Part 3 (1/2)
It is plain that Webster, aware of the deficiencies of his country in learning, was not rendered entirely sube, and was not at all disposed to accept the relation of pupilage as a permanent one He worked with such material as he had, and as a part of the intellectual ht for his contribution both industry and an elastic hope
FOOTNOTES:
[5] _Belknap Papers_, v, Coll Mass Hist Soc iii
[6] _Life of Ti in these periodical ventures seems so certain as their uncertainty
[8] It was now in its last nuazine_, shortly after commenced by Isaiah Thomas
CHAPTER IV
POLITICAL WRITINGS
We have seen that ait; it is easy to believe that a patriot in Webster's day could be a very active participant in public affairs There was as yet no marked political class; every man of education was expected to write, talk, and act in politics, and Webster's temperament and education were certain to an very early to have a hand in those letters to newspapers which preceded the editorial article of the modern newspaper The printer of a newspaper was substantially its editor, and was likely to be a ed in public affairs, but his paper was less the mediu the opinions and arguan contributing to the ”Connecticut Courant,” published in Hartford, as early as 1780, his first contribution being some remarks on Benedict Arnold's letter of October 7th to the inhabitants of Aain the next week on Arnold's treason, and for the next four or five years was an occasional contributor upon subjects of finance, banking, the pay of soldiers, congressional action, events of the war, and copyright ”In 1783,” he writes of himself, ”the discontents in Connecticut, excited by an opposition to the grant of five years' extra pay to the officers of the arates to a convention in Middletown to devisecarried into execution I then co weeks and ress Of the discontents in Connecticut in 1783, which threatened a commotion, there is no account in any of the histories of the United States,--not even in Marshall's,--except a brief account in norant of the events The history of this whole period, from the peace of 1783 to the adoption of the Constitution, is, in all the histories for schools, except h it was a period of great anxiety, when it was doubtful whether anarchy or civil as to be our fate”[10]
This ritten in 1838, when Webster was eighty years old The character of that interregnunized now; and it is interesting to see how an oldhis earliest entrance into public life, eood government By early associations, and by the predilections of a lo-Saxon political sense, Webster was from the first a Federalist in politics In 1785 he published a pamphlet entitled ”Sketches of American Policy,”
which he always claiovernment to take the place of the Confederation, under which the war had been carried on He held a correspondence with Mr Madison, in 1805, for the purpose of substantiating this claiovernht Mr
Madison very tee in our governht to be ascribed rather to a series of causes than to any particular and sudden one, and to the participation of ent It is certain that the general idea of revising and enlarging the scope of the federal authority, so as to answer the necessary purposes of the Union, grew up inthe experienced inefficacy of the old Confederation The discernment of General Hamilton must have rendered him an early patron of the idea That the public attention was called to it by yourself at an early period is well known”
We are not especially concerned with Webster's claim except as it illustrates his character and activity He was a busy-body, if I noble word We have seen hi the state capitals and publicand writing, projectinghi on
The air was full of political talk, and Webster was the conductor that drew off so, both because he had so to say, and because he never stepped back to see if any one else was about to say it He had no public character to preserve, and he issued his pamphlet as he delivered his sentiht catch He carried it to Mount Vernon and put it into the hands of General Washi+ngton, and Madison saw it there The nicknaave hiressive self-confidence, who saw no reason why he should not have his say upon the subject which was upper-most in men's minds, and used the means most natural to him and most convenient
Alexander Hamilton was but a year older than Noah Webster, and was indeed a er man when he first took part in the discussion of public affairs Haenius for statesnificantly marks of political common sense, the presence of which in the American mind at that day made Hamilton's leadershi+p possible It would be hard to find a better illustration of the average political education of Americans of the time than is shown by Webster in this pas We are accustomed soift to the American people, and to look with exceptional reverence upon the framers of that instrument Well, that mind is on the whole quite as sound as the contemptuous tone taken by Von Holst when he affirrinding necessity of a reluctant people”[11] In these words, however, Von Holst himself scarcely does justice to his own convictions, and they are rather an extreant adulation of the Constitution Better instruments on paper have been drawn and applied to conditions of society which were fatal to their efficacy; but the calling of the convention, the fra of the Constitution, and the final adoption were possible because in the coovernenerations, and for generations had been ht The towns, the parishes, the boroughs, of the early colonies were the inheritors of communal ideas which had filtered frolish parishes; under the favoring conditions of a neorld and its unchecked enterprise they had becority The colonies, with their local government, modified rather than controlled by royal or proprietary influence, had already learned many lessons of autonomy: the period of the war had confirmed these several powers, and the conclusion of the war found theanic life, and lacking only that sovereignty which they had resisted and overthrown But the state life was inconty in which the States could rest, and the political thought of the independent colonies required for its final fulfill and Parlia out of this practical political thought which issued in the Constitution and central government, and it was possible to be worked out only because there had been generations of Americans trained in political life
Webster was one of these men He was the product of the forces which had been at work in the country frolish freedorown and increased under the fostering care of self-governht up in a New England country village, the type of the freest and overne; he had shouldered his musket in a war for the defense not of his State alone, but of his country, vague and ill defined though its organic forht be When, therefore, the as over, and the country was free and coe its own affairs, he was qualified to take part in that rounds of conduct
