Phenix Gazette

[For the Alexandria Gazette.]

Washington, Feb. 12, 1833.

Dear Sir: This has been a day of extraordinary interest. I have just returned from the Senate Chamber, after witnessing a discussion of a most unusual character, which reflects the highest credit upon that body, and is the sure prognostic, I trust, of the lasting and harmonious happiness of all portions of the American People. There was a spirit manifested this day which every one, who loves the name of American citizen, must rejoice to know animates the Senate: that spirit which gave birth to our glorious Constitution—which filled the hearts of our fathers, and to which we must be true, not less than to the sterner virtues which nerved their bosoms, if the blessings of that Constitution are to be preserved unimpaired.

It was generally understood that Mr. Clay was to ask leave to introduce a bill, providing for a modification of the several acts imposing duties on imports. At an early hour, the Senate Chamber was crowded in every part. The galleries exhibited one dense mass, and on the floor all the passages and vacant spaces within the bar were filled by a brilliant assemblage of 'beauty.' No report and no description can give you an adequate idea of the dress and enthusiastic feeling which pervaded the numerous assembly, or of the manner of the great triumvirate Clay, Webster and Calhoun, arising as it did out of the subject, the occasion, and the peculiar relation, which each sustains, before the eyes of their countrymen, to the questions which are now agitating us. Every one who has heard the noble-hearted Orator of the West must have been struck with the perfect ease and simplicity with which he glides into his subject. These traits of his style were particularly conspicuous to-day when explaining his motives, and the principles of the bill, and were only less admirable than his pathetic pictures of the dreadful consequences of a sudden prostration of the Protective System, and the impassioned eloquence into which he expanded, when enforcing some useful lessons of political experience, and the sentiments of a pure, lofty and comprehensive patriotism. I have often listened to Mr. Clay, and always with admiration of his large views, his daring genius, his delightful and instructive eloquence; but never did my whole heart rush towards him, as when, with a tone and look and gesture which I shall never forget, he said—'I want harmony! I wish to see the restoration of those ties which have carried us triumphantly through two wars. Let us have peace! And be once more united as a band of brothers!' Every true American bosom responded to the sentiment; and I hope there were few in that Chamber who were not indignant at the sarcasm with which Mr Forsyth communicated his reply. That such mean and malignant minds as Benton and Hill should indulge in vulgar personalities, is to be expected; but that Mr. Forsyth, who is a gentleman, and a graceful and polished one, should so far forget his own character, must be ascribed to the irritation he naturally felt, at the prospect of so great an object, as the pacification of the South, being accomplished through the instrumentality of any one save the Great Magician,

'Whose humble secretary sole is he!'

He seemed to feel that it was gratuitous and unhandsome; but it would have been manly to have retracted the imputation at once, and not, after the severe rebuke from Mr. Sprague, resorted to sophistry, to shew that what every one felt to be a direct affront to Mr Clay, was meant as a compliment. If it was really so intended,

'It was the most despiteful gentle greeting.
The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.'

The opposition made to granting leave brought several Senators on their legs, and among them Mr. Poindexter and Mr. Holmes, the former of whom, in commenting on the constitutional objection started by Mr. Forsyth, took the opportunity of expressing his cordial detestation of the bill lately reported by the Committee on the Judiciary. 'Sir, it ought to have been kicked out of the Senate, as soon as it showed its face here!' This was not very regular; but the gorge of the honorable Senator seems to rise whenever he comes within smelling distance of that sovereign Panacea for the existing disorders, as he calls the Bill. Holmes excited some rather indecorous mirth, by declaring that he almost wished he had complied with the commands of his peremptory constituents, and resigned his seat, before he had witnessed such a departure from common courtesy as was manifested by the gentleman from Georgia. But the most interesting portion of the debate was what dropped from Calhoun and Webster. The perfect stillness of the audience when the former rose was exceedingly affecting: he himself caught the impression—he had none of his usual volubility and vehemence, and was evidently laboring to express the emotions which were struggling for utterance. When he sat down, there was a clapping of hands, and every one looked into the face of his neighbor to read the joyful enthusiasm which he himself felt. This little impropriety in giving applause, like the slight foam on the crest of the ocean wave, indicated the vast depth of the current below. It might well be excused, as giving a grateful earnest how strong in the minds of the people is the sentiment of attachment to the Union, and how ready they are to receive with open arms their brethren of South Carolina, if they will only abjure their errors, and return to their allegiance.

Yours, &c.
H S.