Class 
 
 Book 
 
 S. 
 
 I Abe* 
 


 THE LIFE 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 INCLUDING A BRIEF OUTLINE OF 
 
 HIS SERVICES TO THE NATION, 
 
 AS 
 
 jUprrsmtauae, Imntar, aitfr Jwrrtitnj of $tafe. 
 
 " TA< Union, Now and For tver, One and Imeparable '." 
 
 WITH A SUMMARY OF HIS VIEWS ON THE 
 
 GREAT NATIONAL QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 
 
 From tlus New York Daily Times of Oct. 25, 1852. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 DE WITT k DAVENPORT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
R. CRAtOIIEAD, PRINTER, 
 
 53 Vuty Strttl, .V. Y. 
 
 The Publishers have been induced to reprint this Sketch of the 
 Life and Public Career of Mr. Webster, from the New York Da;ly 
 Times, in which it appeared the day after his death, by the belief that 
 a clear and condensed summary of the events in which he has borne 
 so conspicuous a part, will be popular and useful. The Editor of the 
 Times, to whom they are indebted for permission thus to reprint it, 
 desires them to 6ay, that ^an excuse should be found for its faults, in 
 the fact that it was prepared, written, and put in type during the few 
 hours that intervened between the receipt of intelligence that he was 
 dying, and the hour on which the Daily Times of the 25th, was put to 
 press. 
 
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL LIBRARY. 
 
 LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 Daniel Webster was born in the 
 town of Salisbury, New Hampshire, on 
 the 18th January, 1782. His age, at 
 the period of his death, was according- 
 ly seventy years, nine months', and six 
 days. 
 
 The ancestral line of the "Webster 
 family extended back, in authentic 
 records, to the early part of the seven- 
 teenth century. Thomas Webster, born 
 in 1632, was the great-great-grand- 
 father of Daniel. He emigrated to this 
 country from Norfolk, England, in the 
 year 1656, and settled at Hampton, 
 in New Hampshire, where, soon after 
 his arrival, he was united in marriage to' 
 Sarah Brewer, by whom he had five 
 sons and three daughters. Ebenezer, his 
 second son, was born in 1667, and was 
 married to Hannah Judkins in July, 
 1709. Of his sons, only one had issue. 
 This was Ebenezer, grandfather of 
 Daniel, who was married to Susannah 
 BatcheldeT in 1738, and had eight chil- 
 dren, of whom the oldest was Ebenezer, 
 the father of the Great Statesman. 
 
 Ebenezer Webster was born in Kings- 
 ton, New Hampshire, on the 22d of 
 April, 1739. The settlement was then 
 new, and Ebenezer's father was a dili- 
 gent and persevering farmer. The son, 
 an active youth, was early chosen as one. 
 of the famous "Rangers" of Major 
 Robert Rodgers, and served with that 
 distinguished officer, under Lord Am- 
 herst, in the French War of 1763. 
 The Rangers were kept in the pay of the 
 Crown 'luring the continuance of the 
 War. Mr. Webster was one of the 
 
 party which, under the command of 
 Major Rodgers, made an expedition to 
 Crown Point for the purpose of chastis- 
 ing the Indians and destroying their vil- 
 lages — an act which was deemed essen- 
 tial to the preservation of the whites. 
 The Rangers were always on active du- 
 ty, and proved most efficient allies. 
 The history of their trials and their tri- 
 umphs has never been fully told . At the 
 conclusion of the Peace, Mr. Webster, tak- 
 ing advantage of the moment of quiet 
 which was afforded him, commenced a 
 settlement, in company with several 
 others, in a border-town on a branch of 
 the Merrimack River. The plate was 
 first known as Bakerstowrf, but was af- 
 terwards called Salisbury — a name that 
 will endure as long as the history of its 
 greatest Son shall be remembered and 
 cherished among the proudest orna- 
 ments of the country. Mr. Webster 
 had just commenced the necessary pre- 
 parations for a comfortable rural resi- 
 dence, when the Revolutionary struggle 
 began. His former reputation as one 
 of the body of Rangers served to direct 
 the eyes of his neighbors towards him, 
 and his services were soon in active re- 
 quest as the leader in the constitution of 
 th»-ir military bands. It is needless to 
 say that the veteran Ranger entered, 
 heart and soul, into that long and 
 dubious contest. Foremost among the 
 brave defenders of the Nation, and skil- 
 ful, brave, and experienced, the weight 
 of Mr. Wei as speedily 
 
 manifested in the consistenfardor with 
 which the battle was maintained. 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 Mr. Webster commanded a volunteer 
 company of his friends and neighbors 
 under Genera] Stark, in the fight at 
 Bennington, and during the engage- 
 ment was seen in the thickest of the 
 fray. It had been given out by Stark, 
 some time previous to the battle, that it 
 was bis intention to march to Stillwat'-r. 
 and a detachment of the British, one thou- 
 sand strong, was consequently sent to in- 
 tercept him. The forces of the enemy 
 having been thus divided and weakened, 
 the American general was enabled to 
 cope with them in detail. Col. Warner 
 was Btationed in the rear of the Ameri- 
 can army, with a reserved corps, while 
 Captain Webster was ordered to advance 
 with his company of one hundred men, 
 in search of two hundred more, who 
 were out upon a scout. The companies 
 once united, Captain Webster was to 
 assume the command of the whole, and 
 fall upon the enemy on the rear, but on 
 no account to fire, until the action had 
 commenced on the other side. It was 
 on this memorable occasion that Genera] 
 Stark uttered the celebrated words: 
 "Fellow-soldiers! there is the enemy: 
 if we don't take them, Molly Stark will 
 be a widow to-nighl !'' Captain Web- 
 ster having fulfilled the duty assigned to 
 him in collecting together the three 
 hundred men, awaited his share in the 
 honors of the day. When allowed to 
 make his charge upon the enemy, with 
 pieces loaded, and with firm and 
 equal Btep, his men advanced upon the 
 opposing breastworks. Captain Web- 
 ster was the first t<> leap the defences, 
 but the reinforcements were nol sufficient 
 to render the attack successful, and his 
 command was driven back. Meantime 
 the l'>riti>h were strengthened by the 
 
 arrival of on.- thousand fresh troops 
 upon the field, and a new disposition 
 of the battle became nec< ssary. Gene- 
 ral Stark placed Captain Webster and 
 Captain Gregg on the left wing of the 
 American force, Colonel Nichols on the 
 right, and ] army in a Btrong 
 
 ion. 'I'll.- result of that struggle IS 
 a matter of history, and a large propor- 
 tion of its fain.' i- due to t li • • effbrl 
 
 Ebenezer Webster. At the battle of 
 White Plains, Mr. Webster was also 
 present, and performed effective sen 
 At the end of the war, he again retired 
 to private life, and sought to end his 
 days peacefully and with honor as an 
 humble cultivator of the soil. This, 
 however, was denied him. The people 
 whom he had served had stronger claims 
 upon him. He was, for several years, 
 elected a Representative from Salisbury 
 to the Legislature of New-Hampshire, 
 and' in the years 1785-6-8 and '90 
 tilled the office of State Senator. In 
 1785 he was appointed Colonel of the 
 Militia. In 1791 he was chosen as 
 Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
 for the County of Hillsborough, which 
 office he held until 1805. On the 22d 
 of April of the following year ,(1806) 
 Col. Webster died upon his farm, at the 
 j age of 67. His wife, Abigail, sun 
 him ten years, and died on the 14th of 
 April, 1816, aged 70 years. 
 
 Col. Webster was twice married. 
 \\\< second wife, Abigail Eastman, the 
 mother of Daniel and Ezekiel, w 
 lady of Wel-di descent, and a resident 
 
 ■ 
 
 of Salisbury at the time of her marriage. 
 I"- Daniel Webster was born under the 
 influence of true New-England institu- 
 tions. A harsh and rugged country, 
 cold blasts and meagre natural advan- 
 tages, formed no pleasant introductions 
 to the world. The hills and forests of 
 the Granite State offered few induce- 
 ments, years ago, for the development 
 of intellectual versatility and strength. 
 
 It was the aim of her people to impart 
 to their children the soundest principles 
 
 of morality and common - Few 
 
 indulgences were allowed them, and the 
 
 SacredneSS <•( the parental control was 
 
 strictly guarded. In the midst of such 
 a public sentiment was Daniel Wei 
 reared. He enjoyed \\ hat i- term' 
 frood New England education, receiving 
 
 the fullest advai I 
 
 tern of that day — not. a- now, brought 
 home to every door, hut occasional and 
 migratory in its nature. 
 
 While still young. Daniel was daily 
 sent two miles and a half to school, in 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 the middle of winter, and on foot. lie 
 
 walked the entire distance there and 
 back. If the school chanced to remove 
 still further from his father's house, 
 board was engaged in some convenient 
 family for the youthful student, and his 
 acquisitions of knowledge were pursued 
 without interruption. An ardent desire 
 for learning was early manifest in the 
 mind of Daniel Webster. Difficulties 
 were presented, with which he was 
 compelled to struggle ; hindrances stood 
 in the way, which he was obliged to 
 overcome. But every obstacle was sur- 
 mounted, and the scholar came forth a 
 man. His father was deeply impressed 
 with the necessity of education, and 
 spared no pains to give Daniel a 
 thorough insight into the mysteries of 
 knowledge. Among the few volumes con- 
 tained in the Circulating Library of that 
 day, the young Daniel found a special fasci- 
 nation in a copy of the " Spectator" — 
 particularly in the criticisms upon 
 " Chevy Chase." Before he was four- 
 teen years old, he could repeat the whole 
 of the "Essay on Man." The muse 
 possessed great attractions for his fancy, 
 and devotional hymns were frequently 
 added to the list of his juvenile accom- 
 plishments. Among the pieces committed 
 to memory, as a pastime merely, was 
 the entire volume of that ancient collec- 
 tion of church melodies known as 
 " Watts's Psalms and Hymns." 
 
 In his fourteenth year, Daniel was 
 placed in Phillips' Academy at Exeter, 
 ~N. H., at that time under the care of 
 Dr: Benjamin Abbot. This event, his 
 first separation from home and friends 
 took place on the 25th April, 1*796. 
 Daniel was now one among ninety boys, 
 all of whom were perfect strangers. 
 Reconciling himself, however, to the 
 necessities of the case, Daniel soon be- 
 came naturalized among his new asso- 
 ciates, and made rapid progress in the 
 customary routine of academical studies. 
 Public declamation, curiously enough, 
 was his aversion, and the thought of it 
 a bugbear. The future orator withdrew 
 from observation, and sought to conceal 
 himself behind his fellows. Remaining 
 
 but a tew months at the academy, 
 
 Daniel, in February, 1 7 '. » 7 , was pi 
 
 under the tuition of Ibv. Samuel Woods, 
 at Boacawen. The prospect of a col- 
 legiate education was at this time first 
 opened to him by his father. Incited 
 by the indications of this preferment, 
 Colleges being then exclusive, and not in 
 every case attainable, the young man 
 profited by the opportunities that were 
 offered him. With Mr. Woods he read 
 Virgil and Cicero, and became a fair 
 Latin scholar. His favorite classic at 
 this time was Cicero, and the strength 
 of early impressions was never abated — 
 the immortal Orator was always the 
 favorite study of the American Sage. 
 
 In the summer of 17'jT, Daniel entered j^ 
 Dartmouth College as a Freshman. The 
 regular duties of a student were per- 
 formed by him with faithfulness and 
 energy. He lost no time in idle dissi- 
 pation, became noted for a constant avi- 
 dity for reading, and devoted much at- 
 tention to the acquisition of a knowledge^^* 
 of English literature. Among his <mV 
 lege pastimes he superintended the pub- 
 lication of a small weekly newspaper, to 
 which he contributed various selecti 
 and occasionally an original essay. Th 
 early efforts in composition are probably 
 the first of his writings that were ever 
 published. Graduating with the appro- 
 bation of his fellows, and in receipt of 
 the honorable testimonials of merit, 
 though not displaying any remarkable 
 powers which would seem to indii 
 his future greatness, Daniel returned 
 home, determined to adopt the pi 
 sion of the law for a livelihood. 
 
 A course of legal reading was begun 
 under the eye of Mr. Thompson, a gen- 
 tleman well" known to the family of Mr. 
 
 ter, and afterwards Unit.- 5 
 Senator. 1 >aniel's studio W0K not, I 
 ever, suffered to be prolonged without „__ 
 interruption. Anxious that hi- brother 
 E/.ekiel should } advanl.lL-'> for 
 
 education similar to those enjoyed by 
 himself, Daniel ii I wkb hi-f;r 
 
 with such success that tli-- brother, hi 
 1801, was .sent t 1" meat tin 
 
 additional expenses which this enema 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 
 stance involved, Daniel temporarily for- Boston, whore bis course of law-reading 
 sook the Lav and commenced teachinglwent forward under the eye of the Hon. 
 school, as much to advance his brother |GhristopheT Gore, afterwards Governor 
 
 as to cover the necessary expenditures. ^^Massachusetts. The most ample op- 
 
 y expend 
 
 in the prosecution of his own profes- 
 sion. The pedagogue was first made 
 manifest in the town of Fryeburg, in 
 Maine, where Daniel taught the town 
 Academy, at the meagre stipend of 
 $350. Of this amount, he contrived to 
 save the whole, having obtained tin- 
 post of Assistant to the Register of 
 1 '• • ds of the County, by which he met 
 the ordinary outlays of his position. In 
 Fryeburg, Mr. Webster found another 
 Circulating Library, in which was con- 
 tained a set <>f Llackstone's Commen- 
 taries, the legal food of the young stu- 
 dent during his stay in that place. 
 T^ In September, 1802, Daniel returned 
 to Salisbury, and resumed the study of 
 e Law with Mr. Thompson. When 
 not so engaged, his time was occupied 
 with the Latin Classics. lie read with 
 avidity the tomes of Sallust, Caesar, and 
 
 Horace. Bonn les of the latter were 
 
 translated by him and* published. The 
 sports of angling, gunning, and horse- 
 manship, constituted his pastimes. Tht 
 meditative pursuit of old Isaak was 
 always a favorite amusement with th( 
 Great Statesman, "With fishing-rod anc 
 
 pie op- 
 portunities were here enjoyed for a com- 
 plete legal education, and Daniel so far 
 improved them that in the following 
 year (March, 1805,) he was admitted to 
 practice in the Suffolk Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas. According to the custom 
 of those days, the pupil was accom- 
 panied into Court by his patron. To 
 the kind exertions o( Gov. Gore in his 
 behalf, on this occasion, Mr. Webster 
 acknowledged his great indebtedness. 
 The introduction insured him respect 
 and attention, and he was not long in 
 stepping into a lucrative professional 
 business. It is worthy of remark, as an 
 evidence of the superior discernment of 
 his legal guardian, that, in the intro- 
 ductory address. Gov. Gore took the 
 pains to utter a prophecy of the future 
 celebrity of the young aspirant. Mr. 
 ster began practice in the village 
 of Boscawen. whence he removed to 
 Portsmouth, N. II.. in ISoT. 
 V. About this time, an event occurred 
 which was nearly a crisis in the young 
 man's history. The clerkship of the 
 County Court of Common Pleas in 
 Hillsborough, New Hampshire, became 
 
 some tranquil stream, watching the play 
 of the suspicious tribe, and moralizing, 
 like his piscatorian model, upon the 
 ways and doings of fishes and of men. 
 Indeed, it is sportively said by his 
 friends, that, as the future Orator one 
 day drew in a large and most tempting 
 tr<>ut. be uttered the words which he 
 afterwards employed in the Bunker- 
 Hill address: "venerable men! you 
 have conic down to us from a former 
 generation. Heaven has bounteously 
 
 lengthened out your lives that you 
 
 mighl behold this joyous day." The 
 is probably a jest ; but the words 
 
 line he would wait for hours besidAxacant, and Judge Webster being at the 
 
 time upon the bench, his eolle.._ 
 
 tendered the vacant poet to Daniel, 
 mark of respect to his father. Daniel 
 was not at all in favor of the pro] 
 
 ti- 'ii. His friend, Gov. Gore, strongly 
 
 discouraged his acceptance of the i 
 
 ■•• a clerk, a! way- a clerk." was the 
 argument of that gentleman. Daniel, 
 . -aw re.-isons why he should not 
 accept. But ho knew his father's heart 
 \\a> bent upon it, and, fearing to'refuse, 
 tarted homeward. In ition 
 
 with his father, he finally expressed his 
 determination to decline. Judge Web- 
 ster was for a moment incensed. Daniel 
 
 are immortal, in this way, Mr. Web- replied that u he meant to use his tongue 
 
 iter was ever in the hal.it of planning in the courts, not the pen; to be an 
 
 •speeches and pursuing some other avo- actor, cot the register o\ other men's 
 
 cation at one and the same moment. 
 
 actions." His father answered him with 
 
 In July, 1804, Daniel removed to pride. "His mother," he observed, "had 
 
L'i/i of Daniel Webster. 
 
 / 
 
 always said that Daniel would come to 
 something Or nothing she was not SUM 
 which : he thought the doubt was about 
 to be settled." So the clerkship went 
 its ways, and Daniel, reconciled to his 
 father and satisfied with his own course, 
 went back to his practice. Judge Web- 
 ster lived but a vear afterward, but his 
 life was long enough to enable him to 
 hear his son's first argument, and to be 
 gratified at the fulfilment of the promis- 
 ing predictions that had been circulated 
 regarding him. He diedin April, 1806. 
 Mn May, 1807, Daniel, whom we shall 
 now designate by the more dignified 
 appellation of Mr. Webster,Vas admitted 
 to practice as attorney and counsellor of 
 the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 
 and in September of the same year, re- 
 linquished his office to his brother 
 Ezekiel, who had then obtained admis- 
 sion to the Bar. Daniel then removed 
 to Portsmouth. • It may here be proper 
 to say that Mr. Webster always espoused 
 with warmth the cause of Ezekiel, his 
 only brother. A man of strong, native 
 powers, though slow to action, Ezekiel 
 only lacked opportunity and a longer 
 life to have become a distinguished 
 personage. He died in the prime of 
 life, while arguing a cause in Concord, 
 New Hampshire, and was lamented by 
 a large class of friends and mourning 
 relatives. 
 
 Daniel Webster was married in June, 
 1808, to Grace Fletcher, daughter of the 
 Rev. Mr. Fletcher, of Hopkington, New 
 Hampshire. They had four children — 
 Grace, Fletcher, Julia, and Edward — of 
 whom only Fletcher now survives. 
 
 . Grace died early ; Edward was Killed in 
 the Mexican War; Julia married one 
 of the Appletons, of Boston, and died 
 a few years since. 
 
 —■"■""Mr. Webster resided in Portsmouth 
 for a period of nine years. The Bar at 
 * that time presented a roll of brilliant 
 names. Samuel Dexter and Joseph 
 Story, of Massachusetts, William K. At- 
 kinson. Attorney-General of New Hamp- 
 shire, Judge Jeremiah Smith, Jeremiah 
 Mason, and men of like calibre, were tie- 
 leading practitioners of the law. With 
 
 them was sustained a pleasant and 
 profitable intercourse, and the friendship 
 which they extended to Mr. Webf 
 was no small assistance to the efforts of 
 the new aspirant for legal honor-. Mr. 
 Webster's practice here was chiefly cir- 
 cuit. He followed the Superior Court 
 into many of the counties of the Si 
 and was retained in most of the impor- 
 tant causes upon the docket. Office he 
 never held in New Hampshire, and his 
 private professional practice was not 
 remarkably lucrative. It has been re- 
 marked, as a circumstance somewhat 
 singular, that in very few cases was 
 Mr. Webster employed as junior counsel. 
 Scarcely a dozen instances of this 
 kind occurred during his long, career. 
 M eii had occasion for his services as 
 their leading counsel, and reposed in 
 him the utmost confidence — a reliance 
 which was never misplaced or regretted, 
 and to which many will now turn with 
 a grateful recollection of the value of 
 his aid. i 
 
 Soon after the declaration of war 
 against England, Mr. Webster was 
 called to enter the arena of public life. 
 Though but thirty years of age, an early 
 period to take part in the councils of a 
 nation — the native strength of Mr. W 
 Bter'e character had already pointed him 
 out as the man that was needed for the 
 times; and the undeveloped statesman 
 made his first step in that long career 
 of public life which has identified his 
 name, as Representative, Senator, Di- 
 plomatist, and Cabinet Minister, with 
 the history of the United States. 
 
 MR. WEBSTER IX CONGRESS. 
 
 The political contest which 1 in 
 
 the election of Mr. Webster to the House 
 of Representatives, was Long and spirited. 
 A vehement opposition was Btarted 
 against the party which hi jented, 
 
 and although his ultimate triumph was 
 gratifying in the extreme, tie ggle 
 
 was severe. Mr. Webst* r finally re- 
 ceived a very handsome majority over 
 his opponent, and took hi tt the 
 
 extra session i E the Thirteenth Con- 
 
 / 
 
B 
 
 Life of fioniel Webster. 
 
 press, in May, 1813. The time atwhieh what manner, the first intelligence was 
 he entered Congress was one of great given to this government of the d< 
 excitement. The question of the prose- of the Government of France, bearing 
 CUtfon of the war was warmly agitated, date the 28th of April, 1811, and pur- 
 and raised divisions of party opinion, porting to be a definitive repeal of the 
 that threatened serious difficulties. The 1 teerees of Berlin and Milan." Tin 
 wisdom of retorting by severe retaliatory solutions were supported by Mr. A', 
 measures, agatnst the arbitrary acts of ster, in a speech of masterly power and 
 Great Britain,- respecting American ship- vigor, producing facts and arguments, 
 ping, was doubted by many members of j which could do no less than rivet the at- 
 that Congress. The conviction of thejtention of the House. The object of 
 necessity of the conflict was not general Mr. Webster was merely to obtain infor- 
 throughout the country. Men objected j mation, which was fseely Communicated 
 that the war bad been begun by a fac-lby President Madison. The action t>f 
 tion, that it was non-essential in princi-j Napoleon in regard to the maritime 
 pie, and that it needed not to be prose- 1 questions of the day was productive of 
 cuted with any extraordinary degree of such measures of retaliation from Eng- 
 ardor. Tnto the midst of this caldron of land, that great danger was experienced 
 differing opinions, Mr. Webster was by the neutral powers which had \ 
 thrown by his constituents. He was upon the ocean. Great Britain then in- 
 equal to the emergency in which he sisting upon her right of search in v. s- 
 found himself plunged. That Congress j sels belonging to the United States, the 
 
 comprised men of surpassing talent. Of 
 the House, Henry Clay was speaker. 
 Among the members were Calhoun, For- 
 syth, Grundy, Gaston, Pickering. In- 
 tellect and learning shed a lustre over 
 the lower House, which it has rarely 
 witnessed since. Mr. Webster made his 
 appearance punctually at the commence- 
 ment of the Bession, and was immedi- 
 ately placed by Mr. Clay upon the com- 
 mittee of foreign affairs, a position of 
 honor and responsibility. Air. Webster 
 delivered his maiden speech in the House 
 on Thursday, 10th June, 1813. It took 
 Congress by surprise. A young man, 
 appearingfor the first time in public life, 
 and previously unknown in political cir- 
 
 pent-up passions fotrdQ vent, and the 
 mother country and her daughter were 
 again embroiled in war. Mr. Wei 
 entered Congress, not at the comm< 
 ment of this second Btruggle, but in the 
 heat of its ] . War was rag _ 
 
 when he took his seat. The minutiae of 
 the preparations for its continuance, were 
 allotted to him as one of the National 
 Council. Although opposed to the po- 
 licy which had been adopted, he ofl 
 no very serious opposition to the pi 
 cution of the war, and contented himself 
 with Beeking to guide the strong current 
 into channels which appeared Baf< si and 
 most expedient. He had always beli< 
 that themosl efficient method of crippling 
 
 cles,nad made a sudden and indelible the pqwer of England, was to attack her 
 
 impression upon older and more expe- 
 rienced men. The result has proved thai 
 
 upon the sea, and hence, at an early pe- 
 riod, he advocated the improvement of 
 
 the early promise was not fallacious, the Navy. P.efore the commencement 
 
 Intellect sharpened and strengthened by 
 continual exercise, especially in courts 
 of law, and under the excitement of ve- 
 hement opposition, is pretty Bure to re- 
 ceive a rapid and healthy development 
 
 of the war. Or his entrance into * longresS', 
 
 he had written several powerful argu- 
 ments favoring an increase of our naval 
 
 force, and one of his earliest Bpeeelv 
 
 the House was intended to accomplish 
 
 Mr. Webster founded bis Bpeech upon the same purpose. Other topics of ria- 
 
 certain resolutions which be introduced tional interest and importance bIbo occu- 
 
 in r.lation to the Berlin and Milan De- pied his attention while be continued ft 
 
 . requesting the President "toin- member of the House. On the repeal of 
 
 form the Qouse when, by whom, and in the Embargo, and on an appeal from the 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 Chair on a motion for the previous ques- 
 tion, he Bpoke strongly and with effect 
 His standing aa an orator wta speedily 
 attained. It never degenerated into a 
 secondary quality, and the part assumed 
 by him in his earliest public efforts was 
 such as few men so young have sus- 
 tained, < tf the speeches of Mr. Webster 
 on the embargo and on the appeal, Mr. 
 Everett holds the following language: 
 " His speeches on these questions raised 
 him t<> the front rank of debaters. He 
 manifested upon his entrance into public 
 life, that variety of knowledge, familia- 
 rity with the history and traditions of 
 the government, and self-possession on 
 the floor, which in most cases are ac- 
 quired by time and long experience. 
 They gained for him the reputation in- 
 dicated by the well-known remark of 
 Mr. Lowndes, that 'the North had not 
 his equal, nor the South his superior.' " 
 Mr. Webster was re-elected to the 
 House of Representatives in August, 
 1814. His constituents, pleased that 
 New Hampshire could send so creditable 
 a representative, and justly proud of the 
 honorable position attained in so brief a 
 period by Mr Webster, again gave him 
 the preference, and he received, for the 
 second time, a handsome majority. 
 When he again entered upon the dis- 
 charge of his, public duties, Mr. Webster 
 found himself in a new position. The 
 Peace was declared in December, 1814, 
 and Congress had time to give its atten- 
 tion to the internal affairs of the country. 
 The debates no longer turned upon the 
 budget of war. The commercial class 
 and the mass of the people were now t<> 
 receive attention, and their wants were 
 to be canvassed and supplied. Govern 
 ment found it convenient to propose the 
 establishment of a National Hank, and a 
 bill for that purpose was introduced into 
 the House on the recommendation of 
 Mr. Dallas, then Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury. The, Bill contained provisions to 
 which great opposition arose. It re- 
 quired the reservation of a bank capital 
 of fifty millions of dollars ; of which only 
 five millions were to be in specie, and 
 the remainder in the depreciated govern- 
 
 ment securities ; with an obligation to 
 lend thirty millions for the use 'of the 
 Treasury. With these provisions, the 
 bill had passed the Senate, and was sent 
 to the House. It was wannU discussed. 
 Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster were 
 among its opponents. Mr. Webster 
 deemed the project useless and perni- 
 cious. He denounced it as a mere 
 paper-money contrivance, which wa.-> cal- 
 culated to injure the people, to increase 
 the financial embarrassments of the. 
 government, and to bring discredit upon 
 the country. The bill, as originally re- 
 ported, was finally negatived. A recon- 
 sideration was then moved, and the bill 
 was ameuded in several important par- 
 ticulars. A specie-paying bank was 
 planned, and received the support of 
 Mr. Webster and those who had opposed 
 so strenuously the original draft. In its 
 improved shape the bill passed, and was 
 sent to the President for approval, but 
 Mr. Madison returned it to the House 
 with his objections, and the subject went 
 over for that session. 
 
 The adjournment of Congress left Mr. 
 Webster at liberty to resume his profes- 
 sional occupations, and enabled him to 
 pay that degree of attention to his per- 
 sonal affairs of which they had stood in 
 need during his long absence from home. 
 In the month of January, 1814, he had 
 sustained a heavy loss in the destruction 
 of his house at Portsmouth by the great 
 fire which visited that place. Not re- 
 markably rich in the goods of this world 
 at that period, Mr. Webster's finances 
 suffered a serious blow by this disaster, 
 and he began to agitate the question of 
 removing his family either to Albany or 
 Boston. This removal was effected in 
 August, 1816. Mr. AVebster was well 
 known in Boston as a citizen and a pro- 
 fessional man. He was certain of a 
 warm welcome among old friends, and 
 saw many reasons why he should return 
 to the field in which he first stepped for- 
 ward. His practice in the e.purt- 
 New Hampshire was >■ d, ex- 
 
 cepting in the celebrated case of D 
 mouth college, tried in September, 1817. 
 This cause involved constitutional q 
 
10 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 tsons, and cnsracred the attention of Mr. 
 Webster for a considerable period. The 
 'ature of New Hampshire had passed 
 certain acts, purporting to enlarge and 
 improve the corporation of the College 
 and to amend its charter. The trial was 
 to test the question whether such acts 
 could be binding upon the corporation, 
 without its consent. Mr. Webster, 
 esppusing the cause of the corporation, 
 argued with his usual ability upou the 
 unconstitutionality of the action of the 
 legislature. Upon an adverse opinion 
 of the New Hampshire Court being ren- 
 dered, a writ of error was sued out by 
 the corporation, and the cause was re- 
 moved to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. The argument took 
 place, before all the Judges, in March. 
 1818; Mr. Webster and Mr. Hopkin-11 
 appearing for the plaintiffs in error, and 
 Mr. Holmes and the Attorney-General 
 of New Hampshire in opposition. The 
 question involved in the ease was pew to 
 American Jurisprudence, and elicited- a 
 splendid display of forensic ability from 
 the opposing counsel. The argument 
 of Mr. Webster served to place the mat- 
 ter in its true light, and Judge Story at 
 last coincided with his colleagues in de- 
 claring the acts of the legislature invalid, 
 and reversing the decision of the S 
 perior Court of New Hampshire. 
 
