a

Years

ers.

talent and ingenuity, the whole past history of Mr. Mr. Webster answered General Hayne. The Webster had singularly qualified him for the duty world knows the history of that answer by heart. of defending the constitution. This government of It was a demonstration of the principle that a State the United States—this union is now in existence, cannot, and therefore the country felt that Sooth with its paramount powers unimpaired, because Mr. Carolina would not, nullify a law of Congress. Webster's intellectual and moral relation to the A remarkable eagerness seized on the public mind constitution, at that critical moment, enabled him to to read this speech. It was spread over the counencounter and defeat the peril of that hour. It was try, from Maine to Missouri ; vastly more copies of in debate, that the constitution was to be saved. It it having heen printed than of any other speech in was a great argument on the floor of the Senate, the history of the government. What followed that was demanded by the exigency of the occa- was a necessary attitude of preparation and comsion to convince the country that a law of Congress palsion taken by the government, when occasion could not and therefore would not be nullified by a called for it—an attitude which it owed the power law of a state. Mr. Webster had for years been to take to Mr. Webster's great and successful argutrained in the school of the constitution. He re-mentation.* quired no especial preparation, for his whole life It was said, soon after, in a periodical of high had been a course of preparation for such an ar- standing, published at Philadelphia, that Mr. Webgument. The constitution, in its true, broad and ster might regard this achievement as the chief genuine spirit--the instrument that constitutes a honor of his life. But who shall set limits to the government and not a collection of states, which power of a great statesman to do good, as long as cmbraces the whole people under one National Providence continues him in the world. Union, and is subject to no defeat or dismember-passed on-years of constant, faithful public serment by local power or sectional jealousy—this and vice, of great toil and sacrifice, of perpetnal good nothing less than this had been the object of his accomplished—and found him in a high office, with legal and political studies for years. He had read the foreign relations of the country entrusted to his it by no other light than good sense and the truth care. Those relations were entangled with a power, of history, faithful to its genuine text. He had from whose people our blood, language, laws, letimbued himself with the opinions of its great found-ters and civilization are derived ; who must be the

With the doctrines of Washington and Jay most formidable enemy on earth to us, as she ought and Hamilton and Madison, in the past ; with those to be the dearest friend. Diplomacy had exhausted of Marshall and Story, in the present; with all its resources and done its mischiefs. Dark and former and all modern means of genuine exposition, angry clouds lowered in the horizon, and the point with the study of its powers, with the contempla- of honor, that delicate and irritable spot in the pastion of its vast benefits and blessings ; with its sions of nations, had been almost reached and grand and transcendently important history, out of wounded. Intricate controversies, crossing each which our political destiny must be forever shaped, other in a singular confusion, conflicting rights and his mind was as familiar as with the most ordinary interests, principles of public law and objects of knowledge. Some of the brightest laurels he had national policy, had for more than twenty years been Ever won, had been gained in the forum, in causes woven into a “mesh," that might have appalled involving the questions that spring from the consti- the clearest vision and the steadiest hand. But tution of the United States and touch the sources there was a frank and sincere disposition on the of state power and state legislation. When, there- part of the brave people with whom we were in fore, he was suddenly called upon to enter into a this web of difficulties, to use conciliation ; and, debate upon nullification, he was beyond all other above all, a profound respect and confidence towards men the most fit person to defend the constitution. the person and character of the American SecreIt was also just such a defence as he made, that was tary. Let us pause here, for a moment, to consider to save and did save the country from a civil war. the consequences, if the secretary had demeaned

