Part 29 (1/2)

”If, Gentlemen, we turn to other portions of the public history of our distinguished guest, it will be found that his clai The cause of domestic industry, of internal improvement, of education, of whatever, in short, is calculated to render us a prosperous, united, and happy people, has found in him a watchful and efficient advocate Nor is it the least of his allant _Navy_ Mr Webster has been an early, far-sighted, and persevering friend Our interior position cannot render us cold and unobservant on this point, whilst the victory of Perry yet supplies to us a proud and inspiring anniversary And such is the wonderful chain of mutual dependence which binds our Union, that, in the reeable value of every product must depend on the security hich the ocean can be traversed

”Gentle; yet I will add one word I do but echo the language of the throngs that have crowded round Mr Webster in declaring, that the frank and manly si of personal regard which no mere intellectual ascendency could have secured We approached him with admiration for the achieve for a ht to do in the matter; we shall part as from a valued friend, the recollection of whose virtues cannot pass away”

MR WEBSTER then addressed the assembly as follows:

RECEPTION AT PITTSBURG[102]

Mr Mayor and Gentlemen:--I rise, fellow-citizens, with unaffected sensibility, to give you my thanks for the hospitable h to receive , and to ments to your worthy Mayor, for the sentih, Gentlemen, it has been my fortune to be personally acquainted with very few of you, I feel, at this ers

We are fellow-countryether by a thousand ties of interest, of sympathy, of duty; united, I hope I ether, for good or for evil, in our great political interests I know that I a Americans, every one of whom has a true American heart in his bosom; and I feel that I have also an American heart in my bosoood wishes for your happiness, the saard and estee upon the borders of the Ohio, I stood by the Connecticut or the Merriive you ain, for your abundant hospitality

Gentlemen, the Mayor has been pleased to advert, in terms beyond all expectation or lorious Constitution under which we live, and which makes you and me all that we are, and all that we desire to be He has done much more than justice to my efforts; but he has not overstated the importance of the occasion on which those efforts were made

Gentlemen, it is but a few shortover our heavens, and _did_ shut out, as it were, the sun in his glory A new and perilous crisis was upon us Dangers, novel in their character, and fearful in their aspect, rity of the Constitution For forty years our governloriously, , it is true, with occasional dissatisfaction, and, in one or two instances, with ill-concerted resistance to law Through all these trials it had successfully passed But now a time had come when the authority of laas opposed by authority of lahen the power of the general governovernanized military force, under all the sanctions of State conventions and State laas ready to resist the collection of the public revenues, and hurl defiance at the statutes of Congress

'Gentleood citizens, I felt it to be such A general anxiety pervaded the breasts of all ere, at ho in the prosperity, honor, and happiness which the country had enjoyed And hoas it abroad? Why, Gentlehout the world, looked with amazement at the spectacle which we exhibited In a day of unparalleled prosperity, after a half-century's s of our Union; e had already become the wonder of all the liberal part of the world, and the envy of the illiberal; when the Constitution had so amply falsified the predictions of its enemies, and more than fulfilled all the hopes of its friends; in a ti treasury; when both the population and the iuine anticipations;--it was at this moment that we showed ourselves to the whole civilized world as being apparently on the eve of disunion and anarchy, at the very point of dissolving, once and for ever, that Union which had reat It was at thisus who seemed ready to break up the national Constitution, and to scatter the twenty-four States into twenty-four unconnected communities

Gentlemen, the President of the United States was, as it seemed to me, at this eventful crisis, true to his duty He comprehended and understood the case, andas others to admit that the President has, on other occasions, rendered important services to the country, and especially on that occasion which has given him so much military renown, I yet think the ability and decision hich he rejected the disorganizing doctrines of nullification create a clairatitude of the country and the respect of posterity

The appearance of the proclamation of the 10th of December inspired me, I confess, with new hopes for the duration of the republic I regarded it as just, patriotic, able, and imperiously demanded by the condition of the country I would not be understood to speak of particular clauses and phrases in the procla doctrines as the true and only true doctrines of the Constitution They constitute the sole ground on which dis else, in ether While these opinions are enerally rejected and abandoned, that Union will be at the mercy of a temporary majority in any one of the States

I speak, Gentlemen, on this subject, without reserve I have not intended heretofore, and elsewhere, and do not now intend here, to stint ard to the proclamation and the subsequent measures I have differed with the President, as all knoho know any thing of so hueneral interest and importance I differ with him in respect to the constitutional power of internal i of the Bank, and I dissent, especially, frorounds and reasons on which he refused his assent to the bill passed by Congress for that purpose I differ with hiht to be afforded to our agriculture and manufactures, and in the manner in which it may be proper to dispose of the public lands But all these differences afforded, inhireat public exigency I sought to take counsel of nothing but patriotism, to feel no impulse but that of duty, and to yield not a laorous and cordial, support to measures which, in my conscience, I believed essential to the preservation of the Constitution It is true, doubtless, that if myself and others had surrendered ourselves to a spirit of opposition, we ht have embarrassed, and probably defeated, the , we should, in my opinion, have been false to our own characters, false to our duty, and false to our country It gives ard to this subject, the general voice of the country does not disapprove ht to add, Gentlemen, that, in whatever I may have done or attempted in this respect, I only share a coress cordially concurred in the reat State was seen in her just position on that occasion, and your own i the most zealous and efficient friends of the Union

