"Your reply to the Southern gentlemen, who seem to think that a
Northern man must be craven, elicited general and great admiration.
I heartily enjoyed it, and think that Mr. Mason must have had at
least one experience in his life of the comfort of being squeezed
through the little end of the horn. You will doubtless be treated
with some consideration by these worthies hereafter. In what school
of blackguardism was Clay of Alabama graduated? He certainly is a
magnificent specimen of Southern chivalry. You would have great
reason to thank him for placing you in Coventry, at a distance
beyond hailing from him and his compeers."