Mr. Randolph still persisted in his intemperate opposition, averring that public sentiment was not in favor of either the embargo or war, and said that he had ‘known gentlemen not inferior in gallantry, in wisdom, in experience, in the talents of a statesman, to any upon the floor, consigned to oblivion for advocating a war upon the public sentiment.’ That the public mind was averse to these measures, Mr. Clay proved to be not true, by citing the great unanimity in the southern and western states, among both federalists and republicans, and the unequivocal resolutions of _fourteen state legislatures_ in favor of both. If possible, Mr. Randolph was exceeded in the fierceness of his opposition by Mr. Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts; at least by the low and scurrilous language in which he expressed it. He condemned the embargo as treasonable to the interests of the nation, as absurd and contrary to common sense. He boasted of having sent, in connection with his colleagues, expresses to the eastern cities, in the expectation that an embargo would be laid, that information to that effect might be given to merchants, so that they could obtain clearances for their vessels before it should take effect. Said he, ‘we did it to escape into the jaws of the British lion and of the French tiger, which are places of repose, of joy and delight, when compared with the grasp and fang of this hyena embargo. Look now upon the river below Alexandria, and you will see the sailors towing down their vessels as from a pestilence, against wind and tide, anxious to escape from a country which would destroy instead of preserving them. I object to it because it is no efficient preparation, because it is not a progress towards honorable war, but a subterfuge from the question. If we must perish, let us perish by any hand except our own; any fate is better than self-slaughter.’