SENATOR DIXON'S SPEECH. 259 



and a third by Rev. Dr. N. W. Taylor. The latter was 

 adopted and published here, as the President had published 

 his letter at Washington. The reply of Dr. Taylor was 

 long, but it was conclusive. It annihilated the President's 

 argument. It was extensively republished, and by three of 

 the principal Washington papers, the " Intelligencer/' the 

 " Republic," and the " Union " itself. The reply is regarded 

 by our friends as entirely satisfactory, and is answered by 

 the administration papers only by scoffs, sneers, and per- 

 sonalities I am not the author of the letter, but I 



signed it among forty-three others, and my name is near 

 the end. Still their papers call it the " Silliman Letter " to 

 President Buchanan, and I am everywhere treated as the 

 author of the movement, and the signers are spoken of as 

 professors and clergymen, although very few were of that 

 profession, but no matter ; it is of no importance to me, 

 and does me no harm. The protest has done good in 

 drawing out the President and his administration from con- 

 cealment, and producing an open avowal of their pro-slav- 

 ery views and plans. 



The Connecticut memorialists (most of whom were 

 of New Haven) were assailed with virulence in the 

 Senate of the United States. A correspondent of 

 the " New York Tribune," under date of February 

 11, 1858, thus characterizes the reply of one of the 

 Connecticut senators : 



Senator Dixon delivered in the Senate, the other day, one 

 of the best speeches upon the Kansas question, which has 

 been made since Congress came together. He examined 

 the famous Silliman letter to the President, and in the 

 course of his remarks eulogized Professor Silliman in the 

 following happy manner : " And now, sir, who is Benjamin 

 Silliman, that he should be assailed by name in the govern- 

 ment organs, as if he were not entitled to address a respect- 