 When Mr. Webster removed to Bos- 
 ton he bad one session to serve in Con- 
 gress as Representative from New Hamp- 
 shire. The proceedings of that session 
 were unimportant. At its close be re- 
 tired to his practice in Boston, where. 
 for two year-, he was permitted to re- 
 pose" in the exercise of the duties of pri- 
 vate life. II was not, however, allowed 
 any longer respite. He was soon urged 
 by friends and political admirer- to be- 
 come a candidate for Congress for the 
 third time ; bul tdfastJy declined 
 
 the offer. An offer of election to the 
 Senate of the United State- was ten- 
 dered him by his friends in the Legisla- 
 ture 5 but this wa- also declined. De- 
 voted to hi- profession, he bad no wish 
 to withdraw himself from it. Earning a 
 competency by hi- Legal attainment-, he 
 
 desired no honors other than those 
 which attached to a good citizen and an 
 honest man. The community 
 more strongly upon pressing him ;.. 
 into the public service, lb- served for a 
 short time in the Legislature, was ch 
 one of the presidential electors of Mas- 
 sachusetts in the canvass which result- 
 ed in the re-election of Mr. Monroe, 
 and was a delegate to the convention 
 called to revise the Constitution of the 
 Commonwealth in 1821. In that 
 vention, Mr. Websti t took a promu 
 part, constitutional argument bavin- 
 come his forte. His principal argun 
 were devoted to the subjects of oatl 
 office, the division of the State into se- 
 natorial districts, and the appointment 
 of judicial officers by the executive. 
 
 In the fall of 1822, after the most 
 pressing solicitation, Mr. Webster yield- 
 ed his consent to run again forConr; 
 A committee, consisting of Col. Thomas 
 H. Perkins, Wm. Sturgis, Win. Sulli- 
 van, John T. Apthorp, and Daniel Mes- 
 senger, called upon him to apprise him 
 of his nomination. He did not nov< 
 dine. He wa- elected by one thousand 
 majority over his competitor. Jesse Put- 
 iiimi, and again took his -eat in the 
 House, — not as a member from a rural 
 district in New Hampshire, but a repre- 
 sentative from the city of Boston. Hen- 
 ry Clav was again Speaker. Familiar 
 faces greeted the vision <.<\' the M 
 ohusetts Representative, and earnest dis- 
 cussions presently gave active employ- 
 ment to Mr. Webster's busy mind. 
 
 Early in the Session, tin' Bubject of 
 the Revolution in I came before 
 
 the House. Mr. Webster, on the 8th ■•( 
 mber, 1823, presented the following 
 resolution : "That provision ought to be 
 made by law for defraying the expense in- 
 cident to the appointment of an age: 
 commissioner to Greece, whenever the 
 President shall deem it expedient to 
 make such appointment." 
 
 In hi* famous speech in support of 
 
 this resolution, Mr. Webster Showed 
 
 himself a profound and discriminating 
 
 judge of the laws that govern the rela- 
 
 of nation* and communities. In 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 11 
 
 sympathy for the oppressed and strug- on the power of public opinion. In ar- 
 
 gling Greeks, he was not surpassed by 
 
 any of the men of his time. He evinced 
 a ready appreciation of the evils with 
 which they struggled, and uttered a 
 trumpet toned and indignant remon- 
 strance against the tyranny which 
 sought their degradation. The " Greek 
 Speech" will be remembered as long as 
 American oratory has 
 the records of history. 
 to notice that the principles which were 
 avowed on this occasion, wero subse- 
 quently reaffirmed by Mr. Webster in 
 language still more striking, applied to 
 the affairs of Hungary. On the occa- 
 sion* of the Congressional Banquet to 
 Kossuth, in January last, Mr. Webster 
 declared that " in the sentiments avowed 
 by him in the years 1823 and 1824, in 
 the cause of Greece, there was that 
 which he could never part from without 
 departing from himself'' Those senti- 
 ments were most fearlessly put forth. 
 On the 19th January, 1823, Mr. Web- 
 ster made a long and eloquent argument, 
 covering the whole question. Review- 
 ing the circumstances which accompa- 
 nied the struggles of the Greeks, and 
 passing some severe strictures upon the 
 policy observed by the states of Europe 
 towards that unhappy country, Mr. 
 Webster proceeded to a statement of the 
 effects and consequences of the actions 
 of European potentates in regard to free 
 governments and the spread of republi- 
 can institutions. The limits of this 
 sketch permit no detailed analysis of the 
 line of argument laid down by Mr. 
 Webster in this celebrated speech, nor 
 is it necessary. The leading idea was 
 the defence of free institutions against 
 absolutism ; an argument in favor of 
 
 the en- 
 In 
 
 guing this point, he said : 
 
 " Bir, this reasoning mistakes the age. 
 The time has been, indeed, when fleets 
 and armies, and subsidies, were the prin- 
 cipal reliances even in the best cause. 
 But, happily for mankind, there has ar- 
 rived a great change in this respect. 
 Moral causes come into consideration in 
 t place among proportion as the progress of knowledge 
 It is interesting I is advanced ; and the public opinion of 
 the civilized world is rapidly gaining an 
 ascendency over mere brutal force. It 
 may be silenced by military power, but 
 it cannot be conquered. It is elastic, 
 irrepressible, and invulnerable to the 
 weapons of ordinary warfare. It is 
 that impassible, inextinguishable enemy 
 of mere violence and arbitrary rule, 
 which, like Milton's angels, 
 
 regard- 
 be assumed 
 
 constitutional rights against 
 croachments of despotism, 
 ing the position proper to 
 by this country, in reference to the 
 Geeek struggle, Mr. Webster gave ut- 
 terance to one of the finest passages 
 vhich the language has produced. He 
 sought to discourage any violent and 
 belligerent measures, and fell back up- 
 
 ' Vital in every part, 
 Cannot, but by annihilating, die.' 
 
 Unless this be propitiated or satisfied, it 
 is in vain for power to talk either of 
 triumphs or repose. No matter what 
 fields are desolated, what fortresses sur- 
 rendered, what armies subdued,, or what 
 provinces overrun, there is an enemy 
 that still exists to check the glory of 
 these triumphs. It follows the conquer- 
 or back to the very scene of his ova- 
 tions ; it calls upon him to take notice 
 that the world, though silent, is yet in- 
 dignant; it shows him that the sceptre 
 of his victory is a barren sceptre ; that 
 it shall confer neither joy nor honor, 
 but shall moulder to dry ashes in his 
 crrasp. In the midst of his exultation, 
 it pierces his ear with the cry of injured 
 justice; it denounces against him the 
 indignation of an enlightened and civi- 
 lized age ; it turns to bitterness the cup 
 of his rejoicing, and wounds him with 
 the sting which belongs to the consciooe- 
 ness of having outraged the opinion of 
 mankind." 
 
 In the course of this speech, Mr. 
 Webster adverted, in terms of reproba- 
 tion, to the Treaty of Taris of 1815, by 
 which the principles that bound together 
 the " Holy Alliance " were asserted and 
 
12 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 maintained. He expressed bis abhor- 
 rence of the doctrines thus sought to be 
 enforced by European Despotisms, and 
 remarked; "Human liberty may yet, 
 perhaps, be obliged to repose its princi- 
 pal hopes on the intelligence and the 
 vigor of the Saxon race. So far as de- 
 pends on us, at least, I trust those hopes 
 will not be disappointed." 
 
 Mr. Webster also took an active part 
 in the discussions upon the Tariff in 
 1824. In common with the remainder 
 of the Massachusetts delegation, he op- 
 posed that instrument on grounds of ex- 
 pediency, but the bill waa passed and 
 became a law. 
 
 In the Fall of 1824, Mr. Webster was 
 reelected to Congress, by the almost 
 unanimous vote of 4,990 out of 5,000. 
 This remarkable indication of the public 
 favor was as unexpected as well-merited 
 and gratifying. Mr. Webster was now 
 fairly settled in a public career, and he 
 was thenceforward but rarely absent 
 from stations of trust and confidence. 
 
 The Presidential contest in which 
 John Quincy Adams was finally sue, 
 ful, new agitated the country. Mr. Clay 
 accepted the post of Secretary of Si 
 The principal topic of this administra- 
 tion was the Panama Mission, a Bubjecl 
 of dispute, which created a great sensa- 
 tion, and elieited many warm debates in 
 Congress. Mr. Webster had supported 
 with earnestness, the noted Declaration 
 of President Monroe, — that any combi- 
 nations of European powers to promote 
 certain objects in America would be 
 considered as directly affecting the Na- 
 tion, — and, in accordance with the posi- 
 tion he had assumed, gave :' ''"l'dial BUp- 
 
 port to the proposed Mission to Panama, 
 
 for the settlement of existing difficulties. 
 
 HI'' made an able speech on this Bubject 
 
 in the House, in April, 1826. The 
 general unpopularity of the measure in 
 contemplation, however, caused it t" 
 
 fail. 
 
 -On the 22d December, 1820, at die 
 
 ■'•nd » ieutenriial Celebration of the 
 
 landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 
 
 Mr. Webster delivered the grand Ora- 
 
 tion which is now in the mouth of 
 every schoolboy. Five years afterward, 
 in 1825, he spoke at Bunker Hill, at the 
 semi-centennial Celebration of the glo- 
 rious Battle which had there been 
 fought. In a few months, he was call- 
 ed to commemorate the services of 
 Adams and Jefterson, whose deaths oc- 
 curred under circumstances of such 
 curious coincidence. On the 22d Fe- 
 bruary, 1832, upon the completion of a 
 century from the birth of Washing 
 Mr. Webster was called upon to deliver 
 an Address at the National Capital, and 
 enchained the attention of his audience, 
 by a fascinating delineation of the \ ir- 
 tues of the Father of his country. *""" 
 ^4n November, 1820, Mr. Webster was 
 again solicited to represent his District 
 iu the House, for the third time, but be- 
 fore he had taken his seat, a va- 
 occurring in the Senate by the retire- 
 ment of the venerable Elijah H. Mills, 
 Mr. Webster was chosen to fill that post. 
 Toward the close of the year 1827. a 
 heavy domestic affliction was visited 
 upon Mr. Webster, in the loss of his 
 wife. They were on the way to Wash- 
 ington when Mrs. Webster was taken ill, 
 and soon died.-' This melancholy event 
 prevented Mr. Webster from taking his 
 seat in the senate, until January, 18 
 
 In the senatorial career of Mr. Web- 
 ster, so many elements of power and 
 popularity have passed into record, that 
 it is difficult to embrace, in a simple 
 sketch, all the peculiar features of the 
 great movements in which he took part. 
 Mr. Calhoun, as Vice President, i 
 pied the Chair of the Senate. Messrs. 
 Forsyth, Benton, Van Buren, Woodbury, 
 Tazewell/ flayton and Eayne/werean 
 the Senators. Mr. Webster^ first par- 
 liamentary encounter, aponhis entrance 
 into the senate, took place with Mr. 
 \ril of Virginia. The Bubject in 
 
 dispute was the Process Bill, conta 
 for the regulation <>f the proceedings of 
 United States Courts, and the details 
 the controversy had little public int 
 Mi. Webster afterward made strong ai 
 praiseworthy exertions in aid of tl 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 13 
 
 measures of relief to the surviving offi- 
 cers of the revolution. In regard to the 
 tariff, upon which the controversy of 
 past days was renewed, Mr. Webster 
 deemed it his duty to vote for the 
 amended bill introduced into the Senate. 
 In the course of his remarks upon cer- 
 tain objections which he had urged 
 against the measure, and for which he 
 sought an improvement, he defended 
 New England from the injurious reports 
 that had been circulated against her, and 
 established anew the credit of that large 
 and industrious section of the country. 
 Though disapproving of some of the 
 provisions contained in the amended bill, 
 he yet believed it an improvement in cer- 
 tain particulars, and gave it his affirm- 
 ative vote — a course which he deemed 
 it but just to explain to his constituents 
 upon his return home. In a speech at 
 Faneuil Hall he made particular allusion 
 to the circumstances of that vote, and 
 received the approval of the people of 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 DEBATE WITH HAYNE. 
 
 The next event in Mr. Webster's life 
 was one which won imperishable laurels 
 for himself, and cast lustre upon the 
 councils of his country. It was the part 
 he took in the great controversy in the 
 Senate between the north and south — 
 between the national views of the Con- 
 stitution which Mr. Webster had often 
 vindicated, and the doctrines of state 
 rights, which had been tor years so ably 
 enforced by Mr. Calhoun, and had 
 reached a position of commanding in- 
 fluence. % 
 
 General Jackson had been elected to 
 the Presidency in the fall of 1828, by 
 an overwhelming popular majority, 
 against John Quiney Adams, whose ad- 
 ministration, although marked by signal 
 ability, and a purity seldom paralleled 
 '•m th e recent history of our government, 
 viiled to fasten itself upon the popu- 
 rmpathy. Mr. Adams was a mau 
 harp intellect, multifarious know- 
 , large experience in public affairs, 
 }f cold, calm courage, but without 
 
 a spark of enthusiasm in his nature, or 
 any of those qualities which command 
 the attachment and secure the support 
 of gnat masses of men. General Jack- 
 son, on the contrary, lacking all the 
 faculties which his opponent had, pos- 
 sessed all those which he lacked. A man 
 of clear perceptions, prompt and gene- 
 rous impulses — unflinching as a friend 
 and relentless as a foe — daring in action, 
 and of unconquerable will, and con- 
 spicuous in the eyes of the whole coun- 
 try for his victory at New Orleans in the 
 war of 1812, he had come into power 
 "by a larger majority than had ever be- 
 fore been given to any candidate. And 
 among his friends were those who had 
 before been distinguished for devotion to 
 Mr. Calhoun, and the friends of Mr. 
 Crawford. Mr. Calhoun was chosen 
 Vice President at the same election. 
 Thus, though overwhelmingly strong, 
 the Democratic party was really com- 
 posed of discordant materials — being 
 divided especially upon the fundamental 
 principles upon which our government 
 rests — Mr. Calhoun and his friends, in- 
 sisting upon a strict construction of the 
 constitution, and the most rigid limita- 
 tion of the powers of the general govern- 
 ment under it, and the other section in- 
 heriting by legitimate descent the more 
 liberal and national doctrines of Madi- 
 son and Monroe, and being friendly to 
 the protection of American industry, and 
 the prosecution of WOrta of internal im- 
 provement. Both these parties were, 
 however, at this time, united in cordial 
 support of General Jackson, and in an 
 equally cordial hostility to the leaden 
 
 of the party against which he had 1 n 
 
 elected, and among these leaders Mr. 
 Webster, of course, Btood pre-eminent 
 The first session of the Twenty-first 
 Congress opened in December, I 
 Mr. Calhoun presiding in the Senate. 
 Prominent among the topics to which 
 political attention was directed, was 
 that of the public land-. Both pa 
 and especially both sections of the coun- 
 try, the North and the South. 1 
 anxious to secure the political alliance 
 of the Western States ; and although 
 
14 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 the measures of each were doubtless 
 dictated mainly by a sincere regard for 
 the public good, it is not uncharitable 
 to suppose that political purposes had 
 more or less influence with both. Little, 
 however, had been said upon the sub- 
 ject until Mr. Foote, of Connecticut, on 
 the 29th of Dec, introduced the follow- 
 ing apparently innocent resolution of 
 inquiry : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Committee on 
 Public lands be instructed to inquire and 
 report the quantity of Public lands re- 
 maining unsold within each State and 
 Territory, and whether it be expedient 
 to limit for a certain period the sales of 
 public lands, to such lands as have here- 
 tofore been offered for sale, and are now 
 subject to entry at the minimum price. 
 And also whether the office of Surveyor 
 General, and some of the land office-. 
 may not be abolished, without detri- 
 ment to the public service." 
 
 It has been alleged that this resolution 
 was in reality the signal and starting 
 point of a predetermined crusadt 
 the part of General Jackson's friends 
 against New England, and especially 
 Mr. Webster, as its most conspicuous 
 and formidable representative. At the 
 time, however, no such purpose was sus- 
 pected ; and it is only by reverting to 
 the concurrent features of the case that 
 subsequent examination has brought 
 circumstantial ei idence in support of the 
 charge. Mr. Webster, it is certain, was 
 fast at that time mad.' the shining mark 
 for the combined attacks of the party 
 in power. The party press throughout 
 ill.- country Bought to evince its devo- 
 tion to General, Jackson, by assaults 
 upon Ear. Webster. The leading friends 
 of the President and Vice-President, in 
 both Bouses ol Congress and through- 
 out the country, aimed their most power- 
 ful blows at his head, with an energy 
 and determination which might well 
 suggest the Buspioion of a precono 
 purpose. It stents more lik< |j . bow- 
 ever, that this was limply the result 
 
 of the position of parti.-; and of their 
 
 prominent men. The Presidential con- 
 test had been marked by great warmth 
 
 and bitterness, and this zeal had not 
 been in the least diminished by the 
 complete success by which it had been 
 crowned. The dominant party, on the 
 contrary, seemed the more resolute in 
 its purpose of destroying and annihilat- 
 ing all opposition — and as New England 
 was the citadel of that hostility, and Mr. 
 Webster the solitary but formidable 
 champion who defended its gates, and 
 hurled the crushing missiles of war from 
 its unconquered towers, it was natural 
 and indeed inevitable, that their main 
 assault should be turned against him, 
 and the section which he represented. 
 The day after Mr. Foote offered his 
 solution, on calling it up for considera- 
 tion, he said he had presented it from 
 having seen a statement in the last re- 
 port of the commissioners of the land 
 office, that the quantity of land remain- 
 ing unsold at the minimum price of one 
 dollar and a quarter per acre, exceeded 
 seventy-two millions of acres — while the 
 annual demand was n.»t likely greatly 
 to exceed one million acres — and he was 
 desirous of further official information 
 upon the subject. 
 
 Senator Benton, of Missouri, — then, 
 as now, wide awake and keenly suspi- 
 cious of designs on himself and the 
 W( st, whenever any Western topic was 
 touched in debate, — scented the battle 
 afar off', in this formal and ostensibly 
 harmless resolution. He stigmati/d it 
 at on solution of inquirj into 
 
 the expediency of committing a serious 
 injury upon the new States of the V. 
 Mr. Foote earnestly disclaimed any such 
 purpose, and several other senators vin- 
 dicated the resolution from arry such 
 construction. After a brief and collo- 
 quial controversy, not wholly void of 
 feeling, opon this point, a motion 
 carried postponing the further consi- 
 deration of the Bubject until Monday, 
 the 11th of January, for which day it 
 wasmade the special order. When that 
 
 • lav arrived, it was again postponed until 
 the 1 3th ; and then, after several Western 
 
 gentlemen had spoken briefly upon it, it 
 
 was laid over until Monday, the 18th. On 
 that day, and evidently after much pre- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 15 
 
 paration and an evident nursing of his 
 political wrath, Mr. Benton took the 
 floor against the resolution. His speech 
 was the development of the idea he had 
 put forth at the outset, — that the resolu- 
 tion was aimed at the West; and he 
 proceeded to show that the attack came 
 from New England, and that it was 
 really directed against him. " The re- 
 solution," said he, " was introduced to 
 check-mate my graduation bill ! It was 
 an offer of battle to the West ! I ac- 
 cepted the offer; I am fighting the 
 battle ; some are crying out and hauling 
 off; but I am standing to it, and mean 
 to stand to it. I call upon the adver- 
 sary to come on and lay on ; and I tell 
 him, 
 
 1 Damn'd be he that first cries hold, — enough !' " 
 
 Col. Benton proceeded to a studied 
 attack upon New England — to a denun- 
 ciation of her policy towards the West 
 as illiberal and unjust — and to the de- 
 claration that the West would here- 
 after look to the South for succor. This 
 was the key-note of the debate that 
 followed. The real merits of the ques- 
 tion rapidly gave way to a discussion 
 of the relative position of different sec- 
 tions of the country towards it. The 
 next day Mr. Holmes, of Maine, 
 replied at length to Mr. Benton. Other 
 senators also participated in the dis- 
 cussion, and finally Col. Hayne, of 
 South Carolina, commenced a speech 
 which consumed the rest of the day. 
 
 Hayne was one of the younger sena- 
 tors — of undoubted ability and over- 
 confident courage. He had filled with 
 eclat successive offices of trust and 
 resp&nsihility in his native State, and 
 brought to the Senate, in 1823, a 
 brilliant and growing reputation. His 
 characteristics have been well set forth 
 by Mr. March, in his Reminiseenca of 
 Congress. " Hayne," he Bays, - dashed 
 into debate like the Mameluke cavalry 
 upon a charge. There was a gallant 
 air about him, that could not but win 
 admiration. He never provided for 
 retreat: he never imagined it- He 
 
 had an invincible confidence in himself, 
 which arose partly from constitutional 
 temperament, partly from previous 
 success. His was the Napoleonic war- 
 fare : to strike at once for the capital 
 of the enemy, heedless of danger or loss 
 to his own forces. Not doubting to 
 overcome all odds, he feared none, how- 
 ever seemingly superior. Of great 
 fluency and no little force of expression, 
 his speech never halted, and seldom 
 fatigued, nis oratory was graceful and 
 persuasive. An impassioned manner, 
 somewhat vehement at times, but rarely, 
 if ever, extravagant : a voice well mo- 
 dulated and clear : a distinct, though 
 rapid enunciation : a confident, but not 
 often offensive address : these, accompa- 
 nying and illustrating language well 
 selected, and periods well turned, made 
 him a popular and effective speaker." 
 In his speech at this stage of the 
 debate, Col. Hayne took occasion to 
 respond to Col. Benton, by assuring 
 him that the West might always count 
 upon the sympathies of the South, and 
 by echoing and strengthening the 
 assaults he had made upon the cha- 
 racter and conduct of New England. 
 He alleged that the East was unwilling 
 that the public lands should be thrown 
 open on easy terms to settlers, for fear 
 of being drained of its population. The 
 Eastern States, he said, had always 
 sought to retain their population at 
 home — " to create a manufactory of 
 paupers, who should supply the manu- 
 factories of rich proprietors, and enable 
 them to amass great wealth." He 
 followed up this attaek upon the policy 
 of New England with great bitterness — 
 characterizing her course on the public 
 lands especially as selti.-h and unprin- 
 cipled. Neither Mr. Webster nor hi-. 
 friends could help feeling sensitive 
 under such assaults and point 
 given to their resentment by the 1 ■• 
 that they were mainly directed against 
 Mr. Webster personally, and i 
 intended as much to crush him as to 
 promote the welfare of the West At 
 the previous session, OoL Hayne had 
 made a sharp attack upon hi> opinions 
 
16 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 and conduct, to which, however, he had 
 forborne to make any reply. But upon 
 this occasion, he felt called on to re- 
 spond ; and on the next day, therefore, 
 he -poke at some length in reply — con- 
 fining himself clearly to the topic under 
 discussion, and referring only incident- 
 ally to the temper in which the debate 
 had been conducted on the part of his 
 opponents. His speech was little more, 
 indeed, than a very clear and well- 
 digested historical statement of the 
 actual steps taken by the General Go- 
 vernment in regard to the public lands, 
 and of the part which New England 
 had borne in that action. He depicted 
 with graphic power the wonderful 
 changes which had taken place in the 
 Western States — their rapid and mar- 
 vellous increase of population, and the 
 almost magic transformation of their 
 unbroken forests into the abodes of 
 civilization and comfort. And in regard 
 to the measures of the General Govern- 
 ment by which this change had been 
 wrought, he u undertook to say," in 
 general terms — sustaining the state- 
 ment, however, by reference to the 
 records of Congress — that "if you look 
 to the votes on any one of tin-,' 
 ni'-asures, and strike out from the list 
 of ayes the names of New England 
 members, it will be found that in i 
 the S hi would then have voted 
 
 (hmm the West, and the measure would 
 
 have failed." This sweeping declaration, 
 made with exactness and emphasis, was 
 a direct acceptance of the issue mad.-. 
 between the North and South, in 
 ird to the respective conduct of each 
 -it towards the West He closed 
 by apologizing for thus alluding to local 
 opinions and contrasting different por- 
 tions of the country — a oourse which, 
 he said, had been forced upon him by 
 charges and imputations on the public 
 character and conduct of the State 
 which he represented, which he knev< 
 to lie undeserved and unfounded. 
 •• While i Btand bere,' 1 said be, " as 
 representative of Massachusetts, I will 
 be her true representative, and, by the 
 blessing of Goo, 1 will vindicate her 
 
 character, motives, and history from 
 every imputation coming from a 
 able source." Col. Benton followed 
 Mr. Webster, and at once commenced 
 a speech in reply. The next dav 
 (Thursday, the 21st), Mr. Chambers, of 
 Maryland, expressed .a hope that the 
 Senate would postpone the further con- 
 sideration of the subject until the next 
 Monday, as Mr. Webster, who desired 
 to be present whenever it should be 
 resumed, had pressing engagements in 
 another quarter, and could not con- 
 veniently attend in the Senate. It was 
 well understood that a legal case of a 
 good deal of importance, in which John 
 Jacob Astor and the State of New York 
 were parties, and in which Mr. W< 
 was of counsel — was pending in the 
 Supreme Court, and the argument had 
 actually commenced on the 20th, Col. 
 ilayne, however, resented the 
 tion of postponement. He said, " he 
 saw the gentleman from Massachut 
 in his seat, and pi i he could 
 
 make an arrangement which would 
 enable him to attend." 11- was un- 
 willing that the subject should be j 
 
 i until he could reply to certain 
 
 ■various which had fallen from Mr. 
 Webster the day before. Unable, and 
 
 aring, to restrain evidences of the 
 feeling which Mr. Webster's speech had 
 excited, he confessed that some th 
 had fallen from him On that occasion 
 which rankled here (touching his heart), 
 and he desired at once to relieve him- 
 self. "The gentleman,*' said he. "has 
 discharged his tire in the face of the 
 senate; and I hope the opportunity will 
 now he afforded nie of returning the 
 diot." menaces implied in this 
 
 language, of com Mr. Webster no 
 
 alternative. With a and 
 
 lofty dignity of manner, li<- • ^claimed : 
 •• Let the discussion proceed. I am 
 ready. 1 am ready row to receive the 
 gentleman's tire." The discussion, of 
 course, did proa , Col. Benton 
 finished his speech ; and Mr. Bell, of 
 New Hampshire, then moved that the 
 further consideration of the sub 
 
 postponed until Monday. Thia was lost 
 
1. e of Dan it I IT* bstcr. 
 
 17 
 
 by a party vote. And Col. Ilayne at 
 once commenced his speech in reply to 
 Mr. Webster, 
 
 He spoke on that occasion for about 
 an hour. He began by disavowing hav- 
 ing had any purpose of charging any 
 section of the country with hostility to 
 any other, and by professing surprise at 
 the manner in which his remarks had 
 been received. He had questioned no 
 man's opinion ; he impeached no man's 
 motives. The Senator from Missouri 
 had indeed charged upon the Eastern 
 States, an early and continued hostility 
 towards the West ; but, after deliberat- 
 ing a whole night, the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts had come into the Senate 
 to vindicate New England, and instead 
 of making up his issue with the gentle- 
 man from Missouri, on the charge which 
 he had preferred, said Col. H., " he 
 chooses to consider me as the author of 
 those charges ; selects me as his adver- 
 sary, and pours out all the vials of his 
 mighty wrath upon my devoted head. 
 Nor is he willing to stop there. He goes 
 on to assail the institutions and policy 
 of the South, and calls in question the 
 principles and conduct of the State 
 which I have the honor to represent." 
 Col. Ilayne went on to suggest reasons 
 for this course, on the part of Mr. Web- 
 ster. " Has he discovered," he asked, 
 " in former controversies with the gen- 
 tleman from Missouri, that he is over 
 matched by that Senator ; and does he 
 hope for an easy victory over a more 
 feeble adversary ? Has his distempered 
 fancy been disturbed by gloomy fore- 
 bodings of the ' new alliances to be 
 formed,' at which he hinted i Has the 
 ghost of the murdered Coalition come 
 back, like the ghost of Ban quo, to 'sear 
 the eye-balls ' of the gentleman \ and 
 will it not 'down at his bidding V Are 
 dark visions of broken hopes and honors 
 lost for ever, still floating before his 
 heated imagination?" And he pro- 
 ceeded to sav, that he would not suffer 
 Mr. Webster thus to thrust him between 
 the gentleman from Missouri and him- 
 self, in order to rescue the East from the 
 contest with the West — wlu'ch he had 
 
 provoked. "The South shall not be 
 forced into a conflict not its own. The 
 gallant West needs no aid from the 
 South to repel any attack which maybe 
 made on them from any quarter." With 
 this exordium, well calculated to stimu- 
 late interest, and to prepare the way for 
 a severe personal collision, Col. Hayne 
 went on to repel the idea that the 
 West had grown 'great in consequence 
 of the measures of the General Govern- 
 ment, upon which Mr. Webster had 
 pronounced what he styled an extrava- 
 gant eulogium. He ridiculed also the 
 pretensions preferred by Mr. Webster 
 to prominence as a statesman, on behalf 
 of a "certain Nathan Dane, of Beverly, 
 Massachusetts," who was only known to 
 the South, he said*, as " a member of a 
 celebrated assembly, called and known 
 by the/" name of the Hartford Conven- 
 tion.'/ His next point was to show that, 
 in 1825, Mr. Webster had held and ex- 
 pressed upon the subject of the public 
 lands, precisely the views which he him- 
 self had now advanced, and which Mr. 
 Webster had assailed. " In 1825," said 
 he, " the gentleman told the world that 
 the public lands ought not to be treated 
 as a treasure. He now tells us that 
 they ' must be treated as so much trea- 
 sure.' What the deliberate opinion of 
 the gentleman on this subject may be, 
 belongs* not to me to determine ; but I 
 do not think he can, with the shadow of 
 justice or propriety, impugn my senti- 
 ments, while his own recorded opinions 
 'are identical with my own." Col. II. 
 next took up Mr. Webster's claim 
 that the East had always shown its 
 fri endlessness towards the West, by 
 favoring internal improvements — from 
 which the South had been deterred by 
 its constitutional Bcruples. He alleged, 
 in reply, that the only occasion in winch 
 the East had thus favored the West, 
 was in 1825, when the Presidential 
 election was pending in the House of 
 Representatives. There it was, he said, 
 that " a happy union between the mem- 
 bers of the celebrated coa/iti**,, was con- 
 summated, whose immediate issue WM 
 a President tr.'in one quarter of the 
 
18 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 ii, with the succession, as it was 
 supposed, to another." Referring next 
 to the intimation thrown out by Mr. 
 Webster, that the extraordinary fervor 
 of the South for the payment of the 
 national debt, arose from a disposition to 
 weaken the ties which bind the people 
 to the Union, Col. Hayne repudiated 
 the idea for the South, that a pecuniary 
 dependence on the Federal Government 
 was one of the legitimate means of hold- 
 ing the State together. And coming 
 then to the claim of Mr. "Webster, that 
 the transcendent prosperity of Ohio had 
 been due in a great degree to the ordi- 
 nance of 1787, which had "secured to 
 her a population of free men" Col. 11. 
 entered into an extended rebuke of this 
 attack upon Southern slavery, contrast- 
 ing the condition of the slaves with that 
 of the free blacks of the North, denying 
 that slavery was an element of w< akn< — 
 to the South, stigmatizing the friend- 
 ship professed for the blacks as spring- 
 ing from thespirit of false philanthropy, 
 " which, like the father of evil, is con- 
 stantly walking to and fro about the 
 earth seeking whom it may devour," 
 and claiming that slavery had been the 
 means of greatly elevating the individual 
 character of the Southern people. Be 
 next assailed Mr. Webster's position iii 
 rd to the consolidation of the 
 Government, provided for by the Con- 
 stitution — insisting that the Union was 
 not designed to be national, but federal ; 
 and then, referring to the Bubjecl of the 
 tariff, charged Mr. Webster with glaring 
 inconsistency in having advocated free 
 trade in 1824, and m 1828 having 
 supported the tariff — which had been 
 known ever since as the M bill of abomi 
 nation-." 
 
