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/ 
 
 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL, 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE BIRTH OF 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 JAN'UARV i8. 1882. 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rev. HENRY N. HUDSON, LL.D. 
 
 -(>0>®<00- 
 
 ^7^7'^> 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY GINN, HEATH, & CO. 
 
 1882. 
 
 9h 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 
 
 HENRY N. HUDSON, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 GiNN, Heath, & Co. : 
 J. S. Gushing, Printer, 16 Hawley Street, 
 Boston. 
 
TO THE 
 
 Saat-Blifijjltt mnXf, 
 
 OF BOSTON, AN ASSOCIATION KNIT AND HELD TOGETHER 
 IN MEMORY AND REVERENCE OF 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE IS RESPECTFULLY 
 INSCRIBED BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 Cambridge, Jan. i8, 1882. 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 -»o»- 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: One hundred years 
 y ago to-day, a very quiet but vastly fruitful event took 
 place up in New Hampshire : it was the birth of Daniel 
 Webster. The City of Boston and the State of Massachu- 
 setts had this great man in the councils of the Nation nearly 
 twenty-eiglit years ; and I think I may safely say that, from 
 his presence and services there, they have reaped more of 
 honour and of solid benefit than from all the other men they 
 have had in that place during the last two generations put 
 together. Such being the case, I had hoped that Boston 
 would remember her illustrious citizen, her peerless states- 
 man, and make some fitting commemoration of the day. 
 She has not seen fit to do so ; and this is one reason 
 why I have undertaken to do what I can, to manifest a 
 becoming respect for the hundredth anniversary of Daniel 
 Webster's birth. I fear, indeed, that Boston has not yet 
 fully recovered from that old disease under which she turned 
 away from her greatest and loveliest man, this too in his 
 gray-haired age, and even "struck him with her tongue, 
 most serpent-like, upon the very heart." In earlier days, she 
 seems indeed to have understood and appreciated Webster 
 pretty well ; yet I was much taken, some years ago, with a 
 remark made to me by the late Judge Redfield, that " Boston 
 never could get water enough together to float him." 
 
 5 
 
6 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 The theme I am to speak upon is one that lies very near 
 my heart, this too both as an American and as a man ; and 
 I propose to utter my thoughts with considerable plainness 
 and freedom. For, in truth, I have no popularity to lose, 
 and do not care to make any ; that being a tiling I have 
 no use for, nor should known what to do with, if I had it. 
 
 As Americans, we have a right to be proud, we ought to 
 be proud, it will do us good to be proud, of Daniel Webster. 
 He is the one imperial intellect of our nation ; altogether the 
 greatest and most catholic mind this country has produced. 
 In fact, he is not so properly one man as a multitude of men, 
 rather say, a multitudinous man; the varied powers, that are 
 commonly dispersed among other men, being massed and 
 consolidated in him. He stands second to none of our 
 lawyers ; and his arguments in the Supreme Court of the 
 United States probably did more than those of any other 
 one man, except Chief Justice Marshall, towards establishing 
 the principles and the practice of our national Constitution. 
 
 But Webster is something more than our greatest man : 
 he is one of the world's great men. Sage and venerable 
 Harvard, on mature consideration no doubt, has spoken him 
 for one of the seven great orators of the world. x\t the 
 theatre end of her superb Memorial Hall, which has the form 
 of a semicircular polygon, in as many gablets or niches rising 
 above the cornice, the seven heads, of gigantic size, stand 
 forth to public view. First, of course, is Demosthenes the 
 Greek ; second, also of course, Cicero the Roman ; third, 
 Saint John Chrysostom, an Asiatic Greek, born about the 
 middle of the fourth century ; fourth, Jaques Benigne Bos- 
 suet, the great French divine and author, contemporary with 
 Louis the Fourteenth ; fifth, William Pitt the elder, Earl of 
 Chatham, an Englishman ; sixth, Edmund Burke, an Irish- 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. / 
 
 man, probably the greatest genius of them all, though not 
 the greatest orator ; seventh, Daniel Webster. How authen- 
 tic the likenesses may be, I cannot say, except in the case 
 of Webster : here the likeness is true ; and, to my sense, 
 Webster's head is the finest of the seven, unless that of Bos- 
 suet may be set down as its peer. 
 
 In the world's volume of illustrious statesmen also, Web- 
 ster's name may justly hold up its head among the highest ; 
 very few men having, in this capacity, done so much for the 
 political order and welfare of mankind. As an author, again, 
 he stands very near, if not in, the foremost rank of English 
 classics ; some of his speeches, like those of Burke, holding 
 much the same relative place in what may be termed delib- 
 erative and argumentative discourse, as Paradise Lost holds 
 in epic poetry, AVordsworth's Ode on Ljimortality and his Ode 
 to Duty in lyrical poetry, and Shakespeare's four great trage- 
 dies in the sphere of dramatic art. But what, in this regard, 
 should make Webster especially dear and venerable to us is, 
 that he stands unquestionably at the head of our American 
 classics, and is perhaps the only one of our authors that will 
 live and be studied in future times : I hope indeed that 
 Bryant will so live also, and two or three others, but am far 
 from sure of it. For he must be a mighty tall man, I can 
 tell you, whose head touches the classic summit. 
 
 It seems to me that a great deal too much stress is apt to 
 be laid nowadays, at least among us, on the matter of style : 
 for a good style is not to be reached by making it a para- 
 mount aim : in that case the style becomes too self-con- 
 scious, thinks quite too much of itself; whereas the proper 
 virtue of style lies in its being kept altogether subordinate to 
 something else. And so the prime secret of a good style in 
 writing is, that words be used purely in their representative 
 
8 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 character, or as standing for things, and not at all for their 
 own sake. This it is that so highly distinguishes Webster's 
 style, — the best yet written on this continent. His language 
 is so transparent, that in reading him one seldom thinks of 
 it, and can hardly see it. In fact, the proper character 
 of his style is perfect, consummate manliness ; in which 
 quality I make bold to affirm that he has no superior in 
 the whole range of Englisli prose authorship : even Burke's 
 style, though richer and more varied, is hardly equal to his 
 in this supreme quality. And Webster, in his Autobiogra- 
 phy, touches the secret of this. '•' While in college," says 
 he, '•' I delivered two or three occasional addresses, which 
 were published. I trust they are forgotten : they were in 
 very bad taste. I had not then learned that all true power 
 in writing is in the idea, not in the style ; an error into 
 which the Ars rhetoric a, as it is usually taught, might easily 
 lead stronger heads than mine." 
 
 But Webster was not only a gi-eat lawyer, a great orator, 
 a great statesman, a great author, a mighty discourser : he 
 was emphatically a great man, — great in intellect, great in 
 eloquence, great in soul, great in character, and in all the 
 proper correspondences of greatness. Mr. Whipple, in 
 the admirable essay prefixed to his selection of Webster's 
 speeches, aptly and felicitously applies to him the phrase, 
 ''colossal manhood." I really do not know of any other 
 single phrase that fits the subject so well. Those who often 
 heard Webster in familiar conversation, if any such survive, 
 will probably tell us they never heard any one else who 
 approached him in that respect. On such occasions he 
 not seldom had the Bible for his theme ; and those who 
 listened to his talk thereon could hardly choose but believe 
 that either the Bible was inspired or else the speaker was. 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 9 
 
 But, in "the talk that man holds with week-day man," his 
 greatness was so tempered with sweetness and amiabihty, 
 and with the finer and softer graces of eloquence, that one 
 naturally lost the sense of it. For he had no airs of supe- 
 riority ; would chat with the humblest as with a brother or 
 a friend. And I have it from those who knew him long and 
 well, that intimacy never wore off the impression of his great- 
 ness : on the contrary, none could get so near him, or stay 
 near him so long, but that he still kept growing upon them. 
 A test that few men indeed can stand ! But he had some- 
 thing better than all this : he was as lovely in disposition as 
 he was great in mind : a larger, warmer, manlier heart, 
 a heart more alive with tenderness and all the gentle affec- 
 tions, was never lodged in a human breast. Of this I could 
 give many telling and touching proofs from his private his- 
 tory, if time would permit. It has been worthily noted how 
 a litde child, on entering a room where Webster was seated, 
 and looking up into his great eyes, as these grew soft and 
 mellow and sweet at the vision, would run, instinctively, 
 into his arms and nestle in his bosom, as if yearning to get 
 as near as possible to that great, tender heart. So that I 
 make no scruple of regarding Daniel Webster as the crown- 
 ing illustration of our American manhood. 
 
 In the higher elements of oratory, I find, or seem to find, 
 a close resemblance between Webster and Burke. Both are 
 consummate masters of rhetoric ; yet the rhetoric of both 
 is generally charged to the utmost with energy of thought : 
 no hollowness here ; no " sweet smoke " ; nothing of mere 
 surface-splendour ; all is as solid as marble. Many of Web- 
 ster's strains in this kind have been long and often used for 
 exercise in declamation ; but this has only proved that no 
 frequency of reading or hearing can wear the freshness and 
 
lO WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 verdure out of them. And, in the line of parliamentary elo- 
 quence, nearly every thing else produced in this country 
 seems to me tame and flat beside Webster's ; while Burke's 
 has wellnigh spoilt for me all else in the language except 
 Webster's. 
 
 In the common principles of all social and civil order, 
 Burke is no doubt our best and wisest teacher. In handling 
 the particular questions of his time, he always involves those 
 principles, and brings them to their practical bearings, where 
 they most " come home to the business and bosoms of men." 
 And his pages are everywhere bright with the highest and 
 purest political morality. Webster, also, is abundantly at 
 home in those common principles : his giant grasp wields 
 them with the ease and grace of habitual mastery : there- 
 withal he is by far the ablest and clearest expounder we have 
 of what may be termed the specialties of our American 
 political system. So that we can hardly touch any point of 
 our National State, but that he will approve himself at once 
 our wisest and our pleasantest teacher. In fact, I hardly 
 know which to commend most, his political wisdom, his 
 ponderous logic, the perfect manliness of his style, or the 
 high-souled enthusiasm which generally animates and tones 
 his discourse ; the latter qualities being no less useful to 
 inspire the student with a noble patriotic ardour than the 
 former to arm him with sound and fruitful instruction. 
 
 I am not unmindful tliat, in thus placing Webster along- 
 side of Burke, I may be inviting upon him a trial something 
 too severe. I do not indeed regard him as the peer of 
 Burke ; but it is my deliberate judgment that he comes nearer 
 to Burke, and can better stand a fair comparison with him, 
 than any other English-speaking statesman. In pure force 
 of intellect, Burke fnay be something ahead of him, and is 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. II 
 
 far beyond him in strength and richness of imagination ; for 
 he was, as Johnson described him, emphatically " a constel- 
 lation " : on the other hand, Bm'ke's tempestuous sensibility 
 sometimes whirled him into exorbitancies, where Webster's 
 cooler temperament and more balanced make-up would 
 probably have held him firm in his propriety. And Webster, 
 though far above imitating any man, abounds in marks of a 
 very close and diligent study of Burke. It seems specially 
 noteworthy, that he was thoroughly at one with Burke in an 
 intense aversion to political metaphysics, and to those specu- 
 lative abstractions which, if attempted to be carried into the 
 practical work of government, can never do any thing but 
 mischief. 
 
 This reminds me to say something of the distinguished 
 Southerner who was so long associated with Webster in our 
 national councils. — John Caldwell Calhoun was a very able 
 man, — a man, too, of most pure and honourable character ; 
 a perfect gentleman indeed, as Webster also was. And the 
 two men had a profound respect for each other. Webster 
 admired the genius of Calhoun, and honoured him for his 
 high personal worth. Many a hard pounding, indeed, they 
 gave each other in the national Senate ; but their hard 
 poundings were always so marked with bland and good- 
 natured dignity, that no ill feeling ever sprang up between 
 them : each had indeed, and felt that he had, in the other a 
 foeman worthy of his steel ; and their official intercourse may 
 be justly set down as a model of senatorial courtesy. But 
 Calhoun, it seems to me, was rather a great political meta- 
 physician than a statesman, in the right sense of the term. 
 In the latter part of his life at least, he was much given to 
 refining among political abstractions, where all sorts of im- 
 practicable theories may easily be knocked together, and as 
 
12 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL, 
 
 easily knocked to pieces. Herein Webster differed from 
 him in ioto ; and would never go along at all with the noble 
 Southerner in those speculative intricacies where men " find 
 no end, in wandering mazes lost." For one of his prime 
 characteristics was a large, healthy, vigorous, unfailing com- 
 mon sense, which always withheld him from extremes and 
 onesidedness, and kept him from undertaking to upset or 
 overrule experience and fact by dint of fine-spun political 
 theories. He was indeed a very monarch of common 
 sense ; in which respect he probably surpassed Burke. 
 And this, I take it, comes pretty near being the sovereign 
 element of great statesmanship. — Strange, by the way, that 
 the thing should be called common sense, while in reality it 
 is one of the most uncommon things in the world. But 
 then, though extremely rare in possession, it is very common 
 in recognition : in fact, nearly all men feel it, though few 
 men have it. 
 
 Accordingly in a speech delivered on the 2 2d of March, 
 1838, Webster, after referring to certain questions wherein 
 Calhoun had quite shifted off from his old ground, has the 
 following : " The honourable member now takes these ques- 
 tions with him into the upper heights of metaphysics, into the 
 region of those refinements and subtile arguments virhich he 
 rejected with so much decision in 181 7. He quits his old 
 ground of common sense, experience, and the general under- 
 standing of the country, for a flight among theories and 
 ethereal abstractions." I must add, that Calhoun, by his 
 course in this respect, probably did a good deal more than 
 any other one man in tlie country towards hatching and 
 breeding the enormous mischief of our late civil war. It is 
 said that '' whom the gods would destroy they first make 
 mad " ; and I can hardly conceive a surer way of drawing 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 1 3 
 
 men into suicidal madness than by fascinating them with 
 metaphysical subtilties and abstraction-mongering. 
 
 It is, then, full time that Webster should be reinstated in 
 the place he held some thirty-five years ago in the minds 
 and hearts of the American people. He is as great now as 
 he was then, for time gnaws no breaches in workmanship so 
 solid as his ; and his wise counsels are as applicable and 
 as needful in all the leading national questions of this day 
 as they were when his great living voice was heard amongst 
 us. We cannot afford to forget him, or to leave his elo- 
 quence and wisdom out of our mental feeding. For the 
 same high lessons, the same sacred inspirations, are needed 
 still ; as much so, perhaps, as when his patriotic ardour and 
 his ponderous logic knocked the brains out of Nullification 
 and Secession in the halls of Congress. For these reasons, 
 and sundry others, I was heartily glad when, in 1879, ^ 
 choice selection of his speeches, edited, and well edited 
 too, by Mr. Edwin Percy ^Vhipple, of this city, was given 
 to the public in a form much more accessible to the people 
 generally than ever before. Surely the people of this nation 
 cannot do a better thing for themselves and their children 
 than to cherish the name and memory of Daniel Webster 
 among their dearest household treasures ; and this not only 
 as the fairest outcome of American genius and manhood, 
 but as their wisest and most attractive teacher in all that is 
 or should be nearest their hearts as citizens of this great 
 and free Republic. 
 
