We are, my friends, in the midst of a great movement of the people.
That a revolution in public sentiment on some important questions of
public policy has begun, and is in progress, it is vain to attempt to
conceal, and folly to deny. What will be the extent of this revolution,
what its immediate effects upon political men and political measures,
what ultimate influence it may have on the integrity of the
Constitution, and the permanent prosperity of the country, remains to
be seen. Meantime, no one can deny that an extraordinary excitement
exists in the country, such as has not been witnessed for more than
half a century; not local, nor confined to any two, or three, or ten
States, but pervading the whole, from north to south, and from east to
west, with equal force and intensity. For an effect so general, a cause
of equal extent must exist. No cause, local or partial, can produce
consequences so general and universal. In some parts of the country,
indeed, local causes may in some degree add to the flame; but no local
cause, nor any number of local causes, can account for the generally
excited state of the public mind.
In portions of the country devoted to agriculture and manufactures, we
hear complaints of want of market and low prices. Yet there are other
portions of the country, which are consumers, and not producers, of
food and manufactures; and, as purchasers, they should, it would seem,
be satisfied with the low prices of which the sellers complain; but in
these portions, too, of the country, there are dissatisfaction and
discontent. Everywhere we find complaining and a desire for change.
There are those who think that this excitement among the people will
prove transitory and evanescent. I am not of that opinion. So far as I
can judge, attention to public affairs among the people of the United
States, has increased, is increasing, and is not likely to be
diminished; and this not in one part of the country, but all over it.
This certainly is the fact, if we may judge from recent information.
The breeze of popular excitement is blowing everywhere. It fans the air
in Alabama and the Carolinas; and I am of opinion, that, when it shall
cross the Potomac, and range along the Northern Alleghanies, it will
grow stronger and stronger, until, mingling with the gales of the
Empire State, and the mountain blasts of New England, it will blow a
perfect hurricane.
There are those, again, who think these vast popular meetings are got
up by effort; but I say that no effort could get them up, and no effort
can keep them down. There must, then, be some general cause that
animates the whole country. What is that cause? It is upon this point I
propose to give my opinion to-day. I have no design to offend the
feelings of any, but I mean in perfect plainness to express my views to
the vast multitude assembled around. I know there are among them many
who from first to last supported General Jackson. I know there are many
who, if conscience and patriotism permitted, would support his
successor; and I should ill repay the attention with which they may
honor me by any reviling or denunciation. Again, I come to play no part
of oratory before you. If there have been times and occasions in my
life when I might be supposed anxious to exhibit myself in such a
light, that period has passed, and this is not one of the occasions. I
come to dictate and prescribe to no man. If my experience, not now
short, in the affairs of government, entitle my opinions to any
respect, those opinions are at the service of my fellow-citizens. What
I shall state as facts, I hold myself and my character responsible for;
what I shall state as opinions, all are alike at liberty to reject or
to receive. I ask such consideration for them only as the fairness and
sincerity with which they are uttered may claim.
What, then, has excited the whole land, from Maine to Georgia, and
gives us assurance, that, while we are meeting here in New York in such
vast numbers, other like meetings are holding throughout all the
States? That this cause must be general is certain, for it agitates the
whole country, and not parts only.
When that fluid in the human system indispensable to life becomes
disordered, corrupted, or obstructed in its circulation, not the head
or the heart alone suffers; but the whole body--head, heart, and hand,
all the members, and all the extremities--is affected with debility,
paralysis, numbness, and death. The analogy between the human system
and the social and political system is complete; and what the lifeblood
is to the former, circulation, money, currency, is to the latter; and
if that be disordered or corrupted, paralysis must fall on the system.
The original, leading, main cause, then, of all our difficulties and
disasters, is the disordered state of the circulation. This is,
perhaps, not a perfectly obvious truth; and yet it is one susceptible
of easy demonstration. In order to explain this the more readily, I
wish to bring your minds to the consideration of the internal
condition, and the vast domestic trade, of the United States. Our
country is not a small province or canton, but an empire, extending
over a large and diversified surface, with a population of various
conditions and pursuits. It is in this variety that consists its
prosperity; for the different parts become useful one to the other, not
by identity, but by difference, of production, and thus each by
interchange contributes to the interest of the other. Hence, our
internal trade, that which carries on this exchange of the products and
industry of the different portions of the United States, is one of our
most important interests, I had almost said the most important. Its
operations are easy and silent, not always perceptible, but diffusing
health and life throughout the system by the intercourse thus promoted,
from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from State to State.
This circuit of trade, in a country of such great extent as ours,
demands, more than in any country under heaven, a uniform currency for
the whole people; that what is money in Carolina shall be so elsewhere;
that what the Kentucky drover receives, what the planter of Alabama
sells for, what the laborer in New York gets in pay for his work, and
carries home to support his family, shall be of ascertained and uniform
value.
This is not the time nor the occasion for an essay or dissertation on
money; but I mean distinctly to express the opinion, that until the
general government shall take in hand the currency of the country,
until that government shall devise some means, I say not what, of
raising the whole currency to the level of gold and silver, there can
be no prosperity.
Let us retrace briefly the history of the currency question in this
country, a most important branch of the commercial question. I appeal
to all who have studied the history of the times, and of the
Constitution, whether our fathers, in framing the Constitution which
should unite us in common rights and a common glory, had not also among
their chief objects to provide a uniform system of commerce, including
a uniform system of currency for the whole country. I especially invite
the ingenuous youth of the country to go back to the history of those
times, and particularly to the Virginia resolutions of 1786, and to the
proceedings of the convention at Annapolis, and they will there find
that the prevailing motive for forming a general government was, to
secure a uniform system of commerce, of customhouse duties, and a
general regulation of the trade, external and internal, of the whole
country. It was no longer to be the commerce of New York, or of
Massachusetts, but of the United States, to be carried on under that
star-spangled banner, which was to bear to every shore, and over every
sea, the glorious motto, _E Pluribus Unum_.
At the second session, of the first Congress, the United States Bank
was established. From the incorporation of the bank to the expiration
of its charter,[1] embracing a period of great commercial and political
vicissitudes, the currency furnished by that bank was never objected
to: it, indeed, surpassed the hopes and equalled the desires of
everybody.
Of the hundreds here, possibly, who supported General Jackson, not one
dreamed that he was elected to put down established institutions and
overthrow the currency of the country. Who, among all those that, in
the honest convictions of their hearts, cried, Hurrah for Jackson!
believed or expected or desired that he would interfere with the Bank
of the United States, or destroy the circulating medium of the country?
[Here there arose a cry from the crowd, "None! None!"] I stand here
upon the fact, and defy contradiction from any quarter, that there was
no complaint then, anywhere, of the bank. There never before was a
country, of equal extent, where exchanges and circulation were carried
on so cheaply, so conveniently, and so securely. General Jackson was
inaugurated in March, 1829, and pronounced an address upon that
occasion, which I heard, as I did the oath which he took to support the
Constitution. In that address were enumerated various objects,
requiring, as he said, reform; but among them was not the Bank of the
United States, nor the currency. This was in March, 1829. In December,
1829, General Jackson came out with the declaration (than which none I
have ever heard surprised me more), that "the constitutionality of the
Bank of the United States might be well questioned," and that it had
failed to furnish a sound and uniform currency to the country.
What produced this change of views? Down to March of the same year,
nothing of this sort was indicated or threatened. What, then, induced
the change? [A voice from the crowd said, "Martin Van Buren."] If that
be so, it was the production of mighty consequences by a cause not at
all proportioned. I will state, in connection with, and in elucidation
of, this subject, certain transactions, which constitute one of those
contingencies in human affairs, in which casual circumstances, acting
upon the peculiar temper and character of a man of very decided temper
and character, affect the fate of nations. A movement was made in the
summer of 1829, for the purpose of effecting a change of certain
officers of the branch of the Bank of the United States in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire. Mr. Woodbury, then a Senator from New Hampshire,
transmitted to the president of the bank at Philadelphia a request;
purporting to proceed from merchants and men of business of all
parties, asking the removal of the president of that branch, _not on
political grounds_, but as acceptable and advantageous to the business
community. At the same time, Mr. Woodbury addressed a letter to the
then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Ingham, suggesting that his
department should, on _political grounds_, obtain from the mother bank
the removal of the branch president. This letter was transmitted to the
president of the mother bank, and reached him about the same time with
the other, so that, looking upon this picture and upon that, upon one
letter, which urged the removal on political grounds, and upon the
other, which denied that political considerations entered into the
matter at all, he concluded to let things remain as they were. Appeals
were then artfully made to the President of the United States. His
feelings were enlisted, and it is well known that, when he had an
object in view, his character was to go ahead.[2] I mean to speak no
evil nor disrespect of General Jackson. He has passed off the stage to
his retirement at the Hermitage, which it would be as well, perhaps,
that friends should not disturb, and where I sincerely wish he may, in
tranquillity, pass the residue of his days. But General Jackson's
character was imperious; he took the back track never; and however his
friends might differ, or whether they concurred or dissented, they were
fain always to submit. General Jackson put forth the pretension, that
appointments by the bank should have regard to the wishes of the
treasury; the matter was formally submitted to the directors of the
bank, and they as formally determined that the treasury could not
rightly or properly have any thing to say in the matter. A long and
somewhat angry correspondence ensued; for General Jackson found in the
president of the bank a man who had something of his own quality. The
result was that the bank resisted, and refused the required
acquiescence in the dictation of the treasury.
This happened in the summer and autumn of 1829, and in December we had
the message in which, for the first time, the bank was arraigned and
denounced. Then came the application of the bank for re-incorporation,
the passage of a bill for that purpose through both houses, and the
Presidential veto.[3] The Bank of the United States being thus put
down, a multitude of new State banks sprang up; and next came a law,
adopting some of these as deposit banks. Now, what I have to say in
regard to General Jackson in this matter is this: he said he could
establish a better currency; and, whether successful or not in this, it
is at least to be said in his favor and praise, that he never did
renounce the obligation of the federal government to take care of the
currency, paper as well as metallic, of the people. It was in
furtherance of this duty, which he felt called on to discharge, of
"providing a better currency," that he recommended the prohibition of
small bills. Why? Because, as it was argued, it would improve the
general mixed currency of the country; and although he did not as
distinctly as Mr. Madison admit and urge the duty of the federal
government to provide a currency for the people, _he never renounced
it_, but, on the contrary, in his message of December, 1835, held this
explicit language:--
"By the use of the State banks, which do not derive their charters from
the general government, and are not controlled by its authority, it is
ascertained that the moneys of the United States can be collected and
distributed without loss or inconvenience, and that all the wants of
the community, in relation to exchange and currency, are supplied as
well as they have ever been before."
It is not here a question whether these banks did, or did not, effect
the purpose which General Jackson takes so much praise to himself for
accomplishing through their agency, that of supplying the country with
as good a currency as it ever enjoyed. But why, if this was not a duty
of the federal government, is it mentioned at all?