 Col. Hayne closed his speech on that 
 day by citing Mr. Webster's intimation 
 that there was a party in the South who 
 were looking to disunion. It the 
 Ration had been vague and general, he 
 said he should have passed it without 
 notic . But as Mr. NN ebsteT had given 
 
 to it a local habitation and a name, bj 
 
 quoting the expression of a distinguished 
 
 citizen of South Carolina, (l>r. Cooper,) 
 
 that "it was time for the South to cal- 
 culate the value of the Union," and in 
 the language of the bitterest sarcasm to 
 add, " surely then the Union cannot last 
 longer than July, 1831," it was impos- 
 sible to mistake either the allusion or 
 the object. And he finished by pro- 
 testing that this controversy was not of 
 eking : that at the time this unpro- 
 voked and uncalled for attack was made 
 upon the South, not one word had been 
 uttered by him in disparagement of N< w 
 England, nor had he most distant allu- 
 sion either to the Senator from Massa- 
 chusetts, or the State which he repre- 
 sents. " But, sir," he added, M that g 
 tleman has thought proper, for purposes 
 best known to himself, to strike the 
 South, through me. the most unworthy 
 of her servants. He has crossed the 
 border, he has invaded the State of 
 South Carolina, is making war upon her 
 citizens, and endeavouring to overthrow 
 her principles and her institutions. Sir, 
 when the gentleman provokes me to 
 such a conflict, I meet him at the thres- 
 hold. I will struggle while I have life, 
 for our altars and our firesides — and if 
 God gives me strength, 1 will drive back 
 the invader discomfited. Nor shall I 
 stop there. If the gentleman provokes 
 the war. he shall have war. Sir, 1 will 
 not stop at the border — I will tarry the 
 war into the enemy'B territory, and not 
 consent to lay down my arms until I 
 have obtained indemnity for the past 
 and security for the future. It is with 
 unfeigned reluctance. Mr. President, that 
 I enter upon the performance of this 
 part of ray duty — 1 shrink almost in- 
 stinctively from a coin--. ! owever, 
 ii. c ssarj . which may have a I 
 
 to excite sectional feelings and Sectional 
 jealousies. But, Sir. the task has been 
 forced upon me ; and I proce< d right 
 
 onward to the performance of my duty. 
 
 Be the consequences what they may, 
 
 sponsibility is with those who have 
 
 imposed upon me the necessity. The 
 
 Senator from Massachusetts has thought 
 
 proper to cast the firsl stone; and if he 
 shall find, according to a homely adage, 
 that he ' lives in a glass house,' on his 
 
Life of Daniel WebsU r. 
 
 19 
 
 head be the consequences." And with 
 this formidable warning, Bavouring far 
 
 more of arrogant confidence than of 
 dignity and good taste, Col. Hayne gave 
 way to a motion to adjourn until Mon- 
 day, which wag carried. The interven- 
 ing time was spent in preparing to rivet 
 and strengthen the impression already 
 made against Mr. Webster. The bold- 
 ness of the attack, the direct personality 
 which the debate had assumed, and the 
 vehemence of the orator's language and 
 manner had given great force to the 
 speech ; and it was generally felt that he 
 had made a formidable and effective 
 onset. Col. Hayne was warmly congra- 
 tulated by all his party friends upon his 
 success, and was stimulated to renewed 
 assaults. The party press swelled the 
 acclamations with which his speech was 
 greeted, and extolled it as the greatest 
 effort of ancient or of modern times. 
 Mr. Webster's friends, moreover, were 
 not free from misgivings. Though by 
 no means lacking confidence in the 
 ability of their great leader, they had 
 never seen him exposed to an attack of 
 precisely this character, and could not, 
 therefore, be fully assured as to the man- 
 ner in which he would meet it. Some 
 of the friends of Col. Hayne, it is said, 
 who had felt Mr. Webster's power 
 directed against themselves, were by no 
 means sure that the victory would rest 
 with their own champion. To a friend of 
 Hayne, who was praising his speech, 
 Mr. Iredell, of South Carolina, remark- 
 ed : " He has started the lion, but wait 
 till we hear him roar or feel his claws." 
 • On Monday, in continuing his speech, 
 Col. Ilavne spoke first, in impassioned 
 terms, of the services rendered to the 
 countrv by Smith Carolina, during the 
 War of the Revolution, in the political 
 crisis of 1798, and during the War of 
 1812. And he then proceeded to a de- 
 tailed denunciation of the conduct of 
 New-England, and especially of Massa- 
 chusetts, in that contest with (treat Bri- 
 tain, alleging that they had taken sides 
 with the enemy and against their own 
 countrv, and sustaining his accusation 
 by copious citations from the Federal 
 
 newspapers, partisan speeches, and pul- 
 pit declamations of that day. He then 
 entered upon an exposition and vindica- 
 tion of the theoryoithe Federal Govern- 
 ment as held by the South, in opposition 
 to the theory of Consolidation, for which, 
 as he alleged, Mr. Webster was contend- 
 ing, quoting Jefferson and Madison, and 
 resolutions passed by the Legislatures of 
 several Southern States, in support of 
 his view, and closing his speech by an 
 earnest declaration that in all the steps 
 she had taken to resist the encroach- 
 ments and usurpations of the Federal 
 Government, South Carolina was acting 
 on a principle she had always held 
 sacred, " resistance to unauthorized 
 taxation." " Sir," he exclaimed in con- 
 clusion, " if acting on these high motives 
 — if animated by that ardent love of 
 liberty wdiich has always been the most 
 prominent trait of the Southern charac- 
 ter — we should be hurried beyond the 
 bounds of a cold and calculating pru- 
 dence, who is there with one noble and 
 generous sentiment in his bosom, that 
 would not be disposed, in the language 
 of Burke, to exclaim, ' You must pardon 
 something to the spirit of Liberty.' ' 
 
 The onset was over. And, as would 
 have been the case had the attack been 
 less formidable than it was, victory 
 rested with the only party whose forces 
 had been displayed. Mr. W( ster im- 
 mediately rose to reply, but, as it was 
 late in the day, he gave way to a mo- 
 tion to adjourn. Everywhere during the 
 evening and night following, the speech 
 was canvassed. "The town," Bays Mr. 
 March, " was divide-. 1 into geographical 
 opinions. One's home could be dis- 
 tinguished from his countenance or man- 
 ner ; a Southerner's by his buoyant, 
 joyous expression and confident air; a 
 Yankee's by his timid, anxious eye, and 
 depressed bearing. One walked with a 
 bold, determined step that courted ob- 
 servation; the other with a hesital 
 shuffling gait, that seemed to lone for 
 some dark corner, some place to 
 and see, and be una Mr. W 
 
 fell entirely : ' ability to meet 
 
 ' both the argument and the assault, and 
 
20 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 was p-rfectly calm and self-] 
 Mr. Everett, recording a conversation 
 which he had with Mr. Webster at the 
 time, speaks of the dry business-tone in 
 which he talked and read over to him, 
 the points he intended to make, as giv- 
 ing him some uneasiness for fear In- was 
 not sufficiently aware how much was 
 expected of him the next day. He had, 
 of course, taken full notes of Colonel 
 Hayne'e speech, and had given to 
 part of it a careful and exhaustive con- 
 sideration. Not a quotation nor an allu- 
 sion had escaped him. It is mentioned 
 that, while lying down after dinner, he 
 was overheard, by a friend, laughing to 
 himself. On being asked what am 
 him so, he replied, " I have been think- 
 ing of the way in which Col. llayne's 
 quotation about Banquo's ghost can be 
 turned against himself; and I am going 
 to get up and make a note of it," which 
 he immediately did. The scenes and 
 incidents of the next day are so vividly 
 presented in one of the chapters of Mr. 
 March's Reminiscences, [published by 
 Mr. (hail.- Scribner, and which he 
 politely permit- us to use.] and the 
 sketch lias so much of literary, as well 
 as biographical interest, that we transfer 
 k, with trilling omissions, to our pages : 
 
 "It was on Tuesday. January the 
 2Gth, 1830, — a day to be hereafter for 
 ever memorable in Senatorial annals, — 
 that the Senate resumed the consider- 
 ation of Foote'a Resolution. Therenever 
 was before, in the city, an occasion of 
 so much excitement To witness this 
 great intellectual contest, multitude 
 strangers had for two or three days pre- 
 vious been rushing into the city, and 
 the hotels overflowed. As early as nine 
 o'clock of this morning, crowds poured 
 into the Capitol, in hot haste; at twelve 
 o'clock, the hour of meeting, the Senate 
 Chamber, — its galleries, Boors, and even 
 lobbies, — was tilled to its utmost capa- 
 city. The wry stairway- were dark 
 with men, who hung on to one another, 
 like beefl in a swarm. 
 
 "The House of Representatives was 
 early deserted. An adjournment would 
 have hardly made it emptier. The 
 
 ker, it is true, retained his chair, 
 but no business of moment was, or 
 could be attended to. Members all 
 d in to hear Mr. Webster, and no 
 call of the House or other Parliament- 
 ary proceedings could compel them 
 back. The floor of the Senate was so 
 ly crowded that persons once in 
 could not get out, nor change their po- 
 sition ; in the rear of the Vi< • 1 
 dential chair, the crowd was particularly 
 intense. Dixon II. Lewis, then a i 
 sentative from Alabama, became w< 
 J in here. From his enormous size, it 
 'was impossible for him to move, without 
 displacing a vast portion of the multi- 
 tude. Unfortunately too, for him, he 
 jammed in directly behind the 
 chair of the Vice-President, where he 
 could not see, and hardly hear, the 
 -speaker. By slow and laborious effort — 
 pausing occasionally to breathe, he 
 gained one of the windows, which, con- 
 structed of painted glass, flank the 
 chair of the Vice-President on either 
 side. Here he paused, unable to make 
 more headway. But determined \t 
 Mr. Webster as h . with his 
 
 knife he made a large hole in one of the 
 panes of the glass, which is still visible 
 as he made it. Many w< laced, as 
 
 not to be able to see the speaker at 
 all. 
 
 " The courtesy of Senators accorded 
 to the fairer sex room on the Boor — the 
 most gallant of them, their own - 
 The gay bonnets and brilliant dr- 
 threw a varied and picturesqu< beauty 
 over the scene, softening and embellish- 
 ing it. 
 
 "Seldom, if ever, has speaker in this 
 or any other country had more powerful 
 incentives to exertion; a subject, the 
 determination of which involved the 
 most important inter.-'.-...!..': even du- 
 ration, of the republic; competitors, 
 unequalled in reputation, ability, or po- 
 sition ; a name to make still more 
 glorious, or lose forever; an audi. 
 comprising not only persons of this 
 country moat eminent in intellectual 
 greatness, but representatives of other 
 nations, where the art of eloquence had 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 21 
 
 soldier 
 
 flourished for ages. All the 
 seeks in opportunity was here. 
 
 " Mr. Webster perceived, and felt 
 equal to the destinies of the moment. 
 The very greatness of the hazard exhi- 
 larated him. Bis spirits rose with the 
 occasion. He awaited the time of the 
 onset with a stern and impatient joy. 
 He felt, like the war-horse of the Scrip- 
 tures, — who ' paweth in the valley, and 
 rejoiceth in his strength : who goeth on 
 to meet the armed men, — who sayeth 
 among the trumpets, ' Ha, ha ! and 
 who smelleth the battle afar off, the 
 thunder of the captains and the shout- 
 ing.' 
 
 " A confidence in his own resources, 
 springing from no vain estimate of his 
 power, but the legitimate offspring of 
 previous severe mental discipline, sustain- 
 ed and excited him. He had gauged 
 his opponents, his subject, and himself. 
 
 " He was too, at this period, in the 
 very prime of manhood. He had reach- 
 ed middle age — an era in the life of 
 man, when the faculties, physical or 
 intellectual, may be supposed to attain 
 their fullest organization, and most per- 
 fect development. Whatever there was 
 in him of intellectual energy and vitality, 
 the occasion, his full life, and high am- 
 bition, might well bring forth. 
 
 u He never rose on an ordinary oc- 
 casion, to address an ordinary audience, 
 more self-possessed. There wasnotremu- 
 lousness in his voice or manner ; "nothing 
 harried, nothing simulated. The calm- 
 or strength was visible every 
 where ; in countenance, voice, and bear- 
 ing. A deep-seated conviction of the 
 extraordinary character of the emer- 
 gency. an<l of his ability to control it, 
 seemed to p him wholly. If an 
 
 observer, ui*>re than ordinarily keen- 
 
 pone the ordinary preliminaries of Sena- 
 torial action, and take up, immediately, 
 the consideration of the resolution. 
 
 " Mr. Webster rose and addressed the 
 Senate. His exordium is known by 
 heart everywhere : ' Mr. President, when 
 the mariner has been tossed for many 
 days in thick weather, and on an un- 
 known sea, he naturally avails himself 
 of the first pause in the storm, the ear- 
 liest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, 
 and ascertain how far the elements have 
 driven him from his true course. Let 
 us imitate this prudence ; and before 
 we float further on the waves of this 
 debate, refer to the point from which 
 we departed, that we may, at least, be 
 able to form some conjecture where we 
 now are. I ask for the reading of the 
 resolution.' 
 
 "There wanted no more to enchain 
 the attention. There was a sponta- 
 neous, though silent expression of eager 
 approbation, as the orator concluded 
 these opening remarks; and while the 
 Clerk read the resolution, many attempt- 
 ed the impossibility of getting nearer 
 the speaker. Every head was inclined 
 closer' towards him, every ear turned in 
 the direction of his voice — and \\\at 
 deep, sudden, mysterious silence follow- 
 ed, which always attends fulness of 
 emotion. From the sea of upturned 
 faces, before him, the orator beheld his 
 tli' 'Ughts reflected as from a mirror. 
 The varying countenance, the suffused 
 eye, the earnest smile, and ever-attentive 
 look, assured him of his audience's entire 
 sympathy. If among his hearers there 
 were those who affected, at first, an 
 indifference to his glowing thoughts and 
 fervent periods, the difficult mask was 
 Boon laid aside, and profound, undis- 
 guised, devoted attention followed. In 
 
 sighted, detected at times something the earlier part of his speech, one of his 
 
 like exultation in his eye, he presumed principal opponents seemed deeply en- 
 it sprang from the excitement of th< sed in the careful perusal of a n 
 
 moment, and the anticipation of victory, paper he held before his face; but this, 
 
 ••The anxiety to hear the speech was on nearer approach, proved to be upside 
 
 so intense, irrepressible, and universal, down. In truth, all, sooner or later, 
 
 that no sooner bad the Vice-President voluntarily, or in spite of themse 
 
 assumed the chair, than a motion was were wholly carried away bv the elc- 
 
 made, and unanimously carried, to post- quence of the orator 
 
22 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 "One of the Laj»pu.^t retorts ever him — in which Col. Ha;. _ od-hu 
 made in a forensic controversy, was hie moredly joined-' 
 
 application of Hayne'a comparison of 
 the ghost of the 'murdered coalition' 
 to the ghost of Banquo : 
 
 " ' Sir, the honorable member was not, 
 for other reasons, entirely happy in his 
 allusions to the story of Bauquo's mur 
 
 '• As the orator carried out the moral 
 of Macbeth, and proved by the exam- 
 ple of that deep-thinking, intellectual, 
 but insanely-ambitious character, how 
 little of substantia] good or permanent 
 power was to be secured by a devious 
 
 der and Banquo's ghost. It was not, I land unblessed policy, he turned his eye 
 think, the friends, but the enemies of with a significance of expression, full of 
 the murdered Banquo, at whose bidding prophetic revelation, upon the Vice- 
 his spirit would not down. The honor- President, reminding him that those who 
 able gentleman is fresh in his reading of had foully removed Banquo, had p] 
 the Bullish classics, and can put me ti . , . . 
 
 right if I am r „ g ; but, according to £»Kfi*£*»*!K«-l ■—. 
 
 my poor recollection, it was at those v.„„ n f tfieirs succeeding.' 
 
 who had begun with caresses and ended 
 
 with foul and treacherous murder, that Every eye of the whole audience fol 
 
 the gory locks were shaken. The ghosted the direction pf his own — and wit- 
 
 of Banquo, like that of Hamlet, was an nessed the changing countenance and 
 
 honest ghost. It disturbed no innocent visible agitation of Mr. Calhoun 
 
 man. It knew where its appearance 
 
 would strike terror, and who would cry 
 
 ont 'a ghost!' It made itself visible in 
 
 'Surely, no prediction ever met a 
 
 more rapid or fuller confirmation, even 
 
 to the very manner in which the disaster 
 
 the right quarter, and compelled the was accomplished. Within a lew : 
 
 guilty and the conscience-smitten, and 
 none others, to start, with, 
 
 'sVythee, see therel behold I look! lo! 
 If I stand here, 1 saw him !' 
 
 Their eyeballs were scared (was it not so, 
 Sir-:) who had thought to shield them- 
 selves, by concealing their own hand. 
 and laving the imputation of the crime 
 on alow and hireling agency in wicked- 
 ness ; W ho had vainly attempted to still' 
 the workings of their own coward con- 
 sciences, by ejaculating through white 
 lips and chattering teeth, 'Thou can'sl 
 not saj 1 did it .'" 1 have misread the 
 great poet if those who had no waj par- 
 taken in the deed of death, either found 
 that they were, or feared that they 
 thould be, pushed from their stools 1»\ 
 the ghosi of the slain. ->r exclaimed, to a 
 spectre created bj their own fears and 
 
 months, the political fortunes of the 
 Vice-President, at this moment seeming- 
 ly on the very point of culmination, had 
 sunk so low, there were none so poor to 
 do him reveren< 
 
 ■• Whether for a moment a presenti- 
 ment of the approaching crisis in his 
 fate, forced upon bis mind by the man- 
 iid language '.'i the speaker, cast a 
 gloom over bis countenance, or some 
 other cause, it i.> impossible to say ; but 
 his brow grew dark, nor for some time 
 did his feature- recover their usual im- 
 passibility. 
 
 "The allusion nettled him — ti 
 as he c>uld not but witness the effect it 
 produced upon others— ami made him 
 restless. He seemed to seek an oppor- 
 tunity t> break in upon the speaker; 
 and "later in the day, as Mr. Webster 
 was exposing the gross and ludicrous 
 inconsistencies of South Carolina politi- 
 
 their own remorse, 'AvauntJ and quit clans, upon the Bubject of internal im- 
 our sight!' provementa, he interrupted him with 
 
 "There was a smile of appreciation so me eagerness: 'Does the Chair un- 
 upou the faces all around, at this most derstand the gentleman from Massachu- 
 felicitou- use of another'- illustration— setta to Bay that the person now occu- 
 thia turning one's own witness against pying the Chair of the Senate has 
 
Lift of /hi 11 i<{ Webster. 
 
 23 
 
 changed his opinions on tliis subject I 1 
 To this, Mr. Webster replied imme- 
 diately, and go»d:naturedly : 'From 
 
 nothing ever said to me, Sir, have T had 
 reason to know of any change in the 
 opinions of the person filling the Chair 
 of the Senate. If such change has taken 
 place. I regret it.' 
 
 "Tli.-' who had doubted Mr. Web- 
 ster's ability to cope with and overcome 
 his opponents were fully satisfied of their 
 error before he had proceeded far in his 
 speech. Their fears soon took another 
 direction. When they heard his sen- 
 tences of powerful thought, towering in 
 accumulative grandeur, one above the 
 otheT, as if the orator strove, Titan-like, 
 to reach the very heavens themselves, 
 they were giddy with an apprehension 
 that he would break down in his flight. 
 They dared not believe that genius, 
 learning, any intellectual endowment 
 however uncommon, that was simply 
 mortal, could sustain itself long in a 
 career seemingly so perilous. They 
 feared an Icarian fall. 
 
 " Ah ! who can ever forget, that was 
 present to hear, the tremendous, the 
 awful burst of eloquence with which 
 the orator spoke of the Old Bay State ! 
 or the tones of deep pathos in which the 
 words were pronounced: 
 
 "'Mr. President, I shall enter on no 
 encomium upon Massachusetts. There 
 she is — behold her, and judjr r for your- 
 selves. There is her histoiy — the world 
 knows it by heart. The past, at least, 
 is secure. There is Boston, and Cqn- 
 cord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill 
 — and there they will remain for ever. 
 The bones of her sons, falling in the 
 great struggle for independence, now lie 
 mingled with the soil of every State, 
 from New England to Georgia, and 
 there they will lie for ever. And, sir, 
 where American Liberty raised its first 
 voice : and where its youth was nurtured 
 and sustained, there it still lives, in the 
 strength of its manhood and full of its 
 original spirit. If discord and disunion 
 shall wound it — if party strife and blind 
 ambition shall hawk at and tear it — if 
 folly and madness — if uneasiness, under 
 
 salutary and necessary restraint — shall 
 Bucceed to separate it from that T T nion 
 by which alone its existence is made 
 sure, it will stand, in the end, by the 
 vide of that cradle in which its infancy 
 was rooked; it will stretch forth its arm 
 with whatever of vigor it may still ro 
 tain, over the friends who gather round 
 it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, 
 amidst the proudest monuments of its 
 own glory, and on the very spot of its 
 
 origin. 
 
 " What New England heart was there 
 but throbbed with vehement, tumultu- 
 ous, irrepressible emotion, as he dwelt 
 upon New England sufferings, New 
 England struggles, and New England 
 triumphs during the war of the Revolu- 
 tion ! There was scarcely a dry eye in 
 the Senate; all hearts were overcome: 
 grave judges and men grown old in dig- 
 nified life turned aside their heads, to 
 conceal the evidences of their emotion. 
 
 "In one corner of the gallery was 
 clustered a group of Massachusetts men. 
 They had hung from the first moment 
 upon the words of the speaker, with 
 feelings variously but always warmly 
 excited, deepening in intensity as lie 
 proceeded. At first, while the orator 
 was going through his exordium, they 
 held their breath and hid their faces, 
 mindful of the savage attack upon him 
 and New England, and the fearful odds 
 against him, her champion ; — as he 
 y,ii!t deeper into his speech, they felt 
 easier; when he turned Hayne's flank 
 On Banquo's ghost, they breathed ' 
 and deeper. But now, as he£lluded to 
 Massachusetts, their feelings were strain- 
 ed to the highest tension ; and when the 
 orator, concluding his encomium upon 
 the land of their birth, turned, inten- 
 tionally or otherwise, hi- burning 
 full upon them — they shed tears like 
 girls ' 
 
 "No one who was not present can 
 understand the excitement of t 1 
 No one, who was, can give an adequate 
 description of it. No word-paintii 1 1 an 
 convey the deep, intense enthusiasm, the 
 rentaal attention, of the vast assem- 
 bly — nor limner transfer to 
 
u 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 earnest, eager, awe-struck countenances, both sides of the water, hut I must con- 
 
 Though language were as subtle and 
 flexible as thought, it still would be im- 
 possible to represent the full idea of the 
 scene. There is something intangible in 
 an emotion, which cannot be transferred 
 
 I Dever heard anything which sc 
 completely realized my* conception of 
 what Demosthenes was when he de- 
 livered the oration for the crown.' 
 "Assuredly, Kean nor Kemble, nor 
 
 The nicer shades of feeling elude pur- any other masterly delineator of the 
 suit. Every description, therefore, of human passions ever produced a more 
 
 the occasion, seems to the narrator him 
 self most tame, spiritless, unjust." 
 
 [The personal appearance of Mr. 
 Webster has been a theme of frequent 
 discussion. He was, at the time this 
 speech was delivered, barely forty 
 
 powerful impression upon an audience, 
 or swayed so completely their hearts. 
 This was acting — not to the life — but 
 life itself. 
 
 " No one ever looked the orator, as 
 he did — ' os kumerosque (ho rimtiiif in 
 
 eight years of age. Time had not thin- j form and feature how like a god. His 
 ned nor bleached his hair : it was as dark countenance spake no less audibly than 
 as the raven's plumage, surmounting his his words. His manner gave new force 
 massive brow in ample folds. His eyes, to his language. As he stood swaying 
 always dark and deep set, enkindled by his right arm, likea huge tilt-hammer, 
 some glowing thought, shone from be- up and down, his swarthy countenance 
 neath his sombre, overhanging brow lighted up with excitement, he appeared 
 like lights, in the blackness of night, amid the smoke, the fire, the thunder 
 from a sepulchre. It was such a conn- of his eloquence, like Vulcan, in his 
 tenance as Salvator Kosa delighted to armory forging thoughts for the Go 
 
 "The human <r wore an ex- 
 
 than pression of more withering, relent 
 
 paint. 
 No 
 
 one understood better 
 
 Mr. Webster, the philosophy of dress Bcorn, than when the orator replied to 
 — what a powerful auxiliary it is to Bayne's allusion to the ' murdered coa- 
 speech and manner, when harmoniz- lition.' ' It is,' said Mr. W< ..' 'the 
 ing with them. On this occasion he very cast-off slough of a polluted and 
 appeared in a blue coat and buff vest — shameless press. Incapable of further 
 the Revolutionary colors of buff and mischief, it lies in the sewer, lifeless and 
 blue— with a white cravat ; — a costume, despised. It is not now, -ir, in the 
 than which none is more becoming to power of the honorable member to give 
 his face and expression. This courtly it dignity or decency, by attempting 
 particularity of dress added no little to elevate it. and introduce it into the 
 the influence of his manner and appear- senate. H< cannot change it from what 
 
 it is — an object of general disgu.-t and 
 
 Much bfthe instantaneous effect of scorn. < >u the contrary, the contact, if 
 the speech arose, of course, from the he choose to touch it, i> more likely to 
 orators deliver/— the tones of his voice, drag bim down, down to the place where 
 his countenance, and manner. These it lies itself.' He looked, as he spoke 
 die mosth with the occasion thai calls these words, as if the thing he allu 
 thi m forth — the impression is losl in the to was too mean tor .-corn itself — and the 
 attempt at transmission from one mind sharp, stinging enunciation made the 
 I aother. They can only be described words still more withering. The audi- 
 
 eneral terms. ' Of the effectiveness ence seemed relieved — bo crushing was 
 of Mr. Webster's manner, in many the expression of his face which they 
 parts,' says Mr. Everett, 'it would be in held on to, as it were, spellbound — 
 vain to attempt to give anj oi vhen he turned to other to] 
 
 present the faintest idea. It has been "The g l-natured yet provoking 
 
 my fortune to hear Borne of the ablest irony with which he described the 
 •p e< hi - of the greatest li\ ; n imaginary though life-like scene of direct 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 25 
 
 collision between the marshalled array Many who had entered the hall with 
 of South Carolina under Gen. Ilayne on light, gay thought*, anticipating at most 
 one Bide, and the officers of the United U pleasurable excitement, soon became 
 States on the other, nettled his opponent deeply interested in the speaker and his 
 even more than his severer satire; it subject — surrendered him their entire 
 seemed so ridiculously true, Col. Hayne 
 
 inquired, with some degree of emotion, 
 if the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 intended any personal imputation by 
 such remarks ? To which Mr. Webster 
 replied, with perfect good humor, 'As- 
 suredly not — just the reverse.' 
 
 The variety of incident during the 
 speech, and the rapid fluctuation of 
 passions, kept the audience in continual 
 expectation and ceaseless agitation. 
 There was no chord of the heart the 
 orator did not strike, as with a master 
 hand. The speech was a complete 
 drama of comic and pathetic scenes j one 
 varied excitement; laughter and tears 
 gaining alternate^victory.) 
 
 ''A great portion or the speech is 
 strictly argumentative ; an exposition 
 
 of constitutional law. But grave as such 
 portion necessarily is, severely logical, 
 abounding in no fancy or episode,lt en- 
 grossed throughout the undivided men- 
 tion of every intelligent hearer. Ab- 
 stractions, under the glowing genius of 
 the orator, acquired a beauty, a vitality, 
 a power to thrill the blood and enkindle 
 the affections, awakening into earnest 
 activity many a dormant faculty. His 
 ponderous syllables had an energy, a 
 vehemence of meaning in them that 
 fascinated, while they startledj His 
 thoughts, in their statuesquet>eauty 
 merely, would have gained all critical 
 judgment ; but he realized the antique 
 fable, and warmed the marble into lite. 
 There was a sense of power in his lan- 
 guage — of power withheld and bi 
 tive of still greater power — that sub- 
 dued, as by a spell of mystery, the hearts 
 of all. For power, whether intellectual 
 or physical, products in its earnest de- 
 velopment a feeling closely allied to 
 awe. It was never more felt than on 
 ^^js^ccasion. It had entire mastery. 
 ""The sex. which is said to love it best and 
 
 heart ; and, when the speech was ov>-r, 
 and they left the hall, it was with sadder 
 perhaps, but, surely, with far more 
 elevated and ennobling emotions. 
 
