Class, 1 . O'X^.. 
 
> 
 
WE B S T E R 
 
 .5 3 a 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS MASTEPt-PIECES. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. B. F. TEFFT, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH." 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 AUBURN AND BUFFALO: 
 
 MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN. 
 
 1854. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, \n the year one thousand eight hundred 
 
 and fifty-four, 
 
 BY MILLER, OETON & MULLIGAN. 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern Distiict of New York. 
 
 Copy-right on this volume is claimed only on the Title, Prefece, and 
 Prefatory Matter to each Division. 
 
 auburn: 
 miller, orton & mulligan, 
 
 BTERE0TYPBB9 AND PBINTKBa. 
 
PiM-i-Ari-. 
 
 It hn^ ho.n my intvniu.ii in tlii« volume to give, not only Mr. 
 ^^ elwter's acknowIcJgc.l mn.torj.itces l'»t his masterpiece in each 
 department of the great fi.lJ of intellectual action which ho occu- 
 pied in life ; and. though there are other »peeche^ which would 
 compare favnral.ly with «onio that have found a place here, there is 
 none, it ia I.elieved, which could he regarded as superior, in any 
 of the divisiona, to the one selected. 
 
 In Bovoral of the great speeches not included in this collection, 
 there arc .inirle ] which, perhap^ could scarcely he sur- 
 
 pai.s,.d. if sou,e oi .... .ould l.e equaled, hy any passages found 
 in the speeches included in this volume; hut, in making a collection 
 of his masfcr-piece^ the object of search is not single pa»sage^ but 
 entire p,.: ' ..« ; and. taking this as the standard, there is no 
 
 room for •: ...u the volume here ; • - '1 to the reader con- 
 
 Uins the ablest and most eloquent pr. . be-iucalhed to the 
 
 world by the genius of Daniel Webster. They are the j.roduc 
 tions, which, it is presunjod. every gentleman will feel it necessary 
 to have aUut him ; and it is equally presumable that no enlightened 
 parent, no true hearted American citizen, will wish to have his sons 
 *nd daughters grow up without becoming more or less familiar with 
 th -r effort* of the greatest man, intellectually, which our 
 
 Co: untry has yet giren u.-*. 
 
 We hare heard much in days pasi-ed, and may hoar more in days 
 to come, of a dissolution of our national confederacy. Rank doc- 
 tnr no .loul.t Bt work in different sectipns of t'he Union, and 
 
 "> ' rnl strata of society. While Mr. Webster lived, he was 
 
 •cknowledged as the ablest supporter and defender of the constitii- 
 tion as it is. and of the country as it ic From one end of the coun- 
 try to the other, from the rocky shores of the Atlantic to the peace- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 fill Avatcrs of tlio Pacific, his name, his voice, his authority, ■were 
 ^ivcr^'where known and recognizcfl as the great bulwark of our 
 American nationality, of our American independence, of the integ- 
 rity and perpetuity of our great and united American republic. 
 At the north, and at the south, from the east to the farthest west, 
 he was known and felt in this high capacity. But he was thus 
 known, not by virtue of any office he ever filled ; for he never rose 
 to an office which made him the representative of more than one 
 state in the confederacy. He was known as such, indeed, not so 
 much as a senator from the patriotic state of ilassachusetts, as for 
 his personal ability and efiorts, out of congress as well as in it, from 
 the day his name became connected with the history of the coun- 
 try, lie was so known, in a word, for the speeches he made, at 
 different times, as the first of American orators devoted to the de- 
 fence of the institutions and of the existence of the nation; and 
 tliese speeches, which are destined to last from generation to gen- 
 eration, constitute the body of this volume. Since the living voice, 
 then, is silent forever in the grave, shall not the immortal utterances 
 of that voice be welcome throughout the whole country, east, west, 
 north, south, as the best creations of American oratorical genius, 
 and as the most salutary instructions and lessons to the entire 
 American brotherhood? Tliough born in one section of the coun- 
 try, and settled in after life in another section, he belonged to all 
 sections equally, to the whole people of the republic; and his name 
 and fame, and his immortal works, should be equally welcome, and 
 will be welcome, in every portion of the Union. 
 
 It will be n curious and instructive exercise for the reader, in the 
 pcrusalof the several speeches, to look at the dates of their publi- 
 cation, and thus note the progress of Mr. Webster's mind toward 
 that wonderful development which it finally attained; and it will 
 be particularly noticed, that between the times of his Dartmouth 
 College argument and of his reply to Ilayne, which mark the two 
 oxtrcmes of the most brilliant period of his life, there is a space of 
 only twelve years, which were the years intervening between the 
 thirty-sixth and the forty-cighih year of his age. 
 
 It is quite evident that Mr. Webster matured rather slowly ; that 
 his efforts made before the age of fifty were his most popular be- 
 cause the most impassioned efforts ; but that his productions dated 
 beyond the age of fifty, though less fiery, are generally more indie- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 ntivc of his unsurpassed abilities as a maa of deep, penetrating, far- 
 reaching, and comprehensive mind. His mind, indeed, seemed to 
 grow clearer as he advanced in j-ears ; and the very latest speeches, 
 though not so striking to supei'fieial hearers, will be regarded here- 
 after, by close and competent readers, as the most finished of all the 
 productions of his tongue and pen. 
 
 One result, it is to be earnestly hoi)ed, will not fail to follov^' a 
 general circulation of these master pieces among the generous vouth 
 of Mr. Webstei"'s native land. It is to be hoped that his style of elo- 
 cution, calm, slow, dignified, natural, unambitious, and yet direct 
 and powerful, will take the place of that showy, flower}-, flashy, 
 fitful and boisterous sort of speaking, which seems to be becoming 
 too common, which so breaks down the health of the speaker, and 
 which is nevertheless most likely to strike the feelings and corrupt 
 the judgment of the young. Let me here say plainly, that, having 
 heard Mr. Webster speak very frequently, on almost every variety 
 of occasion, I have never heai'd him, even when most excited, raise 
 his voice higher, or sink it lower, or utter his words more rapidly, 
 than he could do consistently with the most perfect ease, and with 
 the utmost dignity- of movement. He never played the orator. lie 
 never seemed to be making any effort. What he had to say he said 
 as easily, as naturally, and yet as forcibly as possible, with such a 
 voice as he used in common conversation, only elevated and strength- 
 ened to meet the demands of his large audiences. So intent did he 
 seem to be, so intent he certainly was, in making his hearers see 
 and feel as he did, in relation to the subject of the hour, that no one 
 thought of his manner, or whether he had any manner, tiU the 
 speech was over. That is oratory, true oratory ; and it is to be 
 hoped that the more general distribution of these master-pieces will 
 have the ultimate eftect of making it the American standard of ora- 
 tory from this age to all future ages. 
 
 Clifton Springs, October, 1854. 
 
IV rUEFACE. 
 
 fill waters of tlie Paeifie, his name, his voice, his authority, were 
 over3'where known and recognized as the great bulwark of our 
 American nationality, of our American independence, of the integ- 
 rity and perpetuity of our great and united American republic. 
 At the north, and at the south, from the east to the farthest west, 
 he was known and felt in this high capacity. But he was thus 
 known, not by virtue of any office he ever filled ; for he never rose 
 to an office which made him the representative of more than one 
 state in the confcderacj'. He was known as such, indeed, not so 
 much as a senator from the patriotic state of Massachusetts, as for 
 his personal ability and efforts, out of congress as well as in it, from 
 the day his name became connected with the history of the coun- 
 try. He was so known, in a word, for the speeches he made, at 
 different times, as the first of American orators devoted to the de- 
 fence of the institutions and of the existence of the nation; and 
 these speeches, which are destined to last from generation to gen- 
 eration, constitute the body of this volume. Since the living voice, 
 then, is silent forever in the grave, shall not the immortal utterances 
 of that voice be welcome throughout the whole country, east, west, 
 north, south, as the best creations of American oratorical genius, 
 and as the most salutaiy instructions and lessons to the entire 
 American brotherhood? Though born in one section of the coun- 
 try, and settled in after life in another section, he belonged to all 
 sections equally, to the whole people of the republic; and his name 
 and fame, and his immortal works, should be equally welcome, and 
 will be welcome, in every portion of the Union. 
 
 It will be a curious and instructive exercise for the reader, in the 
 perusal of the several speeches, to look at the dates of their publi- 
 cation, and thus note the progress of Mr. Webster's mind toward 
 that wonderful development which it finally attained; and it will 
 be particularly noticed, that between the times of his Dartmouth 
 College argument and of his reply to Ilayne, which mark the two 
 extremes of the most brilliant period of his life, there is a space of 
 only twelve years, which were the years intervening between the 
 thlrty-s'ixlh and the forty-clfjhth year of his age. 
 
 It is quite evident that Mr. Webster matured rather slowly ; that 
 his efforts made before the age of fifty were his most popular be- 
 cause the most impassioned efforts ; but that his productions dated 
 beyond the age of fifty, though less fiery, are generally more indie- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 ative ot his unsurpassed abilities as a niaa ot" deep, penetrating, far- 
 reaching, and comprehensive mind. His mind, indeed, seemed to 
 grow clearer as he advanced in years ; and the vei-y latest speeches, 
 though not so striking to supei'fieial hearers, will be regarded here- 
 after, by close and competent readers, as the most finished of all the 
 productions of his tongue and pen. 
 
 One result, it is to be earnestly ho2)ed, will not fail to follov*' a 
 general circulation of these master pieces among the generous \-outh 
 of Mr. Webstei"'s native land. It is to be ho2:)ed that his style of elo- 
 cution, calm, slow, dignified, natural, unambitious, and j-et direct 
 and powerful, will take the place of that showy, flowery, flashy, 
 fitful and boisterous sort of speaking, which seems to be becoming 
 too common, which so breaks down the health of the speaker, and 
 which is nevertheless most likely to strike the feelings and corrupt 
 the judgment of the young. Let me here say plainly, that, having 
 heard Mr. Webster speak very frequently, on almost every variety 
 of occasion, I have never heard him, even when most excited, raise 
 his voice higher, or sink it lower, or utter his words more rapidly, 
 than he could do consistently with the most perfect ease, and with 
 the utmost dignity of movement. He never played the orator. He 
 never seemed to be making any effort. What he had to say he said 
 as easily, as naturall}', and yet as forcibly as possible, with such a 
 voice as he used in common conversation, only elevated and strength- 
 ened to meet the demands of his large audiences. So intent did he 
 seem to be, so intent he certainly was, in making his heai-ers see 
 and feel as he did, in relation to the subject of the hour, that no one 
 thought of his manner, or whether he had any manner, till the 
 speech was over. That is oratory, true oratory ; and it is to be 
 hoped that the more general distribution of these master-jjieces will 
 have the ultimate eftect of making it the American standard of ora- 
 tory from this age to all future ages. 
 
 Clifton Springs, October, 1854. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Dartmouth College Ca?©, 
 
 Plymoutli Oration — First Settlement of New England, 
 
 Speech on the Greek Eevolution, . 
 
 Bunker Hill Monument Oration, 
 
 Oration on tlie Death of Adams and Jefferson, 
 
 Lecture before the Boston Mechanics' Institute, 
 
 rulojry on "Washington, .... 
 
 Speech at Mblo's Saloon, New York, 
 
 Letter on Impressment, .... 
 
 Reply to Ilayne, on Foofs Eesolution, 
 
 Reply to Calhoun — The Constitution not a Compact, 
 
 The Compromises of the Constitution, 
 
 PAGB 
 
 11 
 59 
 115 
 157 
 183 
 22T 
 247 
 265 
 813 
 825 
 419 
 4S9 
 
 'J ! 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER. 
 
 h 
 
 DARTMOUTH- COLLEGE CASE. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTTii, 
 
 Me. 'Webstek''3 argument in tho Dartmouth College Case has stood, from tlie day 
 of its delivery, as his univerpally aclino-ivledgcd master-piece in this department of 
 his public labors. Tlie circumstinces attending the delivery of the speech, with tho 
 origin and nature of tlio suit, have been given in tlie previous volume of this work. 
 As tho master-pieces arc arranged in chronological order, that the growth of Mr. 
 Webster's mind may be noted, the reader will observe that this speech was delivered 
 in 181S, when the author of it was about thirty-six years of ai,'e. It is perhaps 
 scarcely necessary to add, that Mr. Webster gained his case. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 
 
 argument in the case of the trustees of dartmouth college vs. 
 woodward, before the supreme court of the umteu states, on tub 
 IOth day of march, 1818. 
 
 The general question is, whether the acts of the 27th of 
 June, and of the 18th and 26th of December, 1816, are valid 
 and bmding on the rights of the plamtifFs, without their accept- 
 ance or assent. 
 
 The charter of 1769 created and established a corporation, 
 to consist of twelve persons, and no more ; to be called the 
 " Trustees of Dartmouth College." The preamble to the char- 
 ter recites, that it is granted on the application and request of 
 the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock : That Doctor Wheelock, about 
 the year 1754, established a charity school, at his own expense, 
 and on his own estate and plantation : That for several years, 
 through the assistance of well-disposed persons in America, 
 granted at his solicitation, he had clothed, maintained, and edu- 
 cated a number of native Indians, and employed them after- 
 wai'ds as missionaries and schoolmasters among the savago 
 tribes : That, his design promising to be useful, he had con- 
 stituted the Rev. Mr. Whitaker to be his attorney, with power 
 to solicit contributions, in England, for the further extension 
 and carrying on of his undertaking ; and that he had requested 
 the Earl of Dartmouth, Baron Smith, Mr. Thornton, and other 
 gentlemen, to receive such sums as might be contributed, in 
 England, towards supporting his school, and to be trustees 
 thereof, for his charity ; which these persons had agreed to do : 
 And tlicreupon Doctor Wheelock had executed to them a deed 
 
12 WEBSTEK ANU HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of trust, in pursuance to such agreement between him and them, 
 and, for divers good i-easons, had referred it to these persons to 
 determine Uie phice in which the scliool should be finally estab- 
 lished : And, to enable them to form a proper decision on this 
 subject, had laid before them the several offers which had been 
 made to him by the several governments in America, in order 
 to induce him to settle and establish his school within the lim- 
 its of such governments for their own emolument, and the in- 
 crease of learning in their respective places, as well as for the 
 furtherance of his general original design : And inasmuch as 
 a number of the proprietors of lands in New Hampshire, ani- 
 mated by the example of the governor himself and others, and 
 in consideration that, without any impediment to its original 
 design, the school might be enlarged and improved, to pro- 
 mote leambig among the English, and to supply ministers to 
 the people of that province, had promised large tracts of land, 
 provided the school should be established in that province, the 
 persons before mentioned, having weighed the reasons in faxor 
 of the several places proposed, had given the preference to this 
 province, tmd these offers : That Doctor Wheelock therefore 
 represented tlie necessity of a legal incorporation, and proposed 
 that certain gentlemen in America, whom he had already 
 named and appointed in his will to be trustees of his charity 
 after his decease, should compose the corporation. Upon this 
 recital, and in consideration of the laudable original design of 
 Doctor Wheelock, and willing that the best means of educa- 
 tion be established in New Hampshire, for the benefit of the 
 province, the king gx-anted the charter, by the advice of his 
 provincial council. 
 
 The substance of the facts thus recited is, that Doctor Wheel- 
 ock liad founded a charity, on funds owned and procured by 
 himself; that he was at that time the sole dispenser and sole 
 administrator, as well as the legal owner, of these funds ; that 
 he had made his will, devising this property in trust, to continue 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 13 
 
 the existence and uses of the school, and appointed trustees ; 
 that, in this state of things, he had been invited to fix his school, 
 pcnnanently in New Hampsliire, and to extend the design of 
 it to the education of the youth of that province ; that before 
 he removed his school, or accepted this invitation, which his 
 friends in England had advised him to accept, he applied for a 
 charter, to be granted, not to whomsoever the king or govern- 
 ment of the province should please, but to such persons as he 
 named and appointed, namely, the persons whom he had 
 already appointed to be the future trustees of his charity by 
 his will. 
 
 The charter, or letters patent, then proceed to create such a 
 corporation, and to appoint twelve persons to constitute it, by 
 the name of the " Trustees of Dartmouth College ; " to have 
 pei-petual existence, as such corporation, and with power to 
 hold and dispose of lands and goods, for the use of the college, 
 with all the ordinary powers of corporations. They are in their 
 discretion to apply the funds and property of the college to the 
 sujiport of the president, tutors, ministers, and other officers of 
 the college, and such missionaries and schoolmasters as they 
 may see fit to employ among the Indians. There are to be 
 twelve trustees forever, and no more ; and they are to have the 
 right of filling vacancies occurring in their own body. The 
 Rev. Mr. Wheelock is declared to be the founder of the col- 
 lege, and is, by the charter, appointed first president, with 
 power to appoint a successor by his last will. All proper pow- 
 ers of government, superintendence, and visitation are vested 
 in the trustees. They are to appoint and remove all officers 
 at their discretion ; to fix their salaries, and assign their duties; 
 and to make all ordinances, orders, and laws for the govern- 
 ment of the students. And to the end that the persons who had 
 acted as depositaries of the contributions in England, and who 
 had also been contributors themselves, might be satisfied of the 
 good use of their contributions, the president was annually, or 
 
14 -WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 when required, to transmit to them an account of the progress 
 of the institution and the disbursements of its funds, so long as 
 they should continue to act in that trust. These letters patent 
 are to be good and effectual, in law, against the king, his heirs 
 and siiccessors forever, without further grant or confirmation ; 
 and the trustees are to hold all and singular these privileges, 
 advantages, liberties, and immunities to them and to their suc- 
 cessors forever. 
 
 No funds are given to the college by tliis charter. A 
 corporate existence and capacity are given to the trustees, with 
 the privileges and immunities which have been mentioned, to 
 enable the founder and his associates the better to manage the 
 funds which they themselves had contributed, and such others 
 as they might afterwards obtain. 
 
 After the institution thus created and constituted had ex- 
 isted, uninterruptedly and usefully, nearly fifty years, the legis- 
 lature of New Hampshire passed the acts in question. 
 
 The first act makes the twelve trustees under the charter, 
 and nine other individuals, to be appointed by the governor 
 and council, a corporation, by a new name ; and to this new 
 corporation transfers all the 'property, rights, potvers, liberties, 
 and privileges of the old corporation ; with further power to 
 establish new colleges and an institute, and to apply all or any 
 part of the funds to these purposes ; subject to the power and 
 control of a board of twenty -five overseers, to be appointed by 
 the governor and council. 
 
 The second act makes further provisions for executing the 
 objects of the first, and the last act authorizes the defendant, the 
 treasurer of the plaintifis, to retain and hold their property, 
 against their will. 
 
 If these acts are valid, the old corporation is abolished, and 
 a new one created. The first act does, in fact, if it can have 
 any effect, create a new corporation, and transfer to it all the 
 property and franchises of the old. The two corporations 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 15 
 
 are not the same, in anything wliich essentially belongs to the 
 existence of a corporation. They have different names, and 
 different powers, rights, and duties. Their organization is 
 wholly different. The powers of the corporation are not 
 vested in the same, or similar hands, hi one, the trustees are 
 twelve, and no more. In the other, they are twenty-one. In 
 one, the power is in a single board, hi the other, it is divided 
 between two boards. Although the act professes to include 
 the old trustees m the new corporation, yet that was without 
 their assent, and against their remonstrance ; and no person 
 can be compelled to be a member of such a corporation against 
 his will. It was neither expected nor mtended that they should 
 be members of the new corporation. The act itself treats the 
 old corporation as at an end, and going on the ground that all 
 its functions have ceased, it provides for the first meeting and 
 organization of the new corporation. It expressly provides, 
 also, that the new corporation shall have and hold all the prop- 
 perty of the old ; a provision which would be quite unneces- 
 sary upon any other ground, than that the old corporation was 
 dissolved. But if it could be contended that the effect of these 
 acts was not entirely to abolish the old corporation, yet it is 
 manifest that they impair and invade the rights, property, and 
 powers of the trustees under the charter, as a corporation, and 
 the legal rights, privileges, and immunities which belong to 
 them, as individual members of the corporation. 
 
 The twelve trustees were the sole legal owners of all the 
 property acquired under the charter. By the acts, others are 
 admitted, against their will, to be joint owners. The twelve 
 individuals who are trustees were possessed of all the fran- 
 chises and immunities confeiTed by the charter. By the acts, 
 nine other trustees and twenty-five overseers are admitted, 
 aaainst their will, to divide these franchises and immunities 
 with them. 
 
 If, either as a corporation or as mdividuals, they have any 
 
16 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. . 
 
 legal rights, this forcible intrusion of others violates those rights, 
 as manifestly as an entire and complete ouster and disposses- 
 sion. These acts alter the whole constitution of the corpora- 
 tion. They affect the rights of the whole body as a corpora- 
 tion, and the rights of ih- individuals who compose it. They 
 revoke corporate powers and uanchises. They alienate ajid 
 transfer the property of the college to others. By the cliarter, 
 the ti-ustees liad a right to fill vacancies m their own number.' 
 This is now taken a^-ay. They were to consist of twelve, and, 
 by express provision, of no more. Tliis is altered. They and 
 their successors, appointed by themselves, were forever to hold 
 the property. The legislature has found successors for them, 
 before their seats are vacant. The powers and privileges which 
 the twelve were to exercise exclusively, are now to be exer- 
 cised by others. By one of the acts, they are subjected to 
 heavy penalties if they exercise their offices, or any of those 
 powers and privileges granted them by charter, and which tliey 
 had exercised for fifty years. They ai-e to be punished for not 
 accepting the new grant, and taking its benefits. This, it must 
 be confessed, is rather a summary mode of settUng a question 
 of constitutional right. Not only are new trustees forced into 
 tlie co)-poration, but new trusts and uses are created. The 
 college is turned into a university. Power is given to create 
 new colleges, and, to autliorize any diversion of the finds which 
 may be agreeable to the new boards, sufficient latitude is given 
 by the undefined power of establishing an institute. To these 
 new colleges, and this institute, the funds contributed by the 
 founder. Doctor ^Wheelock, and by the original donors, the 
 Earl of Dartmouth and others, are to be applied, in plain and 
 manifest disregard of the uses to which they were given. 
 
 The president, one of the old trustees, had a right to his 
 office, salary, and emoluments, subject to the twelve trustees 
 alone. His title to these is now changed, and he is made ac- 
 countable to new masters. So also all the professors and tu- 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 17 
 
 tors. If the legislature can at pleasure make these alterations 
 and changes in the rights and privileges of the plaintiffs, it may, 
 with equal propriety, abolish these rights and privileges alto- 
 gether. The same power which can do any part of this work 
 can accomplish the whole. And, indeed, the argument on 
 which these acts have been hitherto defended goes altogether 
 on the ground, that this is such a corporation as the legislature 
 may abolish at pleasure; and that its members have no ri^hls, 
 liberties, franchises, property, or privileges, which the legisla- 
 ture may not revoke, annul, alienate, or transfer to others, 
 whenever it sees fit. 
 
 It will be contended by the plaintiffs, that tliese acts are not 
 valid and bindiug on them, without their assent, — 1. Because 
 they are against common right, and the constitution of New 
 Hampshire. 2. Because they are repugnant to the constitution 
 of the United States. 
 
 I am awai-e of the limits which bound the jurisdiction of the 
 court in this case, and that on this record nothing can be deci- 
 ded but the single question, whether these acts are repugnant 
 to the constitution of the United States. Yet it may assist in 
 forming an opinion of their true nature and character to com- 
 pare them with those fundamental principles introduced into 
 the state governments for the purpose of limiting the exercise 
 of the legislative power, and which the constitution of New 
 Hampshire expresses with great fullness and accuracy. 
 
 It is not too much to assert that the legislature of New 
 Harapsliire would not have been competent to pass the acts in 
 question, and to make them binding on the plaintiffs without 
 their assent, even if there had been, in the constitution of New 
 Hampshire, or of the United States, no special restriction on- 
 their power, because these acts are not the exercise of a power 
 properly legislative.* Their object and effect are to take away, 
 
 * Calder et ux. v. Bull, S Dallas, 386. 
 VOL. II. 2 
 
^® WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 from one, rights, property, and franchises, and to grant them to 
 another. This is not the exercise of a legislative power. To 
 justify the taking away of vested rights there must be a for- 
 feiture, to adjudge upon and declare which is the proper prov- 
 ince of the judiciary. Attainder and confiscation are acts of 
 sovereign power, not acts of legislation. The British parlia- 
 ment, among other unlimited powers, claims that of altering 
 and vacating charters; not as an act of ordinary legislation, bu't 
 of uncontrolled authority. It is theoretically omnipotent. 
 Yet, in modern times, it has attempted the exercise of this 
 power very rarely. In a celebrated instance, those who asserted 
 this power in parliament vindicated its exercise only in a case 
 in which it could be shown, 1st. That the charter in question 
 w;is a charter of politic;xl power ; 2d. That there was a great 
 and overruling state necessity, justifying the violation of the 
 charter; 3d. That the charter had been abused and justly 
 forfeited.* The bill affecting this charter did not pass. Its 
 history is well known. The act which afterwards did pass, 
 passed with the assent of the corporation. Even in the worst 
 times, this power of parliament to repeal and rescind charters 
 has not often been exercised. The illegal proceedings in the 
 reign of Charles the Second were under color of law. Jud^r. 
 ments of forfeiture were obtained in the courts. Such was the 
 case of the quo ivarranto against the city of London, and 
 the proceedings by which the charter of Massachusetts was 
 vacated. 
 
 The legislature of New Hampshire has no more power over 
 the rights of the plaintirts than existed somewhere, in some de- 
 partment of government, before the revolution. The British 
 •parliament could not have annulled or revoked this grant as 
 an act of ordinary legislation. ]f: it had done it at all, it could 
 only have been in virtue of that sovereign power, called omnip- 
 
 E'l'^Bill B^rf -''w '.• '?; /""" ^''^- ''''-■ '''■ ^"^'^^'^ Speech on Mr. Fo.-s 
 E. I. Bill, Burkes Works, 2d Vol. pp. 414, 417,467, 46S, 4SC. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 
 
 19 
 
 otent, which does not belong to any legislature in the United 
 States. The legislature of New Hampshire has the same 
 power over this charter which belonged to the king who 
 granted it, and no more. By the law of England, the power 
 to create corporations is a part of the royal prerogative.* By 
 the revolution, this power may be considered as having de- 
 volved on the legislature of the state, and it has accordingly 
 been exercised by the legislature. But the king cannot abolish 
 a corporation, or new-model it, or alter its powers, without its 
 assent. This is the acknowledged and well-known doctrine of 
 the common law. " Whatever might have been the notion in 
 former times," says Lord Mansfield, " it is most certain now 
 that the corporations of the universities are lay corporations ; 
 and that the crown cannot take away from them any rights that 
 have been formerly subsisting in them under old charters or 
 prescriptive usage."f After forfeiture duly found, the king 
 may regrant tlie franchises ; but a grant of franchises already 
 granted, and of which no forfeiture has been found, is void. 
 
 Corporate franchises can only be forfeited by trial and judg- 
 ment.t hi case of a new charter or grant to an existing corpo- 
 ration, it may accept or reject it as it pleases.§ It may accept 
 such part of the grant as it chooses, and reject the rest.|| In 
 the very nature of things, a charter cannot be forced upon any- 
 body. No one can be compelled to accept a grant ; and with- 
 out acceptance the grant is necessarily void.^" It cannot bo 
 pretended that the legislature, as successor to the king in this 
 part of his prerogative, has any power to revoke, vacate, or 
 alter this charter. If, therefore, the legislature has not this 
 power by any specific grant contained in the constitution ; nor 
 
 * 1 Black. 472, 473. 1 3 Burr. 1656. 
 
 $ 3 T. R. 244. King v. Pasmore. 
 
 § King «. Vice Chancellor of Cambridge, 8 Burr. 1656, 3 T. E. 240-Lord Kenyon. 
 
 il Idem, 1061, and King v. Pasmore, lobi supra. 
 
 ^ Ellis V. Marshall, 2 Mass. Eop. 277; 1 Kyd on Corporations, 65-6. 
 
so WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 as included m its ordinary legislative powers; nor by reason 
 of Its succession to the prerogatives of the crown in this partic- 
 ular, on what ground would tlie authority to pass these acts 
 rest, even if there were no prohibitory clauses in the constitu- 
 tion and the bill of rights ? 
 
 But there are prohibitions in the constitution and bill of 
 rights of New Hampshire, introduced for the purpose of limit- 
 ing the legislative power and protecting the rights and prop- 
 erty of the citizens. One prohibition is " that no person shall be 
 deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of 
 the protection of the law, or deprived of his life, liberty or 
 estate, but by judgment of his peers or the law of the land." 
 
 In the opinion, however, which was given in the court below 
 It IS denied that the trustees under the charter had any prop! 
 erty, immunity, liberty, or privilege in this corporation, witlun 
 the meaning of this prohibition in the bill of rights. It is said 
 that it is a public corporation and public property ; that the 
 trustees have no greater interest in it tlian any otlier individuals • 
 that it is not private property, which they can sell or transmit 
 to their heirs, and that therefore they have no interest in it • 
 that their office is a public trust, lilce that of tlie governor or a 
 judge, and that tlioy have no more concern m the property of 
 the college than the governor in the property of the stiite or 
 than the judges in the fines which they impose on the culprits 
 at their bar; that it is nothing to tliem whether their powers 
 shall be extended or lessened, any more than it is to their liou- 
 ors whether their jurisdiction shall be enlarged or diminished 
 It IS necessary, therefore, to inquire into the time nature and 
 character of the corporation which was created by the charter 
 
 There are divers sorts of corporations ; and it may be safely 
 admitted that the legislature has more power over some than 
 others.* Some corporations are for government and political 
 
 * IWooddeson, 4T4; 1 Black. 467. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 31 
 
 arrangement ; such, for example, as cities, counties, and towns 
 in New England. These may be changed and modified as 
 public convenience may require, due regard being always had 
 to the rights of property. Of- such corporations, all who live 
 within the limits are of course obliged to be members, and to 
 submit to the duties which the law imposes on them as such. 
 Other civil corporations are for the advancement of trade and 
 business, such as banks, insurance companies, and the like. 
 These are created, not by general law, but usually by grant. 
 Their constitution is special. It is such as the legislature sees 
 fit to give, and the grantees to accept. 
 
 The corporation in question is not a civil, although it is a lay 
 corporation. It is an eleemosynary corporation. It is a pri- 
 vate charity, originally founded and endowed by an individ- 
 ual, Avith a charter obtained for it at his request, for the better 
 administration of his charity. " The eleemosynary sort of cor- 
 porations are such as are constituted for the perpetual distribu- 
 tions of the free alms or bounty of the founder of them, to such 
 persons as he has directed. Of this are all hospitals for the 
 maintenance of the poor, sick, and impotent ; and all colleges 
 both in our universities and out of them."* Eleemosynary 
 corporations are for the management of private property, ac- 
 cording to the will of the donors. They are private corpora- 
 tions. A college is as much a private corporation as a hos- 
 pital ; especially a college founded, as this was, by private 
 bounty. A college is a charity. " The establishment of learn- 
 ing," says Lord Ilardwicke, " is a charity, and so considered 
 in°the statute of Elizabeth. A devise to a college, for their 
 benefit, is a laudable charity, and deserves encouragement."! 
 
 The legal signification of a charity is derived chiefly from 
 the statut'e 43 EUz. ch. 4. "Those purposes," says S\r Wil- 
 liam Grant, " are considered charitable which that statute enu- 
 merates."^ Colleges are enumerated as charities in that stat- 
 
 * 1 Black. 4T1. 1 1 Ves. 537. 1 9 Yes. Jun. 405. 
 
22 
 
 ^^t:bster axd his master-pieces. 
 
 ute. The government, in these cases, lends its aid to perpetu- 
 ate the beneficent intention of the donor, bj granting a charter 
 under which his private charity shall continue to be^dispensed 
 after his death. This is done either by incorporating the ob- 
 jects of the charity, as, for Instance, the scholai-s in a college or 
 the poor in a hospital, or by incorporating those who are to 
 be governors or trustees of the charity * In cases of the first 
 sort the founder is, by the common law, visitor. In earlv 
 times It became a maxim, that he who gave the property miaht 
 regulate it in future. Cujus est dare, ejus est disponere. This 
 right of visitation descended from the founder to his heir as a 
 right of property, and precisely as his other propertv went to 
 his heu- ; and in default of heirs it went to the king. ^ all other 
 property goes to the king for the want of heirs. The ri^ht of 
 visitation arises from the property. It grows out of the endow- 
 ment. The founder may, if he please, part ^vitlI it at the time 
 when he establishes the charity, and may vest it in others 
 Iherefore, if he chooses that governors, trustees, or overseers 
 should be appointed in the charter, he mav cause it to be done 
 and his power of visitation will be transferred to them instead 
 of descending to his heirs. The persons thus assigned or ap- 
 pomted by the founder wUl be visitors, with all the powers of 
 the founder, in exclusion of his heu-.f The right of visitation 
 then, accrues to them, as a matter of propertv. bv the gift transl 
 fer, or appointment of the founder. This is a private' nVht 
 which they can assert in all legal modes, and in which they 
 have the same protection of the law as in all other rights As 
 visitors they may make rules, ordinances, and statutes%nd alter 
 and repeal them, as far as permitted so to do by the charter t 
 Although the charter proceeds from the crovvn or the govern- 
 ment, It is considered as the will of the donor. It is obtained 
 at his request. He imposes it as the rule which is to pre^■ail 
 in the dispensation of his bounty in aU future times. The king 
 
 • 1 Woo4 474 tl Bhcfc 471. % 2 Term Eep. 860-1. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE V5. WOODWARD. 
 
 23 
 
 or goverament which grants the charter is not thereby the 
 founder, but he who furnishes the funds. The gift of the reve- 
 nues is the foundation* The leading case on this subject is 
 Phillips V Bury.f This was an ejectment brought to recover 
 the rectory-house, &c of Exeter College in Oxford. The question 
 was, whether the plaintiff or defendant was legal rector. Kxe- 
 ter College was founded bv an individual, and mcorporated by 
 a charter°2ranted bv Queen Elizabeth. The controversy turned 
 upon the power of the visitor, and m the discussion of the cause, 
 the nature of college charters and corporations was very fiilly 
 considered. Lord Holt^s judgment, copied from his own man- 
 uscript, is in 2 Term Rep., 346. The foUowing is an extract : 
 
 "That we may the better apprehend the nature of a visitor, we 
 are to consider that there are in law two sorts of corporations aggre- 
 gate ■ such as are for public government, and such as are for pn- 
 vate charity. Those that are for the pubUe government of a town, 
 citv mvstery. or the like, being for public advantage are to be 
 g5;:rne'd according to the laws of the land. If they make any par- 
 ficular private laws and constitutions, the validity and justice of 
 them is examinable in the king's courts. Of these there are no par- 
 ticular private founders, and consequently no particular visitor , 
 there are bo patrons of these ; therefore, if no P----- ^« ^ ^^^ 
 charter how the succession shaU continue, the law suppheth the de- 
 feet of that constitution, and saith it shall be by election ; as mayor, 
 alderman, common council, and the like But^r..a^. and particu- 
 lar corporations for charity, founded and endowed by private per- 
 sons, are subject to the private government of those who erect 
 them • and therefore, if there be no visitor appointed by the founder, 
 the law appoints the founder and his heirs to be visitors, who are 
 to act anl proceed according to the particular ^^^ ^^ /^f* ^^ 
 tutions assigned them by the founder. It is now admitted on aU 
 han.is that the founder is patron, and, as founder, is visitor if no 
 partLilar visitor be assigned ; so that patronage and visitation are 
 
 : Cr^Tn 1 Lord Ba^ond,5; Comb. 265; Hoi. 715; 15how.360; .Mo<L 
 IOC ; Skinn. 447. 
 
94 
 
 WEBSTER AND HIS MiSTER-piECES. 
 
 necessary oonsoqnents one „po„ a„„ih„. For this m,m ■ , 
 
 reason Ztwt 1 r'^^ ' ""'"''''' "^ *^° ^«""<^«'-'« «^". it Js 
 
 ration.) l.ccuse it i. of I J ? . ''"^■' ="PI>M«'l' » eor|.„- 
 
 o on . , ' : 7b:1 '" " '•■'';■"••«'«"«■• «■« founder and hi, heir, 
 "I'lWinted bj h,m ; „„a botli are eleemosynary." 
 
 teXlt',l°il """'°"'" '■-"holoa.gt.ntent by again repeating, 
 
 hfsawtt "■ •■'""""' " "'"<'■■• ""'' '» Sive hi„, such power as 
 
 * 1 Lord Kay. 0. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 25 
 
 The learned Bishop Stillingfleet's argument in the same cause, 
 as a member of the house of lords, when it was there heard, 
 exhibits very cleai-ly the nature of colleges and similar corpo- 
 rations. It is to the following effect. " That this absolute and 
 conclusive power of visitors is no more than the law hatli ap- 
 pointed in other cases, upon commissions of charitable uses : 
 that the common law, and not any ecclesiastical canons, do place 
 the power of visitation in the founder and his heirs, ^mless he 
 settle it upon others: that although corporations for public 
 government be subject to the courts of Westminster^ Hall, 
 which liave no particular or special visitors, yet corporations for 
 charity, founded and endowed by private persons, are subject 
 to the rule and government of those that erect them; but 
 where the persons to whom the charity is given are not mcoi- 
 porated, there is no such visitatorial power, because the interest 
 of the revenue is not invested in them ; but where they are, 
 tlie right of visitation ariseth frona the foundation, and the 
 founder may convey it to whom and in what manner he 
 pleases; and the visitor acts as founder, and hy the same au- 
 thority which he had, and consequently is no more accountable 
 than he had been : that the king by his charter can make a 
 society to be incorporated so as to have the rights belonging 
 to persons, as to legal capacities : that colleges, although founded 
 by private persons, are yet mcorporated by the king's charter ; 
 but although the kings by their charter made the colleges to 
 be such inlaw, that is, to be legal corporations, yet they left to 
 the particular founders authority to appoint what statutes they 
 thought fit for the regulation of them. And not only the stat- 
 utes,\ut the appointment of visitors, was left to them, and the 
 manner of government, and the several conditions on whidi 
 any persons were to be made or continue partakers of then- 
 bounty ."* J. 1 J 
 These opinions received the sanction of the house of lords, 
 
 * See Appeodis, No. 3-1 Burn's Eccles. Law, «3. 
 VOL. II. B 
 
20 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and they seem to be settled and undoubted law. Where there 
 is a charter, vesting proper powers in trustees, or governors, 
 they are visitors ; and there is no control in anybody else ; ex- 
 cept only that the courts of equity or of law will interfere so 
 far as to preserve the revenues and prevent the perversion of 
 the funds, and to keep the visitors within their prescribed 
 bounds. " If there be a charter with proper powers, the chai"- 
 ity must be regulated in the manner prescribed by the charter. 
 There is no ground for the controlling interposition of the courts 
 of chancery. The interposition of the courts, therefore, in those 
 instances in which the charities were founded on charters or by 
 act of parliament, and a visitor or governor and trustees ap- 
 pointed, must be referred. to the general jurisdiction of the 
 courts in all cases in vrhich a trust conferred appears to have 
 been abused, and not to an orio;inal right to direct the manajie- 
 ment of the charity, or the conduct of the governors or trus- 
 tees.'"* " The original of all visitatorial power is the property 
 of the donor, and the power every one has to dispose, direct, 
 and regulate his own pi-operty ; like the case of patronage ; 
 cujus est dare, &c. Therefore, if either the crown or the sub- 
 ject creates an eleemosynary foundation, and vests the charity 
 in the persons who are to receive the benefit of it, since a con- 
 test might arise about the government of it, the law allows the 
 founder or his heirs, or the person specially appointed by him 
 to be visitor, to determine concerning his own creature. If 
 the charity is not vested in the persons who are to partake, but 
 in trustees for their benefit, no visitor can arise by implication, 
 but the trustees have that power."| 
 
 " There is nothing better established," says Lord Commis- 
 sioner Eyre, " than that this court does not entertain a general 
 jurisdiction, or regulate and control charities established by 
 charter. There the establishment is fixed and determmed ; 
 
 ♦ 2 Fonb. 205-6. 
 
 1 1 Ves. 472, Green v. Rutherforth, per Lord Hardwicke. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 27 
 
 and the court has no power to vary it. If the governors estab- 
 lished for the regulation of it are not those who have the man- 
 agement of the i-evenue, this court has no jurisdiction, and if it 
 is ever so much abused, as far as it respects the jurisdiction of 
 this court it is without remedy ; but if those established as 
 governors have also the management of the revenues, this court 
 does assume a jurisdiction of necessity, so far as they are to be 
 considered as trustees of the revenue."* 
 
 " The foundations of colleges," says Lord Mansfield, " are to 
 be considered m two views ; namely, as they are corporations 
 and as they are eleemosynary. As eleemosynary, they are the 
 creatures of the founder ; he may delegate his power, either 
 generally or specially ; he may prescribe particular modes and 
 manners, as to the exercise of part of it. If he makes a gene- 
 ral visitor (as by the general words visiiator sit,) the person 
 so constituted has all incidental power ; but he may be re- 
 strained as to particular instances. The founder may appoint 
 a special visitor for a particular purpose, and no further. The 
 founder may make a general visitor ; and yet appoint an infe- 
 rior particular power, to be executed without going to the vis- 
 itor in the first instance."f And even if the king be founder, 
 if he grant a charter, incorporating trustees and governors, they 
 are visitors, and the king cannot visit.J A subsequent dona^ 
 tion, or ingrafted fellowship, falls under the same general vis- 
 itatorial power, if not otherwise specially provided.§ 
 
 In New England, and perhaps throughout the United States, 
 eleemosynary corporations have been generally established in 
 the latter mode ; that is, by 'incorporating governors, or trus- 
 tees, and vestuig in them the right of visitation. Small varia- 
 tions may have been in some instances adopted ; as in the case 
 
 * Attornpy General v. Foundling Hospital, 2 Ves. Jun. 4T. Vide also 2 Kyd on Cor- 
 porations, 193; Cooper's Equity Pleading, 292. 
 + St, John's College, Cambridge, v. Todington, 1 Burr. 200. 
 X Attorney General t\ Middleton, 2 Ves. 32S. 
 $ Green v. Eutherforth, uin supra ; 8t, John's College, v. Todington, iibi iwpra. 
 
28 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of Harvard College, where some power of inspection is given to 
 the overseers, but not, strictly speaking, a visitatorial power, 
 which still belongs, it is apprehended, to the fellows or members 
 ot the corporation. In general, there are many donors. A 
 diaiter is obtained, comprising them all, or some of them, and 
 such others as they choose to include, with the right of appoint- 
 ing their successors. Tiiey are thus the visitors of their Q^yn 
 charity, and appoint others, such as they may see fit, to exer- 
 cise the same office in time to come. All such corporations 
 are private. Tlie case before the court is clearly that of an 
 eleemosynary corporation. It is, in the strictest legal sense, a 
 private charity. In King v. St. Catharine's Hall,*'that college 
 is called a private eleemosynary lay corporation. It was en- 
 dowed by a private founder, and incorporated by letters patent. 
 And in the same mamier was Dartmouth College founded and 
 incorporated. Doctor Wheelock is declared by the charter to 
 be its founder. It was established by him, on funds contribu- 
 ted and collected by himself, 
 
 ^ As such founder, he had a right of visitation, which he as- 
 signed to the trustees, and they received it by his consent and 
 appointment, and held it under the charter.f He appointed 
 these trustees visitors, and in that respect to take place of his 
 heir ; as he might have appointed devisees, to take his estate 
 instead ofhis heir. Little, probably, did he think at that time, 
 that the legislature would ever take away this property and 
 these privileges, and give them to others. Little did he sup- 
 pose that this charter secured to him and his successors no legal 
 rights. Little did the other donors think so. If they had, the 
 college would have been, what the university is now, a thiiio- 
 upon paper, existing only in name. 
 
 The numerous academies in New England have been estab- 
 lished substantial!)' iti the same manner. They hold their 
 property by the same tenure, aud no other. Nor has Harvard 
 * 4 Term. Kep. 238. t Black, ubi sti^ra. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE V3. WOODWARD. 29 
 
 College any surer title than Dartmouth College. It may to- 
 day have more friends; but to-morrow it may have more ene- 
 mies. Its legal rights are the same. So also of Yale College ; 
 and, indeed, of all the others. When the legislature gives to 
 these institutions, it may and does accompany its grants with 
 such conditions as it pleases. The grant of lands by the legis- 
 lature of New Hampshire to Dartmouth College, in 1789, was 
 accompanied with various conditions. When donations are 
 made, by the legislature or others, to a charity already existing, 
 without any condition, or the specification of any new use, the 
 donation follows the nature of the charity. Hence the doctrme, 
 that aU eleemosynary corporations are private bodies. They 
 are founded by private persons, and on private property. Tlie 
 public cannot be charitable in these institutions. It is not the 
 money of the public, but of private persons, which is dispensed. 
 It may be public, that is general, in its uses and advantages ; 
 and the state may very laudably add contributions of its own 
 to the funds ; but it is still private in the tenure of the prop- 
 eity, and in the right of administering the funds. 
 
 If the doctrine laid downi by Lord Holt, and the house of 
 lords, in Phillips v. Bury, and recognized and established in 
 all the other cases, be correct, the property of this college was 
 private property ; it was vested in the trustees by the charter, 
 and to be administered by them, according to the will of the 
 founder and donors, as expressed in the charter. They were 
 also visitors of the charity, in the most ample sense. They 
 had, therefore, as they contend, privileges, property, and immu- 
 nities, within the true meaning of the bill of rights. They had 
 rights, and still have them, which they can assert against the 
 legislature, as well as against other wrong-doers. It makes no 
 difference, that the estate is holden for certain trusts. The legal 
 estate is still theirs. They have a right in the property, and 
 they have a right of visiting and superintending the trust ; and 
 this is an object of legal protection, as much as any other right. 
 
30 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 The charter declares that the powers conferred on the trustees 
 are "privileges, advantages, liberties, and immunities;" and 
 tliat they shall be forever holden by them and their successors. 
 The New Hampshire bill of rights declares that no one shall 
 be deprived of his "property, privileges, or immunities," but by 
 judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. The argument 
 on the other side is, that, although these terms may mean some- 
 thing in the bill of rights, they mean nothing in this charter. 
 But they are terms of legal signification, and very properly 
 used in the charter. They are equivalent with franchises. 
 Blackstone says that franchise and liberty are used as synony- 
 mous terms. And after enumerating other liberties and fran- 
 chises, he says : " It is likewise a fi'anchise far a number of 
 persons to be incorporated and subsist as a body politic, with a 
 power to maintain perpetual succession and do other corporate 
 acts ; and each individual member of such a corporation is also 
 said to have a franchise or freedom."* 
 
 Liberties is the term used in Magna Charta as including 
 franchises, privileges, immunities, and all the rights which be- 
 long to that class. Professor Sullivan says, the term signifies 
 the ^'■privileges that some of the subjects, whether single per- 
 sons or bodies corporate, have above others by the lawful grant 
 of the king ; as the chattels of felons or outlaws, and the lands 
 and privilerjes of corporations.'''^ 
 
 The privilege, then, of being a member of a corporation, un- 
 der a lawful grant, and of .exercising the rights and powers 
 of such member, is such a privilege, liberty, or franchise, as 
 has been the object of legal protection, and tiie subject of a 
 legal interest, from the time of Magna Charta to the present 
 moment. The plaintitls have such an interest in this corpora- 
 tion, individu;illy, as they could assert and maintain in a court 
 of law, not as agents of the public, but in their own right 
 Each trustee has a franchise, and if he be disturbed in the en- 
 
 * 2 Blact. Com. 87. t Sull. 4l8t Lect. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 31 
 
 joyment of it, he would have redress, on appealing to the law, 
 as promptly as for any other injury. If the other trustees 
 should conspu-e against any one of them to prevent his equal 
 right and voice in the appointment of a president or professor, 
 or in the passmg of any statute or ordinance of the college, he 
 would be entitled to his action, for depriving him of his fran- 
 chise. It makes no difterence, that this property is to be holden 
 and administered, and these franchises exercised, for the pur- 
 pose of diflTusing learning. No principle and no case estab- 
 lishes any such distmction. The public may be benefited by 
 the use of this property. But this does not change the nature of 
 the property, or the rights of the owners. Tlie object of the 
 charter may be public good ; so it is in all other corporations ; 
 and this would as well justify the resumption or violation of 
 the grant in any other case as in this. In the case of an ad- 
 vowson, the use is public, and the right cannot be turned to 
 any private benefit or emolument. It is nevertheless a legal 
 private right, and the property of the owner, as emphatically as 
 his freehold. The rights and privileges of trustees, visitors, or 
 governors of incorporated colleges, stand on the same founda- 
 tion. They are so considered, both by Lord Holt and Lord 
 Hardwicke.* 
 
 To contend that the rights of the plaintiffs may be taken 
 away, because they derive from them no pecuniary benefit or 
 private emolument, or because they cannot be transmitted to 
 their heirs, or would not be assets to pay their debts, is taking 
 an extremely narrow view of the subject. According to this 
 notion, the case would be different, if, in the charter, they had 
 stipulated for a commission on the disbursement of the funds ; 
 and they have ceased to have any interest in the property, be- 
 cause they have undertaken to administer it gratuitously. 
 
 It cannot be necessary to say much in refutation of the idea, 
 that there cannot be a legal interest, or owTiership, in anything 
 
 ♦ Phillips V. Bury. — Green v. Eutlierforth, uU supra. Vide also 2 Black. 21. 
 
32 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 which does not yield a pecuniary profit ; as if the law regarded 
 no rights but the rights of money, and of visible, tangible prop- 
 erty. Of what nature are all i-ights of suffrage 1 No elector 
 has a particular personal interest ; but each has a legal right, 
 to be exercised at his own disci'etion, and it cannot be taken 
 away from him. The exercise of this right directly and very 
 materially affect^ the public ; much more so than the exercise 
 of the privileges of a trustee of this college. Consequences of 
 the utmost magnitude may sometimes depend on the exercise 
 of the right of suffrage by one or a few electors. Nobody was 
 ever yet heard to contend, however, that on that account the 
 public might take away the right, or impair it. This notion 
 appears to be borrowed from no better source than the repu- 
 diated doctrine of the three judges in the Aylesbury case.* 
 That was an action against a returning officer for refusing the 
 plaintift^'s vote, in the election of a member of parliament. 
 Three of the judges of the king's bench held, that the action 
 could not be maintained, because, among other objections, " it 
 was not any matter of profit, either in presenli, or in fuiuro.'" 
 It would not enrich the plaintiff in presenti, nor would it in 
 futuro go to his heirs, or answer to pay his debts. But Lord 
 Holt and the house of lords were of another opinion. The 
 judgment of the three judges was reversed, and the doctrine 
 they held, having been exploded for a century, seems now for 
 the fu'st time to be revived. 
 
 Individuals have a right to use their own property for pur- 
 poses of benevolence, either towards the public, or towards 
 other individuals. They have a right to exercise this benevo- 
 lence in such lawful manner as they may choose ; and when 
 the government has induced and excited it, by contracting to 
 give perpetuity to the stipulated manner of exercising it, to re- 
 scind this contract, and seize on the property, is not law, but 
 violence. Whether the state will grant these franchises, and 
 
 * Ashby «. White, 2 Lord Raym. 988. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 33 
 
 under what conditions it will grant them, it decides for itself. 
 But when once granted, the constitution holds them to be sa- 
 cred, till forfeited for just cause. 
 
 That all property, of which the use may be beneficial to the 
 public, belongs therefore to the public, is quite a new doctrine. 
 It has no precedent, and is supported by no known principle. 
 Doctor Wheelock might have answered his purposes, in this 
 case, by executing a private deed of ti'ust^ He might have 
 conveyed his property to trustees, for precisely such uses as are 
 described in this charter, hideed, it appears that he had con- 
 templated the establishing of his school in that manner, and 
 had made his will, and devised the property to the same per- 
 sons who were afterwards appointed trustees in the charter. 
 Many literary and other charitable mstitutions are founded in 
 that manner, and the ti'ust is renewed, and conferred on other 
 pei-sons, from time to time, as occasion may require. In such 
 a case, no lawyer would or could say, that the legislature might 
 divest the trustees, constituted by deed or will, seize upon the 
 property, and give it to other persons, for other purposes. And 
 does the granting of a charter, wliich is only done to per|)etuate 
 the trust ui a more convenient mamier, make any diiierence ? 
 Does or can this change the nature of the charity, and turn it 
 into a public political corporation 1 Happily, we are not with- 
 out authority on this point. It has been considered and ad- 
 judged. Lord Hardwicke says, in so many words, " The 
 charter of the crown cannot make a charity more or less pub- 
 lic, but only more permanent than it would otherwise be."* 
 
 The granting of the corporation is but making the trust per- 
 petual, and does not alter the nature of the charity. The very 
 object sought in obtaimng such charter, and in giving property 
 to such a corporation, is to make and keep it private property, 
 and to clothe it with all the security and inviolability of pri- 
 vate property. The intent is, that there shall be a legal private 
 
 ♦ 2 Atk. 8T, Attorney General •». Pearce. 
 
 VOL. u. B* 3 
 
34 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ownership, and that the legal owners shall mahitain and protect 
 the property, for the benefit of those for whose use it was de- 
 signed. Who ever endowed the publici Who ever appointed 
 a legislature to administer his charity ? Or who ever heard, 
 before, that a gitl to a college, or hospital, or an asylum, wa«, 
 in reality, nothing but a gift to the state 1 
 
 The state of Vermont is a principal donor to Dartmouth 
 College. The lands given lie in that state. This appears in 
 the special verdict. Is Vermont to be considered as having in- 
 tended a gift to the state of New Hampshire in this case, as, 
 it has been said, is to be the reasonable constniction of all do- 
 nations to the college 1 The legislature of New Hampshire 
 aflfccts to represent the public, and therefore claims a right to 
 control all property destined to public use. What hinders 
 Vermont from considering herself equally the representative 
 of the public, and fi-om resuming her grants, at her own pleas- 
 ure ? Her right to do so is less doubtful than the power of 
 New Hampshire to pass the laws in question. 
 
 In University v. Foy,* tlic supreme court of North Carolina 
 pronounced unconstitutional and void a law repealing a grant to 
 the University of North Carolina, although that university was 
 originally erected and endowed by a statute of the state. That 
 case was a grant of lands, and the court decided that it could 
 not be resumed. This is the grant of a power and capacity 
 to hold lands. Where is the diflereucG of the cases, upon 
 principle ? 
 
 In Terrett v. Taylor,f this court decided that a legislative 
 grant or confirmation of lands, for the purposes of moral and 
 relitrious instruction, could no more be rescinded than other 
 grants. The nature of the use was not holden to make any 
 difference. A grant to a parish or church, for tlie purposes 
 which have been mentioned, cannot be distinguished, in respect 
 t<) the title it confers, from a grant to a college for the promo- 
 
 ♦ 2 HayTVOod's Kep. 1 Cranch, 43. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 35 
 
 tion of piety and learning. To the same purpose may be cited 
 the case of Pawlett v. Clark. The state of Vermont, by stat- 
 ute, in 1794, granted to the respective towns in that state cer- 
 tain glebe lands lying within those towns for the sole use and 
 support of religious worship. In 1799, an act was passed to 
 repeal the act of 1794 ; but tliis court declared, that the act of 
 1794, " so far as it granted the glebes to the towns, could not 
 afterwaixls be repealed by the legislature, so as to divest the 
 rights of the towns under the grant."* 
 
 It %vill be for the other side to show that the nature of the 
 use decides the question whether the legislature has power to 
 resume its grants. It will be for those who maintain such a 
 doctrine to show the principles and cases upon which it rests. 
 It will be for them also to fix the limits and boundaries of theu- 
 doctrine, and to show what are and what are not such uses as 
 to give the legislature this power of resumption and revocation. 
 And to furnish an answer to the cases cited, it will be for them 
 further to show that a grant for the use and support of religious 
 worship stands on other ground than a grant for the promotion 
 of piety and learning. 
 
 I hope enough has been said to show that the trustees pos- 
 sessed vested liberties, privileges, and immunities, under this 
 charter; and that such liberties, privileges, and immunities, 
 beino- once lawfully obtained and vested, are as inviolable as 
 any vested rights of property whatever. Rights to do certain 
 acts, such, for instance, as the visitation and superintendence 
 of a college and the appointment of its officers, may surely be 
 vested rights, to all legal intents, as completely as the right to 
 possess property. A late learned judge of this court has said, 
 " When I say that a right is vested in a citizen, I mean that he 
 nas the power to do certain actions, or to possess certain things, 
 according to the law of the land."f 
 
 If such be the true nature of the plaintiffs' interest^ under 
 
 ♦ 9 Crancb, 292. + 8 Dftll. 89i 
 
3G WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 this charter, what are the articles in the New Hampshire bill 
 of rights which these acts infringe 1 
 
 They infringe the second article ; which says, that the citizens 
 of the state have a right to hold and jwssess property. The 
 plamtifFs had a legal pi-operty in this charter ; and they had 
 acquired property under it. The acts deprive them of both. 
 They impair and take away the charter ; and they appropriate 
 the property to new uses, against their consent. The plaintiffs 
 cannot now hold the property acquired by themselves, and 
 wliich tills article says they have a right to hold. 
 
 They infringe the twentieth article. By that article it is de- 
 clared that, in questions of property, there is a right to trial. 
 The plaintiffs are divested, without trial or judgment. 
 
 They uifringe the twenty -third article. It is therein declared 
 that no retrospective laws shall be passed. This article bears 
 directly on the case. These acts must be deemed to be retro- 
 spective, within the settled construction of that term. What a 
 retrospective law is, has been decided, on the construction of 
 this very article, in the circuit court for the first circuit. The 
 learned judge of that circuit says : "Every statute which takes 
 away or impairs vested rights, acquired under existing laws, 
 must be deemed i-etrospective."* That all such laws are retro- 
 spective was decided also in the case of Dash v. Van Kleek,f 
 where a most learned judge quotes this article from the consti- 
 tution of New Hampshire, with manifest approbation, as a 
 plain and clear expression of those fundamental and unalterable 
 princi})les of justice, which must lie at the foundation of every 
 free and just system of laws. Can any man deny that the 
 plaintiffs had rights, under the charter, which were legally 
 vested, and that by these acts those rights are impaired ? 
 
 " It is a principle in the English law," says Chief Justice Kent, 
 in the case last cittxl, " as ancient as the law itself, that a stat- 
 ute, even of its omnipotent parliament, is not to have a retro- 
 
 ♦ 2 Gal. 108, Society v. Wheeler. t 7 Johnson's Eop. 477. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. ■WOODWARD. 37 
 
 spective effect. Nova constitutio futuris formam imponere 
 dehet^ et non prceteritis* 
 
 The maxim in Bracton was probably taken from the civil 
 law, for we find in that system the same principle, that the law- 
 giver cannot alter his mind to the prejudice of a vested right. 
 Nemo potest mutare concilium suum in alterius injuriam,.^ 
 This maxim of Papinian is general in its terms, but Doctor 
 TaylorJ applies it directly as a restriction upon the lawgiver, 
 and a declaration in the code leaves no doubt as to the sense 
 of the civil law. Leges et constitutiones futuris certum est 
 dare formam negotiis^ non ad facta prceterita revocari, nisi 
 nominatim, et de prceterito tempore^ et adhuc jfendejiiibus ne- 
 gotiis cautum sit.^ This passage, according to the best inter- 
 pretation of the civilians, relates not merely to future suits, but 
 to future, as contradistinguished from past, contracts and vested 
 rights.! It is indeed admitted that the prince may enact a 
 retrospective law, provided it be done exjnesshj ; for the will 
 of the prince under the despotism of the Eoman emperors 
 was paramount to every obligation. Great latitude was an- 
 ciently allowed to legislative expositions of statutes ; for the 
 separation of the judicial from the legislative power was not 
 then distinctly known or prescribed. The prince was in the 
 'habit of interpreting his own laws for particular occasions. 
 Tliis was called the Inferlocutio Frincijns ; and this, accord- 
 inn- to Huber's definition, was quando principes inter partes 
 loquuntur et jus dicunt.^ No correct civilian, and especially 
 no proud admirer of the ancient republic (if any such then ex- 
 isted,) could have reflected on this interference with private 
 rights and pending suits without disgust and indignation ; and 
 we are rather surprised to find that, under the violent and abso- 
 lute genius of the Roman government, the principle before us 
 
 ♦Bracfon, Lib. 4, fol. 229. 2d Inst. 292. + Dig. 50. 17. 75. 
 
 $ Elements of the Civil Law, 168. §Cod.l. 14. 7. 
 
 I Perezii Prielect. h. t. t Prelect. Juris Ciy., Vol. 11, 645. 
 
88 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 should have been acknowledged and obeyed to the extent in 
 ■which we find it. The fact shows that it must be founded in the 
 clearest justice. Our case is happily very different from that of 
 the subjects of Justinian. With us the power of the lawgiver is 
 limited and defined ; the judicial is regarded as a distinct, inde- 
 pendent power ; private rights have been better understood and 
 more exalted in public estimation, as well as secured by pro- 
 visions dictated by the spirit of freedom, and unknown to the 
 civil law. Our constitutions do not admit tlie power assumed 
 by the Roman prince, aiid the principle we are considering is 
 now to be regarded as sacred." 
 
 These acts infringe also tlie tliirty-seventh article of the con- 
 stitution of New Hampshire ; wliich says, that the powers of 
 government shall be kept separate. By these acts, the legis- 
 lature assumes to exercise a judicial power. It declares a 
 forfeiture, and resumes franchises, once granted, without trial 
 or hearing. 
 
 If the constitution be not altogether waste-paper, it has re- 
 strained the power of the legislature in these particulars. If it 
 has any meaning, it is that the legislature shall pass no act 
 directly and manifestly impairing private property and private 
 privileges. It shall not judge by act. It shall not decide by 
 act. It shall not deprive by act. But it shall leave all these* 
 things to be tried and adjudged by the law of the land. 
 
 The fifi;eenth article has been referred to before. It declares 
 that no one shall be " deprived of his property, immunities, or 
 privileges, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the 
 land." Notwithstanding the light in which the learned judges 
 in New IIam]-»shire viewed the rights of the plaintiffs under the 
 charter, and wliich has been before adverted to, it is found to 
 be admitted in their opinion, that those rights are priviletres 
 within the meaning of this fifteenth article of the bill of n<rhts. 
 Having quoted that article, they say : " That the right to 
 manage the affairs of tliis college is a privilege, witliiu the 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOOD-WARD. 
 
 39 
 
 meaning of this clause of the biU of rights, is not to he doubted.' 
 In my humble opimon, tliis surrenders the pomt. To resist the 
 effect of tills admission, however, the learned judges add: 
 " But how a privilege can be protected from the operation of 
 the law of the land by a clause in the constitution, declaring 
 that it shall not be taken away but by the law of the land, is 
 not very easily understood." This answer goes on the ground, 
 that the acts in question are laws of the land, withm the mean- 
 iiic of the constitution. If thoy be so, the argument drawn 
 from this article is fully answered. If Uiey be not so, it being 
 admitted that the plaintiffs' rights are "privileges," withm the 
 meanincT of the article, the argument is not answered, and the 
 article ts infringed by the acts. Are, then, these acts of the 
 legislature, which affect only particular persons and their par- 
 ticular privileges, laws of the land ] 
 
 Let this question be answered by the text of Blackstone. 
 « And first it (i. e. law) is a rule : not a transient, sudden or- 
 der from a superior to or concernmg a particular person ; but 
 something permanent, uniform, and universal. Therefore a 
 particulai°act of the legislature to confiscate the goods of Titius, 
 or to attaint him of high treason, does not enter into the idea 
 of a municipal law ; for the operation of this act is spent upon 
 Titius only, and has no relation to the community in general ; it 
 is rather a sentence than a law."* Lord Coke is equally decisive 
 and emphatic. CiUng and commenting on the celebrated twen- 
 ty-ninth chapter of Magna Charta, he says : " No man shall be 
 disseized, &c., unless it be l)y the lawful judgment, that is, ver- 
 dict of equals, or by the law of the land, that is (to speak it 
 once for aU,) by the due course and process of law."t Have 
 the plaintiffs lost their franchises by "due course and process 
 of law r' On the contrary, are not these acts " particular acts 
 of the legislature, which have no relation to the community in 
 general, and which are rather sentences than laws?" 
 
 * 1 Bbck. Com. 44 t Coke, 2 In. 46. 
 
40 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECBS. 
 
 By the law of the land is most clearly intended the gejieral 
 law ; a law which hears before it condenans ; which proceeds 
 upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after ti'lal. The mean- 
 ing is, that every citizen shall hold his life, liberty, property, 
 and immimities under the protection of the general rules which 
 govern society. Everything which may pass under the form 
 of an enactment is not therefore to be considered the law of the 
 land. If this were so, acts of attainder, bills of pains and pen- 
 alties, acts of confiscation, acts reversing judgments, and acts 
 directly transferrinjz; one man's estate to another, legislative 
 judgments, decrees, and forfeitures in all possible forms, would 
 be the law of the land. 
 
 Such a strange construction would render constitutional pro- 
 visions of the highest importance completely inoperative and 
 void. It would tend directly to establish the union of all powers 
 in the legislature. There would be no general, permanent law 
 for courts to administer or for men to live under. The adminis- 
 tration of justice would be an empty form, an idle ceremony. 
 Judges would sit to execute legislative judgments and decrees ; 
 not to declare the law or to administer the justice of the coun- 
 try. " Is that the law of the land," said Air. Burke, " upon 
 whi(ih, if a man go to Westminster Hall, and ask counsel by 
 what title or tenure he holds his privilege or estate according 
 to the law of the la?id, he should be told, that the law of the 
 land is not yet known ; that no decision or decree has been 
 made in his case ; tliat when a decree shall be passed, he will 
 then know what the law of the land is ? Will this be said to 
 be the law of the land, by any lawyer who has a rag of a 
 gown left upon his back, or a wig with one tie upon his 
 head 1 " 
 
 That the power of electing and appointing the officers of this 
 college is not only a right of the trustees as a corporation, gen- 
 erally, and in the aggregate, but that each individual trustee has 
 also his own individual franchise in such right of election and 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 41 
 
 appointment, is according to the language of all the authorities. 
 Lord Holt says : " It is agreeable to reason and the rules of 
 law, that a franchise should be vested in the corporation aggre- 
 gate, and yet the benefit of it to redound to the particular 
 members, and to be enjoyed by them in their private capacity. 
 Where the privilege of election is used by particular persons, 
 it is a particular right^ vested in every partioular man^* 
 
 It is also to be considered, that the president and professors 
 of this college have rights to be affected by these aces. Their 
 interest is similar to that of fellows in the English colleges; be- 
 cause they derive their living, wholly or in part, from the found- 
 er's bounty. The president is one of the trustees or corpora- 
 tors. The professors are not necessarily members of the cor- 
 poration ; but they are appointed by the trustees, are remova- 
 ble only by them, and have fixed salaries payable out of the 
 general funds of the college. Both president and professors 
 have freeholds in their ofiices ; subject only to be removed by 
 the trustees, as their legal visitors, for good cause. All the 
 authorities speak of fellowships m 'colleges as freeholds, not- 
 withstanding the fellows may be liable to be suspended or re- 
 moved, for misbehavior, by their constituted visitors. 
 
 Nothing could have been less expected, m this age, than that 
 there should have been an attempt, by acts of the legislature, to 
 take away these college livings, the inadequate but the only 
 support of literary men who have devoted their lives to the in- 
 struction of youth. The president and professors were ap- 
 pointed by the twelve trustees. They were accountable to no- 
 body else, and could be removed by nobody else. They ac- 
 cepted their ofiices on this tenure. Yet the legislature has ap- 
 pointed other persons, with power to remove these officers and 
 to deprive them of their livings ; and those other persons have 
 exercised that power. No description of private property has 
 been regarded as more sacred than college livings. They are 
 
 *2 Lord Bay. 952. 
 
42 "WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the estates and freeholds of a most deserving class of men ; of 
 scholars who have consented to forego the advantages of pro- 
 fessional and public employments, and to devote themselves to 
 science and literature and the instruction of youth in the quiet 
 retreats of academic life. Whether to dispossess and oust 
 them ; to deprive them of their office, and to turn them out of 
 their livings; to do this, not by the power of their legal vis- 
 itors or governors, but by acts of the legislature, and to do it 
 without forfeiture and without fault ; whether all this be not 
 in the highest degree an indefensible and arbitrary proceeding, 
 is a question of which there would seem to be but one side fit 
 for a lawyer or a scholar to espouse. 
 
 Of all the attempts of James II. to overturn the law, and 
 the rights of his subjects, none was esteeemed more arbi- 
 trary or tyrannical than his attack on INIagdalen College, Ox- 
 ford ; and yet that attempt was nothing but to put out one 
 president and put in another. The president of that college, 
 according to the charter and statutes, is to be chosen by the 
 fellows, who are the corporators. There being a vacancy, the 
 king chose to take the appointment out of the hands of the fel- 
 lows, the legal electors of a president, into his own hands. He 
 therefore sent down his mandate, commanding the fellows to 
 admit for president a person of his nomination ; and, inasmuch 
 a-s this was directly against the cliarter and constitution of the 
 college, he was pleased to add a non obstante clause of suffi- 
 ciently comprehensive import. The fellows were commanded 
 to admit the person mentioned in the mandate, " any statute, 
 custom, or constitution to the contrary notwithstanding, where- 
 with we are graciously pleased to dispense in this behalf." 
 The fellows refused obedience to this mandate, and Doctor 
 Hough, a man of independence and character, was chosen pres- 
 ident by the fellows, according to the charter and statutes. 
 The king then assumed the power, in virtue of his prerogative, 
 to send do\ra certain commissioners to turn him out; which 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 43 
 
 was done accordingly ; and Parker, a creature suited to the 
 times, put in his place. And because the president, who was right- 
 fully and legally elected, would not deliver the keys, the doors 
 were broken open. " The nation as well as the university," 
 says Bishop Burnet,* " looked on all these proceedings with 
 just indignation. It was thought an open piece of robbery and 
 burglai-y when men, authorized by no legal commission, came 
 and forcibly turned men out of their possession and freehold." 
 Mr. Hume, although a man of different temper, and of other 
 sentiments, in some respects, than Doctor Burnet, speaks of 
 this arbitrary attempt of prerogative in terms not less decisive. 
 " The president, and all the fellows," says he, " except two, who 
 complied, were expelled the college, and Parker was put in 
 possession of the office. This act of violence, of all those 
 which were committed during the reign of James, is perhaps 
 the most illegal and arbitrary. When the dispensing power 
 was the most strenuously insisted on by court lawyers, it had 
 still been allowed that the statutes which regard private prop- 
 erty could not legally be infringed by that prerogative. Yet, 
 in this instance, it appeared that even these were not now se- 
 cure from invasion. The privileges of a college are attacked ; 
 men are illegally dispossessed of their property for adliering to 
 their duty, to their oaths, and to their religion." 
 
 This measure King James lived to repent, after repentance 
 was too late. When the charter of London was restored, and 
 other measures of violence retracted, to avert the impending 
 revolution, the expelled president and fellows of Magdalen 
 College were permitted to resume their rights. It is evident 
 that this was regarded as an arbitrary interference with private 
 property. Yet private property was no otherwise attacked 
 than as a person was appointed to administer and enjoy the 
 revenues of a college in a manner and by persons not author- 
 ized by the constitution of the college. A majority of the 
 
 ♦ Hist of bis own Times, Vol. 3, p. 119. 
 
44 WEBSTER AXD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 members of the corporation would not comply with the king's 
 wishes. A minority would. The object was therefore to make 
 tliis minority a majority. To this end the king's commission- 
 ers were directed to interfere in the case, and they united with 
 the two complying fellows, and expelled the rest ; and thus ef- 
 fected a change in the government of the college. The lan- 
 guage m which Mr, Hume and all other writers speak of this 
 abortive attempt of oppression, shows that colleges were es- 
 teemed to be, as they truly are, private corporations, and the 
 property and privileges which belong to them private property 
 and private privileges. Court lawyers were found to justify 
 tlie king in dispensing with the laws ; that is, in assuming and 
 exercising a legislative authority. But no lawyer, not even a 
 court lawyer, in the reign of King James the fSecond, as far as 
 appears, was found to say that, even by his high authority, he 
 could infringe the franchises of the fellows of a college, and take 
 away their livings. Mr. Hume gives the reason ; it is, that 
 such franchises were regarded, in a most emphatic sense, as 
 2)rivate jiropertij.* 
 
 If it could ]je made to appear that the trustees and the presi- 
 dent and professors held their otHccs and franchises during the 
 pleasure of the legislature, and that the property holden be- 
 longed to the state, then indeed the legislature have done no 
 more than they have a right to do. But this is not so. The 
 charter is a charter of privileges and immunities ; and these are 
 holden by the trustees expressly against the state forever. 
 
 It is admitted that the state, by its courts of law, can en- 
 force the will of the donor, and compel a faithful execution of 
 the trust. The plaintiffs claim no exemption from legal respon- 
 sibihty. They hold themselves at all times answerable to the 
 law of the land, for their conduct in the trust committed to 
 them. They ask only to hold the property of which they are 
 owners, and the franchises which belong to them, until they 
 
 • Vldo a full account of this case in State Trials, 4tU edition, Vol 4, page 262. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 45 
 
 shall be found, by due course and process of law, to have for- 
 feited them. 
 
 It can make no difference whether the legislature exercis© the 
 power it has assumed by removing the trustees and the presi- 
 dent and professors, directly and by name, or by appointing 
 others to expel them. Tlie principle is the same, and. in point 
 of fact the result has been the same. If the entire- franchise 
 cannot be taken away, neither can it be essentially impaired. 
 If the trustees are legal owTiers of the property, they are sole 
 owners. If they are visitors, they are sole visitors. No one 
 will be found to say, that, if the legislature may do what it has 
 done, it may not do anything and everything which it may 
 choose to do, relative to the property of the corporation, and 
 the privileges of its members and officers. 
 
 If the view which has been taken of tliis question be at all 
 correct, this was an eleemosynary corporation, a private char- 
 ity. The property was private property. The trustees were 
 visitors, and the right to hold the charter, admmister the funds, 
 and visit and govern the college, was a franchise and privilege, 
 solemnly granted to them. The use being public ua no way 
 diminishes their legal estate in the property, or their title to 
 the franchise. There is no principle, nor any case, which de- 
 clares that a gift to such a corporation is a gift to the public. 
 The acts in question violate property. They take away priv- 
 ileges, immunities, and franchises. They deny to the trustees 
 the protection of the law ; and they are retrospective in their 
 operation. In all which respects they are against the constitu- 
 tion of New Hampshire. 
 
 The plaintiffs contend, in the second place, that the acts in 
 question are repugnant to the tenth section of the first article 
 of the constitution of the United States. The material words 
 of that section are : " No state shall pass any bill of attain- 
 der, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of 
 contracts." 
 
46 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 The object of these most important provisions in the national 
 constitution has often been discussed, both here and elsewhere. 
 It is exhibited with great clearness and force by one of the dis- 
 tinguished persons who framed that instrument : " Bills of at- 
 tainder, ex x>osl facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation 
 of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social 
 compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. The two 
 former are expressly prohibited by the declarations prefixed to 
 some of the state constitutions, and all of them are prohibited 
 by the spirit and scope of these fiandamental charters. Our 
 own experience has taught us, nevertheless, that additional fences 
 against these dangers ought not to be omitted. Very properly, 
 therefore, have the convention added this constitutional bulwark, 
 in favor of personal security and private rights ; and I am 
 much deceived, if they have not, in so doing, as faithfully con- 
 sulted the genuine sentiments as the undoubted interests of 
 tlieir constituents. The sober people of America are weary 
 of the flluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. 
 They have seen with regret, and with indignation, tliat sudden 
 changes, and legislative interferences in cases aflecting personal 
 rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential 
 speculators, and snares to the more industrious and less in- 
 formed part of the community. Tliey have seen, too, that one 
 legislative interference is but the link of a long chain of repeti- 
 tions ; every subsequent interference being naturally produced 
 by the effects of the preceding."* 
 
 It has already been decided in this court, that a grant is a 
 contract, within the meaning of this provision ; and that a grant 
 by a state is also a contract, as much as the grant of an indi- 
 ■vidual. In Fletcher v. Peck,f this court says: "A contract 
 is a compact between two or more parties, and is either 
 executory or executed. An executory contract is one in 
 which a party binds himself to do, or not to do, a particular 
 • iAih No. of the Toderalist, by Mi-. Madison. t 6 Craacb, 87. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 47 
 
 tiling ; such was the law under which the conveyance was made 
 by the government. A contract executed is one in which the 
 object of contract is performed ; and this, says Blackstone, dit 
 fers in nothing from a grant. The contract between Georgia 
 and the purchasers was executed by the grant. A contract ex- 
 ecuted, as well as one which is executory, contains obligations 
 binding on the parties. A grant, in its own nature, amounts 
 to an extinguishment of the right of the grantor, and implies a 
 contract not to reassert that right. If, under a fair construction 
 of the constitution, grants are comprehended under the term 
 contracts, is a grant from the state excluded from the operation 
 of the provision 1 Is the clause to be considered as inhibiting 
 the state from impairing the obligation of contracts between 
 two individuals, but as excluding from that inhibition conti^acts 
 made with itself? The words themselves contain no such dis- 
 tmction. They are general, and are applicable to contracts of 
 every description. If contracts made with the state are to be 
 exempted from their operation, the exception must arise from 
 the character of the conti'acting party, not from the words 
 which are employed. Whatever respect might have been felt 
 for the state sovereignties, it is not to be disguised that the 
 framers of the constitution viewed with some apprehension the 
 violent acts which might gi'ow out of the feelings of the mo- 
 ment ; and that the people of the United States, m adopting 
 that mstrument, have manifested a determination to shield them- 
 selves and their property from the effects of those sudden and 
 strong passions to which men are exposed. The restrictions 
 on the legislative power of the states are obviously founded in 
 this sentiment ; and the constitution of the United States con- 
 tams what may be deemed a bill of rights for the people of 
 each state." 
 
 It has also been decided that a grant by a state before the 
 revolution is as much to be protected as a grant since.* But 
 
 * Now Jersey v. Wilson, 7 Cranch, 161 
 
48 ■ WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the case of Terrett v. Taylor, before cited, is of all others most 
 pertinent to the present argument, hideed, the judgment of 
 the court in that case seems to leave little to be ai'gued or de- 
 cided in this. "A private corporation," say the court, " created 
 by the legislature, may lose its franchises by a misuser or a 
 nonuser of them ; and they may be resumed by the govern- 
 ment under a judicial judgment upon a quo warranto to ascer- 
 tain and enforce the forfeitare. This is the common law of the 
 land, and is a tacit condition annexed to the creation of every 
 such corporation. Upon a change of government, too, it may 
 be admitted that such exclusive privileges attached to a private 
 corporation as are inconsistent with the new government, may 
 be abolished, hi respect, also, to public corporations which exist 
 only for pubhc purposes, such as counties, towns, cities, and so 
 forth, the legislature may, under proper hmitations, have a right 
 to change, modify, enlarge, or restrain them, securing, however, 
 the property for the uses of those for whom, and at wliose ex- 
 pense it was originally purchased. But that the legislature can 
 repeal statutes creating private corporations, or confirmuig to 
 them property already acquired under the fliith of previous 
 laws, and by such repeal can vest the property of such corpo- 
 rations exclusively in the state, or dispose of the same to such 
 purposes as they please, without the consent or default of the 
 corporators, we are not prepared to admit; and we think our- 
 selves standing upon the principles of natural justice, upon the 
 fundamental laws of every free government, upon the spirit 
 and letter of the constitution of the United States, and upon 
 the decisions of most respectable judicial tribunals, in i*esisting 
 such a doctrine." 
 
 This court, then, does not admit the doctrine that a legisla- 
 ture can repeal statutes creating private corporations. If it can- 
 not repeal them altogether, of course it camiot repeal any part 
 of them, or impair them, or essentially alter them, without the 
 consent of the corporators. If, therefore, it has been shown 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 49* 
 
 that this college is to be regarded as a private charity, this case 
 is embraced witliin the very terms of that decision. A grant 
 of corporate powers and privileges is as much a contract as a 
 grant of land. What proves all charters of this sort to be con- 
 tracts is. that they must be accepted to gi\'e them force and 
 effect. If they are not accepted, they are void. And m the 
 case of an existing corporation, if a new charter is given it, it 
 may even accept part and reject the rest, hi Rex v. Vice- 
 Chancellor of Cambridge,* Lord Mansfield says : " There is a 
 vast deal of difference between a new charter granted to a new 
 corporation, (who must take it as it is given,) and a new char- 
 ter given to a corporation already in being, and acting either 
 under a former charter or under prescriptive usage. The lat- 
 ter, a corporation already existing, are not obliged to accept 
 the new charter in toto, and to receive cither all or none of it; 
 they may act partly under it, and partly under their old char- 
 ter or presci'iption. The validity of these new charters must 
 turn upon the acceptance of them." In the same case Mr. Jus- 
 tice Wilmot says : " It is the concurrence and acceptance of the 
 miiversity that gi\^es the force to the charter of the crown." 
 In the King v. Pasmore,f Lord Kenyon observes : " Some 
 things are clear : when a corporation exists capable of dis- 
 charging its functions, the crown cannot obtrude another char- 
 ter upon them ; they may either accept or reject it."J 
 
 In all cases relative to charters, the acceptance of them is 
 uniformly alleged in the pleadings. This shows the general 
 understanding of the law, that they are grants or contracts ; 
 and that parties are necessary to give them force and validity. 
 In King \K Dr. Askew,§ it is said : " The crown cannot oblige 
 a man to be a coi'porator, without his consent ; he shall not be 
 subject to the inconveniences of it, without accepting it and 
 assenting to it." These terms, "acceptance" and "assent," are 
 
 * 3 Burr. 1G56. 
 
 X Vide also 1 Kyd on Cor. 65. 
 
 + S Term Rep. 240. 
 § 4 Burr. 2200. 
 
 VOL. II. C 
 
 4 
 
50 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the very language of contract. In Ellis v. Marshall * it was 
 expressly adjudged that the naming of the defendant among 
 others, in an act of incorporation, did not, of itself, make him 
 a corporator ; and that his assent was necessary to that end. 
 The court speak of the act of mcorporation as a grant, and ob- 
 serve : " That a man may refuse a grant, whether from the 
 government or an individual, seems to be a principle too clear 
 to require the support of authorities." But Justice Buller, 
 in King v. Pasmore, furnishes, if possible, a still more direct 
 and explicit authority. Speaking of a corporation for govern- 
 ment, he says : " I do not know how to reason on this point, 
 better than in the manner urged by one of the relator's coun- 
 sel, who considered the grant of incorporation to be a compact 
 between the crown and a certain number of the subjects, the 
 latter of whona undertake, in consideration of the privileges 
 which are bestowed, to exert themselves for the good govern- 
 ment of the place." This language applies with peculiar pro- 
 priety and force to the case before the court. It was in conse- 
 quence of the " privileges bestowed," that Dr. Whoelock and 
 his associates undertook to exert themselves for the instruction 
 and education of youth in this college; and it was on the 
 same consideration that the founder endowed it with his 
 property. 
 
 And because charters of incorporation are of the nature of 
 contracts, they cannot be altered or varied but by consent of 
 the original parties. K a charter be granted by the king, it 
 may be altered by a new charter granted by the king, and ac- 
 cepted by the corporators. But, if the first charter be granted 
 by parliament, the consent of parliament must be obtained to 
 any alteration. In King v. Miller,f Lord Kenyon says : 
 " Where a corporation takes its rise from the king's charter, 
 the king by granting, and the corporation by acceptmg another 
 
 * 2 Mass. Rep. 269. + 6 Tenn Rep. 277. 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 51 
 
 charter, may alter it, because it is done with the consent of all 
 the parties who are competent to consent to the alteration."* 
 
 There are, in this case, all the essential constituent parts of 
 a contract. There is something to be contracted about, there 
 are parties, and there are plain terms' m which the agreement 
 of the parties on the subject of the contract is expressed. 
 There are mutual considerations and inducements. The char- 
 ter recites that the founder, on liis part, has agreed to establish 
 his seminary m New Hampshire, and to enlarge it beyond its 
 original design, among other tilings, for the benefit of that prov- 
 ince ; and thereupon a charter is given to him and his associ- 
 ates, designated by himself, promising and assuring to them, 
 under the plighted faith of the state, the right of governing the 
 college and administering its concerns in the mamier provided 
 in the charter. There is a complete and perfect grant to them 
 of all the power of superintendence, visitation aiid govern- 
 ment. Is not this a contract 1 If lands or money had been 
 granted to him and his associates, for the same purposes, such 
 gi-ant could not be rescinded. And is there any difference, in 
 legal contemplation, between a gi'ant of corporate franchises 
 and a grant of tangible property 1 No such difference is rec- 
 ognized in any decided case, nor does it exist in the common 
 apprehension of mankind. 
 
 It is, therefore, contended that this case falls within the true 
 meaning of this provision of the constitution, as expounded in the 
 decisions of tliis court ; that the charter of 1769 is a contract, 
 a stipulation or agreement, mutual in its considerations, express 
 and formal in its terms, and of a most buiding and solemn na- 
 ture. That the acts in question impair this contract, has al- 
 ready been sufficiently shown. They repeal and abrogate its 
 most essential parts. 
 
 A single observation may not be improper on the opinion 
 of the court of New Hampshire, which has been published. 
 
 * Vide also 2 Brown's Ch. Rep. 662, Ex parte Bolton School. 
 
52 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 The learned judges who delivered that opinion have viewed this 
 question in a very different light from that in which the plain- 
 tiffs have endeavored to exhibit it. After some general re- 
 marks, they assume that this college is a public corporation ; 
 and on tliis basis their judgment rests. Whether all colleges 
 are not regarded as private and eleemosynary corporations, 
 by all law writers, and all judicial decisions ; whether this col- 
 lege was not founded by Dr. Wheelock ; whether the charter 
 was not granted at his request, the better to execute a trust, 
 which he had already created ; whether he and his associates 
 did not become visitors, by the charter ; and whether Dart- 
 mouth College be not, therefore, in the strictest sense, a private 
 charity, are questions which the learned judges do not appear 
 to have discussed. 
 
 It is admitted in that opinion, that, if it be a private corpo- 
 ration, its rights stand on the same ground as those of an indi- 
 vidual. The great question, therefore, to be decided is. To 
 which class of corporations do colleges thus founded be- 
 long] And the plaintiffs have endeavored to satisfy the 
 court, that, according to the well-settled principles and uni- 
 form decisions of law, they are private, eleemosynary corpo- 
 rations. 
 
 Much has heretofore been said on the necessity of admitting 
 such a power in the legislature as has been assumed in this 
 case. Many cases of possible evil have been imagined, which 
 might otherwise be without remedy. Abuses, it is contended, 
 might arise in the management of such institutions, which the 
 ordinary courts of law would be unable to correct. But this 
 is only another instance of that habit of supposing extreme cases, 
 and then of reasoning from them, which is the constant refuge 
 of those who arc obliged to defend a cause, which, upon its 
 merits, is mdefensible. It would be sufficient to say in answer, 
 that it is not pretended that there was here any such case of 
 necessity. But a still more satisfactory answer is, that the ap- 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE VS. WOODWARD. 53 
 
 prehension of danger is groundless, and therefore, the whole 
 argument fails. Experience has not taught us that there is 
 danger of great evils or of great inconvenience from tliis som-ce. 
 Hitherto, neither in our own country nor elsewhere have such 
 cases of necessity occurred. The judicial establishments of the 
 state are presumed to be competent to prevent abuses and vio- 
 lations of trust, in cases of this land, as well as in all others. 
 If they be not, they are imperfect, and their amendment would 
 be a most proper subject for legislative wisdom. Under the 
 government and protection of the general laws of the land, 
 these institutions have always been found safe, as well as use- 
 ful. They go on, with the progress of society, accommodating 
 themselves easily, \\athout sudden change or violence, to the alter- 
 ations which take place in its condition, and in the knowledge, 
 the habits, and pursuits of men. The English colleges were 
 founded in Catholic ages. Their religion was reformed with 
 the general reformation of the nation ; and they are suited 
 perfectly well to the piu-pose of educating the Protestant youth 
 of modern times. Dartmouth College was established under 
 a charter granted by the provmcial government ; but a better 
 constitution for a college, or one more adapted to the condition 
 of things under the present government, in all material respects, 
 could not now be framed. Nothing in it was found to need 
 alteration at the revolution. The wise men of that day saw 
 in it one of the best hopes of future times, and commended it 
 as it was, with parental care, to the protection and guardianship 
 of the government of the state. A charter of more hberal 
 sentiments, of wiser provisions, drawn with more care, or in a 
 better spirit, could not be expected at any time or from any 
 source. The college needed no change in its organization or 
 government. That which it did need was the kindness, the 
 patronage, the bounty of the legislature ; not a mock elevation 
 to the character of a university, without the solid benefit of a 
 shillbg's donation to sustam the character ; not the swelling 
 
54 WEBSTER AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and empty authority of ostablisliiiig institutes and other collo- 
 ges. Tliis unsubstantial pageantry would seem to have been 
 in derision of the scanty endowment and limited means 
 of an unobtrusive, but useful and growmg seminary. Least 
 of all, was there a necessity, or pretense of necessity, to 
 infringe its legal rights, violate its fi'anchises and pri\i- 
 leges, and pour upon it these overwhelming streams of liti- 
 gation. 
 
 But this argument, from necessity, would equally apply in 
 all oUier cases. If it be well founded, it would prove, that, 
 whenever any inconvenience or evil is experienced from the 
 resti'ictions imposed on the legislature by the constitution, these 
 restrictions ought to be disregarded. It is enough to say that 
 the people have thought otherwise. They have most 'wasely 
 chosen to take the risk of occasional inconvenience from the 
 want of power, in order that there might be a settled limit to 
 its exercise, and a permanent security against its abuse. They 
 have imposed prohibitions and restraints ; and they have not 
 rendered these altogether vain and nugatory by conferring the 
 power of dispensation. If inconvenience should arise which 
 the legislature cannot remedy under the jx)wer conferred upon 
 it, it is not answerable for such inconvenience. That which it 
 cannot do within the limits prescribed to it, it cannot do at 
 all. No legislature m tliis country is able, and may the time 
 never come when it shall be able, to apply to itself the 
 memorable expression of a Roman pontiff: '■'' Licet hoc de 
 JURE non 2^ossu}mis, volumus iamen de plenitudine potes- 
 
 TATIS." 
 
 The case before the court is not of ordinary importance, 
 nor of every-day occurrence. It affects not this college, only, 
 but every college, and all the literary mstitutions of the coun- 
 try. They have flourished liitherto, and have become, in a 
 high degree, respectable and useful to the community. They 
 have all a common principle of existence, the inviolability of 
 
DARTMOUTH COLLECE VS. WOODWARD. 55 
 
 their chartei's. It will be a dangerous, a most dangerous ex- 
 periment, to hold these institutions subject to the rise and fall 
 of popular parties, and the fluctuations of political opinions. 
 If the fi'txnchise may be at any time taken away, or impaired, 
 the property, also, may be taken away, or its use perverted. 
 Benefactors will have no certainty of effectiiig the object of 
 tlieir bounty ; and learned men %vill be deterred from devo- 
 ting tliemsclves to the service of such institutions, from the 
 precarious title of their offices. Colleges and halls will be 
 deserted by all better spirits, and become a theater for the 
 contentions of politics. Party and faction will be cherished in 
 the places consecrated to piety and learning. These conse- 
 quences are neither remote nor possible only. They are 
 certain and immediate. 
 
 When the court in North Carolina declared the law of the 
 state, which repealed a grant to its university, unconstitutional 
 and void, the legislature had the candor and the wisdom 
 to repeal the law. Tliis example, so honorable to the state 
 which exhibited it, is most fit to be followed on tliis occa- 
 sion. And there is good reason to hope that a state 
 which has hitherto been so much distinguished for temper- 
 ate counsels, cautious legislation, and regard to law, will 
 not fail to adopt a course wliich will accord with her high- 
 est and best interests, and in no small degree elevate her 
 reputation. 
 
 It was, for many and obvious reasons, most anxiously de- 
 sired that the question of the power of the legislature over 
 this chai'ter, should have been finally decided in the state 
 court. An earnest hope was entertained that the judges of 
 that court might have viewed the case in a light favorable 
 to the rights of the trustees. That hope has failed. It is 
 here that those rights are now to be maintained, or they 
 are prostrated forever. Omnia alia perfugia bonorum, sub- 
 
56 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 sidia, consilia, auxilia, jura ceciderunt. Que?n enhn aJium 
 ajJjiellem ? quern obtesler ? quern implorem ? Nisi hoc 
 loco, nisi apudvos, nisi per vos,judices,salutem nosiram, quce 
 spe exigua extremaque 2)endet, temierimus ; nihil est prceierea 
 quo confugere j^ossimus. 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 AN ANNIVERSARY ORATOR. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEJIEST OF KEW ENGLAND. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTK. 
 
 The mastcr-picco next in the order of time is tlio following, which was pronounced 
 on the 2'2d of December, 1S20, at the first anniversary celebration of the Landing of 
 the Pilgrims at Plymouth Pock, two hundred years from the date of that event. At 
 the time of its delivery, it was universally regarded as tlio most eloquent address 
 ever uttered on this continent; and certainly nothing equal to it has since appeared, 
 excejjting what Mr. Webster has produced. On the day it was delivered the orator 
 was nearly thirty-'iigM years of age. 
 
PLYMOUTH ORATION. 
 
 DISCOURSE IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND, 
 DELIVERED AT PLYMOUTH, ON THE 22d DAY OF DECEMBER, 1820. 
 
 Let us rejoice that we behold this day. Let us be thankflil 
 that we have lived to see the bright and happy breaking of the 
 auspicious mom, which commences the third century of the 
 history of?New England. Auspicious, mdeed — bringing a hap- 
 pmess beyond the common allotment of Providence to men — 
 full of present joy, and gilding with bright beams the prospect 
 of futurity, is the dawn that awakens us to the commemoration 
 of the landing of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Living at an epoch which naturally marks the progress of the 
 history of our native land, we have come hither to celebrate the 
 great event with which that history commenced. Forever hon- 
 ored be this, the place of our fathers' refuge ! Forever re- 
 membered the day which saw them, weary and distressed, bro- 
 ken in everything but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, 
 at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impressing 
 this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man ! 
 
 It is a noble faculty of our nature which enables us to con- 
 nect our thoughts, our sympathies, and our happiness with what 
 is distant in place or time ; and, looking before and after, to 
 hold communion at once with our ancestors and our posterity. 
 Human and mortal although we are, we are nevertheless not 
 mere insulated beings, without relation to the past or the future. 
 Neither the point of time, nor the spot of earth, in which we 
 physically live, bounds our rational and intellectual enjoyments. 
 We live in the past by a knowledge of its history ; and in the 
 futvu-e by hope and anticipation. By ascending to an associa. 
 
60 
 
 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 tion with our ancestors ; by contemplating their example and 
 studying tlieir character ; by partalcmg their sentiments, and 
 imbibing their spirit ; by accompanying them in their toils, by 
 sympathizing in their sufferings, and rejoicing m their successes 
 and their triumphs ; we mingle our own existence with theirs, 
 and seeem to belong to their age. We become their co 
 temporaries, live the lives which they lived, endure what they 
 endui-ed, and partake in the rewards which they enjoyed. And 
 in like manner, by runumg along the line of future time, by 
 contemplating the probable fortmies of those who are coming 
 aaer us, by attempting something which may promote their 
 happiness, and leave some not dishonorable memorial of our- 
 selves for their regard, when we shall sleep with the fathers, 
 we protract our own earthly being, and seem to crowd what- 
 ever is futm-e, as well as all that is past, into the nan-ow com- 
 pass of our earthly existence. As it is not a vain and false, but 
 an exalted and religious imagination, which leads us to raise 
 our thoughts from the orb, which, amidst this universe of 
 worlds, the Creator has given us to inhabit, and to send them 
 ■with something of the feeling which nature prompts, and teaches 
 to be proper among children of the same Eternal Parent, to 
 the contemplation of the myriads of fellow-beings, with which 
 his goodness has peopled the infinite of space ; so neither is it 
 false or vain to consider ourselves as interested and connected 
 with our whole race, through all time ; allied to our ancestors ; 
 allied to our posterity ; closely compacted on all sides Avith 
 others ; ourselves being but links in the great chain of beiuir, 
 wliich begins with the origin of our race, runs onward through 
 its successive generations, binding together the past, the pres- 
 ent, and the future, and terminating at last, with the consumma- 
 tion of all things earthly, at the throne of God. 
 
 There may be, and there often is, indeed, a regard for ances- 
 tiy, which nourishes only a weak pride; as there is also a 
 care for posterity, which only disguises an habitual avarice, or 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 61 
 
 hides the workings of a low and groveling vanity. But there 
 is also a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors, 
 which elevates the character and improves the heart. Next to 
 the sense of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly Imow 
 what should bear with stronger obligation on a liberal and en- 
 lightened mind, than a consciousness of aUiance with excellence 
 wliich is departed ; and a consciousness, too, that in its acts and 
 conduct, and even in its sentiments and thoughts, it may be 
 actively operating on the happiness of those who come after it. 
 Poetry is found to have few stronger conceptions, by which it 
 would affect or overwhelm the mind, than those in which it 
 presents the moving and speaking image of the departed dead 
 to the senses of the living. This belongs to poetry, only be- 
 cause it is congenial to our nature. Poetry is, in this respect, 
 but the handmaid of true philosophy and morality ; it deals 
 with us as human beings, naturally reverencing those whose 
 visible connection with tliis state of existence is severed, and 
 who may yet exercise we know not what sympathy with our- 
 selves ; and when it carries us forward, also, and shows us the 
 long continued result of all the good we do, m the prosperity 
 of those who follow us, till it bears us from ourselves, and ab- 
 sorbs us in an intense interest for what shall happen to the 
 generations after us, it speaks only in the language of our na- 
 tm-e, and affects us with sentiments which belong to us as hu- 
 man beings. 
 
 Standing m this relation to our ancestors and our posterity, 
 we are assembled on this memorable spot, to perform the du- 
 ties which that relation and the present occasion imposes upon 
 us. We have come to this Rock, to record here our homage 
 for our Pilgi-im Fathers ; our sympathy m their sufferings ; 
 our gratitude for their labors ; our admiration of their vntues ; 
 our veneration for their piety ; and our attachment to those 
 principles of civil and religious liberty, which they encoimtered 
 the dangers of the ocean, the storms of heaven, the violence of 
 
62 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 savages, disease, exile, and famine, to enjoy and establish. And 
 Tve would leave here, also, for the generations which are rising 
 up rapidly to fill our places, some proof that we hare endeav- 
 ored to transmit the great inheritance unimpaired ; that in our 
 estimate of public priuoiples airl private virtue, in our venera- 
 tion of religion and piety, in our devotion to civil and religious 
 liberty, in our regard for whatever advances human knowledge 
 or improves human happiness, we are not altogetlier unworthy 
 of our origin. 
 
 There is a local feeling connected with this occasion, too 
 strong to be resisted ; a sort of genius of the place, which in- 
 spires and awes us. We feel that we are on the spot where 
 the first scene of our history was laid ; where the hearths and 
 altars of New England were first placed ; where Christianity, 
 and civilization, and letters made their first lodgment, in a vast 
 extent of country, covered with a wilderness, and peopled by 
 roving barbarians. We are here, at the season of the year at 
 which the event took place. The imagination irresistibly and 
 rapidly draws around us the principal features and the leading 
 characters in the original scene. We cast our eyes abroad on 
 the ocean, and we see where the little bark, with the interesting 
 group upon its deck, made its slow progress to the shore. We 
 look around us, and behold the hills and promontories where 
 the anxious eyes of our fathers first saw the places of habitation 
 and of rest. We feel the cold whicli benumbed, and listen to 
 the winds which pierced them. Beneath us is the Rock, on 
 which New England received the feet of the Pilgrims. We 
 seem even to behold them, as they struggle with the elements, 
 and, witli toilsome eftbrts, gain the shore. We listen to the 
 chiefs in council; wc see the unexampled exhibition of female 
 fortitude and resignation ; we hear the whisperings of youthfiil 
 impatience, and we see, what a painter of our own has also 
 represented by his pencil, chilled and shivering childhood, 
 houseless, but for a mother's arms, couchless, but for a mother's 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 63 
 
 breast, till our own blood almost freezes. The mild dignity 
 of Cai'ver and of Bradford ; the decisive and soldier-like air 
 and manner of Standish ; the devout Brewster ; the enterpri- 
 sing Allerton ; the general firmness and thoughtfulness of the 
 whole band ; their conscious joy for dangers escaped ; their 
 deep solicitude about dangers to come ; their trust in Heaven; 
 their high religious faith, full of confidence and anticipation ; 
 all these seem to belong to this place, and to be present upon 
 this occasion, to fill us with reverence and admiration. 
 
 The settlement of New England by the colony which landed 
 here on the twenty-second of December, sixteen hundred and 
 twenty, although not the first European establishment in what 
 now constitutes the United States, was yet so peculiar in its 
 causes and character, and has been followed and must still be 
 followed by such consequences, as to give it a high claim to last- 
 ing commemoration. On these causes and consequences, more 
 than on its immediately attendant circumstances, its impor- 
 tance, as an historical event, depends. Great actions and stri- 
 king occurrences, having excited a temporary admiration, often 
 pass away and are forgotten, because they leave no lasting re- 
 sults, affecting the prosperity and happiness of communities. 
 Such is frequently the fortune of the most brilliant military 
 achievements. Of the ten thousand battles which have been 
 fought, of all the fields fertilized with carnage, of the banners 
 which have been bathed in blood, of the warriors who have 
 hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest to a 
 glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few that con- 
 tinue long to interest mankind ! The victory of yesterday is 
 reversed by the defeat of to-day ; the star of military glory, 
 rising like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen ; disgrace and 
 disaster hang on the heels of conquest and renown ; victor and 
 vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, and the world goes 
 on in its course, with the loss only of so many lives and so 
 much treasure. 
 
64 WEBSTEK AND HIS MASTER-PIECKS. 
 
 But if this be frequently, or generally, the fortune of military 
 achievements, it is not always so. There are enterprises, mili- 
 tary as well as civil, which sometimes check the current of 
 events, give a new tu)-n to human aflliirs, and transmit their 
 consequences through ages. We see their importance in their 
 results, and call them great, because great things follow. There 
 have been battles which have fixed the fete of nations. These 
 come do\vn to us in history with a solid and permanent interest, 
 not created by a display of glittering armor, the rush of adverse 
 battalio'.is, the sinldng and rising of pennons, the flight, the 
 pursuit, and the victory ; but by their effect in advancing or 
 retarding human knowledge, in overthrowing or establishing 
 despotism, in extending or destroying human happiness. 
 When the traveler pauses on the plain of Marathon, what are 
 the emotions which most strongly agitixte his breast ? What 
 is that glorious recollection, which thrills through his frame, 
 and sufRises his eyes 1 Not, I imagine, that Grecian skill and 
 Grecian valor were here most signally displayed ; but that 
 Greece herself was here saved. It is because to this spot, and to 
 the event which has rendered it immortal, he refers all the suc- 
 ceeding glories of the republic. It is because, if that day had 
 gone otherwise, Greece had perished. It is because he pei^ 
 ceives that her philosophers and orators, her poets and painters, 
 her sculptors and architects, her governments and free institu- 
 tions, point backward to Marathon, and that their future exist- 
 ence seems to have been suspended on the contingency, whether 
 the Persian or the Grecian banner should wave victorious in 
 the beams of that day's setting sun. And, as his imagination 
 kindles at the retrospect, he is transported back to the interest- 
 ing moment; he counts the fearful odds of the contending 
 hosts ; his interest for the result overwhelms him ; he trem- 
 bles, as if it were still uncertain, and seems to doubt whether 
 he may consider Socrates and Plato, Demosthenes, Sophocles, 
 and Phidias, as secure, yet, to himself and to the world. 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NE\T ENGLAND. 65 
 
 "If Tve conquer," said the Athenian commander, on the 
 morning of that decisive day, " if we conquer, we shall malve 
 Athens the greatest city of Greece." A prophecy, how well 
 fulfilled ! " If God prosper us," might have been the more 
 appropriate language of our fathers, when they landed upon 
 this Rock, " if God prosper us, we shall here begin a work 
 which shall last for ages ; we shall plant here a new society, in 
 the principles of the fullest liberty and the purest religion ; we 
 shall subdue this wilderness wliich is before us ; we shall fill 
 this region of llie great continent, which stretches almost from 
 pole to pole, with civilization and Christianity ; the temples of 
 the true God shall rise, where now ascends the smoke of idola- 
 trous sacrifice ; fields and gardens, the flowers of summer, and 
 the waving and golden harvest of autumn, shall extend over a 
 thoustind hills, and stretch along a thousand valleys, never yet, 
 since the creation, reclaimed to the use of civilized man. We 
 shall whiten this coast with the canvas of a prosperous com- 
 merce ; we shall stud the long and winding shore with a hun- 
 dred cities. That which wc sow in weakness shall be raised in 
 strength. From our sincere, but houseless worship, there shall 
 spring splendid temples to record God's goodness ; from the 
 simplicity of our social union, there shall arise wise and politic 
 constitutions of government, full of the liberty which we our- 
 selves bring and breathe ; fi'om our zeal for learning, institu- 
 tions shall spring which shall scatter the light of knowledge 
 throughout the land, and, in time, paying back where they have 
 borrowed, shall contribute their part to the great aggregate of 
 human knowledge ; and our descendants, through all genera- 
 tions, shall look back to this spot, and to this hour, with una- 
 bated affection and regard." 
 
 A brief remembrance of the causes which led to the settle- 
 ment of this place ; some account of the peculiarities and char- • 
 acteristic qualities of that settlement, as distinguished from 
 other instances of colonization ; a short notice of the progress 
 
 VOL. II. 5 
 
66 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of New England in the great interests of society, during tlie 
 centui'y which is now elapsed ; with a few observations on the 
 principles upon which society and government are established 
 in this country ; comprise all that can be attempted, and 
 much more than can be satisfactorily performed, on the present 
 occasion. 
 
 Of the motives which influenced the fii*st settlers to a volun- 
 tary exile, induced them to relinquish their native country, and 
 to seek an asylum in this then unexplored wilderness, the first 
 and principal, no doubt, were connected with religion. They 
 sought to enjoy a higher degree of religious freedom, and what 
 they esteemed a purer form of religious worship, than was 
 allowed to their choice, or presented to their imitation, in the 
 Old World. The love of religious liberty is a stronger senti- 
 ment, when fully excited, than an attachment to civil or polit- 
 ical freedom. That freedom which the conscience demands, 
 and which men feel bound by their hopes of salvation to con- 
 tend for, can hardly fail to be attained. Conscience, in the 
 cause of religion and the worship of the Deity, prepares the 
 mind to act and to sutler beyond almost all other causes. It 
 sometimes gives an impulse so irresistible, that no fetters of 
 power or of opinion can withstand it. History instructs us 
 that this love of religious liberty, a compound sentiment in the 
 breast of man, made up of the clearest sense of right and the 
 highest conviction of duty, is able to look the sternest despot- 
 ism in the fiice, and, with means apparently most inadequate, 
 to shake principalities and powers. There is a boldness, a 
 spirit of daring, in religious reformers, not to be measured by 
 the general rules which control men's purposes and actions. 
 If the hand of power be laid upon it, this only seems to aug- 
 ment its force and its elasticity, and to cause its action to be 
 more formidable and violent. Human invention has devised 
 nothing, human power has compassed nothing, that can forcibly 
 restrain it, when it breaks forth. Nothing can stop it, but to 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 67 
 
 give way to it ; nothing can check it, but indulgence. It loses its 
 power only when it has gained its object. The principle of 
 toleration to which the world has come so slowly, is at once 
 the most just and the most wise of all principles. Even when 
 religious feeling takes a character of extravagance and enthusi- 
 asm, and seems to threaten the order of society and shake the 
 columns of the social edifice, its principal danger is in its re- 
 straint. If it be allowed indulgence and expansion, like the el- 
 emental fires, it only agitates, and perhaps purifies, the atmos- 
 phere ; while its efforts to throw off restraint would burst the 
 world asunder. 
 
