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REMARKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF '"T" 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 
 
 tMul.i tjclphta : 
 
 CAREY & LEA— CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1831. 
 
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 - 
 
 The following remarks are taken (with some addi- 
 tions) from the eighteenth number of the American 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
REMARKS, &c. 
 
 It has often enough been objected to books written and pub- 
 lished in the United States, that they want a national air, tone, 
 and temper. Unhappily, too, the complaint has not unfrequently 
 been well founded ; but the volume of Mr. Webster's Works is a 
 striking exception to all such remarks. It consists of a collection 
 of his Addresses, Speeches in Congress, and Forensic Arguments, 
 printed chiefly from pamphlets, already well known ; and it is 
 marked throughout, to an uncommon degree, with the best char- 
 acteristics of a generous nationality. No one, indeed, can open 
 it, without perceiving that, whatever it contains, must have been 
 the work of one born and educated among our free institutions, — 
 of one formed in their spirit, and animated and sustained by their 
 genius and power. The subjects discussed, and the interests 
 maintained in it, are entirely American ; and many of them are 
 so important, that they are already become prominent parts of 
 our history. As we turn over its pages, therefore, and see how 
 completely Mr. Webster has identified himself with the great in- 
 stitutions of the country, and how they, in their turn, have in- 
 spired and called forth the greatest efforts of his uncommon mind, 
 we feel as if the sources of his strength, and the mystery by which 
 it controls us, were, in a considerable degree, interpreted. We 
 feel that, like the fabulous giant of antiquity, he gathers his power 
 from the very earth that produced him ; and our sympathy and 
 interest, therefore, are excited, not less by the principle on which 
 it so much depends, than by the subjects and occasions on which 
 it is so strikingly put forth. We understand better than we did be- 
 fore, not only why we have been drawn to him, but why the at- 
 traction that carried us along, was at once so cogent and so natural. 
 
 When, however, such a man appears before the nation, the pe- 
 riod of his youth and training is necessarily gone by. It is only 
 as a distinguished member of the General Government, — proba- 
 bly in one of the two Houses of Congress, that he first comes, as 
 it were, into the presence of the great mass of his countrymen. 
 But, before he can arrive there, he has, in the vast majority of 
 cases, reached the full stature of his strength, and developed all 
 the prominent peculiarities of his character. Much, therefore, 
 of what is most interesting in relation to him, — much of what goes 
 to make up his individuality and momentum, and without which, 
 neither his elevation nor his conduct can be fully understood or 
 estimated, is known only in the circle of his private friends, or, at 
 most, in that section of the country from which he derives his 
 origin. In this way, we are ignorant of a great deal it concerns 
 us to know about many of our distinguished statesmen ; but about 
 none, probably, are we more relatively ignorant than about Mr. 
 Webster, who is eminently one of those persons, whose profes- 
 sional and political career cannot be tolerably understood, unless 
 
(M 
 
 we have some acquaintance with the circumstances of his origin, 
 and of his early history, taken in connexion with his whole public 
 life. We were, therefore, disappointed, on opening the volume 
 of his works, not to find prefixed to it a full biographical notice 
 of him. We were, indeed, so much disappointed and felt so fully 
 persuaded, that neither the contents of the volume itself, nor the 
 sources of its author's power, nor his position before the nation, 
 could be properly comprehended without it, that we determined 
 at once to prepare such notices of his life, as we might be able 
 to collect under unfavorable circumstances. We only regret 
 that our efforts have not been more successful, — and that our no- 
 tices, therefore, are few and imperfect. 
 
 Mr. Webster was born in Salisbury, a farming town of New- 
 Hampshire, at the head of the Merrimack, in 1782. His father, 
 always a farmer, was a man of a strongly marked and vigorous 
 character, — full of decision, integrity, firmness, and good sense. 
 He served under Lord Amherst, in the French war, that ended 
 in 1763 ; and, in the war of the Revolution, he commanded a com- 
 pany chiefly composed of his own towns-people and friends, who 
 gladly fought under his leading nearly every campaign, and at 
 whose head he was found, in the battle of Bennington, at the 
 White Plains, and at West-Point, when Arnold's treason was dis- 
 covered. He died about the year 1806; and, at the time of his 
 death, had filled, for many years, the office of Judge of the Court 
 of Common Pleas, for the state of New-Hampshire. 
 
 But, during the early part of Mr. Webster's life, the place of his 
 birth, now the centre of a flourishing and happy population, was on 
 the frontiers of civilization. His father had been one of the very 
 first settlers, and had even pushed further into the wilderness than 
 the rest ; so that the smoke sent up amidst the solitude of the forest, 
 from the humble dwelling in which Mr. Webster was himself 
 born, marked, for some time, the ultimate limit of New-England 
 adventure at the North. Undoubtedly, in any other country, the 
 sufferings, privations, and discouragements inevitable in such a 
 life, would have precluded all thought of intellectual culture. 
 But, in New-England, ever since the first free-school was estab- 
 lished amidst the woods that covered the peninsula of Boston, in 
 1636, the school-master has been found on the borderline between 
 savage and civilized life, often indeed with an ax to open his 
 own path, hut always looked up to with respect, and always car- 
 rying with him a valuable and preponderating influence. 
 
 It is to this characteristic trait of New-England policy, that we 
 
 owe the firsl development of Mr. Webster's powers, and the 
 
 original determination of his whole course in life; for. unless the 
 school had sought him in the forest, his father's means would not 
 have been sufficient to send him down into the settlements to seek 
 the school. The first upward step, therefore, would have been 
 wanting; and it is nol at all probable, that any subsequent exer- 
 tions on his own part, would have enabled him to retrieve it. 
 The value of such a benefit cannot, indeed, be measured; but it 
 
(5) 
 
 seems to have been his good fortune to be able in part, at least, 
 to repay it ; for no man has explained with such simplicity and 
 force as he has explained them, the very principles and founda- 
 tions on which the free-schools of New-England rest, or shown, 
 with such a feeling of their importance and value, how truly the 
 free institutions of our country must be built on the education of 
 all. We allude now to his remarks in the Convention of Massa- 
 chusetts, where, speaking of the support of schools, he says : — 
 
 " In this particular we may be allowed to claim a merit of a very high and peculiar 
 character. This commonwealth, with other of the New-England states, early adopted, 
 and has constantly maintained the principle, that it is the undoubted right, and the 
 bounden duty of government, to provide for the instruction of all youth. That which 
 is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of pub- 
 lic instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation, in proportion to his property, 
 and we look not to the question, whether he, himself, have or have not children to be 
 benefited by the education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and liberal 
 system of policy, by which property, and life, and the peace of society are secured. 
 We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a 
 salutary and conservative principle" of virtue, and of knowledge, in an early age. Wc 
 hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and of sense of character, by enlarging the 
 capacity, and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruc- 
 tion, we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere; to keep good 
 sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion, as well 
 as the censures of the law, and the denunciations of religion, against immorality and 
 crime. We hope for a security, beyond the law, and above the law, in the preva- 
 lence of enlightened and well principled moral sentiment. We hope to continue and 
 to prolong the time, when, in the villages and farm-houses of New-England, there 
 may be undisturbed sleep, within unbarred doors. And knowing that our government 
 rests directly on the public will, that we may preserve it, we endeavor to give a safe 
 and proper direction to the public will. We do not, indeed, expect all men to be 
 philosophers, or statesmen; but we confidently trust, and our expectation of the du- 
 ration of our system of government rests on that trust, that by the diffusion of gen- 
 eral knowledge, and good and virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may be secure, 
 as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the slow but sure undermining 
 of licentiousness." pages 209, 210. 
 
 " I rejoice, Sir, that every man in this community may call all property his own, 
 so far as he has occasion for it, to furnish for himself and his children the blessings 
 of religious instruction and the elements of knowledge. This celestial, and this 
 earthly light, he is entitled to by the fundamental laws. It is every poor man's un- 
 doubted birth-right, it is the great blessing which this constitution has secured to 
 him, it is his solace in life, and it may well be his consolation in death, that his coun- 
 try stands pledged, by the faith which it has plighted to all its citizens, to protect his 
 children from ignorance, barbarism, and vice." p. 211. 
 
 How Mr. Webster's education was advanced immediately after 
 he left these primary schools, is, we believe, not known. It was, 
 however, with great sacrifices on the part of his family, and 
 severe struggles on his own. At last, when he was fifteen or 
 sixteen years old, after a very imperfect preparation, he was 
 entered at Dartmouth College ; at least, so we infer, for he was 
 graduated there in 1801. What were his principal or favorite 
 pursuits during the three or four years of his academic life, we 
 do not know. We remember, however, to have met formerly 
 one of his classmates, who spoke with the liveliest interest of the 
 generous and delightful spirit he showed among his earliest friends 
 and competitors, in the midst of whom, he manifested, from the 
 first, aspirations entirely beyond his condition, and, when the first 
 year was passed, developed faculties which left all rivalship far 
 
(6) 
 
 behind him. Indeed, it is known, in many ways, that, by those 
 who were acquainted with him at this period of his life, he was 
 already regarded as a marked man ; and that, to the more saga- 
 cious of them, the honors of his subsequent career have not been 
 unexpected. 
 
 Immediately after leaving college, he began the study of the 
 law in the place of his nativity, with Mr. Thompson, soon after- 
 wards a member of Congress ; a gentleman who, from the eleva- 
 tion of his own character, was able to comprehend that of his 
 pupil, and contribute to unfold its powers. But the res angustce 
 dorni pressed hard upon him. He was compelled to exert himself 
 for his own support ; and his professional studies were frequently 
 interrupted and impaired by pursuits, which ended only in obtain- 
 ing what was needful for his mere subsistence. 
 
 Circumstances connected with his condition and wants at this 
 time, led him to Boston, and carried him, when there, into the 
 office of Mr. Gore. This was, undoubtedly, one of the deciding 
 circumstances of his life. Mr. Gore was a lawyer of eminence, 
 and a gentleman, in the loftiest and most generous meaning of the 
 word. His history was already connected with that of the country. 
 He had been appointed district attorney of the United States for 
 .Massachusetts, by Washington ; he had served in England as our 
 commissioner under Jay's treaty; and he was afterwards governor 
 of his native state, and its senator in Congress. His whole char- 
 acter, private, political, and professional, from its elevation, pu- 
 rity, and dignity, was singularly fitted to influence a young man 
 of quick and generous feelings, who already perceived within him- 
 self the impulse of talents and the stirrings of an ambition whose 
 direction was yet to be determined. Mr. Webster felt, that it 
 was well for him to be there : and Mr. Gore obtained an influence 
 over his young mind, which the peculiarly kind and frank manners 
 of the instructor permitted early to ripen into an intimacy and 
 friendship that were interrupted only by death. 
 
 Mr. Webster finished the study of his profession in Boston, and 
 was there admitted to the bar in 1805: — Mr. Gore, who present- 
 ed him, venturing, at the time, to make a prediction to the court 
 respecting his pupil's future eminence, which has been hardly 
 more than fulfilled by all his present fame. At first, he began the 
 practice of his profession in Boscawen, a small village adjacent 
 to the place of his birth : but in 1807, he removed to Portsmouth, 
 where, do doubt, he thought he was establishing himself for life. 
 is a young lawyer, about to lay the foundations for future suc- 
 cess, his position could. | erhaps, hardly have been rendered more 
 fortunate and happy than it was now in Portsmouth, lie rose 
 rapidly in general regard, and was. therefore, almost at once, 
 
 ranked with the fuX in his profession in his native state. Of course, 
 
 his associations and intercourse were with the first minds. And, 
 happily for one like him, the presiding judge <>l" the highesl tribu- 
 nal in New-Hampshire was then Mr. Smith, afterwards governor 
 of the state, whose native clearness of perception, acuteness, and 
 
(?) 
 power, united to faithful and accurate learning in his profession, 
 and the soundest and most practical wisdom in the fulfilment of 
 his duties on the bench, and in his intercourse with the bar, gave 
 him naturally and necessarily great influence over its younger 
 members. Mr. Webster, as the most prominent among them, 
 came much in contact with him, and profited much from his sa- 
 gacious foresight and wise and discriminating kindness. He came, 
 too, still more in contact with Mr. Mason, afterwards a senator 
 in Congress, and then and still the leading counsel in New-Hamp- 
 shire. Mr. Mason was his senior by several years, but there was 
 no other adversary capable of encountering him : and the intel- 
 lect with which Mr. Webster was thus called to contend on equal 
 terms was one of the highest order, of ample resources, and of 
 the quickest penetration ; whose original reach, firm grasp, and 
 unsparing logic, left no safety to an adversary, but in a vigor, 
 readiness, and skill, which could never be taken unprepared or at 
 disadvantage. It was a severe school ; but there is little reason 
 to doubt, Mr. Webster owes to its stern and rigid discipline much 
 of that intellectual training and power, which render him, in his 
 turn, so formidable an adversary. He owes to it, also, notwith- 
 standing their uniform and daily opposition in court, the no less 
 uniform personal friendship of Mr. Mason in private life. 
 
 It was in the midst, however, of this period, both of discipline 
 and success as a lawyer, in New-Hampshire, that he entered pub- 
 lic life. In the government of his native state, we believe, he 
 never took office of any kind ; and his first political place, there- 
 fore, was in the thirteenth Congress of the United States. He 
 was chosen in 1812, soon after the declaration of war ; and as he 
 was then but thirty years old, he must have been one of the 
 youngest members of that important Congress. His position 
 there was difficult, and he felt it to be so. He was opposed to 
 the policy of the war; he represented a state earnestly opposed 
 to it ; and he had always, especially in the eloquent and powerful 
 memorial from the great popular meeting in Rockingham, ex- 
 pressed himself fully and frankly on the whole subject. But he 
 was now called into the councils of the government, which was 
 carrying on the war itself. He felt it to be his duty, therefore, 
 to make no factious opposition to the measures essential to main- 
 tain the dignity and honor of the country; to make no opposi- 
 tion for opposition's sake ; though, at the same time, he felt it to 
 be no less his duty, to take good heed that neither the constitu- 
 tion, nor the essential interests of the nation, were endangered 
 or sacrificed — ne quid dclnmenti respublica occipiat. This, in- 
 deed, seems to have been his motto up to the time of the peace; 
 and his tone in relation to it is always manly, bold, and decisive. 
 When Mr. Monroe's bill for a sort of conscription was intro- 
 duced, he joined with Mr. Eppes, and other friends of the admin- 
 istration, in defeating a project, which, except in a moment of 
 great anxiety and excitement, would probably have found no de- 
 fenders. But when, on the other hand, the bill for " encouraging 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 enlistments" was before the house, lie held, in January 1814, the 
 following strong and striking language, in which, now the passions 
 of that stormy period are hushed, all will sympathize. 
 
 " The humble aid which it would be in my power to render to measures of go- 
 vernment, shall be given cheerfully, if government will pursue measures which I can 
 conscientiously support. It', even now, failing in an honest and sincere attempt to 
 procure a just and honourable peace, it will return to measures of defence and pro- 
 tection, such as reason, and common sense, and the public opinion, all call for, my 
 vote shall not be withholden from the means. Give up your futile projects of inva- 
 sion. Extinguish the fires that blaze on your inland frontiers. Establish perfect 
 safety and defence there by adequate force. Let every man that sleeps on your soil 
 sleep in security. Stop the blood that flows from the veins of unarmed yeomanry, 
 and women and children. Give to the living time to bury and lament their dead, m 
 the quietness of private sorrow. Having performed this work of beneficence and 
 mercy on your inland border, turn, and look with the eye of justice and compassion, 
 on your vast population along the coast. Unclench the iron grasp of your embargo. 
 Take measures for that end before another sun sets upon you. With ail the war of 
 the enemy on your commerce, if you would cease to make war upon it yourselves, 
 you would still have some commerce. That commerce would give you some reve- 
 nue. Apply that revenue to the augmentation of your navy. That navy, in turn, 
 will protect your commerce. Let it no longer be said, that not one ship of tbrce, built 
 by your hands since the w;ir, yet tloats upon the ocean. Turn tho current of your 
 efforts into the channel, which national sentiment has already worn broad and deep 
 to receive it. A naval force, competent to defend your coast against considerable 
 armaments, to convoy your trade, and perhaps raise the blockade of your rivers, is 
 not a chimera. It may be realized. If, then, the war must continue, go to the ocean. 
 If you are seriously contending tiir maritime rights, go to the theatre, where alone 
 those rights can be defended. Thither every indication of your fortunes points you 
 There the united wishes and exertions of the nation will go with you. Even our 
 party divisions, acrimonious as they are, cease at the water's edge. They are lost in 
 attachment to the national character, on the element where that character is made 
 respectable. In protecting naval interests by naval means, you will arm yourselves 
 with the whole power of national sentiment, and may command the whole abundance 
 of the national resource. In time, you may be enabled to redress injuries in the place 
 where they may be offered; and, if need be, to accompany your own Sag throughout 
 the world with the protection of your own cannon."* Speech, pp. 14, 15. 
 
