

On my initiatory visit to the House of Representatives they divided against a decision of the Chair; but the Chair won. The second time I went, the member who was speaking, being interrupted by a laugh, mimicked it, as one child would in quarrelling with another, and added, 'that he would make honourable gentlemen opposite, sing out a little more on the other side of their mouths presently.' But interruptions are rare; the Speaker usually being heard in silence. There are more quarrels than with us , and more threatenings than gentlemen are accustomed to exchange in any civilised society of which we have record: but farm-yard imitations have not as yet been imported from the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

It is somewhat remarkable too, at first, to say the least, to see so many honourable members with swelled faces; and it is scarcely less remarkable to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hollow of the cheek. It is strange enough too, to see an honourable gentleman leaning back in his tilted chair with his legs on the desk before him, sharpening a convenient "plug" with his pen knife, and when it is quite ready for use, shooting the old one from his mouth, as from a popgun, and clapping the new one in its place.

I was surprised to observe that even steady old chewers of great experience, are not always good marksmen, which has rather inclined me to doubt that general proficiency with the rifle, of which we have heard so much in England. Several gentlemen called upon me who, in the course of conversation, frequently missed the spittoon at five paces; and one (but he was certainly short-sighted) mistook the closed sash for the open window, at three (53).

Frances Trollope, a British novelist, visited the United States ca. 1827. Upon her return to England, she had her American writings published under the title Domestic manners of the Americans (1832). On one of her many visits to the House chamber she wrote about the manners concerning the House members versus those she found in the Senate.

...I could only follow one or two of the orators, whose voices were peculiarly loud the and clear. This made it really a labour to listen; but the extreme beauty of the chamber was of itself a reason for going again and again. It was however, really mortifying to see this splendid hall, fitted up in so stately and sumptuous a manner, filled with men sitting in the most unseemly attitudes, a large majority with their hats on, and nearly all spitting to an excess that decency forbids me to describe. Among the crowd who must be included in this description, a few were distinguished by not wearing their hats, and by sitting on their chairs like other human beings, without throwing their legs above their heads. Whenever I inquired the name of one of these exceptions, I was told that it was Mr. This, or Mr. That, of Virginia.
The Senate Chamber is like the Hall of congress, a semicircle, but of very much smaller dimensions. It is most elegantly fitted up, and what is better still, the senators, generally speaking, look like gentlemen. They do not wear their hats, and the activity of youth being happily passed, they do not toss their heels above their heads. I would I could add they do not spit; but alas! "I have an oath in heaven," and my not write an untruth (184-85).