 As it is now nearly thirty years since Webster died, I may 
 safely presume that many of you, perhaps most of you, 
 never heard or saw him. I will therefore endeavour to give 
 some personal description of the man. I saw him a great 
 
14 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 many times, and heard him repeatedly ; and you may be 
 sure my eyes and ears were seldom idle or wandering when 
 they had him in view. He was indeed incomparably the 
 finest-looking, rather say the grandest-looking, man I ever 
 set eyes on : I doubt whether, in personal appearance, his 
 peer was to be found anywhere on the planet during his 
 time ; and I can well accept as authentic the remark said 
 to have been made by some one, that Daniel Webster must 
 be a humbug, for no man could possibly be so great as he 
 looked to be. In stature he was of medium height, about 
 five feet and ten or eleven inches, I should say ; his form 
 well-proportioned, robust, and vigorous ; his frame close- 
 knit and firm-set ; his step resolute and fearless ; his carriage 
 erect and manly ; his presence dignified and impressive in 
 the highest degree. His complexion \vas dark, insomuch 
 that he is said in his early years to have been familiarly 
 called '' black Dan " ; his hair a pure raven black, till time 
 sprinkled it with snows. I am little booked in physiology, 
 but I should say his temperament was bilious sanguineous, 
 as Burke's appears to have been nervous sanguineous. His 
 features w^ere large and strong, but finely chiselled ; his neck 
 thick and sinewy, — a fitting support for the magnificent 
 dome poised upon it ; his chin prominent just to the point 
 where firmness stops short of obstinacy ; his mouth calm 
 and muscular; his eyes big, dark, and blazing, — in his 
 excited moments they literally seemed two globes of fire ; 
 his forehead high, broad, projecting, and massive, — a very 
 cathedral indeed of thought ; and the whole suffused and 
 harmonized with an air of majestic grace. 
 
 So that the predominant expression of his face and head 
 was that of immense power, but of power held perfectly in 
 hand, and therefore sure to know its time. Hawthorne, in 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. I 5 
 
 his Marble Fauii, has an expression so fine in itself and so 
 apposite to Webster, that ever since my first reading of the 
 book, it has stuck to my memory in connection with him. 
 Speaking of the celebrated bronze statue of Marcus Aurehus 
 the Emperor, he says, '' its very look is at once a command and 
 a benediction." In his later years, Webster was often spoken 
 of as ''the godhke Daniel"; and, sure enough, the heads 
 that I have seen of old god Jupiter do not show an ampler 
 dome or a more commanding outlook of intellectual majesty. 
 Doubtless it was greatly owing to this expression of innate 
 power which radiated from him, that even in his old age, 
 when many minds were full of devouring thoughts about 
 him, wherever he was present in person he was like Daniel 
 in the lions' den : the lions might indeed growl behind their 
 teeth, but they swallowed their rage, and dared not open 
 their mouths to bite him. — Webster was a modest man; 
 every thing about him was unaffected, genuine ; no assump- 
 tion, no arrogance, no conceit : his dignity of manner, his 
 greatness of look, were native to him ; and the impression 
 his speaking always made upon me was such that I cannot 
 better describe it than as follows : 
 
 With grave 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd 
 A pillar of State ; deep on his front engraven 
 Deliberation sat, and public care ; 
 And princely counsel in his face did shine 
 
 Majestic : sage he stood, 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
 Drew audience and attention still as night, 
 Or Summer's noontide air. 
 
 Webster's vast power of intellect is admitted by all : but 
 it is not so generally known that he was as sweet as he was 
 
1 6 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 powerful, and nowhere more powerful than in his sweetness. 
 When thoroughly aroused in public speech, there was indeed 
 something terrible about him ; his huge burning eye seemed 
 to bore a man through and through : but in his social hours, 
 when his massive brow and features were lighted up with a 
 characteristic smile, it was like a gleam of Paradise ; no 
 person who once saw that full-souled smile of his could ever 
 forget it. His goodly person, his gracious bearing, and his 
 benignant courtesy made him the delight of every circle he 
 entered : in the presence of ladies, especially, his great 
 powers seemed to robe themselves spontaneously in beauty ; 
 and his attentions were so delicate and so respectful, that 
 they could not but be charmed. 
 
 In the Summer of 1839, Webster, with several members 
 of his family, made a private visit to England ; and it is both 
 pleasant and edifying to learn how he impressed the people 
 there. Hallam, we are told, was '^ extremely struck by his 
 appearance, deportment, and conversation." Carlyle pro- 
 nounced him " a magnificent specimen " ; adding, withal, 
 that, " as a parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to 
 back him at first sight against all the extant world." Mr. 
 John Kenyon travelled with him four days. Writing, in 
 1853, to Mr. George Ticknor, of Boston, he says that the 
 acquaintance thus formed " enabled me to know and to love 
 not only the great-brained, but large-hearted, genial man ; 
 and this love I have held for him ever since, through good 
 report and evil report ; and I shall retain this love for him to 
 the day of my own departure." Again, referring to some of 
 Webster's playful sallies : " Fancy how delightful and how 
 attaching I found all this genial bearing from so famous a 
 man ; so affectionate, so little of a humbug. His greatness 
 sat so easy and calm upon him ; he never had occasion to 
 whip himself into a froth." 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 1/ 
 
 Before proceeding further, I must frankly admit certain 
 drawbacks and exceptions in the character of my theme. 
 For I have hved too long in this world to approve of every 
 thing that any man does, or to expect any man to approve 
 of every tiling that I do. And I remember, also, the saying 
 of a verv wise author, that '•' the web of our life is of a 
 mingled yarn, good and ill together : our virtues would be 
 proud, if our faults whipped them not ; and our faults would 
 despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues." And 
 so, to be sure, I have never known any man or woman who 
 seemed to me absolutely perfect, and I venture to doubt 
 whether there be one such now in this room : I have indeed 
 met several who thought or seemed to think tliemselves so ; 
 but in that case I alwavs like to know what their neighbours 
 think about it. At all events, Webster, like other men, cer- 
 tainly had his faults and imperfections ; and, amidst so much 
 that was great and nol)le, candour may not permit the blem- 
 ishes to be passed over in silence ; though I hope to keep 
 ever in mind the saying of Burke, " He censures God, who 
 quarrels with the imperfections of men." And even the 
 faults which I find in Webster appear to me mainly, if not 
 entirely, as things lying on the outside and surface of his 
 character, not as entering into the heart and substance of it. 
 
 In the first place, then, it is thought by many, and I am 
 apt to think myself, that Webster sometimes got too ner- 
 vously anxious to be President of the United States. A 
 great authority tells us that ••' ambition is the last infirmity 
 of noble minds." Webster undoubtedly had that infirmity 
 in a high degree. As far back as 1834, he began to be 
 talked of for the Presidency ; and from that time onward 
 his aspirations looked, probably with increasing strength, 
 to that office. But I do not believe, and I challenge any- 
 
1 8 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 body to prove, that he ever did any tiling wrong, or any 
 thing mean, tliat he ever swerved a hair from his honest 
 convictions of duty, in order to gain the office. Nor did 
 he affect any indifference, or use any arts of conceahnent, 
 about it : all was frank, open, and above-board with him ; 
 no intrigue, no ])laying at hide-and-seek, no political trick- 
 ery, had roothold in his ambition. On this head, we may, 
 with supreme fitness, apply to him what he himself said of 
 Calhoun : ''If he had aspirations, they were high and hon- 
 ourable and noble : there was nothing grovelling or low or 
 meanly selfish, that came near the head or the heart of Mr. 
 Calhoun." 
 
 The truth is, Webster had early and honestly identified 
 himself with what was then known as the Whig party against 
 what was called the Jackson party. The latter had openly 
 put forth as its motto, " To the victors belong the spoils " : 
 but the Whig politicians soon became even more recklessly 
 eager to act on this principle than their opponents were. 
 Webster did not share with them at all in this passion ; he 
 set his face against it utterly : and, though they wanted his 
 help, and gloried in his leadership, they were still dissat- 
 isfied with him because he would not " narrow his mind, 
 and to party give up what was meant for mankind." He 
 told the country again and again, that the spoils system, as 
 it is called, would, if persisted in, " entirely change the 
 character of our government." We have been hearing a 
 great deal lately, none too much though, about the cor- 
 ruption and demoralization growing out of this abominable 
 system, \\'ell, Webster foresaw and foretold the whole evil 
 and danger of it fifty years ago ; his most emphatic repro- 
 bation of it being uttered in a speech at Worcester, on the 
 1 2th of October, 1832. But the thing was vastly popular 
 
~ WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. I9 
 
 then, and brought immense eclat and success to the authors 
 of it. The poUticians all went for it of course, and egged 
 it on as a grand step of progress and reform ; for such men 
 are always sure to be sailing with the wind, it being the 
 heisht of their ambition to serve as weathercocks on the top 
 of an edifice, exalted for their levity and versatility, so as to 
 indicate each shifting of the popular gale. But Webster was 
 quite another sort of man ; a man built high and strong in 
 moral courage : and the great trouble with him was, that he 
 was ever stemming some headlong current of popularity, and 
 indeed " striding so far aliead of the time as to dwarf him- 
 self by the distance." I could point out many instances 
 where he planted himself square against the popular rush and 
 clamour of the day. So he stood inexorably firm against the 
 incorporation of Texas ; and he did this expressly on the 
 ground, that he never would consent to add a single foot to 
 the area of slavery. Here, again, the thing was hugely popu- 
 lar : and so even Northern Freesoilers, as they were then 
 called, went for it, and it was carried by their votes ; Webster, 
 meanwhile, solemnly forewarning them that it would one day 
 shake the government to its foundations. And, sure enough, 
 that one act was the seminal principle, the prohfic germ, of 
 our civil war, with all its terrible, its unspeakable retributions. 
 Though myself for many years among the staunchest of 
 Whigs, yet I must now confess that the Whig party, as a 
 whole, was a confoundedly mean party, — mean in its impo- 
 tent craving for " the loaves and fishes," mean in its unblush- 
 ing preference of success without merit to merit without 
 success ; false to its professions, false to its leaders, false to 
 itself. But it has ever been the curse of democracies to be 
 infested with greedy demagogues, that is to say, with mere 
 politicians, — probably the meanest and most noxious ani- 
 
20 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 mals on tlie planet. They will at all times eat any quantity 
 of dirt to the people, to get the people's votes. This Web- 
 ster never did, never would do. Accordingly he was in fact 
 treated better by his political opponents than by his polit- 
 ical associates. In 1836 the AVhigs nominated ]\Ir. Clay. 
 This was a good nomination, and Webster sustained it 
 heartily. Failing to elect Clay, the party then got badly 
 smitten with the disease of " availability " ; in other words, 
 the WJiig politicians were dying for the spoils. In the 
 strength of that disease, they elected General Harrison in 
 1840, and General Taylor in 1848 : but they failed to elect 
 General Scott in 1852 ; whereupon the party died of that 
 disease, as indeed it richly deserved to do. I have it on 
 good authority, that, soon after the nomination of Scott, 
 Webster, then struggling with his last sickness, said to his 
 son Fletcher, " My son, never undertake to serve the Whig 
 party ; Sir, the Whig party cannot be served." 
 
 I say we all know that Webster aspired to the Presidency. 
 Well, he had a right to aspire to the Presidency ; he ought 
 to have aspired to it ; he must have been either more or less 
 than a man, not to have so aspired : for he could hardly 
 help seeing, what everybody else saw, that he was generally 
 thought to be altogether the fittest man in the country for 
 that place. And here I am minded to relate a rather appo- 
 site passage that occurred during the presidential campaign 
 of 1852. The matter was told me by Mr. William Bates, (I 
 think liis name was AVilliam,) a prominent lawyer and an 
 estimable gentleman, of Westfield, Massachusetts, long a 
 personal and political friend of Webster. It so happened 
 that they met and rode together in a car. Their talk natur- 
 ally ran a good deal upon the political movements of the 
 day. In the course of their talk, ]\Ir. Bates said to Webster, 
 
WEBSTER CEXTENNIAL. 21 
 
 " Well; Mr. Webster, I have thought a great deal on the sub- 
 ject, and have often asked myself whether, after all, the 
 Presidency could do any thing for you : and really, Mr. 
 Webster, I doubt whether it could ; I am inclined to think 
 you are quite as well without it." Webster replied : "To be 
 frank with you, Mr. Bates, the same question has occurred 
 to me. And perhaps it is as you say ; perhaps I am just as 
 well without that office. But, Sir, it is a great office ; why, 
 Mr. Bates, it is the greatest office in the world : and I am 
 but a man, Sir ; I want it, I want it." Now, if there be any 
 man who thinks a jot the worse of Daniel Webster for all this, 
 I confess I would a little rather not ride in the same coach 
 with that man. 
 
 Webster did not rise to that office, or rather the office did 
 not rise to him : it could have added no honour to him ; he 
 would have added much honour to it. In truth, as matters 
 then stood, he was too great for the place, or rather he was 
 a greater man than the politicians thought it for their interest 
 to have there. For our politicians, to be sure, like to have 
 their pockets well filled, or their ships well ballasted, with the 
 office-patronage of the government ; and so they of course 
 prefer to see the Presidency held by a putty-head or a dough- 
 face ; that is to say, a man whom they can work and wind 
 and manage. Webster felt the event deeply, indeed, too 
 deeply. And what I rather regret than censure in him is, 
 that he did not view the result with that calmness, that phi- 
 losophy, which the world had a right to expect from so great 
 a man ; that he allowed himself to be grieved and worried 
 by the disappointment more than in reason he ought. 
 Doubtless his grief was the deeper, because he was con- 
 scious of having served his country faithfully and well ; for 
 the sense of such injustice joined with such ingratitude cuts 
 
22 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 to the quick : but he should have stayed his lion-hearted 
 manhood on the fact, notorious in all ages, that politicians, 
 in their miserable shortsightedness, will at any time sacrifice 
 their best friends in the vain hope of gaining support from 
 their opponents. 
 
 In the second place, Webster was something too loose in 
 his money matters. Though second to none of our states- 
 men as a financier for the public, he allowed his own private 
 finances to be much disordered ; was too careless of incurring 
 debts, not careful enough of paying them. This I reckon a 
 greater fault than the former : in that, he only wronged him- 
 self; in this, he did wrong to others. Of course nobody 
 can suppose he meant to keep from others their dues ; but 
 this is not quite enough. Probably the right explanation is, 
 that he had his big head swarming with big thoughts, and so 
 was oblivious in this point. 
 
