The 23d of February, 1859, was the occasion of a protracted battle between Davis and Douglas, lasting from midday until nearly night. This speech of Mr. Davis is, in many respects, inferior to his higher oratorical efforts, realizing less of the forms of oratory which he usually illustrated so happily, and is wanting somewhat in that symmetry, harmony, and comeliness in all its features, with which his senatorial efforts are generally wrought to the perfection of expression. The circumstances under which it was delivered, however, fully meet this criticism, and show a most remarkable readiness for the instantaneous and hurried grapple of debate, and this latter quality was the strong point of Douglas' oratory. The latter had replied at great length, and with evident preparation, to a speech made by Mr. Davis' colleague (Mr. Brown), who was not present during Douglas' rejoinder. Without hesitation Mr. Davis assumed the place of his absent colleague, and the result was a running debate, lasting several hours, and exhibiting on both sides all the vivacious readiness of a gladiatorial combat. In their ordinary and characteristic speeches there was an antithesis, no less marked than in their characters as men. Douglas was peculiarly _American_ in his style of speaking. He dealt largely in the _argumentum ad hominem_; was very adroit in pointing out immaterial inconsistencies in his antagonists; he rarely discussed general principles; always avoided questions of abstract political science, and struggled to force the entire question into juxtaposition with the practical considerations of the immediate present. In nearly all of Davis' speeches is recognized the pervasion of intellect, which is preserved even in his most impassioned passages. He goes to the very "foundations of jurisprudence," illustrates by historical example, and throws upon his subject the full radiance of that noble light which is shed by diligent inquiry into the abstract truths of political and moral science. Strength, animation, energy without vehemence, classical elegance, and a luminous simplicity, are features in Mr. Davis' oratory which rendered him one of the most finished, logical, and effective of contemporary parliamentary speakers.