Two months only after General Jackson had retired, and when his
vigorous hand was no longer there to uphold it, the league of State
banks fell, and crumbled into atoms; and when Mr. Van Buren had been
only three months President, he convoked a special session of Congress
for the ensuing September. The country was in wide-spread confusion,
paralyzed in its commerce, its currency utterly deranged.[4] What was
to be done? What would Mr. Van Buren recommend? He could not go back to
the Bank of the United States, for he had committed himself against its
constitutionality; nor could he, with any great prospect of success,
undertake to reconstruct the league of deposit banks; for it had
recently failed, and the country had lost confidence in it. What, then,
was to be done? He could go neither backward nor forward. What did he
do? I mean not to speak disrespectfully, but I say he--_escaped!_
Afraid to touch the fragments of the broken banks, unable to touch the
United States Bank, he folded up his arms, and said, The government has
nothing to do with providing a currency for the people. That I may do
him no wrong, I will read his own language. His predecessors had all
said, We _will not_ turn our backs upon this duty of government to
provide a uniform currency; his language is, We _will_ turn our backs
on this duty. He proposes nothing for the country, nothing for the
relief of commerce, or the regulation of exchanges, but simply the
means of getting money into the treasury without loss. In his first
message to Congress, he thus expresses himself:--
"It is not the province of our government to aid individuals in the
transfer of their funds, otherwise than through the facilities of the
Post-Office Department. As justly might it be called on to provide for
the transportation of their merchandise.
"If, therefore, I refrain from suggesting to Congress any specific plan
for regulating the exchanges or the currency, relieving mercantile
embarrassments, or interfering with the ordinary operations of foreign
or domestic commerce, it is from a conviction that such are not within
the constitutional province of the general government, and that their
adoption would not promote the real and permanent welfare of those they
might be designed to aid."
I put it to you, my friends, if this is a statesman's argument. You can
transport your merchandise yourselves; you can build ships, and make
your own wagons; but can you make a currency? Can you say what shall be
money, and what shall not be money, and determine its value here and
elsewhere? Why, it would be as reasonable to say, that the people make
war for themselves, and peace for themselves, as to say that they may
exercise this other not less exclusive attribute of sovereignty, of
making a currency for themselves. He insists that Congress has no power
to regulate currency or exchanges, none to mitigate the embarrassments
of the country, none to relieve its prostrate industry, and even if the
power did exist, it would be unwise, in his opinion, to exercise it!
Let us compare this declaration with that of one now numbered with the
mighty dead; of one who has left behind a reputation excelled by that
of no other man, as understanding thoroughly the Constitution; of one
taking a leading part in its inception, and closing his public career
by administering its highest office; I need not name JAMES MADISON.[5]
In his message to Congress, in December, 1815, when the war had closed,
and the country was laboring under the disordered currency of that
period, the President thus spoke:--
"It is essential to every modification of the finances, that the
benefits of a uniform national currency should be restored to the
community. The absence of the precious metals will, it is believed, be
a temporary evil; but until they can again be rendered the general
medium of exchange, it devolves on the wisdom of Congress to provide a
substitute, which shall equally engage the confidence and accommodate
the wants of the citizens throughout the Union."
The new doctrine which the administration had set up is one vitally
affecting the business and pursuits of the people at large, extending
its efforts to the interests of every family, and of every individual;
and you must determine for yourselves if it shall be the doctrine of
the country. But, before determining, look well at the Constitution,
weigh all the precedents, and if names and authority are to be appealed
to, contrast those of President Van Buren with those of the dead
patriarch whose words I have just read to you, and decide accordingly.
But Mr. Van Buren's message contains a principle,--one altogether
erroneous as a doctrine, and fatal in its operations,--the principle
that the government has nothing to do with providing a currency for the
country; in other words, proposing a separation between the money of
the government and the money of the people. This is the great error,
which cannot be compromised with, which is susceptible of no
amelioration or modification, like a disease which admits no remedy and
no palliative but the caustic which shall totally eradicate it.
Do we not know that there must always be bank paper? Is there a man
here who expects that he, or his children, or his children's children,
shall see the day when only gold coin, glittering through silk purses,
will be the currency of the country, to the entire exclusion of bank
notes? Not one. But we are told that the value of these notes is
questionable. It is the neglect of government to perform its duties
that makes them so. You here, in New York, have sound bank paper,
redeemable in coin; and if you were surrounded by a Chinese wall, it
might be indifferent to you whether government looked after the
currency elsewhere or not. But you have daily business relations with
Pennsylvania, and with the West, and East, and South, and you have a
direct interest that their currency too shall be sound; for otherwise
the very superiority of yours is, to a certain degree, an injury and
loss to you, since you pay in the equivalent of specie for what you
buy, and you sell for such money as may circulate in the States with
which you deal. But New York cannot affect the general restoration of
the currency, nor any one State, nor any number of States short of the
whole, and hence the duty of the general government to superintend this
interest.
But what does the sub-treasury propose? [6] Its basis is a separation
of the concerns of the treasury from those of the people. It directs
that there shall be certain vaults, and safes, and rooms for deposit of
the money of the government. But it has not been for want of adequate
vaults and rooms that we have lost our money, but owing to the hands to
which we have intrusted the keys. It is in the character of the
officers, and not in the strength of bars and vaults, that we must look
for the security of the public treasure. There are no securities under
this new system of keeping the public moneys that we had not before;
while many that did exist, in the personal character, high trusts, and
diversified duties of the officers and directors of banks are removed.
Moreover, the number of receiving and disbursing officers is increased,
and the danger to the public treasure is increased in proportion. The
next provision is, that money once received into the treasury is not to
be lent out. Yet the practice of this government hitherto has always
been opposed to this policy of locking up the money of the people, when
and while it is not required for the public service. Until this time
the public deposits, like private deposits, were used by the banks in
which they were placed, as some compensation for the trouble of
safe-keeping, and in furtherance of the general convenience. The next
provision is that requiring, after 1843, all dues to the government to
be paid in gold and silver. But what are we promised as the equivalent
for all this inconvenience and oppression? Why, that the government in
its turn will pay its debts in specie, and that thus what it receives
with one hand it will pay out with the other, and a metallic
circulation will be established. I undertake to say, that no greater
fallacy than this was ever uttered; the thing is impossible, and for
this plain reason. The dues which the government collects come from
individuals; each pays for himself. But it is far otherwise with the
disbursements of government. They do not go down to individuals, and,
seeking out the workmen and the laborers, pay to each his dues.
Government pays in large sums, to large contractors, and to these it
may pay gold and silver. But do the gold and silver reach those whom
the contractor employs? On the contrary, the contractors deal as they
see fit, with those whom they employ, or of whom they purchase. I speak
of what is in proof. A contractor came to Washington last winter, and
received a draft of $180,000 on a specie-paying bank in New York. This
he sold at ten per cent premium, and with the avails purchased funds in
the West, with which he paid the producer, the farmer, the laborer.
This is the operation of specie payments. It gives to the government
hard money, to the rich contractor hard money; but to the producer and
the laborer it gives paper, and bad paper only. And yet this system is
recommended as specially favoring the poor man, rather than the rich,
and credit is claimed for this administration as the poor man's friend.
Let us look a little more nearly at this matter, and see whom, in
truth, it does favor. Who are the rich in this country? There is very
little hereditary wealth among us; and large capitalists are not
numerous. But some there are, nevertheless, who live upon the interest
of their money; and these, certainly, do not suffer by this new
doctrine; for their revenues are increased in amount, while the means
of living are reduced in value. There is the money-lender, too, who
suffers not by the reduction of prices all around him. Who else are the
rich in this country? Why, the holders of office. He who has a fixed
salary of from $2,500 to $5,000 finds prices falling; but does his
salary fall? On the contrary, three fourths of that salary will now
purchase more than the whole of it would purchase before; and he,
therefore, is not dissatisfied with this new state of things.
I live on the sea-coast of New England, and one of my nearest neighbors
is the largest ship-owner, probably, in the United States. During the
past year, he has made what might suffice for two or three fortunes of
moderate size; and how has he made it? He sends his ships to Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, to take freights of cotton. This staple,
whatever may be the price abroad, cannot be suffered to rot at home;
and therefore it is shipped. My friend tells his captain to provision
his ship at Natchez, for instance, where he buys flour and stores in
the currency of that region, which is so depreciated that he is able to
sell his bills on Boston at forty-eight per cent premium! Here, at
once, it will be seen, he gets his provisions for half price, because
prices do not always rise suddenly, as money depreciates. He delivers
his freight in Europe, and gets paid for it in good money. The
disordered currency of the country to which he belongs does not follow
and afflict him abroad. He gets his freight in good money, places it in
the hands of his owner's banker, who again draws at a premium for it.
The ship-owner, then, makes money, when all others are suffering,
_because he can escape from the influence of the bad laws and bad
currency of his own country_.
Now, I will contrast the story of this neighbor with that of another of
my neighbors, not rich. He is a New England mechanic, hard-working,
sober, and intelligent, a tool-maker by trade, who wields his own
sledge-hammer. His particular business is the making of augers for the
South and Southwest. He has for years employed many hands, and been the
support thereby of many families around him, himself, meanwhile,
moderately prosperous until these evil times came on. Annually,
however, for some years, he has been going backwards. Not less
industrious, not less frugal, he has yet found, that, however good
nominally the prices he might receive at the South and Southwest for
his tools, the cost of converting his Southern or Western funds into
money current in New England was ruinous. He has persevered, however,
always hoping for some change for the better, and contracting gradually
the circle of his work and the number of his workmen, until at length,
the little earnings of the past wasted, and the condition of the
currency becoming worse and worse, he is reduced to bankruptcy; and he,
and the twenty families that he supported, are beggared by no fault of
their own. What was his difficulty? He _could not escape_ from the
evils of bad laws and bad currency at home; and while his rich
neighbor, who could and did, is made richer by these very causes, he,
the honest and industrious mechanic, is crushed to the earth; and yet
we are told that this is a system for promoting the interests of the
poor!
This leads me naturally to the great subject of _American labor_, which
has hardly been considered or discussed as carefully as it deserves.
What is _American labor_? It is best described by saying, _it is not_
European labor. Nine tenths of the whole labor of this country is
performed by those who cultivate the land they or their fathers own, or
who, in their workshops, employ some little capital of their own, and
mix it up with their manual toil. No such thing exists in other
countries. Look at the different departments of industry, whether
agricultural, manufacturing, or mechanical, and you will find that, in
almost all, the laborers mix up some little capital with the work of
their hands. The laborer of the United States is the United States.
Strike out the laborers of the United States, including therein all who
in some way or other belong to the industrious and working classes, and
you reduce the population of the United States from sixteen millions to
one million. The American laborer is expected to have a comfortable
home, decent though frugal living, and to be able to clothe and educate
his children, to qualify them to take part, as all are called to do, in
the political affairs and government of their country. Can this be said
of any European laborer? Does he take any share in the government of
his country, or feel it an obligation to educate his children? In most
parts of Europe, nine tenths of the laborers have no interest in the
soil they cultivate, nor in the fabrics they produce; no hope, under
any circumstances, of rising themselves, or of raising their children,
above the condition of a day-laborer at wages; and only know the
government under which they live by the sense of its burdens, which
they have no voice in mitigating.
To compare such a state of labor with the labor of this country, or to
reason from that to ours, is preposterous. And yet the doctrine now is,
not of individuals only, but of the administration, that the wages of
American labor must be brought down to the level of those of Europe.