 " The exulting rush of feeling with 
 which he went through the peroration 
 threw a glow over his countenance, like 
 inspiration. Eye, brow, each feature, 
 every line of the face seemed touched, 
 as with a celestial fire. All gazed as at 
 something more than human. 80 Moses 
 might have appeared to the awe-struck 
 Israelites as he emerged from the dark 
 clouds and thick smoke of Sinai, his face 
 all radiant with the breath of divinity. 
 
 "The swell and roll of his voice struck 
 upon the ears of the spell-bound au- 
 dience, in deep and melodious cadence, 
 as waves upon the shore of the ' far re- 
 sounding ' sea. The Miltonic grandeur 
 of his words was the tit expression of 
 his thought, and raised his hearers up to 
 his theme. His voice, exerted to its ut- 
 most power, penetrated every recess and 
 corner of the Senate — penetrated even 
 the ante-rooms and stairways, as he pro- 
 nounced in deepest tones of pat! 
 words of solemn significance : ' When 
 my eyes shall be turned to behold, for 
 the last time, the sun in heaven, may I 
 not see him shining on the broken and 
 •nored fragments of a once glorious 
 Union ; on States dissevered, discordant, 
 belligerent! on a land rent with civil 
 feud, or drenched, it may be, in frater- 
 nal blood ! Let their last feeble and 
 lingering glance rather behold the 
 geous ensign of the Republic, now 
 known and honored throughout the 
 earth, still full high advanced, its arms 
 and trophies streaming in their original 
 lustre, not a stripe erased nor poll 
 not a single star obscured, bearing for 
 its motto no such miserable inter 
 tory a-. ' What IS all this wort! 
 
 those other wor ind folly, 
 
 abuse it rnosj, seemed as much or more ' Liberty tir-t . and Union - la :' 
 
 carried away than the sterner one. but everywhere, spread all over in 
 
26 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 •rs of living light, blazing on all its choice of expression. Not one of them 
 ample folds, as they float over the sea but felt he had gained a personal vic- 
 and over the land, and in every wind tory. Not one, who was not ready to 
 under the whole heav.-ns, that other sen- exclaim, with gushing eyes, in the ful- 
 timeut, dear to every American heart, n.-.-s of gratitude, 4 Thauk God, I too am 
 Liberty and Union, now and forever, a Yanb 
 
 one a,nd inseparable.' " In the evening General Jackson held 
 
 "The speech was over, but the tones a levee at the White House. It was 
 of the orator still lingered upon the ear, known, in advance, that Mr. "Webster 
 
 and the audience, unconscious of the 
 close, retained their positions. The agi- 
 tated countenance, the heaving breast, 
 the suffused eye, attested the continued 
 influence of the spell upou them. Hands 
 that in the excitement of the moment 
 had sought each other, still remained 
 closed in an unconscious grasp. Eye 
 still turned to eye, to receive and repay 
 mutual sympathy; and everywhere 
 around seemed forgetfulness of all but 
 the orator's presence and words. 
 
 " When the Vice President, hastening 
 to dissolve the spell, angrily called to 
 order! order! there never was a deep- 
 er stillness — not a movement, not a 
 tup- had been made — not a whisper ut- 
 I — ord.-r! Silence could almost 
 have heard itself, it was so supernatu- 
 rallv still. The feeling was too over- 
 ■ ring to allow expression by voice or 
 hand. It was as if one was in a trance, 
 all motion paralysi 
 
 " But the descending hammer of the 
 Chair awoke them, with a start — and 
 with one universal, long-drawn, deep 
 breath, with which the overcharged 
 heart seeks relief, — the crowded a£ 
 bly broke up and departed. 
 
 "The New England men walked 
 down Penn&j h ania avenue that day, after 
 the speech, with a firmer step and bolder 
 air — 'pride id their port, defiance in 
 
 their eye.' You would have -worn they 
 
 had grow n some in< hi a tall< r in a 
 hour-' time. They di vour way in 
 
 their stride. Tiny looked every one in were pi 
 the face they met, fearing i xowd entei 
 
 tion. Tiny swarmed in the sti 
 having become miraculously multitudi- 
 nous. Thej clustered in parties, and 
 fought the scene over one hundred times 
 
 would attend it, and hardly had the 
 hospitable doors of the house been 
 thrown open, when the crowd that had 
 filled the Senate chamber in the morn- 
 ing rushed in and occupied the rooms. 
 Persons a little more tardy in arriving 
 found it almost impossible to get in, 
 such a crowd oppressed the entrance. 
 
 " Before this evening General bad 
 been the observed of all observers. His 
 military and personal reputation, official 
 position, gallant bearing, and courteous 
 manners, had secured him great and 
 merited popularity. BR -ns were 
 
 always gladly attended by large numbers 
 — to Avhom he was himself the object of 
 attraction. 
 
 "But on this occasion, the room in 
 which he received his company wasde- 
 >erted, as soon as courtesy to the P 
 dent permitted. Mr. Webster, it was 
 whispered, was in the east room, and 
 thither the whole mass hurried. 
 
 "He stood almost in the centre of the 
 room, hemmed in by eager crowds, from 
 whom there was no all pres 
 
 to get nearer to him. He Beemed but 
 little exhausted by the intellectual • 
 tion of the day. as it had been. 
 
 The flush of excitement still lingered and 
 ! upon his countena _ aud 
 
 beautifying it like the Betting sun its ac- 
 company ing clouds. 
 
 •• \!1 w< re eagi r to gi I a sight at him. 
 Som< 
 
 mounted the chain of the room. Many 
 
 to him. The dense 
 
 and r*-t irii; _r- DH 
 
 round him, renewing the ordeT of their 
 
 d and egression, continually. 
 
 < 'lie \v«.uld a^k his neighbor : ' Where — 
 
 which is Webster! 1 — c There, don't you 
 
 that night. Their elation was the great im — that dark, swarthy man. with 
 
 ei by reaction. It knew no limit itdeep< beavyT>rov —that'i 
 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 27 
 
 V 
 
 Webster.' No one was obliged to make 
 a second inquiry. 
 
 " In another part of the room vi as 
 Col. Hayne. lie, too, had his day of 
 triumph, and received congratulations. 
 His friends even now contended that the 
 contest was but a drawn battle, no full 
 victory having been achieved on either 
 side. There was nothing in his own ap- 
 pearance this evening to indicate the 
 mortification of defeat. With others, he 
 went up and complimented Mr. Webster 
 on his brilliant effort ; and no one, igno- 
 rant of the past struggle, could have sup- 
 posed that they had of late been engaged 
 in such fierce rivalry. It was said at the 
 time, that, as Col. Hayne approached 
 Mr. Webster to tender his congratula- 
 tions, the latter accosted him with the 
 usual courtesy, ' How are you this even- 
 ing, Col. Hayne ?' and that Col. Hayne 
 replied, good-humoredly, ' none Vie better 
 for you, sir /' " 
 
 The speech of Mr. Webster on this oc- 
 casion is so familiar to the whole coun- 
 try, and this extended extract gives so 
 complete a picture of its general scope, 
 that any more specific outline of it would 
 rbe superfluous. In mere logic, it has 
 often been surpassed : — but as a reply to 
 a violent attack, — as a defence against a 
 vehement and formidable assault, — and 
 as combining all the various qualities 
 which such an effort demands, it is un- 
 rivalled in the forensic history of this 
 country and has seldom been surpassed 
 anywhere. As a masterpiece in this spe- 
 cial department of eloquence, it deserves 
 careful study;* and although a severe 
 analysis of it may detract something 
 from the popular estimate of its' charac- 
 ter, as compared with the great speeches 
 of the master orators of the world, it 
 will only quicken the admiration which 
 it deserves for felicity of retort, adroit- 
 ness in turning the flanks of the attack- 
 ing force,vthe logical consecutivem 
 its historical statementsyand the grand, 
 stately, imaginative eloquence of its rhe- 
 torical pi ] . N-> one can read both 
 bes without fc.-ling that Hayne's 
 did not deserve such a reply ; and that 
 the two athletes were most unequally 
 
 matched. Col. Hayne replied to Mr. 
 Webster, confining himself, however, to 
 the single point of the rights of the Ge- 
 neral Government under the Constitu- 
 tion. Mr. Webster rejoined in a brief 
 restatement of his argument : — but this 
 restatement was in fact a reconstruction 
 of it. He presented it now divested of 
 all the incidental matter by which it had 
 originally been embarrassed, and without 
 any of the rhetorical attendants which 
 had swollen its stateliness and rendered 
 it far more impressive and imposing, but 
 which nevertheless impaired its real 
 strength. As an argument merely, we 
 consider this second speech, brief and 
 unpretending as it is, decidedly superior 
 to the first, in the popularity of which, 
 however, it has been completely over- 
 shadowed. Mr. Webster's "great 
 speech," as it is universally known,, pro- 
 duced a great sensation throughout the 
 country. It was widely circulated and 
 universally read. The debate continued 
 for some weeks, but the argument had 
 been exhausted and the discussion was 
 really at an end. Mr. Webster received 
 from every quarter of the Union the 
 most complimentary congratulations 
 upon the result of the contest, and upon 
 the service he had rendered the country. 
 Massachusetts passed resolutions of 
 thanks, and the example was followed 
 by the Legislatures of several other 
 States. Distinguished Southern gentle- 
 men added 'the tribute of their praise. 
 
 MR. WEBSTER AND NULLIFICATION. 
 
 Mr. Webster continued to take an 
 active part in the business and 
 of the Senate throughout the adminis- 
 tration of General Jackson and his im- 
 mediate successor. This period of our 
 history was marked by events of magni- 
 tude and permanent importance. As 
 the characteristic of General Jackson's 
 mind was an indomitable will, so his 
 administration was marked by an exalta- 
 tion of the Executive at the expense of 
 other department of the Govern- 
 ment Whenever b< Mea- 
 sure as desirable, the whole | . his 
 
28 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 commati'l, persona] and official, was di- 
 rect. •<! to its enforcement. In one of 
 his messages, indeed, in reply to objec- 
 tions that the will of the people, as re- 
 presented in Congress, should be para- 
 mount in all cases of legislation, he ad- 
 vanced the distinct claim that the popu- 
 lar authority was in fact embodied in 
 the President, as he was elected by a di- 
 rect vote of all the people. This princi- 
 ple, and the spirit which it indicated, be- 
 gan to manifest themselves in various 
 acts of the administration, and to arouse 
 no slight degree of opposition to its ar- 
 bitrary character throughout the country. 
 General Jackson had been elected by 
 . the union of various parties. Mr. Adams, 
 hi- unsuccessful competitor, in a letter 
 written in 1830, but which has but just 
 been published, — it was given in the 
 New York Daily Times of Oct. 22,-— 
 ascribes his defeat to four distinct par- 
 ties against him. "At the election of 
 18'-' .3." he says, "there were four can- 
 didates — three of whom were returned 
 to the House of Representatives — be- 
 sides a fifth, who had sunk by hi- own 
 weight into tin- secondary rank of an as- 
 pirant to the Vice-presidency, in which 
 he succeeded for the moment by the 
 ruin of his after-prospects, I believe for 
 
 i \er. My el,'. -tioii was effected in the 
 
 House by the junction of the fourth and 
 excluded candidate's supporters with 
 mine, and that operation produced the 
 subsequent failure of my re-election, the 
 triumphal elevation of my BUCCessor, and 
 the irretrievable disappointment of him 
 
 who had. a- a laM resource, linked his 
 political fortunes with mine, but who. 
 from that hour, was deserted and be- 
 trayed by his own party. They gained 
 the coalition of the three preceding dis- 
 appointed candidal.-, and thus left m< 
 at the election of L828, to my own soli- 
 tary strength. That remained unim- 
 paired, hut was unequal t<> the contest 
 with the united power of the four par- 
 combined against me, and I fell." 
 It was scarcely possible that this union 
 should long exist unimpaired after the 
 i f.r which it had been formed, 
 had brought responsibility to be in- 
 
 curred, and duties to be performed. Mr. 
 Calhoun, whose friendship had been in- 
 dicated, if not purchased, by being elect- 
 ed Vice-president, speedily found that 
 he could have in that position no spe- 
 cial influence or control in the govern- 
 ment ; and the exclusion of all his 
 friends from the Cabinet, and the ap- 
 pointment as Secretary of State of Mr. 
 Van Buren, who was Mr. Calhoun's ri- 
 Ival for the succession, and as such fa- 
 vored by General Jackson, completed 
 the alienation. Private differences ag- 
 gravated the quarrel, and it soon be. 
 open and violent. Mr. Van Buren, dis- 
 liking all elements of strife, resigned the 
 | Secretary-hip, and accepted the mission 
 to Kmdand. But while in office he 
 had given Mr. McLane, then our minis- 
 ter to the Court of St. James, instruc- 
 tions to seek concessions in regard to 
 our trade with the British colonies, and 
 to represent, as an inducement to the 
 British government to grant them, that 
 the party which had come into power 
 would be found more favorable to 
 tain interests which Great Britain wished 
 cure. When, therefore, his nomi- 
 nation came before the Senate, its con- 
 firmation was strongly opposed by Mr. 
 Webster, who in this had the concur- 
 rence of Mr. Calhoun ; and it was re- 
 jected. 
 
 In the twenty-second Congress the 
 Bank question became prominent At 
 the fn-st session (1831- 2), a hill had 
 been introduced by Mr. Dallas, provid- 
 ing for a re charter. Mr. Webster sup- 
 ported the hill upon the ground that the 
 bank was highly important to the fiscal 
 operations of the government, and to the 
 currency, exchange, and general business 
 ..f the country. The Presidenl had 
 called the attention of Congress to the 
 subject without intimating any doubts 
 
 of the constitutionality of the hank. ' No 
 
 Complaints had been made of its man- 
 agement ; it was in good credit at home 
 and abroad, and was generally popular 
 a- an important agent in the financial 
 operations of the country. The Presi- 
 dent, however, had endeavored to con- 
 trol the appointment of some vf tht 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 29 
 
 officers in one of the eastern branches, 
 and this attempt had been resisted. 
 This difference created a feeling of hosti- 
 lity and of mutual suspicion between the 
 President and the bank, and led to that 
 open warfare which convulsed the coun- 
 try for some years. The bill passed both 
 Houses and was vetoed by Gen. Jack- 
 son. 
 
 Meantime the interest in this subject 
 was superseded by another of more 
 pressing importance. In South Carolina 
 discontent under the Tariff had greatly 
 increased. Under the operation of the 
 various protective tariffs which had been 
 enacted with the concurrence and gene- 
 rally under the lead of the South, a large 
 manufacturing interest had grown up in 
 the Northern and Central States, — while 
 the South had not experienced similar 
 benefits from them. Large tracts of 
 new lands recently opened to settlement 
 near the Mississippi, had drawn from the 
 worn-out sections along the Atlantic 
 great numbers of their people, and the 
 injurious results of this process, as well 
 as of other circumstances, were attributed 
 to the tariff. Public resentment at the 
 South had been thus turned against the 
 principle of protection, and its constitu- 
 tionality had been strongly denied. The 
 feeling of discontent had led to the most 
 hostile language, and Mr. Calhoun, with 
 other leading men in the same section 
 of the (Country, had distinctly asserted 
 the right of any State to resist and nul- 
 lify laws which she might consider un- 
 constitutional or in violation of her 
 rights. Mr. Webster had repeatedly 
 met Mr. Calhoun in argument upon this 
 question, ami had always maintained the 
 supremacy of the Constitution and of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States as 
 the final interpreter of its provisions. In 
 some of hia speeches, especially in one 
 made on the 2Gth of January, 1830, Mr. 
 Webster made a triumphant vindication 
 of the position he had taken upon this 
 subject. 
 
 Gen. Jackson was, however, re-elected 
 President in the fall of 1832; and the 
 people of South Carolina were at once 
 roused into the most intense excitement 
 
 against the North and the protective 
 policy. Public meetings were held 
 throughout the State, and at a general 
 convention, an Ordinance was adopted, 
 declaring the unconstitutionality of the 
 Tariff laws, and proclaiming the purpose 
 of South Carolina to resist any attempt 
 that might be made to collect taxes 
 under them within the limits of that State. 
 The Legislature, which met soon after, 
 ratified the Ordinance ; declared the 
 Tariff acts unconstitutional, null, and 
 void ; directed the enrolment and enlist- 
 ment of volunteers, and advised all the 
 citizens to put themselves in military 
 array. The whole State was in arms. 
 Musters were held every day. Charles- 
 ton looked like a military depot, and an 
 immediate collision between the State 
 and national forces was apprehended. 
 Col. Ilayne resigned his seat in the 
 United States Senate, and was elected 
 Governor of South Carolina. Mr. Cal- 
 houn resigned the Vice-Presidency, and 
 succeeded Hayne in the Senate. Con- 
 gress met early in December, and the 
 vacant chair was filled by the election 
 of Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, over 
 John Tyler, of Virginia — White receiv- 
 ing seventeen and Tyler fourteen votes. 
 Mr. Calhoun had not arrived, and ru- 
 mors were afloat that <Ien. Jackson had 
 threatened to arrest him on his way, for 
 treason against the government. What 
 course, indeed, the President would take 
 was not known, but it had been the to- 
 pic of current rumor for some months 
 previous. 
 
 Mr. Webster, in October, had met the 
 citizens of Massachusetts in a public 
 meeting at Worcester, and had there 
 rehearsed the dangers of the country, — 
 reasserted the supremacy of tie- Consti- 
 tution, and claimed for Congress the 
 power of providing for the emergency. 
 He raised his voice " beforehand, against 
 the unauthorized employment of milita- 
 ry power, and against suspending the 
 authority of the laws, by an armed 
 force, under the pretence of patting 
 down nullification. Referring to a 
 rumor of Gen. JackBon's intended action, 
 which had been widely current, he said : 
 
30 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 "He 1 it lias no authority to 
 
 blockade Charleston ; the President baa 
 
 no authority to employ military force- 
 till he .shall be duly required to do so 
 by law and by the civil authority. His 
 duty is to cause the laws to be executed. 
 His dut] is to support the civil authori- 
 ty. His duty is, if the laws be 
 to employ the military force of the coun 
 
 arms in their hands and cockades in 
 their hats, ready to march to that city 
 at a moment's notice ; and the moment 
 Congr." -hall pass the laws recom- 
 mended by the President in relation to 
 our port, I will pour down a torrent of 
 volunteers, that shall sweep the myrmi- 
 dons of the tyrant from the soil of 
 Carolina." Mr. Calhoun did not reach 
 
 try. if necessary, for their support an.! Wu.-hington until January. ( >n the 4th 
 execution: but to do all this in compli-lof that month he took his seat in the 
 ance only with law and with decisions of Senate, received the congratulations of 
 tribuna The course punned by the the members of that body, and, in the 
 
 people of South Carolina roused the midst of a crowded and eager assembly, 
 President from the inactivity which , took the oath to support the Constitu- 
 had only concealed, but had not pre- tion of the United States. In a few 
 vented, a vigilant preparation for the days he moved for a call upon the 
 rising storm. Confidential orders were President for copies of the Proclama- 
 issued to the officers of the army and tion, and of the counter Proclamation 
 navy to hold themselves in readiness of Gov. Hayne. These were comrnuni- 
 for active service. General Winfield cated by the President on the 16th of 
 Scott was sent to Charleston, to take January; and on the "-'l-t the "J 
 such steps as he might deem necessary Bill," a- it was called, " making further 
 to preserve the authority of the Govern- provision for the collection of the reve- 
 ment. Prudent and resolute men were nue," was reported by Mr. AYilkins, 
 stationed at the proper posts : anus and from Pennsylvania, on behalf of the 
 munitions of war were pr . and Judiciary Committee. It gave th 1 
 
 due preparation was made fur all con- dent the largest powers over the men 
 tingencies. On the I lth of December, and money of the nation, to put down 
 1832, the President issued a Proclama- any armed resistance to t -nue 
 
 tion, written by Mr. Edward Livingston, laws of the Unit - Upon this 
 
 who had succeeded Mr. Van Buren as hill, and upon resolution's which he in- 
 tary of State, from notes furnished traduced, embodying hi- _ .1 views 
 by Gen. Jackson himself; and taking, on the right of a State to annul an 
 substantially, the ground which Mr. stitutional laws of Congress, Mr. Cal- 
 Webster had uniformly maintained in boun made, on the 15th and 16th of 
 debate upon the Bubject A counter February, the ablest argumenl ever ad- 
 
 Proclamation was at once issued by 
 Governor Haute ; and laws were at 
 passed by the Legislature for put- 
 ting the Btate in a condition to earn- 
 on war with the general Government 
 United States troops were collected at 
 various points ; and on the other side, 
 the militia were drilled, muskets clean- 
 ed, foreign officers t- ndered their 
 
 - to the Governor, and everything 
 
 indicated the speedy approach of civil 
 war. At a large meeting of Nullifiers, 
 held at Charleston, Col'. Preston, one of 
 their leading men, sel forth the state of 
 by declaring that " there wew 
 
 vanced in Bupport of his position. The 
 debate, previous to that tune, had 
 
 shared by various senator-, and had 
 
 been marked by various incidents. Mr. 
 
 had maintained si!, i ■ • . 61 
 in one or two instances, where he had 
 thrown in a - in upon some inci- 
 
 dental point Of this nature was a 
 remark which ho made, when there 
 seemed to be a general disposition to 
 attack the bill, passing over the procltr 
 
 :i. Mr. Webster di I should 
 
 be known, once for all, " that this 
 an administration measure ; that it is 
 
 ! resident's own measure : and I 
 
 sixteen thousand back-countrymen with ] the 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 31 
 
 goodness, if they call it hard names, and 
 talk boldly against its friends, not to' 
 overlook ita source. Let them attack 
 it, if they choose to attack it, in its' 
 origin." He had declined an invitation 
 to speak upon the subject, so long as i 
 Mr. Calhoun had kept silent, or so long J 
 as the advantage in debate seemed to 
 rest on the other side. But Mr. Cal- j 
 Bonn's speech on this occasion called 
 him out. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun's speech was awaited 
 with great anxiety, and heard with eager 
 interest. He was considered, beyond 
 the bounds of his own State and party, 
 as a bold, bad man. An all-devouring, 
 unscrupulous personal ambition was 
 popularly supposed to have driven him 
 into this position of a conspirator against 
 the Constitution. He was daily de- 
 nounced as John Catiline Calhoun, by 
 the special organ of the President, the 
 Globe, and by the people at large he 
 was feared as such. His personal ap- 
 pearance, as is remarked by the author 
 already largely quoted, "answered well 
 the preconceived idea of a conspirator. 
 Tall, gaunt, and of a somewhat stooping 
 figure, with a brow full, well-formed, but 
 receding ; hair, not reposing on the 
 head, but starting from it like the Gor- 
 gon's ; a countenance, expressive of un- 
 qualified intellect, the lines of which 
 seemed deeply gullied by intense 
 thought ; an eye that watched every- 
 thing and revealed nothing, ever inqui- 
 sitive, restless, and penetrating ; and a 
 manner emphatic yet restrained, deter* 
 mined but cautious ; persons who knew 
 not his antecedents, nor his actual posi- 
 tion, would have pointed him out as one 
 that might meditate great and danger- 
 ous pursuits. To an audience, already 
 embittered, he seemed to realize the full 
 idea of a conspirator." His speech was 
 a masterpiece of direct, simple, una- 
 dorned argumentation. It very far sur- 
 passed, in every respect, the previous 
 effort of Mr. Hayne. Its tone was that 
 of injured innocence, — claiming always 
 that Smith Carolina was the party 
 wronged, repelling, with calm an>! 
 rowful dignity, the imputations which 
 
 had been thrown out against himself, 
 lamenting plaintively the decay of fra- 
 ternal feeling between different members 
 of the Union, and sustaining by an ela- 
 borate argument of great cogency the 
 right of a State — not to resist the Con- 
 stitution, not even to judge of the exer- 
 cise by the general government of any 
 power which it delegates — but to repu- 
 diate utterly exery assumption of power 
 not delegated, and to resist, as null and 
 void, every law that may be passed 
 under any such assumption. His speech 
 extended through two days : — and he 
 closed by challenging the opponents of 
 his doctrine to disprove them, and 
 warned them, in the concluding sen- 
 tence, that the principles they might 
 advance would be subjected to the revi- 
 sion of posterity. 
 
 Mr. Webster rose immediately and 
 entered upon a reply. He bad been 
 looked to, not only by his own political 
 friends, but by the President and his 
 party, as the champion upon whom 
 would devolve the defence of the ground 
 they had taken. The bill had received 
 prompt modification, in several respects, 
 upon his requirement, — and had thus 
 been brought into more full conformity 
 with the views he had expressed at \\ or- 
 cester. His speech on this occasion is 
 one of the best he ever made. Less 
 showy, it is more logical, than his reply 
 to Hayne, and although it produced a 
 less powerful impression at the time 
 upon the audience which heard it, it will 
 be far more frequently referred to here- 
 after for the argument it embodies. He 
 stated the theory of Mr. Calhoun in a 
 f.. -w brief sentences, stripping it of all the 
 qualifications by which that master of 
 language and of thought had concealed 
 its real meaning. 
 
 "Beginning with the original error, 
 that the Constitution of tie CTl 
 States is nothing but a compact between 
 Sovereign States; a j in the next 
 
 step, that each State fa 
 its own sole judge of I f its 
 
 own obligations, and, consequently, of 
 the constitutionality of the laws of Con- 
 gress, and in the next, that it may 
 
52 
 
 Life of ])<t>a>l W'.bster. 
 
 oppose whatever it sees fit to de 
 unconstitutional, and that it decides for 
 
 f on the mode and measure of 
 redress, the argument arrives at once at 
 the conclusion, that what a State dis- 
 sents from, it may nullify ; what it op- 
 poses, it may oppose by force; what it 
 decides for itself it may execute by its 
 own power ; and that, in short, it is 
 itself Bupreme over the legislation of 
 Congress, and supreme over the deci- 
 sions of the national judicature — su- 
 preme over the Constitution of the 
 country — supreme over the supreme law 
 of the" land. However it seeks to pro- 
 tect itself against these plain inferences, 
 by saying that an unconstitutional law 
 is no law, and that it only opposes 
 such laws as are unconstitutional, yet 
 this does not, in the slightest degree, 
 vary the result, since it insists on decid- 
 ing this question for itself; and in oppo- 
 sition to reason and argument, in oppo- 
 sition to practice and experience, in op- 
 tion to the judgment of others 
 having an equal right to judge, it says 
 only: 'Such is my opinion, and my 
 opinion shall l>e my law, and I will sup- 
 porl it by my dwn strong hand. I 
 denounce the law. I declare it uncon- 
 stitutional ; that is enough ; it shall 
 not be executed. Men in arms are 
 ready to resist its execution. An at- 
 templ to enforce it shall cover the land 
 
 with bl 1. Elsewhere, it may be bind- 
 
 : but here, it is trampled under 
 foot,' This, Sir, is practical nullifica- 
 tion." 
 
 Againsl these positions Mr. Webster 
 laid down a Bystem embodied in the 
 following propositions : 
 
 '• I. That the Constitution of the 
 United States is nol a league, confede- 
 racy, or compact, between the people 
 of tl ral States, in their • 
 
 capacities; but a government proper, 
 founded on the adoption of the people. 
 and creating direel relations between 
 itself and individuals. 
 
 " II. That no State authority has 
 
 power to dissolve those relations ; that 
 nothing can dissolve them but revolu- 
 tion; and that, consequently, then 
 
 be no such thing as secession without 
 hition. 
 
 "III. That there is a supreme law, 
 ting of the Constitution of the 
 United States, acts of C passed 
 
 in pursuance of it, and treaties; and 
 that, in cases not capable of assuming 
 the character of a suit in law or equity, 
 Congress must judge of, and finally inter- 
 thifl Bupreme law, so often as it has 
 'on to p of legislation ; and 
 
 in eases capable of assuming, and actu- 
 ally assuming the character of a suit, 
 the Supreme Court of the United States 
 is the final interpreter. 
 
 " IV. That an attempt by a State to 
 abrogate, annul, or nullify an Act of 
 Congress, or to arrest its operation 
 within her limits, on the ground that, in' 
 her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, 
 is a direct usurpation on the just po 1 
 of the genera] Government, and on the 
 equal rights of i >ther States : a plain 
 latioii of the Constitution, and a pro- 
 ceeding essentially revolutionary in its 
 character and tendency." 
 
 These propositions were maintained 
 with great ability, without any attempt 
 at Barcasm, humor, or anything but 
 simple argument. The opinion gene- 
 rally entertained of its merit and con- 
 clusiveness is well indicated in a V 
 written to him very soon after its delivery, 
 by Ex-President Madison, As Mr. 
 Madison was largely concerned in draft- 
 ing the famous resolutions of 1798, 
 upon which the whole State Rights 
 s _ nerally based, his opinion 
 upon this Bubject was. and -till is, enti- 
 tled to great weight.. We think, there- 
 fore, that our readers will be glad to 
 read his letter t,> Mr. Webster on that 
 oocasion, which has hitherto been pub- 
 lished only in Mr. Everett's biographical 
 sketch prefixed to the r» tion of 
 
 Mr. V. 
 
 "MtWtftHtr, March 15, 1833. 
 
 " My Db LB Sut : — 1 return my thanks, 
 (be, for the copy of your late very | 
 ert'ul Bpeech in the Senate of the United 
 State-. It crashes 'nullification, 1 and 
 must hasten an abandonment of 'eeeea- 
 
Life of Darnel H'< 
 
 33 
 
 sion.' Hut this dodges the blow- by 
 confounding the claim to secede f.t will 
 with the right of seceding from intolera- 
 ble oppression. The former answers 
 itself, being a violation without cause of 
 a faith solemnly pledged. The latter is 
 another nam:"' only for revolution, about 
 which there is no theoretic controversy. 
 Its double aspect, nevertheless, with the 
 countenance received from certain quar- 
 ters, is giving it a popular currency here, 
 which may influence the approaching 
 elections, both for Concre-s ami for the 
 
 finally proclaims its supremacy, ami that 
 cf tin' laws made in pursuance of it, 
 over the constitutions and laws of the 
 States, the powers of the government 
 being exercised, as in other elective and 
 responsible governments, under the con- 
 trol of its constituents, the people and 
 the legislatures of the States, and Bubject 
 to the revolutionary rights of the people 
 in extreme cases. 
 
