"The gentleman had said that he (Mr. B.) was the last individual whom he supposed would have made an assault on him, because in the hour of his greatest need the Hards came to his assistance. This innuendo was so deep that he could not understand it, and therefore asked for an explanation.
"Mr. Cutting replied, that he had been informed that during the canvass in Kentucky, it having been intimated that the gentleman's friends needed assistance to accomplish his election, his friends in New York made up a subscription of some $1,500, and transmitted it to Kentucky, to be employed for the benefit of the gentleman, who is now the peer of Presidents and Cabinets. [Laughter.]
"Mr. Breckinridge.—And not only the peer of Presidents and Cabinets, but the peer of the gentleman from New York, fully and in every respect.
"Mr. Breckinridge, resuming, said that the gentleman should have known the truth of what he uttered before he pronounced it on this floor. He (Mr. B.) was not aware that any intimations were sent from Kentucky that funds were needed to aid in his election, nor was he aware that they were received. He did not undertake to say what the fact might be in regard to what the gentleman had said, but he had no information whatever on that fact. He (Mr. B.) came here not by the aid of money, but against the use of money. [Applause.] The gentleman could not escape by any subtlety, or by any ingenuity, a thorough and complete exposure of any ingenious device to which he might resort for the purpose of putting gentlemen in a false position, and the sooner he stopped that game, the better.
"Mr. Cutting said that he had given the gentleman an opportunity of indulging in one of the most violent, inflammatory, and personal assaults that had ever been known upon this floor; and he would ask, how could the gentleman disclaim any attack upon him when he followed it up by declaring that his (Mr. C.'s) intention and motive was to destroy a measure for which he professed friendship?
"Mr. Breckinridge asked the gentleman to point to the occasion when he made such a remark.
"Mr. Cutting submitted to the committee that the whole tenor and scope of the speech of the gentleman from Kentucky was an attack upon his motives in moving to commit the bill. It was in vain for the gentleman to attempt to escape by disclaiming it; the fact was before the committee. But he would say to the gentleman that he scorned his imputation. How dare the gentleman undertake to assert that he had professed friendship for the measure, with a view to kill it, to assassinate it by sending it to the bottom of the calendar? And then, when he said that the committee of the whole had under its control the House bill upon this identical subject, which the committee intended to take up, discuss, amend, and report to the House, the gentleman skulked behind the Senate bill, which had been sent to the foot of the calendar!
"Mr. Breckinridge.—I ask the gentleman to withdraw that last word.
"Mr. Cutting.—I withdraw nothing. I have uttered what I have said in answer to one of the most violent and most personal attacks that has ever been witnessed upon this floor.
"Mr. Breckinridge.—Then, when the gentleman says I skulk, he says what is false.