I have said this is not the doctrine of a few individuals; and on that
head I think injustice has been done to a Senator from Pennsylvania,
who has been made to bear a large share of the responsibility of
suggesting such a policy. If I mistake not, the same idea is thrown out
in the President's message at the commencement of the last session, and
in the treasury report. Hear what Mr. Woodbury says:--
"Should the States not speedily suspend more of their undertakings
which are unproductive, but, by new loans or otherwise, find means to
employ armies of laborers in consuming rather than raising crops, and
should prices thus continue in many cases to be unnaturally inflated,
as they have been of late years, in the face of a contracting currency,
the effect of it on our finances would be still more to lessen exports,
and, consequently, the prosperity and revenue of our foreign trade."
He is for turning off from the public works these "armies of laborers,"
who consume without producing crops, and thus bring down prices, both
of crops and labor. Diminish the mouths that consume, and multiply the
arms that produce, and you have the treasury prescription for
mitigating distress and raising prices! How would that operate in this
great State? You have, perhaps, some fifteen thousand men employed on
your public works, works of the kind that the Secretary calls
"unproductive"; and, even with such a demand as they must produce for
provisions, prices are very low. The Secretary's remedy is to set them
to raise provisions themselves, and thus augment the supply, while they
diminish the demand. In this way, the wages of labor are to be reduced,
as well as the prices of agricultural productions. But this is not all.
I have in my hand an extract from a speech in the House of
Representatives of a zealous supporter, as it appears, of the
administration, who maintains that, other things being reduced in
proportion, you may reduce the wages of labor, without evil
consequences. And where does he seek this example? On the shores of the
Mediterranean. He fixes upon Corsica and Sardinia. But what is the
Corsican laborer, that he should be the model upon which American labor
is to be formed? Does he know any thing himself? Has he any education,
or does he give any to his children? Has he a home, a freehold, and the
comforts of life around him? No: with a crust of bread and a handful of
olives, his daily wants are satisfied. And yet, from such a state of
society, the laborer of New England, the laborer of the United States,
is to be taught submission to low wages. The extract before me states
that the wages of Corsica are,
"For the male laborer, 24 cents a day;
And the female do. 11 cents do.";--
both, I presume, finding their own food. And the honorable gentleman
argues, that, owing to the greater cheapness of other articles, this is
relatively as much as the American laborer gets; and he illustrates the
fact by this bill of clothing for a Corsican laborer:--
"Jacket, lasting 24 months, 8 francs;
Cap, do. 24 do. 2 do.
Waistcoat, do. 36 do. 4 do.
Pantaloons, do. 18 do. 5 do.
Shirt, do. 12 do. 3 do.
Pair of shoes, do. 6 do. 6 do.
---
28 francs."
Eight francs are equal to one dollar and sixty cents, and five francs
to one dollar. Now, what say you, my friends? What will the farmer of
New York, of Pennsylvania, or of New England say to the idea of walking
on Sunday to church, at the head of his family, in his jacket _two
years old?_ What will the young man say, when, his work ended, he
desires to visit the families of his neighbors, to the one pair of
pantaloons, not quite two years old, indeed, but, as the farmers say of
a colt, "coming two next grass," and which, for eighteen months, have
every day done yeoman's service? Away with it all! Away with this plan
of humbling and degrading the free, intelligent, well-educated, and
well-paid laborer of the United States to the level of the almost brute
laborer of Europe!
There is not much danger that schemes and doctrines such as these shall
find favor with the people. They understand their own interest too well
for that. Gentlemen, I am a farmer, on the sea-shore, [7] and have, of
course, occasion to employ some degree of agricultural labor. I am
sometimes also rowed out to sea, being, like other New England men,
fond of occasionally catching a fish, and finding health and
recreation, in warm weather, from the air of the ocean. For the few
months during which I am able to enjoy this retreat from labor, public
or professional, I do not often trouble my neighbors, or they me, with
conversation on politics. It happened, however, about three weeks ago,
that, on such an excursion as I have mentioned, with one man only with
me, I mentioned this doctrine of the reduction of prices, and asked him
his opinion of it. He said he did not like it. I replied, "The wages of
labor, it is true, are reduced; but then flour and beef, and perhaps
clothing, all of which you buy, are reduced also. What, then, can be
your objections?" "Why," said he, "it is true that flour is now low;
but then it is an article that may rise suddenly, by means of a scanty
crop in England, or at home; and if it should rise from five dollars to
ten, I do not know for certain that it would fetch the price of my
labor up with it. But while wages are high, then I am safe; and if
produce chances to fall, so much the better for me. But there is
another thing. I have but one thing to sell, that is, my labor; but I
must buy many things, not only flour, and meat, and clothing, but also
some articles that come from other countries,--a little sugar, a little
coffee, a little tea, a little of the common spices, and such like.
Now, I do not see how these foreign articles will be brought down by
reducing wages at home; and before the price is brought down of the
only thing I have to sell, I want to be sure that the prices will fall
also, not of a part, but of all the things which I must buy."
Now, Gentlemen, though he will be astonished, or amused, that I should
tell the story before such a vast and respectable assemblage as this, I
will place the argument of _Seth Peterson_, sometimes farmer and
sometimes fisherman on the coast of Massachusetts, stated to me while
pulling an oar with each hand, and with the sleeves of his red shirt
rolled up above his elbows, against the reasonings, the theories, and
the speeches of the administration and all its friends, in or out of
Congress, and take the verdict of the country, and of the civilized
world, whether he has not the best of the argument.
Since I have adverted to this conversation, Gentlemen, allow me to say
that this neighbor of mine is a man fifty years of age, one of several
sons of a poor man; that by his labor he has obtained some few acres,
his own unencumbered freehold, has a comfortable dwelling, and plenty
of the poor man's blessings. Of these, I have known six, decently and
cleanly clad, each with the book, the slate, and the map proper to its
age, all going at the same time daily to enjoy the blessing of that
which is the great glory of New England, the common free school. Who
can contemplate this, and thousands of other cases like it, not as
pictures, but as common facts, without feeling how much our free
institutions, and the policy hitherto pursued, have done for the
comfort and happiness of the great mass of our citizens? Where in
Europe, where in any part of the world out of our own country, shall we
find labor thus rewarded, and the general condition of the people so
good? Nowhere; nowhere! Away, then, with the injustice and the folly of
reducing the cost of productions with us to what is called the common
standard of the world! Away, then, away at once and for ever, with the
miserable policy which would bring the condition of a laborer in the
United States to that of a laborer in Russia or Sweden, in France or
Germany, in Italy or Corsica! Instead of following these examples, let
us hold up our own, which all nations may well envy, and which,
unhappily, in most parts of the earth, it is easier to envy than to
imitate.
But it is the cry and effort of the times to stimulate those who are
called poor against those who are called rich; and yet, among those who
urge this cry, and seek to profit by it, there is betrayed sometimes an
occasional sneer at whatever savors of humble life. Witness the
reproach against a candidate now before the people for their highest
honors, that a log cabin, with plenty of hard cider, is good enough for
him!
It appears to some persons, that a great deal too much use is made of
the symbol of the log cabin. No man of sense supposes, certainly, that
the having lived in a log cabin is any further proof of qualification
for the Presidency, than as it creates a presumption that any one who,
rising from humble condition, or under unfavorable circumstances, has
been able to attract a considerable degree of public attention, is
possessed of reputable qualities, moral and intellectual.
But it is to be remembered, that this matter of the log cabin
originated, not with the friends of the Whig candidate, but with his
enemies. Soon after his nomination at Harrisburg, a writer for one of
the leading administration papers spoke of his "log cabin," and his use
of "hard cider," by way of sneer and reproach. As might have been
expected, (for pretenders are apt to be thrown off their guard,) this
taunt at humble life proceeded from the party which claims a monopoly
of the purest democracy. The whole party appeared to enjoy it, or, at
least, they countenanced it by silent acquiescence; for I do not know
that, to this day, any eminent individual or any leading newspaper
attached to the administration has rebuked this scornful jeering at the
supposed humble condition or circumstances in life, past or present, of
a worthy man and a war-worn soldier. But it touched a tender point in
the public feeling. It naturally roused indignation. What was intended
as reproach was immediately seized on as merit. "Be it so! Be it so!"
was the instant burst of the public voice. "Let him be the log cabin
candidate. What you say in scorn, we will shout with all our lungs.
From this day forward, we have our cry of rally; and we shall see
whether he who has dwelt in one of the rude abodes of the West may not
become the best house in the country!"
All this is natural, and springs from sources of just feeling. Other
things, Gentlemen, have had a similar origin. We all know that the term
"Whig" was bestowed in derision, two hundred years ago, on those who
were thought too fond of liberty; and our national air of "Yankee
Doodle" was composed by British officers, in ridicule of the American
troops. Yet, ere long, the last of the British armies laid down its
arms at Yorktown, while this same air was playing in the ears of
officers and men. Gentlemen, it is only shallow-minded pretenders who
either make distinguished origin matter of personal merit, or obscure
origin matter of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble
condition of early life affect nobody, in this country, but those who
are foolish enough to indulge in them, and they are generally
sufficiently punished by public rebuke. A man who is not ashamed of
himself need not be ashamed of his early condition.
Gentlemen, it did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin; but my
elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the
snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke
first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills,
there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it
and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I
make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them
the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I
love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early
affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle
with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that
none of those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I
am ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for him
who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction,
cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the
fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no
danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his
children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name
of my posterity be blotted for ever from the memory of mankind!
I have now frankly stated my opinions as to the nature of the present
excitement, and have answered the question I propounded as to the
causes of the revolution in public sentiment now in progress. Will this
revolution succeed? Does it move the masses, or is it an ebullition
merely on the surface? And who is it that opposes the change which
seems to be going forward? [Here some one in the crowd cried out,
"None, hardly, but the office-holders, oppose it."] I hear one say that
the office-holders oppose it; and that is true. If they were quiet, in
my opinion, a change would take place almost by common consent. I have
heard of an anecdote, perhaps hardly suited to the sobriety and dignity
of this occasion, but which confirms the answer which my friend in the
crowd has given to my question. It happened to a farmer's son, that his
load of hay was blown over by a sudden gust, on an exposed plain. Those
near him, seeing him manifest a degree of distress, which such an
accident would not usually occasion, asked him the reason; he said he
should not _take on_ so much about it, only father was under the load.
I think it very probable, Gentlemen, that there are many now very
active and zealous friends, who would not care much whether the wagon
of the administration were blown over or not, if it were not for the
fear that father, or son, or uncle, or brother, might be found under
the load. Indeed, it is remarkable how frequently the fire of
patriotism glows in the breast of the holders of office. A thousand
favored contractors shake with horrid fear, lest the proposed change
should put the interests of the public in great danger. Ten thousand
post-offices, moved by the same apprehension, join in the cry of alarm,
while a perfect earthquake of disinterested remonstrance proceeds from
the custom-houses. Patronage and favoritism tremble and quake, through
every limb and every nerve, lest the people should be found in favor of
a change, which might endanger the liberties of the country, or at
least break down its present eminent and distinguished prosperity, by
abandoning the measures, so wise, so beneficent, so successful, and so
popular, which the present administration has pursued!
