GEORGE SEWALL BOUTWELL. 21 



self. He was a newspaper correspondent and the biographer of 

 Aaron Burr. He was a great admirer of Burr. Davis wore very- 

 thin clothing, scouted overcoats, and boasted that he slept 

 always in a room with open windows, and under very light bed 

 clothing. He was old and conceited, and as a permanent com- 

 panion, he could not have been otherwise than disagreeable. 



At the Supreme Court I heard arguments by Webster and 

 Crittenden, on opposite sides. In the Senate I heard Web- 

 ster, Clay, Calhoun, and others in running debate, but not 

 in prepared speeches. The Senate then contained many 

 other men of note. Silas Wright, of New York ; Preston, of 

 South Carolina ; Benton, of Missouri ; Linn, of Missouri, more 

 remarkable for personal beauty than for talents. In the 

 House Mr. Adams was then a chief figure. His contest over 

 the right of petition had commended him to one portion of 

 the country, and made him the object of hostility to another 

 portion. I recall one Monday, when he had the right to 

 present petitions, and although they were laid on the table 

 without debate he was able to consume time by presenting 

 them singly. As the supply in his hands and on the table 

 seemed inexhaustible, a compromise was made finally, and 

 the petitions went in in mass. Of other speakers that I heard 

 I recall Henry A. Wise and Seargent S. Prentiss. Of their 

 style and quality I can say nothing. The reported speeches 

 of Prentiss do not justify the reputation that he enjoyed as an 

 orator when living. 



The incident which produced the most lasting impression 

 upon me, when in Washington, was an interview with a slave, 

 a woman fifty years or more of age. I had then no love for 

 the system of slavery. I had read Clarkson's and Wilber- 

 force's writings, and I knew the history of the struggle in 

 England for the abolition of the slave trade, and slavery in 

 the British West Indies. I had also attended some anti- 

 slavery meetings in Massachusetts, at which the leaders, Phil- 

 lips, Garrison, Foster, Parker, and Pillsbury had denounced 

 the institution. Groton was a center of anti-slavery opera- 

 tions in that part of the State. Several copies of the Liberator 

 were taken in the town, and anti-slavery meetings were held 