 A little incident has come to my knowledge, which may 
 here illustrate his character. I have been told that, on some 
 occasion, Mr. Seaton, one of the editors of The National 
 JnfelUgencer, called on Webster in Washington, and had a 
 talk with him. During their interview, a beggar-man came 
 into the room, and solicited an alms. Webster, without 
 pausing in his talk, thrust his fingers into his vest pocket, 
 pulled out a bill, and handed it to the man, who then went 
 out. When the talk came to a pause, Mr. Seaton asked 
 Webster if he knew what he had given to that beggar-man. 
 "Beggar-man?" said Webster; "what beggar-man?" 
 " Why," said Mr. Seaton, " the one who came in just now, 
 while you were talking." " O, yes," said Webster, "it seems 
 to me I do remember something about it. Well, what did I 
 give him? " "A hundred-dollar bill," said Mr. Seaton. 
 
 Now, a man may have a right, though even that is doubt- 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 23 
 
 ful, to be oblivions of what is due in this kind from others to 
 himself; but no one has a right to be oblivious of what is 
 due from himself to others. True, Webster was as far as 
 possible from being either stingy or grasping. If prodigal 
 of his own means, he was nowise greedy of other men's. 
 Neither did he ever use, or abuse, his place in the govern- 
 ment to the ends of self-enrichment. Herein it may well be 
 wished that more of our present national law- makers were 
 guilty of his worst fault : in that case, I suspect their patri- 
 otic toils would not prove quite so remunerative as they often 
 do. Webster, indeed, cared nothing for money, while at the 
 same time he had " a tear for pity, and a hand open as day 
 for melting charity " ; and whatever cash he at any time had 
 in his purse ran away as freely as water, whether in payment 
 of debts or in relief to the needy. I am only sorry he was 
 not more mindful to be just before being generous either to 
 others or to himself. 
 
 But then it is to be borne in mind, that, in giving himself 
 up to the public service, he was obliged to relinquish the 
 greater part of a large professional income. After being 
 twice elected to Congress in his native State, he removed 
 from Portsmouth to Boston in 181 7, where he forthwith 
 entered upon a career of great professional distinction, and 
 his legal practice soon rose to the amount of twenty thousand 
 dollars a-year ; which was a prodigious income for a lawyer in 
 those times. The good people of Boston repeatedly urged 
 him to let himself be nominated for Congress, which he 
 repeatedly declined, chiefly on the ground that he could not 
 afford it. At length, in 1823, they may be said to have 
 forced the nomination upon him : he reluctantly yielded, 
 and was elected. After serving through one Congress, he 
 was elected again in 1825, having 4,990 votes out of 5,000. 
 
24 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Now our national legislators at that time were paid only eight 
 dollars a- day, and this only during the actual session of Con- 
 gress. No wonder Webster held back from such a curtail- 
 ment of his means. For he was by nature free, generous, 
 and magnificent in his dispositions. Later in life, his vast 
 reputation, tlie dignity and elegance of his manners, the en- 
 gaging suavity and affability of his conversation, in a word, 
 the powerful magnetism of the man, drew a great deal of high 
 company round him, and necessarily made his expenses 
 large. Then too all the money in the country could not 
 measure the worth of his services. Still it would have been 
 better for his peace of mind, and would have saved a deal 
 of ugly scandal, if he had kept strictly within the small 
 returns which his great public services brought in to him. 
 
 It is but just to add that in his closing years his mind 
 became very uneasy on this account. In the Spring of 1852, 
 he being then in President Fillmore's cabinet, a fee of 
 $15,000 was offered him by Goodyear & Co. to engage his 
 services in their great india-rubber case. He wanted the 
 fee, but was very loth to undertake the case, as it seemed to 
 him hardly becoming for one in his position to do so. His 
 friends, however, the President among them, strongly advised 
 him to accept the offer : so he argued and won the case. 
 He is said to have expressed a wish for one more such fee, 
 as this would discharge hi^s debts, and make him a free man. 
 
 Touching this matter, certain people are wont to speak 
 of Webster as if n® other great man had ever run into like 
 embarrassments. Now, Charles Watson Wentworth, tlie cel- 
 ebrated Marquess of Rockingham, died in 1782, while he 
 was Prime Minister. The day before his death, he gave 
 special directions to have a codicil added to his will, can- 
 celling all acknowledgments of debt due to him from his 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 2$ 
 
 " admirable friend, Edmund Burke." The amount of Burke's 
 indebtedness to his lordship is not precisely known ; but it 
 is said to have been not less than ^30,000. As money was 
 then probably worth twice as much as in Webster's time, 
 this would make a sum nearly equivalent to $300,000 in our 
 reckoning. But Rockingham's mind was framed in such 
 nobility of justice, that he seemed to think himself only hon- 
 oured by such munificence to the transcendant statesman of 
 his age ; whose services, however, to his country had not, up 
 to that time, come anywhere near those rendered to this 
 nation by Webster. But both these great men were alike 
 drawn away from living for themselves, and from work that 
 pays, to a course of living and working for mankind, — a 
 service that commonly has to be its own reward. 
 
 Webster's service to the country was fully commensurate 
 with his greatness as a man. It may well be questioned, 
 indeed, whether even Washington himself did the nation 
 greater service tlian he : for without our American Union 
 the achievement of our American independence could hardly 
 have proved a blessing. And so I think the history shows 
 us that, during the interval from the Revolution to the Con- 
 stitution, the States were not nearly so well off as they had 
 been under the British rule. That rule was of course im- 
 perial ; and such, in substance and effect, is the rule of our 
 national government now. And, surely, some such para- 
 mount and inclusive authority was and yer must be need- 
 ful in order to keep peace between the States ; otherwise 
 it were hardly possible to prevent a chronic antagonism and 
 bloody quarrels from springing up amongst them. There 
 seems to be, indeed, for the American people, no middle 
 or tenable ground between the government of our present 
 
26 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 national Union and that state of things, at once horrible and 
 contemptible, which we call Mexicanism ; and, rather than 
 the nation should become Mexicanized, it were far better 
 that the whole land, with all the people on it, should be 
 sunk in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Be this as it may, with Webster, love of that Union, in- 
 generate in his nature, and cherished by his education, had 
 grown with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. 
 He was elected to the national Senate in 1827. Early in 
 his senatorial career he saw that certain causes or forces 
 were working deeply and silently, and therefore the more 
 dangerously, to bring about a rupture of that Union. He 
 also saw that, if the structure of our national State were 
 once demolished, it could never be rebuilt. He also saw 
 that, for preventing this, two things were needful : first, that 
 the people needed to have their minds rightly and thor- 
 oughly informed in the nature and principles of our Con- 
 stitution ; second, that they needed to have their hearts 
 inspired with a deep, earnest, heroic passion of nationality, 
 with an ardent, self-sacrificing devotion to the Union, as it was. 
 
 Thus his eye took in the whole situation, his mighty grasp 
 of thought surrounded the entire question. He therefore 
 set himself, with all his powers of mind and body, to the 
 work, and never ceased till the work was done. For more 
 than twenty years, it was the main burden of all his thought 
 and all his discourse. He was a great lawyer, and knew the 
 law ; he was a great orator, and could speak what he knew ; 
 he was a great statesman, with his mind thoroughly at home 
 in the creative and controlling forces of social, civil, and 
 political well-being : therewithal he had that indispensable 
 element of all high statesmanship, a large, warm, tender 
 heart : and in the strength of this combination he saw and 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 2/ 
 
 felt that the preservation of our national Union was the one 
 thing needful above all others to the welfare of the American 
 people. So, in due time, he just educated and kindled the 
 people up to his own height, filling their minds with his 
 thoughts, their hearts with his fervour, their mouths with 
 his words. In doing this, he won the title of the great Ex- 
 pounder and the great Defender of the American Constitu- 
 tion, and surely no title was ever better deserved. On the 
 26th of January, 1830, he met the great champion of South- 
 ern Nullification in the Senate, wrestled with him, threw 
 him, and broke every bone in his body. I think I may 
 safely affirm that this reply to Hayne produced a greater 
 effect than any other speech ever delivered in the world ; 
 excepting, of course, those recorded in the Bible. Speeches 
 greater in themselves have indeed been made : Webster him- 
 self has several that are greater ; and some of Burke's, I 
 suspect, are greater than any of his ; but no one of Burke's, 
 nor any other of Webster's, came up to that in effectiveness. 
 This was greatly owing to the peculiar circumstances of the 
 time, and the state of the public mind. The tide of dis- 
 union sentiment was then setting in fast and strong ; men's 
 minds were becoming deeply excited and agitated with 
 doubts and misgivings ; on all hands, the worth and stability 
 of the Union were drawn in question : Webster turned that 
 tide completely, and it has gone on ebbing ever since : in 
 short, that speech made, and marks, the beginning of a 
 new era in our national life : from that time forward, other 
 thoughts and other feelings took fast roothold in the minds 
 and hearts of the people. 
 
 Mr. Hayne was a superb man, able, eloquent, honourable, 
 high-souled. Not long after Webster's speech, he withdrew 
 from the Senate, and was replaced by a much greater cham- 
 
28 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 pion of the same cause, who, meanwhile, had resigned the 
 office of A^ice President for that very purpose. When the 
 question came up again, Mr. Calhoun waited till most of the 
 Senators on the other side had said the best they could for 
 the Union ; he then took the floor, and in a rapture of logic 
 tore their arguments all to shreds, and sent tliem flying like 
 straws in a tempest. Then came Webster's turn. So, on 
 the 1 6th of February, 1833, he took the floor, and just drove 
 a huge wedge of adamantine logic right through the centre 
 of Calhoun's masterly argument, splitting it clean asunder 
 from end to end. Nullification was now fairly pounded to a 
 jelly, nor was it ever after able to resume the form of bone 
 and muscle in Congress. Then and tliere it was that the 
 real battles of the Union were fought and won. For the 
 cause had to be tried in the courts of legislative reason before 
 it could come to trial in the field of battle ; nor, in all human 
 probability, would it ever have triumphed in the latter, if its 
 right so to triumph had not first been made good in the 
 former : and that this right was there and thus made good, 
 was mainly owing, under God, to the Herculean intellect, the 
 mighty eloquence, the great soul, the generous and compre- 
 hensive wisdom of Daniel Webster. 
 
 Of course we all understand that slavery was at the bottom 
 of this whole business. Other causes were indeed often 
 alleged, but this was only a disguise, and probably deceived 
 nobody. Now Webster hated slavery much, and on all 
 proper occasions he was downright and outspoken in his 
 aversion to it. He thought it a great moral, social, and 
 political evil, a consuming cancer, the iinmcdicabile mdnus 
 of the social body ; and he often so declared himself. He 
 also saw, what I suppose we all see now, that there was no 
 power in the country which could kill slavery but the national 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 2g 
 
 government, and that the national government could do this 
 only in the exercise of its military power, and in a case of 
 actual war, — civil war ; and this was a remedy which, vastly 
 to his credit, he could not bear to think of. 
 
 I believe — I hope you all believe — that love is, in gen- 
 eral, if not universally, a higher, better, stronger force than 
 hate. I also hold, — do not you ? — that love of that which 
 is good is a better and stronger principle than hatred of that 
 which is bad ; though I have nothing to say against hatred 
 of what is bad. I have said that Webster hated slavery 
 much : he did so, his whole life proves it ; but he loved the 
 Union more, yes, a good deal more, than he hated slavery. 
 He believed slavery to be bad ; he believed the Union to be 
 good. That love was, indeed, all through his public life, a 
 passion with him ; nay, more, it was f/ie master-passion of 
 his soul : it had penetrated every fibre of his being. To his 
 eye, " Earth had not any thing to show more fair " than the 
 august and beautiful fabric of our national State. That this 
 mighty structure, this masterpiece of political architecture, 
 should be laid in tlie dust, was too much for him : the very 
 thought of it literally wrung his heart with anguish. His 
 supreme desire was, to have the Union so strengthened, so 
 established in the minds and hearts of the people, so bound 
 up, so interwoven with their dearest household ties and 
 affections, that neither slavery nor any other power should 
 be able to prevail against it. 
 
 Now there was a considerable and a growing class of peo- 
 ple at the North who got so possessed with an all-absorbing, 
 all-consuming liatred of slavery, that they went to hating the 
 Union on slavery's account : on all hands their orators were 
 denouncing the Constitution as " a covenant with Hell " ; 
 were openly avowing the wish, nay, the purpose, of having 
 
30 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 it exploded ; and their burning words were threatening to 
 kindle such a fire as would burn it down. Even Washing- 
 ton himself also, and others who had the strongest claims to 
 gratitude and veneration as the founders and benefactors 
 of our Republic, were daily dragged forth by them, to be 
 roasted in the fires, or tortured on the racks of detraction 
 and defamation ; like men desecrating the sepulchres and 
 exhuming the bones of their fathers, in order to gibbet them 
 before the world. At the same time, there was a consider- 
 able and a growing class of people at the South, who got 
 so possessed with an all-absorbing, all-consuming love of 
 slavery, that they also went to hating the Union for slavery's 
 sake, and openly embarked in a crusade for breaking it up. 
 Though the spirit of disunion had been thrashed out of the 
 ugly form of Nullification, still it was not dead ; and it soon 
 after reappeared in the garb of a very gentle, harmless, 
 smiling lady, named Peaceable Secession. 'I'hus the extrem- 
 ists of both sections, the extreme haters of slavery at the 
 North, and the extreme lovers of slavery at the South, were 
 practically leagued together in a common cause, conjointly 
 aiming to break up the Union, to demolish the fabric of 
 our National State, at once the fortress and the temple of 
 American freedom ; though, to be sure, they were doing 
 this from opposite motives, the former to destroy slavery, 
 the latter to perpetuate it. Divided in their ultimate aims, 
 they were nevertheless united in their present purpose. And 
 the war of words between them kept waxing hotter and 
 hotter year after year. 
 
 At length, in 1850, the thing was visibly growing to a head. 
 Webster saw, — at least he believed, — that the South were 
 in dead earnest, that they had worked themselves up to the 
 full bent, and were really of a mind to do what they were 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 3 1 
 
 threatening, come what might. He also saw that the con- 
 troversies then raging between the North and the South, 
 unless they could be allayed, must soon culminate in seces- 
 sion and civil war. The South were talking of peaceable 
 secession. Webster knew that secession would not, could 
 not, be peaceable. So, in his speech on the 7th of March, 
 fixing his big, blazing eyes full on the Southern members, he 
 spoke these words : " Peaceable secession ! Sir, your eyes 
 and mine are never destined to see that miracle. Who is so 
 foolish — I beg everybody's pardon — as to expect to see 
 any such thing ? There can be no such thing as a peaceable 
 secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is 
 the great Constitiution under which we live, covering this 
 whole country, is it to be thawed and melted away by seces- 
 sion, as the snows on the mountain melt under the influence 
 of a vernal Sun, disappear almost unobserved, and run off? 
 No, Sir ! No, Sir ! I will not state what might produce 
 the disruption of the Union ; but I see, as plainly as I see 
 the Sun in heaven, what that disruption itself must produce : 
 I see that it must produce war, and such a war as I will not 
 describe, in its twofold character.^'' The words twofold 
 character were a hint, if they would but take it, that in such 
 a war the beloved slavery they were fighting for would prove 
 an ugly thorn in their side. 
 
