parliamentarian. Upon entering the Senate at the early age of
thirty-two, he had won prompt recognition by a powerful speech in
opposition to the tariff of 1824; and by 1828, when he was reëlected,
he was known as the South's ablest and boldest spokesman in the upper
chamber.

Webster was an equally fitting representative of rugged New England.
Born nine years earlier than Hayne, he struggled up from a boyhood of
physical frailty and poverty to an honored place at the Boston bar,
and in 1812, at the age of thirty, was elected to Congress. To the
Senate he brought, in 1827, qualities that gave him at once a
preeminent position. His massive head, beetling brow, flashing eye,
and stately carriage attracted instant attention wherever he went. His
physical impressiveness was matched by lofty traits of character and
by extraordinary powers of intellect; and by 1830 he had acquired a
reputation for forensic ability and legal acumen which were second to
none.

When, therefore, on the 21st of January, Hayne rose to deliver his
_First Reply_, and Webster five days later took the floor to begin his
_Second Reply_--probably the greatest effort in the history of
American legislative oratory--the little chamber then used by the
Senate, but nowadays given over to the Supreme Court, presented a
spectacle fairly to be described as historic. Every senator who could
possibly be present answered at roll call. Here were Webster's more
notable fellow New Englanders--John Holmes of Maine, Levi Woodbury of
New Hampshire, Horatio Seymour of Vermont. There were Mahlon Dickerson
and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, and John M. Clayton of
Delaware. Here, John Tyler of Virginia, John Forsyth of Georgia,
William R. King of Alabama; there, Hugh L. White and Felix Grundy of