Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/114

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104
HENRY CLAY.

it and would require conciliation.” The “pale features and downcast eyes” among the Democrats in the Senate seem to have alarmed him, for on Saturday, January 14, according to his own story, the Democratic senators had a night meeting at a restaurant, “giving the assemblage the air of a convivial entertainment,” which “continued until midnight.” On that occasion it “required all the moderation, tact, and skill of the prime movers to obtain and maintain the union upon details, on the success of which the fate of the [expunging] movement depended.” The weak brethren were worked upon until they “severally pledged” themselves “that there should be no adjournment of the Senate, after the resolution was called, until it was passed;” and, as this might make a protracted session necessary, and “knowing the difficulty of keeping men steady to their work and in good humor when tired and hungry, the mover of the proceeding gave orders that night to have an ample supply of cold hams, turkeys, rounds of beef, pickles, wines, and cups of hot coffee ready in a certain committee-room near the Senate chamber.”

This programme was faithfully carried out the following Monday. Late in the night, after a long debate and a solemn protest against the proceeding read by Daniel Webster, the expunging resolution was carried by a vote of 24 to 19. The Secretary of the Senate executed at once the order to draw the required black lines and other marks on the Senate journal of March 28, 1834, whereupon the