Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

50 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.
familiar to a degree. Their tastes were similar. They loved
their friends without hating their foes. Neither believed in the
philosophy of revenge. They thought they did sometimes in
their impulses, but when the passion passed off they forgave
like gods. Mean men only live in the darkness of malice. It
is the great soul alone that outlives in history and memory the
mean soul, unless the latter is so infamous as to stand as
a beacon and a warning. Of this school were Baker and
Douglas. But to my story.
I sat in the gallery of the old House, now the glorious receptacle which I hope decent courage in our public men will secure
from the profanation of being a sepulchre for every dead-beat
in the way of art, where Stephen A. Douglas made his magnificent speech in favor of the annexation of Texas in reply to
ex-President Adams. I shall never forget that sweet and odorous I3th of May, I846. Nowhere, as it seems to me, is there
an atmosphere like Washington in May and June. Nature
seems to revel in the supreme luxury of her own charms. That
spot, without snow in winter, prolonging its equal reign far into
the summer, and resuming its neutral sway early in September,
seems to have been chosen as the "golden mean" alike of politics and climate. I had come from my little country-city to
hear and to see, and I was gratified.
In view of the fact that Texas is now the fertile outpost of
an athletic civilization, and of the other fact that if we had not
conquered her from Mexico, she would be to-day a sort of middle ground, compounded of guerillas and knights of the free
lance, the friends of annexation may claim a sort of poetical
vindication. Mexico is still a most vexatious problem. What
would Texas be if left to the mercy of Mexico, or to the maniptlations of foreign powers? In this light the annexation of
1846, consummated by the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo in
w848, was a measure of consummate foresight.
I shall never forget how eagerly John Quincy Adams listened