 It is certain, that, although many of them were republicans 
 in principle, we have no evidence that our New England ances- 
 tors would have emigrated, as they did, from their own native 
 country, become wanderers in Europe, and finally undertaken 
 the establishment of a colony here, merely from their dislike 
 of the political systems of Europe. They fled not so much 
 from the civil government, as from the hierarchy, and the laws 
 which enforced conformity to the church establishment. ]\Ir. 
 Eobinson had left England as earlv as sixteen hundred and 
 eight, on account of the persecutions for non-conformity, and 
 had retired to Holland. He lefl England, from no disap- 
 pointed ambition in afKiirs of state, from no regrets at the want 
 of preferment in the church, nor from any motive of distinction 
 or of gain. Uniformity in matters of religion was pressed with 
 such extreme rigor, that a voluntary exile seemed the most eli- 
 gible mode of escaping from the penalties of non-compliance. 
 The accession of Elizabeth had, it is true, quenched the fires of 
 Smithfield, and put an end to the easy acquisition of the crown 
 of martyrdom. Her long reign had established the reforma- 
 tion, but toleration was a virtue beyond her conception, and 
 beyond the age. She left no example of it to her successor; 
 and he was not of a charater which rendered it probable that 
 a sentiment either so wise or so liberal should originate with 
 
68 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 him. At the present period it seems incredible, that the 
 learned, accomplished, unassuming, and inoffensive Robinson 
 should neither be tolerated in his peaceable mode of worship 
 in his own country, nor suffered quietly to depart from it. 
 Yet such was the fact. He left his country by stealth, that he 
 might elsewhere enjoy those rights which ought to belong to 
 men in all countries. The embarkation of the Pilgrims for 
 Holland is deeply interesting, from its circumstances, and also 
 as it marks the character of the times, independently of its con- 
 nection with names now incorporated with the history of em- 
 pire. The embarkation was intended to be in the night, that 
 it might escape the notice of the officers of government. 
 Great pains had been taken to secure boats, which should 
 come undiscovered to the shore, and receive the fugitives ; and 
 frequent disappointments had been experienced in this respect. 
 At length the appointed time came, bringing with it unusual 
 severity of cold and rain. An unfrequented and barren heath, 
 on the shores of Lincolnshire, was the selected spot, where the 
 feet of the Pilgrims were to tread, for the last time, the land 
 of their fathers. 
 
 The vessel which was to receive them did not come until 
 the next day, and in the mean time the little band was col- 
 lected, and men and women and children and baggage were 
 crowded together, in melancholy and distressed confusion. 
 The sea was rough, and the women and children already sick, 
 from their passage down the river to the place of embarkation. 
 At length the wished-for boat silently and fearfully approaches 
 the shore, and men and women and children, shaking with 
 fear and with cold, as many as the small vessel could bear, 
 venture off on a dangerous sea. Immediately the advance 
 of horses is heard from behind, armed men appear, and 
 those not yet embarked are seized, and taken into custody. 
 In the hurry of the moment, there had been no regard to 
 the keeping together of families, in the first embarkation, 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. GO 
 
 aiid on account of the appearance of the horsemen, the boat 
 never returned for the residue. Those who had got away, and 
 those who had not, were in equal distress. 
 
 A storm of great violence, and long duration, arose at 
 sea, which not only protracted the voyage, rendered distressing 
 by the want of all those accommodations which the interrup- 
 tion of the embarkation had occasioned, but also forced the ves- 
 sel out of her course, and menaced immediate shipwreck; 
 while those on shore, when they were dismissed from the cus- 
 tody of the officers of justice, having no longer homes or houses 
 to retire to, and then- friends and protectors being already gone, 
 became objects of necessary charity, as well as of deep com- 
 miseration. 
 
 As this scene passes before us, we can hardly forbear asking, 
 whether this be a band of malefactors and felons flying fi'om 
 justice. "What are their crimes, that they hide themselves in 
 darkness ? To what punishment are they exposed, that, to 
 avoid it, men, and women, and children, thus encounter the 
 surf of the North Sea, and the terrors of a night storm? 
 What induces this armed pursuit, and this arrest of fugitives, 
 of all ages and both sexes ? Truth does not allow us to answer 
 these inquiries in a mamier that does credit to the wisdom or 
 the justice of the times. This was not the flight of guilt, but 
 of virtue. It was an humble and peaceable religion, flying 
 from causeless oppression. It was conscience, attempting to 
 escape from the arbitrary nile of the Stuarts. It was Robin- 
 son and Brewster, leading off then* little baud from their native 
 soil, at first to find shelter on the shores of the neighboring con- 
 tinent, but ultimately to come hither ; and having surmounted 
 all difficulties and braved a thousand dangers, to find here a 
 place of refuge and of rest. Thanks be to God, that this spot was 
 honored as the asylum of religious liberty! May its standard, 
 reared here, remain forever ! May it rise up as high as heaven, 
 
70 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 till its banner shall fan the air of both continents, and 'rt-ave as a 
 glorious ensign of peace and security to the nations ! 
 
 The peculiar character, condition, and circumstances of the 
 colonies which introduced civilization and an English race into 
 New England, aflbrd a most interesting and extensive topic of 
 discussion. On these, much of our subsequent character and 
 fortune has depended. Their influence has essentially affected 
 our whole history, through the two centuries which ha^'e elapsed ; 
 and as they have become intimately connected with govern- 
 ment, laws, and property, as well as with our opinions on the 
 subjects of religion and civil liberty, that influence is likely to 
 continue to be felt through the centuries which shall succeed. 
 Emigration from one region to another, and the emission of 
 colonies to people countries more or less distant from the resi- 
 dence of the parent stock, are common incidents in the history 
 of mankind ; but it has not often, perhaps never, happened, that 
 the establishment of colonies should be attempted under cir- 
 cumstances, however beset with present difliculties and dangers, 
 yet so favorable to ultimate success, and so conducive to mag- 
 nificent results, as those which attended the first settlements on 
 this part of the contment. hi other instances, emigration has 
 proceeded from a less exalted purpose, in a period of less gen- 
 eral intelligence, or more without plan and by accident ; or 
 under circumstances, physical and moral, less favorable to the 
 expectation of laying a foundation for great public prosperity 
 and future empire. 
 
 A great resemblance exists, obviously, between all the En- 
 glish colonies established within the present limits of the United 
 States; but the occasion attracts our attention more immedi- 
 ately to those which took possession of New England, and the 
 peculiarities of these furnish a strong contrast with most other 
 instances of colonization. 
 
 Among the ancient nations, the Greeks, no doubt, sent' forth 
 from their territories the greatest number of colonies. So nu- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 71 
 
 merous, indeed, were they, and so great the extent of space 
 over which they were spread, that the parent country fondly 
 and naturally persuaded herself, that by means of them she had 
 laid a sure foundation for the universal civilization of the world. 
 These establishments, from ob\'ious causes, Avere most numer- 
 ous in places most contiguous ; yet they were found on the 
 coasts of France, on the shores of the Euxine Sea, in Africa, 
 and even, as is alleged, on the borders of hidia. These emi- 
 grations appear to have been sometimes voluntary and some- 
 times compulsory ; arising from the spontaneous entei'prise of 
 individuals, or the order and regulation of government. It was 
 a common opinion with ancient writers, that they were under- 
 taken in religious obedience to the commands of oracles, and it 
 is probable that impressions of this sort might have had more 
 or less influence ; but it is probable, also, that on these occa- 
 sions the oracles did not speak a language dissonant from the 
 views and purposes of the state. 
 
 Political science among the Greeks seems never to have ex- 
 tended to the comprehension of a system, which should be ad- 
 equate to the government of a great nation upon principles of 
 liberty. They were accustomed only to the contemplation of 
 small republics, and were led to consider an augmented popu- 
 lation as incompatible with free institutions. The desire of a 
 remedy for this supposed evil, and the wish to establish marts 
 for trade, led the governments often to undertake the establish- 
 ment of colonies as an aftair of state expediency. Colonization 
 and commerce, indeed, would naturally become objects of in- 
 terest to an ingenious and enterprising people, inhabiting a ter- 
 ritory closely circumscribed in its limits, and in no small part 
 mountamous and sterile ; while the islands of the adjacent seas, 
 and the promontories and coasts of the neighboring continents, 
 by their mere proximity, strongly solicited the excited spirit of 
 emigration. Such was this proximity, in many instances, that 
 the new settlements appeared rather to be the mere extension 
 
72 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER- PIECES. 
 
 of population over contiguous territory, than the establishment 
 of distant colonies. In proportion as they were near to the parent 
 state, they would be under its authority, and partake of its 
 fortunes. The colony at Marseilles might perceive lightly, or 
 not at all, the sway of Phocis ; while tlie islands in the Mgcan 
 Sea could hardly attain to independence of their Athenian ori- 
 gin. Many of these establishments took place at an early age ; 
 and if there were defects in the governments of the parent states, 
 the colonists did not possess philosophy or experience sufficient 
 to correct such evils in their own histitutions, even if they had 
 not been, by other causes, deprived of the power. An imme- 
 diate necessity, connected with the support of life, was the main 
 and direct inducement to these undertakings, and there could 
 hardly exist more than the hope of a successful imitation of in- 
 stitutions with which they were already acquainted, and of liold- 
 ing an equality with their neighbors in the course of improve- 
 ment. The laws and customs, both ix>litical and municipal, as 
 M'cll as the religious woi-ship of the parent city, were transfer- 
 red to the colony ; and the parent city herself, with all such of 
 her colonies as were not too far remote for frequent intercourse 
 and common sentiments, would appear like a family of cities, 
 more or less dependent, and more or less connected. We 
 know how imperfect this system was, as a system of general 
 politics, and what scope it gave to those mutual dissensions and 
 conflicts which proved so fatal to Greece. 
 
 But it is more pertinent to our present purpose to observe, 
 that nothing existed in the character of Grecian emigration, or 
 in the spirit and intelligence of the emigrants, likely to give a 
 new and important direction to human aflairs, or a new impulse 
 to the human mind. Their motives were not high enough, their 
 views were not sufficiently large and prospective. They went 
 not forth, like our ancestors, to erect systems of more perfect 
 civil liberty, or to enjoy a higher degree of religious freedom. 
 Above all, there was nothing in the religion and learning of the 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 73 
 
 age, that could either inspire high purposes, or give the ability 
 to execute them. Whatever restraints on civil liberty, or what- 
 ever abuses in religious worship, existed at the time of our 
 fathers' emigration, yet even then all was light in the moral 
 and mental world, in comparison with its condition in most 
 periods of the ancient states. The settlement of a new conti- 
 nent, in an age of progressive knowledge and improvement, 
 could not but do more than merely enlarge the natural bound- 
 aries of the habitable world. It could not but do much more 
 even than extend commerce and increase wealth among the hu- 
 man race. We see how this event has acted, how it must have 
 acted, and wonder only why it did not act sooner, in the pro- 
 duction of moral effects, on the state of human knowledge, the 
 general tone of human sentiments, and the prospects of human 
 happiness. It gave to civilized man not only a new continent 
 to be inhabited and cultivated, and new seas to be explored ; 
 but it eave him also a new ran^e for his thoughts, new ob- 
 jects for cunosity, and new excitements to knowledge and 
 improvement. 
 
 Roman colonization resembled, far less than that of the 
 Greeks, the original settlements of this country. Power and 
 dominion were the objects of Rome, even in her colonial estab- 
 lishments. Her whole exterior aspect was for centuries hostile 
 and terrific. She grasped at dominion, from India to Britain, 
 and her measures of colonization partook of the character of 
 her general system. Her policy was military, because her ob- 
 jects were power, ascendency, and subjugation. Detachments 
 of emigrants from Rome incorporated themselves with, and 
 governed, the original inhabitants of conquered countries. She 
 sent citizens where she had first sent soldiers ; her law fol- 
 lowed her sword. Her colonies were a sort of military estab- 
 lishment ; so many advanced posts in the career of her domin- 
 ion. A governor from Rome ruled the new colony with abso- 
 lute sway, and oflen with unbounded rapacity. Li Sicily, in 
 
 VOL. II. D 
 
74 WEDSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Gaul, in Spain, and in Asia, the power of Rome prevailed, not 
 nominally only, but really and effectually. Those who imme- 
 diately exercised it were Roman ; the tone and tendency of its 
 administration, Roman. Rome herself continued to be the 
 heart and center of the great system which she had established. 
 Extortion and rapacity, finding a wide and often rich field of 
 action in the provinces, looked nevertheless to the banks of the 
 Tiber, as the scene in which their ill-gotten treasure should be 
 displayed ; or, if a spirit of more honest acquisition prevailed, 
 the object, nevertheless, was ultimate enjoyment in Rome itself. 
 If our o^vn history and our own times did not sufiiciently ex- 
 pose the inherent and incurable evils of pro^■incial government, 
 we might see them portrayed, to our amazement, in the deso- 
 lated and ruined provinces of the Roman empire. We might 
 hear them, in a \'oice that terrifies us, in those strains of com- 
 plaint and accusation, which the advocates of the provmces 
 poured forth in the Roman forum : " Quas res luxuries in fla- 
 gitiis, crudelitas in suppliciis, avaritia in rapinis, superbia in con- 
 tumeliis, efticere potuisset, eas omnes sese pertulisse." 
 
 As was to be expected, the Roman provinces partook of the 
 fortunes, as well as of the sentiments and general character of 
 the seat of empire. They lived together with her, they flour- 
 ished with her, and fell with her. The branches were lopped 
 away even before the vast and venerable trunk itself fell pros- 
 trate to the earth. Nothing had proceeded from her which 
 could support itself, and bear up the name of its origin, when 
 her own sustaining arm should be enfeebled or withdrawn. It 
 was not given to Rome to see, either at her zenith or in her 
 decline, a child of her own, distant, indeed, and independent of 
 her control, yet speaking her language and inheriting her 
 blood, springing forward to a competition with her own power, 
 and a comparison with her own great renown. She saw not a 
 vast region of the earth peopled from her stock, full of states 
 and political communities, improving upon the models of her 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 75 
 
 institutions, and breathing in fuller measure the spirit which she 
 had breathed in the best periods of her existence ; enjoyincr 
 and extending her arts and her literature ; rising rapidly from 
 political childhood to manly strength and independence ; her 
 offspring, yet now her equal ; unconnected with the causes 
 Avhich might affect the duration of her own power and great- 
 ness ; of common origin, but not linked to a common fate ; 
 giving ample pledge, that her name should not be forgotten, 
 that her language should not cease to be used among men ; 
 that whatsoever she had done for human knowledge and human 
 happiness should be treasured np and preserved ; that the rec- 
 ord of her existence and her achievements should not be ob- 
 scured, although, in the inscrutable purposes of Providence, it 
 might be her destiny to fell from opulence and splendor ; al- 
 though the time might come, when darkness should settle ou 
 all her hills ; when foreign or domestic violence should over- 
 turn her altars and l:er temples ; when ignorance and despot- 
 ism should fill the places where laws, and arts, and liberty had 
 flourished; when the feet of barbarism should trample on the 
 tombs of her consuls, and the walls of her senate-house and 
 forum echo only to the voice of savage triumph. She saw not ■ 
 this glorious vision, to inspire and fortify her against the possi- 
 ble decay or downfall of her power. Happy are they who in 
 our day may behold it, if they shall contemplate it with the 
 sentiments which it ought to inspire ! 
 
 The New England colonies ditfer quite as widely from the 
 Asiatic establishments of the modern European nations, as 
 from the models of the ancient states. The sole object of those 
 establishments was originally trade ; although we have seen, in 
 one of them, the anomaly of a mere trading company attainintr 
 a political character, disbursing revenues, and maintaining ar- 
 mies and fortresses, until it has extended its control over sev- 
 enty millions of people. Differing from these, and still more 
 from the New England and North American colonies, are the 
 
^^ 
 
 7G WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 European settlements in the West India Islands. It is not 
 strange, that, when men's minds were turned to the settle- 
 ment of America, different objects should be proposed by those 
 Avho emigrated to the different regions of so vast a country. 
 Climate, soil, and condition were not all equally favorable to 
 all pursuits. In the West Indies, the purpf)sc of those who 
 went thither Avas to engage in that species of agriculture, suited 
 to the soil and climate, which seems to bear more resemblance 
 to commerce, than to the hard and plain tillage of New En- 
 gland. The great staples of these countries, being partly an 
 agricultural and partly a manufactured product, and not being 
 of the necessaries of life, become the object of calculation, with 
 respect to a profitable investment of capital, like any other enter- 
 prise of trade or manufacture ; and more especially, as requi- 
 ring, by necessity or habit, slave labor for their production, the 
 capital necessary to carry on the work of this production is 
 more considerable. The West Indies are resorted to, there- 
 fore, rather for the investment of capital, than for the purpose 
 of sustaining life by personal labor. Such as possess a consid- 
 erable amount of capital, or such as choose to adventure in com- 
 mercial speculations without capital, can alone be fitted to be 
 emigrants to the islands. The agriculture of these regions, as 
 before observed, is a sort of commerce ; and it is a species of 
 employment in which labor seems to form an inconsiderable in- 
 gredient in" the productive causes, since the portion of white 
 labor is exceedingly small, and slave labor is rather more like 
 profit on stock or capital, than labor properly so called. The 
 individual who contemplates an establishment of this kind takes 
 into the account the cost of the necessary number of slaves, in the 
 same manner as he calculates the cost of the land. The uncer- 
 tainty, too, of this species of employment, affords another 
 ground of resemblance to commerce. Although gainful on the 
 whole, and in a series of years, it is often very disastrous for a 
 single year, and, as the capital is not readily invested in other 
 
riRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 77 
 
 pursuits, bad crops or bad markets not only affect the profits, 
 but the capital itself. Hence the sudden depressions which 
 take place in the value of such estates. 
 
 But the great and leading observation, relative to these es- 
 tablishments, remains to be made. It is, that the owners of 
 the soil and of the capital seldom consider themselves at home 
 in the colony. A very great portion of the soil itself is usually 
 owned in the mother countiy ; a still greater is mortgaged for 
 capital obtained there ; and, in general, those who are to de- 
 rive an interest from the products look to the parent country 
 as the place for enjoyment of their wealth. The population is 
 therefore constantly fluctuating. Nobody comes but to return. 
 A constant succession of owners, agents, and factors takes place. 
 Whatsoever the soil, forced by the unmitigated toil of slavery, 
 can yield, is sent home to defray rents, and iiiterest, and agen- 
 cies, or to give the means of living in a better society. In such 
 a state, it is evident that no spirit of permanent improvement is 
 likely to spring up. Profits will not be invested with a distant 
 view of benefiting posterity. Eoads and canals will hardly 
 be built ; schools will not be founded ; colleges will not be en- 
 dowed. There will be few fixtures in society ; no principles 
 of utility or of elegance, planted now, with the hope of being 
 developed and expanded hereafter. Profit, immediate profit, 
 must be the principal active spring in the social system. 
 There may be many particular exceptions to these general 
 remarks, but the outline of the whole is such as is here 
 drawn. 
 
 Another most important consequence of such a state of things 
 is, that no idea of independence of the parent country is likely 
 to arise ; unless, indeed, it should spring up in a form that 
 would threaten universal desolation. The inhabitants have no 
 strong attachment to the place which they inhabit. The hope 
 of a great portion of them is to leave it ; and their great desire 
 to leave it soon. However usefiil they may be to the parent 
 
78 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 state, how much soever they may add to the conveniences 
 and luxuries of life, these colonies are not favored spots for 
 the expansion of the human mind, for the progress of perma- 
 nent improvement, or for sowing the seeds of future indepen- 
 dent empire. 
 
 Different, indeed, most widely different, from all these in- 
 stances of emigration and plantation, were the condition, the 
 purposes, and the prospects of our fathers, when they estab- 
 lished their infant colony upon this spot. They came hither to 
 a land from which they were never to return. Hither they 
 had brought, and here they were to fix, the hopes, the attach- 
 ments, and the objects of their lives. Some natural tears they 
 shed, as they left the pleasant abodes of their fathers, and some 
 emotions they suppressed, when the white cliffs of their native 
 country, now seen for the last time, grew dim to their sight. 
 They were acting, however, upon a resolution not to be changed. 
 With whatever stifled regrets, with whatever occasional hesi- 
 tation, with whatever appalling apprehensions, which might 
 sometimes arise with force to shake the firmest purpose, 
 they had yet committed themselves to Heaven and the ele- 
 ments ; and a thousand leagues of water soon interposed to 
 separate them forever from the region which gave them birth. 
 A new existence awaited them here ; and when they saw these 
 shores, rough, cold, barbarous, and barren, as then they were, 
 they beheld their country. That mixed and strong feeling, 
 which we call love of country, and which is, in general, never 
 extinguished in the heart of man, grasped and embraced its 
 proper object here. Whatever constitutes country, except the 
 earth and the sun, all the moral causes of affection and attach- 
 ment which operate upon the heart, they had brought with 
 them to their new abode. Here were now their families and 
 friends, their homes, and their property. Before they reached 
 tlie shore, they had established the elements of a social system, 
 and at a much earlier period had settled their forms of religious 
 
riRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 79 
 
 worship. At the moment of their landing, therefore, they pos- 
 sessed institutions of" government, and institutions of religion: 
 and friends and families, and social and religious institutions, 
 constituted by consent, founded on choice and preference, how 
 nearly do these fill up our whole idea of country ! The morn- 
 ing that beamed en the first night of their repose, saw the Pil- 
 grims already established in their country. There were political 
 institutions, and civil liberty, and religious worship. Poetry 
 has fancied nothhig, in the wanderings of heroes, so distinct 
 and characteristic. Here was man, indeed, unprotected, and 
 unprovided for, on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness ; 
 but it was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Everything 
 was civilized but the physical world. Institutions, containuig 
 in substance all that ages had done for human government, 
 were founded in a forest. Cultivated mind was to act on un- 
 cultivated nature ; and, more than all, a government and a 
 country were to commence, with the very first foundation laid 
 under the divine light of the christian religion. Happy aus- 
 pices of a happy futurity ! Who would wish that his country's 
 existence had otherwise begun 1 Who would desire the power 
 of going back to the ages of fable ? Who would wish for an 
 origin obscured in the darkness of antiquity 1 Who would wish 
 for other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other orna- 
 ments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, that her first 
 existence was with intelligence, her first breath the inspiration 
 of liberty, her first principle the truth of divine religion ? 
 
 Local attachments and sympathies would ere long spring up 
 in the breasts of our ancestors, endearing to them the place of 
 their refuge. Whatever natural objects are associated with in- 
 teresting scenes and high efforts, obtain a hold on human feel- 
 ing, and demand from the heart a sort of recognition and re- 
 gard. This Rock soon became hallowed in the esteem of the 
 Pilgrims, and these hills grateful to their sight. Neither they 
 nor their children were again to till the soil of England, nor 
 
80 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 again tx) traverse the seas -which surround her. But here was a 
 new sea, now open to their enterprise, and a new soil, which 
 had not failed to respond gratefully to their laborious industry, 
 and which was already assuming a robe of verdure. Hardly 
 had they provided shelter for the living, ere they were sum- 
 moned to erect sepulchres for the dead. The ground had be- 
 come sacred, by inclosing the remains of some of their com- 
 panions and connections. A parent, a child, a husband, or a 
 wife, had gone the way of all flesh, and mingled with the dust 
 of New England. Wc naturally look with strong emotions 
 to the spot, though it be a wilderness, where the ashes of 
 those we have loved repose. Where the heart has laid down 
 what it loved most, it is desirous of laying itself down. No 
 sculptured marble, no enduring monument, no honorable in- 
 scription, no ever-burning taper that would diive away the dark- 
 ness of the sepulchre, can soften our sense of the reality of 
 dissolution, and hallow to our feelings the ground which is to 
 cover us, like the consciousness that we shall sleep, dust to dust, 
 with the objects of our affcctiozis. 
 
 hi a short time, other causes sprung up to bind the Pilgrims 
 with new cords to their chosen land. Cliildren were born, and 
 the hopes of future generations arose, in the spot of their new 
 habitation. The second generation found this the land of their 
 nativity, and saw that they were bound to its fortunes. They 
 beheld their fathers' graves around them, and while they read 
 the memorials of their toils and labors, ihey rejoiced in the 
 inheritance which they found bequeathed to them. 
 
 Under the influence of these causes, it was to be expected 
 tliat an interest and a feeling should arise here entirely differ- 
 ent from the interest and feeling of mere Englishmen ; and all 
 the subseciuent history of the colonies proves this to have actu- 
 ally and gradually taken place. With the general acknowledg- 
 ment of the supremacy of the British crown, there was, from 
 the first, a repugnance to an entire submission to the control of 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. ' 81 
 
 British legislation. The colonies stood upon their charters, 
 which, as they contended, exempted them from the ordinary 
 power of the British parliament, and authorized them to con- 
 duct their own concerns by their own counsels. They utterly 
 resisted the notion that they were to be ruled by the mere au- 
 thority of the government at home, and would not endure even 
 that their own charter governments should be established on 
 the other side of the Atlantic. It was not a controlling or pro- 
 tecting board in England, but a government of their own, and 
 existing immediately within their limits, which could satisfy 
 their wishes. It was easy to foresee, what we know also to 
 have happened, that the first great cause of collision and jeal- 
 ousy would be, under the notion of political economy then and 
 still prevalent m Europe, an attempt, on the part of the mother 
 country, to monopolize the trade of the colonies. Whoever 
 has looked deeply into the causes whicli produced our revo- 
 lution, has found, if I mistiike not, the original principle far 
 back in this claim, on the part of England, to monopolize our 
 trade, and a continued effort, on the part of the colonics, to 
 resist or evade that monopoly ; if, indeed, it be not still more 
 just and philosophical to go farther back, and to consider it ' 
 decided that an independent government must ai-ise here the 
 moment it was ascertained that an English colony, such as 
 landed in this place, could sustain itself against the dangers 
 which surrounded it, and, with other similar establishments, 
 overspread the land with an English population. Accidental 
 causes retarded, at times, and at times accelerated, the progress 
 of the controversy. The colonies wanted strength, and time 
 gave it to them. They required measures of strong and palpa- 
 ble injustice, on the part of the mother country, to justify re- 
 sistance ; the early part of the late king's reign furnished them. 
 They needed spirits of high order, of gi-eat daring, of long 
 foresight, and of commanding power, to seize the favoring 
 occasion to strike a blow, which should sever, forever, the tie 
 VOL. II. D* 6 
 
82 •WEBSTER AND HI3 MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of colonial dependence ; and these spirits were found, in all the 
 extent which that or any crisis could demand, in Otis, Adams, 
 IIancocl<, and the other immediate authors of our independence. 
 Still, it is true that, for a century, causes had been in opera- 
 tion tending to prepare things for this great result. In the year 
 1660, the English Act of Navigation was passed ; the first and 
 grand object of which seems to have been, to secure to Eng- 
 land the whole trade with her plantations. It was provided 
 by that act, that none but English sbips should transport Amer- 
 ican produce over the ocean, and that the principal articles of 
 that produce should be allowed to be sold only in the markets 
 of the mother country. Three years afterward another law 
 was passed, which enacted that such commodities as the colo- 
 nies mi"-ht wish to purchase should be bought only in the mar- 
 kets of the mother country. Severe rules were prescribed to 
 enforce the provisions of these laws, and heavy penalties im- 
 posed on all who should violate them. In the subsequent years 
 of the same reign, other statutes were passed to recnforce 
 these statutes, and other rules prescribed to secure a compliance 
 with these rules. 
 
 In this manner was the trade to and from the colonies 
 tied up, almost to the exclusive advantage of the parent 
 country. But laws which rendered the interest of a whole 
 people subordinate to that of another people, were not likely 
 to execute themselves ; nor was it easy to find many on the 
 spot, who could be depended upon for carrying them into 
 execution. In fact, these laws were more or less evaded or re- 
 sisted in all the colonies. To enforce them was the constant 
 endeavor of the government at home; to prevent or elude their 
 operation, the perpetual object here. " The laws of navigation," 
 says a living British writer, " were nowhere so openly disobeyed 
 and contemned, as in New England." " The people of Massa^ 
 chusetts Bay," he adds, " were from the first disposed to act as 
 if independent of the mother country, and having a governor 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OP NEW ENGLAND. 83 
 
 and magistrates of their own choice, it was difficult to enforce 
 any regulation which came from the English parliament, ad- 
 verse to their interests." To provide more effectually for the 
 execution of these laws, we know that courts of admiralty were 
 afterward established by the crown, with power to try revenue 
 causes, as questions of admiralty, upon the construction given 
 by the crown lawyers to an act of parliament ; a great depar- 
 ture from the ordinary principles of English jurisprudence, but 
 which has been maintained, nevertheless, by the force of habit 
 and precedent, and is adopted in our owni existing systems of 
 government. 
 
 " There lie," says another English writer, whose connection 
 with the board of trade has enabled him to ascertain many 
 facts connected with colonial history, " there lie among the docu- 
 ments in the office of the board of trade and state-papers, the most 
 satisfactory proofs, from the epoch of the English revolution in 
 1G88, throughout every reign, and during every administration, 
 of the settled purpose of the colonies to acquire direct indepen- 
 dence and positive sovereignty." Perhaps this may be stated 
 somewhat too strongly ; but it cannot be denied, that, from the 
 very nature of the establishments here, and from the general 
 character of the measures respecting their concerns early adopted 
 and steadily pursued by the English government, a division of 
 the empire was the natural and necessary result to which every 
 thing tended. 
 
 I have dwelt on this topic, because it seems to me that the 
 peculiar original character of the New England colonies, and 
 certain causes coeval with their existence, have had a stronar 
 and decided influence on all their subsequent history, and espe- 
 cially on the great event of the revolution. Whoever would 
 write our history, and would understand and explain early 
 transactions, should comprehend the nature and force of the 
 feeling which I have endeavored to describe. As a son, leav- 
 ing the house of his father for his own, finds, by the order of 
 
64 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 nature, and the very laAV of his being, nearer and dearer ob- 
 jects around which his affections circle, while his attachment to 
 the parental roof becomes moderated, by degrees, to a com- 
 posed regard and an affectionate remembrance ; so our ances- 
 cestors, leaving their native land, not without some violence to 
 the feelings of nature and affection, yet, in time, found here a 
 new circle of eng:igements, interests, and affections ; a feeling 
 which more and more encroached upon the old, till an undivi- 
 ded sentiment, that this was their country/, occupied the heart ; 
 and patriotism, shutting out from its embraces the parent realm, 
 became local to America. 
 
 Some retrospect of the century which has now elapsed, is 
 among the duties of the occasion. It must, however, necessa- 
 rily be imperfect, to be compressed within the limits of a single 
 discourse. I shall content myself, therefore, with taking notice 
 of a few of the leading and most important occurrences which 
 have distinguished the period. 
 
 When the first century closed, the progress of the country 
 appeared to have been considerable ; notwithstanding that, in 
 comparison with its subsequent advancement, it now seems 
 otherwi-^e. A broad and lasting foundation had been laid ; ex- 
 cellent institutions had been established ; much of the prejudi- 
 ces of former times -had been removed ; a more liberal and 
 catholic spirit on subjects of religious concern had begun to ex- 
 tend itself, and many things conspired to give promise of in- 
 creasing future prosperity. Gi-eat men had arisen in public 
 life, and the liberal professions. The Mathers, father and son, 
 were then sinking low in the western horizon ; Leverett, the 
 learned, the accomplished, the excellent Leverett, was about to 
 withdraw his brilliant and useful light, hi Pemberton, great 
 hopes had been suddenly extinguished, but Prince and Colman 
 were in our sky ; and the crepuscular light had begun to flash 
 along the east, of a great lummary which was about to appear, 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 85 
 
 and which was to stamp the age with his own name, as the age 
 of Fi-anklin. 
 
 The bloody Indian wars, which harassed the people for a part 
 of the first century ; the restrictions on the trade of the colo- 
 nies, added to the discouragements inherently belonging to all 
 forms of colonial government ; the distance from Europe, and 
 the small hope of immediate profit to adventurers, are among the 
 causes which had contributed to retard the progress of popula- 
 tion. Perhaps it may be added, also, that during the period 
 of the civil wars in England, and the reign of Cromwell, many 
 persons, whose religious opinions and religious temper might, 
 iindcr other circumstances, have induced them to join the New 
 England colonists, found reasons to remain in England ; either 
 on account of active occupation m the scenes which were pass- 
 ing, or of an anticipation of the enjoyment, in their own coun- 
 try, of a form of government, civil and religious, accommoda^ 
 ted to their views .and principles. The violent measures, too, 
 pursued against the colonies in the reign of Charles the Second, 
 the mockery of a trial, and the forfeiture of the charters, were 
 serious evils. And during the open violences of the short reign 
 of James the Second, and the tyranny of Andros, as the vener- 
 able historian of Connecticut observes, "All the motives to 
 great actions, to industry, economy, enterprise, wealth, and pop- 
 ulation, were in a manner annihilated. A general inactivity 
 and languishment pervaded the public body. Liberty, prop- 
 erty, and everything which ought to be dear to men, every day 
 grew more and more insecure." 
 
 With the revolution in England, a better prospect had 
 opened on this country, as well as on that. The joy had been 
 as great at that event, and far more universal, in New than in 
 Old England. A nev/ charter had been granted to Massachu- 
 setts, which, although it did not confirm to her inhabitants all 
 their former privileges, yet relieved them from great evils and 
 embarrassments, and promised future security. More than all, 
 
86 WKBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 perhaps, the revolution in England had done good to the gen- 
 eral cause of liberty and justice. A blow had been struck in 
 favor of the rights and liberties, not of England alone, but of 
 descendants and kinsmen of England all over the world. 
 Great political truths had been established. The champions of 
 liberty had been successful in a fearful and perilous conflict. 
 Somers, and Cavendish, and Jekyl,and Howard, had triumphed 
 in one of the most noble causes ever undertaken by men. A 
 revolution had been made upon principle. A monarch had 
 been dethroned for violating the original compact between 
 king and people. The rights of the people to partake in the 
 government, and to limit the monarch by fundamental rules 
 of government, had been maintained ; and however unjust the 
 government of England might afterwards be towards other 
 governments or towards her colonies, she had ceased to be 
 governed herself by the arbitrary maxims of the Stuarts. 
 
 New England had submitted to the violence of James the 
 Second not longer than Old England. Not only was it re- 
 served to Massachusetts, that on her soil should be acted the 
 first scene of that great revolutionary drama, which was to take 
 place near a century afterwards, but the English revolution it- 
 self, as far as the colonies were concerned, commenced in Bos- 
 ton. A direct and forcible resistance to the authority of James 
 the Second, was the seiz.ure and imprisonment of Andros, 
 in April, 1689. The pulse of liberty beat as high in the 
 extremities as at the heart. The vigorous fceh'ng of the col- 
 ony burst out before it was known how the parent country 
 would finally conduct herself. The king's representative. Sir 
 Edmund Andros, was a prisoner in the castle at Boston, be- 
 fore it was or could be known that the king himself had 
 ceased to exercise his full dominion on the English throne. 
 
 Before it was known here whether the invasion of the Prince of 
 Orange would or could prove successful, as soon only as it was 
 known that it had been undeitaken, the people of Massachu- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 87 
 
 setts, at the imminent hazard of their lives and fortunes, had 
 accomplished the revolution as far as respected themselves. It 
 is probable that, reasoning on general principles and the known 
 attiichment of the English people to their constitution and liber- 
 ties, and their deep and fixed dislike of the king's religion and 
 politics, the people of New England expected a catastrophe 
 fatal to the power of the reigning prince. Yet it was neither 
 certain enough, nor near enough, to come to their aid against 
 the authority of the crown, in that crisis which had arrived, and 
 m which they trusted to put themselves, relying on God and 
 their own courage. Tliere were spirits in Massachusetts con- 
 genial with the spirits of the distinguished friends of the revo- 
 lution in England. There were those who were fit to associate 
 with the boldest asserters of civil liberty ; and ISf ather himself 
 then in England, was not unworthy to be ranked with those 
 sons of the church, whose firmness and spirit in resisting kingly 
 encroachments in matters of religion, entitled them to the grat- 
 itude of their own and succeeding: ajjes. 
 
 The second century opened upon New England under cir- 
 cumstances which evinced that much had already been accom- 
 plished, and that stUl better prospects and brighter hopes were 
 before her. She had laid, deep and strong, the fomidations of 
 her society. Her religious principles were firm, and her moral 
 habits exemplary. Her public schools had begun to diffuse 
 widely the elements of knowledge ; and the college, under the 
 excellent and acceptable administration of Leverett, had been 
 raised to a high degree of credit and usefulness. 
 
 The commercial character of the country, notwithstandino- 
 all discouragements, had begun to display itself, and five hu)i- 
 dred vessels, then belonging to ^Massachusetts, placed her, in 
 relation to commerce, thus early at the head of the colonies. 
 An author who wrote very near the close of the first century, 
 says : " New England is almost deserving that noble fiume, 
 so mightily hath it increased ; and from a small settlement at 
 
8S -WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-riECES. 
 
 first, is now 1)6001116 a very populous and flourishing govern- 
 ment. The capital city, Boston, is a place oi great wealth and 
 trade ; and by much the largest of any in the English empire 
 of America ; and not exceeded but by few cities, perhaps two 
 or three, m all the American world." 
 >- But if our ancestors at the close of the first century could 
 look back with joy, and even admiration, at the progress of the 
 country, what emotions must we not feel, when, from the point 
 on which we stand, we also look back and run along the events 
 of the century which has now closed ! The country which then, 
 as we have seen, was thought deserving of a " noble name," — 
 which then had " mightily increased," and become " very pop- 
 ulous," — what was it, in comparison with what our eyes behold 
 it? At that period, a very great proportion of its inhabitants 
 lived in the eastern section of Massachusetts proper, and in 
 this colony. In Connecticut, there were tOAvns along the 
 coast, some of them respectable, but in the interior all M-as a 
 wilderness beyond Hartford. On Connecticut river, settle- 
 ments had proceeded as far up as Deerfield, and Fort Dum- 
 mer had been built near where is now the south line of New 
 Hampsliire. b\ New Hampshire no settlement was then be- 
 gun thirty miles fi-om the mouth of Piscataqua river, and in 
 what is now Maine, the inhabitants were confined to the coast. 
 The aggregate of the whole population of New England did 
 not exceed one hundred and sixty thousand. Its present 
 amount is probably one million seven hundred thousand. 
 Instead of being confined to its former limits, her popula- 
 tion has rolled backward, and filled up the spaces included 
 within her actual local boundaries. Not this only, but it has 
 overflowed those boundaries, and the waves of emigration have 
 pressed farther and farther towards the west. The Alleghany 
 has not checked it ; the banks of the Ohio have been covered 
 ■with it. New England farms, houses, villages, and churches 
 spread over and adorn the immense extent from the Ohio to 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 89 
 
 Lake Erie, and stretch along from the Alleghany onwards, be- 
 yond the Miamis, and towards the Falls of St. Anthony. Two 
 thousand miles westward from the rock where their fetliers 
 landed, may now be found the sons of the Pilgrims, cultiva- 
 ting smiling fields, rearing towns and villages, and cherishing, 
 we trust, the patrimonial blessings of wise institutions, of lib- 
 erty, and religion. The world has seen nothing like this. Re- 
 gions large enough to be empires, and which, half a century 
 ago, were known only as remote and unexplored wildernesses, 
 are now teeming with population, and prosperous in all the 
 great concerns of life ; in good governments, the means of 
 subsistence, and social happiness. It may be safely asserted, 
 that there are now more than a million of people, descendants 
 of New England ancestry, living, free and happy, in regions 
 which hardly sixty years ago were tracts of unpenetrated for- 
 est. Nor do rivers, or mountains, or seas resist tlie progress 
 of industry and enterprise. Ere long, the sons of the Pilgrims 
 will be. on the shores of the Pacific. The imagination hardly 
 keeps up with the progi-ess of population, improvement, and 
 civilization. 
 
 It is now five-and-forty years since the growth and risinc? 
 glory of America were portrayed in the English parliament, 
 with inimitable beauty, by the most consummate orator of 
 modern times. Going back somewhat more than half a cen- 
 tury, and describing our progress as foreseen from that point 
 by his amiable friend, Lord Bathurst, then living, he spoke of 
 the wonderful progress which America had made durino- the 
 period of a single human life. There is no American heart, 1 
 imagine, that does not glow, both with conscious, patriotic pride, 
 and admiration for one of the happiest efforts of eloquence, so 
 often as the vision of " that little speck, scarce visible in the 
 mass of national interest, a small seminal principle, rather than 
 a formed body," and the progress of its astonishing develop- 
 ro cnt and growth, are recalled to the recollection. But a stronger 
 
90 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 feeling might be produced, if we were able tx) take up this pro- 
 phetie description where he left it, and, placing ourselves at the 
 point of time in which he was speaking, to set forth with equal 
 felicity the subsequent progress of the country. There is yet 
 anions: the livinsc a most distinguished and venerable name, a 
 descendant of the Pilgrims ; one who has been attended through 
 life by a great and fortunate genius ; a man illustrious by his 
 own great merits, and favored of Heaven in the long continua- 
 tion of his years.* The time when the English orator was 
 thus speaking of America preceded but by a few days the ac- 
 tual opening of the revolutionary drama at Lexington. He to 
 whom I have alluded, then at the age of forty, was among the 
 most zealous and able defenders of the violated rights of his 
 country. He seemed already to have filled a full measure of 
 public service, and attained an honorable fame. The moment 
 was full of difficulty and danger, and big with events of im- 
 measurable importance. The country was on the very brink 
 of a civil war, of which no man could foretell the duration or 
 the result. Something more than a courageous hope, or char- 
 acteristic ardor, would have been necessary to impress the glo- 
 rious prospect on- his belief, if, at that moment, before the 
 sound of the (irst shock of actual war had reached his ears, 
 some attendant spirit had opened to him the vision of the fu- 
 ture ; — if it hjid said to him, " The blow is struck, and Amer- 
 ica is severed from England forever!" — if it had informed him, 
 that he himself, within the next annual revolution of the sun, 
 should put his own hand to the great instrument of indepen- 
 dence, and write his name where all nations should behold it, 
 and all time should not efface it; that ere long he himself 
 should maintain the interests and represent the sovereignty of 
 his new-born country in the proudest courts of Europe ; that 
 he should one day exercise her supreme magistracy ; that he 
 should yet live to behold ten millionsof fellow-citizens paying him 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 91 
 
 the homage of their deepest gratitude and kindest affections ; that 
 he should see distinguished talent and high public trust resting 
 where his name rested ; that he should even see with his own 
 unclouded eyes the close of the second century of New En- 
 gland, he who had begun life almost with its commencement, and 
 lived through nearly half the whole history of his country ; and 
 that on the morning of this auspicious day he should be found 
 in the political councils of his native state, revising, by the light 
 of experience, that system of government which forty years be- 
 fore he had assisted to frame and establish ; and, great and 
 happy as he should then behold his country, there should be 
 nothing in prospect to cloud the scene, nothing to check the 
 ardor of that confident and patriotic hope which should glow 
 in his bosom to the end of his long protracted and happy 
 life. 
 
 It would far exceed the limits of this discourse even to men- 
 tion the principal events in the civil and political history of 
 New England during the century ; the more so, as for the last 
 half of the period that history has been, most happily, closely 
 interwoven with the general history of the United States. New 
 England bore an honorable part in the wars which took place 
 between England and France. The capture of Louisburg gave 
 her a character for military achievement ; and in the war which 
 terminated with the peace of 1T63, her exertions on the fron- 
 tiers were of most essential service, as well to the mother coun- 
 try as to all the colonies. 
 
 In New England the war of the revolution commenced. I 
 address those who remember the memorable 19th of April, 
 1775 ; who shortly after saw the burning spires of Charles- 
 town ; who beheld the deeds of Prescott, and heard the voice of 
 Putnam amidst the storm of war, and saw the generous War- 
 ren fall, the first distinguished victim in the cause of liberty. 
 It would be superfluous to say, that no portion of the country 
 did more than the states of New England to bruig the rev- 
 
93 "WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 olutionary struggle to a successful issue. It is scarcely less 
 to her credit, that she saw early the necessity of a closer 
 union of the states, and gave an efficient and indispensable 
 aid to the establishment and organization of the federal gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Perhaps we might safely say, that a new spirit and a new 
 excitement began to exist here about the middle of the last 
 century. To whatever causes it may be imputed, there seems 
 then to have commenced a more rapid improvement. The 
 colonies had attracted more of the attention of the mother 
 country, and some renown in arms had been acquired. Lord 
 Chatham was the first English minister who attached high im- 
 portance to these possessions of the crown, and who foresaw 
 anything of their future growth and extension. His opinion 
 was, that the great rival of England was chiefly to be feared 
 as a maritime and commercial power, and" to drive her out of 
 North America and deprive her of her West Indian posses- 
 sions was a leading object in his policy. He dwelt often on 
 the fisheries, as nurseries for British seamen, and the colonial 
 trade, as furnishing them employment. The war, conducted 
 by him with so much vigor, terminated in a peace, by which 
 Canada was ceded to England. The effect of this was imme- 
 diately visible in the New England colonies ; for, the fear of 
 Indian hostilities on the frontiers being now happily removed, 
 settlements went on with an activity before that time alto- 
 gether unprecedented-, and public affairs wore a new and en- 
 couraging aspect. Shortly after this fortunate termination of 
 the French war, the interesting topics connected with the taxa- 
 tion of America by the British parliament began to be dis- 
 cussed, and the attention and all the faculties of the people 
 drawn towards them. 
 
 There is perhaps no portion of our history more fiill of 
 interest than the period from 1760 to the actual commencement 
 of the war. The progress of opinion in this period, though 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 93 
 
 less known, is not less important than the progress of arms 
 afterward. Nothing deserves more consideration than those 
 events and discussions which afTected the public sentiment 
 and settled the revolution in men's minds, before hostilities 
 openly broke out. 
 
 Internal improvement followed the establishment and pros- 
 perous commencement of the present government. More has 
 been done for roads, canals, and other public works, within the 
 last thirty years, than in all our former history, hi the first 
 of these particulars, few countries excel the New England 
 states. The astonishing increase of their navigation and trade 
 is knowii to every one, and now belongs to the history of our 
 national wealth. 
 
 We may flatter ouselves, too, that literature and taste have 
 not been stationary, and that some advancement has been made 
 in the elegant, as well as in the useful arts. 
 
 The nature and constitution of society and government in 
 this country are interesting topics, to which I would devote 
 what remains of the time allowed to this occasion. Of our 
 system of government the first thing to be said is, that it is 
 really and practically a free system. It originates entirely 
 with the people, and rests on no other foundation than their as- 
 sent. To judge of its actual operation, it is not enough to look 
 merely at the form of its construction. The practical character 
 of government depends often on a variety of considerations, 
 besides the abstract frame of its constitutional organization. 
 Among these are the condition and tenure of property ; the 
 laws regulating its alienation and descent ; the presence or ab- 
 sence of a military power ; an armed or unarmed yeomanry j 
 the spirit of the age, and the degree of general intelligence. In 
 these respects it cannot be denied that the circumstances of this 
 country are most favorable to the hope of maintaining the gov- 
 ernment of a great nation on principles entirely popular. In 
 the absence of military power, the nature of government must 
 
94 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 essentially depend on the manner in which property is holden 
 and distributed. There is a natural influence belonging to 
 property, whether it exists in many hands or few ; and it is 
 on the rights of property that both despotism and unrestrained 
 popular violence ordinarily commence their attack. Our an- 
 cestors began their system of government here under a con- 
 dition of comparative equality in regard to wealth, and their 
 early laws were of a nature to favor and continue this equality. 
 A republican form of government rests not more on politi- 
 cal constitutions, than on those laws which regulate the descent 
 and transmission of property. Governments like ours could 
 not have been maintained, where property was holden accord- 
 ing to the principles of the feudal system ; nor, on the other 
 hand, could the feudal constitution possibly exist with us. Our 
 New England ancestors brought hither no great capitals from 
 Europe; and if they had, there was nothing productive in 
 which they could have been invested. They left behind them 
 the whole feudal pol icy of the other continent. They broke away 
 at once from the system of military service established in the 
 dark ages, and which continues, down even to the present time, 
 more or less to affect the condition of property all over Eu- 
 rope. They came to a new country. There were, as yet, no 
 lands yielding rent, and no tenants rendering service. The 
 whole soil was unreclaimed from barbarism. They were them- 
 selves, either from their original condition, or from the neces- 
 sity of their common interest, nearly on a general level in re- 
 spect to property. Their situation demanded a parceling out 
 and division of the lauds, and it may be fairly said, that this 
 necessary act fixed the future frame and form of their gov- 
 ernment. The character of their political institutions was de- 
 termined by the fundamental laws respecting property. The 
 laws rendered estates divisible among sons and daughters. 
 The right of primogeniture, at first limited and curtailed, was 
 afterward abolished. The property was all freehold. The 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAITD. g5 
 
 entailment of estates, long trusts, and the other processes for 
 fettering and tying up inheritances, were not applicable to the 
 condition of society, and seldom made use of. On the con- 
 trary, alienation of the land was every way facilitated, even to 
 the subjecting of it to every species of debt. The establish- 
 ment of public registries, and the simplicity of our forms of 
 conveyance, have greatly facilitated the change of real estate 
 from one proprietor to another. The consequence of all these 
 causes has been, a great subdivision of the soil, and a great 
 equality of condition ; the tnie basis, most ceitainly, of a pop- 
 ular government. " If the people," says Harrington, " hold 
 three parts in four of the territory, it is plain there can neither 
 be any single pei^on nor nobility able to dispute the govern- 
 ment with them ; in this case, therefore, except force he iri- 
 terposed, they govern themselves." 
 
 The history of other nations may teach us how fiivorable to 
 public Hberty are the division of the soil into small freeholds, 
 and a system of laws, of which the tendency is, without vio- 
 lence or injustice, to produce and to preserve a degree of equal- 
 ity of property. It has been estimated, if I mistake not, that 
 about the time of Henry VII., four-fifths of the land in En- 
 gland was holden by the great barons and ecclesiastics. The 
 effects of a growmg commerce soon afterward began to break 
 in on this state of things, and before the revolution, in 1688, a 
 vast change had been A\Tought. It may be thought probable, 
 that, for the last half-century, the process* of subdivision in 
 England has been retarded, if not reversed ; that the great 
 weight of taxation has compelled many of the lesser freehold- 
 ers to dispose of their estates, and to seek emplo}Tnent in the 
 army and navy, in the professions of civil life, in commerce, 
 or in the colonies. The effect of this on the British constitu- 
 tion cannot but be most unfavorable. A few large estates 
 grow larger ; but the number of those who have no estates also 
 increases ; and there may be danger, lest the inequality of 
 
36 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTKE-PIECES. 
 
 property become so great, that those who possess it may be 
 dispossessed by force ; in other words, that the government 
 may be overturned. 
 
 A most interesting experiment of the effect of a subdivision 
 of property on govenunont is now making in France. It is 
 understood, that the law regulating the transmission of prop- 
 erty 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 gre^it restraint on the power of making 
 dispositions of property by will. It has been supposed, that 
 the effect 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 encroachments of executive power. I 
 think far otherwise. What is lost in individual wealtii will be 
 more than gained in numbers, in intelligence, and in a sympa- 
 thy of sentiment. 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. But if the proprietors of a 
 given extent of territory are summoned to resistance, there is 
 no reason to believe that such resistance would be less forcible, 
 or less successful, because the number of such proprietors 
 should be great. Each would perceive his own importjince, 
 and his own interest, and would feci that natural elevation of 
 character which the consciousness of property inspires. A com- 
 mon 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 hered- 
 itary 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 landholders. That notion is de- 
 rived from a state of things long since passed ; a state in which 
 a feudal baron, with his retainers, might stand against the sover- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 97 
 
 eign, -who was himself the greatest baron, and his retainers. But 
 at present, what could the richest landholder do, against one re- 
 giment of disciplined troops ? Other securities, therefore, 
 against the prevalence of military power must be provided. 
 Happily for us, we arc not so situated as that any purpose of 
 national defense requires, ordinarily and constantly, such a mil- 
 itary force as might seriously endanger our liberties. 
 
 In respect, however, to the recent law of succession in France, 
 to which I have alluded, I would, presumptuously perhaps, haz- 
 ard 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 wall be, not in favor of the power of the crown, 
 as some European wi iters have supposed, but against it. Those 
 writers only reason upon what they think correct general prin- 
 ciples, in relation to this subject. They acknowledge a want 
 of experience. Here we have had that experience ; and we 
 know that a multitude of small proprietors, acting with intelli- 
 gence, and that enthusiasm which a common cause inspires, 
 constitute not only a formidable, but an invincible power. 
 
 The true principle of a free and popular government would 
 seem to be, so to construct it as to give to all, or at least to a 
 very great majority, an interest in its preservation ; to found 
 it, as other things are founded, on men's interest. Tlie stabil- 
 ity of government requires that those who desire its continu- 
 ance should be more powerful than those who desire its disso- 
 lution. This power, of course, is not always to be measured 
 by mere numbers. Education, wealth, talents, are all parts 
 and elements of the general aggregate of power ; but numbers, 
 nevertheless, constitute ordinarily the most important consid- 
 eration, unless, indeed, there be a militai-y force in the hands 
 of the few, by which they can control the many. In this coun- 
 try we have actually existing systems of government, in the 
 maintenance of which, it should seem, a great majority, both 
 in numbers and in other means of power and influence, must 
 VOL. n. E 7 
 
99 "WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 see their interest. But this state of things is not brought about 
 solely by written political constitutions, or the mere manner 
 of organizing the government ; but also by the laws which reg- 
 ulate the descent and transmission of property. The freest 
 government, if it could exist, would not be long acceptable, if 
 the tendency of the laws were to create a rapid accumulation 
 of property in few hands, and to render the great mass of the 
 population dependent and penniless. In such a case, the popu- 
 lar power would be likely to break in upon the rights of prop- 
 erty, or else the influence of property to limit and control the ex- 
 ercise of popular power. Universal suffrage, for example, could 
 not long exist in a community where there was great inequal- 
 ity of property. The holders of estates would be obliged, in 
 such case, either in some way to restrain the right of suffrage, 
 or else such right of suffrage would soon divide the property. 
 In the nature of things, those who have not property, and see 
 their neighbors possess much more than they think them to 
 need, cannot be favorable to laws made for the protection of 
 property. When this class becomes numerous, it grows clam- 
 orous. It looks on property as its prey and plunder, and is 
 naturally ready, at all times, for violence and revolution. 
 
 It would seem, then, to be the part of political wisdom to 
 found government on property ; and to establish such distribu- 
 tion of property, by the laws which regulate its transmission 
 and alienation, as to interest the great majority of society in 
 the support of the government. This is, I imagine, the true 
 theory and actual practice of our republican institutions. With 
 property divided as we have it, no other government than that 
 of a republic could be maintained, even were we foolish enough 
 to desire it. There is reason, therefore, to expect a long con- 
 tinuance of our system. Party and passion, doubtless, may 
 prevail at times, and much temporary mischief be done. Even 
 modes and forms may be changed, and perhaps for the worse. 
 But a great revolution in regard to property must take place, 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 99 
 
 before our governments can be moved from their republican ba- 
 sis, unless they be violently struck off by military' power. The 
 people possess the property, more emphatically than it could 
 ever be said of the people of any other country, and they can 
 have no interest to overturn a government which protects that 
 property by equal laws. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, that this state of things possesses too 
 strong tendencies toward the production of a dead and unin- 
 teresting level in society. Such tendencies are sufficiently 
 countenanced by the infinite diversities in the characters and 
 fortunes of individuals. Talent, activity, industry, and enter- 
 prise tend at all times to produce inequality and distinction ; 
 and there is room still for the accumulation of wealth, with its 
 great advantages, to all reasonable and useful extent. It has 
 been often urged against the state of society in America, that it 
 furnishes no class of men of fortune and leisure. This may be 
 partly true, but it is not entirely so, and the evil, if it be one, 
 would affect rather the progress of taste and literature, than the 
 general prosperity of the people. But the promotion of taste 
 and literature cannot be primary objects of political institutions; 
 and if they could, it might be doubted whether, in the long 
 course of things, as much is not gained by a wide diffusion of 
 general knowledge, as is lost by abridging the number of 
 those whom fortune and leisure enable to devote themselves 
 exclusively to scientific and literary pursuits. However this 
 may be, it is to be considered that it is the spirit of our 
 system to be equal and general, and if there be particular dis- 
 advantages incident to this, they are far more than counter- 
 balanced by the benefits which weigh against them. The im- 
 portant concerns of society are generally conducted, in all coun- 
 tries, by the men of business and practical ability ; and even 
 in matters of taste and literature, the advantages of mere lei- 
 sure are liable to be overrated. If there exist adequate means 
 of education, and a love of letters be excited, that love will find 
 
100 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 its way to the object of its desire, through the cro\vd and pres- 
 sure of the most busy society. 
 
 Connected with this division of property, and the consequent 
 participation of the great mass of people in its possession and 
 enjoyments, is the system of representation, which is admirably 
 accommodated to our condition, better understood among us, 
 and more familiarly and extensively practiced, in the higher and 
 in the lower departments of government, than it has been among 
 any other people. Great flicility has been given to this in New 
 England by the early division of the country into townships 
 or small districts, in which all concerns of local police are reg- 
 ulated, and in which representatives to the legislature are 
 elected. Nothing can exceed the utility of these little bodies. 
 They ai'e so many councils or parliaments, in which common 
 interests are discussed, and useful knowledge acquired and 
 communicated. 
 
 The division of governments into departments, and the di- 
 vision, again, of the legislative department into two chambers, 
 are essential provisions in our system. This last, although not 
 new in itself, yet seems to be new in its application to govern- 
 ments wholly popular. The Grecian republics, it is plain, knew 
 nothing of it ; and in Rome, the check and balance of legisla- 
 tive power, such as it was, lay between the people and the sen- 
 ate, hideed, few things are more difficult than to ascertam 
 accurately the true nature and construction of the Roman com- 
 monwealth. The relative power of the senate and the people, 
 the consuls and the tribunes, appear not to have been at all 
 times the same, nor at any time accurately defined or strictly 
 observed. Cicero, indeed, describes to us an admirable ar- 
 rangeinent of political power, and a balance of the constitution, 
 in that beautiful passage, in which he compares the democra- 
 cies of Greece with the Roman commonwealth: "O morem 
 preclarem, disciplinamque, quam a majoribus accepimus, si 
 quidem teneremus ! »ed neseio quo pacto jam demanibus elabi- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 101 
 
 tur. Nullam enim illi nostri sapientissimi et sanctissimi viri 
 vim conscionis esse voluerunt, quse scisseret plebs, aut qua? 
 populus juberet ; summota conscione, distributis partibus, tri- 
 butim et centuriatim descriptis ordinibus, classibus, astatibus, 
 auditis auctoribus, re multos dies promulgata et cognita, juberi 
 vetarique voluerunt. Graicorum autem totse respublicoe seden- 
 tis conscionis temeritate administrautur."' 
 
 But at what tirpe this wise system existed in this perfection 
 at Rome, no proofs remain to show. Her constitution, origi- 
 nally framed for a monarchy, never seemed to be adjusted in 
 its several parts after the expulsion of the kings. Liberty there, 
 was, but it was a disputatious, an uncertain, an ill-secured 
 liberty. The patrician and the plebeian orders, instead of be- 
 ing matched and joined, each in its just place and proportion, to 
 sustain the fabric of the state, were rather like hostile powers, 
 in perpetual conflict. With us, an attempt has been made, and 
 so far not without success, to divide representation into cham- 
 bers, and, by difference of age, character, qualification, or mode 
 of election, to establish salutary checks, in governments alto- 
 gether elective. 
 
 Having detained you so long with these observations, I must 
 yet advert to another most interesting topic — the free schools. 
 In this particular. New England may be allowed to claim, I 
 think, a merit of a peculiar character. She 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 public 
 instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in propor- 
 tion to his property, and we look not to the question, whether 
 he himself have, or have not, children to be benefitted by the 
 education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and lib- 
 eral system of police, by which property, and life, and the peace 
 of society are secured. We seek to prevent in some measure 
 
102 WEBSTER AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the extension of the penal code, by hispiring a salutary and con- 
 servative principle of virtue and of knowledge in an early age. 
 We hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and a sense of 
 character, by enlarging the capacity and increasing the sphere of 
 intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction, 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, m the 
 .prevalence of enlightened and well-principled moral senti- 
 ment. We hope to continue and prolong the time, when, in 
 the villages and farm-houses of New England, there may be un- 
 disturbed sleep within unbarred doors. And knowing that our 
 government rests directly on the public will, that we may pre- 
 serve it, we endeavor to give a safe and proper direction to that 
 public will. We do not, indeed, expect all men to be philoso- 
 phers or statesmen ; but we confidently trust, and our expec- 
 tation of the duration of our system of government rests on 
 that trust, that by the diffusion of general 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. ^ 
 
 We know that, at the present time, an attempt is making in 
 the English parliament to provide by law for the education of 
 the poor, and that a gentleman of distinguished character (Mr. 
 Brougham) has taken the lead in presenting a plan to govern- 
 ment for carrying that purpose into effect. And yet, although 
 the representatives of the three kingdoms listened to him with 
 astonishment as well as deh'ght, we hear no principles with 
 which we ourselves have not been familiar froin youth ; we see 
 nothing in the plan but an approach toward that system which 
 has been established in New England for more than a century 
 and a half. It is said that in England not more tliau one child 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 103 
 
 in fifteen possesses the means of being taught to read and write; 
 in Wales, one in twenty ; in France, until lately, when some 
 improvement has been made, not more than one in thirty five. 
 Now, it is hardly too strong to say, that in New England every 
 child possesses such means. It would be difficult to find an in- 
 stance to the contrary, unless where it should be owing to the 
 negligence of the parent ; and, in truth, the means are actually 
 used and enjoyed by nearly every one. A youth of fifteen, of 
 either sex, who cannot both read and write, is very unfrequently 
 to be found. Who can make this comparison, or contemplate 
 this spectacle, without delight and a feeling of just pride 1 
 Does any history show property more beneficently applied % ' 
 Did any government ever subject the property of those who 
 have estates to a burden, for a purpose more favorable to the 
 poor, or more useful to the whole community % 
 
 A conviction of the importance of public instruction was one 
 of the earliest sentiments of our ancestors. No lawgiver of 
 ancient or modern times has expressed more just opinions, or 
 adopted wiser measures, than the early records of the colony 
 of Plymouth show to have prevailed here. Assembled on this 
 very spot, a hundred and fifly-three years ago, the legislature 
 of this colony declared, " Forasmuch as the maintenance of 
 good literature doth much tend to the advancement of the weal 
 and flourishing state of societies and republics, this court doth 
 therefore order, that in whatever township in this government, 
 consisting of fifly families or upwards, any meet man shall 
 be obtained to teach a grammar-school, such township shall 
 allow at least twelve pounds, to be raised by rate on all the 
 inhabitimts." 
 
 Having provided that all youth should be instructed in the 
 elements of learning by the institution of free schools, our an- 
 cestors had yet another duty to perform. Men were to be ed- 
 ucated for the professions and the public. For this purpose, 
 they founded the university, and with incredible zeal and per- 
 
104 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 severance, they cherished and supported it, through all trials 
 and discouragements. On the subject of the university, it is 
 not possible for a son of New England to think without 
 pleasure, or to speak without emotion. Nothing confers more 
 honor on the state where it is established, or more utility on 
 the country at large. A respectable university is an establish- 
 ment which must be the work of time. If pecuniary means 
 were not wanting, no new institution could possess character 
 and respectability at once. We owe deep obligation to our 
 ancestors, who began, almost on the moment of their arrival, 
 the work of building up this institution. 
 
 Although established in a different government, the colony 
 of Plymouth manifested warm friendship for Harvard college. 
 At an early period, its government took measures to promote 
 a general subscription throughout all the towns in this colony, 
 in aid of its small funds. Other colleges were subsequently 
 founded and endowed, in other places, as the ability of the peo- 
 ple allowed ; and we may flatter ourselves that the means of 
 education at present enjoyed in New England are not only ad- 
 equate to the diffusion of the elements of knowledge among all 
 classes, but sufficient, also, for respectable attainments in litera- 
 ture and the sciences. 
 
 Lastly, our ancestors founded their system of government 
 on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they be- 
 lieved, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than 
 religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not 
 supported by moral habits. Living under the heavenly light 
 of revelation, they hoped to find all the social dispositions, all 
 the duties which men owe to each other, and to society, en- 
 forced and performed. Whatever makes men good christians 
 makes them good citizens. Our fathers came here to enjoy 
 their religion free and unmolested ; and, at the end of two cen- 
 tui'ies, there is nothing upon which we can pronounce more con- 
 fidently, nothing of which we can express a more deep and 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 105 
 
 earnest conviction, than of the inestimable importance of that 
 religion to man, both in regard to this life, and that which is to 
 come. 
 
 If the blessings of our political and social condition have not 
 been too highly estimated, we cannot well overrate the respon- 
 sibility and duty which they impose upon us. We hold these 
 institutions of government, religion, and learning, to be trans- 
 mitted, as well as enjoyed. We are in the line of conveyance, 
 through which whatever has been obtained by the spirit and 
 efforts of our ancestors is to be communicated to om- children. 
 
 W^e are bound to maintain public liberty, and, by the exam- 
 ple of our own systems, to convince the world that order and 
 law, religion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights 
 of persons, and the rights of property, may all be preserved 
 and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a government en- 
 tirely and purely elective. If we fail in this, our disaster will 
 be signal, and will furnish an argument stronger than has yet 
 been found, in support of those opinions which maintain that 
 government can rest safely on nothing but power and coercion. 
 As far as experience may show erroi-s in our establishments, we 
 are bound to correct them ; and if any practices exist contrary 
 to the principles of justice and humanity within the reach of 
 our laws or our influence, we are inexcusable if we do not exert 
 ourselves to restrain and abolish them. 
 
 I deem it my duty, on this occasion, to suggest that the 
 land is not wholly free from the contamination of a traffic, at 
 which every feeling of humanity must forever revolt, — I mean 
 the African slave-trade. Neither public sentiment, nor the law, 
 has hitherto been able entirely to put an end to this odious and 
 abominable trade. At the moment when God in his juercy 
 has blessed the christian world with a universal peace, there is 
 reason to fear that, to the disgrace of the christian name and 
 character, new efforts are making for the extension of this trade 
 by subjects and citizens of christian states, in whose hearts 
 
 VOL. II. E 
 
106 WEBSTER AND HIS ilASTER-I'IECEg. 
 
 inhabits no sentiments of humanity or justice, and orer whom 
 neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control. 
 In the sight of our law, the African slave-trader is a pirate and 
 a felon ; and in the sight of Heaven, an offender far beyond the 
 ordinary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of 
 our history, than that w^hieh recoi'ds the measures wliich have 
 been adopted by the government at an early day, and at differ- 
 ent times since, for the suppression of this traffic ; and I would 
 call on all the true sons of New England to cooperate with the 
 laws of man, and the justice of Heaven. If there be, within 
 the extent of our knowledge or influence, any participation in 
 this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here, upon the rock of Plym- 
 outh, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of 
 the Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound 
 of the hammer, I see the smoke of the furnaces where mana- 
 cles and tetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the vis- 
 ages of those who by stealth and at midnight labor in this work 
 of hell, foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such in- 
 sti-uments of misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or 
 let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified, or let 
 it be set aside from the christian world ; let it be put out of 
 the circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let 
 civilized man henceforth have no comnmnion with it. 
 
 I would invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who 
 minister at her altar, that they execute the wholesome and ne- 
 cessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our re- 
 litrion that they proclaim its denunciation of these crimes, and 
 add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If 
 the pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sin- 
 ner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the 
 pulpit is false to its trust. I call on the fair mercliant, who has 
 reaped his harvest upon the seas, that he assist in scourging 
 from those seas the worst pirates that ever infested thern. 
 That ocean, which seems to wave with a gentle magnificence to 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 107 
 
 waft the burden of an honest commerce, and to roll along its 
 treasures with a conscious pride, — that ocean, which hardy- 
 industry regards, even when the winds have ruffled its surface, 
 as a field of grateful toil, — what is it to the victim of this op- 
 pression, when he is brought to its shores, and looks forth upon 
 it, for the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with 
 stripes 1 What is it to him but a wide-spread prospect of sut 
 fering, anguish and death 1 Nor do the skies smile longer, nor 
 is the air longer fragrant to him. The sun is cast down from 
 heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut him off in his 
 manhood, or in his youth, from every enjoyment belonging to 
 his being, and every blessing which his Creator intended for 
 him. 
 
 The christian communities send forth their emissaries of re- 
 ligion and letters, who stop, here and there, along the coast of 
 the vast continent of Africa, and with painful and tedious efforts 
 make some almost imperceptible progress in the communica- 
 tion of knowledge, and in the general improvement of the nar 
 tives who are immediately about them. Not thus slow and 
 imperceptible is the transmission of the vices and bad passions 
 which the subjects of christian states carry to the land. The 
 slave-trade ha\Tng touched the coast, its influence and its evils 
 spread, like a pestilence, over the whole continent, making sav- 
 age wars more savage and more frequent, and adding new and 
 fierce passions to the contests of barbarians. 
 
 1 pursue this topic no further, except again to say, that all 
 Christendom, being now blessed with peace, is bound by every- 
 thing which belongs to its character, and to the character of 
 the present age, to put a stop to this inhuman and disgraceful 
 traffic. 
 
 We are bound, not only to maintain the general principles 
 of public liberty, but to support also those existing forms of 
 government which have so well secured its enjoyment, and so 
 highly promoted the public prosperity. It is now more than 
 
108 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 thirty years since these states have been united under the fed- 
 eral constitution, and whatever fortune may await them here- 
 after, it is impossible that this period of their history should 
 not be regarded as distinguished by signal prosperity and suc- 
 cess. They must be sanguine indeed, who can hope for bene- 
 fit from change. Whatever division of the public judgment 
 may have existed in relation to particular measures of the gov- 
 ernment, all must agree, one should think, in the opinion, that 
 in its general course it has been eminently productive of public 
 happiness. Its most ardent friends could not well have hoped 
 from it more than it has accomplished ; and those who disbe- 
 lieved or doubted ought to feel less concern about predictions 
 which the event has not verified, than pleasure in the good 
 which has been obtained. Whoever shall hereafter write this 
 part of our history, although he may see occasional errors or 
 defects, will be able to record no great failure in the ends and 
 objects of government. Still less will he be able to record any 
 series of lawless and despotic acts, or any successful usurpation. 
 His page will contain no exhibition of provinces depopulated, 
 of civil authority habitually trampled down by military power, 
 or of a community crushed by the burden of taxation. He 
 will speak, rather, of public liberty protected, and public hap- 
 piness advanced ; of increased revenue, and population aug- 
 mented beyond all example ; of the growth of commerce, man- 
 ufactures, and the arts ; and of that happy condition, in which 
 the restraint and coercion of government are almost invisible 
 and imperceptible, and its influence felt only in the benefits 
 which it confers. We can entertain no better wish for our 
 country, than that this government may be preserved ; nor 
 have we a clearer duty than to maintain and support it in the 
 full exercise of all its just constitutional powers. 
 
 The cause of science and literature also imposes upon us an 
 important and delicate trust. The wealth and population of 
 the country are now so far advanced, as to authorize the ex- 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 109 
 
 pectation of a correct literature and a well formed taste, as well 
 as respectable progress in the abstruse sciences. The country- 
 has risen from a state of colonial dependency ; it has estab- 
 lished an independent government, and is now in the undis- 
 turbed enjoyment of peace and political security. The ele- 
 ments of knowledge are universally diffused, and the reading 
 portion of the community large. Let us hope that the present 
 may be an auspicious era of literature. If, almost on the day 
 of their landing, our ancestors founded schools and endowed 
 colleges, what obligations do not rest upon us, living under cir- 
 cumstances so much more favorable both for providing and for 
 using the means of education 1 Literature becomes free insti- 
 tutions. It is the graceful ornament of civil liberty, and a 
 happy restraint on the asperities which political controversies 
 sometimes occasion. Just taste is not only an embellishment 
 of society, but it rises almost to the rank of the virtues, and 
 diffuses positive good througliout the whole extent of its influ- 
 ence. There is a connection between right feeling and right 
 principles, and truth in taste is allied with truth in morality. 
 "With nothing in our past history to discourage us, and with 
 something in our present condition and prospects to animate 
 us, let us hope, that, as it is our fortune to live in an age when 
 we may behold a wonderful advancement of the country in all 
 its other great interests, we may see also equal progress and 
 success attend the cause of letters. 
 
 Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our ori- 
 gin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration 
 for the christian religion. Tliey journeyed by its light, and la- 
 bored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles 
 with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence 
 through all their institutions, civil, political, or literaiy. Let 
 us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more 
 widely ; in the full conviction, that that is the happiest society 
 
110 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 wliich partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceful 
 spirit of Christianity. 
 
 The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and this occasion 
 will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect 
 to behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, 
 they exist only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand 
 here a hundred years hence, to trace, through us, their descent 
 from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now surveyed, 
 the progress of their country, during the lapse of a century. 
 We would anticipate their concurrence with us in our senti- 
 ments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We would 
 anticipate and partake the pleasure with which they will then 
 recount the steps of New England's advancement. On the 
 morning of that day, although it will not disturb us in our re- 
 pose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude, commencing on 
 the Rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions 
 of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of 
 the Pacific seas. 
 
 We would leave for the consideration of those who shall then 
 occupy our places, some proof that we hold the blessings trans- 
 mitted from our fathers in just estimation ; some proof of our 
 attachment to the cause of good government, and of civil and 
 religious liberty ; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to 
 promote everything which may enlarge the understandings and 
 improve the hearts of men. And when, from the long distance 
 of an hundred years, they shall look back upon us, they shall 
 know, at least, that we possessed affections, which, running 
 backward and warming with gratitude for what our ancestors 
 have done for our happiness, run forward also to our posterity, 
 and meet them with cordial salutation, ere yet they have ar- 
 rived on the shore of being. 
 
 Advance, then, ye future generations ! We would hail you, 
 as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we 
 now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence where we are 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. Ill 
 
 passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. 
 We bid you welcome lo this pleasant land of the fathers. We 
 bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of 
 New England. We greet your accession to the great inher- 
 itance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the bles- 
 sings of good government and religious liberty. We welcome 
 you to the treasures of science and the delights of learning. 
 We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, 
 to the happiness of kindred and parents, and children. We 
 welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational exist- 
 ence, the immortal hope of clu-istianity, and the light of ever- 
 lasting truth ! 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A REPRESENTATIVE U CONGRESS. 
 
 THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 "VS'hes the speech on the Greek Kevolution was made, Mr. Webster was about 
 foiiy-ttco years of age ; and it was looked upon at home, as well as in Great Britain, 
 as the ablest ever made up to that day in our house of representatives. It is not 
 doubtful whether it has ever been exceeded there since. 
 
THE GREEK REYOLUTIO.^. 
 
 A SPEECH DELIVEEED IN TOE HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES, JANUAKT 
 
 19th, 1824. 
 
 I AM afraid, Mr. Chairman, that, so far as my part in this 
 discussion is concerned, those expectations which the public ex- 
 citement existing on the subject, and certain associations easily 
 connected with it, have conspired to raise, may be disappointed. 
 An occasion which calls the attention to a spot so distinguished, 
 so connected with interesting recollections, as Greece, may nat- 
 urally excite sometlaing of warmth and enthusiasm. Li a grave 
 political discussion, however, it is necessary that such feelings 
 should be chastised. I shall endeavor properly to repress them, 
 although it is impossible that they should be altogether extin- 
 guished. We must, indeed, fly beyond the civilized world ; 
 we must pass the dominion of law and the boundaries of Imowl- 
 edge ; we must, more especially, withdraw ourselves from this 
 place, and the scenes which here surround us— if we would sep- 
 arate ourselves altogether from the influence of all those me- 
 morials of herself which ancient Greece has transmitted for the 
 admiration and the benefit of mankind. This free form of gov- 
 ernment, this popular assembly, the common council held* for 
 the common good, where have we contemplated its earliest 
 models? This practice of free debate and public discussion, 
 the contest of mind with mind, and that popular eloquence, 
 which, if it were now here, on a subject like this, would move 
 the stones of the capitol, whose was the language in which all 
 these were first exhibited ? Even the eclitice m which we as- 
 semble, these proportioned columns, this ornamental architec- 
 
116 "EBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ture, ali^ remind us that Greece has existed, and that we, like 
 the rest of mankind, are greatly her debtors. But I have not 
 introduced this motion in the vain hope of discharging anything 
 of this accumulated debt of centuries. I have not acted upon 
 the expectation, that we, who have inherited this obligation 
 from our ancestors, should now attempt to pay it to those who 
 may seem to have inherited from their ancestors a right to re- 
 ceive payment. My object is nearer and more immediate. I 
 wish to take occasion of the struggle of an interesting and gal- 
 lant people, in the cause of liberty and Christianity, to draw the 
 attention of the house to tlie circumstances which have accom- 
 panied that struggle, and to the principles which appear to have 
 governed the conduct of the great states of Europe in regard 
 to it ; and to the effects and consequences of these principles 
 upon the independence of nations, and especially upon the insti- 
 tutions of free governments. What I have to say of Greece, 
 therefore, concerns the modern, not the ancient ; the living, and 
 not the dead. It regards her, not as she exists in history, tri- 
 umpliant over time, and tyranny, and ignorance; but as she 
 now is, contending against fearful odds, for being, and for the 
 common privilege of human nature. 
 
 As it is never difficult to recite commonplace remarks and 
 trite aphorisms, so it may be easy, I am aware, on this occa- 
 sion, to remind me of the wisdom which dictates to men a care 
 of their own ailairs, and admonishes them, instead of scarchincp 
 for adventures abroad, to leave other men's concerns in their 
 own hands. It may be easy to call this resolution Quixotic, the 
 emanation of a crusading or propagandist spirit. All this, and 
 more, may be readily said ; but all this, and more, will not be 
 allowed to fix a character upon this proceeding, until that is 
 proved which it takes for granted. Let it first be shown, that 
 in this question there is nothing which can affect the interest, 
 the character, or the duty of this country. Let it be proved, 
 that we are not called upon, by either of these considerations. 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTIOK. 117 
 
 to express an opinion on the subject to which the resolution re- 
 lates * Let tliis be proved, and then it ^vill indeed be made out, 
 that neither ought this resolution to pass, nor ought the subject of 
 it to have been mentioned in the communication of the president 
 to us. But, in my opinion, tliis cannot be sliown. In my judg- 
 ment, the subject is interesting to the people and the govern- 
 ment of this country, and we are called upon, by considerations 
 of great weight and moment, to express our opinions upon it 
 These considerations, I think, spring from a sense of our own 
 duty, our character, and our own interest I wish to treat the 
 subject on such grounds, exclusively, as are truly American; 
 but then, in considering it as an American question, I cannot 
 forget the age in which we live, the prevailing spirit of the age, 
 the interesting questions which agitate it, and our oym peculiar 
 relation in regard to these interesting questions. Let this be, 
 then, and as far as I am concerned I hope it will be, purely an 
 American discussion ; let it embrace, nevertheless, everything 
 that feirly concerns America. Let it comprehend, not merely 
 her present advantage, but her permanent interest, her elevated 
 character as one of the free states of the world, and her duty 
 toward those great principles wliieh have hitherto maintained 
 the relative independence of nations, and which have, more es- 
 pecially, made her what she is. 
 
 At the commencement of the session, the president, in the 
 discharge of the high duties of his office, called our attention to 
 the subject to which this resolution refers. " A strong hope," 
 says tliat communication, " has been long entertained, founded 
 on the heroic sti-uggle of the Greeks, that they would succeed 
 in their contest, and resume their equal station among the na- 
 tions of the earth. It is believed that the whole civilized world 
 
 ♦The tfillowing is the resolution refared to: 
 
 " Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for defraying the expense 
 Incident to the appointment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, wheaever th« 
 president shall deem it expedieot to make soeh appointment." 
 
118 WEBSTEK AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 takes a deep interest in their welfare. Although no power has 
 declared in their favor, yet none, according to our information, 
 has taken part against them. Their cause and their name have 
 protected them fi'om dangers which might ere this have over- 
 whelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of in- 
 terest, and of acquisition with a view to aggrandizement, which 
 mingle so much in the transactions of nations, seem to have 
 ' had no effect in regard to them. From the facts which have 
 come to our knowledge, there is good cause to believe that 
 their enemy has lost forever all dominion over them ; that 
 Greece will become again an independent nation," 
 
 It has appeared to me that the house should adopt some 
 resolution reciprocating these sentiments, so far as it shall ap- 
 prove them. More than twenty years have elapsed since con- 
 gress first ceased to receive such a communication from the 
 president as could properly be made the subject of a general 
 answer. I do not mean to find fault with this relinquishment 
 of a former and an ancient practice. It may have been attended 
 with inconveniences which justified its abolition. But, certainly, 
 there was one advantage belonging to it ; and that is, that it 
 furnished a fit opportunity for the expression of the opinion of 
 the houses of congress upon those topics in the executive com- 
 munication which were not expected to be made the immediate 
 subjects of direct legislation. Since, therefore, the president's 
 message does not now receive a general answer, it has seemed 
 to me to be proper that, in some mode, agreeable to our ovra 
 usual form of proceeding, we should express our sentiments 
 upon the important and interesting topics on which it treats. 
 
 If the sentiments of the message in respect to Greece be 
 proper, it is equally proper that this house should reciprocate 
 those sentiments. The present resolution is designed to have 
 that extent, and no more. If it pass, it will leave any future 
 proceeding where it now is, in the discretion of the executive 
 government. It is but an expression, under those forms in 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 119 
 
 which the house is accustomed to act, of the satisfaction of the 
 house with tlae general sentiments expressed in regard to this 
 subject in the message, and of its readiness to defray the ex- 
 pense incident to any inquiry for the purpose of further infor- 
 mation, or any other agency which the president, in his discre- 
 tion, shall see fit, in whatever manner and at whatever time, to 
 institute. The whole matter is still left in his judgment, and 
 this resolution can in no way restrain its unlimited exercise. 
 
 I might well, ?»Ir. Chairman, avoid the responsibility of this 
 measure, if it had, in my judgment, any tendency to change the 
 policy of the country. With the general course of that policy 
 I am quite satisfied. The nation is properous, peaceful, and 
 happy ; and I should very reluctantly put its peace, prosperity, 
 or happiness at risiv. It appears to me, however, that this res- 
 olution is strictly conformable to our general policy, and not 
 only consistent with our interests, but even demanded by a 
 large and liberal view of those interests. 
 
 It is certainly true that the just policy of this country is, in 
 the first place, a peaceful policy. No nation ever had less to 
 expect from forcible aggrandizement. The mighty agents 
 which are working out our greatness are time, industry, and 
 the arts. Our augmentation is by growth, not by acquisition ; 
 by internal development, not by external accession. No 
 schemes can be suggested to us so magnificent as the prospect 
 •which a sober contemplation of our own condition, unaided by 
 projects, uninfluenced by ambition, fairly spreads before us. A 
 country of such vast extent, with such varieties of soil and cli- 
 mate, with so much public spirit and private enterprise, with a 
 population increasing so much beyond former example, with 
 capacities of improvement not only unapplied or unexhausted, 
 but even, m a great measure, as yet unexplored ; so free in its 
 institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers 
 on every man to his own acquisitions j needs nothing but 
 
X20 WEBSTER AND IIlS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 time and peace to carry it forward to almost any point of ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 In the next place, I take it for granted that the policy of this 
 country, springhig from the nature of our government and the 
 sph-it of all our institutions, is, so far as it respects the interesting 
 questions which agitate the present age, on the side of liberal 
 and enlightened sentiments. The age is extraordinary ; the 
 spirit that actuates it is peculiar and marked ; and our own re- 
 lation to the times we live in, and to the questions which in- 
 terest them, is equally marked and peculiar. We are placed, 
 by our good fortune and the wisdom and valor of our ances- 
 tors, in a condition in which we can act no obscure part. Be 
 it for honor, or be it for dishonor, whatever we do is not likely 
 to escape the observation of the world. As one of the free 
 states among the nations, as a'great and rapidly rising republic, 
 it would be impossible for us, if we were so disposed, to pre- 
 vent our principles, our sentiments, and our example from pro- 
 ducing some effect upon the opinions and hopes of society 
 throughout the civilized world. It rests probably with our- 
 selves to determine whether the influence of these shall be sal- 
 utary or pernicious. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the great political question of this 
 aee is that between absolute and regulated governments. The 
 substance of the controversy is whether society shall have any 
 part in its own government. Whether the form of government 
 shall be that of limited monarchy, with more or less mixture of 
 hereditary power, or wholly elective or representative, may 
 pei-haps be considered as subordinate. The main controversy 
 is between that absolute rule, which, while it promises to gov- 
 ern well, means, nevertheless, to govern without control, and 
 that regulated or constitutional system which restrains sovereign 
 discretion, and asserts that society may claim as matter of 
 right some effective power in the establishment of the laws 
 which are to regulate it. The spirit of the times sets with a 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 121 
 
 most powerful current in favor of these last-mentioned opin- 
 ions. It is opposed, however, whenever and wherever it shows 
 itself, by certain of the great potentates of Europe ; and it is 
 opposed on ojrounds as applicable in one civilized nation as in 
 another, and which would justify such opposition in relation to 
 the United States, as well as in relation to any other state or 
 nation, if time and circumstance should render such opposition 
 expedient. 
 
 What part it becomes this country to take on a question of 
 this sort, so far as it is called upon to take any part, cannot be 
 doubtful. Our side of this question is settled for us, even with- 
 out our own volition. Our history, our situation, our character, 
 necessarily decide our position and our course, before we have 
 even time to ask whether we have an option. Our place is on 
 the side of free institutions. From the earliest settlement of 
 these states, their inhabitants were accustomed, in a greater or 
 less degree, to the enjoyment of the powers of self-government; 
 and for the last half-century they have sustained systems of 
 government entirely representative, yielding to themselves the 
 greatest possible prosperity, and not leaving them without dis- 
 tinction and respect among the nations of the earth. This sys- 
 tem we arc not likely to abandon ; and while we shall no fai'- 
 ther rfcommend its adoption to other nations, in whole or in 
 part, than it may recommend itself by its Aasible influence on 
 our own growth and prosperity, we are, nevertheless, interested 
 to resist the establishment of doctrines which deny the legality 
 of its foundations. We stand as an equal among nations, 
 claiming the full benefit of the established international law; 
 and it is our duty to oppose, from the earliest to the latest 
 moment, any innovations upon that code, which shall bring 
 into doubt or question our own equal and independent rights. 
 I will now, Mr. Chairman, advert to those pretensions put 
 fJjrth by the allied sovereigns of continental Europe, which seem 
 to me calculated, if unresisted, to bring into disrepute the prin- 
 VOL. n. F 
 
122 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ciples of our government, and, indeed, to be wholly incompati 
 ble with any degree of national independence. I do not intro- 
 duce these considerations for the sake of topics. I am not 
 about to declaim against crowned heads, nor to quarrel with 
 any country for preferring a form of-governnient different from 
 our own. The power qf choice that we exercise for ourselves, 
 I am quite willing to leave also to others. But it appears to 
 me that the pretensions of which I have spoken are wholly in- 
 consistent with the independence of nations generally, without 
 regard to the question whether their governments be absolute, 
 monarchical and limited, or purely popular and representative. 
 I have a most deep and thorough conviction, that a new era has 
 arisen in the world, that new and dangerous combinations are 
 taking place, promulgating doctrines and fraught with conse- 
 quences wholly subversive in their tendency of the public law 
 of nations and of the general liberties of mankind. Whether 
 this be so, or not, is the question which I now propose to ex- 
 amine, upon such grounds of information as the common and 
 public means of knowledge disclose. 
 
 Everybody knows that, since the final restoration of the 
 Bourbons to the throne of .France, the continental powers have 
 entered into sundry alliances, which have been made public, and 
 have held several meetings or congresses, at which the princi- 
 ples of their politiail conduct have been declared. These things 
 must necessarily have an effecl upon the international law of 
 the states of the world. If that effect be good, and according 
 to the principles of that law, they deserve to be applauded. If, 
 on the contrary, their efl^ect and tendency be most dangerous, 
 their principles wholly inadmissible, their pretensions such as 
 would abolish every degree of national independence, then they 
 arc to be resisted. 
 
 I begin, Mr. Chairman, by drawing your attention to the 
 treaty concluded at Paris in September, 1815, between Russia, 
 Prussia, and Austria, commonly called the Holy Alliance. This 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 123 
 
 singular alliance appears to have originated with the emperor 
 of Russia ; for we are informed that a draft of it was exhibited 
 by him, personally, to a plenipotentiary of one of the great 
 powers of Europe, before it was presented to the other sover- 
 eigns who ultimately signed it. This instrument professes no- 
 thing, certahily, which is not extremely commendable and 
 praiseworthy. It promises only that the contracting parties, 
 both in relation to other states, and in regard to their own sub- 
 jects, will observe the rules of justice and Christianity, In con- 
 firmation of these promises, it maizes the most solemn and de- 
 vout religious invocations. Now, although such an alliance is 
 a novelty in European history, the world seems to have re- 
 ceived this treaty, upon its first promulgation, with general 
 charity. It was commonly understood as little or nothing more 
 than an expression of thanks for the successful termination of the 
 momentous contest in which those sovereigns had been engao^ed. 
 It still seems somewhat unaccountable, however, that these good 
 resolutions should require to be confirmed by treaty. Who 
 doubted that these august sovereigns would treat each other 
 with justice, and rule their own subjects in mercy 1 And what 
 necessity was there for a solemn stipulation by treaty, to insure 
 the performance of that wlaich is no more than the ordinary 
 duty of every government 1 It would laardly be admitted bv 
 these sovereigns, that by this compact they suppose themselves 
 bound to introduce an entu'e change, or any change, in the 
 course of their own conduct. Nothing substantially new, cer- 
 tainly, can be supposed to have been intended. What princi- 
 ple, or what practice, therefore, called for this solemn declara- 
 tion of the intention of the parties to observe the rules of reli- 
 gion and justice 1 
 
 It is not a little remarkable, that a writer of reputation upon 
 the public law, described, many years ago, not inaccui-ately. the 
 character of this alliance. I allude to PufTendorf, " It seems 
 useless," says he, " to frame any pacts or leagues, barely for the 
 
124 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 defense and support of universal peace ; for by such a league 
 nothing is superadded to the obligation of natural law, and no 
 agreement is made for the performance of anything which the 
 parties were not previously bound to perform ; nor is the ori- 
 ginal obligation rendered firmer or stronger by such an addi- 
 tion. Men of any t()lerable culture and civilization might well 
 be ashamed of entering into any such compact, the conditions 
 of which imply only that the parties concerned shall not offend 
 in any clear point of duty. Besides, we should be guilty of 
 great irreverence towards God, should we suppose that his in- 
 junctions had not already laid a suflicient obligation upon us to 
 act justly, unless we ourselves voluntarily consented to the 
 same engagement; as if our obligation to obey his will de- 
 pended upon our own pleasure. If one engage to serve another, 
 he does not set it down expressly and particularly among the 
 terms and conditions of the bargain, that he will not betray nor 
 murder liim, nor pillage nor burn his house. For the same 
 reason, that would be a dishonorable engagement, in which men 
 siiould bind themselves to act properly and decently, and not 
 break the peace." 
 
 Such were the sentiments of that eminent writer. How 
 nearly he had anticipated the case of the Holy Alliance will 
 appear from comparing his observations with the preamble to 
 that alliance, which is as follows : 
 
 "hi the name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity, their 
 majesties the emperor of Austriii, the king of Prussia, and the 
 emperor of Russia," — "solemnly declare that the present act 
 has no other object than to publish, in the face of the whole 
 world, their fixed resolution, both in the administration of their 
 respective states, and in their political relations with every other 
 ^ovei'nment, to take for their sole guide the precepts of that 
 holy religion, namely, the precepts of justice, Christianity, char- 
 ity, and peace, which, far from being applicable only to private 
 concerns, must have an immediate influence on the councils of 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTIOK. 125 
 
 princes, and guide all thoir steps, as being the only means of 
 consolidating human institutions, and remedying their imper- 
 fections." 
 
 This measure, however, appears principally important, as it 
 was the first of a series, and was followed afterward by others 
 of a more direct and practical nature. These measures, taken 
 together, profess to establish two principles, which the Allied 
 Powers would institute as a part of the law of the civilized 
 world ; and the enfoi'cement of which is to be effected by a 
 million and a half of bayonets. 
 
 The first of these principles is, that all popular or constitu- 
 tional rights are holden no otherwise tluin as grants from the 
 crown. Society, upon this principle, has no rights of its own ; 
 it takes good government, when it gets it, as a boon and a con- 
 cession, but can demand nothing. It is to live in that favor 
 which emanates from royal authority, and if it have the misfor- 
 tune to lose that favor, there is nothing to protect it against any 
 degree of injustice and oppression. It can rightfully make no 
 endeavor for a change, by itself; its whole privilege is to re- 
 ceive the favors that may be dispensed by the sovereign power, 
 and all its duty is described in the single word, submission. 
 This is the plain result of the principal continental state papers ; 
 indeed, it is nearly the identical text of some of them. 
 
 The Lay bach circular of May, 1821, alleges, " that useful 
 and necessary changes in legislation and administration ought 
 only to emanate from the free will and intelligent conviction of 
 those whom God has rendered responsible for power. All 
 that deviates from this line necessarily leads to disorder, com- 
 motions, and evils far more insufl:crable than those which they 
 pretend to remedy." Now, sir, this principle would carry Eu- 
 rope back again, at once, into the middle of the dark ages. It 
 is the old doctrine of the divine right of kuigs, advanced now 
 by new advocates, and sustained by a formidable mass of 
 power. That the people hold their fundamental privileges as 
 
126 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 matter of concession or indulgence from the sovereign power, 
 is a sentiment not easy diffused in this age, any farther than it 
 is enforced by the direct operation of military means. It is 
 true, certainly, that some six centuries ago the early founders 
 of English liberty called the instrument which secured their 
 rights a charter. It was, indeed, a concession ; they had ob- 
 tained it sword in hand from the king ; and in many other 
 cases, whatever was obtained, favorable to human rights, from 
 the tyranny and despotism of the feudal sovereigns, was called 
 by the names of 2>rivileges and liberties, as being matter of 
 special favor. And though we retain this language at the pres- 
 ent time, the principle itself belongs to ages that have long 
 passed by us. The civilized world has done with the enormous 
 faith, of many made for one. Society asserts its own rights, 
 and alleges thetn to be original, sacred, and unalienable. It 
 is not satisfied with having kind masters ; it demands a parti- 
 cipation in its own government ; and in states much advanced 
 in civilization, it urges this demand with a constancy and an 
 energy that cannot well nor long be resisted. There are, hap- 
 pily, enough of regulated governments in the world, and those 
 among the most distinguished, to operate as constant examples, 
 and to keep alive an unceasing panting in the bosoms of men 
 for the enjoyment of similar free institutions. 
 
 When the English revolution of 1688 took place, the En- 
 glish people did not content themselves with the example of 
 Kunnymede ; they did not build their hopes upon royal char- 
 ters ; they did not, like the Lay bach circular, suppose that all 
 useful changes in constitutions and laws must proceed from 
 those only whom God has rendered responsible for power. 
 They were somewhat better instructed in the principles of civil 
 liberty, or at least they were better lovers of those principles 
 than the sovereigns of Laybach. Instead of petitioning for 
 charters, they declared their rights, and while they offered to 
 the Prince of Orange the crown with one hand, they held in the 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 127 
 
 Other an enumeration of those privileges which they did not pro- 
 fess to hold as favors, but which they demanded and insisted 
 upon as their undoubted rights. 
 
 I need not stop to observe, Mr, Chairman, how totally hos- 
 tile are these doctrines of Laybach to the fundamental princi- 
 ples of our government. They are in direct contradiction ; the 
 principles of good and evil are hardly more opposite. If these 
 principles of the sovereigns be true, we are but in a state of re- 
 bellion or of anarchy, and are only tolerated among civilized 
 states because it has not yet been convenient to conform us to 
 the true standard. 
 
 But the second, and, if possible, the still more objectionable 
 principle, avowed Ln these papers, is the right of forcible interfe- 
 rence in the aflkirs of other states. A right to control nations 
 in their desire to change their own government, wherever it 
 may be conjectured, or pretended, that such change might fur- 
 nish an example to the subjects of other states, is plainly and 
 distinctly asserted. The same congress that made the declar- 
 ation at Laybach had declared, before its removal from Trop- 
 pau, " that the powers have an undoubted right to take a hos- 
 tile attitude in regard to those states in which the overthrow 
 of the government may operate as an example." 
 
 There cannot, as 1 think, be conceived a more flagrant viola- 
 tion of public law, or national independence, than is contained 
 in this short declaration. 
 
 No matter what be the character of the government resisted; 
 no matter with what weight the foot of the oppressor bears on 
 the neck of the oppressed ; if he struggle, or if he complain, he 
 sets a dangerous example of resistance — and from that tnoment 
 he becomes an object of hostility to the most powerful poten- 
 tates of the earth. I want words to express my abhorrence 
 of this abominable principle. I trust every enlightened man 
 throughout the world will oppose it, and that, especially, those 
 who, like ourselves, are fortunately out of the reach of the bay- 
 
12S WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 onets that enforce it, will proclaim their detestation of it, in a 
 tone both loud and decisive. The avowed object of such dec- 
 larations is to preserve the peace of the world. But by what 
 means is it proposed to preserve this peace 1 Simply, by bring- 
 ing the power of all governments to bear against idl subjects. 
 Here is to be established a sort of double, or treble, or quadru- 
 ple, or, for ought I know, quintuple allegiance. An oflence 
 against one king is to be an offence against all kings, and the 
 power of all is to be put forth for the punishment of the of 
 fender, A right to interfere in extreme cases, in the case of 
 contiguous states, and where imminent danger is threatened to 
 one by what is transpiring in another, is not without precedent 
 in modern times, upon what has been called the law of vi- 
 cinage ; and when coiofined to extreme cases, and limited to a 
 certain extent, it may perhaps be defended upon principles of 
 necessity and self-defense. But to maintain that sovereigns 
 may go to war upon the subjects of another state to repress an 
 example, is monstrous indeed. What is to be the limit to 
 such a principle, or to the practice growing out of iti What, 
 in any case, but sovereign pleasure, is to decide whether the 
 example be good or bad 1 And what, under the operation of 
 such rule, may be thought of our example 1 Why are we not 
 as fair objects for the operation of the new principle, as any of 
 those who may attempt to reform the condition of their gov- 
 ernment on the other side of the Atlantic? 
 
 The ultimate effect of this alliance of sovereigns, for objects 
 personal to themselves, or respecting only the permanence of 
 their own power, must be the destruction 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 chan- 
 nels of mutual regard and confidence are to be dried up, or cut 
 off. Obedience can now be expected no longer than it is en- 
 forced. Instead of relying on the affections of the governed, 
 sovereigns are to rely on tlie affections and friendship of other 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 129 
 
 sovereigns. There are, in short, no longer to be nations. 
 Princes and people are no longer to unite for interests common 
 to them both. There is to be an end of all patriotism, as a 
 distinct national feeling. Society is to be divided horizontally ; 
 all sovereigns above, and all subjects below ; the former coa- 
 lescing for their own security, and for the more certain subjec- 
 tion of the undistinguished multitude beneath. This, sir, is no 
 picture drawn by imagination. I have hardly used language 
 stronger than that in which the authors of this new system have 
 commented on their o\\ii work. M. de Chateaubriand, in his 
 speech in the French chamber of deputies, in February last, 
 declared, that he hud a conference with the emperor of Russia, 
 at Verona, in which that august sovereign uttered sentiments 
 which appeared to him so precious, that he immediately hast- 
 ened home, and wrote them down, while yet fresh in his recol- 
 lection. "The emperor declared," said he, "that there can no 
 longer be such a thing as an English, French, Russian, Prussian, 
 or Austrian policy ; there is henceforth but one policy, which, 
 for the safety of all, should be adopted both by people and 
 kings. It was for me first to show myself convinced of the 
 principles upon which I founded the alliance ; an occasion of- 
 fered itself — the rising in Greece. Nothing certainly could oc- 
 cur more for my interests, for the interests of my people ; no- 
 thing more acceptable to my country, than a religious war in 
 Turkey. But I have thought I perceived in the troubles of the 
 Morea, the signs of revolution, and I have held back. Provi- 
 dence has not put under my command eight hundred thousand 
 soldiers to satisfy my ambition, but to protect religion, moral- 
 ity, and justice, and to secure the prevalence of those principles 
 of order on which human society rests. It may well be per- 
 mitted, that kings, may have public alliances to defend them- 
 selves against secret enemies." 
 
 These, sir, are the words which the French minister thought 
 so important that they deserved to be recorded ; and 1, too, sir, 
 VOL. II. F* 9 
 
130 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 am of the same opinion. But if it be true that there is here- 
 after to be neither a Russian policy, nor a Prussian policy, nor 
 an Austrian policy, nor a French policy, nor even, which yet I 
 will not believe, an English policy, there will be, I trust in God, 
 an American policy. If the authority of all these governments 
 be hereafter to be mixed and blended, and to flow, in one aug- 
 mented current of prerogative, over the face of Europe, sweep- 
 ing away all resistance in its course, it will yet remain for us 
 to secure our own happiness by the preservation of our own 
 principles ; which I hope we shall have the manliness to ex- 
 press on all proper occasions, and the spirit to defend in every 
 extremity. The end and scope of this amalgamated policy are 
 neither more nor less than this, to interfere, by force, for any 
 government, against any people who may resist it. Be the state 
 of the people what it may, they shall not rise ; be the govern- 
 ment what it will, it shall not be opposed. The practical com- 
 mentary has corresponded with the plain language of the text. 
 Look at Spain, and at Greece. If men may not resist the Span- 
 ish inquisition, and the Tui'kish cimeter, what is there to which 
 humanity must not submit ? Stronger cases can never arise. 
 Is it not proper for us, at all times, is it not our duty, at this 
 time, to come forth, and deny, and condemn, these monstrous 
 principles ? Where, but here, and in one other place, are they 
 lik(;ly to be resisted ? They are advanced with equal coolness 
 and boldness; and they are supported by immense power. 
 The timid will shrink and give way, and many of the brave 
 may be compelled to yield to force. Human liberty may yet, 
 perhaps, be obliged to repose its principal hopes on the intelli- 
 gence and the vigor of the Saxon race. As far as depends on 
 us, at least, I trust those hopes will not be disappointed ; and 
 that, to the extent wliich may consist with our own settled, pa- 
 cific policy, our opinions and sentiments maybe brought to act 
 on the right side, and to the right end, on an occasion which is, 
 m truth, nothing less than a momentous question between an 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 13X 
 
 intelligent age, full of knowledge, thirsting for improvement, 
 and quickened by a thousand impulses, on the one hand, and 
 the most arbitrary pretensions, sustained by unprecedented 
 power. 
 
 This asserted right of forcible intervention in the affairs of 
 other nations is in open violation of the public law of the world. 
 Who has authorized these learned doctors of*Troppau to estab- 
 lish new articles in this code ? Whence are their diplomas ? 
 Is the whole world expected to acquiesce in principles which en- 
 tirely subvert the independence of nations ? On the basis of 
 this independence has been reared the beautiful fabric of inter- 
 national law. On the principle of this independence, Europe 
 has seen a family of nations flourishing within its limits, the 
 small among the large, protected not always by power, but by 
 a principle above power, by a sense of propriety and justice. 
 On this principle, the great commonwealth of civilized states 
 has been hitherto upheld. There have been occasional depar- 
 tures or violations, and always disastrous, as in the case of Po- 
 land ; but, in general, the harmony of the system has been won- 
 derfully preserved. In the production and preservation of this 
 sense of justice, this predominating principle, the christian reli- 
 gion has acted a main part. Christianity and civilization have 
 labored together ; it seems, indeed, to be a law of our human 
 condition, that they can live and flourish only together. From 
 their blended influence has arisen that delightful spectacle of 
 the prevalence of reason and principle over power and interest, 
 fio well described by one who was an honor to the age : 
 
 "And sovereign Law, the world's collected will. 
 
 O'er thrones and globes elate, 
 Sits empress, — crowning good, repressing ill: 
 
 Smit by her sacred frown. 
 The fiend. Discretion, like a vapor, sinks, 
 
 And e'en the all-dazzling crown 
 Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinksi" 
 
132 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 But this vision is past. While the teachers of Lay bach give 
 the rule, there will be no law but the law of the strongest. 
 
 It may now be required of me to show what interest ive have 
 in resisting this new system. What is it to us^ it may be asked, 
 upon what principles, or what pretenses, the European govern- 
 ments assert a right of interfei'ing in the affairs of their neigh- 
 bors'? The thunder, it may be said, rolls at a distance. The 
 wide Atlantic is between us and danger ; and, Kowever others 
 may suffer, we shall remain safe. 
 
 I think it is a sufficient answer to this to say, that we are one 
 of the nations ; that we have an interest, therefore, in the pre- 
 servation of that system of national law and national inter- 
 course which has heretofore subsisted, so beneficially for all. 
 Our system of government, it should also be remembered, is, 
 throughout, founded on principles utterly hostile to the new 
 code ; and if we remain undisturbed by its operation, we shall 
 ewe our security either to our situation or our spirit. The en- 
 terprising character of the age, our own active, commercial spirit, 
 the great increase which has taken place in the intercourse be- 
 tween civilized and conimercial states, have necessarily con- 
 nected us with the nations of the earth, and given us a high 
 concern in the preservation of those salutary principles upon 
 wliich that intercourse is founded. We have as clear an in- 
 terest in international law, as individuals have in the laws of 
 society. 
 
 But apart from the soundness of the policy, on the ground 
 of direct interest, we have, sir, a duty connected with this sub- 
 ject, which I trust we are willing to perform. What do we 
 not owe to the cause of civil and religious liberty? to the prin- 
 ciple of lawful resistance 1 to the principle that society has a 
 right to partake in its own government? As the leading re- 
 public of the world, living and breathing in these principles, and 
 advanced, by their operation, with unequalcd rapidity in our 
 career, shall we give our consent to bring them into disrepute 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 133 
 
 and disgrace ? It is neither ostentation nor boasting to say, 
 that there lie before this country, in immediate prospect, a great 
 extent and height of power. We are borne along toward this, 
 without effort, and not always even with a full knowledge of 
 the rapidity of our own motion. Circumstances which never 
 combined before have here united in our favor, and a mighty 
 current is scLting us forward which we could not resist even if 
 we would, and which, while we would stop to make an obser- 
 vation, and take the sun, has set us, at the end of the operation, 
 far in advance of the place where we commenced it. Does it 
 not become us, then, is it not a duty imposed on us, to give 
 our weight to the side of hberty and justice ; to let mankind 
 know that we are not tired of our own institutions, and to pro- 
 test against the asserted power of altering at pleasure the law 
 of the civilized world? 
 
