Ames pictured the horrors which would ensue if the Treaty were rejected.

Quite naturally he assumed the part of a man on the verge of the grave, which increased the impressiveness of his words.

He spoke for three hours.

The members of the House listened with feverish attention; the crowds in the balconies could not smother their emotion.

One witness reports that Vice-President John Adams sat in the gallery, the tears running down his cheeks, and that he said to the friend beside him, "My God, how great he is!" When Ames began, no doubt the Anti-British groups which swelled the audience turned towards him an unsympathetic if not a scornful attention--they had already taken a poll of their members, from which it appeared that they could count on a majority of six to defeat the Treaty.