 Later in the same Congress, tho subject of the establishment 
 and principles of a national bank came into discussion, and the 
 finances of the country being then greatly embarrassed, this sub- 
 jecl rose to paramount importance, and absorbed much of the at- 
 tention of Congress up to the moment when the annunciation of 
 peace put a period, for the time, to all such debates. On the whole 
 
 ' These ire the last words of the speech; and the sentiment they contain in fa- 
 vor of a navy and naval protection, has been maintained with great earnestness by 
 Mr. Webster lor nearlv thirty years, on all public occasions. In an oration delivered 
 July lib. l^nt;, and printed at Concord, N. 11., he says, " an immense portion of our 
 property is on the waves, sixty or eighty thousand of our most useful citixena are 
 there, and are entitled t>> such protection from the government as their case requires " 
 
 In another Oration, delivered in ISIS, and printed at Portsmouth, he says, "a navy 
 sufficient lor the defence of our coasts and harbors, ibr the convoy of important 
 branches of our trade, and sufficient, also, to giva our enemies to understand, when 
 they injure us, that /An/ too are vulnerable, and that we h.i\e the power of retaliation 
 as well us of defence, BeOftlB to be the plain, necessary, indispensable policy of the 
 nation, it is the dictate of nature and common sense, that means of defence shall 
 have relation to the danger." These doctrines in favor of a navy were extrt mel> 
 
 onweleome to the nation when they were delivered ; the first occasion referred to, bc- 
 iugjusl In-fore the imposition of the embargo; and the second, just before the capture 
 
 of tie- Guerriere. How Stands tie- national sentiment now ' Who doubts the truth ot 
 what .Mr. Webster could not utter in lbOG and 181:2 without exciting ill-will to him 
 
 self 
 
(9) 
 
 matter of the bank and the currency, Congress was divided into 
 three parties. First, those who were against a national bank un- 
 der any form. These persons consisted chiefly of the remains of 
 the old party, which had originally opposed the establishment of 
 the first bank in Washington's time, in 1791, and in 1811 had pre- 
 vented the renewal of its charter. They were, however, gene- 
 rally, friends of the existing administration, whose position now 
 called strongly for the creation of a new bank : and, therefore, 
 while they usually voted on preliminary and incidental measures 
 with the favorers of a bank, they voted, on the final passage of 
 the bill, against it ; so that it was much easier to defeat the whole 
 of any one project, than to carry through any modification of it. 
 Second, there was a party consisting almost entirely of friends of 
 the administration, who wished for a bank, provided it were such 
 a one as they thought would not only regulate the currency of the 
 country, and facilitate the operations of the government, but also 
 afford present and important aid by heavy loans, which the bank 
 was to be compelled to make, and to enable it to do which, it was 
 to be relieved from the necessity of paying its notes in specie ; — 
 in other words, it was a party that wished to authorize and es- 
 tablish a paper currency for the whole country. The third party 
 wished for a bank with a moderate capital, compelled always to 
 redeem its notes with specie, and at liberty to judge for itself, 
 when it would, and when it would not, make loans to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The second party, of course, was the one that introduced into 
 Congress the project for a bank at this time. The bill was origi- 
 nally presented to the Senate ; and its main features were, that the 
 bank should absorb a large amount of the depreciated public debt 
 of the United States, and grant to the government heavy loans 
 on the security of a similar debt to be created ; that its capital 
 should consist of fifty millions of dollars, of which five millions 
 only were to be specie, and the rest depreciated government se- 
 curities ; and that the bank, when required, should lend the govern- 
 ment thirty millions. At the time when this plan was brought for- 
 ward, all the numerous state banks south of New-England had re- 
 fused to redeem their notes, or, as it was called " to ears polite," 
 had " suspended specie payments," in consequence of which, their 
 notes had fallen in value from 10 to 25 per cent., and specie, of 
 course, had risen proportionally in value, and disappeared from 
 circulation entirely. To afford the contemplated national bank any 
 chance for carrying on its operations, or even for beginning tbem, 
 it was to be authorized " to suspend specie payments," which 
 meant, that it was to be authorized never to begin them ; for, with- 
 out this authority, their specie would be drained the moment their 
 notes should be issued equal to its amount. On the other hand, all 
 the taxes and revenues of the Government were to be receivable 
 in the paper of the bank, however much it might fall in value. In 
 short, the whole scheme was one of those vast Serbonian bogs, 
 where, from the days of Law's Mississippi Companv, armies 
 
 B 
 
( io) 
 
 whole of legislators and projectors have sunk, without leaving even 
 a monument behind them to warn their followers of their fate. 
 
 We must not, however, be extravagantly astonished, that a pro- 
 ject which we now know was in its nature so wild and dangerous, 
 should have found favorers and advocates. The finances of the 
 country were then in a critical, and even distressing position; and 
 all men were anxious to devise some means to relieve them. A 
 large part of the nation, too, sincerely entertained the chimerical 
 notion, now universally exploded, that it was practicable to estab- 
 lish and maintain a safe and stable paper currency, even when 
 not convertible into specie at the pleasure of the holder; and the 
 example of England and its national bank was referred to with 
 effect, though, from its history since, the same example could now 
 be referred to with double effect on the other side of the discussion- 
 After an earnest and able debate, then, the bill, on the whole, passed 
 the Senate, and it was understood that a considerable majority of 
 the House of Representatives was in its favor. 
 
 When brought there on the 9th of December, 1814, it excited 
 a very animated discussion, which, with various interruptions from 
 the forms and rules of the House, references to committees, and 
 occasional adjournments, was continued till the 2d of January 
 In this protracted debate Mr. Webster took a conspicuous part ; 
 and his efforts, of whieh the speech now published is but an incon- 
 siderable item, did much to avert the threatened evil, and to esta- 
 blish his reputation, not merely as an eloquent and powerful deba- 
 ter, which had already been settled in the previous session, but as 
 a sagacious and sound statesman. 
 
 I lis principal opposition to the bill was made on the last da\ of 
 its discussion. He then introduced a series of resolutions, bring- 
 ing the bank proposed within the limits of the specie-paying prin- 
 ciple, and taking off from it the restraints, which placed it too 
 much w it hin the power of the government to make it useful as a 
 moneyed institution, either to the finances or to the commerce of 
 the country. The objections to the plan then before Congress, and 
 the disasters that would probably follow its adoption, he portrayed 
 in the following strong language, which none, however, will now 
 think to have I n too strong. 
 
 " The capital <>t' the bank, then, will be five millions of specie, and forty-five mil 
 Uon6 of government stocks. In other words, the hank will possess five millions of 
 dollars, and the government will owe it forty-live millions. This debt from govern- 
 melit, the bank is restrained 1r.Mii selling during the war, and government is excused 
 from paying until it shall sec tit. The hank is also to bo under obligation to loan go- 
 vernment thirty millions of dollars on demand, to he repaid, not when the own ounce 
 or necessity of the hank may require, luit when debts due to Uic bank, from govern- 
 ment, arc paid; that is when it shall he the good pleasure of government. This sum 
 of thirty millions is to supply tin- necessities of government, and to supersede the oc- 
 casion ot" othl r loan-. This loan will doubtless he made on the first day of the ex- 
 istence of the bank, b ooa OS O the public wants can admit of no delay. Its condition, 
 then, will he, that it his five millions ot' specie, it" it has been able to obtain so much, 
 ami a debt of seventy-five millions, no part of which it can either sell or call in, due 
 to it from government 
 
 "The loan of thirty millions to government, can only be made by an immediate 
 issue of bills to that amount- If these bills should return, the bank will not be able 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 to pay them. This b certain, and to remedy this inconvenience, power is given to 
 the directors, by the act, to suspend, at their own discretion, the payment of their 
 notes, until the President of the United States shall otherwise order. The President 
 will give no such order, because the necessities of government will compel it to draw 
 on the bank till the bank becomes as necessitous as itself. Indeed, whatever orders 
 may be given or withheld, it will be utterly impossible for the bank to pay its notes. 
 No such thing is expected from it. The first note it issues will be dishonored on its 
 return, and yet it will continue to pour out its paper, so long as government can apply 
 it in any degree to its purposes. 
 
 " What sort of an institution, sir, is this ? It looks less like a bank than a depart- 
 ment of government. It will be properly the paper-money department. Its capital 
 is government debts ; the amount of its issues will depend on government necessities ; 
 government, in effect, absolves itself from its own debts to the bank, and by way of 
 compensation absolves the bank from its own contracts with others. This is, indeed, 
 a wonderful scheme of finance. The government is to grow rich, because it is to 
 borrow without the obligation of repaying, and is to borrow of a bank which issues 
 paper without liability to redeem it If this bank, like other institutions which dull 
 and plodding common sense has erected, were to pay its debts, it must have some 
 limits to its issues of paper, and therefore there would be a point beyond which it 
 could not make loans to government. This would fall short of the wishes of the con- 
 trivers of this system. They provide for an unlimited issue of paper, in an entire ex- 
 emption from payment. They found their bank, in the first place, on the discredit 
 of government, and then hope to enrich government out of the insolvency of their 
 bank. With them, poverty itself is the main source of supply, and bankruptcy a 
 mine of inexhaustible treasure." pp. 224—5. 
 
 The resolutions proposed by Mr. Webster, and supported in 
 this speech, were not passed. Probably he did not expect them 
 to pass, when he proposed them ; but the same day, the main 
 question was taken upon the passage of the bill itself; and, as it 
 was rejected by the casting vote of the speaker, there can be no 
 reasonable doubt, that without his exertions this portentous ab- 
 surdity would not have been defeated. It is but justice, however, 
 to the supporters of the measure, to say, that the mischievous 
 consequences of its adoption, were by no means so apparent then 
 as they are now. We have since had no little experience on the 
 whole matter. It required all the power and influence of the 
 general government, and of the present sound and specie-paying 
 Bank of the United States, acting vigorously in concert for seve- 
 ral years after the war, to relieve the country from the flood of 
 depreciated notes of the state banks with which it was inundated, 
 and to restore a safe and uniform currency. When or how this evil 
 could have been remedied, if, at the very close of the war, it had 
 been almost indefinitely increased by the establishment of a vast 
 machine, issuing every day as much irredeemable paper as would 
 be taken at any and every discount, and thus co-operating with 
 the evil itself, instead of opposing it, is more than any man will 
 now be bold enough to conjecture. We should, no doubt, have 
 been in bondage to it to this hour, and probably left it as a yoke 
 upon the necks of our children. 
 
 But, at the time referred to, the necessities of the government 
 were urgent ; and, on motion of Mr. Webster, the rule that pre- 
 vented a reconsideration at the same session of a subject thus 
 disposed of, was suspended the very next day, and a bill for a 
 bank was, on the same day, January 3, recommitted to a select 
 committee. On the 6th, the committee reported a specie-paying 
 bank, with a much diminished capital, which was carried in the 
 
( 12) 
 
 house, with the fewest possible forms, on the 7th ; Mr. Webster 
 and most of his friends voting for it. It passed the senate, too, 
 though with some difficulty ; but was refused by the President, on 
 the ground, that it was not sufficient to meet the exigencies of 
 the case, which, indeed, we now know, no bank would have been 
 able to meet. This project, however, being thus rejected, another 
 was immediately introduced into the senate, the basis of which 
 was to be laid, like that of the first bank proposed, in a paper 
 currency. It passed that body ; but on being brought into the 
 house met a severe and determined opposition, which ceased only 
 when, on the 17th, the news of peace being received, the bill was 
 indefinitely postponed. 
 
 Mr. Webster's exertions, however, on the subject of the cur- 
 rency, did not cease with the overthrow of the paper bank sys- 
 tem. He was re-elected by New-Hampshire for the fourteenth 
 Congress, and sat there during the sessions of 1815-16; and 
 1816-17. The whole state of things in the nation was now 
 changed. The war was over, and the great purpose of sound 
 statesmanship was therefore to bring the healing and renovating 
 influences of peace into the administration and finances of the 
 country. On the introduction of the bill to incorporate the present 
 Bank of the United States, Mr. Webster opposed its passage. The 
 grounds on which he opposed it were mainly two. He thought 
 the proposed capital, which, in the original bill, was fifty millions, 
 was unwisely and unnecessarily large ; and he thought the power 
 given to the President to authorize a suspension of specie pay- 
 ments would prove ruinous. On both these points, his opposition, 
 with that of his friends, was successful : the proposed amount of 
 capital was reduced to thirty-five millions; and the power to 
 authorize a suspension of specie payments was stricken out. It 
 seems, also, to have been his opinion, that the government should 
 have nothing to do with the appointment of Directors ; — perhaps, 
 because it had nothing to do with their appointment in the bank 
 of 1791. As, however, the government itself was to be a large 
 subscriber to the present institution, we confess, it seems to us 
 but reasonable, that it should have its proper voice in the annual 
 constitution of the Board of Directors. Perhaps Mr. Webster was 
 opposed to the subscription to the stock on the part of the Govern- 
 ment ; and that this, together with the appointment of Govern- 
 ment-Directors, and a hope of other useful changes in the charter, 
 influenced his final vote, which was against the passage of the 
 bill, though he had previously voted for one hank, and had steadily 
 maintained the utility of a well established institution of that kind. 
 
 His great object, however, through the whole, seems to have been 
 to convince Congress and the country, that a paper hank would 
 be ruinous; that a hank, with an inordinate amount of capital, 
 such as fifty millions, would be dangerous; that a bank, with 
 power to suspend specie payments, would bring the country to 
 bankruptcy and ruin; and that all hope of restoring the currency 
 of the country, even by means of the best conducted bank, would 
 
( 13) 
 
 be futile, unless the Government itself would execute the existing 
 laws, and receive payment of its debts only in legal coin, or in the 
 paper of specie-paying banks. In a speech, not printed in this 
 volume, made on the 28th February, 1816, we find the following 
 sound and cogent remarks, which we should have been glad to 
 see republished with the rest of Mr. Webster's discussions on 
 these subjects ; for they are full of a wisdom which is always 
 profitable. 
 
 " It was a mistaken idea," he said, " which he had heard uttered on this subject, 
 that we were about to reform the national currency. No nation had a better cur- 
 rency than the United States — there was no nation which had guarded its currency 
 with more care ; for the framers of the constitution, and those who enacted the early 
 statutes on this subject were hard-money men ; they had felt, and therefore duly ap- 
 preciated the evils of a paper medium ; they therefore sedulously guarded the cur- 
 rency of the United States from debasement. The legal currency of the United 
 States was gold and silver coin ; this was a subject in regard to which Congress had 
 run into no folly. What then was the present evil ? Having a perfectly sound na- 
 tional currency, and the government having no power in fact to make any thing else 
 current but gold and silver, there had grown up in different states a currency of paper 
 issued by banks, setting out with the promise to pay gold and silver, which they had 
 been wholly unable to redeem ; the consequence was, that there was a mass of paper 
 afloat, of perhaps fifty millions, which sustained no immediate relation to the legal 
 currency of the country — a paper which will not enable any man to pay money he 
 owes to his neighbor, or his debts to the government. — The banks had issued more 
 money than they could redeem, and the evil was severely felt. He declined occupy- 
 ing the time of the house to prove that there was a depreciation of the paper in circu- 
 lation ; the legal standard of value was gold and silver ; the relation of paper to it proved 
 its state, and the rate of its depreciation. Gold and silver currency was the law of 
 the land at home, and the law of the world abroad ; there could, in the present state 
 of the world, be no other currency. In consequence of the immense paper issues 
 having banished specie from circulation, the government had been obliged, in direct 
 violation of existing statutes, to receive the amount of their taxes in something which 
 was not recognized by law as the money of the country, and which was, in fact, 
 greatly depreciated. This was the evil. 
 
 " As to the conduct of the banks, he would not examine whether the great advances 
 they had made to the government during the war, were right or wrong in them, or 
 whether it was right or wrong in the government to accept them ; but since the pence, 
 their conduct had been wholly unjustifiable, as also had that of the Treasury in relation 
 to them. It had been supposed the banks would have immediately sold out the stocks, 
 with which they had no business, and have fulfilled their engagements ; but public ex- 
 pectation had in this respect been disappointed. When this happened, the government 
 ought, by the use of means in its power, to have compelled the banks to return to their 
 specie payments. Any remedy now to be applied to this evil, must be applied to the 
 depreciated mass of paper itself; it must be some measure which would give heat and 
 life to this mortified mass of the body politic. The evil was not to be remedied by in- 
 troducing a new paper circulation ; there could be no such thing, he showed by a 
 variety of illustration, as two media in circulation, the one credited, and the other dis- 
 credited. All bank paper derives its credit solely from its relation to gold and silver ; 
 and there was no remedy for the state of depreciation of the paper currency but the 
 resumptions of specie payments. If all the property of the United States was pledged 
 for the redemption of these fifty millions of paper, it would not thereby be brought up 
 to par; or, if it did, that would happen which had never yet happened in any other 
 country. An issue of Treasury-notes would have no better effect than the establish- 
 ment of a new bank paper. lie illustrated this general position by referring to a 
 period anterior to the time of the reformation of the coin of England, when the exist- 
 ing coin had been much debased by clipping, &c. which had created much alarm ; an 
 attempt had been made to correct the currency thus vitiated, by throwing a quantity 
 of sound coin into circulation with the debased ; the result was, that the sound coin 
 disappeared, was hoarded up, because more valuable than that of the same nominal 
 value which was in general circulation." 
 
