Part 23 (1/2)

”The consequences of that discussion have been extremely beneficial

It turned the attention of the public to the great doctrines of national rights and national union Constitutional law ceased to reht only by the responses, of the living oracles of the law Socrates was said to have dran philosophy fro the schools

It may with equal truth be said that constitutional law, by enius that guided them, was rescued from the archives of our tribunals and the libraries of lawyers, and placed under the eye, and subment, of the American people _Their verdict is with us, and from it their lies no appeal_”

As soon as the i and acclamations hich this address and toast were received had subsided, Mr Webster rose and addressed the company as follows

PUBLIC DINNER AT NEW YORK

I owe the honor of this occasion, Gentlemen, to your patriotic and affectionate attachment to the Constitution of our country For an effort, well intended, however otherwise of unpretending character, ned to maintain the Constitution and vindicate its just powers, you have been pleased to tender me this token of your respect It would be idle affectation to deny that it gives ratification Every public man must naturally desire the approbation of his fellow-citizens; and though it may be supposed that I should be anxious, in the first place, not to disappoint the expectations of those whose immediate representative I am, it is not possible but that I should feel, nevertheless, the high value of such a mark of esteem as is here offered But, Gentlemen, I aher than ard It is to evince your devotion to the Constitution, your sense of its transcendent value, and your just alarm at whatever threatens to weaken its proper authority, or endanger its existence

Gentlee, indeed, if the members of this vast commercial community should not be first and foremost to rally for the Constitution, whenever opinions and doctrines are advanced hostile to its principles Where sooner than here, where louder than here, may we expect a patriotic voice to be raised, when the union of the States is threatened? In this great emporium, at this central point of the united commerce of the United States, of all places, we may expect the war of attachovernhly than I do the natural advantages of your city No one entertains a higher opinion than myself, also, of that spirit of wise and liberal policy, which has actuated the governh objects, irowth and prosperity both of the State and the city But all these local advantages, and all this enlightened state policy, could never have made your city what it now is, without the aid and protection of a general govern for all a coulation Without national character, without public credit, without systematic finance, without unifores possessed by this city would have decayed and perished, like unripe fruit A general governreat object of desire to the inhabitants of this city New York, at a very early day, was conscious of her local advantages for coer to eovernment could make free her path before her, and set her forward on her brilliant career She early saw all this, and to the accoreat and indispensable object she bent every faculty, and exerted every effort She was not ment At the moment of the adoption of the Constitution, New York was the capital of one State, and contained thirty-two or three thousand people It now contains arded as the commercial capital, not only of all the United States, but of the whole continent also, froe of her history, for the last forty years, bears high and irresistible testiovernrowth is referred to, and quoted, all the world over, as one of theproofs of the effects of our Federal Union To suppose her now to be easy and indifferent, when notions are advanced tending to its dissolution, would be to suppose her equally forgetful of the past and blind to the present, alike ignorant of her own history and her own interest,tired of its prosperity, sick of its own growth and greatness, and infatuated for its own destruction Every blow aimed at the union of the States strikes on the tenderest nerve of her interest and her happiness To bring the Union into debate is to bring her own future prosperity into debate also To speak of arresting the laws of the Union, of interposing State power inthe full and just authority of the general governard to this city, but anotherof commercial ruin, of abandoned wharfs, of vacated houses, of di population, of bankrupt merchants, of mechanics without erowth of this city and the Constitution of the United States are coevals and conteether, and if rashness and folly destroy one, the other will follow it to the torowth of this city is extraordinary, and almost unexampled It is now, I believe, sixteen or seventeen years since I first saw it Within that comparatively short period, it has added to its number three times the whole amount of its population when the Constitution was adopted Of all things having power to check this prosperity, of all things potent to blight and blast it, of all things capable of co this city to recede as fast as she has advanced, a disturbed government, an enfeebled public authority, a broken or a weakened union of the States, would be h Every thing else, in the common fortune of communities, she may hope to resist or to prevent; but this would be fatal as the arrow of death

Gentlemen, you have personal recollections and associations, connected with the establishment and adoption of the Constitution, which are necessarily called up on an occasion like this It is iency exercised by ereatthe illustrious dead; but they have left naotten, and never to be remembered without respect and veneration Least of all can they be forgotten by you, when asse your attachment to the Constitution, and your sense of its inestimable importance to the happiness of the people

