THE CHEVALIER J.G. HÜLSEMANN, _Chargé d'Affaires of Austria,
Washington_.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Everett had then resigned the Presidency of Harvard
College.]
[Footnote 2: Whether Mr. Hunter's draft was also sent to Mr. Everett, I
do not know. The internal evidence would seem to indicate that it was;
but the fact is not material.]
[Footnote 3: I have seen, I believe, all the documents in relation to
this matter; viz. Mr. Hunter's draft, Mr. Everett's (in his handwriting,
with Mr. Webster's erasures), the third draft, made at the department
under Mr. Webster's directions, and the original added paragraphs,
written by Mr. Webster with his own hand. To those who are curious about
the question of _authorship_, it is needful only to say that Mr. Webster
adopted Mr. Everett's draft as the basis of the official letter, but
that the official letter is a much more vigorous, expanded, and complete
production than Mr. Everett's draft. It is described in a note written
by Mr. Everett to one of the literary executors, in 1853, as follows:
"It can be stated truly that what Mr. Webster did himself to the letter
was very considerable; and that he added one half in bulk to the
original draft; and that his additions were of the most significant
character. It was very carefully elaborated in the department by him,
till he was authorized to speak of it as he did at the Kossuth
dinner...."
This refers to what Mr. Webster said in his speech at the Kossuth
banquet, in Washington, January 7, 1852:--
"May I be so egotistical as to say that I have nothing new to say on the
subject of Hungary? Gentlemen, in the autumn of the year before last,
out of health, and retired to my paternal home among the mountains of
New Hampshire, I was, by reason of my physical condition, confined to my
house; but I was among the mountains, whose native air I was bound to
inspire. Nothing saluted my senses, nothing saluted my mind, or my
sentiments, but freedom, full and entire; and there, gentlemen, near the
graves of my ancestors, I wrote a letter, which most of you have seen,
addressed to the Austrian _chargé d'affaires_. I can say nothing of the
ability displayed in that letter, but, as to its principles, while the
sun and moon endure, I stand by them."]
[Footnote 4: From Hon. George T. Curtis's Life of Daniel Webster, Vol.
II. pp. 535-537.]