 41 In regard to the plan of this proposed bank, he would consent to no bank which 
 
( 14) 
 
 to all intents and purposes was not a specie bank ; and in that view he was in favor of 
 the proposed amendment He expressed some alarm at the stock feature of the bank ; 
 which would enable and might induce the existing bank corporations to come forward 
 and take up the whole stock of the National Bank. He should be glad to see a bank 
 established, he observed, in the course of his remarks on this point, which would com- 
 mand the solid capital of the country. There were men of wealth and standing who 
 would embark their funds in a bank constituted on commercial specie principles, but 
 who would not associate in such an institution with the stockholders in the country, 
 any more than a good currency would associate with a bad one. A National Bank 
 ought to be regarded, not as the power to rectify the present state of the currency, 
 but as a means to aid the government in the exercise of its power in this respect The 
 power of the government must be exercised in some way, and that speedily, or evils 
 would result the extent of which he would not attempt to describe." v 
 
 The suggestions which Mr. Webster made in this same speech, 
 predicting enormous subscriptions to the proposed institution for 
 purposes of speculation merely, and out of all proportion to the 
 real ability of the subscribers, showed the sound statesmanlike fore- 
 cast which has marked him through his whole political course, 
 and were fully justified by the difficulties that occurred in conse- 
 quence of them, in the early history of the bank. The bill, how- 
 ever, having passed, and having received the President's signa- 
 ture on the 10th April, Mr. Webster, who saw, indeed, at once, 
 that it placed the bank substantially on the principles maintained 
 in his resolutions of the preceding year, which defeated the project 
 of a paper bank, saw no less quickly and clearly, that the peace 
 had produced an important change in the influence of the paper cur- 
 rency of the country, and that no National Bank, however wisely 
 managed, would alone be able to meet the increased and increasing 
 evils of the case, or have power enough to restore unaided a 
 sound and safe circulating medium. The small depreciated notes 
 of the state banks south of New-England, he saw, still tilled the 
 land with their lothed intrusion; and, what was worse, the rev- 
 enue of the general government, receivable at the different cus- 
 tom-houses, was collected in this degraded paper, to the great 
 injury of the finances of the country, and to the still greater injury 
 of the property of private individuals, who, in dilferent states, 
 paid, of course, different rates of duties to the treasury, according 
 to the value of the paper medium in which it happened to he re- 
 ceived. Mr. Webster foresaw the mischiefs that must follow 
 from this state of things, it' a remedy were not speedily applied. 
 He. therefore, in the same month of April, 1816, introduced a 
 resolution, the effect o[' which was, to require the revenue of the 
 United States to be collected and received only in the legal cur- 
 rency of the United States, or in bills equal to that currency in 
 value. 
 
 In stating the nature of the evil, after showing by what means 
 the paper of the state hanks south of New-England had become 
 
 depreciated ; lie says, — 
 
 " What still farther IBCTBMM the evil is, that this bank paper being the issue of 
 very many institutions, situated in different parts of the country, and possessing dif- 
 lerent degrees of credit, the depreciation baa not been, and is not now, uniform 
 throughout the United States. It is not the same at Baltimore as at Philadelphia, 
 nor tiie same at Philadelphia as at New- York. In New-England, Uic banks have 
 
( 15) 
 
 not stopped payment in specie, and of course their paper lias not been depressed at 
 all. But the notes of banks which have ceased to pay specie, have nevertheless 
 been, and still are, received for duties and taxes in the places where such banks 
 exist. The consequence of all this is, that the people of the United States, pay their 
 duties and taxes in currencies of different values, in different places. In other 
 words, taxes and duties are higher in some places than they are in others, by as 
 much as the value of gold and silver is greater than the value of the several descrip- 
 tions of bank paper which are received by government. This difference in relation 
 to the paper of the District where we now are, is twenty-five per cent. Taxes and 
 duties, therefore, collected in Massachusetts, are one quarter higher than the taxes 
 and duties which are collected, by virtue of the same laws, in the District of Colum- 
 bia." pp. 233-4. 
 
 A little further on, after showing that if this state of things is 
 not changed by the government, it will be likely to change the 
 government itself, he adds, — 
 
 " It is our business to foresee this danger, and to avoid it. There are some po- 
 litical evils which are seen as soon as they are dangerous, and which alarm at once 
 as well the people as the government. Wars and invasions therefore are not always 
 the most certain destroyers of national prosperity. They come in no questionable 
 shape. They announce their own approach, and the general security is preserved by 
 the general alarm. Not so with the evils of a debased coin, a depreciated paper cur- 
 rency, or a depressed and falling public credit. Not so with the plausible and insid- 
 ious mischiefs of a paper-money system. These insinuate themselves in the shape 
 of facilities, accommodation, and relief. They hold out the most fallacious hope of 
 an easy payment of debts, and a lighter burden of taxation. It is easy for a portion 
 of the people to imagine that government may properly continue to receive depre- 
 ciated paper, because they have received it, and because it is more convenient to 
 obtain it than to obtain other paper, or specie. But on these subjects it is, that gov- 
 ernment ought to exercise its own peculiar wisdom and caution. It is supposed to 
 possess, on subjects of this nature, somewhat more of foresight than has fallen to the 
 lot of individuals. It is bound to foresee the evil before every man feels it, and to 
 take all necessary measures to guard against it, although they may be measures 
 attended with some difficulty and not without temporary inconvenience. In my hum- 
 ble judgment, the evil demands the immediate attention of Congress. It is not cer- 
 tain, and in my opinion not probable that it will ever cure itself. It is more likely 
 to grow by indulgence, while the remedy which must in the end be applied, will be- 
 come less efficacious by delay. 
 
 "The only power which the general government possesses of restraining the issues 
 of the state banks, is to refuse their notes in the receipts of the treasury. This power 
 it can exercise now, or at least it can provide now for exercising in reasonable time, 
 because the currency of some part of the country is yet sound, and the evil is not 
 universal. If it should become universal, who, that hesitates now, will then propose 
 any adequate means of relief? If a measure, like the bill of yesterday, or the reso- 
 lution of to-day, can hardly pass here now, what hope is there that any efficient mea- 
 sures will be adopted hereafter ?" pp. 235-6. 
 
 The doctrine of this speech is as important as it is true. A 
 sound and uniform currency is essential, not only for the con- 
 venient and safe management of the fiscal concerns of a govern- 
 ment ; but, no less so, for the security of private property. It 
 is, indeed, at once the standard and basis of all transfer and ex- 
 change ; and, whenever the circulating medium has become much 
 deranged in any country, it has been found an arduous, and 
 sometimes a dangerous task, to restore it to a sound state. The 
 effort almost necessarily brings on a conflict between the two 
 great classes of debtor and creditor, into which every commu- 
 nity is divided, — the creditor claiming the highest standard of 
 value in the currency, and the debtor the lowest ; and the results 
 of such a conflict have not unfrequently been found in changes, 
 convulsions, and political revolution. From such a conflict we 
 
( 16) 
 were saved in this country, by the defeat of the paper-currency 
 hank proposed in 1814, — by the establishment of the present 
 specie-paying bank, and by the adoption of Mr. Webster's reso- 
 lution, which was approved by the President on the 30th of 
 April, 1816. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding all this; — notwithstanding the long 
 discussion about the first bank, whose charter was so deliberately 
 approved and signed by Washington in 1701 ; notwithstanding the 
 able and thorough discussion of 1815 and 1810, which resulted in 
 the establishment of the present bank, — the child not so much of 
 the policy as of the absolute necessities of the State; notwith- 
 standing too, that both banks have amply fulfilled the purposes of 
 their establishment while the last has restored and still continues 
 to us the sound currency, which we had lost by a refusal to re- 
 charter the first ; — notwithstanding all this, there are persons. 
 who, even now, stand ready to reject the whole experience of 
 the past, to give up a National Bank, and throw us back again 
 into the disasters and conflicts of a fluctuating and degraded 
 paper currency. Some of these persons have, or seem to have, 
 metaphysical scruples about the constitutionality of such an in- 
 stitution. But, if the constitutionality of the Bank of the United 
 States is not settled, what is? It has been admitted and acted 
 upon by every administration which has been at the head of our 
 affairs; it has been twice elaborately discussed and decided by 
 Congress, and received their sanction ; and it has been repeatedly 
 drawn into controversy in the courts of law, and as repeatedly 
 recognized on appeal by the highest tribunals of the country. In 
 short, the three co-ordinate branches of our government, com- 
 prising, of course, the whole of its powers and sanctions, have 
 uniformly, for the space of forty years, either silently sustained 
 or directly asserted the constitutionality of the Bank of the 
 United Slates. Is it, then, too much to say, that there is not a 
 citizen of our union, who holds a foot of land or a dollar of prop- 
 erty, by a safer tenure and right, than the Bank of the United 
 States holds its chartered privileges?* 
 
 But, others, who admit fully its constitutionality, deny that s 
 useful or valuable institution." How, then, stands this view of the 
 case? Every secretary of the treasury has maintained, nol 
 merely its usefulness, but its absolute necessity to the government ; 
 and the two wisest and ablest of them, Hamilton and Gallatin, 
 
 who agreed iu political opinion about little else, are found united 
 on this cardinal point; and ttO small portion of their respective 
 
 reputations now rests on the distinguished ability with which they 
 have defended it. Besides, is not the utility of the Bank obvious 
 to every man. who will look abroad into the country fairly and 
 independently? No sober man, we believe, can see, how the 
 general government, while there arc twenty-four States, with un- 
 
 ■ s.ihi the above remarks were written, Mr. Madison's admirable letter to Mr 
 
 [ngeraoll, dated June 25, L831, lias been published. It is marked with all his pecu 
 liar Wisdom and power; and, wc apprehend, puts at rest the question it discusses. 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 limited powers for creating Banks, can do common justice to its 
 own affairs without a similar institution. Our revenue is collected 
 by eight or nine thousand persons, scattered over our immense 
 territory, who now remit it to the national treasury, by means 
 of the Bank of the United States, through a safe channel and in 
 a uniform and sound currency. But, what would become of it, 
 if there were no such safe medium ? The answer is plain. Each 
 collector, of the eight or nine thousand, would then be left to his 
 own discretion, and to the currency of the part of the country 
 with which he may happen to be connected ; the revenue would 
 be wasted away by losses in its tranmissions, and especially by 
 losses in depreciated paper; and the different portions of the coun- 
 try, paying different rates of duty to the government, from their 
 different currencies, would, from this circumstance alone, be 
 speedily brought into controversy and conflict. All this, too, is 
 not only obvious to every one, who will reason on the conse- 
 quences of what is before his own eyes, but to every one who 
 will recall what has absolutely happened within his own recollec- 
 tion. It is the state of things, into which wc were actually brought 
 no longer ago, than in 1814 — 1810, for want of a national Bank; 
 and, out of which, the present Bank and the treasury, acting 
 under Mr. Webster's resolution of April 30, 1816, have, with 
 great wisdom and with great difficulty, rescued us. The true 
 question, therefore, so far as the usefulness of the Bank is con- 
 cerned, is, whether, with our eyes open and with full warning and 
 experience of the consequences, we shall voluntarily plunge back 
 again into the confusion, embarrassment, losses, and collisions 
 arising from an unsound currency, out of which we have so re- 
 cently escaped ? 
 
 Some persons, however, have proposed a remedy for this, 
 without resorting to a Bank. Restore, they say very coolly, — 
 restore a metallic currency, and put down the State Banks, and 
 let all government transactions be carried on in gold and silver. 
 This, to be sure, would be safe enough, though it would, undoubt- 
 edly, be an inconvenient approximation to the institutions of Ly- 
 curgus. But before we admit it to be a benefit, there are two 
 questions to be settled : — first ; is it desirable to put down the State 
 Banks? — and, second; is it possible to restore a metallic cur- 
 rency? Every practical and judicious man in the country, we 
 believe, would answer both of them in the negative. The State 
 Banks, when wisely managed, are great public benefits, and, even 
 when ill managed, the States cannot be prevented from establish- 
 ing them, and will not give up the power to sustain them- And, 
 as to a metallic currency, all the legislation of all the govern- 
 ments in the country could not introduce it, at a less cost, than the 
 universal destruction of enterprise and industry. 
 
 What, then, remains ? Unquestionably we must come back to 
 the old and tried remedy of a National Bank. It is the only power, 
 which can, at the same time, sustain and assist the State Banks, 
 when they ought to be upheld, and control them, when they 
 
 C 
 
( 18) 
 threaten to become injurious from excessive issues; — exercising 
 towards them, functions similar to those which the General Gov- 
 ernment exercises towards the States. This control, too, enjoys 
 the immense advantage of having been tried and found at on< 
 kindly and safe in its "operations. The whole people of the United 
 .States have been witnessing it. They know it works well: and 
 that is all they require. While it continues, and continues under 
 its present excellent and efficient management, the old difficulty 
 of some States with a sound currency, and some with an unsound, 
 by which a part of the citizens should pay their debts to the gov- 
 ernment in good money and a part of them in money worth 20 
 per cent, less; — this difficulty, and the vast mischiefs that neces- 
 sarily follow it, cannot recur. But, take away the Bank, and this 
 vast evil comes back of course. The people of the United Stat.-. 
 however, we are persuaded, arc not ready to offer this premium 
 on the insolvency of States and State Banks, or to introduce the 
 conflicts between different portions of the country, and the injury 
 to industry and enterprise, that would be its speedy and inevitable 
 consequence. 
 
 The question, therefore, must be, not whether any National 
 Bank shall exist; but whether the present one shall be continued, 
 or whether a new one shall be created. We are in favor of the 
 continuance and re-chartering of the present Bank. For. in the 
 fi?st place, its mere existence; its wise and judicious manage- 
 ment; the great good it has done, and is doing, are all in favor 
 of its continuance. We are all familiar with it. and know how it 
 operates; we know, it is fulfilling the very purpose lor which it 
 was created, and that it is fulfilling them beneficially and effectu- 
 ally. Why, then, destroy it '. — In the second place, there would 
 be not a little confusion, embarrassment and injury to different 
 interests, in the intermediate state between the operations of the 
 old Bank ami tin; new one; — while winding up one concern and 
 opening another ; — and all, too, to change a machine \\ hich works 
 well for one which has not been tried. And in the third place, 
 the nation would sustain, at the same time, a severe and needless 
 loss. For tin' government now owns seven millions o[ stock in 
 the present Bank, worth this day $130 for each $100. To destroy 
 the present Bank is, to reduce the value of its stock to par: — that 
 is, so far as the nation is concerned, to sink $2,100,000 of na- 
 tional property. Bui the new Bank may be able and willing to 
 give the same bonus the present one would: — say $1,500,000, so 
 that the absolute dead loss of this part of the transaction will be 
 $600,000. lint then, on the other hand, by continuing the present 
 Bank, the nation u r :uns the $2,100,000 and the bonus besides, or 
 three millions six hundred thousand dollars. The difference, then. 
 between losing $600,000 and making $3,600,000; that is the sum 
 of J'mir //ti//io/is, tu, i hundred thousand dollars, is the least loss the 
 nation will sustain, in a merely pecuniary point of yiew, by the 
 change, as any body can understand who is acquainted with com- 
 mon accounts. And all this, too. in order to substitute a machine, 
 
( 19) 
 
 whose operation has not been tried, for one which we know works 
 well. 
 
 And what would be gained, or what is proposed to be gained 
 by a change, which should create a new Bank? Nothing but a 
 new set of stockholders. And suppose the new stock to be given 
 to exactly such favorites as the administration, for the time being, 
 might desire, or suppose it to be as much subdivided as possible, 
 and to be carried into the smallest channels of private investment ; 
 what would be the consequence? Speculations would at once 
 lake place ; the stock would be sold and resold ; and, just as surely 
 as the principle of gravitation will bring water to its level, just so 
 surely the new stock, like all similar property, would find its way 
 into the hands that have held the old ; — that is, the hands of the cap- 
 italists. Thus we should end just as we began; though, probably, 
 not until the Bank itself should have gone through the seasoning of 
 a good deal of mismanagement ; and certainly not until individual 
 property should have been much injured, and four millions three 
 hundred thousand dollars of the money of the country sacrificed. 
 
 But suppose the present Bank to be re-chartered, — shall any 
 change be made in its chartered rights ? Some have thought, the 
 States should have a share in its management. But w T hy so ? The 
 United States have none in the management of the State Banks. 
 The most important object of the United States' Bank is, to exer- 
 cise a beneficial control over the currency, and thus prevent the 
 State Banks from running into excessive issues of paper, and so 
 degrading it and rendering it unsound. But many of the State 
 Banks, like those of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, are 
 the exclusive property of their respective States. Shall, then, 
 these same States have power over the Bank of the United States? 
 It is absurd. The true principle undoubtedly is, to make them, as 
 far as possible, independent of each other ; and then they can act 
 on each other only for the benefit of the community. 
 
 This, in truth, is the point, upon which the whole question turns 
 or ought to turn ; — What course in relation to the Bank of the 
 United States is most for the benefit of the community ; for the 
 benefit of the whole people? Certainly, nothing the national 
 Legislature can do for the Nation, or give to it, or continue to it, 
 is a more direct and important blessing to every individual it con- 
 tains, than a sound currency. We have it now, we had it not in 
 1815 and 1816. What lost it to us? The surrender of all control 
 over it by the United States, when the re-chartering of the old 
 Bank was refused. What restored it to us, and placed us where 
 we now are ? The resumption and exercise of that control in 
 1810. Why, then, are men found, who, with such facts as these, 
 which no sophistry can mystify, and such a plain and bitter expe- 
 rience which we all have felt ; — why are there men, who wish 
 that all these facts and all this experience should be lost upon us? 
 Let their consciences, their interests, and their passions answer. 
 