 Now, for the prevention, or, if this might not be, for the 
 postponement, of such an issue, Webster felt that every dan- 
 ger must be braved, every exertion made, every sacrifice 
 incurred. For these reasons, he put forth his whole strength 
 in favour of the Compromise Measures of 1850. He well 
 knew the risk he was running ; but, in his judgment, the 
 occasion called on him, imperatively, to stand to the work. 
 His language to a private friend was, " It seemed to me that 
 
32 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 the country demanded the sacrifice of a human victim, and I 
 saw no reason why I should not be the victim myself." So, 
 in the last hope of saving his cause, he deliberately staked 
 his all. He himself went down indeed, but the cause was 
 saved. In all this, most assuredly, he was right, nobly right, 
 heroically right. And his whole action at that time proved 
 him to be as great morally as he was intellectually. 
 
 In another speech, on the 1 7th of July, — the last he ever 
 made in the Senate, — he closed with the following : " For 
 myself, I propose. Sir, to abide by the principles and the 
 purposes which I have avowed. I shall stand by the Union, 
 and by all who stand by it. I shall do justice to the whole 
 country, according to the best of my ability, in all I say, and 
 act for the good of the whole country in all I do. I mean 
 to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other platform. 
 The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and 
 Truth's. I was born an /\merican ; I will live an American ; 
 I shall die an American ; and I intend to perform the duties 
 incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my 
 career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of per- 
 sonal consequences. What are personal consequences? 
 What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that 
 may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which 
 may befall a great country in a crisis like this? Let the 
 consequences be what they may, I am careless. No man 
 can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he 
 suffer or if he fall in defence of the liberties and Constitution 
 of his country." These words, I confess, have to me a very 
 solemn and pathetic interest, as the last ever spoken by our 
 incomparable Senator in that capacity. 
 
 The Compromise Measures were at last carried ; and it is 
 admitted by all that they could not have been carried without 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 33 
 
 Webster's powerful aid. Thus the explosion, then so immi- 
 nent, was postponed. Ten years of time were thereby 
 gained. It is not too much to say that this gaining of time 
 saved the Union : for we may well shudder to think of what, 
 in all probability, would have been the result, had the explo- 
 sion come on in 1851, instead of 186 1. At the former 
 period, we had a divided North and a united South. Dur- 
 ing the interval, the hideous doings in Kansas took place ; 
 which so disgusted and alienated the northern people, that 
 we then had, for the first time, the golden prospect of a 
 divided South and a united North. 
 
 Webster's course touching the Compromise Measures 
 drew upon him a perfect tempest of obloquy and abuse 
 both North and South. My father-in-law, the late Mr. 
 Henry Bright, of Northampton, a very clear-headed and 
 just-thinking man, was in Mobile on private business at the 
 time when Webster's speech of the 7th of March reached 
 that city. He told me that the '*' fire-eaters " there were 
 seized with such an inexpressible rage against Webster, that 
 he really believed, if they could have got hold of him, they 
 would have chopped him all to pieces. At the same time, 
 and for the same cause, the extremists at the North went 
 with equal fury to butchering his character, — a sort of 
 butchery not very much better, perhaps, than the other. I 
 have no language to describe the shocking bitterness and 
 virulence with which his name was vilified and hunted down 
 here in New England. Why, the moral and social atmos- 
 phere of Boston is still sick with the abominable venom 
 spouted against him here by certain liberal preachers and 
 lecturers. For I suppose we all know that the most illiberal 
 and venom-mouthed men in the world are often found among 
 those who make special professions of liberality, and greatly 
 
34 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 pride themselves thereon ; men who insist on being them- 
 selves perfectly free to think and speak their own thoughts, 
 and on having all others perfectly free to think and speak 
 just as they do. For we are to note that the words liberty 
 and liberality are of kindred origin and meaning : and what 
 is the use of our having liberty, if we be not, ipso facto, free 
 to traduce and begnaw and blacken all who are so de- 
 praved as not to accept our judgment for their own? Now, 
 for my part, I wish to be liberal even towards illiberality 
 itself; yet must confess I sometimes find this rather diffi- 
 cult. The truth of the matter, as nearly as I can under- 
 stand it, runs about thus : The men in question had con- 
 ceived a bitter hatred of the Union ; Webster had thoroughly 
 identified himself with the Union : so they just transferred 
 their hatred of the Union to him ; for such men always take 
 more pleasure in hating a person than a thing ; and this, I 
 suppose, partly because a person naturally has sensibilities 
 that may be hurt, which a thing has not : they were labour- 
 ing with all their might to destroy the Union ; Webster had 
 saved the Union ; and now they were possessed with an in- 
 tense longing to destroy him. It may almost be said indeed 
 that they did destroy him : at least their envenomed calum- 
 nies greatly embittered his closing years, and sent him sor- 
 rowing to his grave. But they did not destroy his work : 
 the Union was saved. In all this we have a memorable 
 instance of what fanaticism can do, especially when actuated 
 by a sort of philanthropic ferocity. Nor has the spirit en- 
 gendered by those proceedings fully died out yet : even to 
 this day it is hardly safe for a man to speak an honest plain 
 word in defence of this part of Webster's life, lest popular 
 odium should pelt him with mud or something worse. 
 
 Now, during all those years I was myself a most cordial 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 35 
 
 hater of slavery ; though I never went to the extreme — God 
 forbid ! — of hating either the Union or Webster : for how 
 hatred of these could do any thing towards pulling slavery 
 down, was quite beyond me. Nor was I ever able to com- 
 prehend why the Abolitionists should make it an exercise of 
 religion, as they did, to go about cursing and reviUng all that 
 was greatest and best in the work of our national fathers : it 
 seemed to me then, as it seems to me now, an aggravated 
 revival of that old mystery, the odium theologicu77i ; that is to 
 say, the offspring of sheer fanaticism, and a very malignant 
 fanaticism too ; the selfsame spirit that has more than once 
 set men to cutting throats in the name of liberty and phi- 
 , lanthropy. 
 
 As for the speech of the yth of March, for which Webster 
 was so bitterly, so atrociously maligned, I have read that 
 speech a great many times, and I do not know of a single 
 word in it that I would have otherwise than as it is. I think it 
 every way just such a speech as should have been made at 
 that time by a great man, who had a great Union to save, 
 and a great civil war to avert. Nor could Webster have con- 
 sistently taken any other course : he would have belied his 
 whole record, he would have been recreant to the sovereign 
 aim of his life, if, in that great national crisis, he had not 
 thrown all other regards to the winds, and made the Union 
 his paramount, nay, his exclusive concern. So, there again, 
 though, to be sure, with his great heart quivering and bleed- 
 ing at the defection of friends, and the cruel, cruel aspersions 
 of those whom he had loved so deeply and served so de- 
 votedly, he stood firm as a rock against the surging and 
 dashing waves of unpopularity in his own cherished home. 
 Seeing the peril as he saw it, he must needs have braved 
 popular clamour as he braved it, else he would have ceased 
 
l6 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 to be Daniel Webster. So that Massachusetts went back on 
 him, or froze off from him, just at the very time when he was 
 worthiest of her love and honour. But then we all ought to 
 know that, in such cases, the blind or the blear-eyed many 
 are pretty sure to denounce and defame the one who sees. 
 When, in 1830 and 1833, Webster encountered Nullification 
 in debate, and strangled it in the crushing anaconda folds of 
 his logic and eloquence, he appeared great indeed, and was 
 great ; though he then had all New England and most of the 
 entire North backing him up and cheering him on. But a 
 great man never appears so great as when he stands true to 
 himself and his cause, with all the world against him. And 
 so, to my thinking, at no other time of his life did Webster's 
 stubborn greatness of soul, his " colossal manhood," towet 
 up in such monumental grandeur as when, in 1850, he stood 
 true to himself, " unshaken, unseduced, unterrified," with all 
 New England and most of the entire North banded together 
 to pelt him off and hiss him down. 
 
 The fineness of such metal is not found 
 In Fortune's love ; for then the bold and coward, 
 The hard and soft, seem all affined and kin : 
 But, in the wind and tempest of her frown. 
 Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, 
 Puffing at all, winnows the light away ; 
 And what hath mass and matter, by itself 
 Lies rich in virtue and unmingled. 
 
 W^ebster had foreseen and foretold a whirlwind of civil 
 war as the inevitable consequence of the wind which the an- 
 tagonist extremists were sowing. Both parties alike laughed 
 him to scorn ; they derided his fears, they despised his 
 warnings ; could not speak of them save as themes of scof- 
 fing and ridicule ; saying that they were the mere offspring 
 of his inordinate ambition ; that he had turned prophet 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 37 
 
 merely because he wanted to be President. Nor did they 
 give over this work when the great man died : they even 
 made his death a crime ; alleging that he had died of dis- 
 appointed ambition and from the effects of personal vices ; 
 just as if a man at the age of threescore-and-ten had not 
 a right to die ! Now Webster, I take it, was at least not a 
 fool, not absolutely a fool. Nor was he so little read in the 
 book of human nature and human life as not to know that 
 the course he was taking could not possibly gain him any 
 thing at the South, while it was sure to lose him much at 
 the North. Any man with but half an eye could not fail 
 to see that. And Webster himself had plainly declared it 
 in a passage I have already cited. Strange, strange indeed, 
 what absurd reasons even good men will sometimes stick 
 upon, for thinking that a man cannot possibly differ from 
 them in opinion, unless he have a bad heart ! 
 
 So, in the instance before us, the treatment Webster re- 
 ceived proceeded, apparently, upon the rather odd notion, 
 that, in the political questions of the time, he was just the 
 last man in the country who ought to be allowed to have 
 a mind of Jiis own. A great many people in Massachusetts, 
 it seems, could nowise conceive on what ground, or by what 
 right, he should presume to have a mind larger than their 
 own State, or, at all events, larger than their own section. 
 That his heart dared to be big enough to embrace the whole 
 United States, and to be satisfied with nothing less, and that 
 his moral manhood spread so wide, and stood so firm, as 
 to be unflinchingly steadfast to the integrity of the Union, — 
 this was, in the eye of Massachusetts, an unpardonable sin : 
 she could not forgive it then, she has not forgiven it now. 
 But, assuredly, Webster's great soul will sooner or later be 
 found to have been greater than she, and will prove too 
 
38 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Strong for her yet. For, indeed, he was not hei' man ; he 
 was emphatically the Nation's man : and, though he loved 
 her deeply, yet he would not budge an inch from his life- 
 long purpose as an American, to gratify her sectional nar- 
 rowness, or her war-kindling philanthropy. 
 
 How he thought and felt touching this whole matter, is 
 perhaps best shown in a speech made at Buffalo on the 2 2d 
 of May, 1 85 1 . Of course he is referring to his line of action 
 in 1850: " I am an American. I was made a whole man, 
 and I did not mean to make myself half a one. I felt that 
 I had a duty to perform to my country, to my own reputa- 
 tion ; for I flattered myself that a service of forty years had 
 given me some character, on which I had a right to repose 
 for my justification in the performance of a duty attended 
 with some degree of local unpopularity. I thought it was 
 my duty to pursue this course, and I did not care what was 
 to be the consequence. I felt it was my duty, in a very 
 alarming crisis, to come out ; to go for my country, and my 
 whole country ; and to exert any power I had, to keep that 
 country together. I cared for nothing, I was afraid of noth- 
 ing, but I meant to do my duty. Duty performed makes 
 a man happy ; duty neglected makes a man unhappy. I 
 therefore, in the face of all discouragements and all dangers, 
 was ready to go forth and do what I thought my country, 
 your country, demanded of me. And, Gentlemen, allow me 
 to say here to-day, that if the fate of John Rogers had stared 
 me in the face, if I had seen the stake, if I had heard the 
 faggots already crackling, by the blessing of Almighty God I 
 would have gone on and discharged the duty which I thought 
 my country called upon me to perform." 
 
 I think very highly of our Mr. Whittier both as a poet and 
 as a man. I hold him to be a man of real genius, and of an 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 39 
 
 altogether honourable and loveable character. But he has 
 one little piece that I am sorry for. It was written in 1850, 
 and is entitled Ichabod. I cannot see that it has any great 
 merit as poetry ; and I see, or seem to see, in it not a little 
 fault of uncharitableness : nay, I must go further, — the un- 
 charity of it is simply atrocious. Now I do not believe there 
 is or can be an honester man than Mr. Whittier ; but I hold 
 Webster to have been every whit as honest as he, and at the 
 same time a thousandfold wiser and vastly more charitable. 
 It is no business of mine, nor do I propose to make it my 
 business ; but, if I were an intimate friend of Mr. Whittier, 
 I should be very earnest with him to recall and suppress that 
 poem. It is not worthy of him. But, whether he did so or 
 not, I should still continue to honour him all the same, not- 
 withstanding. It is nowise likely that I shall ever give a 
 lecture upon him ; if, however, I were to do so, I am afraid 
 I should have to note this as a greater fault in him than any 
 I am able to find in Webster. 
 
 It is but fair to add, indeed it would be hardly fair not to 
 add, that Mr. Whittier has lately put forth another poem, in 
 which he makes some considerable amends for the piece of 
 1850. This is entitled The Lost Occasion, and was pub- 
 lished in The Atlantic Montlily iox April, 1880; not known 
 to mc, however, when the foregoing strictures were \vi-itten. 
 In his later piece, the author thinks that, if Webster had 
 lived ten years longer, he would have been "disillusioned." 
 Webster disillusioned! Disillusioned of what? Why, his 
 presentiments, his predictions, all his worst forebodings, were 
 justified, and more than justified, by the event. Was his 
 prevision of civil war an illusion? Nay, the horrors and 
 agonies of that war altogether outstripped the utmost that 
 even he had strength to apprehend. Truly, one would think 
 
40 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 that Mr. Whittier, and not Webster, was the man to be dis- 
 illusioned. Potent, potent indeed must have been the spell 
 which, in so fair a mind, those four dreadful years of civil 
 carnage could not* break ! 
 