It was on the 21st and 22d of January, 1830, that himself otherwise than as he did. General Hayne formally developed in the Senate We will not for an instant make the smallest conthe doctrines of nullification. His speech was cession to that spirit, which regards a war with grave, argumentative and plausible. It required an England as anything less than a crime and a calamanswer. Every one who heard it, or heard of it, ity for these United States if wantonly and careor read it, felt that a crisis for the Constitution had lessly produced. That coarse and vulgar patriotarrived. If the speech had remained unanswered ; ism, which cannot find in honorable peace the highabove all, if the answer had not been a triumphant est honor of one's country, and does not regard war refutation, the Administration, with all the force as the last dread evil for nations, will never learn of General Jackson's personal character, could not to hate the cowardice of doing wrong.” But in afterwards have encountered the menaced resist- the judgment of the vast majority of inankind, in ance, without a civil war. South Carolina after their cool and reflecting moments, he who saves his wards actually stood with arms in the hands of her country from a war, hy skilful, able and upright citizens, ready to resist the collection of revenue by negotiation ; who gains for her by the pen inore the General Government, within her borders. But than all that she could have gained by the sword ; the battle of the Constitution had been fought in who averts, without loss of dignity, and with a vast the Senate ; and the moral victory having been won accession of honor, the crimes, and misery, and there, the government could proceed with its dem- ruin, that follow in the train of hostile armies, oastrations of force without the otherwise inevi- achieves a distinction and a praise, higher than all table result of bloodshed. When a faction is pro- other earthly honors. His reputation will be dear ceeding to rebellion upon professed grounds of doc- to his country, beyond all price, for it is bound up trine and principle, it is more than half disarmed, with the sources of her prosperity and happiness in a country of intelligence and a free press, as soon

a

it is established on the broad and imperishable foun- | enterprise. The ship sailed on, the loom remained dations of the public good.

active on every stream, the plough on every hillLet any American sit down and follow out the side and in every valley stood not still. The harconsequences of a different line of conduct from that vest was gathered ; the pulsations that beat along pursued by Mr. Webster. Let him suppose that a every artery in the life of trade, through a great war had been suffered to grow out of the Caroline land of production and consumption, were undisand McLeod affair. No man at this day can be turbed. The quivering fibres of domestic life and found to assert that upon the question of interna- love, throughout millions of homes, were torn by no tional law, respecting McLeod, we were not clearly anguish of “ war’s alarums," no news of the slain and wholly in the wrong. Let then a war have and wounded on deck or field. Peace, with its grown out of his individual fate, by the refusal of countless blessings and its anthems of thanksgivthe United States to admit the true principle appli- ing, remained upon the earth. How came it to be cable to his case. For the sake of an obstinate so? adherence to wrong, let the commerce of this vast Then and there, in the city of Washington, Anno country have been exposed to the British navy, let Domini 1842, in the heats of a southern summer, towns have been burned, let lives and treasure have an earnest man, of deep wisdom and vast capacity been squandered, let Anglo-Saxon Christians have for labor, held the peace of his country in his hand. met for each other's blood on land and sea, let the It could not but be known to him, that a failure in fierce struggle of kindred nations have commenced, the undertaking would be followed by a war begun to end God knows when and how. Wherescever ingloriously, if it should end with what may be victory might have perched, is there anything called success. It could not but be known to him within the range of the human imagination more that his country looked to him for an issue out of a bitter than the curses of millions, that would have perplexing and hazardous business, that should save followed the name of that statesman, who should both its interests and its honor. He could not but have been too weak and too cowardly to meet his feel that the civilized world looked with interest on duty on a question so paltry in its details, but fraught his position, and would hold America and him to a with such consequences from the principles in- solemn account for the opportunities before him. volved? Or take the Northeastern Boundary as a What anxious nights, what laborious days were cause for war between England and America. his; he who runs may read in the results that have Title to a wild and unsettled country-mere title, since come forth. Never found unequal to any part capable of fair adjustment by compromise and in human affairs, the secretary was equal to himagreement--as a cause for war, presents an idea self; and he who seeks to detract from the merit that no honest mind can contemplate without a of that great deed, seeks his country's dishonor, shudder. National honor, if it become involved in and will be sure to accomplish his own infamy. a question of title, 80 that it cannot be extricated While the American negotiator aimed at the without an appeal to arms, is one thing. But it is preservation of peace, he preserved the country in the business of statesmen, for which they may be an attitude of the utmost dignity. Nothing is more said to be furnished with power, to prevent national striking throughout the whole correspondence, than honor from becoming so entangled. The assailants the American tone, temper, and feeling, that perof Mr. Webster on the treaty are, therefore, driven vade Mr. Webster's discussions. By no diplomato answer this question : What would have been tist, at home or abroad, have American rights been the judgment of mankind, if he had refused to make upheld with a firmer hand, and by none have they a boundary by agreement, and standing at all points been further advanced. Would that it were in our on the extremne verge of our claim, had presented power, through the length and breadth of this broad the alternative of war, and thereby made it inevi- land, to go into every honest man's dwelling, where table? This is the true issue. It is a moral ques- such documents seldom penetrate, and there sit tion ; for that we did not get the most ample equiv- down to show how safe the national honor was, in alent for every concession that we made, is an asser- the hands of Daniel Webster. Those who have tion on which none but the foolhardy will now ven- heard hirn reviled for making a treaty about bounture, and which none can maintain. Every inquiry, dary, are they aware that against the greatest martherefore, as to the propriety and greatness of Mr. itime power in the world, he has maintained our Webster's course in that negotiation must come rights, with a spirit and a force which will cause back to this : Shall a statesman, who can with them to be respected as they have never been perfect honor save his country from a war by nego- before ? tiation, exercise his whole power to that end, or