 But whatever we do in this respect, it becomes us to do upon 
 clear and consistent principles. There is an important topic in 
 the message to which 1 have yet hardly alluded. I mean the 
 rumored combination of the European continental sovereigns 
 against the newly established free states of South America. 
 Whatever position this government may take on that subject, I 
 trust it will be one which can be defended on known and ac- 
 knowledged grounds of right. The near approach or the re- 
 mote distance of danger may affect policy, but cannot chantre 
 principle. The same reason that would authorize us to protest 
 against unwarrantable combinations to interfere between Spain 
 and her former colonies, would authorize us equally to protest 
 if the same combination were directed against the smallest state 
 in Europe, although our duty to ourselves, our policy, and wis- 
 dom, might indicate very different courses as fit to be pursued 
 by us in the two cases. We shall not, I trust, act upon the 
 notion of dividing the world with the Holy Alliance, and com- 
 plain of nothing done by them in their hemisphere if they will 
 not interfere with ours. At least this would not be such a 
 
134 WEBSTER AND 1118 MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 course of policy as I could recommend or support. We have 
 not ofiended, and I hope we do not intend to offend, in regard 
 to South America, against any principle of national indepen- 
 dence or of public law. We have done nothing, we shall do 
 nothing, that we need to hush up or to compromise by forbear- 
 ing to express our sympathy for the cause of the Greeks, or 
 our opinion of the course which other governments have adopted 
 in regard to them. 
 
 It may, in the next place, be asked, perhaps, supposing all 
 this to be true, what can we do ? Are w' e to go to war 1 Are 
 we to interfere in the Greek cause, or any other European 
 cause? Are we to endanger our pacific relations? No, cer- 
 tainly not. What, then, the question recurs, remains for us ? 
 If we will not endanger our own peace, if we will neither fur- 
 nish armies nor navies to the cause wliich we think the just one, 
 what is there wntliin our power ? 
 
 Sir, this reasoning mistakes the age. The time has been, in- 
 deed, when fleets, and armies, and subsidies, were the principal 
 reliances even in the best cause. But, happily for mankind, 
 there has come a great change in this respect. Moral causes 
 come into consideration, in proportion as the progress of knowl- 
 edge 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 
 progress of injustice and oppression ; and as it grows more in- 
 telligent and more intense, it will be more and more formida- 
 ble. It may be silenced by military power, but it cannot be 
 conquered. It is elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the 
 weapons of ordinary warfare. It is that impassible, unextin- 
 guishable enemy of mere violence and arbitrary rule, which, 
 like Milton's angels, 
 
 "Vital in every part, 
 Cannot, but by annllilhuing, dlo." 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 135 
 
 Until this be propitiated or satisfied, it is vain for power to 
 talk either of triumphs or of repose. No matter what fields 
 are desolated, what fortresses suiTendered, what armies sub 
 dued, or what provinces overrun, hi the history of the year 
 that has passed by us, and in the instance of unhappy Spain, 
 we have seen the vanity of all triumphs in a cause which vio- 
 lates the general sense of justice of the civilized world. It is 
 nothing, that the troops of France have passed from the Pyre- 
 nees to Gidiz ; it is nothing that an unhappy and prostrate na- 
 tion has fallen before them ; it is nothing that arrests and con- 
 fiscation, and execution, sweep away the little remnant of na- 
 tional 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 no- 
 tice that Europe, though silent, is yet indignant ; it shows him 
 that the scepter of his victory is a barren scepter ; 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 indig- 
 nation of an enlightened and civilized age ; it turns to bitter- 
 ness the cup of his rejoicing, and wounds him with the sting 
 which belongs to the consciousness of having outraged the opin- 
 ion of mankind. In my 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 mo- 
 ment of the French invasion. Nations must, no doubt, un- 
 dergo these trials in their progress to the establishment of fi-ee 
 institutions. The very trials benefit them, and render them 
 more capable both of obtaming and of enjoying the object which 
 they seek. 
 
 I shall not detain the committee, sir, by laymg before it any 
 statistical, geographical, or commercial account of Greece. I 
 have no knowledge on these subjects which is not common to 
 all. It is universally admitted, that, within the last thirty or 
 
136 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 forty years, the condition of Greece has been greatly improved. 
 Iler marine is at present respectable, containing the best sailors 
 in the Mediterranean, better even, in that sea, than our own, as 
 more accustomed to the long quarantines and other regulations 
 which prevail in its ports. The number of her seamen has 
 been estimated as high as 50,000, but I suppose that estimate 
 must be much too large. She has, probably, 150,000 tons of 
 shipping. It is not easy to state an accurate account of Grecian 
 population. The Turkish government does not trouble itself 
 with any of the calculations of political economy, and there has 
 never been such a thing as an accurate census, probably, in any 
 part of the Turkish empire. La the absence of all official inf(:)r- 
 mation, private opinions widely differ. By the tables which 
 have been communicated, it would seem that there are 2,400,- 
 000 Greeks in Greece proper and the islands ; an amount, as I 
 am inclined to think, somewhat overrated. There are, proba- 
 bly, in the whole of European Turkey, 5,000,000 Greeks, and 
 2,000,000 more in the Asiatic dominions of that power. The 
 moral and intellectual progress of this numerous population, 
 under the horrible oppression which crushes it, has been such 
 as may well excite regard. Slaves, under barbarous masters, 
 the Greeks have still aspired after the blessings of knowledge 
 and civilization. Before the breaking out of the present revo- 
 lution, they had established schools, and colleges, and libraries, 
 and the press. Wherever, as in Scio, owing to particular cir- 
 cumstances, the weight of oppression was mitigated, the natu- 
 ral vivacity of the Greeks, and their aptitude for the arts, were 
 discovered. Though certainly not on an equality with the civ- 
 ilized and christian states of Europe, and how is it possible, un- 
 der such oppression as they endured, that they should be'? 
 they yet furnished a striking contrast with their Tartar masters. 
 It has been well said, that it is not easy to form a just concep- 
 tion of the nature of the despotism exercised over them. Con- 
 quest and subjugation, as used among European states, are in- 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 137 
 
 adequate modes of expression by which to denote the domin. 
 ion of the Turks. A conquest in the civilized world is gener- 
 ally no more than an acquisition of a new part to the conquer- 
 ing country. It does not imply a never-ending'bondage im- 
 posed upon the conquered, a perpetual mark, an opprobrious 
 distinction between them and their masters ; a bitter and un- 
 ending persecution of their religion ; an habitual violation of 
 their rights of person and property, and the unrestrained indul- 
 gence toward them of every passion which belongs to the char- 
 acter of a barbarous soldiery. Yet such is the state of Greece. 
 The Ottoman power over them, obtained originally by the 
 sword, is constantly preserved by the same means. Wherever 
 it exists, it is a mere military power. The religious and civil 
 code of the state being both fixed in the Alkoran, and equally 
 the object of an ignorant and furious faith, have been found 
 equally incapable of change. " The Turk," it has been said, 
 " has been encamped in Europe for four centuries." He has 
 hardly any more participation in the European manners, knowl- 
 edge, and arts, than when he crossed the Bosphorus. But this 
 is not the worst of it. The power of the empire is fallen into 
 anarchy, and as the principle which belongs to the head belongs 
 also to the parts, there are as many despots as there are paehas, 
 beys, and viziers. Wars are almost perpetual between the 
 sultan and some rebellious governor of a province ; and in the 
 conflict of these despotisms, the people are necessarily ground 
 between the upper and the nether millstone. In short, the 
 christian subjects of the Sublime Porte feel daily all the miser- 
 ies which flow from depotism, from anarchy, from slavery, and 
 from religious persecution. If anything yet remains to heighten 
 such a picture, let it be added, that every ofl'ice in the govern- 
 ment is not only actually, but professedly, venal ; the Vcha- 
 lics, the vizierates, the cadiships, and whatsoever other denom- 
 ination may denote the depositary of power. In the whole 
 world, sir, there is no such oppression felt as by the christian 
 
4' -ka"^ 
 
 138 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Greeks. In various parts of India, to be sure, the government 
 is bad enough ; but then it is the government of barbarians 
 over barbarians, and the feeling of oppression is, of course, 
 not so keen. There the oppressed are perhaps not better 
 than their oppressors ; but in the case of Greece, there are 
 millions of christian men, not without knowledge, not without 
 refinement, not without a strong thirst for all the pleasures of 
 civilized life, trampled into the very earth, century after cen- 
 tury, by a pillaging, savage, relentless soldiery. Sir, the case 
 is unique. There exists, and has existed, nothing like it. The 
 world has no such misery to show ; there is no case in which 
 christian communities can be called upon with such emphasis 
 
 of appeal. 
 
 But 1 have said enough, Mr. Chairman, indeed I need have 
 said nothing, to satisfy the house, that it must be some new 
 combination of circumstances, or new views of policy in the cab- 
 inets of Europe, which have caused this interesting struggle not 
 merely to be regarded with indifference, but to be marked with 
 opprobrium. The very statement of the case, as a contest be- 
 tween the Turks and Greeks, sufficiently indicates what must 
 be the feeling of every individual, and every government, that 
 is not biased by a particular interest, or a particular feeling, to 
 disregard the dictates of justice and humanity. 
 
 And now, sir, what has been the conduct pursued by the Al- 
 lied Powers in regard to this contest ? When the revolution 
 broke out, the sovereigns were in congress at Laybach ; and 
 the papers of that assembly sufliciently manifest their senti- 
 ments. They proclaimed their abhorrence of those " criminal 
 combinations which had been formed in the eastern parts of 
 Europe ; " and, although it is possible that this denunciation 
 was aimed, more particularly, at the disturbances in the prov- 
 inces of Wallachia and Moldavia, yet no exception is made, 
 from its general terms, in favor of those events in Greece which 
 were properly the commencement of her revolution, and which 
 
THB GREEK REVOLUTION. 139 
 
 could not but be well kno\v^l at Laybach, before the date of 
 these declarations. Now it must be remembered, that Russia 
 was a leading party in this denunciation of the efforts of the 
 Greeks to achieve their liberation ; and it cannot but be ex- 
 pected by Russia that the world will also remember what part 
 she herself has heretofore acted in the same concern. It is no- 
 torious, that within the last half-century, she has again and 
 again excited the Greeks to rebellion against the Porte, and that 
 she has constantly kept alive in them the hope that she would, 
 one day, by her own great power, break the yoke of their op- 
 pressor. Indeed, the earnest attention with which Russia has 
 regarded Greece, goes much farther back than to the time I 
 have mentioned. Ivan the Third, in 1482, having espoused a 
 Grecian princess, heiress of the last Greek emperor, discarded 
 St. George from the Russian arms, and adopted, in its stead, 
 the Greek two-headed black eagle, which has continued in the 
 Russian arms to the present day. In virtue of the same mar- 
 riage, the Russian princes claim the Greek throne as their in- 
 heritance. 
 
 Under Peter the Great, the policy of Russia developed itself 
 more fully. In 1696, he rendered himself master of Azof, and 
 in 1698, obtained the right to pass the Dardanelles, and to 
 maintain, by that route, commercial intercourse with the Medi- 
 terranean. He had emmissaries throughout Greece, and par- 
 ticularly applied himself to gain the clergy. He adopted the 
 Labarum of Constantine, " In hoc signo vinces ; " and medals 
 were struck, with the inscription, " Petrus I. Russo-Grsecorum 
 Imperator." ]x\ whatever new direction the principles of the 
 Holy Alliance may now lead the politics of Russia, or whatever 
 course she may suppose Christianity now prescribes to her in 
 regard to the Greek cause, the time has been when she professed 
 to be contending for that cause, as identified with Christianity. 
 The white banner under which the soldiers of Peter I. usually 
 fought, bore, as its inscription, " In the name of the Prince, and for 
 
140 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 our country." Eelying on the aid of the Greeks, in his war with 
 the Porte, he changed the white flag to red, and displayed on 
 it the words, " hi the name of God, and for Christianity." The 
 unfortunate issue of this war is well known. Though Anne and 
 Elizabeth, the successors of" Peter, did not possess his active 
 character, they kept up a constant communication with Greece, 
 and held out hopes of restoring the Greek empire. Catharine 
 U., as is well known, excited a general revolt in 1769. A Rus- 
 sian fleet appeared in the Mediterranean, and a Russian army 
 was landed in the Morea. The Greeks, in the end, were dis- 
 gusted by being required to take an oath of allegiance to Rus- 
 sia, and the empress was disgusted because they refused to take 
 it. hi 1774, peace was signed between Russia and the Porte, 
 and the Greeks of the Morea were left to their fate. By this 
 treaty, the Porte acknowledged the independence of the khan 
 of the Crimea ; a preliminary step to the acquisition of that 
 country by Russia. It is not unworthy of remark, as a circum- 
 stance which distinguished this from most other diplomatic 
 transactions, that it conceded the right to the cabinet of St. Pe- 
 tersburg of intervention in the interior aflairs of Turkey, in 
 regard to whatever concerned the religion of the Greeks. The 
 cruelties and massacres that happened to the Greeks after the 
 peace between Russia and the Porte, notwithstanding the gen- 
 eral pardon which had been stipulated for them, need not now 
 be recited, histead of retracing the deplorable picture, it is 
 enough to say that, in this respect, the past is justly reflected 
 in the present. The empress soon after invaded and conquered 
 the Crimea, and on one of the gates of Kerson, its capital, 
 caused to be inscribed, " The road to Byzantium." The present 
 emperor, on his accession to the throne, manifested an intention 
 to adopt the policy of Catharine II. as his own, and the world 
 has not been right in all its suspicions, if a project for the par- 
 tition of Turkey did not form a part of the negotiations of Na- 
 poleon and Alexander at Tilsit. 
 
THE GREEK REVOLtTTION. 141 
 
 All this course of policy seems suddenly to be chant^ed. 
 Turkey is no longer regarded, it would appear, as an object of 
 partition or acqni.sitiun, and Greek revolts have all at once be- 
 come, according to the declaration of Laybaeh, "criminal com- 
 binations." The recent congress at Verona exceeded its prede- 
 cessor at Laybaeh, in its denunciations of the Greek strugo-le. 
 In the circular of the 14th of December, 1822, it declared the 
 Grecian resistance to the Turkish power to be rash and culpa- 
 ble, and lamented that " the firebrand of rebellion had been 
 thrown into the Ottoman empire." This rebuke and crimina- 
 tion we know to have proceeeded on those settled principles of 
 conduct which the continental powers had prescribed for them- 
 selves. The sovereigns saw, as well as others, the real condi- 
 tion of the Greeks ; they knew, as well as others, that it was 
 most natural and most justifiable that they should endeavor, at 
 whatever hazard, to change that condition. They knew that 
 that they themselves, or at least one of them, had more than 
 once urged the Greeks to similar efforts ; that they themselves 
 had thrown the same firebrand into the midst of the Ottoman 
 empire. And yet, so much does it seem to be their fixed ob- 
 ject to discountenance whatsoever threatens to disturb the actual 
 government of any country, that, christians as they were, and 
 allied, as they professed to be, for purposes most important to 
 human happiness, and religion, they have not hesitated to de- 
 clare to the world that they have wholly forborne to exercise 
 any compassion to the Greeks, simply because they thought 
 that they saw, in the struggles of the Morea, the sign of revo- 
 lution. This, then, is coming to a plain, practical result. The 
 Grecian revolution has been discouraged, discountenanced, and 
 denounced, for no reason but because it is a revolution. Inde- 
 pendent of all inquiry into the reasonableness of its causes, or 
 the enormity of the oppression which produced it; regardless 
 of the peculiar claims which Greece possesses upon the civilized 
 world ; and regardless of what has been their own conduct 
 
142 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 toward her for a century ; regardless of the interest of the chris- 
 tian religion, — the sovereigns at Verona seized upon the case 
 of the Greek revolution as one above all others calculated to 
 illustrate the fixed principles of their policy. The abominable 
 rule of the Porte on one side, the valor and the suflerings of 
 the christian Greeks on the other, furnished a case likely to con- 
 vince even an incredulous world of the sincerity of the profes- 
 sions of the Allied Powers. They embraced the occasion with 
 apparent ardor ; and the world, I trust, is satisfied. 
 
 We see here, Mr. Chairman, the direct and actual applica- 
 tion of that system which I have attempted to describe. We 
 see it in the very case of Greece. We learn, authentically and 
 indisputably, that the Allied Powers, holding that all changes 
 in legislation and administration ought to proceed from kings 
 alone, were wholly inexorable to the sufferings of the Greeks, 
 and wholly hostile to their success. Now it is upon this prac- 
 tical result of the principle of the continental powers that I 
 wish this house to intimate its opinion. The great question is 
 a question of principle. Greece is only the signal instance of 
 the application of that principle. If the principle be right, if 
 we esteem it conformable to the law of nations, if we have no- 
 thing to say against it, or if we deem ourselves unfit to express 
 an opinion on the subject, then, of course, no resolution ought 
 to pass. If, on the other hand, we see in the declaration of the 
 Allied Powers, principles not only utterly hostile to our own 
 free institutions, but hostile also to the independence of all na- 
 tions, and altogether opposed to the improvement of the con- 
 dition of human nature ; if, in the instance before us, we see a 
 most striking exposition and application of those principles, 
 and if we deem our own opinions to be entitled to any weight 
 in the estimation of mankind ; then I think it is our duty to 
 adopt some such measure as the proposed resolution. 
 
 It is worthy of observation, sir, that as early as July, 1821, 
 Baron Strogonoff, the Russian minister at Constantinople, rep- 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 143 
 
 resented to the Porte that, if the undistinguished massacres of 
 the Greeks, both of such as were in open resistance and of those 
 who remained patient in their submission, were continued, and 
 should become a settled habit, they would give just cause of 
 war against the Porte to all christian states. This was in 1821. 
 It was followed, early in the next year, by that indescribable 
 enormity, that appalling monument of barbarian cruelty, the 
 destruction of Scio ; a scene I shall not attempt to describe ; a 
 scene from which human nature shrinks shuddering away ; a 
 scene having hardly a parallel in the history of fliUen man. 
 This scene, too, was quickly followed by the massacres in Cy- 
 prus ; and all these things were perfectly known to the christian 
 powers assembled at Verona. Yet these powers, instead of 
 acting upon the case supposed by Baron Strogonofi; and M'hich 
 one would thmk had been then fully made out ; instead of be- 
 ing moved by any compassion for the sufferings of the Greeks, 
 these powers, these christian powers, rebuke their gallantry and 
 insult their sufferings by accusing them of " tlirowing a fire- 
 brand into the Ottoman empire," 
 
 Such, sir, appear to me to be the principles on which the 
 continental powers of Europe have agreed hereafter to act ; and 
 this, an eminent instance of the application of those principles. 
 
 I shall not detain the committee, Mr. Chairman, by any at- 
 tempt to recite the events of the Greek struggle up to the pres- 
 ent time. Its origin may be found, doubtless, in that improved 
 state of knowledge which, for some years, has been gradually 
 taking place in that country. The emancipation of the Greeks 
 lias been a subject frequently discussed in modern times. They 
 themselves are represented as having a vivid remembrance of 
 the distinction of their ancestors, not unmixed with an indignant 
 feeling that civilized and christian Europe should not ere now 
 have aided them in breaking their intolerable fetters. 
 
 In 1816, a society was founded in Vienna for the encourage- 
 ment of Grecian literature. It was connected with a similar 
 
144 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 institution at Athens, and another in Thessaly, called the " Gym- 
 nasium of Mount Pelion." The treasury and general office of 
 the institution were established at Munich. No political object 
 was avowed by these institutions, probably none contemplated. 
 Still, however, they have, no doubt, had their effect ia hastening 
 that condition of things in which the Greeks felt competent to 
 the establishment of their independence. Many young men 
 have been for years annually sent to the universities in the 
 western states of Europe for their education ; and, after the 
 general pacification of Europe, many military men, discharged 
 from other employment, were ready to enter even into so un- 
 promising a service as that of the revolutionary Greeks. 
 
 hi 1820, war commenced between the Porte and Ali, the 
 well-known pacha of Albania. Differences existed, also, with 
 Persia and with Russia, hi this state of things, at the begin- 
 ning of 1821, an Insurrection appeared to have broken out in 
 Moldavia, under the direction of Alexander Ypsilanti, a well- 
 educated soldier, who had been major-general in the Russian 
 service. From his character, and the number of those who 
 seemed disposed to join him, he was supposed to be counte- 
 nanced by the court of St. Petersburg. This, however, was a 
 great mistake, which the emperor, then at Laybach, took an 
 early opportunity to rectify. The Porte, it would seem, how- 
 ever, alarmed at these occurrences in the northern provinces, 
 caused search to be made of all vesssels entering the Black 
 Sea, lest arms or other military means should be sent in that 
 manner to the insurgents. This proved inconvenient to the 
 commerce of Russia, and caused some unsatisfactory corres- 
 pondence between the two powers. It may be worthy of re- 
 mark, as an exhibition of national character, that, agitated by 
 these appearances of intestine commotion, the sultan issued a 
 proclamation, calling on all true Mussulmans to renounce the 
 pleasures of social life, to prepare arms and horses, and to re- 
 turn to the manner of their ancestors, the life of the plains. 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 145 
 
 The Turk seems to have thought that he had, at last, caught 
 something of the dangerous contagion of European civilization, 
 and that it was necessary to reform his habits, by recurring to 
 the original manners of military roving barbarians. 
 
 It was about this time, that is to say, at the commenment of 
 1821, that the revolution burst out in various parts of Greece 
 and the isles. Circumstances, certainly, were not unfavorable, 
 as one portion of the Turkish army was employed in the war 
 against Ali Pacha, in Albania, and another part in the provin- 
 ces north of the Danube. The Greeks soon possessed them- 
 selves of the open country of the Morea, and drove their enemy 
 into the fortresses. Of these, that of Tripolitza, with the city, 
 fell into the hands of the Greeks in the course of the summer. 
 Having, after these first movements, obtained time to breathe, 
 it became, of course, an early object to establish a government. 
 For this purpose, delegates of the people assembled, under that 
 name which describes the assembly in which we ourselves sit, 
 that name which " freed the Atlantic," a Congress. A writer, 
 who undertakes to render to the civilized world that service 
 which was once performed by Edmund Burke, I mean the com- 
 piler of the English Annual Register, asks, by what authority 
 this assembly could call itself a congress. Simply, sir, by the 
 same authority by which the people of the United States have 
 given the same name to their own legislature. We, at least, 
 should be naturally inclined to think, not only as far as names, 
 but things, also, are concerned, that the Greeks could hardly 
 have begun their revolution under better auspices ; since they 
 have endeavored to render applicable to themselves the general 
 principles of our form of government, as well as its name. 
 This constitution went into operation at the commencement of 
 the next year, hi the mean time, the war with Ali Pacha was 
 ended, he having surrendered, and being afterward assassinated, 
 by an instance of treachery and perfidy, which, if it had hap- 
 pened elsewhere than under the government of the Turks, 
 VOL. II. G 10 
 
146 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 would have deserved notice. The negotiation with Russia, too, 
 took a turn unfevorable to the Greeks, The great point upon 
 •which Russia insisted, beside the abandonment of the measure 
 of searching vessels bound to the Black Sea, was, that the Porte 
 should withdraw its armies from the neighborhood of the Rus- 
 sian frontiers ; and the immediate consequence of this, when 
 effected, was to add so much more to the disposable force ready- 
 to be employed against the Greeks. These events seemed to 
 have left the whole f<)rce of the Turkish empire, at the com- 
 mencement of 1822, in a condition to be employed against the 
 Greek rebellion ; and, accordingly, very many anticipated the 
 immediate destruction of their cause. The event, however, was 
 ordered otherwise. Where the greatest effort was made, it was 
 met and defeated. Entering the Morea with an army which 
 seemed capable of bearing down all resistance, the Turks were 
 nevertheless defeated and driven back, and pursued beyond the 
 isthmus, within which, as far as it appears, from that time to die 
 present, they have not been able to set their foot. 
 
 It was in April of this year that the destruction of Scio took 
 place. That island, a sort of appanage of the Sultana mother, 
 enjoyed many privileges peculiar to itself In a population of 
 130,000 or 140,000, it had not more than 2,000 or 3,000 
 Turks ; indeed, by some accounts, not near as many. The ab- 
 sence of these ruffian masters had in some degree, allowed op- 
 portunity for the promotion of knowledge, the accumulation 
 of wealth, and the general cultivation of society. Here was 
 the seat of modern Greek literature ; here were libraries, print- 
 ing presses, and other establishments, which indicate some ad- 
 vancement in refinement and knowledge. Certain of the in- 
 habitants of Samos, it would seem, envious of this comparative 
 happiness of Scio, landed upon the island in an iri'cgular multitude, 
 for the p\irpose of compelling its inhabitants to make common 
 cause with their countrymen against their oppressors. These, 
 being joined by the peasantry, marched to the city and drove 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 147 
 
 the Turks into the castle. The Turkish fleet, lately reinforced 
 from Egypt, iiappened to be in the neighboring seas, and, leam- 
 ins these events, landed a force on the island of fifteen thousand 
 men. There was nothing to resist such an army. These troops 
 immediately entered the city, and began an indiscriminate mas- 
 sacre. The city was fired ; and in four days the fire and sword 
 of the Turk rendered the beautiful Scio a clotted mass of blood 
 and ashes. The details are too shocking to be recited. Forty 
 thousand women and children, unhappily saved from the gen- 
 eral destruction, were afterward sold in the market of Smyrna, 
 and sent off into distant and hopeless servitude. Even on the 
 wharves of our own cities, it has been said, have been sold the 
 utensils of those hearths, which now e.xist no longer. Of the 
 whole population which I have mentioned, not above nine hun- 
 dred persons were left living upon the island. I will only re- 
 peat, sir, that these tragical scenes were as fully known at the 
 congress of Verona, as they are now known to us ; and it is 
 not too much to call on the powers that constituted that con- 
 gress, in the name of conscience and in the name of humanity, 
 to tell us if there be nothing even in these unparalleled excesses 
 of Turkish barbarity, to excite a sentiment of compassion ; no- 
 thing which they regard as so objectionable as even the very 
 idea of popular resistance to power. 
 
 The events of the year which has just passed by, as far as 
 they have become known to us, have been even more favorable 
 to the Greeks than those of the year preceding. I omit all de- 
 tails, as being as well known to others as to myself Suffice it 
 to say, that with no other enemy to contend with, and no diver- 
 sion of his force to other objects, the Porte has not been able to 
 carry the war into the Morea ; and that, by the last accounts, 
 its armies were acting defensively in Thessaly. I pass over, 
 also, the naval engagements of the Greeks, although that is a 
 mode of warfare in which they are calculated to excel, and in 
 which they have already performed actions of such distinguished 
 
148 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 skill and bravery, as would draw applause upon the best mari- 
 ners in the world. The present state of the war would seem 
 to be, that the Greeks possess the whole of the Morea, with the 
 exception of the three fortresses of Patras, Coron, and ]\Iodon ; 
 all Candia, but one fortress ; and most of the other islands. 
 They possess the citadel of Athens, Missolonghi, and several 
 other places in Livadia. They have been aisle to act on the 
 offensive, and to carry the war beyond the isthmus. There is 
 no reason to believe their marine is weakened ; probably, on 
 the other hand, it is strengthened. But, what is most of all 
 important, they have obtained time and experience. Tliey have 
 awakened a sympathy throughout Europe and throughout Amer- 
 ica ; and they have formed a government which seems suited 
 to the emergency of their condition. 
 
 Sir, they have done much. It would be great injustice to 
 compare their achievements with our own. We began our 
 revolution, already possessed of government, and, compara- 
 tively, of civil liberty. Our ancestors had for centuries been 
 accustomed in a great measure to govern themselves. They 
 were well acquainted with popular elections and legislative as- 
 semblies, and the general principles and practice of free gov- 
 ernments. They had little else to do than to throw off the 
 paramount authority of the parent state. Enough was still left, 
 both of law and of organization, to conduct society in its accus- 
 tomed course, and to unite men together for a common object. 
 The Greeks, of course, could act with little concert at the be- 
 ginning ; they were unaccustomed to the exercise of power, 
 without experience, with limited knowledge, without aid, and 
 surrounded by nations which, whatever claims the Greeks 
 might seem to have upon them, have afforded them nothing but 
 discouragement and reproach. They have held out, however, 
 for three campaigns ; and that, at least, is something. Con- 
 stantinople and the northern provinces have sent forth thou- 
 sands of troops ; they have been defeated. Tripoli, and Al- 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 149 
 
 glers, and Eg}'pt, have contributed their marine contingents ; 
 they have not kept the ocean. Hordes of Tartars have crossed 
 the Bosphorus ; they have died where the Persians died. The 
 powerful monarchies in the neighborhood have denounced their 
 cause, and admonished them to abandon it and submit to their 
 fate. They have answered them, that, although two hundred 
 thousand of their countrymen have offered up their lives, there 
 yet remain lives to offer; and that it is the determination of 
 all, " yes, of all," to persevere until they shall have estab- 
 lished their liberty, or until the power of their oppressors shall 
 have relieved them from the burden of existence. 
 
 It may now be asked, perhaps, whether the expression of om- 
 own sympathy, and that of the country, may do them good 1 
 I hope it may. It may give them courage and spirit, it may 
 assure them of public regard, teach them that they are not 
 wholly forgotten by the civilized world, and mspire them with 
 constancy in the pursuit of their .great end. At any rate, sir, 
 it appears to me that the measure which I have proposed is' due 
 to our own character, and called for by our own duty. When 
 we shall have discharged that duty, we may leave the rest to 
 the disposition of Providence. 
 
 _ I do not see how it can be doubted that this measure is en- 
 tirely pacific. I profess my inability to perceive that it has 
 any possible tendency to involve our neutral relations. If the 
 resokition pass, it is not necessary to be immediately acted on. 
 It will not be acted on at all, unless, in the opinion of the pres- 
 ident, a proper and safe occasion for acting upon it shall arise. 
 If we adopt the resolution to-day, our relations with every for^ 
 eign state will be to-morrow precisely what they now are 
 The resolution will be sufficient to express our sentiments on 
 the subjects to which I have adverted. Useful to that purpose 
 It can be mischievous to no purpose. If the topic were proJ 
 erly introduced into the message, it cannot be improperly in, 
 troduced into discussion in this house. If it were proper, which 
 
150 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 no one doubts, for the president to express his opinions upon 
 it, it cannot, I think, be improper for us to express ours. The 
 only certain effect of this resolution is to express, in a form 
 usual in bodies constituted like this, our approbation of the gen- 
 eral sentiment of the message. Do we wish to withhold that 
 approbation? The resolution confers on the president no 
 new power, nor does it enjoin on him the exercise of any new 
 duty ; nor does it hasten him in the discharge of any existing 
 duty. 
 
 I cannot imagine that this resolution can add anything to 
 those excitements which it has been supposed, I think very 
 causelessly, might possibly provoke the Turkish government to 
 acts of hostility. There is already the message, expressing the 
 hope of success to the Greeks and disaster to the Turks, in a 
 much stronger manner than is to be implied from the terms of 
 this resolution. There is the correspondence between the sec- 
 retary of state and the Greek agent in London, already made 
 public, in which similar wishes are expressed, and a continuance 
 of the correspondence apparently invited. I might add to this, 
 the unexampled burst of feeling which this cause has called 
 forth from all classes of society, and the notorious fact of pecu- 
 niary contributions made throughout the country for its aid and 
 advancement. After all this, whoever can see cause of danger 
 to our pacific relations from the adoption of this resolution has 
 a keener vision than I can pretend to. Sir, there is no aug- 
 mented danger ; there is no danger. The question comes at 
 last to this, whether, on a subject of this sort, this house holds 
 an opinion which is worthy to be expressed. 
 
 Even suppose, sir, an agent or commissioner were to be im- 
 mediately sent — a measure which I myself believe to be the 
 proper one — there is no breach of neutrality, nor any just cause 
 of offense. Such an agent, of course, would not be accredited ; 
 he would not be a public minister. The object would be in- 
 quiry and information; mquiry which we have a right to make, 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. ]51 
 
 information which we are interested to possess. If a dismem- 
 berment of the Turkish empire be taking place, or has already- 
 taken place ; if a new state be rising, or be already risen, in the 
 IMediterranean, who can doubt, that, without any breach of 
 neutrality, we may inform ourselves of these events for the gov- 
 ernment of our own concerns ? 
 
 The Greeks have declared the Turkish coasts in a state of 
 blockade; may we not inform ourselves whether this blockade 
 be nominal or real? and, of course, whether it shall be re- 
 garded or disregarded ? The greater our trade may happen 
 to be with Smyrna, a consideration which seems to have 
 alarmed some gentlemen, the greater is the reason, in my 
 opinion, why we should seek to be accurately informed of 
 those events which may affect its safety. 
 
 It seems to me impossible, therefore, for any reasonable 
 man to imagine that this resolution can expose us to the resent- 
 ment of the Sublime Porte. 
 
 As little reason is there for fearing its consequences upon the 
 conduct of the Allied Powers. They may, very naturally, dis- 
 like our sentiments upon the subject of the Greek revolution ; 
 but what those sentiments are they will much more explicitly 
 learn in the president's message than in this resolution. They 
 might, indeed, prefer, that we should express no opposition to 
 the doctrines which they have avowed, and the application which 
 they have made of those doctrines to the cause of Greece. But 
 I trust we are not disposed to leave them in any doubt as to 
 our sentiments upon these important subjects. They have ex- 
 pressed their opinions, and do not call that expression of opin- 
 ion an intei'ference ; in which respect they are right, as the ex- 
 pression of opinion in such cases is not such an interference as 
 would justify the Greeks in considering the powers at war with 
 tJiem. For the same reason, any expression which we may 
 make of different principles and different sympathies is no in- 
 terference. No one would call the president's message an in- 
 
152 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 terference ; and yet it is much stronger in that respect than 
 this resolution. If either of them could be construed to be an 
 interference, no doubt it would be imjDroper, at least it would 
 be so according to my view of the subject ; for the very thing 
 which I have attempted to resist in the course of these observa- 
 tions is the right of foreign interference. But neither the mes- 
 sage nor the resolution has that character. There is not a 
 power in Europe that can suppose, that, in expressing our opin- 
 ions on this occasion, we are governed by any desire of aggran- 
 dizing ourselves or of injuring others. We do no more than 
 to maintain those established principles in which we have an 
 interest in common with other nations, and to resist the intro- 
 duction of new principles and new rules, calculated to destroy 
 the relative independence of states, and particularly hostile to 
 the whole fibric of our government. 
 
 I close, then, sir, with repeating, that the object of this reso- 
 lution is to avail ourselves of the interesting occasion of the 
 Greek revolution to make our protest against the doctrines of 
 the Allied Powers, both as they are laid down in principle and 
 as they are applied in practice. 
 
 I think it right, too, sir, not to be unseasonable in the ex- 
 pression of our regard, and, as far as that goes in evincing our 
 feelings in consonance wilh a long oppressed and now strag- 
 gling people. I am not of those who would, in the hour of ut- 
 most peril, withhold such encouragement as might be properly 
 and lawfully given, and, when the crisis should be past, over- 
 whelm the rescued sufferer with kindness and caresses. The 
 Greeks address the civilized world with a pathos not easy to be 
 resisted. They invoke our favor by more moving considerar 
 tions than can well Ijclong to the condition of any other people. 
 They stretch out their arms to the christian communities of the 
 earth, beseeching them, by a generous recollection of their an- 
 cestors, by the consideration of their own desolated and ruined 
 cities and villages, by their wives and children sold into an ac- 
 
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 153 
 
 cursed slavery, by their own blood, which they seem willing 
 to pour out like water, by the common faith, and in the name, 
 which unites all christians, that they would extend to them at 
 least some token of compassionate regard. 
 VOL. II. G* 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A DEDICATORY ORATOR. 
 
 BUJiKEK HILL MONUMENT. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 At the time he was called upon to deliver the address at the laying of the corner- 
 stone of the Bunker nill Monument, Mr. "Webster had never parforinod a similaT 
 service ; nor bad it been very common to require such services on such occasions; 
 but the manner in which he that day discharged his duty not only covered his own 
 name with undying luster, but brought the practice into such repute, that nothing 
 can now be erected, from a school-Iionse to a cathedral, without its being consecrated 
 by a public dedication. No man, however, of all that have followed iu the footsteps 
 of Mr. Webster, has ever surpassed, or equaled, or very nearly approached the great 
 model, who, at the time this address was delivered, was wntfortij-ihree years of age 
 His address at the laying of the corner-stone of the oxtonsion of the Capitol is nearly 
 equal to it. 
 
THE BUiXKER HILL MONUMENT. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OK THE CORNER-STONE OF THE 
 BUNKER UILL MONITMENT, AT CUARLESTOWN, MASS., JUNE 17, 1825. 
 
 This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves 
 the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands 
 of human feces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the 
 impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to heaven 
 in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, 
 the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep 
 impression on our hearts. 
 
 If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to afl'ect 
 the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the emotions 
 which agitate us here. We are among the sepulchres of our 
 fathers. We are on ground distinguished by their valor, their 
 constancy, and the shedding of their blood. We are here, not 
 to fix an uncertain date in our annals, nor to draw into notice 
 an obscure and unkno^vn spot. If our humble purpose had 
 never been conceived, if we ourselves had never been born, the 
 17th of June, 1775, would have been a day on which all subse- 
 quent history would have poured its light, and the eminence 
 where we stand a point of attraction to the eyes of succcessive 
 generations. But we are Americans. We live in what may 
 be called the early age of this great continent ; and we know 
 that our posterity, through all time, are here to sufl^er and en- 
 joy the allotments of humanity. We see before us a proba- 
 ble train of great events; we know that our own fortunes have 
 been happily cast ; and it is natural, therefore, that we should 
 be moved by the contemplation of occurrences which have 
 guidBd our destiny before many of us were born, and settled 
 
158 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the condition in which wc should pass that portion of our ex- 
 istence which God allows to men on earth. 
 
 We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, with- 
 out feeling something of a personal interest in the event; with- 
 out being reminded how much it has atrccted our o^vn fortunes 
 and our own existence. It is more impossible for us, there- 
 fore, than for others, to contemplate with unaffected minds that 
 interesting, I may say that most touching and pathetic scene, 
 when the great discoverer of America stood on the deck of his 
 shattered bark, the shades of night falling on the sea, yet no 
 man sleeping; tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, 
 yet the stronger billows of alternate hope and despair tossing 
 his own troubled thoughts ; extending forward his harassed 
 fi-ame, straining westward his anxious and eager eyes, till 
 Heaven at last granted him a moment of rapture and ecstacy, 
 in blessing his vision with the sight of the unkno^\^l world. 
 
 Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our fates, 
 and therefore still more interesting to our feelings and affections, 
 is the settlement of our own country by colonists from En- 
 gland. We cherish every memorial of these worthy ancestors ; 
 we celebrate their patience and fortitude; we admire their 
 daring enterprise ; we teach our children to venerate their 
 piety ; and we are justly proud of being descended from men 
 who have set the world an example of founding civil institutions 
 on the great and united principles of human freedom and hu- 
 man knowledge. To us, their children, the story of their la- 
 bors and sufferings can never be without its interest. We shall 
 not stand unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, while the sea 
 continues to wash it ; nor will our brethren in another early 
 and ancient colony forget the place of its first establishment, 
 till their river shall cease to flow by it. No vigor of youth, 
 no maturity of manhood, will lead the nation to forget the spots 
 where its infancy was cradled and defended. 
 
 But the great event in the history of the continent, which we 
 
\ 
 
 THE BUNKER HILL MOXUMENT. 159 
 
 are now met here to commemorate, that prodigy of modem 
 times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world, is the 
 American revokition. In a day of extraordinary prosperity and 
 happiness, of high national honor, distinction, and power, we are 
 brought together, in this place, by our love of country, by our 
 admiration of exalted character, by our gratitude for signal ser- 
 vices and patriotic devotion. 
 
 The society whose organ I am, was formed for the purpose 
 of rearing some honorable and durable monument to the mem- 
 ory of the early friends of American independence. They have 
 thought, that for this object no time could be more propitious 
 than the present prosperous and peaceful period ; that no place 
 could claim preference over this memorable spot ; and that no 
 day could be more auspicious to the undertaking, than the an- 
 niversary of the battle which was here fought. The founda- 
 tion of that monument we have now laid. With solemnities 
 suited to the occasion, with prayers to Almighty God for his 
 blessing, and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have 
 begun the work. We trust it will be prosecuted, and that, 
 springing from a broad foundation, rising high in massive solid- 
 ity and unadorned grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven 
 permits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, both of the 
 events in memory of which it is raised, and of the gratitude of 
 those who have reared it. 
 
 We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is 
 most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of man- 
 kind. We know, that if we could cause this structure to as- 
 cend, 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 already been spread over the earth, 
 and which history charges itself with making known to all fu- 
 ture times. We know that no inscription on entablatures less 
 broad than the earth itself can carry information of the events 
 we commemorate where it has not already gone ; and that no 
 
160 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 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 achievements 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 suppposed 
 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 of peace may rest upon it forever. 
 We rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured ben- 
 efit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy 
 uifluences which have been produced, by the same events, on 
 the general interests of mankind. We come,, as Americans, to 
 mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our poster- 
 ity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn 
 his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished 
 whore 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 suggests. 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 upon all nations, must be expected to come upon 
 us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, 
 and be assured that the foundations of our national power still 
 stand strong. We wish that this column, rising toward heaven 
 
THE BUKKER HILL MONUMEKT. 161 . 
 
 among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, 
 may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of 
 dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last ob- 
 ject on the sight of him -who leaves his native shore, and the 
 first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something 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. 
 
 We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so various 
 and so important that they might crowd and distinguish centu- 
 ries, are, in our times, cx)mpressed within the compass of a sm- 
 gle life. When has it happened that history has had so much 
 to record, in the same term of years, as since the 17th of June, 
 1775 1 Our own revolution, which, under other circumstances, 
 might itself have been expected to occasion a war of half a cen- 
 tury, has been achieved ; twenty-four sovereign and indepen- 
 dent states erected ; and a general government established over 
 them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, that we might well 
 wonder its establishment should have been accomplished so 
 soon, were it not far the greater wonder that it should have 
 been established at all. Two or tliree millions of people have 
 been augmented to twelve, the great forests of the west pros- 
 trated beneath the arm of successfid industry, and the dwellers 
 on the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi become the fel- 
 low-citizens and neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of 
 New England. We have a commerce, that leaves no sea un- 
 exploi'ed ; navies, which take no law from superior force ; reve- 
 nues, adequate to all the exigencies of government, almost 
 without taxation ; and peace with all nations, founded on equal 
 rights and mutual respect. 
 
 Eui'ope, within the same period, has been agitated by a 
 mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the individ- 
 ual condition and happiness of almost every man, has shaken 
 
 TOL. II. 11 
 
102 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 to the center her political fabric, and clashed against one an- 
 other thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. On this, our 
 continent, our own example has been followed, and colonies 
 have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed sounds of lil> 
 erty and free government have reached us from beyond the 
 track of the sun ; and at this moment the dominion of Euro- 
 pean power in this continent, from the place where we stand 
 to the south pole, is annihilated forever. 
 
 hi the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has 
 been the general progress of knowledge, such the improve- 
 ments in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and, 
 above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, that 
 the whole world seems changed. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract of the 
 things which have happened since the day of the battle of Bun- 
 ker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from it ; and we now 
 stand here to enjoy all the blessings of our own condition, and 
 to look abroad on the brightened prospects of the world, while 
 we still hold among us some of those who were active agents 
 ill the scenes of 1775, and who are now here, from every quar- 
 ter of New England, to visit once more, and under circumstan- 
 ces so affecting, I had almost said so overwhelming, this re- 
 nowned theater of their courage and patriotism. 
 
 Venerable men ! you have come down to us from a former 
 generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, 
 that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where 
 you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, ^vith your brothers 
 and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife of your 
 country. Behold, how altered ! The same heavens are indeed 
 over your heads ; the same ocean rolls at your feet ; but all 
 else how changed ! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, 
 you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from 
 burning Charlestown. The ground strowed with the dead and 
 the dying ; the impetuous charge ; the steady and successful 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 163 
 
 repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the summoning of 
 all that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms 
 freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror 
 there may be in war and death — all these you have witnessed, 
 but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights of 
 yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw 
 filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and 
 terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of 
 the combat, have presented }'ou to-day with the sight of its 
 whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet you 
 with an universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity 
 of position appropriately lying at the foot of tliis mount, and 
 seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance 
 to you, but your country's own means of distinction and de- 
 fense. All is peace ; and God has granted you this sight of 
 your country's happiness, ere you slumber forever in the grave. 
 He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of 
 your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and 
 countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the present 
 generation, in the name of your country, m the name of liberty, 
 to thank you ! 
 
 But, alas! you are not all here ! Time and the sword have 
 thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, 
 Pomeroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you in vain amid this bro- 
 ken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to 
 your country in her grateful remembrance and your own bright 
 example. But let us not too much grieve, that you have met 
 the common flite of men. You lived at least long enough to 
 know that your work had been nobly and successfully accom- 
 plished. You lived to sec your country's mdependence estab- 
 lished, and to sheathe your swords from wai\ On the light 
 of liberty you saw arise the light of peace, like 
 
 "another mom, 
 Eisen on mid-noon ; " 
 
 and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless. 
 
164 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 But all ! Him ! the first great mart}- in this great cause ! 
 Him ! tlie premature victim of his own self-devoting heart ! 
 Him ! the head of our civil councils, and the destined leader 
 of our military bands, whom nothing brought hither but the 
 unquenchable fire of his own spirit ! Him ! cut off by Provi- 
 dence in the hour of overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom ; 
 falling ere he saw the star of his country rise ; pouring out his 
 generous blood lilte water, before he knew whether it would 
 fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! — how shall I strug- 
 gle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of thy name ! 
 Our poor work may perish ; but thine shall endure ! This 
 monument may moulder away ; the solid ground it rests upon 
 may sink down to a level with the sea ; but thy memory shall 
 not fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart shall be found that 
 beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations 
 shall be to claim kindred with thy spirit ! 
 
 But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit us to 
 confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless spirits 
 who hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated spot. Wc 
 have the happiness to rejoice here in the presence of a most 
 worthy representation of the survivors of the whole revolution- 
 ary army. 
 
 Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well-fought field. 
 You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton and Mon- 
 mouth, fi'om Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, and Saratoga. 
 Veterans of half a century ! when in your youthful days you 
 put everything at hazard in your country's cause, good as that 
 cause was, and sanguine as youth is, still your fondest hopes 
 did not stretch onward to an hour like this ! At a period to 
 which you could not reasonably have expected to arrive, at 
 a moment of national prosperity such as you could never 
 have foreseen, you are now met here to enjoy the fellowship 
 of old soldiers, and to receive the overflowings of an universal 
 gratitude. 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. " 165 
 
 But your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts in- 
 form me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I perceive that 
 a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon you. The imao-es 
 of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, throng to your 
 embraces. The scene overwhelms you, and I turn from it. 
 Alay the Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years 
 and bless them ! And when you shall here have exchanged 
 your embraces, when you shall once more have pressed the 
 hands which have been so often extended to give succor in 
 adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory, then look 
 abroad into this lovely land which your young valor defended, 
 and mark the happiness with which it is filled ; yea look 
 abroad into the whole earth, and see what a name you have 
 contributed to give to your country, and what a praise you 
 have added to freedom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and 
 gratitude which beam upon your last days from the improved 
 condition of mankind ! 
 
 The occasion does not require of me any particular account 
 of the battle of the 17th of June, nor any detaCed narrative 
 of the events which immediately preceded it. These are fa- 
 miliarly known to all. Li the progress of the great and inter- 
 esting controversy, Massachusetts and the town of Boston had 
 become early and marked objects of the displeasure of the Brit- 
 ish parliament. This had been manifested in the act for alter 
 ing the government of the province, and in that for shutting up 
 the port of Boston. Nothing sheds more honor on our early- 
 history, and nothing better shows how little the feelings and 
 sentiments of the colonies were known or regarded in Encrland 
 than the impression which these measures every where produced 
 in America. It had been anticipated that while the colonies 
 would be terrified by the severity of the punishment inflicted 
 on Massachusetts, the other seaports would be governed by a 
 mere spirit of gain ; and that, as Boston was now cut ofl:'frora 
 all commerce, the unexpected advantage which this blow on her 
 
166 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTEK-PIECES. 
 
 was calculated to confer on other towns, would be greedily en- 
 joyed. How miserably such reasoners deceived themselves ! 
 How little they knew of the depth, and the strength, and the 
 intenseness of that feeling of resistance to illegal acts of power, 
 which possessed the whole American people ! Everywhere the 
 unworthy boon was rejected with scorn. The fortunate occa- 
 sion was seized, everywhere, to show to the whole world that 
 the colonies were swayed by no local mterest, no partial inter- 
 est, no selfish interest. Tlie temptation to profit by the pun- 
 ishment of Boston was strongest to our neighbors of Salem. 
 Yet Salem was precisely the place where this miserable proffer 
 was spurned, in a tone of the most lofty self respect, and the 
 most indignant patriotism. " We are deeply affected," said its 
 inhabitants, " with the sense of our public calamities ; but the 
 miseries that are now rapidly hastening on our brethren in the 
 capital of the province, greatly excite our commiseration. By 
 shutting up the port of Boston, some imagine that the course 
 of trade might be turned hither, and to our benefit ; but we 
 must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of hu- 
 manity, could we indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise 
 our fortunes on the ruin of our suffering neighbors." These 
 noble sentiments were not confined to our immediate vicinity. 
 In that day of general affection and brotherhood, the blow given 
 to Boston smote on every patriotic heart from one end of the 
 country to the other. Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as 
 G)nnecticut and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the cause 
 to be their own. The continental congress, then holding its first 
 session in Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for the suffering 
 inhabitants of Boston, and addresses were received from all 
 quarters, assuring them that the cause was a common one, and 
 should be met by common efforts and common sacrifices. The 
 congress of Massachusetts responded to these assurances ; and 
 in an address to the congress at Philadelphia, bearing the offi^ 
 cial signature, perhaps among the last, of the immortal War- 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 167 
 
 ren, notwithstanding the severity of its suffering and the mag- 
 nitude of the dangers which threatened it, it was declared that 
 this colony " is ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in 
 the cause of America." 
 
 But the hour drew nigh which was to put professions to the 
 proof, and to determine whether the authors of these mutual 
 pledges were ready to seal them in blood. Tlie tidings of Lex- 
 ington and Concord had no sooner spread, than it was univer- 
 sally felt that the time was at last come for action. A spirit 
 pervaded all ranks, not transient, not boisterous, but deep, 
 solemn, determined, 
 
 " totatnque infusa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscct." 
 
 War, on their own soil, and at their own doors, was, indeed, a 
 strange work to the yeomanry ofj New England ; but their 
 consciences were convinced of its necessity, their country called 
 them to it, and they did not withhold themselves from the per- 
 ilous trial. The ordinary occupations of life were abandoned ; 
 the plow was staid in the unfinished furrow ; wives gave up 
 their husbands, and mothers gave up their sons, to the battles 
 of a civil war. Death might come, in honor, on the field ; ifc 
 might come, in disgi*acc, on the scaffold. For either and for 
 both they were prepared. The sentiment of Quincy was full 
 in their hearts. " Blandishments," said that distinguished sou 
 of genius and pati'iotism, " will not foscinate us, nor will threats 
 of a halter intimidate ; for, under God, we are determined that, 
 wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to 
 make our exit, we will die free men." 
 
 The 17th of June saw the four New England colonies standing 
 here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; and tliere 
 was with them from that moment to the end of the war, what 
 I hope will remain witlj them forever, one eause, one country, 
 one heart 
 
168 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most im- 
 portant effects beyond its immediate results as a mUitaiy en- 
 gagement. It created at once a state of open, public war. 
 There could now be no longer a question of proceeding against 
 individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. That fearful crisis 
 was past. The appeal now lay to the sword, and the only- 
 question was, whether the spirit and the resources of the people 
 would hold out, till the object should be accomplished. Nor 
 were its general consequences confined to our own country. 
 The previous proceedings of the colonies, their appeals, resolu- 
 tions, and addresses, had made their cause known to Europe. 
 Without boasting, we may say, llwt in no age or country has 
 the public cause been maintained with more force of argument, 
 more power of illustration, or more of that persuasion which 
 excited feeling and elevated principle can alone bestow, than 
 the revolutionary state papers exhibit. These papers will for- 
 ever deserve to be studied, not only for the spirit which they 
 breathe, but for the ability with which they were written. 
 
 To this able vindication of their cause, the colonies had now 
 added a practical and severe proof of their ovm true devotion 
 to it, and evidence also, of the power which they could Ijring 
 to its support. All now saw, that if America fell, she would 
 not tall without a struggle. ISIen felt sympathy and regard, as 
 well as surprise, when they beheld these infant states, remote, 
 unknown, unaided, encounter the power of England, and, in the 
 first considerable battle, leave more of their enemies dead on 
 the field, ui proportion to the number of combatants, than had 
 recently been known to have fallen in the wars of Europe. 
 
 hiformation of these events, circulating through Europe, at 
 leiTTth reached the ears of one who now hears me.* He has 
 not forgotten the emotion which the fame of Bunker Hill and 
 the name of Warren, excited in his youthful breast. 
 
 Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establishment of 
 
 * General La Fayette. 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 169 
 
 great public principles of liberty, and to do honor to the distin- 
 guished dead. The occasion is too severe for eulogy to the 
 living. But, sir, your interesting relation to this country, the 
 peculiar circumstances which surround you and surround us, 
 call on me to express the happiness which we derive from your 
 presence, and aid in this solemn commemoration. 
 
 Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of devotion 
 will you not thank God for the circumstances of your extraor- 
 dinary life ! You are connected with both hemispheres, and 
 with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain that the elec- 
 tric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the 
 New World to the Old ; and we, who are now hereto perform 
 this duty of patriotism, have all of us long ago received it in 
 charge from our fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. 
 You will account it an instance of your good fortune, sir, that 
 you crossed the seas to visit us at a time Avhich enables you to 
 be present at this solemnity. You now behold the field, the 
 renoAvn of which reached you in the heart of France, and caused 
 a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see the lines of the little 
 redoubt thrown up by the mcredible diligence of Prescott ; de- 
 fended, to the last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor ; and, 
 Avithin which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken 
 its position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, 
 Gardner, McCleary, Moore, and other early j)atriots, fell with 
 hun. Those who survived that day, and whose lives have been 
 prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. Some of 
 them you have known in the trying scenes of the war. Be- 
 hold ! they now stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you. 
 Behold ! they raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing 
 of God on you and yours forever. 
 
 Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this edi- 
 fice. You have heard us rehearse, Avith our feeble commenda- 
 tion, the names of departed patriots. Sir, monuments and eu- 
 logy belong to the dead. We givd' them this day to Warren 
 
 VOL. II. H 
 
170 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and his associates. On other occasions, they have been given 
 to your more immediate companions in arms, to Washington, 
 to Greene, to Gates, Sullivan, and Lincoln. Sir, we have be- 
 come reluctant to grant these, our highest and last honors, fur- 
 ther. We would gladly hold them yet back from the little 
 remnant of that immortal band. Serus in coehivi redeas. Illus- 
 trious as are your merits, yet far, O very far distant be the 
 day, when any inscription shall bear your name, or any tongue 
 pronounce its eulogy. 
 
 Theloadinsi reflection to which this occasion seems to invite us, 
 respects the great changes which have happened in the fitly 
 years since the battle of- Bunker Hill was fought. And it pe- 
 culiarly marks the character of the present age, that, in looking 
 at these changes, and in estimating their etlect on our condition, 
 we are obliged to consider, not what has been done in our own 
 country, only, but in others, also, hi these interesting times, 
 while nations are making separate and individual advances in 
 improvement, they make, too, a common progress ; like vessels 
 on a common tide, propelled by the gales at different rates, ac- 
 cording to their several structure and management, but all 
 moved forward by one mighty current beneath, strong enough 
 to bear onward whatever does not sink beneath it. 
 
 A chief distinction of the present day is a community of 
 opinions and knowledge amongst men in different nations, ex- 
 isting in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, in our 
 time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over distance, over differ- 
 ence of languages, over diversity of hal)its, over prejudice, and 
 over biGotrv. The civilized and christian world is fast learning 
 the o-reat lesson, that difference of nation does not imply neces- 
 sary hostility, and that all contact need not be war. The whole 
 world is becoming a common field for intellect to act in. En- 
 eroy of mind, genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may speak 
 out in any tongue, and the ivorld will hear it. A great chord 
 of sentiment and feeling runs through two contments, and vi- 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 171 
 
 brates over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from coun- 
 try to country ; every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, and all 
 in turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas ; there 
 are marts and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and a won- 
 derful fellowship of those individual intelligences which make 
 up the mind and opinion of the age. Mind is the great lever 
 of all things ; human thought is the process by which human 
 ends are ultimately answered ; and the diffusion of knowledge, 
 so astonishing in the last halfcentury, has rendered innumera- 
 ble minds, variously gifted by nature, competent to be compet- 
 itors or fellow-workers on the theatre of intellectual operation. 
 
 From these causes important improvements have taken place 
 in the personal condition of indi\'iduals. Generally speaking, 
 mankind are not only bettor fed and better clothed, but they 
 are able also to enjoy more leisure ; they possess more refine- 
 ment and more self-respect. A superior tone of education, 
 manners and habits, prevails. This remark, most true in its 
 application to our own country, is also partly true when applied 
 elsewhere. It is proved by the vastly augmented consumption 
 of those articles of manufacture and of commerce which con- 
 tribute to the comforts and the decencies of life ; an augmen- 
 tation which has far outrun the progi'ess of population. And 
 while the unexampled and almost incredible use of machinery 
 would seem to supply the place of labor, labor still finds its oc- 
 cupation and its reward ; so wisely has Providence adjusted 
 men's wants and desires to their condition and their capacity. 
 
 Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made in the 
 last half-century in the polite and the mechanic arts, in ma- 
 chinery and manufactures, in commerce and agriculture, in let- 
 ters and in science, would require volumes. I must abstain 
 wholly from these subjects, and turn for a moment to the con- 
 templation of what has been done on the great question of pol- 
 itics and government. This is the master topic of the age ; 
 and during the whole fifty years it has intensely occupied the 
 
172 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 thoughts of men. The nature of civil government, its ends and 
 uses, have been canvassed and investigated ; ancient opinions 
 attacl^ed and defended ; new ideas recommended and resisted, 
 by whatever power the mind of man could bring to the contro- 
 versy. Erom the closet and the public halls, the debate has 
 been transfeiTcd to the field ; and the world has been shaken 
 by wars of unexampled m^ignitude, and the greatest variety of 
 fortune, A day of peace has at length succeeded ; and now 
 that the strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared away, we 
 may begin to see what has actually been done, permanently 
 changing the state and condition of human society. And, with- 
 out dwelling on particular circumstances, it is most apparent, 
 that, from the before-mentioned causes of augmented knowledge 
 and improved individual condition, a real, substantial, and im- 
 portant change has taken place, and is taking place, greatly ben- 
 eficial, on the whole, to human liberty and hmiian happiness. 
 
 The great wheel Of political revolution began to move in 
 America, Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe. 
 Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but natural 
 causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse ; it whirled 
 along with a fearful celerity ; till at length, like the chariot-wheels 
 in the races of antiquity, it took fire from the rapidity "of its 
 own motion, and blazed onward, spreading conflagration and 
 terror around. 
 
 We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortunate 
 was our own condition, and how admirably the character of our 
 people was calculated for making the great example of popular 
 governments. The possession of power did not turn the heads 
 of tlie American people, for they had long been in the habit of 
 exercising a great portion of self-control. Although the para- 
 mount authority of the parent state existed over them, yet a 
 liii'gc field of legislation hud always been open to our colonial 
 assemblies. They were accustomed to representative bodies 
 and the forms of free government ; they understood the doctrine 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 173 
 
 of the division of power among diflcrent branches, and the ne- 
 cessity of checks on each. The character of our countrymen, 
 moreover, was sober, moral, and religious ; and there was little 
 in the change to shock their feelings of justice and humanity, or 
 even to disturb an honest prejudice. We had no domestic 
 throne to overturn, no privileged orders to cast down, no violent 
 changes of property to encounter. In the American revolution, 
 no man sought or wished for more than to defend and enjoy 
 his own. None hoped for plunder or for spoil. Rapacity was 
 unknown to it ; the ax was not among the instruments of its 
 accomplishment ; and we tdl know that it could not have lived 
 a single day under any well-founded imputation of possessing 
 a tendency adverse to the christian religion. 
 
 It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less auspi- 
 cious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well intended, 
 have terminated difTerently. It is, indeed, a great achievement, 
 it is the master-work of the world, to establish governments 
 entirely popular on lasting foundations ; nor is it easy, mdeed, 
 to introduce the popular principle at all into governments to 
 which it has been altogether a stranger. • It cannot be doubted, 
 however, that Europe has come out of the contest in which 
 she has been so long engaged, with greatly superior knowledge, 
 and, in many respects, a highly improved condition. "Whatever 
 benefit has been acquired is likely to be retained, for it consists 
 mainly in the acquisition of more enlightened ideas. And al- 
 though kingdoms and provinces may be wrested from the hands 
 that hold them, in the same manner they were obtained ; al- 
 though ordinary and vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost 
 as it has been won ; yet it is the glorious prerogative of the 
 empire of knowledge, that what it gains it never loses. On the 
 contrary, it increases by the multiple of its own power ; all its 
 ends become means ; all its atteinments, helps to new conquests. 
 Its whole abundant harvest is but so much seed wheat, and no- 
 
174 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 thing has ascertained, and notliing can ascertain, the amount of 
 ultimate product. 
 
 Under the mfluence of this rapidly increasing knowledge, the 
 people have begun, in all forms of government, to think, and 
 to reason, on aflairs of state. Regarding government as an in- 
 stitution for the public good, they demand a knowledge of its 
 operations, and a participation in its exercise. A call for the 
 representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, and where 
 there is already intelligence enough to estimate its value, isper- 
 severingly made. Where men may speak out, they demand 
 it ; where the bayonet is at their throats, they pray for it. 
 
 When Louis XIV. said, " I am the state," he expressed the 
 essence of the doctrine of unlimited power. By the rules of 
 that system, the people are disconnected from the state ; they 
 are its subjects ; it is their lord. These ideas, founded in the 
 love of power, and long supported by the excess and the abuse 
 of it, arc yielding, in our age, to other opinions ; and the civ- 
 ilized world seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction 
 of that fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers of gov- 
 ernment are but a trust, and that they cannot be lawfully ex- 
 ercised but for the good of the community. As knowledge is 
 more and more extended, this conviction becomes more and 
 more general. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the 
 firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. 
 The prayer of the Grecian combatant, when enveloped in un- 
 natural clouds and darkness, is the appropriate political suppli- 
 cation for people of every country not yet blessed with free 
 institutions : 
 
 " Dispel tbls cloud, the light of Leaven restore, 
 Give me to see — and Ajax asks no more." 
 
 We may hope that the growing influence of enlightened 
 sentiments will promote the permanent peace of the world. 
 Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 175 
 
 dynasties, and to regulate successions to tlirones, which have 
 occupied so much rof>ni in the history of modem times, if not 
 less liijcly to happen at all, will be less likely to become general 
 and involve many nations, as the great principle shall be more 
 and more established, that the interest of the world is peace, 
 and its first great statute, that every nation possesses the power 
 of establishing a government for itself. But public opinion has 
 attained, also, an influence over governments which do not ad- 
 mit the popular principle into their organization. A necessary 
 respect for the judgment of the world operates, in some meas- 
 ure, as a control over the most unlimited forms of authority. 
 It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, that the interesting struggle 
 of the Greeks has been suffered to go on so long, without a di- 
 rect interference, either to wrest that country from its present 
 masters, and add it to other powers, or to execute the system 
 of pacification by force, and, with united strength, lay the neck 
 of christian and civilized Greece at the foot of the barbarian 
 Turk. Let us thank God that we li\e in an age when some- 
 tiling has influence besides the bayonet, and when the sternest 
 authority does not venture to encounter the scorching power 
 of public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I have men- 
 tioned should be met by one universal burst of indiijnation • 
 the air of the civihzed world ought to be made too warm to be 
 comfortably breathed by any one who would hazard it. 
 
 It is, indeed, a touching reflection tliat, while, in the fulness 
 of our country's happiness, we rear this monument to her honor 
 we look for instniction in our undertaking to a country which 
 is now in fearful contest, not for v/orks of art or memorials of 
 glory, but for her own existence. Let her be assured that she 
 is not forgotten in the world ; that her eftbrts are applauded, and 
 that constant prayers ascend for her success. And let us cher- 
 ish a confident hope for her final triumph. If the true spark 
 of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human 
 agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's central fire, it 
 
176 WEBSTEK AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 may be smothered for a time ; the ocean may overwheha il ; 
 mountahis may press it down ; but its inherent and uncon- 
 querable force Yv'il] heave both the ocean and the land, and at 
 some time or other, in some place or other, the volcano will 
 break out and flame up to heaven. 
 
 Among tlic great events of the half-centuiy, we must reckon, 
 certainly, the revohition of South America ; and we are not 
 likely to overrate the importance of that revolution, either to 
 the people of the country itself, or to the rest of the world. 
 The late Spanish colonies, now independent states, imder circum- 
 stances less favorable, doubtless, than attended our own revolu- 
 tion, have yet successfully commenced their national existence. 
 They have accoinplished the great object of establishing their 
 independence ; they are known and acknowledged in the world ; 
 and although, in regard to their systems of government, their 
 sentiments on religious toleration, and their provisions for public 
 instruction, they may have yet much to learn, it must be ad- 
 mitted that they have risen to the condition of settled and 
 established states more rapidly than could have been reasona- 
 bly anticipated. They already furnish an exhilarating example 
 of the difference between free governments and despotic mis- 
 rule. Their commerce, at this moment, creates a new activity 
 in all the gi'eat marts of the world. They show themselves 
 able, by an exchange of commodities, to bear an useful part in 
 the intercourse of nations. 
 
 A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail ; 
 all the gi'eat interests of society receive a salutary impulse ; 
 and the progress of information not only testifies to an im- 
 proved condition, but constitutes, itself, the highest and most 
 essential improvement. 
 
 When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence of 
 South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. The 
 thirteen little colonies of North America habitually called them- 
 selves the "continent." Borne dowi by colonial subjugation, 
 
THE UrNXKU HILL MOXUMENT. 177 
 
 monopoly, and bigotry, these vast regions of the south were 
 hardly visible above the horizon. But in our day there has 
 been, as it were, a new creation. The southern hemisphere 
 emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains begin to lift them- 
 selves into the light of heaven ; its broad and fertile plains 
 stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of civilized man, and at the 
 mighty bidding of the voice of political liberty the waters of 
 darkness retire. 
 
 And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the convic- 
 tion of the benefit which the example of our country has pro- 
 duced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and human 
 happiness. Let us endeavor to comprehend in all its magni- 
 tude, and to feel in all its importance, the part assigned to us 
 in the gi-eat di-ama of human affairs. We are placed at the 
 head of the system of representative and popular governments. 
 Thus far our example shows that such governments are com. 
 patible, not only with respectability and power, but with repose, 
 with peace, with security of personal rights, with good laws, and 
 a just administration. 
 
 We are not propagandists. Wlierever other systems are 
 preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or as 
 better suited to existing condition, we leave the preference to 
 be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, that the 
 popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom and knowl- 
 edge men may govern themselves; and the duty incum- 
 bent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this cheering ex- 
 ample, and take care that nothing may weaken its authority 
 with the world. If, in our case, the representative system ulti- 
 mately foil, popular governments must be pronounced impossi- 
 ble. No combination of circumstances more favorable to the 
 experiment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of 
 mankind, therefore, rest with us ; and if it should be pro- 
 daimed, that our example had become an argument against the 
 VOL. II. H* 12 
 
178 WEB3TER AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded 
 throughout the earth. 
 
 These ai'e excitements to duty ; but they are not sugges- 
 tions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone 
 before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the belief, that 
 popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, 
 perhaps not always for the better, in form, may yet, in their 
 general character, be as durable and permanent as other sys- 
 tems. We know, indeed, that in our country any other is 
 impossible. The ^;?v"ncj/)^e of free governments adheres to 
 the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its 
 mountains. 
 
 And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on this 
 generation, and on us, smk deep into our hearts. Those are 
 daily dropping from among us who established our liberty and 
 our government. The great trust now descends to new hands. 
 Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our 
 appropriate object. We can win no laurels in a war for inde- 
 pendence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. 
 Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, 
 and other f(:)unders of states. Our fathers have filled them. 
 But there remains to us a great duty of defense and preserva- 
 tion : and there is opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which 
 the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business 
 is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In 
 a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works 
 of peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth 
 its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great inter- 
 ests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may 
 not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us 
 cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the 
 great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act 
 under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these 
 twenty-four states are one country. Let our conceptions be 
 
THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 179 
 
 enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas 
 over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to 
 act. Let our object be, our country, our whole countrt, 
 AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, by the blessing of 
 God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid mon- 
 ument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace,- 
 and of libert}', upon which the world may gaze with admiration 
 forever ! 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTEIMMECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A FUNERAL ORATOR. 
 
 EULOGY OX ADAMS AXD JEFFERSOiX. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 The circumstances tinder which this great oration was delivered, have been given 
 in the first volume of this work. At the time of its delivery, the orator was nearly 
 forty-four years of age. 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 
 
 DISCOURSE IN COMMEMOKATION OF THE LIVES AND SERVICES OF JOHN ADAMS 
 AND THOMAS JEFFERSON, DELIVERED IN FANEUIL HALL, AUGUST 2, 1826. 
 
 This is au unaccustomed spectacle. For the first time, fel- 
 low-citizens, badges of mourning shroud the columns and over- 
 hang the arches of this hall. These walls, which were conse- 
 crated, so long ago, to the cause of American liberty, which 
 witnessed her infant struggles, and rung with the shouts of her 
 earliest victories, proclaim, now, that distinguished friends and 
 champions of that great cause have fallen. It is right that it 
 sliould be thus. The tears which flow, and the honors that are 
 paid, when the founders of the republic die, give hope that the 
 republic itself may be immortal. It is fit that, by public as- 
 sembly and solemn observance, by anthem and by eulogy, we 
 commemorate the services of national benefactors, extol their 
 virtues, and render thanks to God for eminent blessuigs, early 
 given and long continued, to our favored country. 
 
 Adams and Jefferson are no more ; and we are assembled, 
 fellow-citizens, the aged, the middle-aged, and the young, by 
 the spontaneous impulse of all, under the authority of the mu- 
 nicipal government, with the presence of the chief-magistrate 
 of the commonwealth, and others its official representatives, 
 the university, and the learned societies, to bear our part in 
 those manifestations of respect and gratitude which universally 
 pervade the land. Adams and Jetferson are no more. On 
 our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national jubilee, in 
 the very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and 
 reechoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were 
 
184 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 on all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of 
 spirits. 
 
 If it be true that no one can safely be pronounced happy 
 while he lives, if that event which terminates life can alone 
 crown its honors and its glory, what felicity is here ! The 
 great epic of their lives, how happily concluded ! Poetry it- 
 self has hardly closed illustrious lives, and finished the career 
 of earthly renown, by such a consummation. If we had the 
 power, we could not wish to reverse this dispensation of the 
 Divine Providence. The great objects of life were accom- 
 plished, the drama was ready to be closed. It has closed ; our 
 patriots have fallen ; but so fallen, at such age, with such coin- 
 dence, on such a day, that we cannot rationally lament that 
 that end has come, which we know could not long be deferred. 
 
 Neither of these gi'cat men, fellow-citizens, could have died, 
 at any time, without leaving an immense void in our American 
 society. They have been so intimately, and for so long a time, 
 blended with the history of the country, and especially so united, 
 in our thoughts and recollections, with the events of the revo- 
 lution, that the death of either would have touched the strings 
 of public sympathy. We should have felt that one great link, 
 connecting us with former times, was broken ; that we had 
 lost sometliing more, as it were, of the presence of the revolu- 
 tion itself, and of the act of independence, and were driven on, 
 by another great remove, from the days of our country's early 
 distinction, to meet posterity, and to mix with the future. 
 Like the mariner, whom the ocean and the winds carry along, 
 till he sees the stars which have directed his course and lighted 
 his pathless way descend, one by one, beneath the rising hori- 
 zon, we should have felt that the stream of time had borne us 
 onward till another great luminary, whose light had cheered 
 us and whose guidance we had followed, had sunk away fi'om 
 our sight. 
 
 But the concurrence of their death on the anniversary of in- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 185 
 
 dependence has naturally awakened stronger emotions. Both 
 had been presidents, both had lived to great age, both were 
 early patriots, and both were distinguished and ever honored 
 by their immediate agency in the act of independence. It can- 
 not but seem striking and extraordinary, that these two should 
 live too see the fiftieth year from the date of that act ; that they 
 should complete that year ; and that then, on the day which 
 had fast linked forever their own fame with their country's 
 glory, the heavens should open to receive them both at once. 
 As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who is 
 not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well as 
 in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its bene- 
 factors are objects of His care ? 
 
 Adams and Jeflerson, I have said, are no more. As human 
 beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no more, as in 
 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence ; no more, 
 as on subsequent periods, the head of the government ; no more, 
 as we have recently seen them, aged and venerable objects of 
 admiration and regard. They are no more. They are dead. 
 But how little is there of the great and good which can die ! 
 To their country they yet live, and live forever. They live in 
 all that perpetuates the remembrance of men on earth ; in the 
 recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of 
 their intellect, in the deep-engraved lines of public gratitude, 
 and in the respect and homage of mankind. They live in their 
 example ; and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the in- 
 fluence which their lives and efforts, theii' principles and opin- 
 ions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs 
 of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civ- 
 ilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a 
 truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not 
 a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then expi- 
 ring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark 
 of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle 
 
186 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the common mass of human mind ; so that when it glimmers 
 in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, 
 but it leaves the world all light, all on hre, from the potent 
 contact of its own spirit. Bacon died ; but the human under- 
 standing, roused by the touch of liis miraculous wand to a per- 
 ception of the time philosophy and the just mode of inquiring 
 after truth, has kept on its course successfully and gloriously. 
 Newton died ; yet the coui'ses of the spheres are still known, 
 and they yet move on in the orbits which he saw, and described 
 for them, in the infinity of space. 
 
 No two men now live, fellow-citizens, perhaps it may be 
 doubted whether any two men have ever lived in one age, who, 
 more than those we now commemorate, have impressed their 
 own sentiments, in regard to politics and government, on man- 
 kind, infused their own opinions more deeply into the opinions 
 of others, or given a more lasting direction to the current of hu- 
 man thought. Their work doth not perish with them. The 
 tree which they assisted to plant will flourish, altough they 
 water it and protect it no longer ; for it has struck its roots 
 deep, it has sent them to the very center ; no storm, not of 
 force to burst the orb, can overturn it ; its branches spread 
 wide ; they stretch their protecting arms broader and broader, 
 and its top is destined to reach the heavens. We are not 
 deceived. There is no delusion here. No age will come in 
 which the American revolution will appear less than it is, one 
 of the greatest events in human history. No age will come in 
 which it will cease to be seen and felt, on either continent, that 
 a mighty step, a great advance, not only in American aflairs, 
 but in human affairs, was made on the 4th of July, 1770. And 
 no age will come, we trust, so ignorant or so unjust as not to 
 see and acknowledge the efficient agency of these we now honor 
 in producing that momentous event. 
 
 We arc not assembled, therefore, fellow-citizens, as men over- 
 whelmed with calamity by the sudden disruption of the tics of 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSOW. 187 
 
 friendship or affection, or as in despair for the republic by the 
 untimely blighting of its hopes. Death has not surpiised us 
 by an unseasonable blow. We have, indeed, seen the tomb 
 close, but it has closed only over mature years, over long-pro- 
 tracted public service, over the weakness of age, and over life 
 itself only when the ends of living had been fulfilled. These 
 suns, as they rose slowly and steadily, amidst clouds and storms, 
 in their ascendant, so they have not rushed from their merid- 
 ian to sink suddenly in the west. Like the mildness, the se- 
 renity, the continuing benignity of a summer's day, they have 
 gone down with slow-descending, gi-ateful, long-lingering light ; 
 and now that they are beyond the visible margin of the 
 world, good omens cheer us from " the bright track of their 
 fiery car ! " 
 
 There were many points of similarity m the lives and for- 
 tunes of these great men. They belonged to the same pro- 
 fession, and had pursued its studies and its practice, for unequal 
 lengths of time indeed, but with diligence and effect. Both 
 were learned and able lawyers. They were natives and inhab- 
 itants, respectively, of those two of the colonies which at the 
 revolution were the largest and most powerful, and which nat- 
 urally had a lead in the political affairs of the times. When 
 the colonies became in some degree imited, by the assembling 
 of a general congress, they were brought to act together in its 
 deliberations, not indeed at the same time, but both at early 
 periods. Each had already manifested his attachment to the 
 cause of the country, as Avell as his ability to maintain it, by 
 printed addresses, public speeches, extensive correspondence, 
 and whatever other mode could be adopted for the purpose of 
 exposing the encroachments of the Bi-itish parliament, and ani- 
 mating the people to a manly resistance. Both were not only 
 decided, but early, friends of independence. While others yet 
 doubted, they were resolved ; where others hesitated, they 
 pressed forward. They were both members of the committee 
 
188 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 for preparing the declaration of independence, and they consti- 
 tuted the sub-committee appointed by the other members to 
 make the draft. They left their seats in congress, being called 
 to other public employment, at periods not remote from each 
 other, although one of them returned to it afterward for a short 
 time. Neither of them was of the assembly of great men 
 which formed the present constitution, and neither was at any 
 time member of congress under its provis^ions. Both have 
 been public ministers abroad, both vice-presidents and both 
 presidents. Tliese coincidences are now singularly crowned 
 and completed. They have died together ; and they died on 
 the anniversary of liberty. 
 
 When many of us were last in this place, fellow-citizens, it 
 was on the day of that annversary. We were met to enjoy 
 the festivities belonging to the occasion, and to manifest our 
 grateful homage to our political fathers. We did not, we could 
 not here, forget our venerable neighbor of Quincy. We knew 
 that we were standing, at a time of .high and palmy prosperity, 
 where he had stood in the hour of utmost peril ; that we saw 
 nothing but liberty and security, where he had met the frown 
 of power •, that we were enjoying everything, where he had 
 hazarded everything'; and just and sincere plaudits rose to his 
 name, from the crowds which filled this area, and hung over 
 these galleries. He whose grateful duty it was to speak to us,* 
 on that day, of the virtues of our fathers, had, indeed, admon- 
 ished us that time and years were about to level his venerable 
 frame with the dust. But he bade us hope that " the sound of 
 a nation's joy, rushing from our cities, ringing from our valleys, 
 echoing from our hills, might yet break the silence of his aged 
 ear ; that the rising blessings of grateful millions might yet 
 visit with glad light his decaying vision." Alas ! that vision 
 was then closing forever. Alas ! the silence which was then 
 settling on that aged ear was an everlasting silence ! For, lo ! 
 
 • Hon. Josiah Quincy. 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSOK. 189 
 
 ill the very moment of our festivities, his freed spirit ascended 
 to God who gave it ! Human aid and human solace terminate 
 at the grave ; or we would gladly have borne him upward, on 
 a nation's outspread hands ; we would have accompanied him, 
 and with the blessings of millions and the j^rayers of millions, 
 commended him to the Divine favor. 
 
 While still indulging our thoughts, on the coincidence of the 
 death of this venerable man with the anniversary of indepen- 
 dence, we learn that Jefferson, too, has fallen ; and that these 
 aged patriots, these illustrious fellow-laborers, have left our 
 world together. May not such events raise the suggestion 
 that they are not undesigned, and that Heaven does so order 
 things, as sometimes to attract strongly the attention and ex- 
 cite the thoughts of men ? The occurrence has added new in- 
 terest to our anniversary, and will be remembered in all time 
 to come. 
 
 The occasion, fellow-citizens, requires some account of the 
 lives and services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This 
 duty must necessarily be performed with great brevity, and in 
 the discharge of it I shall be obliged to confine myself, princi- 
 pally, to those parts of their history and character which be- 
 longed to them as public men. 
 
 John Adams was born at Quincy, then part of the ancient 
 town of Braintree, on the 19th of October, (old style,) 1735. 
 He was a descendant of the Puritans, his ancestors having early 
 emigrated from England, and settled in jMassachusetts. Dis- 
 covering early a strong love of reading and of knowledge, to- 
 gether with marks of great strength and activity of mind, 
 proper care was taken by his worthy father to provide for his 
 education. He pursued his youthful studies in Braintree, under 
 Mr. Marsh, a teacher whose fortune it was that Josiah Quincy, 
 Jr., as well as the subject of these remarks, should receive from / 
 him his instruction in the rudiments of classical literature. 
 Having been admitted, in 1751, a member of Harvard College, 
 
190 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Mr. Adams was graduated, in course, in 1755 ; and on the cat- 
 alogue of that institution, his name, at the time of his death, was 
 second among the living alumni, being preceded only by that 
 of the venerable Ilolyoke. With what degree of reputation he 
 left the university is not now proeisely known. We know only 
 that he was distinguished in a class which numbered Locke and 
 Hemmenway among its members. Clioosing the law for his 
 profession, he commenced and prosecuted its studies at Wor- 
 cester, under the direction of Samuel Putnam, a gentleman 
 whom he has himself described as an acute man, an able and 
 learned lawyer, and as in large professional practice at that 
 time. In 1758 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced 
 business in Braintree. lie is understood to have made his first 
 considerable effort, or to have attained his first signal success, 
 at Plymouth, on one of those occasions which furnish the earli- 
 est opportunity for distinction to many young men of the pro- 
 fession, a jury trial, and a criminal cause. His business natu- 
 rally grew with his reputation, and his residence in the vicinity 
 afforded the opportunity, as his growing eminence gave the 
 power, of entering on the large field of practice which tlie capi- 
 tal presented. In 17G6 he removed his residence to Boston, 
 still continuing his attendance on the neighboring circuits, and 
 not unfrequently called to remote parts of the province. In 
 1770 his professional firmness was brought to a test of some 
 severity, on the application of the British officers and soldiers to 
 undertake their defense, on the trial of the indictments found 
 against them on account of the ti'ansactions of the memorable 
 5tli of March. He seems to have thought, on this occasion, 
 that a man can no more abandon the proper duties of his pro- 
 fession, than he can abandon other duties. The event proved, 
 that, as he judged well for his own reputation, he judged well, 
 also, for the interest and permanent fame of his country. The 
 result of that trial proved, that, notwithstanding the high de- 
 gree of excitement then existing in consequence of the meas- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON, 191 
 
 uresof the British government, a jury of Massachusetts would not 
 deprive the most reckless enemies, even the officers of that stand- 
 ing army quartered among them, which they so perfectly abhorred, 
 of any part of that protection which the law, in its mildest and most 
 indulgent interpretation, afforded to persons accused of crimes. 
 Without pursuing Mr. Adams's professional course further, 
 suffice it to say, that on the first establishment of the judicial 
 ti-ibunals under the authority of the state, in 1776, he received 
 an offer of the high and responsible station of chiefjustice of 
 the supreme court of his state. But he was destined for an- 
 other and a different career. From early life the bent of his 
 mind was toward politics ; a propensity which the state of the 
 times, if it did not create, doubtless very much strengthened. 
 Public subjects must have occupied the thoughts and filled up 
 the conversation in the circles in wliich he then moved • and 
 the interesting questions at that time just arising could not but 
 seize on a mind like his, ardent, sanguine, and patriotic. The 
 letter, fortunately preserved, written by him at Worcester, so 
 early as the 12th of. October, 1755, is a proof of very compre- 
 hensive views, and uncommon depth of reflection, in a young 
 man not yet quite twenty. In this letter he predicted the transfer 
 of power, and the establishment of a new seat of empire in 
 America ; he predicted, also, the mcrease of population in the 
 colonies ; and anticipated their naval distinction, and foretold 
 that all Europe combined could not subdue them. All this is 
 said, not on a public occasion or for effect, but in the style of 
 sober and friendly correspondence, as the result of his own 
 thoughts. " I sometimes retire," said he, at the close of the let- 
 ter, "and, laying things together, form some reflections pleas- 
 ing to myself. The produce of one of these reveries you have 
 read above."* This prognostication so early in his own life, so 
 
 • Extract of a letter written by John Adams, dated at Worcester, Massachusetta 
 October 12, 1755 : ' 
 
 "Soon after tbe reformation, a few people came over into this Naw World, for con- 
 
192 WEBSTEE AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 early in the history of the country, of independence, of vast in- 
 crease of numbers, of naval force, of such augmented power as 
 might defy all Europe, is remarkable. It is more remarkable 
 that its author should live to see fulfilled to the letter what 
 could have seemed to others, at the time, but the extravagance 
 of youthful fancy. His earliest political feelings were thus 
 strongly American, and from this ardent attachment to his na- 
 tive soil he never departed. 
 
 While still living at Quincy, and at the age of twenty -four, 
 Mr. Adams was present, in this town, on the argument before 
 the supreme court respecting Writs of Assistance, and heard 
 the celebrated and patriotic speech of James Otis. Unques- 
 tionably, that was a masterly performance. No flighty decla- 
 mation about liberty, no superficial discussion of popular topics, 
 it was a learned, penetrating, convincing, constitutional argu- 
 ment, expressed in a strain of high and resolute patriotism. 
 He grasped the question then pending between England and 
 her colonies with the strength of a lion ; and if he sometimes 
 sported, it was only because the lion himself is sometimes play- 
 ful. Its success appears to have been as great as its merits, and 
 its impression was widely felt. Mr. Adams himself seems 
 never to have lost the feeling it produced, and to have enter- 
 tained constantly the fullest conviction of its important effects. 
 " I do say," he observes, " in the most solemn manner, that 
 
 Bclence' sako. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat 
 ofunipire into Ariicrica, It looks likeh' to me; for, if we can roinove the turbulent 
 Gallics, our people, accordins to the exactest computations, will, in another century, 
 become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I 
 may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our liands, it will be easy to obtain a 
 mastery of the seas; and then tbe united force of all Europe will not be able to sub- 
 due us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us. 
 
 "Be not surprised tliat I am turned politician. This whole town is immersed in 
 politics. Tbe interests of nations, and all the (lira of war, make the subject of every 
 conversation. I sit and hear, and after having been led through a maze of sago ob- 
 servations, I sometimes retire, and, laying things together, form some reflections 
 pleasing to myself. Tbe produce of one of these reveries you have read above." 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. I93 
 
 Mr. Otis's Oration against Writs of Assistance breathed into 
 this nation the breath of life." 
 
 hi 1765 Mr. Adams laid before the public, what I suppose 
 to be his first printed performance, except essays for the peri, 
 odieal press, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. 
 The object of this work was to show that our New England 
 ancestors, in consenting to exile themselves from their native 
 land, were actuated mainly by the desire of delivering them- 
 selves from the power of the hierarchy, and from the^'monar- 
 chical and aristocratical political systems of the other continent; 
 and to make this truth bear with effect on the politics of the 
 times. Its tone is uncommonly bold and animated for that 
 period. He calls on the people, not only to defend, but to 
 study and understand, their rights and privileges ; urges earn- 
 estly the necessity of diffusing general knowledge; invokes the 
 clergy and the bar, the colleges and academies, and all others 
 who have the ability and the means to expose the insidious de^ 
 signs of arbitrary power, to resist its approaches, and to be per^ 
 suaded that there is a settled design on foot to enslave all Amer- 
 ica. " Be it remembered," says the author, " that liberty must, 
 at all hazards, be supported. We have a right to it, derived 
 from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned 
 it and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their es- 
 tates, their pleasure, and their blood. And liberty Lnnot be 
 preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who 
 have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as 
 their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them 
 understandings and a desire to know. But, besides tliis, they 
 have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible right, to 
 that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean^'of the 
 character and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more 
 than attorneys, agents, and trustees of the people ; and if the 
 cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wan- 
 tonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the au- 
 voL. ir. I J 3 
 
194 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 thority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute 
 other and better agents, attorneys, and trustees." 
 
 The citizens of this town conferred on Mr. Adams his first 
 political distinction, and clothed him with his first political trust, 
 by electing him one of their representatives, in 1770. Ixifore 
 this time he had become extensively known throughout the 
 province, as well by the part he had acted in relation to public 
 afiliirs, as by the exercise of his professional ability. He was 
 among those who took the deepest interest in the controversy 
 with England, and whether in or out of the legislature, his time 
 and talents were alike devoted to the cause. In the years 
 1773 and 1774 he was chosen a councilor by the mcmbei^ 
 of the general court, but rejected by Governor Hutchinson 
 in the former of those years, and by Governor Gage in the 
 latter. 
 
 The time was now at hand, however, when the affairs of the 
 colonies lu-gcntly demanded united counsels. An open rupture 
 with the parent state appeared inevitable, and it was but the 
 dictate of prudence that those who were united by a common 
 interest and a common danger, should protect that interest and 
 guard against that danger by united efforts. A general con- 
 gress of delegates from all the colonies having been proposed 
 and agreed to, the house of representatives, on the 17th of 
 June, 1774, elected James Bowdoin, Thomas Cashing, Samuel 
 Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, delegates from 
 ^Massachusetts. This appointment was made at Salem, where 
 the general court had been convened by Governor Gage, in the 
 last hour of the existence of a house of representatives under 
 the provincial charter. While engaged in this important busi- 
 ness, the governor, having been informed of what was passing, 
 sent his secretary with a message dissolving the general court. 
 The secretary, finding the door locked, directed the messenger 
 to go in and inform the speaker that the secretary was at the 
 door with a message fi'om the governor. The messenger re- 
 
ADAMS AND JKFFERSON. 195 
 
 turned, and informed the secretary that the orders of the house 
 •were that the doors should be kept fast ; whereupon the secre- 
 tary soon after read a proclamation, dissolving the general court, 
 upon the stairs. Thus terminated, forever, the actual exercise 
 of the political power of England in or over Massachusetts. 
 The four last named delegates accepted their appointments, 
 and took their seats in congress the first day of its meeting, 
 September 5th, 1774:, in Philadelpiiia. 
 
 The proceedings of the first congress are well known, and 
 have been universally admired. It is in vaui that we would 
 look for superior proofs of wisdom, talent, and patriotism. 
 Lord Chatham said that, for himself, he must declare that he 
 had studied and admired the free states of antiquity, the master 
 states of the world, but that, for solidity of reasoning, force of 
 sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, no body of men could 
 stand in preference to this congress. It is hardly inferior praise 
 to say that no production of that great man himself can be pro- 
 nounced superior to several of the papers published as the pro- 
 ceedings of this most able, most firm, most patriotic assembly. 
 There is, indeed, nothing superior to them in the range of polit- 
 ical disquisition. They not only embrace, illustrate and enforce 
 everything which political philosophy, the love of liberty, and 
 the spirit of free inquiry had antecedently produced, but they 
 add new and striking views of their own, and apply the whole 
 with irresistible force, in support of the cause which had drawn 
 them together. 
 
 Mr. Adams was a constant attendant on the deliberations of 
 this body, and bore an active part in its important measures. 
 He was of the committee to state the rights of the colonies, 
 and of that, also, Avhicli reported the Address to the King. 
 
 As it was in the continental congress, fellow-citizens, that 
 those whose deaths have given rise to this occasion were first 
 brought together, and called on to unite their industry and their 
 ability in the service of the country, let us now turn to the 
 
196 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 other of these distinguished men, and take a brief notice of his 
 life up to the period when he appeared within the walls of 
 congress. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, descended from ancestors who had been 
 settled in Virginia for some generations, was born near the spot 
 on which he died, in the county of Albemarle, on the 2d of 
 April, (old style,) 1743. His youthful studies were pursued 
 in the neighborhood of his father's residence, until he was re- 
 moved to the College of William and Mary, the highest hon- 
 ors of which he in due time received. Having left the college 
 with reputation, he applied himself to the study of the law un- 
 der the tuition of George Wythe, one of the highest judicial 
 names of which that state can boast. At an early age, he was 
 elected a member of the legislature, in which he had no sooner 
 appeared than he distinguished himself by knowledge, capacity, 
 and promptitude. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson appears to have been imbued with an early love 
 of letters and science, and to have cherished a strong disposi- 
 tion to pursue these objects. To the physical sciences, espe- 
 cially, and to ancient classic literature, he is understood to have 
 had a warm attachment, and never entirely to have lost sight 
 of them in the midst of the busiest occupations. But the times 
 were times for action, rather than for contemplation. The 
 country was to be defended, and to be saved, before it could be 
 enjoyed. Philosophic leisure and literary pursuits, and even the 
 objects of professional attention, were all necessarily postponed 
 to the urgent calls of the public service. The exigency of the 
 country made the same demand on ]Mi\ Jefferson that it made 
 on otliers who had the ability and the disposition to serve it ; 
 and he obeyed the call ; thinking and feeling in this respect 
 with the great Roman orator : " Quis enim est tam cupidus in 
 pcrspicienda cognoscendaque rcrum natura, ut, si ei tractanti 
 contemplantique res cognilione dignissimas subito sit allatum 
 periculum discrimenque patrise, cui subvenire opitularique pos- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSOK. 597 
 
 sit, non ilia omnia relinquat atque abjiciat, etiam si dinumerare 
 se Stellas, aut metiri mundi magnitudinem posse arbitretur ? " 
 Entering with all his heart into the cause of liberty, his abil- 
 ity, patriotism, and power with the pen, naturally drew upon 
 him a large participation in the most important concerns. 
 Wherever he was, there was found a soul devoted to the cause* 
 power to defend and maintain it, and willingness to incur all its 
 hazards. In 1 774 he published a Summary View of the Rights 
 of British America, a valuable production among those intended 
 to show the dangers which threatened the liberties of the coun- 
 try, and to encourage the people in their defense. In June, 
 1775, he was elected a member of the continental Congress, as 
 successor to Peyton Randolph, who had retired on account 'of 
 ill health, and took his seat in that body on the 21st of the 
 same month. 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, without pursuing the biography of 
 these illustrious men further, for the present, let us tura our at- 
 tention to the most prominent act of their lives, their partici- 
 pation in the Declaratiok of Independence. 
 
 Preparatory to the introduction of that important measure, a 
 committee, at the head of which was Mr. Adams, had reported 
 a resolution, which congress adopted the 10th of May, recom- 
 mending, m substance, to all the colonies which had not already 
 established governments suited to the exigences of their affairs 
 to adopt such government as would, in the opinion of the rep. 
 resentatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and 
 safety of their constituents in particular, and America in gen- 
 eral. 
 
 This significant vote was soon followed by the direct propo- 
 sition which Richard Henry Lee had the honor to submit to 
 Congress, by resolution, on the 7th day of June. The published 
 journal does not expressly state it, but there is no doubt, I sup. 
 pose, that this resolution was in the same words when originally 
 submitted by Mr. Lee, as when finally passed. Having been 
 
198 WEBSTIiR AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 discussed on Saturday, the 8th, and Monday, the 10th of June, 
 this resolution was on the last^mcntioned day postponed for fur- 
 ther consideration to the first day of July ; and at the same 
 time it was voted that a committee be appointed to prepare a 
 Declaration to the effect of the resolution. This committee 
 ^v-as elected by ballot, on the following day, a..d consisted of 
 Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Frankbn, Koger 
 Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. 
 
 It is usual ^^■hen committees are elected by ballot, that their 
 n^embersar^ arranged in order, according to the number of 
 votes which each has received. Mr. Jefferson, therefore, had 
 received the highest, and Mr. Adams the next highest number 
 of votes The difference is said to have been but of a single 
 vote Mr Jefferson and Mr. Adams, standing thus at the head 
 of the committee, were requested by the other membexs to act 
 as a sub-committee to prepare the draft; and Mr Jefferson 
 drew up the paper. The original draft, as brought by h.m from 
 his study and submitted to the other members of the commit 
 tec with interlineations in the handwriting of Dr. Franklin, and 
 others in that of Mr. Adams, was in Mr. Jefferson's possession 
 at the time of his death. The merit of this paper is Mr. Jef- 
 ferson's Some changes were made in it on the suggestion of 
 other members of the committee, and others by congress while 
 it was under discussion. But none of them altered the tone, 
 the frame, the arrangement, or the general character of the in- 
 strument. As a composition, the Declaration is Mr. Jefferson s. 
 It is the production of his mind, and the high honor of it be- 
 longs to him, clearly and absolutely. ^ 
 
 It has sometimes been said, as if it were a derogation from 
 the merits of this paper, that it contains nothing new ; that it 
 only states grounds of proceeding, and presses topics of argu- 
 ment which had often been stated and pressed before. But it 
 was not the object of the Declaration to produce any thing new. 
 It was not to mvent reasons for independence, but to state those 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 199 
 
 which govenied tlie congress. For great and sufficient causes, 
 it was proposed to declare independence ; and the proper busi- 
 ness of the paper to be drawn was to set forth those causes, and 
 justify the authors of the measure, in any event of fortune, to 
 the country, and to posterity. The cause of American inde- 
 pendence, moreover, was now to be presented to the world in 
 such manner, if it might so be, as to engage its sympathy, to 
 command its respect, to attract its admiration ; and in an as- 
 sembly of most able and distinguished men, Thomas Jefferson 
 had the high lionor of being the selected advocate of this cause. 
 To say that he performed his great work well, would be doinw 
 him injustice. To say that he did excellently well, admirably 
 well, would be inadequate and halting praise. Let us rather 
 say that he so disdiarged the duty assigned him, that all Amer- 
 icans may Avell rejoice that the work of drawing the title-deed 
 of their liberties devolved on his hands. 
 
 With all its merits, there are those who have thought that 
 there was one thing in the declaration to be regretted ; and 
 that is, the asperity and apparent anger with which it speaks of 
 the person of the king ; the industrious ability with which it 
 accumulates and charges upon him all the injuries which the 
 colonies had suffered from the mother country. Possibly some 
 degree of injustice, now or hereafter, at home or abroad, may 
 be done to the character of Mr. Jefferson, if this part of the 
 declaration be not placed in its proper light. Anger or resent- 
 ment, certainly much less personal reproach and invective, could 
 not properly find place in a composition of such high dignity, 
 and of such lofty and permanent character. 
 
 A single reflection on the original ground of dispute between 
 England and the colonies, is sufficient to remove any unfavora- 
 ble impression in this respect. 
 
 The inhabitants of all the colonies, while colonies, admitted 
 themselves bound by their allegiance to the king ; but they 
 disclaimed altogether, the authority of parliament; holdii^g 
 
200 -WEBSTER AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 themselves, in this respect, to resemble the condition of Scotland 
 and Ireland before the respective unions of those kingdoms with 
 England, when they acknowledged allegiance to the same king, 
 but each had its separate legislature. The tie, therefore, which 
 our revolution was to break, did not subsist between us and the 
 British parliament, or between us and the British government, 
 in the aggregate, but directly between us and the king liimself. 
 The colonies had never admitted tliemselves subject to parlia- 
 ment. That was precisely the point of the original controversy. 
 They had uniformly denied that parliament had authority to 
 make laws for them. There was, therefore, no subjection to 
 parliament to be thrown off.* But allegiance to the king did 
 exist, imd had been uniformly acknowledged ; and down to 
 1775, the most solemn assurances had been given that it was 
 not intended to break that allegiance, or to throw it off. There- 
 fore, as the direct object and only effect of the declaration, ac- 
 cording to the principles on which the controversy had been 
 maintained on our part, were to sever the tie of allegiance 
 which bound us to the king, it was properly and necessarily 
 founded on acts of the crown itself, as its justyfying causes. 
 Parliament is not so much as mentioned in the whole instru- 
 ment. When odious and oppressive acts are referred to, it is 
 done by charging the king with confederating with others " in 
 pretended acts of legislation ; " the object being constantly to 
 hold the king himself directly responsible for those measures 
 which were the grounds of separation. Even the precedent of 
 
 * This Question, of the power of parliament over the cdonies, was discussed with 
 sinfTu'-ar ability, by Goveriwr Hutchinson on the one side, and the house of represen- 
 tatives of Massachusetts on the other, in 1TT3. The argument of the house is in the 
 form of an answer to the governors message, and was reported by Mr. Sanjuel Ad- 
 ams, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Hawlcy, Mr. Bowers, Mr. Ilobson, Mr. Foster, Mr. Phillips, 
 and Mr. Thayer. As the power of the parliament had been acknowledged, so far, at 
 least, as to atfect us by laws of trade, it was not easy to settle the line of distinctioa. 
 It was thought, however, to be very clear that the charters of the colonies had ex- 
 empted them from the general legislation of Uio British parliament See Mass*' 
 chusetts State Papers, p. 851 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON, 201 
 
 the English revolution was not overlooked, and in this case as 
 well as in that, occasion was found to say that the king had ab- 
 dicated the government. Consistency with the principles upon 
 which resistance began, and with all the previous state papers 
 issued by congress, required that the declaration should be bot- 
 tomed on the misgovernment of the king ; and therefore it was 
 properly framed with that aim and to that end. The king was 
 known, indeed, to have acted, as in other cases, by his ministers, 
 and with his parliament ; but as our ancestors had never ad- 
 mitted themselves subject either to ministers or to parliament, 
 there were no reasons to be given for now refusing obedience 
 to their authority. This clear and obvious necessity of found- 
 ing the declaration on the misconduct of the king himself, gives 
 to that instrument its personal application, and its character of 
 direct and pointed accusation. 
 
 The declaration having been reported to congress by the 
 committee, the resolution itself was taken up and debated on 
 the first day of July, and again on the second, on which last 
 day, it was agreed to and adopted, in these words : 
 
 '•'■Resolved, Tliat these united colonies are, and of right ought 
 to be, free and independent states ; that they are absolved from 
 all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connec- 
 tion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought 
 to be, totally dissolved." 
 
 Having thus passed the main resolution, congress proceeded 
 to consider the reported draft of the declaration. It was dis- 
 cussed on the second, and third, and fourth days of the 
 month, in committee of the whole ; and on the last of those 
 days, being reported from that committee, it received the final 
 approbation and sanction of congress. It was ordered, at the 
 same time, that copies be sent to the several states, and that it 
 be proclaimed at the head of the aiTny. The declaration thus 
 published, did not bear the names of the members, for as yet, 
 it had not been signed by them. It was authenticated, like 
 
 VOL. 11. 1* 
 
202 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Other papers of the congress, by the signatures of the president 
 and secretary. On the 19th of July, as appears by the secret 
 journal, congress '■'■Resolved, That the declaration, passed on 
 the fourth, be foirly engrossed on parchment, with the title and 
 style of ' The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen 
 United States of America ; ' and that the same, when en- 
 grossed, be signed by every member of congress." And on 
 the SECOND day of August following, " the declaration being en- 
 grossed, and compared at the table, was signed by the mem- 
 bers." So that it happens, fellow-citizens, that we pay these 
 honors to their memory on the anniversary of that day, on 
 which these great men actually signed their names to the dec- 
 laration. The declaration was thus made, that is, it passed 
 a^id was adopted as an act of congress, on the fourth of July ; 
 it was then signed, and certified by the president and secretary, 
 like other acts. The Fourth of July, therefore, is the anni- 
 versary of the declaration. But the signatures of the members 
 present were made to it, being then engrossed on parchment, 
 on the second day of August. Absent members afterwards 
 signed, as they came in ; and indeed it bears the names of some 
 who were not chosen members of congress until after the fourth 
 of July. The interest belonging to the subject will be sufli- 
 cient, I hope, to justify these details. 
 
 The congress of the revolution, fellow-citizens, sat with closed 
 doors, and no report of its debates was ever taken. The dis- 
 cussion, therefore, which accompanied this great measure, has 
 never been preserved, except in memory and by tradition. But 
 it is, I believe, doing no injustice to others to say that the gen- 
 eral opinion was, and uniformly has been, that in debate, on the 
 side of independence, John Adams had no equal. The great 
 author of die declaration himself has expressed that opinion 
 uniformly and strongly. " John Adams," said he, in the hear- 
 ing of him who has now the honor to address you, "John Ad- 
 ams was our colossus on the floor. Not graceful, not elegant, 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 203 
 
 not always fluent, in his public addresses, he yet came out with 
 a power, both of thought and of expression, which moved us 
 from our seats." 
 
 For the part which he <\vas here to perfJjrm, Mr. Adams doubt- 
 less was eminently fitted. He possessed a bold spirit, which 
 disregarded danger, and a sanguine reliance on the goodness of 
 the cause, and the virtues of the people, which led him to over- 
 look all obstacles. His character, too, had been formed in 
 troubled times. He had been rocked in the early storms of 
 the controversy, and had acquired a decision and a hardihood 
 proportioned to the severity of the discipline which he had un- 
 dergone. 
 
 He not only loved the American cause devoutly, but had 
 studied and understood it. It was all familiar to him. He had 
 tried his powei"s on the questions which it involved, often and 
 in various ways ; and had brought to their consideration what- 
 ever of argument or illustration the history of his own country, 
 the history of England, or the stores of ancient or of legal 
 learnuig could furnish. Every grievance enumerated in the long 
 catalogue of the declaration had been the subject of his discus- 
 sion, and the object of his remonstrance and reprobation. From 
 1760, the colonies, the rights of the colonies, the liberties of the 
 colonies, and the wrongs inflicted on the colonies, had engaged 
 his constant attention ; and it has surprised those who have had 
 the opportunity of observing, with what full remembrance and 
 with what prompt recollection he could refer, in his extreme old 
 age, to every act of parliament affecting the colonies, distin- 
 guishing and stating their respective titles, sections, and provis- 
 ions ; and to all the colonial memorials, remonstrances and pe- 
 titions, with whatever else belonged to the intimate and exact 
 history of the times from that year to 1775. It was, in his own' 
 judgment, between these years that the American people came 
 to a full understanding and thorough knowledge of their rights, 
 and to a fixed resolution of maintainkig them ; and bearing, 
 
204 "WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 himself, an active part in all important transactions, the contro- 
 versy with England being then in effect tlie business of his life, 
 facts, dates and particulars, made an impression which was never 
 effaced. He was prepared, therefore, -by education and disci- 
 pline, as well as by natural talent and natural temperament, for 
 the part which he was now to act. 
 
 The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general charac- 
 ter, and formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, manly, and 
 energetic ; and such the crisis required. When public bodies 
 are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great inter- 
 ests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valua^ 
 ble in speech farther than it is connected with high intellectual 
 and moral endowments. Clearness, force and earnestness, are 
 wthe qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, 
 / does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. La- 
 bor and le^irning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. 
 Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they 
 , cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and 
 in the occasion. Affected p;xssion, intense expression, the pomp 
 of declamation, all may aspire after it ; they cannot reach it. 
 : It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain 
 
 Lfrom the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spon- 
 taneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, 
 the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock 
 and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their 
 wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of 
 the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, 
 aiid all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself 
 tlien feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher 
 qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent ; then self-devotion is 
 'eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of 
 logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, 
 speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every 
 feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to hia 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 205 
 
 object — this, this is eloquence ; or rather it is something greater 
 and higher than all eloquence, it is action, noble, sublime, god- 
 like action. 
 
 In July, 1776, the controversy had passed the stage of argu- 
 ment. An appeiil had been made to force, and opposing armies 
 were in the field. Congress, then, was to decide whether the 
 tie which had so long bound us to the parent state was to be 
 severed at once, and severed forever. All the colonies had sig- 
 nified their resolution to abide by this decision, and the people 
 looked for it with the most intense anxiety. And surely, fel- 
 low-citizens, never, never were men called to a more important 
 political deliberation. If we contemplate it from the point 
 where they then stood, no question could be more full of inter- 
 est ; if we look at it now, and judge of its importance by its 
 effects, it appears in still greater magnitude. 
 
 Let us, then, bring before us the assembly, which was about 
 to decide a question thus big with the fate of empire. Let us 
 open their doors and look in upon their deliberations. Let us 
 survey the anxious and care-worn countenances, let us hear the 
 firm-toned voices, of this band of patriots. 
 
 Hancock presides over the solemn sitting ; and one of those 
 not yet prepared to pronounce for absolute independence is on 
 the floor, and is urging his reasons for dissenting fi-om the decla- 
 ration. 
 
