Here is another instance, of similar character, which did not occur in a committee-room, but during debate in the Senate Chamber. While the Compromise Measures were under discussion, on the 17th of April, 1850, Mr. Foote, a Slave-Master from Mississippi, in the course of remarks, commenced personal allusion to Mr. Benton. This was aggravated by the circumstance that only a few days previously he had made this distinguished gentleman the mark for most bitter and vindictive personalities. Mr. Benton rose at once from his seat, and, with angry countenance, but without weapon of any kind in his hand, or, as appeared afterward before the Committee, on his person, advanced in the direction of Mr. Foote, when the latter, gliding backward, drew from his pocket a five-chambered revolver, full-loaded, which he cocked. Meanwhile Mr. Benton, at the suggestion of friends, was already returning to his seat, when he perceived the pistol. Excited greatly by this deadly menace, he exclaimed: “I am not armed. I have no pistols. I disdain to carry arms. Stand out of the way, and let the assassin fire.” Mr. Foote remained standing in the position he had taken, with pistol in hand, cocked. “Soon after,” says the Report of the Committee appointed to investigate this occurrence, “both Senators resumed their seats, and order was restored.” This will be found at length in the twenty-first volume of the “Congressional Globe.”[104] I cite yet another instance from the same authentic record. Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, had proclaimed himself as “belonging to the Peace party,” when Mr. Dawson, of Louisiana, coming to his seat, called him “a damned coward,” “a damned blackguard,” and then said, that, if Mr. Arnold did not behave better, “he would cut his throat from ear to ear.”[105] The Duel, which at home in the Slave States is “twin” with the “street fight,” is also “twin” with these instances. It is constantly adopted or attempted by Slave-Masters in Congress. But I shall not enter upon this catalogue. I content myself with showing the openness with which it has been menaced in debate, and without any call to order. Mr. Foote, the same Slave-Master already mentioned, in debate in the Senate, the 26th of March, 1850, thus sought to provoke Mr. Benton. I take his words from the “Congressional Globe,” Vol. XXI. p. 603.