 " Such is the Constitution of the 
 United States de jure and de facto, and 
 the name, whatever it be, that may be 
 
 Stale !. wislatute. It has gained some ' given to it, can make it nothing more or 
 advantage, also, by 
 
 mixing itself with 
 
 the question whether the Constitution 
 of the United States was formed by the 
 people, or by the States, now under a 
 theoretic discussion by animated parti- 
 sans. 
 
 " It is fortunate when disputed theo- 
 ries can be decided by undisputed fai 
 ■ and here the undisputed fact is, that the 
 Constitution was made by the people, 
 but as embodied into the several States 
 who were parties to it — therefore made 
 by the States in their highest authorita- 
 tive capacity. They might by the same 
 authority, and by the same process, 
 have converted the confederacy into a 
 mere league, or treatv, or continued it 
 with enlarged or abridged power; or 
 have embodied the people of their re- 
 spective States into one people, nation, 
 or sovereignty ; or, as they did, by a 
 mixed form, make them one people, 
 nation, or sovereignty for certain pur- 
 poses, and not so for others. 
 
 "The Constitution of the United 
 States, being established by a competent 
 authority — by that of the sovereign peo- 
 ple of the several States who were parties 
 to it— it remains only to inquire what 
 the Constitution i-, and here it -peaks for 
 itself. It organizes a government into 
 
 the usual legislative, executive, andjudi- suggestion, General Jackson was -trong 
 ciary departments; invests it with Uy disposed to seefc an alliance with Mr. 
 
 less than wdiat it is. 
 
 " Pardon this hasty effusion, which, 
 whether precisely according or not with 
 } T our ideas, presents, I am aware, none 
 that will be new to you. 
 
 " With great esteem and cordial salu- 
 tations. 
 
 " James Madison." 
 " Mr. Webster." 
 
 The bill, as is well known, passed — 
 with the vote of John Tyler alone, in the 
 negative, its other opponents having, 
 from various reasons, left the Senate 
 chamber before the vote was taken. It 
 is, of course, scarcely necessary to add, 
 that Mr. Clay had taken no part in this 
 great debate, having been anxiously and 
 laboriously engaged in elaborating and 
 preparing the way tor the Compromise, 
 by which the dispute was at last adjust- 
 ed. Mr. AVebster's course in this crisis, 
 commanded the warm approbation of 
 Gen. Jackson, wdio felt the extent of the 
 service thus rendered to his administra- 
 tion. He took an early opportunity, in 
 person, to express his cordial gratitude 
 for his support, and his Secretary of 
 State, Mr. Livingston, repeatedly made 
 similar acknowledgments. It has been 
 alleged, that mainly at Mr. Livingston's 
 
 specified powers, leaving others to the 
 parties to the Constitution. It makes 
 the government, like oth< r governments, 
 to operate directly on the people ; places 
 at its command the needful physical 
 means of executing its powers; and 
 
 Webster, founded upon the community 
 of their principles upon this subject, 
 which should extend to the whoi 
 Qen. Jackson's administration. It is al- 
 leged, on good authority, that Mr. 
 Livingston, with the President's consent, 
 
34 
 
 Lift of Daniel Wt 1 
 
 consults! Mr. Webster upon the subject, been read by him at a Cabinet meeting 
 
 and that a scat in the Cabinet was at 
 the same time placed at his disposal. 
 One fact bearing upon this subject, ia 
 given by Mr. Marc!,, as upon authority. 
 II' states that a distinguished Senator, 
 apolitical and personal friend of 
 Jackson, brought to Mr. Webster a list 
 of intended nominees for office in the 
 Eastern States, and asked him to erase 
 therefrom the nam.- of any who might 
 be personally objectionable to him. This 
 he declined to do, from an unwillingness 
 to place bimself under any obligation to 
 the Administration, which might at all 
 interfere with the freedom of his action, 
 ue can avoid speculating as to the 
 
 in regard to the removal of the deposits 
 on the 18th of September, lie sup- 
 ported the resolution in an aiiin. 
 
 h, and it was adopted by a vote of 
 23 to 18 — the State-Bights men, on this 
 
 don, abandoning Gen. Jackson, and 
 leaving the Administration in a minority. 
 The President, in reply toth< .tion, 
 
 declared his independence of the Senate, 
 as a coordinate branch of the Govern- 
 ment; and he "had yet to learn under 
 what constituted authority that branch 
 of the Legislature had a right to require 
 of him an account of any communica- 
 tion, either verbally or in writing, made 
 to the heads of 1 lepartments in Cabinet 
 
 different political fortunes which might! Council." He therefore declined to 
 
 have overtaken the country, had th 
 stem energy of Gen. Jackson, and the 
 
 profound wisdom of Mr. Webster, 
 united in directing its destiny. 
 
 THE BANK pONTBOVERST. 
 
 The next great topic which enlisted 
 public attl ution was well calculated — 
 and its introduction, by the leadei 
 the democratic party, it has been 
 charged, was designed — to render any 
 such cooperation between these two 
 commanding spirits out of the question. 
 Mr. Webster, at the close of the session, 
 made a Bhort journey to the Middle and 
 Western States. He was 
 everywhere with the most distinguished 
 attention, being greeted by public meet- 
 ings in all the principal cities, and 
 making at various points addresses upon 
 topics of public interest. Gen. Jackson 
 als.. made a Northern t<>ur during the 
 same re© bs of I Songress : and it was 
 during that period that the removal of 
 the public deposits from the Bank of 
 the 1 united States was determined on. 
 It was carried into effect in September, 
 1888, and its immediate effect upon the 
 business of the country was most disas- 
 trous. Congress met two months after; 
 and one of the earliest movements in 
 the Senate was the offering of a n 
 tion by Mr. Clay, calling on the Presi 
 dent for a copy of a paper said to have 
 
 comply with the request contained in 
 the resolution. In the paper thus called 
 for he had declared that he had decided 
 
 upon the measure in question, and 
 should carry it into effect upon his own 
 responsibility, and without requiring any 
 member of his Qabinet to make any 
 sacrifice of opinion or of principle. For 
 this he was severely denounced by the 
 < Opposition. Mr. Clay offered resolutions 
 
 of substantial censure, and supported 
 
 them in one <■'{' the ablest speeches he 
 
 ever made. After a long and vehement 
 
 debate, the resolution-, considerably 
 modified by their author, passed the S 
 ate — one of them by a vote ^>( 26 to 20, 
 
 and the other 28 to 18. In the dis- 
 
 cussion upon these resolutions, Mr, v. 
 ster took no part But in reply to them, 
 General .lack-on sent to the "Sena; 
 the 17th of April, L 834, his memorable 
 Protest, in which he argued with great 
 ability, 1st that the Executive, under 
 the constitution and the laws, b the sole 
 custodian of the public funds ; 2dly, that 
 even on the supposition that be had 
 a— unied an illegal power, he was ame- 
 nable to the action of either House, only 
 through the constitutional process y( 
 impeachment; Sdly, that the President 
 alone is responsible to the people ah.no 
 for the conduct of all the subordinate 
 Executive others, while they in turn are 
 responsible only to him ; and 4thly, that 
 . rect, immediate representa- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 35 
 
 tive of the people. This formidable 
 document, and the claim it preferred to 
 the most extraordinary powers, aroused 
 profound sensation, not only in the 
 Senate, but throughout (he country. 
 
 On the 7th of May, Mr. Webster de- 
 livered a speech upon the subject, in 
 which he subjected every portion of that 
 remarkable paper to the severest examina- 
 tion. At the opening and the close of his 
 remarks he took occasion to disavow, in 
 the most earnest manner, everything like 
 personal or partisan feeling against the 
 President, a man who, he said, " has ren- 
 dered most distinguished services to his 
 country, and whose honesty of motive and 
 integrity of purpose are still maintained 
 by those who admit that his adminis- 
 tration has fallen into lamentable errors." 
 But he regarded the doctrines of the 
 Protest as at Avar with all sound prin- 
 ciples of constitutional liberty, and as 
 indicating a tendency on the part of the 
 Executive towards a despotic usurpation 
 of powers belonging to other depart- 
 ments, which called for the most prompt 
 and determined resistance. Even if no 
 harm should result from the claim, still 
 it ought not to be allowed to pass un- 
 challenged. " It was against the recital 
 of an act of Parliament, rather than 
 against any suffering under its enact- 
 ment, that our fathers took up arms. 
 They went to war against a preamble. 
 They fought seven years against a de- 
 claration." Upon this question of prin- 
 ciple, " while suffering was yet afar off, 
 they raised their flag against a power to 
 which, for purposes of foreign conquest 
 and Bubjugation, Rome, in the height of 
 her glory, is not to be compared ; — a 
 power which has dotted the surface of 
 the whole globe with her possessions 
 and military poets, whose morning 
 drum-beat, following the sun, and keep- 
 ing company with the hours, circles the 
 earth with one continuous and unbrok- 
 en strain of the martial airs of England." 
 — Mr. Webster asserted and vindicated, 
 in the clearest mamver, not only the 
 right, but the duty, of the Senate, to de- 
 fend the public liberty against encroach- 
 ment, and to express its opinions when- 
 
 ever it believed such encroachment to 
 hare taken place. The Senate had aoted 
 in its legislative, and not in its judicial 
 rapacity, and in this action it had only 
 defended its own just authority and that 
 of the co-ordinate I » ranch of the Legisla- 
 ture. He examined closely, and de- 
 nounced with majestic emphasis, the ex- 
 traordinary doctrines put forward by the 
 President concerning the theory of his 
 relations to the other branches of the 
 Government, and to the people, — de- 
 claring that if these doctrines were true, 
 it was "idle to talk any longer about 
 any such thing as a government of laws. 
 We have no government of laws — we 
 have no legal responsibility. We have 
 an Executive, consisting of one person, 
 wielding all official power, and responsi- 
 ble only as Cromwell was responsible 
 when he broke up Parliament, or Boua- 
 parte when he dissolved the Assembly 
 of France." The speech elicited the 
 warmest commendations from distin- 
 guished men in every section of the 
 country. Chancellor Kent exhausted 
 the language of eulogy in extolling its 
 merits.. Governor Tazewell, of Virginia, 
 who had seldom concurred with Mr. 
 Webster in his views upon public topics, 
 thanked him cordially, and declared that 
 1 he agreed with him throughout. Dur- 
 I ing the same session Mr. Webster made 
 frequent speeches upon various topics of 
 interest, as they arose in the course of 
 business, and wrote also a very able re- 
 port on the Finances, on behalf of the 
 committee of which he was a member. 
 In 1835 he spoke at length upon the 
 French Spoliation bill ; — the power of 
 removal from and appointments to office, 
 insisting that the President could not 
 rightfully remove from office without 
 the consent of the Senate ; and upon re- 
 solutions proposed by Mr. Benton, pro- 
 viding for the national defence, and 
 especially upon the action the President 
 had taken to secure their favorable con- 
 sideration. He also drew up and pre- 
 Bented a Protect against the action of the 
 Senate in adopting amotion to expunge 
 from its records the resolutions by 
 which, in 1834, it had expressed its 
 
36 
 
 IAft of Dane I W'tbster. 
 
 disapprobation of the Presidents course 
 in removing the deposits. 
 
 In November, 1836, Mr. Van Buren 
 was elected President, to succeed Gen. 
 Jackson. During that winter, although 
 lurrency question and others, which 
 had grown out of it, continued to occupy 
 the attention of Congress and the coun- 
 try, and although Mr. Webster spoke 
 frequently upon them a> they came up 
 for discussion, no great topic called for 
 special effort. In February he accepted 
 an invitation from a very large number 
 of merchants, professional men and 
 others in the city of New York, to at- 
 tend a large public meeting. His speech, 
 delivered on this occasion in Niblo's Sa- 
 loon, on the 15th of March, 1837, em- 
 braced a comprehensive view of all the 
 measures by which Gen. Jackson's ad- 
 ministration had been distinguished. He 
 spoke at length of the Tariff, Internal 
 Improvements, Arc, and called the atten- 
 tion of the country to the movements 
 which were on foot for the annexation 
 of Texas to the United States. He 
 declared his opposition to that measure, 
 mainly on account of his "entire un- 
 willingness to do anything that should 
 extend the Slavery of the African race, 
 on this Continent, or add other Slave- 
 holding States to this Union." But the 
 main part of his speech related to the 
 action of the Administration in regard 
 to the financial condition of the country. 
 After the adjournment of Congress, Mr. 
 iter made a rapid tour through the 
 Western State.-, in the course of which 
 he was greeted by the most cordial wel- 
 come "ii the part of the people, and ad- 
 dressed large] stings a1 \\ . Va.. 
 
 Madison, End., and other places. 
 
 President Van Buren came into office 
 on the 4th of March, 1837. < toe of bis 
 first acta was to call an extra session of 
 I fongress, \s bich mel in S | ruber, to 
 provide for she iib emergencies 
 
 created by the almost simultaneous sus- 
 pension of Bpecie payment- by the 
 hanks throughout the Country, in the 
 
 month of May. At the meeting of Con- 
 is, the Independent Treasury Systo m 
 brought forward by the Adminis- 
 
 tration, which proposed to dispense alto- 
 gether with the aid of banks, to provide 
 a distinct set of officers to take ch a _ 
 of the public money, and to exact specie 
 in payment of all public due-. Mr. 
 -ter opposed the whole system, as 
 impracticable and certain to prove in 
 the highest degree injurious t<» the in- 
 teresta of the country. In a long and 
 speech at that session, he set forth 
 his view of the duties of the Get 
 irnment in regard to the Curp 
 The measure did not pass at the Extra 
 
 ion. 
 At the next regular se.-sion, on the 
 •JTth of December, Mr. falhoun offered 
 a resolution against the interference of 
 Congress with slavery in the lhstriet of 
 Columbia, declaring that it would be a 
 " direct and dangerous attack on the 
 in>titutions of all the slawhdlding 
 States." To this Mr. (lay. on the loth 
 of January, 1838, offered a substitute, 
 declaring that such interference would 
 "be a violation of the faith implied in 
 the cessions by the States of Virginia 
 and Maryland, a just cause i>\' alarm to 
 the people of the slaveholding S 
 and have a direct and inevitable 
 dency to disturb and endanger the 
 Union." Mr. "Webster opposed I 
 upon the ground that he could see 
 nothing in the act of Bessi a, nothing in 
 the Constitution, and nothing in the 
 history of this or any other transaction, 
 implying any limitation upon the ] i 
 of Congress to exercise exclusive juris- 
 diction over the ceded territory in all 
 
 - whatsoever. 
 On the 16th of January, a bill was 
 introduced into the Senate by Mr. 
 Wright, to establish the Independent 
 Treasury system, which came up for its 
 Becond reading on the 80th. Mr. 
 Wright, in advocating the passage of 
 the bill, had taken ground against the 
 allegation that Congress had anything 
 to do with providing a currency for the 
 people. " bet the Government," 
 be, " attend t" it- own business, and let 
 the people attend, t<> theirs, bet the 
 Government take care that it secures a 
 sound currency for its own use and let 
 
' / of Daniel Webster. 
 
 37 
 
 it leave all the rest to the States and to 
 the people." These " ominous sen- 
 tences" were the key-note of the speech 
 which Mr. Webster made in opposition 
 to the bill on the next day. He de- 
 nounced the sentiment which they 
 expressed as utterly unbecoming a Re- 
 publican Government, and opposed the 
 bill as in the highest degree injurious to 
 the public interest. On the 15th of 
 February, Mr. Calhoun, who had, at the 
 extra session, intimated his purpose to 
 support the Sub-Treasury Bill, and had 
 issued a letter to his constituents upon 
 the subject during the recess, replied to 
 Mr. Webster. This elicited from Mr. 
 Webster, on the 12th of March, another 
 speech on the same subject, much more 
 elaborate and complete than the first. 
 He discussed at length the relations of 
 capital and labor in this country, the 
 uses of the credit system, the progress 
 of the country in agriculture, commerce, 
 and manufactures, and the extent to 
 which this progress was due to the sys- 
 tem of credit, and the absolute necessity 
 to both the Government and the people 
 of a sound Bank paper currency. He 
 vindicated, by constitutional exposition, 
 and by recurrence to history, the right 
 of the Government to use banks in the 
 custody and transmission of its Funds, 
 and pointed out the disastrous conse- 
 quence which could not but result from 
 the introduction of s<> different a system 
 as that which the bill in <juestion pro- 
 posed to establish. He closed by refer- 
 ring to the speech of Mr. Calhoun, and 
 by a very sharp examination of the 
 course of that gentleman during his 
 public career. On this and other ques- 
 tions of public interest, Mr. Calhoun 
 replied on the 22d of March, and spoke 
 disparagingly of Mr. Webster's course 
 during the last war with fireat Britain. 
 Mr. Webster rejoined at once, with force 
 and effect. 
 
 In the spring of 1839, Mr. Webster 
 visited Europe, for the first and only 
 time in his life, making a hasty tour 
 through England, Scotland, and Franc.'. 
 He was received with marked attention 
 and with every mark of the most dis 
 
 tinguished consideration. II" attended 
 several public festivals, and among them 
 the first Triennial celebration of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society at Oxford, 
 on the 18th of July. He gave special 
 attention during his tour to the condi- 
 tion of Agriculture, to the subject of 
 Currency, and to the condition of the 
 laboring classes; and the resull of his 
 study of these subjects is traceable in 
 many of his subsequent speech' 
 
 Previous to his departure, Mr. Webster 
 had prepared a letter to the Whig Na- 
 tional Convention which assembled dur- 
 ing his absence, withdrawing his name 
 as a candidate for the Presidencv. Gen. 
 Harrison was nominated, and after a 
 few weeks the whole country became 
 intensely agitated with the contest be- 
 tween him and Mr. Van Buren. Mr. 
 Webster returned home before the elec- 
 tion, and took an active part in the 
 contest. The derangements in the cur- 
 rency, the depression of labor which had 
 resulted, the apprehensions entertained 
 of the effect of the Sub-Treasury system 
 upon the industry of the country, and 
 other circumstances, laid the basis for a 
 more exciting political canvass than the 
 country has ever witnessed before or 
 since. At Saratoga, on the 10th of 
 Aug. 1840, Mr. Webster addressed an 
 immense meeting upon these Bubj 
 and other issues involved in the coi 
 I >n the 10th of Sept. he presided over a 
 va-t concourse of people assembled at 
 Bunker Ball, and read a declaration of 
 " Whig Principles and Purposes," which 
 he bad drawn up for the occasion. On 
 the 28th of Sept. he made a speech from 
 the steps of the Exchange in Wall 
 New York, principally upon the 
 financial issues involved. And on tin- 
 5th of Oct he made a \'-ry eloquent 
 address upon the general subject at 
 Richmond, Virginia. All these spe< 
 were marked by Mr. W< 
 teristics, strong r< asonii ■/. the uti 
 felicity of language, and tl I im- 
 
 posing grandeur of manner and of style. 
 
 With the result tin untrv id familiar. 
 
 1 I [arrison v. ident by 
 
 an overwh timing p pular majority, and 
 
38 
 
 Life of Daniel Webtter. 
 
 
 
 cami' Into office on the 4th of March, 
 1841. 
 
 MR. WVB8TSB A3 SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 The inauguration of Gen. Harrison, in 
 1841, was the inauguration of a new era 
 in the life of Mr. Webster. Mr. Clay, 
 his great competitor in the political race, 
 had distanced him in diplomatic honors. 
 The treaty of Ghent had added the fame 
 of the negotiator to that of the promising 
 orator and statesman, which the colossal 
 Kentuckian had been fortunate enough 
 to secure in the first stages of his career. 
 Mr. Webster had graduated in every 
 other department of statesmanship ; had 
 appropriated the highest reward of re- 
 splendent success at the bar and in the 
 forum ; had won the just renown of pa- 
 triotism; proved equal to the preservation 
 of the Union at an imminent crisis ; and 
 indeed thoroughly matured his reputa- 
 tion, before he proceeded to still higher 
 exhibitions of his extraordinary powers. 
 The remaining chapters of his biography 
 form a perfect record of the most import- 
 ant events In the history of the national 
 diplomacy down to the period of the 
 statesman's death. In the formation of 
 his cabinet, Gen. Harrison was prompted 
 not only by his personal predilections, 
 but by the obvious sense of a large sec- 
 tion of the Whig party, to make Mr. 
 Webster the nucleus. The Treasury de- 
 partmenl was accordingly tendered to 
 that gentleman, but he declined it, inti- 
 mating at the same time his readiness to 
 accept the Department of State. Not- 
 withstanding the enormous responsibility 
 devolving upon the former office, in con- 
 sequence of the universal expectation thai 
 relief for the monetary distresses of the 
 
 Country was U) emanate from that cjiiar- 
 
 ter, it was no consideration of indolence 
 
 ; Mr. Webster to prefer the 
 
 latter. Our foreign relations were as 
 
 >adl\ deranged as the finances. Mr. 
 Van Buren's administration, bo far from 
 contributing to their adjustment, had, bj 
 pursuing the dei ious and hyper-cautious 
 policy, which uniformh marked it. 
 wrapped them in almost hopeless confu- 
 
 sion. To a majority of the questioi 
 quiring immediate attention. < Meat Bri- 
 tain was a party. Some of these diffi- 
 culties were of a chronic nature; of 
 others the symptoms were acute. The 
 Northern Boundary had been the sub- 
 ject of controversy for nearlv half a cen- 
 tury. The treaty of 1783 had left it in- 
 volved in obscurity. A convention en- 
 tered into in 1793, had determined a 
 small portion of the line, viz. that 
 reaching from the Atlantic to the head 
 waters of the St. Croix, but the remain- 
 der was as unknown as the wilderness 
 through which it pass* d. Another Con- 
 vention, ten years later, prosecuted the 
 subject further, by endeavouring to rix the 
 whole boundary as far as the Rocky 
 Mountains; but the acquisition of Lou- 
 isiana gendering our government doubt- 
 ful about the extent of its rights at the 
 westward, the negotiation was broken 
 off, until some explorations might be 
 made. The matter stood thus until the 
 Treaty of Ghent, when it was agreed to 
 appoint a joint Commissioner to survey 
 the line, and in case of any disag 
 ment, to .-elect an arbitrator, wl 
 cision should be final. The Burvey v. as 
 made, and so was the Report There 
 was disagreement, and while Mr. Clay 
 was Secretary <^\ State, in 1^21. the 
 question was submitted to the arbitra- 
 ment of Hi- Majesty the King of the 
 Netherlands. That potentate reported 
 
 in 1831 : and his report was a- un-atis- 
 
 factoiy to the Cabinet of Washington as 
 to that of St. James. The parties 
 
 to disagree; and w<' need not be sur- 
 prised that, surrounded as it was with 
 financial embarrassments and internal 
 
 difficulties, which its own headlong po- 
 licy bad created, the Administration of 
 Gen. Jackson found no time to pro< 
 
 with the calendar ol'unfinished business, 
 
 A long and desultory correspondence 
 between Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State 
 under Mr. Nan I'.uren. and Mr. Fox, the 
 British Envoy, only augmented the 
 trouble. Lord Palmerston, then Foi 
 Secretary, was characteristically vexa 
 tious and difficult. Proposition aftei 
 proposition emanated alternately from 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 39 
 
 either government, always involving the 
 
 notion of tedious surveys, ;m<l no less 
 tedious arbitrations; but the plan of 
 neither suited the other, and they occu- 
 pied the relations of two divergent orbs, 
 to use Mr. Webster's own simile, which 
 had to travel the whole circle before they 
 could again meet. Such was the state 
 of the whole subject when it descended 
 to the administration of Gen. Harrison, 
 bitterly aggravated, however, by the im- 
 patience and jealousy which had sprung 
 up among the residents upon the de- 
 batable territory. Hostilities were daily 
 expeeted; and the Legislature of Maine 
 had even gone so far as to provide for 
 the arming and equipment of a large 
 military force, disguised by the name of 
 a " civil- posse," to defend the supposed 
 American frontier. No other than the 
 most energetic action on the part of the 
 Federal Government could prevent hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 The Oregon frontier was also the 
 subject of much anxiety, as the territory 
 was rapidly filling with settlers. Much 
 ill feeling prevailed at the frequent visits 
 to which American vessels, on the coast 
 of Africa, were subjected by British 
 cruisers, under pretence of ascertaining 
 their innocence of the Slave trade. The 
 case of Alexander McLeod, arising out 
 of the seizure of the Caroline, in 1837, 
 had, like everything else of real impor- 
 tance, remained unhandled by Mr. Van 
 Buren's Cabinet. In fact, a point in our 
 external relations had been reached, 
 when immediate negotiation was the 
 alternative of war. Our Minister to 
 London entertained so lively a sense of 
 the danger, as to notify the Commander 
 of our fleet, in the Mediterranean, of the 
 probable approach of hostilities. 
 
 Mr. Webster found himself face to 
 face with these preSMng question-, when 
 he entered upon his duties. He grap- 
 pled with them at once. The case of 
 Alexander McLeod was laid before him, 
 in an urgent letter from Mr. Fox, on the 
 
 12th of March, 1841. Mel 1 was 
 
 about to stand a trial for his life before 
 the State Courts of New York, upon a 
 cbarjre of murder. The British Govern- 
 
 ment avowed the seizure of the Caroline 
 as an official act, thereby relieving any 
 individual Berving under it-- flag on that 
 occasion of any criminal charge, and de- 
 manded the release of McLeod. Had 
 he been executed, there is no doubt that 
 war would have ensued. Mr. Webster, 
 acknowledging the justice of the demand, 
 but unable to interfere with the legal tri- 
 bunals of an individual State, notified 
 Mr. Fox of his desire to assist in the 
 liberation of the prisoner, and Mr. Crit- 
 tenden, then as now Attorney General, 
 was dispatched to New York to assist in 
 the defence. A verdict of acquittal solved 
 the whole difficulty. 
 
 Earlv in the summer of 1841, Mr. 
 Webster reopened the question of the 
 North-Eastern Boundary, by inviting 
 the British government to negotiate upon 
 the new basis of a conventional line. 
 The proposition was received at London 
 at the moment when the Melbourne Mi- 
 nistry was about to relinquish office ; and 
 it met with no response until the follow- 
 ing December, when Lord Aberdeen, 
 Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet of Sir 
 Robert Peel, acquainted Mr. Everett, our 
 minister at St. James, with the intention 
 of Her Majesty's Government to send a 
 special envoy to the United States, in 
 order to adjust all unsettled questions. 
 Lord Ashburton, the agent selected, was 
 recommended not only by his acquain- 
 tance with American character and 
 affairs, but by his personal friendship for. 
 Mr. Webster, formed during the visit of 
 the latter to England, in ^1839. Lord 
 Ashburton arrived in Washington in 
 April, 1842. Mr. Webster had already 
 applied to the governments of Maine 
 and Massachusetts to appoint roinmis- 
 sioners who should participate in and 
 sanction the negotiation ; and the ques- 
 tion, with all the collateral issues, was 
 at once entered upon. 
 
 The State papers which einan 
 from Mr. Webster in the course, of this 
 transaction, are among the most m 
 lv productions of American intellect 
 They embrace the whole rationale of 
 the subjects they successively treat. 
 stated in terms so lucid, and with judg- 
 
40 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 ment so correct, as to form a new era in 
 the history of International law. The 
 treaty, itself, undoubtedly accomplished 
 all that could he accomplished at the 
 time. Lord A-diburton was not prepared 
 to enter upon the subject of the Or< 
 boundary; and that was the only ques- 
 tion which the Convention left unsettled. 
 The boundary upon the North-east was 
 fixed on the basis pf a Conventional 
 lme, approved by the Commissioners of 
 Maine and Massachusetts, the parties 
 more immediately interested. The 
 Right of Search was disfranchised ; and 
 as a substitute, both nations engage. 1 to 
 sustain sufficient squadrons on the Afri- 
 can coast, to repress the slave-trade. An 
 agreement for the reciprocal surrender 
 of fugitives from justice was framed ; 
 and the minor questions, relating to the 
 capture of the Carolinr, and the ease of 
 the Creole, were the subject of highly 
 satisfactory correspondence, which has 
 effectually prevented, and will alwa- 
 was imagined, discourage a recurrence 
 of similar transactions. The labors of 
 the negotiators were terminated on the 
 nth of Aug.. L842, and two days after, 
 tin' treaty was laid before the Senate. 
 The Committee upon Foreign Relations, 
 of which Hon. William C. Rives was 
 Chairman, reported it on the 15th, 
 without amendment; and on the 20th, 
 th>' Senate assented to the treaty, una- 
 mended, by a vote of Yeas 39, Nays 9. 
 Among the affirmative votes, we find 
 the uames of Messrs. J. C. Calhoun, 
 Rufus < Ihoate, John M. ( Ilayton, John J. 
 Crittenden, George Evans, William R, 
 Kin . W. P. Mangum, William C. Pres- 
 ton, W. C. Rives, V P. Tallmadge, 
 Silas Wright, Levi Woodbury. In the 
 
 live, tl n'\ notable names were 
 
 those of Messrs. Benton and Buchanan. 
 The treaty of Washington, the ratifi- 
 cations of which were presently after- 
 wards exchanged In London, cli 
 with the most remarkable State papers 
 of the time. The quintuple treaty be- 
 tween the five great powers for the sup- 
 pression >■( the slave trade, which was 
 signed in I >■•■•.. 1841, fell to the ground, 
 "m t 1 : | *tions 
 
 tained in the American document. 
 clause relative to the surrender of 
 fugitives, has been reproduced in several 
 conventions framed for that specific pur* 
 pose, between the various states of 
 Europe. Disputes of tedious duration 
 were laid to rest by it ; others exeiti: 
 an extravagant popular feeling, M 
 promising to end in an ill-timed resort 
 to arms, were for ever quieted. It is to 
 be regretted that several points, which 
 Mr. Webster deemed satisfactorily ad- 
 justed by the correspondence between 
 himself and Lord Aehburton, had not 
 been more definitively secured by articles 
 in the treaty. The seizure of the Caro- 
 line, and the treatment of the crew of 
 the Creole, both involved questions of 
 international right, in which the honor 
 of our flag was deeply interested. 
 Lord Ashburton, it is true. ed the 
 
 irregularity of those acts ; and so long 
 as the correspondence is remembered, it 
 may prevent any repetition. But there 
 would have been a stronger assurance, if 
 the treaty itself had embodied the un- 
 derstanding. It was, of course, the 
 policy of Lord Palmerston and the Bi s 
 lish opposition, to denounce the treaty. 
 as sacrificing the interests of Great 
 Britain. The subject led to an animated 
 debate in the House of Commons, 
 and the Ministry sustained a - 
 
 shock in the encounter. Bnt the Whigs 
 failed to prevent its ratification. At 
 
 home and abroad, Mr. Webster was at 
 mice recognized as one of the foremi 
 diplomatists of the day. His reputation 
 became a European one; and it the ex- 
 pression of satisfaction- throughout this 
 country was |ess vivacious than might 
 have been anticipated, the fact most 
 
 anted for by the unpopularity of 
 the administration with which he was 
 connected; Gen. EWrrison having diedj 
 and been succeeded by John Tyler 
 
 within a month after his inauguration. 
 