 " Let us pause ! This step once taken, cannot be retraced. 
 This resolution, once passed, will cut off all hope of reconcilia- 
 tion. If success attend the arms of England, we shall then be 
 no longer colonies, with charters and with privileges ; these will 
 all be forfeited by this act ; and we shall be in the condition of 
 other conquered people, at the mercy of the conquerors. For 
 ourselves, we may be ready to run the hazard ; but are we 
 ready to carry the country to that length ? Is success so 
 probable as to justify iti Where is the military, where 
 the naval power, by which we are to resist the whole strength 
 
206 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of the arm of England, for she will exert that strength to the 
 utmost ? Can we rely on the constancy and perseverance of 
 the people"? or will they not act as the people of other coun- 
 tries have acted, and, wearied with a long war, submit, in the 
 end, to a worse oppression 1 While we stand on our old ground, 
 and insist on redress of grievances, wc know we arc right, and 
 are not answerable for consequences. Nothing, then, can be 
 imputed to us. But if we now change our object, carry our 
 pretensions farther, and set up for absolute iiidependence, we 
 shall lose the sympathy of mankind. We shall no longer be 
 defending what we possess, but struggling for something which 
 we never did possess, and which we have solemnly and uni- 
 formly disclaimed all intention of pursuing, fi-om the very out- 
 set of the troubles. Abandoning thus our old ground, of re- 
 sistance only to arbitrary acts of oppression, the nations will 
 believe the whole to have been mere pretense, and they will 
 look on us, not as injured, but as ambitious subjects. I shudder 
 before this responsibility. It will be on us, if, relinquishing the 
 ground we have stood on so long, and stood on so safely, we 
 now proclaim independence, and carry on the war for that ob- 
 ject, while these cities burn, these pleasant fields whiten and 
 bleach with the bones of their owners, and these streams run 
 blood. It will be upon us, it will be upon us, if, failing to 
 maintain this unseasonable and ill-judged declaration, a sterner 
 despotism, maintained by military power, shall be established 
 over our posterity, when we ourselves, given up by an ex- 
 hausted, a harrassed, a misled people, shall have expiated our 
 rashness and atoned for our presuinption on the scaffold." 
 
 It was for Mr. Adams to reply to arguments like these. 
 We know his opinions, and we know his character. He would 
 commence with his accustomed directness and earnestness. 
 
 " Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand 
 and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the be- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 207 
 
 gining we aimed not at independence. But there's a divinity 
 •which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven 
 us to arms ; and, Winded to her own interest for our good, she 
 has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our 
 grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, 
 then, should we defer the declaration ? Is any man so weak 
 as now to hope for a reconoihation with England, which shall 
 leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to 
 his own life and his OAvn honor ? Are not you, sir, who sit in 
 that chair, is not he, our venerable colleague near you, are you 
 not both already the proscribed and predestmed objects of pun- 
 ishment and of vengeance 1 Cut off from all hope of royal 
 clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of En- 
 gland remains, but outlaws 1 If we postpone independence, do 
 we mean to carry on, or to give up the war 1 Do we mean 
 to submit to the measures of parliament, Boston Port Bill and 
 all ? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves 
 shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trod- 
 den down in the dust ? 1 know we do not mean to submit. 
 We never shall submit. Do we intend to violate that most 
 solemn obligation ever entered into by men, that plighting, be- 
 fore God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting 
 him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political 
 hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every 
 extremity, with our fortunes and our Hves 1 1 know there is 
 not a man here, who would not rather see a general conflagra- 
 tion sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot 
 or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. For myself, 
 having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you, that 
 George Washington be appointed commander of the forces 
 raised, or to be raised, for defense of American liberty, may 
 my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give 
 him. 
 
208 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 " The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. 
 And if the war mast go on, why put ofF longer the declaration 
 of independence ? That measure will strengthen us. It will 
 give us character abroad. The nations will then treat with us, 
 which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves sub- 
 jects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, I maintain that 
 England herself will sooner treat for peace with us on the foot- 
 in" of independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to ac- 
 knowledge that her whole conduct toward us has been a course 
 of injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded 
 by submitting to that course of things which now predestinates 
 our independence, than by yielding the points in controversy to 
 her rebellious subjects. The former she would regard as the 
 result of fortune ; the latter she would feel as her own deep 
 disgi-ace. Why, then, why then, sir, do we not as soon as pos- 
 sible change tliis from a civil to a national war ? And since 
 •we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to 
 enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory 1 
 
 " If we fail, it can be no w'orse for us. But we shall not fixil. 
 The cause will raise up armies ; the cause will create navies. 
 The people, the people, if we arc true to them, will carry us, 
 and will carry themselves, gloriously, through this struggle. I 
 care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the 
 people of these colonies, and I know that resistance to British ,'ig- 
 gression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be erad- 
 icated. Every colony, inde-cd, has expressed its willingness to 
 follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the declaration will in- 
 spire the people with increase>d courage. Instead of a long and 
 bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of gi'iev- 
 ances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set 
 before tliem the glorious object of entire independence, and it 
 will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Head this dec- 
 laration at the head of the army ; every sword will be drawn 
 from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, 
 
ADAMS Ai<V> JEFFERSON. 200 
 
 or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; 
 religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will 
 cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send 
 it to the public halls ; proclaim it there; let them hear it who 
 heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon ; let thern see it who 
 saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker 
 Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very 
 walls will cry out in its support. 
 
 " Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see 
 clearly, through this day's business. You and 1, indeed, may 
 rue it. We may not live to the time when this declaration 
 shall be made good. We may die ; die colonists ; die slaves; 
 die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. 
 Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall 
 require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, 
 at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. 
 But while I do live, let me have a country, or at lea.st the hope 
 of a country, and that a free country. 
 
 " But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that 
 this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may 
 cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for 
 both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brigh' - 
 ness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this 
 a glorious, an immoital day. When we ai'e in our graves, our 
 children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiv- 
 ing, with festinty, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its an- 
 nual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of 
 subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exulta- 
 tion, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the 
 hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my 
 whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all 
 that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; 
 and I leave off" as I begun, that live or die, survive or perish, I 
 am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the 
 
 VOL. II. 14 
 
210 WEBSTEll AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence, 
 now, and independence forever." 
 
 And so that day shall be honored, illustrious prophet and pa- 
 triot ! so that day shall be honored, and as often as it returns, 
 thy renown shall come along with it, and the glory of thy life, 
 like the day of thy death, shall not fail from the remembrance 
 of men. 
 
 It would be unjust, fellow-citizens, on this occasion, while we 
 express our veneration for him who is the immediate subject 
 of these remarks, were we to omit a most respectful, aflection- 
 ate, and grateful mention of those other great men, his col- 
 leagues, who stood with him, and with the same sph-it, the same 
 devotion, took part in the interesting transaction. Hancock, 
 the proscribed Hancock, exiled from his home by a military 
 governor, cut off by proclamation from the mercy of the crown 
 — Heaven reserved for him the distinguished honor of putting 
 this great question to the vote, and of writing his own name 
 first, and most conspicuously, on that parchment which spoke 
 defiance to the power of the crown of England. There, too, is 
 the name of that other proscribed patriot, Samuel Adams, a 
 man who hungered and thirsted for the independence of his 
 country ; who thought the declaration halted and lingered, be- 
 ing himself not only ready, but eager, for it, long before it was 
 proposed ; a man of the deepest sagacity, the clearest foresight, 
 and the profoundest judgment in men. And there is Gerry, 
 himself among the earliest and the foremost of the patriots, 
 found, when the battle of Lexington summoned them to com- 
 mon counsels, by the side of Warren ; a man who lived to 
 serve his country at home and abroad, and to die in the second 
 place in the government. There, too, is the inflexible, the up- 
 right, the Spartan character, Kobert Treat Paine. He also 
 lived to serve his country through the struggle, and then with- 
 drew from her councils, only tliat he might give his labors and 
 his life to his native state, in another relation. These names, 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 211 
 
 fellow-citizens, are the treasures of the commonwealth ; and 
 they are treasures which grow brighter by time. 
 
 It is now necessary to resume and to finish -svith great brev- 
 ity the notice of the lives of those whose virtues and ser\-ices 
 we have met to commemorate. 
 
 Mr. Adams remained m congress from its first meeting till 
 November, 1777, when he was appointed minister to France. 
 He proceeded on that service in the February following, em- 
 barking in the Boston frigate, on the shore of his native town, 
 at the foot of Mount Wollaston. The year following, he was 
 appointed commissioner to ti'eat of peace with England. Re- 
 turning to the United States, he was a delegate fi'om Braintree 
 in the convention for framing the constitution of this common- 
 wealth, in 1780. At the latter end of the same year, he again 
 went abroad in the diplomatic service of the country, and was 
 employed at various courts, and occupied with various negotia- 
 tions, until 1788. The particulars of these interestmg and im- 
 portant services this occasion does not allow time to relate. In 
 1782 he concluded our first treaty with Holland. His negotia- 
 tions with that republic, his eftbrts to persuade the states-gen- 
 eral to recognize our independence, his incessant and mdefati- 
 gable exertions to represent the American cause favorably on the 
 continent, and to counteract the designs of its enemies, open 
 and secret, and his successful undertaking to obtain loans, on 
 the credit of a nation yet new and unknown, are among his 
 most arduous, most useful, most honorable services. It was 
 his fortune to bear a part in the negotiation for peace with En- 
 gland, and in something more than six years from the declara- 
 tion which he had so strenuously supported, he had the satis- 
 faction to see the minister plenipotentiary of the crown subscribe 
 to the instrument which declared that his " Britannic majesty 
 acknowledged the United States to be free, sovereign, and in- 
 dependent." In these important transactions, Mr. Adams's 
 
212 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 conduct received the marked approbation of congress and of 
 the country. 
 
 While abroad, in 1787, he published his Defense of the 
 American Constitutions ; a work of merit and ability, though 
 composed with haste, on the spur of a particular occasion, in 
 the midst of other occupations, and under circumstances not 
 admitting of careful revision. The immediate object of the 
 work was to counteract the weight of opinions adA'anced by 
 several popular European writei-s of that day, IMr. Turgot, the 
 Abbe de Mably, and Dr. Price, at a time when the people of 
 the United States were employed in forming and revising their 
 systems of government. 
 
 Returning to the United States in 1788, he found the new 
 government about going into operation, and was himself elected 
 the first vice-president, a situation which he filled with reputa- 
 tion for eight years, at the expiz-ation of which he was raised to 
 the presidential chair, as immediate successor to the immortal 
 Washington, hi this high station he was succeeded by Mr. 
 Jefferson, after a memorable controversy between their respec- 
 tive friends, in 1801 ; and from that period his manner of life 
 has been known to all who hear me. He has lived for five- 
 and-twenty years, with every enjoyment that could render old 
 age happy. Not inattentive to the occurrences of the times, 
 political cares have not yet materially, or for any long time, dis- 
 turbed his repose. In 1820 he acted as elector of president 
 and vice-president, and in the same year we saw him, then at 
 the age of eighty -five, a member of the convention of this com- 
 monwealth called to revise the constitution. Forty years be- 
 fore, he had been one of those who formed that constitution ; 
 and he had now the pleasure of witnessing that there w\as little 
 which the people desired to change. Possessing all his faculties 
 to the end of his long life, with an unabated love of reading 
 and contemplation, in the center of interesting circles of friend- 
 ship and affection, he was blessed in his retirement with what- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 213 
 
 ever of repose and felicity the condition of man allows. He 
 had, also, other enjoyments. He saw around him that pros- 
 perity and general happiness which had been the object of his 
 public cares and labors. No man ever beheld more clearly, 
 and for a longer time, the great and beneficial effects of the 
 services rendered by himself to his country. That liberty 
 which he so early defended, that independence of which he was 
 so able an advocate and supportei-, he saw, we trust, firmly and 
 securely established. The population of the country thickened 
 around him faster, and extended wider, than his own sanguine 
 predictions had anticipated ; and the wealth, respecatability, and 
 power of the nation sprang up to a magnitude which it is quite 
 impossible he could have expected to witness in his day. He 
 lived also to behold those principles of civil fi-eedom which had 
 been developed, established, and practically applied in Amer- 
 ica, attract attention, command respect, and awaken imitation, 
 in other regions of the globe ; and well might, and well did, he 
 exclaim, " Where will the consequences of the American revo- 
 lution end ?" 
 
 If anything yet remains to fill this cup of happiness, let it be 
 added that he lived to see a great and intelligent people bestow 
 the highest honor in their gift where he had bestowed his own 
 kindest parental affections and lodged his fondest hopes. Thus 
 honored in life, thus happy at death, he saw the jubilee, and 
 he died ; and with the last prayers which trembled on his lips 
 was the fervent supplication for his country, "Independence 
 forever ! " 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, having been occupied in the years 1778 and 
 1779 in the important service of revising the laws of Virginia, 
 was elected governor of that state, as successor to Patrick 
 Henry, and held the situation when the state was invaded by 
 the British arms. In 1781 he published his Notes on Virginia, 
 a work which attracted attention in Europe as well as America, 
 dispelled many misconceptions respecting this continent, and 
 
214 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 gave its author a place among men distinguished for science. 
 In November, 1783, he again took his seat in the continental 
 congress, but in the May following was appointed minister 
 plenipotentiary, to act abroad, in the negotiation of commercial 
 treaties, with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams. He proceeded to 
 Trance in execution of this mission, embarking at Boston ; and 
 that was the only occasion on which he ever visited this place. 
 In 1785 he was appointed minister to France, the duties of 
 which situation he continued to perform until October, 1789, 
 when he obtained leave to retire, just on the eve of that tremen- 
 dous revolution which has so much agitated the world in our 
 times. Mr. Jefferson's discharge of his diplomatic duties was 
 marked by great ability, diligence, and patriotism ; and while 
 he resided at Paris, in one of the most interesting periods, his 
 character for intelligence, his love of knowledge and of the so- 
 ciety of learned men, distinguished him in the highest circles of 
 the French capital. No court in Europe had at that time in 
 Paris a representative commanding or enjoying higher regard, 
 for political knowledge or for general attainments, than the min- 
 ister of this then infant republic. Immediately on his return 
 to his native country, at the organization of the government 
 under the present constitution, his talents and experience re- 
 commended him to President Washington for the fa-st office in 
 his gift. He was placed at the liead of the department of state. 
 In this situation, also, he manifested conspicuous ability. His 
 correspondence with the ministers of other powers residing here, 
 and his instructions to our own diplomatic agents abroad, are 
 among oiu- ablest state papers. A thorough knowledge of the 
 laws and usages of nations, perfect acquaintance with the imme- 
 diate subject before him, great felicity, and still greater facility, 
 in writing, show themselves in whatever effort his official sit- 
 uation allied on him to make. It is believed by competent 
 judges, that the diplomatic intercourse of the government of 
 the United States, from the first meeting of the continental 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 215 
 
 congress in 1774 to the present time, taken together, would 
 not suffer, in respect to the talent with which it has been con- 
 ducted, by comparison with anything which other and older 
 states can produce ; and to the attainment of this respectability 
 and distinction Mr. Jefferson has contributed his full part. 
 
 On the retirement of General Washington from the presi- 
 dency, and the election of Mr. Adams to that office in 1797, he 
 was chosen vice-president. While presiding in this capacity 
 over the deliberations of the senate, he compiled and published 
 a Manual of Parliamentary Practice, a work of more labor and 
 more merit than is indicated by its size. It is now received as 
 the general standard by which proceedings are regulated, not 
 only in both houses of congress, but in most of the other legis- 
 lative bodies in the country. In 1801 he was elected president, 
 in opposition to Mr. Adams, and reelected in 1805, by a vote 
 approaching toward unanimity. 
 
 From the time of his final retirement fi-om public life, in 
 1809, Mr. Jefferson lived as became a wise man. Surrounded 
 by affectionate friends, his ardor in the pursuit of knowledge 
 undiminished, with uncommon health and unbroken spirits, he 
 was able to enjoy largely the rational pleasures of life, and to 
 partake in that public prosperity which he had so much con- 
 tributed to produce. His kindness and hospitality, the charm 
 of his conversation, the ease of his manners, the extent of his 
 acquirements, and, especially, the full store of revolutionary in- 
 cidents which he possessed, and which he knew when and how 
 to dispense, rendered his abode in a high degree attractive to 
 his admiring countrymen, while his high public and scientific 
 character drew toward him every intelligent and educated trav- 
 eler from abroad. Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson had 
 the pleasure of knowing that the respect which they so largely 
 received was not paid to their official stations. They were not 
 men made great by office ; but great men, on whom the coun- 
 try for its own benefit had conferred office. There was that in 
 
21 G WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES 
 
 them which office did not give, and which the relinquishment 
 of office did not, and could not, take away. In tlieir retire- 
 ment, in the midst of their fellow-citizens, themselves private 
 citizens, they enjoyed as high regard and esteem as when filling 
 the most important places of public trust. 
 
 There remained to Mr. Jefferson yet one other work of pa- 
 triotism and beneficence, the establishment of a university in 
 his native state. To this object he devoted years of incessant 
 and anxious attention, and by the enlightened liberality of the 
 legislature of Virginia, and the cooperation of other able and 
 zealous fi"iends, he lived to see it accomplished. May all suc- 
 cess attend this infant seminary ; and may those who enjoy its 
 advantages, as often as their eyes shall rest on the neighboring 
 height, recollect what they owe to their disinterested and inde- 
 fatigable benefactor ; and may letters honor liim who thus la- 
 bored in the cause of letters ! 
 
 Thus useful, and thus respected, passed the old age of Thomas 
 Jefferson. But time was on its ever-ceaseless wing, and was 
 now brinfino- the last hour of this illustrious man. He saw its 
 approach with undisturbed serenity. He counted the moments 
 as they passed, and beheld that his last sands were falling. 
 That day, too, was at hand which he had helped to make im- 
 mortal. One wish, one hope, if it were not presumptuous, beat 
 in his fainting breast. Could it be so, might it please God, he 
 would desire once more to see the sun, once more to look abroad 
 on the scene around him, on the great day of liberty. Heaven, 
 in its mercy, fulfilled that prayer. He saw that sun, he en- 
 joyed its sacred light, he thanked God for this mercy, and 
 bowed his aged head to the grave. " Felix, non vitas tan turn 
 claritate, sid etiam opportunitate mortis." 
 
 The last public labor of Mr. Jefi'erson naturally suggests the 
 expression of the high praise which is due, both to him and to 
 Mr. Adams, for their uniform and zealous attachment to learn- 
 ing, and to the caus3 of general knowledge. Of the advanta- 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 217 
 
 ges of learning, indeed, and of literary accomplishments, their 
 own characters were striking recommendations and illustrations. 
 They were scholars, ripe and good scholars ; widely acquainted 
 with ancient, as well as modern literature, and not altogether 
 miinstructed in the deeper sciences. Their acquirements, 
 doubtless, were different, and so were the particular objects of 
 their literary pursuits ; as their tastes and characters, in these 
 respects, differed like those of other men. Being, also, men 
 of busy lives, with great objects requiring action constantly be- 
 fore them, their attainments in letters did not become showy 
 or obtrusive. Yet I would hazard the opinion, that, if we could 
 now ascertain all the causes which gave them eminence and 
 distinction in the midst of the great men with whom they acted, 
 we should find not among the least their early acquisitions in 
 literature, the resources which it furnished, the promptitude and 
 facility M'hich it communicated, and the wide field it opened for 
 analogy and illustration ; giving them thus, on every subject, a 
 larger view and a broader range, as well for discussion as for 
 the government of their own conduct. 
 
 Literature sometimes, and pretensions to it much oftener dis- 
 gusts, by appearing to hang loosely on the character, like some- 
 thing foreign or extraneous, not a part, but an ill-adjusted ap- 
 pendage ; or by seeming to overload and weigh it down by its 
 unsightly bulk, like the productions of bad taste in architecture, 
 where there is massy and cumbrous ornament without strength 
 or solidity of cohimn. This has exposed learning, and espe- 
 cially classical learning, to reproach. Men have seen that it 
 might exist without mental superiority, without vigor, without 
 good taste, and without utility. But in such cases classical 
 learning has only not inspired natural talent; or, at most, it 
 has but made original feebleness of intellect, and natural blunt- 
 ness of perception, something more conspicuous. The ques- 
 tion, after all, if it be a question, is, whether literature, ancient 
 as well as modern, docs not assist a good understanding, im* 
 
 VOL. II. J 
 
218 WEBSTKR AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 prove natural good taste, add polished armor to native strength, 
 and render its possessor, not only more capable of deriving pri- 
 vate happiness from contemplation and reflection, but more ac- 
 complished also for action in the afilurs of life, and especially 
 for public action. Those whose memories we now honor were 
 learned men ; but their learning was kept in its proper place, 
 and made subservient to the uses and objects of life. They 
 were scholars, not common nor superficial ; but their scholar- 
 ship was so m keeping with their character, so blended and in- 
 ^vrought, that careless observers, or bad judges, not seeing an 
 ostentatious display of it, might infer that it did not exist ; for- 
 getting, or not knowing, that classical learning in men who act 
 in conspicuous public stations, perform duties which exercise 
 the faculty of writing, or address popular, deliberative, or judi- 
 cial bodies, is often felt where it is little seen, and sometimes 
 felt more effectually because it is not seen at all. 
 
 But the cause of knowledge, in a more enlarged sense, the 
 cause of general knowledge and of popular education, had no 
 warmer friends, nor more powerful advocates, than Mr. Ad- 
 ams and Mr. Jefferson. On this foundation they knew the 
 whole republican system rested ; and this great and all-impor- 
 tant truth they strove to impress, by all the means in their 
 power. In the early publication already referred to, Mr. Ad- 
 ams expresses the strong and just sentiment, that the education 
 of the poor is more important, even to the rich themselves, than 
 all their own riches. On this great truth, indeed, is founded 
 that unrivaled, that invaluable political and moral institution, 
 our own blessing and the glory of our fathers, the New En- 
 gland system of free schools. 
 
 As the promotion of knowledge had been the object of their 
 regard through life, so these great men made it the subject 
 of their testamentary bounty, Mr. Jefferson is understood 
 to have bequeathed his library to the university of his native 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 219 
 
 State, aiid that of :Mr. Adams is bestowed on the inhabitants of 
 Quincy. 
 
 Mr. Adams and INIr. Jefferson, fellow-citizens, were succes- 
 sively presidents of the United States. The comparative mer- 
 its of their respective administrations for a long time agitated 
 and divided public opinion. They were rivals, each supported 
 by numerous and powerful portions of the people, for the high- 
 est office. This contest, partly the cause and partly the con'se- 
 quence of the long existence of two great political parties in the 
 country, is now part of the history of our government. We 
 may naturally regret that anything should have occurred to 
 create dificrence and discord between those who had acted har- 
 moniously and efficiently in the great concerns of the revolu- 
 tion. But this is not the time, nor tliis the occasion, for en- 
 tering into the grounds of that difference, or for attempting to 
 discuss the merits of the questions which it involves, ''as 
 practical questions, they were canvassed when the measures 
 which they regarded were acted on and adopted ; and as be- 
 longing to history, the time has not come for their consid- 
 eration. 
 
 It is, perhaps, not wonderful, that, when the constitution of 
 the United States went first into operation, different opinions 
 should be entertained as to the extent of the powers conferred 
 by it. Here was a natural source of diversity of sentiment. 
 It is still less wonderful, that that event, about cotemporary with 
 our government under the present constitution, which so en- 
 tirely shocked all Europe, and disturbed our relations with her 
 leading powers, should be thought, by different men, to have 
 different bearings on oiu- own prosperity ; and that the early 
 measures adopted by our government, in consequence of this new 
 state of things, should be seen in opposite lights. It is for the 
 future historian, when what now remains of prejudice and mis- 
 conception shall have passed away, to state these different opm- 
 ions, and pronounce impartial judgment. In the mean time, 
 
220 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 all good men rejoice, and well may rejoice, that the sharpest 
 differences sprung out of measures which, whether right or 
 wrong, have ceased with the exigencies that gave them l>irlh, 
 and have left uo permanent efleet, either on the constitution or 
 on the general prosperity of the country. This remark, I am 
 aware, may be supposed to have its exception in one measure, 
 the alteration of the constitution as to the mode of choosing 
 president ; but it is true in its general applicixtion. Thus the 
 course of policy pursued toward France in 1798, on the one 
 hand, and the measures of commercial I'estriction commenced 
 in 1807, on the other, both subjects of warm and severe oppo- 
 sition, have passed away and left nothing behind them. They 
 were temporary, and whether wise or unwise, their conse- 
 quences were limited to their respective occasions. It is 
 equally clear, at the same time, and it is equally gratifying, 
 tliat those measures of both administrations whi^-h were of du- 
 rable importance, and which drew after them interesting and 
 long remaining consequences, have received general approba- 
 tion. Such was tlie organization, or rather the creation, of the 
 navy, in the administration of Mr. Adams ; such the acquisi- 
 tion of Louisiana, in that of Mr. Jefferson, The country, it 
 may safely be added, is not likely to be willing either to ap- 
 prove, or to reprobate, indiscriminately, and in the aggregate, 
 all the measures of either, or of any, administration. The dic- 
 tate of reason and of justice is, that, holding each one his own 
 sentiments on the points in difference, we imitate the great men 
 themselves in the forbearance and moderation which they have 
 cherished, and in the mutual respect and kindness which they 
 hive been so much inclined to feel and to reciprocate. 
 
 No men, fellow-citizens, ever served their country with more 
 entire exemption from every imputation of selfish and merce- 
 nary motives, than those to whose memory we are paying 
 these proofs of respect. A suspicion of any disposition to en- 
 rich themselves, or to profit by their public employments, 
 
ADAMS AND JEFFERSOJr. 221 
 
 never rested on either. No sordid motive approached them. 
 I he inheritance which they have left to their children is of their 
 character and their fame. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I will detain you no longer by this fliint and 
 feeble tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead. Even in 
 other hands, adequate justice could not be performed, within 
 the limits of this occasion. Their highest, their best praise, is 
 your deep conviction of their merits, your affectionate gratitude 
 for their labors and services. It is not my voice, it is this ces- 
 sa .on of ordinary pursuits, this arresting of all attention, these 
 so emn ceremonies, and this crowded house, which speak their 
 eulogy. Their fame, indeed, is safe. That is now treasured 
 up beyond the reach of accident. Although no sculptured mar- 
 ble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear rec 
 ord of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as 
 the land they honored. Marble columns may, indeed, mouMer 
 into dust, time may erase all impress from the cnnnblino- 
 stone, but their fame remains ; for with American liberty i1 
 rose, and with American liberty only can it perish. It was 
 the last swelling peal of yonder choir, "Their bodies are 
 
 BURIED IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE." I 
 
 catch that solemn song, I echo that lofty strain of funeral tri- 
 umph, " Their name liveth evermore." 
 
 Of the illustrious signers of the declaration of independence 
 there now remains only Charles Carroll. He seems an aged 
 oak, standing alone on the plain, which time has spared a little 
 longer after all its cotemporaries have been leveled with the 
 dust. Venerable object ! we delight to gather round its trunk 
 while yet it stands, and to dwell beneath its shadow Sole sur- 
 vivor of an assembly of as great men as the world has wit- 
 nessed, m a transaction one of the most important that history 
 records, what thoughts, what interesting reflections, must fill 
 his elevated and devout soul! If he dwell on the past how 
 touching Its recollections ■ if he survey the present, how hippy 
 
222 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 how joyous, how full of the fruition of that hope, which his ar- 
 dent patriotism indulged ; if he glance at the future, how does 
 the prospect of his country's advancement almost bewilder his 
 weakened conception ! Fortunate, distinguished patriot ! hi- 
 teresting relic of the past ! Let him know that, while we 
 honor the dead, we do not forget the living ; and that there 
 is not a heart here which does not fervently pray that Heaven 
 may keep him yet back from the society of his companions. 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this occasion 
 without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties which have 
 devolved upon us. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these 
 benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours ; 
 ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations 
 past and generations to come hold us responsible for this sacred 
 trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anx- 
 ious paternal voices ; posterity calls out to us, fiom the bosom 
 of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes ; all, 
 all conjure us to act vi'isely, and faithfully, in the relation which 
 we sustain. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon 
 us ; but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation 
 of every good principle and every good habit, we may hope to 
 enjoy the blessing, through our day, and to leave it unimpaired 
 to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are 
 and of what we possess we owe to this liberty, and to these in- 
 stitutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil 
 which yields bounteously to the hands of industry, the mighty 
 and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed 
 health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies to 
 civilized man, without society, without knowledge, without 
 morals, without religious culture ; and how can these be en- 
 joyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under tlie 
 protection of wise institutions and a free government 1 Fellow- 
 citizens, there is not one of us, there is not one of us here pres- 
 ent, who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, ex- 
 
ACAMS AND JEFFERSON. 223 
 
 perience, in his own condition, and in the condition of those 
 most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits of 
 this liberty and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge 
 the blessing, let^us feel it deeply and powerfully, let us cherish 
 a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate 
 it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain ; 
 the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted. 
 
 The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world 
 around us, a topic to which, I fear, I advert too often, and dwell 
 on too long, cannot be altogether omitted here. Neither indi- 
 viduals nor nations can. perform their part well, until they un- 
 derstand and feel its importance, and comprehend and justly 
 appreciate all the duties belonging to it. It is not to inflate na- 
 tional vanity, nor to swell a light and empty feeling of self-im- 
 portance, but it is that we may judge justly of our situation, 
 and of our own duties, that I carnesly urge this consideration of 
 our position and our character among the nations of the earth. 
 It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against 
 the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era com- 
 mences in human affairs. This era is distinguished by free rep- 
 resentative governments, by entire religious liberty, by im- 
 proved systems of national intercourse, by a newly awakened 
 and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion 
 of knowledge through the community, such as has been before 
 altogether unknown and unheard of America, America, our 
 country, fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is insep- 
 arably connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with 
 these great interests. If they fall, we fall with them ; if they 
 stand, it will be because we have upholden them. Let us con- 
 template, then, this connection, which binds the prosperit}'' of 
 others to our own ; and let us manfully discharge all the du- 
 ties which it imposes. If we cherish the virtues and the prin- 
 ciples of our fathers. Heaven will assist us to carry on the work 
 of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens 
 
224 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmaTnent 
 now shines brightly upon our path. Washington is in the 
 clear, upper sky. These other stars have now joined the 
 American constellation ; they circle round their center, and 
 the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illumination 
 let us walk the course of life, and at its close devoutly com- 
 mend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the 
 Divine Benignity. 
 
WEBSTEirs MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC LECTURER. 
 
 BOSTON MECHANIC'S INSTITUTE. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 Until the delivery of this lecture, Mr. Webster's fitness for such an occasion had 
 neither been denied nor granted ; but it never was, or could have been, a niatter of 
 doubt afterwards. It will be remembered, that he chose a scientific subject for his 
 graduating performance; his studies and acquaintance in the department of science 
 had always been ardent and extensive; and this lecture constantly suggests the idea 
 that it must bo Lord Bacon, or Sir Isaac Newton, whose ideas we are reading. 
 It is interesting, in this address, to see what sort of a professor Mr. Webster would 
 have made, in some world-renowned univcrsitj-, had he turned his ambition in that 
 direction. Ue is now forty-six years of age. 
 
MECHAJ^ICS' INSTITUTION, BOSTON. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE AT THE OPENIXG OF THE COURSER NOV. 12, 1828. 
 
 I APPEAR before you, gentlemen, for the performance of a 
 duty which is in so great a degree foreign from my haljitual 
 studies and pursuits, that it may be presumptuous in me to 
 hope for a creditable execution of the task. But I have not 
 allowed considerations of this kind to weigh against a strong 
 and ardent desire to signify my approbation of the object^ 
 and my conviction of the utility, of this institution ; and to 
 manifest my prompt a-ttention to whatever others may suppose 
 to be in my power to promote its respectability and to further 
 its designs. 
 
 The constitution of the association declares its precise object 
 to be, "Mutual histruction in the Sciences, as connected with 
 the Mechanic Arts 1 " 
 
 The distmct purpose is to connect science more and more 
 with art ; to teach the established, and invent new, modes of 
 combining skill with strength ; to bring the power of the hu- 
 man understanding in aid of the physical powers of the human 
 frame; to facilitate the cooperation of the mind with the hand; 
 to augment convenience, lighten labor, and mitigate toil bv 
 stretching the dominion of mind flirther and farther over' the 
 elements of nature, and by making those elements themselves 
 submit to human rule, follow human bidding, and work to- 
 gether for human happiness. 
 
 The visible and tangible creation into which we are intro- 
 duced at our birth, is not, in all its parts, fixed and stationary. 
 Motion or change of place, regular or occasional, belongs to all 
 
228 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 or most of the things which are around us. Animal h'fe every- 
 where moves ; the earth itself has its motion, and its complex- 
 ities of motion ; the ocean heaves and subsides ; rivers run, lin- 
 gering or rushing, to the sea ; and the air which we breathe 
 moves and acts with mighty power. Motion, thus pertaining 
 to the physical objects which surround us, is the exhaustless 
 fountain whence philosophy draws the means by which, in va- 
 rious degrees and endless forms, natural agencies and tlic ten- 
 dencies of inert matter are brought to the succor and assistance 
 of human strength. It is the object of mechanical contrivance 
 to modify motion, to produce it in new foi'ms, to direct it to 
 new purposes, to multiply its uses — by means of it to do better 
 that which human strength could do without its aid — and to 
 perform that, also, which such strength, unassisted by art, could 
 not perform. 
 
 Motion itself is but the result of force ; or, in other words, 
 force is defined to be whatever tends to produce motion. The 
 operation of forces, therefore, on bodies, is the broad field which 
 is open for that philosopieal examination, the results of which 
 it is the business of mechanical contrivance to apply. The 
 leading forces or sources of motion are, as is well known, the 
 power of animals, gravity, heat, the winds, and water. There 
 are various others of less power, or of more difficult application. 
 Mechanical philosophy, therefore, may be said to be tliat sci- 
 ence which instructs us in the knowledge of natural moving 
 powers, animate or inanimate; in the manner of modifying 
 those powers, and of increasing the intensity of some of them 
 by artificial means, such as heat and electricity ; and in apply- 
 ing the varieties of force and motion, thus derived from natural 
 agencies, to the arts of life. This is the object of mechanical 
 philosophy. None can doubt, certainly, tlie high importance 
 of this sort of knowledge, or fail to see how suitable it is to the 
 elevated rank and the dignity of reasonuig beings. Man's grand 
 distinction is his intellect, his mental capacity. It is this which 
 
mechanics' INSTITUirON, BOSTON'. 229 
 
 renders him highly and peculiarly responsible to his Creator. 
 It is tliis on account of which, the rule over other animals ia 
 established in his hands ; and it is this, mainly, which enables 
 him to exercise dominion over the powers of nature, and to sub- 
 due them to himself! 
 
 But it is true, also, that his own animal orgmiization gives 
 him superiority, and is among the most wondcrfbl of the works 
 of God on earth. It contributes to cause, as well as prove, his 
 elevated rank in creation. His port is erect, liis foce toward 
 heaven, and he is furnished with limbs wliich are not absolutely 
 necessary to his support or locomotion, and which are at once 
 powerful, flexible, capable of innumerable modes and varieties 
 of action, and terminated by an instrument of wonderful, heav- 
 enly workmanship — the human hand. This marvelous phys- 
 ical conformation gives imin the power of acting with great 
 effect npon external objects, in pursuance of the suggestions of 
 his understanding, and of applying the results of his reasoning 
 power to his own purposes. Without this particular formation, 
 he would not be man, with whatever sagacity he might have 
 been endowed. No bounteous grant of intellect, were it the 
 pleasure of Heaven to make such grant, could raise any of the 
 brate creation to an equality with the human race. Were it 
 bestowed on the leviathan, he must remain, nevertheless, in the 
 element where alone he oould maintain his physical existence. 
 He would still be but the inelegant, misshapen inhabitant of the 
 ocean, "wallowing unwieldy, enormous in his gait." Were the 
 elephant made to possess it, it would but teach him the defor- 
 mity of his own structiu-e, the unloveliness of his frame, though 
 " the hugest of things," his disability to act on extemal matter, 
 and the degrading nature of his own physical wants, which lead 
 him to the deserts, and give him for his favorite home the torrid 
 plains of the tropics. It was placing the king of Babylon suf^ 
 ficiently out of the rank of human beings, though he carried all 
 liis reasoning faculties with him, when he was sent away to eat 
 
230 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 grass like an ox. And this may properly suggest to our consid- 
 eration, what is undeniably ti*ue, that there is hardly a greater 
 blessuig conferred on man than his natural wants. If he had 
 wanted no more than the beasts, who can say how much more 
 than they he would have attained ? Does he associate, does he 
 cultivate, does he build, does he navigate? The original im- 
 pulse to all these lies in his wants. It proceeds from the neces- 
 sities of his condition, and from the efforts of unsatisfied desire. 
 Every want, not of a low kind, physical as well as moral, which 
 the human breast feels, and which brutes do not feel and cannot 
 feel, raises man by so much in the scale of existence, and is a 
 clear proof and a direct instance of the favor of God toward 
 his so much favored human offspring. If man had been so 
 made as to have desired nothing, he would have wanted almost 
 everything worth possessing. 
 
 But doubtless the rcjisoning faculty, the mind, is the leading 
 and cliaracteristic atti'ibute of man. By the exercise of this, 
 he arrives at the luiowledge of the properties of natural bodies. 
 This is science, properly and emphatically so called. It is the 
 science of pure mathematics ; and in tlie high branches of this 
 science lies the true sublime of human acquisition. If any at- 
 tainment deserve that epithet, it is the knowledge, which, from 
 the mensui'ation of the minutest dust of the balance, proceeds 
 on the rising scale of material bodies, every\^-here ■weighing, 
 everywhere measuring, everywhere detecting and explaining 
 the laws of force and motion, penetrating into the secret princi- 
 ples which hold the universe of God together, and balancing 
 world against world, and system against system. "When we 
 seek to accompany those who pursue their studies, at once so 
 high, so vast, and so exact ; when we amve at the discoveries 
 of Newton, which ponr in day on the works of God, as if a sec- 
 ond Jiat for liglit had gone forth from his own mouth ; when, 
 further, we attempt to follow those who set out where Newton 
 paused, making liis goal theii* starting-place, and proceeding 
 
mechanics' institution, boston. 231 
 
 with demonstration upon demonstration, and discovery upon 
 discovery, briiig new worlds and new systems of worlds witliin 
 the limits of the known universe, failing to learn all only be- 
 cause all is infinite ; however we say of man, in admiration of 
 his physical sh-ucture, that " m form and moving he is express 
 and admirable," it is here, and here without irreverence, we 
 may exclaim, " hi apprehension how like a god !" The study 
 of the pure mathematics will of course not be extensively pur- 
 sued in an institution, which, like this, has a direct practical ten- 
 dency and aim. But it is still to be remembered, that pure 
 mathematics lie at the foundation of mechanical philosophy, 
 and tlmt it is ignorance only which can speak or think of that 
 sublime science as useless research or barren speculation. 
 
 It has already been said, that the general and well-known 
 agents usually regarded as the principal sources of mechanical 
 powers, are gravity, acting on solid bodies, the fall of water, 
 which is but gravity acting on fluids, air, heat, and animal 
 strength. For the useful direction and application of the first 
 four of these, that is, of all of them which belong to inanimate 
 nature, some intermediate apparatus or contx'ivance becomes 
 necessary, and this apparatus, whatever its form, is a machine. 
 A machine is an mvention for the application of motion, either 
 by changing the direction of the moving power, or by render- 
 ing a body in motion ttipable of communicating a motion 
 greater or less than its own to other bodies, or by enabling it 
 to overcome a power of greater intensity or force than its own. 
 And it is usually said that every macliine, however apparently 
 complex, is capable of being resolved into some one or more 
 of those single machines, of which, according to one mode of 
 description, there are six, and according to another three, called 
 the meclianical powers. But because machuiery, or all me- 
 chanical contrivance, is thus capable of resolution into a few 
 elementary forms, it is not to be inferred tliat science, or art, 
 or both together, though pressed witli the utmost force of hu- 
 
232 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 man genius, and cultivated by the last degree of human assidu- 
 itj, will ever exhaust the combinations into which these elemen- 
 tary forms may be thrown. Aii indefinite, though not an infi- 
 nite, reach of invention may be expected ; but indefinite, also, 
 if not hifinite, are the possible combinations of elementary prin- 
 ciples. The field, then, is vast and unbounded. We know not 
 to what yet unthought of heights the power of man over the 
 agencies of nature may be carried. We only Imow that the 
 last half-century has witnessed an amazingly accelerated pro- 
 gress in useful discoveries, and that, at the pi*esent moment, 
 science and art are acting together with a new comptmionship, 
 and with the most happy and striking results. The history of 
 mechanical pliilosophy is, of itself, a very interesting subject, 
 and will doubtless be treated in tliis place fully and methodi- 
 CiiUy, by stated lecturers. 
 
 It is a part of the history of man, which, like that of his do- 
 mestic habits and daily occupations, has been too unfrequently 
 the subject of research ; having been thrust aside by the more 
 dazzling topics of war and political revolutions. We are not 
 often conducted by historians within the houses or huts of our 
 ancestors, as they were centuries ago, and made acquainted with 
 their domestic utensils and domestic arrangements. We sec 
 too little both of the conveniences and inconveniences of their 
 daily and ordinary life. There are, indeed, rich materials for 
 interesting details on these particulars to be collected from the 
 labors of Goguet and ]3eckmann, Henry and Turner ; but still, 
 a thorough and well written liistory of those inventions in the 
 mechanic ai-ts which arc now commonly kno^\^J, is a desidera- 
 tum in literature. 
 
 Human sagacity, stimulated by human wants, seizes first on 
 the nearest natiu'al assistant. The power of his own arni is an 
 early lesson among the studies of primitive man. This is ani- 
 mal strength ; and from this he rises to the conception of em- 
 ploying, for his own use, the strength of othei" animals. A 
 
mechanics' institution, boston. 233 
 
 stone, impelled by the power of his arm, he finds will produce 
 a greater effect than the arm itself; this is a species of meclian.- 
 ical power. The effect results from a combination of the mov- 
 ing force with the gravity of a heavy body. The limb of a tree 
 is a rude, but powerful instrument ; it is a lever. And the me- 
 chanical powers being all discovered, like other natural quali- 
 ties, by induction (I use the word as Bacon used it) or experi- 
 ence, and not by any reasoning a priori, their progress has kept 
 pace with the general civilization and education of nations. The 
 history of mechanical philosophy, while it strongly illustrates in 
 its general results the force of the human mmd, exhibits in its 
 details most interesting pictures of ingenuity struggling with the 
 conception of new combinations, and of deep, intense, and pow- 
 erful thought, stretched to its utmost to find out or deduce the 
 general principle from the indications of particular facts. We 
 are now so fiir advanced beyond the age when the principal 
 leading, important mathematical discoveries were made, and 
 they have become so much matter of common knowledge, that 
 it is not easy to feel their importance, or be justly sensible what 
 an epoch in the history of science each constituted. The half- 
 frantic exultation of Archimedes, when he had solved the prob- 
 lem respecting the crown of Hiero, was on an occasion and for 
 a cause certainly well allowing veiy liigh joy. And so also 
 was the duplication of the cube. 
 
 The altar of Apollo, at Athens, was a square block, or cube, 
 and to double it, required the duplication of the cube. This 
 was a process involving an unascertained mathematical princi- 
 ple. It was quite natural, therefore, that it should be a tradi- 
 tional story, that, by way of atoning for some affront to that 
 god, the oracle commanded the Athenians to double his altar ; 
 an injunction, we know, which occupied the keen sagacity of 
 the Greek geometricians for more than half a century, before 
 they were able to obey it. It is to the great honor, however, 
 of this inimitable people, the Greeks, a people whose geniua 
 
234 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 scorns to have been equally fitted f()r the investigations of sci- 
 ence and the works of imaginatioii, that the iinniorta! Euclid, 
 centuries before our era, composed his Elements of Geom- 
 etry ; a work which, for two thousand years, has been, and 
 still continues to Lj, a text-book, for instruction in that 
 science. 
 
 A history of mechanical philosophy, however, would not be- 
 gin with Greece. There is a wonder beyond Greece. Higher up 
 in the atuials of mankind, nearer, fiir nearer, to the origin of our 
 race, out of all reach of letters, beyond the sources of tradition, 
 beyond all history, except what remains in the monuments of 
 her own art, stands Egypt, the mother of nations ! Egypt ! 
 Thebes! the Labyrinth! the Pyramids! Who shall explain 
 the mysteries which these names suggest ? The Pyramids ! 
 Who can inform us whether it was by mere numbers, and pa- 
 tience, and labor, aided perhaps by the simple lever, or if not, 
 by what forgotten combination of powers, by what now un- 
 known machines, mass was thus aggregated to mass, and quarry 
 piled on quarry, till solid granite seemed to cover the earth and 
 reach the skies. 
 
 The ancients discovered many things, but they left many 
 things also to be discovered ; and this, as a general truth, is 
 what our posterity a thousand years hence will be able to say, 
 doubtless, when we and our generation shall be recorded also 
 among the ancients. For, indeed, God seems to have proposed 
 his material universe as a standing, perpetual study to his intel- 
 ligent creatures; where, ever learniiTg, they can yet never learn 
 all; and if that material universe shall last till man shall have 
 discovered all that is now unknown, but which by the progres- 
 sive improvement of his fiiculties he is capable of knowing, it 
 will remain through a duration beyond human measurement, 
 and beyond human comprehension. 
 
 The ancients knew nothing of our present system of arith- 
 metical notation ; nothing of algebra, and, of course, nothing 
 
mechanics' institution, BOSTON. 235 
 
 of the important application of algebra to geometry. They 
 had not learned the use of logarithms, and were ignorant of 
 fluxions. Tiiey had not attained to any just mode for the men- 
 suration of the earth ; a matter of great moment to astronomy, 
 navigation, and other branches of useful knowledge. It is 
 scarcely necessary to add, that they were ignorant of the great 
 results which have followed the development of the principle 
 of gravitation. 
 
 hi the useful and practical arts, many inventions and contri- 
 vances, to the production of which the degree of ancient knowl- 
 edge would appear to us to have been adequate, and which 
 seem quite obvious, are yet of late origin. The application of 
 water, for example, to turn a mill, is a th'mg not known to have 
 been accomplished at all in Greece, and is not supposed to have 
 been attempted at Rome till in or near the age of Augustus. 
 The production of the same effect by wind is a still later inven- 
 tion. It dates only in the seventh century of our era. The pro- 
 pulsion of the saw by any other power than that of the arm is 
 treated as a novelty in England, so late as in the middle of the 
 sixteenth century. The Bishop of Ely, at that time ambassa- 
 dor from the queen of England to the pope, says, " he saw, at 
 Lyons, a sawmill driven with an upright wheel, and the water 
 that makes it go is gathered whole into a narrow trough, which 
 delivereth the same water to the wheels. This wheel hath a 
 piece of timber put to the axletree end, like the handle of a brock 
 (a hand-organ,) and fastened to the end of the saw, which be- 
 ing turned with the force of water, hoisteth up and down the 
 saw, that it continually eateth in, and the handle of the same is 
 kept in a rigall of wood, from swerving. Also the timber 
 lieth, as it were, upon a ladder, which is brought by little and 
 little to the saw with another vice." From this description of 
 the primitive power-saw, it would seem that it was probably 
 fast only at one end, and that the brock and rigall performed 
 the part of the arm in the common use of the Imndsaw. 
 
23(5 WEnSTKR AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 It must always have been a very considerable object for men 
 to possess or obtain the power of rasing water otherwise than 
 by mere manual labor. Yet nothing like the common suction- 
 pump has been found among rnde nations. It has arrived at 
 its present state only by slow and doubtful steps of improve- 
 ment ; and, indeed, in that present state, however obvious and 
 unattractive, it is something of an abstruse and refined inven- 
 tion. It was unkno^vl^ in China, until Europeans visited the 
 " Celestial Empire ; " and is still unknown in other parts of 
 Asia, beyond the pale of European settlements or the reach of 
 European communication. The Greeks and Eomans are sup- 
 posed to have been ignorant of it, in the early times of their 
 history ; and it is usually said to have come from Alexandria, 
 where physical science was much cultivated by the Greek 
 school, under the patronage of the Ptolemies. 
 
 These few and scattered historical notices, gentlemen, of im- 
 portant inventions, have been introduced only for the purpose 
 of suaiiestins that there is much which is both curious and in- 
 structive in the history of mechanics ; and that many things 
 which to us, in oiu' state of knowledge, seem so obvious as that 
 we should think they would at once force themselves on men's 
 adoption, have, nevertheless, been accomplished slowly and by 
 painful efforts. 
 
 But if the history of the ]-)rogress of the mechanical arts be 
 hiteresting, still more so, dou))tless, would be the exhibition of 
 their present state, and a full display of the extent to which 
 they are now carried. This field is much too wide even to be 
 entered on this occasion. The briefest outline even would ex- 
 ceed its limits; and the whole sulyect will regularly fall to 
 hands much more able to sustain it. The slightest glance, how- 
 ever, must convince us that mechanical power and mechanical 
 skill, as they are now exhibited in Europe and America, mark 
 an epoch in human history vrorthy of all admiration. Machinery 
 is made to perliinu what has formerly been the toil of human 
 
mechanics' institution, boston. 237 
 
 hands, to an extent that astonishes the most sanguine, with a 
 degree of power to which no number of human arms is equal, 
 and with such precision and exactness as almost to suggest the 
 notion of reason and intelligence in the machines themselves. 
 Every natural agent is put unrelentingly to the task. The 
 winds work, the waters work, the elasticity of metals works; 
 gravity is solicited into a thousand new forms of action; levers 
 are multiplied upon levers ; wheels revolve on the peripheries 
 of other wheels ; the saw and the plane are tortured into an ac- 
 commodation to new uses, and, last of all, with inimitable power, 
 and "with whirlwind sound," comes the potent agency of steam. 
 In comparison with the past, what centuries of improvement 
 has this single agent comprised, in the short compass of fifty 
 years ! Everywhere practicable, everywhere efficient, it has an 
 arm a thousand times stronger than that of Hercules, and to 
 which human ingenuity is capable of fitting a thousand times 
 as many hands as belonged to Briareus. Steam is found in 
 triumphant operation on the seas ; and under the iuflueuce of 
 its sti'ong propulsion, the gallant ship, 
 
 "Against the wind, against tlic tide, 
 Still steadies, with an upright keel." 
 
 It is on the rivers, and the boatman may repose on his oars ; it 
 is on highways, and begins to exert itself along the courses of 
 land conveyance ; it is at the bottom of mines, a thousand feet 
 below the earth's surface ; it is in the mill, and in the workshops 
 of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it 
 draws, it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, it prints. It 
 seems to say to men, at least to the class of artisans, " Leave 
 off your manual labor, give over your bodily toil ; bestow but 
 your skill and reason to the directing of my power, and I will 
 bear. the toil — with no muscle to grow weary, no nerve to re- 
 lax, no breast to feel faintness." What further improvements 
 may still be made in the use of this astonisliiug power, it is 
 
238 WEBSTER AND HIS iMASTER-PIECES. 
 
 impossible to know, and it were vain to conjecture. What 
 we do know is, that it has most essentially altered the face of 
 aftairs, and that no visible limit yet appears, beyond A\hich 
 its progress is seen to be impossible. If its power were 
 now to be annihilated, if we were to miss it on the water 
 and in the mills, it would seem as if we were going back to 
 rude ages. 
 
 This society, then, gentlemen, is instituted for the purpose of 
 further and further applying science to the arts, at a time when 
 there is much of science to be applied. Pliilosophy and the' 
 mathematics have attained to high degrees, and still stretch 
 their wings like the eagle. Chemistry, at the same time, act- 
 ing in another direction, has made equally important discov- 
 eries, capable of a direct application to the purposes of life. 
 Here, again, within so short a period as the lives of some of 
 us, almost all that is known has been learned. And while 
 there is this aggregate of science, already vast, but still i-apidly 
 increasing, oftcring itself to the ingenuity of mechanical con- 
 trivance, there is a corresponding demand for every work and 
 invention of art, produced by the wants of a rich, an enterpri- 
 sing, and an elegant age. Associations like this, therefore, have 
 materials to work upon, ends to work for, and encouragment 
 to work. 
 
 It may not be improper to suggest, that not only are the gen- 
 eral circumstances of the age favorable to such institutions as 
 this, but that there seems a high degree of propriety that one 
 or more should be established here, in the metropolis of New 
 England. In no other part of the country is there so great a 
 concentration of mechanical operations. Events have given to 
 New England the lead iu the great business of domestic man- 
 ufactures. Her thickened population, her energetic free labor, 
 her abundant falls of water, and various other causes, have led 
 her citizens to embark, with great boldness, in extensive man- 
 ufactures. The success of their establishments depends, of 
 
mechanics' institution, boston. 239 
 
 course, in no small degree, upon the perfection to which ma- 
 chinery may be carried. Improvement in this, therefore, in- 
 stead of being left to chance or accident, is justly regarded as a 
 fit subject of assiduous study. The attention of our community 
 is also, at the present moment, strongly attracted toward the 
 construction of canals, railways, dry docks, and other important 
 public works. Civil engineering is becoming a profession, of- 
 fering honorable support and creditable distinction to such as 
 may qualify themselves to discharge its duties. Another in- 
 teresting fact is before us. New taste and a new excitement 
 are e'V'idently springing up in our vicinity in regard to an art, 
 which, as it unites in a singular degree utility and beauty, af 
 fords inviting encouragements to genius and skill. I mean ar- 
 chitecture. Architecture is military, naval, sacred, civil, or do- 
 mestic. Naval architecture, certainly, is of the highest impor- 
 tance to a commercial and navigating people, to say nothing 
 of its intimate and essential connection with the means of na- 
 tional defense. This science should not be regarded as havino- 
 already reached its utmost perfection. It seems to have been 
 some time in a course of rapid advancement. The building, 
 the rigging, the navigating of ships, have, to every one's con- 
 viction, been subjects of great improvement within the last fif- 
 teen years. And where, rather than in New England, may 
 still further improvements be looked for? Where is ship- 
 building either a greater business, or pursued with more skill 
 and eagerness. 
 
 lu civil, sacred, and domestic architecture, present appearances 
 authorize the strongest hopes of improvement. These hopes 
 rest, among other things, on unambiguous indications of the 
 growing prevalence of a just taste. The principles of architec- 
 ture are founded in nature, or good sense, as much as the prin- 
 ciples of epic poetry. The art constitutes a beautiful medium 
 between what belongs to mere fancy and what belongs entirely 
 to the exact sciences. In its forms and modifications it admits 
 
240 "WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of infinite variation, gi\'ing broad room for invention and 
 genius ; while, in its general principles, it is founded on that 
 which long experience and the concurrent judgment of ages 
 have ascertained to be generally pleasing. Certain relations of 
 parts to parts have been satisfactory to all the cultivated gen- 
 erations of men. These relations constitute what is called pro- 
 portion, and this is the great basis of architectural art. This 
 established proportion is not to be followed merely because it 
 is ancient, but because its use, and the pleasure which it has 
 been found capable of giving to the mind, through the eye, in 
 ancient times, and modern times, and all civilized times, prove 
 that its principles are well founded and just; in the same man- 
 ner that the Iliad is proved, by the consent of all ages, to be a 
 good poem. 
 
 Architecture, I have said, is an art that unites, in a singular 
 manner, the useful and the beautiful. It is not to be uiferred 
 from this that everything in architecture is beautiful, or is to be 
 so esteemed, in exact proportion to its apparent utility. No 
 more is meant than that nothing which e\adcutly thwarts util- 
 ity can or ought to be accounted beautiful ; because, in every 
 work of art, the design is to be regarded, and what defeats that 
 design, cannot be considered as well done. The French rheto- 
 ricians have a maxim, that, m literarary composition, " nothing 
 is beautiful which is not true." They do not intend to say, that 
 strict and literal ti'uth is alone beautiful in poetry or oratory ; 
 but they mean, that that which grossly oftends against proba- 
 bility is not in good taste in either. The same relation sub- 
 sists between beauty and utility in architecture as between 
 truth and imagination in poetry. Utility is not to be obviously 
 sacrificed to beauty, in the one case ; truth and probability are 
 not to be outraged for the cause of fiction and fancy, in the 
 other. In the severer styles of architecture, beauty and utility 
 approach so as to be almost identical. Where utility is more 
 strongly than ordinary the maui design, the proportions which 
 
/ 
 
 MECnANICs' IXSTITUTIOy, BOSTOX. 241 
 
 produce it raise the sense or feeling of beauty, by a sort of re- 
 flection or deduction of the mind. It is said that ancient Rome 
 had perhaps no finer specimens of the classic Doric than were 
 in the sewers which ran under her streets, and which were of 
 course always to be covered from human observation : so true 
 is it, that cultivated taste is always pleased with justness of pro- 
 portion ; and that design, seen to be accomplished, gives pleas- 
 ure. The discovery and tast increasing use of a noble material, 
 found in vast abundance nearer to our city than the Pentelican 
 quarries to Athens, may well awaken, as they do, new attention 
 to architectural improvement. If this material be not entirely 
 well suited to the elegant Ionic or the rich Cormthian, it is yet 
 fitted, beyond marble, beyond perhaps almost any other ma- 
 terial, for the Doric, of which the appropriate character is 
 strength, and for the Gothic, of which the appropriate character 
 is grandeur. 
 
 It is not more than justice, perhaps, to our ancestors, to call 
 the Gothic the English classic architecture ; for in England, 
 probably, are its most distinguished specimens. As its leading 
 characteristic is grandeur, its main use would seem to be sacred. 
 It had its origin, indeed, in ecclesiastical architecture. Its evi- 
 dent design was to surpass the ancient orders by the size of the 
 structure and its fixr greater heights ; to excite perceptions of 
 beauty by the branching traceries and the gorgeous tabernacles 
 within ; and to inspire religious awe and reverence by the lofty, 
 pointed arches, the flying buttresses, the spires and the pmna- 
 cles, springing from beneath, stretching upward toward the 
 heavens with the prayers of the worshipers. Architectural 
 be<auty having always a direct reference to utility, edifices, 
 whether civU or sacred, must of course undergo difterent chan- 
 ges, in difterent places, on account of climate, and in different 
 ages, on account of the different states of other arts or different 
 notions of convenience. The hypethral temple, for example, or 
 temple wiftiout a rcJof, is not to be thought of in our latitude ; 
 VOL. ti. K 16 
 
V 
 
 242 WEBSTEK AND I1I3 MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and the use of glass, a thing not now to be dispensed with, is 
 also to be accommodated, as well as it may be, to the architec- 
 tural structure. These necessary variations, and many more 
 admissible ones, give room for improvements to an indefinite 
 extent, without departing from the principles of true taste. IMay 
 we not hope, then, to see our own city celebrated as the city of 
 aixhitectural excellence 1 May we not hope to see our native 
 granite reposing in the ever enduring strength of the Doric, or 
 springing up in the grand and lofty Gothic, in forms Avhich 
 beauty and utility, the eye and the judgment, taste and devo- 
 tion, shall unite to approve and to admire 1 But while we re- 
 <Tard sacred and civil architecture as highly important, let us not 
 forget that other branch, so essential to personal comfort and 
 happiness — domestic architecture or common house-building. 
 ]n ancient times, in all governments, and under despotic govern- 
 ments in all times, the convenience or gratiiication of the mon- 
 arch, the government, or the public has been allowed too often 
 to put aside considerations of personal and individual happi- 
 ness. With us, different ideas happily prevail. With us, it is 
 not the public, or the government, in its corporate character, 
 that is the only object of regard. The public happiness is to be 
 the aggregate of the happiness of individuals. Our system be- 
 gins with the individual man. It begins with him when he 
 leaves the cradle ; and it proposes to instruct him in knowl- 
 edge and in morals, to prepare lum for his state of manhood ; 
 on his arrival at that state, to invest him with political rights, 
 to protect him in his property and pursuits, and in his tamily 
 and soc-ial connections ; and thus to enable him to enjoy, as an 
 individual moral and rational being, what belongs to a moral 
 and rational being. For the same reason, the arts are to be 
 promoted tor their general utility, as they affect the personal 
 happiness and well-being of the individuals who compose the 
 community. It would be adverse to the whole spirit of our 
 system, tliat we should have gorgeous and expensive public 
 
mechanics' institution, boston, 043 
 
 buildings, if individuals were at the same time to live in houses 
 of mud. Our public edifices are to be reared by the surplus 
 of wealth and the savings of labor, after the necessities and 
 comforts of individuals are provided for ; and not, like the Pyr- 
 am.ds, by the unremitted toil of thousands of half-starved slaves. 
 Domestic architecture, therefore, as connected with individual 
 comfort and happiness, is to hold a first place in the esteem of 
 our artists. Let our citizens have houses cheap, but comforta- 
 ble ; not gaudy, but in good taste ; not judged by the portion 
 of earth which they cover, but by their symmetry, their fitness 
 for use, and their durability. 
 
 Without further reference to particular arts with which the 
 objects of this society have a close connection, it may yet be 
 added, generally, that this is a period of great activity, of indus- 
 try, of enterprise in the various walks of life. It is a period 
 too, of growing wealth and increasing properity. It is a time 
 when men are fast multiplying, but when means are increasing, 
 stdl faster than men. An auspicious moment, then, it is fuU 
 of motive and encouragement, for the vigorous prosecution of 
 those inquiries which have for their object the discovery of far- 
 ther and farther means of uniting the results of scientific re- 
 search to the arts and busmess of life. 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTEE-PIECE. 
 
 AS 
 
 A PUBLIC DINNER SPEAKER. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF WASIIINOTOH. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 Both in Europe and in tliis country, it Las been long a custom to give public din- 
 ners to public men of tlie liigbest standing; and, after the cloth Is removed, the pre- 
 siding oflficer of the party usually offers the first toast to the invited guest. To answer 
 that toast becomingly, is one of the most diilicult feats of oratory; and none but a 
 true orator can meet the demand to the satisfaction of the party, or to his own satis- 
 faction. After all the encomiums heaped upon Mr. Webster in other departments cf 
 public speaking, it is doubtful whether he did not exhibit a marked and peculiar 
 superiority over all his cotemporaries in this particular sort of speaking; and, though 
 often called upon in this way, his "Cliaracter of Wa.«hington," delivered within sight 
 of the capitol, at the ago u^ fj'iy, may be regarded, for its matter, if not for its man- 
 ner also, as his master-piece. 
 
EULOGY OX WASHINGTON. 
 
 SPEECH IN' HONOR OF HIS CENTENNIAL BIRTH-DAY, DELIVERED AT A PDB- 
 Lie DINNER IN THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 22, 1832. 
 
 I RISE, gentlemen, to propose to you the name of that great 
 man, in commemoration of whose birth, and in honor of whose 
 character and services, we have here assembled. 
 
 I am sure that I express a sentiment common to every one 
 present, when I say that there is something more than ordina- 
 rily solemn and aftecting in this occasion. 
 
 We are met to testify our i-egai'd for him whose name is in- 
 timately blended with whatever belongs most essentially to the 
 prosperity, the, liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of 
 our country. That name was of power to rally a nation in the 
 hour of thick-thronging public disasters and calamities ; that 
 name shone, amid the storm of war, a beacon light, to cheer 
 and guide the country's friends ; it flamed, too, like a meteor, 
 to repel her foes. That name, in the days of peace, was a load- 
 stone, attracting to itself a whole people's confidence, a whole 
 people's love, and the v,'hole world's respect That name, de- 
 scending with all time, spreading over the whole earth, and 
 uttered in all the languages belonging to the tribes and races of 
 men, will forever be pronounced with affectionate gratitude by 
 every one in whose breast there shall arise an aspiration for hu- 
 man rights and human liberty. 
 
 We perform this grateful duty, gentlemen, at the expiration 
 of a hundred years from his birth, near the place, so cherished 
 
248 -WEBSTEU AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 and beloved by him, where his dust now reposes, and in the 
 capital which bears his own immortal name. 
 
 All experience evinces that human sentiments are strongly 
 influenced by associations. The recurrence of anniversaries, or 
 of longer periods of time, naturally freshens the recollection, 
 and deepens the impression, of events with which they are his- 
 torically connected. Renowned places, also, have a power to 
 awaken feeling, which all acknowledge. No American can pass 
 by the fields of Bunk'cr Hill, Alonmouth, or Camden, as if they 
 were ordinary spots on the earth's surface. Whoever visits 
 them, feels the sentiment of love of country kindling anew, as 
 if the spirit that belonged to the transactions which have ren- 
 dered these places distinguished, still hovered round, with power 
 to move and excite all who in future time Biay approach them. 
 
 But neither of these sources of emotion equals tlie power 
 with which great moral examples affect the mind. When sub- 
 lime virtues cease to be abstractions, when they become em- 
 bodied in human character, and exemplified in human conduct, 
 we should be false to our own nature, if we did not indulge in 
 the spontaneous effusions of our gratitude and our admii-ation. 
 A true lover of the virtue of patriotism delights to contem- 
 plate its purest models ; and that love of country may be well 
 suspected which affects to soar so high into the regions of sen- 
 timent as to be lost and absorbed in the abstract feeling, and 
 becomes too elevated or too refined to glow %vith fervor in the 
 commendation or the love of individual beneflictors. All this 
 is unnatural. It is as if one should be so enthusiastic a lover 
 of poetry, as to CiU'c nothing for Homer or Milton ; so passion- 
 ately attached to eloquence as to be indillerent to Tully and 
 Chatham ; or such a devotee to the arts, in such an ecstasy with 
 the elements of beauty, proportion and expression, as to regard 
 the niaster-pieces of Raphael and Michael Angelo with coldness 
 or contempt. We may be assured, gentlemen, that he who 
 really loves the thing itself, loves its finest exhibitions. A true 
 
EULOGY ON WASIIIXGTOX. 249 
 
 iriend of his country loves her friends and benefactors, and 
 lliinks it no degradation to commend and commemorate them. 
 The voluntary outpouring of the public feeling, made to-day, 
 from the north to the south, and from the east to the west, proves 
 this sentiment to be both just and natural, ha the cities and in 
 the villages, in the public temples and in the family circles, 
 among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices to-day bespeak 
 grateful hearts and a freshened recollection of the virtues of the 
 Father of his Country. And it will be so, in all time to come, 
 so long as public virtue is itself an object of regard. The in- 
 genuous youth of America will hold up to themselves the bright 
 model of Washington's example, and study to be what they 
 behold ; they will contemplate his character till all its virtues 
 spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision ; as 
 the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Baby- 
 lon, gazed at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and 
 constellations, overpoweruig at length the eyes of the beholders 
 with the united blaze of a thousand lights. 
 
 Gentlemen, we are at the point of a century from the birth 
 of Washington ; and what a century it has been ! During its 
 course, the human mind has seemed to proceed with a sort of 
 geometric velocity, accomplishing, for human intelligence and 
 human freedom, more than had been done in fives or tens of 
 centuries preceding. Washington stands at the commencement 
 of a new era, as well as at the head of the New World. A 
 century from the birth of Washington has changed the world. 
 The country of Washington has been the theater on which a 
 great part of that change has been wrought ; and Washington 
 himself a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. 
 His age and his country are equally full of wonders ; and of 
 both he is the chief. 
 
 If the prediction of the poet, uttered a few years before his 
 birth, be true ; if, indeed, it be designed by Providence that 
 the grandest exhibition of human character and human affairs 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
 * 
 
250 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 shall be made on this theater of the western world ; if it be 
 true that, 
 
 "The four first acts already past, 
 A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
 Time's noblest ofifspring is the last; ' 
 
 how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be appropriately 
 opened, how could its intense interest be adequately sustained, 
 but by the introduction of just such a character as our Wash- 
 mgton ? 
 
 Washington had attained his manhood when that spark of 
 liberty was struck out in his own country, which has since kin- 
 dled into a flame, and shot its beams over the earth. In the 
 flow of a century from his birth, the world has changed in 
 science, in arts, in the extent of commerce, in the improvement 
 of navigation, and in all that relates to the civilization of man. 
 But it is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of in- 
 dividual man, in his moral, social, and political character, lead- 
 ing the whole long train of other improvements, which has most 
 remarkably distinguished the era. Society, in this century, has 
 not made its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness 
 of ingenuity in trifles ; it has not merely lashed itself to an in- 
 creased speed round the old circles of thought and action ; but 
 it has assumed a new character ; it has raised itself from be- 
 neath governments to a participation in governments ; it has 
 mixed moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of in- 
 dividual men ; and, with a freedom and strength before alto- 
 gether unknown, it has applied to these objects the whole power 
 of the human understanding. It has been the era, in short, 
 when the social principle has triumphed over the feudal princi- 
 ple; when society has maintained its rights against military 
 power, and estiiblished, on foundations never hereafter to be 
 shaken, its competency to govern itself. 
 
 It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington, that, having 
 
EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. 251 
 
 been intrusted, in revolutionary times, with the supreme mili- 
 tary command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown 
 for wisdom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of 
 the first government in which an attempt was to be made, on a 
 large scale, to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a 
 written constitution and of a purely representative principle. 
 A government was to be established without a thi'one, without 
 an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges ; and tliig 
 government, instead of being a democracy, existing and acting 
 within the walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast 
 country, of different climates, interests and habits, and of various 
 sects and sentiments of the christian religion. The experiment 
 certainly was entirely new. A popular government of this ex- 
 tent, it was evident, could be framed only by carrying into full 
 eft'ect the principle of representation or of delegated power ; 
 and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength 
 of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, 
 carry forward its own great mterests, and conduct itself to po- 
 litical renown and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this 
 experiment, so fiill of interest to us and to our posterity forever, 
 so full of interest, indeed, to the world in its present generation 
 and in all its generations to come, was suffered to commence 
 under the guidance of Washington. Destined for this high ca- 
 reer, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriotism, 
 by discretion, by whatever can inspire confidence in man toward 
 man. In entering on the untried scenes, early disappointment 
 and the premature extinction of all hope of success would have 
 been certain, had it not been that there did exist throughout the 
 country, in a most extraordinary degree, an un\vavering trust in 
 him whose hand held the helm of affairs. 
 
 I remarked, gentlemen, that the whole world was and is in- 
 terested in the result of this experiment. And is it not so ? 
 Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment the 
 career which tliis government is running, is among the most 
 
252 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 attractive objects to the civilized world 1 Do we deceive our- 
 selves, or is it true that at this moment tliat love of liberty and 
 tlmt understanding of its true principles which are flying over 
 the whole earth, as on the wings of all the winds, are really and 
 truly of American origin ? 
 
 At the period of tlie birth of Washington, there existed in 
 Eui'ope no political liberty in large communities, except in the 
 provinces of Holland, and except tliat England herself liad set 
 a great example, so far as it went, by her glorious revolution 
 of 1G88. Everywhere else, despotic power was predominant, 
 and the feudal or military principle held the mass of manlcind 
 in hopeless bondage. One-half of Europe was crushed beneath 
 the Bourbon sceptre, and no conception of political liberty, no 
 hope even of religious toleration, existed among that nation, 
 which was America's first ally. The king was the state ; the 
 king was tlie country ; the king was all. There was one king, 
 widi power not derived from his people, and too high to be 
 questioned ; and tlie rest were all subjects, with no political 
 rights but obedience. All above was intangible power, all be- 
 low, quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in die French 
 chambers shows us how human sentiments on these subjects 
 have chai:iged. A minister had spoken of the " king's subjects." 
 " There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, 
 " in a country where the people make the king ! " 
 
 Gentlemen, the spirit of hummi liberty and of free govern- 
 ment, nm-tured and grown into strength and beauty in America, 
 has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an 
 emanation from heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return 
 void. It must change, it is fast changing the flice of the earth. 
 Our great, oui' high duty is to show, in our own example, that 
 this spirit is a spirit of health as well as a, spirit of power ; that 
 its benignity is as great as its strength ; that its efficiency to 
 secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is 
 equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principal- 
 
EULOGY ON "WASniXGTOX. 253 
 
 ities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us 
 with a willing, but something of a feaiful admiration. Its deep 
 and awful anxiety is to learn whether free states may be stable 
 as well as free ; whether popular power may be trusted as well 
 as feared ; m short, whetlier wise, regular, and virtuous self-gov- 
 ernment is a vision for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth 
 established, illustrated, and brought into practice in the country 
 of Washington. 
 
 Gentlemen, for the earth which wc inhabit, and the whole cir- 
 cle of the sun, for all the unborn races of mankind, we seem to 
 hold in our hands, for their weal or woe, the fate of tliis experi- 
 ment. If we fail, who shall venture the repetition ? If our ex- 
 ample shall prove to be one, not of encouragement, but of terror, 
 not fit to be imitated, but fit only to be shunned, where else 
 shall the world look for free models 1 If this great Western 
 Su7i be struck out of the firmament, at what other fountain 
 sliall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted ? What other orb 
 shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, on the darkness of the world 1 
 
 Gentlemen, there is no danger of our overrating or overstating 
 the important part which we are now actuig in human affairs. 
 It should not flatter our personal self respect, but it should rean- 
 imate our patriotic virtues, and inspire us with a deeper and 
 more solemn sense, both of our privileges and of our duties. 
 We cainiot wish better for our country, nor for the world, than 
 that the same spirit wliich influenced Washuigton may influence 
 all who succeed him ; and that the same blessing from above, 
 which attended his efibrts, may also attend theirs. 
 
 The principles of Wasliington's administration are not left 
 doubtful. They arc to be found in the constitution itself, in 
 the great measures recommended and approved by him, in his 
 speeches to congress, and in that most interesting paper, his 
 Farewell Address to the People of the United St<ites. The 
 success of the government under his administi-ation is the highest 
 proof of the soundness of these principles. And, after an experi- 
 
254 WJEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ence of thirty-five years, what is there which aii enemy could 
 condemn — what is there which either his friends, or the friends 
 of the country, could wish to have been otherwise 1 I speak, 
 of course, of great measures and leading principles. 
 
 In the first place, all his measures were right m intent. He 
 stated the whole basis of liis own great character, when he told 
 the country, in the homely phrase of the proverb, tliat honesty 
 is the best policy. One of the most striking things ever said 
 of him is, that "Ae changed mankind' s ideas of political great- 
 nessr To commanding talents, and to success, the common 
 elements of such greatness, he added a disregard of self, a spot- 
 lessness of motive, a steady submission to every public and pri- 
 vate duty, which threw far into the shade the whole crowd of 
 vulo-ar great. The object of his regard was the whole country. 
 No part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. His 
 love of glory, so far as that may be supposed to have influenced 
 him at all, spurned everything short of general approbation. It 
 would have been nothing to him, that his partisans or his favor- 
 ites outnumbered, or outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored, 
 those of other leaders. He had no favorites — he rejected all 
 partisansliip ; and, acting honestly for the universal good, he 
 deserved what he has so richly enjoyed, the universal love. 
 
 His prmciple, it was, to act right, and to trust tlie people for 
 support ; his principle, it was, not to follow tlie lead of sinister 
 and selfish ends, nor to rely on the little arts of party delusion 
 to obtain public sanction for such a course. Born for his coun- 
 try and for the world, he did not give up to party what was 
 meant for mankind. The consequence is, that his fame is as 
 durable as his prmciple^, as lasting as truth and virtue them- 
 selves. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and tem- 
 porary circumstiuices, and casual combinations, have raised into 
 transient notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, bursting and 
 dissolving into the gi'eat ocean, Washington's fame is like the 
 
EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. 255 
 
 rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are 
 destined to break harmlessly forever. 
 
 The maxims upon which Washington conducted our foreign 
 relations were few and simple. The first was an entire and in- 
 disputable impartiality toward foreign states. He adhered to 
 this rule of public conduct, against very strong inducements to 
 depart from it, and when the popularity of the moment seemed 
 to favor such a departure. In the next place, he maintained 
 true dignity and unsullied honor in all communications with 
 foreign states. It was among the high duties devolved upon 
 him, to introduce our new government into the circle of civ- 
 ilized states and powerful nations. Not arrogant or assuming, 
 with no unbecoming or supercilious bearing, he yet exacted 
 for it from all others entire and punctilious respect. He de- 
 manded, and he obtained at once, a standing of perfect equality 
 for his comitry in the society of nations ; nor was there a prince 
 or potentate of his day, whose personal character carried with 
 it, into the intercourse with other states, a greater degree of re. 
 spect and veneration. 
 
 He regarded other nations only as they stood in political re- 
 lations to us. With their internal affairs, their political parties 
 and dissensions, he scrupulously abstained from all interference ; 
 and, on the other hand, he spiritedly repelled all such interfe- 
 rence by others with us or our concerns. His sternest rebuke — 
 tlie most indignant measure of his whole administration — was 
 aimed against such an attempted interference. He felt it as an 
 attempt to wound the national honor, and resented it accord- 
 ingly- 
 
 The reiterated admonitions in his Farewell Address show his 
 deep fears that f()reign influence would insinuate itself into our 
 counsels through the channels of domestic dissension, and ob- 
 tain a sympathy with our own temporary parties. Against all 
 such dangers, he most earnestly entreats the country to guard 
 itself. He appeals to its patriotism, to its self-respect, to its 
 
256 WEHSTF-R AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 own honor, to every consideration connected with its welfare 
 and happiness, to resist, at the very beginning, all tendencies 
 toward such connection of foreign interests with our own afliiirs. 
 With a tone of earnestness nowhere else found, even in his last 
 affectionate fai'ewell advice to his countrymen, he says, "Against 
 the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe 
 me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be 
 constantly awake ; since history and experience prove that for- 
 eign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican 
 government." 
 
 Lastly, on the subject of foreign relations, Washington never 
 forgot tiiat we had interests peculiar to ourselves. The pri- 
 mary political concerns of Europe, he saw, did not affect us. 
 ■ We had nothing to do with her balance of power, her family 
 compacts, or her successions to thrones. We were placed in 
 a condition favorable to neutrality during European wars, and 
 to the enjoyment of all the great advantages of that relation. 
 " Why, then," he asks us, " why forego the advantages of so 
 peculiar a situation % Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
 ground 1 Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any 
 part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils 
 of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice'?" 
 
 hideed, gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Address is full 
 of truths important at all times, and particularly deserving con- 
 sideration at the present. With a sagacity which brought the 
 future before him, and made it like the present, he saw and 
 pointed out the dangers that even at this moment most immi- 
 nently threaten us. I hardly know how a greater service of 
 that kind could now be done to the community, than by a re- 
 newed and wide diffusion of that admirable paper, and an earn- 
 est invitation to every man in the country to reperuse and con- 
 sider it. Its political maxims are invaluable ; its exhortations 
 to love of country and to brotherly affection among citizens, 
 touchuig ; and the solemnity with which it urges the observance 
 
■ EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. O57 
 
 Of moral duties and impresses the power of religious obligation 
 
 The domestic policy of Washington fou«d its pole-star in the 
 
 avowed objects of the constitution itself. He sought so to al 
 
 mm. er that constitution, as to form a more perfe^ct unio.? Vs- 
 
 abhsh justice, msure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
 
 inon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
 
 tiZ ""'"'' '"' "^^ ^''''^' ^^braced the whole 
 
 Among his earliest and most important duties wa. the or- 
 ganization of the government itself, the choice of his confiden- 
 tial advisers, and the various appointments to office. This 
 du y, so important and delicte, when a whole government was 
 to be organized, ai.d all its offices for the first time filled was 
 yet not d. hc;^lt to him; for he had no sinister ends to accont 
 phsh no cUunorous partisans to gratify, no pledges to redeem 
 no object to be regarded but si.nply the public gSod. It was a 
 plain, straightforward matter-a mere Lest 'choice f ^od 
 men lor the public service. ^ 
 
 His own singleness of purpose, his disinterested patriotism 
 were evnccd by the selection of his first cabinet, and brtS 
 manner „, which he filled the courts of justice, and other pla e 
 of !,.gh trust. He sought for men fit for omces ; not for osZ 
 wh,eh m.g t su,t men. Above personal considerations, .abo™ 
 local constdcrafons, above party considerations, he felt that he 
 could only d,sel.arge the sacred- trust which tLe countrAad 
 placed m h,s hands, by a diligent inquiry after real merit and a 
 
 ::;rr 7:f n '-^^ r ™-'"» "^^ '"'^«- ^'^ -^^^^ »- 
 
 tj ? . , ''''"'"°"- "" "-■^P'""'! ">at whole field 
 look ng on^ for whatever it contained n.ost worthy and distin- 
 guished. Ho was, indeed, most successful, and he d«ierved sue 
 
 VOT TT 
 
 VOL. II. ^ 
 
258 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 cess for the purity of his motives, the liberality of his senti- 
 ments, and his enlarged and manly policy. 
 
 Washington's administration established the national credit, 
 made provision for the public debt, mid for that patriotic army 
 whose mterest and welfare were always so dear to him ; and, 
 by laws wisely framed, and of admirable effect, raised the com- 
 merce and navigation of the country, almost at once, from de- 
 pression and ruin to a state of prosperity. Nor were his eyes 
 open to these interests alone. He viewed with equal concern 
 its agriculture and manufactures, and, so far as they came within 
 the regular exercise of the powers of this government, they ex- 
 perienced regard and favor. 
 
 It should not be omitted, gentlemen, even in this slight refer- 
 ence to the general measures and general principles of the first 
 president, that he saw and felt the fuU value and importance of 
 the judicial department of the government. An upright and 
 able administration of the laws he held to be alike indispensa- 
 ble to private happiness and public liberty. The temple of 
 justice, in his judgment, was a sacred place, and he would 
 profanoi^and pollute it who should call any to minister in it, 
 not spotless in character, not incorruptible in integrity, not 
 competent by talent and learning, not a fit object of unhesitating 
 
 trust. 
 
 Among other admonitions, Washington has left us, m his 
 last communication to his country, an exhortation against the 
 excesses of party spirit. A fire not to be quenched, he yet con- 
 jures us not to fan and feed the flame. Undoubtedly, gentle- 
 men* it is tlie greatest danger of our system and of our time. 
 Undoubtedly, if that system should be overthrown, it will be 
 the work of excessive party spirit, acting on the government, 
 which is dangerous enough, or acting in the government, which 
 is a thousand times more dangerous ; for government then be- 
 comes nothing but organized party, and, in the strange vicissi- 
 tudes of hunum affairs, it may come at last, perhaps, to exhibit 
 
KULOGY ON WASHINGTON. 259 
 
 the siugidar paradox of "government itself being in opposition 
 to Its OAvii powers, at war with the very elements of its own 
 existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men may bo protected 
 against murder, but caimot be guarded against suicide, so gov- 
 enninent may be shielded from the assaults of external foes 
 but nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent hands on 
 Itself. 
 
 Finally, gentlemen, there was in the breast of Washington 
 one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that" no 
 proper occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter 
 which he signed in behalf of the convention when the consti- 
 tution was sent out to the people, to the moment when he put 
 his hand to that last paper in which he addressed his country. 
 men the Union-the Union was the great object of his thoughts. 
 hi that first letter he tells them that, to him and his bretliren 
 of the convention, union appears to be the greatest interest of 
 every true American; and in that last paper he conjures them 
 to regai-d that unity of government which constitutes them one 
 people, as the very palladium of theii^prosperity and safety, and 
 the security of liberty itself. He regarded the union^ these 
 states, not so much as one of our blessings, as the great treasure- 
 house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was 
 the great magazme of all our means of prosperity ; here as he 
 thought, and as every American still thinks, are deposited all 
 our animating prospects, all our solid hopes fi^r future great- 
 ness. He has taught us to maintain this union, not by seek- 
 ing to enlarge the powers of the government, on the one 
 hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but bv an 
 administration of them at once firm and moderate, adopted 
 for objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice 
 and equity. " '' 
 
 The extreme solicitude for the preservation of the Union at 
 all times manifested by him, shows not only the opinion he en- 
 tertained of its importance, but his clear perception of those 
 
2G0 -WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 causes which were likely to spring up to endanger it, and which, 
 if once they should overthrow the present system, would leave 
 little hope of any future beneficial reiinion. Of all the pre- 
 sumptions indulged by presumptuous man, that is one of the 
 rashest which looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for 
 the deliberate establishment of a united government over dis- 
 tinct and widely extended communities. Such a thing has hap- 
 pened once in human affairs, and but once ; the event stands 
 out as a prominent exception to all ordinary history ; and un- 
 less we suppose ourselves running into an age of miracles, we 
 may not expect its repetition. 
 
 Washington, therefore, could regard, and did regard, nothing 
 as of paramount political interest, but the integrity of the Union 
 itself With a united government, well administered, he saw 
 we had nothing to fear ; and without it, nothing to hope. The 
 sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should solemnly 
 impress the whole country. If we might regard our country as 
 personated in the spirit of Washington, if we might consider 
 him as representing her, in her past renown, her present pros- 
 perity, and her future career, and as in that character demand- 
 ing of us all to account for our conduct, as political men or as 
 private citizens, how should he answer him who has ventured 
 to talk of disunion and dismemberment ? Or how should he 
 answer him who dwells perpetually on local interests, and fans 
 every kindling flame of local prejudice 1 How should he an- 
 swer him who would array state against state, interest against 
 interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance 
 of that unity of (jovernment which constitutes us one people l 
 Gentlemen, the political prosperity which this country has at- 
 tained, and which it now enjoys, it has acquired mainly through 
 the instrumentality of the present government. While this 
 agent continues, the cipacity of attaining to still higher degrees 
 of prosperity exists also. We have, while this lasts, a political 
 life capable of beneficial exertion, with power to resist or over- 
 
EULOGY ON -WASHIXGTOK. 261 
 
 come misfoi'tunes, to sustain us against the ordinary accidents 
 of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, every pub- 
 lic interest. But dismemberment strikes at the very being 
 which preserves these faculties. It would lay its rude and ruth- 
 less hand on this great agent itself. It would sweep away, not 
 only what we possess, but all power of regaining lost, or acqui- 
 ring new possessions. It would leave the country, not only be- 
 reft of its prosperity and happiness, but without limbs, or or- 
 gans, or faculties, by which to exert itself hereafter in the pur- 
 suit of that prosperity and happiness. 
 
 Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. 
 If disastrous war should sweep our commerce fi'om the ocean, 
 another generation may renew it ; if it exhaust our treasuiy, 
 future industry may replenish it ; if it desolate and lay waste 
 our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will gi'ow green 
 again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even 
 if the walls of yonder capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pil- 
 lars should fill], and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by 
 the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who 
 shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished government ? Who 
 shall rear again the well proportioned columns of constitutional 
 liberty 1 Who shall frame together the skillful architecture 
 which unites national sovereignty with state rights, indi\'idual 
 security, and public prosperity 1 No, gentlemen, if these col- 
 umns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Coliseum 
 and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a mel- 
 ancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over 
 them, than were ever shed over the monuments of Roman or 
 Grecian art ; for they will be the remnants of a more glorious 
 edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw — the edifice of constitu- 
 tional American liberty. 
 
 But, gcntleiuen, let us hope for better thhigs. Let us trust 
 in that gracious Being who has hitherto held our country as in 
 the hollow of his hand. Let us trust to the virtue and the in- 
 
2G2 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 telligence of the people, and to the efficaey of religious obliga- 
 tion. Let us trust to the influence of Washington's example. 
 Let us hope that that fear of Heaven which expels all other 
 fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other reg;u-d, 
 may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our 
 country still onward in her happy career. Full of these grat- 
 ifying anticipations and hopes, let us look forward to the end 
 of that century which is now commenced. A hundred years 
 hence, other disciples of Washington will celebrate his birth, 
 with no less of sincere admiration than we now commemorate \ 
 it. When they shall meet, as we now meet, to do themselves \ 
 and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue sum- ) 
 mits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as I 
 
 they shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on | 
 
 whose banks he rests, still flowing on toward the sea, so surely f 
 
 may they see, as we now see, the flag of the Union floating on i 
 
 the top of the capitol ; and then, as now, may the sun in his ■ 
 course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than i 
 this our ovrn country ! i 
 
 Gentlemen, I propose — "The Memory of George Wash- 
 ington." 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 AK ELECTIONEEROG SPEAKER. 
 
 RECEPTIO]!( AT NEW YORK. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 It is the custom in England for a candidate for any public office to explain bis 
 principles to liis constituents, either verbally or in writiiii,', generally by the former 
 mode, on the day of the election; and his oppoueut or opponents, of course, can ex- 
 ercise tlie same privilege. This not unfrequently leads to a general discussion, in 
 which the leading partisans on both sides take their share. From England the 
 practice was long ago imported into this country ; and here it has been so interwoven 
 into our customs, that scarcely an election takes place without a general contest of 
 this description, which is sometimes accompanied by very serious and disgusting 
 personalities. Mr. AVebster's political addresses to the people, howexer, were always 
 dignified and courteous. Here, as everywhere else, ho was a worth j- model; and the 
 Bpeeeh selected as a specimen, delivered in Niblo's Saloon, New York, at the age 
 oi Jifty-Jive, has never been matched in this country, on any similar occasion, even 
 by himself. 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 
 
 DELIVERED AT NIBLO's SALOON", ON THE 15TH DAY OF MAKCH, 1837. 
 
 Mr. Chairmax, axd Fellow-Citizens: — It would be idle 
 in me to affect to be indifferent to the circumstances under 
 which I have now the honor of addressing you. 
 
 I find myself in the commercial metropolis of the continent, 
 in the midst of a vast assembly of intelligent men, drawn from 
 all the classes, professions, and pursuits of life. 
 
 And you have been pleased, gentlemen, to meet me, in this 
 imposing manner, and to offer me a warm and cordial wel- 
 come to your jdty. I thank you. I feel the full force and 
 importance of this manifestation of jour regard. In the higldy 
 flattering resolutions which invited me here, in the respecta- 
 bility of this vast multitude of my fellow-citizens, and in the 
 approbation and hearty good-will which you have here mani- 
 fested, I feel cause for profound and grateful acknowledgment. 
 
 To every individual of this meeting, therefore, I would now 
 most respectfully make that acknowledgment ; and with every 
 one, as with hands joined in mutual greeting, I reciprocate 
 friendly salutation, respect, and good wishes. 
 
 But, gentlemen, although I am well assured of your personal 
 regard, I cannot fail to know, that the times, the political and 
 commercial condition of things which exists among us, and an 
 intelligent spirit, awakened to new activity and a new degree 
 of anxiety, have mainly contributed to fill these avenues and 
 crowd these halls. At a moment of difficulty, and of much 
 alarm, you come here as whigs of New York, to meet one 
 
 VOL. II. L 
 
266 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 whom 3'ou suppose to be bound to you by common principles 
 and common sentiments, and pursuing, with you, a common 
 object. Gentlemen, I am proud to admit this community of 
 our principles, and this identity of our objects. You are for 
 the constitution of the country ; so am I. You are for the 
 union of the states ; so am I. You are for equal laws, for the 
 equal rights of all men, for constitutional and just restraints on 
 power, for the substance and not the shadowy image only of 
 popular institutions, for a government which has liberty for its 
 spirit and soul, as well as in its forms ; and so am I. You feel 
 that if, in warm party times, the executive power is in hands dis- 
 tinguished for boldness, for great success, for perseverance, and 
 other qualities which strike men's minds strongly, there is dan- 
 ger of derangement of the powers of government, danger of a 
 new division of those powers, in which the executive is likely 
 to obtain the lion's part ; and danger of a state of things in 
 which the more popular branches of the government, instead 
 of being guards and sentinels against any ennfoachments from 
 the executive, seek, rather, support from its patronage, safety 
 against the complaints of the people in its ample and all-pro- 
 tecting favor, and refuge in its power ; and so I feel, and so I 
 liave felt for eight long and anxious years. 
 
 You believe that a very efficient and powerful cause in the 
 production of the evils which now fall on the industrious and 
 commercial classes of the community, is the derangement of 
 the currency, the destruction of the exchanges, and the unnatu- 
 ral and unnecessary misplacement of the specie of the country, 
 by unauthorized and illegal treasury orders. So do I believe. I 
 predicted all this from the beginning, and from before the begin- 
 ning. I predicted it all, last spring, when that was attempted 
 to be done by law which was afterward done by executive au- 
 thority ; and from the moment of the exercise of that execu- 
 tive authority to the present time, I have both foreseen and 
 seen the regular progress of things under it, from inconvenience 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 267 
 
 and embarrassment, to pressure, loss of confidence, disorder, 
 and bankruptcies. 
 
 Gentlemen, I mean, on this occasion, to speak my sentiments 
 freely on the great topics of the day. I have nothing to con- 
 ceal, and shall therefore conceal nothing. In regard to politi- 
 cal sentiments, purposes, or objects, there is nothing in my 
 heart which I am ashamed of; I shall throw it all open, there- 
 fore, to you, and to all men. [That is right, said some one in 
 the crowd ; let us have it, with no non-committal.] Yes, my 
 friend, without non-committal or evasion, without barren gen- 
 eralities or empty phrase, without if or but, without a single 
 touch, in all I say, bearing the oracular character of an inaugu- 
 ral, I shall, on this occasion, speak my mind plainly, freely and 
 independently, to men who are just as free to concur or not to 
 concur in my sentiments, as I am to utter them. I think you 
 are entitled to hear my opinions freely and frankly spoken ; 
 but I freely acknowledge that you are still more clearly enti- 
 tled to retain, and maintain, your o^m opinions, however they 
 may differ or agree with mine. 
 
 It is true, gentlemen, that I have contemplated the relinquish- 
 ment of my seat in the senate for the residue of the term, now 
 two years, for which I was chosen. This resolution was not 
 taken from disgust or discouragement, although some things 
 have certainly happened which might excite both those feelings. 
 But in popular governments, men must not suffer themselves to 
 be permanently disgusted by occasional exhibitions of political 
 harlequiuism, or deeply discouraged, although their efforts to 
 awaken the people to what they deem the dangerous tendency 
 of public measures be not crowned with immediate success. It 
 was altogether from other causes, and other considerations, that, 
 after an uninterrupted service of fourteen or fifteen years, I nat- 
 urally desired a respite. But those whose opinions I am bound 
 to respect saw objections to a present withdrawal from con- 
 
 VOL. II. L 
 
208 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 gress ; and I have yielded my own strong desire to their con- 
 victions of what the pubhc good requires. 
 
 Gentlemen, in speaking here on the subjects which now so 
 much interest the community, I wish in the outset to disclaim 
 all personal disrespect toward individuals. He whose charac- 
 ter and fortune have exercised sucli a decisive influence on our 
 politics for eight years, has now retired from public station. 1 
 pursue him with no personal reflections, no reproaches. Be- 
 tween him and myself, there has always existed a respectful 
 personal mtercourse. Moments have existed, indeed, critical 
 and decisive upon the general success of his administration, in 
 which he has been pleased to regard my aid as not altogether 
 unimportant. I now speak of him respectfully, as a distin- 
 guished soldier, as one who, in that character, has done the state 
 much service ; as a man, too, of strong and decided character, 
 of unsubdued resolution and perseverance in whatever he un- 
 dertakes, hi spciiking of his civil administration, I speak with- 
 out censoriousness, or harsh imputation of motives ; I wish him 
 health and happiness in his retirement ; but I must still speak 
 as I think of his public measures, and of their general bearing 
 and tendency, not only on the present interests of the coun- 
 try, but also on tlie Avell-being and security of the government 
 itself. 
 
 There are, however, some topics of a less urgent present 
 application and importance, upon which I wish to say a few 
 words, before I advert to those which are more immediately 
 connected with the present distressed state of things. 
 
 My learned and highly valued friend (Mr. Ogden) who has 
 addressed me in your behalf, has been kindly pleased to speak 
 of my political career as beuig marked by a freedom from 
 local interests and prejudices, and a devotion to liberal and com- 
 prehensive views of public policy. 
 
 I will not say that this compliment is deserved. I will only 
 say, that I have earnestly endeavored to deserve it. Gentle- 
 
SPEECH AT NE-vr YORK. 269 
 
 men, the general government, to the extent of its power, is na- 
 tional. It is not consolidated, it does not embrace all powers 
 of government. On the contrary, it is delegated, restrained, 
 strictly limited. 
 
 But what powers it does possess, it possesses for the general, 
 not for any partial or local good. It extends over a vast terri- 
 tory, embracing now sLx-and-twenty states, with interests vari- 
 ous, but not irreconcilable, infmitely diversified, but capable of 
 being all blended into political harmony. 
 
 He, however, who would produce this harmony must survey 
 the whole field, as if all parts were as interesting to himself as 
 they are to others, and with that generous, patriotic feeling, 
 prompter and better than the mere dictates of cool reason, 
 which leads him to embrace the Mhole with affectionate regard, 
 as constituting, altogether, that object which he is so much 
 bound to respect, to defend, and to love — his country. We 
 have around us, and more or less within the influence and pro- 
 tection of the general government, all the great interests of ag- 
 riculture, navigation, commerce, manufactures, the fisheries, and 
 the mechanic arts. The duties of the government, then, cer- 
 tainly extend over all this territory, and embrace all these vast 
 interests. We have a maritime frontier, a sea coast, of many 
 thousand miles ; and while no one doubts that it is the duty of 
 government to defend this coast by suitable military prepara- 
 tions, there are those who yet suppose that the powers of gov- 
 ernment stop at this point ; and that as to works of peace and 
 works of improvement, they are beyond our constitutional lim- 
 its. I have ever thought otherwise. G)ngress has a right, no 
 doubt, to declare war, and to raise armies and navies ; and it 
 has necessarily the right to build fortifications and batteries, to 
 protect the coast from the effects of war. But congress has 
 authority also, and it is its duty, to regulate commerce, and it 
 has the whole power of collecting duties on imports and ton- 
 nage. It must have ports and harbors, and dock-yards also, for 
 
270 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 its navies. Very Ccarly in the history of the government, it 
 was decided by congress, on the report of a highly respectable 
 committee, that the transfer by the states to congress of the 
 power of collecting tonnage and other duties, and the grant of 
 authority to regulate commerce, charged congress, necessarily, 
 with the duty of maintaining such piers and wharves and light- 
 houses, and of making such improvements, as might have been 
 expected to be doue by the states, if they had retained the usual 
 means, by retaining the power of collecting duties on imports. 
 The states, it was admitted, had parted with this power ; and 
 the duty of protecting and facilitatmg commerce by these means 
 had passed, along with this poAver, into other hands. I have 
 never hesitated, therefore, when the state of the treasury would 
 admit, to vote for reasonable appropriations, for breakwaters, 
 liffht-houses, piers, harbors, and similar public improvements, on 
 any part of the whole Atlantic coast or the Gulf of Mexico, from 
 Maine to Louisiana, 
 
 But how stands the inland frontier 1 How is it it along the 
 vast lakes and the mighty rivers of the north and west 1 Do 
 our constitutional rights and duties terminate when the water 
 ceases to be salt ? or do they exist, in ftill vigor, on the shores 
 of these inland seas 1 1 never could doubt about this ; and yet, 
 gentlemen, I remember even to have participated m a warm 
 debate, in the senate, some years ago, upon the constitutional 
 right of congress to make an appropriation for a pier m the har- 
 bor of Buffalo. What ! make a harbor at Buffalo, where na- 
 ture never made any, and where therefore it was never m- 
 tended any ever should be made ! Take money from the peo- 
 ple to run out piers from the sandy shores of Lake Erie, or 
 deepen the channels of her shallow rivers ! Where was the 
 constitutional authority for this ? Where would such strides 
 of power stop 1 IIow long would the states have any power 
 at all left, if their territory might be ruthlessly invaded for such 
 unhallowed purposes, or how long would the people have any 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 271 
 
 money in their pockets, if the government of the United States 
 might tax them, at pleasure, for such extravagant projects as 
 these 1 Piers, wharves, harbors, and breakwaters in the lakes ! 
 These arguments, gentlemen, however earnestly put forth here- 
 tofore, do not strike us with great power, at the present day. if 
 we stand on the shores of Lake Erie, and see hundreds of ves- 
 sels, with valuable cargoes and thousands of valuable lives, 
 moving on its waters, with few shelters from the storm, but 
 havens created, or made useful, by the aid of government. 
 These great lakes, stretching away many thousands of miles, 
 not in a straight line, but with turns and deflections, as if de- 
 signed to reach, by water communication, the greatest possible 
 number of important points through a region of vast extent, 
 cannot but arrest the attention of any one who looks upon the 
 map. They lie connected, but variously placed ; and inter- 
 spersed, as if with studied variety of form and direction, over 
 that part of the country. They were made for man, and ad- 
 mirably adapted for his use and convenience. Looking, gen- 
 tlemen, over our whole country, comprehending in our survey 
 the Atlantic coast, with its thick population, advanced acfricul- 
 ture, extended commerce, its manufactures and mechanic arts, 
 its varieties of communication, its wealth and its general im- 
 provements ; and looking then, to the interior, to the immense 
 tracts of fresh, fertile, and cheap lands, bounded by so many 
 lakes, and watered by so many magnificent rivers, let me ask 
 if such a MAP was ever before presented to the eye of any 
 statesman, as the theater for the exercise of his wisdom and 
 patriotism 1 And let me ask, too, if any man is fit to act a 
 part, on such a theater, who does not comprehend the whole 
 of it within the scope of liis policy, and embrace it all as his 
 country ? 
 
 Again, gentleman, we are one in respect to the glorious con- 
 stitution under which we live. We ai'e all united in the great 
 brotherhood of American liberty. Descending from the same 
 
272 WEBSTER AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ancestors, bred in the same school, taught in infancy to imbibe 
 the same general political sentiments, Americans all, by birth, 
 education, and principle, what but a narrow mind, or woeful 
 ignorance, or besotted selfishness, or prejudice ten times ten 
 times blinded, can lead any of us to regard the citizens of any 
 part of the country as strangers and iiliens ? 
 
 The solemn truth, moreover, is before us, that a common 
 political fiite attends us all. 
 
 Under the present constitution, wisely and conscientiously 
 administered, all are safe, happy, and renowned. The measure 
 of our country's flime may fill all our breasts. It is fame 
 enough for us all to partake in her glory, if we will carry her char- 
 acter onward to its true destiny. But if the system is broken, 
 its fragments must fall alike on all. Not only the cause of 
 American liberty, but the grand cause of liberty throughout 
 the whole earth, depends, in a great measure, on upholding the 
 constitution and union of these states. If shattered and de- 
 stroyed, no matter by what cause, the peculiar and cherished 
 idea of United American Liberty will be no more forever. 
 There may be free states, it is possible, when there shall be 
 separate states. There may be many loose, and feeble and 
 hostile confederacies, where there is now one great and united 
 confederacy. But the noble idea of United American Liberty, 
 oi our liberty, such as our fathers established it, will be extin- 
 guished forever. Fragments and shattered columns of the ed- 
 ifice may be found remaining ; and melancholy and mournful 
 ruins will they be. The august temple itself will be prostrate 
 in the dust. Gentlemen, the citizens of this republic cannot 
 sever their fortunes. A common fate awaits us. hi the honor 
 of upholding, or in the disgrace of undermining the constitution, 
 we shall all necessarily partake. Let us then stand by the 
 constitution as it is, and by our country as it is, one, united, 
 and entire ; let it be a truth engraven on our hearts, let it be 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 279 
 
 borne on the flag under which we rally, in every exigency, that 
 we have one Country, one Constitution, one Destiny. 
 
 Gentlemen, of our interior administration, the public lands 
 constitute a highly important part. This is a subject of great 
 interest, and it ought to attract much more attention than it has 
 hitherto received, especially from the people of the Atlantic 
 states. The pulilic lands are public property. They belong to 
 the people of all the states. A vast portion of them is com- 
 posed of territories which were ceded by individual states to 
 the United States, after the close of the revolutionary war, and, 
 before the adoption of the present constitution. The history of 
 these cessions, and the reasons for making them, are familiar. 
 Some of the Old Thirteen possessed large tracts of unsettled 
 lands within their chartered limits. The revolution had estab- 
 lished their title to these lands, and as the revolution had been 
 brought about by the common treasure and the common blood 
 of all the colonies, it was thought not unreasonable that these 
 unsettled lands should be transferred to the United States, to 
 pay the debt created by the war, and afterward to remain as a 
 fund for the use of all the states. This is the well-known ori- 
 gin of the title possessed by the United States to lands north- 
 west of the Ohio river. 
 
 By treaties with France and Spain, Louisiana and Florida, 
 with many millions of acres- of unsold public land, have been 
 since acquired. The cost of these acquisitions was paid, of 
 course, by the general government, and was thus a charge upon 
 the whole people. The public lands, therefore, all and singular, 
 are national property ; granted to the United States, purchased 
 by the United States, paid for by all the people of the United 
 States. 
 
 The idea that, when a new state is created, the public lands 
 lying within her territory become the property of such new state 
 in consequence of her sovereignty, is too preposterous for seri- 
 ous refutation. Such notions have heretofore been advanced in 
 VOL. II. L* 18 
 
 t 
 
274 -WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 congress, but nobody has sustained them. They were rejected 
 and^abandoned, although one cannot say whether they may not 
 be revived, in consequence of recent propositions which have 
 been made in tlie senate. The new states are admitted on ex- 
 press conditions, recognizing, to the fullest extent, the right of 
 the United States to the public lands within their borders ; and 
 it is no more reasonable to contend that some indefinite idea of 
 state sovereignty overrides all these stipulations, and makes the 
 lands die property of the states, against the provisions and con- 
 ditions of their own constitution, and the constitution of the 
 United States, than it would be, that a similar doctrine entitled 
 the state of New York to the moneys collected at the custom- 
 house in this city ; since it is no more inconsistent with sover- 
 eignty that one government should hold lands, for the purpose 
 of' sale, withm the territory of another, than it is that it should 
 lay and collect taxes and duties within such territory. Wiiat- 
 ever extravagant pretensions may have been set up heretofore, 
 there was not, I suppose, an enlightened man in the whole west 
 who insisted on any such right in the states, when the proposi- 
 tion to cede the lands to the states was made, in the late session 
 of congress. The public lands being, therefore, the common 
 property of all the people of all the states, I shall never consent 
 to give them away to particular states, or to dispose of them 
 otherwise than for the general good, and the general use of the 
 
 whole country. 
 
 I felt bound, therefore, on the occasion just alluded to, to re- 
 sist at the threshold a proposition to cede the public lands to 
 the states in which they lie, on certain conditions. I very nmoi 
 regretted the introduction of such a measure, as its effect must 
 be°I fear, only to agitate what was well settled, and to disturb 
 tliat course of proceeding in regard to the public lands, whicli 
 forty years of experience have shown to be so wise and so sat- 
 isfactory in its operation, both to the people of the old states 
 and to those of the new. 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 275 
 
 But, gentlemen, although the public lands are not to be given 
 away, nor ceded to particular states, a very liberal policy in 
 regard to them, ought undoubtedly to prevail. Such a policy 
 has prevailed, and I have steadily supported it, and shall con- 
 tinue to support it so long as I may remain in public life. The 
 main object, in regard to these lands, is, undoubtedly, to settle 
 them, so fast as tlie gi-owth of our population, and its augmen- 
 tation by emigration, may enable us to settle them. 
 
 The lands, therefore, should be sold at a low price ; and for 
 one, I have never doubted the right or expediency of granting 
 portions of the lands themselves, or of making grants of money, 
 for objects of internal improvement connected with them. 
 
 I have always supported liberal appropriations for the pur- 
 pose of opening communications to and through these lands by 
 common roads, canals and railroads ; and where lands of little 
 value have been long in market, and, on account of their indif^ 
 ferent quality, are not likely to command a common price, I 
 know no objection to a reduction of price, as to such lands, so 
 that they may pass into private ownership. Nor do I feel any 
 objections to the removal of those restraints wliich prevent the 
 states from taxing the lands for five years after they are sold. 
 But, while in these and all other respects, I am not only recon- 
 ciled to a liberal policy, but espouse it and support it, and have 
 constantly done so, I hold, still, the national domain to be the 
 general property of the country, confided to the care of con- 
 gress, and which congress is solemnly bound to protect and 
 preserve for the common good. 
 
