His clear and succinct
statement of the pending question put a new phase upon it, and the
House seemed surprised.
He proceeded then to debate the question; and very soon he was in
_medias res_, and his bold and lucid argument won the attention of
every one. The position of the Democracy was dissected to the
separation of every fibre; its character and future effects denounced
and exposed in a strain of invective eloquence which thrilled to every
heart. Turning from this to the national policy of the Democracy, then
in power, and which the measure under consideration was intended to aid
and sustain, his powers seemed to expand with the magnitude of the
subject, as he went on to analyze the policy and the measures of the
Government, and to demonstrate the disastrous consequences which must
follow these remotely, if not immediately, corrupting, undermining, and
ultimately destroying the Constitution, and, of consequence, the
Government. He spoke for three hours; his peroration was so grandly
eloquent as to bring down the House and galleries in a round of
applause.
From that day forward, Prentiss was the great man of the House and of
the State.
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