“A few days after this speech was delivered, the Senator from South Carolina addressed the Senate,--then, as now, in a long speech, running through two days. You will find his speech in the _Congressional Globe_, Appendix, Vol. XXIX. pp. 232-240. Sir, you must read that speech, read it all through, look at it carefully, consider its words and its phrases, to understand the tone he evinced towards Mr. Sumner, and towards Massachusetts, and the Northern men who stood with him. I need not say that there were bitter words, taunting words, in the speech. I was not here to listen to it; but we all know--and I say it without meaning to give offence--that the Senator from South Carolina is often more offensive in the manner which he exhibits, and he throws more of contempt and more of ridicule in that manner than he can put in his words,--and he is not entirely destitute of the ability of using words in that connection. “On page 232 we have the insinuation that Mr. Sumner is a ‘plunging agitator,’--that is the phrase, ‘plunging agitator.’ That is a plunging expression. I think it is one of those loose expressions that brought down on the Senator the censure of my colleague the other day. Then we have another insinuation,--that he is a ‘rhetorical advocate’; and then these words: ‘He has not, in my judgment, spoken with the wisdom, the judgment, and the responsibilities of a statesman.’ Now, Sir, I doubt the propriety of applying to members of this body such phrases as these, ‘plunging agitator,’ ‘rhetorical advocate,’ and then to say he has not shown ‘the wisdom, the judgment, and the responsibilities of a statesman.’ “On page 234 he says of Mr. Sumner: ‘It seems to me, that, if he wished to write poetry, he would get a negro to sit for him.’ That is his expression, and the report says it was followed by ‘laughter,’--whether laughter at Mr. Sumner, or at the refined wit of the Senator from South Carolina, I cannot say, not having been present. “On page 236 he again alludes to a remark by Mr. Sumner, saying (to quote his own words), ‘which I think even _common prudence or common delicacy_ would have suggested to him that he ought not to have made.’ “On the same page, again alluding to Mr. Sumner, he says: ‘Our Revolutionary fathers thought nothing of these _sickly distinctions_ which gentlemen use now to make the South odious.’ “Again, on the same page, alluding to other remarks of Mr. Sumner, he says: ‘They may furnish materials for what I understand is a very popular novel,--_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. I have no doubt they may do this; but I put it to the gentleman, _are his remarks true?_’ ‘Are his remarks true?’ was the question, full of insolence and of accusation, put to Mr. Sumner in the face of the Senate. And again he says: ‘They dealt some hard licks, _but they are not true as historical facts_.’ “So you will perceive Mr. Sumner was not the first man to raise this question of truth and veracity on the floor of the Senate.