Fellow-citizens, we have all sober and important duties to perform. I
have not addressed you to-day for the purpose of joining in a premature
note of triumph, or raising a shout for anticipated victories. We are
in the controversy, not through it. It is our duty to spare no pains to
circulate information, and to spread the truth far and wide. Let us
persuade those who differ from us, if we can, to hear both sides. Let
us remind them that we are all embarked together, with a common
interest and a common fate. And let us, without rebuke or unkindness,
beseech them to consider what the good of the whole requires, what is
best for them and for us.
There are two causes which keep back thousands of honest men from
joining those who wish for a change. The first of these is the fear of
reproach from former associates, and the pain which party denunciation
is capable of inflicting. But, surely, the manliness of the American
character is superior to this! Surely, no American citizen will feel
himself chained to the wheels of any party, nor bound to follow it,
against his conscience and his sense of the interest of the country.
Resolution and decision ought to dissipate such restraints, and to
leave men free at once to act upon their own convictions. Unless this
can be done, party has entailed upon us a miserable slavery, by
compelling us to act against our consciences on questions of the
greatest importance.
The other cause is the constant cry that the party of the
administration is the true democratic party, or the more popular party
in the government and in the country. The falsity of this claim has not
been sufficiently exposed. It should have been met, and should be now
met, not only by denial, but by proof. If they mean the new
democracy,--the cry against credit, against industry, against labor,
against a man's right to leave his own earnings to his own
children,--why, then, doubtless, they are right; all this sort of
democracy is theirs. But if by democracy they mean a conscientious and
stern adherence to the true popular principles of the Constitution and
the government, then I think they have very little claim to it. Is the
augmentation of executive power a democratic principle? Is the
separation of the currency of the government from the currency of the
people a democratic principle? Is the imbodying a large military force,
in time of peace, a democratic principle?
Let us entreat honest men not to take names for things, nor pretences
for proofs. If democracy, in any constitutional sense, belongs to our
adversaries, let them show their title and produce their evidence. Let
the question be examined; and let not intelligent and well-meaning
citizens be kept to the support of measures which in their hearts and
consciences they disapprove, because their authors put forth such loud
claims to the sole possession of regard for the people.
Fellow-citizens of the County of Saratoga, in taking leave of you, I
cannot but remind you how distinguished a place your county occupies in
the history of the country. I cannot be ignorant, that in the midst of
you are many, at this moment, who saw in this neighborhood the triumph
of republican arms in the surrender of General Burgoyne. I cannot doubt
that a fervent spirit of patriotism burns in their breasts and in the
breasts of their children. They helped to save their country amidst the
storms of war; they will help to save it, I am fully persuaded, in the
present severe civil crisis. I verily believe it is true, that, of all
that are left to us from the Revolution, nine tenths are with us in the
existing contest. If there be living a Revolutionary officer, or
soldier, who has joined in the attacks upon General Harrison's military
character, I have not met with him. It is not, therefore, in the county
of Saratoga, that a cause sustained by such means is likely to prevail.
Fellow-citizens, the great question is now before the country. If, with
the experience of the past, the American people think proper to confirm
power in the hands which now hold it, and thereby sanction the leading
policy of the administration, it will be your duty and mine to bow,
with submission, to the public will; but, for myself, I shall not
believe it possible for me to be of service to the country, in any
department of public life. I shall look on, with no less love of
country than ever, but with fearful forebodings of what may be near at
hand.
But I do not at all expect that result. I fully believe the change is
coming. If we all do our duty, we shall restore the government to its
former policy, and the country to its former prosperity. And let us
here, to-day, fellow-citizens, with full resolution and patriotic
purpose of heart, give and take pledges, that, until this great
controversy be ended, our time, our talents, our efforts, are all due,
and shall all be faithfully given, to OUR COUNTRY.
Mr. Justice Story.
Your solemn announcement, Mr. Chief Justice, has confirmed the sad
intelligence which had already reached us, through the public channels
of information, and deeply afflicted us all.
Joseph Story, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States, and for many years the presiding judge of this Circuit,
died on Wednesday evening last, at his house in Cambridge, wanting only
a few days for the completion of the sixty-sixth year of his age.
This most mournful and lamentable event has called together the whole
Bar of Suffolk, and all connected with the courts of law or the
profession. It has brought you, Mr. Chief Justice, and your associates
of the Bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, into the midst of
us; and you have done us the honor, out of respect to the occasion, to
consent to preside over us, while we deliberate on what is due, as well
to our own afflicted and smitten feelings, as to the exalted character
and eminent distinction of the deceased judge. The occasion has drawn
from his retirement, also, that venerable man, whom we all so much
respect and honor, (Judge Davis,) who was, for thirty years, the
associate of the deceased upon the same Bench. It has called hither
another judicial personage, now in retirement, (Judge Putnam,) but long
an ornament of that Bench of which you are now the head, and whose
marked good fortune it is to have been the professional teacher of Mr.
Justice Story, and the director of his early studies. He also is
present to whom this blow comes near; I mean, the learned judge (Judge
Sprague) from whose side it has struck away a friend and a highly
venerated official associate. The members of the Law School at
Cambridge, to which the deceased was so much attached, and who returned
that attachment with all the ingenuousness and enthusiasm of educated
and ardent youthful minds, are here also, to manifest their sense of
their own severe deprivation, as well as their admiration of the bright
and shining professional example which they have so loved to
contemplate,--an example, let me say to them, and let me say to all, as
a solace in the midst of their sorrows, which death hath not touched
and which time cannot obscure.
Mr. Chief Justice, one sentiment pervades us all. It is that of the
most profound and penetrating grief, mixed, nevertheless, with an
assured conviction, that the great man whom we deplore is yet with us
and in the midst of us. He hath not wholly died. He lives in the
affections of friends and kindred, and in the high regard of the
community. He lives in our remembrance of his social virtues, his warm
and steady friendships, and the vivacity and richness of his
conversation. He lives, and will live still more permanently, by his
words of written wisdom, by the results of his vast researches and
attainments, by his imperishable legal judgments, and by those
juridical disquisitions which have stamped his name, all over the
civilized world, with the character of a commanding authority. "Vivit,
enim, vivetque semper; atque etiam latius in memoria hominum et sermone
versabitur, postquam ab oculis recessit."
Mr. Chief Justice, there are consolations which arise to mitigate our
loss, and shed the influence of resignation over unfeigned and
heart-felt sorrow. We are all penetrated with gratitude to God that the
deceased lived so long; that he did so much for himself, his friends,
the country, and the world; that his lamp went out, at last, without
unsteadiness or flickering. He continued to exercise every power of his
mind without dimness or obscuration, and every affection of his heart
with no abatement of energy or warmth, till death drew an impenetrable
veil between us and him. Indeed, he seems to us now, as in truth he is,
not extinguished or ceasing to be, but only withdrawn; as the clear sun
goes down at its setting, not darkened, but only no longer seen.
This calamity, Mr. Chief Justice, is not confined to the bar or the
courts of this Commonwealth. It will be felt by every bar throughout
the land, by every court, and indeed by every intelligent and well
informed man in or out of the profession. It will be felt still more
widely, for his reputation had a still wider range. In the High Court
of Parliament, in every tribunal in Westminster Hall, in the
judicatories of Paris and Berlin, of Stockholm and St. Petersburg, in
the learned universities of Germany, Italy, and Spain, by every eminent
jurist in the civilized world, it will be acknowledged that a great
luminary has fallen from the firmament of public jurisprudence.[1]
Sir, there is no purer pride of country than that in which we may
indulge when we see America paying back the great debt of civilization,
learning, and science to Europe. In this high return of light for light
and mind for mind, in this august reckoning and accounting between the
intellects of nations, Joseph Story was destined by Providence to act,
and did act, an important part. Acknowledging, as we all acknowledge,
our obligations to the original sources of English law, as well as of
civil liberty, we have seen in our generation copious and salutary
streams turning and running backward, replenishing their original
fountains, and giving a fresher and a brighter green to the fields of
English jurisprudence. By a sort of reversed hereditary transmission,
the mother, without envy or humiliation, acknowledges that she has
received a valuable and cherished inheritance from the daughter. The
profession in England admits with frankness and candor, and with no
feeling but that of respect and admiration, that he whose voice we have
so recently heard within these walls, but shall now hear no more, was
of all men who have yet appeared, most fitted by the comprehensiveness
of his mind, and the vast extent and accuracy of his attainments, to
compare the codes of nations, to trace their differences to difference
of origin, climate, or religious or political institutions, and to
exhibit, nevertheless, their concurrence in those great principles upon
which the system of human civilization rests.
Justice, Sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament
which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever
her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a
foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement
and progress of our race. And whoever labors on this edifice with
usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strengthens
its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes to raise its
august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself, in name, and
fame, and character, with that which is and must be as durable as the
frame of human society.
All know, Mr. Chief Justice, the pure love of country which animated
the deceased, and the zeal, as well as the talent, with which he
explained and defended her institutions. His work on the Constitution
of the United States is one of his most eminently successful labors.
But all his writings, and all his judgments, all his opinions, and the
whole influence of his character, public and private, leaned strongly
and always to the support of sound principles, to the restraint of
illegal power, and to the discouragement and rebuke of licentious and
disorganizing sentiments. "Ad rempublicam firmandam, et ad stabiliendas
vires, et sanandum populum, omnis ejus pergebat institutio."
But this is not the occasion, Sir, nor is it for me to consider and
discuss at length the character and merits of Mr. Justice Story, as a
writer or a judge. The performance of that duty, with which this Bar
will no doubt charge itself, must be deferred to another opportunity,
and will be committed to abler hands. But in the homage paid to his
memory, one part may come with peculiar propriety and emphasis from
ourselves. We have known him in private life. We have seen him descend
from the bench, and mingle in our friendly circles. We have known his
manner of life, from his youth up. We can bear witness to the strict
uprightness and purity of his character, his simplicity and
unostentatious habits, the ease and affability of his intercourse, his
remarkable vivacity amidst severe labors, the cheerful and animating
tones of his conversation, and his fast fidelity to friends. Some of
us, also, can testify to his large and liberal charities, not
ostentatious or casual, but systematic and silent, --dispensed almost
without showing the hand, and falling and distilling comfort and
happiness, like the dews of heaven. But we can testify, also, that in
all his pursuits and employments, in all his recreations, in all his
commerce with the world, and in his intercourse with the circle of his
friends, the predominance of his judicial character was manifest. He
never forgot the ermine which he wore. The judge, the judge, the useful
and distinguished judge, was the great picture which he kept constantly
before his eyes, and to a resemblance of which all his efforts, all his
thoughts, all his life, were devoted. We may go the world over, without
finding a man who shall present a more striking realization of the
beautiful conception of D'Aguesseau: "C'est en vain que l'on cherche a
distinguer en lui la personne privée et la personne publique; un même
esprit les anime, un même objet les réunit; l'homme, le père de
famille, le citoyen, tout est en lui consacré à la gloire du magistrat."
Mr. Chief Justice, one may live as a conqueror, a king, or a
magistrate; but he must die as a man. The bed of death brings every
human being to his pure individuality; to the intense contemplation of
that deepest and most solemn of all relations, the relation between the
creature and his Creator. Here it is that fame and renown cannot assist
us; that all external things must fail to aid us; that even friends,
affection, and human love and devotedness, cannot succor us. This
relation, the true foundation of all duty, a relation perceived and
felt by conscience and confirmed by revelation, our illustrious friend,
now deceased, always acknowledged.
