State before or since; and the mention of his name at this day arouses in the memory of old residents a sense of ecstasy produced by no other. No better idea of his manner can be given than by quoting once more from his biography, this time from a letter of General H. D. Clayton, describing a subsequent impromptu debate with his great friend and opponent, Hilliard:
"Mr. Hilliard, being loudly called, took his stand,
and made the graceful speech he always does. . . .
Then broke forth the deafening, enthusiastic cry, 'Yancey,
Yancey.' He came like a man conscious of right
should always come. . . . As with modesty becoming
a maiden of sixteen, he requested to be permitted to
occupy the stand, 'To the stand,' shouted an hundred
voices. . . . Bowing low he began—Here I must
pause. I should despise my own presumption should I
undertake further description of what followed. First
went the Confederation newspaper, once in existence,
now a dream, a shadow of things that were, gone glimmering
like a schoolboy's tale. At every blow some foe
fell, broken in every bone. For just two hours this work
of destruction proceeded amidst deafening shouts from
the throats of what is admitted on all sides to have been
at least two-thirds of the crowded house, called to put
Yancey down."
In the debates and speeches of those days
the men and the measures of the last decade