I should do violence to s, Gentlemen, I think I should offend yours, if I ouished names yet fresh in your recollections How can I stand here, to speak of the Constitution of the United States, of the wisdo its adoption, of the evils from which it rescued the country, and of the prosperity and power to which it has raised it, and yet pay no tribute to those ere highly instru the work? While we are here to rejoice that it yet stands firratulate one another that we live under its benign influence, and cherish hopes of its long duration, we cannot forget who they were that, in the day of our national infancy, in the times of despondency and despair, mainly assisted to work out our deliverance I should feel that I was unfaithful to the strong recollections which the occasion presses upon us, that I was not true to gratitude, not true to patriotis or the dead, not true to your feelings or my own, if I should forbear tofrom the e and maturity, even in civil affairs, far beyond his years, he ave the whole powers of his mind to the contemplation of the weak and distracted condition of the country Daily increasing in acquaintance and confidence with the people of New York, he sahat they also saw, the absolute necessity of soreat object of desire He never appears to have lost sight of it, but was found in the lead whenever any thing was to be attempted for its accomplishment One experiment after another, as is well knoas tried, and all failed The States were urgently called on to confer such further powers on the old Congress as would enable it to redeeeneral and coulation But the States had not agreed, and were not likely to agree In this posture of affairs, so full of public difficulty and public distress, commissioners froinia, at Annapolis, in September, 1786 The precise object of their appointment was to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situations and trade of the several States; and to consider how far a uniforulations was necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony Mr Hamilton was one of these coh I cannot assert the fact, that their report was drawn by hie Benson, who has lived long, and still lives, to see the happy results of the counsels which originated in thisOf its members, he and Mr Madison are, I believe, now the only survivors These coeneral Convention of all the States, to take into serious deliberation the condition of the country, and devise such provisions as should render the constitution of the federal governencies of the Union I need not remind you, that of this Convention Mr Hamilton was an active and efficient member The Constitution was frareat as to be undertaken The Constitution would naturally find, and did find, enemies and opposers Objections to it were numerous, and powerful, and spirited They were to be answered; and they were effectually answered The writers of the numbers of the Federalist, Mr Hauished themselves in their discussions of the Constitution, that those nuenerally received as important coeneral, of its objects and purposes Those papers were all written and published in this city Mr

Haation frohkeepsie, called to ratify the new Constitution Its debates are published Mr Hamilton appears to have exerted, on this occasion, to the utmost, every power and faculty of his mind

The whole question was likely to depend on the decision of New York He felt the full importance of the crisis; and the reports of his speeches, i enius and patriotism He saw at last his hopes fulfilled; he saw the Constitution adopted, and the govern eye of Washi+ngton immediately called him to that post, which was far the most important in the administration of the new system He was made Secretary of the Treasury; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a tiht and the whole world saith admiration He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streaushed forth

He touched the dead corpse of the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet The fabled birth of Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from the conceptions of ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Your recollections, Gentle before you, at such a tireat man, now too numbered with the dead I mean the pure, the disinterested, the patriotic JOHN JAY His character is a brilliant jewel in the sacred treasures of national reputation Leaving his profession at an early period, yet not before he had singularly distinguished himself in it, his whole life, from the commencement of the Revolution until his final retireress, he was the author of that political paper which is generally acknowledged to stand first a the incomparable productions of that body;[90] productions which called forth that decisive strain of coreat Lord Chatham, in which he pronounced them not inferior to the finest productions of the master states of the world Mr Jay had been abroad, and he had also been long intrusted with the difficult duties of our foreign correspondence at horeatest possible extent, the difficulty of conducting our foreign affairs honorably and usefully, without a stronger and h not a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution, he was yet present while it was in session, and looked anxiously for its result By the choice of this city, he had a seat in the State Convention, and took an active and zealous part for the adoption of the Constitution On the organization of the new governton to be the first Chief Justice of the Supreh and most responsible duties of that station could not have been trusted to abler or safer hands It is the duty of that tribunal, one of equal importance and delicacy, to decide constitutional questions, occasionally arising on State laws The general learning and ability, and especially the prudence, the mildness, and the firmness of his character, eminently fitted Mr Jay to be the head of such a court When the spotless er less spotless than itself

These eminent men, Gentlemen, the contemporaries of some of you, known toand adopting of the Constitution, and called so early to important stations under it, that a tribute, better, indeed, than I have given, or aive, seemed due to them from us, on this occasion

There was yet another, of whom mention is to be made In the Revolutionary history of the country, the name of CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON becaress which declared Independence; and a member, too, of the committee which drew and reported the immortal Declaration At the period of the adoption of the Constitution, he was its firm friend and able advocate He was aone of that list of distinguished and gifted men who represented this city in that body; and he threw the whole weight of his talents and influence into the doubtful scale of the Constitution