He reverenced the Scriptures of truth, honored the pure morality which
they teach, and clung to the hopes of future life which they impart. He
beheld enough in nature, in himself, and in all that can be known of
things seen, to feel assured that there is a Supreme Power, without
whose providence not a sparrow falleth to the ground. To this gracious
being he entrusted himself for time and for eternity; and the last
words of his lips ever heard by mortal ears were a fervent supplication
to his Maker to take him to himself. [2]
Biographical.
First Period: Law and Politics in New Hampshire.
1782 Born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18.
Early Education.
1797 Enters Dartmouth College.
1805 Admitted to the Bar,
1805.
Practises in Boscawen.
1807 Removes to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
1813 Elected to Congress from Portsmouth.
1814-15 The Hartford Convention.
Second Period: Leader at the Bar and in the Forum.
1816 Removes to Boston, Massachusetts.
1817 "The Defence of the Kennistons."
1818 "The Dartmouth College Case."
1820 Massachusetts Convention.
Third Period: Expounder and Defender of the Constitution.
1827 Elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.
1830 "The Reply to Hayne."
1833 "The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States."
1833-34 Removal of the Deposits from the United States Bank.
Rise of the Whig Party.
1835 Nominated to the Presidency by the Whigs of Massachusetts.
1837 Reception in New York.
1839 Visits England.
1840 Presidential Canvass.
1840-43 Secretary of State.
Ashburton Treaty.
Resigns the Department of State.
1844 Re-elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.
1845 "Eulogy on Justice Story."
Annexation of Texas.
1846 Banquet in Philadelphia.
1850 Seventh of March Speech.
Secretary of State under President Fillmore.
1852 Public Reception in Boston.
Last Illness and Death.
Notes.
_DEFENCE OF THE KENNISTONS_
April, 1817.
Mr. Webster had been elected to Congress from Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, in 1813, and his term expired in March, 1816. In August of
that year (1816) he removed his family to Boston, and decided to devote
himself exclusively to the profession of the law. He had won a high
position both in law and politics in New Hampshire. The change of
residence marks an era in the life of Mr. Webster. Mr. Lodge says that
there is a tradition that the worthies of the Puritan city were
disposed at first to treat the newcomer somewhat cavalierly, but that
they soon learned that it was worse than useless to attempt such a
course with a man whose magnificent physical and intellectual bearing
won the admiration of all who met him.
He now began a career of great professional distinction, and took a
place at the Boston bar even more conspicuous than his friends had
anticipated--that of an equal of the most famous of its members. His
cases called him before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, the Circuit
Court of the United States, and the United States Supreme Court. Among
the first cases which came to him on his retirement from political life
was the Goodridge Robbery Case, the argument in which was addressed to
the jury at the term of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
held at Ipswich in April, 1817.
The singularly dramatic story of the prosecutor, the almost universal
belief in the guilt of the accused, both by the public and by the
members of the Essex bar, and the impossibility of accounting for the
motive (self-robbery) assumed by the defence, make this exhibition of
Mr. Webster's "acute, penetrating, and terrifying" power of
cross-examination,--by which such a complicated and ingenious story was
unravelled,--one of the most memorable in the history of the
Massachusetts bar. It is a model of close, simple, unadorned argument,
adapted to the minds of the jurymen. In it there are no attempts to
carry the jury off their feet by lofty appeals to their sense of
justice, nor to cover the weak points in the case by fine oratory. The
oft-repeated, "It is for the jury to determine," illustrates Mr.
Webster's respect for the common sense of the jurymen before him and
his reliance upon evidence to win the case. The following are the facts
relating to the case:--Major Goodridge of Bangor, Maine, professed to
have been robbed of a large sum of money at nine o'clock on the night
of Dec. 19, 1816, while travelling on horseback, near the bridge
between Exeter and Newburyport. In the encounter with the robbers he
received a pistol wound in his left hand; he was then dragged from his
horse into a field, beaten until insensible, and robbed. On recovering,
he procured the assistance of several persons, and with a lantern
returned to the place of the robbery and found his watch and some
papers. The next day he went to Newburyport, and remained ill for
several weeks, suffering from delirium caused by the shock. When he
recovered he set about the discovery of the robbers. His story seemed
so probable that he had the sympathy of all the country-folk. He at
once charged with the crime Levi and Laban Kenniston, two poor men, who
lived in an obscure part of the town of Newmarket, New Hampshire, and
finding some of his money (which he had previously marked) in their
cellar, he had them arrested, and held for trial. By and by a few of
the people began to doubt the story of Goodridge; this led him to
renewed efforts, and he arrested the toll gatherer, Mr. Pearson, in
whose house, by the aid of a conjurer, he found some of his money. On
examination by the magistrate, Pearson was discharged. It now became
necessary to find some accomplice of the Kennistons, and he arrested
one Taber of Boston, whom he had seen (he said) on his way up, and from
whom he had obtained his information against the Kennistons. In Taber's
house was found some of the money; he was accordingly bound over for
trial with the Kennistons. As none of these men lived near the scene of
the robbery, Mr. Jackman, who, soon after the robbery, had gone to New
York, was arrested, his house searched, and some of the money found in
the garret. The guilt of these men seemed so conclusive that no eminent
member of the Essex bar would undertake their defence. A few of those
who mistrusted Goodridge determined to send to Suffolk County for
counsel.
Mr. Webster had been well known in New Hampshire, and his services were
at once secured; without having time to examine any of the details of
the case--as he had arrived at Ipswich on the night before the
trial--he at once undertook the defence of the Kennistons and secured
their acquittal. The indictment against Taber was _nol prossed_. Later,
he defended Jackman and secured his acquittal. Mr. Pearson brought
action against Goodridge for malicious prosecution, and was awarded
$2000, but Goodridge took the poor debtor's oath and left the State.
Cf. Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. VIII.; Everett's _Memoir of
Webster_, in Vol. I. of Webster's Works.
* * * * *
_THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE_.
March, 1818.
Within a year after the defence of the Kennistons, Mr. Webster was
called upon to defend his Alma Mater against the acts of the
Legislature of his native State.
The case was one of the most interesting ever argued before the Supreme
Court of the United States, because there were involved in it certain
constitutional questions which had never been tested. "Mr. Webster by
his management of this case," says Edward Everett, "took the lead in
establishing what might almost be called a new school of constitutional
law." Not until within a few years has the complete history of the case
been accessible. In 1879, a volume of "Dartmouth College Causes" was
published by Mr. John M. Shirley, and in it we have, for the first
time, a clear statement of all the points relating to the origin and
development of the case.
Dartmouth College was originally a charity school, and was founded by
Eleazor Wheelock at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1754. Afterwards private
subscriptions were solicited in England, and the Earl of Dartmouth was
a large donor and became one of the trustees. The site was soon moved
to Hanover, New Hampshire, where large grants of land had been made by
the proprietors. It was chartered by the Crown in 1769, and was created
a perpetual corporation, with Dr. Wheelock as founder and President; he
was empowered to name his own successor subject to the approval of the
trustees, to whom was given power to fill vacancies in their own body
and to make laws for the College subject to the Crown.
It seems that in his early days Dr. Wheelock had a controversy on
religious matters with Dr. Bellamy. These men were graduates of Yale;
the former was a Presbyterian, and the latter a Congregationalist. This
religious war was carried on by the successors of these men, the son of
Dr. Wheelock, and President of the College, and a pupil of Dr. Bellamy,
who had been elected a trustee; it soon, however, became a political
contest between factions of the trustees, one of which objected to what
it called the "family dynasty." In 1809 this faction became a majority
and opposed the other so vigorously that in 1815 the Wheelock party set
forth its case in a lengthy pamphlet. Much ink was shed upon both sides
as a result. Wheelock then sent a memorial to the Legislature charging
the trustees with violation of trust and religious intolerance, and
prayed for an investigation by a committee of the Legislature. The
trustees were Federalists and Congregationalists, the ruling power in
State and Church. Mr. Mason, Mr. Webster's old antagonist at the New
Hampshire bar, was secured as counsel for the trustees. The Wheelock
party made advances to Mr. Webster, but he saw that the case was fast
assuming a political tone, and he declined the offer. Contrary to Mr.
Mason's advice, the trustees removed President Wheelock, and appointed
Rev. Francis Brown in his place. As a result all the Democrats and all
religious orders, other than the Congregational, united against the
trustees--and the political die was cast.
At the next election the Democrats carried the State, and the Governor
in his message took occasion to declare against the trustees. The
Legislature, in June, 1816, passed an act to reorganize the College,
and under this law the new trustees were chosen; thus the College
became a State institution. Woodward, the Secretary of the old board,
had been removed, and became the Secretary of the newly constituted
board. Suit was brought against him by the old board, for the College
seal and other property, and the case in charge of Mr. Mason and Judge
Smith came up for trial in May, 1817; it was argued and then went over
to the September term of the same year at Exeter. It was at this stage
of the proceedings that Mr. Webster joined the counsel for the College.
He made the closing argument of such force and pathos as to draw tears
from the crowd in the court-room. The decision was against the College.
In Mr. Mason's brief we find that there were three points made against
the Acts of the Legislature: (1) that they were not within the power of
that body; (2) that they violated the Constitution of New Hampshire;
and (3) that they violated the Constitution of the United States, or
the right of private contracts. The third point was not, however,
pressed by the counsel, and was not considered as very important; they
based their case mostly upon the first point: that the College was
founded by private parties, for special purposes, and that any quarrel
of the trustees was a question for the courts to settle, and not for
the Legislature. When it was decided against them, they removed the
case to the Supreme Court of the United States on this one point, that
the acts impaired the obligation of contracts. The friends of the
College now desired Mr. Webster to take entire charge of the case; he
consented, and selected as his assistant, Mr. Hopkinson, of
Philadelphia. Mr. Holmes of Maine and Mr. Wirt conducted the defence.
The case was heard on March 10, 1818, and was opened by Mr. Webster.
With the notes and minutes of the previous counsel Mr. Webster was
familiar, and he said that the credit of the legal points and theories
he set forth was due to them; he was only the arranger and reciter of
what they had prepared. Mr. Webster had a remarkable power of selecting
and using the material of other men, but he was always ready to give
them the credit due.
With a skill and judgment which Chief Justice Marshall said he never
saw equalled, Mr. Webster outlined the question at issue, and by his
marvellous adroitness in arranging, and clearness in presenting the
facts, together with that wealth of legal and historical illustration
with which he was always so well endowed, he seemed to carry with him
every man in the court-room. Such was the ease, grace, and fascination
of his argument, that Justice Story, who sat, pen in hand, to take
notes, was completely absorbed and forgot his pen and paper.
[1]P. 58, l. 15. I. Here, the argument being ended, Mr. Webster stood
still for some time before the court, while every eye was fixed upon
him, and then addressing the Chief Justice, he proceeded with that
noble peroration which has become one of the masterpieces of eloquence,
and which is an expansion of the closing argument which he delivered at
the previous trial in New Hampshire. This does not appear in the
printed argument; I have added it from the report of Dr. Goodrich.
