Chapter D: Webster

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Here are Mr. Webster's minutes of his famous conversation with Mr. Jefferson when he visited him in December, 1824. They were afterward published in full from these _memoranda_. They are written on two pages of a very small sheet of note-paper. But they contain, among other things, a graphic portrait of Patrick Henry, his tribute to Sam Adams as more than any other man the author of Revolutionary measures; to John Adams as the colossus of the great debate of liberty which preceded the Declaration of Independence; Mr. Jay's authorship of the Address to the People of England, one of the four greatest state papers in our history; of the fact that Richard Henry Lee came near being a stamp-master, and the fact that Virginia and the New England States always acted together and carried through the Revolution, picking up a few other votes where they could:

"Paris— panther—red deer
Buffon moose—Genl
Sullivan—40 guineas

P. Henry—Plutarch's lives—
Humes essays—
a bar keeper—
Studied law a fortnight—

Fast— from Ol. Cromwell's
model ————

"Sam'l Adams—more than any man author of Revol.
measures—but Jno. A. the Colossus of Debate.

"Mr. Jay wrote address to people of England—

"R. H. Lee—solicited, at first to be stamp-master—

"Va. & 4 N. E. States always acted together, _they_ carried
thro' the Revolution—picking up a few other votes where they
could—"

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Next comes a letter from Lord Ashburton, written from London, June 18, 1852, interesting for the confession of that sincere and candid Englishman, that he did not pretend to be a free-trader for America. If many of our English advisers, and many Americans who have been prone to take their advice, had been as sensible as Lord Ashburton, it would have been much better for all concerned. This letter, as some others of Ashburton's which have been published heretofore, is a thorough refutation, if any were needed after Edward Everett's conclusive statement, of the old slander once uttered in Parliament, and occasionally revived on both sides of the Atlantic, that Mr. Webster obtained dishonest advantage over the English Commissioner by suppressing an ancient map wherein the boundary between Maine and Nova Scotia had been traced in conformity with the British claim. Lord Ashburton's expressions of friendship and esteem for Mr. Webster are wholly inconsistent with such a transaction:

"LONDON, June 18th, '52.
"MY DEAR MR. WEBSTER,

"It was with no small pleasure that I recognised your handwriting, and accepted the very grateful office of shewing civility to your friend.

"I fear that our climate at this moment will prove anything but beneficial to his daughter's health. We are now paying the penalty for three months of drought; I wish for his sake that he had arrived at an earlier period.

"We expect very little change in the relative strength of parties from the coming elections. The popular element must always gain, but less on this occasion than on any other, as the masses are enjoying in comfort the blessings of cheap food & abundant employment. The farmer even is thriving. He sells mutton of the growth of 18 months, he saves 20 per cent in the cost of labor. He economises in the purchase of all he consumes. Forgive this burst of Peelite exultation in consideration of the abuse & odium under which we have been laboring.

"Let me add however that I do not pretend to be a free trader for America, and thus oppose myself to your powerful authority. Believe me my dear Mr. Webster

"Yours very truly
ASHBURTON."

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The following letter, addressed to Mr. Webster's law partner, John P. Healey, with its enclosure, has never been printed. Allusions are found to it in other letters of Mr. Webster written from London, contained in Mr. Webster's published correspondence. It is probable that Mr. Webster's friends in Boston took the liberty of withholding his letter refusing to be a candidate. At any rate, his name was presented to the Whig National Convention held at Harrisburg in October(?), 1839. That convention was held more than a year before the election. The delegates from each State were requested to present to the convention the name of their own choice for the Presidency, and with it the name of the other person whom they thought likely to be the strongest candidate in case their own selection were not adopted by the convention. These reports of the different delegations were all referred to a grand committee with instructions to recommend a candidate to the convention. The result was the nomination of General Harrison by a large majority. Then a committee was appointed to select a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. That committee first agreed upon the name of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, but, on his refusal to be a candidate, reported the name of John Tyler, with most unfortunate results for the Whig party:

"LONDON, June 12, '39.