 But, to return to Mr. Webster; — it was at this period, 1816, 
 that he determined to change his residence, and, of course, to re- 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 tire, for a time at least, from public life. He had now lived in 
 Portsmouth nine years; and they had been to him years of great 
 happiness in his private relations, and, in his relations to the coun- 
 try, years of remarkable advancement and honor. But, in the 
 disastrous fire, which, in 1813, destroyed a large part of that de- 
 voted town, he had sustained a heavy loss, which the means and 
 opportunities offered by his profession in New-Hampshire were 
 not likely to repair. He determined, therefore, to establish him- 
 self in a larger capital, where his resources would be more am- 
 ple, and, in the summer of 1810, removed to Boston, where he 
 has ever since resided. 
 
 His object now was professional occupation, and he devoted 
 himself to it for six or eight vears exclusivelv. with unremitting 
 assiduity, refusing to accept office, or to mingle in political discus- 
 sion. -His success corresponded to his exertions. He was al- 
 ready known as a distinguished lawyer in his native state ; and 
 the two terms he had served in Congress, had placed him, not- 
 withstanding his comparative youth, among the prominent states- 
 men of the country. His rank as a jurist, in the general regard 
 of the nation, was now no less speedily determined. Like many 
 other eminent members of the profession, however, who have 
 rarely been able to select at first what cases should be intrusted 
 to them, it was not for him to arrange or determine the time and 
 the occasion, when his powers should be decisively measured and 
 made known. We must, therefore, account it for a fortunate ac- 
 cident, though perhaps one of those accidents granted only to 
 talent like his, that the occasion was the well-known case of 
 Dartmouth College; and, we must add, as a circumstance no less 
 fortunate, that the forum where he was called to defend the prin- 
 ciples of this great cause, and where he did defend them so tri- 
 umphantly, was that of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 at Washington. 
 
 There is, indeed, something peculiar in tins grave national tri- 
 bunal, especially with regard to the means and motives it offers to 
 call out distinguished talent, and try and confirm a just reputation, 
 which is worth notice. The judges themselves, selected from 
 among the great jurists of the country, as above ignorance, weak- 
 ness, and the temptations of political" ambition. — with that vene- 
 rable man at their head, who for thirty years has been the orna- 
 ment i<( the government, and, in whose wisdom has been, in no 
 small degree, the biding of its power — constitute a tribunal, which 
 may be truly called solemn and august. The advocates, too. who 
 appear bet'.. re it. are no less a chosen few, full of talent and skill, 
 and eager with ambition, who go there from all the ends of the 
 country, to discuss the gravest and most important interests both 
 puhlie and private, — to settle the conflicts between domestic and 
 foreign jurisprudence, or the more perilous conflicts between the 
 authority of the individual states, and that of the general govern- 
 ment : — in short, to return constantly upon the first great princi- 
 ples of national and municipal adjudication, and take heed, that. 
 
(21 ) 
 
 whatever is determined shall rest only on the deep and sure foun- 
 dations of truth, right, and law. And, finally, if we turn from the 
 bench and the bar, to the audience which is collected around them, 
 we shall find again much that is remarkable, and even imposing. 
 We shall find, that, large as it is, it is gathered together from a 
 city not populous, where every thing, even the resources of fashion, 
 must have a direct dependence on the operations of government ; 
 and where the senators themselves, and the representatives of 
 foreign powers, no less than the crowds collected during the ses- 
 sion of Congress, by the solicitations of an enlightened curiosity, 
 or of a strenuous indolence, can, after all, discover no resort so 
 full of a stirring interest and excitement, as that of the Supreme 
 Court, into whose arena such practised and powerful gladiators 
 daily descend, rejoicing in the combat. Taking it in all its con- 
 nexions, then, we look upon this highest tribunal of the country, 
 not only to be solemn and imposing in itself, but to be one of pe- 
 culiar power over the reputations of these jurists and advocates, 
 who appear before it, and who must necessarily feel themselves 
 to be standing singularly in presence of the nation, represented 
 there as it is, in almost every way, and by almost every class, 
 from the fashion and beauty lounging on the sofas in the recesses 
 of the court-room, up to the eager antagonists, who are impa- 
 tiently waiting their time to contend for the mastery on some great 
 interest or principle, and the judges who are ultimately to decide it. 
 
 Mr. Webster had already appeared once or twice before this 
 tribunal; — but not in any cause which had called seriously into 
 action the powers of his mind. The case of Dartmouth College, 
 however, was one that might well task the faculties of any man. 
 That institution, founded originally by charter from the king of 
 Great Britain, had been in successful operation nearly half a cen- 
 tury, when, in 1816, the Legislature of New-Hampshire, from 
 some movements in party politics, was induced, without the con- 
 sent of the college, to annul its charter, and, by several acts, to 
 give it a new incorporation and name. The trustees of the col- 
 lege resisted this interference ; and, in 1817, commenced an action 
 in the state courts, which was decided against them. A writ of 
 error was then sued out by the original plaintiffs, to remove the 
 cause, for its final adjudication, to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States; and it came on there for argument in March, 1818. 
 
 The court-room was excessively crowded, not only with a large 
 assemblage of the eminent lawyers of the Union, but with many 
 of its leading statesmen, — drawn there no less by the importance 
 of the cause, and the wide results that would follow its decision, 
 than by the known eloquence of Mr. Hopkinson and Mr. Wirt, 
 both of whom were engaged in it. Mr. Webster opened it, on 
 behalf of the college. The question turned mainly on the point, 
 whether the acts of the Legislature of New-Hampshire, in rela- 
 tion to Dartmouth College, constituted a violation of a contract ; 
 for, if they did, then they were contrary to the Constitution of 
 the United States. The principles involved, therefore, went to do- 
 
( 22) 
 
 termine the extent to which a legislature can exercise authority 
 over the chartered rights of all corporations; and this of course 
 gave the case an importance at the time, and a value since, para- 
 mount to that of almost any other in the books. Mr. Webster's 
 argument is given in this volume at p. 110, et seq. ; that is, we 
 have there the technical outline, the dry skeleton of it. But those 
 who heard him, when it was originally delivered, still wonder 
 how such dry bones could ever have lived with the power they 
 there witnessed and felt He opened his cause, as he always 
 does, with perfect simplicity in the general statement of its facts ; 
 and then went on to unfold the topics of his argument, in a lucid 
 order, which made each position sustain every other. The logic 
 and the law were rendered irresistible. But, as he advanced, his 
 heart warmed to the subject and the occasion. Thoughts and 
 feelings, that had grown old with his best affections, rose unbid- 
 den to his lips. He remembered thnt the institution he was de- 
 fending, was the one where his own youth had been nurtured ; 
 and the moral tenderness and beauty this gave to the grandeur of 
 his thoughts ; the sort of religious sensibility it imparted to his 
 urgent appeals and demands for the stern fulfilment of what law 
 and justice required, wrought up the whole audience to an extra- 
 ordinary state of excitement. Many betrayed strong agitation ; 
 many were dissolved in tears. When he ceased to speak, there 
 was a perceptible interval before any one was willing to break 
 the silence ; and, when that vast crowd separated, not one person 
 of the whole number doubted, that the young man who had that 
 day so moved, astonished, and controlled them, had vindicated for 
 himself a place at the side of the first jurists of the country. 
 
 From this period, therefore, Mr. Webster's attendance on the 
 Supreme Court at Washington has been constantly secured by re- 
 tainers, in the most important causes ; and the circle of his pro- 
 fessional business, which has been regularly enlarging, has not 
 been exceeded, if it has been equalled, by that of any ether law- 
 yer who has ever appeared in tlif national forum. The volume 
 before us contains, indeed, few traces of all this. It contains, 
 however, two arguments upon constitutional questions of great 
 interest and wide results. One is the case of Gibbons rs. Ogden, 
 in 1824, involving the question, how far a state has authority to 
 granl the exclusive right of navigating the tide-waters within its 
 territorial limits: refusing that right to all persons belonging to 
 Other States, as well as to its own citizens. This question struck, 
 of course, at the great steam-boat monopoly granted by the state 
 
 of New-York, from motives of public munificence, to Mr. Pulton, 
 
 the admirable first mover of thai national benefit, and Chancellor 
 
 Livingston, its early and adventurous patron. The case was ar- 
 guedby .Mr. Webster ami Mr. Wirt againsl the monopoly, and by 
 Kir. Oakley and Mr. Emmet for it; so thai probably as much 
 ability was brought into the discussion on each side, as has been 
 called for by any single cause in our judicial annals. The result 
 was, that the monopoly was declared to be unconstitutional ; and 
 
( 23) 
 
 thus another great national blessing was obtained, hardly less im- 
 portant than the original invention, — that of throwing open the 
 right of steam-navigation to the competition of the whole Union. 
 There were circumstances which gave uncommon interest to 
 this cause, independently of its great constitutional importance, 
 and the wide consequences involved in it. It had been litigated, 
 during a series of years, in every form, in the state courts of New- 
 York, where the monopoly had triumphed over all opposition. 
 And it need hardly be said, that the state courts of New-York have 
 maintained as proud a reputation for learning, research, and tal- 
 ent, as any in the Union. What lawyer has not sat gladly at the 
 feet of Chancellor Kent, and Chief Justice Spencer '( And what 
 state, in relation to her jurisprudence, can so boldly say — 
 
 " Quee rcgio in tcrris nostri non plena laboris ?" 
 
 Mr. Webster's argument in the opening of this case, — which was 
 closed with great power by the Attorney-General, Mr. Wirt, — fur- 
 nishes, even in the meager outline still preserved, p. 170 — 184, a 
 specimen of some of the characteristics of his mind. We here 
 see his clearness and downright simplicity in stating facts ; his 
 acute suggestion and analysis of difficulties ; his peculiar power 
 of disentangling complicated propositions, and resolving them into 
 elements so plain, as to be intelligible to the simplest minds ; and 
 his wariness not to be betrayed into untenable positions, or to spread 
 his forces over useless ground. We see him, indeed, fortifying 
 himself, as it were, strongly within the narrowest limits of his cause, 
 concentrating his strength, and ready at any moment to enter, like 
 a skilful general, at all the weak points of his adversary's position. 
 This argument, therefore, especially as it was originally pro- 
 nounced In court, we look upon, as a whole, to have been equally 
 remarkable for depth and sagacity; for the choice and compre- 
 hensiveness of the topics ; and for the power and tact exhibited 
 in their discussion. Yet we are carried along so quietly by its 
 deep current, that, like Partridge in Tom Jones, when he saw Gar- 
 rick act Hamlet, all seems to us so spontaneous, so completely 
 without effort, that we are convinced, nay, we feel sure, there is 
 neither artifice nor mystery, extraordinary power nor genius, in 
 the whole matter. But, to those who are familiar with Mr. Web- 
 ster, and the workings of his mind, it is well known, that, in this 
 very plainness ; in this earnest pursuit of truth for truth's sake, 
 and of the principles of law for the sake of right and justice, and 
 in his obvious desire to reach them all by the most direct and sim- 
 ple means, is to be found no small part of the secret of his power. 
 It is this, in fact, above every thing else, that makes him so prev- 
 alent with the jury ; and, not only with the jury in court, but 
 with the great jury of the whole people. 
 
 The same general remarks are applicable to his argument in the 
 case of Ogden against Saunders, in 1827, which we notice now, 
 out of the regular series of events, in order to finish at once the 
 little we can say of his professional career as a lawyer. The case 
 to which we now refer, involved the question of the constitution- 
 
(24) 
 
 Bitty of state insolvent laws, when they purported to absolve the 
 party from the obligation of the contract, as well as from personal 
 imprisonment, on execution. In a legal and constitutional point of 
 view, this has always been thought one of Mr. Webster's ablest 
 and most convincing arguments. With the court he was only 
 half successful ; there being a remarkable diversity of opinion 
 among the judges. But, taken in connexion with the opinion of 
 Chief Justice Marshall, delivered in the case, with which Mr. Web- 
 ster's argument coincides, both in reasoning and in conclusion, it 
 seems absolutely to have exhausted the whole range of the discus- 
 sion on that side, and to furnish all that future inquirers can need 
 to master the question. 
 
 But, during the years we have just passed over, Mr. Webster's 
 success was not confined to the bar. In the year 1820-21, a 
 convention of delegates was assembled in Boston, to revise the 
 constitution of Massachusetts. As it was one of those primary 
 assemblies, where no office disqualifies from membership, and as 
 the occasion was one of the rarest importance, the talent and 
 wisdom, the fortunes and authority of that commonwealth were, 
 to a singular degree, collected in it. The venerable John Adams. 
 then above eighty-five years old, represented his native village; 
 Mr. Justice Story, of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 was a delegate from Salem ; Judge Davis, of the District Court 
 of the United States, and the greater part of the judicial officers 
 of the state, were there, as well as a large number of the leading 
 members of the Massachusetts bar, and a still larger number of 
 its wealthiest or most prominent land-holders and merchants. No 
 assembly of equal dignity and talent was ever collected in that 
 commonwealth. Mr. Webster was one of the delegates from 
 Boston. What influence he exerted, or boy? beneficial, or how- 
 extensive it was, can be entirely known only there where it was 
 put forth. But, if we may judge from the important committees 
 on which he served; the prominent interests and individuals his 
 duty called him occasionally to defend, to encounter, and to op- 
 pose; and the business-like air of his short remarks, which are 
 scattered up and down through the whole volume of the "Journal 
 of Debates and Proceedings" <>t" this convention, published soon 
 afterwards, we should he led to believe, that, though he was then 
 but a newly adopted child of Massachusetts, he had already gain- 
 ed a degree of confidence, respect and authority, to which lew 
 
 in that ancient commonwealth could lay claim. The fruits ot it 
 all. in the presenl volume, are, a short speech on "Oaths of Of- 
 fice;" another on "the removal of Judges upon the address of 
 two-thirds ot" each branch ot' the Legislature;" and a more am- 
 ple ami very powerful one on the "Principle of representation 
 
 in tin: Senate." They are all strong and striking: and it would 
 he easj to extract something from each, characteristic of its 
 author: hut we have not room, and must content ourselves with 
 eferring, for a specimen of the whole, to the remarks yn\ the Iree- 
 schools'o) New-England, from the speech in the Senate, which 
 
(25) 
 
 we have already cited ; adding merely, that, to this remarkable 
 speech of Mr. Webster, and to another of great beauty and force, 
 by Mr. Justice Story, was ascribed, at the time, a change in the 
 opinions and vote of the convention, which, considering the im- 
 portance of the subject, and the long discussion it had undergone, 
 was all but unprecedented.* 
 
 While this convention was still in session, a great anniversary 
 came round at the north. The two hundredth year from the first 
 landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, was completed on the 22d 
 of December, 1820 ; and every man born in New-England, or 
 in whose veins stirred a drop of New-England blood, felt that he 
 had an interest in the event it recalled, and demanded its grateful 
 celebration. Preparations, therefore, for its commemoration, on 
 the spot where it occurred, were made long beforehand ; and, by 
 the sure indication of the public will, and at the special invitation 
 of the Pilgrim Society, Mr. Webster was summoned as the man 
 who should go to the Rock of Plymouth, and there so speak of 
 the centuries past, as that the centuries to come should still re- 
 ceive and heed his words. Undoubtedly he amply fulfilled the 
 expectations that waited on this great occasion. His address, 
 which opens the present volume, is one of the gravest produc- 
 tions it contains. He seems to feel that the ground on which he 
 stands is holy; and the deep moral sensibility, and even religious 
 solemnity, which pervade many parts of this striking discourse, 
 — where he seems to have collected the experience of all the 
 past, in order to minister warning and encouragement to all the 
 future, — is in perfect harmony with the scene and the occasion, 
 and produced its appropriate effect on the multitude elected, even 
 at that inclement season, from the body of the New-England 
 states, to offer up thanksgivings for their descent from the Pilgrim 
 fathers. The effect, too, at the time, has been justified by a wider 
 success since; and the multiplied editions of the printed discourse, 
 while they have carried it into the farm-houses and hearts of the 
 New-England yeomanry, are at the same time insuring its pas- 
 sage onward to the next generation, and the next, who may be 
 well satisfied, when the same jubilee comes round, if they can 
 leave behind them monuments equally imposing, to mark the lapse 
 and revolutions of ages. 
 
 It would not be difficult to select eloquent passages from this 
 discourse. We prefer, however, to take one containing what 
 was then a plain and adventurous prediction; but what is now 
 passing into history before our very eyes. We allude to the re- 
 marks on the principle of the subdivision of property in France, 
 as affecting the permanency of the French government, which 
 Mr. Webster ventured to call in question, on the same general 
 grounds, on which he undertook to prove the permanency of 
 our own. 
 
 " A most interesting experiment of the effect of a subdivision of property on gov- 
 ernment, is now making in France. It is understood, that the law regulating the 
 
 * North American Review, 1821. Vol. xii. p. 342. 
 
 D 
 
( 26) 
 
 transmission of property, in that country, now divides it, real and personal, among all 
 the children, equally, both sons and daughters ; and that there is, also, a very great 
 restraint on the power of making dispositions of property by will. It has been sup- 
 posed, that the effects of this might probably be, in time, to break up the soil into 
 such small subdivisions, that the proprietors would be too poor to resist the encroach- 
 ments of executive power. I think far otherwise. What is lost in individual wealth, 
 will be more than gained in numbers, in intelligence, and in a sympathy of senti- 
 ment If, indeed, only one, or a few landholders were to resist the crown, like the 
 barons of England, they must, of course, be great and powerful landholders with 
 multitudes of retainers, to promise success. Rut if the proprietors of a given extent 
 of territory are summoned to resistance, there is no reason to believe that such resist- 
 ance would be less forcible, or less successful, because the number of such proprietors 
 should be great Each would perceive his own importance, and his own interest, and 
 would feel that natural elevation of character which the consciousness of property in- 
 spires. A common sentiment would unite all, and numbers would not only add 
 strength, but excite enthusiasm. It is true, that France possesses a vast military 
 force, under the direction of an hereditary executive government, and military power, 
 it is possible, may overthrow any government. It is in vain, however, in this period 
 of the world, to look for security against military power, to the arm of the great land- 
 holders. That notion is derived from a state of things long since past ; a slate in 
 which a feudal baron, with his retainers, might stand against the sovereign, who was 
 himself but the greatest baron, and his retainers. But at present, what could the 
 richest landholder do, against one regiment of disciplined troops ? Other securities, 
 therefore, against the prevalence of military power must be provided. Happily for us, 
 we are not so situated as that any purpose of national defence requires, ordinarily and 
 constantly, such a military force as might seriously endanger our liberties. 
 
