will endure to be read with gratitude when the rising dome of this
Capitol, with the Statue of Liberty which surmounts it, has crumbled to
dust."

Mr. Sumner's great speech, however, by no means ended the debate. It
brought Mr. Powell to his feet with a long and elaborate contention
against the general proposition, in the course of which he took occasion
to sneer at Sumner's "most remarkable effort," as one of his "long
illogical rhapsodies on Slavery, like:

'--a Tale
Told by an Idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.'"

He professed that he wanted "the Union to be restored with the
Constitution as it is;" that he verily believed the passage of this
Amendment would be "the most effective Disunion measure that could be
passed by Congress"--and, said he, "As a lover of the Union I oppose
it."

[This phrase slightly altered, in words, but not in meaning, to
"The Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is," afterward
became the Shibboleth under which the Democratic Party in the
Presidential Campaign of 1864, marched to defeat.]

He endeavored to impute the blame for the War, to the northern
Abolitionists, for, said he: "Had there been no Abolitionists, North,
there never would have been a Fire-eater, South,"--apparently ignoring
the palpable fact that had there been no Slavery in the South, there
could have been no "Abolitionists, North."