 While th<" negotiations with Lord 
 
 Ashburton were pending, other external 
 
 questions divided the attention of the 
 
 tate. • ( ur relations with 
 
 Mexico were precarious. While on the 
 
 hand our government was pressing 
 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 41 
 
 tin- liberation of Bevera] Ajnerican citi- 
 zens, whomad attended the unfortunate 
 Texan expedition against Santa Fe, 
 the Government of Mexico appealed to 
 that of Washington to repress the 
 southern emigration to Texas, which 
 swelled the armies of the Republic to an 
 extent, which threatened not only to 
 make the conquest impossible for the 
 largest force Mexico could raise, but to 
 expose that confederation to invasion 
 and dissolution. The correspondence 
 of Mr. Webster with Gen. Waddy 
 Thompson, then Envoy at the City of 
 Mexico, and with Sig. de Bocanegra, 
 the Mexican Foreign Secretary, embraces 
 a clear and eloquent statement of the 
 rights and duties of the two nations 
 under such circumstances. The Mexican 
 Minister was less respectful in the tone 
 of his communications than was fitting 
 the dignity of our Government, and Mr. 
 Webster closed the correspondence with 
 a reiterated averment of our entire neu- 
 trality, and an expression of unwilling- 
 ness to have any further intercourse 
 upon the subject. At the same time, 
 the case of the Spanish brig Amistad 
 remained unsettled on the files of the 
 Department, where it had been left by 
 the previous administration. The vessel 
 had been found by one of our home 
 squadron, lying close to the American 
 coast, and in the possession of a band 
 of negroes, who had murdered the 
 officers, and were too unskilful to man- 
 age the ship. It was brought into port 
 and a claim for salvage stated against 
 it. While the matter was in this pos- 
 ture, the Chevalier d'Argaiz, the Span- 
 ish Minister, addressed the Secretary of 
 State, protesting against the reference 
 of the case to the Courts, when, as he 
 maintained, it should be treated by the 
 Executive, as relating directly to treaty 
 obligations. This letter led to prolong- 
 ed correspondence, in which Mr. Web- 
 ster defended the course pursued bv his 
 Government, so successfully as to silence, ' 
 If not satisfy, the Spanish Envoy. And 
 as a portion of the diplomatic history 
 of the period, we must not omit mention ' 
 of the admirable instructions add* 
 
 to Mr. Caleb Gushing, when that gentle- 
 
 man \va> about to embark on the deli- 
 eat.- mission of opening relations with 
 China; nor the correspondence with 
 the Portuguese Envoy, upon the subject 
 of duties upon foreign wines. In 
 both of these papers, relatively unim- 
 portant as they undoubtedly are, the 
 extensive information, and comprehen- 
 sive views of the statesman, were 
 brought into vivid relief. 
 
 As completing the history of this era 
 of American politics, we are obliged to 
 refer to two magnificent displays of his 
 rhetorical powers, which Mr. Webster, 
 the orator, felt called upon to make on 
 behalf of Mr. Webster, the statesman. 
 Returning, after the arduous duties of 
 the summer, to enjoy a few weeks of 
 relaxation at Marshfield, be was obliged 
 to listen to a pressing invitation from his 
 Boston admirers, that he should address 
 them publicly on the foreign and do- 
 mestic policy of the country. The dis- 
 course was delivered to a crowded 
 audience, in Faneuil Hall, on the 22d 
 of September, 1842. It is needless to 
 say, that it traversed the whole ground 
 with masterly skill, distinctness, and 
 compactness of expression, and that the 
 recent negotiations received that lumi- 
 nous exposition and earnest vindication, 
 which was less needed perhaps in Massa- 
 chusetts than elsewhere, where the sub- 
 ject was less familiarly understood. 
 Partisan bitterness, however, denied the 
 question any rest from controversy. It 
 was agitated among other electioneering 
 elements in the canvass of 1844. and in 
 184G, when in the Senate, Mr. Wei 
 found bis political opponents unsparing 
 of their objections against the Tr 
 In April, of that year, he took occasion 
 to address the Senate in justification of 
 that measure. Mr. Charles Jared In- 
 gersoll, a member of the House of 
 Representatives from Pennsylvania, hao 
 made the treaty, and the Americas 
 negotiator, the topic of virulent diatri 
 
 • that body, never allowing hi* 
 arguments to fall short where a ready 
 calumny was at hand to piece them out 
 Messrs. Dix and Dickinson, I - iton 
 
42 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 from New York, also attacked the I-.- 
 ■ tarv ; the hitter in an elaborate 
 speech, to which, when published, a re- 
 hash of Mr. [ngersoll's godless inventions 
 wan found to be appended. The reply 
 of Mr. Webster will always rank among 
 the most splendid and characteristic pro- 
 ductions of his miml. Reviewing the 
 history of the difficulties adjusted by the 
 treaty, he scored the Democratic party 
 thoroughly for the remissness which 
 bad left them for the administration of 
 Mr. Tyler to settle; and having amply 
 vindicated that settlement beyond the 
 possibility of further cavil, he turned 
 upon his assailants, and exhausted upon 
 them the stores of his indignant elocu- 
 tion. Mr. [ngersoll received the full 
 weight of the charge. Never was such 
 a scathing torrent of contempt, ridicule, 
 sarcasm, and vituperation, poured out 
 upon an individual head. Clearing 
 away with a rapid hand the sheltering 
 falsehoods beneath which the Pennsyl- 
 vanian had concealed himself, the orator 
 held him up naked to the world, and 
 tortured him with all the sharp weapons 
 which the armories of rhetoric -^ l • ] > [ • I \- to 
 a just indignation. Mr. Jnger.-oll, who 
 had been more or less in public lifi 
 the forty preceding years, disappeared 
 after this castigation. He "has since 
 confine. 1 himself to domestic ami pro- 
 fessiona] a — < nations. 
 
 But Mr. Webster's connection with 
 the cabinet of Mr. Tyler, was never re- 
 deemed from censure by the - 
 his negotiations. Mr. Tyler had been in 
 office hut a short t i 1 1 1 1 * when it began to 
 be apparent that his administration 
 would not 1m- conducted in a mam 
 command tin- undivided Bupport <■>( the 
 party which had raised him to power. 
 While in the Senate, timing the great 
 controversy bet* ite rights and the 
 
 federal government, be had « ispo used 
 the cause of Mr. Calhoun, and had . 
 in general harmony with his views. Hi- 
 course then had prevented his enjoying 
 the t'nil confidence of the Wh 
 later daj ; and bis accession to the 
 put his fidelity to the 
 Mr. < lay look an early oppor- 
 
 tunity to introduce a bill for the charter 
 of a national hank. A ver^ large por- 
 tion of the Whig party, during the can- 
 vass, had strenuously resisted the endea- 
 vor to present the bank as a measure to 
 which the party should be considered 
 pledged. The utter ruin which had 
 overtaken th>- old Bank of the United 
 States, and the conviction that during 
 the latter years of its existence, it bad, 
 by mismanagement and corrupt prac- 
 tices, richly deserved the universal odium 
 with which its memory was covered, had 
 led them to foresee the unpopularity 
 which any attempt to create a new one 
 would inevitably incur. But in spite of 
 this distrust, the overwhelming parlia- 
 mentary and party strength of Mr. Clay 
 enabled him to carry the bill trium- 
 phantly through Congress, and it was 
 presented to President Tyler for his 
 signature. This was withheld, and the 
 bill was . Mr. Clay at once de- 
 
 nounced th<- l'i. sident to the indignation 
 of his party, and a whirlwind of oblo- 
 quy and detestation was at once aroused, 
 before which a much stronger .-pint than 
 President Tyler's would ha\ forced 
 
 to bend. Mr. Webster, who was not free 
 from suspicion that persona] ambition on 
 the part of Mr. Clay had quite as much 
 to do with this crusadi ird for the 
 
 public good, with more courage than 
 succ.-.-- endeavored to breast the storm. 
 lb was earnesl and unremitting in his 
 efforts to bring the Whigs into a more 
 tolerant and compliant mood. At a 
 gathering of the leading Whigs of C. .n- 
 36, had at hi- own house, b< .ly 
 
 urged upon them the folly of throwii 
 
 away all the results of the great popul 
 victory they had gained because thi 
 ha.l been disappointed in a single in. :i- 
 
 -ure, and that, too. one of liable 
 
 necessity and expediency, lb- efforts 
 were unavailing. The thunder <•( Mr. 
 Clay's denunciations drowned hi- tones 
 of remonstrance — the whole Whig senti- 
 ment >>( the country Bwaj indent 
 to hi- tempestuous wrath. Mr. Web- 
 Mel'.- colleagues in the cabinet indignant- 
 ly tendered their resignations, hurl 
 the President, as they left, the moat ■ lis- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 43 
 
 honoring charges of party faithlessness 
 and personal falsehood. 
 
 Strong in tlif conviction of the recti- 
 tude of his own purposes, unwilling to 
 yield to what be deemed a transient 
 ebullition of popular feeling, and pro- 
 foundly penetrated by the importance of 
 pending negotiations with foreign pow- 
 ers, Mr. Webster determined, against the 
 most resolute entreaties of his political 
 friends, to retain his seat, and he did so 
 retain it for about two years. For this 
 he was severely censured by the great 
 body of the Whig party, and especially 
 by the adherents of Mr. Clay, who were 
 not over charitable in the construction 
 they put upon his motives, or in the epi- 
 thets they applied to his conduct. During 
 his continuance in office, a State Con- 
 vention of the Whigs of Massachusetts 
 assembled in Boston, to nominate candi- 
 dates for Governor and Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor, at the State election. Hon. Ab- 
 bott Lawrence presided over its delibe- 
 rations, and a series of resolutions were 
 adopted, expressing in strong terms dis- 
 approbation of the course of Mr. Tyler, 
 and declaring, on behalf of the Whigs 
 of Massachusetts, a " full and final sepa- 
 ration from the President of the United 
 States." Not long afterwards, Mr. Web- 
 ster, being on a visit to Boston, was ten- 
 dered by the Whigs, many of whom had 
 been prominent in the convention, the 
 compliment of a public dinner. He de- 
 clined the dinner, but expressed a wil- 
 lingness to meet his fellow citizens at 
 Faneuil Hall. The meeting was ap- 
 pointed for September 30, and was at- 
 tended by an immense concourse of Un- 
 people of Boston. Hon. Jonathan Chap- 
 man, Mayor of the city, presided ; and' 
 upon presenting Mr. Webster to the 
 assembly, addressed him with eloquent 
 compliments for his public services, but 
 with special allusion to what he styled 
 the "pointed meaning of the occasion." 
 He thanked him for the honorable atti- 
 tude in which, ''so far as his department 
 was concerned, he had placed his coun- 
 try before the world. We are sure," 
 said he, " whatever may befall the coun- 
 try, that you will be ready to sacrifice 
 
 everything for her good, save &onor, and 
 
 on that point, amidst the perplexities of 
 these perplexing times, we shall be at 
 ease ; for we know that he who has so 
 nobly maintained his country's honor 
 may safely be entrusted with his own." 
 Mr. Webster opened his reply with one 
 of those exquisitely beautiful sentences 
 which are scattered so profusely through- 
 out his speeches. " I know not how it 
 is, Mr. Mayor," said he, " but there is 
 something in the echoes of these walls, 
 or in this sea of upturned faces which I 
 behold before me, or in the genius that 
 always hovers over this, place, fanning 
 ardent and patriotic feeling by every 
 motion of its wings — I know not how it 
 is, but there is something that excites 
 me strangely, deeply, before I even begin 
 to speak." Recurring then to the his- 
 tory of his life, to his labors in their 
 midst, and to his public services in the 
 various positions he had been called to 
 fill ; after a clear, condensed statement 
 of the diplomatic labors in which he had 
 been engaged, he referred directly to the 
 remark of the Mayor, that he might be 
 safely entrusted to take care of his own 
 honor and reputation. " I am," said he, 
 " exactly of his opinion. I am quite of 
 opinion that, on a question touching my 
 own honor and character, as I am to 
 bear the consequences of the decision, I 
 had a great deal better be trusted to 
 make it. No man feels more highly the 
 advantage of the advice of friends than 
 1 do ; but on-a question so delicate and 
 important as that, I like to choose my- 
 Belf the friends who are to give me ad- 
 vice ; and upon this subject, gentlemen, 
 I shall leave you as enlightened 
 found you." With this rather unpro- 
 mising preface, he proceeded to remark 
 upon the "outpouring of wrath" to 
 which he had been subjected for remain- 
 ing in the President's ( labinet He was 
 "a little hard to coax, but as I 
 driven, that was out of the question.* 
 He had chosen to trust to his own j 
 inent. and thinking he wa- pOflft 
 
 where hewas in the service of the coun- 
 try and could do it good, he had stayed 
 there. 
 
44 
 
 Life of Daniel Wtbster. 
 
 Again apologizing for entering upon 
 topics "ii which his opinions might be 
 different from those of his audience, he 
 cited the resolutions passed " by the most 
 respectable Convention of Whig dele- 
 gates," which had met in Boston a few 
 - hefore. He noticed among them a 
 declaration, made OQ behalf of the Whigs 
 of the State, a "full and final separation 
 fit< 'in the President." Whigs had a right 
 to speak their individual sentiments 
 everywhere; but whether they might 
 assume to -peak for others on a point on 
 which those others had given them no 
 authority, is another question. "I am 
 a Whig," said he; "I have always been 
 a Whig, and I always will be one; and 
 if there are any who would turn me out 
 of the pale of that communion, let them 
 see "who will get out first. I am ready 
 to submit to all decisions of Whig con- 
 ventions on subjects on which they are 
 authorized to make decisions. But it is 
 quite another question, whether a set of 
 gentlemen, however respectable they 
 may be as individuals, shall have the 
 Dower to bind me on matters which I 
 have not agreed to submit to their deci- 
 sion." He went on to say that three 
 years of the President's term of office 
 still remained ; that great public inter- 
 ests required his attention; and asked 
 whether all his measures upon these sub- 
 , however useful they might be, were 
 t" be opposed by the Whig party of 
 Massachusetts, right or wrong. There 
 were a great many Massachusetts Whigs 
 also in office— Collectors, District Attor- 
 neys, Postmasters, Marshals. Whal was 
 come of them in this separation '. 
 Mr. Everett, our Minister in England, 
 was In expei ted to come home on this 
 
 separation, and yield his place to some- 
 body else! "And in regard to the in- 
 dividual who addi u — w hat do 
 
 his brother Whigs mean to do w ith him I 
 Where do they mean to place me I 
 Generally, when a divorce takes place, 
 
 the parties divide their children. I am 
 
 anxionsto know where, in the case of this 
 
 divorce, / shall fall." Mr. W< : 
 
 he had alluded to this matter because he 
 could nol fail to see that the resolution 
 
 had an intentional or an unintentional 
 ( bearing on his position. It meant that 
 if he should choose to remain in the 
 I President's councils, lie must cease k> be 
 a Massachusetts Whig. " And I am 
 ' quite ready," said he, " to put that ques- 
 tion to the people of Massachusetts." 
 He proceeded to say that there was too 
 general a disposition to postpone all at- 
 tempts to do good to the country to 
 ( some future day. Many Whigs thought 
 they saw a prospect of having more 
 power than they then had. But* there 
 was a Whig majority in Congress, and 
 the substantial fruits of the great victory 
 of 1840 could, with moderate and pru- 
 dent councils, still be secured. But 
 nothing but cordial and fraternal union 
 ci mid save the party from renewed pros- 
 tration. 
 
 Mr. Webster's speech on this occasion 
 was one of great power, and it produced 
 an effect upon the sentiment of the coun- 
 try. But it could not turn back the tide 
 Of indignant public feeling which had 
 been turned at the outset, by the bold 
 impetuosity of Mr. ''lay and the second- 
 ing efforts of the retiring secretaries, 
 against the President, Be gradually 
 took ground against the party which had 
 driven him out, and after an imbecile 
 endeavor to purchase a renomination 
 from the party to which he had deserted, 
 became its open ally and subservient tool. 
 
 Mr. Webster resigned office in 1842, and 
 remained in private life during the re- 
 mainder of the administration. He was 
 succeeded by Mr. Calhoun, who «> 
 lected by the President for the special 
 purpose of carrying forward the am 
 ation.of Texas, a measure which lie had 
 been led to espouse with great ear' 
 aess, though the Bteps towards its ao- 
 complishmenl were as yet concealed from 
 the knowledge of the country. Mr. 
 Webster, on leaving office, end. ai 
 
 to arouse public attention to the dai 
 that were impending from this quarter; 
 but his efforts were not attended with 
 marked success. It was only upon the 
 f another Presidential contest that 
 the question assumed its just proportions 
 in the public eye. 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 45 
 
 During his retirement from oflice 
 much of Mr. Webster's attention was 
 engaged in professional pursuits, and the 
 year 1844 was marked by several bril- 
 liant exhibitions of his popular and 
 forensic oratory. Two arguments, the 
 one before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, and the other before that 
 of Massachusetts, are in his very hap- 
 piest vein. The first was delivered in 
 February, in the case of F. F. Vidal and 
 others vs. the Executors of the will of 
 Stephen Girard, — a case in which pro- 
 perty to the value of millions was in- 
 volved. The main ground taken by 
 Mr. Webster, on behalf of the heirs, 
 against the validity of the will, was that 
 the College at Philadelphia, endowed 
 by the will, was not* a charity, because 
 established on atheistical principles, and 
 therefore not entitled to the protection 
 of the laws. This proposition was sup- 
 ported with all the aids of learning and 
 ingenuity ; and on American soil no 
 more eloquent vindication of religion 
 and its ministers has ever been uttered. 
 The speech, in a pamphlet form, was 
 circulated extensively among the reli- 
 gious world. It remains among the 
 host of evidences he has left us, of the 
 wide scope and infinite diversity of his 
 talents, and the respect he always enter- 
 tained for the institutions of religion. 
 The argument at Boston, in the case of 
 the Providence Railroad Company 
 against the City of Boston, is from its 
 nature, a strictly legal effort, and there- 
 fore requires no especial notice here. In 
 June, of 1844, the anniversary of the 
 battle of Bunker Hill and the comple- 
 tion of the monument were celebrated 
 with much 6clat at Boston. The speech 
 of Mr. Webster, who had baptized the 
 first stone of the column with a stream 
 of eloquence that shall remain classic 
 while the monument and the language 
 endure, was exceedingly appropriate, 
 and though lacking the fire and imagi- 
 native splendor of his earlier efforts, 
 abounds with passages of remarkable 
 vigor and beauty. 
 
 The Presidential canvass of 1844 
 opened by the nomination of Mr. Clay, 
 
 by acclamation, in the Whig Conven- 
 tion at Baltimore. Mr. Webster 1 , being 
 in that city at the time, nitade a speech 
 indicating his earnest desire for the 
 triumph of the Whig party and its 
 principles. Mr. Van Buren, in a long 
 letter written just upon the eve of the 
 Democratic Convention, had taken 
 ground decidedly against the annexation 
 of Texas. For this offence, among 
 others, he had been set aside as a candi- 
 date, and Mr. Polk was nominated for 
 the Presidency. Mr. Clay had also 
 taken ground against annexation ; and 
 the canvass was conducted, to a very 
 great extent, in all sections of the coun- 
 try, upon' this issue. Mr. Webster made 
 several .public addresses upon the sub- 
 ject. At Albany, Philadelphia, and 
 elsewhere, he spoke to large assemblies 
 of people, though in all cases he gave 
 attention mainly to questions relating to 
 the commercial, financial, and industrial 
 interests of the country. There is 
 abundant reason to believe that if Mr. 
 Clay had been content with his first 
 declaration of opinion upon the subject. 
 of annexation, he would have been 
 elected. Subsequent explanations, made 
 to remove anticipated objections to his 
 position in Alabama, and other Southern 
 States, deprived him, to a great extent, 
 of the benefit which that position gave 
 him at the North.' 
 
 At the opening of the Congress of 
 1845, Mr. Webster resumed his seat in 
 the Senate, having been chosen to suc- 
 ceed Mr. Choate. He found under dis- 
 cussion some of the gravest questions 
 that have ever agitated the country. The 
 Oregon Boundary, and the result of 
 Texan Annexation, were urgent; and 
 popular feeling had been worked up to 
 an extraordinary pitch of excitement 
 about both. The Democratic Platform 
 had declared in favor of ultra measures. 
 It only remained for the Whigs, in 
 Senate and House, to play the moderate 
 role of a minority, and as tar as possible 
 restrain the violence that threatened to 
 bring on our heads two war-, for either 
 of which we were totally unprepared, at 
 the same hapless moment. The Tariff Bill 
 
46 
 
 Life or' Da nil Wei 
 
 of 1842 was likewise in imminent dan- 
 ger; and in every point of view, the 
 
 are of the party in relation t<> the 
 conduct of both the external and inter- 
 nal policy of the Government, was dis- 
 tressing and difficult. Mr. Webster was 
 of course found in the van of the mi- 
 nority. Upon the Oregon question, he 
 maintained the line of adjustment to 
 which the Administration and its sup- 
 porters were finally obliged to descend. 
 Having opposed the Annexation resolu- 
 tions, he was of course opposed to the 
 precipitate measures by which we were 
 plunged into the war with Mexico. And 
 on the Tariff bill, he occupied the position 
 he had always occupied, by defending 
 the Whig policy to the very last. Of 
 the eminently judicious policy of the 
 Whigs with regard to the prosecution 
 of tlie war. Mr. Webster deserves the 
 credit. While protesting against the 
 measure in its origin and progress, they 
 patriotically sustained the Administ ra- 
 tion with the most liberal supplies, and 
 facilitated every approach to the only 
 term then attainable, an honorable and 
 remunerative pe 
 
 The settlement of the Oregon Boun- 
 dary dispute, winch bad existed for 
 many years, was effected during the first 
 year of Mr. Polk's administration, by an 
 amicable division of the territory to 
 which both England and the United 
 
 ea laid claim. A bill was promptly 
 
 introduced and passed the Bouse of Re- 
 presentatives to organize a government 
 
 for the territory thus acquired. When 
 it reached the Senate, it was amended, 
 by making the Missouri Compromise a 
 part of it — excluding Slavery above, and 
 admitting it below, the parallel of 36° 
 30' north latitude. This amendment 
 was disagreed to in the Souse; and 
 when the bill came back, a long discus- 
 sion was had upon a motion thai the 
 
 Senate should recede. < Ml the L2th of 
 
 August, 1848, Mr. Webster spoke in 
 favor of the motion, insisting upon the 
 right of Congress to exclude Slavery 
 from this territory, upon the expe- 
 diency of exercising that right, upon the 
 ground of the complaint on the 
 
 part of the South that their p r op e rty 
 was excluded, and against any further 
 extension of slave territory. Upon the 
 question of extending Southern property, 
 he said the whole complaint was simplv 
 this: "The Southern States have pecu- 
 liar laws, and by those laws there is pro- 
 perty in slaves. This is purely local. 
 The real meaning, then, of Southern 
 evntlemen, in making this complaint, is 4 
 that they cannot go into the territories 
 of the United States carrying with them 
 their own peculiar local law — a law 
 which creates property in persons. This 
 demand I, for one, shall resb- ." He 
 closed his remarks by laying down three 
 propositions : 
 
 "First. That when this Constitution 
 was adopted, nobody looked for any 
 new acquisition of territory to be formed 
 into slaveholdinir - 
 
 "Second. That the principles of the 
 Constitution prohibited, and were in- 
 tended to prohibit, and should be con- 
 strued to prohibit, all interference of the 
 general Government with Slavery, 
 existed, and as it still exists, in the 
 States. And, 
 
 "Third. Looking to the operation of 
 these new acquisitions, which have in 
 this great degree had the effect of 
 strengthening that interest in the South 
 by the addition tffiw States. T feel that 
 there is nothing unjust, nothing of 
 which any honest man can complain, if 
 he is intelligent ; I feel that there is 
 nothing with which the civilixed world, 
 if they tak>- notice of so humble a per- 
 son as myself, will reproach me when 1 
 Bay, a^ 1 said the other day, that 1 have 
 made up my mind for one, that under 
 no circumstances will 1 consent to the 
 further extension of the area of slavery 
 in the United States, or to the further 
 increase of slave representation in the 
 1 1 Mise of Etepresentatu 
 
 The Senate linally receded from its 
 amendment, and the bill passed with a 
 clause for ever excluding slavery from 
 the territory — in which form it received 
 the signature of the President 
 
 In the Spring of lsiT. Mr. We 1 
 visited the Southern States, pa- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 47 
 
 rapidly tli rough Virginia and North 
 Carolina to South Carolina. At 
 Charleston, he was honored by a com- 
 plimentary dinner from the New-Eng- 
 land Society of that city, and similar 
 hospitalities were paid him at Columbia, 
 Augusta, and Savannah. He designed 
 "•"in"- to New Orleans, but ill-health 
 compelled him to return. 
 
 The Mexican war meantime had been 
 prosecuted, by the skill and valor of the 
 American arms, to a triumphant close. 
 The capital and all the principal posts 
 of the country were in our possession, 
 and a treaty had been concluded by 
 which Mexico ceded to us immense por- 
 tions of her territory, comprising all of 
 New Mexico and a large part of Califor- 
 nia. Mr. Webster, on the 22d of March, 
 1848, opposed the treaty, on the ground 
 that it brought with it large accessions 
 of territory which we did not need, 
 which would only add new "Slave States 
 to the Union, which would bring in 
 new States of comparatively small popu- 
 lation, and thus vastly augment the 
 power of the Senate over that of the 
 House of Representatives, and thus 
 destroy the just relation between the 
 two, and prove in every way injurious 
 to the country. " I think," said he, " 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 government, 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 danger 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 !" The treaty was ratified. 
 New Mexico and California became 
 parts of the United States; and the 
 great question thence arising, to be sub- 
 mitted to the issues of a Presidential 
 canvass, related to the nature of the 
 territorial government under which they 
 should be organized. The House in- 
 sisted on the exclusion of slavery. The 
 Senate resisted it; and between the two 
 
 
 the whole question was left unsettled, 
 
 and military power alone kept the terri- 
 tories from a state of anarchy. 
 
 The Democratic National Convention 
 nominated General Cass for the Presi- 
 dency, greatly to the disgust of the 
 friends of Mr. Van Buren. The Whig 
 Convention met at Philadelphia and 
 nominated General Taylor. Mr. Web- 
 ster declined to be a candidate for the 
 Vice Presidency, declaring himself a 
 candidate for the first office, and his 
 purpose to remain so until the represen- 
 tatives of the Whig party should decide 
 otherwise. He was dissatisfied with the 
 nomination of Gen. Taylor, partly be- 
 cause he was opposed to making Presi- 
 dents of military men, and partly be- 
 cause he believed that the condition 
 of the country required the selection of 
 a Northern man, known to be true in 
 resisting the steady aggressions of 
 slavery. The result led him to despair 
 of ever seeing the North united; and 
 when the professedly exclusive friends 
 of freedom in the territories selected Mr. 
 Van Buren as their candidate and repre- 
 sentative, he was inclined to abandon 
 all further hope of making any success- 
 ful stand against the domination of the 
 slave-holding States. Falling back, 
 therefore, upon the other issues which 
 had divided the two political parties, he 
 gave his support to the Whig candi- 
 date ; taking care to say that it was not 
 because he believed him to be the most 
 fit and proper person for that position, 
 but because he believed his election 
 would be far better for the country than 
 that of Gen. Cass. Gen. Taylor was 
 elected. 
 
 Meantime, the people of California, 
 getting no government from Congress, 
 made one for themselves. They met in 
 State Convention, and formed a consti- 
 tution, in which slavery was prohibited. 
 This constitution \ epted by the 
 
 people at an election held for the pur- 
 pose. President Taylor came into 
 -ffice on the 4th of March, 1840. Ow- 
 ing to a misunderstanding between 
 them, growing out of i tal circum 
 
 stances, which involved blame upon 
 
48 
 
 Life of Daniel Wtbster. 
 
 neither side, there were no confidential 
 tionfl between die President and Mr. 
 Webster. In the House of Representa- 
 tives, the Ami proviso was in- 
 sisted on as an essential feature of any 
 government for the territories that might 
 be passed. This position was sustained 
 by resolutions in all the non-slsveholding 
 states, by large public meetings, and by 
 Northern sentiment generally. The 
 South felt highly indignant at these 
 attempts to exclude slavery from the 
 new territories, A meeting of a ma- 
 jority of the members of Congress from 
 slaveholding States was held at the 
 Capital, at which Mr. Calhoun was 
 appointed to draw np an address of the 
 South. tii delegates to their constituents. 
 The address thus prepared was after- 
 wards adopted, and received the signa- 
 ture- of forty-eight members of Congress 
 from South. tii States. These move- 
 ments led to a veTy considerable excite- 
 ment throughout the country, though 
 neither the Btate of public feeling, nor 
 the movements of any portion of the 
 
 j pie, were as hostile or menacing to 
 
 the peace of the country as had been 
 witnessed on previous occasions of our 
 history. Mr. Clay had presented a 
 Beries of propositions, five in number, 
 which were designed to Be embodied in 
 a ringie act, and to constitute one mea- 
 sure for compromising and adjusting the 
 difficulty. President Taylor was under- 
 stood to be in favor of a. -ting upon .-acli 
 separately, and on its merits, doing 
 whatever justice should dictate, and 
 trusting to the attachment of the peo- 
 ple, and the rigor of the power- with 
 which the Constitution clothes the Go- 
 vernment, to pjev.-nt any serious results, 
 lie wtm in favor of admitting California 
 with the Constitution which the people 
 
 had tiaiii.d. and <>f leasing the territo- 
 
 to settle the question of admitting 
 or excluding Blavery for themselves. 
 Deputations of Southern members 
 Congress waited upon him, with earnest 
 remonstrances and equally earnesl me- 
 naces; but neither shook his convic- 
 tions nor disturbed bis purposes. The 
 compromise measure of Mr, Clav fail- 
 
 ed to command the assent of < 
 gress, 
 
 On the 7th of March, Mr. Webster 
 made an extended and impressive v\ 
 
 upon the whole subject, intended to pre- 
 sent a bask upon which all sections 
 could consent to stand, and by which all 
 future collision- might be avoided, lie 
 proposed, as practical measure-, nearly 
 the plan of the President* namely the 
 admission of California, and the organi- 
 zation of Territorial Governments for 
 Xeu -Mexico and Utah, without any ex- 
 cluding clause — urging that -u 
 clause would, in this e super- 
 
 fluous. But he indicated a willini 
 to purchase the claim of Texas to a por- 
 tion of New-Mexico, which the Presi- 
 dent proposed to submit to the adjudi- 
 cation of the Supreme Court, and made 
 sundry declarations of his own : 
 sentiments, indicating a strong dispo- 
 sition to make all pot 
 Southern demands, for the sake of pre* 
 serving the peace and stability of the 
 I uion. Hi- -pcech on this occasion 
 was exceedingly able, and awakened a 
 degree of public interest fully equal to 
 that of any of his previous efl 
 Connected, to some extent, with these 
 measures, was a bill amending the law 
 of 1793 for the recovery of fugitive 
 slaves, so as to make it mo tuaL 
 
 It was originally introduced by Mr. 
 