 " In respect, however, to the recent law of succession in France, to which I have 
 alluded, / would, presumptuously, perhaps, hazard a conjecture, that if the government 
 do not change the law, the law, in half a century, will change the government ; and that 
 this change will lie not in favor of the power of the crown, as some European writers 
 have svpposcd, but against it. Those writers only reason upon what they think cor- 
 rect general principles, in relation to this subject They acknowledge a want of ex- 
 perience. Here we have had that experience ; and we know that a multitude of 
 small proprietors, acting with intelligence, and that enthusiasm which a common 
 cause inspires, constitute not only a formidable, but an invincible power." pp. 47-8. 
 
 In less than six years from the time when this statesmanlike 
 prediction was made, the King of France, at the opening of the 
 Legislative Chambers, thus strangely and portentously echoed it, 
 
 " Legislation ought to provide, by successive improvements, for all the wants of 
 society. The progressive partitioning of landed estates essentially contrary to the 
 S]>irit of a monarchical government would enfeeble the guaranties which the charter 
 has given to mv throne and to my subjects. Measures will be proposed to you, gen- 
 tlemen, to establish the consistency which ought to exist between the political law 
 ami tin- civil law; and to preserve the patrimony of families, without restricting the 
 liberty of disposing of one's property. The preservation of families is connected frith, 
 and affords a guarantee to political stability, which is the first want of states, and 
 which is ly that of France after so many \ i< is-itu<l< s." 
 
 But the discovery came too late. The foundations, on which to 
 build or sustain the cumbrous system of the old monarchy, were 
 already taken away; and the events of the last summer, 'while 
 they would almost persuade us, that the M Attendant Spirit" so 
 boldly given by the orator in this wry discourse to one of the 
 great founders of our government, had opened to him, also, on the 
 nocfe of Plymouth, "a vision of the future;"* — these events, we 
 say, can leave little doubl in the inind of any man, that the speaker 
 himself may live long enough, — as God giant he may' — to wit- 
 ness the entire fulfilment of his own extraordinary prophecy, and 
 
 • Sec the beautiful passage respecting the fortune and the lift of John Adams, at p. 44. 
 
(27 ) 
 
 to see the French people erecting for themselves a sure and stable 
 government, suited to the foundation, on which alone it can now 
 rest. 
 
 In 1825, Mr. Webster was called to interpret the feelings of 
 New-England, on another great festival and anniversary. Fifty 
 years from the day, when the grave drama of the American Revo- 
 lution was opened with such picturesque solemnity, as a magnifi- 
 cent show on Bunker's Hill, witnessed by the whole neighboring 
 city and country, clustering by thousands on their steeples, the 
 roofs of their houses, and the hill-tops, and waiting with unspeaka- 
 ble anxiety the results of the scene that was passing before their 
 eyes, — fifty years from that day, it was determined to lay, with 
 no less solemnity, the corner-stone of a monument worthy to com- 
 memorate its importance. An immense multitude was assembled. 
 They stood on that consecrated spot, with only the heavens over 
 their heads, and beneath their feet the bones of their fathers; 
 amidst the visible remains of the very redoubt thrown up by 
 Prescott, and defended by him to the very last desperate extrem- 
 ity;* and with the names of Warren, Putnam, Stark, and Brooks, 
 and the other leaders or victims of that great day, frequent and 
 familiar on their lips. In the midst of such a scene and with such 
 recollections, starting like the spirits of the dead from the very 
 sods of that hill-side, it may well be imagined, that words like the 
 following, addressed to a vast audience, — composed in no small 
 degree of the survivors of the battle, their children, and their 
 grandchildren, — produced an effect, which only the hand of death 
 can efface. 
 
 " We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is most safely deposited in 
 the universal remembrance of mankind. We know, that if we could cause this struc- 
 ture to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its broad 
 surfaces could still contain but part of that, which, in an age of knowledge, hath al- 
 ready been spread over the earth, and which history charges itself with making 
 known to all future times. We know, that no inscription on entablatures less broad 
 than the earth itself, can carry information of the events wc commemorate, where it 
 has not already gone ; and that no structure, which shall not outlive the duration of 
 letters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. But our object is, by 
 this edifice, to show our own deep sense of the value and importance of the achieve- 
 ments of our ancestors ; and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep 
 alive similar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard for the principles of the 
 Revolution. Human beings are composed not of reason only, but of imagination also, 
 and sentiment ; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to 
 the purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening proper springs of 
 feeling in the heart. Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national 
 hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We 
 consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light 
 
 * In an able article on the battle of Bunker's Hill, which is found in the North 
 American Review, 1818, VII. 225—258, and is understood to have been written by 
 Mr. Webster, he says, — " In truth, if there was any commander-in-chief in the ac- 
 tion, it was Prescott From the first breaking of the ground to the retreat, he acted 
 the most important part ; and if it were now proper to give the battle a name from any 
 distinguished agent in it, it should be called, Prescott's battle." We have no doubt 
 this is but an exact measure of justice to one of those who hazarded all in our revolu- 
 tion, when the hazard was the greatest The whole review is strong, and no one 
 hereafter can write the history of the period it refers to, without consulting it The 
 opening description of the battle is beautiful and picturesque. 
 
(28 ) 
 
 of peace may rest upon it for ever. We rear a memorial of oar conviction of that 
 unmeasured benefit, which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy in- 
 fluences, which have been produced, by the same events, on the general interests of 
 mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot, which must for ever be dear to 
 us and our posterity. We wish, that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his 
 eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished, where the first great 
 battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish, that this structure may proclaim the 
 magnitude and importance of that event, to every class and every age. We wish, 
 that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary 
 and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it sug- 
 gests. We wish, that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of its toil 
 We wish, that, in those days of disaster, which, as they come on all nations, must be 
 expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hithcrward, and 
 be assured that the foundations of our national power still stand strong. We wish, 
 that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples 
 dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of de- 
 pendence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him 
 who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be some- 
 thing which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it 
 rise, till it meet the sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, 
 and parting day linger and play on its summit." pp. 58-9. 
 
 The last formal address delivered by Mr. Webster on any great 
 public occasion, was unexpectedly called from him in the summer 
 of 1826, in commemoration of the services of Adams and Jeffer- 
 son ; — an occasion so remarkable, that what was said ami felt on 
 it, will not pass out of the memories of the present generation. 
 We shall, therefore, only make one short extract from Mr. Web- 
 ster's address at Faneuil Hall — the description of the peculiar elo- 
 quence of Mr. Adams, in giving which, the speaker becomes, 
 himself, a living example of what he describes. 
 
 "The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general character, and formed, in- 
 deed, a part of it. It was bold, manly, and energetic ; and such the crisis required. 
 When public bodies are to be address. <! on momentous occasions, when great interests 
 are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable, in speech, farther than 
 it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, arid 
 i arnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does 
 not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from tar. Labor and learning may toil 
 for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every 
 way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the 
 occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may 
 aspire alter it — they cannot reach it. It conns, it' it come at all, like the outbreaking 
 of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting ti>rth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, 
 original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments, and 
 studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when tluir own lives, and the 
 fete of tluir wives, their children, and tluir < OUntry, hang on the decision of the hour. 
 Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory con- 
 temptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked, and subdued, as in the presence of 
 higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquenl ; tin n self-devotion is eloquent The 
 el. ;ir conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm rc- 
 fc, the dauntless spirit, Bpeaking on the tongue, beaming from the eve, informing 
 
 i m iv feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object — this, 
 
 this is eloquence; or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence, it 
 is action, noble, sublime, god-like action." Page 6 I. 
 
 I hiring a part, however, of the period, over which we have thus 
 vrery slightly passed. Mr. Webster was again in public life. 1 le was 
 elected to represenl the city <>l Boston, in the seventeenth ( Congress, 
 and took his seat there in December, 1823. Early in the session. 
 
(29) 
 
 he presented a resolution in favor of appointing a commissioner 
 or agent to Greece; and the resolution being taken up on the 
 19th of January following, Mr. Webster delivered the speech, 
 which usually passes under the name of "the Greek Speech." 
 His object, however, in presenting the resolution, did not seem, at 
 first, to be well understood. It was believed, that, seeing the ex- 
 istence of a warm public sympathy for the suffering Greeks, and 
 solicited by the attractions of the subject itself, and of the classi- 
 cal associations awakened by it, his object was to parade a few 
 sentences and figures, and so make an oration or harangue, which 
 might usher him, with some iclat, a second time, upon the theatre 
 of public affairs. The galleries, therefore, were thronged with a 
 brilliant and fashionable audience. But the crowd was destined 
 to be disappointed ; — Mr. Webster, after a graceful and conciliat- 
 ing introduction, in which he evidently disclaimed any such 
 purpose, addressed himself at once to the subject, and made, what 
 he always makes, a powerful, but a downright business speech. 
 His object, instead of being the narrow one suggested for him, 
 was apparent, as he advanced, to be the broadest possible. It was 
 nothing less, than to take occasion of the Greek revolution, and 
 the conduct pursued in regard to it by the great continental powers, 
 in order to exhibit the principles laid down and avowed by those 
 powers, as the basis on which they intended to maintain the peace 
 of Europe. In doing this, he went through a very able examina- 
 tion of the proceedings of all the famous Congresses, beginning 
 with that of Paris, in 1814, and coming down to that of Laybach, 
 in 1821 ; — the principles of all which were, that the people hold 
 their fundamental rights and privileges, as matter of concession 
 and indulgence from the sovereign power ; and that all sovereign 
 powers have a right to interfere and control other nations, in 
 their desires and attempts to change their own governments : — 
 
 " The ultimate effect of this alliance of sovereigns, for objects personal to them- 
 selves, or respecting only the permanency of their own power, must be the destruc- 
 tion of all just feeling, and all natural sympathy, between those who exercise the 
 power of government, and those who are subject to it. The old channels of mutual 
 regard and confidence are to be dried up, or cut off. Obedience can now be expected 
 no longer than it is enforced. Instead of relying on the affections of the governed, 
 sovereigns are to rely on the affections and friendship of other sovereigns. They [are, 
 in short, no longer to be nations. Princes and people no longer are to unite for inter- 
 ests common to them both. There is to be an end of all patriotism, as a distinct na- 
 tional feeling. Society is to be divided horizontally ; all sovereigns above, and all 
 subjects below ; the former coalescing for their own security, and for the more cer- 
 tain subjection of the undistinguished multitude beneath." Page 249. 
 
 But, as he says afterwards, — 
 
 " This reasoning mistakes the age. The time has been, indeed, when fleets, and 
 armies, and subsidies, were the principal reliances even in the best cause. But, hap- 
 pily for mankind, there has arrived a great change in this respect Moral causes 
 come into consideration, in proportion as the progress of knowledge is advanced; and 
 the public opinion of the civilized world is rapidly gaining an ascendency over mere 
 brutal force. It is already able to oppose the most formidable obstruction to the pro- 
 gress of injustice and oppression ; and, as it grows more intelligent and more intense, 
 it will be more and more formidable. It may be silenced by military power, but it 
 cannot be conquered. It is elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 ordinary warfare. It is that impassible, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence 
 
 and arbitrary rule, which, like .Milton's angels, 
 
 • Viial in every part. 
 Cannot, but by annihilating, die.' 
 
 " Until this be propitiated or satisfied, it is vain for power to talk cither of triumphs 
 or of repose. No matter what fields are desolated, what fortresses surrendered, what 
 armies subdued, or what provinces overrun. In the history of the year that has passed 
 by us, and in the instance of unhappy Spain, we have scon the vanity of all triumphs, 
 in a cause which violates the jreneral sense of justice of the civilized world. It is 
 nothing, that the troops of France have passed from the Pyrenees to Cadiz ; it is 
 nothing that an unhappy and prostrate nation has fallen before them ; it is nothing 
 that arrests, and confiscation, and execution, sweep away the little remnant of national 
 resistance. There is an enemy that still exists to check the glory of these triumphs. 
 It follows the conqueror back to the very scene of his ovations ; it calls upon him to 
 take notice that Europe, though silent, is yet indignant; it shows him that the scep- 
 tre of his victory is a barren sceptre ; that it shall confer neither joy nor honor, but 
 shall moulder to dry ashes in his grasp. In the midst of his exultation, it pierces his 
 ear with the cry of injured justice, it denounces against him the indignation of an 
 enlightened and civilized age; it turns to bitterness the cup of his rejoicing, and 
 wounds him with the sting which belongs to the consciousness of having outraged 
 the opinion of mankind. 
 
 " In my own opinion, Sir, the Spanish nation is now nearer, not only in point of 
 time, but in point of circumstance, to the acquisition of a regulated government, than 
 at the moment of the French invasion. Nations must, no doubt, undergo these trials 
 in their progress to the establishment of free institutions. The very trials benefit 
 them, and render them more capable both of obtaining and of enjoying the object 
 which they seek." Page 253. 
 
 How completely does the mighty drama now passing before our 
 eyes on the great theatre of Europe, justify these bold and saga- 
 cious predictions! A great revolution has just taken place in 
 France, and a distinguished prince, out of the regular line of suc- 
 cession, has been invited to the throne, on condition of governing 
 according to the constitution prescribed by the representatives of 
 the popular will. Belgium is doing the same thing. Devoted Po- 
 land has attempted it. Italy Is in confusion, — and Germany dis- 
 turbed and uneasy: — so that, il seems already no longer to be in 
 the power of any conspiracy of kings or congresses, to maintain 
 permanent] v in Western Kurope, a government not essentially 
 founded Oil free institutions and principles. We will only add. 
 that Mr. Webster has, on hardly any other occasion, entered into 
 the discussion of European politics; and the consequence has 
 been, that, if this speech has found less favor at home than some 
 of his other efforts, it is one. that lias brought him great honor 
 abroad; since, besides being printed wherever the English tongue 
 is spoken, it has been circulated through South America, and pub- 
 lished in nearly every one of the civilized languages of Europe, 
 including the Spanish and the Greek. 
 
 In April. 182 I. he took a part in the great discussion of the tariff 
 question ; and his speech on that occasion, as well as the one Ik 
 
 delivered on the same subjeel in .May. 1828, are both given in the 
 volume before us. Bui the whole matter is so fresh in the recol- 
 lections of the community, and Mr. Webster's constant defence 
 of a tariff adapted to the general interests of the country, en- 
 
 cOuraging alike the cause OI American manufactures and the in- 
 terests OI commerce, are so well known, from the firsl tariff of 
 
 1816, to the present moment, that it cannot he needful to speak 
 
(31 ) 
 
 of them. We would remark, however, that, in the speech of 1824, 
 two subjects are discussed with great ability ; — the doctrine of ex- 
 change, and the balance of trade. Both of them had been drawn 
 into controversy in Congress, on previous occasions, quite fre- 
 quently, calling forth alternately " an infinite deal of nothing," and 
 the crudest absurdities ; but, from the period of this thorough and 
 statesmanlike examination of them, they have, we believe, hardly 
 been heard of in either house. The great points involved in both 
 of them, have been considered as settled. 
 
 We have thus far spoken of Mr. Webster almost entirely as a 
 public orator and debater, or as a jurist. But there is another 
 point of view, in which he is less known to the nation, but no less 
 valued at Washington. He has few equals in the diligence of the 
 committee-rooms. Reputation in and out of Congress, is, in this 
 respect, very differently measured. Nothing is more common in 
 either House than moderately good speakers, prompt in common 
 debate, and sufficiently well instructed not to betray themselves 
 into contempt with the public. Because they can speak and do 
 speak; and especially because they speak often and vehemently, 
 they obtain a transient credit abroad for far more than they are 
 worth, and far more than they are, at last, able to maintain. It 
 may, indeed, be said, as a general truth, that those who speak most 
 frequently in Congress are least heeded, and least entitled to dis- 
 tinction. Members of real ability speak rarely ; and, when they 
 do speak, it is from the fullness of their minds, after a careful con- 
 sideration of the subject, and with a deference for the body they 
 address, and a regard to the public service, which does not permit 
 them to occupy more time than the development of their subject 
 absolutely requires. They are, therefore, always heard with at- 
 tention and respect ; and often with the conviction, that they may 
 be safely followed. 
 
