composing their fangs to the work of eating grass! Holy Satan, pray for
us."

When the report reached California that Robert Toombs had said, "I want
it carved over my grave, - 'Here lies the man who destroyed the United
States Government and its Capitol,'" King replied, "Mr. Toombs cannot be
literally gratified. But he may come so near his wish as this, - that it
shall be written over his gallows, as over every one of a score of his
fellow-felons, 'Here swings the man who attempted murder on the largest
scale that was ever planned in history.' "

That our orator knew how to be sarcastic as well as severe must have
been plain to those who heard him exclaim:

"There are those who say that they are Union men, and in favor of the
Government, and yet they are bitterly opposed to the administration, and
cannot support its policy. But in a war for self existence, this divorce
is impossible. One might as well say at a fire, while his house is
beginning to crackle in the flames, 'I am in favor of this engine, I go
for this water; the hose meets my endorsement. Certainly, I am for
putting out the fire, but don't ask me to help man the brakes, for I am
conscientiously opposed to the hose pipe. Its nozzle isn't handsome. It
wasn't made by a Democrat.'"

How ardently King longed for the liberation of the Blacks is seen in the
following, addressed in all probability more to the President of the
United States than to the people:

"O that the President would soon speak that electric sentence, -
inspiration to the loyal North, doom to the traitorous aristocracy whose