 Mason, of Virginia, and received Mr. 
 
 Webster's support, although he had pre- 
 pared and designed to offer an amend- 
 ment, securing to persons claimed as 
 fugitives the benefit of a trial by jury, 
 to test the question whether the_\ owed 
 
 -er\ i.e to th.ir claimants. 
 
 We have good reason for belie-. 
 
 that Mr. \\ . biter at this time had ; 
 
 disabused of erroneous impri that 
 
 had led. as previously stated, to a partial 
 estrangement between himself and the 
 President] and that he had cine to re- 
 gard Gen. Tayloi a- the man best fitted 
 by position, and by his views, to carry 
 ountry safely through the crisis. 
 This, however, belongs to the secret his- 
 tory of those important events, and the 
 time for writing that, — even if we w . p 
 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 49 
 
 competent and possessed of the requisite 
 material,— has not yet come. It is suf- 
 ficient to say that if Gen. Taylor had 
 lived, Mr. Webster would have been the 
 acknowledged leader of the Administra- 
 tion in the 8enate, and that affairs would 
 undoubtedly have taken a different 
 course. At this juncture, however, Gen. 
 Taylor died, and Mr. Fillmore, then Vice- 
 President, succeeded to the office. Mr. 
 Webster was at once called by him, and 
 by the voice of the country, to the post 
 which he occupied at the time of his 
 decease. The office was no longer op- 
 pressed with those burdens of unfinished 
 business, which had encumbered it at 
 the end of Mr. Van Buren's term. But 
 it had nevertheless its share of peculiar 
 responsibilities. The administration of 
 Mr. Fillmore was required to Enforce 
 with the whole weight of its exalted 
 influence the conditions of the Compro- 
 mise, which were speedily enacted into 
 laws. Some of those conditions offended 
 the moral feelings and prejudices 01 one 
 section of the Union : and the other 
 pressed all the more eagerly for their 
 Telentless fulfilment. To no portions of 
 the country were the Compromise mea- 
 sures more distasteful than to New- 
 England, and to Mr. Webster's own 
 State. The Secretary nevertheless did 
 not hesitate to lend the whole strength 
 of his popularity and of his intellectual 
 resources to reconcile the reluctant 
 North. His zeal, perhaps, transcended 
 the suggestions of personal and political 
 expediency. Some of it was possibly 
 due to the malignant violence and keen- 
 ness with which his course had been 
 hailed by Abolitionists and ultra Free- 
 Soilers ; but those who knew Mr. Web- 
 ster most intimately, bear witness that 
 the principal motive of his course from 
 first to last was an unwavering convic- 
 tion that the duration of the Union and 
 the sanctity of the Constitution de- 
 pended upon entire acquiescence in 
 those pacificatory conventions. The ef- 
 fect upon the state of feeling at the 
 North was perhaps fortunate for the 
 country; but it cannot be doubted that 
 a large number of personal friends and 
 
 veteran supporters of the statesman were 
 thenceforward obliged to temper their 
 
 admiration with some portion of regret, 
 ft was only a few weeks after Mr. 
 Webster's accession to the Secretaryship 
 of State, that the letter of Cheval'ei 
 Hulsemann, in relation to an alleged in- 
 terference of the American Government 
 in the internal affairs of Austria, was 
 addressed to the Department. This 
 document, famous only for the response 
 it provoked, contained a recital of com- 
 plaints preferred by the Imperial Court, 
 in consequence of Mr. Dudley Mann's 
 mission of observation to Austria and 
 Hungary, and the reports made by that 
 agent, in which language disrespectful , 
 to the Governments of Russia and Aus- 
 tria was alleged to have been used ; 
 and the Austrian Charge felt impelled 
 to enter a protest against what his prin- 
 cipals chose to regard as an act of im- 
 pertinent intervention. The reply of 
 Mr. Webster, which was withheld for 
 some time, as if to aggravate the con- 
 temptuous rejoinder by a preface of con- 
 temptuous silence, is fresh in every 
 recollection. Its lofty and dignified 
 tone, a tone indeed of haughty conde- 
 scension ; the faithful and unanswerable 
 refutation it offered to some of Mr. 
 Hulsemann's allegations, and the air 
 with which controversy about others 
 was declined ; the rebuke administered 
 to the Austrian Government for its des- 
 potic barbarity ; the bold and unmis- 
 takable statement of the American 
 policy toward a people ridding itself of 
 such a yoke as that imposed upon the 
 Hungarians; these traits, and the ani- 
 mated eloquence with which they were 
 framed, constitute the note to the Aus- 
 trian Charge one of the finest papers in 
 the archives of diplomacy. It will 
 remain as a model for diplomatic contro- 
 versy hereafter, where republican prae 
 tice'is called in question, and republican 
 frankness is demanded to justify it. It 
 will be regarded as the authority upon 
 all matters of external policy. And 
 Boholars and general readers will recur 
 to it as a pattern of literary elegance 
 and intellectual brilliancy. 
 
50 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 In May, 1851, Mr. Webster, accom- 
 panying the President and his colleagues 
 in tii«- cabinet, visited tic- Btate of New 
 York, on the occasion of celebrating the 
 completion of the New York and Erie 
 Railroad. <~>n reaching Dunkirk, he 
 was detained there by the illness of his 
 son, and compelled to separate from the 
 party. At Buffalo lie was compli- 
 mented by a public dinner, at which he 
 made an extended and admirable sp 
 mainly upon the rapid growth of that 
 section of the State, with allusions to 
 some of the hading topics that had re- 
 cent 1 ged public attention. The 
 next day, on the 22d, he addressed the 
 people of Buffalo more directly upon 
 the subjects which were then prominenl 
 in the public mind, vindicating the 
 policy of the Administration upon all 
 points, and defending his own cours. i. 
 
 relation to Central American at: 
 Tehuantepec treaty ; the qu< - 
 of the right of fishery; and that of the 
 ownership of the Lobos Islands. As 
 are contemporary matters, and 
 opinions about them still variable, be- 
 not founded upon the most ample 
 supplies of information, and as their 
 immation will now pass into ofh.-r 
 hands, we do not think proper to admit 
 them into our estimate of tli 
 We know nothing of tl. 
 
 man. 
 
 that might have been given to an] 
 them had the illustrious diplomatist 
 survived. It is not worth while, with 
 the lights before us, say anyl 
 more than that the action of Mr. V 
 ster was undoubtedly the result of en- 
 tire devotion to what he believed to be 
 the truest interests of the country. 
 that whatever room there may be to 
 He was greeted also by large public I question the sound: his conclu- 
 
 gatherings of people at Rochester, Al- sions, there is no reason to impeach his 
 banv, and other points along the route, sincerity and integrity. 
 at all of which lie made addresses more 
 or less extended. 
 
 Y, rv soon after his return to Washing 
 
 In tracing this outline of the biogra- 
 phy of a man who fills in American his- 
 tory a place equal in honor and dignity, 
 ton, Mr. Webster's attention was called though differing in kind, with t 
 to our relations with Spain, in conse- occupied by Pitt, Fox, and Burke, in 
 quence of the expedition against Cuba, the history of England, we hai 
 to which Gen. Lopez and a large number obliged i many of thos 
 
 of American citizens fell victims. lib sions when be came into more imme* 
 offices, less promptly rendered than an diate contact with the people. In 
 impatient public sentiment demanded, the published collection of his w 
 procured the release of a large number there are various orations, addri 
 of prisoners who had been carried to and letters, which excited the highest 
 Spain, and subsequently obtained the applause at the time <«f their publica- 
 discharge of Mr. John B. Thrasher, tion, and remain as witnesses of the 
 
 whose dubious citizenship evoked from 
 the Secretary an able discussion of 
 
 diversified qualities and resources of his 
 
 mind. We might mention among 
 
 the law of domicil. The rough treat- 1 these lib eulogistic tributes to Gen 
 meiit of the Spanish consul at New Or- Jackson and Mr. Calhoun; his various 
 
 Kan- by the populace, inflamed by the 
 cruelties practised upon the soldiers of 
 ih. expedition by the Spanish authori- 
 
 of i luba, was likewise the Bubji 
 correspondence and reparation. The 
 last year of Mr. Webster's life was occu- 
 pied with several diplomatic questions 
 of the highesl importance, bnl which he 
 
 was prevented from completing by the 
 hand of .Lath. The-.' were the revival 
 
 addresses to his friend-- in Boston and 
 ibors at Marshfield ; hi- oration at 
 Ne* 1 lamp-hire festival : his 
 tal paper read last winter before the N 
 York Historical Society, and published 
 in the papers of the day ; his letters 
 to Hon. Isaac Hill, an I to our mil 
 at Constantinople, in relation to the 
 release of the Hungarian rel N • 
 
 one of these but illustral 
 
 of the Clayton and Bulwer treaty in masculine, but exquisitely sculptured 
 
%ife of Daniel Webster. 
 
 1 
 
 feature of his Titanic intellect ; and 
 forms one of the many links by which 
 he attracted to himself, not only the 
 popular admiration, but the admira'.ion, 
 the esteem, the enthusiastic devotion of 
 all educated men. 
 
 It would however be unjust to his 
 memory to pass unnoticed his opinions 
 
 tli-' river, to the warm, upper air?" At 
 the invitation of Congress, Kossuth 
 visited Washington, and on the 7th of 
 January, partook of a public banquet 
 tendered to him by a large number of 
 the members of both Houses. Mr. 
 Webster was present on this occasion, 
 and made a speech, in which, although 
 
 and action in regard to the great event i restrained by the proprieties of his posi- 
 by which in future time the current year | tion from making any allusion to the 
 will be distinguished, — the visit of the ] sentiments or intended action of the 
 Hungarian Kossuth to the United States. Government, he did not hesitate to de- 
 Mr. Webster had early evinced the warm ' clare his entire sympathy with the at- 
 interest which he felt in the welfare of j tempt of Hungary to achieve her inde- 
 that noble martyr to the cause of Con-^pendence, and in his opinion that she 
 stitutional liberty in Hungary, by^bis was entitled, by her population, by her 
 letter of instructions to the Hon. George institutions, and by the valor of her peo- 
 P. Marsh, our Minister at Constantinople, i pie, to an independent national existence, 
 directing him to use all the influence of He also referred to the speech which he 
 his official position to prevent his sur- made in the Senate of the United 
 render to the Austrian Government, ' States, in 1824, upon the principles in- 
 and to permit his retirement to the i volved in the Greek revolution ; and 
 United States. Governor Kossuth reach- 1 declared that he adhered to them in 
 ed New York on the 6th of December, ' every respect, and was quite ready to 
 1851, and at once entered upon that apply them to whatever case might be 
 great pilgrimage of romance, and of love presented. The citations we have made, 
 to the crushed hopes and liberties of his in a previous portion of this biography, 
 native land, which stands without from that speech, supersede the necessity 
 parallel in the history of the world, of dwelling further upon the specific 
 " For the first time," said the most elo- purport of this declaration. In letters 
 quent American living, in speaking of written in reply to various invitations to 
 his appeals to the pity of the people of ; attend public meetings upon the subject, 
 this Republic, — " for the first time since he expressed similar views with equal 
 the transcendent genius of Demosthenes ' emphasis, 
 strove with the downward age of Greece ; 
 — or since the Prophets of Israel an- 
 
 nounced, — each tone of the hymn 
 grander, sadder than before, — the suc- 
 cessive footfalls of the approaching 
 
 Mr. Webster achieved high distinc- 
 tion in three apparently incompatible 
 walks of life — walks that are incompa- 
 
 Assyrian, beneath whose spear the Law | tible to all but men of superior genius. 
 
 should cease and the vision be seen no 
 more ; our ears, our hearts, have drunk 
 the sweetest, most mournful, most awful 
 of the tones which man may ever utter, 
 or may ever hear, — the eloquence of an 
 Expiring Nation. — When shall we be 
 quite certain again, that the lyre of 
 Orpheus did not kindle savage natures 
 to a transient discourse of reason ; <lid 
 not suspend the labors and charm the 
 pains «'t' the damned; did not lay the 
 guardian of the grave asleep, and bring 
 back Eurydice from the *">gion beyond 
 
 As a lawyer, he for very many 
 years held the foremost rank. Sur- 
 passed by many in legal learning, by 
 some in logical power, and by s few in 
 the eloquence of his appeals to the jury, 
 in the combination of all these great 
 faculties he stands unrivalled. As a 
 Statesman, in the mosl comprehensive 
 meaning of that Large word, no Ameri- 
 can, except Alexander Hamilton, can 
 maintain a comparison with him. Mr. 
 Calhoun had a more acute and meta- 
 physical mind ; Mr. Clay, with a more 
 
52 
 
 Life of Daniel Webei* 
 
 electric nature, had far greater 
 in reading public sentiment and in gain- 
 ing command of the springs of popular 
 attachment ; and each of those great 
 men held in more complete control the 
 opinions and conduct of large masses of 
 their countrymen. But in that targe, 
 liberal comprehensiveness which saw all 
 around and all through every subject — 
 which studied and judged everything in 
 all its relations, and in that high-toned, 
 unbending, unronipromlsing dignity of 
 thought, of language, and of manner, 
 with which lie was always clotlx-d, and 
 which gave infinite impressiveness 
 everything lie did or said — neither of 
 them, nor any other American, living or 
 dead, was equal to him. His political 
 career was marked by greater con- 
 sistency of principle than that of most 
 of his distinguished cotemporaries, and 
 by quite as close adherence to a single 
 system of measures as is compatible with 
 Wisdom in a science which is, in fact, 
 only a science of expedients. Upon the 
 question of the Tariff, he changed his 
 policy — but only to meet chances in the 
 business relations and interests of the 
 section of the country for which lu- 
 acted. At a still later day, during the 
 struggles of I860 for sectional suprema- 
 cy, Mr. Webster held a different position 
 from that which he occupied with so 
 much distinction during the similar 
 convulsions of 1833. But the principles 
 which he maintained on both these 
 tsions v.' ntially the same: it 
 
 was onlv upon the practical measure.- in 
 which they were to he embodied, that he 
 had changed. And always — in all these 
 cases and in all tie- acts of hi- life, in 
 everything he ever did or said, from the 
 earliest day >.f hi- public service down to 
 
 the late-t syllable of hi- recorded thin — 
 
 he livd, an'! moved, and had his being. 
 under the domination of an ever-pn 
 Love of country, which knew no change, 
 and left no act or word of his life un- 
 marked by its presence and u- power. 
 A more thorough American never trod 
 the coiiiin, nt than Daniel Webster. He 
 loved hi- coiiutn ; he bowed before the 
 wisdom and le ly patriotism of it- foun- 
 
 uid its fathers; he reverenced the 
 Constitution which gave it national 
 being and position in the view of the 
 world ; and he devoted all the energies 
 of hi.- life to 1 igainst whatever 
 
 threatened, from any quarter, to weaken 
 its foundation- or impair its strength. 
 lor this high service, rendered with 
 such matchless power, and fruitful of 
 influences which will make them- 
 felt at every period of our future history, 
 he merits and will receive the profound- 
 est gratitude of every heart. 
 
 Hut besides the reputation which he 
 n as a lawyer and a state-man, 
 ter achieved the highest rank 
 as aNjiujcary man. His speeches, his 
 letter-, bis orations — all the products ,,f 
 his pen and the utterances of his tongue, 
 will be studied and admired by future 
 ages, not less for their consummate lite- 
 rary merit, than for the qualities more 
 directly connected with the special pur- 
 poses for which tiny were prepared. In 
 the early part of his life, during his col- 
 lege days and for some years after, his 
 style was • ugly vicious and bom- 
 bastic, to i which no one familiar 
 only with his later productions would 
 believe possible. "-There have 1 n few- 
 mon in this country, of equally labori- 
 ous and studious habits with Mr. Web- 
 ster, and lie devoted himself for bUi 
 sive years, with an earnest and resolute 
 fidelity, to the correction and perfection 
 
 of his style. He was fastidious to a re- 
 markable in his choice of words. 
 in the shaping of his sentences, and e\ en 
 in the punctuation and emphasis which 
 should be given to them. And although 
 during his later rears, as the effect 
 I his rigid and relentless mental disci- 
 pline, easy and graceful language had 
 ie -o habitual with him as tOSeem 
 devoid of all effort and study, lie n< 
 lai'l aside this minute attention to his 
 
 Btyle, or Buffered any point, however tri- 
 fling, of critical accuracy, to '-cape his 
 Dotice.«a»In8tanoea of hi- conscientious 
 exactitude, especially in the reports of his 
 
 .-] lies, have repeatedly fallen under 
 
 the observation of the presenl writer.- A 
 \eiy foolish endeavor has been made by 
 
Life of Daniel Web 
 
 53 
 
 some of Mr. Webster's friends, to create 
 the impression that the great orations 
 and speeches which have tarried his ce- 
 lebrity all over the world, were made 
 with little effort and trifling preparation. 
 Even so judicious a writer as Mr. Eve- 
 rett, seeks to confirm the statement of 
 Mr. March, that the reply to Hayne was 
 the result of at most a few hours' reflec- 
 tion, and that all the notes he made for 
 it were contained upon one side of a 
 sheet of paper. This latter statement is 
 true, so far as the notes from which he 
 spoke are concerned ; but the general 
 impression conveyed in these representa- 
 tions is unjust to Mr. Webster, and cal- 
 culated to induce very injurious theories 
 and habits in the minds of the young. 
 Mr. Webster had prepared himself for 
 that debate with all his usual care. He 
 knew a fortnight beforehand the points 
 that would be made, the positions that 
 would be assumed, and the parties that 
 would be assailed. And we have no 
 doubt that all those maguificent pas- 
 sages which live in the memory and 
 glow in the heart of all who read them, 
 were prepared beforehand with the ut- 
 most care and the nicest discrimination 
 in the choice of words. And the same 
 thing is certainly true of many other of 
 his most celebrated speeches. 
 
 But great as Mr. Webster was in all 
 these high spheres of intellectual activity, 
 no one who has ever had opportunities of 
 judging will hesitate to say, that he was 
 equally great in the more restricted de- 
 
 partment of Conversation, He was an 
 
 accomplished scholar, especially conver- 
 sant witli the best portions of English 
 literature, and more or less familiar with 
 every subject which engages attention. 
 In a circle of friends, at table, or even in 
 a tete-a-tete with a single person, lus 
 conversation was the richest and most 
 instructive entertainment that can be 
 conceived. He was sometimes a little 
 too didactic to suit the ideal of a good 
 converser ; but no hearer ever com- 
 plained of this as a fault. He expressed 
 himself always, upon every occasion, 
 and in making the most trifling remark, 
 with that clearness, accuracy, and 
 weighty dignity, which were insepara- 
 ble from his nature. We cannot imagine 
 a richer contribution to the literature of 
 America and the world than would be a re- 
 cord of Mr. Webster's conventions upon 
 topics of public concern. No such per- 
 fect collection, of course, can ever be 
 made. But those who were admitted 
 to the high privilege of his intimate and 
 confidential society, owe to the world 
 some reminiscences of this great man, of 
 whom the world can never know too 
 much. For it is only thus that coming 
 generations can receive that degree of 
 instruction and advantage to which they 
 have a claim, from Him who, in so em- 
 phatic a sense, 
 
 " TV us not for an Age, 
 But for all Time." 
 
 EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
 
 The event which the whole country' 
 has, for a few days, been anticipating 
 with the deepest sorrow, has at length 
 occurred. Daniel Webster is no longer 
 of the living. He has paSBe^ from the 
 scene of his vast labors and his glorious' 
 triumphs, to join the great of all ages in 
 the spirit-land. But lie has left a nation 
 of mourners. His family, his relatives, 
 
 the extended circle of his ardent p. rsonal 
 friend-, have no monopoly of grief — but 
 every American in whose breasl beat 
 American heart partakes the general 
 
 sorrow. \o man could have departed 
 from us who would have left bo larg 
 
 —whose place could not h 
 more easily supplied. No name of the 
 present day i< so intimately inter- 
 
54 
 
 Life of Danul Webster. 
 
 wrought into Lh&very web and woof of 
 our cotmtry'a history — none, surety, to 
 which ail American may point with a 
 more beartfelt and glowing pride. The 
 mourning which spreads over the land 
 will know no north, no south, no east, 
 no west. It will not be confined by nar- 
 row limits; — State Knee cannot bound it 
 — degrees of latitude or longitude will 
 not check its flowing ; but over the broad 
 bosom of this great Continent, from 
 ocean to ocean — nay, wherever on the 
 oceans float the stars and stripes, there 
 will well up from noble hearts the pro- 
 foundest lamentation tor the inestimable 
 loss our country has sustained. Party 
 animosities slink into their burrow — po- 
 litical rivalries and jealousies are over- 
 shadowed by the great bereavement, and 
 hide away. The weapons of party war- 
 fare fall harmless to the ground, and 
 contending parties and rival sections give 
 token of humanity, and swell the tide 
 and volume of the common grief. 
 
 It seems, indeed, n pity that such 
 large experience, Buch commanding pow- 
 ers, gathered and strengthened amid the 
 troubles, contests, trials, and vicissitudes 
 of the world, could not have been longer 
 vouchsafed to us, a conspicuous light and 
 guide to the present and coming genera- 
 tions of men. But no endowments of 
 heaven can guarantee an earthly exist- 
 ence beyond the usual limits of life; 
 nor, hoWever much mankind might gain, 
 would it •!••• just to the individual, to 
 withhold him from that higher Bphere 
 that I kons and awaits him. Hut 
 
 Webster's bright example and recorded 
 wisdom remain. As In- passed over the 
 disc of this life, he has enacted his part 
 
 Oil so Conspicuous a field, that all have 
 been able to profit by his oareer; and 
 
 his majestic orations yet resound in • 
 
 ear. It is fortunate indeed, that his fo- 
 
 ic reputation will aol depend, as that 
 of many great orators has done, mi 
 on tradition. It will not die out of the 
 memory of any succeeding generation. 
 
 His own great thoughts, in bis own har- 
 monious and stirring language, are 
 stamped upon the living page, "and 
 
 there they will remain I 
 
 That Mr. Webster should, at this 
 time, have surrendered bis lite, cannot be 
 surprising, even to those who know how 
 much of iron entered into his constitu- 
 tion, when they reflect upon the extra- 
 ordinary labors he has performed. What 
 frame but his that would not have 
 broken down under merely the pi 
 sional duties that have been cast upon 
 him. For nearly half a century, he has 
 been " sought out," not only in his own, 
 but in other countries and States, to sus- 
 tain the chief weight and responsibility 
 of the most important litigations. If 
 mighty interests were at stake, or new 
 and interesting questions involved, or 
 if causes depended upon constitu- 
 tional construction, the services were 
 invoked of this Goliah of the North. 
 When we remember a few of the most 
 conspicuous of the causes in which he 
 has been employed, — the Astor cases in 
 this city— the Dartmouth college ease — 
 the famous . steamboat case between New 
 Jeisey and New York, of Gibbons 
 Ogden — the Crowning&hields — the 
 York Fir.- cast — the Girard will — the 
 recent India rubber case— -when we turn 
 over the decisions of the Federal Courts 
 of the Union, and see how numerous and 
 important are the questions upon w Inch 
 he has been professionally called to shed 
 the light of his mind — when we think 
 how many hundreds ci nisi print causes 
 he has tried, reports of which have I 
 been embalmed in type— remec 
 too, that in all v^i these cases it has 
 his lot to try his strength with the ablest 
 and most distinguished lawyers <•(' the 
 Union, with men whos C powers might 
 well arouse the highest effort of tran- 
 scendent genius — with Jeremiah Mason, 
 Samuel Dexter, and Joseph Story, with 
 Pinckney, Emmett, Wirt, and with the 
 most brilliant advocates of the preseul 
 day, it may well awaken BUrprise that, 
 
 under the pressure of such legal labors, 
 
 he should have Stood up BO stoutly and 
 BO long. But when we accumulate the 
 other achievements >■•( his lite — his mis- 
 cellaneous studies — his laborious re- 
 searches into all partment 
 of knowledge — his agricultural Bupervi- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 55 
 
 and care — his varied, continuous, 
 voluminous correspondence — Ins 
 
 sion 
 and 
 
 magnificent addresses upon literary and 
 patriotic topics and occasions — his social 
 duties, though pleasing, yel rendered im- 
 nterous and exhausting by his high dis- 
 tinction — bis long-continued and prodi- 
 gious legislative labors in the councils 
 of the Union, partaking in the discussion 
 of the many exciting questions that have 
 arrested or shaken the country — hi- bask 
 so successfully performed as the head of 
 the State Department — and the wear and 
 tear of the constant excogitation of his 
 stupendous intellect, we are impressed 
 with astonishment, not only at the mind 
 that could accomplish such gigantic la- 
 bors, but at the corporeal frame, which, 
 for seventy years, could sustain the work- 
 ing of such huge enginery. Surely it 
 was not of common materials, as it was 
 not of common mould. It had the ele- 
 ments of rare endurance, and unwonted 
 power. But, at last, exhausted, it has 
 released its hold upon the great soul that 
 has so long inhabited and informed it. 
 And yet, up to a very recent period, we 
 could not speak of him as having grown 
 old in his labors, for years left no ener- 
 vating mark upon him, but only seemed 
 to lay an accumulating wealth of dio-- 
 nity and majesty upon thaf, historic 
 head. 
 
 In the short period of our national 
 existence, our country lias been wonder- 
 fully fruitful of great men. The stirring 
 period of her revolutionary history was 
 calculated to bring out and excite to ut- 
 most tension, whatever of talent, power, 
 and genius thw existed amongstA** 
 sons. The succeeding stage of het^ea- 
 reer was scarcely less adapted to call into 
 requisition the utmost efforts of her chil- 
 dren, in the ity the time imposed, 
 of reducing chaos into order, and organ- 
 izing. launching, and boldly carrying for- 
 ward tliis new government; and intel- 
 lectual capabilities could not lie idle, 
 when such tempting fields of conquest 
 stretched within the view of laudable 
 ambition. And yet the eye may glance 
 along the starry names that hang in the 
 clear sky of our national history, and it 
 
 will iind none of greater magnitude or 
 
 brighter ray than that, which has just 
 ascended to take its merited position in 
 ile- constellated dome. 
 