The law of nations has made great progress shall he assume that war is a result of no impor- within the last fifty years; but in the treaty of tance compared with the gratification of a false pat- Washington and in the correspondence connected riotism and an exaggerated sense of the value of therewith, it advanced further than it had during what is immediately in dispute ? The world, the the whole of the fifty years that preceded. We Christian world, has but one answer to give to such can make this apparent by a very few remarks. a question. It has given this answer to Mr. Web- It is not to be denied that the true scope and tenster-an answer which he cannot mistake, and dency of the law of nations consist in promoting which the malice of envy and detraction can never and securing the national independence of every

separate people on the globe. It is also not to be Whatever the future may have in store for us, denied, that while the policy and measures of Engwhoever may be entrusted with power, the people land have, in some cases of intervention and the of these United States have witnessed one great ex- like, proceeded upon and enforced this great leadample of peace honorably preserved from the haz- ing object of the Christian States, her policy and ards created by previous mismanagement. Few measures have in other instances trenched upon the men, probably, are aware how great those hazards independence of other powers, and tended to its

But they passed away. Uninterrupted exclusion, as a principle, from the system of public commerce rolled its treasures of sea and land law. Some of the most remarkable cases in which through the wonted channels of public and private this has occurred, have been those which spring

take away

a

from the great propensity of England to give the With the same bold and acute discrimination, utmost force and extension to her own municipal Mr. Webster seized the prominent facts in the case law. A citizen of the world, looking calmly upon of the Caroline, and at once extracted the real cause English diplomacy and English jurisprudence, in for complaint which we had against England. He some features, would be likely to infer that the law made it manifest that a violation of our soil and terof England, by some peculiar power, is able to oper- ritory had been committed, which could not be jusate proprio vigore further than the municipal codes tified by any inquiry into the lawfulness or unlawof other countries; and that it can even override, fulness of the employment in which the Caroline by its own eminent virtue, in case of conflict, any had been engaged. This view of the case he had other system of law, in any place where the conflict the satisfaction of seeing admitted, upon his reasonmay occur. But it would be manifest to such an ing, by the British envoy, who made for the act observer, that however delicately such a pretension all the apology which the case required. In this may be exercised, however magnanimous and high- admission, that most important principle, the sanctity principled the power that puts it forth, the doctrine of soil and territory, was fully established; and it is utterly inconsistent with the equality and inde- was established too in a case in which our own citipendence of nations that great millennial state, to zēns had given very high provocation for the act which the public law ought to be made to tend. that was complained of. Two instances of this pretension on the part of Eng- We have not space to pursue the reflection, how land have been quite remarkable. The one is, the important to the peace of the world is the establishEnglish doctrine of impressment, founded on the ment of the doctrine of equality and independence idea that a British subject owes perpetual allegiance between nations. Nothing can be a more fruitful to the British crown, which may claim his services source of wars and conquest and universal dominion, in war wherever he may be found, and therefore, it as all history shows, than the absence of that docwas said, a British officer may enter an American trine from the practice of nations in their relations ship, carrying with him this principle of British law, with each other; and in nothing can mankind be to search for and remove British subjects. All this greater gainers, than in the negotiations between implies the notion that the municipal law of England powerful states, in which that doctrine is made the can operate in the territory of another nation. The leading idea on which the merits of all complaints other instance is the English doctrine, more recently and controversies are made to turn. It is quite true, promulgated, that slaves, the property of an Amer- that this doctrine may not have been likely to be ican citizen of a slaveholding state, on board a ves- denied in terms, for a long time; but there have sel driven by stress of weather into a British port, been practices and objects of national policy which there become free, because the municipal law of have been virtually a denial of it, and it concerns England does not tolerate slavery. This again the great purposes of the law of nations that they involves the notion that the municipal law of Eng- should be stayed. To this end, our illustrious lond, in a British port, enters such a vessel and countryman has been a great contributor, in a mangoverns the relations of those on board, to the exclu-ner which will carry his name and fame to the sion of the municipal law of their own country, a remotest ages, in which that sublime code shall conpart of which, by the law of nations, such vessel tinue to govern the interests of mankind. actually is.