 In the earlier piece, at all events, Mr. Whittier prophesied 
 an untrue thing, — for Webster's glory has not departed ; — 
 is it not a glorious thing to be enrolled by wise old Harvard 
 as one of the seven great orators of the world ? — in that case 
 at least, I say, Mr. Whittier prophesied an untrue thing, — 
 and he was believed ; Webster prophesied a true thing, and 
 he was not believed : for, indeed, " his was the wise man's 
 ordinary lot, to prophesy to ears that would not hear." But 
 Massachusetts had then outgrown Webster, — so far outgrown 
 him as to prefer one Horace Mann, who was among the 
 loudest in rancorous invective against him. So, to shame 
 Webster into her wisdom, her honourable Legislature had a 
 statue of the said Horace Mann set up in front of the Capi- 
 tol, and there it stands now. (By the way, I wish the friends 
 of Webster would, some Sunday night when the Moon is 
 shining, reverently take his statue out of that enclosure, and 
 put it in some humbler place. For, surely, Webster is not 
 worthy to stand there in such high company ; no, he is not 
 worthy of that !) And Massachusetts has kept on growing 
 since : why, she has grown almost to the bigness of General 
 Butler ! She has not indeed quite overtaken his stature yet ; 
 but perhaps she will ere long, for she is still growing. Yet 
 no ! I doubt whether she will ever grow big enough for him, 
 — big enough either to swallow him or be swallowed by him ; 
 though, to be sure, he is the owner, or the tenant-in-fee, of 
 "an unbounded stomach." 
 
 Well, when at length Webster's predictions began to come 
 true ; when Secession stood forth an actual fact, a presence 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 4I 
 
 that could not be put by, the political leaders of the Northern 
 extremists, both in and out of Congress, were utterly aghast, 
 as indeed they well might be, at the final outcome of their 
 doings. They had, by their incantations, raised, or helped 
 to raise, something that looked very like the Devil ; and now 
 the one all-engrossing thought was how to get rid of it. 
 They had not believed the South were really in earnest, and 
 they had imputed Webster's behef of it to bad motives. But 
 there the thing was at last ; and what could be done with it ? 
 that was the question. So they put their heads together, and 
 made a formal proposition to the Southern leaders, solemnly 
 pledging themselves to use all their efforts to carry through 
 such an amendment of the Constitution as would secure 
 slavery absolutely and for ever against all interference by the 
 general government. The Southern leaders, in the misplaced 
 pride of their hearts, spurned away the proposition, and 
 laughed at the makers of it. They had got their heads very 
 high. 
 
 The extremists of both sections had at first hated Webster 
 because they did not understand him, and had wronged him 
 because they hated him ; and now they kept on hating 
 him because they had wronged him. He had forewarned 
 them of a particular mischief as the sure result of the course 
 they were taking ; they had despised his counsels, and as- 
 cribed them to an evil mind : and when his forecast became 
 a fact, instead of relenting towards him, they even hated him 
 worse than ever ; the very thought of him stung them with 
 self-reproach ; and they sought to avenge upon him the mis- 
 chief they had brought upon tliemselves, and went to accus- 
 ing him as the author of what he had foretold. So, within 
 the last few years, I have repeatedly found men seriously 
 holding Webster responsible for our civil war ! Such is 
 
42 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 human nature ; and so, in all ages, have men been wont to 
 recompense their greatest benefactors ! But wisdom not the 
 less, though late, is sure to be justified of her children. And 
 so, assuredly, it will be with \\xbster. 
 
 At the time I am referring to, Webster's body had been 
 in the grave nearly eight years and a half; but his spirit, 
 though slumbering, was still alive, and would not die. His 
 words were on the lips and in the hearts of the people from 
 IMaine to California. Mark, then, how ''the whirligig of 
 time brought in his revenges." When at length the attack 
 on Fort Sumter rang all through the land like an omni- 
 present clap of thunder, then it was that Webster's spirit 
 awoke as from the dead. This time, the South had raised 
 a spirit, not indeed so hideous as the one I mentioned be- 
 fore, but a great deal more terrible. That spirit was — love 
 of the Union. And whose spirit was that but Webster's? 
 How gloriously it made the people of the North spring to 
 arms ! Yes, the great soul of Daniel Webster breathing and 
 beating in them, — this it was that set them astir, impelling 
 them to the front, and holding them to the work, till Seces- 
 sion was finally overwhelmed beneath a wide-sweeping tor- 
 rent of blood and fire ! 
 
 Now that war cost the North not less than eight hundred 
 thousand lives and six thousand millions of money ! Perhaps 
 the demoralization engendered out of it should be rated as 
 a still greater cost : the Nation has not got over it yet, nor 
 will it for fifty years to come. But, in the conflict which 
 itself had provoked, slavery fell, and great was the fall 
 thereof. Gloria in excels is for that fall ! For slavery was 
 a loathsome and execrable old nuisance ; I thought so then, 
 I think so now : and the only good thing it could possibly 
 do was to die. I admit, indeed, that the purchase was 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 43 
 
 worth the cost ; but it was a dreadful, dreadful price to pay, 
 even for so auspicious a riddance as that ! 
 
 Of course, if the extremists, those who got up the war, had 
 foreseen what was coming, the thing would not have come ; 
 at least it would not have come when it did. Yet, surely, it 
 was bound to come, sooner or later ; it was only a question 
 of time. But, thanks to Daniel Webster, the war was ad- 
 journed till, as the event proved, the Nation was duly pre- 
 pared for it, though not so prepared but that it was deeply 
 punished in and by it. Nor did it escape his "large dis- 
 course " that the crisis, after all, was but postponed : I have 
 been told that in his private intercourse he expressed it as 
 his settled conviction that such was the case. But, surely, 
 Providence had a controlling liand in the whole matter ; and 
 Providence knows its time, as it also knows how to make a 
 good use of the blunders of men. Now those who had no 
 foresight of what was coming may stand acquitted of crime, 
 though not of blundering : yet I cannot say this for their 
 huge unbenevolence towards their best friend : ignorance 
 may be pardoned, malice may not. But, as Webster had a 
 forecast of the whole, he was bound on every principle of 
 humanity and of manhood to act as he did ; nay, he would 
 .have been utterly inexcusable both as a statesman and as a 
 man, if he had acted otherwise. 
 
 But why was it that slavery had to fall ? Here I may claim 
 some right to know what I am saying, because I had ocular 
 and auricular proof on the subject. For I was myself in the 
 army three years, serving the cause with such poor abilities 
 as I had. And I was perfecdy satisfied from the outset, that 
 either slavery or the Nation was bound to perish : I felt just 
 as sure' of it then as I do now. In the Summer of 1861, I 
 was living in the city of New York. Seeing in the papers 
 
44 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 one morning a notice of a meeting to be held in Hope 
 Chapel for the purpose of helping on the war, I took a notion 
 to go to it. Being there, I felt moved to make a speech. 
 Having gained the ear of the audience, almost before I knew 
 what I was saying, these words popped out of my mouth : 
 " Slavery has now forced itself into a mortal duel with Uncle 
 Sam, and one of them has got to die ; and, so far as I am 
 concerned, it sliall not be Uncle Sam." At first, I was 
 startled with the apprehension of having gone too far ; but, 
 the audience raising a shout of applause, I saw that things 
 were all right, and so went on. 
 
 Carrying, as I did, this deep-seated conviction into the 
 field, I longed, intensely longed, to have slavery knocked on 
 the head. So I wanted to blaze away against it in my talks 
 to the soldiers. Once or twice I did so, to some extent. 
 My official superiors took me to task for this ; telling me 
 that they had nothing to do with slavery ; that they were 
 there to sustain the government ; and that they could not 
 have discord and dissension sown among the soldiers by talks 
 on that subject. In short, they gave me a peremptory order 
 to let it alone. Of course I obeyed, though it went some- 
 what against the grain with me. And the order was un- 
 doubtedly right. I was serving in the Department of the 
 South ; and my heart fairly leaped for joy when General 
 Hunter issued his order or proclamation for emancipating 
 the slaves in that Department. Yet I was not without serious 
 misgivings ; for it rather seemed to me that such a measure 
 as that ought to proceed from no one but the Commander-in- 
 Chief of the armies and navies of the United States. You 
 are probably aware that, when the order became known to 
 President Lincoln, he forthwith overruled and countermanded 
 it. This I was then sorry for. But, you see, I was in too 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 45 
 
 great a hurry. Herein I was not so wise, not quite so wise, 
 as our great and good and divinely-patient President, He, 
 with his patience long and sorely tried by unwise and impa- 
 tient men like myself, — tried quite as much perhaps in that 
 Avay as in any other, — held back, and waited for the " riping 
 of the time." In calling them unwise and impatient men 
 like myself, I am far from meaning to compare my insignifi- 
 cant self generally with them ; for they were, many of them, 
 wise and good men in their degree ; but, I suspect, not 
 quite so wise and patient as our good father Abraham. But, 
 when our President saw, — for he had a strong, clear head 
 on his shoulders as well as a warm and tender heart in his 
 bosom, — when he saw that the time had come, he just 
 hurled his thunderbolt, and knocked slavery into the place 
 where it should be. By that time the soldiers had all been 
 taught by the discipline and logic of events, that they had 
 got to choose between the deatli of slavery and the death of 
 the Nation ; that both of these could not possibly survive the 
 struggle : and, when it came to that, they of course chose 
 as Webster had taught and inspired them to choose. 
 
 So then, while others had been pouring out, in language 
 hissinQ:-hot, their intense hatred of slaverv, and even of the 
 Union for slavery's sake, Webster had been pouring out his 
 irresistible argument and eloquence in behalf of the Union 
 which he loved ; and the love kindled by that eloquence and 
 upheld by that argument, — this it was that really did the 
 work. For, in truth, it so happened at that time, that the 
 best and surest way to crush slavery was by strengthening the 
 Union, — by arming Uncle Sam with a hand so big and so 
 powerful, that he could just seize the bull of disunion by 
 the horns, and wring the bull's head off. And so, when the 
 people, both those at home and those in the field, became 
 
46 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 thoroughly convinced, as in time they did, that either slavery 
 or Uncle Sam had got to die, they said, Uncle Sam shall not 
 die, and slavery shall ; and the spirit which thus spoke had 
 been kindled within them by the man who was born up in 
 New Hampshire one hundred years ago this day. AVebster, 
 to be sure, did not intend the destruction of slavery ; that 
 was nowise the motive of his labours : but he did intend 
 that the Union should be kept alive, and all his mighty ener- 
 gies were directed to this end ; such being, as I must think, 
 the special purpose for which he was providentially endowed, 
 and given to the American people. And so the extremists, 
 North and South, — they it was who, between them, got up 
 our civil war ; Webster had no hand in that ; but he it was 
 who, in effect, fought the battles and gained the victories of 
 the Union : for, as the late Judge Redfield, of this city, 
 once said to me, '' the war was all fought out on Daniel 
 Webster's hnes." 
 
 Now, which do you suppose did the most towards the 
 final result, hatred of slavery, or love of the Union ? Which 
 was the stronger principle here, hatred of that which was 
 bad, or love of that which was good? And who did the 
 most for the final triumph of the very cause which the Abo- 
 litionists had so much at heart, they themselves, or the man 
 whom they so mercilessly calumniated? They endeavoured 
 with all their might to break him down ; and he just saved 
 them from the crime, and the infamy, of breaking up our 
 national Union : for how would they have stood before the 
 world at this day, if tliat Union had perished by the fire 
 which they were kindling? Why, they would have been an 
 object of universal execration ! a mark of abhorrence to 
 coming time, as the philantliroj^ic incendiaries who had de- 
 stroyed the last hope of republican institutions upon Earth ! 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 4/ 
 
 This, then, is the revenge that Webster has taken upon 
 them, — he served their own cause far better than they did 
 themselves. While they were warring against him, he was 
 preparing victory for them. He did not know this, they did 
 not know it ; but he was doing right, they were doing wrong : 
 he was acting from love, they were acting from hate : he was 
 trying to make peace, they were trying to break peace, be- 
 tween the North and the South : they, to be sure, succeeded 
 for a time, but his success was the more lasting : and, in my 
 copy of the Bible the seventh of the Divine Beatitudes does 
 not read '' Blessed are the \>Q^cQ-dreakers,^^ nor do I think 
 it ought to read so. And do you not believe, — do you not 
 kfiow, — that Daniel Webster really did more towards smash- 
 ing up slavery than all the Abolitionists in the country put 
 together ? It need not be said that slavery was killed ; that 
 is pretty evident : but I think it may need to be said, at all 
 events it shall be said, that Daniel Webster was the man who 
 killed it ; not, I repeat, from hatred of slavery, but from love 
 of the Union : yes, he, he was the Hercules who slew the 
 monster, and saved the lady ! And may we not reasonably 
 hope that the day is not far distant, when a just sense of his 
 vast service in this behalf shall purge the moral and social 
 atmosphere of Boston, and of Massachusetts, of the dreadful 
 venom and virulence breathed into it more than thirty years 
 ago? 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, great cause have we to thank God 
 for the gift of Daniel Webster to this Nation, and to bless the 
 day when he w^as born. I think, withal, we may rest assured 
 that he still lives, and is not ^oing to die. His memory will 
 out-tongue and live down whatever has hitherto tried, or may 
 hereafter try, to choke it off; his name will still be fresh and 
 
48 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 fragrant in the world's regard, when all the lingual rancours 
 which so embittered his closing years shall have died away in 
 blank forgetfulness. He had " a voice whose sound was like 
 the sell " ; and that voice will keep swelling up and rolling 
 on, strong, clear, and sweet, ages after the unbenevolent 
 shriekings of his tinie, and of our time, shall have gone silent 
 for ever, Nature's air refusing to propagate them ; a treasure 
 to be cherished with reverential affection so long as the 
 American name shall have a place in the reverence and affec- 
 tion of mankind. For, indeed, it is already coming to be 
 seen, as it has never been seen before, that his broad, wise 
 statesmanship is to be the ample and refreshing shade, his 
 character the bright and breezy Presence, in which all the 
 members of this great and illustrious Republic may meet and 
 sit down and feast together. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 -•o^ 
 
 No. I. 
 
