If I did not yield to that impulse,
it was because the thought occurred that other days were coming
in which such a demonstration might be more opportune and less
liable to misconstruction. Suddenly and without premonition,
a day as come at last to which, for such a purpose, there
is no to-morrow. My regret is therefore intensified by the
thought that I failed to speak of him out of the fulness of
my heart while there was yet time."
That Mr. Lamar well understood what was to be the effect
of this wonderful speech upon the whole country is shown
by his letter to his wife the next day, in which he says: "I
never in all my life opened my lips with a purpose more single
to the interests of our Southern people than when I made this
speech."
I said of this speech in an article in the _North American
Review:_
"The eloquent words of Mr. Lamar so touched the hearts of
the people of the North that they may fairly be said to have
been of themselves an important influence in mitigating the
estrangements of a generation."
The following letter explains my absence from the Senate
when Judge Lamar's death was announced:
WASHINGTON, D.
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