 The benefit derived fi-om the public lands, after all, is, and 
 must be, in the greatest degree, enjoyed by those who buy them 
 and settle upon them. The original price paid to government 
 constitutes but a small part of their actual value. Their imme- 
 diate rise in value, in the hands of the settler, gives him com- 
 petence. He exercises a power of selection over a vast region 
 of fertile territory, all on sale at the same price, and that price 
 
276 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 an exceedingly low one. Selection is no sooner made, cultiva- 
 tion is no sooner begun, and the first furrow turned, than he 
 already finds himself a man of property. These are the ad- 
 vantacres of western emigrants and western settlers ; and they 
 are such, certainly, as no country on earth ever before afforded 
 to her citizens. This opportunity of purchase and settlement, 
 this certainty of enhanced value, these sure means of nnmedi- 
 ate competence and ultimate wealth, all these arc the rights and 
 the blessings of the people of the west, and they have my hearty 
 wishes for their full and perfect enjoyment. _ 
 
 I desire to see the public lands cultivated and occupied. 1 
 desire the growth and prosperity of the west, and the fullest 
 development of its vast and extraordinary resources. I wish 
 to brine, it near to us, by every species of useful commumca- 
 lion I see, not without admiration and amazement, but yet 
 without envy or iealousy, states of recent origin already con- 
 taining more people than Massachusetts. These people I know 
 to be%rt of ourselves ; they have proceeded from the midst 
 of us and we may trust that they are not likely to separate 
 themselves, in interest or in feeling, from their kindred, whom 
 they have left on the farms and around the hearths of their 
 
 common fathers. 
 
 A liben.1 policy, a sympathy with its interests, an enlightened 
 and generous feeling of participation in its prosperity, are due 
 to the west, and will be met, I doubt not, by a return of sen- 
 timents equally cordial and equally patriotic. 
 
 Gentlemen, the general question of revenue is very much 
 connected with this subject of the public lands, and I will there- 
 fore in a very few words, express my opinions on that point. 
 The revenue involves not only the supply of the treasury with 
 money, but the question of protection to manufactures. On 
 these connected subjects, therefore, gentlemen, as I have prom- 
 ised to keep nothing back, I will state my opinions plainly, but 
 very shortly. 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 277 
 
 I am in favor of such a revenue as shall be equal to all the 
 just and reasonable wants of the government ; and I am deci- 
 dedly opposed to all collection or accumulation of revenue be- 
 yond this point. An extravagant government expenditure and 
 unnecessary accumulation in the treasury, are both, of all things 
 else, to be most studiously avoided. 
 
 I am in favor of protecting American industry and labor not 
 only as employed in large manufactories, but also, and more 
 especially, as employed in the various mechanic arts, carried on 
 by persons of small capitals, and living by the earnings of their 
 own personal industry. Every city in the Union, and none 
 more than this, would feel severely the consequences of depart- 
 mg from the ancient and continued policy of the government 
 respecting this last branch of protection. If duties were to be 
 aboHshed on hats, boots, shoes, and other articles of leather and 
 on the articles fabricated of brass, tin and iron, and on ready- 
 made clothes, carriages, furniture, and many similar articles 
 thousands of persons would be immediately thrown out of em- 
 ployment in this city, and in other parts of the Union Pro 
 tection, in this respect, of our own labor against the cheaper ill- 
 paid, half-fed, and pauper labor of Europe, is in my opinion a 
 duty which the country owes to its own citizens. I am there- 
 fore, decidedly, for protecting our own industry, and our own 
 labor. 
 
 In the next place, gentlemen, I am of opmion that, with no 
 more than usual skill in the application of the well-tried princi- 
 ples of discriminating and specific duties, all the branches of 
 national industry may be protected, without imposing such du- 
 ties on imports as shall overcharge the treasury. 
 
 And as to the revenues arising from the sales of the public 
 lands I am of opinion that they ought to be set apart for the 
 use of the states. The states need the money. The govern 
 ment of theUnited States does not need it. Many of the states 
 have contracted large debts for objects of internal improvement • 
 
278 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and others of them have important objects which they would 
 wish to accomplish. The lands were originally granted for the 
 use of the several states ; and now that their proceeds are not 
 necessary for the purposes of the general government, I am of 
 opinion that they should go to the states, and to the people of 
 the states, upon an equal principle. Set apart, then, the pro- 
 ceeds of the public lands for the use of the states ; supply the 
 treasury from duties on imports ; apply to these duties a just 
 and careful discrimination, in favor of articles produced at home 
 by our own labor, and thus support, to a fair extent, our own 
 manufactures. These, gentlemen, appear to me to be the gen- 
 eral outlines of that policy which the present condition of the 
 country requires us to adopt. 
 
 Gentlemen, proposing to express opinions on the principal 
 subjects of interest at the present moment, it is impossible to 
 overlook the delicate question which has arisen from events 
 which have happened in the late Mexican province of Texas. 
 The independence of that province has now been recognized by 
 the government of the United States. Congress gave the pres- 
 ident the means, to be used when he saw lit, of opening a di- 
 plomatic intercourse with its government, and the late president 
 immediately made use of those means. 
 
 I saw no objection, vnider the circumstances, to voting an 
 appropriation to be used when the president should think the 
 proper time had come ; and he deemed, very promptly, it is 
 true, that the time had already arrived. Certainly, gentlemen, 
 the history of Texas is not a little wonderful. A very few 
 people, in a very short time, have established a government for 
 themselves, against the authority of the parent state ; and which 
 government, it is generally supposed, there is little probabil- 
 ity, at the present moment, of the parent state being able to 
 overturn. 
 
 This government is, in form, a copy of our o^vn. It is an 
 American constitution, substantially after the great American 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 279 
 
 model. We all, therefore, must wish it success ; and there is 
 no one who will more heartily rejoice than I shall, to see an in- 
 dependent community, intelligent, industrious, and friendly to- 
 ward us, springing up, and rising into happiness, distinction and 
 power, upon our own principles of liberty and government. 
 
 But it cannot be disguised, gentlemen, that a desire, or an in- 
 tention, is already manifested to annex Texas to the United 
 States. On a subject of such mighty magnitude as this, and at 
 a moment when the public attention is drawn to it, I should feel 
 myself wanting in candor, if I did not express my opinion, since 
 all must suppose that, on such a question, it is impossible that 
 I should be without some opinion. 
 
 I say, then, gentlemen, in all frankness, that I see objections, 
 I think insurmountable objections, to the annexation of Texas to 
 the United States. When the constitution was formed, it is not 
 probaljle tliat either its franiers or the people ever looked to the 
 admission of any states into the Union, except such as then 
 already existed, and such as should be formed out of territories 
 then already belonging to the United States. Fifteen years 
 after the adoption of the constitution, however, the case of Lou- 
 isiana arose. Louisiana was obtained by treaty with France, 
 who had recently obtained it from Spain ; but the object of this 
 acquisition certainly was not mere extension of territory. Other 
 great political interests were connected with it. Spain, while 
 she possessed Louisiana, had held the mouths of the great rivers 
 which rise in the western states, and flow into the gulf of Mex- 
 ico. She had disputed our use of these rivers already, and with 
 a powerful nation in possession of these outlets to the sea, it is 
 obvious that the commerce of all the west was in danger of 
 perpetual vexation. The command of these rivers to the sea 
 was, therefore, the great object aimed at in the acquisition of 
 Louisiana. But that acquisition necessarily brought territory 
 along with it, and three states now exist, formed out of that an- 
 cient px'ovince. 
 
280 "WEBSTER AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 A similar policy, and a similar necessity, though perhaps not 
 entirely so urgent, led to the acquisition of Florida. 
 
 Now, no such necessity, no such policy, requires the annexa- 
 tion of Texas. The accession of Texas to our territory, is not 
 necessary to the full and complete enjoyment of all which we 
 already possess. Her case, therefore, stands upon a footing en- 
 tirely different from that of Louisiana and Florida. There be- 
 ing no necessity for extending the limits of the Union in that 
 direction, we ought, I think, for numerous and powerful reasons, 
 to be content with our present boundaries. 
 
 Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever possessed, Texas 
 is likely to be a slave-holding country ; and I frankly avow my 
 entire unwillingness to do anything that shall extend the slavery 
 of the African race on this continent, or add other slave-holding 
 states to the Union. When I say that I regard slavery in itself 
 as a great moral, social, and political evil, I only use language 
 which has been adopted by distinguished men, themselves citi- 
 zens of slave-holding states. I shall do nothing, therefore, to 
 favor or encourage its further extension. We have slavery al- 
 ready among us. The constitution found it among us ; it re- 
 cognized it, and gave it solemn guaranties. To the full extent 
 of these guaranties we are all bound, in honor, in justice, and 
 bv the constitution. All the stipulations contained in the con- 
 stitution in favor of the slave-hulding states which are already 
 in the Union, ought to be fulfilled, and, so far as depends on me, 
 shall be fulfilled, in the fullness of their spirit and to the exact- 
 ness of their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the states, is be- 
 yond the reach of congress. It is a concern of the states them- 
 selves ; they have never submitted it to congress, and congress 
 has no rightful power over it. I shall concur, therefore, in no 
 act, no measure, no menace, no indication of purpose, which 
 shall interfere or threaten to interfere with the exclusive author- 
 ity of the several states over the subject of slavery as it exists 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 281 
 
 withiii their respective limits. All this appears to me to be 
 matter of plain and imperative dutj. 
 
 But when we come to speak of admitting new states, the 
 subject assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights' and 
 our duties are then both different. 
 
 The free states, and all the states, arc then at liberty to ac- 
 cept or to reject. When it is proposed to bring new members 
 into this political partnership, the old members have a right to 
 say on what terms such new partners are to come in, and'' what 
 they are to bring along with them. In my opinion, the people 
 of the United States will not consent to bring a new, vastly ex- 
 tensive, and slave-holding country, large enough for half a dozen 
 or a dozen states, into the Union. In my opinion, they ought 
 not to consent to it. Indeed, I am altogether at a loss to con- 
 ceive what possible benefit any part of this country can expect 
 to derive from such annexation. All benefit to any part is at 
 least doubtful and uncertain ; the objections, obvious, plain, and 
 strong. On the general question of slavery, a great portion of 
 the community is already strongly excited. The subject has 
 not only attracted attention as a question of politics, but it has 
 struck a far deeper-toned chord. It has arrested the religious 
 feeling of the country ; it has taken strong hold on the con- 
 sciences of man. He is a rash man, indeed, and little conver- 
 sant with human nature, and especially has he a very erroneous 
 estimate of the character of the people of this country, who sup- 
 poses that a feeluig of this kind is to be trifled with or' despised. 
 It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may be rea- 
 soned with, it may be made willing, I believe it is entirely wil- 
 ling, to fulfill all existing engagements and all existing duties, 
 to uphold and defend the constitution as it is established, with 
 whatever regrets about some provisions which it does actually 
 contain. But to coerce it into silence, to endeavor to restrain its 
 free expression, to seek to compress and confine it, warm as it 
 is, and more heated as such endeavors would mevitably render 
 
282 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 it — should all this be attempted, I know nothing, even in the 
 constitution or in the Union itself, which would not be endan- 
 gered by the explosion which might follow. 
 
 I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of 
 Texas to the Union ; no advantages to be derived from it ; and 
 objections to it of a strong, and, in my judgment, decisive 
 character. 
 
 I believe it to be for the interest and happiness of the whole 
 Union to remain as it is, without diminution and without ad- 
 dition. 
 
 Gentlemen, I pass to other subjects. The rapid advancement 
 oPthe executive authority is a topic which has already been al- 
 luded to. 
 
 I believe there is serious cause of danger fi-om this source. 
 I believe the power of the executive has increased, is increasing, 
 and ought now to be brought back within its ancient constitu- 
 tional limits. I have nothing to do with the motives which 
 have led to those acts, which I believe to have transcended the 
 boundaries of the constitution. Good motives may always be 
 assumed, as bad motives may always be imputed. Good in- 
 tentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power ; 
 but they cannot justify it, even if we were sure that they existed. 
 It is hardly too strong to say, that the constitution was made 
 to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real 
 or pretended. When bad intentions are boldly avowed, the 
 people will promptly take care of themselves. On the other 
 hand, they will always be asked why they should resist or ques- 
 tion that exercise of power wliich is so fair in its object, so plau- 
 sible and patriotic in appearance, and which has the public good 
 alone confessedly in view 1 Human beings, we may be as- 
 sured, will generally exercise power when they can get it ; and 
 they will exercise it most undoubtedly, in popular goverments, 
 under pretenses of public safety or high public interest. It may 
 be very possible that good intentions do really sometimes exist 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 283 
 
 when constitutional restraints are disregarded. There are men, 
 in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully ; but who 
 mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well ; but they 
 mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters ; but they 
 mean to be masters. They thiiili there need be but little re- 
 straint upon themselves. Their notion of the public interest is 
 apt to be quite closely connected with their own exercise of au- 
 thority. ITiey may not, indeed, always understand their own 
 motives. The love of power may sink too deep in their hearts 
 even for their own security, and may pass with themselves for 
 mere patriotism and benevolence. 
 
 A character has been drawn of a very eminent citizen of 
 Massachusetts, of the last age, which, though I think it does not 
 entirely belong to him, yet very well describes a certain class 
 of public men. It was said of this distinguished son of Massa- 
 chusets, that in matters of politics and government he cherished 
 the most kind and benevolent feelings toward the whole earth. 
 He earnestly desired to see all nations well governed ; and to 
 bring about this happy result, he wished that the United States 
 might govern the rest of the world ; that JMassachusetts might 
 govern the United States ; that Boston might govern Massa- 
 chusetts; and as for himself, his own humble ambition would 
 be satisfied by governing the little town of Boston. 
 
 I do not intend, gentlemen, to commit so unreasonable a 
 trespass on your patience as to discuss all those cases in which 
 I think executive power has been unreasonably extended. I 
 shall only allude to some of them, and, as being earliest in' the 
 order of time, and hardly second to any other in importance I 
 mention the practice of removal from all offices, high and low for 
 opinion's sake, and on the avowed ground of giving patronac^e 
 to the president; that is to say, of giving hi.n the power Jf 
 mfluencing men's political opinions and political conduct, by 
 hopes and by fears addressed directly to their pecuniary inter- 
 ests. The great battle on this point was fought, and was lost, 
 
284 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 in the senate of the United States, in the last session of congress 
 xmder Ui\ Adams's administration. After General Jackson 
 was knomi to be elected, and before his term of office began, 
 many important offices became vacant, by the usual causes of 
 death and resignation. ]\Ir. Adams, of course, nominated per- 
 sons to fill these vacant offices. But a majority of the senate 
 was composed of the friends of General Jackson ; and, instead 
 of acting on these nominations, and filling the vacant offices with 
 ordinary promptitude, the nominations were postponed to a day 
 beyond the 4th of March, for the purpose, openly avowed, of 
 giving the patronage of the appointments to the president who 
 was Then coming into oflice. And when the new president en- 
 tered on his office, he withdrew these nominations, and sent in 
 nominations of his own friends in their places. I was of opin- 
 ion then, and am of opinion now, that that decision of the sen- 
 ate went far to unfix the proper balance of the government. 
 It conferred on the president the power of rewards for party 
 purposes, or personal purposes, without limit or control. It 
 sanctioned, manifestly and plainly, that exercise of power which 
 Mr. Madison had said would deserve impeachment; and it 
 completely defeated one great object, which we are told the 
 framers of the constitution contemplated, in the manner of 
 forming the senate ; that is, that the senate might be a body 
 not changing with the election of a president, and therefore 
 likely to be able to hold over him some check or restraint in 
 regard to bringing his own friends and partisans into power 
 with him, and thus rewardbig their services to him at the pub- 
 lic expense. 
 
 The debates in the senate, on these questions, were long con- 
 tinued and earnest. They were of course in secret session, but 
 the opinion of those members who opposed this course have all 
 been proved true by the result. The contest was severe and 
 ardent, as much so as any that I have ever partaken m ; and I 
 liave seen some service in that sort of warfare. 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 285 
 
 Gentlemen, when I look back to that eventful moment, when 
 I remember who those were who upheld this claim for execu- 
 tive power, with so much zeal and devotion, as well as with 
 such great and splendid abilities, and when I look round now, 
 and inquire what has become of these gentlemen, where they 
 have found themselves at last, under the power which they thus 
 helped to establish, what has become now of all their respect, 
 trust, confidence, and attachment, how many of them, indeed, 
 have not escaped from being broken and crushed luider the 
 weight of the wheels of that engine which they themselves set 
 in motion, I feel that an edifying lesson may be read by those 
 who, in the freshness and fullness of party zeal, are ready to con- 
 fer the most dangerous power, in the hope that they and their 
 friends may bask in its sunshine, while enemies only shall be 
 withered by its frown. 
 
 I will not go into the mention of names. I will give no 
 enumeration of persons ; but I ask you to turn your minds 
 back, and recollect who the distinguished men were who sup- 
 ported, in the senate. General Jackson's administration for the 
 first two years ; and I will ask you what you suppose they think 
 now of that power and that discretion which they so fi'eely con- 
 fided to executive hands. What do they think of the whole 
 career of that administration, the commencement of which, and 
 indeed the existence of which, owed so much to their own great 
 exertions ? 
 
 In addition to the establishment of this power of unlimited 
 and causeless removal, another doctrine has been put forth, more 
 vague, it is true, but altogether unconstitutional, and tending to 
 like dangerous results. In some loose, indefinite, and unkno^vn 
 sense, the president has been called the re^^resentative of the 
 whole American people. He has called himself so repeatedly, 
 and been so denominated by his friends a thousand times. 
 Acts, for which no specific authority has been found either in 
 the constitution or the laws, have been justified on the ground 
 
280 WRCSTER AND HTS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 that the president is the representative of the whole American 
 people. Certainly, this is not constitutional language. Cer- 
 tainly, the constitution nowhere calls the president the univer- 
 ^1 representative of the people. The constitutional representa- 
 tives of the people mi- in tho house of representatives, exer- 
 cising powers of legislation. Tiic president is an executive of- 
 ficer" appointed ui a particular manner, and clothed with pre- 
 scrilied and limited powers. It may be thought to be of no 
 great consequence, that the president should call himself, or 
 that others should call him, the sole representative of all the 
 people, although he has no such appellation or character in the 
 constitution. But, in these matters, words are things. If he is 
 the people's representative, and as such may exercise power, 
 without any other grant, what is the limit to that power ? And 
 what may not an unlimited representative of the people do 1 
 When the constitution expressly creates representatives, as 
 members of congress, it regulates, defines, and limits their au- 
 thority. But if the executive chief-magistrate, merely because 
 he is the executive chief-magistrate, may assume to himself an- 
 other character, and call himself the representative of the whole 
 people, what is to limit or restrain this representative power in 
 
 his hands 1 
 
 1 fear, gentlemen, that if these pretensions should be contin- 
 ued and' justified, we might have many instances of summary 
 political logic, such as 1 once heard in the house of representa- 
 tives. A gentleman, not now living, wished very much to vote 
 for the establishment of a banli of the United States, but he 
 had always stoutly denied the constitutional power of congress 
 to create such a bank. The country, however, was in a state 
 of great financial distress, from which such an institution, it was 
 hoped, might help to extricate it; and tliis consideration led the 
 worthy member to review his opinions with care and delibera- 
 tion. Happily, on such careful and deliberate review, he altered 
 liis former judgment. He came, satisfactorily, to the conclusion 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 287 
 
 that congress might incjorporate a bank. The argument which 
 brought his mind to this result was short, and so plain and ob- 
 vious, that he wondered how he should so long have overlooked 
 it. The power, he said, to create a bank, was either given to 
 congress, or it was not given. Very well. If it was given, 
 congress of course could exercise it ; if it was not given, the 
 people still retained it, and in that case, congress, as the repre- 
 sentatives of the people, might, upon an emergency, make free 
 to use it. 
 
 Arguments and conclusions in substance like these, gentle- 
 men, will not be wanting, if men of great popularity, command- 
 ing characters, sustained by powerful parties, and full of good 
 intentions totvard the public, may be permitted to call them- 
 selves the universal representatives of the people. 
 
 But, gentlemen, it is the currency, the currency of the coun- 
 tiy — it is this gi'eat subject, so interesting, so vital, to all classes 
 of the community, which has been destined to feel the most 
 violent assaults of executive power. The consequences are 
 around us and upon us. Not unforeseen, not unforetold, here 
 they come, bringing distress for the present, and fear and alarm 
 for the future. If it be denied that the present condition of 
 things has arisen from the president's interference with the rev- 
 enue, the first answer is, that when he did interfere, just such 
 consequences were predicted. It was then said, and repeated, 
 and pressed upon the public attention, that that interference 
 must necessarily produce derangement, embarrassment, loss of 
 confidence, and commercial distress. I pray you, gentlemen, to 
 recur to the debates of 1832, 1833, and 1834, and then to de- 
 cide whose opinions have proved to be correct. When the 
 treasury experiment was first announced, who supported, and 
 who opposed it 1 Who warned the country against it 1 Who 
 were they who endeavored to stay the violence of party, to ar- 
 rest the hand of executive authority, and to convince the peo- 
 ple that this experiment was delusive; that its object was 
 
288 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 merely to increase executive power, and that its effect, sooner 
 or later, must be injurious and ruinous ? Gentlemen, it is fair 
 to bring the opinions of political men to the test of experience. 
 It is just to judge of them by their measures, and their opposi- 
 tion to measures ; and for myself, and those political friends 
 with whom I have acted, on this subject of the currency, I am 
 ready to abide the test. 
 
 But before the subject of the currency, and its present most 
 embarrassing state, is discussed, I invite your attention, gentle- 
 men, to the history of executive proceedings connected with it. 
 1 2)ropose to state to you a series of flicts ; not to argue upon 
 them, not to mystify them, not to draw any unjust inference 
 from them ; but merely to state the case, in the plainest man- 
 ner, as I understand it. And I wish, gentlemen, that, in order 
 to be able to do this in the best and most convincing man- 
 ner, I had the ability of my learned friend, (Mr. Ogden,) 
 whom you have all so often heard, and who usually states his 
 case in such a manner tliat, when stated, it is already very well 
 argued.' 
 
 Let us see, gentlemen, what the train of occurrences has 
 been in regard to our revenue and finances ; and when these 
 occurrences are stated, I leave to every man the right to decide 
 for himself whether our present difficulties have or have not 
 arisen from attempts to extend the executive authority. In giv- 
 ing this detail, I shall be compelled to speak of the late bank 
 of the United States; but 1 shall speak of it historically only. 
 My opinion of its utility, and of the extraordinary ability and 
 success with which its affairs were conducted for many years 
 before the termination of its charter, is well known. I have 
 often expressed it, and I have not altered it. But at present, I 
 speak of the bank only as it makes a necessary part in the his- 
 tory of events wliich I wish now to recapitulate. 
 
 Mr. Adams commenced his administration in March, 1825. 
 He had been elected by the house of representatives, and be- 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YOUK. 289 
 
 gan his career as president under a strong and powerful oppo- 
 sition. From the very first day, he was warmly, even vio- 
 lently, opposed in all his measures ; and this opposition, as we 
 all know, continued without abatement, either in force or as- 
 perity, through his whole term of four years. Gentlemen, I 
 am not about to say whether this opposition was well or ill 
 fotiiidcd, just or unjust. I only state the fact as connected with 
 other facts. The bank of the United States, during these four 
 years of Mr. Adams's administration, was in fi^iU operation. It 
 was performing the fiscal duties enjoined on it by its charter ; 
 it had established numerous ofiices, was maintaining a large cir- 
 culation, and transacting a vast business in exchange. Its char- 
 acter, conduct, and manner of administration were all well 
 known to the whole country. 
 
 Now there are two or three things worthy of special notice. 
 One is, that during the whole of this heated political contro- 
 versy, fi-om 1825 to 1829, the party which was endeavoring to 
 produce a change of administration brought no charge of polit- 
 ical interference against the bank of the United States. If any- 
 thing, it was rather a favorite with the party generally. Cer- 
 tainly, the party, as a party, did not ascribe to it undue attach- 
 ment to other parties, or to the then existing administration. 
 Another important fact is, that, during the whole of the same 
 period, those who had espoused the cause of General Jackson, 
 and who sought to bring about a revolution under his name, 
 did not propose the destruction of the bank, or its discontinuance, 
 as one of the objects which were to be accomplished by the in- 
 tended revolution. They did not tell the country that the bank 
 was unconstitutional ; they did not declare it unnecessary ; they 
 did not propose to get along without it, when they should come 
 into power themselves. If individuals entertained any such 
 purposes, they kept them much to themselves. Tha party, as 
 a party, avowed none such. A third fact, worthy of all notice, 
 is, that during this period there was no complaint about the 
 VOL. II. M 19 
 
290 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 State of the currency, either by the country generally or by the 
 party then in opposition. 
 
 In March, 1829, General Jackson was inaugurated, lie 
 came in on professions of reform. He announced reform of all 
 abuses to be the great and leading object of his future adminis- 
 tration; and in his inaugural address he pointed out the mam 
 subjects of this reform. But the bank was not one of them. 
 It was not said that the bank was unconstitutional. It was not 
 said that it was unnecessary or useless. It was not said that it 
 had failed to do all that had been hoped or expected trom it in 
 regard to the currency. 
 
 In March, 1829, then, the bank stood well, very well, with 
 the new administration. It was regarded, so far as appears, as 
 entirely constitutional, free from political or party taint, and 
 highly useful. It had as yet found no place in the catalogue ot 
 abuses to be reformed. 
 
 But gentlemen, nine months wrought a wonderful change. 
 New lights broke forth before these months had rolled away ; 
 and the president, in his message to congress, in December, 
 1829, held very different language and manifested very ditfer- 
 
 ent purposes. 
 
 Although the bank had then five or six years of its charter 
 unexpired, he yet called the attention of congress very pointedly 
 to the subject, and declared : — 
 
 1. That the constitutionality of the bank was well doubted 
 
 by many ; 
 
 2. That its utility or expediency was also well doubted ; 
 
 3". That all must admit that it had fiiled in undertaking to 
 establish or maintain a sound and unifH'm currency ; and 
 
 4. That the true bank for the use of the government of the 
 United States would be a bank which should be founded on the 
 revenues and credit of the government itself. 
 
 These propositions appeared to me, at the time, as very ex- 
 traordinary, and the last one as very startling. A bank founded 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 291 
 
 on the revenue and credit of the government, and managed and 
 administered by the executive, was a conception which I had 
 supposed no man holding the chief executive power in his own 
 hands would venture to put forth. 
 
 But the question now Is, what had wrought this gi-eat chan^-e 
 of feeling and of purpose in regard to the bank. What events 
 had occurred between March and December that should have 
 caused the bank, so constitutional, so useful, so peaceful, and so 
 safe an mstitution, in the first of these months, to start up into 
 the character of a monster, and become so horrid and danger- 
 ous, in the last ? ° 
 
 Gentlemen, let us see what the events were which had inter- 
 vened. GeneralJackson was elected in December 1828 His 
 term was to begin in ^larch, 1829. A session of congress took 
 place, therefore, between his election and the commencement 
 of his administration. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, the truth is, that during this session, and a 
 little before the commencement of the new administration a 
 disposition was manifested by political men to interfere with 
 the management of the bank. Members of congress under- 
 took to nominate or recommend individuals as directors in the 
 branches, or offices, of the bank. They were kind enough 
 sometmies, to make out whole lists, or tickets, and to send them 
 to Philadelphia, containing the names of those whose appoint- 
 ments would be satisfiictory to General Jackson's friends Por 
 tions of the correspondence on these subjects have been pub- 
 lished m some of the voluminous reports and other documents 
 connected with the bank, but perhaps have not been generally 
 heeded or noticed. At first, the bank merely declined, as gently 
 as possible, complying with these and similar requests But 
 like applications began to show themselves from many quarters 
 and a very marked case arose as early as June, 1829. Certain 
 members of the legislature of New Hampshire applied for a 
 change in the presidency of the branch which was established 
 
292 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 in that state. A member of the senate of the United Stites 
 wrote both to the president of the bank and to the secretary 
 of the treasury, strongly recommending a change, and in his 
 letter to the secretary hinting very distinctly at political con- 
 siderations as the ground of the movement. Other officers in 
 the service of the government took an interest in the matter, 
 and urged a change ; and the secretary himself wrote to the 
 bank suggesting and recommending it. The time had come, 
 then, for the bank to take its position. It did take it ; and, in 
 my judgment, if it had not acted as it did act, not only would 
 those who had the care of it have been most highly censurable, 
 but a claim would have been yielded to, entirely inconsistent . 
 with a government of laws, and subversive of the very founda- 
 tions of republicanism. 
 
 A long correspondence between the secretary of the treasury 
 and the president of the bank ensued. The directors deter- 
 mined that they would not surrender either their rights or theii' 
 duties to the control or supervision of the executive government. 
 They said they had never appointed directors of their branches 
 on political grounds, and they would not remove them on such 
 grounds. They had avoided politics. They had sought for 
 men of" business capacity, fidelity, and experience in the man- 
 agement of pecuniary concerns. They owed duties, they said, 
 to the government, which they meant to perform, fliitlifully and 
 iinpartially, under all administrations ; and they owed duties to 
 the stockholders of the bank, which required them to disregard 
 political considerations in their appointments. This corresjjond- 
 ence ran along mto the fall of the year, and finally terminated 
 in a stern and unanimous declaration, made by the directors, 
 and transmitted to the secretary of the treasury, that the bank 
 would continue to be independently administered, and that the 
 directors once for all refused to submit to the supervision of the 
 executive authority, in any of its branches, in the appointment 
 of local directors and agents. This i-esolution decided the char- 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 293 
 
 acter of the future. Hostility toward the bank, thenceforward, 
 became the settled policy of the government; and the message 
 of December, 1829, was the clear announcement of that policy. 
 If the bank had appointed those directors, thus recommended 
 by members of congress ; if it had submitted all its appoint- 
 ments to the supervision of the treasury ; if it had removed the 
 president of the New Hampshire branch ; if it had, in all things, 
 showed itself a complying, political party machme, instead of 
 an independent institution ; if it had done this, I leave all men 
 to judge whether such an entire change of opinion j as to its 
 constitutionality, its utility, and its good effects on the currency 
 would have happened between ISIarch and December. 
 
 From the moment in which the bank asserted its indepen- 
 dence of treasury control, and its elevation above mere party 
 purposes, down to the end of its charter, and down even to the 
 present day, it has been the subject to which the selectest 
 plii'ases of party denunciation have been plentifully applied. 
 
 But congress manifested no disposition to establish a treas- 
 ury bank. On the contrary, it was satisfied, and so was the 
 country, most unquestionably, with the banli then existing. In 
 the summer of 1832, congress passed an act for continuing the 
 charter of the bank, by strong majorities in both houses. lu 
 the house of representatives, I think two-thirds of the members 
 voted for the bill. The president gave it his negative ; and as 
 there were not two-thirds of the senate, though a large major- 
 ity were for it, the bill failed- to become a law. 
 
 But it was not enough that a contmuance of the charter of 
 the bank was thus refused. It had the deposit of the public 
 money, and this it was entitled to by law, for the few years 
 which yet remained of its chartered term. But this it was de- 
 termined it should not enjoy. At the commencement of the 
 session of 1832-33, a grave and sober doubt was expressed by 
 the secretary of the treasury, in his official communication, 
 whether the public moneys were safe in the custody of the 
 
294 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 bank ! I confess, gentlemen, when I look back to this sugges- 
 tion, thus officially made, so serious m its import, so unjust, if 
 not well founded, and so greatly injurious to the credit of the 
 bank, and injurious, indeed, to the credit of the whole country, 
 I cannot but wonder that any man of intelligence and character 
 should have been willing to make it. I read in it, however, 
 the first lines of another chapter. I saw an attempt was now 
 to be make to remove the deposits, and such an attempt was 
 made that very session. But congress was not to be prevailed 
 upon to accomplish the end by its own authority. It was well 
 ascertained that neither house would consent to it. The house 
 of representatives, indeed, at the heel of the session, decided 
 against the proposition by a very large majority. 
 
 The legislative authority having been thus invoked, and in- 
 voked in vain, it was resolved to stretch .farther the long arm 
 of executive power, and by that arm to reach and strike the 
 victim. It so happened that I was in this city in May, 1833, 
 and here learned, from a veiy authentic source, tliat the depos- 
 its would be removed by the president's order ; and in June, 
 as afterward appeared, that order was given. 
 
 Now it is obvious, gentlemen, that thus far the changes in 
 our financial and fiscal system were effected, not by congress, 
 but by the executive ; not by law, but by the will and the 
 power of the president. Congress would have continued the 
 charter of the bank ; but the president negatived the bill. Con- 
 gress was of opinion that tlie deposits ought not to be removed ; 
 but the president removed them. Nor was this all. The pub- 
 lic moneys being withdrawn from the custody which the law 
 had provided, by executive power alone, that same power se- 
 lected the places for their future keeping. Particular banks, 
 existing under state charters, were chosen. With these, espe- 
 cial and particular arrangements were made, and the public 
 moneys were deposited in their vaults. Henceforward these 
 selected banks were to operate on the revenue aiid credit of the 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 295 
 
 government ; and thus the original scheme, promulgated in the 
 annual message of December, 1829, was substantially carried 
 into effect. Here were banks chosen by the treasury ; all the 
 arrangements made with them made by the treasury ; a set of 
 duties prescribed to be . performed by them to the treasury ; 
 and these banks were to hold the whole proceeds of the public 
 revenue. In all this, congress had neither part nor lot. No 
 law had caused the removal of the deposits ; no law had au- 
 thorized the selection of deposit state banks ; no law had pre- 
 scribed the terms on which the revenues should be placed in 
 such banks. From the beginnmg of the chapter to the end, it 
 was all executive edict. And now, gentlemen, I ask if it be not 
 most remarkable, that, in a country professing to be under a 
 government of laws, such great and important changes in one 
 of its most essential and vital interests should be brouirht about 
 without any change of law, without any enactment of the legis- 
 lature whatever 1 Is such a power trusted to the executive of 
 any government in which the executive is separated, by clear 
 and well defined lines, from the legislative department ? TTie 
 currency of the country stands on the same general ground 
 as the commerce of the country. Both are intimately con- 
 nected, and both are subjects of legal, not of executive reg- 
 ulation. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that the writers of the Federalist, in 
 discussing the powers which the constitution conferred on the 
 president, made it matter of commendation, that it withdraws 
 this subject altogether from his grasp. " He can prescribe no 
 rules," say they, "concerning the commerce or currenct/ of the 
 country." And so we have been all taught to think, under all 
 former administrations. But we have now seen that the pres- 
 ident, and the president alone, does prescribe the rule concern- 
 ing the currency. He makes it, and he alters it. He makes 
 one rule for one branch of the revenue, and another rule for an- 
 other. He makes one rule for the citizens of one state, and an- 
 
206 WERSTER AND lilS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 other for the citizens of another state. This, it is certain, is one 
 part of the treasury order of July last. 
 
 But at last congress interfered, and undertook to regulate 
 the deposits of the public moneys. It passed the law of July, 
 1836, placing the subject under legal control, restraining the 
 power of the executive, subjecting the banks to liabilities and 
 duties, on the one hand, and securing them against executive 
 favoritism, on the other. But this law contained another im- 
 portant provision ; which was, that all the money in the treas- 
 ury, beyond what was necessary for the current expenditures 
 of the government, should be deposited with the states. Tliis 
 measure passed both houses by very unusual majorities, yet it 
 hardly escaped a veto. It obtained only a cold assent, a slow, 
 reluctant, and hesitating approval ; ar.d an early moment was 
 seized to array against it a long list of objections. But the Luv 
 passed. Tlie money in the treasury beyond the sum of five 
 millions was to go to the states. It has so gone, and the treas- 
 ury for the present is relieved from the burden of a surplus. 
 But now observe other coincidences. In the annual message 
 of December, 1835, the president quoted the fixct of the rapidly 
 increasing sale of the public lands as proof of high national pros 
 parity. He alluded to that subject, certainly with much satis- 
 faction, and apparently in something of the tone of exultation. 
 There was nothing said about monopoly, not a word about 
 speculation, not a word about over issues of paper, to pay for 
 the lands. All was prosperous, all was full of evidence of a 
 wise administration of government, all was joy and triumph. 
 
 But the idea of a deposit or distribution of the surplus money 
 with the people suddenly damped this cflervescing happiness. 
 The color of the rose was gone, and everything now looked 
 gloomy and black. Now no more felicitation or congratula- 
 tion, on account of the rapid sales of the public lands ; no more 
 of this most decisive proof of national prosperity and happiness. 
 The executive muse takes up a mekmcholy strain. She sings 
 
SPEECH AT NEW TORK. 297 
 
 of monopolies, of speculation, of worthless paper, of loss both 
 of land and money, of the multiplication of banks, and the dan 
 ger of paper issues ; and the end of the canto, the catastrophe, 
 is, that lands shall no longer be sold but for gold and silver 
 alone, Tlie object of all this is clear enough. It was to di 
 raiiiish the income from the public lands. No desire for such 
 a diminution had been manifested, so long as the money waa 
 supposed to be likely to remain in the treasury. But a grow- 
 ing conviction that some other disposition must be made of 
 the surplus, awakened attention to the means of preventing 
 that surplus. 
 
 Toward the end of the last session, gentlemen, a proposition 
 was brought forward in congress for such an alteration of the 
 law as should admit payment for public lands to be made in 
 nothing but gold and silver. The mover voted for his own 
 proposition ; but I do not recollect that any other member con- 
 curred in the vote. Tlie proposition was rejected at once ; but, 
 as in other cases, that which congress refused to do, the execu- 
 tive power did. Ten days after congress adjourned, having had 
 this matter before it, and having refused to act upon it by ma- 
 king any alteration in the existing laws, a treasury order was 
 issued, commanding the very thing to be done which congress 
 had been requested to do, and had refused to do. Just as in 
 the case of the removal of the deposits, the executive power 
 acted in this case also against the known, well understood, and 
 recently expressed will of the representatives of the people. 
 There never has been a moment when the legislative will 
 would have sanctioned the object of that order ; probably 
 never a moment in which any twenty individual members of 
 congress would have concurred in it. The act was done with- 
 out the assent of congress, and against the well known opinion 
 of congress. That act altered the law of the land, or pur- 
 ports to alter it, against the well known will of the law-making 
 power. 
 
 VOL. II. M* 
 
298 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTKR-PIECES. 
 
 For one, I confess I see no authority whatever in the consti- 
 tution, or in any law, for this treasury order. Those who have 
 undertaken to maintain it have placed it on grounds, not only 
 different, but inconsistent and contradictory. The reason which 
 one gis'es, another rejects ; one confutes what another argues. 
 With one it is the joint resolution of 1816 which gave the au- 
 thority ; with another, it is the law of 1820 ; with a third, it is 
 the general superintending power of the president ; and this last 
 argument, since it resolves itself into mere power, without stop- 
 ping to point out the sources of that power, is not only the 
 shortest, but in truth the most just. He is the most sensible, 
 as well as the most candid reasoner, in my opinion, who places 
 this treasury order on the ground of the pleasure of the execu- 
 tive, and stops there. I regard the joint resolution of 1816 as 
 mandatory; as prescribing a legal rule ; as putting this subject, 
 in which all have so deep an interest, beyond the caprice, or the 
 arbitrary pleasure, or the discretion, of the secretary of the 
 treasury. I believe there is not the slightest legal authority, 
 either in that officer or the president, to make a distinction, and 
 to say that paper may be received for debts at the custom- 
 house, but that gold and silver only shall be received at the 
 land offices. And now for the sequel. 
 
 At the commencement of the last session, as you know, gen- 
 tlemen, a resolution was brought forward in the senate for an- 
 nulling and abrogating this order, by Mr, Ewing, a gentleman, 
 of much intelligence, of sound principles, of vigorous and ener- 
 getic character, whose loss from the service of the country I re- 
 gard as a public misfortune. The whig members all supported 
 this resolution, and all the members, I believe, with the excep- 
 tion of some five or six, were very anxious in some way to get 
 rid of the treasury order. But Mr. Ewing's resolution was too 
 direct. It was deemed a pointed an ungracious attack on exe- 
 cutive policy. Therefore it must be softened, modified, quali- 
 fied, made to sound less harsh to the eara of men in power, and 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 299 
 
 to assume a plausible, polished, inoffensive character. It was 
 accordingly put into the plastic hands of friends of the execu- 
 tive to be moulded and fasliioned, so that it might have the 
 effect of ridding the country of the obnoxious order, and yet 
 not appear to question executive infallibility. All this did 
 not answer. The late president is not a man to be satisfied 
 with soff: words ; and he saw, in the measure, even as it passed 
 the two houses, a substantial repeal of the order. He is a man 
 of boldness and decision ; and he respects boldness and decision 
 in others. If you are his friend, he expects no flinching ; and 
 if you are his adversary, he respects you none the less for car- 
 rying your opposition to the full limits of honorable warfare. 
 Gentlemen, I most sincerely regret the course of the president 
 in regard to this bill, and certainly most highly disapprove it. 
 But I do not suflfer the mortification of having attempted to dis- 
 guise and garnish it, in order to make it acceptable, and of still 
 finding it throAni back in my face. All that was obtained by 
 this ingenious, diplomatic, and over-courteous mode of enacting 
 a law, was a response from the president and the attorney-gen- 
 eral, that the bill in question was obscure, ill-penned, and not 
 easy to be understood. The bill, therefore, was neither ap- 
 proved nor negatived. If it had been approved, the treasury 
 order would have been annulled, though in a clumsy and objec- 
 tionable manner. If it had been negatived, and returned to 
 congress, no doubt it would have been passed by two-thirds of 
 both houses, and in that way have become a law, and abroga- 
 ted the order. But it was not approved, it was not returned ; 
 it was retained. It had passed the senate in season ; it had 
 been sent to the house in season ; but there it was suffered to 
 lie so long without being called up, that it was completely in 
 the power of the president when it finally passed that body ; 
 since he is not obliged to return bills which he does not ap- 
 prove, if not presented to him ten days before the end of the 
 session. The bill was lost, therefore, and the treasury order 
 
300 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 remains in force. Here again the representatives of the peo- 
 ple, in both houses of congress, by majorities almost unprece- 
 dented, endeavored to abolish this obnoxious order. On hardly 
 any subject, indeed, has opinion been so unanimous, either in 
 or out of congress. Yet the order remains. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, I iisk you, and I ask all men who have 
 not voluntarily surrendered all power and all right of thinking 
 for themselves, whether, fi-om 1832 to the present moment, the 
 executive authority has not effectually superseded the power of 
 congress, thwarted the will of the representatives of the people, 
 and even of the people themselves, and taken the whole subject 
 of the currency into its own grasp ? hi 1832, congress desired 
 to continue the bank of the United States, and a majority of 
 the people desired it also ; but the president opposed it, and his 
 will prevailed. In 1833, congress refused to remove the de- 
 posits ; the president resolved upon it, however, and his will 
 prevailed. Congress has never been willing to make a bank 
 founded on the money and credit of the government, and ad- 
 ministered, of course, by executive hands ; but this was the 
 president's object, and he attained it, in a great measure, by 
 the treasury selection of deposit banks. In this particulai', 
 therefore, to a great extent, his will prevailed. In 1836, con- 
 gress refused to confine the receipts for public lands to gold and 
 silver ; but the president willed it, and his will prevailed. In 
 1837, both houses of congress, by more than two-thirds, passed 
 a bill for restoring the former state of things by annulling the 
 treasury order ; but the president willed, notwithstanding, that 
 the order should remain in force, and his will again prevailed. 
 I repeat the question, therefore, and would put it earnestly to 
 every intelligent man, to every lover of our. constitutional lib- 
 erty, are we under the dominion of the law 1 or has the eflect- 
 ual government of the country, at least in all that regards the 
 great interest of the currency, been in a single hand 1 
 
 Gentlemen, I have done with the narrative of events and 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 301 
 
 measures, I have done with the history of these successive 
 steps, in the progress of executive power, toward a complete 
 control over the revenue and the currency. The result is now 
 all before us. These pretended reforms, these extraordinary 
 exercises of power from an extraordinary zeal for the good of 
 the people, what have they brought us to 1 
 
 In 1829, the currency was declared to be neither sound nor 
 uniform ; a proposition, in my judgment, altogether at variance 
 with the fact, because I do not believe there ever was a country 
 of equal extent, in which paper formed any part of the circula- 
 tion, that possessed a currency so sound, so uniform, so con- 
 venient, and so perfect in all respects, as the currency of this 
 country, at the moment of the delivery of that message, in 
 1829. 
 
 But how is it now ? "Where has the improvement brought 
 it '? What has reform done 1 What has the great cry for hard 
 money accomplished 1 Is the cm'rency uniform now ? Is money 
 m New Orleans now as good, or nearly so, as money in New 
 York % Axe exchanges at par, or only at the same low rates 
 as in 1829 and other years? Every one here knows that all 
 the benefits of tliis experiment are but injury and oppression ; 
 all this reform, but aggravated distress. 
 
 And as to the soundness of the currency, how does that stand? 
 Are the causes of alarm less now than in 1829? Is there less 
 bank paper in circulation ? Is there less fear of a general catas- 
 trophe ? Is property more secure, or industry more certain of 
 its reward ? VV e all know, gentlemen, that, during all this pre- 
 tended warflire against all banks, banks have vastly increased. 
 Millions upon millions of bank paper have been added to the 
 circulation. Everywhere, and nowhere so much as where the 
 present administration and its measures have been most zeal- 
 ously supported, banks have multiplied under state authority, 
 since the decree was made that the bank of the United States 
 should be suffered to expire. Look at Mississippi, Missouri, 
 
302 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Louisiana, Virginia, and other states. Do wc not see that 
 banking capital and bank paper are enormously increasing } 
 Tlie opposition to banks, therefore, so much professed, whether 
 it be real or whether it be but pretended, has not restrained 
 either their nuniber or their issues of paper. Both have vastly 
 increased. 
 
 And now a word or two, gentlemen, upon this hard-money 
 scheme, and the fancies and the delusions to which it has given 
 birth. Gentlemen, this is a subject of delicacy, and one which 
 it is difficult to treat with sufficient caution, in a popular and 
 occasional address like this. I profess to be a huUionist^ in the 
 usual and accepted sense of that word. I am for a solid specie 
 basis for our circulation, and for specie as a part of the circula- 
 tion, so far as it may be practicable and convenient. I am for 
 giving no value to paper, merely as paper. I abhor paper; that 
 is to say, irredeemable paper, paper that may not be converted 
 into gold or silver at the Avill of the holder. But -while I hold 
 to all this, I believe, also, that an exclusive gold and silver circu- 
 lation is an utter impossibility in the present state of this coun- 
 try and of the world. We shall none of us ever see it ; and it 
 is credulity and folly, in my opinion, to act under any such 
 hope or expectation. The states will make banks, and these 
 will issue paper; and the longer the government of the United 
 States neglects its duty in regard to measures for regulating 
 the currency, the gi-eater will be the amount of bank paper 
 overspreading the country. Of this I entertain not a particle 
 of doubt. 
 
 While I thus hold to the absolute and indispensable necessity 
 of gold and silver, as the foundation of our circulation, I yet 
 think nothing more absurd and preposterous, than unnatural 
 and strained eilorts to import specie. There is but so much 
 .specie in the world, and its amount cannot be greatly or sud- 
 denly increased. Indeed, there are reasons for supposing that 
 its amount has recently diminished, by the quantity used in 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 303 
 
 manufactures, and by the diminished products of the mines. 
 The existing amount of specie, however, must support the paper 
 circulations, and the systems of currency, not of the United 
 Stiites only, but of other nations also. One of its great uses is 
 to pass from country to country, for the purpose of settling oc- 
 casional balances in commercial transactions. It always finds 
 its way, naturally and easily, to places where it is needed for 
 these uses. But to take extraordinary pains to bring it where 
 the course of trade does not bring it, where the state of debt 
 and credit does not require it to be, and then to endeavor, by 
 unnecessary and injurious regulations, treasury orders, accumu- 
 lations at the mint, and other contrivances, there to retain it, 
 is a course of policy bordering, as it appears to me, on political 
 insanity. It is boasted that we have seventy -five or eighty mil- 
 lions of specie now in the country. But what more senseless, 
 what more absurd, than this boast, if there is a balance against 
 us abroad, of which payment is desired sooner than remittances 
 of our own products are likely to make that payment 1 What 
 more miserable than the boast of having that which is not ours, 
 which belongs to others, and which the convenience of others, 
 and our own convenience also, require that they should possess? 
 If Boston were in debt to New York, would it be wise in Bos- 
 ton, instead of paying its debt, to contrive all possible means 
 of obtaining specie from the New York banks, and hoarding it 
 at home ? And yet this, as I think, would be precisely as sen- 
 sible as the course which the government of the United States 
 at present pursues. We have, without doubt, a great amount 
 of specie in the country, but it does not answer its accustomed 
 end, it does not perform its proper duty. It neither goes abroad 
 to settle balances against us, and thereby quiet those who have 
 demands upon us ; nor is it so disposed of at home as to sus- 
 tain the circulation to the extent which the circumstances of 
 the times require. A great part of it is in the western banks, 
 in the land offices, on the roads through the wilderness, on the 
 
304 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 passages over tlic lakes, from the land offices to the deposit 
 banks, and fi'om the deposit banks back to the land offices. 
 Another portion is in the hands of buyers and sellers of specie; 
 of men in the west, who sell land-office money to the new set- 
 tlers for a high premium. Another portion, again, is kept in 
 private hands, to be used when circumstances shall tempt to the 
 purchase of lands. And, gentlemen, I am inclined to think, so 
 loud has been the cry about hard money, and so sweeping the 
 denunciation of all paper, that private holding, or hoarding, pre- 
 vails to some extent in different parts of the country. These 
 eighty millions of specie, therefore, really do us little good. 
 We are weaker in our circulation, I have no doubt, our credit 
 is feebler, money is scarcer with us, at this moment, than if 
 twenty millions of this specie were shipped to Europe, and gen- 
 eral confidence thereby restored. 
 
 Gentlemen, I will not say that some degree of pressure might 
 not have come upon us, if the treasury order had not issued. I 
 will not s;iy that there has not been over trading, and over 
 production, and a too great expansion of bank circulation. This 
 may all be so, and the last mentioned evil, it was easy to fore- 
 see, was likely to happen when the United States discontinued 
 their own bank. But what I do say is, that, acting upon the 
 state of things as it actually existed, and is now actually exist- 
 ing, the ti'easury order has been, and now is, productive of 
 great distress. It acts upon a state of things which gives ex- 
 traordinary force to its stroke, and extraordinary point to its 
 sting. It arrests specie, when the free use and ciz'culation of 
 specie are most imporUmt; it cripples the banks, at a moment 
 wheii the banks more than ever need all their means. It makes 
 the merchant unable to remit, when remittance is necessary 
 for his own credit, and for the general adjustment of commer- 
 cial balances. I am not now discussing the general question, 
 whether prices must not come down, and adjust themselves 
 anew to the amount of bullion existing in Europe and America. 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 305 
 
 I am dealing only with the measures of our own government 
 on the subject of the currency, and I insist that these measures 
 have been most unfortunate, and most ruinous on the ordinary 
 means of our circulation at home, and on our ability of remit- 
 tance abroad. 
 
 Their effects, too, by deranging and misplacing the specie 
 which is in the country, are most disastrous on domestic ex- 
 changes. Let him who has lent an ear to aU these promises 
 of a more uniform currency, see how he can now sell his draft 
 on New Orleans or Mobile. Let the northern manufacturers 
 and mechanics, those who have sold the products of their labor 
 to the south, and heretofore realized the prices with little loss 
 of exchange, let them try present facilities. Let them see what 
 reform of the currency has done for them. Let them inquire 
 whether, in this respect, their condition is better or worse than 
 it was five or six years ago. 
 
 Gentlemen, I hold this disturbance of the measure of value, 
 and the means of payment and exchange, this derangement, and, 
 if may so say, this violation of the currency, to be one of the 
 most unpardonable of political faults. He who tampers with 
 the currency robs labor of its bread. He panders, indeed, to 
 greedy capital, which is keen-sighted, and may shift for itself; 
 but he beggars labor, which is honest, unsuspecting, and too 
 busy with the present to calculate for the future. The prosper- 
 ity of the working classes lives, moves, and has its being in es- 
 tablished credit, and a steady medium of payment. All sudden 
 changes destroy it. Honest industry never comes in for any 
 part of the spoils in that scramble which takes place when the 
 currency of a country is disordered. Did wild schemes and 
 projects ever benefit the industrious ? Did uTedeemable bank 
 paper ever enrich the laborious 1 Did violent fluctuations ever 
 do good to him who depends on his daily labor for his daily 
 brejid ? Certainly never. AU these things may gratify greed- 
 iness for sudden gain, or the rashness of daring speculation; but 
 VOL. II. 20 
 
306 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 they can bring nothing but injury and distress to the homes of 
 patient industiy and honest labor. Who ai*e they that profit 
 by the present state of things ? They are not the many, but 
 the few. They are speculators, brokers, dealers in money, and 
 lenders of money at exorbitant interest. Small capitalists are 
 crushed, and, their means being dispersed, as usual, in various 
 parts of the country, and this miserable policy having destroyed 
 exchanges, they have no longer either money or credit. And 
 all classes of labor partake, and must partake, in the same ca- 
 lamity. And what consolation for all tliis is it, that the public 
 lands arc paid for in specie? that, whatever embarrassment and 
 distress pervade the country, the western wilderness is thickly 
 sprinkled over with eagles and dollars 1 that gold goes weekly 
 from Milwaukie and Chicago to Detroit, and back again from 
 Detroit to Milwaukie and Cliictigo, and performs similar feats 
 .of egress and regress in many other instances, in the western 
 states'? It is remarkable enough, that, with all this sacrifice of 
 general convenience, with all this sky-rending clamor for gov- 
 ernment payments in specie, government, after all, never gets 
 a dollar. So far as 1 know, the United States have not now a 
 single specie dollar in the world. If they have, where is it? 
 The gold and silver collected at the land-ofiices is sent to the 
 deposit banks ; it is there placed to the credit of the govern- 
 ment, and thereby becomes the property of the bank. The 
 whole revenue of the government, therefore, afi;er all, consists 
 in mere bank credits ; that very sort of security which the 
 fi'iends of the administration have so much dejiounced. 
 
 Remember, gentlemen, in the midst of this deafening din 
 against all banks, that, if it shall create such a panic or such 
 alarm as shall shut up the banks, it will shut up the treasury 
 of the United States also. 
 
 Gentlemen, I would not willingly be a prophet of ill. I most 
 devoutly wish to see a better state of things ; and I believe the 
 repeal of the ti'easury order would tend very mucli to bring 
 
SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 307 
 
 about that better state of things. Aiid I am of opinion, gentle- 
 men, that the order will be repealed. I think it must be re- 
 pealed. I think the east, west, north, and south will demand 
 its repeal. But, gentlemen, I feel it my duty to say, that, if I 
 should be disappointed in this expectation, I see no immediate 
 relief to the distresses of the community. I greatly fear, even, 
 that the worst is not yet. I look for severer distresses ; for ex- 
 treme difficulties in exchange, for far greater inconveniences in 
 remittance, and for a sudden fall in prices. Oiu* condition is 
 one which is not to be tampered with, and the repeal of the 
 treasury order, being something which government can do, and 
 which will do good, the public voice is right in demanding that 
 repeal. It is true, if repealed now, the reUef will come late. 
 Nevertheless its repeal or abrogation is a thing to be insisted 
 on, and pursued, till it shall be accomplished. The executive 
 control over the currency, tliis power of discriminating, by 
 treasury order, between one man's debt and another man's 
 debt, is a thing not to be endured in a free country ; and it 
 should be the constant, persisting demand of all true whigs — 
 " Rescind the illegal treasury order, restore the rule of the law, 
 place all branches of the revenue on the same grounds, make 
 men's rights equal, and leave the government of the country 
 where the constitution leaves it, in the hands of the representa- 
 tives of the people in congress." This point should never be 
 surrendered or compromised. Whatever is established, let it 
 be equal, and let it be legal. Let men know, to-day, what 
 money may be required of them to-morrow. Let the rule be 
 open and public, on the pages of the statute-book, not a secret, 
 in the executive breast. 
 
 Gentlemen, in the session which has now just closed, I have 
 done my utmost to effect a direct and immediate repeal of the 
 treasury order. 
 
 I have voted for a bill anticipating the payment of the 
 
Sl>S TV-SSSI£S A>'I) HIS iL.VSTSK-FISCES. 
 
 FrHich and Neapolitan indemnities bjr an advance from the 
 treasuTT. 
 
 I have voted with great satistaction for th* restoration of div 
 ties OQ soods destroyed in the great confiagration in this citr. 
 
 1 have voted tor a deposit with the states ot" the surplus 
 which may be in the treasury at the end of the year. All 
 these measures have MLed ; and it is foir you, and for our fel- 
 low-citizeas throughout the country, to decide whether the 
 . interest would, or would not, have been promoted by 
 lii^ir successw 
 
 But I find, ger"' * ' .t I am committing an impardona- 
 
 ':' -- '?spass on y..„ .„ _.;nt patience. 1 wiU pursue these 
 
 is no tlircher. And yet I cannot peKuade myself to take 
 leave of you without reminding you, with the utmost deference 
 and reelect, of the important part assigned to you in the polit- 
 ical cooceras of your country, and of the great inQueaice of your 
 opinions, your example, and your e&irts : 'r.e general pros- 
 perity and happiness^ 
 
 Whir* of New York ! Patriotic citizens of this great me- 
 trof <viis ! Lovers of eotstitutional liberty, boui^ by interest 
 and by a&ctioa to &e institutioiK of year country, Americans 
 in heart and in principle ! — you are ready, I am sure, to fulfill 
 all the duties imposed upon you by your situatioa, and de- 
 m^^nded of you by your country. 1 ■: " -: a central posi- 
 tion; vour ei'"' *■= "le point from. whicL „.,_ . _;ence emanates, 
 and sf 'reads l . octioos over the wh-^Ie land. Every hour 
 
 carries reports of your seotimtaits :iioos to the verge 
 
 cf tile Unioi:. Yoa ctinnot escape the resp " which cir- 
 
 cumstances have thrown upoQ you. You muss iive and act, 
 on a broad and e - " ' r " ~ evil 
 
 to your country. -^ -- -.• :.-— , 
 
 duties; y,-.--: .jv yourselves, ":r Vjry v 
 
 In the e welfere. in the c ^perity. in the 
 
 common glory of A: ...ve a stake of -• : to 
 
6PEECH AT XEW TOHK- 309 
 
 be calculated You have an interest in the preservation of the 
 Union, of the constitution, and of the true principles of the 
 government, which no man can estimate. You act for your- 
 selves, and for the generations that are to come after you ; 
 and those who ages hence shall bear your names, and j>artake 
 your blood, will feel, in their political and social condition, the 
 consequences of the manner in which you discharge your politi- 
 cal duties. 
 
 Having fulfilled, then, on your part and on mine, though 
 feebly and im]:>erfectly on mine, the offices of kindness and 
 mutual regard required by this occasion, shall we not \ise it to 
 a higher and nobler purjtose ? Shall we not, by this friendly 
 meeting, refresh our patriotism, rekindle our love of constitu- 
 tional liberty, and strengthen our resolutions of public duty ? 
 Shall we not, in all honesty and sincerity, with pure and disin- 
 terested love of country, as Americans, looking back to the re- 
 nown of our ancestors, and looking forward to the interests of 
 our posterity, here, toiiight, pledge our mutual faith to hold 
 on to the last to our professed principles, to the doctrines of 
 true liberty, and to the constitutic«i of the country, let who 
 will prove true, or who will prove recreant ? Whigs of New 
 York ! I meet you in advance, and give you my pledge for 
 my own performance of these duties, without qualification, and 
 without reserve. "Whether in public life or in private life, in 
 the eapitol or at home, I mean never to desert them, I mean 
 never to forget that I have a country, to which I am bound by 
 a thousand ties ; and the stone which is to lie on the groimd 
 that shall cover me, shall not bear the name of a son ungrate- 
 ful to his native land. 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 AN OFFICIAL LETTER-WRITER. 
 
 LETTER ON IJIPRESSJIENT. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 Mb. Websteks letter to Lord Asliburton, ou Impressment, written in 1S42, at tho 
 age of sia-ti/, is a master-piece of its kind, not only for the bold positions it assumes, 
 and tlie strong arguments it advances, but for tbc very classic style of the perform- 
 ance, wbich is scarcely excelled in the language as a piece of Englisli composition. 
 It may bo taken as a specimen of his written style, when the subject admitted of 
 the use of tlio higher elements of his peculiar diction. 
 
LETTEK OK HIPRESSMEKT. 
 
 Mn. -VTEBSTER TO LORD ASUBUETOX. 
 
 Departiient OF State, ) 
 Washington-, August 8, 1842. f 
 
 _ My Lord,— We have had several conversations on the sub- 
 ject of impressment, but I do not understand that your lord- 
 ship has instructions from your government to negotiate upon 
 It, nor does the government of the United States see any utility 
 m opening such negotiation, unless the British government is 
 prepared to renounce the practice in all future wars. 
 
 No cause has produced to so great an extent, and for so long 
 a period, disturbing and irritating influences on the political 
 relations of the United States and England, as the impressment 
 of seamen by British cruisers from American merchant-vessels. 
 From the commencement of the French revolution to the* 
 breaking out of the war between the two countries in 1812 
 hardly a year elapsed without loud complaint and earnest re-' 
 monstrance. A deep feeling of opposition to the right claimed, 
 and to the practice exercised under it, and not unfrequently ex- 
 ercised without the least regard to what justice and humanity 
 would have dictated, even if the right itself had been admitted 
 toolv possession of the public mind of America, and this feeling' 
 It IS well knomi, cooperated most powerfully with other cmsZ 
 to produce the state of hostilities which ensued. 
 
 At different periods, both before and since the war, negotiations 
 have taken place between the two governments, with the hope 
 of finding some means of quieting these complaints. At some 
 times, the effectual abolition of the practice has been requested 
 
314 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and treated of; at other times, its temporary suspension ; and 
 at other times, again, the limitation of its exercise, and some 
 cecurity against its enormous abuses. 
 
 A common destiny has attended these efforts ; they have all 
 failed. The question stands at this moment where it stood 
 fifty years ago. The nearest approach to a settlement was a 
 convention proposed in 1803, and which had come to the point 
 of signature, when it was broken off in consequence of the 
 British government insisting that the narroio seas should be ex- 
 pressly excepted out of the sphere over which the contemplated 
 stipulation against impressment should extend. The American 
 minister, Mr. King, regarded this exception as quite inadmis- 
 sible, and chose rather to abandon the negotiation than to acqui- 
 esce in the doctrine which it proposed to establish. 
 
 England asserts the right of impressing British subjects, in 
 time of war, out of neutral merchant-vessels, and of deciding 
 by her visiting officers who, among the crews of such mercliant- 
 vessels, ai-e British subjects. She asserts this as a legal exer- 
 else of the prerogative of the crown; which prerogative is 
 alleged to be founded on the English law of perpetual and 
 indissoluble allegiance of the subject, and his obligation under 
 all circumstances, and for his whole hfe, to render military ser- 
 vice to the crown whenever requii-ed. 
 
 Tliis statement, made in the words of eminent British jurists, 
 shows at once that the English claim is far broader than the 
 basis or platform on which it is raised. The law relied on is 
 English law ; the obligations insisted on are obligations exist- 
 ing between the crown of England and its subjects. This law 
 and these obligations, it is admitted, may be such as England 
 may choose they shall be. But then they must be confined to 
 the parties. Impressment of seamen out of and beyond En- 
 glish territory, and fi'om on board the ships of other nations, is 
 an interference with the rights of other nations; is further, 
 therefore, than English prerogative can legally extend ; and is 
 
LETTER ON IMPRESSMENT. 315 
 
 nothing but an attempt to enforce the peculiar law of England 
 beyond the dominions and jurisdiction of the crown. The claim 
 asserts an extra-territorial authority for the law of British pre- 
 rogative, and assumes to exercise this extra-territorial authority, 
 to the manifest injury and annoyance of the citizens and sub- 
 jects of other states, on board their own vessels, on the hish 
 seas. 
 
 Every merchant-vessel on the seas is rightfully considered as 
 part of the territory of the country to which it belongs. The 
 entry, therefore, into such vessel, being neutral, by a belligerent, 
 is an act of force, and is, prima facie, a wrong, a trespass, which 
 can be justified only when done for some purpose allowed to 
 form a suflicient justification by the law of nations. But a 
 British cruiser enters an American merchant-vessel in order to 
 take therefrom supposed British subjects ; offering no justifica- 
 tion, therefore, under the law of nations, but claiming the right 
 under the law of England respecting the king's prerogative. 
 This cannot be defended. English soil, English terrritory, 
 English jurisdiction, is the appropriate sphere for the operation 
 of English law. The ocean is the sphere of the law of nations ; 
 and any merchant-vessel on the seas is by that law under the 
 protection of the laws of her own nation, and may claim im- 
 munity, unless in cases in which that law allows her to be en- 
 tered or visited. 
 
 If this notion of perpetual allegiance, and the consequent 
 power of the prerogative, were the law of the world ; if it 
 formed part of the conventional code of nations, and was usually 
 practised, like the right of visiting neutral ships, for the purpose 
 of discovering and seizing enemy's property, then impressment 
 might be defended as a common right, and there would be no 
 remedy for the evil till the national code should be altered. 
 But this is by no means the case. There is no such principle 
 incorporated into the code of nations. The doctrine stands only 
 as English law, not as a national law j and English law cannot 
 
316 WKESTER A>;d lllS MASTfiR-PIECES. 
 
 be of force beyond English dominion. Whatever duties or 
 relations that law creates between the sovereign and his subjects 
 c<an be enforced and maintained only within the realm, or proper 
 possessions or territory of the sovereign. ITierc may be quite 
 as just a prerogative right to the property of subjects as to their 
 personal services, in an exigency of the state ; but no govern- 
 ment thinks of controlling by its o-wn laws property of its sub- 
 jects situated abroad ; much less does any government think 
 of entering the territory of another power for the purpose of 
 seizing such property and applying it to its own uses. As laws, 
 the prerogati^-es of the crown of England have no obligation 
 on persons or property domiciled or situated abroad. 
 
 " When, therefore," says an authority not unknown or un- 
 regarded on either side of the Atlantic, " we speak of the right 
 of a state to bind its own native subjects everywhere, we speak 
 only of its own claim and exercise of sovereignty over them 
 when they rettu-n within its own territorial jurisdiction, and not 
 of its right to compel or require obedience to such laws, on the 
 part of other nations, within their own territorial sovereignty. 
 On the contrary, every nation has an exclusive right to regulate 
 persons and things within its own territory, according to its 
 sovereign will and public polity. " 
 
 The good sense of these principles, their remarkable perti- 
 nency to the subject now under consideration, and the extraordi- 
 nary consequences resultmg from the British doctrine, are sig- 
 nally manifested by that which we see taking place every day. 
 England acknowledges herself overburdened with population 
 of the poorer classes. Every instance of the emigration of 
 persons of those classes is regarded by her as a benefit. En- 
 gland, therefore, encourages emigration ; means are notoriously 
 supplied to emigrants, to assist their conveyance, from public 
 funds ; and the New World, and most especially these United 
 States, receive the many thousands of her subjects thus ejected 
 from the bosom of their native land by the necessities of their 
 
LETTER ON IMPRESSMENT. 317 
 
 condition. Tliey come away from poverty and distress in over- 
 crowded cities, to seek employment, comfort, and new homes in 
 a country of free institutions, possessed by a kindred race, speak- 
 ing their own language, and having laws and usages in many 
 respects like those to which they have been accustomed ; and a 
 country which, upon the whole, is found to possess more attrac- 
 tions for persons of their character and condition than any other 
 on the face of the globe. It is stated that, in the quai'ter of die 
 year endinjr with June last, more than twenty-six thousand emi- 
 grants left the single port of Liverpool for the United States, 
 being four or five times as many as left the same port within 
 the same period for the British colonies and all other parts of 
 the world. Of these crowds of emigrants, many arrive in our 
 cities in circumstances of gi'eat destitution, and the charities of 
 the country, both public and private, are severely taxed to 
 relieve their immediate wants. In time they mingle with the 
 new community in which they find themselves, and seek means 
 of livbg. Some find employment in the cities, others go to 
 the frontiers, to cultivate lands reclaimed from the forest ; and 
 a greater or less number of the residue, becoming in time nat- 
 uralized citizens, enter into the merchant service under the flag 
 of their adopted country. 
 
 Now, my lord, if war should break out between England 
 and a European "power, can anything be more unjust, anything 
 more irreconcilable to the general sentiments of mankind, than 
 tliat England should seek out these persons, thus encourao-ed 
 by her and compelled by their own condition to leave their 
 native homes, tear them away from their new employments 
 their new political relations, and their domestic connections, and 
 force them to undergo the dangers and hardships of military 
 service for a country which has thus ceased to be their own 
 country ? Certainly, certainly, my lord, there can be but one 
 answer to this question. Is it not far more reasonable tliat 
 England should either prevent such emigration of her subjects, 
 
318 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 or that, if she encourage and promote it, she should leave them, 
 not to the embroilment of a double and contradictory allegiance, 
 but to their own voluntary choice, to form such relations, ix)lit> 
 ical or social, as they see fit in the coimtry where they are to 
 find their bread, and to the laws and institutions of which they 
 are to look for defense and protection 1 
 
 A question of such serious importance ought now to be put 
 at rest. If the United States give shelter and protection to 
 those whom the policy of England annually casts upon their 
 shores ; if, by the benign influences of their government and 
 institutions, and by the happy condition of the country, those 
 emigrants become raised from poverty to comfort, finding it 
 eas}^.even to became land-holders, and being allowed to partake 
 in the enjoyment of all civil rights ; if all this may be done, 
 (and all this is done, under the countenance and encouragement 
 of England herself,) is it not high time, my lord, tliat, yielding 
 that \\hich had its origin in feudal ideas as inconsistent with the 
 present state of society, and especially with the intercourse and 
 relations subsisting between the Old World and the New, En- 
 gland should at length formally disclaim all right to the services 
 of such persons, and renounce all control over their conduct ? 
 
 But impressment is subject to objections of a much wider 
 range. If it could be justified in its application to those who 
 are declared to be its only objects, it still remains true that, in 
 its exercise, it touches the political rights of other governments, 
 and endangers the security of their own native subjects, and 
 citizens. The sovereignty of the state is concerned in main- 
 taining its exclusive jurisdiction and possession over its mer- 
 chant-ships on the seas, except so far as the law of nations 
 justifies intrusion upon that possession for special purposes ; 
 and all experience has shown, that no member of a crew, 
 wherever born, is safe against impressment when a ship is 
 visited. 
 
 The evils and injuries resulting from the actual practice can 
 
LETTER ON IMPRESSMENT. 319 
 
 hardly be overrated, and have ever proved themselves to be 
 such as should lead to its relinquishment, even if it were founded 
 in any defensible principle. The difficulty of discriminatmg 
 between English subjects and American citizens has always 
 been found to be great, even when an honest purpose of dis- 
 crimination has existed. But the lieutenant of a man-of-war, 
 having necsssity for men, is apt to be a summary judge, and 
 his decisions will be quite as significant of his own wants and 
 his own power, as of the truth and justice of the case. An 
 extract from a letter of Mr. King, of the 13th of April, 1T97, 
 to the American secretary of state, shows something of the 
 enormous extent of these \\Tongful seizures. 
 
 " Instead of a few, and these in many instances equivocal 
 cases, I have," says he, " since the month of July past, made 
 application for the discharge fi-om British men-of-war of two 
 hundred and seventy-one seamen, who, stating themselves to 
 be Americans, have claimed my interference. Of this number 
 eighty-six have been ordered by the admiralty to be discliaro-ed 
 thirty seven more have been detained as British subjects or as 
 American volunteers, or for wiuit of proof that they are Amer- 
 icans, and to my applications for the discharge of the remain- 
 hig one hundred and forty -eight I have received no answer • 
 the ships on board of which these seamen were detained hav- 
 ing, in many mstances, sailed before an examination was made 
 in consequence of my application. 
 
 " it is certain that some of tliose who ha\-e applied to me are 
 not American citizens, but the exceptions are, in my opmion 
 few, and the evidence, exclusive of certificates, has been such 
 as, in most cases, to satisfy me that the applicants were real 
 Americans, who have been forced into die British service, and 
 who, with singular constancy, have generally persevered in refu- 
 sing pay or bounty, though in some instances they have been 
 in service more than two years." 
 
 But the mjuries of impressment are by no means confuaed 
 
320 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 to its immediate subjects, or the individuals on whom it is prac- 
 tised. Vessels suffer from the weakening of their crews, and 
 voyages are often delayed, and not unfrequently broken up, by 
 subtraction from the number of necessary hands by impress- 
 ment. And what is of still greater and more general moment, 
 the fear of impressment has been found to create great diffi- 
 culty in obtaining sailors for the American merchant service in 
 times of European war. Seafaring men, otherwise inclined to 
 enter into that service, are, as experience has shown, deterred 
 by the fear of fmding themselves ere long in compulsory mili- 
 tary service in British ships of war. Many instances have 
 occurred, fully established in proof, in which raw seamen, natives 
 of the United States, fresh fi'om the fields of agriculture, entering 
 for the first time on shipboard, have been impressed before 
 they made the land, placed on the decks of British men-of-war, 
 and compelled to serve for years before they could obtain their 
 release, or revisit their country and their homes. Such instan- 
 ces become known, and their effect in discouraging young men 
 from engaging in the merchant service of their country can 
 neither be doubted nor wondered at. More than all, my lord, 
 the practice of impressment, whenever it has existed, has pro- 
 duced, not conciliation and good feeling, but resentment, exas- 
 peration, and animosity between the two great commercial 
 countries of the world. 
 
 In the calm and quiet which have succeeded the late war, a 
 condition so favorable for dispassionate consideration, England 
 herself lias evidently seen the harshness of impressment, even 
 when exercised on seamen in her own merchant service, and 
 she has adopted measures calculated, if not to renounce the 
 power or to abolish the practice, yet at least to supersede its 
 necessity by other means of manning the royal navy more com- 
 patible with justice and tlie rights of individuals, and far more 
 conformable to the spirit and sentiments of the age. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the government of the United 
 
LETTER ON IMPRESSMENT. 321 
 
 States has used the occasion of your lordship's pacific mission 
 to review this whole subject, and to bring it to your notice and 
 that of your government. It has reflected on the past, pondered 
 the condition of the present, and endeavored to anticipate, so 
 far as might be in its power, the probable future ; and I am 
 now to communicate to your lordship the result of these de- 
 liberations. 
 
 The American government, then, is prepared to say that the 
 practice of impressing seamen from American vessels cannot 
 hereafter be allowed to take place. That practice is founded 
 on principles which it does not recognize, and is invariably at- 
 tended by consequences so unjust, so injurious, and of such for- 
 midable magnitude, as cannot be submitted to. 
 
 In the early disputes between the two governments on this 
 so long contested topic, the distinguished persons to whose hands 
 were first entrusted the seals of this department, declared, that 
 "the simplest rule will be, that the vessel being American' shall 
 be evidence that the seamen on board are such." 
 
 Fifty years' experiencCj the utter failure of many negotiations, 
 and a careful reconsideration now had, of the whole subject, at 
 a moment when the passions are laid, and no present interest 
 or emergency exists to bias the judgment, have fully convinced 
 this government that this is not only the simplest and best, but 
 the only rule, which can be adopted and observed, consistently 
 with the rights and honor of the United States and the security 
 of their citizens. That rule announces, therefore, what will 
 hereafter be the principle maintained by their government. In 
 every regularly-documented American merchant-vessel the crew 
 who navigate it will find their protection in the flag whicli is 
 over them. 
 
 This announcement is not made, my lord, to revive useless 
 recollections of the past, nor to stir the embers from fires which 
 have been, in a gi-eat degree, smothered by many years of peace. 
 Far otherwise. Its purpose is to extingush tliose fires effectu- 
 
 VOL. II. 21 
 
322 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ally, before new incidents arise to fan them into flame. The 
 communication is in the spirit of peace, and for the sake of 
 peace, and springs from a deep and conscientious conviction 
 that high interests of both nations require that this so long con 
 tested and controverted subject should now be finally put to 
 rest. I persuade myself that you will do justice to this frank 
 and sincere avowal of motives, and that you will communi- 
 cate your sentiments in this respect to your government. 
 
 This letter closes, my lord, on my part, our official corres^ 
 pondence ; and I gladly use the occasion to offer j'ou the assu- 
 rance of my high and sincere regard. 
 
 Daniel Webster. 
 
 Lord Abuburton, <fec. &c. &c. 
 
WEBSTER'S MASTER-PIECE 
 
 AS 
 
 A SEIATOK IN CONGRESS. 
 
 I. THE REPLY TO IIAYM. 
 II. COA^STITUTION mT A COMPACT 
 III. COiXSTITUTIOif AJ^D THE MIO^'. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 Of the three following speeches, two were thoroughly prepared before delivery. 
 The other, the reply to Hayne, was nearly extemporaneous. The two will always im- 
 part that peculiar pleasure which the mind receives in the contemplation of a nearly 
 perfect work. The one, delivered at the age oiforty-eigM, will ever bear the palm with 
 the n-reat majority of readers. " When the orator, upon some great occasion," says Ta- 
 citus, "comes witli a well-digested speech, conscious of his matter, and animated by 
 his subject, his breast expands, and heaves with emotions unfelt before. In his joy 
 there is a dignity suited to the weight and energy of the composition which ho has 
 prepared. Does he rise to hazard himself in the debate ? lie is aUirmed for him- 
 self, but in that very alarm, there is a mixture of pleasure, which predominates, till 
 distress itself becomes delightful. The mind exults in the prompt exertion of its 
 powers, and even glories in its rashness. Tlio productions of genius, and those of the 
 field, have this resemblance : many things are sown and brought to maturity with 
 toil and care, yet that which grows from the wild vigor of nature has the most gi'ato- 
 ful flavor." Wlio that has heard Daniel Webster speak, with or without elaborate 
 preparation, does not Instantly recall his image, in both these departments of Iiis ora- 
 tory, in each of which ho was an equal master, the moment this language of the Ko- 
 man critic and historian is read and recollected? The speeches that follow, which 
 close this collection of his master-pieces, need no better introduction. 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 
 
 SPEECH IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON FOOt's KESOLUTION, 
 ON THE 26th of JANUARY, 1830. 
 
 Mr. President : — When the mariner has been tossed for 
 many days in thick weather, and on an unloiowii sea, he natu- 
 rally avails himself of the fu-st pause in the storm, the earliest 
 glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the 
 elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imi- 
 tate this prudence, and, before we float farther on the waves of 
 this debate, refer to the point from which we depaxted, that we 
 may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask 
 for the reading of the resolution. 
 
 The secretary read the resolution, as follows : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Gommittee on public lands be instructed to 
 inquire and report the quantity of piiblic lands remaining unsold 
 within each state and territory, and whether it be exj>edient to 
 limit for a certain period the sales of the public lands to such lands 
 only as have heretofore been offered for sale, and are now subject 
 to entry at the minimum price. And, also, whether the office of 
 surveyor-general, and some of the land oflSces, may not be abolished 
 without detriment to the public interest; or whether it be expedi- 
 ent to adopt measures to hasten the sales and extend more rapidly 
 the surveys of the public lands." 
 
 We have thus heard, sir, what the resolution is which is ac- 
 tually before us for consideration ; and it will readily occur to 
 every one, that it is almost the only subject about which some- 
 thing has not been said in the speech, running through two 
 days, by which the senate has been now entertained by the 
 
S26 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in the wide 
 range of our public affairs, whether past or present — every- 
 thing, general or local, whether belonging to national politics 
 or party politics — seems to have attracted more or less of the 
 honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before 
 the senate. He has spoken of everything but the public 
 lands ; they have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all 
 his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a pass- 
 ing glance. 
 
 When this debate, sir, was to be resumed, on Thursday 
 morning, it so happened that it would have been convenient for 
 me to be elsewhere. Tlie honorable member, however, did 
 not incline to put off the discussion to another day. He had a 
 shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That 
 shot, sir, which it was kind thus to inform us was coming, that 
 we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall be- 
 fore it and die with decency, has now been received. Under 
 all advantages, and with expectation awakened by the tone 
 which preceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. 
 It may become me to say no more of its effect, than that, if no- 
 body is f6und, after all, either killed or wounded by it, it is 
 not the first time, in the history of human affiirs, that the vigor 
 and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and 
 sounding phrase of the manifesto. 
 
 The gentleman, sir, m declining to postpone the debate, told 
 the senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that 
 there was something rankling here, which he wished to relieve. 
 
 Mr. Hayne rose and disclaimed having used the word rmikling. 
 
 It would not, sir, be safe for the honorable member to appeal 
 to those around him, upon the question whether he did in fact 
 make use of that word. But he may have been unconscious of 
 it. At any rate, it is enough that he disclaims it. But still, 
 with or without the use of that particular word, he had yet 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 327 
 
 something here, he said, of which he wished to rid himself by an 
 immediate reply. In this respect, sir, I have a great advan- 
 tage over the honorable gentleman. There is nothing here, sir, 
 which gives me the slightest uneasiness ; neither fear, nor an- 
 ger, nor that which is sometimes more troublesome than either, 
 the consciousness of having been in the wrong. There is noth- 
 ing, either originating here, or now received here by the gen- 
 tleman's shot. Nothing original ; for I had not the shghtest 
 feeling of disrespect or unkindness toward the honorable mem- 
 ber. Some passages, it is true, had occurred since our acquain- 
 tance in this body, which I could have wished might have been 
 otherwise; but I had used philosophy and forgotten them. 
 When the honorable member rose in his first speech, I paid 
 him the respect of attentive listening ; and when he sat down, 
 though surprised, and I must say even astonished, at some of 
 his ojjinions, nothing was farther from my intention tlian to 
 commence any personal warfare. And through the whole of 
 the few remarks I made in answer, I avoided, studiously and 
 carefully, everything which I thought possible to be construed 
 into disrespect. And, sir, while there is thus nothing original 
 ting here which I wished at any time, or now wish, to discharge, 
 I must repeat, also, that nothing has been received here which 
 rankles, or in any way gives me annoyance. I will not accuse 
 the honorable member of violating the rules of civilized war ; 
 I will not say that he poisoned his arrows. But whether his 
 shafts were, or were not, dipped in that which would have 
 caused rankling if they had reached, there was not, as it hap- 
 pened, quite strength enough in the bow to bring them to their 
 mark. If he wishes now to gather up those shafts, he must 
 look for them elsewhere; they will not be found fixed and 
 quivering in the object at which they were aimed. 
 
 The honorable member complained that I had slept on his 
 speech. I must have slept on it, or not slept at all. The mo- 
 ment the honorable member sat down, his friend from Missouri 
 
328 WEBSTER AND IllS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 rose, and, with much honeyed commendation of the speech, sug- 
 gested that the impressions which it had produced were too 
 charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments or 
 other sounds, and proposed that the senate should adjourn. 
 Would it have been quite amiable in me, sir, to interrupt this 
 excellent good feeling 1 ]\Iust I not have been absolutely ma- 
 licious, if I could have thrust myself forward, to destroy sen- 
 sations thus pleasing? Was it not much better and kinder, 
 both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others also the 
 pleasure of sleeping upon them? But if it be meant, by 
 sleeping upon his speech, that I took time to prepare a reply 
 to it, it is quite a mistake. Owing to other engagements, I 
 could not employ even the interval between the adjournment 
 of the senate and its meeting the next morning, in attention to 
 the subject of this debate. Nevertheless, sir, the mere matter 
 of fact is undoubtedly true. I did sleep on the gentleman's 
 speech, and slept soundly. And I slept equally well on his 
 speech of yesterday, to which I am now replying. It is quite 
 possible that in this respect, also, I possess some advantage over 
 the honorable member, attributable, doubtless, to a cooler tem- 
 perament on my part ; for, in tinith, I slept upon his speeches 
 remarkably well. 
 
 But the gentleman inquires why he was made the object of 
 such a reply. Why was he singled out ? If an attack has been 
 made on the east, he, he assures us, did not begin it ; it was 
 made by the gentleman from Missouri. Sir, I answered the 
 gentleman's speech because I happened to hear it; and because, 
 also, I chose to give an answer to that speech, which, if unan- 
 swered, I thought most likely to produce injurious impressions. 
 I did not stop to inquire who was the original drawer of the 
 bill. I found a responsible endorser before me, and it was my 
 purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just respon- 
 sibilty, without delay. But, sir, this interrogatory of the hon- 
 orable member was only introductory to another. He pro- 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 329 
 
 ceeded to ask me whether I had turned upon him, in this de- 
 bate, from the consciousness that I should find an overmatch, 
 if I ventured on a contest with his friend from Missouri. If, 
 sir, the honorable member, ex gratia modestice, had chosen thus 
 to defer to his fi'iend, and to pay him a compliment, without 
 intentional disparagement to otliers, it would have been quite 
 according to the friendly courtesies of debate, and not at all un- 
 grateful to my own feelings. I am not one of those, sir, who 
 esteem any tribute of regard, whether light and occasional, or 
 more serious and delibei'ate, which may be bestowed on others, 
 as so much unjustly withholden from themselves. But the 
 tone and manner of the gentleman's question forbid me thus to 
 interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing more 
 than a civility to his friend. It had an air of taunt and dispar- 
 agement, something of the loftiness of asserted superiority, 
 which does not allow me to pass it over without notice. It 
 was put as a question for me to answer, and so put as if it were 
 difficult for me to answer, whether I deemed the member fi'om 
 Missouri an overmatch for myself, in debate here. It seems 
 to me, sir, that this is extraordinary language, and an extraor- 
 dinary tone, for the discussions of this body. 
 
 Matches and overmatches ! Those terms are more applica- 
 ble elsewhere than here, and fitter for other assemblies than 
 this. Sir, the gentleman seems to forget where and what we 
 are. This is a senate, a senate of equals, of men of individual 
 honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. 
 We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a 
 hall for mutual consultation and discussion ; not an arena for 
 the exhibition of champions. I offer myself, sir, as a match for 
 no man ; I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. 
 But then, sir, since the honorable member has put the question 
 in a manner that calls for an answer, I will give him an answer; 
 and I tell him, that, holding myself to be the humblest of the 
 members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of his friend from 
 
330 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTEK-PIECES. 
 
 Missouri, either alone or when aided by the arm of his friend 
 from South Carolina, that need deter even me from espousing 
 whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating 
 whenever I may choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I 
 may see fit to say, on the floor of the senate. Sir, when ut- 
 tered as matter of commendation or compliment, I should dis- 
 sent from nothing which the honorable member might say of 
 his friend. Still less do I put forth any pretensions of my own. 
 But when put to me as a matter of taunt, I throw it back, and 
 say to the gentleman, that he could possibly say nothing less 
 likely than such a comparison to wound my pride of personal 
 character. The anger of its tone rescued the remark from in- 
 tentional irony, which otherwise, probably, would have been its 
 general acceptation. But, sir, if it be imagined that by this 
 mutual quotation and commendation ; if it be supposed that, by 
 casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part, 
 to one the attack, to another the cry of onset ; or if it be thought 
 that, by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any 
 laurels are to be won here ; if it be imagined, especially, that 
 any, or all of these things will shake any purpose of mine, I 
 can tell the honorable member, once for all, that he is greatly 
 mistaken, and that he is dealing with one of whose temper and 
 character he has yet much to learn. Sir, I shall not allow my- 
 self, on this occasion, I hope on no occasion, to be betrayed into 
 any loss of temper ; but if provoked, as I trust I never shall be, 
 into crimination and recriniination, the honorable member may 
 perhaps find that, in that contest, there will be blows to take as 
 well as blows to give ; that others can state comparisons as 
 significant, as least, as his own, and that his impunity may pos- 
 sibly demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he 
 may possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry of his 
 resources. 
 
 But. sir, the coalition ! The coalition ! Ay, "the miu-dered 
 coalition 1" The gentleman asks, if 1 were led or frighted into 
 
REPLY to HAYNE. 331 
 
 this debate by the specter of the coalition. "Was it the ghost 
 of the murdered coalition," he exclaims, " which haunted the 
 member from Massachusetts ; and which, like the ghost of Ban- 
 quo, would never down 1 " " The murdered coalition ! " Sir, 
 this charge of a coalition, in reference to the late administration, 
 is not original with the honorable member. It did not spring 
 up in the senate. Whether as a fact, as an argument, or as an 
 embellishment, it is all borrowed. He adopts it, indeed, from 
 a very low origin, and a still lower present condition. It is one 
 of the thousand calumnies with which the press teemed, during 
 an excited political canvass. It was a charge, of which there 
 was not only no proof or probability, biit which was in itself 
 wholly impossible to be true. No man of common information 
 ever believed a syllable of it. Yet it was of that class of false- 
 hoods, which, by continued repetition, tlirough all the organs of 
 detraction and abuse, are capable of misleading those who are 
 already far misled, and of further fanning passion already kin- 
 dling into flame. Doubtless it served in its day, and in greater 
 or less degree, the end designed by it. Having done that, it 
 has sunk into the general mass of stale and loathed calumnies. 
 It is the very cast-off slough of a polluted and shameless press. 
 Incapable of further mischief, it lies in the sewer, lifeless and 
 despised. It is not now, sir, in the power of the honorable 
 member to give it dignity and decency, by attempting to ele- 
 vate it, and to introduce it into the senate. lie cannot change 
 it from what it is, an object of general disgust and scorn. On 
 the contrary, the contact, if he choose to touch it, is more likely 
 to drag him down, down, to the place where it lies itself. 
 
 But, sir, the honorable member was not, for other reasons, en- 
 tirely happy in his allusion to the story of Banquo's murder 
 and Banquo's ghost. It was not, I think, the friends, but the 
 enemies of the murdered Banquo, at whose bidding his spirit 
 would not doivn. The honorable gentleman is fresh in his read- 
 ing of the English classics, and can put me right if I am wrong ; 
 
332 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 but, according to my poor recollection, it was at those who had 
 begun with caresses and ended with foul and treacherous mur- 
 der that the gory locks were shaken. The ghost of Banquo, 
 like that of Hamlet, was an honest ghost. It disturbed no in- 
 nocent man. It knew where its appearance would strike terror, 
 and who would cry out, A ghost ! It made itself visible in the 
 right quarter, and compelled the guilty and the conscience-smit- 
 ten, and none others, to start, with, 
 
 "Pr'ythoe, see there! behold! — look! lo 
 If I stand here, I saw him ! " 
 
 Their eyeballs were seared (was it not so, sir ?) who had thought 
 to shield themselves by concealing their own hand, and laying 
 the imputation of the crime on a low and hireling agency in 
 wickedness; who had vainly attempted to stifle the workings 
 of their own coward consciences by ejaculating through white 
 lips and chattering teeth, "Thou canst not say I did it!" I 
 have misread the great poet if those who had no way partaken 
 in the deed of the death, either found that they were, ov feared 
 that they should be, pushed from their stools by the ghost of 
 the slain, or exclaimed to a specter created by their own fears 
 and their own remorse, " Avaunt ! and quit our sight ! " 
 
 There is another particular, sir, in which the honorable mem- 
 ber's quick perception of resemblances might, I should think, 
 have seen something in the story of Banquo, making it not al- 
 together a subject of the most pleasant contemplation. Those 
 who murdered Banquo, what did they win by it? Substantial 
 goodl Permanent power? Or disappointment, rather, and 
 sore mortification; dust and ashes, the common fate of vault- 
 ing ambition overleaping itself? Did not even-handed justice 
 ere long commend the poisoned chalice to their own lips ? 
 Did they not soon find that for another they had "filed their 
 mind?" that their ambition, though apparently for the mo- 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 333 
 
 ment successful, had but put a bart'en scepter in their gi'asp ? 
 Ay, sir, 
 
 " a barren scepter In their gripo 
 Thence to be iorenc?ied by an imlmeal hand, 
 No son of theirs succeeding.^'' 
 
 Sir, I need pursue the allusion no farther. I leave the hon- 
 orable gentleman to run it out at his leisure, and to derive from 
 it all the gratification it is calculated to administer. If he finds 
 himself pleased with the associations, and prepared to be quite 
 satisfied, though the parallel should be entirely completed, I 
 had almost said, I am satisfied also ; but that I shall tliink of. 
 Yes, sir, I will think of that. 
 
 In the course of my observations the other day, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, I paid a passing tribute of respect to a very worthy man, 
 Mr. Dane, of Alassachusetts. It so happened that he drew the 
 ordinance of 1787, for the government of the Northwestern 
 Territory. A man of so much ability, and so little pretense ; 
 of so great a capacity to do good, and so unmixed a disposition 
 to do it for its own sake ; a gentleman who had acted an im- 
 portant part, forty years ago, in a measure the influence of 
 which is still deeply felt in the very matter which was the sub- 
 ject of debate, might, I thought, receive from me a commenda- 
 tory recognition. But the honorable member was inclined to 
 be facetious on the subject. He was rather disposed to make 
 it matter of ridicule, that I had introduced into the debate the 
 name of one Nathan Dane, of whom he assures us he had never 
 before heard. Sir, if the honorable member had never before 
 heard of Mr. Dane, I am sorry for it. It shows him less ac- 
 quainted with the public men of the country than I had sup- 
 posed. Let me tell him, however, that a sneer from him at 
 the mention of the name of Mr. Dane is in bad taste. It may 
 well be a high mark of ambition, sir, either with the honorable 
 gentleman or myself, to accomplish as much to make our 
 names known to advantage, and remembered with gratitude, 
 
334 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 as Mr. Dane has accomplished. But the truth is, sir, I suspect, 
 that Mr. Dane lives a little too flir north. He is of Massachu- 
 setts, and too near the north star to be reached by the honora- 
 ble gentleman's telescope. If his sphere had happened to range 
 south of Mason and Dixon's line, he might, probably, have 
 come within the scope of his vision. 
 
 I spolie, sir, of the ordinance of 1787, which prohibited 
 ' slavery, in all future times, northv/est of the Ohio, as a meas- 
 ure of great wisdom and foresight, and one wliich had been at- 
 tended with highly beneficial and permanent consequences. I 
 supposed that, on this point, no two gentlemen in the senate, 
 could entertain difierent opinions. But the simple expression 
 of this sentiment has led the gentleman, not only into a h\bored 
 defense of slavery, in the abstract, and on principle, but also 
 into a warm accusation against me, as having attacked the sys- 
 tem of domestic slavery now existing in tlie southern states. 
 For all this, there was not the slightest foundation, in anything 
 said or intimated by me. I did not utter a single word which 
 any ingenuity could torture into an attack on the slaveiy of the 
 south. I said, only, that it was highly wise and useful, in le- 
 gislating for the northwestern country while it was yet a wil- 
 derness, to prohibit the introduction of slaves ; and added, that 
 I presumed there was, in the neighboring state of Kentucky, 
 no reflecting and intelligent gentleman who would doubt that, if 
 the same prohibition had been extended, at the same early pe- 
 riod, over that commonwealth, her strength and population 
 would, at this day, have been far greater than they are. If 
 these opinions be thought doubtful, they are nevertheless, I 
 trust, neither extraordinary nor disrespectful. They attack no- 
 body and menace nobody. And yet, sir, the gentleman's op- 
 tics have discovered, even in the mere expression of this senti- 
 ment, what he calls the very spirit of the Missouri question ! 
 He represents me as making an onset on the whole south, and 
 
REPLY TO HAYXE. 335 
 
 manifesting a spirit which would interfere with, and disturb, 
 their domestic condition ! 
 
 Sir, this injustice no otherwise surprises me, than as it is com- 
 mitted here, and committed witliout the slightest pretense of 
 ground for it. I say it only surprises me as being done here ; 
 for I know full well, that it is, and has been, the settled policy 
 of some persons in the south, for years, to represent the people 
 of the north as disposed to interfere with them in their own 
 exclusive and peculiar concerns. This is a delicate and sensi- 
 tive point in southern feeling; and of late years it has al- 
 ways been touched, and generally with effect, whenever the ob- 
 ject has been to unite the whole south against northern men or 
 northern measures.- This feeling, always carefully kept alive, 
 and maintained at too intense a heat to admit discrimination or 
 reflection, is a lever of great power in our political machine. 
 It moves vast bodies, and gives to them one and the same di- 
 rection. But it is without any adequate cause, and the suspi- 
 cion which exists wholly groundless. There is not, and never 
 has been, a disposition in the north to interfere with these in- 
 terests of- the south. Such interference has never been sup- 
 posed to be within the power of government ; nor has it been 
 in any way attempted. The slavery of the south has always 
 been regaixled as a matter of domestic policy, left with the 
 states themselves, and with which the federal government had 
 nothing to do. Certainly, sir, I am, and ever have been, of that 
 opinion. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the 
 abstract, is no evil. Most assuredly I need not say I say I dil^ 
 fer with him, altogether and most widely, on that point. I re- 
 gard domestic slavery as one of the greatest of evils, both 
 moral and political. But though it be a malady, and whether 
 it be curable, and if so, by what means ; or, on the other hand, 
 whether it be the vulnus immedicabile of the social system, I 
 leave it to those whose right and duty it is to inquire and to 
 decide. And this I believe, sir, is, and uniformly has been, the 
 
336 VTEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 sentiment of the north. Let us look a little at the history of 
 this matter. 
 
 When the present constitution was submitted for the ratifi- 
 cation of the people, there were those who imagined that the 
 powers of the government which it proposed to establish might, 
 perhaps, in some possible mode, be exerted iii measures tend- 
 ing to the abolition of slavery. This suggestion would of course 
 attract much attention in the southern conventions. In that of 
 Virginia, Governor Randolph said : 
 
 "I hope there is none here, who, considering the subject in the 
 calm light of philosophy, will make an objection dishonorable to 
 Virginia; that, at the moment they are securing the rights of their 
 citizens, an objection is started, that there is a spark of liope that 
 those unfortunate men now held in bondage ma}', by the operation 
 of the general government, be made free." 
 
 At the very first congress, petitions on the subject were pre- 
 sented, if 1 mistake not, from difierent states. The Pennsylva- 
 nia society for promoting the abolition of slavery took a lead, 
 and laid before congress a memorial, praying congress to pro- 
 mote the abolition by such powers as it possessed. This me- 
 morial was referred, in the liouse of representatives, to a select 
 committee, consisting of Mr. Foster, of New Hampshire, Mr. 
 Gerry, of Massachusetts, Mr. Huntington, of Connecticut, Mr. 
 Lawrence, of New York, Mr. Sinnickson, of New Jersey, Mr, 
 Hartly, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Parker, of Virginia ; all of 
 them, sir, as you will observe, northern men but the last. Tliis 
 committee made a report, which was committed to a committee 
 of the whole house, and there considered and discussed on sev- 
 eral days ; and being amended, although without material al- 
 teration, it was made to express three distinct propositions, on 
 the subject of slavery and the slave-trade. First, in the words 
 of the constitution, that congress could not, prior to the year 
 1808, prohibit the migration Or importation of such persons 
 
REPLT TO HAYNK. 337 
 
 as any of the states then existing should think proper to ad- 
 mit. Second, that congress had authority to restrain the citi- 
 zens of the United States from carrying on the African slave- 
 trade, for the purpose of supplying foreign countries. On tliis 
 proposition, our early laws against those who engage in that 
 traffic are founded. The third proposition, and that which 
 bears on the present question, was expressed in the foUowuig 
 terms : 
 
 "Resolved, That congress have no authority to interfere in the 
 emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the 
 states ; it remaining with the several states alone to provide rules 
 and regulations therein which humanity and true policy may re- 
 quire." 
 
 This resolution received the sanction of the house of repre- 
 sentatives so early as ^larch, 1790. And' now, sir, the honor- 
 able member will allow me to remind him, that not only were 
 the select committee who reported the resolution, with a single 
 exception, all northern men, but also that, of the members then 
 composing the house of representatives, a large majority, I be- 
 lieve nearly two-thirds, were northern men also. 
 
 The house agreed to insert these resolutions in its journal ; 
 and from that day to this it has never been maintained or con- 
 tended that congress had any authority to regulate or interfere 
 with the condition of slaves in the several states. No northern 
 gentleman, to my Icnowledge, has moved any such question in 
 either house of congress. 
 
 The fears of the south, whatever fears they might have en- 
 tertamed, were allayed and quieted by this early decision ; and 
 so remained till they were excited afresh, without cause, but for 
 collateral and indirect purposes. When it became necessary, 
 or was thought so, by some political persons, to find an unva- 
 rying ground for the exclusion of northern men from confidence 
 and from lead in the affairs of the republic, then, and not till 
 VOL. u. O 22 
 
338 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 then, the cry was raised, and the feeling industriously excited, 
 that the influence of northern men in the public counsels would 
 endanger the relation of master and slave. For myself, I claim 
 no other merit than that this gross and enormous injustice 
 toward the whole north has not wrought upon me to change 
 my opinions or my political conduct I hope I am above vio- 
 latuig my principles, even under the smart of injury and false 
 imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved reproach, what- 
 ever pain I may experience from them, will not induce me, I 
 trust, nevertheless, to overstep the limits of constitutional duty, 
 or to encroach on the rights of others. The domestic slavery 
 of the south 1 leave where I find it — in the hands of their own 
 governments. It is their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain 
 of the peculiar effect which the magnitude of that population 
 has had in the distribution of power under this federal govern- 
 ment. We know, sir, that the represenatation of the states in 
 the other house is not equal. We know that groat advantage in 
 that respect is enjoyed by the slave-holding states ; and we 
 know, too, that the intended equivalent tor that advantage, that 
 is to say, the imposition of direct taxes in the same ratio, has 
 become merely nominal, the habit of the government being al- 
 most invariably to collect its. revenue from other sources and 
 in other modes. Nevertheless, I do not complain ; nor would 
 I countenance any movement to alter this arrangement of rep- 
 resentation. It is the original bargain, the compact; let it 
 stand ; let the advantage of it be fully enjoyed. - The Union 
 itself is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for 
 changing its original basis. I go for the constitution as it is, 
 and for the Union as it is. But 1 am resolved not to submit 
 in silence to accusations, either against myself individually or 
 against the north, wholly unfounded and unjust; accusations 
 which impute to us a disposition to evade the constitutional 
 compact, and to extend the power of the government over the 
 ■internal laws and domestic condition of the states. All such 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE, 339 
 
 accusations, wherever and whenever made, all insinuations of 
 the existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be ground- 
 less and injurious. And we must confide in southern gentle- 
 men themselves ; we must trust to those whose integrity of 
 heart and magnanimity of feeling will lead them to a desire to 
 maintain and disseminate truth, and who possess the means of 
 its diffusion with the southern public ; we must leave it to them 
 to disabuse that public of its prejudices. But in the mean time, 
 for my own part, I shall continue to net justly, whether those 
 toward whom justice is exercised receive it with candor or with 
 contumely. 
 
 Having had occasion to recur to the ordinance of 1787, in 
 order to defend myself against the inferences which the honora- 
 ble member has chosen to draw from my former observations 
 on that subject, I am not willing now entirely to take leave of 
 it without another remark. It need hardly be said, that that 
 paper expresses just sentiments on the great subject of civil and 
 religious liberty. Such sentiments were common, and abound 
 in all our state papers of that day. But this ordinance did that 
 which was not so common, and which is not even now univer- 
 sal ; that is, it set forth and declared as a high and binding 
 duty of government itself to encourage schools and advance 
 the means of education, on the plain reason that religion, mo- 
 rality, and knowledge are necessary to good government, and 
 to the happiness of mankind. One observation further. The 
 important provision incorporated into the constitution of the 
 United States, and several of those of the states, and recently, 
 as we have seen, adopted into the reformed constitution of Vir- 
 ginia, restraining legislative power in questions of private right, 
 and from impairing the obligation of contracts, is first intro- 
 duced and established, as far as I am informed, as matter of 
 express written constitutional law, in this ordinance of 1787. 
 And I must add, also, in regard to the author of the ordinance, 
 who has not had the happiness to attract the gentleman's no- 
 
340 WEBSTER ASD 1113 MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 tice heretofore, nor to avoid his sarcasm now, that he was chair- 
 man of that select committee of the old congi'ess, whose report 
 first expressed the strong sense of that body, that the old con- 
 federation was not adequate to the exigencies of the country, 
 and recommending to the states to send delegates to the con- 
 vention which formed the present constitution. 
 
 An attempt has been made to transfer from the north to the 
 south the honor of this exclusion of slavery from the North- 
 western Territory. The journal, without argument or com- 
 ment, refutes such attempt. The cession by Virginia was made 
 March, 1784. On the 19th of April following, a committee, 
 consisting of Messrs. Jcflcrson, Chase, and Howell, reported a 
 plan for a temporary government of the territory, in which was 
 this article: "That, after the year 1800, there shall be neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, oth- 
 erwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall 
 have been convicted." Mr. Spaight, of North Carolina, moved 
 to strike out this jjaragraph. The question was put, according 
 to the form then practised, " Shall these words stand as a part 
 of the plan ? " &c. New Hampshire, ^Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
 seven States, voted in the affirmative ; Maryland, Virginia, 
 and South Carolina, in the negative. North Carolina was di- 
 vided. As the consent of nine states was necessary, the words 
 could not stand, and were struck out accordingly. Mr, Jefferson 
 voted for tlie clause, but was overruled by his colleagues. 
 
 In March of the next year (1785), !Mr. King, of Massachu- 
 setts, seconded by Mr. EUery, of Rhode Island, proposed the 
 formerly rejected article, with this addition : "And that this reg- 
 ulation shall be an article of compact, and remain a fundamen- 
 tal principle of the constitution between the thirteen original 
 states, and each of the states described in the resolve," &c. On 
 this clause, which pi'ovided the adequate and thorough security, 
 the eight northern states at that time voted affirmatively, and 
 
REPLY TO IIAYNE. 341 
 
 the four southern states negatively. The votes of nine states 
 were not yet obtained, and thus the provision was again rejected 
 by the southern states. The perseverance of the north held 
 out, and two years afterward the object was attaJined. It is 
 no derogation from the credit, whatever that may be, of draw- 
 ing the ordinance, that its principles had before been prepared 
 and discussed, in the form of resolutions. If one should rea- 
 son in that way, what would become of the distinguished honor 
 of the author of the declaration of independence ? There is 
 not a sentiment in that paper which had not been voted and 
 resolved in the assemblies, and other popular bodies in the 
 country, over and over again. 
 
 But the honorable member has now found out that this gen- 
 tleman, Mr. Dane, was a member of the Hartford convention. 
 However uninformed the honorable member may be of char- 
 acters and occurrences at the north, it would seem that he has 
 at his elbow, on this occasion, some high-minded and lofty 
 spirit, some magnanimous and true-hearted monitor, possessing 
 the means of local knowledge, and ready to supply the honor- 
 able member with everything, down ev^n to forgotten and moth- 
 eaten two-penny pamplilets, which may be used to the disadvan- 
 tage of his own country. But as to the Hartford convention, 
 sir, allow me to say, that the proceedings of that body seem 
 now to be less read and studied in New England than farther 
 south. They appear to be looked to, not in New England, but 
 elsewhere, for the purpose of seeing how far they may serve as 
 a precedent. But they will not answer the purpose, they are 
 quite too tame. The latitude in which they originated was 
 too cold. Other conventions, of more recent existence, have 
 gone a whole bar's length beyond it. The learned doctors 
 of Colleton and Abbeville have pushed their commentaries on 
 the Hartford collect so flir, that the original text-writers are 
 thrown entirely into the shade. I have nothing to do, sir, with 
 the Hartford convention. Its journal, wliich the gentleman has 
 
342 WEDSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 quoted, I never read. So far as the honorable member may 
 discover in its proceedings a spirit in any degree resembling 
 that which was avowed and justified in those other conventions 
 to which 1 have alluded, or so far as those proceedings can be 
 shown to be disloyal to the constitution, or tending to disunion, 
 so far I shall be as ready as any one to bestow on them repre- 
 hension and censure. 
 