 The speech made by Governor Long, at the dinner given 
 by the Marshficld Club in commemoration of Webster's hun- 
 dredth birtli-day, is so manly, so able, so workmanlike, and 
 so eloquent in itself, therewithal so just to the subject, and 
 so honourable to the speaker, that I cannot well resist the 
 temptation to transcribe it here, in a place more convenient 
 for preservation and reference than in the newspaper columns 
 where it appeared : 
 
 " It is but a poor tribute that even the most eloquent 
 voice, least of all mine, can pay for Massachusetts to the 
 memory of her greatest statesman, her mightiest intellect, 
 and her most {powerful orator. Among her sons he towers 
 like the lonely and massive shaft on Bunker Hill, upon the 
 base and the crest of which his name is emblazoned clearer 
 than if chiselled deep in its granite cubes. For years he was 
 her synonym. Among the States he sustained her at that 
 proud height, which Winthrop and Sam. Adams gave her in 
 the colonial and provincial days. With what matchless 
 grandeur he defended her ! With what overwhelming power 
 he impressed her convictions upon the national life ! God 
 seems to ai)point men to special work, and, that done, the 
 very effort of its achievement exhausts them, and they rise 
 not again to the summit of their meridian. So it was with 
 Webster. He knows little even of written constitutions and 
 
 49 
 
50 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 frames of government who does not know that tliey exist 
 ahiiost less in the letter than in the interpretation and con- 
 struction of the letter. In this light it is not too much to say 
 that the Constitution of the United States, as it existed when 
 it carried our country througli the greatest peril that ever 
 tested it, was the crystallization of the mind of Webster as 
 well as of its original framers. It came from them, and was 
 only accepted by some of our own, as a compact of States, 
 sovereign in all but certain enumerated powers delegated to 
 a central government. He made it the crucible of a welded 
 Union, — ■ the charter of one great country, the United States 
 of America. He made the States a Nation and enfolded 
 them in its single banner. It was the overwhelming logic of 
 his discussion, the household familiarity of his simple but 
 irresistible statement, that gave us munition to fight the war 
 for the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery. 
 It was his eloquence, clear as crystal, and precipitating itself 
 in the school-books and literature of a people, which had 
 trained up the generation of twenty years ago to regard this 
 Nation as one, to love its flag with a patriotism that knew no 
 faction or section, to be loyal to the whole country, and to 
 find in its Constitution power to suppress any hand or com- 
 bination raised against it. The great rebellion of 1861 went 
 down hardly more before the cannon of Grant and Farragut 
 than the thunder of Webster's reply to Hayne. He knew 
 not the extent of his own achievement. His greatest failure 
 was, that he rose not to the height and actual stroke of his 
 own resistless argument, and that he lacked the sublimed 
 inspiration, the disentanglement and the courage, to let the 
 giant he had created go upon his errand, first of force, and 
 then, through that, of surer peace. He had put the work 
 and the genius of more than an ordinary life-time of service 
 
APPENDIX. 51 
 
 into the arching and knitting of the Union, and this he could 
 not bear to put to the final test : his great heart was sincere 
 in the pi*ayer that his eyes might not behold the earthquake 
 that would shake it to those foundations which, though he 
 knew it not, he had made so strong that a succeeding gener- 
 ation saw them stand the shock as the oak withstands the 
 storm. ]\Ien are not gods, and it needed in him that he 
 should rise to a moral sublimity anei daring as lofty as the 
 intellectual heights above which he soared with unequalled 
 strength. So had he been godlike. 
 
 '• A great man touches the heart of the people as well as 
 their intelligence. They not only admire, they also love 
 him. It sometimes seems as if they sought in him some 
 weakness of our common human nature, that they may 
 chide him for it, forgive it, and so endear him to them- 
 selves the more. Massachusetts had her friction with the 
 younger Adams only to lay him away with profounder honour, 
 and to remember him devotedly as the defender of the right 
 of petition and ' the old man eloquent.' She forgave the 
 overweening conceit of Sumner; she revoked her unjust 
 censure of him, and now points her youth to him in his 
 high niche as the unsullied patriot, without fear and without 
 reproach, who stood and spoke for equal rights, and whose 
 last great service was to demand and enforce his country's 
 just claims against the dishonourable trespass of the cruisers 
 of that England he had so much admired. Massachusetts 
 smote, too, and broke the heart of Webster, her idol, and 
 then broke her own above his grave, and to-day writes his 
 name highest upon her roll of statesmen. It seems dis- 
 jointed to say that, with such might as his, the impression 
 that comes from his face upon the wall, as from his silhouette 
 upon the background of our history, is that of sadness, — the 
 
52 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 sadness of the great deep eyes, the sadness of the lonely 
 shore he loved, and by which he sleeps. The story of 
 Webster from the beginning is the very pathos of romance. 
 A minor chord runs through it like the tenderest note in a 
 song. What eloquence of tears is in that narrative, which 
 reveals in this giant of intellectual strength the heart, the 
 single, loving heart of a child, and in which he describes 
 the winter sleigh-ride up the New Hampshire hills when his 
 father told liim that, at whatever cost, he should have a col- 
 lege education, and he, too full to speak, while a warm glow 
 ran all over him, laid his head upon his father's shoulder and 
 wept ! 
 
 " The greatness of Webster and his title to enduring grati- 
 tude have two illustrations. He taught the people of the 
 United States, in the simplicity of common understanding, 
 the principles of the Constitution and government of the 
 country, and he wrought for them, in a style of matchless 
 strength and beauty, the literature of statesmanship. From 
 his lips flowed the discussion of constitutional law, of eco- 
 nomic philosophy, of finance, of international right, of national 
 grandeur, and of tlie whole range of high public themes, so 
 clear and judicial that it was no longer discussion, but judg- 
 ment. To-day, and so it will be while the Republic endures, 
 the student and the legislator turn to the full fountain of his 
 statement for the enunciation of these principles. What 
 other authority is quoted or holds even the second or thirtl 
 place? Even his words have imbedded themselves in the 
 common phraseology, and come to the tongue like pas- 
 sages from the psalms or the poets. I do not know that 
 a sentence or a word of Sumner's repeats itself in our 
 everyday parlance. The exquisite periods of Everett are 
 recalled like the consummate work of some master of music, 
 
APPENDIX. 53 
 
 but no note or refrain sings itself over and ov^r again to our 
 ears. The brilliant eloquence of Choate is like the flash of 
 a bursting rocket, lingering upon the retina indeed after it 
 has faded from the wings of the night, but as elusive of our 
 grasp as spray-drops that glisten in the sun. The fiery 
 enthusiasm of Andrew did, indeed, burn some of his heart- 
 beats for ever into the sentiment of Massachusetts ; but 
 Webster made his language the very household words of a 
 nation. They are the library of a people. They inspired 
 and still inspire patriotism. They taught and still teach 
 loyalty. They are the school-book of the citizen. They are 
 the inwrought and accepted fibre of American politics. If 
 the temple of our Republic shall ever fall, they will 'still 
 live ' above the ground, like those great foundation-stones in 
 ancient ruins, which remain in lonely grandeur, unburied 
 in the dust that springs to turf over all else, and making men 
 wonder from what rare quarry and by what mighty force they 
 came. To Webster, almost more than to any other man, — 
 nay, at a distance and in the generous spirit of this occasion 
 it is hard to discriminate among the lustrous names which 
 now cluster at tlie gates of Heaven, as the golden bars mass 
 the West at sunset, — yet to Webster especially of them all is 
 it due that to-day, wherever a son of the United States, at 
 home or abroad, ' beholds the gorgeous ensign of the Repub- 
 lic, now known and honoured throughout the Earth, still full 
 high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their orig- 
 inal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star 
 obscured,' he can utter a prouder boast than Cms Romanus 
 sum. For he can say, I am an American citizen,^'' 
 
54 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 No. 11. 
 WEBSTER AND GIDDINGS. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Transcript : The Transcript of 
 the 25th instant prints a communication from Mr. F. B. San- 
 born, of Concord, which has caused me not a Httle surprise. 
 It contains a letter from the Hon. J. R. Giddings, formerly 
 a representative in Congress from Ohio, to the Rev. Theo- 
 dore Parker. A part of that letter is as follows : 
 
 " Hall of Representatives, Jan. 29, 1853. 
 " My Dear Sir : You may recollect that, early in the session 
 of Congress of 1847-48, the absorbing subject of the presidential 
 candidates was much agitated. Mr. Webster had a few friends, 
 but it became apparent that his prospect for nomination was 
 not good. I took occasion to suggest to seme of his friends 
 that Mr. Webster might yet place himself in a most enviable 
 position by taking ground in fivour of liberty, and against the 
 encroachments of slavery. I did this with the hope of bringing 
 him out on that subject, as I knew that his talents and influence 
 would do much for the advancement of our cause. Soon after 
 this, at a party, Mr. W^ebster informed me that he desired to 
 submit a question for my opinion, on which he wished me to be 
 very frank. Accordingly, a few days afterward, the skeleton of 
 a speech, in his handwriting, was submitted to my inspection. 
 It took ground in favour of Northern rights and against the en- 
 croachments of slavery. I expressed approval, and, for a long 
 time, expected its delivery in the Senate." 
 
 It will be seen that this letter was written at least four 
 years after the session of Congress to which it refers. Surely 
 Mr. Giddings must have overlooked or forgotten two very 
 remarkable speeches made by Webster: one on the ist of 
 March, 1847, ^^^^ entitled The Mexican War ; the other on 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 the 23d of March, 1848, and entitled Objects of the Mexican 
 War. Both speeches are given in the fifth vokuTie of Web- 
 ster's Works, Little & Brown's edition, 1S51. I hope you 
 will not find it inconvenient to print a few extracts from 
 those speeches, in justice to all the parties concerned. In 
 the first of them we have the following : 
 
 " At present, I should hardly have risen but to lay before the 
 Senate the resolutions of the House of Representatives of Massa- 
 chusetts, adopted on Thursday last. We have a great deal of 
 commentary and criticism on State resolutions brought here. 
 Those of Michigan particularly have been very sharply and nar- 
 rowly looked into, to see whether they really mean what they 
 seem to mean. These resolutions of Massachusetts, I hope, are 
 sufficiently distinct and decided. They admit of neither doubt 
 nor cavil, even if doubt or cavil were permissible in such a case. 
 
 '• What the legislature of Massachusetts thinks, it has said, 
 and said plainly and directly. I have not, before any tribunal, 
 tried my ingenuity at what the lawyers call a special demurrer for 
 many years ; and I never tried it here in the Senate. In the 
 business of legislation, and especially in considering State reso- 
 lutions and the proceedings of public assemblies, it is our duty, 
 of course, to understand every thing according to the common 
 meaning of the words used. Of all occasions, these are the last 
 in which one should stick in the bark, or seek for loopholes, or 
 means of escape ; or, in the language of an eminent judge of 
 former times, ' hitch and hang on pins and particles.'' We 
 must take the substance fairly, and as it is, and not hesitate 
 about forms and phrases. 
 
 " We are in the midst of a war, not waged at home in defence 
 of our soil, but waged a thousand miles off, and in the heart of 
 the territories of another Government. It is not denied that this 
 war is now prosecuted for the acquisition of territory ; at least, 
 if any deny it, others admit it, and all know it to be true. Seven 
 or eight of the free States, comprising some of the largest, have 
 remonstrated against the prosecution of the war for such a pur- 
 
56 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 pose, in language suited to their meaning. These remonstrances 
 come here whh the distinct and jDrecise object of dissuading us 
 from the further prosecution of the war for the acquisition of ter- 
 ritory by conquest. Before territory is actually obtained, and its 
 future character fixed, they beseech us to give up an object so 
 full of danger. One and all, they protest against the extension 
 of slave territory; one and all, they regard it as the solemn duty 
 of the Representatives of the free States to take security, in ad- 
 vance, that no more slave States shall be added to the Union. 
 They demand of us this i^ledge, this assurance, before the pur- 
 chase-money is paid, or the bargain concluded.*' 
 
 Then, after reading tlie ^lassacbusetts resolutions, Webster 
 went on as follows : 
 
 " The House of Representatives of Massachusetts i.^, I believe, 
 the most numerous legislative body in the country. On this 
 occasion it was not full ; but among those present there Avas an 
 entire unanimity. For the resolutions there were two hundred 
 and thirty votes ; against them, none. Not one man stood up 
 to justify the war upon such grounds as those upon which it has 
 been, from day to day, defended here. Massachusetts, without 
 one dissenting voice, and I thank her for it, and am proud of her 
 for it, has denounced the whole object for which our armies are 
 now traversing the plains of Mexico, or about to plunge into the 
 pestilence of her coasts. The people of Massachusetts are as 
 unanimous as the members of her legislature, and so are her 
 Representatives here. I have heard no man in the State, in pub- 
 lic or in private life, express a different opinion. If any thing 
 is certain, it is certain tliat the sentiment of the whole North 
 is utterly opposed to the acquisition of territory, to be formed 
 into slave-holding States, and, as such, admitted into the Union. 
 
 " But here, Sir, I cannot but pause. I am arrested by occur- 
 rences of this night, which, I confess, fill me with alarm. They 
 are ominous, portentous. Votes which have just been passed 
 by majorities here cannot fail to awaken pul)lic attention. Every 
 
APPENDIX. 5^ 
 
 patriotic American, every man who wishes to preserve the Con- 
 stitution, ought to ponder them well. . . . 
 
 " Mr. President, I arraign no men and no parties. I take no 
 judgment into my own hands. But I present this simple state- 
 ment of facts and consequences to the country, and ask for it, 
 humbly but most earnestly, the serious consideration of the peo- 
 ple. Shall we prosecute this war for the purpose of bringing on 
 a controversy which is likely to shake the Government to its 
 centre? . . . 
 
 "Within a year or two after Texas had achieved her inde- 
 pendence, there were those who already spoke of its annexation 
 to the United States. Against that project I felt it to be my 
 duty to take an early and a decided course. Having occasion to 
 address political friends in the city of New York in March, 1837, I 
 expressed my sentiments as fully and as strongly as I could. From 
 those opinions I have never swerved. From the first I saw noth- 
 ing but danger to arise to the country frpm such annexation. . . . 
 "Sir, I fear we are not yet arrived at the beginning of the 
 end. I pretend to see but Httle into the future, and that little 
 affords no gratification. All I can scan is contention, strife, and 
 agitation. Before we obtain a perfect right to conquered terri- 
 tory, there must be a cession. A cession can only be made by 
 treaty. Will the North consent to a treaty bringing in territory 
 subject to slavery? Will the South consent to a treaty bringing 
 in territory from which slavery is excluded? Sir, the future is 
 full of difiiculties and full of dangers. We are suffering to pass 
 the golden opportunity for securing harmony and the stability of 
 the Constitution. We appear to me to be rushing upon perils 
 headlong, and with our eyes wide open. But I put my trust in 
 Providence, and in that good sense and patriotism of the people 
 which will yet, I hope, be awakened before it is too late." 
 
 Still more emphatic, if possible, are the following passages 
 from the speech made a little more than a year later : 
 
 " On Friday a bill passed the Senate for raising ten regiments 
 of new troops for the further prosecution of the war against 
 
58 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Mexico ; and we have been informed that that measure is shortly 
 to be followed, in this branch of the legislature, by a bill to raise 
 twenty regiments of volunteers for the same service. I was 
 desirous of expressing my opinions against the object of these 
 bills, against the supposed necessity which leads to their enact- 
 ment, and against the general policy which they are apparently 
 designed to promote. Circumstances personal to myself, but 
 beyond my control, compelled me to forego, on that day, the 
 execution of that design. . . . 
 
