Volume Iii Part 4 (1/2)
Now, a word about this letter to him. Mr. Webster's retainers--nine hundred and eighty-seven in number--tell him, ”You have pointed out to a whole people the path of duty, have convinced the understanding, and touched the conscience of a nation.” ”We desire, therefore, to express to you our entire concurrence in the sentiments of your speech, and our heartfelt thanks for the inestimable aid it has afforded towards the preservation and perpetuation of the Union.”
They express their entire concurrence in the sentiments of his speech.
In the speech, as published in the edition ”revised and corrected by himself,” Mr. Webster declares his intention to support the famous fugitive slave bill, and the amendments thereto, ”with all its provisions, to the fullest extent.” When the retainers express their ”entire concurrence in the sentiments of the speech,” they express their entire concurrence in that intention. There is no ambiguity in the language; they make a universal affirmation--(_affirmatio de omni_). Now Mr. Webster comes out, by two agents, and recants this declaration. Let me do him no injustice. He shall be heard by his next friend, who wishes to amend the record, a correspondent of the Boston Courier, of May 6th:--
”The speech now reads thus:--'My friend at the head of the Judiciary Committee has a bill on the subject, now before the Senate, with some amendments to it, which I propose to support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent.'
Changing the position of the word _which_, and the sentence would read thus:--'My friend at the head of the Judiciary Committee has a bill on the subject, now before the Senate, which, with some amendments to it, I propose to support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent.'”
”Call you that backing your friends?” Really, it is too bad, after his retainers have expressed their ”entire concurrence in the sentiments of the speech,” for him to back out, to deny that he entertained one of the sentiments already approved of and concurred in! Can it be possible, we ask, that Mr. Webster can resort to this device to defend himself, leaving his retainers in the lurch? It does not look like him to do such a thing. But the correspondent of the Courier goes on as follows:--
”We are authorized to state, first--That Mr. Webster did not revise this portion of his speech, with any view to examine its exact accuracy of phrase; and second--That Mr. Webster, at the time of the delivery of the speech, had in his desk three amendatory sections,... and one of which provides expressly for the right of trial by jury.”
But who is the person ”authorized to state” such a thing? Professor Stuart informs the public that it ”comes from the hand of a man who might claim a near place to Mr. Webster, in respect to talent, integrity, and patriotism.”
Still, this recantation is so unlike Mr. Webster, that one would almost doubt the testimony of so great an unknown as is the writer in the Courier. But Mr. Stuart removes all doubt, and says--”I merely add, that Mr. Webster himself has personally a.s.sured me that his speech was in accordance with the correction here made, and that he has now in his desk the amendments to which the corrector refers.” So the retainers must bear the honor, or the shame, whichsoever it may be, of volunteering the advocacy of that remarkable bill.
When Paul was persecuted for righteousness' sake, how easily might ”the offence of the cross” have been made to cease, by a mere transposition!
Had he pursued that plan, he need not have been let down from the wall in a basket: he might have had a dinner given him by forty scribes, at the first hotel in Jerusalem, and a doctor of the law to defend him in a pamphlet.
But, alas! in Mr. Webster's case, admitting the transposition is real, the transubstantiation is not thereby effected; the transfer of the _which_ does not alter the character of the sentence to the requisite degree. The bill, which he volunteers to advocate, contains provisions to this effect: That the owner of a fugitive slave may seize his fugitive, and, on the warrant of any ”judge, commissioner, clerk, marshal, postmaster, or collector,” ”residing or being” within the State where the seizure is made, the fugitive, without any trial by jury, shall be delivered up to his master, and carried out of the State. Now, this is the bill which Mr. Webster proposes ”to support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent.” Let him transfer his _which_, it does not transubstantiate his statement so that he can consistently introduce a section which ”provides expressly for the right of trial by jury.” This attempt to evade the plain meaning of a plain statement, is too small a thing for a great man.