 But there is another class in Congress, less known to the public 
 at large, and yet whose services are beyond price. We speak 
 now of those excellent men, who, as chairmen and members of 
 the committees, in the retired corners of the capitol, are doing the 
 real business of legislation, and giving their days and nights to 
 maturing schemes of wild policy and just relief; men who are 
 content, week after week, and month after month, to sacrifice 
 themselves to the negative toil of saving us from the follies of in- 
 discreet, meddlesome, and ignorant innovators, or from the more 
 presumptuous purposes of those who would make legislation the 
 means of furthering and gratifying their own private, unprinci- 
 pled ambition. Such business-men, — who should be the heads of 
 the working party, if such a party should ever be formed, — are 
 well understood within the walls of Congress. They are marked 
 by the general confidence that follows them; and when they 
 speak, to propose a measure, they are listened to ; nay, it may al- 
 most be said, they are obeyed. 
 
 Mr. Webster has long been known as an efficient laborer in 
 these noiseless toils of the committee-rooms and of practical leg- 
 
( » ) 
 
 islation ; and we owe to his hand not a few important improve- 
 ments in our laws. The most remarkable is, probably, the 
 Crimes-Act of 1825, which, in twenty-six sections, did so much 
 for the criminal code of the country. The whole subject, when he 
 approached it, was full of difficulties and deficiencies. The law 
 in relation to it remained substantially on the foundation of the 
 first great Act of 1790, ch. 36. That act, however, though de- 
 serving praise as a first attempt to meet the wants of the country, 
 was entirely unsuited to its condition, and deficient in most im- 
 portant particulars. Its defects, indeed, were so numerous, that 
 half the most notorious crimes, when committed where the gen- 
 eral government alone could have cognizance of them, were left 
 beyondlhe reach of human law and punishment : — rape, burglary, 
 arson and other malicious burnings in forts, arsenals, and light- 
 house establishments, together with many other offences, being 
 wholly unprovided for. Mr. Webster's Act, which, as a just 
 tribute to his exertions, already bears his name, cures these gross 
 defects, besides a multitude of others; and it was well known at 
 the time, that he wished to go much further, and give a compe- 
 tent system to the country on the whole criminal code, but was 
 deterred by the danger of failure, if he attempted too much at 
 once. Indeed, the difficulty of obtaining a patient hearing for 
 any bill of such complexity and extent, is well understood in Con- 
 gress; and it is not, perhaps, an unjust reproach upon our na- 
 tional legislature to confess, that even the most experienced states- 
 men are rarely able to carry through any great measure of pure- 
 ly practical improvement. Temporary projects, and party strifes, 
 and private claims, and individual jealousies, and, above all, the 
 passion for personal display in everlasting debate, offer obstacles 
 to the success of mere patriotism and statesmanship, which are 
 all but insurmountable. Probably no man. at that time, but Mr. 
 Webster, who, in addition to his patient habits of labor in the 
 committee-room, possessed the general confidence of the House. 
 and had a persevering address and promptitude in answering ob- 
 jections, could have succeeded in so signal an undertaking. Sir 
 Samuel Romilly and Mr. Peel have acquired lasting and merited 
 reputations in England for meliorations of their criminal code. 
 Hut they had a w [fling audienee, and an eager support. M T. Web- 
 ster, without either, effected as much in his Crimes-Act of 18 - J.">. 
 as has been effected by any single efforl of these statesmen, and 
 is fairly to be ranked with them among those benefactors ot man- 
 kind, who have enlightened the jurisprudence of their country, 
 and made it at cure more efficienl ami more humane. 
 
 At the same session of Congress, tip' greal question (<\ internal 
 
 improvements came up. and was vehemently discussed in Janu- 
 ary, on the appropriation made for the western national road. 
 iMr. Webster defended the principle, as he had already defended 
 
 it iii 1816; and as he has defended it constantly since, down to 
 the last year and the last session, without, so far as we have seen, 
 receiving any sufficient answer to the positions he took in debate 
 
( 33) 
 
 on these memorable occasions. Perhaps the doctrine he has so 
 uniformly maintained on this subject, is less directly favorable to 
 the interests of the northern than of the western states ; but it was 
 high-toned and national throughout, and seems in no degree to 
 have impaired the favor with which he was regarded in New- 
 England. At any rate, he was re-elected, with singular unan- 
 imity, to represent the city of Boston in the nineteenth Congress, 
 and took his seat there anew in December, 1825. 
 
 In both sessions of this Congress, important subjects were dis- 
 cussed, and Mr. Webster bore an important part in them ; but we 
 can now only suggest one or two of them. As chairman of the 
 Judiciary Committee, he introduced the bill for enlarging the 
 number of judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. His 
 views in relation to it are contained in the remarks he made on 
 the occasion, and had great weight with the House ; but the bill 
 was afterwards lost through an amendment of the Senate. So, 
 too, on the question of the Panama mission, involving the points 
 that were first moved in 1796 in the House of Representatives, 
 on occasion of the British Treaty, Mr. Webster has left on record 
 his opinions, doctrines, and feelings, in a speech of great beauty 
 and power, which will always be recurred to, whenever the right 
 of the House of Representatives to advise the executive in rela- 
 tion to the management of foreign missions may come under dis- 
 cussion. But we are compelled to abstain from any further no- 
 tice of them both, by want of room. 
 
 In 1826, he had been elected, we believe, all but unanimously, 
 to represent the city of Boston, in the House of Representatives ; 
 but, before he took his seat, a vacancy having occurred in the 
 Senate, he was chosen to fill it by the Legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, of which, a great majority in both its branches, besides the 
 council and the governor, belonged to the old republican party 
 of the country. He was chosen, too, under circumstances which 
 showed how completely his talents and lofty national bearing had 
 disarmed all political animosities, and how thoroughly that com- 
 monwealth claimed him as her own, and cherished his reputation 
 and influence as a part of her treasures. There was no regular 
 nomination of him from any quarter, nor any regular opposition ; 
 and he received the appointment by a sort of general consent and 
 acclamation, as if it were given with pride and pleasure, as well 
 as with unhesitating confidence and respect. 
 
 How he has borne himself in the Senate during the four ses- 
 sions he has sat there, is known to the whole country. No man 
 has been found tall enough to overshadow him; no man has been 
 able to attract from him, or to intercept from him, the constant 
 regard of the nation. He has been so conspicuous, so prominent, 
 that whatever he has done, and whatever he has said, has been 
 watched and understood throughout the borders of the land, 
 almost as familiarly and thoroughly as it has been at Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 But though the eyes of all have thus been fastened on him in 
 
 E 
 
( 34) 
 
 such a way, that nothing relating to him can have escaped their 
 notice, there is yet one occasion, where he attracted a kind and 
 degree of attention, which, as it is rarely given, is so much the 
 more honorable when it is obtained. We refer now, of course, 
 to the occasion, when, in 1830, he overthrew the doctrines of 
 nullification. Undoubtedly, in one sense of the word, Mr. Web- 
 ster was taken completely by surprise, when these doctrines, for 
 the first time in the history of the country, were announced in 
 the Senate; since he was so far from any particular preparation 
 to meet or answer them, that it was almost by accident he was 
 in his place, when they were so unexpectedly, at least to him and 
 all his friends, brought forth. In another and better sense of the 
 phrase, he was not taken by surprise at all ; for the time was already 
 long gone by, when, on any great question of national interest 
 or constitutional principle, he could be taken unprepared or un- 
 armed. We mean by this, that the discussion of the most impor- 
 tant points in the memorable debate alluded to, came on incident- 
 ally ; or rather that these points were thrust forward by a few 
 individuals, who seemed predetermined to proceed, under cover 
 of them, to the ultimate limits of personal and party violence. 
 
 But the discussion of these doctrines, though new and strange 
 in Congress, and brought on unexpectedly to their adversaries, 
 was nothing new elsewhere. In some portions of the southern 
 country, and especially in South Carolina, the doctrines of nulli- 
 fication, connected, of course, more or less with the thought of a 
 separation from the Union, had been, for nearly two years, 
 familiar to the people. As far as this movement can be traced 
 by any authentic documents, it may be found to have originated 
 in two meetings holden by the South Carolina delegation in Con- 
 gress, at General Hayne's lodgings in Washington, in May, 1S-JS. 
 Prom the correspondence and statements published in relation to 
 these meetings, by Mr. Mitchell, Genera] Hayne himself. Mi 
 
 Martin, Col. Drayton, Major Hamilton, and Mr. Carter, all of 
 whom were present, it appears certain, that they, or most ot 
 them, had already endeavored in vain to unite the difiereni dele- 
 gations of the southern states in such a protest against the tariff, 
 then recently passed, as was deemed desirable; and that they 
 
 now met by themselves to devise some other effectual means ot 
 opposition; — that Major Hamilton was with difficulty prevented 
 l>\ his colleagues from the rash step of vacating his seat in Con- 
 gress, and maintained thai South Carolina could defend berseli 
 
 successfully against the Cnion; — that Mr. .McDullie believed a 
 
 dissolution of we Union inevitable, if the prohibitory system were 
 the settled policy of the country; and that he did not doubt the 
 ability of South Carolina to sustain herself: — and that there was 
 a conversation as to the effects which would he produced bya 
 
 dissolution of the Union; — to all which Col. Drayton opposed 
 himself, and the meetings broke up ft vnfecUL Mr. Mitchell 
 charges these dangerous doctrines more distinctly to individuals 
 and says, that Mr. McDullie declared there was no other remedy 
 
(35) 
 
 for the evil than a separation of South Carolina from the Union, 
 and that he himself (Mr. McDuffie) was prepared to go all lengths. 
 This is denied, but the proceeding was admitted ; and the differ- 
 ence between the two statements is more a difference in the 
 phraseology than in the substance. The tendency of the general 
 opinion of the meeting is not to be mistaken. 
 
 This was in May. In June, the effects of such a state of ex- 
 citement among their representatives, and of the causes that 
 produced it, were already apparent among the people of South 
 Carolina. On the 12th of that month, a popular meeting was 
 holden in the Colleton District, which sent forth an address to the 
 whole state, unanimously " advising," to use their own words, 
 " an attitude of open resistance to the laws of the Union." On the 
 26th of July, a meeting of 3000 persons was holden at Edgefield 
 Court-house, which passed resolutions of the same tone; and 
 where, at a public dinner on the same day, Mr. McDuffie gave 
 for a toast, " The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Tariff of 1828, 
 " kindred acts of despotism ; — when our oppressors trace the 
 " parallel, let them remember, that we are descendants of a noble 
 " ancestry, and profit by the admonitions of history." — a senti- 
 ment and threat fully equal to the " whole length's doctrine" im- 
 puted to him by his colleague, Mr. Mitchell. Other meetings 
 were held, and the same tone of excitement was kept up by the 
 same means of addresses and speeches, dinners and toasts. 
 
 At last, in the autumn, the Legislature of South Carolina was 
 assembled. The subject was brought before them by the Gover- 
 nor; a committee, consisting of able and leading men. was ap- 
 pointed to report on it;* and on the 19th of December, they pro- 
 duced what they termed an Exposition to the Legislature of the 
 State, and a Protest to Congress. This Exposition and Protest 
 constitute an important and memorable document. The doctrines 
 of nullification, which it was then thought could be established 
 and enforced, and to strengthen which the whole summer had 
 been a campaign of preparation, are here produced by the Legis- 
 lature of South Carolina in bold relief, and in their most imposing 
 form. Whatever may be thought of their reasoning, their con- 
 clusions and results are, at least, clearly stated, and not at all dis- 
 guised. The general importance, too, of the whole is not a little 
 increased by the circumstance, often stated and generally believed, 
 that we owe this document, not to the committee by which it was 
 reported, but to a distinguished citizen of South Carolina, holding 
 one of the highest places in the gift of the people of the United 
 
 * The resolution of the House of Representatives of South Carolina, under which 
 the above committee acted, should not be forgotten : — 
 
 " Resolved, That it is expedient to protest against the unconstitutionality and op- 
 pressive operation of the system of protecting duties, and to have such protest entered 
 on the journal of the Senate of the United States. Also to make a public exposition 
 of our wrongs and offAe remedies irithin our power, to be communicated toour sister 
 states, with a request that they will co-operate with this state in procuring a repeal of 
 the Tariff for protection ; and, if the repeal be not procured, tliat they will co-operate in 
 suck measures as may be necessary for arresting the evil." 
 
(36) 
 
 States, in that Union, which it is the unquestionable tendency of 
 this very " Exposition and Protest" to break up and overthrow. 
 
 The doctrines clearly announced in it are, 1. That it is a most 
 erroneous and dangerous proposition to maintain, that the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States has constitutional authority to 
 decide on the extent of the powers of a state government; its 
 decisions being final only when applied to the authorities of 
 Departments of the General Government. 2. That " universal 
 experience" (lest we should seem to do the distinguished author 
 injustice, we cite the very words) — that " universal experience, 
 " in all ages and countries, teaches, that power can only be met 
 " by power, and not by reason and justice, and that all restrictions 
 « on authority, unsustained by an equal antagonist power, must 
 " for ever prove wholly insufficient in practice. Such," he adds, 
 " also has been the decisive proof of our own short experience." 
 3. That the right of judging and finally deciding on the extent of 
 their own powers, is an essential attribute of sovereignty, of 
 which the states are not and cannot be divested. 4. That power 
 being divided between the General Government and the State 
 Governments, it is impossible to deny to the states the right of 
 deciding on the infraction of their own rights, and the proper 
 remedy to be applied for the correction. 5. " But the existence," 
 here we quote the very words again, lest it should seem incredi- 
 ble that such a position had been taken ;— u But the existence of 
 " the right of judging of their powers, clearly established from the 
 " sovereignty of the states, as clearly implies a veto, or control 
 
 OX THE ACTION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, On Contested points 
 
 of authority; and this very control is the remedy which the constitu- 
 tion has pruritic! u> prevent the encroachment of the Gem r,it Govern- 
 ment on the reserved rights of the states." 6. The practical result of 
 the foregoing doctrines is then stated in the following words: — 
 " TIkii Sere exists a case (the Tariff) which would justify the in- 
 *' terposition of this state, and thereby compel the Gene;! I Govern- 
 " ment to abandon an unconstitutional power, or to make an 
 ■•appeal to the amending power to confer it by express grant, 
 <* the committee does not in the least doubt, and they art equally 
 " clear in the existence of a necessity to justify its exercise, it the 
 " General Government should continue to persist in itsunproper 
 " assumption of powers belonging to the state; which brings them 
 " to the last point which they propose to consider — When would 
 - it be proper to exercise this high power?" 
 
 Such was the condition of this momentous question, when, as 
 the next step in the developmenl of doctrines thus plainly tending 
 to brin- South Carolina into open hostility to the Union, it was , 
 thrust forward into the Senate of the United States by General 
 llayne. under cover of another subject, with which it had no 
 proper connexion. Mr. Foot's resolution to inquire respecting the 
 sales and the surveys of western lands, was the innocent cause of 
 the whole conflict ' It was introduced on the 29th of December, 
 1829; and was not then expected by its author, or, perhaps, by 
 
(37) 
 
 anybody else, to excite much discussion, or lead to any very im- 
 portant results. When it was introduced Mr. Webster was ab- 
 sent from Washington. Two days afterwards he took his scat. 
 The resolution hud, indeed, called forth a few remarks, somewhat 
 severe, the day after it was presented, and then had been post- 
 poned to the next Monday ; but, apparently from want of interest 
 in its fate, or from the pressure of more important business, it 
 was not called up by the mover till January 13. From this time, 
 a partial discussion began ; but it lingered rather listlessly, and, 
 in fact, really rose even to skirmishing only one day, until the 
 19th, when General Hayne, in a vehement and elaborate speech, 
 attacked the New-England states for what he considered their 
 selfish opposition to the interests of the West ; and endeavored to 
 show that a natural sympathy existed between the southern and 
 western states, upon the distribution and sales of the public lands, 
 which would necessarily make them a sort of natural allies. With 
 this speech, of course, the war broke out. 
 
 While it was delivering, Mr. Webster entered the Senate. He 
 came from the Supreme Court of the United States; and the 
 papers in his hands showed how far his thoughts w r ere from the 
 subjects and the tone, which now at once reached him. As soon 
 as General Hayne sat down, he rose to reply ; but Mr. Benton of 
 Missouri, with many compliments to General Hayne, and appa- 
 rently willing the Senate should have all the leisure necessary to 
 consider and feel the eifects of his speech, moved an adjournment. 
 Mr. Webster good-naturedly consented. Of course, he had the 
 floor the next day ; and in a speech, which will not be forgotten 
 by the present generation, poured out stores of knowledge long 
 before accumulated, in relation to the history of the public lands 
 and to the legislation concerning them; defending the policy of 
 the government towards the new states, showing the dangerous 
 tendency of the doctrines respecting the Constitution, current in 
 South Carolina, ami .sanctioned by General Hayne ; and repelling 
 the general charges and reproaches cast on New-England, espe- 
 cially the charge of hostility to the West, which, — if there was 
 meaning in words or acts, — he proved to be distinctly applicable 
 to the language and votes of the South Carolina delegation in the 
 House of Representatives in 1825. The war was thus, at once, 
 carried into the enemy's country. 
 
 The next day, January 21, it being well known that Mr. Web- 
 ster had urgent business, which called him again into the Supreme 
 Court of the United States-, one of the members from Maryland 
 moved an adjournment of the debate. It would, perhaps, have 
 been only what is customary and courteous, if the request had 
 been granted. But General Hayne objected. " The gentleman." 
 he said, "had discharged his weapon, and he (Mr. H.) wished 
 for an opportunity to return the fire." To which Mr. Webster 
 having replied ; — " I am ready to receive it ; let the discussion go 
 on ;" — the debate was resumed. Mr. Benton then concluded some 
 
(38) 
 
 unimportant remarks he had begun the day before; and Mr. 
 Hayne rose, and opened a speech, which occupied the Senate 
 the remainder of that day, and the whole of the day following. 
 It Was a vigorous speech, embracing a great number of topics 
 and grounds; — calling in question the fairness of New-England, 
 the consistency of Mr. Webster, and the patriotism of the State 
 of Massachusetts; and ending with a bold, acute, and elabo- 
 rated exposition and defence of the doctrines now, for the first 
 time, formally developed in Congress, and since well known by 
 the name of the Doctrines of Nullification. The first part of the 
 speech was caustic and personal ; the latter part of it grave and 
 argumentative ; and the whole was delivered in presence of an 
 audience, which any man might be proud to have collected to 
 listen to him. 
 
