“Mr. Breckinridge remained all the time, and sat with an open book in his hands, pretending to read; but his eyes wandered from the page, and, with a frown upon his brow, he finally gazed at the speaker till he closed. Jeff Davis pretended to be reading the _Globe_, but it was plain to be seen by the heading of the paper that it was upside down. Wigfall seemed in torment. He listened respectfully awhile, and then glided silently around from one Senator to another, and conferred in whispers. He seemed to be hatching mischief; but the grave shake of the head of the older Senators doubtless kept this uneasy, restless desperado quiet. Hunter sat like a rock, immovable, and listened respectfully to the whole. Not a muscle moved upon his placid face to denote what was going on in his mind. Toombs heard the most of it quietly, and with as much of a don’t-care look as his evil passions would permit. Near the close, ‘Sheep’s-Gray’ Mason came in and took his seat, and commenced writing a letter. He evidently intended to show the galleries that Sumner was too small for him to notice. But he soon found a seat in a distant part of the Hall, and an easy position, where he sat gloomily scowling upon the orator till he sat down. When the speech was about half through, Keitt, the accomplice of Brooks in his attempted assassination of Mr. Sumner, came in and took a seat near Senator Hammond. For a while he sat gazing about the galleries, evidently to notice the dramatic effect of his presence upon the audience there. But few seemed to notice him. By degrees he began to pay attention to the speech.… Curry, of Alabama, and Lamar, of Mississippi, members of the other House, though Southerners of the straitest sect, could not conceal their delight at the oratory and classic and scholarly feast before them. They are scholars and orators themselves, and could appreciate an intellectual treat, though the sentiments were ever so obnoxious. “On the Republican side breathless attention prevailed. Those who immediately surrounded the Senator were Mr. Wilson, Senator Bingham, John Hickman, Preston King, and Solomon Foot. Mr. Seward sat in his usual seat, and scarcely moved during the delivery of the great speech.” As the speech was read, the conflict of opinion began to show itself. Democrats were all against it; Republicans were divided. The _New York Tribune_, in an editorial notice, said:-- “We have said that Mr. Sumner’s was doubtless a strong and forcible speech; and yet we wish he had made it on some other bill than that providing for the admission of Kansas.” A Boston paper, in a letter from Washington, contained the following reply to the _New York Tribune_.