I make no doubt that Mr. Webster had in his desk, at the time alleged, a bill designed to secure the trial by jury to fugitive slaves, prepared as it is set forth. But how do you think it came there, and for what purpose? Last February Mr. Webster was intending to make a very different speech; and then, I make no doubt, it was that this bill was prepared, with the design of introducing it! But I see no reason for supposing, that when he made his celebrated speech, he intended to introduce it as an amendment to Mr. Mason's or Butler's bill. It is said that he will present it to the Senate. Let us wait and see.[7]
But, since the speech at Was.h.i.+ngton, Mr. Webster has said things at Boston, almost as bad. Here they are; extracts from his speech at the Revere House. I quote from the report in the Daily Advertiser. ”Neither you nor I shall see the legislation of the country proceed in the old harmonious way, until the discussions in Congress and out of Congress upon the subject, to which you have alluded [the subject of slavery], shall be, in some way, suppressed. Take that truth home with you--and take it as truth.” A very pretty truth that is to take home with us, that ”discussion” must be ”suppressed!”
Again, he says:--
”Sir, the question is, whether Ma.s.sachusetts will stand to the truth against temptation [that is the question]! whether she will be just against temptation! whether she will defend herself against her own prejudices! She has conquered every thing else in her time; she has conquered this ocean which washes her sh.o.r.e; she has conquered her own sterile soil; she has conquered her stern and inflexible climate; she has fought her way to the universal respect of the world; she has conquered every one's prejudices but her own. The question now is, whether she will conquer her own prejudices!”
The trumpet gives no uncertain sound; but before we prepare ourselves for battle, let us see who is the foe. What are the ”prejudices”
Ma.s.sachusetts is to conquer? The prejudice in favor of the American idea; the prejudice in favor of what our fathers called self-evident truths; that all men ”are endowed with certain unalienable rights;” that ”all men are created equal,” and that ”to secure these rights, governments are inst.i.tuted amongst men.” These are the prejudices Ma.s.sachusetts is called on to conquer. There are some men who will do this ”with alacrity;” but will Ma.s.sachusetts conquer her prejudices in favor of the ”unalienable rights of man?” I think, Mr. President, she will first have to forget two hundred years of history. She must efface Lexington and Bunker Hill from her memory, and tear the old rock of Plymouth out from her bosom. These are prejudices which Ma.s.sachusetts will not conquer, till the ocean ceases to wash her sh.o.r.e, and granite to harden her hills. Ma.s.sachusetts has conquered a good many things, as Mr. Webster tells us. I think there are several other things we shall try our hand upon, before we conquer our prejudice in favor of the unalienable rights of man.
There is one pleasant thing about this position of Mr. Webster. He is alarmed at the fire which has been kindled in his rear. He finds ”considerable differences of opinion prevail ... on the subject of that speech,” and is ”grateful to receive ... opinions so decidedly concurring with” his own,--so he tells the citizens of Newburyport. He feels obliged to do something to escape the obloquy which naturally comes upon him. So he revises his speech; now supplying an omission, now altering a little; authorizes another great man to transpose his relative p.r.o.noun, and anchor it fast to another antecedent; appeals to amendments in the senatorial desk, designed to secure a jury trial for fugitive slaves; derides his opponents, and compares them with the patriots of ancient times. Here is his letter to the citizens of Newburyport--a very remarkable doc.u.ment. It contains some surprising legal doctrines, which I leave others to pa.s.s upon. But in it he explains the fugitive slave law of 1793, which does not ”provide for the trial of any question whatever by jury, in the State in which the arrest is made.” ”At that time,” n.o.body regarded any of the provisions of that bill as ”repugnant to religion, liberty, the Const.i.tution, or humanity;”
and he has ”no more objections to the provisions of this law, than was seen to them” by the framers of the law itself. If he sees therein nothing ”repugnant to religion, liberty, the Const.i.tution, or humanity,”
then why transpose that relative p.r.o.noun, and have an amendment ”which provides expressly for the right of trial by jury?”
”In order to allay excitement,” he answers, ”and remove objections.” ”There are many difficulties, however, attending any such provision [of a jury trial]; and a main one, and perhaps the only insuperable one, has been created by the States themselves, by making it a penal offence in their own officers, to render any aid in apprehending or securing such fugitives, and absolutely refusing the use of their jails for keeping them in custody, till a jury could be impanelled, witnesses summoned, and a regular trial be had.”
