270 AS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR-II 



In a public lecture based upon my Russian experiences, 

 I had incidentally attacked paternal government, and es- 

 pecially such developments of it as tariffs for protec- 

 tion. The immediate result was a broadside from this 

 gentleman's paper, and this I answered in an article which 

 was extensively copied throughout the State. At this he 

 evidently determined to crush this intruder upon his do- 

 main. That an "upstart" a "mere school-teacher " 

 should presume to reply to a man like himself, who had 

 sat at the feet of Henry Clay, and was old enough to be 

 my father, was monstrous presumption; but that a pro- 

 fessor in the State university of a commonwealth largely 

 Republican should avow free-trade opinions was akin to 

 treason, and through twelve successive issues of his 

 paper he lashed me in all the moods and tenses. As these 

 attacks soon became scurrilous, I made no reply to any 

 after the first; but his wrath was increased when he saw 

 my reply quoted by the press throughout the State and his 

 own diatribes neglected. Among his more serious charges 

 I remember but one, and this was that I had evidently 

 come into the State as a secret emissary of Van Buren- 

 ism. But I recalled the remark of my enemy's idol, Henry 

 Clay, to the effect that no one should ever reply to an 

 attack by an editor, a priest, or a woman, since each of 

 them is sure to have the last word. This feeling was soon 

 succeeded by indifference; for my lecture-rooms, both at 

 the university and throughout the State, were more and 

 more frequented, and it became clear that my opponent's 

 attacks simply advertised me. The following year I had 

 my revenge. From time to time debates on current topics 

 were held at the city hall, the participants being generally 

 young professional men; but, the subject of a tariff for 

 protection having been announced, my old enemy declared, 

 several weeks beforehand, his intention of taking part in 

 the discussion. Among my students that winter was one 

 of the most gifted young scholars and speakers I have 

 ever known. Not long after his graduation he was sent 

 to the United States Senate from one of the more impor- 



