I must emphasize the effect of this speech made December 13, 1849,--nearly three months before that of Calhoun last mentioned,--and which goes great lengths beyond anything ever said by Calhoun. The _Globe_ mentions that the speaker was loudly applauded several times. Stephens, who was present, says "it received rounds of applause from the floors and the galleries," and we can well believe his assertion that it "produced a profound sensation in the house and in the country."[106] Another eye-witness, Hilliard of Alabama, a southern whig who was not in sympathy with his refusal to act with his party, relates with rapturous reminiscence the full-orbed splendor with which Toombs unexpectedly rose upon the house at this time. He tells: "A storm of applause greeted this speech. Mr. Toombs had left his desk and taken his stand in the main aisle and the southern members crowded about him."[107] For completeness and height, and for sudden surprise, this speech exceeds all impromptus on record. To appreciate it you must recognize it as surely forerunning the future uprising of southerners as one man in what they deemed the holiest of causes. When you do this you can adapt to it Webster's words: "True eloquence ... does not consist in speech.... It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.... It comes ... like ... the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous original, native force.... Then patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent.... This, this is eloquence; or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence--it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action." The remaining facts of this remarkable session, which show that Toombs and not Calhoun was the apostle of secession, can now be told very briefly.