"DR SIR,—Please cause the enclosed to be published, the same day, in all the Whig newspapers in Boston, & as soon as you receive it.

Yrs
D. WEBSTER.

"_To the People of Massachusetts._

"It is known that my name has been presented to the Public, by a meeting of Members of the Legislature of the State, as a candidate for the office of President of the United States at the ensuing Election. As it has been expected that a Convention would be holden in the autumn of this year, composed of Delegates from the Several States, I have hitherto thought proper not to anticipate, in any way, the results of that Convention. But I am now out of the country, not to return, probably, much earlier than the period fixed for the meeting of the convention, and do not know what events may occur, in the meantime, which, if I were at home, might demand immediate attention from me. I desire, moreover, to act no part which may tend to prevent a cordial & effective union among those, whose object, I trust, is to maintain, unimpaired, the Constitution of the Country, and to uphold all its great interests, by a wise, prudent, and patriotic administration of the Government. These considerations have induced me to withdraw my name as a Candidate for the office of President at the next Election.

"DAN'L WEBSTER.
"LONDON, June 12, 1839."

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Mr. Webster was counsel in the celebrated case of Myra Clark Gaines, the wife of General Gaines, who laid claim to a large property in Louisiana as the daughter of Daniel Clark by an alleged marriage with Zuleima Carriere. This marriage was denied, and it was also alleged that the mother of Mrs. Gaines had, at the time of the alleged marriage, another lawful husband living.

Mr. Webster's brief, which is in his own writing, consists of seventeen pages of manuscript notes. It contains nothing specially striking except an observation about one of the witnesses, a woman who seems to have been called to prove a marriage of reputation, and seems to have been one of three female witnesses called by the same party. Mr. Webster's memorandum for his arguments is this:

"There is but one witness. And who is she? Who are they all? Not respectable women at that period. All three alike.

Facies non omnibus una
Nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.

One bad element of character taints the rest."

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This letter to William Sullivan refers to the famous Dartmouth College case, the judgment in which, as the result of Webster's argument, made safe the endowment of every incorporated institution of learning and charity in the country. It was doubtless sent by Mr. Sullivan to Mrs. Webster for her inspection, as appears by the following note written by Sullivan in the margin: "Dear Madam, In a letter which I have seen, it is said, 'In the College cause, Webster shone like the sun; and Holmes like a sunfish.'"

"WASHINGTON, March 13, Friday,
2 o'clock.

"DEAR SIR,—The Court has announced its intention to rise tomorrow, & will hear no argument except in the cause now before them, which is No. 79.

"The Pastora will not be reached. I am exceedingly sorry for this, but could not help it. I insisted to the last & the Chief Justice was obliged to tell me it was _impossible_—& then I gave it up.

"The College case is argued—not decided—There is a difference of opinion on the bench, & some of the Judges have not come to a conclusion in their own minds. So it is to be continued. I shall depart, on the rising of the Court, & make the best of my way home.

"Yrs
D. WEBSTER."

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The following letter to Mr. Brewer is interesting as showing Mr. Webster's interest in questions relating to the currency. It is well known that he himself thought that the department of activity in which he was most capable to render service to the country was that of finance, and that he would have liked very well to have taken the Treasury instead of the Department of State in Harrison's administration:

"BOSTON, Aug. 25, 1837.

"MY DEAR SIR,—I am very much obliged to you for your trouble in procuring & sending me the plan of Mr. Wood's House. I enclose the amount of the Architect's charge.

Like yourself, I look forward with much concern to the ensuing session of Congress. That there has been a considerable change, in public opinion, is certain; that this may produce a corresponding effect, in some degree, on the deliberations of Congress, is to be hoped; but whether the change has proceeded so far, as to justify the expectation that the Country is now ready to renounce, entirely, the folly of "Experiments" on the currency, & to return to the former well approved system of finance & currency, may admit of doubt. To the friends of the right cause, however, there remains nothing but a steady, honest, patriotic adherence to sound policy & the true interests of the Country.