We have thus only sought, at this time, to seize Now, it is in no boastful or triumphant spirit, upon a few bold points of Mr. Webster's public but with that satisfaction which springs from the career. We have not attempted to enter into the belief that mankind are to be benefited by the great nature of his oratory, his masterly legal result, that we say; that Mr. Webster met and acquirements and forensic eloquence, his high statesabolished these pretensions. He has abolished manship and peculiar qualifications for diplomatic them, so far as America is concerned, inasmuch as station, or any of the chief qualities of his mind and they cannot hereafter be advanced and acted upon, character. These will make the subject of a future without giving cause for war, which the civilized paper, when a greater remove from late causes of world will henceforth hold to be just. Mr. Webster irritation, will allow a greater freedom and dignity displayed the true grounds of national equality and of discussion. independence, pointed out the just limitations to the force of municipal law, and made declarations, which cast the responsibility of war arising from

SONNET. any of these causes of offence upon those who shall give the offence. The probability of such wars is

I IDOLIZE the ladies. They are fairies therefore vastly lessened, and the principle of That spiritualize this earth of ours; national equality and independence is advanced to a

From heavenly hotbeds, most delightful flowers, stage which it had not reached before. When the Or choice cream-cheeses from celestial dairies. secretary threw out the broad banner of that decla- But learning, in its barbarous seminaries, ration, which is to float hereafter over every Amer

Gives the dear creatures many wretched hours, ican vessel that shall be found upon the sea, he And on their gossamer intellects sternly showers made it certain to England, that her extreme doc

Science, with all its horrid accessaries. trines about the force of English law cannot here- Now, seriously, the only things, I think, after be practised, in international relations, with- In which young ladies should instructed be, out the peril and the responsibility of wars, in which

Are stocking-mending, love, and cookerythe sympathies and the judgments of mankind will Accomplishments that very soon will sink, be against her. *

Since Fluxions, now, and Sanscrit conversation *" In every regularly documented American merchant

Always form part of female education.

Punch Fessel, the crew who navigate it will find their protection in the flag which is over them."--Mr. Webster to Lord | Ashburton, Aug. 8, 1842.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We have often received requests which we could S OFFICE OF THE LIVING Age,

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the necessity of consulting them has so far awed

us, that we have not lately indulged in the pleasure The Readers of the Living Age are respectfully of communicating directly with our readers. This informed, that beginning with this, the first number pronunciamento alters entirely the form of governof 1847, Mr. Littell has taken upon himself (with the ment; abolishes our congress, and makes us an necessary assistance) the office of Publisher, in ad- absolute democracy, in which the cabinet is always dition to that of Editor. He has for an office the " a unit.” We trust that in leaving the matter place from which we date, long known as “ Central entirely in your hands, there will be no difficulty in

Mall.” In a fortnight the carpenters will have put regard to " supplies.” it in order, after which we shall be glad to see any Having said so much of ourself, we have little of you who may be sufficiently interested in our room for anything else, but wish to say a word labors to give us the pleasure of a personal ac- about the article on Slave-grown Sugar, which quaintance.