 ITa\'ing dwelt long on this convention, and other occurrences 
 of that day, in the hope, probably, (which will not be gratified,) 
 that I should leave the course of this debate to follow him at 
 length in those excursions, the honorable member returned, and 
 attempted another object. lie refen-ed to a speech of minein 
 tlie other house, the same which 1 had occasion to allude to 
 myself, the other day ; and has quoted a passage or two from it, 
 with a bold, though uneasy and laboring, air of confidence, as 
 if he had detected in me an inconsistency. Judging from the 
 gentleman's manner, a stranger to the course of the debate 
 and to the point in discussion would have imagined, from so 
 triumphant a tone, that the honorable member was about to 
 overwhelm me with a manifest conti'adiction. Any one who 
 heard him, and who had not heard what I had, in fact, previ- 
 ously said, must have thought me routed and discomfited, as 
 the gentleinan had promised. Sir, a breath blows all this tri- 
 umph away. There is not the slightest difference in the senti- 
 ments of my remarks on the two occasions. What I said here 
 on Wednesday is in exact accordance with the opinion expressed 
 by me in the other house in 1825. Though ihe gentleman had 
 the metaphysics of Hudibras, though he were able 
 
 " to sever and divido 
 A balr 'twlxt north and northwest side," 
 
 he yet could not insert his metaphysical scissors between the 
 fiiir reading of my remarks in 1825, and what I said here last 
 week, lliere is not only no contradiction, no difference, but, in 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 343 
 
 truth, too exact a similarity, both in thought and language, to 
 be entirely in just taste. I had myself quoted the same speech ; 
 had recurred to it, and spoke with it open before me ; and much 
 of what 1 said was little more than a repetition from it. In 
 order to make finishing work with this alleged contradiction, per- 
 mit me to recur to the origin of this debate, and review its 
 course. This seems expedient, and may be done as well now 
 as at any time. 
 
 Well, then, its history is this. The honorable member from 
 Connecticut moved a resolution, which constitutes the first 
 branch of that which is now before us ; that is to say, a reso- 
 lution, instructing the committee on public lands to inquire into 
 the expediency of limiting, for a certain period, the sales of the 
 public lands, to sucli as have heretofore been offered for sale ; 
 and wdiether sundry offices connected with the sales of the lands 
 might not be abolished without detriment to the public service. 
 In the progress of the discussion which arose on this resolution, 
 an honorable member from New Hampshire moved to amend 
 the resolution, so as entirely to reverse its object ; that is, to 
 strike it all out, and insert a direction to the committee to in- 
 quire into the expediency of adopting measures to hasten the 
 sales, and extend more rapidly tlie surveys, of the lands. 
 
 The honorable member from Maine, (Mr. Sprague) suggested 
 that both those propositions might well enough go for consider- 
 ation to the committee ; and in this state of the question, the 
 member fi"om South Carolina addressed the senate in his first 
 speech. He rose, he said, to give us his own free thoughts on 
 the public lands. I saw him rise with pleasure, and listened 
 with expectation, though before he concluded I was filled with 
 surprise. Certainly, I was never more surprised, than to find 
 him following up, to the extent he did, the sentiments and opin- 
 ions which the gentleman from Missouri had put forth, and 
 which it is known he has long entertained. 
 
 I need not repeat at large the general topics of the honorable 
 
344 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 gentleman's speech. When he said yesterday that he did not 
 attack the eastern states, he certainly must have forgotten, not 
 only particular remarks, but the whole drift and tenor of his 
 speech ; unless he means by not attacking, that he did not com- 
 mence hostilities, but that another had preceded him in the at- 
 tack. He, in the first place, disapproved of the whole course of 
 the government, for forty years, in regard to its disposition of 
 the public land ; and then, turning northward and eastward, and 
 fancying he had found a cause for alleged narrowness and nig- 
 gardliness in the " accursed policy " of the tariff, to which he 
 represented the people of New England as wedded, he went on 
 for a full hour with remarks, the whole scope of which was to 
 exhibit the results of this policy, in feelings and in measures 
 unfavorable to the west. I thought his opinions unfounded and 
 erroneous, as to the general course of the government, and ven- 
 tured to reply to them. 
 
 The gentleman had remarked on the analogy of other cases, 
 and quoted the conduct of European governments towards their 
 own subjects settluig on this continent, as in ])oiut, to show 
 that we had been harsh and rigid in selling, when we should 
 have given the public lands to settlers without price. I thought 
 the honorable member had suffered his judgment to be betrayed 
 by a false analogy ; that he was struck with an appearance of 
 resemblance where there was no real similitude. I think so still. 
 The first settlers of North America were enterprising spirits, 
 engaged in private adventure, or fleeing from tyranny at home. 
 When arrived here, they were forgotten by the mother country, 
 or remembered only to be oppressed. Carried away again by 
 the appearance of analogy, or struck with the eloquence of the 
 passage, the honorable member yesterday observed, that the 
 conduct of government toward the western emigrants, or my 
 representation of it, brought to his mind a celebrated speech in 
 the British parliament. It was, sir, the speech of Colonel 
 Barre. On the question of the stamp act, or tea tax, I forget 
 
REPLY TO HATNE. 345 
 
 which, Colonel Barre had heard a member on the treasuiy bench 
 argue, that the people of the United States, being British colo- 
 nies, planted by the maternal care, nourished by the indulgence, 
 and protected by the arms of England, would not grudge their 
 mite to relieve the mother country from the heavy burden under 
 which she groaned. The language of Colonel Barre, in reply 
 to this, was : " They planted by your care ? Your oppression 
 planted them America. They fled from your tyranny, and 
 grew by your neglect of them. So soon as you began to care 
 for them, you showed your care by sending persons to spy out 
 their liberties, misrepresent their character, prey upon them, 
 and eat out their substance." 
 
 And how does the honorable gentleman mean to maintain, 
 that language like this is applicable to the conduct of the gov- 
 ernment of the United States toward the western emigrants, 
 or to any representation given by me of that conduct ? Were 
 the settlers in the west driven thither by our oppression ? Have 
 they flourished only by our neglect of them ? Has the gov- 
 ei'nrnent done notliing but to prey upon them, and eat" out their 
 substance? Sir, this fervid eloquence of the Bi'itish speaker, 
 just when and where it was uttered, and fit to remain an exer- 
 cise for the schools, is not a little out of place, when it is brought 
 thence to be applied here, to the conduct of our own country 
 toward her own citizens. From America to England, it may 
 be true ; from Americans to their own government, it would 
 be strange language. Let us leave it to be recited and de- 
 claimed by our boys against a foreign nation ; not introduce it 
 here, to recite and declaim ourselves against our own. 
 
 But I come to the point of the alleged contradiction, Li my 
 remarks on Wednesday, 1 contended that we could not give 
 away gratuitously all the public lands ; that we held them in 
 trust ; that the government had solemnly pledged itself to dis- 
 pose of them as a common fund for the comn:ion benefit, and 
 to sell and settle them as its discretion should dictate. Now, 
 
 VOL. II. 0* 
 
346 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 sir, what contradiction does the gentleman find to tins sentiment 
 in the speech of 1825 ? He quotes me as having then said, that 
 we ought not to hug tliese lands as a very great treasure. Very- 
 well, sir, supposing me to be accurately reported in that expres- 
 sion, what is the contradiction ? I have not now said that we 
 sln)uld hug these lands as a favorite source of pecuniary income. 
 No such thing. It is not my view. What I have said, and 
 what 1 do say, is, that they are a common fund, to be disposed 
 of for the common benefit, to be sold at low prices for the ac- 
 commodiition of settlers, keeping the object of settling the lands 
 as much in view as that of raising money from them. This I 
 say now, and this I have always said. Is this hugging them as 
 a favorite treasure ? Is there no dilTerence between hugguig 
 axid hoarding this fund, on the one haiid, as a great treasure, and, 
 on the other, of disposing of it at low prices, placing the pro- 
 ceeds in the general treasury of the Union ? My opinion is, 
 that as much is to be made of the land as fairly and reasonably 
 may be, selling it all the while at such rates as to give the fullest 
 cflect to settlement. This is not giving it all away to the states, 
 as the gentleman Avould propose ; nor is it hugging the fund 
 closely and tenaciously, as a favorite treasure ; but it is, in my 
 judgment, a just and wise policy, perfectly according with all 
 the various duties which rest on government. So much for my 
 contradiction. And what is it? Where is the ground of the 
 gentleman's triumph 1 What inconsistency in word or doctrine 
 has he been able to detect ? Sii', if this be a sample of that 
 discomfiture with which the honorable gentleman threatened 
 me, commend me to the word discomjiture for the rest of my 
 life. 
 
 But, afler all, this is not the point of the debate ; and I must 
 now bring the gentleman back to what is the point. 
 
 The real question between me and him is, Has the doctrine 
 been advanced at the south or the east, that the population of 
 the west should be retarded, or at least need not be h^istened, 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 347 
 
 on account of its effect to drain off the people from the Atlantic 
 states ? Is this doctrine, as has been alleged, of eastern origin ? 
 That is the question. Has the gentleman found anything by 
 which he can make good his accusation ? I submit to the sen- 
 ate, that he has entirely failed ; and, as far as this debate has 
 shown, the only person who has advanced such sentiments is a 
 gentleman from South Carolina, and a friend to the honorable 
 member himself The honorable gentleman has given no an- 
 swer to this ; there is none which can be given. The simple 
 fact, while it requires no comment to enforce it, defies all argu- 
 ment to refute it. I could refer to the speeches of another 
 southern gentleman, in years before, of the same general char- 
 acter, and to the same effect, as that which has been quoted ; 
 but I will not consume the time of the senate by the reading 
 of tliem. 
 
 So then, sir, New England is guiltless of the policy of retard- 
 ing western population, and of all envy and jealousy of the 
 growth of the new states. Whatever there may be of that pol- 
 icy in the country, no part of it is hers. If it has a local hab- 
 itation, the honorable member has probably seen by this time 
 where to look for it ; and if it now has received a name, he 
 lias himself chi'istened it. 
 
 We approach, at length, sir, to a more important part of the 
 honorable gentleman's observations. Since it does not accord 
 with my views of justice and policy to give away the public 
 lands altogether, as mere matter of gratuity, I am asked by 
 the honorable gentleman on what ground it is that I consent to 
 vote them away m particular instances. How, he inquii'es, do 
 I reconcile with these professed sentiments, my support of meas- 
 ures appropriating portions of the lands to particular roads, par- 
 ticular canals, particular rivers, and particular institutions of 
 education in the west? This leads, sii-, to the real and wide 
 difference in political opinion between the honorable gentleman 
 and myself On my part, I look upon all these objects as con- 
 
348 WEBSTER AND UIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 nected with the common good, fairly embraced in its object and 
 its terms ; he, on the contrary, deems them all, if good at all. 
 only local good. This is our difference. The interrogatory 
 which he proceeded to put, at once explains this difl'erence. 
 " ^Vhat interest," asks he, " has South Carolina in a canal in 
 Ohio ? " Sir, this very question is full of significance. It de- 
 velops the gentleman's whole political system ; and its answer 
 expounds mine. Here we differ. 1 look upon a road over the 
 Allcghanies, a canal round the falls of the Ohio, or a canal or 
 railway from the Atlantic to the western waters, as being an 
 object large and extensive enough to be fairly said to be for the 
 common benefit. The gentleman thinks otherwise, and this is 
 the key to his construction of the powers of the government. 
 He may well ask what interest has South Carolina in a canal 
 in Ohio. On his system, it is true, she has no interest. On 
 that system, Ohio and Carolina are different governments, and 
 different countries ; connected here, it is true, by some slight 
 and ill-defined bond of union, but in all main respects separate 
 and diverse. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in 
 a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. The gentleman, therefore, only 
 follows out his own principles ; he does no more than arrive at 
 the natural conclusions of his own doctrines ; he only announ- 
 ces the true results of that creed which he has adopted him- 
 self, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares 
 that South Carolina has no interest in a public work in Ohio. 
 Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason 
 thus. Our notion of things is entirely diilerent. We look upon 
 the states, not as separated, but as united. We love to dwell on 
 that union, and on the mutual happiness which it has so much 
 promoted, and the common renown which it has so greatly 
 contributed to acquire. In our contemplation, Carolina and 
 Ohio are parts of the same country ; states, united under the 
 same general government, having interests, common, associated, 
 intermingled. In whatever is within the proper sphere of the 
 
REPLY TO HATNE. 349 
 
 constltutioual power of this government, we look upon the 
 states as one. We do not impose geographical limits to our 
 patriotic feeling or regard ; we do not follow rivers and moun- 
 tains, and lines of latitude, to find boundaries, beyond which 
 public improvements do not benefit us. We who come here, 
 as agents and representatives of these narrow-minded and self- 
 ish men of New England, consider ourselves as bound to re- 
 gard with an equal eye the good of the whole, in whatever is 
 within our power of legislation. Sir, if a railroad or canal, 
 beginning in South Carolina and ending in South Carolina, ap- 
 peared to me to be of national importance and national magni- 
 tude, believing, as I do, that the power of government extends 
 to the encouragement of works of that description, if I were td 
 stand up here and ask, AVhat interest has JMassachusetts in a 
 railroad in South Carolina 1 I should not be willing to face my 
 constituents. These same narrow-minded men would tell me, 
 that they had sent me to act for the whole country, and that 
 one who possessed too little comprehension, either of intellect 
 or feeling, one who was not large enough both in mind and in 
 heart, to embrace the whole, was not fit to be entrusted with 
 the interest of any part. 
 
 Sir, I do not desire to enlarge the powers of the government 
 by unjustifiable construction, nor to exercise any not within a 
 fair interpretation. But when it is believed that a power does 
 exist, then it is, in my judgment, to be exercised for the general 
 benefit of the whole. So far as respects the exercise of such a 
 power, the states are one. It was the very object of the con- 
 stitution to create unity of interests to the extent of the powers 
 of the general government. In war and peace we are one ; in 
 commerce, one; because the authority of the genei'al gov- 
 ernment reaches to war and peace, and to the regulation of 
 commerce. I have never seen any more difficulty in erecting 
 lighthouses on the lakes, than on the ocean ; in improving the 
 harbors of inland seas, than if they were within the ebb and 
 
350 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTfiR-FIECES. 
 
 (low of the tide ; or in removing obstructions in the vast streams 
 of the west, more than in any woi'k to faclHtate commerce on 
 the Atlantic coast. If there be any power for one, there is 
 power also for the other ; and they are all and equally for the 
 common good of the country. 
 
 There are other objects, apparently more local, or the benefit 
 of v.'hich is less general, toward which, nevertheless, I have 
 concurred with others, to give aid by donations of land. It is 
 proposed to construct a road, in or through one of the new 
 states, in which this government possesses large quantities of 
 .land. Have the United States no right, or, as a great and un- 
 taxed proprietor, are they under no obligation to contribute to 
 an object thus calculated to promote the common good of all 
 the propi-ietors, themselves included 1 And even with respect 
 to education, which is the extreme case, let the question be 
 considered. In the first place, as we have seen, it was made 
 matter of compact with these states, that they should do their 
 part to promote education. In the next place, our whole sys- 
 tem of land laws proceeds on the idea that education is for the 
 common good ; because, in every division, a certain portion is 
 uniformly reserved and appropriated for the use of schools. 
 And, finally, have not these new states singularly strong claims, 
 founded on the ground already stated, that the government is 
 a gi-eat untaxed proprietor, in the ownership of the soil ] It is 
 a consideration of great importance, that probably there is iu 
 no part of the country, or of the world, so great call for the 
 means of education, as in those new stiites, owing to the vast 
 numbers of persons within those ages in which education and 
 instruction are usually received, if received at all. This is the 
 natural consequence of recency of settlement and rapid increase. 
 The census of these states shows how great a proportion of the 
 whole population occupies the classes between infancy and 
 manhood. These arc the wide fields, and here is the deep 
 and quick soU for the seeds of knowledge and virtue; and 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 351 
 
 tliis is the favored season, the very spring-time for sowing them. 
 Let them be disseminated v/ithout stint. Let them be scat- 
 tered, broadcast, with a bountiful hand. Whatever the govern- 
 ment can fairly do toward these objects, in my opinion, ought 
 to be done. 
 
 These, sir, are the grounds, succinctly stated, on which my 
 votes for grants of lands for particular objects rest ; while I 
 maintain, at the same time, that it is all a common fund, for 
 the common benefit. And reasons like these, I presume, have 
 influenced the votes of other gentlemen fi-om New England. 
 Those who have a different view of the powers of the govern- 
 ment, of course, come to different conclusions, on these, as oa 
 other questions. I observed, when speaking on this subject be- 
 fore, that if we looked to any measure, whether for a road, a 
 canal, or anything else, intended fir the improvement of the 
 west, it would be found that, if the New England cujes were 
 struck out of the list of votes, the southern noes would always 
 have rejected the measure. The truth of this has not been 
 denied, and cannot be denied. \\\ stating this, 1 thought it 
 just to ascribe it to the constitutional scruples of the south, 
 rather than to any other less favorable or less charitable cause. 
 But no sooner had I done this, than the honorable gentleman 
 asks if I reproach him and his friends with their constitutional 
 scruples. Sii', I reproach nobody. 1 stated a fact, and gave the 
 most respectful reason for it that occurred to me. The gentle- 
 man cannot deny the fact ; he may, if he choose, disclaim the 
 reason. It is not long since I had occasion, in presenting a 
 petition from his own state, to account for its being intrusted 
 to my hands, by saying that the constitutional opinions of the 
 gentleman and his worthy colleague prevented them from sup- 
 porting it. Sir, did I state this as matter of reproach % Far 
 from it. Did I attempt to find any other cause than an honest 
 one fir these scruples? Sir, I did not. It did not become me 
 to doubt or to insinuate that the gentleman had either changed 
 
352 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 his sentiments, or that he had made up a set of constitutional 
 opinions accommodated to any particular combination of polit- 
 ical occurrences. Had I done so, I should have felt, that, while 
 I was entitled to little credit in thus questioning other people's 
 motives, I justified the whole world in suspecting my own. But 
 how has the gentleman returned this respect for others' opin- 
 ions 1 His own candor and justice, how have they been ex- 
 hibited toward the motives of others, while he has been at so 
 much pains to maintain, what nobody has disputed, the purity 
 of his own ? Why, sir, he has asked wlmi, and how, and ivhy 
 New England votes were found going for measures favorable to 
 the west. He has demanded to be informed whether all tills 
 did not begin in 1825, and while the election of president was 
 still pending. 
 
 Sir, to these questions retort would be justified ; and it is both 
 cogent and at hand. Nevertheless, I -will answer the inquiry, 
 not by retort, but by facts. I will tell the gentleman when, and 
 how, and why New England has supported measures favorable 
 to the west. I have already referred to the early history of the 
 government, to the first acquisition of the lands, to the original 
 laws for disposing of them, and for governing the territories 
 where they lie ; and have showi the influence of New England 
 men and New England principles in all these leading measures. 
 I should not be pardoned were I to go over that ground again. 
 Coming to more recent times, and to measures of a less general 
 character, I have endeavored to prove that everything of this 
 kind, designed for western improvement, has depended on the 
 votes of New England ; all this is true beyond the power of 
 contradiction. And now, sir, there are two measures to which 
 1 will refer, not so ancient as to belong to the early history of 
 the public lands, and not so recent as to be on this side of the 
 period when the gentleman charitably lm:vglnes a new direction 
 may have been given to New England feeling and New En- 
 gland votes. These measures, and the New England votes in 
 
REPLY TO HAYNK. 353 
 
 support of them, may be taken as samples and specimens of 
 all the rest. 
 
 In 1820 (observe Mr. President, in 1820), the people of the 
 west besought congress for a reduction in the price of lands. 
 In favor of that reduction, New England, with a delegation of 
 forty members in the other house, gave thirty-three votes, and 
 one only against it. The four southern states, with over fifty 
 members, gave thirty-two votes for it, and seven against it. 
 Again, in 1821 (observe again, sir, the time), the law passed for 
 the relief of the purchasers of the public lands. This was a 
 measure of vital importance to the west, and more especially to 
 the southwest It authorized the relinquishment of contracts 
 for lands which had been entered into at high prices, and a re- 
 duction in other cases of not less than thirty-seven and a half 
 per cent, on the purchase-money. Many millions of dollars, 
 six or seven, I believe, at least, probably much more, were re- 
 linquished by this law. On this bill, New England, with her 
 forty members, gave more affirmative votes than the four south- 
 ern states, with their fifty-two or three members. These two 
 are far the most important general measures respecting the 
 public lands which have been adopted within the last twenty 
 years. They took place in 1820 and 1821. That is the time 
 when. 
 
 As to the manner how, the gentleman already sees that it was 
 by voting in solid column for the required relief; and, lastly, a3 
 to the cause why, I tell the gentleman it was because the mem- 
 bers from New England thought the measures just and salu- 
 tary ; because they entertained toward the west neither envy, 
 hatred, nor malice ; because they deemed it becoming them, as 
 just and enlightened men, to meet the exigency which had 
 arisen in the west with the appropriate measure of relief; be- 
 cause they felt it due to their own characters, and the charac- 
 ters of their New England predecessors in this government, 
 to act toward the new states in the spirit of a liberal, patroQ- 
 VOL. u. 23 
 
354 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 izing, magnanimous policy. So much, sir, for the cause ivhij ; 
 and I hope that by this time, sir, tlie honorable gentleman is 
 satisfied ; if not, I do not know when^ or how, or why he ever 
 will be. 
 
 Having recurred to these two important measures, in answer 
 to the gentleman's inquiries, I must now beg permission to go 
 back to a period yet something earlier, for the purpose of still 
 lurther showing how much, or rather how little, reason there is 
 for the gentleman's insinuation that political hopes or fears, or 
 party associations, were the grounds of these New England 
 votes. And after what has been said, I hope it may be forgiven 
 rae if I allude to some political opinions and votes of my own, 
 of very little public importance certainly, but which, from the 
 time at \\hich they were given and expressed, may pass for 
 good witnesses on this occasion. 
 
 This government, ISIr. President, from its origin to the peace 
 of 1815, had been too much engrossed with various other im- 
 portant concerns to be able to turn its thoughts inward, and 
 look to the development of its vast internal resources, hi the 
 early part of President Washington's administration, it was 
 fully occupied with completing its own organization, providing 
 for the public debt, defending the frontiers, and maintaining do- 
 mestic peace. Before the termination of that administration, 
 the fires of the French revolution blazed forth, as from a new- 
 opened volc<ano, and the whole breadth of the ocean did not se- 
 cure us from its effects. The smoke and the cinders reached 
 us, though not the burning lava. Diflicult and agitating ques- 
 tions, embarrassing to government and dividing public opinion, 
 sprung out of the new state of our foreign relations, and were suc- 
 ceeded by others, and yet again by others, equally embarrass- 
 ing and equally exciting division and discord, through the long 
 .series of twenty years, till they finally issued in the war with 
 Enorlaud. Down to the close of that war, no distinct, marked, 
 and deliberate attention had been given, or could have beta 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 355 
 
 given, to the iutemal condition of the country, its capacities of 
 improvement, or the constitutional power of the government in 
 regard to objects connected with such improvement. 
 
 The peace, Mr, President, brought about an entirely new and 
 a most interesting state of things ; it opened to us other pros- 
 pects and suggested other duties. We ourselves were changed, 
 and the whole world was changed. The pacification of Europe, 
 after June, 1815, assumed a firm and permanent aspeqt. The 
 nations evidently manifested that they were disposed for peace. 
 Some agitation of the waves might be expected, even after the 
 storm had subsided, but the tendency was, strongly and rapidly, 
 toward settled repose. 
 
 It so happened, sir, that I was at that time a member of con- 
 gress, and, like others, naturally turned my attention to the con- 
 templation of the newly altered condition of the country and 
 of the world. It appeared plainly enough to me, as well as to 
 wiser and more experienced men, that the policy of the govern- 
 ment would naturally take a start in a new direction ; because 
 new directions would necessarily be given to the pursuits and 
 occupations of the people. We had pushed our commerce far 
 and fast, under the advantage of a neutral flag. But there were 
 now no longer flags, either neutral or belligerent. The harvest 
 of neutrality had been great, but we had gathered it all. With 
 the peace of Europe, it was obvious there would spring up in 
 her circle of nations a revived and invigorating spirit of trade 
 and a new activity in all the busmess and objects of civilized 
 life. Hereafter, our commercial gains were to be earned only 
 by success in a close and intense competition. Other nations 
 would produce for themselves, and carry for themselves, and 
 manuflicture for themselves, to the full extent of their abilities. 
 The crops of our plains would no longer sustain European ar- 
 mies, nor our ships longer supply those whom war had ren- 
 dered unable to supply themselves. It was obvious, that, un- 
 
350 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 der these circumstances, the country would begin to survey 
 itself, and to estimate its own capacity of improvement. 
 
 And this improvement — how was it to be accomplished, and 
 who was to accomplish it 1 We were ten or twelve millions 
 of people, spread over almost half a world. We were more 
 than twenty states, some stretching along the same seaboard, 
 some along the same line of inland frontier, and others on op- 
 posite banks of the same vast rivers. Two considerations at 
 once presented themselves, in looking at this state of things, 
 with great force. One was, that that great branch of improve- 
 ment which consisted in furnishing new facilities of intercourse 
 necessarily ran into different states in every leading instance, 
 and would benefit the citizens of all such states. No one state, 
 therefore, in such cases, would assume the whole expense, nor 
 was the cooperation of several states to be expected. Take the 
 instance of the Delaware breakwater. It will cost several mil- 
 lions of money. Would Pennsylvania alone ever have con- 
 structed it 1 Certainly never, while this Union lasts, because 
 it is not for her sole benefit. Would Pennsylvania, New Jer- 
 sey, and Delaware have united to accomplish it at their joint 
 expense 1 Certainly not, for the same reason. It could not be 
 done, therefore, but by the general government. The same 
 may be said of the large inland undertakings, except that, in 
 them, government, instead of bearing the whole expense, coop- 
 erates with others who bear a part. The other consideration 
 is, that the United States have the means. Tlicy enjoy the 
 revenues derived from commerce, and the states ha\'e no abun 
 dant and easy sources of public income. The custom-houses 
 fill the general treasury, while the states have scanty resources, 
 except by resort to heavy direct taxes. 
 
 Under this view of tilings, I thought it necessary to settle, at 
 least for myself, some definite notions with respect to the pow- 
 ers of the government in regard to internal aflairs. It may not 
 savor too much of self-commendation to remark, that, with this 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 357 
 
 object, I considered the constitution, its judicial construction, its 
 cotemporaneous exposition, and the whole history of the legis- 
 lation of congress under it ; and I arrived at the conclusion, that 
 government had power to accomplish sundry objects, or aid in 
 their accomplishment, which are now commonly spoken of as 
 Internal Improvements. Tliat conclusion, sir, may have been 
 right, or it may have been \\Tong, I am not about to argue the 
 grounds of it at large. I say only, that it was adopted and 
 acted on even so early as in 1816. Yes, Mr. President, I 
 made up my opinion, and determined on my intended course 
 of political conduct, on these subjects, in the fourteenth congress, 
 in 1816. And now, Mr. President, I have further to say, that 
 I made up these opinions, and entered on this course of politi- 
 cal conduct, Teucro duce* Yes, sir, I pursued in all this a 
 South Carolina track on the doctrines of internal improvement. 
 South Carolina, as she was then represented in the other 
 house, set forth in 1816 under a fresh and leading breeze, and I 
 was among the followers. But if my leader sees new lights 
 and turns a sharp corner, unless I see new lights also, I keep 
 straight on in the same path. I repeat, that leading gentlemen 
 from South Carolina were first and foremost in behalf of the doc- 
 trines of internal improvements, when those doctrines came 
 first to be considered and acted upon in congress. The de- 
 bate on the bank question, on the tariff" of 1816, and on the 
 direct tax, will show who was who, and what was what, at that 
 time. 
 
 The tariff" of 1816, (one of the plain cases of oppression and 
 usurpation, from which, if the government does not recede, in- 
 dividual states may justly secede from the government,) is, sir, 
 ui truth, a South Carolina tariff", supported by South Carolina 
 votes. But for those votes it could not have passed in the form 
 in whicli it did pass ; whereas, if it had depended on Mafsachu- 
 
 * At the time when this speech was made, Mr. Calhoun was vice-president, and 
 president of the senate. 
 
358 WEBSTER AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 setts votes, it would have been lost. Does not the honorable 
 gentlemiui well know all this? There are certainly those who 
 do, full well, know it all. I do not say tMs to reproach South 
 Carolina. I only state the fact ; and I tlmik it will appeal- to be 
 true, that among the earliest and boldest advocates of the tariff, 
 as a measure of protection, and on the express ground of pro- 
 tection, were leading sjentlemen of South Carolina in consrress. 
 I did not then, and cannot now, understand their language in 
 any other sense. While this tariff of 1816 was under discus- 
 sion in the house of representatives, an honorable gentleman 
 fi-ora Georgia, now of this house, (Mr. Forsyth,) moved to re- 
 duce the proposed duty on cotton. He failed, by four votes, , 
 South Carolina giving three votes (enough to have turned the 
 scale) agauist his motion. The act, sir, then passed, and re- 
 ceived on its passage the support of a majority of the represen- 
 tatives of South Carolina present and voting. This act is the 
 first in the order of those now denounced as plain usurpations. 
 We see it daily in the list, by the side of those of 1824 and 
 1828, as a case of manifest oppression, justifying disunion. I 
 put it home to the honorable member fi-om South Carolina, that 
 his own state was not only " art and part " in this measure, but 
 the causa causans. Without her aid, this seminal principle of 
 mischief, tliis root of Uixas, could not have been planted, I 
 have already said, and it is true, that this act proceeded on the 
 ground of protection. It interfered directly with existing in- 
 terests of great value and amount. It cut up the Calcutta cot- 
 ton trade by the roots, but it passed, nevertlieless, and it passed 
 on the principle of protecting manufactures, on the principle 
 against free trade, on the principle opposed to that which lets 
 vs alone. 
 
 Such, ^Ir. President, were the opinions of important and lead- 
 ing gentlemen from South Carolina, on the subject of internal 
 improvement, in 1810. I went out of Congress the next year, 
 and, returning again in 1828, thought I found South Carolina 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 359 
 
 where; I had left her. I really supposed that all things remained 
 as they were, and that tlie South Giroruia doctrme of internal 
 improvements would be defended by the same eloquent voices, 
 and the same strong arms, as formerly. In the lapse of these 
 six yejirs, it is true, political associations had assumed a new 
 aspect and new divisions. A party had arisen in the south 
 hostile to the doctrine of internal improvements, and had vig- 
 orously attacked that doctrine. Anti-consolidation was the flag 
 under which tliis party fought ; and its supporters inveighed 
 against internal improvements, much after the manner in which 
 the honorable gentleman has now inveighed against them, as 
 part and parcel of the system of consolidation. Whether this 
 party arose in South Carolina herself, or in her neighborhood, is 
 more than I know. I think the latter. However that may 
 have been, there were those found in South Carolina ready to 
 make war upon it, and who did make intrepid war upon it. 
 Names being regarded as things in such controversies, they be- 
 stowed on the anti-improvement gentlemen the appellation of 
 radicals. Yes, sir, the appellation of radicals, as a term of dis- 
 tinction applicable and applied to those who denied the liberal 
 doctrines of internal improvement, originated, according to the 
 best of my recollection, somewhere between North Carolina 
 and Georgia. Well, sir, these mischievous radicals were to be 
 put down, and the strong arm of South Carolina was stretched 
 out to put them down. About this time, sir, I returned to con- 
 gress. The battle with the radicals had been fought, and our 
 South Carolina champions of the doctrines of internal improve- 
 ment had nobly maintained their ground, and were understood 
 to have achieved a victory. We looked upon them as con- 
 querors. They had driven back the enemy with discomfiture, 
 a thing, by the way, sir, which is not always performed when 
 it is promised. A gentleman to whom I have already referred 
 in this debate, had come into congress, during my absence from 
 it, from South Carolma, and had brought witla him a high rep- 
 
360 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 utation for ability. He came from a school with which he had 
 been acquainted, et noscitur a sociis. I hold in my hand, sir, a 
 printed speech of this distLnguisliod gentleman, (Mr. MeDufRe.) 
 " ON Internal Impuovemexts," delivered about the period to 
 wliich I now refer, and printed with a few uitroductory remarks 
 upon consolidation ; in which, sir, I think he quite consolidated 
 the arguments of his opponents, the radicals, if to crush be to 
 consolidate. I give you a short but expressive quotation from 
 these remarks. He is speaking of a pamphlet, then recently 
 published, entitled "Consolidation;" and having alluded to the 
 question of renewing the charter of the former bank of the Uni- 
 ted States, he says : 
 
 "Moreover, in the early history of parties, and when Mr. Craw- 
 ford advocated a renewal of the old charter, it was considered a fed- 
 eral measure ; which internal improvement riever was, as this author 
 erroneously states. This latter measure originated in the adminis- 
 tration of Mr. Jefferson, with the appropriation for the Cumberland 
 road; and was first proposed, as a system, by Mr. Calhoun, and car- 
 ried through the house of representatives by a large majority of the 
 republicans, including almost every one of the leading men who 
 eorried us through the late war." 
 
 So, then, internal improvement is not one of the federal her- 
 esies. One paragraph more, sir : 
 
 "The author in question, not content with denouncing as federal- 
 ists, General Jackson, Mr. Adams, Mr. Calhoun, and the majority of 
 the South Carolina delegation in congress, modestly extends the de- 
 nunciation to Mr. Monroe, and the whole republican party. Hero 
 are his words : 'During the administration of Mr. Monroe much has 
 passed which the ivpublican party would be glad to approve if they 
 could! But the principal feature, and that which has chiefly eli- 
 cited these observations, is the renewal of tlie System of Internal 
 Impkovements.' Now this measure was adojited by a vote of 115 to 
 86 of a republican congress, and sanctioned by a republican presi- 
 dent Who, then, is this author, who assumes the high prerogative 
 of denouncing, in the name of the republican party, the republican 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 361 
 
 administration of the countrj- ? A denunciation including ■within its 
 Bweep Calhoun, Lowndea and Cheves, men who •will be regarded as 
 the brightest ornaments of South Carolina, and the strongest pillars 
 of the republican party, as long as the late war shall be remem- 
 bered, and talents and patriotism shall be regarded as the proper 
 objects of the admiration and gratitude of a free people ! " 
 
 Such are the opinions, sir, which were maintained by South 
 Carolina gentlennen, in the house of representatives, on the 
 subject of internal improvements, when I took my seat there 
 as a member from Massachusetts in 1823. But this is not all. 
 We had a bill before us, and passed it in that house, entitled, 
 "An act to procure the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates 
 upon the subject of roads and canals." It authorized the pres- 
 ident to cause surveys and estimates to be made of the routes 
 of such roads and canals as he might deem of national impor- 
 tance in a commercial or military point of view, or for the 
 transportation of the mail, and appropriated thirty thousand 
 dollars out of the treasury to defray the expense. This act, 
 though preliminary in its nature, covered the whole ground. It 
 took for granted the complete power of internal improvement, 
 as far as any of its advocates had ever contended for it. Hav- 
 ing passed the other house, the bill came up to the senate, and 
 was here considered and debated in April, 1824. The hon- 
 orable member from South Carolina was a member of the 
 senate at that time. While the bill was under consideration 
 here, a motion was made to add the following proviso : 
 '''■Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed 
 to affirm or admit a power in congress, on their own author- 
 ity, to make roads or canals within any of the states of the 
 Union." The yeas and nays were taken on this proviso, 
 and the honorable member voted in the negative. The pro- 
 viso failed. 
 
 A motion was then made to add this proviso, viz : "Pro- 
 vided, That the faith of the United States is hereby pledged, 
 
 VOL. II. P 
 
362 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 that no money shall ever be expended for roa^s or canals, ex- 
 cept it shall be among the several states, and in the same pro- 
 portion as direct taxes are laid and assessed by the provisions 
 of the constitution." The honorable member voted against 
 this proviso also, and it failed. The bill was then put on its 
 passage, and the honorable member voted for it, and it passed, 
 and became a law. 
 
 Now, it strikes me, sir, that there is no maintaining these 
 votes, but upon the power of internal improvement, in its broad- 
 est sense. In truth, these bills for surveys and estimates have 
 always been considered as test questions ; they show who is 
 for and who against internal improvements. This law itself 
 went the whole length, and assumed the full and complete 
 power. The gentleman's votes sustained that power, in every 
 form in which the various propositions to amend presented it. 
 He went for the entire and unrestrained authority, without con- 
 sulting the states, and without agreeing to any proportionate 
 distribution. And now suffer me to remind you, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, that it is this very same power, thus sanctioned, in every 
 form, l>y the gentleman's own opinion, that is so plain and 
 manifest a usurpation, that the state of South Carolina is sup- 
 posed to be justified in refusing submission to any laws carry- 
 ing the power into effect. Truly,- sir, is not this a little too 
 hard ? May we not crave some mercy, under favor and pro- 
 tection of the gentleman's own authority ? Admitting that a 
 road, or a canal, must be written down flat usurpation as was 
 ever committed, may we find no mitigation in our respect for 
 his place, and his vote, as one that knows the law ? 
 
 The tariff, which South Carolina had an efficient hand in es- 
 tablishing, in 1816, and diis asserted power of internal improve- 
 ment, advanced by her in the same year, and, as we have seen, 
 approved and sanctioned by her representatives in 1824, these 
 two measures are the great grounds on which she is now thought 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 363 
 
 to be justified in breaking up the Union, if she sees fit to break 
 it up ! 
 
 I may now safely say, I think, tliat we have had the author- 
 ity of leading and distinguished gentlenaen from South Carolina 
 in support of the doctrine of internal improvement. I repeat, 
 that, up to 1824, I for one followed South Carolina ; but when 
 that star, in its ascension, veered off in an unexpected direction, 
 I relied on its light no longer. 
 
 Here the vice-president said, "Does the chair understand the gen- 
 tleman from Massachusetts to say that the person now occupying 
 the chair of the senate has changed his opinions on the subject of 
 internal improvements?" 
 
 From nothing ever said to me, sir, have I had reason to know 
 of any change in the opinions of the person filling the chair of 
 the senate. If such change has taken place, I regret it. I 
 speak generally of the state of South Carolina, hidividuals 
 •we know there are, who hold opinions favorable to the power. 
 An application for its exercise, in behalf of a public work in 
 South Carolina itself, is now pending, I believe, in the other 
 house, presented by members from that state. 
 
 I have thus, sir, perhaps not without some tediousness of de- 
 tail, shown, that if I am in error on the subject of internal im- 
 provement, how, and in what company, I fell into that error. 
 If I am wrong, it is apparent who misled me. 
 
 I go to other remarks of the honorable member ; and I have 
 to complain of an entire misapprehension of what I said on the 
 subject of the national debt, though I can hardly perceive how 
 any one could misunderstand me. What I said was, not that I 
 wished to put off the payment of the debt, but, on the contrary, 
 that I had always voted for every measure for its reduction, as 
 uniformly as the gentleman himself He seems to claim the 
 exclusive merit of a disposition to reduce the public charge. I 
 do not allow it to him. As a debt, I was, I am for paying it. 
 
364 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 because it is a charge on our finances, and on the industry of the 
 coiuitry. But I observed that I thought I perceived a morbid 
 fervor on that subject, an excessive anxiety to pay off the debt, 
 not so much because it is a debt simply, as because, while it 
 lasts, it furnishes one objection to disiuiion. It is a tie of com- 
 mon interest, while it continues, I did not impute such motives 
 to the honorable member himself, but that there is such a feel- 
 incr in existence I have not a particle of doubt. The most I said 
 was, that if one effect of the debt was to strengthen our Union, 
 that effect itself was not regretted by me, however much others 
 might regret it. The gentleman has not seen how to reply to 
 this, otherwise than by supposing me to have advanced the doc- 
 trine that a national debt is a national blessing. Others, I must 
 hope, will find much less difficiilty in understanding me. I dis- 
 tinctly and pointedly cautioned the honorable member not to 
 understand me as expressing an opinion favorable to the contin- 
 uance of the debt. I repeated this caution, and repeated it more 
 than once ; but it was thrown away. 
 
 On yet another point, I was still more unaccountably misun- 
 derstood. The gentleman had harangued against " consolida- 
 tion." I told him, in reply, that there was one kind of consoli- 
 dation to which 1 was attached, and that was the consolidation 
 of our Union ; that this was precisely that consolidation to 
 which 1 feared others were not attached ; that such consoli- 
 dation was the very end of the constitution, the leading object, 
 as they had informed us themselves, whieh its framers had kept 
 in view. I turned to their communication, and read their very 
 words, " the consolidation of the Union," and expressed my 
 devotion to this sort of consolidation. I said, in terms, that I 
 wished not in the slightest degree to augment the powers of 
 this government ; that my object was to preserve, not to en- 
 large • and that by consolidating the Union I understood no 
 more than the strengthening of the Union, and perpetuating it. 
 Having been thus explicit, liaving thus read from the printed 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 365 
 
 book the precise words which I adopted, as expressing my own 
 sentiments, it passes comprehension how any man could under- 
 stand me as contending for an extension of the powers of the 
 government, or for consolidation in that odious sense in which 
 it means an accumulation, in the federal government, of the 
 powers properly belonging to the states. 
 
 I repeat, sir, that in adopting the sentiment of the framers 
 of the constitution, I read their language audibly, and word for 
 word ; and I pointed out the distinction, just as fully as I have 
 now done, between the consolidation of the Union and that 
 other obnoxious consolidation which I disclaimed. And yet the 
 honorable member misunderstood me. The gentleman had 
 said that he wished for no fixed revenue — not a shilling. If by 
 a word he could convert the capitol into gold, he would not do 
 it. Why all this fear of revenue ? Why, sii-, because, as the 
 gentleman told us, it tends to consolidation. Now this can 
 mean neither more nor less than that a common revenue is 
 a common interest, and that all common interests tend to 
 hold the union of the states together, I confess I like that 
 tendency ; if the gentleman dislikes it, he is right in deprecia- 
 ting a shilling's fixed revenue. So much, sir, for consolidation. 
 
 As well as I recollect the course of his remarks, the honora- 
 ble gentleman next recurred to the subject of the tariff! He 
 did not doubt the word must be of unpleasant sound to me 
 and proceeded, with an effort neither new nor attended with 
 new success, to involve me and my votes in inconsistencv and 
 contradiction. I am happy the honorable gentleman has fur- 
 nished me an opportunity of a timely remark or two on that 
 subject. I was glad he approached it, for it is a question I enter 
 \ipon without fear from anybody. The strenuous toil of the 
 gentleman has been to raise an inconsistency between my dis- 
 sent to the tariff" in 1824, and my vote in 1828. It is labor 
 lost. He pays undeserved compliment to my speech in 1824 • 
 but this is to raise me high, that my fall, as he would have it 
 
36G WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 in 1828, may be more signal. Sir, there was no foil at all. 
 Between the ground I stood on in 1824 and tb\t I took in 1828, 
 there was not only no precipice, but no declivity. It was a 
 chano-e of position to meet new circumstances, but on tlie same 
 level. A plain tale explain^ tho, whole matter. In 1816 I had not 
 acquiesced in the tariff, then supported by South Carolina. To 
 some parts of it, especially, I felt and expressed great repug- 
 nance. I held the same opinions in 1821, at the meeting in 
 Faneuil Hall, to which the gentlemim has alluded. I said then, 
 a)id say now, that, as an original question, the authority of con- 
 gress to exercise the revenue power, with direct reference to the 
 protection of manufactures, is a questionable authority, for 
 more questionable, in my judgment, than the power of internal 
 improvements. I must confess, sir, that in one respect some 
 impression has been made on my opinions lately. Mr. Madi- 
 son's publication has put the power in a very strong light. He 
 has placed it, I must acknowledge, upon grounds of construc- 
 tion and argument which seem impregnable. But even if the 
 power were doubtful, on the face of the constitution itself, it had 
 been assumed and asserted in the first revenue law ever passed 
 under that same constitution ; and on this ground, as a matter 
 settled by cotemporaneous practice, I had rcfi'ained from ex- 
 pressing the opinion that the tariff laws tnuiscended constitu- 
 tional limits, as the gentleman supposes. What I did say at 
 Faneuil Hall, lis far as I now remember, was, that this was 
 originally matter of doubtful construction. The gentleman 
 himself, I suppose, thinks there is no doubt about it, and that 
 the laws are plainly against the constitution. Mr. Madison's 
 letters, already referred to, contain, in my judgment, by far the 
 most able exposition extant of this part of the constitution. 
 He has satisfied me, so far as the practice of the government 
 has left it an open question. 
 
 With a great majority of the representatives of Massachu- 
 setts, I voted against the tariff of 1824. My reasons were then 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 367 
 
 given, and I will not now repeat them. But, notwithstanding 
 our dissent, the great states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 and Kentucky went for the bill, in almost unbroken column, 
 and it passed. Congress and the president sanctioned it, and it 
 became the law of the land. "What, then, were we to do 1 
 Our only option was, either to fall in with this settled course 
 of public policy, and accommodate ourselves to it as well as we 
 could, or to embrace the South Carolina doctrine, and talk of 
 nullifying the statute by state interference. 
 
 This last alternative did not suit our principles, and of course 
 we adopted the former, hi 1827, the subject came again be- 
 fore congress, on a proposition fixvorable to wool and woolens. 
 We looked upon the system of protection as being fixed and 
 settled. The law of 1824 remained. It had gone mto full op- 
 eration, and, in regard to some objects intended by it, perhaps 
 most of them, had produced all its expected effects. No man 
 proposed to repeal it ; no man attempted to renew the general 
 contest on its principle. But, owing to subsequent and unfore- 
 seen occurrences, the benefit intended by it to wool and woolen 
 fabrics had not been realized. Events not known here when 
 the law passed had taken place, wliich defeated its object in that 
 particular respect. A measure was accordingly brought for- 
 ward to meet this precise deficiency, to remedy this particular 
 defect. It was limited to wool and woolens. Was ever any- 
 thing more reasonable 1 If the policy of the tariff laws had 
 become established in principle, as the permanent policy of the 
 government, should they not be revised and amended and made 
 equal, like other laws, as exigencies should arise, or justice re- 
 quire ? Because we had doubted about adoptuig the system, 
 were we to refuse to cure its manifest defects, after it become 
 adopted, and when no one attempted its repeal 1 And this, sir, 
 is the inconsistency so much bruited. I had voted against the 
 tariff of 1824, but it passed ; and in 1827 and 1828, I voted 
 to amend it, in a point essential to the interests of my constitu- 
 
368 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PtKCES. 
 
 ents. Where is the mconsistency ? Could I do otherwise? 
 Sir, does political consistency consist in always giving negative 
 votes 1 Does it require of a public man to refuse to concur in 
 amending laws, because they passed against his consent 1 Hav- 
 mg voted against the tariff originally, does consistency demand 
 that I should do all in my power to maintain an unequal tariff, 
 burdensome to my own constituents in many respects, favora- 
 ble in none ? To consistency of that sort, I lay no claim. And 
 there is another sort to which I lay as little, and that is, a kind 
 of consistency by which persons feel themselves as much bound 
 to oppose a proposition after it has become a law of the land 
 as before. 
 
 The bill of 1827, limited, as I have said, to the single object 
 in which the tariff of 1824 liad manifestly fiiiled in its effect, 
 passed the house of representatives, but was lost here. We 
 had then the act of 1828. 1 need not recur to the history of a 
 measure so recent. Its enemies spiced it with whatsoever they 
 thought would render it distasteful ; its friends took it, drug- 
 ged as it was. Vast amounts of property, many miUions, had 
 been invested in manufactures, under the inducements of the 
 act of 1824. Events called loudly, as 1 thought, for further 
 regulation to secure the degree of protection intended by that 
 act. I was disposed to vote for such regulation, and desired 
 nothing more ; but certainly was not to be bantered out of my 
 purpose by a threatened augmentation of duty on molasses, 
 put into the bill for the avowed purpose of making it obnoxious. 
 The vote may have been right or wrong, wise or unwise ; but 
 it is little less than absurd to allege against it an inconsistency 
 witli op[)osition to the former law. 
 
 Sir, as to the general subject of the tariff, 1 have little now to 
 say. Another opportunity may be presented. I remarked the 
 other day, that this policy did not begin with us in New En- 
 gland; and yet, sir. New England is charged with vehemence 
 as being favorable, or charged with equal vehemence as being 
 
REPLY TO HATNK. 3G9 
 
 unfavorable, to the tariff policy, just as best suits the time, place, 
 and occasion for making some charge against her. The credu- 
 lity of the public has been put to its extreme capacity of false 
 impression relative to her conduct in this particular. Through 
 all the south, during the late contest, it was New England pol- 
 icy and a New England administration that were afflictina the 
 country with a tariff beyond all endurance; while on the other 
 side of the Alleghanies even the act of 1823 itself, the very sub- 
 limated essence of oppression, according to southern opinions, 
 was pronounced to be one of those blessings for which the west 
 was indebted to the "generous soutL" 
 
 With large investments in manufacturing establishments, and 
 many and various interests connected with and dependent on 
 them, it is not to he expected that New England, any more 
 than other portions of the countiy, will now consent to any 
 measure destructive or highly dangerous. The duty of the gov- 
 ernment, at the present moment, would seem to be to preserve, 
 not to destroy ; to maintain the position which it has assumed ; 
 and, for one, I shall feel it an indispensable obligation to hold 
 it fcteady, as far as in my power, to that degree of protection 
 which it has undertaken to bestow. No more of the tariff. 
 
 Professkig to be provoked by what he chose to consider a 
 charge made by me against South Carolina, the honorable mem- 
 ber, Mr. President, has taken up a new crusade against New 
 England. Leaving altogether the subject of the public lands, 
 in which his success, perhaps, had been neither distinguished nor 
 satisfactory, and letting go, also, of the topic of the tariff, he 
 sallied forth in a general assault on the opinions, politics, and 
 parties of New England, as they have been exhibited in the last 
 thirty years. This is natural. The "narrow policy " of the pub- 
 lic lands had proved a legal settlement in South Carolina, and 
 was not to be removed. The " accursed policy " of the tariff, 
 also, had established the fact of its birth and parentage in the 
 same state. No wonder, therefore, the gentleman wished to 
 VOL. II. P* 24 
 
370 WEBSTER AND lUS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 carry the war, as he expressed it, into the enemy's country. 
 Prudently willing to quit these subjects, he was, doubtless, de- 
 sirous of fastening on others, that which could not be transfer, 
 red south of !Mason and Dixon's line. Tlie politics of New En- 
 gland became his theme ; and it was in this part of his speech, 
 I think, that he menaced me with sore discomfiture. Discom- 
 fiture! Why, sir, when he attacks anything which I maintain, 
 and overthrows it, v,hen he turns the right or left of any posi- 
 tion which I take up, when he drives me from any ground I 
 choose to occupy, he may then talk of discomfiture, but not till 
 that distant day. What has he done? Has he maintiiined his 
 own charges 1 Has he proved what he alleged ? Has he sus- 
 tained himself in his attack on the government, and on the his- 
 tory of the north, in the matter of the public lands? Has he 
 disproved a feet, refuted a proposition, weakened an argument, 
 maintained by me ? lias he come witliin beat of drum of any 
 position of mine ? O, no ; but he has " carried the war into 
 the enemy's country ! " Carried the war into the enemy's coun- 
 try ! Yes, sir, jxnd what sort of a war has he made of it ? 
 Why, sir, he has stretched a drag-net over the whole surface of 
 perished pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy paragraphs, and 
 fuming popular addresses ; over whatever the pulpit in its mo- 
 ments of alarm, the press in its heats, and parties in their 
 extravagance, have severall}^ thrown off in times of general 
 excitement and vicdence. He has thus swept together a mass 
 of such things as, but that they are now old and cold, the public 
 health would have required him rather to leave in their state 
 of dispersion. For a good long hour or two, wo had the un- 
 broken pleasure of listening to the honorable member, while he 
 recited with his usual grace and spirit, and with evident high 
 gusto, speeches, pamphlets, addresses, and all the ei ceteras of 
 the political press, such as warm heads produce in warm times ; 
 and such as it would be " discomfiture " indeed, for any one, 
 whose taste did not delight in that sort of reading, to be obliged 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 371 
 
 to peruse. Tliis is liis war. Tliis is to carry the war into the 
 enemy's country. It is in an invasion of this sort, that he flat- 
 ters himself with the expectation of gaining laurels fit to adorn 
 a senator's brow ! 
 
 Mr. President, I shall not, it will not, I trust, be expected 
 that I should either now or at any time, separate this farrago 
 into parts, and answer and examine its components. I shall 
 hardly bestow upon it all a general remark or two. In the run 
 of forty years, sir, under this constitution, we have experienced 
 sundry successive violent party contests. Party arose, indeed, 
 with the constitution itself, and, in some form or other, has at- 
 tended it through the greater part of its history. Whether any 
 other constitution than the old articles of confederation was de- 
 sirable, was itself a question on wliich parties formed ; if a new 
 constitution were framed, what powers should be given to it was 
 another question ; and when it had been formed, what was, in 
 fact, the just extent of the powers actually confen-ed was a 
 tliird. Parties, as we know, existed under the first admuiistra- 
 tion, as distinctly marked as those which have manifested them- 
 selves at any subsequent period. The contest immediately pre- 
 ceding the political change in 1801, and that, again, which 
 existed at the commencement of the late war, are other instan- 
 ces of party excitement, of sometliing more than usual strength 
 and intensity. In all these conflicts there was, no doubt, much 
 of violence on both and all sides. It would be impossible, if 
 one had a fimcy for such employment, to adjust the relative 
 quantum of violence between these contending parties. There 
 was enough in each, as must always be expected in popular 
 govei'uments. With a great deal of proper and decorous dis- 
 cussion, there was mingled a great deal, also, of declamation, 
 virulence, crimination and abuse. In regard to any l^arty, 
 probably, at one of the leading epochs in the history of parties, 
 enough may be found to make out another equally inflamed 
 exhibition, as that with which the honorable member has edi- 
 
372 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 fied US. For myself, sir, I shall not rake among the rubbish 
 of bygone times, to see what 1 can find, or whether I cannot 
 find something by which I can fix a blot on the escutcheon of 
 any state, any party, or any part of the country. General 
 Washmgton's administration was steadily and zealously main- 
 tained, as we all know, by New England. It was violently 
 opposed elsewhere. We Imow in what quarter he had the most 
 earnest, constant, and persevering support, in all his great and 
 leading measures. We know where his private and personal 
 character was held in the highest degree of attachment and 
 veneration ; and we know, too, where his measures were op- 
 posed, his services slighted, and his character vilified. We 
 know, or we might know, if we turned to the journals, w^ho ex- 
 pressed respect, gratitude, and regret, when he retired from the 
 chief magistracy, and who refused to express either respect, 
 gratitude or regret. 1 shall not open those journals. Publi- 
 cations more abusive or scurrilous never saw the light, than 
 were sent forth against Washington, and all his leading meas- 
 ures, from presses south of New England. But I shall not look 
 them up. 1 employ no scavengers, no one is in attendance on 
 me, tendering such means of retaliation ; and if there were, 
 with an ass's load of them, with a bulk as huge as that which 
 the gentleman himself has produced, I would not touch one of 
 them. I see enough of the violence of our own times, to be 
 no way anxious to rescue from forgetfulness the extravagances 
 of times past. 
 
 Besides, what is all this to the present purpose ? It has noth- 
 ing to do with the public lands, in regard to which the attack 
 v/as begun ; and it has nothing to do with those sentiments and 
 opinions which, 1 have thought, tend to disunion, and all of 
 which the lionorable member seems to have adopted himself, 
 and undertaken to defend. New England has, at times — so 
 argues the gentleman — held opinions as dangerous as those 
 which he now holds. Suppose this were so ; wliy should he 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 373 
 
 therefore abuse New England ? If he finds himself counte- 
 nanced by acts of hers, how is it that, while he relies on these 
 acts, he covers, or seeks to cover, their authors with reproach ? 
 But, sir, if in the course of forty years, there have been undue 
 effervescences of party in New England, has the same thing 
 happened nowhere else? Party animosity and party outrage, 
 not in New England, but elsewhere, denounced President Wash- 
 ington, not only as a federalist, but as a tory, a British agent, 
 a man who in his high office sanctioned corruption. But does 
 the honorable member suppose, that if I had a tender here who 
 should put such an effusion of wickedness and folly into my 
 hand, I would stand up and read it against the south 1 Pai'ties 
 ran into great heats again in. 1799 and 1800. What was said, 
 sir, or rather what was not said, in those years, against John 
 Adams, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, 
 and its admitted ablest defender on the floor of congress 1 If 
 the gentleman wishes to increase his stores of party abuse and 
 frothy violence, if he has a determined proclivity to such pur- 
 suits, there are treasures of that sort south of the Potomac, 
 much to his taste, yet untouched. I shall not touch them. 
 
 The parties which divided the country at the commencement 
 of the late war, were violent. But then there was violence on 
 both sides, and violence in every state. Minorities and major- 
 ities were equally violent. There was no more violence against 
 the war in New England than in other states ; nor any more 
 appearance of violence, except that, owing to a dense popula- 
 tion, greater fecility of assembling, and more presses, there may 
 have been more in quantity spoken and printed there than in 
 some other places. In the article of sermons, too, New En- 
 gland is somewhat more abundant than South Carolina ; and 
 for that reason the chance of finding here and there an excep- 
 tionable one may be greater. I hope, too, there are more 
 good ones. Opposition may have been more formidable in 
 New England, as it embraced a larger portion of the whole 
 
374 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 population; but it was no more unrestrained in its principle, 
 or violent in manner. The minorities dealt quite as harshly 
 with their own state governments as the majorities dealt with 
 the administration here. There were presses on both sides, 
 popular meetings on both sides, ay, and pulpits on both sides, 
 also. The gentleman's purveyors have only catered for him 
 among the productions of one side. I certainly shall not sup- 
 ply the deficiency by furnishing samples of the other. I leave 
 to him, and to them, the whole concern. 
 
 It is enough for me to say, that if, in any part of this then: 
 grateful occupation, if, in all their researches, they find any- 
 thing in the history of JSIassachusetts, or New England, or in 
 the proceedings of any legislative or other public body, dis- 
 loyal to the Union, speaking slightingly of its value, proposing 
 to break it up, or recommending non-intercourse with neigh- 
 boring states, on account of difference of political opinion, then, 
 sir I-ive them all up to the honorable gentleman's unre- 
 strained rebuke ; expecting, however, that he will extend his 
 buffetings in like manner to all similar proceedings, wherever 
 
 else found. 
 
 The gentleman, sir, has spoken at lai'ge of former parties, 
 now no longer in being, by their received appellations, and has 
 undertaken to instruct us, not only in the knowledge of their 
 principles, but of their respective pedigi'ees also. He has as- 
 cended to their origin, and run out their genealogies. ^\ ith most 
 exemplary modesty, he speaks of the party to which he pro- 
 fesses to have belonged himself, as the true Pure, the only honest, 
 patriotic party, derived by regular descent, from father to son, 
 from the time of the virtuous Romans ! Spreaduig before us 
 the family tree of political parties, he takes especial care to 
 show himself snugly perched on a popular bough! He is 
 wakeful to the expediency of adopting such rules of descent as 
 shall bring him in, in exclusion of others, as an heir to the 
 inheritance of all public virtue and all true political principle. 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 375 
 
 His party and his opinions are sure to be orthodox ; heterodoxy- 
 is confined to his opponents. He spoke, sir, of the federalists, 
 and I thought I saw some eyes begin to open and stare a little, 
 when he ventured on that ground, I expected he would draw 
 his sketches rather lightly, when he looked on the circle round 
 hira, and especially if he should cast his thoughts to the high 
 places out of the senate. Nevertheless, he went back to Rome, 
 ad annum nrbe condita, and found the fathers of the federal- 
 ists in the primeval aristocrats of that reno\vned empire ! He 
 traced the flow of federal blood down through successive ages 
 and centuries, till he brought it into the veins of the American 
 tories, of whom, by the Avay, there were twenty in the Caro- 
 linas for one in Massachusetts. From the tories he followed 
 it to the federalists ; and, as the federal party was broken up, 
 and there was no possibility of ti-ansmitting it further on this 
 side of the Atlantic, he seems to have discovered that it has 
 gone off collaterally, though against all the canons of descent, 
 into the ultras of France, and finally become extinguished, like 
 exploded gas, among the adherents of Don Miguel ! This, sir 
 is an abstract of the gentleman's history of federalism. I ain 
 not about to controvert it. It is not, at present, worth the 
 pams of refutation ; because, sir, if at this day any one feels the 
 sin of federalism lying heavily on his conscience, he can easily 
 procure remission. He may even obtain an indulgence, if he 
 be desirous of repeating the same transgression. It is an aflair 
 of no difficulty to get into this same right line of patriotic de- 
 scent. A man now-a-days is at liberty to choose his political 
 parentage. He may elect his own father. Federalist or not, 
 he may, if he choose, claim to belong to the favored stock, and 
 his claim will be allowed. He may carry back his pretensions 
 just as far as the honorable gentleman himself; nay, he may- 
 make himself out the honorable gentleman's cousin, and prove, 
 satisfactorily, that he is descended from the same political 
 great-grandfather. All this is allowable. We all know a pro- 
 
376 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 cess, sir, by which the -whole Essex junto could, in one hour, be 
 all washed white from their ancient federalism, and come out, 
 every one of them, an original democrat, dyed in the wool ! 
 Some of them have actually undergone the operation, and they 
 say it is quite easy. The only inconvenience it occasions, as 
 they tell us, is a slight tendency of the blood to the face, a 
 soft suflbsion, which, however, is very transient, since nothing 
 is said by those whom they join, calculated to deepen the red 
 on the cheek, but a prudent silence observed in regard to all 
 the past. Indeed, sir, some smiles of approbation have beeu 
 bestowed, and some crumbs of comfort have fallen, not a thou- 
 sand miles from the door of the Hartford convention itself. 
 And if the author of the ordinance of 1787 possessed the other 
 requisite qualifications, there is no knowing, notwithstanding his 
 federalism, to what heights of favor he might not yet attain. 
 
 Mr. President, in carrying his warfare, such as it is, into 
 New England, the honorable gentleman all along professes to 
 be acting on the defensive. He elects to consider me as hav- 
 ing assailed South Carolina, and insists that he comes forth 
 only as her champion, and in her defense. Sir, I do not adn^iit 
 that I made any attack wliatever on South Carolina. Nothing 
 like it. The honorable member, in his first speech, expressed 
 opinions, in regard to revenue and some other topics, which I 
 heard both with piiin and with surprise. I told the gentleman 
 I was aware that such sentiments were entertained out of the 
 government, but had not expected to find them advanced in it ; 
 that 1 knew there were persons in the south who speak of our 
 Union with indiifercnee or doubt, taking pains to magnify its 
 evils, and to say nothing of its benefits ; that the honorable 
 member himseU^ I was sure, could never be one of these ; and 
 I regretted the expression of such opinions as he had avowed,, 
 because I thought their obvious tendency was to encourage feel- 
 ings of disrespect to the Union, and to weaken its connection. 
 This, sir, is the sum and substance of all I said on the subject. 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 377 
 
 And this constitutes the attack which called on the chivalry of 
 the gentleman, in his own opinion, to harry us with such a fo- 
 ray among the party pamphlets and party proceedings of Mas- 
 sachusetts ! If he means that I spoke with dissatisfaction or 
 disrespect of the ebullitions of individuals in South Carolina, it 
 is true. 'But if he means that I had assailed the character of the 
 state, her honor, or patriotism, that I had reflected on her history 
 or her conduct, he has not the slightest ground for any such as- 
 sumption. I did not even refer, I think, in my observations, 
 to any collection of individuals. I said nothing of the recent 
 conventions. I spoke m the most guarded and careful manner, 
 and only expressed my regret for the publication of opinions, 
 which I presumed the honorable member disapproved as much 
 as myself In this, it seems I was mistaken. I do not remem- 
 ber that tlie gentleman has disclaimed any sentiment, or any 
 opinion, of a supposed anti-union tendency, which on all or any 
 of the recent occasions has been expressed. The whole drift 
 of his speech has been rather to prove, that, in divers times 
 and manners, sentiments equally liable to my objection have 
 been promulged in New England. And one would suppose 
 that his object, in this reference to Massachusetts, was to find 
 a precedent to justify proceedings in the south, were it not for 
 the reproach and contumely with which he labors, all along, to 
 load these his own chosen precedents. By way of defending 
 South Carolina from what he chooses to think an attack on her, 
 he first quotes the example of Massachusetts, and then de- 
 nounces that example in good set terms. This twofold pur- 
 pose, not very consistent, with itself, one would think, was ex- 
 hibited more than once in the course of his speech. He re- 
 ferred, for instance, to the Hartford convention. Did he do 
 this for authority, or for a tojjic of reproach ? Apparently for 
 both, for he told us that he should find no fault with the mere 
 fact of holding such a convention, and considering and discuss- 
 ing such questions as he supposes were then and there discussed ; 
 
378 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 but what rendered it obnoxious was the time it was holden, 
 and the circumstances of the country then existing. We were 
 in a war, he said, and the country needed all our aid ; the hand 
 of government required to be strengthened, not weakened ; and 
 pati'iotism should have postponed such proceedings to another 
 day. The thing itself, then, is a precedent ; the time and man- 
 ner of it only, a subject of censure. 
 
 Now, sli', I go much further, on this point, than the honora- 
 ble member. Supposing, as the gentleman seems to do, that 
 the Hartford convention assembled for any such purpose as 
 breaking up the Union, because they thought unconstitutional 
 laws had been passed, or to consult on tliat subject, or /o cal- 
 culate the value of the Union ; supposing this to be their pur- 
 pose, or any part of it, then I say the meeting itself was dis- 
 loyal, and was obnoxious to censure, whether held in time of 
 peace or time of war, or under whatever circumstances. The 
 material question is the object. Is dissolution the object ? If 
 it be, external circumstances may make it a more or less ag- 
 gravated case, but cannot affect the principle. I do not hold, 
 therefijre, sir, that the Hartford convention was pardonable, 
 even to the extent of the gentleman's admission, if its objects 
 were really such as have been imputed to it. Sir, there never 
 was a time, under any degree of excitement, in which the 
 Hartford convention, or any other convention, could maintain 
 itself one moment in New England, if assembled for any such 
 purpose as the gentleman says would have been an allowable 
 purpose. To hold conventions to decide constitutional law ! 
 To try the binding validity of statutes by votes in a convention! 
 Six-, the Hartford convention, I presume, would not desire that 
 the honorable gentleman should be their defender or advocate, 
 if he puts their case upon such untenable and extravagant 
 grounds. 
 
 Then, sir, the gentleman has no fault to find with these re- 
 cently promulgated SoutJi Girolina opinions. And certainly 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 379 
 
 he need have none ; for his own sentiments, as now advanced, 
 and advanced on reflection, as far as I have been able to com- 
 prehend them, go the full length of all these opinions. I pro- 
 pose, sir, to say something on these, and to consider how far 
 they are just and constitutional. Before doing that, however, 
 let me observe that the eulogium pronounced on the character 
 of the state of South Carolina, by the honorable gentleman, for 
 her revolutionary and other merits, meets my hearty concur- 
 rence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member 
 goes before me in 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 Lau- 
 renses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Mari- 
 ons, 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 him- 
 self 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 1 Su", 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 ti'ust, 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 lit- 
 tle 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 
 
380 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the countiy ; 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 prt'judice 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 remembrance of the past ; let me remind you that, 
 in early times, no states cherished greater harmony, both of 
 principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and Soutli Carolina. 
 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 ex- 
 ists, alienation, and distrust are the growth, unnatural to such 
 soils, of false principles since sown. They are weeds, the seeds 
 of which that same great arm never scattered. 
 
 Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon !Massachu- 
 setts ; 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 forever. 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 forever. 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 in separating 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 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. • 381 
 
 will stretch forth its arm with whatever of visror it mav still re- 
 tain over the friends who gather round it ; and it will fall at 
 last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own 
 glory, and on the very spot of its origin. 
 
 There yet remains to be performed, Mr. President, by far 
 the most grave and important duty, which I feel to be devolved 
 on me by this occasion. It is to state, and to defend, what I 
 conceive to be the true principles of the constitution under 
 which we are here assembled. I might well have desired that 
 so weighty a task should have fallen into other and abler hands. 
 I could have wished that it should have been executed by those 
 whose character and experience give weight and influence to 
 their opinions, such as cannot possibly belong to mine. But, 
 sir, I have met the occasion, not sought it ; and I shall proceed 
 to state my own sentiments, without challenging for them any 
 particular regard, with studied plainness, and as much precision 
 as possible. 
 
 I understand the honorable gentleman from South Caro- 
 lina to maintain, that it is a right of the state legislatures to 
 interfere, whenever, in their judgment, this government tran- 
 scends its constitutional limits, and to arrest the operation of 
 its laws. 
 
 I understand him to maintain this right, as a right existing 
 under the constitution, not as a right to overthrow it on the 
 ground of extreme necessity, such as would justify violent 
 revolution. 
 
 I understand him to maintain an authority, on the part of the 
 states, thus to interfere, for the purpose of correcting the exer- 
 cise of power by the general government, of checking it, and 
 of compelling it to conform to their opinion of the extent of its 
 powers. 
 
 I understand him to maintain, that the ultimate power of 
 judging of the constitutional extent of its owti authority is not 
 lodged exclusively in the general government, or any branch 
 
382 -WrBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of it; but that, on the contrary, the states may lawfully de- 
 cide for themselves, and each state for itself; whether, in a 
 given case, the act of the general government transcends its 
 
 power. 
 
 I understand him to !n"M. that, if the exigency of the case, in 
 the opinion of any state government, require it, such state gov- 
 ernment may, by its own sovereign authority, annul an act of 
 the general government which it deems plainly and palpably 
 unconstitutional. 
 
 This is the sum of what I miderstand from him to be the 
 South Carolina doctrine, and the doctrine which he maintains. 
 I propose to consider it, and compare it mth the constitution. 
 Allow me to say, as a prelimmary remark, that I call this the 
 South Carolina doctrine only because the gentleman himself has 
 so denominated it. I do not feel at liberty to say that South 
 Carolina, as a state, has ever advanced these sentiments. I 
 hope she has not, and never may. That a great majority of 
 her people are opposed to the tarifi' laws, is doubtless true. 
 That a majority, somewhat less than that just mentioned, con- 
 scientiously believe these laws unconstitutional, may probably 
 also be true. But that any majority holds to the right of direct 
 state interference at state discretion, the right of nullifying acts 
 of congress by acts of state legislation, is more than I knoNV, 
 and what I shall be slow to believe. 
 
 That there are individuals besides the honorable gentleman 
 ^vho do maintain these opinions, Is quite certain. I recollect 
 the recent expression of a sentiment, which circumstances at- 
 tending its utterance and pubhcation justify us in supposing was 
 not unpremeditated. " The sovereignty of the state— never to 
 be controlled, construed, or decided on, but by her own feel- 
 ings of honorable justice." 
 
 Mr Havne here rose and said, that, for the purpose of being 
 clearly understood, he x^ould state that his proposition was in the 
 words of the Yirgiaia resolution, as foUows : 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 383 
 
 "That this assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, 
 that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting 
 from the compact to which the states are parties, as limited by the 
 plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that com- 
 pact, as no farther valid than they are authorized by the grants 
 enumerated in that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, pal- 
 pable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the 
 said compact, the states who are parties thereto have the right, and 
 are in duty boimd, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the 
 evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the author- 
 ities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." 
 
 Mr. Webster resumed : 
 
 I am quite aware, ^Mr. President, of the existence of the res- 
 olution which the gentleman read, and has now repeated, and 
 that he relies on it as his authority. I know the source, too, 
 from which it is understood to have proceeded. I need not say 
 that I have Vnuch respect for the constitutional opinions of Mr. 
 Madison ; they would weigh greatly with me always. But be- 
 fore the authority of his opinion be vouched for the gentleman's 
 proposition, it will be proper to consider what is the fair inter- 
 pretation of that resolution, to which ^Mr. Madison is understood 
 to have given his sanction. As the gentleman construes it, it is 
 an authority for him. Possibly, he may not have adopted the 
 right construction. That resolution declares, that, in the case 
 of the dangerous exercise of powers not granted by the general 
 government, the states may interpose to arrest the progress of 
 the evil. But how interpose, and what does this declaration 
 purport 1 Does it mean no more than that there may be ex- 
 treme cases, in which the people, in any mode of assembling, 
 may resist usurpation, and relieve themselves from a tyranni- 
 cal government 1 No one will deny this. Such resistance is 
 not only acknowledged to be just in America, but in England, 
 also. BItickstone admits as much in the theory, and practice, 
 too, of the English constitution. We, sir, who oppose the Car- 
 olina doctrine, do not deny that the people may, if they choose, 
 
384 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 throw oft' any government -when it becomes oppressive and in. 
 tolerable, and erect a better in its stead. We all know that 
 civil institutions are established for the public benefit, and that 
 when they cease to answer the ends of their existence they may 
 be changed. But I do not understand the doctrine now con- 
 tended for to be that, which, for the sake of distinction, we may 
 call the right of revolution. I understand the gentleman to 
 maintain, that, without revolution, without civil commotion, 
 without rebellion, a remedy for supposed abuse and transgres- 
 sion of the powers of the genei'al government lies in a direct 
 appeal to the interference of the state governments. 
 
 Mr. Hayne here rose : He did not contend, he said, for the mere 
 right of revolution, but for the right of constitutional resistance. 
 What he maintaiued was, that in case of a plain, palpable violation 
 of the constitution bj'^ the general government, a state may inter- 
 pose ; and that this interposition is constitutional. 
 
 Mr. Webster resumed : 
 
 So, sir, I understood the gentleman, and am happy to find 
 that I did not misunderstand him. What he contends for is, 
 that it is constitutional to interrupt the administration of the 
 constitution itself, in the hands of those who are chosen and 
 sworn to administer it, by the direct interference, in form of law, 
 of the states, in virtue of their sovereign capacity. The inhe- 
 rent right in the people to reform their government 1 do not 
 deny ; and they have another right, and that is, to resist uncon- 
 stitutional laws, without overturning the government. It is no 
 doctrine of mine that unconstitutional laws bind the people. 
 The great question is. Whose prerogative is it to decide on the 
 constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the laws ? On that, 
 the main debate hinges. The proposition, that, in case of a 
 supposed violation of the constitution by congress the states 
 have a constitutional right to interfere and annul the law of 
 congress, is the proposition of the gentleman. I do not admit 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 885 
 
 it. If the gentleman had intended no more than to assert the 
 right of revohition for justifiable cause, he would have said only 
 what all agree to. But I cannot conceive that there can be a 
 middle course, between submission to the laws, -when regularly- 
 pronounced constitutional, on the one hand, and open resistance, 
 which is revolution or rebellion, on the other. I say, the right 
 of a state to annul a law of congress cannot be maintained, but 
 on the ground of the inalienable right of man to resist oppres- 
 sion ; that is to say, upon the ground of revolution. I admit 
 that there is an ultimate violent remedy, above the constitution 
 and in defiance of the constitution, which may be resorted to 
 when a revolution is to be justified. But I do not admit, that, 
 under the constitution and in conformity with it, there is any 
 mode in which a state government, as a member of the Union, 
 can interfere and stop the progress of the general government, 
 by force of her own laws, under any circumstances whatever. 
 This leads us to inquire into the origin of this government 
 and the source of its power. Whose agent is it 1 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 re- 
 form 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 crea- 
 ture of the states, but that it is the creature of each of the 
 states 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 diflerent wills 
 and diflerent purposes, and yet bound to obey all. This absurd- 
 ity (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 constitution, the people's government, made for the 
 VOL. II. Q 25 
 
386 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. 
 The people of the United States have declared that this consti- 
 tution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the 
 proposition, or dispute the authority. The states are, unque;^ 
 tionably, sovereign, so far as their sovereignty is not aflected by 
 this supreme law. But the state legislatures, as political bodies, 
 however sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people. So 
 far as the people have given power to the general government, 
 so far the grant is unquestionably good, 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 gen- 
 eral government and the state governments derive their author- 
 ity 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 pos- 
 sesses those powers which it can be shown the people have con- 
 ferred on it, and no more. All the rest belongs to the state 
 governments, or to the people themselves. So far as the people 
 have restrained state sovereignty, by the expression of their will, 
 in the constitution of the United States, so far, it must be ad- 
 mitted, state sovereignty is eflectually controlled. I do not con- 
 tend that it is, or ought to be, controlled farther. The senti- 
 ment to which I have referred propounds that state sovereignty 
 is only to be controlled by its own "feeling of justice;" that is 
 to say, it is not to be controlled at all, for one who is to follow 
 his own feelings, is under no legal control. Now, however men 
 may think this ought to be, the tact is, that the people of the 
 United States have chosen to impose control on state sovereign- 
 ties. There are those, doubtless, who wish they had been left 
 without restraint; but the constitution has ordered the matter 
 differently. To make war, for instance, is an exercise of sover- 
 eignty ; but the constitution declares that no state shall make 
 war. To coin money is another exercise of sovereign power ; 
 but no state is at liberty to coin money. Agam, the coustitu- 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. SS7 
 
 turn says tliat no sovereign 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 not arise " from her own feelings 
 of honorable justice." Such an opinion, therefore, is in defiance 
 of the plainest provisions of the constitution. 
 
 There are other proceedings of public bodies which have 
 already been alluded to, and to which I refer again, for the pur- 
 pose of ascertaining more fully what is the length and breadth 
 of that docti-ine, denominated the Carolina doctrine, which the 
 honorable member has now stood up on this floor to maint^iin 
 In one of them I find it resolved, that "the tariff of 1828 and 
 every other tariff designed to promote one branch of industry 
 at the expense of others, is contrary to the meaning and inten- 
 tion of the federal compact ; and, as such, a dangerous, palpable, 
 and deliberate usurpation of power, by a determined majority, 
 wielding the general government beyond the limits of its dele- 
 gated powers, as calls upon the states which compose the suffer- 
 ing minority, in their sovereign capacity, to exercise the powers 
 which, as sovereigns, necessai-ily devolve upon them, when their 
 compact is violated." 
 
 Observe, sir, that this resolution holds the tariff of 1828 and 
 every other tariff designed to promote one branch of industry 
 at the expense of another, to be such a dangerous, palpable, and 
 deliberate usurpation of power, as calls upon the states, in their 
 sovereign capacity, to interfere by their osvn authority This 
 denunciation, Mr. President, you will please to observe, includes 
 our old tariir of 1816, as well as others; because that was e^ 
 tabli.hed to promote the interest of the manufacturers of cot- 
 ton, to the manifest and admitted injury of the Calcutta cotton 
 trade. Observe, again, that all the quah'fications are here re- 
 hearsed and charged upon the tariff, which are necessary to bring 
 the case within the gentleman's proposition. The tariff is a usur- 
 pation; it is a dangerous usurpation; it is a palpable usurpa- 
 
388 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 tion; it is a deliberate usurpation. It is sucli a usurpation, 
 therefore, as calls upon the states to exercise their right of inter- 
 ference. Here is a case, then, within the gentleman's principles, 
 and all his qualifications of his principles. It is a case for action. 
 The constitution is plainly, dangerously, palpably, and deliber- 
 ately violated ; and the states must interpose their own author- 
 ity to arrest the law. Let us suppose the state of South 
 Carolina to express this same opinion, by the voice of her 
 legislature. That would be very imposing ; but what then 1 
 Is the voice of one state conclusive'? It so happens that, at the 
 very moment when South Carolina resolves that the tariff laws 
 are unconstitutional, Pennsylvania and Kentucky resolve exactly 
 the reverse. Tfmj hold those laws to be both highly proper 
 and strictly constitutional. And now, sir, how does the honor- 
 able member propose to deal with this case? How does he 
 relieve us from this difficulty, upon any principle of his ? His 
 construction gets us into it ; how does he propose to get us 
 
 outl 
 
 In Carolina, the tariff is a palpable, deliberate usurpation ; 
 Carolina, therefore, may nullify it, and refuse to pay the duties. 
 In Pennsylvania, it is both clearly constitutional and highly ex- 
 pedient ; and there the duties are to be paid. And yet we live 
 under a o-overnment of uniform laws, and under a constitution, 
 too, which contains an express provision, as it happens, that all 
 duties shall be equal in all the states. Does not this approach 
 absurdity 1 
 
 If there be no power to settle such questions, independent 
 of either of the states, is not the whole Union a rope of sand? 
 Are we not thrown back again, precisely, upon the old confed- 
 eration ? 
 
 It is too plain to be argued. Four-and-twenty interpreters 
 of constitutional law, each with a power to decide for itself, 
 and none with authority to bind anybody else, and this consti- 
 tutional law the only bond of their union ! What is such a 
 
REPLY TO UAYNE. 389 
 
 state of things but a mere connection during pleasure, or, to 
 use the phraseology of the times, during feeling ? And that 
 feeling, too, not the feeling of .the people, who established the 
 constitution, but the feeling of the state governments. 
 
 In another of the South Carolina addresses, having premised 
 that the crisis requires " all the concentrated energy of pas- 
 sion," an attitude of open resistance to the laws of the Union is 
 advised. Open resistance to the laws, then, is the constitutional 
 remedy, the conservative power of the state, which the South 
 Carolina doctrines teach for the redress of political evils, real 
 or imaginary. And its authors further say, that, appealing with 
 confidence to the constitution itself, to justify their opinions, 
 they cannot consent to try their accuracy by the courts of jus- 
 tice. In one sense, indeed, sir, this is assuming an attitude of 
 open resistance in favor of liberty. But what sort of liberty ? 
 The liberty of establishing their own opinions, in defiance of 
 the opinions of all others ; the liberty of judging and of deci- 
 ding exclusively themselves, in a matter in which others have 
 as much right to judge and decide as they ; the liberty of pla- 
 cing their own opinions above the judgment of all others, above 
 the laws, and above the constitution. This is their liberty, and 
 this is the fair result of the proposition contended for by the 
 honorable gentleman. Or, it may be more properly said, it 
 is identical with it, rather than a result from it. 
 
 Li the same publication we find the following : " Previously 
 to our revolution, when the arm of oppression was stretched 
 over New England, where did our northern brethren meet with 
 a braver sympathy than that which sprung fi:'om the bosoms 
 of Carolinians'? We had no extortion, no oppression, no col- 
 lision with the king's ministers, no navigation interests spring- 
 ing up, in envious rivalry of England ! " 
 
 This seems exti-aordinary language. South Carolina no col- 
 lision with the king's ministers in 1775 ! No extortion ! No 
 oppression! But, sir, it is also most significant language. 
 
390 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Does any man doubt the purpose for which it was penned ? 
 Can any one fail to see that it was designed to raise in the 
 reader's mind the question, whether, at this time — that is to 
 say, in 1828 — South Carolina has any collision with the king's 
 ministers, any oppression, or extortion, to fear from England 1 
 whether, in short, England is not as naturally tlic friend of 
 South Carolina as New England, with her navigation interests 
 springing up in envious rivalry of England 1 
 
 Is it not strange, sir, that an intelligent man in South Caro- 
 lina, in 1828, should thus labor to prove tliat, in 1775, there 
 Avas no hostility, no cause of war, between South Carolina and 
 England ? That she had no occasion, in reference to her own 
 interest, or from a regard to her own welfare, to take up arms 
 in the revolutionary contest ? Can any one account for the 
 expression of such strange sentiments, and their circulation 
 through the state, otherwise than by supposing the object to be 
 what 1 have already intimated, to raise the question, if they 
 had no ^'■collision'''' (mark the expression) with the ministers of 
 Kino- George the Third, in 1775, what collision have they, in 
 1828, with the ministers of King George the Fourth? What 
 is there now in the existing state of things, to separate Caro- 
 lina from Old, more, or rather, than from New England ? 
 
 Resolutions, sir, have been recently passed by the legislature 
 of South Carolina. I need not refer to them ; they go no far- 
 ther than the honorable gentleman himself has gone, and I hope 
 not so far. I content myself, therefore, with debating the mat- 
 ter with hiin. 
 
 And now, sir, what I have first to say on this subject is, 
 that at no time, and under no circumstances, has New England, 
 or any state in New England, or any respectable body of 
 persons in New England, or any public man of standing 
 in New England, put forth such a doctrine as this Cai-olina 
 doctrine. 
 
 The gentleman has found no case, he can fmd none, to sup- 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 391 
 
 port his own opinions by New England authority. New En- 
 gland has studied the constitution In other schools, and under 
 other teachers. She looks upon it with other regards, and 
 deems more highly and reverently both of its just authority 
 and its utility and excellence. The history of her legislative 
 proceedings may be traced. The ephemeral effusions of tem- 
 porary bodies, called together by the excitement of the occasion, 
 may be hunted up ; they have been hunted up. The opinions 
 and votes of her public men, in and out of congress, may be 
 explored. It will all be in vain. The Carolina doctrine can de- 
 rive from her neither countenance nor support. She rejects it 
 now ; she always did reject it ; and till she loses her senses, 
 she always will reject it. The honorable member has referred 
 to expressions on the subject of the embargo law, made in this 
 place, by an honorable and venerable gentleman, (Mr. Hillhouse,) 
 now favoring us with his presence. He quotes that distin- 
 guished senator as saying, that, in his judgment, the embargo 
 law was unconstitutional, and that therefore, in his opinion, the 
 people were not bound to obey it. That, sir, is perfectly con- 
 stitutional language. An unconstitutional law is not binding ; 
 but then it does not rest with a resolution or a laio of a state 
 legislature to decide whether an act of congress be or be not 
 constitutional. An unconstitutional act of congi-ess would not 
 bind the people of this district, although they have no legis- 
 lature to interfere in their behalf; and, on the other hand, a 
 constitutional law of congress does bind the citizens of every 
 state, although all their legislatures should undertake to annul 
 it by act or resolution. The venerable Connecticut senator is 
 a constitutional lawyer, of sound principles and enlarged knowl- 
 edge ; a statesman practiced and experienced, bred in the com- 
 pany of Washington, and holding just views upon the nature 
 of our governments. He believed the embargo unconstitu- 
 tional, and so did others ; but what then ? Who did he sup- 
 
393 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 pose was to decide that question ? Tlie state legislatures ? 
 Certainly not. No such sentiment ever escaped his lips. 
 
 Let us follow up, sir, this New England opposition to the 
 embargo laws ; let us trace it, till we discern the principle which 
 controlled and governed New England throughout the whole 
 course of that opposition. We shall then see what similarity 
 there is between the New England school of constitutional opin- 
 ions, and this modem Carolina school. Tlie gentleman, I think, 
 read a petition from some single individual addi-essed to the le- 
 gislature of Massachusetts, asserting the Carolina doctrine ; that 
 is, the right of state interference to arrest the laws of the Union. 
 The fate of that petition shows the sentiment of the legislature. 
 It met no flivor. The opinions of Massachusetts were other- 
 wise. They had been expressed iu 179S, in answer to the reso- 
 lutions of Virginia, and she did not depart from them, nor bend 
 them to the times. Misgoverned, wronged, oppressed, as she 
 felt herself to be, she still held fast her integrity to the Union. 
 The gentleman may find in her proceedings much evidence of 
 dissatisfaction with the measures of government, and great and 
 deep dislike to the embargo ; all this makes the case so much 
 the stronger for her ; ft)r, notwitlistandlng all this dissatisfaction 
 and dislike, she claimed no right, still, to sever asunder the 
 bonds of the Union. There was heat, and there was anger in 
 her political feeling. Be it so ; her heat or her anger did not, 
 nevertheless, betray her into infidelity to the government. The 
 gentleman laboi-s to prove that she disliked the embargo as much 
 as South Carolina dislikes the tariff, and expressed her dislike as 
 strongly. Be it so ; but did she propose the Carolina remedy 1 
 did she threaten to interfere, by state authority, to annul the 
 laws of the Union 1 That is the question for the gentleman's 
 consideration 1 
 
 No doubt, sir, a great majority of the people of New En- 
 gland conscientiously belicwd the embargo law of 1807 uncon- 
 stitutional ; as conscientiously, certainly, as the people of South 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 393 
 
 Carolina hold that opinion of the tariff. They reasoned thus : 
 Congress has power to regulate commerce; but here is a law, 
 they said, stopping all commerce, and stopping it indefinitely. 
 The law is perpetual; that is, it is not limited in point of time, 
 and must of course continue until it shall be repealed by some 
 other law. It is as perpetual, therefore, as the law against trea- 
 son or murder. Now, is this regulating commerce, or destroy- 
 ing if? Is it guiding, controlling, giving the rule to commerce, 
 as a subsisting thing, or is it putting an end to it altogether ? 
 Nothing is more certain, than that a majority in New England 
 deemed this law a violation of the constitution. The very case 
 required by the gentleman to justify state interference had then 
 arisen. Massachusetts believed this law to be " a deliberate, 
 palpable, and dangerous exercise of a power not granted by the 
 constitution." Deliberate it was, for it was long continued ; 
 palpable she thought it, as no words in the constitution gave 
 the power, and only a construction, in her opinion most violent, 
 raised it ; dangerous it was, since it threatened utter ruin to her 
 most important interests. Here, then, was a Carolina case. 
 How did ]\Iassachusctts deal with it ? It was, as she thought, 
 a plain, manifest, palpable violation of the constitution, and it 
 brought ruin to her doors. Thousands of families, and hun- 
 dreds of thousands of individuals, were beggared by it. While 
 she saw and felt all this, she saw and felt also, that, as a meas- 
 ure of national policy, it was perfectly futile ; that the country 
 was no way benefitted by that which caused so much individual 
 distress ; that it was efficient only for the production of evil, 
 and all that evil inflicted on ourselves. In such a case, under 
 such circumstances, how did Massachusetts demean herself? 
 Sir, she remonstrated, she memorialized, she addressed herself 
 to the general government, not exactly " with the concentrated 
 energy of passion," but with her own strong sense, and the en- 
 ergy of sober conviction. But she did not interpose the arm 
 of her own power to arrest the law, and break the embargo. 
 
 VOL. II. Q* 
 
394 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Far fi'om it. Her principles bound her to two things ; and 
 she followed her principles, lead where they might. First, to 
 submit to every constitutional law of congress, and secondly, 
 if the constitutional validity of the law be doubted, to refer that 
 question to the decision of the proper tribunals. The fu'st prin- 
 ciple is vain and ineffectual without the second. A majority 
 of us in New England believed the embargo law unconstitu- 
 tional ; but the great question was, and always will l)e in such 
 cases, Who is to decide this ? Who is to judge between the 
 people and the government ? And, sir, it is quite plain, that 
 the constitution of the United States confers on the government 
 itself, to be exercised by its appropriate department, and under 
 its own responsibility to the people, this power of deciding ul- 
 timately and conclusively upon the just extent of its own au- 
 thority. If this had not been done, we should not have ad- 
 vanced a single step beyond the old confederation. 
 
 Being fully of opinion that the embargo law was unconstitu- 
 tional, the people of New England were yet equally clear in 
 the opinion — it was a matter they did not doubt upon — that the 
 question, after all, must be decided by the judicial tribunals of 
 the United States. Before these tribunals, therefore, they 
 brought the question. Under the provisions of the law, they 
 had given bonds to millions in amount, and which were alleged 
 to be forfeited. They suffered the bonds to be sued, and thus 
 raised the question. In the old-fashioned way of settling dis- 
 putes, they went to law. The case came to hearing, and sol- 
 emn argument ; and he who espoused their cause, and stood up 
 fur them against the validity of the embargo act, was none 
 other than that great man, of whom the gentleman has made 
 honorable mention, Samuel Dexter. He was then, sir, in the 
 fullness of his knowledge, and the maturity of his strength. 
 He had retired from long and distinguished public service here, 
 to the renewed pursuit of professional duties, carrying with him 
 all that enlargement and expansion, all the new strength and 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 395 
 
 force, -which an acquaintance with the more general subjects 
 discussed in the national councils is capable of adding to pro- 
 fessional attainment, in a mind of true greatness and compre- 
 hension. He was a lawyer, and he was also a statesman. He 
 had studied the constitution, when he filled public station, that 
 he might defend it ; he had examined its principles that he 
 might maintain them. More tlian all men, or at least as much 
 as any man, he was attached to the general government and to 
 the union of the states. His feelings and opinions all ran in 
 that direction. A question of constitutional law, too, was, of 
 all subjects, that one which was best suited to his talents and 
 learning. Aloof from technicality, and unfettered by artificial 
 rule, such a question gave opportunity for that deep and clear 
 analysis, that mighty grasp of principle, which so much distin- 
 guished his higher efforts. His very statement was argument; 
 his inference seemed demonstration. The earnestness of his 
 own conviction wrought conviction in others. One was con- 
 vinced, and believed, and assented, because it was gratifying, 
 delightful, to think, and feel, and believe, in unison with an in- 
 tellect of such evident superiority. 
 
 Mr. Dexter, sir, such as I have described him, argued the 
 New England cause. He put into his effort his whole heart, as 
 well as all the powers of his understanding; for he had avowed, 
 in the most public manner, his entire concurrence with his neigh- 
 bors on the point in dispute. He argued the cause ; it> was 
 lost, and New England submitted. The established tribunals 
 pronounced the law constitutional, and New England acquiesced. 
 Now, sir, is not this the exact opposite of the doctrine of the 
 gentleman from South Carolina 1 According to him, instead 
 of referring to the judicial tribunals, we should have broken up 
 the embargo by laws of our own ; we should have repealed it, 
 quoad New England ; for we had a strong, palpable, and op- 
 pressive case. Sir, we believed the embargo unconstitutional; 
 but stUl that was matter of opinion, and who was to decide it? 
 
396 WKBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 We thought it a clear case ; but, nevertheless, we did not take 
 the law into our own hands, because we did not wish to bring 
 about a revolution, nor to break up the Union ; for I maintain, 
 that between submission to the decision of the constituted tri- 
 bunals, and revolution, or disunion, there is no middle ground; 
 there is no ambigous condition, half allegiance and half rebel- 
 lion. And, sir, how futile, how very futile it is, to admit the 
 right of state interference, and then attempt to save it from the 
 character of unlawful resistance, by adding terms of qualification 
 to the causes and occasions, 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 left at lib- 
 erty to decide for herself what is clear, what is deliberate, what 
 is palpable, what is dangerous. Do adjectives and epithets 
 avail anytliing? 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 respectively espouse them ; 
 and both sides usually grow clearer as the controversy advances. 
 South Carolina sees unconstitutionality in the taritl ; 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 strcngthcd by opposition, 
 and she now not only sees, but resolves, that the tariff is palpa- 
 bly unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous ; but Pennsyl- 
 vania, not to be behind her neighbors, and equally willing to 
 strengthen her o\vn faith by a confident asseveration, resolves, 
 also, and gives to every warm affirmative of South Carolina, 
 a plain, downriglit, Pennsylvania negative. South Carolina, to 
 show the strengtli and unity of her opinion, brings her assem- 
 bly to a unanimity, within seven voices ; Pennsylvania, not to 
 be outdone in this respect any more than in others, reduces her 
 dissentient fraction to a single vote. Now, sir, again, I ask the 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 397 
 
 gentleman, What is to be done? Arc these states both right 1 
 Is he bound to consider them both right 1 If not, which is in 
 the ^^Tong'? 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 maintain it ! I was forcibly struck, 
 sir, with one reflection, as the gentleman went on in his speech. 
 He quoted Mr, Madison's resolutions, to prove that a state 
 may interfere, in a case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous 
 exercise of a power not granted. The honorable member sup 
 poses 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 constitu- 
 tional. Instead of a clear and palpable violation, it is, in his 
 judgment, no violation at all. So that, while they use his au- 
 thority for a hypothetical case, they reject it in the very case 
 before them. All this, sir, shows the inherent futility, I had 
 almost said a stronger word, of conceding this power of" inter- 
 ference to the states, and then attempting to secure it from 
 abuse by imposing qualifications of which the states them- 
 selves are to judge. One of two things is true; either the 
 laws of- the Union are beyond the discretion and beyond the 
 control of the states ; or else we have no constitution of gen- 
 eral government, and are thrust back again to the days of the 
 confederacy. 
 
 Let me here say, sir, that if the gentleman's doctrine had 
 been received and acted upon in New England, in the tmies of 
 the embargo and non-intercourse, we should probably not now 
 have been here. The government would very likely have gone 
 to pieces, and crumbled into dust. No stronger case can ever 
 arise than existed under those laws ; no states can ever enter^ 
 tain a clearer conviction than the New England states then 
 
398 V?EBSTEB AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 entertained ; and if they had been under the influence of that 
 heresy of opinion, as I must call it, which the honorable mem- 
 ber espouses, this Union would, in all probability, have been 
 scattered to the four winds. I ask the gentleman, therefore, to 
 apply his principles to that case; I ask him to come forth and 
 declare, whether, in his opinion, the New England states would 
 have been justified in interfering to break up the embargo sys- 
 tem under the conscientious opinions which they held upon it? 
 Had they a right to annul that law 1 Does he admit or deny 1 
 If what is thought palpably unconstitutional in South Carolina 
 justifies that state in arresting the progress of the law, tell me 
 whether that which was thought palpably unconstitutional also 
 in Massachusetts would have justified her in doing the same 
 thing. Sir, 1 deny the whole doctrine. It has not a foot of 
 ground in the constitution to stand on. No public man of rep- 
 utation ever advanced it in Massachusetts in the warmest times, 
 or could maintain himself upon it there at any time. 
 
 I wish now, sir, to make a remark upon the Virginia resolu- 
 tions of '1798. I cannot undertake to say how these resolutions 
 were understood by those who passed them. Their language 
 is not a little indefinite. lu the case of the exercise by con- 
 gress of a dangerous power not granted to them, the resolutions 
 assert the right on the part of the state, to interfere and arrest 
 the progress of the evil. This is susceptible of more than one 
 interpretation. It may mean no more than that the states may 
 interfere by complaint or remonstrance, or by proposing to the 
 people an alteration of the federal constitution. This would 
 all be quite unobjectionable. Or it may be that no more is 
 meant than to assert the general right of revolution, as against 
 all governments, in cases of intolerable oppression. This no 
 one doubts, and this, in my opinion, is all that he who fi-amed 
 the resolutions could have meant by it ; for I shall not readily 
 believe that he was ever of opinion that a state, under the con- 
 stitution and in conformity with it, could, upon the ground 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 399 
 
 of her own opinion of its unconstitutionality, however clear and 
 palpable she might think tlie case, annul a law of congress, 
 so far as it should operate on herself, by her own legislative 
 power. 
 
 I must now beg to ask, sir, Whence is this supposed right of 
 the states derived ? "Where do they find the power to inter- 
 fere with the laws of the Union ? Sir, the opinion which the 
 honorable gentleman maintains is a notion founded in a total 
 misapprehension, in my judgment, of the origin of tliis govern- 
 ment, and of the foundation on which it stands. I hold it to be 
 a popular government, erected by the people ; those who ad- 
 minister it, responsible to the people ; and itself capable of be- 
 ing amended and modified, just as the people may choose it 
 should be. It is as popular, just as truly emanating from the 
 people, as the state governments. It is created fur one pur- 
 pose ; the state governments for another. It has its own pow- 
 ers ; they have theirs. There is no more authority with them 
 to arrest the operation of a law of congress, than with congress 
 to arrest the operation of their laws. We are here to admm- 
 ister a constitution emanating immediately from the people, and 
 trusted by them to our administration. It is not the creature 
 of the state governments. It is of no moment to the argument, 
 that certain acts of the state legislatures are necessary to fill our 
 seats in this body. That is not one of their original state pow- 
 ers, a part of the sovereignty of the state. It is a duty which 
 the people, by the constitution itself, have imposed on the state 
 legislatures ; and which they might have left to be performed 
 elsewhere, if they had seen fit. So they have left the choice of 
 president with electors ; but all tins does not affect the propo- 
 sition that this whole government, president, senate, and house 
 of representatives, is a popular government. It leaves it still 
 ail its popular character. The governor of the state (m some 
 of the states) is chosen, not directly by the people, but by those 
 who are chosen by the people, for the purpose of performing, 
 
400 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 among other duties, that of electing a governor. Is the gov. 
 ernment of the state, on that account, not a popular govern- 
 ment? This government, sir, is the independent oflspring 
 of the popular will. It is not the creature of .state legislatures; 
 nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people brought 
 it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, 
 for the very purpose, amongst othei's, of imposing certain sal- 
 utary restraints on state sovereignties. The states cannot now 
 make war ; they cannot contract alliances ; they c^annot make, 
 each for itself, separate regulations of commerce ; they cannot 
 lay imposts ; they cannot coin money. If this constitution, 
 sir, be the creature of state legislatures, it must be admitted 
 that it has obtained a strange control over the volition of its 
 creators. 
 
 The people, then, sir, erected this government. They gave 
 it a constitution, and in that constitution they have enumerated 
 the powers which they bestow on it. They have made it a 
 limited government. They have defined its authority. They 
 have restrained it to the exercise of such powers as arc granted ; 
 and all others, they declare, are reserved to the states or the 
 people. But, sir, they have not stopped here. If they had, 
 thoy would liave accomplished but half their work. No defi- 
 nition can be so clear, as to avoid possibility of doubt; no 
 limitation so precise, as to exclude all uncertainty. Who, then, 
 shall construe this grant of the people 1 Who shall interpret 
 their will, where it may be supposed they have left it doubtful ? 
 With whom do they repose this ultimate right of deciding on 
 the powers of the government ? Sir, they have settled all this 
 in the fullest manner. They have left it with the government 
 itself, in its appropriate branches. Sir, the very chief end, the 
 main design, for which the whole constitution was framed and 
 adopted, was to establish a government that should not be 
 obliged to act through state agency, or depend on state opinion 
 and state discretion. The people had had quite enough of that 
 
REPLY TO HATNE. 401 
 
 kind of government under the confederacy. Under that sys- 
 tem, the legal action, the application of law to mdividuals, be- 
 longed exclusively to the states. Congress could only recom- 
 mend ; their acts were not of binding force, till the states had 
 adopted and sanctioned them. Are we in that condition still 1 
 Are we yet at the mercy of state discretion and state construc- 
 tion 1 Sir, if we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain 
 the constitution under which we sit. 
 
 But, sir, the people have wisely provided, in the constitution 
 itself, a proper, suitable mode and tribunal for settling questions 
 of constitutional law. There are in the constitution grants of 
 powers to congress, and restrictions on those powers. There 
 are, also, prohibitions on the states. Some authority must, 
 therefore, necessarily exist, having the ultimate jurisdiction to 
 fix and ascertain the interpretation of these grants, restrictions, 
 and prohibitions. The constitution has itself pointed out, or- 
 dained, and established that authority. How has it accom- 
 plished this great and essential end ? By declaring, sir, that 
 " Ihe constitution, and the laws of the United States made in 
 pursuance thereof, shall be the sitjn-eme law of the land, any- 
 thing in ihe constitution or laws of any state to the contrary 
 noiwithstandinff. '' 
 
 This, sir, was the first great step. By this the supremacy 
 of the constitution and laws of the United States is declared. 
 The people so will it. No state law is to be valid which comes 
 m conflict with the constitution, or any law of the United 
 States passed in pursuance of it. But who shall decide this 
 question of interference 1 To whom lies the last appeal 1 Tips, 
 sir, the constitution itself decides also, by declaring " that the 
 judicial poioer shall extend to all cases arising under ihe coti- 
 siiiution and laws of the United States." These two provis- 
 ions, sir, cover the whole gi'ound. They are, in truth, the key- 
 stone of the arch ! With these it is a government ; without 
 them it is a confederacy. In pursuance of these clear and ex- 
 voL. n. 26 
 
402 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 press provisions, congress established, at its very first session, 
 in the judicial act, a mode for carrying them into full efleet, 
 and fur bringing all questions of constitutional power to the 
 final decision of the supreme court. It then, sir, became a 
 government. It then had the means of self-protection; and 
 but for this, it would, in all probability, have been now among 
 the things which are past. Having constituted the government, 
 and declared its powers, the people have further said, that, since 
 somebody must decide on the extent of these powers, the gov- 
 ernment shall itself decide; subject, always, like other popular 
 governments, to its responsibility to the people. And now, sir, 
 I repeat, how is it that a state legislature acquires any power to 
 interfere 1 Who, or what, gives them the right to say to the 
 people, " We, who are your agents and servants, for one pur- 
 pose, will undertake to decide, that your other agents and ser- 
 vants, appointed by you for another purpose, have transcended 
 the authority you gave them ! " The reply would be, I think, 
 not impertinent, — " Who made you a judge over another's ser- 
 vants 1 To their own masters they stand or fall." 
 
 Sir, I deny this power of state legislatures altogether. It 
 cannot stand the test of examination. Gentlemen may say, 
 that, in an extreme case, a state government might protect 
 the people from intolerable oppression. Sir, in such a case, the 
 people might protect themselves, without the aid of the state 
 governments. Such a case warrants revolution. It must make, 
 when it comes, a law for itself. A nullifying act of a state le- 
 gislature cannot alter the case, nor make resistance any more 
 lawful. In maintaining these sentiments, sir, I am but asserting 
 the rights of the people. 1 state what they have declared, and 
 insist on their right to declare it. They have chosen to repose 
 this power in the general government, and I think it my duty 
 to support it, like other constitutional powers. 
 
 For myself, sir, I do not admit the jurisdiction of South Car- 
 olina, or any other state, to prescribe my constitutional duty ; 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 403 
 
 or to settle, between me and the people, the validity of laws of 
 congress, for which I lave voted. I decline her umpirage. I 
 have not sworn to support the constitution according to her con- 
 struction of its clauses. I have not stipulated by my oath of 
 office or otherwise, to come under any responsibility, except 
 to the people, and those whom they have appointed to pass 
 upon the question, whether laws, supported by my votes, con- 
 form to the constitution of the cftuntry. And, sir, if we look 
 to the general nature of the case, could anything have been more 
 preposterous, than to make a government for the whole Union, 
 and yet leave its powers subject, not to one interpretation, but 
 to thirteen or twenty-four interpretations ! Instead of one tri- 
 bunal, established by all, responsible to all, with power to de- 
 cide for all, shall constitutional questions be left to four-and- 
 twenty popular bodies, each at liberty to decide for itself, and 
 none bound to respect the decisions of others ; and each at lib- 
 erty, too, to give a new construction on every new election of 
 its own members'? Would anything, with such a principle in 
 it, rather with such a destitution of all principle, be fit to be 
 called a government? No, sir. It should not be denominated 
 a constitution. It should be called, rather, a collection of top- 
 ics for everlasting controversy ; heads of debate for a disputa- 
 tious people. It would not be a government. It would not 
 be adequate to any practical good, ob fit for any country to live 
 under. 
 
 To avoid all possibihty of being misunderstood, allow me to 
 repeat again, in the fullest manner, that I claim no powers for 
 the government by forced or unfair construction. I admit that 
 it is a government of strictly limited powers ; of enumerated, 
 specified, and particularized powers ; and that whatsoever is not 
 granted, is withheld. But notwithstanding all this, and however 
 the grant of powers may be expressed, its limit and extent may 
 yet, m some cases, admit of doubt ; and the general govern- 
 ment would be good for nothing, it would be uicapable of long 
 
404 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 existing, if some mode had not been provided in which those 
 doubts, as they should arise, might be peaceably, but authori- 
 tatively solved. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, let me nui the honorable gentle- 
 man'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 
 informed how this state int(fi-fcrencc is to be put in practice, 
 without violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. 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 tariif laws, null and void, so far as they respect South Car- 
 olina, or the citizens thereof So far, all is a paper transaction, 
 and easy enough. But the collector at Charleston is collecting 
 the duties imposed by these tariff laws. He, therefore, must 
 be stopped. The collector will seize the goods if the tariff du- 
 ties 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 nullifying act. They will march, 
 sir, under a very gallant leader ; for I believe the honorable 
 member himself commands the militia of that part of the state. 
 He will raise the nullifying act on his standard, and spread 
 it out as his banner ! It will have a preamble, bearing, that the 
 tariff laws arc palpable, deliberate, and dangerous violations of 
 the constitution ! He will proceed, with his banner flying, to 
 the custom-house in Charleston, 
 
 "All the while, 
 Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds." 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 405 
 
 Arrived at the custom-house, he will tell the collector that he 
 must collect no more duties under 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. But, sir, the collector would not, probably, 
 desist at his bidding. He would show him the law of con- 
 gress, the treasury instruction, and his own oath of office. He 
 would say, he should perform his duty, come what might. 
 