[2]P. 59, l. 5. 1. I give the beautiful description which Dr. Goodrich
wrote to Mr. Choate in 1853. "Here the feelings, which he had thus far
succeeded in keeping down, broke forth. His lips quivered; his firm
cheeks trembled with emotion; his eyes were filled with tears; his
voice choked, and he seemed struggling to the utmost simply to gain
that mastery over himself which might save him from an unmanly burst of
feeling. I will not attempt to give you the few broken words of
tenderness in which he went on to speak of his attachment for the
college. The whole seemed to be mingled throughout with recollections
of father, mother, brother, and all the privations and trials through
which he had made his way into life. Every one saw that it was wholly
unpremeditated, a pressure on his heart, which sought relief in words
and tears." The court-room during these two or three minutes presented
an extraordinary spectacle. Chief Justice Marshall, with his tall and
gaunt figure, bent over as if to catch the slightest whisper, the deep
furrows of his cheek expanded with emotion, and his eyes suffused with
tears; Mr. Justice Washington at his side, with his small and emaciated
frame, and countenance more like marble than I ever saw on any other
human being--leaning forward with an eager troubled look; and the
remainder of the Court at the two extremities, pressing, as it were,
toward a single point, while the audience below were wrapping
themselves around in closer folds beneath the bench, to catch each look
and every feature of the speaker's face. If a painter could give us the
scene on canvas,--those forms and countenances, and Daniel Webster as
he there stood in their midst,--it would be one of the most touching
pictures in the history of eloquence. One thing it taught me, that the
_pathetic_ depends not merely on the words uttered, but still more on
the estimate we put upon him who utters them. There was not one among
the strong-minded men of that assembly who could think it unmanly to
weep, when he saw standing before him the man who had made such an
argument, melted into the tenderness of a child. Mr. Webster had now
recovered his composure, and, fixing his keen eye on the Chief Justice,
in that deep tone with which he sometimes thrilled the heart of an
audience, continued."[3] L. 10. 2. When Mr. Webster sat down, there was
a stillness as of death in the court-room, and when the audience had
slowly recovered itself the replies of the opposing counsel were made,
but seemed weak indeed in comparison to what had just been heard. On
the conclusion of the arguments, the Chief Justice announced that the
Court could not agree, and that the case must be continued to the next
term. During the interim, the utmost effort was used by the friends of
the College, the press, and the Federalists, to bring the matter before
the public, and to impress the judges with the condition of the public
mind. The defence prepared to renew the contest, and able counsel was
secured. At the next term, however, the Chief Justice ruled that the
Acts of the Legislature were void, as they impaired the right of
private contract. Of this argument Mr. Justice Story said: "For the
first hour we listened with perfect astonishment; for the second hour
with perfect delight; and for the third hour with perfect conviction."
Mr. Lodge says: "From the day when it was announced, to the present
time, the Doctrine of Marshall in the Dartmouth College Case has
continued to exert an enormous influence."
After the trial Mr. Hopkinson wrote to the President of the College and
said: "I would have an inscription over the door of your building:
'Founded by Eleazor Wheelock, Refounded by Daniel Webster.'"
Cf. Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. VIII.; Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. III.;
Everett's _Memoir_, in Vol. I. of Webster's Works; Shirley's _Dartmouth
College Causes; Correspondence of Webster_, Vol. I., pp. 266-70;
Magruder's _Life of John Marshall_.
* * * * *
_FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND_.
December, 1820.
The "Old Colony Club," formed for social intercourse in 1769, was the
first to celebrate Forefathers' Day. Although the club was dissolved in
1773, the anniversary celebrations were continued until 1780; between
this time and 1820, when the "Pilgrim Society" was founded, they were
held with but few interruptions.
The foundation of the "Pilgrim Society" in 1820 gave a new impetus to
the celebrations, and in that year Mr. Webster was chosen to give the
address.
[1]P. 64, l. 17. 1. The allusion is to the painting by Sargent; it was
presented by him to the Society in 1824.
[2]L. 22. 2. Cf. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[3]L. 30. 3. Cf. the report of the Pilgrim Society on the correct date
of the landing of the Pilgrims. The 21st is now considered to be the
date.
[4]P. 66, l. 31. 1. Cf. _Herodotus_, Ch. VI., § 109.
[5]P. 70, l. 23. 1. Cf. "The Start from Delfshaven," by Rev. D. Van
Pelt, in the _New England Magazine_, November, 1891. For a through
treatment of the whole subject read Chapter II., "The Puritan Exodus"
in _Beginnings of New England_, by John Fiske.
[6]P. 77, l. 13. 1. Cf. _Beginnings of New England_, by John Fiske, pp.
12-20, "The Roman Method of Nation-Making."
[7]P. 81, l. 18. 1. Cf. _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 20-49, "The
English Method of Nation-Making."
[8]P. 82, l. 30. 1. Cf. Hutchinson's _History_, Vol. II., App. I. "The
men who wrote in the cabin of the _Mayflower_ the first charter of
freedom, were a little band of protestants against every form of
injustice and tyranny. The leaven of their principles made possible the
Declaration of Independence, liberated the slaves, and founded the free
Commonwealths which form the Republic of the United States."--C. M.
DEPEW, Columbian oration.
[9]P. 83, l. 15. 1. Cf. _Germanic Origin of New England Towns_, H. B.
Adams.
[10]P. 108, l. 7. 1. Cf. Cicero's _Oratio pro Flacco_, § 7.
[11]L. 29. 2. The first free public school established by law in
Plymouth Colony was in 1670.
[12]P. 111, l. 17. 1. Cf. _Beginnings of New England_, p. 110,
"Founding of Harvard College." Lowell's "Harvard Anniversary."
In 1647 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay passed the law requiring every
town of one hundred families to set up a grammar school which should
prepare youth for the university.
If Mr. Webster by his handling of the Dartmouth College Case founded a
new school of constitutional law, by the Plymouth Oration he founded a
new school of oratory. This field of occasional oratory was a new and
peculiar one for him. He had never before spoken upon a great
historical subject demanding not only wealth of imagination, but the
peculiar quality of mind and heart which unites dignity and depth of
thought with ease and grace of manner. But he was equal to the task.
The simplicity and beauty of the thought, the grand and inspiring
manner of presentation, gave evidence of commanding genius, and gave
Mr. Webster a place in the front rank of orators and stylists.
"I never saw him," says Mr. Ticknor, "when he seemed to me to be more
conscious of his own powers, or to have a more true and natural
enjoyment from their possession."
John Adams, who had heard Pitt and Fox, Burke and Sheridan, says: "It
is the effort of a great mind, richly stored with every species of
information. If there be an American who can read it without tears, I
am not that American. Mr. Burke is no longer entitled to the
praise--the most consummate orator of modern times. What can I say of
what regards myself? To my humble name '_Exegisti monumentum ære
perennius_.' The oration ought to be read at the end of every century."
"It is doubtful," says Edward Everett, "whether any extra-professional
literary effort by a public man has attained equal celebrity."
Cf. Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. IX.; Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. IV.; De
Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_, Vol. I.; Whipple's _American
Literature_, "Webster as a Master of English Style"; Bancroft's
_History of the United States_, Vol. I., Chs. XII., XIII., XIV.;
Burke's _Orations on the American War_, edited by A. J. George; Fiske's
_Beginnings of New England_.
* * * * *
_THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT._
June, 1825.
As early as 1776, the Massachusetts Lodge of Masons, over which General
Warren had presided, asked the Government of Massachusetts for
permission to take up his remains, which were buried on the hill the
day after the battle, and bury them with the usual solemnities. The
request was granted on condition that the government of the colony
should be permitted to erect a monument to his memory.
The ceremonies of burial were performed, but no steps were taken to
build the monument. General Warren was, at the time of his death, Grand
Master of the Masonic Lodges of America, and as nothing had been done
toward erecting a memorial, King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown voted
to erect a monument. The land was purchased, and a monument dedicated
by the Lodge Dec. 2, 1794. It was a wooden pillar of Tuscan order,
eighteen feet high, raised on a pedestal ten feet in height. The pillar
was surmounted by a gilt urn. An appropriate inscription was placed on
the south side of the pedestal.
The half-century from the date of the battle was at hand, and, despite
a resolution of Congress and the efforts of a committee of the
Legislature of Massachusetts, no suitable monument had been erected by
the people. It was then that, at the suggestion of William Tudor, the
matter was taken up in earnest and an association was formed known as
the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Ground was broken for the
monument June 7, 1825. On the morning of the 17th of June, 1825, the
ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the monument took place. It
was a typical June day, and thousands flocked to see the pageant and to
hear the greatest orator in the land.
The procession started from the State House at ten o'clock. The
military led the van. About two hundred veterans of the Revolution rode
in carriages, and among them were forty survivors of the battle. Some
wore their old uniform, others various decorations of their service,
and some bore the scars of honorable wounds. Following the patriots
came the Monument Association, and then the Masonic fraternity to the
number of thousands. Then came the noble Frenchman, Lafayette, the
admiration of all eyes. Following him were numerous societies with
banners and music. The head of the procession touched Charlestown
Bridge before the rear had left the State House, and the march was a
continual ovation. Arriving at Breed's Hill, the Grand Master of the
Masons, Lafayette, and the President of the Monument Association laid
the corner-stone, and then moved to the spacious amphitheatre on the
northern side of the hill, where the address was delivered by Mr.
Webster.
[1]P. 122, l. 7. 1. An account of the voyage of the emigrants to the
Maryland Colony is given by the report of Father White, written soon
after the landing at St. Mary's. The original in Latin is still
preserved by the Jesuits at Rome.
The _Ark_ and the _Dove_ occupy the same place of interest in the
memory of the descendants of the colony as does the _Mayflower_ with us.
[2]L. 18. 2. Mr. Webster was at this time President of the Monument
Association.
[3]P. 125, l. 13. 1. Even the poetical nature of Webster would not have
been equal to the conception, that within the century the number would
reach sixty million.
[4]L. 16. 2. "The first railroad on the continent was constructed for
the purpose of accelerating the erection of this monument."--EVERETT.
[5]P. 127, l. 15. 1. The allusion is, of course, to the ships about the
Charlestown Navy Yard, which is located at the base of Breed's Hill.
[6]L. 21. 2. This magnificent address to the "Venerable Men" was
composed while Mr. Webster was fishing in Marshpee brook.
[7]P. 128, l. 4. 1. Milton's _Paradise Lost_, V.
[8]L. 17. 2. Cf. Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. IV.,
p. 133. A prelude to Warren's patriotism at Bunker Hill is well
illustrated in his oration at the old South Meeting House,
commemorating the Boston Massacre; in the presence of British soldiers
he said: "Our streets are again filled with armed men, our harbour is
crowded with ships of war; but these cannot intimidate us; my
fellow-citizens, you will maintain your rights or perish in the
generous struggle."
[9]P. 130, l. 9. 1. Cf. Burke's _Orations on the American War_, edited
by A. J. George.
[10]P. 131, l. 32. 1. Virgil's _Aeneid_, VI. 726. Compare Burke's use
of this same quotation in his speech on American Taxation, page 13,
line 13. Edited by A. J. George.
[11]P. 133, l. 9. 1. Cf. Bancroft's _History of the United States_,
Vol. IV., Ch. XIV.