some rash people may otherwise pass over without The growth of the Living Age has been entirely reading. It is a very important article, giving a spontaneous. The proprietor has resided several clear history of the whole subject, and advocating iniles fro:n Bosto., visiting that city only once or with great power, some opinions of the past, and twice a week, and having no right to act in the some plans for the friture, which are deserving of publishing department, which has been left, under serious attention, for they are like to prevail. contract, entirely in the hands of booksellers whose There is a short article on Mr. Webster. It caninterest was only temporary, and who could not, of not be expected, perhaps, that a more complete course, be expected to expend so much of either biography should appear at present. We should time or money, to promote the success of the work, be glad to publish facts in relation to any of our as the owner desired. He has, therefore, availed eminent public men. May we take the liberty of himself of the option of making a change at the saying that in our opinion Mr. Webster has always end of 1816, and hopes that his greater stake in seen more clearly than the party to which he bethe work, and his greater affection for it, may longs, (and which we often vote with,) the true polmore than make up for any disadvantages under icy of the country—and the policy which would which he may labor.

have caused its advocates to be successful. As Great attention will be given to orders; and it is illustrating this remark, we may mention his conrequested that any irregularities may be immedi- tinuance in office under Mr. Tyler, which enabled ately reported to us. If they arise in our office we him to settle the north-eastern boundary question ; promise to remove them, and if they arise in any his opinion upon the question of a National Bank, other, we will endeavor to do so. We cannot, which was not followed by his party, which therehowever, be responsible for the regular transmission fore quarrelled with the President, and was for the of the work, unless where it is supplied directly time defeated; and his desire rather to establish a from the office of publication.

settled tariff, than high protective duties. For the We desire, so far as we can, to induce each of interest of the manufacturers, we hope they will our readers :o help us in extending our circulation not suffer this question to become a party one-for among their neighbors. And although we hope if they do, it will ere long be maintained that direct that you will feel that in doing this, you would taxation is the best way of raising revenue; and benefit them; yet, as we should be benefited at the this opinion may be supported by many persons in same time, we shall be glad to pay a liberal com- the Northern States, who are grieved that the South mission for all additional orders which may be sent should have the political power in the House of

Representatives, without the equivalent taxation Mrs. Gore's novel, Temptation and Atonement, which originally formed a part of the compromise. will in a few days be issued in a separate form, We should rather, were we of counsel for the manprice 124 cents. Next week we shall begin a new ufacturing interest, endeavor to make the present work by the same author, The Next of Kin, a very tariff better, than attempt to repeal it. Returning interesting romance, and shall publish that also sep-, to Mr. Webster; we have more confidence in the arately, when completed. Orders for either work soundness of his judgment, in cases where he folmay be sent to our office, or to any booksellers. lows his own opinions, than where he advocates By-and-by Miss Robinson Crusoe will make a doctrines which party leaders have agreed upon. volume. St. Giles and St. James will be issued He should belong to no sect, but to the whole for us by Messrs. Redding & Co., Boston, as soon nation. as completed.

to us.

The Living Age is published every Saturday, by E. twenty dollars, or two dollars each for separate volumes. LITTELL & Co., at No. 165 Tremont St., Boston. Any numbers may be had at 125 cents. Price 121 cents a vumber, or six dollars a year in advance. AGENCIES.—The publishers are desirous of making Remittances for any period will be thankfully received arrangements in all parts of North America, for increasand promptly attended to. To insure regularity in mail- ing the circulation of this work-and for doing this a ing the work, remittances and orders should be addressed liberal commission will be allowed to gentlemen who will to the office of publication as above.

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COMPLETE sets to the end of 1846, making eleven The price of the work is so low that we cannot afford to large volumes, are for sale, neaily bound in cloth, for incur either risk or expense in the collection of debts

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.—No. 139.—-9 JANUARY, 1847.

From Fraser's Magazine. minds of others, slowly, though surely worked out. A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CABINET AND

For the duke's excuse about impending civil war,

and the moral effect of Vesey Fitzgerald's defeat, THINGS IN GENERAL.