 Mr. Webster took notes during its delivery; and it was appa- 
 rent to the crowd, which, for two days, had thronged the senate- 
 chamber, that he intended to reply. Indeed, on this point, he was 
 permitted no choice. He had been assailed in a way, which call- 
 ed for an answer. When, therefore, the doors of the senate- 
 chamber were opened the next morning, the rush for admittance 
 was unprecedented. Mr. Webster had the Moor, and ruse. The 
 first division of his speech is in reply to parts and details of his 
 adversary's personal assault, — and is a happy, though seven- 
 specimen of the keenest spirit of genuine debate and retort ; — 
 for Mr. Webster is one of those dangerous adversaries, who are 
 never so formidable or so brilliant, as when they are most rudely 
 pressed; — for thru, as in the phosphorescence of the ocean, the 
 degree of the violence urged, may always be taken as the mea- 
 sure of the brightness that is to follow. On the present occasion, 
 his manner was cool, entirely self-possessed, and perfectly de- 
 cided, and carried his irony as far as irony can go. There are 
 portions of this first day's discussion, like the passage relating to 
 the charge of sleeping on the speech, he had answered : the one 
 in allusion to Banquo's ghost, which had been unhappii\ conjured 
 up by his adversary : and the rejoinder respecting "one Nathan 
 
 Dai I' Beverly, in Massachusetts," — which will not be forgotten. 
 
 The very ti >nes in which they were Uttered, still vibrate in the ears 
 of those who heard them. There are, also, other and graver 
 portions of it, — like those which respect the course of legislation 
 in regard to the new states: the conduct >4' the North in regard 
 to slavery, and the doctrine of internal improvements, — which 
 are in the most powerful style of parliamentary dehate. As he 
 approaches the conclusion of this first great division <d his 
 speech, he rises to the loftiest tone of national feeling, entirely 
 above the dim, misty region of sectional or party passjon and 
 
 prejudice: — 
 
 " The ealogtUBI pronounced on the character of the. state of South Carolina, by the 
 honorable gentleman, tor her revolutionary and other merits, meet* my hearty con- 
 currence. 1 shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes before me in 
 
(39) 
 
 regard for whatever of distinguished talent, or distinguished character, South Carolina 
 has produced. I claim part of the honor, I partake in the pride, of her great names. 
 I claim them for countrymen, one and all. The Laurences, the Rutlcdges, the Pinck- 
 neys, the Sumpters, the Marions — Americans, all — whose fame is no more to be 
 hemmed in by state lines, than their talents and patriotism were capable of being 
 circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In their day and generation, they 
 served and honored the country, and the whole country ; and their renown is of the 
 treasures of the whole country. Him, whose honored name the gentleman himself 
 bears — does he esteem me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy 
 for his sufferings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of Massachusetts, 
 instead of South Carolina ? Sir, does he suppose it in his power to exhibit a Carolina 
 name, so bright, as to produce envy in my bosom ? No, Sir, increased gratification 
 and delight, rather. I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which 
 is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, 
 which would drag angels down. When I shall be found, Sir, in my place here, in 
 the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happens to spring up 
 beyond the little limits of my own state, or neighborhood ; when I refuse, for any such 
 cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to 
 sincere devotion to liberty and the country ; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of 
 Heaven — if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the South — and if, 
 moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by state jealousy, I get up here to abate the 
 tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth ! 
 
 "Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections — let me indulge in refreshing remem- 
 brance of the past — let me remind you that in early times, no states cherished 
 greater harmony, both of principle and feeling-, than Massachusetts and South Caro- 
 lina. Would to God that harmony might again return! shoulder to shoulder they 
 went through the revolution — hand in hand they stood round the administration of 
 Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, 
 if it exist, alienation and distrust, are the growth, unnatural to such soils, of false 
 principles since sown. They are weeds, tlie seeds of which that same great arm 
 never scattered. 
 
 " Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts — she needs 
 none. There she is — behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history : 
 the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and 
 Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill — and there they will remain for ever. The 
 bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled 
 with the soil of every state, from New-England to Georgia ; and there they will lie 
 for ever. And, Sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth 
 was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood and 
 full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it — if party strife and 
 blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it — if folly and madness — if uneasiness, under 
 salutary and necessary restraint — shall succeed to separate it from that union, by 
 which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that 
 cradle in which its infancy was rocked : it will stretch forth its arm with whatever 
 of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gather round it ; and it will tail at 
 last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very 
 spot of its origin." Pages 406, 407. 
 
 The next day, Mr. Webster went into a grave and formal ex- 
 amination of the doctrines of nullification, or the right of the state 
 legislatures to interfere, whenever, in their judgment, the general 
 government transcends its constitutional limits, and to arrest the 
 operation of its laws. Four days had hardly elapsed, since this 
 doctrine had been announced with an air of assured success in 
 the Senate; and these four days had been filled with active debate 
 and contest. Of course, here again, there had been neither time 
 nor opportunity for especial preparation. Happily, too, there 
 was no need of it. The fund, on which the demand was so tri- 
 umphantly made, was equal to the draft, great and unexpected as 
 it was. Mr. Webster's mind is full of constitutional law and 
 
(40) 
 
 legislation. On all such subjects, he needs no forecast, no prepa- 
 ration, no brief; — and, on this occasion, he had none. He but 
 uttered opinions and arguments, which had grown mature with 
 his years and his judgment, and which were as familiar to him 
 as household words. We have, therefore, no elaborate, docu- 
 mentary discussions, — no citation of books or authorities. It is 
 with principles, great constitutional principles, he deals: and it is 
 in plain, direct arguments, which all can understand, that he de- 
 fends them. There is nothing technical, nothing abstruse, nothing 
 indirect, either in the subject or its explanation. On the contrary, 
 all is straight-forward — obvious — to the purpose. For instance, 
 after stating the question at issue to be, " whose prerogative is it, 
 to decide on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the lawsV 
 he "oes on : — 
 
 £T 
 
 " This leads us to inquire into the origin of this government, and the source of its 
 power. Whose agent is it? Is it the creature of the state legislatures, or the creature 
 of the people ? If the government of the United States be the agent of the state 
 governments, then they may control it, provided they can agree in the manner of 
 controlling it ; if it be the agent of the people, then the people alone can control it, 
 restrain it, modify, or reform it. It is observable enough, that the doctrine for which 
 the honorable gentleman contends, leads him to the necessity of maintaining, not 
 only that this general government is the creature of the states, but that it is the 
 creature of each of the slates severally ; so that each may assert the power, for itself, 
 of determining whether it acts within the limits of its authority. It is the servant 
 of four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and different purposes, and yet bound 
 to obey all. This absurdity (for it seems no less) arises from a misconception as to 
 the origin of this government and its true character. It is, Sir, the people's constitu- 
 tion, the people's government, — made for the people, — made by the people, — and an- 
 swerable to the people. The people of the United States have declared that this con- 
 stitution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition, or dispute 
 their authority. The states arc, unquestionably, sovereign, BQ far as their sove- 
 n ignty is not affected by this supreme law. But the state Legislatures, as political 
 bodies, however sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people. So far as the peo- 
 ple have given power to the general government, so far the arrant is unquestionably 
 food, and the government holds of the people, and not of the state governments. 
 we are all agents of the same supreme power, the people. — The general government 
 and the state governments derive their authority from the same source. Neither can, 
 in relation to the other, be called primary, though one is definite and restricted, and 
 the other general and residuary. The national government possesses those p ower i 
 which it can be shown the people have Conferred on it, and no more. All the rest 
 
 belongs to the state governments, or to the people themselves. So tar as the people 
 have restrained state sovereignty, by the expression of their will, in the constitution of 
 the United Slates, so far, it must be admitted, state sovereignty is effectually con- 
 trolled. I do not contend that it is, or ought to be controlled farther. The sentiment 
 to which I have referred, propounds that state sovereignty is only to be controlled by 
 own ' fa 1 1 1 1 ir of justice;' that is to say, it is not to be controlled at all; for one 
 who is to follow Ins own feelings is under do legal control. — Now, h o we ver men may 
 
 think this ought to In, the tact is, that the people of the United States have ehosi n to 
 impose control on state sovereignties. There are those, doubtll ss, who wish they had 
 
 been left without restraint ; but the constitution has ordered the matter differ e n tly. 
 To make war, far instance, k an exercise of sovereignty; but the oonst i t nti sn declares 
 that do state shall make war To coin money is another exercise of sovereign power, 
 
 but DO state is at liberty to com money. Again, the constitution says that no so\ ( reign 
 
 state shall be so sovereign as to make a treaty. These prohibitions, it must be 
 
 Confessed, are a control on the state sovereignty of South Carolina, as well as of 
 the other states, which does notarise 'from her own feelings of honorable justice ' 
 Such an opinion, therefore, is in defiance of the plainest provisions of the constitu 
 Hon." I'ages 111), 111 
 
(41 ) 
 
 Again, what can be more sure and convincing than such plain 
 reasoning as this : — 
 
 " I maintain, that, between submission to the decision of the constituted tribunals, 
 and revolution, or disunion, there is no middle ground — there is no ambiguous condi- 
 tion, half allegiance, and half rebellion. And, Sir, how futile, how very futile it is, 
 to admit the right of state interference, and then attempt to save it from the charac- 
 ter of unlawful resistance, by adding terms of qualification to the causes, and occa- 
 sions, leaving all these qualifications, like the case itself, in the discretion of the state 
 governments. It must be a clear case, it is said, a deliberate case ; a palpable case ; 
 a dangerous case. But then the state is still lett at liberty to decide for herself, what 
 is clear, what is deliberate, what is palpable, what is dangerous. Do adjectives and 
 epithets avail any thing ? Sir, the human mind is so constituted, that the merits of 
 both sides of a controversy appear very clear, and very palpable, to those who re- 
 spectively espouse them ; and both sides usually grow clearer as the controversy 
 advances. South Carolina sees unconstitutionality in the tariff; she sees oppression 
 there, also ; and she sees danger. Pennsylvania, with a vision not less sharp, looks 
 at the same tariff, and sees no such thing in it — she sees it all constitutional, all useful, 
 all safe. The faith of South Carolina is strengthened by opposition, and she now not 
 only sees, but resolves, that the tariff is palpably unconstitutional, oppressive and 
 dangerous : but Pennsylvania, not to be behind her neighbors, and equally willing to 
 strengthen her own faith by a confident asseveration, resolves, also, and gives to every 
 warm affirmative of South Carolina, a plain, downright, Pennsylvania negative. South 
 Carolina, to show the strength and unity of her opinion, brings her assembly to a 
 unanimity, within seven voices ; Pennsylvania, not to be outdone in this respect more 
 than others, reduces her dissentient fraction to a single vote. Now, Sir, again, I ask 
 the gentleman, what is to be done ? Are these states both right ? Is he bound to 
 consider them both right 1 If not, which is in the wrong ? — or rather, which has the 
 best right to decide ? And if he, and if I, are not to know what the constitution 
 means, and what it is, till those two state legislatures, and the twenty-two others, 
 shall agree in its construction, what have we sworn to, when we have sworn to main- 
 tain it ? I was forcibly struck, Sir, with one reflection, as the gentleman went on 
 in his speech. He quoted Mr. Madison's resolution, to prove that a state may inter- 
 fere, in a case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of a power not granted. 
 The honorable member supposes the tariff law to be such an exercise of power; 
 and that, consequently, a case has arisen in which the state may, if it see fit, interfere 
 by its own law. Now, it so happens, nevertheless, that Mr. Madison deems this same 
 tariff law quite constitutional. Instead of a clear and palpable violation, it is, in his 
 judgment, no violation at all. So that, while they use his authority for a hypothetical 
 case, they reject it in the very case before them. All this, Sir, shows the inherent — 
 futility — I had almost used a stronger word — of conceding this power of interference 
 to the states, and then attempting to secure it from abuse by imposing qualifications, 
 of which the states themselves are to judge. One of two things is true ; either the 
 laws of the Union arc beyond the discretion, and beyond the control of the states ; or 
 else we have no constitution of general government, and arc thrust back again to the 
 days of the confederacy." Pp. 416, 417. 
 
 This is a striking fact about Mr. Madison ; but one still more 
 striking occurred after the publication of the speech. His great 
 name and authority had been constantly and confidently appealed 
 to, not only in this debate, by General Hayne, but, on previous oc- 
 casions, by other favorers of the South Carolina doctrines, until 
 at last it began to be almost feared, that Mr. Madison sustained 
 the positions of the nullifiers. But as he had already shown that 
 the tariff law was quite constitutional, so, now, with no less 
 promptness and power, he came out against the whole doctrine 
 of nullification, and showed that his resolutions of 1798, on which 
 its friends had rested the wild fabric of their argument, as its main 
 pillars, had nothing to do with it; and thus, in conjunction with 
 what had been done in the Senate, brought down the whole tem- 
 
 F 
 
( 42) 
 
 pie they had built with such pains and cost, upon the heads of their 
 uncircumcised presumption and extravagance. His letter, in- 
 deed, on this subject, is one of the most characteristic efforts of 
 his great wisdom, and one of the most important results of this 
 discussion, since it took from the advocates of nullification all the 
 support of his authority — the magni nominis umbra — the shade 
 and shelter of his great name. 
 
 But to return to Mr. Webster ; the general tone of the last half 
 of his speech is uncommonly grave and imposing ; but there is 
 one passage in which a lighter accent is assumed. It is that in 
 which he runs out General Hayne's nullifying doctrine into prac- 
 tice, and sets him, as a military man, to execute his own nullify- 
 ing law. The argument of this passage is the more efficacious, 
 because it is concealed under so much wit and good-humor. 
 
 " And now, Mr. President, let me run the honorable gentleman's doctrine a little 
 into its practical application. Let us look at his probable modus operandi. If a thing 
 can be done, an ingenious man can tell how it is to be done. Now, I wish to be in- 
 formed, how this state interference is to be put in practice. We will take the existing 
 case of the tariff law. South Carolina is said to have made up her opinion upon it. 
 If we do not repeal it, (as we probably shall not), she will then apply to the case the 
 remedy of her doctrine. She will, we must suppose, pass a law of her legislature, 
 declaring the several acts of Congress, usually called the Tariff Laws, null and void, 
 so far as they respect South Carolina, or the citizens thereof. So far, all is a paper 
 transaction, and easy enough. But the collector at Charleston, is collecting the du- 
 ties imposed by these tariff laws— he, therefore, must be stopped. The collector will 
 seize the goods if the tariff duties are not paid. The state authorities will undertake 
 their rescue; the marshal, with his posse, will come to the collector's aid, and here 
 the contest begins. The militia of the state will be called out to sustain the nullify- 
 ing act. They will march, Sir, under a very gallant leader : for 1 believe the honor- 
 able member himself commands the militia of that part of the state. He will r . 
 the Nullifying Act on his standard, and spread it out as his banner. It will have a 
 preamble, bearing that the tariff laws are palpable, deliberate, and dangerous viola- 
 tions of the Constitution ! He will proceed, with his banner Hying, to the custom- 
 house in Charleston ; 
 
 ■ Ail the while, 
 Sonorous metal blowing martial Bounds.' 
 
 \rrivcd at the custom-house, he will till the collector that he must collect no more du- 
 tiea undi t any of the tariff laws. This, he will be somewhat puzzled to say. by the 
 way, with a grave countenance, considering what hand South Carolina herself had in 
 that of 1816. Hut, Sir, the collector would, probably, not desist, at his bidding. He 
 would show him the law of Congress, the treasury instruction, and his own oath of 
 office. Hewouldsay, he should perform his duty, come what might Here would 
 i iisiir a |>;ms. ■ : tor they Bay that a certain stillness precedes tin- tempest Tile trump- 
 • would Imld his breath awhile, and before all this military array should fall on the 
 
 custom-house, collector, clerks, and all, it is very probable some of those composing it. 
 ,1,1 request of their gallant commander-in-chief, to be informed a little upon Uic 
 point of law ; '<»r they have, doubtless, a just respect ti>r Ins opinions as a lawyer, as 
 well as tor his bravery as a soldier. They know he has read lllackstonc and tin ( '.mi- 
 stitiiiii.n, as well a- Turenneand Vauban. Hey would ask him, therefore, something 
 c terning their rights In this matter. They would inquire, whether it was not some- 
 what dangerous t<> resist a law of the United States. What would be the nature of 
 their offence, the; would wish to learn, if they, by military force and array, resisted 
 the execution in Carolina of a law of the United States, and it should turn out, after 
 all, that the law irn* constitutional ' lie would answer, of course, treason. No law- 
 yer could ghre any other answer. John Pries, he would tell them, had learned that 
 
 some years ago. How, then, they would ask, do you propose to defend us f We arc 
 DOt afraid of bullets, hut treason has a way of taking people off, that we do not much 
 relish. How do you propose to defend us ? ' Look at my floating banner,' he would 
 
(43) 
 
 reply, 'see there the nullifying law!' Is it your opinion, gallant commander, they 
 would then say, that if we should be indicted for treason, that same floating' banner 
 of yours would make a good plea in bar ? ' South Carolina is a sovereign state,' he 
 would reply. That is true — but would the judge admit our plea 7 ' These tarifFlaws,' 
 he would repeat, ' are unconstitutional, palpably, deliberately, dangerously.' That 
 all may be so; but if the tribunal should not happen to be of that opinion, shall we 
 swing for it ? We are ready to die for our country, but it is rather an awkward busi- 
 ness, this dying without touching the ground ! Alter all, that is a sort of hemp-tax, 
 worse than any part of the tariff 
 
 " Mr. President, the honorable gentleman would be in a dilemma, like that of another 
 great general. lie would have a knot before him which he could not untie. He must 
 cut it with his sword. He must say to his followers, ' Defend yourselves with your 
 bayonets ;' and this is war — civil war." pp. 421, 422. 
 