[12]L. 22. 2. General Lafayette had arranged his progress through the
other States so that he might be present on the 17th.
[13]P. 140, l. 22. 1. Homer's _Iliad_, Book XVII.
[14]P. 141, l. 13. 1. Cf. account of Webster's speech on the Revolution
in Greece, made on the 19th of January, 1824, in Everett's _Memoir_,
Vol. I. of Webster's Works.
Great as the Plymouth Oration was acknowledged by all to be, the Bunker
Hill Address was a distinct advance upon it, both in the scope of the
ideas and in the skill with which they are wrought into an organic
whole. It is more compact, more picturesque, more vigorous, more
finished. In this field of oratory he probably has never had any equal
in the English-speaking world.
Mr. Everett said of the Address: "From such an orator as Mr. Webster,
on such a platform, on such a theme, in the flower of his age, and the
maturity of his faculties, discoursing upon an occasion of transcendent
interest, and kindling with the enthusiasm of the day and the spot, it
might well be regarded as an intellectual treat of the highest order.
Happy the eyes that saw that most glorious gathering! Happy the ears
that heard that heart-stirring strain!"
Lafayette wrote to Webster on the 28th of December, 1825, from La
Grange, saying: "Your Bunker Hill has been translated into French, and
other languages, to the very great profit of European readers."
Mr. Hillard, in his Eulogy on Webster, says: "His occasional discourses
rise above the rest of their class, as the Bunker Hill Monument soars
above the objects around it."
Mr. Choate, in his address to the students of Dartmouth College in
1853, in that sublime paragraph in which he reviews the history of
oratory and contrasts the eloquence of despair with the eloquence of
hope, says: "Let the downward age of America find its orators, and
poets, and artists, to erect its spirit, or grace and soothe its dying;
be it ours to go up with Webster to the rock, the monument, the
capitol, and bid the distant generations hail."
Cf. Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. XI.; Everett's _Memoir_, in Vol. I.
of Webster's Works; Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. IV.; Memorial of Webster;
Mr. Hillard's and Mr. Choate's Address; J. Fiske's _The American
Revolution_.
* * * * *
_THE REPLY TO HAYNE_.
January, 1830.
The third period of Mr. Webster's life and work may be said to begin
with his new honor--his election to the United States Senate in 1827,
and his changed attitude toward the question of the tariff as seen in
his great speech on the tariff of 1828.
To understand Mr. Webster's position on the question of the tariff, one
must remember that he insisted upon the principle that the question of
the tariff was purely a business question, and that it was to be
determined by the conditions affecting business. Up to this time
Webster had opposed Protection, but now as the business of New England
required assistance, he boldly stood forth as the champion of a
Protective Tariff. It was in connection with the tariff legislation of
1816, 1824, and 1828 that the monster Nullification--carefully
disguised until 1830--had its birth. In this year it was found stalking
abroad, and in the halls of Congress menacing the bulwark of our
liberties--the Constitution of the country. It fell to the lot of Mr.
Webster to grapple with this monster and to strangle it in his giant
grasp.
On the 29th of December, 1829, Senator Foot of Connecticut moved a
resolution in regard to the Public Lands, and a long and weary
discussion followed until Mr. Hayne, a Senator from South Carolina, on
June 19, 1830, took part and introduced a new element into the
discussion by making an elaborate attack on the New England States. Mr.
Webster had taken no special interest in the question, and on the day
in which Mr. Hayne began his speech he was engaged in the Supreme
Court, but came into the Senate in season to hear the closing
paragraphs. Thinking that such an attack upon New England required a
reply, Mr. Webster at once rose, but yielded to a motion to adjourn. On
the next day, the 20th, Mr. Webster proceeded with his reply, in which
he showed the absurdity of Hayne's accusations and by which he
completely shattered his whole elaborate argument. There was hardly an
allusion in Mr. Webster's speech to the question of the tariff as it
concerned South Carolina, but so aroused was Hayne by Webster's defence
of New England, that on the following day he spoke a second time and in
a tone of even greater severity and bitterness than that which marked
his previous speech; he indulged in personal allusion to Mr. Webster,
and strove to bring odium upon him and the State which he represented;
he openly espoused the cause of Nullification and declared war upon the
tariff. Before he concluded the Senate adjourned until the 25th, when
he completed his speech; Mr. Webster immediately rose to reply, but as
it was late yielded to a motion to adjourn. Mr. Hayne's speech had
caused the greatest alarm throughout the North; many were afraid that
it was unanswerable. This was an evidence that the true nature of the
Constitution was not thoroughly understood. "It is a critical moment,"
said Mr. Bell of New Hampshire to Mr. Webster on the morning of the
26th, "and it is time, it is high time, that the people of this country
should know what this Constitution _is_." "Then," said Mr. Webster, "by
the blessing of Heaven, they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes
down, what I understand it to be." With this utterance upon his lips,
he entered the Senate Chamber, which was already crowded. Every seat on
the floor and in the galleries was occupied; the House of
Representatives was deserted; the lobbies and staircases were packed.
The vast audience was composed, on the one hand, of those who feared
and trembled lest the rushing tide of hostility to the Constitution and
the Union should sweep over the country; and on the other, of those who
believed that New England had no champion strong enough to stand in the
breach. This scene in the Senate Chamber is rivalled only by that in
the House of Commons, when Burke, in 1774, stood forth as the defender
of the American colonies. Such was the anxiety to hear the speech that
all the ordinary preliminaries of senatorial action were postponed, and
Mr. Webster began his "Second Speech on Foot's Resolution," better
known as "The Reply to Hayne."
[1]P. 146, l. 10. 1. Mr. Webster rose with great calmness, and in the
majesty of that personal presence which could cause the English navvy
to shout as he saw him, "By Jove, there goes a king!" with a confidence
in his own resources which was the result of experience, in a clear,
calm, and firm tone pronounced this magnificent exordium which was such
a piece of consummate art that its effect was electric; all who feared,
and all who hated, knew that he was master of the situation.
[ 2] P. 147, l. 27. 1. When on the 21st Mr. Chambers asked that there
be a delay to enable Mr. Webster, who had engagements out of the house,
to be present, Mr. Hayne was unwilling to grant the request, saying
that the gentleman (Mr. Webster) has discharged his fire in the
presence of the Senate, and he wanted an opportunity to return it. Mr.
Webster said, "Let the discussion proceed: I am ready now to receive
the gentleman's fire."
[3] P. 149, l. 8. 1. The notes, covering only five sheets of ordinary
letter paper, from which Webster developed the entire speech of seventy
pages, contain no hint of the exordium, but begin with
"No man hurt. If his 'rankling' is relieved, glad of it."
"I have no 'rankling' fear, anger, consciousness of refutation."
"No 'rankling,' original, or received--bow not strong enough."
[4]L. 12. 2. Mr. Benton.
[5]L. 27. 3. Mr. Webster's preparation for this reply lay in the nature
of his thought and reading from his first entrance into public life,
and especially from the nature of the constitutional questions which he
has argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.
[6]P. 152, l. 1. 1. Should not this be "_more_"?
[7]L. 24. 2. This was a political cry raised against President Adams,
who was elected by the House of Representatives. Clay had been a
candidate, and because Adams gave him a seat in his Cabinet, a cry went
up that they had made a bargain, by which Mr. Clay's friends were to
vote for Adams in the House, and in return Clay was to receive a
Cabinet position. This was a piece of political clap-trap. Cf.
_American Politics_, Johnston, Ch. XI.
[8]P. 155, l. 5. 1. If there had been a coalition and it was killed, it
was killed by Calhoun, who threw all his influence against Adams and
for Jackson. But at the time of this speech Calhoun was treated
somewhat cavalierly by Jackson, and had not much reward in party
succession.
[9]P. 157, l. 13. 1. "The Missouri Compromise." Cf. _American
Politics_, Johnston, Ch. VIII.
[10]P. 162, l. 22. 1. This Convention of 1814 was composed of men of
the old Federal party, strongly opposed to war with Great Britain. Cf.
_American Politics_, Johnston, Ch. VIII.
[11]P. 170, l. 3. 1. The "South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company" had
on Jan. 9, 1830, asked Mr. Webster to present its claims to government
assistance.
[12]P. 179, l. 5. 1. Calhoun, Vice-President, and President of Senate.
[13]P. 180, l. 5. 1. Mr. Forsyth.
[14]L. 25. 2. Cf. Calhoun's speech in the House of Representatives in
April, 1816.
[15]P. 182, l. 6. 1. Mr. McDuffie.
[16]P. 186, l. 12. 1. Letter of the Federal Convention to the Congress
of the Confederation transmitting the plan of the Constitution.
[17]P. 188, l. 4. 1. Cf. Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. VI.
[18]P. 197, l. 1. 1. President Jackson, who had been an avowed
Federalist all his life.
[19]L. 15. 2. A Portuguese prince, who led the revolutionists against
the constitutional government.
[20]P. 198, l. 1. 1. A body of Federalists in Essex County,
Massachusetts, strongly opposing the Embargo of 1807, and the War of
1812.
[21]P. 199, l. 24. 1. After the passage of the Tariff of 1828, the
legislature of South Carolina set forth a "Protest" asserting the
principle of Nullification.
[22]P. 203, l. 29. 1. "At the conclusion of this paragraph there was
scarcely a dry eye in the Senate, the Massachusetts men shed tears like
girls," _Reminiscence of Congress_, March.
[23]P. 205, l. 28. 1. A toast proposed at a Democratic dinner, April
30, 1830, in New York, in honor of Jefferson's birthday.
[24]P. 212, l. 16. 1. Senator Hillhouse of Connecticut.
[25]P. 214, l. 8. 1. The purpose of this Embargo was to retaliate on
both Great Britain and France. In the commercial war waged by those two
countries, the foreign trade of the United States was cut off. The
Embargo fell with crushing weight upon New England.
[26]P. 227, l. 11. 1. _Paradise Lost_, Bk. I., l. 540.
[27]P. 228, l. 9. 1. The leader of the Whiskey Rebellion in
Pennsylvania.
[28]P. 234, l. 9. 1. This celebrated peroration was entirely
unpremeditated, there is no allusion to it in the "notes" of Mr.
Webster. Mr. March says, "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 celestial fire.... His voice penetrated every recess or
corner of the Senate,--penetrated even the anterooms and stairways."
Mr. Webster himself said: "I never spoke in the presence of an audience
so eager and so sympathetic." Mr. Everett says: "Of the effectiveness
of Mr. Webster's manner in many parts, it would be in vain to attempt
to give any one not present the faintest idea. It has been my fortune
to hear some of the ablest speeches of the greatest living orators on
both sides of the water, but I must confess I never heard anything
which so completely realized my conception of what Demosthenes was when
he delivered the Oration for the Crown."
Mr. Lodge in his excellent review of the speech says: "The speech as a
whole has all the qualities which made Mr. Webster a great orator. An
analysis of the Reply to Hayne, therefore, gives us all the conditions
necessary to forming a correct idea of Mr. Webster's eloquence, of its
characteristics, and its value." Cf. Ch. VI., _Webster_, American
Statesman Series. This book should be a constant companion of the
student while reading these selections.