Gentlemen, as connected with the Constitution, you have also local recollections which must bind it still closer to your attachs here It was in this city, in the midst of friends, anxious, hopeful, and devoted, that the new governer, it has coh to have witnessed, and did witness, the interesting scene of the first inauguration They reratified patriotism, what shouts of enthusiastic hope, what acclamations rent the air, how many eyes were suffused with tears of joy, how cordially each man pressed the hand of hi in the open air, in the centre of the city, in the view of assembled thousands, the first President of the United States was heard sole theht, Gentlereat work of the Revolution was accoovernment; that the United States were then, indeed, united Every benignant star seemed to shed its selectest influence on that auspicious hour Here were heroes of the Revolution; here were sages of the Convention; here were minds, disciplined and schooled in all the various fortunes of the country, acting now in several relations, but all cooperating to the sareat end, the successful administration of the new and untried Constitution And he,--how shall I speak of him?--he was at the head, as already first in as already first in the hearts of his countrye of the country, to be first in peace

Gentleed been fulfilled!

Whose expectation was then so sanguine, I ant, as to run forward, and contemplate as probable, the one half of what has been accoo back to 1789, and see what this city, and this country, too, then were; and, beholding what they now are, can be ready to consent that the Constitution of the United States shall be weakened,--dishonored,--_nullified_?

Gentlemen, before I leave these pleasant recollections, I feel it an irresistible iuished person, not, indeed, a fellow-citizen of your own, but associated with those I have already able friend and advocate in the great cause of the Constitution I refer to MR MADISON I aard from me to him is of little importance; but if it shall receive your approbation and sanction, it will become of value

Mr Madison, thanks to a kind Providence, is yet a, and there is certainly no other individual living, to whos of the Constitution He was one of the co I have already referred, and which, to the great credit of Virginia, had its origin in a proceeding of that State He was a inia in the following year He was thus intiress of the formation of the Constitution, from its very first step to its final adoption If evera written instru the Constitution If it be possible to knoas designed by it, he can tell us It was in this city, that, in conjunction with Mr Hamilton and Mr Jay, he wrote the numbers of the Federalist; and it was in this city that he commenced his brilliant career under the new Constitution, having been elected into the House of Representatives of the first Congress The recorded votes and debates of those tiency in every ianization of the governement of the departed his attention, and divided his labors

The legislative history of the first two or three years of the governht, the evils intended to be remedied by the Constitution, and the provisions which were deemed essential to the remedy of those evils It exhibits the country, in the e froeneral, efficient, but still restrained and li of our peculiar system, moved, as it then was, by master hands

Gentlemen, for one, I confess I like to dwell on this part of our history It is good for us to be here It is good for us to study the situation of the country at this period, to survey its difficulties, to look at the conduct of its public led with obstacles, real and forht the Union out of its state of depression and distress Truly, Gentlereat ood work All that reading and learning could do; all that talent and intelligence could do; and, what perhaps is stillexperience in difficult and troubled tie of the condition of the country could do,--conspired to fit theovern over all the States, and yet touching the power of the States no further than those coer around these original fountains, and to drink deep of their waters I love to imbibe, in as full measure as I overnment, and so wisely and skilfully balanced and adjusted its bearings and proportions

Having been afterwards, for eight years, Secretary of State, and as long President, Mr Madison has had an experience in the affairs of the Constitution, certainly second to no , and perhaps more than any other who has lived, his whole public life has been incorporated, as it were, into the Constitution; in the original conception and project of atte and reco at the first organization of the govern administration of its executive powers,--in these various ways he has lived near the Constitution, and with the power of i its very breath, froain, therefore, I ask, If he cannot tell us what the Constitution is, and what it ard of the co to interfere again in matters of political concern He has, nevertheless, not withholden his opinions on the vital question discussed on that occasion, which has caused thisHe has stated, with an accuracy almost peculiar to himself, and so stated as, in my opinion, to place almost beyond further controversy, the true doctrines of the Constitution He has stated, not notions too loose and irregular to be called even a theory, not ideas struck out by the feeling of present inconvenience or supposed estions of expediency, or evasions of fair and straightforward construction, but elementary principles, clear and sound distinctions, and indisputable truths I am sure, Gentlemen, that I speak your senti public so clearly and distinctly as he has done his own opinions on these vial questions of constitutional law, Mr