 After this his tone becomes even more grave and solemn than 
 before, until, when he approaches the conclusion, he bursts forth 
 with the expression of feelings of attachment to the Union and the 
 Constitution, which it seemed no longer possible for him to sup- 
 press. 
 
 " Mr. President, (he says) I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doc- 
 trines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of having detain- 
 ed you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate, with no previ- 
 ous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a sub- 
 ject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to 
 suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I cannot, even now, persuade 
 myself to relinquish it, without expressing, once more, my deep conviction, that, since 
 it respects nothing less than the union of the states, it is of most vital and essential 
 importance to the public happiness. I profess, Sir, in my career, hitherto, to have 
 kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preser- 
 vation of our federal union. — It is to that union we owe our safety at home, and our 
 consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that union thai we are chiefly indebted for 
 whatever makes us most proud of our country. That union we reached only by the 
 discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the 
 necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its 
 benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and 
 sprung forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh 
 proofs of its utility and its blessings ; and, although our territory has stretched out 
 wider and wider, and our population spread further and farther, they have not outrun 
 its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, 
 and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, Sir, to look beyond the union, to 
 see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the 
 chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken 
 asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to 
 see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below ; nor 
 could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose 
 thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the union should be best pre- 
 served, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken 
 up and destroyed. While the union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects 
 spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the 
 veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant, that 
 on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. — When my eyes shall be turned 
 to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the 
 broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union ; on states dissevered, dis- 
 cordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in frater- 
 nal blood ! — Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather behold the gorgeous en- 
 sign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- 
 vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or 
 polluted, nor a single star obscured — bearing for its motto, no such miserable inter- 
 rogatory, as What is all this worth ? Nor those other words of delusion and folly. 
 Liberty first, anil Union afterwards — but everywhere, spread all over in characters of 
 living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, 
 and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true 
 American heart — Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable '." 
 
(44) 
 
 Mr. Hayne replied in a short speech on the constitutional ques- 
 tion, which he afterwards expanded in the newspapers into a long 
 one ; and Mr. Webster immediately rejoined in the following brief 
 remarks, which for syllogistic exactness and power can hardly 
 be paralleled, and which carry with them all the force and con- 
 clusiveness of which moral demonstration is susceptible. No at- 
 tempt, we believe, has been made to answer them, and though it 
 may be thought expedient or necessary to abuse both the remarks 
 themselves and their distinguished author, we suspect no direct 
 answer will be hazarded, or if any one shall venture it, we neither 
 envy his boldness nor doubt its consequences. 
 
 ■ A few words, Mr. President, on this constitutional argument, which the honora- 
 ble gentleman has labored to reconstruct. 
 
 " His argument consists of two propositions, and an inference. His propositions 
 
 are : — 
 
 " 1. That the Constitution is a compact between the States. 
 
 " 2. That a compact between two, with authority reserved to one to interpret its 
 terms, would be a surrender to that one, of all power whatever. 
 
 " 3. Therefore, (such is his inference) the General Government does not possess 
 the authority to construe its own powers. 
 
 " Now, Sir, who does not see, without the aid of exposition or detection, Uie utter 
 confusion of ideas, involved in this, so elaborate and systematic argument. 
 
 " The Constitution, it is said, is a compact betxeeen States ; if so, the States, then, 
 and the States only, are parties to the eompact. How comes Uie General Government 
 itself a party ? Upon the honorable gentleman's hypothesis, the General Government 
 is the result of the compact, the creature of the compact, not one of the parties to it. 
 Yet the argument, as the gentleman lias now stated it, makes the Government itself 
 one of its own creators. It makes it a party to that compaet, to which it owes its 
 own existence. 
 
 " For the purpose of erecting the Constitution on the basis of a compact, the gen- 
 tleman considers the States as parties to that compact ; but as soon as his compact is 
 made, then he chooses to consider the General Government, which is the (rippling 
 of that compact, not its offspring, but one of its parties; and so, being a party, has 
 not the power of judging on the terms of compact. Pray, Sir, in what school is such 
 reasoning as this taught ? 
 
 " If the whole of the gentleman's main proposition were conceded to him. that is to 
 say — if 1 admit for the sake of the argument, that the Constitution is a compact be- 
 tween States, the inferences, which he draws from that proposition, are warranted 
 by no just reason. Because, if the Constitution be a compact between States, still, 
 that Constitution, or that compact, has established a Government, with pertain pow- 
 ers; and whether it be one of those powers, that it shall construe and interpret for 
 itself, the b rma of the compact, in doubtful cases, is a question which can only be 
 decided by looking to the compact, and inquiring what provisions it contains on this 
 point Without any inconsistency with natural reason, the Government, even thus 
 created, might be trusted with this power of construction. The extent of its powers. 
 therefore, must still be Bought for in the instrument itself. 
 
 ■• [fthe old Confederation had contained a clause, declaring thai resolutions of the 
 
 Congress should be the supreme law of the land, any state law or constitution to the 
 contrary notwithstanding, and that a committee of Congress, or any other body 
 created by it, should possess judicial powers, extending to all cases arising under 
 resolutions of Congress, then the power of ultimate decision would have bei n vested in 
 Congress, under the Confederation, although that Confederation was a compact be- 
 tween States; and, for this plain reason: that it would haw been competent to tin- 
 States, who alone were parties to the compact, to agree, who should decide, in eases 
 of dispute arising on the con traction of the compact 
 
 - For the same reason. Sir, if I were now to eoneede to tin gentleman his principal 
 proposition, viz. that the Constitution is u compaet between States, the question would 
 
 still be, what provision is made, in this compaet, to settle points of disputed construc- 
 tion, fir contested power, that shall come into controversy 7 and this question would 
 
 still be answered, and COnclusivelj answered, by the Constitution itself. While U)0 
 gentleman is contending against construction, he himself is setting up the most loose 
 
(45) 
 
 and dangerous construction. The Constitution declares, that the laws of Congres* 
 shall be the supreme law of the land. No construction is necessary here. It declares, 
 also, with equal plainness and precision, that the Judicial power of the United States 
 shall extend to every case arising under the laws of Congress. This needs no con- 
 struction. Here is a law, then, which is declared to be supreme ; and here is a power 
 established, which is to interpret that law. Now, Sir, how has the gentleman met 
 this 1 Suppose the Constitution to be a compact, yet here are its terms, and how 
 does the gentleman get rid of them ? He cannot argue the seal off the bond, nor the 
 words out of the instrument. Here they arc — what answer does he give to them ? 
 None in the world, Sir, except that the effect of this would be to place the States in 
 a condition of inferiority ; and because it results, from the very nature of things, there 
 being no superior, that the parties must be their own judges ! Thus closely and co- 
 gently docs the honorable gentleman reason on the words of the Constitution. The 
 gentleman says, if there be such a power of final decision in the General Government, 
 he asks for the grant of that power. Well, Sir, I show him the grant — I turn him to 
 the very words — I show him that the laws of Congress are made supreme ; and that 
 the Judicial power extends, by express words, to the interpretation of these laws. In- 
 stead of answering this, he retreats into the general reflection, that it must result from 
 the nature of things, that the States, being parties, must judge for themselves. 
 
 "I have admitted, that, if the Constitution were to be considered as the creattre 
 of the State Governments, it might be modified, interpreted, or construed, according- 
 to their pleasure. But, even in that case, it would be necessary that they shoild 
 agree. One, alone, could not interpret it conclusively ; one, alone, could not constne 
 it ; one, alone, could not modify it. Yet the gentleman's doctrine is, that Caroliia, 
 alone, may construe and interpret that compact which equally binds all, and gi'ts 
 equal rights to all. 
 
 " So then, Sir, even supposing the Constitution to be a compact between the Sta.es> 
 the gentleman's doctrine, nevertheless, is not maintainable ; because, first, the Gen- 
 eral Government is not a party to that compact, but a Government established by it,, 
 and vested by it with the powers of trying and deciding doubtful questions; and, sec- 
 ondly, because, if the Constitution be regarded as a compact, not one State only, but 
 all the States, are parties to that compact, and one can have no right to fix upon it .ier 
 own peculiar construction. 
 
 " So much, Sir, for the argument, even if the premises of the gentleman were 
 granted, or could be proved. But, Sir, the gentleman has failed to maintain his lead- 
 ing proposition. He has not shown, it cannot be shown, that the Constitution is a 
 compact between State Governments. The Constitution itself, in its very front, re- 
 futes that idea : it declares that it is ordained and established by the People of the Un- 
 fed States. So far from saying that it is established by the Governments of the s( ■<- 
 ral States, it does not even say that it is established by the People of the sectral 
 States ; but it pronounces that it is established by the People of the United States in 
 the aggregate. The gentleman says, it must mean no more than the People of the 
 several States. Doubtless, the People of the several States, taken collectively, consti- 
 tute the People of the United States ; but it is in this, their collective capacity, it is is alJ 
 the people of the United States, that they establish the Constitution. So they decarc ; 
 and words cannot be plainer than the words used. 
 
 " When the gentleman says the Constitution is a compact between the States, he 
 uses language exactly applicable to the old confederation. He speaks as if he were- 
 in Congress before 1789. He describes fully that old stale of things then cxisUng. 
 The confederation was, in strictness, a compact; the States, as States, were parties to 
 it. We had no other General Government. But that was found insufficient, and 
 inadequate to the public exigencies. The people were not satisfied with it, and un- 
 dertook to establish a better. They undertook to form a General Government, which 
 should stand on a new basis — and a confederacy, not a league, not a compact between 
 states, but a constitution ; a popular government, founded in popular election, directly 
 responsible to the people themselves, and divided into branches, with prescribed 
 limits of power, and prescribed duties. They ordained such a government; they 
 gave it the name of a Constitution, and therein they established a distribution of 
 powers between this, their General Government, and their several State Governments. 
 When they shall become dissatisfied with this distribution, they can alter it. Their 
 own power over their own instrument remains. But until they shall alter it, it must 
 stand as their will, and is equally binding on the General Government and on the 
 States. 
 
 " The gentleman, Sir, finds analogy, where I see none. He likens it to the case 
 
(46) 
 
 of a treaty, in which, there being no common superior, each party must interpret for 
 itself, under iU own obligation of good faith. But this is not a treaty, but a constitu- 
 tion of government, with powers to execute itself, and fulfil its duties. 
 
 " I admit, Sir, that this Government is a Government of checks and balances ; that 
 is, the House of Representatives is a check on the Senate, and the Senate is a check 
 on the House, and the President a check on both. But I cannot comprehend him, 
 or, if I do, I totally differ from him, when he applies the notion of checks and bal- 
 ances to the interference of different Governments. He argues, that if we transgress, 
 each State, as a State, has a right to check us. Does he admit the converse of the 
 proposition, that we have a right to check the States? The gentleman's doctrines 
 would give us a strange jumble of authorities and powers, instead of Governments of 
 separate and defined powers. It is the part of wisdom, I think, to avoid this ; and to 
 keep the General Government and the State Governments, each in its proper sphere, 
 avoiding, as carefully as possible, every kind of interference. 
 
 "Finally, Sir, the honorable gentleman says, that the States will only interfere, by 
 their power, to preserve the Constitution. They will not destroy it, they will not im- 
 pair it — they will only save, they will only preserve, they will only strengthen it ! 
 Ah ! Sir, this is but the old story. All regulated Governments, all free Governments, 
 have been broken up by similar disinterested and well-disposed interference ! It is 
 the common pretence. But I take leave of the subject." 
 
 With these remarks the discussion ended, as between Mr. 
 Vebster and General Hayne. It was afterwards continued, how- 
 ever, for several weeks, and a majority, or nearly a majority, 
 of the whole Senate took part in it ; but whenever it is now recol- 
 lected or referred to, the contest between the two principal 
 ■speakers, from the 19th to the 23d of January, is, we believe, 
 generally intended. 
 
 The results of this memorable debate are already matter of 
 history. The vast audience that had contended for admission to 
 the senate-chamber, till entrance became dangerous, were the first 
 to feel and make known its effect; for, with his peculiar power 
 of explaining abtruse and technical subjects, so that all can com- 
 prehend them, Mr. Webster there expounded a greal doctrine of 
 the constitution, which had been powerfully assailed, so that all 
 ini^ht feel the foundations on which it rests, to have been consoli- 
 dated rather than disturbed by the attempt to shake them. Their 
 verdict, therefore, was given at the time, and heard throughout 
 the country. But since that day, when the crowd came out of 
 the senate-chamber rejoicing in the victory which had been 
 achieved for the constitution, nearly twenty editions of the same 
 argument have been called for in different parts of the country. 
 ana thus scattered abroad above an hundred thousand copies of 
 it, besides the countless multitudes that have been sent forth by the 
 newspapers, until, almost without a metaphor, it may be said to 
 have been parried to every lire-side m the land. The very ques- 
 tion, therefore, which was first submitted to an audience in the 
 capitol, — comprising, indeed, a remarkable representation of the 
 talents and authorit) of the country, but still comparatively small, 
 
 — has since heen Bubmitted by the press to the judgment of the 
 nation, more fully, probably, than any thing of the kind was ever 
 icfore; and the same rcmarkaUe plainness, the same 
 |io\\er of elucidating greal legal and constitutional doctrines till 
 tliey become as intelligible and simple as the occupations of daily 
 
( 47) 
 
 life, has enlarged the jury of the senate-chamber till it has become 
 theiury of the whole people, and the same verdict has followed. 
 What, therefore, Chancellor Kent said in relation to it, is as true 
 as it is beautiful ; — "Peace has its victories as well as war;" — 
 and the triumph which Mr. Webster thus secured for a great 
 constitutional principle, he may now well regard as the chief 
 honor of his life. 
 
 Indeed, a man such as he is, when he looks back upon his past 
 life, and forward to the future, must needs feel, that his fate and 
 his fortune, his fame and his ambition, are connected throughout 
 with the fate and the fortunes of the constitution of his country. 
 He is the child of our free institutions. None other could have 
 produced or reared him ; — none other can now sustain or advance 
 him. From the days when amidst the fastnesses of nature, his 
 young feet with difficulty sought the rude school-house, where 
 his earliest aspirations were nurtured, up to the moment when he 
 came forth in triumph from the senate-chamber, conscious that 
 he had overthrown the doctrines of nullification, and contended 
 successfully for the union of the states, he must have felt, that his 
 extraordinary powers have constantly depended for their devel- 
 opment and their exercise on the peculiar institutions of our free 
 governments. It is plain, indeed, that he has thriven, heretofore, 
 by their progress and success ; and it is, we think, equally plain, 
 that in time to come, his hopes and his fortunes can be advanced 
 only by their continued stability and further progress. We think, 
 too, that Mr. Webster feels this. On all the great principles of 
 the constitution, and all the leading interests of the country, his 
 opinions are known ; his ground is taken ; his lot is cast. Who- 
 ever may attack the Union, or any of the fundamental doctrines 
 of our land, he must defend them. Prima fortuna salutis monslrat 
 iter. The path he has chosen, is the path he must follow. And 
 we rejoice at it. We rejoice, that such a necessity is imposed on 
 such a mind. We rejoice, that, even such as he cannot stand, 
 unless they sustain the institutions that formed them ; and that, 
 what is in itself so poetically just and so morally beautiful, is en- 
 forced by a providential wisdom, which neither genius nor ambi- 
 tion can resist or control. We rejoice, too, when, on the other 
 hand, a man so gifted, faithfully and proudly devotes to the insti- 
 tutions of his country the powers and influence they have unfolded 
 and fostered in him, that, in his turn, he is again rewarded with 
 confidence and honors, which, as they can come neither from 
 faction nor passion, so neither party discipline nor political vio- 
 lence can diminish or impair them. And, finally, and above all, 
 we rejoice for the great body of the people, that the decided and 
 unhesitating support they have so freely given to the distinguished 
 Senator, with whose name " this land now rings from side to 
 side," because he has triumphantly defended the union of the 
 states and the principles of the constitution ; — we rejoice, we say, 
 for the people, because, such a support given by them for such a 
 
(48) 
 
 cause, not only strengthens and cements the very foundations of 
 whatever is most valuable in our government ; but at the same 
 time, warns and encourages all who would hereafter seek similar 
 honors and favors, to consult for the course they shall follow, 
 neither the indications of party nor the impulses of passion, but to 
 address themselves plainly, fearlessly, calmly, directly to the in- 
 telligence and honesty of the whole nation, u and ask no omen but 
 their country's cause." 
 
 THE END 
 
 
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