we hold to be mere moonshine. As the law stood The whigs are not a fortunate party; things in 1829, Mr. O'Connell's election was de facto void, never go long smoothly in their hands. If they do and Mr. Fitzgerald's seat secure. And there not receive the government in a state of confusion needed but the same determined spirit which sent and difficulty, they are sure in a short time to bring the Talents about their business to prove this. it to this, and then they either flounder forward for It is to the whigs, therefore, and to their policy a while-getting daily deeper in the mire—or they in 1831, that we owe the bouleversement of infiocommit some monstrous coup-d'état, and are over- ences under which the machine of the state now thrown. In 1831 they role into office on the labors, and of which we last year witnessed one of hacks of a body of disgusted Protestants, and im- the consequences, in the abandonment by Sir Robmediately raised such a storm as forced the broken ert Peel of the principles of a lifetime, and the contories to reünite and to become the great conserva- sequent disruption of the conservative party. The live party. They kept their places against this whigs taught the men of Birmingham to unite for party by proposing measures which shook the em- the accomplishment of a purely political end. They pire to its centre, and carried them through an corresponded with persons who wrote to them about agency of which none but the most unscrupulous civil war; and answered, under their official franks, politicians would have made use. Was it to be the proposals of Mr. Attwood to march upon supposed that the people, having once felt their London. They made common cause with O'Conown power in forcing the reform-bill through, con- nell at the very moment when he was maturing, trary to the wishes of the king, and in defiance of and they knew that he was maturing, his plans the whole strength of more intelligent classes, for the Repeal Association. They sacrificed to would ever again be persuaded to let it slip? him their venerable chief, Earl Grey, because he Nothing of the sort. In the political unions which was too high-minded to treat with a demagogue, sprang up and matured themselves during the whom, in a speech from the throne, he had dememorable season of the reform struggle, we find nounced ; and now they make no secret of their the germs of those unconstitutional clubs—10 hu- intention to govern Ireland absolutely as O'Congell mor which, to a greater or less extent, the policy shall direct. Can such men hope to command the of all governments must henceforth be directed confidence of the country? Can they wonder if which have changed the position of the repeal men of all parties—their own infinitesimal faction question in Ireland, rendering projects, which a alone excepted—bear with them as a matter of quarter of a century ago would have been punished right and of duty to the sovereign ; yet anticipats as treasonable, mere matter of discussion both no benefits from their rule, and think with indifferwithin Parliament and without; which have carried ence of the moment when it shall terminate ? the repeal of the corn-laws in spite of the reluc- It is not, however, in regard to domestic policy tance of both houses of Parliament, and the well- alone that the whigs manage to put themselves and known hostility of the great mass of the constituen- the country, on all possible occasions, in a false cies; which are prepared to fight a fierce battle position. Let any man of common sense look with the first minister who shall take up the ques-round him at this moment, and, considering the tion of the national defences, and deal with it as it state of our foreign relations, ask himself, to what deserves ; and already talk of an equitable adjust- can it be owing that we are brought suddenly to inent and a more righteous distribution of property. the brink of a great war? Lord Palmerston will No doubt the political unions themselves followed of course say, that he is not answerable for this : in the wake of the Catholic Association, and it that he found matters in disorder when he returned would be unfair to the inventive genius of O'Con to the Foreign Office, and did not succeed in nell if we were to deny that they gathered much righting them ; that the estrangements which time from a study of his handiwork. But the Catholic is maturing were all in blossom under Lord AberAssociation was a religious rather than a political deen; and that it will be unjust to blame him, even body; it sought a tangible object by means alto- if they bring forih the fruit of bloodshed. Lord gether constitutional; it addressed its arguments to Palmerston would have the appearance of justice on men's moral sense, making a prodigious show all his side, could we forget that the beginnings of evil the while of universal charity; it sought only the date further back than the tea-party at Eu. We removal of an acknowledged wrong from one class do not mean to defend Louis Philippe's breach of of the king's subjects, without desiring to interfere an engagement, however informally contracted. with the rights of any other. The Catholic Asso- He has lowered himself by that act in the estimaciation, though extremely troublesome, was never tion of every honorable man in Europe ; and we dangerous. It had no power to control a single deceive ourselves if, old as he is, he do not live to constituency; its leaders never presumed to threat- repent it. But they who desire to trace our presen a rebellion. They knew their own weakness too ent foreign difficulties to their real source, must well to risk the latter in reality ; they had more look further into the past than the date of the than once been made to feel, that less than threats queen's visit to her neighbor. Let us endeavor to of physical violence were taken up and punished by assist our readers in this research. a resolute government. Their triumph was indeed The recognition of the government of the three complete ; but it was the result of conviction on the glorious days by this country was, perhaps, inevita

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CXXXIX.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. XII.