 Here would come a pause ; for they say that a certain still- 
 ness precedes the tempest. The trumpeter would hold 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 would request of their gallant com- 
 mander-in-chief to be informed a little upon the pomt of law ; 
 for they have, doubtless, a just respect for his opinions as a law- 
 yer, as well as for his bravery as a soldier. They know he has 
 read Blaekstone and the constitution, as well as Turenne and 
 Vauban. They would ask him, therefore, something concern- 
 ing their rights in this matter. They would inquire, whether 
 it was not somewhat dangerous to resist a law of the United 
 States. What would be the nature of their offence, they 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 was constitutional ! He would 
 answer, of course, treason. No lawyer could give any other 
 answer. John Fries, he would tell them, had learned that, 
 some years ago. How, then, they would ask, do you propose 
 to defend us 1 We arc not afraid of bullets, but treason has a 
 way of taking people off that we do not much relish. How 
 do you propose to defend us 1 " Look at my floating banner," 
 he would 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 sov- 
 
400 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ercign slate," he would reply. That is tnie ; but would the judge 
 admit our plea ? " These tariff laws," he would repeat, " are 
 unconstitutional, palpably, deliberately, dangerously." That 
 may all be so ; but if the tribunal should not happen to be of 
 that opinion, shall we swing for it 1 We are ready to die for 
 our country, but it is rather an awkward business, this dying 
 without touching the ground ! After all, that is a sort of hemp 
 tax worse than any part of the tariff. 
 
 Mr. President, the honorable gentleman would be in a di- 
 lemma, like that of another great general. He 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 your- 
 selves with your bayonets;" and this is war — civil war. 
 
 Direct collision, therefore, between force and force, is the un- 
 avoidable result of that remedy for the revision of unconstitu- 
 tional laws which the gentleman contends for. It must hap- 
 pen in the very first case to which it is applied. Is not this 
 the plain result 1 To resist by force the execution of a law, 
 generally, is treason. Can the courts of the United States take 
 notice of the indulgence of a state to commit treason ? The 
 common saying that a state cannot commit treason herself, is 
 nothing to the purpose. Can she authorize others to do it 1 
 If John Fries had produced an act of Pennsylvania, annulling 
 the law of congress, would it have helped his case 1 Talk 
 about it as we will, these doctrines go the length of revolution. 
 They are incompatible with any peaceable administration of 
 the government. They lead directly to disunion and civil 
 commotion ; and therefore it is, that at their commencement, 
 when they are first Ibiuid to be maintained by respectable 
 men, and in a tangible form, I enter my public protest against 
 them all. 
 
 The honorable gentleman argues, that if this government be 
 the sole judge of the extent of its own powers, whether that 
 right of judging be in congress or the supreme court, it equally 
 
REPLY TO IIAYNE. 407 
 
 subverts state sovereignty. This the gentleman sees, or thinks 
 he sees, although he cannot perceive how the right of judging, 
 in this matter, if left to the exercise of state legislatures, has 
 any tendency to subvert the government of the Union. The 
 gentleman's opinion may be, that the right ought not to have 
 been lodged with the general government ; he may like better 
 such a constitution as we should have under the right of state 
 interference ; but I ask him to meet me on tlie plain matter 
 of fact. I ask him to meet me on the constitution itself. I 
 ask him if the power is not found there, clearly and visibly 
 found there 1 
 
 But, sir, what is this danger, and what are the grounds of it ? 
 Let it be remembered that the constitution of the United States is 
 not unalterable. It is to continue in its present form no longer 
 than the people who established it shall choose to continue it. 
 If they shall become convinced that they have made an injudi- 
 cious or inexpedient partition and distribution of power between 
 the state governments and the general government, they can 
 alter that distribution at will. 
 
 If anything be found in the national constitution, either by 
 original provision or subsequent interpretation, which ought not 
 to be in it, the people know how to get rid of it. \f any con- 
 struction be established unacceptable to them, so as to become 
 practiftilly a part of the constitution, they will amend it, at their 
 own sovereign pleasure. But while the people choose to main- 
 tain it as it is, while they are satisfied with it, and refuse to 
 change it, who has given, or who can give, to the state legisla- 
 tiu-es a right to alter it, either by interference, construction, or 
 otherwise ? Gentlemen do not seem to recollect that the peo- 
 ple have any power to do anything for themselves. They im- 
 agine there is no safety for them, any longer than they are un- 
 der the close guardianship of tlie state legislatures. Sir, the 
 people have not trusted their safety, in regard to the general 
 constitution, to these hands. They have required other security, 
 
408 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 and taken other bonds. They have chosen to trust themselves, 
 first, to the plaui words of the instrument, and to such construc- 
 tion as the government itself, in doubtful cases, should put on 
 its own powers, and under their oaths of office, and subject to 
 their responsibility to them ; just as the people of a state trust 
 their own state goveniment with a similar power. Secondly, 
 they have reposed their trust in the efficacy of frequent elections, 
 and in their own power to remove their own servants and agents 
 whenever they see cause. Thirdly, they have reposed trust in 
 the judicial power, which, in order that it might be trustworthy, 
 they have made as respectable, as disinterested, and as indepen- 
 dent as was practicable. Fourthly, they have seen (it to rely, 
 in case of necessity, or high expediency, on their known and ad- 
 mitted power to alter or amend the constitution, peaceably and 
 quietly, whenever experience shall point out defects or imper- 
 fections. And, finally, the people of the United States have at 
 no time, in no way, directly or indirectly, authorized any state 
 legislature to construe or interpret their high instrument of 
 government ; much less, to interfere, by their own power, to 
 arrest its course and operation. 
 
 If, sir, the people in these respects had done otherwise thaii 
 they have done, their constitution could neither have been pre- 
 served, nor would it have been worth preserving. And if its 
 plain provisions shall now be disregarded, and these new 
 doctrines interpolated in it, it will become as feeble and help- 
 less a being as its enemies, whether early or more recent, 
 could possibly desire. It will exist in every state but as a 
 poor dependent on state permission. It must borrow leave to 
 be ; and will be, no longer than state pleasure, or state discre- 
 tion, sees fit to grant, the indulgence, and prolong its poor 
 existence. 
 
 But, sir, although there are fears, there are hopes also. The 
 people have preserved this, their own chosen constitution, for 
 forty years, and have seen their ha[)pmess, prosperity, and re- 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 409 
 
 nown grow with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. 
 They are now, generally, strongly attached to it. Overthrown 
 by direct assault, it cannot be ; evaded, undermined, nulli- 
 fied, it will not be, if we, and those who shall succeed us 
 here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall con- 
 scientiously and vigilantly discharge the two great branches 
 of our public trust, faithfully to preserve, and wisely to ad- 
 minister it. 
 
 Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent 
 to the doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I 
 am conscious of having detained you and the senate much too 
 long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous delibera- 
 tion, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and impor- 
 tant a subject. 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 convic- 
 tion, 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 
 ateadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole coun- 
 try, and the preservation 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 that we are chiefly indebted 
 for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That 
 Union we reached only by the discipline of our viitues 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 sprang forth with newness of life. 
 Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its 
 utility and its blessings ; and although our teri-itory has stretched 
 out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and 
 
 VOL. II. R 
 
410 VTEnSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It 
 has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social and per- 
 sonal 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 counselor 
 in tiie affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be 
 mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best 
 preserved, 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 vail. 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 ! \Vhen 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, discordant, bellige- 
 rent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, 
 in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lincerin" "lance 
 rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known 
 and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its 
 arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe 
 erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its 
 motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this 
 worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty 
 first and Union afterwards;" but everywhere, spread all over 
 in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as 
 tliey float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind 
 
REPLY TO HATNE. 4J j 
 
 luider the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every 
 true American heart— Liberty and Union, now and forever 
 one and inseparable ! ' 
 
 Mr Hajne haying rejoined to Mr. Webster, especially on the con- 
 stitutional question, Mr. Webster rose, and, in conclusion, said : 
 
 A few words, Mr. President, on this constitutional argument 
 which the honorable 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 mterpret its terms, would be a surrender to that one of 
 ail power whatever. 
 
 3. TTierefbre, (such is his inference,) the general govern- 
 ment does not possess the authority to construe its own 
 powers. 
 
 Now, sir who does not see, without the aid of exposition or 
 detection, the utter confusion of ideas involved in this so elab- 
 orate and systematic argument. 
 
 The constitution, it is said, is a compact between states ■ the 
 states, then, and the states only, .;-. parties to the compact 
 How comes the 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 has 
 now stated it, makes the government itself one of its own crea- 
 tors. It makes it a party to that compact to which it owes its 
 own existence. 
 
 For the purpose of erecting the constitution on the basis of 
 a compact, the gentleman considers the states as parties to that 
 
412 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 compact ; but as soon as his compact is made, then he chooses 
 to consider the general government, which is the offspring 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 1 
 
 If the whole of the gentleman's main proposition were con- 
 ceded to him ; that is to say, if I admit, for the sake of the ar- 
 gument, that the constitution is a compact between states, the 
 uiferences which lie 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 es- 
 tablished a government, with certain powers ; and whether it 
 be one of those powers, that it shall construe and interpret for 
 itself the terms of the compact, in doubtful cases, is a question 
 which can only be decided by looking to the compact, and in- 
 quiring 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 sought for in the 
 instrument itself. 
 
 If the old confederation had contained a clause, declaring that 
 resolutions of the congress should be the supreme law of the 
 land, any state law or constitution to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing, and tliut a committee of congress, or any other body cre- 
 ated by it, should possess judicial powers, extending to all cases 
 arising under resolutions of congress, then the power of ulti- 
 mate decision \\ould have been vested in congress under the 
 confederation, although that confederation was a compact be- 
 tween Slates ; and for this plain reason ; that it would have 
 been competent to the states, who alone were parties to the 
 compact, to agree who should decide in cases of dispute arising 
 on the construction of the compact. 
 
 For the same reason, sir, if I were now to concede to the 
 
REPLY TO HAYNE. 413 
 
 gentleman his principal proposition, viz., that the constitution is 
 a compact between states, the question would still be, What 
 provision is made, in this compact, to settle points of disputed 
 construction, or contested power, that shall come into contro- 
 versy 1 And tliis question would still be answered, and con- 
 clusively answered, by the constitution itself. 
 
 While the gentleman is contending against construction, he 
 himself is setting up the most loose and dangerous construction. 
 The constitution declares, that the laws of congress passed in 
 pursuance of the constitution 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 xmder the 
 laws of congress. Tliis needs no construction. Here is a law, 
 then, which is declared to be supreme; and here is a power es- 
 tablished, which is to interpret that law. Now, sir, how has 
 the gentleman met this? 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 are ; 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 infe- 
 riority ; 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 cogently does the honorable gentle- 
 man 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 in- 
 terpretation of these laws. Instead of answering this, he re- 
 treats into the general reflection, that it must result from the 
 
414 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 nature of things, that the states, being parties, must judge for 
 themselves. 
 
 1 have admitted, that, if the constitution were to be consid- 
 ered as the creature of die state governments, it might be niod- 
 itied, interpreted, or consti'ucd according to their pleasure. But, 
 even in that case, it would be necessary that they should agree. 
 One alone could not interpret it conclusively ; one alone could 
 not construe it ; one alone could not modify it. Yet the gen- 
 tleman's doctrine is, that Carolina alone may construe and in- 
 terpret that compact which equally binds all, and gives equal 
 rights to all. 
 
 So, then, sir, even supposing the constitution to be a com- 
 pact between tlie states, the gentleman's doctrine, neverthe- 
 less, is not maintainable; because, first, the general govern- 
 ment is not a party to that compact, but a government estab- 
 lished by it, and vested by it with the powers of trying and 
 deciding doubtful questions ; and secondly, because, if the con- 
 stitution 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 her 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 leading proposition. He 
 has not shown, it cannot be shown, that the constitution is a 
 compact between state governments. The constitution itself, 
 iu its very front, refutes that idea ; it declares that it is or- 
 dained and established by the people of the United States. So 
 far from saying that it is established by the governments of the 
 several states, it does not even say that it is established by the 
 people of the several states ; but it pronounces that it is estab- 
 lished by the people of the United States, in the aggregate. 
 The gentleman says, it must mean no inore than the people 
 of the several states. Doubtless, the people of the several 
 states, taken collectively, constitute the people of the United 
 
REPLY TO HAYXE. 415 
 
 States ; but it is in this, their collective capacity, it is as all the 
 l^eople of the United States, that they establish the constitution. 
 So they declare ; and words cannot be plainer than the words 
 used. 
 
 When the gentleman says the constitution is a compact be- 
 tween the states, he uses language exactly applicable to the old 
 confederation. He speaks as if he were in congress before 
 1789. lie describes fully that old state of things then existing. 
 The confederation was, in strictness, a compact ; the states, as 
 states, were parties to it. We had no other general govern- 
 ment. But that was found insufficient, and inadequate to the 
 public exigencies. The people were not satisfied wil^ it, and 
 undertook to establish a better. They undertook to form a 
 general government, which should stand on a new basis ; not a 
 confederacy, not a league, not a compact between states, but a 
 constitution ; a popular government, founded in popular elec- 
 tion, 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 distribu- 
 tion of powers between this, their general government, and their 
 several state governments. When they shall become dissatis- 
 fied 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 of a treaty, in which, theu- being no com- 
 mon superior, each party must interpret for itself, under its own 
 obligation of good faith. But this is not a treaty, but a consti- 
 tution of government, with powers to execute itself, and fulfill 
 its duties. 
 
 I admit, sir, that this government is a government of checks 
 and balances J that is, the house of representatives is a clieck 
 
416 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-I'IECES. 
 
 on the senate, and the senate is a check on tlio house, and the 
 president a check on both. But I cannot comprehend him, or, 
 if I do, I totally differ from him, when he appUes the notion of 
 checks and balances 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 propo- 
 sition, that we have a right to check the states 1 The gentle- 
 man's doctrines would give us a strange jumble of authorities 
 and powers, instead of governmieuts 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 government each 
 in its jifopcr 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 impair 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 pretense. 
 But I take leave of the subject. 
 
THE CONSTiTUTIOX NOT A COMPACT. 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 
 
 BrEECn IX TUE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON THE BILL "FURTHER TO 
 PROVIDE FOR THE COLLECTION OF DUTIES ON LMFOKTS," ON THE IGtQ DAY 
 OF FEBEUAUy, 1833. 
 
 The gentleman from South Carolina has admonished us to 
 be mindful of the opinions of those "svho shall come after us. 
 We must take our chance, sir, as to the light in which pos- 
 terity will regard us. I do not decline its judgment, nor 
 withhold myself from its scrutiny. Feeling that I am per- 
 forming my public duty with singleness of heart and to the 
 best of my ability, I fearlessly trust myself to the country, now 
 and hereafter, and leave both my motives and my character to 
 its decision. 
 
 The gentleman has terminated his speech in a tone of threat 
 and defiance toward this bill, even should it become a law of 
 the land, alto2;cther unusual in the halls of congress. But I 
 shall not suffer myself to be excited into warmth by this denun- 
 ciation of the measure which I support. Among the feelings 
 which at tliis moment fill my breast, not the least is that of re- 
 gret at the position in which the gentleman has placed liimself. 
 Sir, he does himself no justice. The cause which he has es- 
 poused finds no basis in the constitution, no succor from public 
 sympathy, no cheering from a patriotic community. He has 
 no footliold on which to stand while he might display the pow- 
 ers of his acknowledged talents. Everything beneath his feet 
 is hollow and treacherous. Ho is like a strong man struggling 
 in a morass : every effort to extricate himself only sinks him 
 deeper and deeper. And I fear the resemblance may be car- 
 ried still further ; 1 fear that no friend can safely come to his 
 
420 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 relief, that no one can approach near enough to hold out a help>- 
 ing hand, without danger of going down himself, also, into the 
 bottomless depths of this Serbonian bog. 
 
 The honorable gentleman has declared, that on the decision 
 of the question now in debate may depend the cause of liberty 
 itself. I am of the same opinion; but then, sir, the liberty 
 which I thinlc is staked on the contest is not political liberty, 
 in any general and undefined character, but our own well-un- 
 derstood and long-enjoyed American liberty. 
 
 Sir, I love liberty no less ardently than the gentleman, 
 in whatever form she may have appeared in the progress 
 of human history. As exhibited in the inaster states of anti- 
 quity, as breaking out again fi'om amidst the darkness of the 
 middle ages, and beaming on the formation of new communi- 
 ties in modern Europe, she has, always and everywhere, charms 
 for me. Yet, sir, it is our own liberty, guarded by constitu- 
 tions and secured by union, it is that liberty which is our pa- 
 ternal inheritance, it is our established, dear-bought, peculiar 
 American liberty to which I am chiefly devoted, and the cause 
 of which I now mean, to the utmost of my power, to maintain 
 and defend. 
 
 Mr, President, if I considered the constitutional question now 
 before us as doubtful as it is important, and if I supposed that 
 its decision, either in the senate or by the country, was likely 
 to be in any degree influenced by the manner in which I might 
 now discuss it, this would be to me a moment of deep solici- 
 tude. Such a moment has once existed. There has been a 
 time, when, rising in this place, on the same question, I felt, I 
 must confess, that something for good or evil to the constitu- 
 tion of the country might depend on an effort of mine. But 
 circumstances are changed. Since that day, sir, the public opin- 
 ion has become awakened to this great question ; it has grasped 
 it ; it has reasoned upon it, as becomes an intelligent and patri- 
 otic community, and has settled it, or now seems in the pro 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 421 
 
 gress of settling it, by an authority which none can disobey — 
 the authority of the people themselves. 
 
 I shall not, !Mr. President, follow the gentleman, step by step, 
 through the course of his speech, ^luch of what he has said he 
 has deemed necessary to the just explanation and defense of his 
 own political character and conduct. On this I shall offer no 
 comment. JNfuch, too, has consisted of philosophical remark 
 upon the general nature of political liberty, and the history of 
 free institutions ; and upon other topics, so general in their na- 
 ture as to possess, in my opinion, only a remote bearuig on the 
 immediate subject of the debate. 
 
 But the gentleman's speech made some days ago, upon intro- 
 ducing his resolutions, those resolutions themselves, and parts 
 of the speech now just concluded, may, probably, be justly re- 
 garded as comprising the whole South Carolina doctrine. That 
 doctrine it is my purpose now to examine, and to compare it 
 with the constitution of the United States. I shall not consent, 
 sir, to make any new constitution, or to establish another form 
 of government. I will not imdertake to say what a constitu- 
 tion for these United States ought to be. That question the 
 people have decided for themselves ; and I shall take the in- 
 strument as they have established it, and shall endeavor to 
 maintain it, in its plain sense and meaning, against opinions 
 and notions which, in my judgment, threaten its subversion. 
 
 The resolutions introduced by the gentleman were appa- 
 rently drawn up with care, and brought forward on delibera- 
 tion. I shall not be in danger, therefore, of misunderstanding 
 him, or those who agree with him, if I proceed at once to these 
 resolutions, and consider them as an authentic statement of 
 those opinions upon the great constitutional question, by which 
 the recent proceedings in South Carolina are attempted to be 
 justified. 
 
 These resolutions are three in number. 
 
 The third seems mtended to enumerate, and to deny, the 
 
422 WECSTEU AND HIS MASTEII-PIECES. 
 
 several opinions expressed in the president's proclaniation, 
 respecting the nature and powers of this government. Of 
 this third resolution, I purpose, at present, to take no particular 
 notice. 
 
 The first two resolutions of the honorable member affirm 
 these propositions, viz. : 
 
 1, That the political system under which we live, and under 
 which congi'css is now assembled, is a compact, to wdiich the 
 people of the several states, as separate and sovereign commu- 
 nities, are the parties. 
 
 2. That these sovereign parties have a right to judge, each 
 for itself, of any alleged violation of the constitution by con- 
 gress ; and, in case of such violation, to choose, each for itself, 
 its own mode and measure of redress. 
 
 It is true, sir, that the honorable member calls this a " con- 
 stitutional" compact ; but still he affirms it to be a compact be- 
 tween sovereign states. What precise meaning, then, does he 
 attach to the term constitutional ? When applied to compacts 
 between sovereign states, the term constitutional affixes to that 
 word compact no definite idea. Were we to hear of a consti- 
 tutional lefigue or treaty between England and France, or a 
 constitutional convention between Austria and Russia, we should 
 not underetand what could be intended by such a league, such 
 a treaty, or such a convention. In these connections, the word 
 is void of all meaning ; and yet, sir, it is easy, quite easy, to 
 see why the honorable gentleman has used it in these resolu- 
 tions. lie cannot open the book, and look u^ion our written 
 frame of government, without seeing that it is called a consti- 
 tution. This may well be appalling to him. It threatens his 
 whole doctrine of compact, and its darling derivations, nullifi- 
 cation and secession, with instant confutation. Because, if he 
 admits our instrument of government to be a constitution, then, 
 for that very reason, it is not a compact between sovereigns ; a 
 constitution of government and a compact between sovereii^n 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 423 
 
 powers being things essentially unlike in their very natures, 
 and incapable of ever being the same. Yet the word "consti- 
 tution " is on the very front of the instrument. He cannot 
 overlook it. He seeks, therefore, to compromise the matter, 
 and to sink all the substantial *}nse of the word, while he re- 
 tains a resemblance of its sound. He introduces a new word 
 of his own, viz., " compact" as importing the principal ide^, and 
 designed to play the princpal part, and degrades "constitution" 
 into an insignificant, idle epithet, attached to " compact." The 
 whole then stands as a " constitutional compact !" And in this 
 way he hopes to pass off a plausible gloss, as satisfying the 
 words of the intrument. But he wiU find himself disappointed. 
 Sir, I must say to the honorable gentleman, that, in our Amer- 
 ican political grammar, constitution is a noun substantive ; it 
 imports a distinct and clear idea of itself; and it is not to lose 
 its importance and dignity, it is not to be turned into a poor, am- 
 biguous, senseless, unmeaning adjective, for the purpose of ac- 
 commodating any new set of political notions. Sir, we reject 
 his new rules of syntax altogether. We will not give up our 
 forms of political speech to the grammarians of the school of 
 nullification. By the constitution, we mean, not a " constitu- 
 tional compact," but, simply and directly, the constitution, the 
 fundamental law ; and if there be one word in the language 
 which the people of the United Sta,tes understand, it is that 
 word. We laiow no more of a constitutional compact between 
 sovereign powers, than we know of a constitutional indenture 
 of copartnership, a constitutional deed of conveyance, or a con- 
 stitutional bill of exchange. But we know what the constitu- 
 tion is ; we know what the plainly written, fundamental law 
 is ; we know what the bond of our union and the security of 
 our liberties is ; and we mean to maintain and to defend it, in 
 its plain sense and unsophisticated meaning. 
 
 The sense of the gentleman's proposition, therefore, is not 
 at all alTected, one way or the other, by the use of this word. 
 
424 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 That proposition still is, that our system of government is 
 but a compact between the people of separate and sovereign 
 states. 
 
 Was it !Mirabeau, Mr. President, or what other master of 
 the human passions, who has tMd us that words are things 1 
 They are indeed things, and things of mighty influence, not only 
 in addresses to the passions and high-wrought feelings of man- 
 kind, but in the discussion of legal and political questions also ; 
 because a just conclusion is often avoided, or a false one reached, 
 by the adroit substitution of one phrase, or one word for an- 
 other. Of this we have, I thinli, another example in the reso- 
 lutions before us. * 
 
 The first resolution declares that the people of the several 
 states " acceded " to the constitution, or to the constitutional 
 compact, as it is called. This -svord "accede," not found either 
 in the constitution itself, or in the ratification of it by any one 
 of the states, has been chosen for us here^ doubtless, not with- 
 out a well-considered purpose. 
 
 The natural converse of accession is secession ; and, there- 
 fore, when it is stated that the people of the states acceded to 
 the Union, it may be more plausibly argued that they may se- 
 cede from it. If, in adopting the constitution, nothing was done 
 but acceding to a compact, nothing would seem necessary, in 
 order to brealc it up, but to secede from the same compact. 
 But the term is wholly out of place. Accession, as a word ap- 
 plied to political associations, implies coming into a league, 
 treaty, or confederacy, by one hitherto a stranger to it ; and 
 secession implies departing from such league or confederacy. 
 The people of the United States have used no such form of ex- 
 pression in establishing the present government. The}'' do not 
 say that they accede to a league, but they declare that they or- 
 dain and establish a constitution. Such are the very words 
 of the instrument itself; and in all the states, without an ex- 
 ception, the language used by their conventions was, that they 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 425 
 
 "ratified the constitution ;" some of them, employing the addi- 
 tional words "assented to " and " adopted," but all of them 
 "ratifying." There is more importance than may, at first sight, 
 appear, in the introduction of this new word by the honorable 
 mover of these resolutions. Its adoption and use are indispen- 
 sable to maintain those premises, from which his main conclu- 
 sion is to be afterward drawn. But before showing that, al- 
 low me to remark, that this phraseology tends to keep out of 
 sight the just view of a previous political history-, as well as to 
 suggest wrong ideas as to what was actually done when the 
 present constitution was agreed to. 
 
 In 1789, and before this constitiAion was adopted, the United 
 States had already been in a union, more or less close, for fif- 
 teen years. At least as far back as the meeting of the first 
 congress, in 1774, they had been in some measure, and to 
 some national purposes, united together. Before the confed- 
 eration of 1781, they had declared independence jointly, and 
 had carried on the war jointly, both by sea and land ; and this 
 not as separate states, but as one people. When, therefore, 
 they formed that confederation, and adopted its articles as arti- 
 cles of perpetufil union, they did not come together for the first 
 time ; and therefore they did not speak of the states as " ac- 
 ceding" to the confederation, although it was a league, and no- 
 thing but a league, and rested on nothing but plighted faith for 
 its performance. Yet, even then, the states were not strangers 
 to each other ; there was a bond of union already subsisting 
 between tiiem ; they were associated, united states ; and the 
 object of the confederation was to make a stronger and better 
 bond of union. Their representatives deliberated together on 
 these proposed articles of confederation, and, being authorized 
 by their respective states, finally "ratified and confirmed" 
 them. Inasmuch as they were already in union, they did not 
 speak of acceding to the new articles of confederation, but of 
 ratifying and confirming them; and this language was not used 
 
426 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTEE-PIECES. 
 
 inadvertently, because, in the same instrument, accession is used 
 in its proper' sense, when applied to Canada, which was alto- 
 gether a stranger to the existing union. " Canada," says the 
 eleventh article, " on acceding to this confederation, and joining 
 in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into 
 tlie Union." 
 
 Having thus used the terms ratlfij and confirm^ even in re- 
 gard to the old confederation, it would have been strange in- 
 deed, if the people of the United States, after its formation, and 
 when they came to establish the present constitution, had spo- 
 ken of the states, or the people of the states, as acceding to this 
 constitution. Such language'would have been ill suited to the 
 occasion. It would have implied an existing separation or dis- 
 union among the states, such as never has existed since 1774. 
 No such language, therefore, was used. The language actually 
 employed is, " adopt, ratify, ordain, establish." 
 
 Therefore, sir, since any state, before she can prove her 
 right to dissolve the Union, must show her authority to undo 
 what has been done, no state is at liberty to secede, on the 
 ground that she and other states have done nothing but ac- 
 cede. Slie must show that she has a right to reverse what 
 has been ordained, to unsettle and overthrow what has been 
 established, to reject what the people have adopted, and to 
 brcalc up what they have ratified ; because these are the terms 
 which express the transactions which have actually taken 
 place. In other words, she must show her right to make a 
 revolution. 
 
 If, Mr. President, in drawing these resolutions, the honorable 
 member had confined himself to the use of constitutional lan- 
 guage, there would have been a wide and awful hiatus between 
 his premises and his conclusions. Leaving out the words " com- 
 pact" and " accession," which arc not constitutional modes of 
 expression, and stating the matter precisely as the truth is, his 
 first resolution would have affirmed that " the people of tho 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 427 
 
 several states ratified this constitution, or form of government." 
 These are the very words of South Carolina herself, in her own 
 act of ratification. Let, then, his first resolution tell the exact 
 truth ; let it state the foct precisely as it exists ; let it say that 
 the people of the several states ratified a constitution, or form 
 of government ; and then, sir, what will become of his infer- 
 er.ce in his second resolution, which is in these words, viz., 
 " that, as in all other cases of compact among sovereign par- 
 ties, each has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of the 
 infraction as of the mode and measure of redress 1" It is ob- 
 vious, is it not, sir 1 that this conclusion requires for its up- 
 port quite other premises ; it requires premises which speak 
 of " accession " and of " compact" between sovereign powers; 
 and, without such premises, it is altogether unmeaning. 
 
 Mr. President, if the honorable member will truly state what 
 the people did in forming this constitution, and then state what 
 they must do if they would now undo what they then did, he 
 will unavoidably state a case of revolution. Lot us see if it 
 be not so. He must state, in the first place, that the people of 
 the several states adopted and ratified this constitution, or form 
 of government ; and, in the next place, he must state that they 
 have a right to undo this ; that is to say, that they have a right 
 to discard the form of government which they have adopted, 
 and to break up the constitution which they have ratified. 
 Now, sir, this is neither more nor less than saying that they 
 have a right to make a revolution. To reject an established 
 government, to break up a political constitution, is revolution. 
 
 I deny that any man can state accurately what was done by 
 the people, in establishing the present constitution, and then 
 state accurately what the people, or any part of them, must 
 now do to get rid of its obligations, without stating an un- 
 deniable case of the overthrow of government. I admit, of 
 course, that the people may, if they choose, overthrow the gov- 
 ernment. But, then, that is revolution. The doctrine now con- 
 
428 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 tended for is, that, by nullification or secession, the obligations 
 and authority of the government may be set aside or rejected, 
 without revolution. But that is what I deny ; and what I say 
 is, that no man can state the case with historical accuracy, and 
 in constitutional language, without showing that the honorable 
 gentleman's right, as asserted in his conclusion, is a revolution- 
 ary right merely ; that it does not and cannot exist under the 
 constitution, or agreeably to the constitution, but can come into 
 existence only when the constitution is overthrown. This is the 
 reason, sir, which makes it necessary to abandon the use of con. 
 stitutional language for a new vocabulary, and to substitute, in 
 the place of plain historical facts, a series of assumptions. This 
 is the reason why it is necessary to give new names to things, 
 to speak of the constitution, not as a constitution, but as a com- 
 pact, and of the ratifications by the people, not as ratifications, 
 but as acts of accession. 
 
 Sir, 1 intend to hold the gentleman to the written record. In 
 the discussion of a constitutional question, I intend to impose 
 upon him the restraints of constitutional language. The people 
 have ordained a constitution ; can they reject it without revo- 
 lution 1 They have established a form of government ; ain 
 they overthrow it without revolution ] These arc the true 
 questions. 
 
 Allow me now, Mr. President, to inquire further into the 
 extent of the propositions contained in the resolutions, and their 
 necessary consequences. 
 
 Where sovereign communities are parties, there is no essen- 
 tial dillerence between a compact, a confedei'ation, and a league. 
 They all equally rest on the plighted faitli of the sovereign 
 party. A league, or confederacy, is but a subsisting or contin- 
 uing treaty. 
 
 The gentleman's resolutions, then, afiirm, in effect, that these 
 twenty-ibur United States are held together only by a subsist- 
 ing treaty, resting for its fulfillment and continuance on no in- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 429 
 
 hereuc power of its owii, but on the plighted faith of each state ; 
 or, ha other words, that our Union is but a league ; and, as a 
 consequence from this proposition, they further affirm that, as 
 sovereigns are subject to no superior power, the states must 
 decide, each for itself, of any alleged violation of the league ; 
 and if such violation be supposed to have occurred, each may 
 adopt any mode or measure of redress which it shall think 
 proper. 
 
 Other consequences naturally follow, too, from the main prop- 
 osition. If a league between sovereign powers have no limita- 
 tion as to the time of its duration, and contain nothing making 
 it perpetual, it subsists only during the good pleasure of the 
 parties, although no violation be complained of. If, in the opin- 
 ion of either party, it be violated, such party may say that he 
 will no longer fulfill its obligations on his part, but will consider 
 the whole league or compact at an end, although it might be 
 one of its stipulations that it should be perpetual. Upon this 
 principle, the congress of the United States, in 1798, declared 
 null and void the treaty of alliance between the United States 
 and France, though it professed to be a perpetual alliance. 
 
 If the violation of the league be accompanied with serious 
 injuries, the suffering party, being sole judge of his own mode 
 and measure of redress, has a right to indemnify himself by 
 reprisals on the offending members of the league ; and repri- 
 sals, if the circumstances of the case require it, may be followed 
 by direct, avowed, and public war. 
 
 The necessary import of the resolutions, therefore, is, that the 
 United States are connected only by a league ; that it is in the 
 good pleasure of every state to decide how lung she will choose 
 to remain a member of this league ; that any state may deter- 
 mine the extent of her own obligations under it, and accept or 
 reject what shall be decided by the whole ; that she may also 
 determine whether her rights have been violated, what is the 
 extent of the injury done her, and what mode and measure of 
 
430 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 redress her wrongs may make it fit and expedient for her to 
 adopt. The result of the whole is, that any state may secede 
 at pleasure ; that any state may resist a law which she herself 
 may choose to say exceeds the power of congress; and that, 
 as a sovereign power, she may redress her own grievances, 
 by her own arm, at her own discretion. She may make re- 
 prisals; she may cruise against the property of other mem- 
 bers 'of the league ; slie may authorize captures, and make 
 open war. 
 
 If, sir, this be our political condition, it is time the people of 
 tlie United States understood it. Let us look for a moment to 
 the practical consequences of these opinions. One state, hold- 
 ing an embargo law unconstitutional, may declare her opinion, 
 and withdraw from the Union. She secedes. Another, form- 
 ing and expressing the same judgment on a law laying duties 
 on imports, may %\'itlidra\v also. She secedes. And as, in her 
 opinion, money has been taken out of the pockets of her citizens 
 illegally, under pretence of this law, and as slie has power to 
 redress their wrongs, she may demand satisfaction ; and if re- 
 fused, she may take it with a strong hand. The gentleman has 
 himself pronounced the collection of duties, under existing laws, 
 to be nothing but robbery. Robbers, of course, may be right- 
 fully dispossessed of the fruits of their flagitious crimes ; and, 
 therefore, reprisals, impositions on the commerce of other 
 states, foreign alliances against, .them, or open war, are all 
 modes of redress justly open to the discretion and choice of 
 South Carolina ; for she is to judge of her own rights, and to 
 seek satisfaction for her own wrongs, in her own way. 
 
 But, sir, a third state is of oj^inion, not only that these laws 
 of imposts are constitutional, but that it is the absolute duty of 
 congress to pass and to maintain such laws ; and that, by omitting 
 to pass and maintain them, its constitutional obligations would 
 be grossly disregai'ded. She relinquished the power of protec- 
 tion, she might allege, and allege truly, herself, and gave it up to 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUK. 431 
 
 congress, on the faith that congress would exercise it. If congress 
 now refuse to exercise it, congress does, as she may insist, break 
 the condition of the grant, and thus manifestly violate the con- 
 stitution; and for this violation of the constitution, she may 
 threaten to secede also, Virginia may secede, and hold the 
 fortresses hi the Chesapeake. The western states may secede 
 and take to their own use the public lands. Louisiana may se- 
 cede, if she choose, from a foreign alliance, and hold the mouth 
 of the Mississippi. If one state may secede, ten may do so, 
 twenty may do so, twenty-three may do so. Sir, as these se- 
 cessions go on, one after another, what is to constitute the 
 United States 1 Whose will be the anny 1 Whose the navy ? 
 Who will pay the debts 1 Who will fulfill the public ti-ea- 
 tiesl Who perform the constitutional guaranties? Who 
 govern this district and the territories ? Who retain the pub- 
 lic property ? 
 
 Mr. President, every man must see that these are all ques- 
 tions which can arise only after a revolution. They presuppose 
 the breaking up of Ae government. While the constitution 
 lasts, they are repressed : they spring up to annoy and startle 
 us only from its grave. 
 
 The constitution does not provide for events which must be 
 preceded by its own destruction. Secession, therefore, since it 
 must bring these consequences with it, is revolutionary. And 
 nullijicalion is equally revolutionary. What is revolution? 
 Wliy, sir, that is revolution which overturns, or controls, or 
 successfully resists, the existing public authority ; that which 
 arrests the exercise of the supreme power ; that which introdu- 
 ces a new paramount authority into the rule of the state. Now, 
 sir, this is the precise object of nullification. It attempts to 
 supersede the supreme legislativ'e authority. It arrests the arm 
 of the executive magistrate. It interrupts the exercise of the 
 accustomed judicial power. Under the name of an orduiance, 
 it declares null and void, within the state, all the revenue laws 
 
432 WEBSTER AXD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of the United States. Is not this revolutionary 1 Sir, so soon 
 as this ordinance shall be carried into effect, a revolution will 
 have commenced in South Carolina. She will have thrown off 
 the authority to which her citizens have heretofore been subject. 
 She will have declared her own opinions and her own will to be 
 above the laws and above the power of those who are intrusted 
 with their administration. If she makes good these declara- 
 tions, she is revolutionized. As to her, it is as distinctly a 
 chan<Te of the supreme power, as the American revolution of 
 1776. That revolution did not subvert government in all its 
 forms. It did not subvert local laws, and municipal administra- 
 tions. It only threw off the dominion of a power claiming to 
 be superior, and to have a rigiit, in many important respects, to 
 exercise legislative authority. Thinking this authority to have 
 been usurped or abused, the American colonies, now the United 
 States, bade it defiance, and freed themselves from it by means 
 of a revolution. But that revolution left them with their own 
 municipal laws still, and the forms of local government. If 
 Carolina now shall effectually resist the laws of congress ; if 
 she shall be her own judge, take her remedy into her own hands, 
 obey the laws of the Union when she pleases and disobey them 
 when she pleases, she will relieve herself from a paramount 
 power as distinctly as did the American colonies in 1776. 
 In otiier words, she will achieve, as to herself, a revolution. 
 
 But, sir, while practical nullification in South Carolina would 
 be, as to herself, actual and distinct revolution, its necessary 
 tendency must also be to spread revolution, and to break up 
 the constitution, as to all the other states. It i-trikes a deadly 
 blow at the vital principle of the whole Union. To allow state 
 resistance to the laws of congress to be rightful and proper, to 
 admit nullilication in some states, and yet not expect to see a 
 dismemberment of the entire government, appears to me the 
 wildest illusion, and the most extravagant folly. The gentle- 
 man seems not conscious of the direction or the rapidity of his 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 433 
 
 o^vl■l course. The current of his opinions sweeps liim along, he 
 knows not whither. To begin with nullification, with the 
 avowed intent, nevertheless, not to proceed to secession, dis- 
 memberment, and general revolution, is as if one were to take 
 the plunge of Niagara, and cry out that he would stop half way 
 down. In the one case, as in the other, the rash adventurer 
 must go to the bottom of the dark abyss below, were it not 
 that that abyss has no discovered bottom. 
 
 Nullification, if successful, arrests the power of the law, ab- 
 solves citizens from their duty, subverts tlie foundation both of 
 protection and obedience, dispenses with oaths and obligations 
 of allegiance, and elevates another authority to supreme com- 
 mand. Is not this revolution ? And it raises to supreme com- 
 mand four-and-twenty distinct powers, each professing to be un- 
 der a general government, and yet each setting its laws at 
 defiimce at pleasure. Is not tliis anai'chy, as well as revolution ? 
 Sir, tlie constitution of the United States was received as a 
 whole, and for the whole country. If it cannot stand altogether, 
 it cannot stand in parts ; and if the laws cannot be executed 
 everywhere, they cannot long be executed anywhere. The 
 gentleman very well knows that all duties and imposts must be 
 uniform throughout the countiy. He knows that we cannot 
 have one rule or one law for South Carolina, and another for otlier 
 states. He must see, therefore, and does see, every man sees, that 
 the only alternative is a repeal of the laws throughout the whole 
 Union, or their execution in Carolina as well as elsewhere. 
 And this repeal is demanded because a single state interposes 
 her veto, and threatens resistance ! The result of the gentle- 
 man's opinions, or rather tlie very text of his doctrine, is, that 
 no act of congress can bind all the states, the constitutionality 
 of which is not admitted by all ; or, in other words, that no 
 single state is bound, against its own dissent, by a law of im- 
 posts. This was precisely the e\il experienced under the old 
 confederation, and for remedy of which tliis constitution was 
 VOL. II. S. 28 
 
434 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 adopted. The leading object in establishing this govemment, 
 an object forced on the country by the condition of the times 
 and the absolute necessity of the law, was to give to congress 
 power to lay and collect imposts without the consent of partic- 
 ular states. The revolutionary debt remained unpaid ; the na- 
 tional treasury was bankrupt; the country was destitute of 
 credit ; congress issued its requisitions on the states, and the 
 states neglected them ; there was no power of coercion but war ; 
 congress could not lay imposts, or other taxes, by its own au- 
 thority ; the whole general government, therefore, was little 
 more than a name. The articles of confederation, as to pur- 
 poses of revenue and finance, were nearly a dead letter. The 
 country sought to escape from this condition, at once feeble and 
 disgraceful, by constituting a government which should have 
 power, of itself, to lay duties and taxes, and to pay the public 
 debt, and provide for the general welfare ; and to lay these du- 
 ties and taxes in all the states, without asking the consent of 
 the state governments. This was the very power on which the 
 new constitution was to depend for all its ability to do good ; 
 and without it, it can be no government, now or at any time. 
 Yet, sir, it is precisely against this power, so absolutely indis- 
 pensable to the very being of the government, that South Car- 
 olina directs her ordinance. She attacks the government in its 
 authority to raise revenue, the very main-spring of the whole 
 system ; and if she succeed, every movenient of that system 
 must inevitably cease. It is of no avail that she declares that 
 she does not resist the law as a revenue law, but as a law for 
 protecting manufactures. It is a revenue law ; it is the very 
 law by force of which the revenue is collected; if it be arrested 
 in any state, the revenue ceases in that state ; it is, in a word, 
 the sole reliance of the government for the means of maintain- 
 ing itself and pertbrming its duties. 
 
 lilr. President, the alleged right of a state to decide consti- 
 tutional questions for herself, necessarily leads to force, because 
 
REPLY TO CALHOCN. 435 
 
 Other states must have the same right, and because different 
 states will decide differently ; and v, hen these questions arise 
 between states, if there be no superior power, they can be de- 
 cided only by the law of force. On entering into the Union, 
 the people of each state gave up a part of their own power to 
 make laws for themselves, in consideration that, as to common 
 objects, they should have a part in making laws for other states. 
 Li other words, the people of all the states agreed to create a 
 common government, to be conducted by common counsels. 
 Pennsylvania, for example, yielded the right of laying imposts 
 m her own ports, in consideration that the new government, 
 in which she was to have a share, should possess the power of 
 lay ing i mposts in all the states. If South Carolina now refuses to 
 submit to this power, she breaks the condition on which other 
 states entered into the Union. She partakes of the common 
 counsels, and therein assists to bind others, while she refuses 
 to be bound herself. It makes no difference in the case, whether 
 she does all this without reason or pretext, or whether she sets 
 up as a reason, that, in her judgment, the acts complained of 
 are unconstitutional. In the judgment of other states, they are 
 not so. It is nothing to them that she offers some reason or 
 some apology for her conduct, if it be one whi-ch they do 
 not admit. It is not to be expected that any state will violate 
 her duty without some plausible pretext. That would be too 
 rash a defiance of the opinion of mankind. But if it be a pre- 
 text which lies in her own breast ; if it be no more than an 
 opinion which she says she has formed, how can other states be 
 satisfied with this ? How can they allow her to be judge of 
 her own obligations? Or, if she may judge of her obligations, 
 may they not judge of their rights also 1 ]\Iay not the twen- 
 ty-three entertain an opinion as well as the twenty-fourth ? And 
 if it be their right, in their own opinion, as expressed in the 
 common council, to enforce the law against her, how is she to 
 
436 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 say that her right and her opinion are to be everything, and 
 their right and their opinion nothing? 
 
 Mr. President, if we are to receiv'e the constitution as the 
 text, and then to hiy down in its margin the contradictory com- 
 mentaries which have been, and which may be, made by dif- 
 ferent states, the whole page would be a polyglot indeed. It 
 would speak with as many tongues as the builders of Babel, 
 and in dialects as much confused, and mutually as unintelligible. 
 The very instance now before us presents a practical illustra- 
 tion. Tlie law of the last session is declared unconstitutional 
 in South Carolina, and obedience to it is refused. In other 
 states, it is admitted to be strictly constitutional. You walk 
 over the limits of its authority, therefore, when you pass a state 
 line. On one side it is law, on tlie other side a nullity ; and 
 yet it is passed by a common government, having the same 
 authority in all the states. 
 
 Such are the inevitable results of this doctrine. Begin- 
 ning with the original error, that the constitution of the United 
 States is nothing but a compact between sovereign states ; as- 
 serting, in the next step, that each state has a right to be its 
 own sole judge of the extent of its own obligations, and conse- 
 quently of the constitutionality of laws of congress ; and, in 
 the next, that it may oppose whatever it sees fit to declare un- 
 constitutional, and that it decides for itself on the mode and 
 measure of redress, — the argument arrives at once at the con- 
 clusion, that what a state dissents from, it may nullify ; what 
 it opposes, it may oppose by force ; what it decides for itself, 
 it may execute by its own power ; and that, in short, it is itself 
 supreme over the legislation of congress, and supreme over the 
 decisions of the national judicature ; supreme over the consti- 
 tution of the country, supreme over the supreme law of the land. 
 However it seelis to protect itself against these plain inferences, 
 by saying that an unconstitutional law is no law, and that it 
 only opposes such laws as are unconstitutional, yet this does 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 437 
 
 not in the slightest degree vary the result ; since it insists on 
 deciding this question for itself; and, in opposition to reason 
 and argument, in opposition to practice and experience, in op- 
 position to the judgment of others, having an equal right to 
 judge, it says, only, " Such is my opinion, and my opinion shall 
 be my law, and I will support it by my own strong hand. I 
 denounce the law ; I declare it unconstitutional ; that is enough ; 
 it shall not be executed. Men in arms are ready to resist its 
 execution. An attempt to enforce it shall cover the land with 
 blood. Elsewhere it may be binding ; but here it is trampled 
 under foot." 
 
 This, sir, is practical nullification. 
 
 And now, sir, against all these theories and opinions, I main- 
 tain : — 
 
 1. That the constitution of the United States is not a league, 
 confederacy, or compact between the people of the several states 
 in their sovereign capacities ; but a government proper, founded 
 on the adoption of the people, and creating direct relations be- 
 tween itself and individuals. 
 
 2. Tiiat no state authority has power to dissolve these rela- 
 tions; that nothing can dissolve them but revolution ; and that, 
 consequently, there can be no such thing as secession without 
 revolution. 
 
 3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of the constitu- 
 tion of the United States, acts of congress passed in pursuance 
 of it, and treaties ; and that, in cases not capable of assuming 
 the character of a suit in law or equity, congress must judge of, 
 and finally interpret, this supreme law so often as it has occa- 
 sion to pass acts of legislation ; and in cases capable of as- 
 suming, and actually assuming, the character of a suit, the su- 
 preme court of the United States is the final interpreter. 
 
 4. That an attempt by a state to abrogate, annul, or nullify 
 an act of congress, or to arrest its operation within her limits, 
 on the ground that, in her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, 
 
438 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 is a direct usurpation on the just powers of the general govern- 
 ment, and on the equal rights of other states ; a plain violation 
 of the constitution, and a proceeding essentially revolutionary in 
 its character and tendency. 
 
 Whether the constitution be a compact between states in 
 their sovereign capacities, is a question which must be mainly 
 arffued froin what is contained in the instrument itself. We 
 all iigree that it is an instrument which has been in some way 
 clothed with power. We all admit that it speaks with author- 
 ity. The first question then is. What does it say of itself? 
 What does it purport to be? Does it style itself a league, con- 
 federacy, or compact between sovereign states 1 It is to be 
 remembered, sir, that the constitution began to speak only after 
 its adoption. Until it was ratified by nine states, it was but a 
 proposal, the mere draught of an instrument. It was like a 
 deed drawn, but not executed. The convention had framed it; 
 sent it to congress, then sitting under the confederation ; con- 
 gress had transmitted it to the state legislatures ; and by these 
 last it was laid before conventions of the people in the several 
 states. All this while it was inoperative paper. It had re- 
 ceived no stamp of authority, no sanction ; it spoke no language. 
 But when ratified by the people in their respective conventions, 
 then it had a voice, and spoke authentically. Every word in it 
 had then received the sanction of the popular will, and was to 
 be received as the expression of that will. What the constitu- 
 tion says of itself, therefore, is as conclusive as what it says on 
 any other point. Does it call itself a comjyact ? Certainly not. 
 It uses the word " compact " but once, and that is when it de- 
 clares that the states shall enter into no compact. Does it call 
 itself a league, a confederacy, a subsisting treaty between the 
 states? Certainly not. There is not a particle of such lan- 
 guage in all its pages. But it declares itself a consiituiion. 
 What is a constitution? Certainly not a league, compact, or 
 confederacy, but a fundamental law. That fundamental regu- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 439 
 
 lation which determines the manner in which the public au- 
 thority is to be executed, is what forms the constitution of a 
 state. Those primary rules which concern the body itself, and 
 the very being of the political society, the form of govenmient, 
 and the manner in which power is to be exercised — all, in a 
 word, which form together the constitution of a state — these are 
 the fundamental laws. Tiiis, sir, is the language of the public 
 writers. But do we need to be informed, in this country, what 
 a constitution is ? Is it not an idea perfectly familiar, definite, 
 and well settled ? We are at no loss to understand what is 
 meant by the constitution of one of the states ; and the con- 
 stitution of the United States speaks of itself as being an in- 
 strument of the same nature. It says, this constitution shall 
 be the law of the land, anything in any state constitution to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. And it speaks of itself, too, in 
 plain contradistinction from a confederation; for it says that all 
 debts contracted, and all engagements entered into, by the Uni- 
 ted States, shall be asTalid under this constitution as under the 
 confederation. It does not say, as valid under this compact, or 
 this league, or this confederation, as under the former confed- 
 eration, but as valid under this constitution. 
 
 This, then, sir, is declared to be a constitution. A constitu- 
 tion is the fundamental law of the state ; and this is expressly 
 declared to be the supreme law. It is as if the people had said, 
 "We prescribe this fundamental law," or "this supreme law," 
 for they do say that they establish this constitution, and that it 
 shall be the supreme law. They say that they ordain and es- 
 tablish it. Now, sir, what is the common application of these 
 words? We do not speak of ordaining leagues and compacts. 
 If tliis was intended to be a compact or league, and the states 
 to be parties to it, why was it not so said 1 Why is there found 
 no one expression in the whole instrument indicating such in- 
 tent 1 The old confederation was expressly called a league ; 
 and into this league it was declared that the states, as states, 
 
440 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 severally entered. Why was not similar language used in the 
 constitution, if a similar intention had existed 1 Why was it 
 not said, " the states enter into this new league," " the states 
 form this new confederation," or " the states agree to this new 
 compact?" Or why was it not said, in the language of the 
 gentleman's resolution, that the people of the several states ac- 
 ceded to this compact in their sovereign capacities? What 
 reason is there for supposing that the framei-s of the constitu- 
 tion rejected expressions appropriate to their own meaning, and 
 adopted others wholly at war with that meaning ? 
 
 Again, sir, the constitution speaks of that political system 
 which it established as " the government of the United States." 
 Is it not doing strange violence to language to call a league or 
 a compact between sovereign powers a government? The gov- 
 ernment of a state is that organization in which the political 
 power resides. It is the political being created by the constitu- 
 tion or fundamental law. The broad and clear difference be 
 tween a government and a league or compact is, that a govern- 
 ment is a body politic; it has a will of its own; and it possesses 
 powers and faculties to execute its ovra purposes. Every com- 
 pact looks to some power to enforce its stipulations. Even in 
 a compact between sovereign communities, there always exists 
 this ultimate reference to a power to insure its execution ; al- 
 though, in such case, this power is but the force of one party 
 against the force of another ; that is to say, the power of war. 
 But a government executes its decisions by its own supreme 
 authority. Its use of force in compelling obedience to its own 
 enactments is not war. It contemplates no opposing party hav- 
 ing a right of resistance. It rests on its own power to enforce 
 its own will ; and when it ceases to possess this power, it is no 
 longer a government. 
 
 Mr. President, I concur so generally in the very able speech 
 of the gentleman fi'om Virginia, near me, (Mr. Rives,) that it 
 is not without diffidence and regret that I venture to differ with 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 441 
 
 him on any point. His opinionions, sir, arc redolent of the 
 doctrines of a very distinguished school, for which I have the 
 highest regard, of whose doctrines I can say, what I can also 
 say of the gentleman's speech, that, while I concur in the re- 
 sults, I must be permitted to hesitate about some of the premi- 
 ses. I do not agree that the constitution is a compact between 
 the states in their sovereign capacities. I do not agree, that, in 
 strictness of language, it is a compact at all. But I do agree 
 that it is founded on consent or agreement, or on compact, if 
 the gentleman prefers that word, and means no more by it than 
 voluntary c!5nsent or agreement. The constitution, sir, is not 
 a contract, but the result of a contract ; meaning by contract 
 no more than assent. Founded on consent, it is a government 
 proper. Adopted by the agreement of the people of the Uni- 
 ted States, when adopted, it has become a constitution. The 
 people have agreed to make a constitution ; but when made, 
 that constitution becomes what its name imports. It is no 
 longer a mere agreement. Our laws, sir, have their foundation 
 in the agreement or consent of the two houses of congress. 
 We say, habitually, that one house proposes a bill, and the 
 other agrees to it ; but the result of this agreement is not a 
 compact, but a law. The law, the statute, is not the agree- 
 ment, but something created by the agreement ; and some- 
 thing which, when created, has a new character, and acts by its 
 own authority. So the constitution of the United States, 
 founded in or on consent of the people, may be said to rest on 
 compact or consent ; but it is itself not the compact, but its re- 
 suit. When a people agree to erect a government, and actu- 
 ally erect it, the thing is done, and the agreement is at an end. 
 The compact is executed, and the end designed by it attained. 
 Henceforth, the fruit of the agreement exists, but the agree- 
 ment itself is merged in its own accomplishment ; smce there 
 cjan be no longer a subsisting agreement or compact to form a 
 VOL. II. S* 
 
442 WEBSTER AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 constitution or government, after that constitution or govern- 
 ment has been actually formed and established. 
 
 It appears to me, Mr. President, that the plainest account of 
 the establishment of this government presents the most just and 
 philosophical view of its foundation. The people of the several 
 states had their separate state governments ; and between the 
 states there also existed a confederation. With this condition 
 of things the people were not satisfied, as the confederation had 
 been found not to fulfill its intended object. It was proposed, 
 therefore, to erect a new, common government, which should 
 possess certain definite powers, such as regarded the prosperity 
 of the people of all the states, and to be formed upon the 
 general model of American constitutions. This proposal was 
 assented to, and an instrument w-as presented to the people of 
 the several states for their consideration. They approved it, 
 and agreed to adopt it, as a constitution. They executed that 
 agreement ; they adopted the constitution as a constitution, 
 and henceforth it must stand as a constitution until it shall 
 be altogether destroyed. Now, sir, is not this the truth of 
 the whole matter 1 And is not all that we have heard of 
 compact between sovereign states the mere effect of a theo- 
 retical and artificial mode of reasoning upon the subject ? a 
 mode of reasoning \vhich disregard's plain focts for the sake of 
 hypothesis 1 
 
 ]\Ir. President, the nature of sovereignty or sovereign power 
 has been extensively discussed by gentlemen on this occasion, 
 as it generally is when the origin of our government is debated. 
 But I confess myself not entirely satisfied with arguments and 
 illustrations drawn from that topic. The sovereignty of gov- 
 ernment is an idea belonging to the other side of the Atlantic. 
 No such thing is known in North America. Our governments 
 are all limited. In Europe, sovereignty is of feudal origin, and 
 imports no more than the state of the sovereign. It comprises 
 bis rights, duties, exemptions, prerogatives, and powers. But 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUU. 443 
 
 ^vith us, all power is with the people. They alone are sover- 
 eign ; and they erect what governments they please, and con- 
 fer on them such powers as they please. None of these gov- 
 ernments is sovereign, in the European sense of the word, all 
 being restrained by written constitutions. It seems to me, 
 therefore, that we only perplex oiu'selves when we attempt to 
 explain the relations existing between the general government 
 and the several state governments, according to those ideas of 
 sovereignty which prevail' under systems essentially different 
 from our own. 
 
 But, sir, to return to the constitution itself; let me inquire 
 what it relies upon for its own continuance and support. I hear 
 it often suggested, that the states, by refusing to appoint sena- 
 tors and electors, might bring this government to an end. Per- 
 haps that is true ; but the same may be said of the state gov- 
 ernments themselves. Suppose the legislature of a state, hav- 
 ing the power to appoint the governor and the judges, should 
 omit that duty, would not the state government remain unor- 
 ganized ? No doubt, all elective governments may be broken 
 up by a general abandonment, on the part of those intrusted 
 with political powers, of their appropriate duties. But one pop- 
 ular government has, in this respect, as much security as an- 
 other. The maintenance of this constitution does not depend 
 on the plighted faith of the states, as states, to support it ; and 
 this again shows that it is not a league. It relies on individual 
 duty and obligation. 
 
 The constitution of the United States creates direct relations 
 between this government and individuals. This government 
 may punish individuals for treason, and all other crimes in the 
 code, when committed against the United States. It has power, 
 also, to tax individuals, in any mode, and to any extent; and it 
 possesses the further power of demanding from individuals mil- 
 itary service. Nothing, certainly, can more clearly distinguish 
 a government from a confederation of states than the possession 
 
444 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of these powers. No closer relations can exist between indi- 
 viduals and any government. 
 
 On the other hand, the govemment owes high and solemn 
 duties to every citizen of the country. It is bound to protect 
 him in his most important rights and interests. It makes war 
 for his protection, and no other government in the country can 
 make war. It makes peace for his protection, and no other 
 government can make peace. It maintains armies and navies 
 for his defense and security, and no other government is al- 
 lowed to maintain them. He goes abroad beneath its flag, and 
 carries over all the earth a national character imparted to him 
 by this government, and which no other government can im- 
 part. In whatever relates to war, to peace, to commerce, he 
 knows no other government. All these, sir, are connections as 
 dear and as sacred as can bind individuals to any government 
 on earth. It is not, therefore, a compact between states, but a 
 government proper, operating directly upon individuals, yield- 
 ing to them protection on the one hand, and demanding from 
 them obedience on the other. 
 
 There is no language in the whole constitution applicable to 
 a confederation of states. If the states be parties, as states, 
 what are their rights, and what their respective covenants and 
 stipulations 1 And where are their rights, covenants, and stip- 
 ulations expressed? The states engage for nothing, they prom- 
 ise nothing. In the articles of confederation, they did make 
 promises, and did enter into engagements, and did plight the 
 faith of each state for their fulfillment ; but in the constitution 
 there is nothing of that kind. The reason is, that, in the con- 
 stitution, it is the 2^coj)le who speak, and not the states. The 
 people ordain the constitution, and therein address themselves 
 to the states, and to the legislatures of the states, in the lan- 
 guage of injunction and prohibition. The constitution utters 
 its behests in the name and by the authority of the people, and 
 it exacts not from states any plighted public faith to main- 
 
REPLY TO CALHODN. 445 
 
 tain it. On the contrary, it makes its own preservation de- 
 pend on individual duty and individual obligation. Sir, the 
 states cannot omit to appoint senators and electors. It is not 
 a matter resting in state discretion or state pleasure. The 
 constitution has taken better care of its own preservation. It 
 lays its hand on individual conscience and individual duty. It 
 incapacitates any man to sit in the legislature of a state, who 
 shall not first have taken his solemn oath to support the con- 
 stitution of the United States. From the obligation of this 
 oath, no state power can discharge him. All the members of 
 all the state legislatures are as religiously bound to support 
 the constitution of the United States as they are to support 
 their own state constitution. Nay, sir, they are as solemnly 
 sworn to support it as we ourselves are, who are members of 
 congress. 
 
 No member of a state legislature can refuse to proceed, at 
 the proper time, to elect senators to congress, or to provide for 
 the choice of electors of president and vice-president, any more 
 than the members of this body can refuse, when the appointed 
 day arrives, to meet the members of the other house, to count 
 the votes for those officers, and ascertain who are chosen. In 
 both cases, the duty binds, and with equal strength, the con- 
 science of the individual member, and it is imposed on all by 
 an oath in the very same words. Let it then, never be said, 
 sir, that it is a matter of discretion with the states whether they 
 will continue the goveniment, or break it up by refusing to ap- 
 point senators and elect electors. They have no discretion in 
 the matter. The members of the legislatures cannot avoid do- 
 ing either, so often as the time arrives, without a direct viola- 
 tion of their duty and their oaths ; such a violation as would 
 break up any other government. 
 
 Looking still further to the provisions of the constitution 
 itself, in order to learn its true character, we find its great ap- 
 parent purpose to be, to unite the people of all the states under 
 
446 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 one general government, for certain definite ohjects, and, to the 
 extent of this union, to restrain the separate authorities of tho 
 states. Congress onl}^ can declare war ; therefore, when one 
 state Is at war with a foreign nation, all must be at Avar. The 
 president and the senate only can make peace ; when peace is 
 made for one state, therefore, it must be made for all. 
 
 Can anything be conceived more preposterous, than that any 
 state should have power to nullify the proceedings of the gen- 
 eral government respecting peace and war? When war is de- 
 clared by a law of congress, can a single state nullify that 
 law, and remain at peace ? And yet she may nullify that 
 law as well as any other.- If the president and senate make 
 peace, may one state, nevertheless, continue the war ? And 
 yet, if she can nullify a law, she may quite as well nullify a 
 treaty. 
 
 The truth is, Mr. President, and no ingenuity of argument, 
 no subtilty of distinction can evade it, that, as to certain pur- 
 poses, the people of the United States are one people. They 
 are one in making war, and one in making peace ; they are one 
 in regulating commerce, and one in laying duties of impost. The 
 very end and purpose of the constitution was, to make them 
 one people in these particulars ; and it has effectually accom- 
 plished its object. All this is apparent on the face of the con- 
 stitution itself I have already said, sir, that to obtain a power 
 of direct legislation over the people, especially in regard to im- 
 posts, was always prominent as a reason for getting rid of the 
 confederation, and forming a new constitution. Among the in- 
 numerable proofs of this, before the assembling of the conven- 
 tion, allow me to refer only to the report of the committee of 
 the old congress, July, 1785. 
 
 But, sir, let us go to the actual formation of the constitution; 
 let us open the journal of the convention itself, and we shall 
 see that the very first resolution which the convention adopted, 
 was, " that a national government ought to be established, 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUK. 447 
 
 consisting of a supreme legislature, judiciary, and executive^'* 
 This itself completely negatives all idea of league, and com- 
 pact, and confederation. Terms could not be chosen more fit 
 to express an intention to establish a national government, and 
 to banish forever all notion of a compact bctvyeen sovereign 
 states. 
 
 This resolution was adopted on the 30th of May. After- 
 ward, the style was altered, and, instead of being called a na- 
 tional government, it was called the government o^ the Uni- 
 ted States ; but the substance of this resolution was retained, 
 and was at the head of that list of resolutions which was 
 afterward sent to the committee who were to frame the in- 
 strument. 
 
 It is true, there were gentlemen in the convention, who were 
 for retaining the confederation, and amending its articles ; but 
 the majority was against this, and was for a national govern- 
 ment;. Mr. Patterson's propositions, which were for continuing 
 the articles of confederation with additional powers, were sub- 
 mitted to the convention on the 15th of June, 1780, and refer- 
 red to the committee of the whole. And the resolutions form- 
 ing the basis of a national government, which had been once 
 agreed to in the committee of the whole, and reported, were 
 recommitted to the same committee, on the same day. The con- 
 vention, then, in committee of the whole, on the 19th of June, 
 had both these plans before them ; that is to say, the plan of a 
 confederacy, or compact, between states, and the plan of a na- 
 tional government. Both these plans were considered and de- 
 bated, ai^d the committee reported, " That they do not agree 
 to the propositions offered by the honorable Mr. Patterson, but 
 that they again submit the resolutions formerly reported." If, 
 sir, any historical fact in the world be plain and undeniable, it 
 is that the convention deliberated on the expediency of contin- 
 uing the confederation, with some amendments, and rejected 
 that scheme, and adopted the plan of a national government, 
 
448 WEBSTER Al^D HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ■with a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary of its ovra. 
 They were asked to preserve the league ; they rejected the prop- 
 osition. They were asked to continue the existing compact be- 
 tween states ; they rejected it. They rejected compact, league, 
 and confederation, and set themselves about framing the consti- 
 tution of a national government ; and they accomplished what 
 they undertook. 
 
 If men will open their eyes fairly to the lights of history, it 
 is impossible to be deceived on this point. The great object 
 was to supersede the confederation, by a regular government ; 
 because, under the confederation, congress had power only to 
 make requisitions on states ; and if states declined compliance, 
 as they did, there was no remedy but war against such delin- 
 quent states. It would seem, from Mr. Jefferson's correspond 
 enee, in 178G and 1787, that he was of opinion that even this 
 remedy ought to be tried. " There will be no money in the 
 treasury," said he, "till the confederacy shows its teeth;" and 
 he suggests that a single frigate would soon levy, on the com- 
 merce of a delinquent state, the deficiency of its contribution. 
 But this would be war ; and it was evident that a confederacy 
 could not long hold together, which should be at war with its 
 members. The constitution was adopted to avoid this neces- 
 sity. It was adopted that there might be a government which 
 should act directly on individuals, without borrowing aid from 
 the state governments. This is clear as light itself on the very 
 face of the provisions of the constitution, and its whole history 
 tends to the same conclusion. Its framers gave this very rea- 
 son for their work in the most distinct terms. Allow me to quote 
 but one or two proofs, out of hundreds. That state, so small 
 in territoiy, but so distinguished for learning and talent, Con- 
 necticut, had sent to the general convention, among other mem- 
 bers, Samuel Johnson and Oliver Ellsworth. The constitution 
 having been framed, it was submitted to a convention of the 
 people of Connecticut for ratification on the part of that state; 
 
KKl'LY TO CALHOUN. 449 
 
 and Mr. Johnson and ]\Ir. Ellsworth were also members of 
 this convention. On the first day of the debates, being called 
 on to explain the reasons which led the convention at Philadel- 
 phia to recommend such a constitution, after showing the in- 
 sufficiency of the existing confederacy, inasmuch as it applied to 
 states, as states, Mr. Johnson proceeded to say : 
 
 "The convention saw this imperfection in attempting to legislate 
 for states in their political capacity, that the coercion of law can be 
 exercised by nothing but a military force. They have, therefore, 
 gone upon entirely new ground. They have formed one new nation 
 out of the individual states. The constitution vests in the general 
 legislature a power to make laws in matters of national concern; to 
 appoint judges to decide upon these laws ; and to appoint officei's to 
 carry them into execution. This excludes the idea of an armed force. 
 The power which is to enforce these laws is to be a legal power, 
 vested in proper magistrates. The force which is to be emploved is 
 the energy of the law ; and this force is to opei'ate only upon individ- 
 uals who fail in their duty to their country. This is the peculiar 
 glory of the constitution, that it depends upon the mild and equal 
 energy of the magistracj^ for the execution of the laws." 
 
 Tn the further course of the debate, Mr. Ellsworth said : 
 
 "In republics, it is a fundamental principle, that the majority 
 govern, and that the minority comply with the general voice. How 
 contrary, then, to republican principles, how humiliating, is our 
 present situation! A single state can rise up, and put a veto upon 
 the most important public measures. We have seen this actually 
 take place ; a single state has controlled the general voice of the 
 Union; a minority, a very small minority, has governed us. So far 
 is this from being consistent with republican principles, that it is, 
 in effect, the worst species of monarchy. 
 
 "Hence we see how necessary for the Union is a coercive princi- 
 ple. No man pretends the contrarj'^. We all see and feel this ne- 
 cessity. The only question is. Shall it be a coercion of law or a co- 
 ercion of arms? There is no other possible alternative. Where 
 will those who oppose a coercion of law come out? Where will 
 they end? A necessary consequence of their principles is a war of 
 VOL. II. 29 
 
450 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the states one against anothci*. I am for coercion by law ; that co» 
 ercion which acts only upon delinquent individuals. This constitu- 
 tion does not attempt to coerce sovereign bodies, states, in their po- 
 litical capacity. No coercion is applicable to such bodies, but that 
 of an armed force. If we should attempt to execute the laws of the 
 Union by sending an armed force against a delinquent state, it would 
 involve the good and bad, the innocent and guilty, in the same ca- 
 lamity. But this leg.ll coercion singles out the guilty individual, 
 and punishes him for breaking the laws of the Union." 
 
 Indeed, sir, if we look to all cotemporary history, to the 
 writings of the Federalist, to the debates in the conventions, to 
 the publications of friends and foes, they all agree that a change 
 had been made fi-om a confederacy of states to a different sys- 
 tem ; they all agree, that the convention had formed a constitu- 
 tion for a national government. AVith this ixjsult some were 
 satisfied, and some were dissatisfied ; but all admitted that the 
 thing had been done, hi none of these various productions and 
 publications did any one intimate that the new constitution was 
 but another compact between states in their sovereign capaci- 
 ties. I do not find such an opinion advanced in a single in- 
 stance. Everywhere, the people were told that the old confed- 
 eration was to be abandoned, and a new system to be tried ; 
 that a proper government was proposed, to be founded in the 
 name of the people, and to have a regular organization of its 
 own. Everywhere, the people were told that it was to be a 
 government with direct powers to make laws over individuals, 
 and to lay taxes and imposts without the consent of the states. 
 Everywhere, it was understood to be a popular constitution. It 
 came to the people for their adoption, and wivs to rest on the 
 same deep foundation as the state constitutions themselves. Its 
 most distinguished advocates, who had been themselves mem- 
 bers of the convention, declared that the very object of submit- . 
 ting the constitution to the people was, to preclude the possi- 
 bility of its being regarded as a mere compact. " However 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 451 
 
 gross a heresy," say the writers of the Federalist, " it may be 
 to maintain that a party to a compact has a right to revolve 
 that compact, the doctrine itself has had respectable advocates. 
 The possibility of a question of this nature proves the necessity 
 of laying the foundations of our national government deeper 
 tlmn in the mere sanction of delegated authority. The fabric 
 of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the con- 
 sent of the j)sopley 
 
 Such is the language, sir, addressed to the people, while they 
 yet had the constitution under consideration. The powers con- 
 ferred on the new government were perfectly well understood 
 to be conferred, not by any state, or the people of any state, 
 but by the people of the United States. Virginia is more ex- 
 plicit, perhaps, in this particular, than any other state. Her 
 convention, assembled to ratify the constitution, " in the name 
 and behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known, 
 that the powers granted under the constitution, being derived 
 from the people of the United States, may be resumed by 
 them whenever the same shall be perverted to their injury or 
 oppression." 
 
 Is this language which describes the formation of a com- 
 pact between states ? or language describing the grant of pow- 
 ers to a new government, by the whole people of the United 
 States 1 
 
 Among all the other ratifications, there is not one which 
 speaks of the constitution as a compact between states. Those 
 of jMassachusetts and New Hampshire express the transaction, 
 in my opinion, with sufficient accuracy. They recognize the 
 Divine goodness " in affording the people of the United States 
 an opportunity of entering into an explicit and solemn compact 
 with each other, by assentixg to and ratifying a new con- 
 stitution." You will observe, sir, that it is the people, and 
 not the states, who have entered into this compact ; and it is 
 the people of all the United States. These conventions, by this 
 
452 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 form of expression, meant merely to say, that the people of the 
 United States had, by the blessing of Providence, enjoyed the 
 opportunity of establishing a new constitution, founded in the 
 consent of the people. This consent of the people has been called, 
 by European wi'itcrs, the social compact ; and, in conformity 
 to this common mode of expression, these conventions speak 
 of that assent, on which the new constitution was to rest, as an 
 explicit and solemn compact, not which the states had entered 
 into with each other, but which the people of the United States 
 had entered into. 
 
 Finally, sir, how can any man get over the words of the con- 
 stitution itself? — " We, the people of the United Slates, do or- 
 dain and establish this constitution.''^ These words must cease 
 to be part of the constitution, they must be obliterated from the 
 parchment on which they are written, before any human inge- 
 nuity or human argument can remove the popular basis on 
 which that constitution rests, and turn the instrument into a 
 mere compact between sovereign states. 
 
 The second proposition, sir, which I propose to maintain, is, 
 that> no state authority can dissolve the relations subsisting be- 
 tween the government of the United States and individuals j 
 that nothing can dissolve these relations but revolution ; and 
 that, therefore, there can be no such thing as secession without 
 revolution. All this follows, as it seems to me, as a just con- 
 sequence, if it be first proved that the constitution of the United 
 States is a government proper, owing protection to individuals, 
 and entitled to their obedience. 
 
 The people, sir, in every state, live under two goveraments. 
 They owe obedience to both. These governments, though dis- 
 tinct, are not adverse. Each has its separate sphere, and its 
 peculiar powers and duties. It is not a contest between two 
 sovereigns for the same power, like the wars of the rival houses 
 in England ; nor is it a dispute between a government de facto 
 and a government de jure. It is the case of a division of pow- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 453 
 
 ers between two governments, made by the people,. to which 
 both are responsible. Neither can dispense with the duty which 
 individuals owe to the other; neither can call itself master of 
 the other : the people are masters of both. This division of 
 power, it is true, is in a great measure uuknovvn in Europe. It 
 is the peculiar system of xVnierica ; and, though new and singu- 
 lar, it is not incomprehensible. The state constitutions are es- 
 tablished by the people of the states. This constitution is es- 
 tablished by the people of all the states. How, then, can a 
 state secede 1 How can a state undo what the whole people 
 have done? How can she absolve her citizens from their obe- 
 dience to the laws of the United States ? How can she annul 
 their obligations and" oaths "? How can the members of her 
 legislature renounce their own oaths 1 Sir, secession, as a rev- 
 olutionary right, is intelligible; as a right to be proclaimed 
 amidst civil commotions, and asserted at the head of armies, I 
 can understand it. But as a practical right, existing under the 
 constitution, and in conformity with its provisions, it seems to 
 me to be nothing but a plain absurdity; for it supposes resist- 
 ance to government, under the authority of government itself; 
 it supposes dismemberment, without violating the principles 
 of union ; it supposes opposition to law, without crime ; it sup- 
 poses the violation of oaths, without responsibilty ; it supposes 
 the total overthrow of government, without revolution. 
 
 The constitution, sir, regards itself as perpetual and immor- 
 tal. It seeks to establish a union among the people of the 
 states, which shall last through all time. Or, if the common 
 fate of things human must be expected at some period to hap- 
 pen to it, yet that catastrophe is not anticipated. 
 
 Tlie instrument contains ample provisions for its amendment, 
 at all times ; none for its abandonment, at any time. It de- 
 clares that new states may come into the Union, but it does 
 not declare that old states may go out. The Union is not a 
 tcmporaiy partnership of states. It is the association of tho 
 
454 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 people under a constitution of government, uniting their power, 
 joining together their highest interests, cementing their present 
 enjoyments, and blending in one indivisible mass, all their hopes 
 for the future. Whatsoever is steadfast in just political princi- 
 ples ; whatsoever is permanent in the structure of human soci- 
 ety ; whatsoever there is which can derive an enduring character 
 from being founded on deep-laid principles of constitutional lib- 
 erty and on the broad foundations of the public will — all these 
 unite to entitle this instrument to be regarded as a permanent 
 constitution of government. 
 
 In the next place, Mr. President, I contend that there is a su- 
 premo law of the land, consisting of the constitution, acts of 
 congress passed in pursuance of it, and the public treaties. 
 This will not be denied, because such are the very words of the 
 constitution. But I contend, further, that it rightfully belongs 
 to congress, and to the courts of the United States, to settle the 
 construction of this supreme law, in doubtful cases. This is 
 denied; and here arises the great practical question, Wiio is to 
 
 CONSTRUE FINALLY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UnITED StATES "? 
 
 We all agree that the constitution is the supreme law ; but who 
 shall interpret that law 1 Li our system of the division of pow- 
 ers between diiferent governments, controversies will necessa- 
 rily sometimes arise, respecting the extent of the powers of 
 each. Who shall decide these controversies'? Docs it rest 
 with the general government, in all or any of its departments, 
 to exercise the oflice of final interpreter 1 Or may each of the 
 states, as well as the general government, claim this right of 
 ultimate decision ? The practical result of this whole debate 
 turns on this point. The gentleman contends that each state 
 may judge for itself of any alleged violation of the constitu- 
 tion, and may finally decide for itself, and may execute its own 
 decisions by its own power. All the recent proceedings in 
 South Carolina are founded on this claim of right. Her con- 
 vention has pronounced the revenue laws of the United States 
 
REPLY TO CAI.HOUN. 455 
 
 unconstitutional ; and this decision slie does not allow any au- 
 thority of the United States to overrule or reverse. Of course 
 she rejects the authority of congress, because the very object 
 of the ordinance is to reverse the decision of congress; and she 
 rejects, too, the authority of the courts of the United States, 
 because she expressly prohibits all appeal to those courts. It 
 is in order to sustain this asserted right of being her own judge, 
 that she pronounces the constitution of the United States to be 
 but a compact, to which she is a party, and a sovereign party. 
 If this be established, then the inference is supposed to follow, 
 that, being sovereign, there is no power to control her decision ; 
 and her own judgment on her own compact is, and must be, 
 conclusive. 
 
 I have already endeavored, sir, to point out the practical con- 
 sequences of this doctrine, and to show how utterly inconsistent 
 it is with all ideas of regular government, and how soon its 
 adoption would involve the whole country in revolution and ab- 
 solute anarchy. I hope it is easy now to show, sir, that a doc- 
 trine bringing such consequences with it is not well founded ; 
 that it has notliing to stand upon but theory and assumption ; 
 and that it is refuted by plain and express constitutional pro- 
 visions. I think the government of the United States does 
 possess, in its appropriate departments, the authority of final 
 decision on questions of disputed power. I think it possesses 
 tliis authority, both by necessary implication and by express 
 grant. 
 
 It will not be denied, sir, that this authority naturally belongs 
 to all governments. They all exercise it from necessity, and as 
 a consequence of the exercise of other powers. The state gov- 
 ernments themselves possess it, except in that class of ques- 
 tions which may arise between them and the general govern- 
 ment, and in regard to which they have surrendered it, as well 
 by the nature of the case as by clear constitutional provisions. 
 In other and ordinary cases, whether a particular law be in 
 
456 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 conformity to the constitution of the state is a question which 
 the state legislature or the state judiciary must determine. 
 We all loiow that these questions arise daily in the state gov- 
 ernments, and are decided by those governments ; and I know 
 no goverament which does not exercise a similar power. 
 
 Upon general principles, then, the government of the United 
 States possesses this authority ; and this v/ould hardly be de- 
 nied were it not that there are other governments. But since 
 there are state governments, and since these, like other govern- 
 ments, ordinarily construe their own powers, if the government 
 of iSie United States construes its own powers also, which con- 
 struction is to prevail in the case of opposite constructions 1 
 And again, as in the case now actually before us, the state gov- 
 ernments may undertake, not only to construe their own pow- 
 ers, but to decide directly on the extent of the powers of con- 
 gi'css. Congress has passed a law as being within its just 
 powers ; South Carolina denies that this law is within its just 
 powers, and insists that she has the right so to decide this point, 
 and that her decision is final. How are these questions to be 
 settled ? 
 
 In my opinion, sir, even if the constitution of the United 
 States had made no express provision for such cases, it would 
 yet be difficult to maintain, that, in a constitution existing over 
 four-and-tvventy states, with equal authority over all, one could 
 claim a right of construing it for the whole. This would seem 
 a manifest impropriety ; indeed, an absurdity. If the consti- 
 tution is a govcniment existing over all the states, though with 
 limited powers, it necessarily tbllowsthat, to the extent of those 
 powers, it must be supreme. If it be not superior to the au- 
 thority of a particular state, it is not a national government. 
 Eut as it is a government, as it has a legislative power of its 
 own, and a judicial power coextensive with the legislative, the 
 inference is iiTcsistible that this government, thus created by 
 the whole and for the whole, must have an authority superior 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 457 
 
 to that of the particular government of any one part. Congress 
 is tlie legislature of all the people of the United States ; the 
 judiciary of the general government is the judiciary of all the 
 people of the United States. To hold, therefore, that this le- 
 gislature and this judiciary are subordinate in authority to the 
 legislature and judiciary of a single state, is doing violence to 
 all common sense, and overturning all established principles. 
 Congress must judge of the extent of its own powers so often 
 as it is called on to exercise them, or it cannot act at all ; and 
 it must act also independent of state control, or it cannot act 
 at all. 
 
 The riglit of state interposition strikes at the very foundation 
 of the legislative power of congress. It possesses no effective 
 legislative pow'er, if such right of state interposition exists ; be- 
 cause it can pass no law not subject to abrogation. It cannot 
 make laws for the Union, if any part of the Union may pro- 
 nounce its enactments void and of no effect. Its forms of legis- 
 lation would be an idle ceremony, if, after all, any one of four- 
 and-twenty states might bid defiance to its authority. AVithout 
 express provision in the constitution, therefore, sir, this whole 
 question is necessarily decided by those provisions which cre- 
 ate a legislative power and a judicial power. If these exist in 
 a government intended for the whole, the inevitable consequence 
 is, that the laws of tliis legislative power and the decisions of 
 this judicial power must be binding on and over the whole. 
 No man can form the conception of a government existing over 
 four-and-twenty states, with a regular legislative and judicial 
 power, and of the existence at the same time of an authority, 
 residing elsewhere, to resist, at pleasure or discretion, the en- 
 actments and the decisions of such a government. I maintain, 
 therefore, sir, that, from the nature of the case, and as an infer- 
 ence wholly unavoidable, the acts of congress and the decisions 
 of the national courts must be of higher authority than state 
 
 VOL. n. T 
 
458 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 laws and state decisions. If this be not so, there is, there can 
 be, no general government. 
 
 But, Mr. President, the constitution has not left this cardinal 
 point without full and explicit provisions. First, as to the au- 
 thority of congress. Having enumerated the specific powers 
 conferred on congress, the constitution adds, as a distinct and 
 substantive clause, the following, viz: "To make all laws which 
 shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the 
 foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitu- 
 tion in the government of the United States, or in any depart- 
 ment or officer thereof." If this means anything, it means that 
 congress may judge of the true extent and just interpretation 
 of the specific powers granted to it, and may judge also of what 
 is necessary and proper for executing those powers. If congress 
 is to judge of what is necessary for the execution of its powers, 
 it must, of necessity, judge of the extent and interpretation of 
 tliose powers. 
 
 And in regard, sir, to the judiciary, the constitution is still 
 more express and emphatic. It declares that the judicial power 
 shall extend to all cases m law or equity arising under the con- 
 stitution, laws of the United States, and treaties ; that there shall 
 be one supreme court, and that this supreme court shall have 
 appellatejurisdictionof all these cases, subject to such exceptions 
 as congress may make. It is impossible to escape from the 
 generality of these words. If a case arises under the constitu- 
 tion, that is, if a case arises depending on the construction of 
 the constitution, the judicial power of the United States extends 
 to it. It reaches the case, the question ; it attaches the 
 power of the national judicature to the case itself, in whatever 
 court it may arise or exist ; and in this case the supreme court 
 has appellate jurisdiction over all courts whatever. No lan- 
 guage could provide with more effect and precision than is here 
 done, for subjecting constitutional questions to the ultimate de- 
 cision of the supreme court. And, sir, this is exactly what the 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 459 
 
 convention found it necessary to provide for, and intended to 
 provide for. It is, too, exactly what the people were univer- 
 sally told was done when they adopted the constitution. One 
 of the first resolutions adopted by the convention, was in these 
 words, viz : "that the jurisdiction of the national judiciary shall 
 extend to cases which respect the collection of the national rev- 
 enue, and questions which involve the national peace and har- 
 mony." Now, sir, this either had no sensible meaning at all, 
 or else it meant that the jurisdiction of the national judiciary 
 should extend to these questions, with a paramount authority. 
 It is not to be supposed that the convention intended that the 
 power of the national judiciary should extend to these questions, 
 and that the judicatures of the states should also extend to them, 
 with equal power of final decision. This would be to defeat 
 the whole object of the provision. There were thirteen judica- 
 tures already ui existence. The evil complamed of, or the dan- 
 ger to be guarded against, was contradiction and repugnance 
 in the decisions of these judicatures. If theframers of the con- 
 stitution meant to create a fourteenth, and yet not to give it 
 power to revise and control the decisions of the existing thir- 
 teen, then they only intended to augment the existing evil and 
 the apprehended danger by increasing still fiu-ther the chances 
 of discordant judgments. Why, sir, has it become a settled 
 axiom in politics that every government must have a judicial 
 power coextensive with its legislative power? Certainly, there 
 is only this reason, viz : that the laws may receive a uniform 
 interpretation and a uniform execution. This object can be no 
 otherwise attained. A statute is what it is judicially interpre- 
 ted to be ; and if it be construed one way in New Hampshire, 
 and another way in Georgia, there is no uniform law. One su- 
 preme court, with appellate and final jurisdiction, is the natural 
 and only adequate means, in any government, to secure this 
 uniformity. The convention saw all this clearly ; and the res- 
 olution which I have quoted, never afterwards rescinded, passed 
 
4G0 WEBSTER AKD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 through various modifications, till it finally received the form 
 which the article now wears in the constitution. It is undenia- 
 ably true, then, that the framers of the constitution intended to 
 create a national judicial power, which should be paramount on 
 national subjects. And after the constitution was fit-amed, and 
 while the whole country was engaged in discussing its merits, 
 one of its most distinguished advocates, (Mr. Madison,) told 
 the people that it Mas true, that, in controversies relating to the 
 boundary between the two jurisdictions, the tribunal which is 
 ultimately to decide is to be established under the general 
 government. Mr. Martin, who had been a member of the con- 
 vention, asserted the same thing to the legislature of Maryland, 
 and urged it as a reason for rejecting the constitution. ]\lr. 
 Pinckney, himself also a leading member of the convention, de- 
 clared it to the people of South Carolina. Everywhere it w'aa 
 admitted, by friends and foes, that this power was in the con- 
 stitution. By some it was thought dangerous, by most it was 
 thouglit necessary ; but by all it was jigi-eed to be a power actu- 
 ally contained in the instrument. The convention, saw the ab- 
 solute necessity of some control in the national government 
 over state laws. Different modes of establishing this control 
 were suggested and considered. At. one time, it was proposed 
 that the laws of the states should, from time to time, be laid 
 before congress, and that congress should possess a negative over 
 them. But this was thought inexpedient and inadmissible; 
 and in its place, and expressly as a substitute for it, the existing 
 provision was introduced ; that is to say, a provision by which 
 the federal courts should have authority to overrule such state 
 laws as might be in manifest contravention of the constitution. 
 The writers of the Federalist, in explaining the constitution, 
 while it was yet pending before the people, and still unadopted, 
 give this account of the matter in terms, and assign this reason 
 for the article as it now stands. By this provision congress es- 
 caped from the necessity of any revision of state laws, left the 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 461 
 
 ■whole sphere of state legislation quite untouched, and yet ob- 
 tained a security against any infringement of the constitutional 
 power of the general government. Indeed, sir, allow me to ask 
 again, if the national judiciary was not to exercise a power of 
 revision on constitutional questions over the judicatures of the 
 states, why was any national judicature erected at all ? Can 
 any man give a sensible reason for having a judicial power in 
 this goverimient, unless it be for the sake of maintaining a uni- 
 formity of decision on questions arismg under the constitution 
 and laws of congress, and insuring its execution 1 And does 
 not this very idea of uniformity necessarily imply that the con- 
 struction given by the national courts is to be the prevailing 
 construction 1 How else, sir, is it possible that uniformity can 
 be preserved 1 
 
 Gentlemen appear to me, sir, to look at but one side of the 
 question. They regard only the supposed danger of trusting a 
 government with the interpretation of its own powers. But 
 will they view the question in its other aspect 1 Will they 
 show us how it is possible for a government to get along with 
 four-and-twenty interpreters of its laws and powers ? Gentle- 
 men argue, too, as if, in these cases, the state would be always 
 right, and the general government always wrong. But suppose 
 the reverse ; suppose the state wrong (and, since they differ, 
 some of them must be wrong) ; are the most important and 
 essential operations of the government to be embarrassed and 
 arrested, because one state holds a contrary opinion 1 Mr. 
 President, every argument which refers the constitutionality of 
 acts of congress to state decision, appeals from the majority to 
 the minority ; it appeals from a common interest to a particular 
 interest ; from the counsels of all to the counsels of one ; and 
 endeavors to supersede the judgment of the whole by the judg- 
 ment of a part. 
 
 1 tliink it is clear, sir, that the constitution, by express pro- 
 vision, by definite and unequivocal words, as well as by necea- 
 
462 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 sary implication, has constituted the supreme court of the Uni- 
 ted States the appellate tribunal in all cases of a constitutional 
 nature which assume the shape of a suit, in law or equity. 
 And I thinlv I cannot do better than to leave this part of tlie 
 subject by reading the remarks made upon it by Mr. Ellsworth, 
 in the convention of Connecticut, a gentleman, sir, who has left 
 behind him, on the records of the government of his country, 
 proofs of the clearest intelligence and of the deepest sagacity, 
 as well as of the utmost purity and integrity of character. lie 
 says • 
 
 " This constitution defines the extent of the powers of the gen- 
 eral government,. If tlie general legislature should, at any time, 
 overleap its limits, the judicial department is a constitutional check. 
 If the United States go beyond their powers, if they make a law 
 which the constitution does not authorize, it is void ; and the judi- 
 ciary power, the national judges, who, to secure their impartiality, 
 are to be made independent, will declare it to be void. On the other 
 hand, if the states go beyond their limit^s, if they make a law 
 which is a usurpation upon the general government, the law is 
 void; and upright, independent judges will declare it to be so." 
 
 And let me only add, sir, that in the very first session of the 
 first congress, with all the well-known objects, both of the con- 
 vention and the people, full aiid fresh in his mind, Mr. Ells- 
 worth, reported the bill, as is generally understood, for the or- 
 ganization of the judicial department, and in that bill made 
 provision for the exercise of this appellate power of the su- 
 preme court, in all the proper cases, in whatsoever court ari- 
 sing ; and tliat this appellate power has now been exercised for 
 more than forty years, without interruption and without doubt. 
 
 As to the cases, sir, which do not come before the courts, 
 those political questions which terminate with the enactments 
 of congress, it is of necessity that these should be ultimately 
 decided by congi'css itself. Like other legislatures, it must be 
 trusted with this power. The members of congress are chosen 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 463 
 
 by the people, and they are answerable to the people ; like 
 other public agents, they are bound by oath to support the con- 
 stitution. These are the securities that they will not violate 
 their duty, or transcend their powers. They are the same se- 
 curities as prevail in other popular governments ; nor is it easy 
 to see how grants of power can be more safely guarded, with- 
 out rendering them nugatory. If the case cannot come before 
 the courts, and if congress be not trusted with its decision, who 
 shall decide it? The gentleman says, each state is to decide it 
 for herselii If so, then, as I have already urged, what is law 
 in one state is not law in the other. Or, if the resistance of 
 one state compels an entire repeal of the law, then a minority, 
 and that a small one, governs the whole country. 
 
 Sir, those who espouse the doctrines of nullification reject, 
 as it seems to me, the first principle of all republican liberty ; 
 that is, that the majority must govern. In matters of common 
 concern, the judgment of the majority must stand as the judg- 
 of the whole. Tliis is a law imposed on us by the absolute 
 necessity of tlie case ; and if we do not act upon it, there is 
 no possibility of maintaining any government but despotism. 
 We hear loud and repeated denunciations against what is called 
 " majority government." It is declared, with much warmth, 
 that a majority government cannot be maintained in the Uni- 
 ted States. What, then, do gentlemen wish"? Do they wish 
 to establish a minority government? Do they wish to sub- 
 ject the will of the many to the will of the few 1 Tlie hon- 
 orable gentleman from South Carolina has spoken of absolute 
 majorities and majorities concurrent ; language wholly unknown 
 to our constitution, and to which it is not easy to affix definite 
 ideas. As I far as I understand it, it would teach us that tlie 
 absolute majority may be found in congress, but the " major- 
 ty concurrent " must be looked for in the states ; that is to 
 say, sir, stripping the matter of this novelty of phrase, that 
 the dissent of one or more states, as states, renders void the 
 
464 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 decisiou of a majority of congress, so far as that state is 
 concerned. And so this doctrine, running but a short career, 
 like other dogmas of the day, terminates in nullification. 
 
 If tliis vehement invective against majorities meant no more 
 than that, in the construction of government, it is wise to pro- 
 vide checks and balances, so that there should be various limi- 
 tations on the power of the mere majority, it would only mean 
 what the constitution of the United States has already abun- 
 dantly provided. It is full of such checks and balances. In its 
 very organization, it adopts a broad and most eflectual princi- 
 ple in restraint of the power of mere majorities. A majority 
 of the people elects the house of representatives, but it does not 
 elect tlie senate. The senate is elected by the states, each state 
 having, in this respect, an equal power. No law, therefore, caii 
 pass, without the assent of the majority of tlie representatives 
 of the people, and a majority of the representatives of the states 
 also. A majority of the representatives of the people nmst con- 
 cur, and a majority of the states must concur, in every act of 
 congress ; and the president is elected on a plan compounded 
 of both these principles. But having composed one house of 
 representatives chosen by the people in each state, according to 
 its numbers, and the other of an equal number of members from 
 every stiite, whether larger or smaller, the constitution gives to 
 majorities in these houses thus constituted the full and entire 
 power of passing laws, subject always to the constitutional re- 
 strictions and to the approval of the president. To subject 
 them to any other power is clear usurpation. The majority of 
 one house may be controlled by the majority of the other; and 
 both may be restrained by the president's negative. These 
 are checks and balances provided by the constitution, existing 
 in the government itself, and vviseJy intended to secure deliber- 
 ation and caution in legislative proceedings. But to resist the 
 will of the majority in both houses, thus constitutionally exer- 
 cised; to insist on the lawfulness of interposition by an extra- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 465 
 
 neous power ; to claim the right of defeating the will of con- 
 gress, by setting up against it the will of a single state — is nei- 
 ther more nor less, as it strikes me, than a plain attempt to 
 overthrow the government. The constituted authorities of the 
 United States are no longer a government, if they be not mas- 
 ters of their own will ; they are no longer a government, if an 
 external power may arrest their proceedings ; they are no longer 
 a government, if acts passed by both houses, and approved by 
 the president, may be nullified by state vetoes or state ordi- 
 nances. Does any one suppose it could make any difference, 
 as to the binding authority of an act of congress, and of the 
 duty of a state to respect it, whether it passed by a mere ma- 
 jority of both houses, or by three-fourths of each, or the unan- 
 imous vote of each? Within the limits and restrictions of the 
 constitution, the government of the United States, like all other 
 popular governments, acts by majorities. It can act no other- 
 wise. Whoever, therefore, denounces the government of ma- 
 jorities, denounces the government of his own country, and de- 
 nounces all free governments. And whoever would restrain 
 these majorities, while acting within their constitutional limits, 
 by an external power, whatever he may intend, asserts prmci- 
 ples which, if adopted, can lead to nothing else than the de- 
 struction of the government itself. 
 
 Does not the gentleman perceive, sir, how his argument 
 against majorities might here be retorted upon him 1 Does he 
 not see how cogently he might be asked, whether it be the char- 
 acter of nullification to practice what it preaches 1 Look to 
 South Carolina, at the present moment. How far are the rights 
 of minorities there respected ? I confess, sir, I have not knoAvn, 
 in peaceable times, the power of the majority carried with a 
 higher hand, or upheld with more relentless disregard of the 
 rights, feelings, and principles of the minority ; — a minority em- 
 bracing, as the gentleman himself will admit, a large portion of 
 the worth and respectability of the state ; a minority compre- 
 VOL. n. T* 20 
 
466 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 hending in its numbers men who have been associated with 
 him, and with us, in these halls of legislation ; men who have 
 served their country at home and honored it abroad ; men who 
 would cheerfully lay do^\^l their lives for their native state, in 
 any cause which they could regard as the cause of honor and 
 duty", men above fear, and above reproach; whose deepest grief 
 and distress spring from the conviction that the present proceed- 
 ings of the state must ultimately reflect discredit upon her. 
 How is this minority, how are these men, regarded? They are 
 enthralled and disfranchised by ordinances and acts of legisla- 
 tion ; subjected to tests and oaths, incompatible, as they consci- 
 entiously think, with oaths already t<aken, and obligations already 
 assumed ; they are proscribed and denounced, as recreants to 
 duty and patriotism, and slaves to a foreign power. Both the 
 spirit which pursues them, and the positive measures which em 
 anate from that spirit, are harsh and prescriptive beyond all 
 precedent within my knowledge, except in periods of professed 
 revolution. 
 
 It is not, sir, one would think, for those who approve these 
 proceedings to complain of the power of majorities. 
 
 Mr. President, all popular governments rest on two princi- 
 ples, or two assumptions : 
 
 First, That there is so far a common interest among those 
 over. whom the government extends, as that it may provide for 
 the defense, protection, and good government of the whole, 
 without injustice or oppression to parts. 
 
 Second, That the representatives of the people, and espe- 
 cially the people themselves, are secure against general corrup- 
 tion, and may be trusted, therefore, with the exercise of power. 
 Whoever argues against these principles argues against the 
 practicability of all free governments. And whoever admits 
 tliese, must admit, or cannot deny, that power is as safe in the 
 hands of congress as in those of other representative bodies. 
 Congress is not irresponsible. Its members are agents of the 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 467 
 
 people, elected by them, answerable to them, and liable to be 
 displaced or superseded, at their pleasure ; and they possess as 
 fair a claim to the confidence of the people, while they continue 
 to deserve it, as any other public political agents. 
 
 If, then, sir, the plain intention of the convention, and the co- 
 temporary admission of both friends and foes, prove anything; 
 if the plain text of the instrument itself, as well as the neces- 
 sary implicatitjn from other provisions, prove anything : if the 
 early legislation of congress, the course of judicial decisions, 
 acquiesced in l)y all the states for forty years, prove anything 
 — then it is proved that there is a supreme law, and a final 
 interpreter. 
 
 My fourth and last proposition, j\Ir. President, was, that any 
 attempt by a state to abrogate or nullify acts of congress is 
 a usurpation on the powers of the general government and on 
 the equal rights of other states, a violation of the constitution, 
 and a proceeding essentially revolutionary. This is undoubt- 
 edly true, if the preceding propositions be regarded as proved. 
 If the government of the United States be trusted with the 
 duty, in any department, of declaring the extent of its own 
 powers, then a state ordinance, or act of legislation, authori- 
 zing resistance to an act of congress, on the alleged ground of 
 its unconstitutionality, is manifestly a usurpation upon its 
 powers. 
 
 If the slates have equal rights in matters concerning the 
 whole, then for one state to set up her judgement against the 
 judgment of the rest, and to insist on executing that judgment 
 by force, is also a manifest usurpation on the rights of other 
 states. 
 
 If the constitution of the United States be a government 
 proper, with autliority to pass laws, and to give them a uniform 
 interpretation and execution, then the interposition of a state, 
 to enforce her own construction, and to resist, as to herself, 
 
408 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 that law which binds the other states, is ta violation of the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 And if that be revolutionary which arrests the legislative, ex- 
 ecutive, and judicial power of government, dispenses with exist- 
 ing oaths and obligations of obedience, and elevates another 
 power to supreme dominion, then nullification is revolutionary. 
 Or if that be revolutionary the natural tendency and practical 
 effect of which are to break the Union into fragments, to sever 
 all connection among the people of the respective states, and to 
 prostrate this general government in the dust, then nullification 
 is revolutionary. 
 
 NuUificixtion, sir, is as distinctly revolutionary as secession ; 
 but I cannot say that the revolution ^\•hich it seeks is one of 
 so respectable a character. Secession would, it is true, abandon 
 the constitution altogether ; but then it would profess to aban- 
 don it. Whatever other inconsistencies it mio-ht run into, one, 
 
 O 7 7 
 
 at least, it would avoid. It would not belong to a government, 
 while it rejected its authority. It w'ould not repel the burden, 
 and continue to enjoy the benefits. It would not aid in passing 
 laws which others are to obey, and yet reject their authority as 
 to itself. It would not undertake to reconcile obedience to pub- 
 lic authority w^ith an asserted right of command over that same 
 authority. It would not be in the government, and above the 
 government, at the same time. But however more respecta- 
 ble a mode secession may be, it is not more truly revolu- 
 tionary than the actual execution of the doctrines of nullifica- 
 tion. Both, and each, resist the constitutional authorities ; 
 T>oth, and each, would sever the Union, and subvert the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Mr. President, having detained the senate so long already, I 
 will not now examine at length the ordinance and laws of South 
 Carolina. These papers are well drawn for their purpose. 
 Their authors understood their own objects. They are called 
 a peaceable remedy, and we have been told that South Caro- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 469 
 
 lina, after all, intends nothing but a lawsuit. A very few words, 
 sir, will show the nature of this peaceable remedy, and of the 
 lawsuit which South Carolina contemplates. 
 
 In the first place, the ordinance declares the law of last July, 
 and all other laws of the United States laying duties, to be ab- 
 solutely null and void, and makes it unlawful for the constituted 
 authorities of the United States to enforce the payment of such 
 duties. It is, therefore, sir, an indictable otTense, at this mo- 
 ment, in South Carolina, for any person to be concerned in col- 
 lecting revenue under the laws of the United States. It being 
 declared unlawful to collect these duties, by what is considered 
 a fundamental law of the state, an indictment lies, of course, 
 against any one concerned in such collection; and he is, on 
 general principles, liable to be punished by fine and imprison- 
 ment. The terms, it is true, are that it is unlawful "to enforce 
 the payment of duties;" but every custom-house officer en- 
 forces payment when he detains the goods in order to obtain 
 such payment. The ordinance, therefore, reaches everybody 
 concerned in the collection of the duties. 
 
 This is the first step in the prosecution of the peaceable rem- 
 edy. The second is more decisive. By the act commonly 
 called the replevin law, any person, whose goods are seized or 
 detained by the collector for the payment of duties, may sue 
 out a writ of replevin, and, by virtue of that wa-it, the goods 
 are to be restored to him. A writ of replevin is a writ which 
 the sheriff is bound to execute, and for the execution of which 
 he is bound to employ force, if necessary. He may call out 
 the posse, and must do so, if resistance be made. This posse 
 may be armed or unarmed. It may come forth with military 
 array, and under the lead of military men. Whatever num- 
 ber of troops may be assembled in Charleston, they may be 
 summoned, with the governor, or commander-in-chief, at their 
 head, to come in aid of the sheriff. It is evident, then, sir, that 
 the whole military power of the state is to be employed, wheu- 
 
470 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ever necessary, in dispossessing the custom-house officers, and 
 in seizing and holding the goods, without paying the duties. 
 This is the second step in the peaceable remedy. 
 
 Sir, whatever pretences may be set up to the contrary, this 
 is the direct application of force, and of military force. It is 
 unlawful, in itself, to replevy goods in the custody of the col- 
 lectors. But this unlawful act is to be done, and it is to be 
 done by power. Here is a plain interposition, by physical 
 force, to resist the laws of the Union. The legal mode of col- 
 lecting duties is to detain goods till such duties are paid or se- 
 cured. But force comes and overpowers the collector and his 
 assistants, and takes away the goods, leaving the duties unpaid. 
 There cannot be a clearer case of forcible resistance to law. 
 And it is provided that the goods thus seized shall be held 
 against any attempt to retake them, by the same force which 
 seized them. 
 
 Having thus dispossessed the officers of the government of 
 the goods, without payment of duties, and seized and secured 
 them by the strong arm of the state, only one thing more re- 
 mains to be done, and that is, to cut off all possibility of legal 
 redress; and that, too, is accomplished, or thought to be ac- 
 complished. The ordinance decrees, that all judicial proceed- 
 ings, founded on the revenue laws (including, of course, proceed- 
 ings in the courts of the United States,) shall be null and void. 
 This nullifies the judicial power of the United States. Then 
 comes the test-oath act. This requires all state judges and ju- 
 rors in the state courts to swear that they will execute the or- 
 dinance, and all acts of the legislature passed in pursuance 
 thereof. The ordinance declares, that no appeal shall be al- 
 lowed from the decision of the state courts to the supreme 
 court <jf the United States ; and the replevin act makes it an 
 indictable offense for any clerk to furnish a copy of the record, 
 for the purpose of such appeal. 
 
 The two principal provisions on which South Carolina relies, 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 471 
 
 to resist the laws of the United States, and nullify the author 
 ity of this government, are, therefore, these : 
 
 1. A forcible seizure of goods, before the duties are paid oi 
 secured, by the power of the state, civil and military. 
 
 2. The taking away, by the most effectual means in her 
 power, of all legal redress m the courts of the United States ; 
 the confining all judicial proceedings to her own state tribunals ; 
 and the compelling of her judges and jurors of these her own 
 courts to take an oath, beforehand, that they will decide all 
 cases according to the ordinance, and the acts passed under it ; 
 that is, that they will decide the cause one way. They do not 
 swear to try it, on its own merits ; they only swear to decide 
 it as nullification requires. 
 
 The character, sir, of these provions defies comment Their 
 object is as plain as their means are extraordinary. They pro- 
 pose direct resistance, by the whole power of the state, to laws 
 of congress ; to cut off, by methods deemed adequate, any re- 
 dress by legal and judicial authority. They arrest legislation, 
 defy the executive, and banish the judicial power of this gov- 
 ernment. They authorize and command acts to be done, and 
 done by force, both of numbers and arms, which, if done, and 
 done by force, are clearly acts of rebellion and treason. 
 
 Such, sir, are the laws of South Carolina ; such, sir, is the 
 peaceable remedy of nullification. Has not nullification reach- 
 ed, sir, even thus early, that point of direct and forcible resist- 
 ance to law to which I intimated, three years ago, it plainly 
 tended ? 
 
 And now, Mr. President, what is the reason for passmg laws 
 like these 1 What are the oppressions experienced under the 
 Union, calling for measures which thus threaten to sever and 
 destroy it? What invasions of public liberty, what' ruin to 
 private happiness, what long list of rights violated, or wrongs 
 miredressed, are to justify to the country, to posterity, and bo 
 the M^orld, tliis assault upon the free constitution of the Uni- 
 
472 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ted States, this great and glorious work of our fathers 1 At 
 this very moment, sir, the whole land smiles in peace, and 
 rejoices in plenty. A general and a high prosperity pervades 
 the country ; and, judging by the common standard, by in- 
 crease of population and wealth, or judging by the opinions of 
 that portion of her people not embarked in those dangerous 
 and desperate measures, this prosperity overspreads South Car- 
 olina herself. 
 
 Thus happy at home, our country, at the same time, holds 
 high the character of her institutions, her power, her rapid 
 growth, and her future destiny, in the eyes of all foreign states. 
 One danger only creates hesitation ; one doubt only exists, to 
 darken the otherwise unclouded brightness of that aspect which 
 she exhibits to the view and to the admiration of the world. 
 Need I say, that that doubt respects tlie permanency of our 
 Union'? and need I say, that that doubt is now caused, more 
 than by anything else, by these very proceedings of South C;ir- 
 olina'? Sir, all Europe is, at this moment, beholding us, and 
 looking for the issue of this conti'oversy ; those who hate free 
 institutions, with malignant hope ; those who love them, with 
 deep anxiety and shivering fear. 
 