Dr. Francis Lieber wrote: "To test Webster's oratory, I read a portion
of my favorite speeches of Demosthenes, and then read, always aloud,
parts of Webster; then returned to the Athenian; and Webster stood the
test." As a result of this great effort, Mr. Webster was overwhelmed
with congratulations from all parts of the land. The speech was the
universal theme of conversation, and there was a general demand for the
printed copy. Probably no speech in history has had so many readers as
the Reply to Hayne.
Cf. Healey's historical painting of the scene of this great debate, in
Faneuil Hall; Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. XVI.; Everett's _Memoir_,
Vol. I. of Webster's Works; _Correspondence of Webster_, Vol. I., p.
488.
* * * * *
_THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN JOSEPH WHITE_.
August, 1830.
Almost immediately after the Reply to Hayne, Mr. Webster was engaged
with the Attorney-General of Massachusetts in one of the most
remarkable criminal cases on record, and on August 3d made the argument
in the trial of John Francis Knapp for the murder of Captain Joseph
White.
The following is a summary of the facts: On the night of the 6th of
April, 1830, the town of Salem was visited by a desperado who entered
the house of Joseph White, a wealthy and respectable citizen, and
murdered him in his bed. The citizens formed a vigilance committee and
worked without avail until there came a rumor that a prisoner in the
New Bedford jail knew something of the affair. He was accordingly
brought up before the grand jury, and on his testimony Richard
Crowningshield, of Danvers, was indicted. A few weeks later Captain
Joseph Knapp, a shipmaster of good character, received a strange note
from Belfast, Maine, which was signed by Charles Grant, Jr. This note
threatened exposure unless money was forwarded. Knapp could not
understand it. He showed it to his sons, Francis and Joseph, Jr., who
resided in Wenham. The wife of the latter was a niece of the late Mr.
White, and was his housekeeper prior to the murder. When Joseph saw the
letter he said it contained trash, and told his father to hand it to
the vigilance committee. When they received the letter they sent to
Belfast to find the writer. This proved to be one Palmer, who had been
in state prison and who was intimate with Crowningshield. He said he
saw, on the 2nd of April, Frank Knapp and a man, Allen, in company with
Crowningshield, and that he heard the latter say that Frank Knapp
wished them to kill Mr. White, and that Joseph Knapp would pay them one
thousand dollars.
After the murder the Knapps reported that, on the 27th of April, they
had been attacked by robbers on their way from Salem to Wenham. The
purpose of this will be seen in what follows. On the testimony of
Palmer the Knapps were held for investigation, and on the third day
Joseph made a full confession of the murder and of the fabrication of
the robbery story. He had found that Mr. White intended to leave his
(Knapp's) wife but fifteen thousand dollars by will, and he thought
that if he died intestate she would come in for one-half of the estate,
as the sole representative of Mr. White's sister. Under this impression
he determined to destroy the will. Frank agreed to hire the assassin,
and he (Joseph) was to pay one thousand dollars for the deed.
Crowningshield was hired; he entered the house by a window and
committed the murder. So cool was he that, as he said, he paused to
feel the pulse of the old man to be sure he was dead. Frank was waiting
the issue, while Joseph, who had got the will, was in Wenham at his
home. When Crowningshield heard that the Knapps were in custody, and
that Joseph had confessed, he committed suicide in his cell.
At a special term of the Supreme Court at Salem, July 20th, indictments
for murder were found against Francis Knapp as principal, and Joseph
Knapp and George Crowningshield (a companion of Richard) as
accessories. The trial of Francis took place August 3d, with Mr.
Franklin Dexter and Mr. W. H. Gardner for the defence, and Mr. Webster
assisting the Attorney-General in the prosecution.
[1]P. 239, l. 13. 1. Mr. Lodge says that this account of the murder and
analysis of the workings of a mind, haunted with the remembrance of the
horrid crime, must be placed among the very finest masterpieces of
modern oratory. "I have studied this famous exordium," he says, "with
extreme care, and I have sought diligently in the works of all the
great modern orators, and of some of the ancient as well, for similar
passages of higher merit. My quest has been in vain."
[2]P. 241, l. 23. 1. Mr. Webster's appearance for the prosecution gave
rise to some complaints on the part of the defence, who intimated that
he was in the interest of Mr. Stephen White, a residuary legatee of the
murdered man. The fact was that both the Attorney-General and the
Solicitor-General were old men, and had asked for Mr. Webster's
assistance.
[3]P. 243, l. 20. 1. Chief Justice Parker.
[4]P. 248, l. 10. 1. Mr. Webster's presentation of the evidence is
omitted. Cf. Webster's Complete Works, Vol. VI., p. 61.
Knapp was convicted as principal and sentenced to death. At the
November term Joseph was convicted as accessory and sentenced to share
the same fate. George Crowningshield proved an _alibi_, and was
acquitted. The argument in the Goodridge case stands in marked contrast
to this; and it must be conceded that, as a presentation of the law and
the evidence, with no attempt to work upon the feelings of the jurymen,
it is a work of higher quality. As a specimen of eloquence, of dramatic
setting forth of the horror of such a deed, of the experiences of the
criminal, and of the certainty that "murder will out," the argument has
no equal in the language.
For a remarkable analysis of Mr. Webster's career as a lawyer, see
Rufus Choate's address before the students of Dartmouth College in 1853
in "Memorial of Daniel Webster from the City of Boston."
* * * * *
_THE CONSTITUTION NOT A COMPACT_.
February, 1833.
Mr. Webster had intimated in his Reply to Hayne that South Carolina was
playing a high game. There were some at that time who thought that he
had sounded the note of alarm in too loud a strain; but when in
November, 1832, the State Convention, assembled at Columbia, South
Carolina, adopted an ordinance declaring the revenue laws of the United
States null and void, the voice of the croakers ceased to be heard in
the general excitement that filled the country. The Legislature
assembled on the 27th, and the governor in his message said that "the
die has been at last cast," and that the Legislature was called upon to
make "such enactments as would make it utterly impossible to collect
within our limits the duties imposed by the protective tariffs thus
nullified." The Legislature passed acts providing that any one who
should attempt to collect the revenue should be punished, and made it
lawful to use the military force of the State to resist any attempt of
the United States to enforce the tariff laws. Mr. Webster now had a
very difficult and delicate task before him; he was bound to criticise
the general tone of the administration of Jackson, for he believed that
it had not met the needs of the country, and yet he was equally bound
not to put himself in such antagonism as to prevent him from aiding the
administration, should his aid be sought, against those who were
determined to destroy the laws of the land. In the then impending
presidental canvass he took the ground that President Jackson was in
hostility to the idea of protection, and that therefore he could not be
safely trusted with the executive power. But President Jackson,
whatever had been his record on the question of the tariff, showed that
he had no desire to shirk his duty, for he at once issued a
proclamation, which embodied the principles maintained by Mr. Webster
in his Reply to Hayne, and warned the authorities of South Carolina
that all opposition to the laws of the United States would be put down.
He thus served notice that treason was not to win by default of the
President. Calhoun had resigned the vice-presidency and had taken his
seat in the Senate, and it was known that such an act meant the attempt
to raise the flag of nullification high in the Senate-chamber.
Mr. Webster was on his way to Washington when he heard of the prompt
and decisive action of the President. At Philadelphia he met Mr. Clay,
who told him that he had a plan for settling the difficulty by
gradually reducing the tariff, and for levying duties "without regard
to protection or encouragement of any branch of domestic industry."
When Mr. Clay brought in his bill, it was not so strong as the one he
had submitted to Mr. Webster a short time before, but yet Mr. Webster
could not think of taking any step at such a time that would look like
concession. The first thing to be done was to enforce the existing laws
and sustain the administration by suitable legislation. There was to be
no surrender of constitutional power. At the opening of the session the
President asked Congress for the power to use the land and naval forces
if necessary to enforce the laws. The committee to which the message
was referred reported what is known as the "Force Bill," which granted
the President the powers asked for. Some of the senators doubted that
the President had such "daring effrontery" as to ask for such power.
Mr. Webster said, "I will tell you gentlemen that the President _has_
had the 'daring effrontery' to ask for these powers, no matter how high
may be the offence."
President Jackson had used very strong language against the leaders of
Nullification, and this made many of the (Southern) administration
senators hostile to the measures of the "Force Bill." When it was found
that the President had called for the assistance of Mr. Webster, Mr.
Calhoun became very uneasy, and at once sought for Mr. Clay, who
promised to bring in his bill for reducing the tariff. On the 8th of
February, Mr. Clay introduced the measure and claimed that its purpose
was to save the tariff, which he considered to be in imminent danger.
Mr. Webster, as was expected, opposed the bill and introduced a series
of resolutions. On the two following days he was prevented from
addressing the Senate on his resolutions because of the discussion of
the "Force Bill," when Mr. Calhoun took the opportunity to expound the
theory and practice of Nullification. The speech was in Mr. Calhoun's
very best style of close, logical argument, with but little that made
for eloquence. Calhoun was a master of logical method, and such was his
skill in dovetailing together the elements of his speculations that he
was a powerful antagonist. He had waited until most of the senators in
opposition had spoken and then broke upon them and tore their arguments
into shreds. It was an able supplement to the speech of Hayne and was
likely to produce quite as much alarm, unless its position could be
turned. Here were sown the seeds of secession which grew into that
frightful civil war. By establishing the principle of the Union as but
a confederacy of States the right of secession was assured.
Mr. Webster felt the importance of the occasion; he saw clearly the
direction in which such appeals were sure to lead the people, and he at
once determined to throw himself into the conflict. The doctrines which
he had maintained in the Reply to Hayne had now taken strong hold of
the people of the Central and Western States, and of many of the
strongest public men of both parties; it was from this vantage ground
that (on the 16th) he began his great speech known as "The Constitution
not a Compact between Sovereign States."
[1]P. 275, l. 9. 1. Mr. Rives.
[2]P. 326, l. 27. 1. "The vital question went to the great popular
jury. The world knows what the verdict was, and will never forget that
it was largely due to the splendid eloquence of Daniel Webster when he
defended the cause of nationality against the slave-holding separatists
of South Carolina."--HENRY CABOT LODGE.
"Whoever," says Mr. Curtis, "would understand that theory of the
Constitution of the United States which regards it as the enactment of
a fundamental law must go to this speech to find the best and clearest
exposition."
"Then and there," says Dr. Hudson, "it was that real battles of the
Union were fought and won. For the cause had to be tried in the courts
of legislative reason before it could come to trial on field of battle."
This speech is much less rhetorical than the Reply to Hayne. The
subject was not a new one, nor was the condition of the public mind so
feverish as in 1830; consequently the case required not so much an
appeal to the emotions as to the reason. It has always been considered
as the most compact, close, logical, and convincing of all Mr.
Webster's speeches. The people have relied upon it from that day to
this to teach them the principles of the Constitution: in it they find
the origin, the history, and the purpose of our great national fabric.
By this speech Webster placed himself upon the highest pinnacle of
fame, and added to his title of first orator that of the greatest
statesman of his time, winning the proud distinction of "Expounder,
Commentator, and Defender of the Constitution." On the 12th of October,
1835, the citizens of Boston presented to Mr. Webster a massive silver
vase in testimony of their gratitude for his services in defence of the
Constitution against South Carolina Nullification.