"I am, Dr Sir,
with regard & esteem
Yr ob serv.
DAN'L WEBSTER.

"MR. BREWER."

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Some very zealous persons were impatient of Mr. Webster's hesitation and irresolution long before the time of the anti-slavery struggle. My Uncle Jeremiah Evarts, a man whom many people think quite the intellectual equal of his son, the famous advocate, threw himself with all his zeal into the defence of the Cherokee Indians when they were removed from their homes in Georgia by the Legislature of that State, in spite of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which was set at defiance. Mr. Evarts said, "There is One who knows how to execute His judgments." That prophecy had a terrible fulfilment in the region about Missionary Ridge, named, I suppose, for the mission to those Indians maintained by the board of which Mr. Evarts was secretary, which during the Civil War was, as Horace Maynard told me, drenched with blood and honeycombed with graves. Mr. Evarts gave his life to the cause of these oppressed people. His death was caused by over-exertion in their defence. He always claimed to have Mr. Webster's promise of earnest support; and whether he were right or not, no such promise was ever kept. But I have in my possession a considerable number of bound volumes of pamphlets which belonged to Mr. Webster, including many presentation copies from their authors who were among his famous cotemporaries. One of them is a copy of Jeremiah Evarts's "William Penn," written by him in the cause of the Cherokee Indians, which was very famous in its day. On the title-page, written in pencil but still quite legible, in Daniel Webster's handwriting, are the words: "When Greece uttered her voice and stretched forth her hand for aid your hearts were moved, your kindling sympathies went out. Will you be deaf to the no less piteous Indian cry?" This single sentence shows, I suppose, that Mr. Webster was thinking of a speech to be made in the Senate in the cause of the Indians, and also what, as we have said, was his usual method of preparation, that he intended to compose a few sentences in a complete form, the rest of the speech being, so far as composition was concerned, extempore.

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The following is from Aaron Burr, containing little in itself, other than the autograph, and the fact that it in all probability relates to the case of which Mr. Todd tells the story in his delightful paper in the "Green Bag," as follows:

"The late Judge Tenney, of Maine, told me that Mr. Webster, when at Portsmouth, heard one of Mr. Mason's students say that the 'old man' had been much puzzled over a particular law difficulty, but had settled it. Mr. Webster inquired what it was, and what was Mr. Mason's solution, and did not forget it. A few years after, in New York, Aaron Burr, one of the ablest lawyers of his time, applied to Mr. Webster for his opinion on this very question, and was surprised to hear his ready answer, that of Mr. Mason."

The tone of hostility in the following letter from Benton is not explained, so far as I know, by any occurrence which history has preserved. If it implied a threat of a challenge, undoubtedly Mr. Webster bore himself on the occasion as became a Senator from Massachusetts, as he did in dealing with the fiery-hearted John Randolph, and as Henry Wilson afterward did in dealing with Preston S. Brooks:

"SENATE CHAMBER, Jan'y 4th 1832.

"SIR,—I take leave to invite your attention to a published letter which Col. Davis will show you, and to say, that he will receive the answer, if any, which you may think the occasion calls for.

"Yr. obt. servant
"THOMAS H. BENTON.

"HON. MR. WEBSTER."

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Among the books in my possession belonging to Daniel Webster is a copy of Granger's Biographical Dictionary, in three volumes. It contains Mr. Webster's book-plate, with the motto, "Vera Pro Gratis." On the fly-leaf Mr. Webster has written:

"Mr. Granger died, April 15, 1776, while administering the sacrament, of an apoplectic fit.

More happy end what saint e'er knew!
To whom like mercy shown!
His Saviour's death in rapturous view,
And unperceived his own.

_Vide_ Annual Register for 1776.