 Tlic Ciiuse, then, sir, the cause ! Let the world know the 
 cause which has thus induced one state of the Union to bid de- 
 fiance to the power of the whole, and openly to talk of secession. 
 Sir, the world will scarcely believe that this whole controversy, 
 and all the desperate measures which its support requires, have 
 no other foundation than a difference of opinion upon a pro- 
 vision of the constitution, between a majority of the people of 
 South Carolina, on one side, and a vast majority of the whole 
 people of the United States, on the other. It will not credit the 
 fact, it will not admit the possibility, that, in an enlightened age, 
 in a free, popular republic, under a government where the peo- 
 ple govern, as they must always govern under such systems, 
 by majorities, at a time of unprecedented happiness, without 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 473 
 
 practical oppression, without evils such as may not only be pre- 
 tended, but felt and experienced — evils not slight or temporary, 
 but deep, permanent, and intolerable — a single state should 
 rush into conflict with all the rest, attempt to put down the 
 power of the Union by her own laws, and to support those 
 laws by her military power, and thus break up and destroy 
 the world's last hope. And well the world may be incredu- 
 lous. We, who hear and see it, can ourselves hardly yet be- 
 lieve it. Even after all that had preceeded it, this ordinance 
 struck the country with amazement. It was incredible and in- 
 conceivable that South Carolina should thus plunge headlong 
 into resistance to the laws on a matter of opinion, and on a 
 question in which the preponderance of opinion, both of the 
 present day and of all past time, was so overwhelmingly against 
 her. The ordinance declares that congress has exceeded its 
 just power by laying duties on imports, intended for the pro- 
 tection of manufeetures. This is tbe opinion of South Carolina; 
 and on the strength of that opinion she nullifies the laws. Yet 
 has the rest of the comitry no right to its opinion also 1 Is 
 one state to sit sole arbitress 1 She maintains that those laws 
 are plain, deliberate, and palpable violations of the constitution ; 
 that she has a sovereign right to decide this matter ; and that, 
 having so decided, she is authorized to resist their execution 
 by her own sovereign power ; and she declares that she will 
 resist it, though such resistance sliould shatter tlie Union into 
 atoms. 
 
 Mr. President, I do not intend to discuss the propriety of 
 these laws at large ; but I will ask. How are they shown to be 
 thus plainly and palpably unconstitutional ? Are they quite 
 new in the history of the government ? Have they no counte- 
 nance at all in the constitution itself? Are they a sudden and 
 vioi^nt usurpation on the rights of the states ? Sir, what will 
 the civilized world say, what will posterity say, when they 
 learn that similar laws have existed from the very foundation 
 
474 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of the government, that for thirty years the jx^wcr never was 
 questioned, and that no state in the Union has more freely and 
 unequivocally admitted it than South Carolina herself? 
 
 To lay and collect duties and imposts is an express power 
 granted by the constitution to congress. It is, also, an exclu- 
 sive power; for the constitution as expressly prcjhibits all the 
 states from exercising it themselves. This express and exclu- 
 sive power is unlimited in the terms of the grant, but is attended 
 with two specific restrictions: first, that all duties and imposts 
 shall be equal in all the states ; second, that no duties shall be 
 hiid on exports. The power, then, being granted, and being at> 
 tended with these two restrictions, and no more, who is to im- 
 pose a third restriction on the general words of the grant ? If 
 the power to lay duties, as known among all other nations, and 
 as known in all our history, and as it was perfectly understood 
 when the constitution was adopted, includes a right of discrim- 
 inating while exercising the power, and of laying some duties 
 heavier and some lighter, for the sake of encouraging our own 
 domestic products, what authority is there for giving to the 
 words used in the constitution a new, narrow, and unusual 
 meaning? All the limitations which the constitution intended, 
 it has expressed ; and what it lias left unrestricted is as much 
 a part of its will as the restraints which it has imposed. 
 
 But these laws, it is said, are unconstitutional on account of 
 the motive. How, sir, can a law be examined on any such 
 ground ? IIow is the motive to be ascertained 1 One house, 
 or one member, may have one motive; the other house, or an- 
 other member, another. One motive may operate to-day, and 
 another to-morrow. Upon any such njode of reasoning as this, 
 one law might be unconstitutional now, and another law in ex- 
 actly the same words, pcirfixitly constitutional next year. Bo 
 sides, articles may not only be taxexi for the purpose of pro- 
 tecting home products, but other articles may be left free, for 
 the same purpose and with the same motive. A law, there- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN, 475 
 
 fore, would bcoomc unconstitutional from what it omitted, as 
 well as from what it contained, Mr. President, it is a settled 
 principle, acknowledged in all Icfrislative halls, recognized be- 
 fore all tribunals, sanctioned by the general sense and under- 
 standing of nuuikind, that there can be no inquiry into tlie mo- 
 tives of those who pass laws, for the purpose of determining on 
 their validity. If the law be within the fjiir meaning of the 
 words in the grant of power, its authority must be admit- 
 ted until it is repealed. This rule, everywhere acknowledged, 
 everywhere admitted, is so universal and so completely with- 
 out exception, as that even an allegation of fraud, in the ma- 
 jority of a legislature, is not allowed as a ground to set aside 
 a law. 
 
 But, sir, is it true that the motive for these laws is such as 
 is stated ? I think not. The great object of all these laws is, 
 unquestionably, revenue. If there were no occasion for reve- 
 nue, the laws would not have beim passed ; and it is notorious 
 that almost the entire revenue of the country is derived from 
 them. And as yet we have colleeted none too much revenue. 
 The treasury has not been more (exhausted f()r many years than 
 it is at this moment. All jLhat South Carolina can say is, that, 
 in passing the laws which she now undertakes to nullify, par- 
 ticular articles were taxed, from a regard to the protection of 
 domestic articles, higher than they would have been had no 
 such regard been entertained. And she insists that, according 
 to the constitution, no such discrimination can be allowed; that 
 duties should be laid for revenue, and revenue only ; and that 
 it is unlawful to have reference, in any case, to protection. In 
 other words, she denies the power of discrimination. She does 
 not, and cannot, complain of excessive taxation ; on the con- 
 trary, she professes to be willing to pay any amount for reve- 
 nue, merely as revenue ; and up to the present m(jment there 
 is no surplus of revenue. Iler grievance, then, that plain and 
 palpable violation of the constitution which she insists has ta- 
 
476 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ken place, is simply the exercise of the power of discrimina- 
 tion. Now, sir, is the exercise of this power of discrimination 
 plainly and palpably unconstitutional 1 
 
 I have already said the power to lay duties is given by the 
 constitution in broad and general terms. There is also con- 
 ferred on congress the whole power of regulating commerce, 
 in another distinct provision. Is it clear and palpable, sir, can 
 any man say it is a case beyond doubt, that, under these two 
 powers, congress may not justly discriminate, in laying duties, 
 for the purpose of countervailing the policy of foreign nations, 
 or of favoring our own home productions "? Sir, what ought 
 to conclude this question forever, as it would seem to me, 5s, 
 that the regulation of commerce and the imposition of duties 
 are, in all commercial nations, powers avowedly and constantly 
 exercised for this very end. That undeniable truth ought to 
 settle the question ; because the constitution ought to be con- 
 sidered, when it uses well-known language, as using it in its 
 well-known sense. But it is equally undeniable, that it has 
 been, from the very first, fully believed that this power of dis- 
 crimination was conferred on congress ; and the constitution 
 was itself recommended, urged upon the people, and enthusias- 
 tically insisted on in some of the states, for that very reason. 
 Not .that, at that time, the country was extensively engaged in 
 manufactures, especially of those kinds now existing. But the 
 trades and crafts of the seaport towns, the business of the arti- 
 sans and manual laborers, — these employments, the work of 
 which supplies so great a portion of the daily wants of all 
 classes, — all these looked to the new constitution as a source 
 of relief from the severe distresses which followed the war. It 
 would, sir, be unpardonable, at so late an liour, to go into details 
 on this point ; but the truth is as I have stated. The papers 
 of the day, the resolutions of public meetings, the debates in 
 the conventions, all that we open our eyes upon in the history 
 of the times, prove it, 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUK. 477 
 
 The honorable gentleman, sir, from South Carolina, has re- 
 ferred to two incidents connected with the proceedings of the 
 convention at Philadelphia, which he thinks are evidence to show 
 that the power of protecting manufactures by laying duties, 
 and by commercial regulations, was not intended to be given 
 to congress. The first is, as he says, that a power to protect 
 manuflictures was expressly proposed, but not granted. I think, 
 sir, the gentleman is quite mistaken in relation to this part of 
 the proceedings of the convention. The whole history of the 
 occurrence to which he alludes is simply this. Toward the 
 conclusion of the convention, after the provisions of the consti- 
 tution had been mainly agreed upon, after the power to lay du- 
 ties and the power to regulate commerce had both been granted, 
 a long list of propositions was made and referred to the com- 
 mittee, containing various miscellaneous powers, some or all 
 of which it was thought might be properly vested in congress. 
 Among these was a power to establish a university ; to grant 
 charters of incorporation ; to regulate stage-coaches on the post- 
 roads ; and also the power to which the gentleman refers, and 
 which is expressed in these words : " To establish public insti- 
 tutions, rewards, and immimities, for the promotion of agricul- 
 ture, commerce, trades, and manufactures. The committee 
 made no report on this or various other propositions in the same 
 list. But the only inference from this omission is, that neither 
 the committee nor the convention thought it proper to author- 
 ize congress " to establish public institutions, rewards, and im- 
 munities," for the promotion of manufactures, and other inter- 
 ests. The convention supposed it had done enough, — at any 
 rate, it had done all it intended, — when it had given to congress, 
 in general terms, the power to lay imposts and the power to 
 regulate trade. It is not to be argued, from its omission to give 
 more, that it meant to take back what it had already given. 
 It had given the impost power ; it had given the regulation 
 
478 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTEU-PlECEa, 
 
 of trade ; and it did not deem it necessary to give the further 
 and distinct power of establishing public institutions. 
 
 The other fact, sir, on Nvhieh the gentleman relies, is the dec- 
 laration of Mr. Martin to the legislature of Maryland. The 
 gentleman supposes Mr. Martin to have urged against the con- 
 stitution, that it did not contain the power of protection. But 
 if the gentleman will look again at what Mr. Martin said, he 
 will find, I think, that what Mr. Martin complained of was, 
 that the constitution, by its prohibitions on the states, had taken 
 away from the states themselves the power of protecting their 
 own manufactures by duties on imports. This is undoubtedly 
 true; but 1 find no expression of Mr. Martin intimating that 
 the e(jnstitution had not conferred on congress the same power 
 which it had thus taken from the states. 
 
 But, sir, let us go to the first congress ; let us look in upon 
 this and the other house, at the first session of their organ- 
 ization. 
 
 We see, in both houses, men distinguished among the friends, 
 framers, and advocates of the constitution. We see in both, 
 those who had drawn, discussed, and matured the instrument 
 in the convention, explained and defended it before the people, 
 and were now elected members of congress, to j)ut the new 
 government into motion, and to carry the powers of the con- 
 stitution mto beneficial execution. At the head of the govern- 
 ment was Washington himself, who had been president of the 
 convention ; and in his cabinet were others most thoroughly 
 acquainted with the history of the constitution, and distin- 
 guished for the part taken in its discussion. If these per- 
 sons were not acquainted with the meaning of the consti- 
 tutiun, if they did not understand the w^ork of their own 
 hands, who can understand it, or who shall now interpret it 
 to us? 
 
 Sir, the volume which records the proceedings and debates 
 of the first session of the house of representatives lies before 
 
 h 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 479 
 
 me. I open it, and I find that, having provided for the admin- 
 istration of the necessary oaths, the very first measure proposed 
 for consideration is, tlie laying of imposts ; and in the very first 
 committee of the whole into which the house of representatives 
 ever resolved itself, on this its earliest subject, and in this its very 
 first debate, the duty of so laying the imposts as to encourage man- 
 ufactures was advanced and enlarged upon by almost every 
 speaker, and doubted or denied by none. The first gentleman 
 who suggests this as the clear duty of congress, and as an object 
 necessary to be attended to, is Mr. Fitzsimons, of Pennsyl- 
 vania ; the second, Mr, White, of Virginia ; the third, Mr. 
 Tucker, of South Carolina. 
 
 But the great leader, sir, on this occasion, was Mr. Madison. 
 Was he likely to know the intentions of the convention and the 
 people 1 Was he likely to understand the constitution 1 At 
 the second sitting of the committee, Mr. Madison explained his 
 own opinions of the duty of congress, fully and explicitly. I 
 must not detain you, sir, with more than a few short extracts 
 from these opinions, but they are such as are clear, intelligible, 
 and decisive. " The states," says he, " that are most advanced 
 in population, and ripe for manufactures, ought to have their 
 particular interest attended to, in some degree. While these 
 states retained the power of making regulations of trade, they 
 had the power to cherish such institutions. By adopting the 
 present constitution, they have thrown the exercise of this power 
 into other hands ; they must have done this with an expectation 
 that those interests would not be neglected here." In another 
 report of the same speech, Mr. Madison is represented as using 
 still stronger language ; as saying that the constitution having 
 taken this power away from the states and conferred it on con- 
 gress, it would be a fraud on the states and on the people were 
 congress to refuse to exercise it. 
 
 Mr. Madison argues, sir, on this early and interesting occa- 
 eion, very justly and liberally, in favor of the general principles 
 
480 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 of unrestricted commerce. But he argues, also, with equal 
 force and clearness, for certain important exceptions to these 
 general principles. The first, sir, respects those manufactures 
 which had been brought forward under encouragement by the 
 state governments. " It would be cruel," says ]\Ir. Madison, 
 "to neglect them, and to divert their industry into other chan- 
 nels ; for it is not possible for the hand of man to shift from 
 one employment to another without being injured by the 
 change." Again : " There may be some manufactures which, 
 being once formed, can advance towards perfection without any 
 adventitious aid; while others, for want of the fostering hand 
 of government, will be unable to go on at all. Legislative 
 provision, therefore, will be necessary to select the proper ob- 
 jects for this purpose ; and this will form another exception to 
 my general principle." And again : "The next exception that 
 occurs is one on which great stress is laid by some well-in- 
 formed men, and this with great plausibility ; that each nation 
 should have, within itself, the means of defense, independent 
 of foreign supplies ; that, in whatever relates to the operations 
 of war, no state ought to depend upon precarious supplies 
 from any part of the world. There may be some truth iu 
 this remark ; and therefore it is proper for legislative atten- 
 tion." 
 
 In the same debate, sir, Mr. Burk, from South Carolina^ 
 supported a duty on hemp, for the express purpose of encour- 
 asinji its srrowth on the strong lands of South Carolina. "Cot- 
 ton," he said, " was also in contemplation among them, and, if 
 good seed could be procured, he hoped might succeed." Af- 
 terward, sir, tlie cotton seed was obtained, its culture was pro- 
 tected, and it did succeed. Mr. Smith, a very distinguished 
 member from the same state, observed : " It has been said, and 
 justly, that the states which adopted this constitution expected 
 its administration would be conducted with a favorable hand. 
 The manufacturing states wished the encouragement of manu- 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 481 
 
 factures, the maritime states the encouragement of ship-build« 
 ing, and the agricultm-al states the encouragement of agricul- 
 ture." 
 
 Sir, I will detain the senate by reading no more extracts from 
 these debates. I have already shown a majority of the members 
 of South Carolina, in this very first session, acknowledging 
 this power of protection, voting for its exercise, and proposing 
 its extension to their own products. Similar propositions came 
 from Virginia ; and, indeed, sir, in the whole debate, at what- 
 ever page you open the volume, you find the power admitted, 
 and you find it applied to the protection of particular articles, 
 or not applied, according to the discretion of congress. No 
 man denied the power, no man doubted it ; the only questions 
 were, in regard to the several articles proposed to be taxed, 
 whether they were fit subjects for protection, and what the 
 amount of that protection ought to be. Will gentleman, sir, 
 now answer the argument drawn from those proceedings of 
 the first congress ? Will they undertake to deny that that con- 
 gress did act on the avowed principle of protection ? Or, if 
 they admit it, will they tell us how those who framed the con- 
 stitution fell, thus early, into this great mistake about its mean- 
 ing 1 Will they tell us how it should happen that they had so 
 soon forgotten their own sentiments and their own purposes ? 
 I confess I have seen no answer to this argument, nor any re- 
 spectable attempt to answer it. And, sir, how did this debate 
 terminate? What law was passed? There it stands, sir, 
 among the statutes, the second law in the book. It has a pre- 
 amble, and that preamble expressly recites, that the duties 
 w^hich it imposes are laid " for the support of government, for 
 the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encour- 
 agement and protection of manufactures." Until, sir, this early 
 legislation, thus coeval with the constitution itself, thus full and 
 explicit, can be explained away, no man can doubt of the mean- 
 ing of that instrument. 
 
 VOL. n. U 31 
 
483 .WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 Mr. President, this power of discrimination, thus admitted, 
 avowed, and practiced upon in the first revenue act, has never 
 been denied or doubted until within a few years past. It was 
 not at all doubted in 1816, when it became necessary to adjust 
 the revenue to a state of peace. On the contrary, the power 
 was then exercised, not without opposition as to its expediency, 
 but, as far as I remember or have understood, without the 
 slightest opposition founded on any supposed want of constitu- 
 tutional authority. Certainly, South Carolina did not doubt 
 it. The tariff of 1816 was introdiiced, carried through, and 
 established, under the lead of South Carolina. Even the miiv 
 imum is of South Carolina origin. The honorable gentleman 
 himself supported, and ably supported the tariff" of 1816. He 
 has infonned us, sir, that his speech on that occasion was sud- 
 den and oft-hand, he being called upon by the request of a friend. 
 I am sure the gentleman so remembers it, and that it was so ; 
 but there is, nevertheless, mucli method, arrangement, and clear 
 exposition in that extempore speech. It is very able, very, very 
 much to the point, and very decisive. And in another speccli, 
 delivered two months earlier, on the proposition to repeal the 
 internal taxes, the honorable gentleman had touched the same 
 subject, and had declared " that a certiiin encouragement ought 
 to be extended at least to our woolen and cotton manufactures." 
 I do not quote these speeches, sir, for the purpose of showing 
 that the honorable gentleman has changed his opinion ; my ob- 
 ject is other and higher. I do it for the sake of saymg that 
 that cannot be so plainly and palpably unconstitutional as to 
 warrant resistance to law, nullification, and revolution, which the 
 honorable gentleman and his friends have heretofore agreed to 
 and acted upon without doubt and without hesitation. Sir, it 
 is no answer to say that the tai-itf of 1816 was a revenue bill. 
 So are they all revenue bills. The point and the truth is, that 
 the tai-ift' of 1816, like the rest, did discriminate ; it did distin- 
 guish one article from another ; it did lay duties for protection. 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 483 
 
 Look to the case of coarse cottons under the minimum cal- 
 culation : the duty on these was sixty to eighty per cent. 
 Something besides revenue, certainly, was intended by this ; and, 
 in fact, the law cut up our whole commerce with India in that 
 article. 
 
 It is, sir, only within a few years that Carolina has denied 
 the constitutionality of these protective laws. The gentleman 
 himself has narrated to us the true history of her proceedings 
 on this point. Pie says, that, after the passing of the law of 
 1828, despairing then of being able to abolish the system of 
 protection, political men went forth among the people, and set 
 up the doctrine that the system was unconstitutional. " And 
 the people," says the honorable gentleman, " received the doc- 
 trine." This, I believe is true, sir. The people did then re- 
 ceive the doctrine ; they had never entertained it before. Do^vn 
 to that period, the constitutionality of these laws had been no 
 more doubted in South Carolina than elsewhere. And I sus- 
 pect it is true, sir and I deem it a great misfortune, that, to the 
 present moment, a great portion of the people of the state have 
 never yet seen more than one side of the argument. I believe 
 that thousands of honest men are involved in scenes now pass- 
 ing, led away by one-sided views of the question, and following 
 their leaders by the impulses of an unlimited confidence. De- 
 pend upon it, sir, if we can avoid the shock of arms, a day for 
 reconsideration and reflection will come ; truth and reason will 
 act with their accustomed force, and the public opinion of South 
 Carolina will be restored to its usual constitutional and patri- 
 otic tone. 
 
 But, sir, I hold South Carolina to her ancient, her cool, her 
 uninfluenced, her deliberate opinions. I hold her to her own 
 admissions, nay, to her own claims and pretensions, in 1789, 
 m the first congress, and to her acknowledgements and avowed 
 sentiments through a long series of succeeding years. I hold 
 oer to the principles on which she led congress to act in 1816 j 
 
484 -WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 or, if she has changed her own opinions, 1 claim some respect 
 for those who still retain the same opinions. I say she is pre- 
 cluded from asserting that doctrines, which she herself so 
 long and so ably sustained, are plain, palpable, and dangerous 
 violations of the constitution. 
 
 Mr. President, if the friends of nullification should be able 
 to propagate their opinions, and give them practical effect, they 
 would, in my judgment, prove themselves the most skilful "ar- 
 chitects of rum," the most effectual extinguishers of high-raised 
 expectation, the greatest blasters of human hopes, which any 
 acre has produced. They would stand up to proclaim, in tones 
 which would pierce the ears of half the human race, that the 
 last great experiment of representative government had failed. 
 They would send forth sounds, at the hearing of which the doc- 
 trine of the divine right of kings would feel, even in its grave, 
 a returning sensation of vitality and resuscitation. Millions of 
 eyes, of those who now feed their inherent love of liberty on 
 the success of the Americjui example, would turn away from 
 beholding our dismemberment, and find no place on earth 
 whereon to rest their gratified sight. Amidst the incantations 
 and orgies of nullification, secession, disunion, and revolution, 
 would be celebrated the funeral rites of constitutional and re- 
 publican libci'ty. 
 
 But, sir, if the government do its duty, if it act with firm- 
 ness and with moderation, these opinions cannot prevail. Be 
 assured, sir, be assured, that, among the political sentiments of 
 this people, the love of union is still uppermost. They will 
 stand fast by the constitution, and by those who defend it. I 
 rely on no temporary expedients, on no political combination ; 
 but I rely on the true American feeling, the genuine patriotism 
 of the people, and the imperative decision of the public voice. 
 Disorder and confusion, indeed, may arise ; scenes of commo- 
 tion and contest are threatened, and perhaps may come. With 
 my whole heart I pray for the continuance of the domestic 
 
REPLY TO CALHOUN. 485 
 
 peace and quiet of the country. I desire, most ardently, the res- 
 toration of atiection and harmony to all its parts. I desire that 
 every citizen of the whole country may look to this govern- 
 ment with no other sentinients but those of grateful respect and 
 attachment. But I cannot yield even to kind feelings the cause 
 of the constitution, the true glory of the country, and the great 
 trust which we hold in our hands for succeeding ages. If the con- 
 stitution cannot be maintained without meeting these scenes of 
 commotion and contest, however unwelcome, they must come. 
 We cannot, we must not, we dare not, omit to do that which, 
 in our judgment, the safety of the Union requires. Not re- 
 gardless of consequences, we must yet meet consequences; 
 seeing the hazards which surround the discharge of public duty, 
 it must yet be discharged. For myself, sir, I shun no respon- 
 sibility justly devolving on me, here or elsewhere, in attempt- 
 ing to maintain the cause. I am tied to it by indissoluble bands 
 of affection and duty, and I shall cheerfully partake in its fortunes 
 and its fate. I am ready to perform my own appropriate part, 
 whenever and wherever the occasion may call on me, and to take 
 my chance among those upon whom blows may fill first and fall 
 thickest. I shall exert every faculty I possess in aiding to prevent 
 the constitution from being nullified, destroyed, or impaired ; and 
 even should I see it fall, I will still, with a voice feeble, perhaps, 
 but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with fidelity 
 and zeal which nothing shall extinguish, call on the people to 
 come to its rescue. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SJiXATE OK TFIE UNITED STATES, ON THE 7TH 
 
 OF MARCH, 1850. 
 
 Mr. President — I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachu- 
 setts man, nor as a northern man, but as an American, and a 
 member of the senate of the United States. It is fortunate that 
 there is a senate of the United States ; a body not yet moved 
 from its propriety, not lost to a just sense of its own dignity 
 and its own liigh responsibilities, and a body to which the coun- 
 try looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate, patriotic, and 
 healing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in the 
 midst of strong agitations, and are sun-oundcd by very consider- 
 able dangers to our institutions of government. The impris- 
 oned winds are let loose. The east, the west, the north, and 
 the stormy south, all combine to throw the whole ocean into 
 agitation, to toss its billows to the skies, and to disclose its pro- 
 foundest depths. I do not affect to regard myself, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this combat of 
 the political elements ; but I have a duty to perform, and I 
 mean to perform it with fidelity, not without a sense of sur- 
 rounding dangers, but not without hope. I have a part to act, 
 not for my own security or safety, for I am looking out for no 
 fragment upon which to float away from the wreck, if wreck 
 there must be, but for the good of the whole, and the preserva- 
 tion of the whole ; and there is that which will keep me to my 
 duty during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars shall 
 appear, or shall not appear for many days. I speak to-day for 
 the preservation of the Union. " Heai- me for my cause." I 
 
 VOL. II. U* 
 
490 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 speak to-day, out of a solicitous and anxious heart, for the res- 
 toration to the country of that quiet and that harmony which 
 make the blessings of this Union so rich, and so dear to us all. 
 These are the topics that I propose to myself to discuss ; these 
 are the motives, and the sole motives, that influence me in the 
 wish to communicate my opinions to the senate and the coun- 
 try ; and if I can do anything, however little, for the promo- 
 tion of these ends, I shall have accomplished all that I desire. 
 
 Mr. President, it may not be amiss to recur very briefly to 
 the events which, equally sudden and extraordinary, have 
 brought the political condition of the country to what it now is. 
 In i\Iay, 1846, the United States declared war against Mexico. 
 Our armies, then on the frontiers, entered the provinces of that 
 republic, met and defeated all her troops, penetrated her moun- 
 tain passes, and occupied her capital. The marine force of the 
 United States took possession of her forts and her towns, on 
 the Atlantic and on tlie Pacific. In less than two years a treaty 
 was negotiated, by which Mexico ceded to the United States a 
 vast territory, extending seven or eight hundred miles along the 
 shores of the Pacific, and reaching back over the mountains, 
 and across the desert, until it joins the frontier of the state of 
 Texas, It so happened, that in the distracted and feeble state 
 of the Mexican government, before the declaration of war by 
 the United States against Mexico had become known in Cali- 
 fornia, the people of that province, under the lead of American 
 ofiicers, overthrew the existing provincial government of Cali- 
 fornia, the Mexican authorities, and run up an independent 
 flag. When the news arrived at San Francisco that war had 
 been declared by tlie United States against Mexico, this inde- 
 pendent flag was pulled down, and the stars and stripes of tliis 
 Union hoisted in its stead. So, sir, before the war was over, 
 the powers of the United States, military and naval, had pos- 
 session of San Francisco and Upper California, and a great 
 rush of emigrants from various parts of the world took place 
 
THE COMPROMISKS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 49) 
 
 into California in 184G and 1847. But now behold another 
 wonder. 
 
 In January of 1848, the Mormons, it is said, or some of them, 
 made a discovery of an extraordinarily rich mine of gold, or 
 rather of a very great quantity of gold, hardly fit to be called 
 a mine, for it was spread near the surface, on the lower part of 
 tlie south, or American, branch of the Sacramento. They seem 
 to have attempted to conceal their discovery for some time ; 
 but soon another discovery, perhaps of greater importance, was 
 made, of gold in another part of the American branch of the Sac- 
 ramento, and near Sutter's Fort, as it is called. The fame of 
 these discoveries spread far and wide. They stimulated more 
 and more the spirit of emigration toward California, which had 
 already been excited ; and persons crowded in hundreds, and 
 flocked toward the bay of San Francisco. This, as I have 
 said, took place in the winter and spring of 1848. The dig- 
 ging commenced in the spring of that year, and from that time 
 to this the work of searching for gold has been prosecuted with 
 a success not heretofore known in the history of this Hobe. 
 We all know, sir, how incredulous the American public was at 
 the accounts which reached us, at first, of these discoveries • 
 but we all know, now, that these accounts received, and con- 
 tinue to receive, daily confirmation, and down to the present 
 moment I suppose the assurances are as strong, after the expe- 
 rience of these several months, of mines of gold apparently in- 
 exhaustible in the regions near San Francisco, in California, as 
 they were at any period of the earlier dates of the accounts. 
 It so happened, sir, that alth9ugh, after the return of peace, it be- 
 came a very important subject for legislative consideration and le- 
 gislative decision to provide a proper territorial government for 
 California, yet differences of opinion in the councils of the nation 
 prevented the establishment of any such territorial government 
 for that territory at the last session of congress. Under this 
 state of thmgs, the inliabitants of San Francisco and California 
 
492 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 then amounting to a great number of people, in the summer 
 of last year, thought it to be their duty to establish a local gov- 
 ernment. Under the proclamation of General Riley, the peo- 
 ple chose delegates to a convention ; that convention met at 
 Monterey. They formed a constitution for the state of Cali- 
 fornia, and it was adopted by the people of California in their 
 primary assemblages. Desirous of immediate connection wth 
 the United States, its senators were appointed and representa- 
 tives chosen, who have come hither, bringing with them the au- 
 thentic constitution of the state of California ; and they now 
 present themselves, asking, in behalf of their state, that it may 
 be admitted into this Union as one of the United States. This 
 constitution, sir, contains an express prohibition against slavery, 
 or involuntary servitude, in the state of California. It is said, 
 and I suppose truly, that, of the members who composed that 
 convention, some sixteen were natives, and had been residents 
 of, the slave-holding states, and about twenty-two were from 
 the non slave-holding states. The remaining ten members were 
 either native Californians or old settlers in that country. This 
 prohibition against slavery, it is said, was inserted with entire 
 unanimity. 
 
 And it is this circumstance, sir, the prohibition of slavery, by 
 that convention, which has contributed to raise, I do not say it has 
 wholly raised, the dispute as to the propriety of the admission of 
 California into the Union under this constitution. It is not to be 
 denied, Mr. President, nobody thinks of denying, that, whatever 
 reasons were assigned at the commencement of the late war with 
 Mexico, it was prosecuted for the purpose of the acquisition of 
 territory, and under the alleged argunient that the ce^ision of 
 territory was the only form in which proper compensation could 
 be made to the United States by Mexico, for the various claims 
 and demands which the people of this country had against that 
 government. At any rate, it will be found that President 
 Polk's message, at the commencement of the session of De- 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 493 
 
 cember, 1847, avowed that the war was to be prosecuted until 
 some acquisition of territory was made. And as the acquisition 
 was to be south of the line of the United States, in warm climates 
 and countries, it was naturally, I suppose, expected by the south, 
 that whatever acquisitions were made in that region would be 
 added to the slave-holding portion of the United States, Events 
 have turned out as was not expected, and that expectation has 
 not been realized ; and therefore some degree of disappoint- 
 ment and surprise has resulted, of course. In other words, it 
 is obvious that the question which has so long harassed the 
 country, and at times very seriously alarmed the minds of wise 
 and good men, has come upon us for a fresh discussion ; the 
 question of slavery in these United States. 
 
 Now, sir, I propose, perhaps at the expense of some detail 
 and consequent detention of the senate, to review historically 
 this question of slavery, which partly in consequence of its own 
 merits, and partly, perhaps mostly, in the manner it is discussed 
 in one and the other portions of the country, has been a source 
 of so much alienation and unkind feeling between the different 
 portions of the Union. 
 
 We all know, sir, that slavery has existed in the world from 
 time immemorial. There was slavery, in the earliest periods 
 of history, in the oriental nations. There was slavery among 
 the Jews ; the theocratic government of that people made no 
 injunction against it. There was slavery among the Greeks ; 
 and the ingenious philosophy of the Greeks found, or sought to 
 find, a justification for it exactly upon the grounds which have 
 been assumed for such a justification in this country ; that is, a 
 natural and original difference among the races of mankind — 
 the inferiority of the black or colored race to the white. The 
 Greeks justified their system of slavery upon that ground, pre- 
 cisely. They held the Afi-ican, and, in some parts, the Asiatic 
 tribes to be inferior to the white race ; but they did not show, 
 I think, by any close process of logic, that, if this were true, the 
 
494 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 more intelligent and the stronger had, therefore, a right to sub- 
 jugate the weaker. 
 
 The more manly philosophy and jurisprudence of the Ro- 
 mans placed the justification of slavery on entirely difierent 
 grounds. The Roman jurists, from the first and down to the 
 fall of the empire, admitted that slavery was against the natu- 
 ral law, by which, as they maintained, all men, of whatsoever 
 clime, color, or capacity, were equal ; but they justified slavery, 
 first, upon the ground and authority of the law of nations, argu- 
 ing, and arguing truly, that at that day the conventional law of 
 nations admitted that captives in war, whose lives, according 
 to the notions of the times, were at the absolute disposal of 
 the captors, might, in exchange for exemption from death, be 
 made slaves for life, and that such servitude might descend to 
 their posterity. The jurists of Rome also maintained, that, by 
 the civil law, there might be servitude, slavery, personal and 
 hereditary ; first, by the voluntary act of an individual, who 
 might sell himself into slavery ; second, by his being received 
 into a state of slavery by his creditors, in satisfaction of a debt ; 
 and, thirdly, by being placed in a state of servitude or slavery 
 for crime. At the introduction of Christianity into the world, 
 the Roman empire was full of slaves, and I suppose there is to 
 be found no injunction against that relation between man and 
 man in the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ or of any of 
 his apostles. The object of the instruction imparted to man- 
 kind by the founder of Christianity was to touch the heart, pu- 
 rify the soul, and improve the lives of individual men. That 
 object went directly to the first fountain of all political and all 
 social relations of the human race, the individual heart and mind 
 of man. 
 
 Now, sir, upon the general nature, and character, and influ- 
 ence of slavery there exists a wide difference between the north- 
 ern portion of this country and the southern. It is said on the 
 one side, that, if not the subject of any injunction or direct pro- 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 495 
 
 hibition in the New Testament, slavery is a wrong ; that it is 
 founded merely in the right of the strongest ; and that it is an 
 oppression, like all unjust wars, like all those conflicts by which 
 a mighty nation subjects a weaker nation to their will ; and 
 that slavery, in its nature, whatever may be said of it in the 
 modifications which have taken place, is not in fact according to 
 the meek spirit of the gospel. It is not kindly affectioned, it 
 does not " seek another's, and not its own." It does not " let 
 the oppressed go fi-ee." These are sentiments that are cher- 
 ished, and recently with greatly augmented force, among the 
 people of the northern states. It has taken hold of the religious 
 sentiment of that part of the country, as it has more or less 
 taken hold of the religious feelings of a considerable portion of 
 mankind. The south, upon the other side, having been accus- 
 tomed to this relation between the two races all their lives, 
 from their birth ; having been taught in general to treat the sub- 
 jects of this bondage with care and kindness — and I believe, in 
 general, feeling for them great care and kindness — have yet not 
 taken this view of the subject which I have mentioned. There 
 are thousands of religious men, with consciences as tender as 
 any of their brethren at the north, who do not see the unlaw- 
 fulness of slavery ; and there are more thousands, perhaps, that, 
 whatsover they may think of it in its origin, and as a matter 
 depending upon natural right, yet take things as they are, and, 
 finding slavery to be an estabhshed relation of the society in 
 which they live, can see no way in which — let their opinions 
 on the abstract question be what they may — it is in the power 
 of the present generation to relieve themselves from this rela- 
 tion. And, in this respect, candor obliges me to say, that I 
 believe they are just as conscientious, many of them — and of 
 the religious people, all of them — as they are in the north, in 
 holding different opinions. 
 
 Why, sir, the honorable senator from South Carolina, the 
 other day, alluded to the great separation of that great religious 
 
496 * WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 community, the Methodist Episcopal church. That separation 
 was brought about by differences of opinion upon this peculiar 
 subject of slavery. I felt great concern, as that dispute went 
 on, about the result ; and 1 was in hopes that the diflercnce of 
 opinion might be adjusted, because I lool<;ed upon that religious 
 denomination as one of the great props of religion and morals, 
 throughout the whole country, from ]\Iaine to Georgia. The 
 result was against my wishes and against my hopes. I have 
 read all their proceedings, and all their arguments, but I have 
 never yet been able to come to the conclusion, that there was 
 any real ground for the separation ; in other words, that no good 
 could be produced by that separation. I must say, I think there 
 was some want of candor and charity. 
 
 Sir, when a question of this kind takes hold of the religious 
 sentiments of mankind, and comes to be discussed in religious 
 assemblies of the clergy and laity, there is always to be ex- 
 pected, or always to be feared, a great degree of excitement. 
 It is in the nature of man, manifested by his whole history, 
 that religious disputes are apt to become warm, and men's 
 strength of conviction is proportionate to their views of the 
 magnitude of the question. In all such disputes, there will 
 sometimes be men found with whom everything is absolute — 
 absolutely wrong, or absolutely right. They see the right 
 clearly ; they think others ought so to see it, and they are 
 disposed to establish a broad line of distinction between what 
 is right, and what is wrong. And they are not seldom wil- 
 ling to establish that line upon their own convictions of the 
 truth and the justice of their own opinions ; and arc wil- 
 ling to mark and guard that line, by placing along it a series 
 of dogmas, as lines of boundary are marked by posts and 
 stones. There are men, who, with clear perceptions, as they 
 think, of their own duty, do not see how too hot a pursuit 
 of one duty may involve them in the violation of another, 
 or how too warm an embracement of one truth may lead to a 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 497 
 
 disregard of other truths equally important. As I heard it 
 stated sti-ongly, not many days ago, these persons are disposed 
 to mount upon some particular duty as upon a war-horse, and 
 to drive furiously on, and upon, and over all other duties, that 
 may stand in the way. There, are men, who, in times of that sort 
 and disputes of that sort, are of opinion, that human duties may 
 be ascertained with the exactness of mathematics. They deal 
 with morals as with mathematics, and they think what is right^ 
 may be distinguished from what is wrong, with the precision of 
 an algebraic equation. They have, therefore, none too much char- 
 ity toward others who differ with them. They are apt, too, to 
 thinlc that nothing is good but what is perfect, and that there are 
 no compromises or modifications to be made in submission to 
 difference of opinion, or in deference to other's men's judgment. 
 If their persf)icacious vision enables them to detect a spot on the 
 fiice of the sun, they think that a good reason why the sun should 
 be struck down from heaven. They prefer the chance of rumiing 
 into utter darkness, to living in heavenly light, if that heavenly 
 light be not absolutely without any imperfection. There are 
 impatient men — too impatient always to give heed to the ad- 
 monition of St. Paul, " that we are not to do evil that good 
 may come" — too impatient to wait for the slow progress of 
 moral causes in the improvement of mankind. They do not 
 remember, that the doctrines and the miracles of Jesus Christ 
 have, in eighteen hundred years, converted only a small por- 
 tion of the human race ; and among the nations that are con- 
 verted to christianty, they forget how many vices and crimes, 
 public and private, still prevail, and that many of them — pub- 
 lic crimes especially, which are offenses against the christian 
 religion — pass without exciting particular regret or indigna- 
 tion. Thus wars are waged, and unjust wars. I do not deny 
 that there may be just wars. There certainly are ; but it was 
 the remark of an eminent person, not many years ago, on 
 the other side of the Atlantic, that it was one of the great 
 
 VOL. U, 
 
498 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 est reproaches to human nature, that wars were sometimes 
 necessary. The defense of nations sometimes causes a war 
 against the injustice of other nations. 
 
 Now, sir, in this state of sentiment, upon the general nature 
 of slavery, lies the cause of a great portion of those unhappy 
 divisions, exasperations, and reproaches, which find vent and 
 support in difFercnt parts of the Union. Slavery docs exist in 
 the United States. It did exist in the states before the adop- 
 tion of this constitution, and at that time. 
 
 And now let us consider, sir, for a moment, what was the 
 state of sentiment, north and south, in regard to slavery at the 
 time this constitution was adopted. A remarkable change has 
 taken place since, but what did the wise and great men of all 
 parts of the country then think of slavery ? In what estimation 
 did they hold it in 1787, when this constitution was adopted ? 
 Now, it will be found, sir, if we will carry ourselves by histor- 
 ical research back to that day, and ascertain men's opinions by 
 authentic records still existing among us, that there was no 
 great diversity of opinion between the north and the south 
 upon the subject of slavery ; and it will be found that both 
 parts of the country held it equally an evil, a moral and polit- 
 ical evil. It will not be found, that either at the north or at 
 the south, there was much, though there was some, invective 
 against slavery as inhuman and cruel. The great ground of 
 objection to it was political ; that it weakened the social fabric; 
 that, taking the place of free labor, society was less strong, and 
 labor was less productive ; and, therefore, we find, from all 
 the eminent men of the time, the clearest expression of their 
 opinion that slavery was an evil. And they ascribed its existence 
 here, not without truth, and not without some acerbity of tera- 
 pei' and force of language, to the injurious policy of the mother 
 country, who, to favor the navigator, had entailed these evils 
 upon the colonies. I need hardly refer, sir, to the publications 
 of the day. They are matters of liistory on the record. The 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE COXStlTtJTiOX. 409 
 
 eminent men, the most eminent men, and nearly all the conspic- 
 uous politicians of the south, held the same sentiments, that 
 slavery was an " evil," a " blight," a " blast," a " milde\t," a 
 " scourge," and a " curse." There are no terms of reprobation 
 of slavery so vehement in the north of that day as in the south. 
 The north was not so much excited against it as the south, and 
 the reason is, I suppose, because there was much less at the 
 north ; and the people did not see, or think they saw, the evils 
 so prominently as they were seen, or thought too be seen, at 
 the south. 
 
 Then, sir, when this constitution was framed, this was the 
 light in which the convention viewed it. The convention re- 
 flected the judgment and sentiments of the great men of the 
 south. A member of the other house, whom I have not the 
 honor to know, in a recent speech, has collected extracts from 
 these public documents. They prove the truth of what I am 
 saying, and the question then was, how to deal with it, and how 
 to deal with as an evil. Well, they came to this general re- 
 sult. They thought that slavery could not be continued in the 
 country if the importation of slaves were made to cease, and 
 therefore they provided, that after a certain period, the impor- 
 tation might be prevented by the act of the new government. 
 Twenty years was proposed by some gentleman — a northern 
 gentleman, I thuik — and many of the southern gentlemen op- 
 posed it as being too long. Mr. Madison, especially, was 
 something warm against it. He said it would bring too* much 
 of this mischief into the country to allow the importation of 
 slaves for such a period, because we must take along with us, 
 in the whole of this discussion, when we are considering the 
 sentiments and opinions in which this constitutional provision 
 originated, that the conviction of all men was, that if the im- 
 portation of slaves ceased, the white race would multiply faster 
 than the black race, and that slavery would, therefore, gradu- 
 ally wear out and expire. It may not be improper here to al- 
 
600 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 lude to that, I had almost said celebrated, opinion of IMr. Madi- 
 son. You observe, sir, that the term " slave," or " slavery," 
 is not used in the constitution. The constitution does not re- 
 quire that " fugitive slaves " shall be delivered up. It requires 
 that " persons bound to service in one state, and escaping into 
 another, shall be delivered up." JNIr. jMadison opposed the in- 
 troduction of the term slave, or slavery, into the constitution ; 
 for he said, that he did not wish to see it recognized by the 
 constitution of the United States of America, that there could 
 be property in men. 
 
 Now, sir, all this took place at the convention in 1787 ; but 
 connected with this, concurrent and cotcmporaneous, is an- 
 other important transaction, not sufliciently attended to. The 
 convention for framing this constitution assembled in Philadel- 
 phia in May, and sat until September, 1787. During all that 
 time the congress of the United States was in session at New 
 York. It was a matter of design, as we know, that the con- 
 vention should not assemble in the same city where congress 
 was holding its sessions. Almost all the public men of the 
 country, therefore, of distinction and eminence, Avere in one or 
 the other of these two assemblies ; and I think it happened, in 
 some instances, that the same gentlemen were members of 
 both. If I mistake not, such was the case of Mr. Eufus King, 
 then a member of congress from Massachusetts, and at the 
 same time a member of the convention to frame the constitu- 
 tution from that state. Now, it was in the summer of 1787, 
 the very time when the convention in Philadelphia was fi-aming 
 this constitution, that the congress in New York was framing 
 the ordinance of 1787. They passed that ordinance on the 13th 
 of J uly, 1787, at New York, the very month, perhaps the very 
 day, on which these questions about the importation of slaves 
 and the character of slavery were debated in the convention at 
 Philadelphia. And so far as we can now learn, there was a 
 
THE COMPROMISER OF THE CONSTITUTIOIT. 501 
 
 perfect concurrence of opinion between these respective bodies ; 
 and it resulted in this ordinance of 1787, excluding slavery, as 
 applied to all the territory over which the congress of the Uni- 
 ted States had jurisdiction, and that was, all the territory north- 
 west of the Ohio. Three years before, Virginia and other 
 states had made a cession of that great territory to the United 
 States. And a most magnificent act it was, I never reflect 
 upon it without a disposition to do honor and justice — and jus- 
 tice would be the highest honor — to Virginia for that act of 
 cession of her northwestern territory. I will say, sir, it is one 
 of her fairest claims to the respect and gratitude of the United 
 States, and that perhaps it is only second to that other claim 
 which attaches to her, that from her counsels, and from the intel- 
 ligence and patriotism of her leading statesmen, proceeded the 
 first idea, put into practice, for the formation of a general con- 
 stitution of the United States, Now, sir, the ordinance of 1787 
 applied thus to the whole territory over which the congress of 
 the United States had jurisdiction. It was adopted nearly three 
 years before the constitution of the United States went into op- 
 eration ; because the ordinance took effect immediately on its 
 passage, while the constitution of the United States, having been 
 framed, was to be sent to the states to be adopted by their con- 
 ventions ; and then a government had to be organized under it. 
 This ordinance, then, was in operation and force when the con- 
 stitution was adopted, and this govex-nment put in motion, in 
 April, 1789. 
 
 Mr. President, three things are quite clear as historical truths. 
 One is, that there was an expectation that on the ceasing of the 
 importation of slaves fi-om Africa, slavery would begin to run out 
 in this Union. That was hoped and expected. Another is, 
 that as far as there was any power in congress to prevent the 
 spread of slavery m the United States, that power was execu- 
 ted in the most absolute manner and to the fullest extent. An 
 
502 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 honorable member whose health does not allow him to be here 
 to-day — 
 
 A Senator. He is here. (Referring to Mr. Calhoun.) 
 
 I am very happy to hear that he is — may he long be in 
 health and the enjoy ment of it to serve his country. He said the 
 other day, that he considered this ordinance as the first in a se- 
 ries of measures calculated to enfeeble the south, and deprive 
 them of their just participation in the benefits and privileges of 
 this government. He says, very properly, that it was done 
 under the old confederation, and before this constitution went 
 into eflect ; but, my present purpose is only to say, Mr. Pres- 
 ident, that it was done with the entire and unanimous concur- 
 rence of' the whole south. Why, there it stands ! The vote 
 of every state in the Union was unanimous in fovor of the or- 
 dinance, with the exception of a single individual vote, and that 
 individual was a northern man. But, sir, the ordinance abol- 
 ishing, or rather prohibiting slavery northwest of the Ohio, has 
 the hand and seal of every southern member in congress. 
 
 The other and third clear historical truth is, that the conven- 
 tion meant to leave slavery, in the states, as they found it, en- 
 tirely under the authority and control of the states. 
 
 This was the state of things, sir, and this the state of opin- 
 ion, under which those very important matters were arranged, 
 and those important things done; that is, the establishment of 
 the constitution, with a recognition of slavery as it existed in 
 the states, the establishment of the ordinance prohibiting, to the 
 full extent of all territory owned by the United States, the in- 
 troduction of slavery into those territories, and the leaving to 
 tlie states all power over slavery, in their own liiriits. 
 
 And here, sir, we may pause. We may reflect for a mo- 
 ment upon the entire coincidence and concurrence of sentiment 
 between the north and the south upon these questions, at the 
 period of the adoption of the constitution. But opinions, sir, 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION, 503 
 
 have changed — greatly changed — changed north and changed 
 south. Slavery is not regarded in the south now as it was then. 
 I see an honorable member of this body paying me the honor of 
 listening to my remarks ; he brings to me, sir, freshly and 
 vividly, his great ancestor, so much distinguished in his day and 
 generation, so worthy to be succeeded by so worthy a grand- 
 son, with all the sentiments he expressed in the convention ia 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 There was a general concurrence of sentiment, if not an entire 
 unanimity, running through the whole community, and espe- 
 cially entertained by the eminent men of all portions of the coun- 
 try. But soon a change began at the north and the south, and a 
 diversity of opinion showed itself— the north growing much more 
 warm and strong against slavery, and the south growing much 
 more warm and strong in its support. Sir, there is no genera- 
 tion of mankind whose opinions are not subject to be influenced 
 by what appears to them to be their present, emergent, and exi- 
 gent interest. I impute to the south no particularly selfish 
 view, in the change which has come over her. 1 impute to her, 
 certainly, no dishonest view. All that has happened has been 
 natural. It has followed those causes which always influence 
 the human mind and operate upon it. What, then, have been 
 the causes which have created so new a feeling in favor of 
 slavery in the south — which have changed the whole nomen- 
 clature of the south on the subject — and from being thought 
 of and described in the terms I have mentioned, but will not 
 repeat, it has now become an " institution," a " cherished insti- 
 tution," in that quarter ; no evil, no scourge, but a great reli- 
 gious, social, and moral blessing as I think I have heard it 
 latterly described 1 I suppose this, sir, is owing to the sudden 
 uprising and rapid growth of the cotton plantations of the south. 
 So far as any motive of honor, justice, and general judgment 
 could act, it was the cotton interest that gave a new desire to 
 promote slavery, to spread it and to use its labor. I again say 
 
504 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 that that was produced by the causes, which we must always 
 expect to produce like effects ; their whole interests became 
 connected with it. If we look back to the history of the com- 
 merce of this country, in the early years of this government, 
 what were our exports 1 Cotton was hardly, or but to a very 
 limited extent, known. The tiibles will show that the exports 
 of cotton for the years 1790 and '91, were not more than forty 
 or fifty thousand dollars a year. It has gone on increasing 
 rapidly until it may now, perhaps, in a season of great product 
 anci high prices, amount to a hundred millions of dollars. In 
 the years I have mentioned, there was more of wax, more of 
 indigo, more of rice, more of almost every article of export 
 from the south, than of cotton. T think I have heard it said, 
 when Mr. Jay negotiated the treaty of 1794 with England, he 
 did not know that cotton was exported at all from the United 
 States ; and I have heard it said, that after the treaty, which 
 gave to the United States the right to carry their own com- 
 modities to England in their own ships, the custom-house in 
 London refused to admit cotton, upon an allegation that it 
 could not be an American production, there being, as they sup- 
 posed, no cotton raised in America. They would hardly think 
 so now ! 
 
 Well, sir, we know what followed. The age of cotton be- 
 came a golden age for our southern brethren. It gratified their 
 desire for improvement and accumulation, at the same time 
 that it excited it. The desire grew by what it fed upon, and 
 there soon carne to be an eagerness for other territory — a 
 new area or new areas for the cultivation of the cotton crop ; 
 and measures leading to this result, were brought about some- 
 what rapidly, one after another, under the lead of southern 
 men at the head of the government, they having a majority in 
 both branches, to accomplish their ends. The honorable mem- 
 ber from South Carolina observed, that there has been a ma- 
 jority all along in favor of the north. If that be true, sir, the 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 505 
 
 north has acted either very liberally and kindly, or very weakly ; 
 for they never exercised that majority five times in the history 
 of the government. Never. Whether they were out-gen er 
 aled, or whether it was owing to other causes, I shall not stop 
 to consider, but no man acquainted with the history of the 
 country can deny, that the general lead in the politics of the 
 country, for three-fourths of the period that has elapsed since 
 the adoption of the constitution, has been a southern lead. In 
 1802, in pursuit of the idea of opening a new cotton region, 
 the United States obtained a cession from Georgia of the whole 
 of her western territory, now embracing the rich and growing 
 state of Alabama, hi 1803 Louisiana was purchased from 
 France, out of which the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and 
 Missouri have been framed, as slaveholding states. In 1819 
 the cession of .Florida was made, bringing another cession of 
 slaveholding property and territory. 
 
 \ Sir, the honorable member from South Carolina thought he 
 saw in certain operations of the government, such as the man- 
 ner of collecting the revenue and the tendency of those meas- 
 ures to promote emigration into the country, what accounts for 
 the more rapid growth of the north than the south. He thinks 
 that more rapid growth was not the operation of time, but of 
 the system of government established under this constitution. 
 That is a matter of opinion. To a certain extent, it may be so ; 
 but it does seem to me, that if any operation of the government 
 could be shown in any degree to have promoted the popular 
 tion, and growth, and wealth of the north, it is much more sure 
 that there are sundry important and distinct operations of the 
 government, about which no man can doubt, tending to pro- 
 mote, and whicli absolutely have promoted, the increase of the 
 slave interest, and the slave territoiy, of the south. Allow me 
 to say, that it was not time that brought in Louisiana ; it was 
 the act of men. It was not time that brought in Florida j it 
 was the act of men. And lastly, sir, to complete those acta of 
 
 VOL. II. V 
 
506 WEBSTER AXD HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 men, which have contributed so much to enlarge the area and 
 the sphere of ihe institution of slavery, Texas — great, and vast, 
 and illimitable Texas — was added to the Union, as a slave state, 
 in 1845 ; and that, sir, pretty much closed the whole chapter, 
 and settled the whole account. That closed the whole chapter 
 — that settled the whole account — because the annexation of 
 Texas, upon the conditions and under the guaranties upon which 
 she was admitted, did not leave an acre of land, capable of be- 
 ino- cultivated by slave labor, between this capitol and the Rio 
 Grande, or the Nueces, or whatever is the proper boundary of 
 Texas — not an acre, not one. From that moment, the whole 
 country from this place to the western boundary of Texas, was 
 fixed, pledged, fastened, decided, to be slave territory forever, 
 by the solemn guaranties of law. 
 
 Ajid I now say, sii-, as the proposition upon which I stand 
 this day, and upon the truth and firmness of which I intend to 
 act until it is overthrown, that there is not, at this moment, 
 within the United States, or any territory of the United States, 
 a single foot of land, the character of which, in i-egard to its be- 
 ing free-soil territory or slave territory, is not fixed by some 
 law, and some irrepealable law, beyond the power of the action 
 of this government. Now, is it not so with respect to Texas ? 
 Why, it is most manifestly so. The honorable senator from 
 South Carolina, at the time of the admission of Texas, held an 
 important post in the executive department of the government ; 
 he was secretary of state. Another eminent person, of great 
 activity and adroitness in aflTairs — I mean the late secretary of 
 the treasury, (Mr. Walker) — was a leading member of this 
 body, and took the lead in the business of annexation ; and I 
 must say tliat they did their business faithfully and thoroughly ; 
 there was no botch left in it. They rounded it off, and made 
 as close joiner-work as ever was put together. Resolutions of 
 annexation were brought into congress fitly joined together — 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 507 
 
 compact, firm, efficient, conclusive upon the great object which 
 they had in view, and those resolutions passed. 
 
 Allow me to read the resolution. It is the third clause of 
 the second section of the resolution of the 1st of March, 1845, 
 for the admission of Texas, which applies to this part of the 
 case. That clause reads in these words : 
 
 "New states, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, 
 in addition to said state of Texas, and liaving sufficient population, 
 may hereafter, by the consent of said state, be formed out of the 
 territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the 
 provisions of the federal constitution. And such states as may be 
 formed out of that portion of said territory Ij^ing south of 36 de- 
 grees 30 minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri 
 compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without 
 slavery, as the people of each state, asking admission, may desire; 
 and in such state or states as shall be formed out of said territory 
 north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery or involuntary sei'- 
 vitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited." 
 
 Now what is here stipulated, enacted, secured 1 It is, that 
 all Texas south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, which is nearly the 
 ■whole of it, shall be admitted into the Union as a slave state. 
 It was a slave state, and therefore came in as a slave state, and 
 the guaranty is, that new states shall be made out of it ; and 
 that such states as are formed out of that portion of Texas ly- 
 ing south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, may come in as slave 
 states, to the number of four, in addition to the state then in 
 existence, and admitted at that time by these resolutions. I 
 know no mode of legislation which can strengthen that. I 
 know no form of recognition that can add a tittle of weight to 
 it. I listened respectfully to the resolutions of my honorable 
 friend from Tennessee, (Mr. Bell.) He proposed to recognize 
 that stipulation with Texas. But any additional recognition 
 would weaken the force of it, because it stands here on the 
 ground of a contract, a thing done, for a consideration. It is a 
 
508 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 law founded on a contract with Texas, and designed to carry 
 that contract into effect. A recognition founded not on any 
 consideration, or any contract, would not be so strong as it 
 now stands on the face of the resolution. Now, I know no way, 
 I candidly confess, in which this government, acting in good 
 faith, as I trust it always will, can relieve itself from that stip- 
 ulation and pledge by any honest course of legislation what- 
 ever. And, therefore, I say again, that so far as Texas is con- 
 cerned — the whole of Texas south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, 
 which I suppose embraces all the slave territory — there is no 
 land, not an acre, the character of which is not established by 
 law — a law which cannot be repealed without the violation of 
 a contract, and plain disregard of the public fliith. 
 
 I hope, sir, it is now apparent, that my proposition, so far 
 as Texas is concerned, has been maintained ; and the provision 
 in this article — and it has been well suggested by my friend 
 from Rhode Island, that that part of Texas which lies north of 
 thirty -four degrees of north latitude may be formed into free 
 states — is dependent, in like manner, upon the consent of Texas, 
 herself a slave state. 
 
 Well, now, sir, how came this 1 — how came it, that within 
 these walls, where it is said by the honorable member from 
 South Carolina, the free states have a majority — that this res- 
 olution of annexation, such as I have described it, found a ma- 
 jority in both houses of congress? Why, sir, it found that 
 majority by the great addition of northern votes added to the 
 entire southern vote, or, at least, nearly the whole of the south- 
 ern votes. That majority was made up of northern as well as 
 of southern votes. In the house of representatives it stood, I 
 think, about eighty southern votes and about fifty northern 
 votes for the admission of Texas. In the senate the vote stood 
 for the admission of Texas twenty-seven, and twenty-five against 
 it ; and of those twenty-seven votes, constituting a majority for 
 the admission of Texas, m this body, no less than thirteen of 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 509 
 
 them came from the free states ; four of them were from New- 
 England. The whole of these thirteen senators, from the free 
 states — within a fraction, you see, of one-half of all the votes 
 in this body for the admission of Texas, with its immeasurable 
 extent of slave territory — were sent here by the votes of free 
 states. 
 
 Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our history of 
 political events, political parties, and political men, as is afforded 
 by this measure for the admission of Texas, with this immense 
 territory, over which a bird cannot fly in a week. Sir, New 
 England, with some of her votes, supported this measure. 
 Three-fourths of the votes of liberty-loving Connecticut went 
 for it in the other house, and one-half here. There was one 
 vote for it in Maine, but I am happy to say, not the vote of 
 the honorable member who addressed the senate the day be- 
 fore yesterday, (Mr. Hamlin,) and who was then a representa- 
 tive from Maine in the other house ; but there was a vote or 
 two from Maine — ay, and there was one vote for it in Massa- 
 chusetts, the gentleman then representing, and now livinfr in 
 the district in which the prevalence of free-soil sentiment for a 
 couple of years or so, has defeated the choice of any member 
 to represent it in congress. Sir, that body of northern and 
 eastern men, who gave those votes at that time, are now seen 
 taking upon themselves, in the nomenclature of politics, the ap- 
 pellation of the northern democracy. They undertook to wield 
 the destinies of this empire — if I may call a republic an empire 
 — and their policy was, and they persisted in it, to bring into 
 this country all the territory they could. They did it under 
 pledges — absolute pledges to the slave interest in the case of 
 Texas, and afterward they lent their aid in bringing in these 
 new conquests. My honorable friend from Georgia, in March, 
 1847, moved the senate to declare that the war ought not to 
 be prosecuted for acquisition, for conquest, for the dismember- 
 ment of Mexico. The same northern democracy entirely voted 
 
510 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECEei. 
 
 against it. He did not get a vote from them. It suited the views, 
 the patriotism, the elevated sentiments of the northern democ- 
 racy to bring in a wqrld here, among the mountains and valleys 
 of California and New Mexico, or any other part of INIexico, and 
 then quarrel about it ; to bring it in, and then endeavor to put 
 upon it the saving grace of the Wilmot proviso. There were two 
 eminent and highly respectable gentlemen from the north and 
 east, then leading gentlemen in the senate — I refer, and 1 do so 
 •with entire respect, for I entertain for both of those gentlemen 
 in general, high regard, to Mr. Dix, of New York, and ISIr. 
 Niles, of Connecticut, who voted for the admission of Texas. 
 Thev would not have that vote any other way than as it stood ; 
 and they would have it as it did stand. I speak of the vote 
 upon the annexation of Texas. Those two gentlemen would 
 have the resolution of annexation just as it is, and they voted 
 for it just as it is, and their eyes were all open to it. My hon- 
 orable friend, the member from South Carolina, who addressed 
 us the other day, was then secretary of state. His corres- 
 pondence with Mr. Murphy, the charge de affiiires of the Uni- 
 ted States in Texas, had been published. That correspondence 
 was all before those gentlemen, and the secretary had the bold- 
 ness and candor to avow in that correspondence, that the great 
 object sought by the annexation of Texas was to strengthen the 
 slave interest of the south. Why, sir, he said, in so many 
 words 
 
 Mr. Calhoun-. Will the honorable senator permit me to interrupt 
 him for a moment ? 
 
 Certainly. 
 
 Me. Calhoun. I am very reluctant to interrupt the honorable 
 gentleman ; but, upon a point of so much importance, I deem it 
 right to put mj'self rectus. I did not put it upon the ground as- 
 sumed by the senator. I put it upon this ground : that Great 
 Britain had announced to this country, in so many words, that her 
 object was to abolish slavery in Te-xas, and through Texas, to ac- 
 
tHE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 511 
 
 complish the abolishment of slavery in the United States and the 
 ■world. The ground I put it on was, that it would make an ex- 
 posed frontier, and, if Great Britain succeeded in her object, it 
 ■would be impossible that that frontier could be secured against the 
 aggression of the abolitionists ; and that this government was bound, 
 under the guaranties of the constitution, to protect us against such 
 a state of things. 
 
 That comes, I suppose, sir, to exactly the same thing. It 
 •was, that Texas must be obtained for the security of the slave 
 interest of the south. 
 
 Me. Calhoun. Another view is very distinctly given. 
 
 Tliat -was the object set forth in the correspondence of a 
 ■worthy gentleman not now living, who preceded the honorable 
 member from South Carolina in that office. Thei'c repose on 
 the files of the department of state, as I have occasion to know, 
 strong letters from Mr. Upshur to the United States minister 
 in England, and I believe there are some to the same minister 
 from the honorable senator himself, asserting to this effect the 
 sentiments of this government ; that Great Britain was expected 
 not to interfere to talie Texas out of the hands of its then ex- 
 isting government, and make it a free country. But my argu- 
 ment, my suggestion is this : that those gentlemen who com- 
 posed the northern democracy, when Texas was brought into 
 the Union, saw, with all their eyes, that it was brought in as a 
 slave country, and brought in for the purpose of being main- 
 tained, as slave territory, to the Greek Kalends. I rather 
 think the honorable gentleman, who was then secretary of state, 
 might, in some of his correspondence with Mr. Murphy, have 
 suggested that it was not expedient to say too much about this 
 object, that it might create some alarm. At any rate, Mr. 
 Murphy wrote to him, that England was anxious to get rid of 
 the constitution of Texas, because it was a constitution establish- 
 ing slavery, and that what the United States had to do, was to aid 
 
512 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the people of Texas in upholding their constitution ; but that no- 
 thins should be said which should offend the fanatical men of the 
 north. But. sir, the honorable member did avow this object, 
 himself, openly, boldly, and manfully ; he did not disguise his 
 conduct or his motives. 
 
 Me. Calhoun. Nevei', never! 
 
 What he means he is very apt to say. 
 
 Mr. Calhoux. Alwaj-s, always. 
 
 And I honor him for it. This admission of Texas was in 
 1845. Then, in 1847, Jlagrante bello between the United 
 States and Mexico, the proposition I have mentioned, was 
 brought forward by my friend from Georgia, and the northern 
 democracy voted straight ahead against it. Their remedy was 
 to apply to the acquisitions, after they should come in, the Wil- 
 mot pi-oviso. What follows "? These two gentlemen, worthy 
 and honorable, and influential men — and if they had not been, 
 they could not have carried the measure — these two gentlemen, 
 members of this body, brought in Texas, and by their votes 
 they also prevented the passage of the resolution of the honor- 
 able member from Georgia, and then they went home and 
 took the lead in the free-soil party. And there they stand, 
 sir ! Tliey leave us here, bound in honor and conscience by 
 the resolutions of annexation ; they leave us here to take the 
 odium of fulfilling the obligations, in favor of slavery, which 
 they voted us into, or else the greater odium of violating those 
 obligations, while they are at home making rousing and capital 
 speeches for free soil and no slavery. And therefore I say, sir, 
 tliat there is not a chapter in our history, respecting public 
 measures and public men, more full of what should create sur- 
 prise, more full of what does create, in my mind, extreme mor- 
 tification, than tliat of the conduct of this northern democracy. 
 Mr. President, sometimes, when a man is found in a new re- 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 51 
 
 o 
 
 lation to things around him, and to other men, he says that the 
 world has changed, and that he has not changed. I believe, 
 sir, that our self-respect leads us often to make this declaration 
 in regai'd to ourselves, when it is not exactly true. An indi- 
 vidual is more apt to change, perhaps, than all the world around 
 him. But, under the present circumstances, and under the re- 
 sponsibility which I know I incur by what I am now stating 
 here, I feel at liberty to recur to the various expressions and 
 statements, made at various times, of my own opinions and res- 
 olutions respecting the admission of Texas, and all that has fol- 
 lowed. Sir, as early as 1836, or in the earlier part of 1837, a 
 matter of conversation and correspondence between myself and 
 some private friends, was this project of annexing Texas to the 
 United States ; and an honorable gentleman, with whom I have 
 had a long acquaintance, a friend of mine, now perhaps in this 
 chamber — I mean General Hamilton, of South Carolina — was 
 knowing to that correspondence. 1 had voted for the recognition 
 of Texan independence, because I believed it was an existing 
 fact, surprising and astonishing as it was, and I wished well to 
 the new republic ; but I manifested from the first utter opposi- 
 tion to bringing her, with her territory, into the Union. I had 
 occasion, sir, in 1837, to meet friends in New York, on some 
 political occasion, and I then stated my sentiments upon the 
 subject. It was the first time that I had occasion to advert to 
 it ; and I will aslv a friend near me to do me the favor to read 
 an extract from the speech, for the senate may find it rather 
 tedious to listen to the whole of it. It was delivered in Niblo's 
 Garden, in 1837. 
 
 Mr. Greene tlien read the following extract from the speech of 
 the honorable senator, to which he referred : 
 
 " Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever possessed, Texas is 
 
 likely to be a slave-holding country ; and I frankly avow my entii'e 
 
 unwillingness to do anything that shall extend the slavery of the 
 
 African i-ace on this continent, or add other slave-holding states to 
 
 VOL. II. V* S3 
 
514 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 the Union. When I say that I regard slavery in itself as a great 
 moral, social, and political evil, I only use language which has been 
 adopted by distinguislied men. themselves citizens of slave-holding 
 states. I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its fur- 
 ther extension. We have slavery already among us. The constitu- 
 tion found it among us ; it recognized it, and gave it solemn guar- 
 anties. To tlie full extent of these guaranties we are all bound, in 
 honor, in justice, and by the constitution. All the stipulations con- 
 tained in the constitution in favor of the slave-holding states wliich 
 are already in the Union, ought to be fulfilled, and, so far as de- 
 pends on me, shall be fulfilled, in the fullness of their spirit and to 
 the exactness of their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the states, is 
 beyond the reach of congress. It is a concern of the states them- 
 selves ; they have never submitted it to congress, and congress has 
 no rightfnl power over it. I shall concur, therefore, in no act, no 
 measure, no menace, no indication of purpose, which shall interfere 
 or threaten to interfere with the exclusive authority of the several 
 states over the subject of slavery as it exists within their respective 
 limits. All this appears to me to be matter of plain and imperative 
 
 duty. 
 
 " But when we come to speak of admitting new states, the subject 
 assumes an entirely diflferent aspect. Our rights and our duties are 
 then both different. ....••••• 
 
 "I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of 
 Texas to the Union ; no advantages to be derived from it ; and ob- 
 jections to it of a strong, and, in my judgment, decisive character." 
 
 I have nothing, sir, to add to, nor to take back, from those 
 scntuiients. That, the senate will perceive, was in 1837. The 
 purpose of immediately annexing Texas, at that time, was aban- 
 doned or postponed, and it was not revived, with any vigor for 
 some years, hi the mean*tiine, it had so happened, that I had 
 become a member of the executive administration, and was, for 
 a short period, in the departnient of state. The annexation of 
 Texas was a subject of conversation — not confidential — with 
 the president and heads of departments, as well as with other 
 public men. No serious attempt was then made, however, to 
 biincT it about. I left the department of state in May, 1843, 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 515 
 
 and shortly after, I learned, though no way connected with of- 
 ficial information, that a design had been taken up, of bringing 
 Texas, with her slave territory and population, into the Uni- 
 ted States. I was here, in Washington, at the time ; and per- 
 sons are now here who will remember, that we had an arranged 
 meeting for conversation upon it. I went home, to Massachu- 
 setts, and proclaimed the existence of that purpose ; but I could 
 get no audience, and but little attention. Some did not believe 
 it, and some were too much engaged in their own pursuits to 
 give it any heed. They had gone to their farms, or to their 
 merchandize, and it was impossible to arouse any sentiment in 
 New England or in Massachusetts that should combine the two 
 great political parties against this annexation ; and, indeed, 
 there was no hope of bringing the northern democracy into that 
 view, for the leaning was all the other way. But, sir, even 
 with whigs, and leading whigs, I am ashamed to say, there was 
 a great indifference toward the admission of Texas, with slave 
 territory, into this Union. It went on. I was then out of con- 
 gress. The annexation resolution passed the 1st of March, 
 1845. The legislature of Texas complied with the conditions, 
 and accepted the guaranties ; for the phraseology of the lan- 
 guage of the resolution is, that Texas is to come in "upon the 
 conditions, and under the guaranties, herein prescribed." I 
 happened to be returned to the senate in March, 1845, and was 
 here in December, 1845, when the acceptance by Texas, of the 
 conditions proposed by congress, were laid before us by the 
 president ; and an act, for the consummation of the connection 
 was laid before the two houses. The connection was not com- 
 pleted. A final law, doing the deed of annexation ultimately, 
 had not been passed ; and when it was upon its final passage 
 here, I expressed my opposition to it, and recorded my vote ii» 
 the negative ; and there that vote stands, with the observations 
 that I made upon that occasion. It has happened, that between 
 1837 and this time, on various occasions and opportunities, I 
 
516 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 have expressed my entire opposition to the admission of slave 
 states, or the acquisition of new slave territories, to be added 
 to the United States. I know, sir, no cliange in my own sen- 
 timents, or my own purposes, in that respect. I will now, 
 again, ask my friend fi-om Rhode Island, to read another ex- 
 tract from a speech of mine, made at a whig convention, in 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, in the month of September, 1847. 
 
 Mr. Greene here read the following extract from the speech : 
 
 " We hear much just now of a panacea for the dangers and evils 
 of slavery and slave annexation, -which they call the ' Wilmot Pro- 
 viso.' That certainly is a just sentiment, but it is not a sentiment 
 to found any new party upon. It is not a sentiment on which Mas- 
 sachusetts whigs differ. There is not a man in this hall who holds 
 to it moi'e firmly than I do, nor one who adheres to it more than 
 another. 
 
 " I feel some little interest in this matter, sir. Did not I commit 
 myself in 1838 to the whole doctrine, fuUj'-, entirely ? And I must 
 be permitted to say, that I cannot quite consent that more recent 
 discoveries should claim the merit and take out a patent. 
 
 "I deny the priority. of their invention. Allow me to say, sir, it 
 is not their thunder. ......... 
 
 "We are to use the first, and last, and every occasion which of- 
 fers, to oppose the extension of slave power. 
 
 "But I speak of it here, as in congress, as a political question — 
 a question for statesmen to act upon. We must so regard it. I cer- 
 tainly do not mean to say that it is less imj)ortant in a moral point 
 of view — that it is not more important in manjr other points of view ; 
 but, as a legislator, or in any official capacity, I must look at it, con- 
 eider it, and decide it^ as a matter of political action." 
 
 On other occasions, in debates here, I have expressed my de- 
 termination to vote for no acquisition, or cession, or annexation, 
 north or south, east or west. My opinion has been, that wo 
 have territory enough, and that we should follow the Spartan 
 maxim, " Improve, adorn what you have, seek no farther." I 
 think that it was in some observations that I made here on the 
 
THE COirPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 517 
 
 three million loan bill, that I avowed that sentiment. In short, 
 sir, the sentiment has been avowed quite as often, in as many 
 places, and before as many assemblages, as any humble senti- 
 ments of mine ought to be avowed. 
 
 But now that, under certain conditions, Texas is in, with all 
 her territories, as a slave state, with a solemn pledge that if she 
 is divided into many states, those states may come in as slave 
 states south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, how are we to deal with 
 this subject ? I know no way of honorable legislation, when 
 the proper time comes for the enactment, but to carry into ef- 
 fect all that we have stipulated to do. I do not entirely agree 
 with my honorable friend from Tennessee, (Mr. Bell,) that, as 
 soon as the time comes when she is entitled to another repre- 
 sentative, we should create a new state. The rule in regard to 
 it I take to be this : that when we have created new states out 
 of territories, we have generally gone upon the idea, that when 
 there is population enough to form a state — sixty thousand, or 
 some such thing — we would create a state ; but it is quite a 
 different thing when a state is divided, and two or more states 
 made out of it. It does not follow, in such a case, that the 
 same rule of apportionment should be ajjj^lied. That, however, 
 is a matter for the consideration and discretion of congress, 
 when the proper time arrives. I may not then be here — I may 
 have no vote to give on the occasion ; but I wish it to be dis- 
 tinctly understood, to-day, that, according to my view of the 
 matter, this government is solemnly pledged, by law and con- 
 tract, to create new states out of Texas, with her consent, when 
 her population shall justify such a proceedmg, and so far as 
 such states are formed out of Texan territory lying south of 
 36 degrees 30 minutes, to let them come in as slave states. 
 The time of admission, and requisite population, must depend, 
 of course, on the discretion of congress. But when new states 
 ehaU be formed out of Texas, they have a fixed right to como 
 into the Union as slave states. That is the meaning of tho 
 
518 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 resolution which our friends, the northern democracy, have left 
 us to fulfill ; and I, for one, mean to fulfill it, because I will not 
 violate the faith of the government. 
 
 Now, as to California and New Mexico, I hold slavery to be 
 excluded from those territories by a law even superior to that 
 which admits and sanctions it in Texas — I mean the law of na- 
 ture — of physical geography — the law of the formation of the 
 earth. That law settles forever, with a strength beyond all 
 terms of human enactment, that slavery cannot exist in Califor- 
 nia or New Mexico. Understand me, sir — I mean slavery as 
 we regard it ; slaves in gross, of the colored race, transferable 
 by sale and delivery, like other property. I shall not discuss 
 the point, but leave it to the learned gentlemen who have un- 
 dertaken to discuss it ; but I suppose there is no slave of that 
 description in California now. I understand that peonism, a 
 sort of penal servitude, exists there ; or, rather, a voluntary 
 sale of a man and his offspring for debt, as it is arranged and 
 exists in some parts of California and New Mexico. But what 
 I mean to say is, that African slavery, as we sec it among us, 
 is as utterly impossible to find itself, or to be found in Mexico, 
 as any other natural impossibility. 
 
 California and New Mexico are Asiatic, in their formation 
 and scenery. They are composed of vast ridges of mountains, 
 of enormous height, with broken ridges and deep valleys. The 
 sides of these mountains are ban-en — entirely barren — their 
 tops capped by perennial snow. There may be in California, 
 now made free by its constitution — and no doubt there are — 
 some tracts of valuable land. But it is not so in New Mex- 
 ico. Pray, what is the evidence which every gentleman must 
 have obtained on this subject, from information sought by him- 
 self or conmiunicated by others ? I have inquired, and read 
 all I could find, in order to obtain information on this impor- 
 tant question. What is there in New Mexico that could by 
 any possibility induce anybody to go there with slaves ? There 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 519 
 
 are some narrow strips of tillable land on the borders of the 
 rivers ; but the rivers themselves dry up before midsummer is 
 gone. All that the people can do, is to raise some little arti- 
 cles — some little wheat for their tortillas — and all that by irriga^ 
 tion. And who expects to see a hundred black men cultiva- 
 ting tobacco, corn, cotton, rice, or anything else, on lands in 
 New Mexico, made fertile only by irrigation ? I look upon it, 
 therefore, as a fixed fact, to use an expression current at this 
 dav, that both California and New Mexico are destined to be 
 free, so far as they are settled at all, which I believe, especially 
 in regard to New Mexico, will be very little for a great length of 
 time — free by the arrangement of things by the Power above 
 us. I have therefore to say, in this respect also, that this coun- 
 try is fixed for freedom, to as many persons as shall ever live 
 there, by as irrepealable and a more irrepealable law, than the 
 law that attaches to the right of holding slaves in Texas ; and 
 I will say further, that if a resolution, or a law, were now be- 
 fore us, to provide a territorial government for New Mexico, I 
 would not vote to put any prohibition into it whatever. The 
 use of such a prohibition would be idle, as it respects any ef- 
 fect it would have upon the territory ; and I would not take 
 pains to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor to reenact the 
 will of God. And I would put in no Wilmot proviso, for the 
 purpose of a taunt or a reproach. I would put into it no evi- 
 dence of the votes of superior power, to wound the pride, even 
 whether a just pride, a rational pride, or an irrational pride — 
 to wound the pride of the gentlemen who belong to the south- 
 ern states. I have no such object — no such purpose. They 
 would think it a taunt — an indignity. They would think it to 
 be an act taking away from them what tliey regard a proper 
 equality of privilege ; and whether they expect to realize any 
 benefit from it or not, they would think it a theoretic wTong — 
 tbat something more or less derogatory to their character and 
 their rights had taken place. I propose to inflict no such wound 
 
520 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 upon anybody, unless something essentially important to the 
 country, and efficient to the preservation of liberty and free- 
 dom, is to be effected. Therefore, I repeat, sir — and I repeat 
 it because I wish it to be understood — that I do not propose to 
 address the senate often on this subject. I desire to pour out 
 all my heart in as plain a manner as possible ; and I say again, 
 that if a proposition were now here for a government for New 
 Mexico, and it was moved to insert a provision for a prohibi- 
 tion of slavery, I would not vote for it. 
 
 Now, jNIr. President, I have established, so far as I proposed 
 to go into any line of observation to establish, the proposition 
 with which I set out, and upon which I propose to stand or fall ; 
 and that is, that the whole territory of the states in the United 
 States, or in the newly acquired territory of the United States, 
 has a fixed and settled character, now fixed and settled by law, 
 which cannot be repealed in the case of Texas, witliout a vio- 
 lation of jDublic faith, and cannot be repealed by any human 
 power in regard to California or New JMexico ; that, under one 
 or other of these laws, every foot of territory in the states, 
 or in the territories, has now received a fixed and decided 
 character. 
 
 Sir, if we were now making a government for New Mex- 
 ico, and anybody should propose a Wilmot proviso, I should 
 treat it exactly as Mr, Polk treated that provision for exclu- 
 ding slavery from Oregon. Mr. Polk was known to be in 
 opinion decidedly averse to the Wilmot proviso ; but he felt 
 the necessity of establishing a government for the territory of 
 Oregon, and, though the proviso was there, he knew it would 
 be entirely nugatory ; and, since it must be entirely nugatory, 
 since it took away no right, no describable, no estimable, no 
 weighable, or tangible right of the south, he said he would sign 
 the bill for the sake of enacting a law to form a government in 
 that territory, and let that entirely useless, and, in that connec- 
 tion, entirely senseless, proviso rem.ain. 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 521 
 
 For myself, I Nvill say that we hear much of the annexation 
 of Canada ; and if there be any man, any of the northern de- 
 mocracy, or any one of the free-soil party, who supposes it ne- 
 cessary to insert a Wilmot proviso in a territorial government 
 for New Mexico, that man will of course be of opinion that it 
 is necessary to protect the everlasting snows of Canada from 
 the foot of slavery, by the same overpowering wing of an act 
 of congress. Sir, wherever there is a particular good to be 
 done — wherever there is a foot of land to be staid back from 
 becoming slave territory — I am ready to assert the principle 
 of the exclusion of slavery. I am pledged to it from the year 
 1837 ; I have been pledged to it again and again ; and I will 
 perform those pledges ; but I will not do a thing unnecessary, 
 that wounds the feelings of others, or that does disgrace to my 
 own understanding. 
 
 Mr. President, in the excited times in which we live, there is 
 found to exist a state of crimination and recrimination between 
 the north and the south. There are lists of grievances produced 
 by each ; and those grievances, real or supposed, alienate the 
 minds of one portion of the country from the other, exasperate 
 the feelings, and subdue the sense of fraternal connection, and 
 patriotic love, and mutual regard. I shall bestow a little at- 
 tention, sii-, upon these various grievances, produced on the one 
 side and on the other. 
 
 I begin with the complaints of the south : I will not answer 
 fiirther than I have, the general statements of the honorable 
 senator from South Carolina, that the north has grown upon 
 the south in consequence of the manner of administering this 
 government, in the collecting of its revenues, and so forth. 
 These are disputed topics, and 1 have no inclination to enter 
 into them. But I will state these complaints, especially one 
 complaint of the south, which has in mj opinion just founda- 
 tion ; and that is, that there has been found at the north, amono- 
 individuals and among legislatures of the north, a disinclmatiou 
 
522 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 to perform, fully, their constitutional duties, in regard to the 
 return of persons bound to service, who have escaped into the 
 free states. 
 
 In that respect, it is my judgment that the south is right, and 
 the north is wrong. Every member of every northern legisla- 
 ture is bound, by oath, like every other officer in the countrj^, 
 to support the constitution of the United States ; and this arti- 
 cle of the constitution, which says to these states, they shall de- 
 liver up fugitives from service, is as binding in honor and con- 
 science as any other article. No man fulfills his duty in any 
 legislature who sets himself to find excuses, evasions, escapes 
 from this constitutional obligation, I have always thought that 
 the constitution addressed itself to the legislatures of the states 
 themselves, or to the states themselves. It says, that those 
 persons escaping to other states, shall be delivered up, and I 
 confess I have always been of the opinion, that it was an in- 
 junction upon the states themselves. When it is said that a 
 person escaping into another state, and becoming thcretbre 
 within the jurisdiction of that state, shall be delivered up, it 
 seems to me the import of the passage is, that the state itself, 
 in obedience to the constitution, shall cause him to be delivered 
 up. That is my judgment, I have always entertained that 
 opinion, and I entertain it now. But when the subject, some 
 years ago, was before the supreme court of the United States, 
 the majority of the judges held that the power to cause fugi- 
 tives from service to be delivered up, was a power to be exer- 
 cised under the authority of this government, I do not know, 
 on the whole, that it may not have been a fortunate decision. 
 My habit is to respect the result of judicial deliberations, and 
 the solemnity of judicial decisions. 
 
 But, as it now stands, the business of seeing that these fugi- 
 tives are delivered up, resides in the power of congress, and the 
 national judicature, and my friend at the head of the judiciary 
 committee Ims a bill on the subject, now before the senate, with 
 
THE COIUPROMISES Or THE COXSTTTUTION. 523 
 
 some amendments to it, -syhich I propose to support, -with all its 
 provisions, to the fullest extent. And I desire to call the at- 
 tention of all sober-minded men, of all conscientious men, in 
 the north, of all men who are not carried away by any fanati- 
 cal idea, or by any false idea whatever, to their constitutional 
 obligations. I put it to all the sober and soimd minds at the 
 north, as a question of morals and a question of conscience, 
 What right have they, in all their legislative capacity, or 
 any other, to endeavor to get round this constitution, to em- 
 embarass the free exercise of the rights secured by the con- 
 stitution, to the persons whose slaves escape from them? 
 None at all — none at all. Neither in the forum of con- 
 science, nor before the face of the constitution, are they jus- 
 tified, in my opinion. Of course, it is a matter for their con- 
 sideration. They probably, in the turmoil of the times, have 
 not stopped to consider of this ; they have followed what seemed 
 to be the current of thought and of motives as the occasion 
 arose, and neglected to investigate fully the real question, and to 
 consider their constitutional obligations, as I am sure, if they 
 did consider, they would fulfill them with alacrity. Therefore, 
 I repeat, sir, that here is a ground of complaint against the 
 north, well founded, which ought to be removed — which it is 
 now in the power of the different departments of this govern- 
 ment to remove — which calls for the enactment of proper 
 laws, authorizing the judicature of this government, in the sev- 
 eral states, to do all that is necessary for the recapture of fugi- 
 tive slaves, and for the restoration of them to those who claim 
 them. Wherever I go, and whenever I speak on the subject — 
 and when I speak here, I desire to speak to the whole north 
 — I say that the south has been injured in this respect, and has a 
 right to complain ; and the north has been too careless of what 
 I think the constitution peremptorily and emphatically enjoins 
 upon it as a duty. 
 
 Complaint has been made against certain resolutions that 
 
524 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 emanate {rom legislatures at the north, and are sent here to us, 
 not only on the subject of slavery in this district, but some- 
 times recommending congress to consider the means of abol- 
 ishing slavery in the states. I should be sorry to be called 
 upon to present any resolutions here which cdiild not be refer- 
 able to any committee or any power in congress, and, there- 
 fore, 1 should be unwilling to receive from the legislature of 
 Massachusetts any instructions to present resolutions, expres- 
 sive of any opinion whatever on the subject of slavery, as it 
 exists at the present moment in the states, for two reasons ; 
 because — first, I do not consider that the legislature of Massa- 
 chusetts has anything to do with it ; and next, I do not consider 
 that I, as her representative here, have anything to do with it. 
 Sir, it has become, in my opinion, quite too common ; and if 
 the legislatures of the states do not like that opinion, they have 
 a great deal more power to put it down, than I have to uphold 
 it. It has become, in my opinion, quite too common a prac- 
 tice for the state legislatures to present resolutions here on all 
 subjects, and to instruct us here on all subjects. There is no 
 public man that requires insti'uction more than I do, or who 
 requires information more than I do, or desires it more hear- 
 tily ; but I do not lilce to have it come in too imperative a 
 a shape. 
 
 I took notice, with pleasure, of some remarks upon this sub- 
 ject made the other day in the senate of Massachusetts, by a 
 young man of talent and character, from whom the best hopes 
 may be entertained. I mean Mr. Hillard. He told the sen- 
 ate of Massachusetts that he would vote for no instructions 
 whatever to be forwarded to members of congress, nor for any 
 resolutions to be oflered, expressive of the sense of Massachusetts, 
 as to what their memljcrs of congress ought to do. He said 
 that he saw no propriety in one set of public servants giving in- 
 structions and reading lectures to another set of public servants. 
 To their own master, all of them must stand or fall, and that 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 525 
 
 master is their constituents. I wish these sentiments could be- 
 come more common — a great deal more common. I have 
 never entered into the question, and never shall, about the bind- 
 ing force of instructions. I -will, however, simply say this : 
 if there be any matter of interest pending in this body, while 
 I am a member of it, in which Massachusetts has an interest 
 of her own, not adverse to the general interest of the country, 
 I shall pursue her instructions with gladness of heart, and with 
 all the efficiency which I can bring to the occasion. But if the 
 question be one which affects her interest, and at the same time 
 affects the interests of all other states, I shall no more regard 
 her political wishes or insti'uctions, than I would regard the 
 wishes of a man who might appoint me an arbitrator or ref- 
 eree, to decide some question of important private right, and 
 who might instruct me to decide in his favor. If ever there 
 was a government upon earth, it is this government; if ever there 
 was a body upon earth, it is this body, which should consider it- 
 self as composed by agreement of all, appointed by some, but 
 organized by the general consent of all, sitting here under the 
 solemn obligations of oath and conscience, to do that which 
 they think is best for the good of the whole. 
 
 Then, sir, there are those abolition societies, of which I am 
 unwilling to speak, but in regard to which I have very clear 
 notions and opinions. I do not think them useful. I think 
 their operations for the last twenty years have produced noth- 
 ing good or valuable. At the same time, I know thousands of 
 them are honest and good men ; perfectly well-meaning men. 
 They have excited feelings ; they think they must do some- 
 thing for the cause of liberty ; and in their sphere of action, 
 they do not see what else they can do, than to contribute to 
 an abolition press, or an abolition society, or to pay an aboli- 
 tion lecturer. I do not mean to impute gross motives even to 
 the leaders of these societies, but I am not blind to the conse- 
 quences. I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference 
 
526 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 with the south has produced. And is it not plain to every man 1 
 Let any gentleman who doubts of that, recur to the debates 
 in the Virginia house of delegates in 1832, and he will see 
 with what freedom a proposition, made by Mr. Randolph for 
 the gradual abolition of slavery, was discussed in that body. 
 Every one spoke of slavery as he thought ; very ignominious 
 and disparaging names and epithets were applied to it. The 
 debates in the house of delegates on that occasion, I believe, 
 were all published. They were read by every colored man 
 who could read, and if there were any who could not read, 
 those debates were read to them by others. At that time Vir- 
 ginia was not unwilling nor afraid to discuss this question, and 
 to let that part of her population know as much of it as they 
 could learn. That was in 1832. 
 
 As has been said by the honorable member from Carolina, 
 these abolition societies commenced their course of action in 
 1835. It is said — I do not know how true it may be — that 
 they sent incendiary publications into the slave states ; at any 
 event, they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very strong 
 feeling; in other words, they created great agitation in the 
 north against southern slavery. Well, what was the result 1 
 The bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than before ; 
 their rivets were more strongly fastened. Public opinion, which 
 in ^'irginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was 
 opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and 
 shut itself up in its castle. I wish to know whether any body 
 in Virginia can, now, talk as Mr. Randolph, Governor McDowell, 
 and others talked there, openly, and sent their remarks to the 
 press, in 1832. We all know the fact, and we all know the cause, 
 and everything that this agitating people have done, has been, 
 not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster, 
 the slave population of the south. That is my judgment. 
 
 Sir, as I have said, I know many abolitionists in my own 
 neighborhood, very honest, good people, misled, as I think, by 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE COKSTITUTION. 527 
 
 Strange enthusiasm ; but they wish to do something, and they 
 are called on to contribute, and they do contribute ; and it is my 
 firm opinion this day, that within the last twenty years, as much 
 money has been collected and paid to the abolition societies, 
 abolition presses, and abolition lecturers, as would purchase the 
 freedom of every slave, man, woman, and child in the state of 
 Maryland, and send them all to Liberia. I have no doubt of 
 it. But I have yet to learn that the benevolence of these abo- 
 lition societies has at any time taken that particular turn. 
 
 Again, sir, the violence of the press is complained of. The 
 press violent ! Why, sir, the press is violent everywhere. 
 There are outrageous reproaches m the north against the south, 
 and there are reproaches in not nmch better taste m the south 
 against the north. Sir, the extremists of both parts of this 
 country are violent ; they mistake loud and violent talk for elo- 
 quence and for reason. They think that he who talks loudest, 
 reasons tlic best. And this we must expect, when the press is 
 free, as it is here — and I trust always will be — for, with all 
 its licentiousness, and all its evil, the entire and absolute free- 
 dom of the press is essential to the preservation of go^•em- 
 ment, on the basis of a free constitution. Wherever it exists, 
 there will be foolish paragraphs, and violent paragraphs, in the 
 press, as there are, I am sorry to say, foolish speeches and violent 
 speeches in both houses of congress. Li truth, sir, I must say that, 
 in my opinion, the vernacular tongue of the country has become 
 greatly vitiated, depraved, and corrupted, by the style of our con- 
 gressional debates. And if it were possible for our debates in con- 
 gress to vitiate the principles of the people as much as they have 
 depraved their taste, I should cry out, " God save the republic." 
 
 Well, in all this I see no solid grievance — no grievance pre- 
 sented by the south, within the redress of the government, but 
 the single one to which I have referred ; and that is, the want 
 of a proper regard to the injunction of the constitution, for the 
 delivery of fugitive slaves. 
 
528 WKBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 There are also complaints of the north against the south. I 
 need not go over them particularly. The first and gravest is, 
 that the north adopted the constitution, recognizing the exist- 
 ence of slavery in the states, and recognizing the right to a cer- 
 tain extent, of representation of the slaves in congress, under 
 a state of sentiment and expectation which do not now exist ; 
 and that, by events, by circumstances, by the eagerness of the 
 south to acquire territory, and extend their slave population, 
 the north finds itself, in regard to the influence of the south and 
 the north, of the free states and the slave states, where it never 
 did expect to find itself when they entered the compact of the 
 constitution. They complain, therefore, that, instead of slavery 
 being regarded as an evil, as it was then, an evil which all hoped 
 would be extinguished gradually, it is now regarded by the 
 south as an institution to be cherished, and preserved, and ex- 
 tended — an institution which the south has already extended 
 to the utmost of her power by the acquisition of new territoiy. 
 Well, then, passing from that, everybody in the north reads ; 
 and everybody reads whatsoever the newspapers contain ; and 
 the newspapers, some of them — especially those presses to 
 which I have alluded — are careful to spread about among the 
 people every reproachful sentiment uttered by any southern 
 man bearing at all against tlie north — evei-ything that is calcu- 
 lated to exasperate, to alienate ; and there are many such things, 
 as everybody will admit, from the south, or some portion of it, 
 which are spread abroad among the reading people ; and they 
 do exasperate, and alienate, and produce a most mischievous 
 effect upon the public mind at the north. 
 
 Sir, I would not notice things of this sort appearing in ob- 
 scure quarters ; but one thing has occurred in this debate which 
 struck me very forcibly. An honorable member from Lou- 
 isiana addressed us the other day on this subject. I suppose 
 there is not a more amiable and worthy gentleman in this cham- 
 ber, nor a gentleman who would be more slow to give offense 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 529 
 
 to anybody, and he did not mean in his remarks to give offense. 
 But what did he say ? Why, sir, he took pains to run a con- 
 trast between the slaves of the south and the laboring people of 
 the north, giving the preference in all points of condition, and 
 comfort, and happiness, to the slaves of the south. The hon- 
 orable member, doubtless, did not suppose that he gave any 
 offense, or did any injustice. He was merely expressing his 
 opinion. But does he know how remarks of that sort will be 
 received by the laboring people of the north 1 Why, who are 
 the laboring people of the north ? They are the north. They 
 are the people who cultivate their own farms with their own 
 hands — freeholders, educated men, independent men. Let 
 me say, sir, that five-sixths of the whole property of the north, 
 is in the hands of the laborers of the north ; they cultivate 
 their farms, they educate their children, they provide the means 
 of independence ; if they are not freeholders, they earn wages ; 
 these wages accumulate, are turned into capitiil, into new free- 
 holds ; and small capitalists are created. That is the case, and 
 such the course of things, with us, among the industrious and 
 frugal. And what can these people think when so respectable 
 and worthy a gentleman as the member from Louisiana, under- 
 takes to prove that the absolute ignorance, and the abject 
 slavery of the south, is more in conformity with the high pur- 
 poses and destinies of immortal, rational, human beings, than 
 the educated, the independent free laborers of the north 1 
 
 There is a more tangible, and irritating cause of grievance 
 at the north. Free blacks are constantly employed in the ves- 
 sels of the north, generally as cooks or stewards. When the 
 vessel arrives, these free colored men, are taken on shore, by 
 the police or municipal authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison, 
 till the vessel is again ready to sail. This is not only irritar 
 ting, but exceedingly inconvenient in practice, and seems alto- 
 gether unjustifiable and oppressive. Mr. Hoar's mission, some 
 time- ago, to South Carolina, was a well-intended effort to re- 
 voL. II. W 34 
 
530 WEBSTER AND IIIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 move this cause of complaint. The north thinks such impris- 
 onment illegal, and unconstitutional ; as the cases occur con- 
 stantly and frequently, they think it a great grievance. 
 
 Now, sir, so faf as any of these grievances have their foun- 
 dation in matters of law, they can be redressed, and ought to 
 be redressed ; and so far as they have foundation in matters of 
 opinion, in sentiment, in mutual crimination and recrimination, 
 all that we can do is, to endeavor to allay the agitation, and 
 cultivate a better feeling and more fraternal sentiments be- 
 tween the south and the north. 
 
 Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard, from ev- 
 ery member on this floor, declarations of opinion that this 
 Union should never be dissolved, than the declaration of opin- 
 ion that in any case, under the pressure of any circumstances, 
 such a dissolution was possible. I hear with pain, and anguish, 
 and distress, the word secession, especially v/hcn it foils from 
 the lips of those who arc eminently patriotic, and kno^\^l to 
 the country, and known all over the world, for their political 
 services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes 
 and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismem- 
 berment of this vast country without convulsion ! The break- 
 ing up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the 
 surface! Who is so foolish — I beg everybody's pardon — as 
 to expect to see any such thmg "? Sir, he who sees these states, 
 now revolving in harmony around a common center, and ex- 
 pects to see them quit their places and fly off without convul 
 sion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush 
 from their spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms 
 of space, without producing the crush of the universe. There 
 can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. Peacciible se- 
 cession is an utter impossibility. Is the great constitution un- 
 der which we live here — covering this whole cotmtry — is it 
 to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows or- 
 thc mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun — disap 
 
THE COMPROMISES 0^ THE COXSTITUTIOX. 531 
 
 pear almost unobserved, and die off^ No sir? nn • r t 
 
 Peaceable secession ! peaceable secession » ru 
 agi-eement of all the members of tM concurrent 
 
 rate! A voluntary sZ^aZn lit J "^"'"^ '' ''^'' 
 
 on the other Whv wW n ^ '°"^' ^'^ °°^ «^^^ ^^<1 
 
 '''"^'- ^^^^7' ^^"^it M'ould be the result ? Wh 
 the Ime to be drawn 2 Wl.of .. '« result f VV here is 
 
 ut-uvdwni VV hat states are to seopflA ? Avi ^• 
 to remain American 'i What om T .. i , ^ ^'''"^ '^ 
 
 longer? Where is theZ fT ^"■~'''' ^"^^^^'^^^ "« 
 • .1 /"^"^ of the republic to remain? \vu 
 
 wi.h prolonged lives- ,vo„U reb ke L enrY"°"= "' 
 
 0- children, and our grande,.ildret^™l "r: . "si ""' 
 upon US if we of th;<^ „ .• , ^^ ^^Y out, Shame 
 
 4s Of .he ,2« oft ~r r::,^ .ut'"^ «-- e„. 
 
 Union, which is every dav frlf liarmony of the 
 
 g-itnde, w,,atrse!t:;2r: ^rt-^°^r 
 
 come of the navy ? What i. tr. i ^ ^^'^* '' *^ ^^ 
 
 Plow is each of the tLt ''"' "^ '^' P"'^"^ ^^"ds? 
 
 a southern confederacy I ]! f '"'^^^'' '^''' '' '^ be 
 
 -ement, that anronl' seLt / ^^^^^^^^^^ ' T' " '''' 
 things. I do not mean to «,v ,( "."!"■?'•"« such a state of 
 
 it -8g-tedelse,vhe e tlat It , ," '™°' '"" ' '"'^^ '"=»^'J 
 'o -P-a.e. 1 an. «,l" i " "^ "Sinated in a design 
 
 tallied or, or dreamed It' 1 . "''"' ''«™ "'"'■ght of; 
 
 -ion. But the™! 1" 'teT^" "'^'"^ of human Lagi! 
 
532 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 ble as other natural or physical thuigs; and I hold the idea 
 of a separation of these states — those that are free to form 
 one government, and those that are slaveholding to form an- 
 other—as a moraj impossibility. We could not separate the 
 states by any such' line, if we were to di-aw it. We could not 
 sit down here to-day, and draw a line of separation, that would 
 satisfy any five men in the country. There are natural causes 
 that would keep and tie us together, and there are social and 
 domestic relations which we could not break, if wc would, and 
 which we should not if we could. 
 
 Sir, nobody can look over the face of this country at tlie 
 present moment — nobody can see where its population is 
 most dense and growing — without being ready to admit, and 
 compelled to admit, that, ere long, America will be in the val- 
 ley of the Mississippi. 
 
 Well, now, sir, I beg to inquire what the Avildest enthusiast 
 has to say, on the possibility of cutting off that rivor, and leav- 
 ing free states at its source and its branches, and slave states 
 down near its mouth 1 Pray, sir— pray, sir, let me say to the 
 people of this country, that those things are worthy of their 
 pondering and of their consideration. Here, sir, are five mil- 
 lions of freemen in the free states north of the river Ohio : can 
 anybody suppose that this population can be severed by a line 
 that divides them from the territory of a foi-eign and an alien 
 government, down somewhere, the Lord knows where, upon 
 the lower banks of the Mississippi ? What will become of 
 Missouri ? W ill she join the arrondissment of the slave states 1 
 Shall the man from the Yellow Stone and the Platte be con- 
 nected in the new republic with the man who lives on the south- 
 ern extremity of the Cape of Florida? Sir, I am ashamed to 
 pursue this line of remark. 1 dislike it — ^I have an utter dis- 
 gust for it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and mxildews, 
 war, pestilence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of se- 
 cession. To break up ! to break up this great govcrnm.ent ! 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 533 
 
 to dismember this great country ! to astonish Europe with an 
 act of folly, such as Europe for two centuries has never beheld 
 in any government ! No, sir ! no, sir ! There will be no se- 
 cession. Gentlemen are not serious when they talk of se- 
 cession. 
 
 Sir, I hear there is to be a convention held at Nashville. I 
 am bound to believe that if worthy gentlemen meet at Nash- 
 ville in convention, their object will be to adopt counsels con- 
 ciliatory — to advise the south to forbearance and moderation, 
 and to advise the north to forbearance and moderation, and to 
 inculcate principles of brotherly love, and affection, and attach- 
 ment to the constitution of the country, as it now is. I be- 
 lieve, if the convention meet at all, it will be for this purpose ; 
 for certainly, if they meet for any purpose hostile to the Union, 
 they have been singularly inappropriate in their selection of a 
 place. I remember, sir, that when the treaty was concluded 
 between France and England, at the peace of Amiens, a stern 
 old Englishman and an orator, who disliked the terms of the 
 peace as ignommious to England, said in the house of commons, 
 that if King William could know the terms of that treaty, he 
 would turn in his coffiin. Let me commend this saying of Mr. 
 Windham, in all its emphasis, and in all its force, to any per- 
 sons who shall meet at Nashville for the purpose of concerting 
 measures for the overthi-ow of the Union of this country, over 
 the bones of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Sir, I wish to make two remarks, and hasten to a conclusion. 
 I wish to say, in regard to Texas, that if it should be hereafter 
 at any time the pleasure of the government of Texas to cede 
 to the United States a portion, larger or smaller, of her territory 
 which lies adjacent to New Mexico and north of the tliirty-fourth 
 degree of north latitude, to be formed into free states, for a fair 
 equivalent in money, or in the payment of her debt, I think it 
 an object well worthy the consideration of congress, and 1 shall 
 
534 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES. 
 
 be happy to concur in it myself, if I should be in the public 
 counsels of the country at the time. 
 
 I have another remark to make: In my observations upon 
 slavery as it has existed in the country, and as it now exists, 
 I have expressed no opinion of the mode of its extinguishment 
 or melioration. I will say, however, though I have nothing to 
 propose on that subject, because I do not deem myself so com- 
 petent as other gentlemen to consider it, that if any gentleman 
 from the south shall propose a scheme of colonization, to be 
 carried on by this government *ipon a lai-ge scale, for the trans- 
 portation of free colored people to any colony or any place ui 
 the world, I should be quite disposed to incur almost any de- 
 gree of expense to accomplish that object. Nay, sir, following 
 an example set here more than twenty years ago, by a great 
 man, then a senator from New York, I would return to Vir- 
 ginia, and through her for the benefit of the whole south, the 
 money received from the lands and territories ceded by her to 
 this government, for any such purpose as to relieve, in ^\■hole 
 or in part, or in any way, to diminish or deal beneficially with, 
 the free colored population of the southern states. I have said 
 that I honor Virginia for her cession of this territory. There 
 Irive been received into the treasury of the United States eighty 
 millions of dollars, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
 ceded by Virginia. If the residue should be sold at the same 
 rate, the whole aggregate will exceed two hundred millions of 
 dollars. If Virginia and the south see fit to adopt any proposi- 
 tion to relieve themselves from the free people of color among 
 them, they have m.y free consent that the government shall pay 
 them any sum of money out of its proceeds which may be ad- 
 equate to the purpose. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, I draw these observations' to a 
 close. I have spoken freely, and I meant to do so, I have 
 sought to make no display ; I have sought to enliven the occa- 
 sion by no animated discussion ; nor have I attempted any train 
 
THE COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTIOK. 535 
 
 of elaborate argument. I have sought only to speak my sen- 
 timents, fully and at large, heing desirous, once and for all, to 
 let the senate know, and to let the country know, the opinions 
 and sentiments which I entertain on all these subjects. These 
 opinions are not likely to be suddenly changed. If there be 
 any future service that I can render to the country, consistently 
 ^v•ith these sentiments and opinions, I shall cheerfully render it. 
 Ifthere be not, I shall still be glad to have an opportunity to 
 disburden my conscience from the bottom of my heart, and to 
 make known every political sentiment that therein exists. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibil- 
 ity or utility of secession, instead of dwelling in these caverns 
 of darkness, instead of groping with those ideas so full of all 
 that is horrid and horrible, let us come out into the light of 
 day ; let us enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union ; let us 
 cherish those hopes which belong to us; let us devote ourselves 
 to those great objects that are fit for our consideration and our 
 action ; let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the 
 importance of the duties that devolve upon us ; let our com- 
 prehension be as broad as the country for which we act, our as- 
 pirations as high as its certain destiny ; let us not be pigmies 
 in a case that calls for men. Never did there devolve, on any 
 generation of men, higher trusts than now devolve upon us for 
 the preservation of this constitution, and the harmony and peace 
 of all who are destined to live under it. Let us make our gen- 
 eration one of the strongest, and the brightest link, in that 
 golden chain which is destined, I fully believe, to grapple the 
 people of all the states to this constitution, for ages to come. 
 It is a great popular constitutional government, guarded by le- 
 gislation, by law, by judicature, and defended by the whole af- 
 fections of the people. No monarchical throne presses these 
 states together ; no iron chain of despotic power encircles them ; 
 they live and stand upon a government, popular in its form, 
 representative in its character, founded upon principles of equal- 
 
536 
 
 WEBSTER AND HIS MASTER-PIECES, 
 
 ity, and calculated, we hope, to last forever. In all its history 
 it has been beneficent ; it has trodden down no man's liberty ; 
 it has crushed no state. Its daily respiration is liberty and pa', 
 triotism ; its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, 
 and honorable love of glory and renown. It has received a 
 vast addition of territory. Large before, the country has now, 
 by recent events, become vastly larger. This republic now ex- 
 tends, with a vast breadth, across the whole continent. The 
 two great seas of the world wash the one and the other shore. 
 We realize on a mighty scale, the beautiful description of the 
 ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles — 
 
 "Now the broad shield complete the artist crowned, 
 With his last hand, and poured Uio ocean round; 
 In living silver seemed the waves to roll, 
 And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." 
 
 END OF A'OL. II. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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