Think of that! It is Ma.s.sachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, which prohibit the fugitive from getting a trial for his freedom, before a jury of twelve good men and true! But Mr. Webster goes on: ”It is not too much to say, that to these State laws is to be attributed the actual and practical denial of trial by jury in these cases.” Generally, the cause is thought to precede the effect, but here is a case in which, according to Mr. Webster, the effect has got the start of the cause, by more than fifty years. The fugitive slave law of Congress, which allowed the master to capture the runaway, was pa.s.sed in 1793; but the State laws he refers to, to which ”is to be attributed the actual and practical denial of trial by jury in these cases,” were not pa.s.sed till after 1840. ”To what base uses may we come at last!” Mr. Webster would never have made such a defence of his pro-slavery conduct, had he not been afraid of the fire in his rear, and thought his retainers not able to put it out. He seems to think this fire is set in the name of religion: so, to help us ”Conquer our prejudices,” he cautions us against the use of religion, and quotes from the private letter of ”One of the most distinguished men in England,” dated as late as the 29th of January--”Religion is an excellent thing in every matter except in politics: there it seems to make men mad.” In this respect, it seems religion is inferior to money, for the Proverbs tell us that money ”answereth all things;” religion, it seems, ”answereth all things,”
except politics. Poor Mr. Webster! If religion is not good in politics, I suppose irreligion is good there; and, really, it is often enough introduced there. So, if religion ”seems to make men mad” in politics, I suppose irreligion makes them sober in politics. But Mr. Webster, fresh from his transposition of his own relative, explains this: His friend ascribes the evils not to ”true and genuine religion,” but to ”that fantastic notion of religion.” So, making the transposition, it would read thus: ”That fantastical notion of religion,” ”is an excellent thing in any matter except politics.” Alas! Mr. Webster does not expound his friend's letter, nor his own language, so well as he used to expound the Const.i.tution. But he says, ”The religion of the New Testament is as sure a guide to duty in politics, as in any other concern of life.” So, in the name of ”Conscience and the Const.i.tution,” Professor Stuart comes forward to defend Mr. Webster, ”by the religion of the New Testament; that religion which is founded on the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.” How are the mighty fallen!
Mr. Webster makes a ”great speech,” lending his mighty influence to the support and extension of slavery, with all its attendant consequences, which paralyze the hand of industry, enfeeble the thinking mind, and brutify the conscience which should discern between right and wrong; nine hundred and eighty-seven of his retainers in Boston, thank him for reminding them of their duty. But still the fire in his rear is so hot, that he must come on to Boston, talk about having discussion suppressed, and ask Ma.s.sachusetts to conquer her prejudices. That is not enough. He must go up to Andover, and get a minister to defend him, in the name of ”Conscience and the Const.i.tution,” supporting slavery out of the Old Testament and New Testament. ”To what mean uses may we not descend!”
There is a ”short and easy method” with Professor Stuart, and all other men who defend slavery out of the Bible. If the Bible defends slavery, it is not so much the better for slavery, but so much the worse for the Bible. If Mr. Stuart and Mr. Webster do not see that, there are plenty of obscurer men that do. Of all the attacks ever made on the Bible, by ”deists” and ”infidels,” none would do so much to bring it into disrepute, as to show that it sanctioned American slavery.
It is rather a remarkable fact, that an orthodox minister should be on Mr. Webster's paper, endorsing for the Christianity of slavery.
Let me say a word respecting the position of the Representative from Boston. I speak only of his position, not of his personal character. Let him, and all men, have the benefit of the distinction between their personal character, and official conduct. Mr. Winthrop is a consistent whig; a representative of the idea of the whig party North, Protection and Slavery. When he first went into Congress, it was distinctly understood that he was not going to meddle with the matter of slavery; the tariff was the thing. All this was consistent. It is to be supposed that a Northern whig will put the mills of the North before the black men of the South: and ”Property before persons,” might safely be writ on the banner of the whig party, North or South.