 In real intellectual strength, it is pro- 
 bable that Web.-ter rarely had his equal 
 since the morning of time. Certainly, 
 at the time of his death, no man known 
 to us, in any of the nations, evjnced a 
 like capacity. Strength, mental sinew, 
 was his crowning characteristic. The 
 resistless power with which he trod the 
 field of contest betokened inevitable over- 
 throw to those who dared oppose him. 
 When the chosen champion of the South, 
 amidst the exultations of his friends, 
 endeavored to bind and fetter the arms of 
 Webster with the tough cords that had 
 been so long fabricating and seasoning, 
 the giant sat calm in repo,se, till his ene- 
 mies rejoiced in the anticipated accom- 
 plishment of their object ; then, slowly 
 rising, as if sustaining the drooping hopes 
 of the country, with the light of con- 
 scious superiority beaming from his eye, 
 he tore asunder the strands that bound 
 him like wisps of straw, and applying 
 his stalwart shoulders to the temple his 
 adversaries had reared, whelmed the 
 structure and architects in one common 
 and undistinguishable ruin. No intel- 
 lectual contest in this country had ever 
 excit'd similar hopes and fears. The 
 whole people had started to their feet at 
 the eloquent and audacious assault that 
 Col. Haynes had made upon him. 
 Great and commanding as all knew his 
 powers to be; confident as was the reli- 
 ance of his friends in the exhaustless fer- 
 tility of his genius, yet every one, hut 
 himself, felt the tremor of fear that there 
 was a possibility of failure, and that, in 
 that time of awful responsibility, the 
 lustre of his name might dim and die 
 before the darting splendor of the South- 
 ern star. But from the Hist moment 
 that his clarion note resounded in the 
 Senate, hope changed to confidence; 
 then peal on peal of withering m 
 
 hr-ke over the heads of h : s affrighted 
 ; he brushed their cobweb argu- 
 3 from sight, planted tie' patriotism 
 of the old J lay State on an immortal 
 
 / 
 
56 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 eminence, and closed with 'a strain of lie interest, and before popular ussem- 
 
 deep and magnificent eloquence upon 
 the bl e> the necessity, and the 
 
 glory of the I'mu.n, that has no parallel 
 in llie records of speech. What were 
 his lensations during the delivery of this 
 splendid oration, he has himself narrated, 
 in answer to a friend "I felt," said he. 
 " as if every thing I had ever seen, or 
 read, or heard, was floating before me, 
 in one grand panorama, and I had little 
 else to do, than to reach up, and cull a 
 thunderbolt, and hurl it at him I" 
 
 In referring to a professional argu- 
 ment, ma. it- by him only five or six 
 months sine, we? said of him, and now 
 repeat, that thirty years ago, when 
 
 Webster was in the freshness of his V A prominent feature in Mr. \^ V, 
 
 ambition, and the prime of his physical- Argumentation, was the extraordinary 
 
 clearness, skill, and compactness of his 
 
 ?Si 
 
 life, he must have been the most con- 
 vincing, resistless, terrific advocate that 
 ever stood before a jury. So many 
 forces mingled in him — such a substra- 
 turn of common Bense, the gnat primi- 
 tive rock that Bapports all else — such 
 comprehensiveness and sweep of glance 
 — such imagination when he chose to 
 ermit its intrusion amidst his sterner 
 thoughts — such diction, every word a 
 sledge-hammer — such capacity for strip- 
 ping off all disguises in which ingenuity 
 may have dressed its sophistries — such 
 advantages of person, of presence, man- 
 ner, eye, and voice, were perhaps never 
 united, in equal proportions, in any 
 individual before. The arguments of 
 his opponents were brittle in his ban. Is. 
 What Gordian knots he could not wait 
 to untie, he rent in twain. Before tin 
 tribunal — a jury — to our mind unquea 
 tionably, though this may not accord 
 with tie- view, Webster stood in 
 
 the position of all others, best adapted 
 to display bis resources and his strength. 
 Some suppose that the S< Date furnished 
 the brightest Bcene for bis intellectual 
 gladiatorship. Many think, from the 
 I al character of hi- mind, thai 
 severe and close ratiocination before the 
 Supreme Court of the United State-. 
 was the element in which he found 
 himself most at home. And some 
 imagine, that on great occasions of pub- 
 
 blies, where he might • from the 
 
 unyielding bands of logic, and follow 
 his inclination amid chosen topics, and 
 indulge the lead of his powerful imagi- 
 nation, he rose above the standard of 
 his usual accomplishment. Bit, in our 
 
 inelit, there Ii.\er wa- a place 
 where he has b<-en so thoroughly 
 aroused, where he has come so near his 
 possibility of effort, as wheu, standing 
 before twelve jurors, in an individual 
 case that touched hi> sympathies, and 
 fired by the immediate antagonism of 
 able adversaries, he has put forth his 
 energies to defend some hunted right, or 
 pursue some grievous wrong. 
 
 statement. His forma] statement of a 
 . was, itself, a demonstration. A 
 few simple sentences seemed to raise 
 the question above the realm of doubt, 
 and place it beyond assault ; and his 
 subsequent argument hedged it around 
 with impregnable defen< •***"'* 
 
 \/\.nother admirable quality was his 
 rare power of condensation. While 
 
 other nun sought tojexpaiid, he labored 
 
 to condense. The material be used was 
 not beaten into leaf, but crowded into 
 bars and ingots. A graphic sentence 
 oft contained the whole question and 
 its solution. He aimed no scattering 
 fowling-piece, that threw its innocent 
 
 shot around the subject to be hit. but 
 planted his rifle-bullet in the very centre 
 
 of . 
 
 o man could ittM' or read the 
 
 dies of Webster without being 
 
 tiluck with the rich philosophy that 
 
 was continually enfolding his subject. 
 
 Themes that other men looked \\y to 
 
 at. he Btooped to touch, and when 
 
 he touched them, lifted them into the 
 
 sphere he occupied, enveloped them 
 with the affluence of hi- own intellect, 
 -:ed them with classical allusion 
 and golden bi them 
 
 greater dignity, and higher views, and 
 linked them to broader associations. 
 Mr. Webeter'a person wore the siguifi 
 
Life of Daniel II'. 
 
 57 
 
 cance of his grandeur : it was a tone- 
 ment worthy of the tenant. His ample 
 proportions, brawny but graceful ; his 
 imposing form, his dignified manner, 
 his imperial port, his solemn gaze, his 
 majestic and towering head — the vision 
 and faculty divine that looked out of 
 those comprehensive, spiritual orbs, the 
 intellectuality that sat enthroned upon 
 his massive brow, impressed the beholder 
 with unwonted awe. Most great men 
 fall so far short of the ideal that is 
 formed of them, that they dwindle and 
 dwarf upon approach. Distance of 
 time or space lends its enchantment to 
 the view, and through its magnifying 
 mists those gods of our idolatry loom 
 up into Titanic stature. But to this 
 rule, Mr. Webster was an exception, 
 almost the sole exception. We doubt, 
 if ever the man came into his presence, 
 who did not leave with enhanced con- 
 ceptions of his native majesty and 
 power. Nature had set her seal of great- 
 ness upon him, and the common voice 
 of his countrymen, in calling him " the 
 Godlike," testified that that seal was not 
 illegible to them. 
 
 He found the solace of his pastime 
 hours, in the resonant voices of the 
 waves that Ocean dashed along the 
 
 # O 
 
 beach which margined his country home 
 — in superintending agricultural uses — 
 in walking, driving, fishing, and in the 
 genial converse of family and troops of 
 friends. He rose at the hour of three 
 or four, and, in study and labor, awaited 
 the announcement of auroral dawn. 
 The quiet and beautiful morning hours 
 imparted to him strength and know- 
 ledge, and garlanded with freshness his 
 momentous lite. 
 
 Mr. Webster must have left materials 
 for biography of uncommon extent and 
 opulence. The six volumes of his 
 speeches which have just appeared, may 
 be immeasurably extended. His manu- 
 scripts must disclose a vast variety and 
 range of interesting composition. His 
 diaries and correspondence would be 
 seized by the public with avidity, while 
 his conversation, and the countless an- 
 ecdotes concerning him, that rest in 
 
 the memories of individuals, would give 
 intense zest to his biography. We 
 
 should hope that every one who had 
 any anecdote or interesting conversation 
 of his to relate — and who has not, that 
 has ever spent a half hour in his pre- 
 sence — would commit the sain.' to per- 
 manent form, and transmit it to some 
 common destination, where it might 
 await the pen of the biographer. His 
 speeches have done much to educate the 
 present generation of active m< n. In 
 country schools, academies, and colleen 
 his sonorous sentences have formed the 
 staple of declamation. He has thus 
 poured his lofty sentiments into the 
 minds of our youth, and every educated 
 man of the country must this day feel 
 that he is under obligations he can never 
 repay, to the inspirations of Daniel 
 Webster. Let us now have his life, and 
 all the productions of his pen, and such 
 of the utterances of his tongue as may 
 be caught and gathered, that they may 
 all float down the stream of time, a 
 blessing and delight to all ages — coex- 
 istent with literature and liberty. Such 
 names and such productions make the 
 garniture of History. 
 
 In the sadness of this occasion, how 
 naturally, yet how sorrowfully, does the 
 mind turn towards that splendid trium- 
 virate of statesmen, — Clay, Calhoun, and 
 Webster, but recently the pride and 
 glory of the land, now enacting another 
 stage of their destiny in the world be- 
 yond the stars. For forty years they 
 had mingled their efforts and voices in 
 the councils of the Union. Upon all 
 great questions of public policy, each 
 has left his indelible mark. Each, as we 
 have stated heretofore, in himself a host, 
 — with physical and intellectual powers 
 so different, yet so surpassing— -though 
 not always agreeing, indeed Bometim< 
 at angry variance — a war among the 
 gods — yel always inseparably associated 
 — marching side by side through many 
 years of pith and moment in the history 
 of America and the world — preeminent 
 in powers of thought, and in the 
 mode of expressing thought ; we see 
 them now, with the eye of memory, in 
 
58 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 tlj.-it more than Amphictyonic assem- 
 blage— Clay, with his electric fire, and 
 
 burning and impassioned eloquence— 
 Calhoun, clear, terse, logical, metaphysi- 
 cal, with the skill of Tell, shooting an 
 apple from the head, — and Webster, 
 calm, grand, majestic, sitting on the 
 loftiest peaks of Olympus, darting 
 
 lightnings, and rolling thunders. But 
 now, alas ! those eloquent voices are 
 tiushed ; those great hearts have cc 
 their beating ; their continuous guid- 
 ance has been withdrawn from us ; — and 
 the American people, in sorrow and 
 orphanage, lament their loss. 
 
 DEATHBED SCENES. 
 
 The situation of Mr. "Webster became 
 dangerous on Thursday the 21st of Oc- 
 tober, and but faint hopes of his recovery 
 were even then entertained. He con- 
 tinued to sink very rapidly until Sunday 
 morning, the 24th; when, at 2 o'clock 
 and 38 minutes, he expired peacefully 
 and happily. 
 
 The following particulars of Mr. Web- 
 ster's last momenta are gathered from 
 the telegraphic despatches which were 
 forwarded during the progress of the ma- 
 lady, and from other Bources : 
 
 During all the time when Mr. Web- 
 ster was free from pain, he conversed 
 cheerfully with the friends around his 
 bedside, and more than once playfully 
 
 proached his faithful nurse, Sarah, for 
 not retiring to bed. 
 
 On Friday afternoon, he had the peo- 
 ple employed in his family and upon 
 bis form called in, and after givingthem 
 much earnest advice upon matters tem- 
 poral and spiritual hade them a last 
 farewell. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon. Mr. Wehster 
 
 •was again Beized with violent nausea, 
 and raised considerable dark matter 
 tinged with bl 1. Exhaustion now in- 
 creased rapidly, and his physicians held 
 another consultation, which resulted in a 
 
 conclusion that his last lour was fa>t 
 
 approaching. 
 
 Be i. ceived the announcement, and 
 requested that the female membi 
 hi- family raighl be called in, via. : Mrs. 
 Webster, Mrs. Fletcher Webster, Mrs, J. 
 
 W. Paige, and Miss Downs, of New 
 York. To each, calling them indivi- 
 dually by name, he addressed a few 
 words of farewell and religious consola- 
 tion. 
 
 Next he had called in the male mem- 
 bers of his family, and the personal 
 friends who were present at Marshfield, 
 viz. : Fletcher Webster, (his only sur- 
 viving son,) Samuel A. Appleton, (his 
 son-in-law.) .1. W. Paige, Geo. T. Curtis, 
 Edward Curtis, of New York, 1 
 Harvey and Charles Henry Thomas, of 
 Marshfield, and Messrs. Geo. J. Abbott 
 and W. C. Zantzinger, both of the State 
 Department at Washington. Add 
 ing each by name, he referred to his 
 past relations with them respectively, 
 and one by one b'ade them an affec- 
 tionate farewell. This was about half- 
 past 6 P. M. 
 
 Be do* had Mr. Peter Barvey called 
 in again, and said to him : " Barvej . I 
 am not bo sick but that 1 know you — 1 
 am well enough u> know you; 1 am 
 well enough to love you, and well 
 enough to call down the richest of 
 Heaven's blessings upon you and youis. 
 Barvey, don't leave me till I am dead — 
 don*t jeave Marshfield till I am a dead 
 man." Then, as if speaking to him 
 be sai.l : " I »u the 24th of < kitober, all 
 that is mortal of Daniel Webster will he 
 qo more." 
 
 Be DOW prayed in his natural, usual 
 
 —strong, full, and dear—ending 
 
 with, "Heavenly Father, forgive my 
 
Life of Daniel Webtt&t. 
 
 59 
 
 sins, and receive me to Thyself, through 
 Christ Jesus." 
 
 At half-past seven o'clock, Dr. J. M. 
 Warren arrived from Boston, to relieve 
 Dr. Jeffries, as the immediate medical 
 attendant. 
 
 Shortly after he conversed with Dr. 
 Jeffries, who said he could do nothing 
 more for him than to administer occa- 
 sionally a sedative potion. " Then," 
 said Mr. Webster, "I am to be here 
 patiently till the end : if it be so, may it 
 come soon." 
 
 At ten o'clock he was still lower, but 
 perfectly conscious of everything that 
 passed within his sight or hearing. 
 
 Doctors Jeffries and Porter have in- 
 timated an opinion that the immediate 
 cause of the disease was a cancerous 
 affection of some of the smaller intes- 
 tines. 
 
 The closing scenes are well portrayed 
 by the Boston Courier : 
 
 The last hours of one so beloved as 
 he whose -earthly career has just closed, 
 amid so many circumstances of consola- 
 tion, were of the same even tenor as all 
 the rest. The public are already in- 
 formed of the chief features of that 
 deeply interesting scene up to the period 
 when Mr. Webster desired to take leave 
 of all who were in the house. One by 
 one, in deep sorrow, but sustained by 
 his own great example, the members of 
 his family, and the friends and attend- 
 ants, came in and took leave of him. 
 He desired them to remain near his 
 room, and more than once enjoined on 
 those present who were not of his im- 
 mediate family, not to leave Marahfield 
 till his death had taken place. Re- 
 assured by all that his every wish would 
 be religiously regarded, he then ad- 
 dressed himself to his physicians, making 
 minute inquiries as to his own condition, 
 and the probable termination of his life. 
 Conversing with great exactness, he 
 seemed to be anxious to be able to mark 
 to himself the final period of his dissolu- 
 tion, lie was answered that it ini 
 occur in one, two, or three hours, but 
 that the time could not Ik- definitely 
 calculated. " Then," said Mr. Webster, 
 
 " I suppose I must lie here quietly till it 
 coni' The retching and vomiting 
 
 now recurred again. Dr. Jeffries offered 
 
 to Mr. Webster something which he 
 hoped might give him ease "Some- 
 thing more, doctor — more — I want re- 
 storation." 
 
 Between 10 and 11 o'clock, he re- 
 peated somewhat indistinctly the words, 
 "Poet, poetry, Gray, Gray." Mr. 
 Fletcher Webster repeated the first line 
 of the Elegy. " The curfew tolls the 
 knell of parting day." " That's it, that's 
 it," said Mr. W., and the book was 
 brought and some stanzas read, which 
 seemed to give him much pleasure. 
 
 From 12 till 2, there was much rest- 
 lessness, but not much suffering. The 
 physicians were quite confident that 
 there was no actual pain. A faintness 
 occurred, which led him to think that 
 his death was at hand. While in this 
 condition, some expressions fell from him 
 indicating the hope that his mind would 
 remain to him completely until the last. 
 He spoke of the difficulty of the pro- 
 cess of dying, when Dr. Jeffries repeated 
 the verse : 
 
 " Though I walk through the valley 
 of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no 
 evil ; for thou art with me, — thy rod and 
 thy staff, they comfort me." 
 
 Mr. Webster said immediately : 
 
 " The fact, the fact. That is what I 
 want — thy rod, thy rod — thy .stall", thy 
 staff" 
 
 The close was perfectly tranquil and 
 easy, and occurred at precisely 22 mi- 
 nutes before 3 o'clock. The persons 
 present were: Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher 
 Webster, Mr. and Mrs. Paige, Mr. 8. A. 
 Appleton, Miss Downes, Mr. Leroy, 
 Edward Curtis, Peter Harvey, George 
 T. Curtis, Charles Henry Thomas, Esq., 
 George J. Abbott and W. C. Zantzin- 
 ger, of the State Department, Dra, 
 Jeffries and .1. Mason Warren, and the 
 personal attendants ami domestics of 
 Mr. Webster. Mrs. Webster, being un- 
 able to witness the last moments, awaited 
 the event in her own apartment. 
 
 In accordance with the expressed wish 
 of Mr. Webster, the arrangements for 
 
60 
 
 Life of Daniel H 
 
 the funeral were made without ost 
 tiou. The remains were deposited in 
 the family tomb at Marshfield. The 
 President indicated a wish to attend the 
 funeral, in company with the members 
 of the Cabinet ; but was subsequently 
 obliged to remain at Washington, in 
 
 consequence of the pressure of Executive 
 duties. ' Gen. Franklin Pierce early ap- 
 prised the family of Mr. Wei -•• r of his 
 irish and intention to pay a last tribute 
 of respect to the memory of the Great 
 Statesman. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE PRESS. 
 
 From the Boston Courier. 
 
 Daniel "Webster is no more ! The 
 arm that defended the constitution is 
 broken in death. The sun that fa 
 
 guided the steps of the nation is 
 quenched. That great intellect which 
 poured forth its treasures of truth and 
 wisdom for the enlightenment of man- 
 kind has departed from among us. The 
 lips whose words were miracles, and 
 which stirred the nation like the sound 
 of a trumpet, are forever closed — forever 
 silent. The great heart that embraced a 
 
 whole people DO longer throbs with the 
 flood of lit'.-. All that was mortal of 
 Daniel Webster has returned to dust, 
 but his spirit ivmains among us; his 
 fame can never die ; nor the light of his 
 great example — nor the lessons of wis- 
 dom he has taught us. Men die — prin-. 
 eipl'-s never. 
 
 Twenty-six yean ago Mr. Webster 
 spoke in Faneuil Hall the following 
 woi.U. on the Bubject of the death of 
 Adams and Jefferson. We quote them 
 no less for the truth of the sentiment 
 they contain than for their striking ap- 
 propriateness to the present occasion, 
 speaker could nol have drawn a 
 more faithful picture of himself than he 
 has done in these lines : 
 
 rperior and commanding human 
 intelligence, a trul) greal man. when 
 heaven vouches bo rare a gift, is nol a 
 temporary Bame burning Bright for a 
 while, and then expiring, giving place to 
 returning darkness. It is rather a spark 
 
 of fervent le at, a- well as radiant light, 
 
 with power to enkindle the common 
 
 of human mind, so that when it 
 glimmers in its own decay, and finally 
 goes out in death, no night follows, but 
 it leaves the world all light all on fire, 
 from the potent contact of its own 
 spirit.'' 
 
 Vain and superfluous would be the 
 effort at the present moment to call to 
 our aid the boat of commonplace epi- 
 thets and rhetorical phrases that are 
 usually bestowed upon the subject of a 
 eulogy. Everyone feels that the nation 
 has lost its greatest man. its truest friend 
 — its wisest counsellor — its most coura- 
 geous champion — its best patriot The 
 national heart will be transfixed with 
 unspeakable sorrow at the sad and 
 solemn cadence of the words — Daniel 
 Webster is no more I 
 
 < >ur country has lost many gifted 
 spirits — many strong intellects, many 
 brave and devoted hearts; but since the 
 day when George Washington was sum- 
 moned from earth, we have not been 
 
 called tO mOUTD the loBS Of . ruly 
 
 great, bo clearly destined to stamp his 
 name and character upon the 
 Mr. Webster. II.' taught the American 
 people not only to be great and power- 
 ful, but he taught them justice and 
 honor, he taught them steadfast princi- 
 
 and manly Belf-n - 
 patriotism, comprehensive and true phi- 
 lanthropy. His teachings were for all 
 time. A future age will render him the 
 justice which was withheld from him in 
 this. 
 
 The great statesman was great to the 
 
 last. The light of that splendid intel- 
 
Life of Daniel Webster, 
 
 61 
 
 lect went out at full blaze. The strong 
 sense, the clear thought, the firm self- 
 ppssession, that have ever been the men 
 tal characteristics of Daniel Webster, re- 
 mained with him to the hour of his 
 death. He died at his post, with the 
 cares of a nation on his hands, yet in 
 full preparation for his great and last 
 change. With a noble calmness of spirit 
 he contemplated the sublime and solemn 
 approach of the King of Terrors, and 
 he passed into the bosom of eternity sus- 
 tained by all the hopes and confidence 
 of a sincere Christian. 
 
 From the Boston Post. 
 
 It will require the office of time, the 
 great reconciler, ere it can be fully real- 
 ized that Daniel Webster, the peerless 
 orator of world-wide forensic and Sena- 
 torial renown, is no more. But yester- 
 day he returned to the constituency 
 which had so faithfully stood by him ; 
 he received an ovation such as is com- 
 monly only awarded to conquerors ; and 
 then he retired to his peaceful country 
 abode, and prepared to resign his spirit 
 into the hands of his Maker. And 
 there, in the midst of the rural scenes 
 he loved so well, by the ocean shore 
 whose grandeur was a fit minister to his 
 mighty intellect, his majestic form now 
 lies cold and motionless in death ! 
 Calm, trusting, sublime, was the closing 
 scene of that great life. Even after the 
 prostration of the physical frame was 
 complete, the mind asserted its controll- 
 ing power ; and in discourse of child- 
 like simplicity, and yet of the brilliancy 
 of former days, he, in united Roman 
 and Christian dignity, wrapt about him 
 his dying robe, and gently went to 
 slumber with the dead. And so that 
 man among men, that voice which could 
 speak as no other voice could, will be 
 seen and heard no more for ever. 
 
 Most of the countrymen of Daniel 
 Webster, so great has been the pride 
 felt in his fame, have been for year- 
 unwilling to admit that he belonged 
 exclusively to party, lie had, even* in 
 
 hi- lifetime, become historical* That 
 
 colossal reputation) the result of so 
 
 much culture and experiei was the 
 
 product of American institutions; for, 
 
 physically, tin- unequalled mountain 
 scenery of hi- birth-State': and, morally, 
 the great political ideas which his coun- 
 try first practically graspe.l, hail to do 
 with its development and maturity; 
 and these no party can justly lay hold 
 <>f, and claim as its own. Such in- 
 fluences must be taken into account by 
 those who would portray this reputation 
 — would analyse its element-, describe 
 its growth, and present the combination 
 that stands out in such acknowledged 
 grandeur; and it is worthy of remark, 
 that the monument which Daniel Web- 
 ster has left to perpetuate his renown, 
 to account to God and man for the use 
 he made of his unrivalled gifts, was 
 ^tiade by meditations on our country, on 
 its material interests, on its intellectual 
 progress, on its constitutional politv, 
 and its manifest destiny. He asked no 
 higher theme for discourse, and consi- 
 dered none more worthy to be illustrated 
 by his wonderful stores of ancient and 
 modern lore. He drew inspiration from 
 its history, which he studied with won- 
 derful minuteness, and for which he had 
 the love, it may almost be said the 
 worship, of a great patriot. All this 
 appears in his collected eloquence. This 
 is not dead ; it caunot die. Its office is 
 still to enkindle the human intellect. 
 < feneration after generation will study 
 it, and grow upon it. And in this 
 monument of imperishable material, 
 Paniel Webster still lives and speaks, 
 and will continue to live and speak to 
 distant ages in all his greatness, and to 
 justify the respect and admiration which 
 his countrymen felt toward him. 
 
 From the New York Evening Post. 
 
 As an academical orator, as a lawyer. 
 as a diplomatist, and itesman,Mr. 
 
 Webster achieved a fame, which sepa- 
 rately, almost any of his contemporaries, 
 living or dead, might have envied. Hi- 
 
69 
 
 Life of Daniel Webster. 
 
 anniversary addresses are almost tin? 
 only specimens of that species of ora- 
 in this country that will survive 
 their author-;. His efforts at the bar, 
 like most achievements in that arena, 
 however memorable, will only poss> — i 
 traditional fame, which in this country ifl 
 never lasting. 
 
 The Seriate has been his great theatre, 
 where if he did not lay the foundations 
 of his fame as an orator, h&- certainly 
 erected the monuments which are to per- 
 petuate it. His forensic oratory has 
 rarely been surpassed either in ancient 
 or modern times, and there is no doubt 
 that his example in that body did more 
 than is now easily appreciated, in ele- 
 vating its stain Ian 1 of parliamentary elo- 
 quence and decorum. 
 
 He never betrayed the politician in 
 the tone or the language of his speeches ; 
 whatever might be the secret motives oi 
 his heart, he always rested his policy 
 upon professedly public grounds, and 
 discussed them from a national, and 
 never from a personal ora partisan point 
 of view. In this respect, Mr. Webster's 
 political speeches Btand in admirable con- 
 trast with the style of parliamentary 
 oratory which ordinarily prevails at 
 Washington, and we cannot but think 
 that the loss of his admirable example, 
 in this respect, lias been sensibly felt by 
 the Senate since he ceased actively to 
 participate in the deliberations of that 
 body. 
 
 Sis life has left few lessons of greater 
 
 value than may be gathered from the 
 
 elevated tone of his Congressional 
 
 S] lies, in which he never made one 
 
 undignified appeal, or indulged in one 
 personal or unparliamentary allusion. 
 We do Dot recollect an instance of Mr. 
 Webster's being called to order, or of his 
 being out of ord< r, during the whole of 
 his parliamentary life. This can hardly 
 aid of any other person who < \ at 
 held a seat in th< i as of the l Fnited 
 
 States more than a single term. 
 
 \s a Mate-man and as a diplomatist, 
 
 Mr. Webster w ill continue to b 
 mate,) variously, as he always has been, 
 bv his countrymen. His greatn< 
 
 capacities has been more frequent- 
 ly qw :. especially by political ad- 
 versaries, than as an orator or a lawyer. 
 
 From the Boston Atlas. 
 
 With him as with other great men> 
 his public life was but a small part of 
 his real existence. In private social life 
 he shone as conspicuously as he did in 
 public life, and no man can fully appre- 
 ciate his grand pre-eminence, who has 
 not enjoy,.,! the favor of his private 
 friendship. 
 
 When Mr. Webster entered public 
 life, he found among his associates, Clay, 
 Calhoun, and Forsyth, in the first rank 
 of talent, lie has survived them all. 
 He has followed them in the path of 
 fame. Clay. I Jalhoun, and Forsyth pre- 
 
 1 him in the Cabinet hike him- 
 self, they were successively Secretaries of 
 State, an office requiring the most ex- 
 alted talents to perform well its duties. 
 Like him, neither of them reached the 
 Presidential chair, and in this is deve- 
 loped a curious philosophical fact, con- 
 nected with our popular institutions. 
 His illustrious associates have gi ne down 
 to the gravel He was left alone, the 
 last of the glorious throng. South Caro- 
 lina and Georgia hold the ashes of their 
 illustrious sons, Calhoun and Forsyth; 
 and amid the beautiful ami fertile glades 
 of the dark and bloody ground, slumber 
 in the sleep <<\' death the ashes of his 
 greatest compear and associate, the ora- 
 
 •' the feelings and ot' the heart, the 
 statesman, the patriot, and the public 
 idol, Henry Clay. There the soft bra 
 chant his requiem, as they fan the leafy 
 
 branches of the oak and the sycamore, 
 in his far off Western home, in Uie 
 secluded vale of Ashland. At Marsh- 
 field, in the far Fast, within Bighl of the 
 mighty ocean, upon which be loved bo 
 well to look, and to draw great thoughts 
 from its \a-t expanse, tumultuous and 
 ever heaving with the current and the 
 storm, rest the lifeless remains of the 
 great New-England orator and bI 
 man. There he lived for many years — 
 
Life of Dan'ul Webster. 
 
 63 
 
 his mansion the home of a generous hos- 
 pitality. There he died in the fulness 
 of years, and amid friends whom be 
 loved, and there will be be buried. The 
 deep, solemn roar of the ocean billow 
 will roar on, like nature's cathedral 
 music, until time shall be no more, 
 as it has since the morning stars first 
 sans toe-ether : but it will fall in silence 
 Upon the ear of the mighty dead, sounds 
 which when living he loved so well to 
 hear. 
 
 That man is a superficial observer of 
 life, and a still more superficial reader of 
 history and of human events, if from the 
 seed of the tomb of the illustrious dead 
 he can discover no flower which is to 
 spring forth and blossom, and to throw 
 its sweetness on the future glory of our 
 land. The memory of the good, in the 
 humblest walks of life, is among the 
 choicest blessings which a wise Pro- 
 vidence vouchsafes to mould the character 
 and subdue the evil passions of our race. 
 Tn the death of a great statesman, one 
 who has deserved well of his country, 
 who has passed his long and valued life 
 in her service, whose deeds are among 
 her richest treasure, around whose words 
 
 in a manner more consolatory to his 
 
 i . u-est friends. 
 
 Of Mr. Webster's ability, character, 
 and services it is not necessary to speak 
 in detail. They are known and recog- 
 nized everywhere, though perhaps never 
 yet appreciated to the full -extent of 
 their merits. They will be understood 
 and valued most now that they are 
 no longer available. Strongly attached 
 to Whig principles, and thrqughout a 
 long period sharing with Mr. Clay the 
 leadership of the Whig party, he was at 
 all times the patriot rather than the par- 
 tisan. His most brilliant and impres- 
 sive efforts of oratory are associated 
 with recollections of national peril or 
 national triumph ; and the strength of 
 his sagacious mind never manife 
 itself so conspicuously as when grap- 
 pling with exigencies involving national 
 rights or imperilling national dignity. 
 The records of the Union present im- 
 perishable evidence of his uudeviating 
 devotion to its glory, and the surpassing 
 energy and wisdom of his efforts in its 
 behalf. 
 
 Mr. Webster's fame is not circum- 
 scribed within the limits of this Repub- 
 are entwined the high resolve and the I lie, broad as they are. As a diplomatist, 
 patriot truth, the ligaments which bind he is indissolubly connected with the 
 
 a nation together shoot forth like the 
 rooty fibres of a spear of grain or a 
 young oak, after the kernel and the 
 acorn have decayed and mingled with 
 their mother earth. 
 
 From the Washington Republic. 
 
 Mr. Webster breathed his last in the 
 bosom of his family, and with a soul > Our duty now is" while grieving over 
 
 narrative of his last moments shows that 
 'to him at least Death had lost all its 
 terrors. He regarded its advance with- 
 out apprehension, and resigned himself 
 to its decree with the cheerful compo- 
 sure of the Christian. His life could 
 
 foreign life of the nation. His labors 
 in that rpgard have perhaps contributed 
 more than those of any man since 
 Washington to give weight to the name 
 of American in the councils of other 
 countries. Cautious, yet full of cou- 
 rage — fond of peace, yet fonder still of 
 liberty and right— his diplomatic action 
 displayed a genius and a power that 
 have been felt throughout Europe, and 
 have created a new era in the historic 
 being of bis country. 
 
 unclouded and serene. The telegraphic^ the bereavement, to profit by the exam- 
 ple. We may do longer have the benefit 
 of Mr. Webster's >kill to pilot the coun- 
 try through a Bea of difficulties; but 
 the patriotic spirit which nerved him in 
 
 every hour of trial remains to us an 
 heritage which neither I v-aih uor Time 
 
 not have terminated more worthily, or I can weaken or destroy. 
 
 / 
 
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