“I can say in all sincerity, that, of all the political addresses I have ever heard,--and for thirty years past I have heard a great many, and from the most distinguished men in the country,--I have never listened to one that would begin to compare with this as a whole. The high and broad ground on which you based your views, the clearness and force with which you presented the subject, the dignity and grace of your manner, and the honest and hearty tone in which you uttered your thoughts, all together make your speech _the best one that was ever delivered_, as far as my knowledge and experience go.” These testimonies will at least explain the effect of this speech at the time. FELLOW-CITIZENS OF NEW YORK:-- Of all men in our history, there are two whose influence at this moment is peculiar. Though dead, they yet live, speak, and act in the conflict of principle which divides the country,--standing face to face, like two well-matched champions. When I add that one was from South Carolina and the other from Massachusetts, you cannot fail to see that I mean John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams. Statesmen, both, of long career, marked ability, and unblemished integrity,--acting together at first,--sitting in the same Cabinet, from which they passed, one to become Vice-President, and the other President,--then, for the remainder of their days, battling in Congress, and dying there,--each was a leader in life, but each is now in death a greater leader still. Mr. Calhoun possessed an intellect of much originality and boldness, and, though wanting the culture of a scholar, made himself felt in council and in debate. To native powers unlike, but not inferior, Mr. Adams added the well-ripened fruits of long experience in foreign lands and of studies more various and complete than those of any other public man in our history, besides an indomitable will, and that spirit of freedom which inspired his father, when, in the Continental Congress, he so eloquently maintained the Declaration of Independence, making himself its Colossus on that floor. Sitting together in the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, they concurred in sanctioning the Missouri Prohibition of Slavery as constitutional, and so advised the President. But here divergence probably began, though for a long time not made manifest. The diary of Mr. Adams shows that at that early day, when Slavery had been little discussed, he saw its enormity with instinctive quickness, and described it with corresponding force. The record is less full with regard to Mr. Calhoun; but when they reappeared, one in the Senate, and the other in the House of Representatives, each openly assumed the position by which he will be known in history,--one as chief in all the pretensions of Slavery and Slave-Masters, the other as champion of Freedom.