They longed with an intense longing to have these assaults met and repelled, and yet they could not believe that this apparently desperate feat could be successfully accomplished.

Men of the North and of New England could be known in Washington, in those days, by their indignant but dejected looks and downcast eyes.

They gathered in the senate chamber on the appointed day, quivering with anticipation, and with hope and fear struggling for the mastery in their breasts.

With them were mingled those who were there from mere curiosity, and those who had come rejoicing in the confident expectation that the Northern champion would suffer failure and defeat.
In the midst of the hush of expectation, in that dead silence which is so peculiarly oppressive because it is possible only when many human beings are gathered together, Mr.Webster rose.

He had sat impassive and immovable during all the preceding days, while the storm of argument and invective had beaten about his head.