 " This war was waged for the object of creating new States, 
 on the southern border of the United States, out of Mexican ter- 
 ritory, and with such population as could be found resident 
 thereupon. I have opposed this object. I am against all acces- 
 sions of territory to form new States. And this is no matter of 
 sentimentality, which I am to parade before mass-meetings or 
 before my constituents at home. It is not a matter with me of 
 declamation, or of regret, or of expressed repugnance. It is a 
 matter of firm, unchangeable purpose. I yield nothing to the 
 force of circumstances that have occurred, or that I can consider 
 as likely to occur. I therefore say. Sir, that, if I were asked 
 to-day whether, for the sake of peace, I would take a treaty for 
 addins: two new States to the Union on our southern border, I 
 would say TVi?.' distinctly, No! And I wish every man in the 
 United States to understand that to be my judgment and my 
 purpose. . . . 
 
 " Just before the commencement of the present administration, 
 the resolutions for the annexation of Texas were passed in Con- 
 gress. Texas complied with the provisions of those resolutions, 
 and was here, or the case was here, on the 22d day of December, 
 1845, for her final admission into the Union as one of the States. 
 I took occasion then to say that I thought there must be some 
 limit to the extent of our territories, and that I wished this coun- 
 try should exhibit to the world the example of a powerful repub- 
 lic, without greediness or hunger of empire. And I added that, 
 while I held with as much faithfulness as any citizen of the coun- 
 try to all the original arrangements and compromises of the Con- 
 
APPENDIX. 59 
 
 stitution under which we live, I never could, and I never should, 
 bring myself to be in favour of the admission of any States into 
 the Union as slave-holding States. . . . 
 
 "If you bring in new States, any State that comes in must 
 have two Senators. She may come in with fifty or sixty thou- 
 sand people, or more. You may have from a particular State 
 more Senators than you have Representatives. Can any thing 
 occur to disfigure and derange the form of government under 
 which we live more signally than that? The Senate, augmented 
 by these new Senators coming from States where there are few 
 people, becomes an odious oligarchy. It holds power without 
 any adequate constituency. . . . 
 
 " Sir, I hardly dare trust myself. I don''t know but that I may 
 be under some delusion. It may be the weakness of my eyes 
 that forms this monstrous apparition. But, if I may trust myself, 
 if I can persuade myself that I am in my right mind, then it does 
 appear to me that we in this Senate have been and are acting, 
 and are likely to be acting hereafter, and immediately, a part 
 which will form the most remarkable epoch in the history of our 
 country. I hold it to be enormous, flagrant, an outrage upon all 
 the principles of popular republican government, and on the 
 elementary provisions of the Constitution under which we live, 
 and which we have sworn to support. . . . 
 
 "I think I see a course adopted which is likely to turn the 
 Constitution of the land into a deformed monster, into a curse 
 rather than a blessing ; in fact, a frame of an unequal govern- 
 ment, not founded on popular representation, not founded on 
 equality, but on the grossest inequality ; and I think that this 
 process will go on, or that there is da7iger that it will go on, 
 until this Union shall fall to pieces. I resist it, to-day and always. 
 Whoever falters or whoever flies, I continue the contest ! 
 
 " I know, Sir, that all the portents are discouraging. Would 
 to God I could auspicate good influences ! Would to God that 
 those who think with me, and myself, could hope for stronger 
 support ! Would that we could stand where we desire to stand ! 
 I see the signs are sinister. But with few, or alone, my posi- 
 
60 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 tion is fixed. If there were time I would gladly awaken the 
 country. I believe the country might be awakened, although 
 it may be too late. For myself, supported or unsupported, by 
 the blessing of God, I shall do my duty. I see well enough all 
 the adverse indications. But I am sustained by a deep and 
 conscientious sense of duty; and, while supported by that feel- 
 ing, and while such great interests are at stake, I defy auguries, 
 and ask no omen but my country's cause ! " 
 
 Mr. Sanborn thinks, as he well may, that the alleged dis- 
 honest change in Webster's course, about which so much 
 has been said, was not connected with the speech he made 
 on the yth of March, 1850, but with a speech which he did 
 not make some time in 1847 ^^ 1848. The letter which 
 Mr. Sanborn gives, from Mr. Sumner to Mr. Parker, is with- 
 out date ; but that letter evidently refers also to some speech 
 that Webster did not make against the Mexican war. A 
 part of Mr. Sumner's letter is as follows : " At the Senate I 
 spoke witli Giddings. He repeated what he had told me 
 before, that Webster had submitted to him the brief of a 
 speech against the Mexican war, which he never delivered." 
 Now, wdiether Webster ever delivered the particular speech 
 here referred to may be a question. But I submit that he 
 could not well have made any fuller or stronger declarations 
 against admitting any new slave-holding States and against 
 all extension of slavery than we have in the forecited pas- 
 sages from his speeches in 1847 ^^^<^ 1848. Surely these 
 passages must be enough to satisfy any candid and fair- 
 minded man, that Webster did not then shirk the honest 
 expression of his mind, from what Mr. Sumner was pleased 
 to call "the paltriness of his office-seeking." 
 
 Probably the speech which Webster did not deliver, and 
 of which a " skeleton " Nvas shown to Mr, Giddings, was the 
 one referred to in one of the forecited passages from the 
 
APPENDIX. 6l 
 
 speech of March 23, 1848: "I was desirous of expressing 
 my opinions against the object of these bills," &c., (page 
 58). And is not the reason which he there assigns, for not 
 having made that intended speech, sufficient? especially in 
 view of the speech he made on the 23d of March, 1848? 
 One would think that even an unbenevolent mind might be 
 satisfied with that reason. 
 
 Now, as nearly all the South were at that time manifestly 
 bent on conquering new territory for the sole purpose of 
 extending slavery, Webster, in his earnest and repeated pro- 
 tests and warnings against such extension, certainly had a 
 very funny way of truckling, or of selling himself, for Southern 
 votes. And as the imputing of bad motives, save " under a 
 compelling occasion," is not generally regarded as a very 
 high act of virtue, therefore we are bound in charity to pre- 
 sume that Mr. Sumner was strictly compelled to impute bad 
 motives in that particular case. But it seems not unlikely 
 that his undated letter to Mr. Parker may have been written 
 before Webster's delivery of the speech which he had been 
 obliged to postpone. Be that as it may, Mr. Sanborn had 
 of course a perfect right to overlook or ignore the facts 
 belonging to the matter in hand, and then speak just as if 
 those facts were non-existent. For it is clearly indispensable 
 that Webster's character should somehow be put to death ; 
 and, where the end is so high and holy, it is evidently not 
 worth the while to be at all scrupulous as to the means. 
 Finally, in the case of Webster, liberal men, to be sure, must 
 be allowed the special privilege of drawing upon their own 
 imagination for the facts touching his action, and upion their 
 own generous hearts, or tJicij- '' inner consciousness," for his 
 motives. ^ ^^ pj 
 
 Cambridge, Jan.. 1882. 
 
62 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 At an anniversary meeting of the Massachusetts Anti- 
 slavery Society, held in Faneuil Hall, on the 23d and 24th 
 of January, 1850, a series of resolutions was adopted, one of 
 which is as follows : 
 
 '■'■ Resolved, That, admiring the fearlessness, the fidelity to 
 principle, and the just discernment of slavery's true nature, and 
 its chief strongholds, manifested by the great convention of 
 Ohio's sons and daughters, assembled in September last at Ber- 
 lin, in that State, we, the members and friends of the Massachu- 
 setts Antislavery Society, assembled in Faneuil Hall, do cordially 
 respond to their words, and say with them, With full confidence 
 in the integrity of our purpose and the justice of our cause, we do 
 hereby declare ourselves the enemies of the Constitution, Union, 
 and Government of the United States, and the friends of the new 
 Confederacy of States, where there shall be no union with slave- 
 holders, but where there shall ever be free soil, free labour, and 
 free men ; and we proclaim it as our unalterable purpose and 
 determination to live and labour for a dissolution of the present 
 Union, by all lawful and just, though bloodless and pacific means, 
 and for the formation of a new republic, that shall be such, not 
 in name only, but in full living reality and truth. And we do 
 hereby invite and entreat all our fellow-citizens and the friends 
 of justice, humanity, and true liberty throughout the Northern 
 States, to unite with us in labouring for so glorious an object." 
 
 Many pages might easily be filled with matter just like the 
 above, all plainly demonstrating that the Abolitionists were 
 at that time fierce disunionists, as much so as the " fire- 
 eaters " of the South ; and that the former, in common with 
 the latter, were pushing on, with all their might, a scheme 
 of " peaceable secession." How likely such secession was 
 to be peaceable, was charmingly shown by our four smilingly- 
 
APPENDIX. 6^, 
 
 peaceful years of civil war. Tlie Abolitionists were then 
 feeding themselves with eager hopes of a speedy disruption 
 or "dissolution" of the Union. Those hopes were badly 
 dashed by the passing of the Compromise Measures, which 
 took -place just when their patriotic and philanthropic fervour 
 was at the white-heat of intensity. This abundantly explains 
 their amiable and benevolent virulence against Webster ; for 
 ''Death loves a shining mark." To be sure, they had loved 
 Webster mightily when he opposed Nullification and Seces- 
 sion in South Carolina ; but they hated him with inexpressi- 
 ble bitterness when he opposed the same thing in Massachu- 
 setts : the case was then altered completely, of course ; and 
 so their milk instantaneously somersaulted into gall 1 
 
 Upon a fair and candid view of the whole matter, the 
 upshot seems to be about this : Webster was conscientiously 
 loyal, the Abolitionists were conscientiously disloyal, to the 
 Union and the Constitution; he thought the Union ought 
 to be preserved, they thought it ought to be destroyed. 
 Conscience was of course to be respected in them ; and why 
 not as much so in him? AVisdom, also, or moderation, if 
 they had possessed it, would have been worthy of respect in 
 them ; Webster did possess it, and in him it was worthy of 
 respect. In other words, the Abolitionists were honest, but 
 they were fanatics ; Webster, also, was honest, and was not a 
 fanatic : this was just the difference between them. 'So, too, 
 the pro-slavery fanatics of the South were no doubt just as 
 honest as the anti-slavery fanatics of the North : on both 
 sides the honesty was good; the fanaticism on both sides 
 
 was bad. 
 
 One word more. The Abolitionists were eager and impa- 
 patient to run the risk of setting the whole Nation on fire, 
 in order to purge off a local and long-standing nuisance, 
 
64 WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 which it was indeed unspeakably desirable to get rid of: 
 Webster was deeply and most honourably anxious that the 
 nuisance should be al)ated, as he believed it might and would 
 be in time, without wrapping the Nation in llames. And, 
 when the crisis came, the people of the North proved to be 
 so for in sympathy with him. that they preferred an almost 
 desperate civil war to the downfall of the Union. It is also 
 to be said, in praise of the Abolitionists generally, that, when 
 they found, as they did find, that the cause of the Union 
 might become, and was likely to become, a mighty force for 
 the destruction of slavery, they fell in heartily with the rest, 
 cast off their disloyalty to the Union, turned earnest patriots, 
 and worked nobly, none more so, in support of that cause. 
 And it has really long seemed to me that, now that the strug- 
 gle is a thing of the past, and passion has had time to cool, 
 the old Abolitionists, above all other people in the land, 
 frankly discarding the animosities of tliirty years ago, ought 
 to love and honour the name of Daniel Webster. Surely 
 they owe him that reparation ; and tlicy owe it c\'en more to 
 themselves than to him ! And I am the rather moved to say 
 this, inasmuch as, during those long-past years, I was myself 
 in full sympathy with their hatred of slavery. 
 
 Press of Rockwell <fe Chufchill, 39 Arcli St. 
 
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 Please Notice: that the HARVARD SHAKESPEARE is 
 
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 tioned OLD EDITION is put up in 6 and 12 volumes. 
 
 We copy the following from an article in the Boston Sunday 
 Herald of Oct. 3, 1880, having reference to the old and late editions 
 mentioned above : — 
 
 " It was in 185 1 that his (Hudson's) first edition of * Shakespeare's 
 Plays' appeared in 11 volumes, after the form and style of the Chis- 
 wick edition of 1 826. It was the first time that, properly speaking, the 
 Poet's text had been edited in this country. The edition, so far as 
 the text went, was extemporised. Its chief value was in its notes 
 and introductions. When Mr. Richard Grant White's edition 
 appeared in 1865, to use Mr. Hudson's own words, he 'beat me all 
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 as much as he then beat me.' 
 
 " In 1870 Ginn & Heath became his publishers, and brought out 
 his ' School Shakespeare ' in three volumes, containing seven plays 
 each. In 1872 he put into two volumes the substance of his earlier 
 volumes on ' Shakespeare's Characters,' revising, condensing, rewrit- 
 ing his earlier work, parts of which he had outgrown, and presenting 
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 AND Characters.' 
 
 " It was felt by his publishers and friends, quite as much as by 
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 son's style is unique in its piquancy and 
 
its vigor ; and he keeps his readers on 
 the qui vive from first to last. And so 
 in the " Critical Notes," every change 
 from the old copies is remarked, and 
 the reasons for the text selected are .set 
 forth without dogmatism or any of that 
 abuse of fellow-commentators that dis- 
 figures our old Shakespeares. With 
 the " Harvard " edition, and the editor's 
 "Life, Art, and Characters of Shake- 
 speare," any reader will find himself 
 thoroughly equipped for the intelligent 
 study, textual and aesthetic, of the great 
 dramatist. These books contain the 
 results of a long life's sympathetic de- 
 votion to Shakespeare ; they are an im- 
 perishable monument to Mr. Hudson, 
 a credit to your house, and an honor to 
 America to have produced them ; and 
 I sincerely hope they will find, as they 
 richly merit, an appreciative and world- 
 wide circulation. 
 
 Mr. F. J. Furnivall's Introduc- 
 tion to " The Leopold Shakespeare" : In 
 Shakespearian criticism, Gervinus of 
 Heidelberg, Dovvden of Dublin, and 
 Hudson of Boston, are the student's 
 best guides that we have in English 
 speech. 
 
 Prof. DoTVden, Dublin : Hudson's 
 edition takes its place beside the best 
 work of English Shakespeare students. 
 
 London Athenasuna : Mr. Hud- 
 son's volumes deserve to find a place 
 in every library devoted to Shake- 
 speare, to editions of his works, to his 
 biography, and to the works of com- 
 mentators. 
 
 Mr. H. H. Purness: I cannot 
 refrain from recording my thorough 
 admiration for Mr, Hudson's aesthetic 
 criticisms. No Shakespeare student 
 can afford to overlook them. 
 
