260 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



ful message of expostulation, or, if there were need, of 

 reproof, to the President of the United States ? One of 

 the great lights of modern science, known, celebrated, 

 distinguished among the few who have adorned the arts, 

 and shed new light on the studies most cultivated by civ 

 ilized man ; the peer, the friend of Humboldt, of Davy 

 (while he yet lived,) of Arago, of Agassiz, of Chevreul, of 

 Cotta, of De la Beche, of Jean Baptist Dumas, of Faraday, 

 of Le Verrier, of Brongniart, of every great contemporary 

 name made illustrious by devotion to science, known all 

 over the world, known where many of our distinguished 

 countrymen are still unknown ; the honored instructor of 

 three generations of young men, in that far-famed Univer 

 sity, beneath whose classic shades he is passing his last 

 days ; the guide, the philosopher, the friend, whose teach 

 ings and whose counsels have been enjoyed by more of our 

 public men than those of any man now living ; the honored 

 Professor at whose feet your own Calhoun sat for many 

 years, when he, a young man, went to New England, as the 

 young men of Rome went to Greece to learn philosophy. 

 There, sir, under the instructions of Silliman and Dwight 

 and Kingsley, his great intellect was cultivated, adorned, 

 and strengthened. There he learned to wield that invinci 

 ble logic which enabled him successfully to encounter the 

 giants of those days, the Websters, the Clays, the Ben- 

 tons, in the Senate, with constant victory ; or if not with 

 victory, without ever having been compelled to acknowl 

 edge defeat. I know not, sir, how many members of this 

 body were trained by the same men or their successors. . . . 

 But this with deference I say, that whatever honors may be 

 in store for any member of this body ; whatever just claims 

 to undying fame, the talents, the acquirements, the elo 

 quence, the public services of the most distinguished here 

 may give him, there is not one among these honored Sen 

 ators who may not deem himself satisfied, all the hopes of 

 his youth more than fulfilled, all the labors of his manhood 