Gentlemen, I hope that the result of that experiovernment, and to the interests of the conal and decisive manifestation of public opinion, which has, for the time at least, put down the despotisood effects I know full well that popular topics ainst the proclaard to the laws of the last session, that, if such laws are to be ress may pass what laws they please, and enforce them But may it not be said, on the other side, that, if a State may nullify one law, she may nullify any other law also, and, therefore, that the _principle_ strikes at the whole power of Congress? And when it is said, that, if the power of State interposition be denied, Congress may pass and enforce what laws it pleases, is it meant to be contended or insisted, that the Constitution has placed Congress under the guardianshi+p and control of the State legislatures? Those who argue against the power of Congress, froet that, if the power of State interposition be allowed, that power et the will of the people, as they have plainly expressed it in the Constitution They forget that _the people have chosen_ to give Congress a power of legislation, independent of State control They forget that the Confederation has ceased, and that a _Constitution_, a _governovernress are but agents and servants of the people, chosen for short periods, periodically removable by the people, as ly obedient, as any other of their agents and servants This dependence on the people is the security that they will not act wrong This is the security which the people theuards contained in the Constitution itself

I am quite aware, Gentlemen, that it is easy for those who oppose measures deemed necessary for the execution of the laws, to raise the cry of _consolidation_ It is easy to eneral accusations It is easy to call names For one, I repel all such imputations I aether, and, instead of repeating this general and vague charge, I will be obliged to any one to sho the proclaress, or, indeed, any htest degree, to consolidation By consolidation is understood a grasping at power, on behalf of the general government, not constitutionally conferred But the proclamation asserted no neer

It only asserted the right in the government to carry into effect, in the form of lahich it had exercised for forty years I should oppose any grasping at neers by Congress, as zealously as the most zealous I wish to preserve the Constitution as it is, without addition, and without diminution, by one jot or tittle For the saiven, I would not surrender nor abandon pohich are given Those who have placed me in a public station placed me there, not to alter the Constitution, but to ade the people have retained to thee the Constitution entirely, if they see fit _They_ can tread it under foot, and make another, or make no other; but while it remains unaltered by the authority of the people, it is our power of attorney, our letter of credit, our credentials; and we are to follow it, and obey its injunctions, and maintain its just powers, to the best of our abilities I repeat, that, for one, I seek to preserve to the Constitution those precise pohich the people have clothed it While no encroachhts of the people or of the States, while nothing is to be usurped, it is equally clear that we are not at liberty to surrender, either in fact or form, any power or principle which the Constitution does actually contain

And what is the ground for this cry of consolidation? I maintain that the ress, were measures of self-defence Is it consolidation to execute laws? Is it consolidation to resist the force that is threatening to upturn our governe of their duty, froainst them?

Gentlemen, I take occasion to remark, that, after much reflection upon the subject, and after all that has been said about the encroachhts of the States, I know of no one power, exercised by the general government, which was not, when that instrument was adopted, admitted by the immediate friends and foes of the Constitution to have been conferred upon it by the people I know of no one power, now clairee, in 1789, was conferred on the general government On the contrary, there are several powers, and those, too, a the most important for the interests of the people, which were then universally allowed to be conferred on Congress by the Constitution of the United States, and which are now ingeniously doubted, or clamorously denied

Gentlemen, upon this point I shall detain you with no further reivevisit through the State west of you, and the great State north of you, as well as in a tour of so, I find but one sentiovernment upon this subject I know that those who have seen fit to intrust to ress, approve of the measures recommended by the President We see that he has taken occasion, during the recess of Congress, to visit that part of the country; and we kno he has been received Nowhere have hands been extended with more sincerity of friendshi+p; and for one, Gentle heard of his return to the seat of govern my most earnest prayers that Providence h his adlory as any of his predecessors

Your worthy chief h, Gentlemen, to express sentiments favorable to myself, as a friend of domestic industry

Domestic industry! How much of national power and opulence, how much of individual comfort and respectability, that phrase implies! And hat force does it strike us, as we stand here, at the confluence of the two rivers whose united currents constitute the Ohio, and in the uishedcities in the Union! Many thousand h a new and rapidly-i country, stretch away below us Internal coress, connect the city with the Atlantic and the Lakes A hundred steaines are in daily operation, and nature has supplied the fuel which feeds their incessant fla here, Gentlemen, in the midst of such a population, and with such a scene around us, how great is the import of these words, ”doovernment itself, there can hardly be a more vital question, to such a coards their own eovernement and protection of those employments This is not, in a society like this, a matter which affects the interest of a particular class, but one which affects the interest of all classes It runs through the whole chain of hu and the comfort of all

Gentlemen, those of you who may have turned your attention to the subject know, that, in the quarter of the country hich I aer to urge the governht which it has reached Candor obliges me to remind you, that, when the act of 1824 was passed, neither he who now addresses you, nor those ho to take the step which that act proposed They doubted its _expediency_ It passed, however, by the great and overwhel influence of the central States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio New England acquiesced in it She conforave to her capital and her labor a corresponding direction She has now become vitally interested in the preservation of the system Her prosperity is identified, not perhaps with any particular degree of protection, but with the preservation of the principle; and she is not likely to consent to yield the principle, under any circumstances whatever And ould dare to yield it? Who, standing here, and looking round on this coh to touch the spring which moves so much industry and produces so much happiness? Who would shut up the oes ofdown a river, one of the noblest in the world, and stretching through territories almost boundless in extent and unequalled in fertility? Who would quench the fires of so ines, or check the operations of so much well-employed labor?

Gentlemen, I cannot conceive how any subversion of that policy which has hitherto been pursued can take place, without great public ereat private distress