 New York Tribune : As an in- 
 terpreter of Shakespeare, imbued with 
 the vital essence of the great English 
 
 dramatist, and equally qualified by in- 
 sight and study to penetrate the deepest 
 significance of his writings, it would be 
 difficult to name an English or Ameri- 
 can scholar who can be compared with 
 the editor of this edition. Not even 
 Mr. Coleridge, or the late R. H. Dana, 
 the great masters in Shakespearian 
 criticism, and to whom Mr. Hudson 
 would not disown discipleship, have 
 evinced a more subtle comprehension 
 of the finer sense of the many-sided 
 bard, or have given a more vigorous 
 and pregnant utterance to their con- 
 ceptions of his meaning. His com- 
 mentary is a study of profound and 
 delicate thought. Every sentence is 
 richly freighted with ideas, which afford 
 the seeds of precious intellectual ac- 
 quisitions, and the suggestions of noble 
 methods in the conduct of life. 
 
 Hon. George S. Hillard : When 
 any one differs from Mr. Hudson's con- 
 clusions, it behooves him to examine 
 well the grounds of his dissent. Mr. 
 Hudson is an independent and original 
 thinker, and no mere transmuter of 
 another man's metal. His tone of mind 
 is philosophical. We cannot read any- 
 where a dozen pages of these volumes 
 without admitting that we are convers- 
 ing with a thinker, and not merely a 
 scholar. We recognize everywhere a 
 peculiar and characteristic flavor. Mr. 
 Hudson's views, be they deemed right 
 or wrong, sound or unsound, are un- 
 borrowed. They are coined in his own 
 mint, and bear his image and super- 
 scription. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Crosby, Z.anesville, 
 O. : The explanatory notes are, where 
 of course they ought always to be, at 
 the foot of the page ; they give what 
 the editor understands to be the correct 
 explanations at once ; and do not puzzle 
 readers with a lot of variorum explana- 
 tions, and leave them, unaided, to select 
 for themselves which are the true ones. 
 And I like his style too. It is fresh, 
 
original, and pungent. He is deter- 
 mined that none of his readers shall go 
 to sleep over his notes and monographs. 
 
 Mr. E. P. Whipple : Gervinus, the 
 greatest Shakespearian critic of Ger- 
 many, has recognized Hudson as a man 
 whose opinions are to be admitted or 
 controverted, as he admits or contro- 
 verts the judgments of Schlegel and 
 Ulrici, of Johnson, Coleridge, Lamb, 
 and Hazlitt. His is the most thoughtful 
 and intelligent interpretative criticism 
 which has, during the present century, 
 been written, either in English or Ger- 
 man. Hudson on " Shakespeare " is an 
 authority, just as Agassiz is an authority 
 in zoology. Mr. Hudson has none of 
 the pedantry of many students of Shake- 
 .spearian lore, while he is brimful of its 
 substance and spirit. He writes boldly 
 and independently, but he is not self- 
 opinionated. He is reverential as well 
 as intrepid. He is never dull ; but he 
 does not escape dulness through pert- 
 ness or shallowness. His great object 
 is to educate people into a solid knowl- 
 edge of Shakespeare as well as to 
 quicken their love for him ; and in this 
 educational purpose he aims to delight 
 the readers he instructs. It is in the 
 analysis of Shakespeare's characters 
 that Mr. Hudson puts forth all his force 
 and subtlety of thought. They have 
 been so long his mental companions, 
 acquaintances, or friends, that he almost 
 forgets the fact that they are not actual 
 beings, however much they may be 
 " real " beings. He shows that Shake- 
 speare's characters have so taken real 
 existence in his mind, that he uncon- 
 sciously speaks of them as one speaks 
 of persons he daily meets. This is the 
 charm of his criticisins. Even when his 
 analysis breaks up the characters into 
 their elements, and shows that they are 
 not so much individual spcciinens of 
 human nature as vividly individualized 
 classes of human nature, he still never 
 loses sight of their personality. His an- 
 alysis of the great characters of Shake- 
 
 speare, whether serious or comic, is so 
 keen and true, that it cannot but give 
 new and fresh ideas to the most diligent 
 student of the Poet. In his expositions 
 of the female characters of Shakespeare 
 he is uniformly excellent. The ideal 
 beauty of these types of womanhood 
 has never had a more genial and deli- 
 cate interpreter. The minor characters 
 also have full justice done them. 
 
 The Congre nationalist : His 
 scholarly ability and experience as a 
 student of Shakespeare placv any such 
 work from his pen in the front rank. 
 Whatever reading or comment has the 
 weight of his authority behind it, has 
 therein a strong presumption in its favor. 
 
 F. J. Child, Prof, of E77i^. Lit., 
 Harvard College: A best edition of 
 Shakespeare I have always been at a 
 loss to recommend. As yet I have not 
 gone very far into this new work of Mr. 
 Hudson's, but my first impression is 
 that this may safely be called the very 
 best edition. {May 24, iSSi.) 
 
 Cyrus Northrop, Prof, of Efig. 
 Lit., Yale College: Prof. Hudson has 
 done much to make the study of Shake- 
 speare attractive ; and I cannot better 
 show my appreciation of his good sense, 
 his correct judgment, and his skilful 
 analysis of character, as well as of his 
 learning, than by saying that his is one 
 of the editions required in my classes. 
 ( Oct. ig, 188 J.) 
 
 Dr. A. P. Peabody, Harvard 
 Coll. : As I have already said, in print 
 and in private speech, I regard the 
 edition as unequalled in Shakespearian 
 scholarship, and in its worth in the 
 library and for current use ; and I yield 
 to no one in the highest regard for the 
 editor. {May 23, 1S81.) 
 
 Boston Advertiser: Taking all 
 things into account, the historical in- 
 troductions, the marginal and critical 
 
notes, the convenient size of the vol- 
 umes, and the careful and accurate 
 typography, we know of no edition of 
 Shakespeare so satisfactory for constant 
 use. The " Harvard " edition deserves 
 to become the standard edition for ad- 
 mirers and students of Shakespeare in 
 this corner of the world. 
 
 Springfield Republican : Char- 
 acterized by loving enthusiasm, ripe 
 scholarship, terse and comprehensive 
 explanations of obscure passages and 
 dubious words, and able historical and 
 critical comment. The introductions. 
 to the various plays are indeed valuable 
 helps to the student, full of the informa- 
 tion which years of special instruction 
 have taught the editor to be mosr suited 
 to the needs of the student and general 
 reader, without taking from him the de- 
 sire to search further for himself, and of 
 the critical acumen which has marked 
 him as first among America's Shake- 
 spearian scholars. 
 
 Zion's Herald, Boston : In purity 
 of text and in intelligent annotation this 
 edition has no superior. 
 
 The Churchman, A^. Y. : It is his 
 merit to give the results of scholarship 
 and learning rather than the processes 
 by which they are reached, and, as a 
 consequence, he does not overload his 
 text ; nor does he waste time in explain- 
 ing what is already obvious and clear, 
 — he holds no farthing candle to the 
 sun. Unlike many editors, he brings 
 his author and not himself to the front, 
 and is himself silent where the great 
 high priest of nature speaks. The great 
 dramatist was the master of all learning, 
 " a poet soaring in the high reason of 
 his fancies, with his garland and sing- 
 ing robes about him," and when the sun 
 is full high advanced in the heavens, 
 before him all lesser lights must pale. 
 It is in this reverent spirit that Mr, 
 Hudson does his work. The notes of 
 Mr. Hudson enable us to discover new 
 
 beauties, and this edition of Shake- 
 speare, with its clear type, handsome 
 paper, and modest binding, commends 
 itself to us by a thousand charms. 
 
 Washing-ton Post : The " Har- 
 vard Shakespeare" is destined to be- 
 come the standard popular edition oi 
 the great dramatic poet. There is no 
 better Shakespearian scholar in the 
 country than Prof. Hudson, and upon 
 this work he has exhausted the re- 
 searches of a lifetime. In beauty of 
 letterpress, legibility of type, conven- 
 ience of arrangement, and copiousness 
 of notes, there is no Shakespeare to 
 compare with it. 
 
 Christian Register, Boston : We 
 are not alone in approving this edition, 
 for our praise of Mr. Hudson's work 
 has been more moderate than that of 
 many of the critics. The man who 
 reads for enjoyment, desirous of gain- 
 ing also a fair knowledge of the mean- 
 ing of Shakespeare, need not find him- 
 self ignorant after giving attention to 
 what the author has to say in illustration 
 of the text. In every way the edition 
 is a credit to editor and publishers, and 
 may well stand as the monument of a 
 lifetime of loving devotion to the great- 
 est of English poets. There is enough 
 for the general reader, and not too 
 much. Every reasonable question is 
 answered, and few but special students 
 will care to go deeper into the critical 
 questions which are raised at every 
 step. 
 
 The Commonwealth, Boston : 
 Careful research, critical analysis, intel- 
 ligent comment, judicious notes, and 
 admirable text. A lifetime of thought 
 and investigation is embraced in the 
 preparation of the critical matter, and 
 the suggestions are worthy of respect 
 from all readers of the great bard. 
 
 New England Journal of Edu- 
 cation, Boston : Whoever is fortunate 
 
enough to possess the " Harvard Edi- 
 tion " has, in the best possible form, an 
 edition of Shakespeare of which he 
 may, as an American, be proud. The 
 publishers have won for themselves not 
 only the credit of being moved with a 
 most commendable spirit of enterprise 
 in advancing American literary scholar- 
 ship, but have proved that they are un- 
 excelled as book-makers. The Messrs. 
 Ginn, Heath, & Co. have their own 
 printing-office, and their typography 
 and binding is in the best style of the 
 art. 
 
 The School Bnlletin, NewYork : 
 Should receive attention from all who 
 want the best. 
 
 Editor of The Western, Si. 
 
 Louis : There is no edition so con- 
 venient and satisfactory for a private 
 library. 
 
 Boston Letter to Springfield 
 Union, Oct 24, iSSi : As a whole, 
 this is unquestionably entitled to rank 
 among the foremost of all the excellent 
 editions of Shakespeare yet published. 
 Mr. Hudson has brought to the editing 
 of it, in addition to his general scholar- 
 ship and good judgment, an almost un- 
 equalled familiarity with Shakespeare, 
 derived from the special and exhaustive 
 study of his works, his life, his time, and 
 his students, for many years. There is 
 nothing extemporaneous in his work ; 
 it is well considered, carefully weighed, 
 and stated as conscientiously as if he 
 were under oath to tell the truth, the 
 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth 
 concerning Shakespeare and his mar- 
 vellous writings. The editions he has 
 previously produced, both in separate 
 plays and entire, have been rehearsals 
 for this the crowning achievement of his 
 life study. The " Life of Shakespeare " 
 has been entirely re-written, as well as 
 the introductions to the plays, so as to 
 incorporate the latest researches. 
 
 New York Evening- Express : 
 Prof. Hudson ranks among the first 
 Shakespearian scholars. He has de- 
 voted his life to Shakespearian studies, 
 and to the literature best calculated to 
 explain and illustrate the meaning of 
 Shakespeare's marvellous verse. He 
 is endowed with critical faculties of a 
 high order, sharpened by continuous 
 culture, but balanced by an apprecia- 
 tiveness and a large common sense 
 which keep liim from falling a victim 
 to his critical fancies and divinings. 
 He keeps a firm foot on facts, on the 
 solid ground of knowledge, on the es- 
 tablished canons of taste and judg- 
 ment, and is always trustworthy, which 
 is vastly more than can be said of most 
 modern Shakespeare editors and an- 
 notators. And these qualities among 
 others — we cannot help mentioning 
 the tasteful form and typography of the 
 volumes — render his edition superior 
 to any we have, not excepting that of 
 the infallible and immaculate Richard 
 Grant White. It is a credit to Ameri- 
 can scholarship, and admirably suited 
 for educated Shakespearian readers 
 and students. 
 
WEBSTER CENTENNIAL. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 PELIVEKED OX THE 
 
 HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OK TI^E BIRTH OF 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 JANUARY i8, 1882. 
 
 The Rev. HENRY N. HUDSON, LL.D. 
 
 -ooX»:JOO- 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY GINN, HEATH, & CO. 
 
 I «82. 
 
c 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 The study of English Literature has been and still is pursued largely on th« 
 historical, philological, critical, and biographical basis. With this object in view 
 the following books will be found valuable. 
 
 Thomas Arnold's Manual of English Literature, Historical ani 
 
 Critical. 
 
 Carpenter's Introduction to Anglo-Saxon. (Grammar and Reading. 
 
 Carpenter's English of the XIV. Century. Chancers Prologue am 
 Kni gilt's Tale. 
 
 Lounsbury's Chaucer's Parlament of Foules. 
 
 Craik's English of Shakespeare. (Commentary on Julius Ccesar.) 
 
 Many of our best schools, however, are turning their attention more especial! 
 to the thought, matter, and style of the author; and for this purpose they requir 
 more complete selections. We have, therefore, published in pamphlet .form 
 
 Hudson's Separate Plays of Shakespeare. 
 
 The Merchant of Venice, Julius Ccssar, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, Hen? 
 the Eighth, As You Like It, Henry the Fourth, King Lear, Much Ado About Noti. 
 mg, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry the Fifti 
 Coriolanus. In paper covers. Price of each, 30 cents. 
 
 Hudson's Pamphlet Sections of Text-Books of Prose and Poetry 
 
 Burke, Webster, Bacon, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bu7-ns, Addison and Gok 
 smith. In paper covers. Price of each, 30 cents. 
 
 Sprague's Six Sketches from Irving's Sketch-Book. With Notes 
 
 Sprague's Milton's Lycidas. With Notes for School use. 
 We also bind many of the above in cloth Price, 40 cents. 
 
 Hudson's Text-Book of Poetry. 
 
 From Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, Beattie, Golds7nith, and Thomson. Wil 
 Notes and Sketches of the Authors' Lives. 
 
 Hudson's Text-Book of Prose. 
 
 From Burke, Webster, and Bacon. With Notes and Sketches of the Authoi 
 Lives. 
 
 Hudson's Life, Art, and Characters of Shakespeare. 
 
 Including an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Growth of the Drama : 
 England, with Studies in the Poet's Drainatic Architecture, Delineation of Chara 
 ter, Humor, Style, and Moral Spirit ; also with Critical Discourses on twenty-fi' 
 plays. 
 
 Hudson's School Shakespeare. First, Second, and Third Series. 
 
 Hudson's Classical English Reader. 
 
 Containing selections from Bryant, Burke, Burns, Byron, Carlyle, Colcud^ 
 Cowley, Cowper, Dana, Fronde, Gladstone, Goldsmith, Gray, Helps, Herbert, Hookt 
 Hume, Irving, Keble, Lamb, Landor, Longfellow, Macaulay, Milton, Peabody, Sco 
 Shakespeare, Southey, Spenser, Talfourd, Taylor, Webster; Whittier, Wordswori 
 and other standard authors. With Explanatory and Critical Footnotes. 
 
 A Full Descriptive Catalogue mailed on application. 
 GINN & HEATH, Publishers, Boston, New York, and Chicago. 
 
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