His ”Sketches of A of a young American, of lively disposition, candida reflection of other literature and thought; but its best character is in its sturdy and resolute assertion of English freedo a central authority in which to rest It is curious, in the opening pages, to see how, in his theories of govern philosophy of Rousseau and Rousseau's interpreter, Jefferson When he undertakes to explain the rationale of govern man, captivated by the current mode; when he reaches the i to the point, and lighting upon the one unanswerable demand of Aes of his ”Sketches” he lays down his Theory of Government, which is, in brief, that of the _contrat social_, but presented in a hos it nearer to the actual life of men; he concludes his observation with a definition of the overnreatest nu_ thee communities,” he adds, ”the individuals are too nuislation: for which reason, the people appear by substitutes or agents,--persons of their own choice A representative deovernovernment on the Continent of Europe, or in history; but when he cos which renders possible the actual fulfill to exist, has the science and the experience of all nations to direct her in forovernment” There is an equal distribution of landed property, freed fro army, and there is freedoeneral; there is no artificial rank in society, and frole lines of industry; but various occupations will enius roused by the very situation of America”
From these considerations he proceeds to lay down a ”Plan of Policy for i the Union of the American States” This union, he shows, cannot depend upon a standing army, upon ecclesiastical authority, or upon the fear of an external force; it must find its reason in the constitutions of the States, and he sees, therefore, the need of a supreme head, in which the power of all the States is united ”There must be a supreme head, clothed with the saeneral policy of all the States, as the legislatures of the respective States have totheir own internal police The truth of this is taught by the principles of government, and confirmed by the experience of America Without such a head the States cannot be _united_, and all atteovern as any individual State has power to defeat the measures of the other twelve, our pretended union is but a name, and our confederation a cobweb” He illustrates his point by the analogy of the Constitution of Connecticut It is clear that by the head of the Union he islative force, which in the Constitution was vested in the President and Congress He recognizes the necessity of an authoritative head, but he had not in his own s fast to the doctrine that all power is vested in the people, and proceeds from the people, and he pleads for such a union as ous to the union of towns in the State, where the power of all the towns united is coeneral concerns of the continent may be reduced to a few heads; but in all the affairs that respect the whole, Congress must have the sahout the continent as the legislatures of the several States have in their respective jurisdictions If Congress have any power, they must have the whole power of the continent Such a poould not abridge the sovereignty of each State in any article relating to its own government The internal police of each State would be still under the sole superintendence of its legislature But in a matter that equally respects all the States no individual State has islative authority, and consequently has no right to decide what measure shall or shall not take place on the continent A majority of the States _must_ decide; our confederation cannot be permanent unless founded on that principle; nay, more, the States cannot be said to be _united_ till such a principle is adopted in its utle town or precinct could counteract the will of a whole State, would there be any governovernment that the will of the le State or a ht to be disabled to resist the will of the majority, as much as a town or county in any State is disabled to prevent the execution of a statute law of the legislature It is on this principle, and _this alone_, that a free State can be governed; it is on this principle alone that the American States can exist as a confederacy of republics Either the several States must continue separate, totally independent of each other, and liable to all the evils of jealousy, dispute, and civil dissension,--nay, liable to a civil war, upon any clashi+ng of interests,--or they eneral head, composed of representatives from all the States, and vested with the power of the whole continent to enforce their decisions There is no other alternative One of these events must inevitably take place, and the revolution of a few years will verify the prediction”
In answering possible objections to the scheme, he rests in the power of the people, who ”forever keep the sole right of legislation in their own representatives, but divest theht to the ader fro as the people use the pohich is vested in thes,” he concludes, ”deeneral diffusion of knowledge; the encouragen power at the head of the States _All_ are essential to our peace and prosperity, but on an energetic continental government principally depend our tranquillity at hoeneralize [that is, delocalize] our ideas and our ht not to consider ourselves as inhabitants of a particular State only, but as _Areat eht not wholly to divest ourselves of provincial views and attacheneral interests of the continent As a member of a family every individual has some domestic interests; as a member of a corporation he has other interests; as an inhabitant of a State he has a more extensive interest; as a citizen and subject of the American empire he has a national interest far superior to all others Every relation in society constitutes sonitude of the society A good prince does not ask ill be for the interest of a county or small district in his dodom In the same manner, the citizens of this New World should inquire, not ill aggrandize this town or that State, but ill augment the power, secure the tranquillity, nity, and the virtues, of the United States Self-interest, both inprinciple of mankind; but this principle must operate in perfect conforations Narros and illiberal prejudices may for a time produce a selfish system of politics in each State; but a few years' experience will correct our ideas of self-interest, and convince us that a selfishness which excludes others from a participation of benefits is, in all cases, self-ruin, and that _provincial_ interest is inseparable from _national interest_”
It will be seen that Webster, though confused soy, and weak in his philosophy, did see with an English frees of his subject, and in his broad, coe American apprehension of freedoht of his ti, and it is introduced by superficial theorizing; but the practical value is great
Thoughts which have so entered into our political consciousness as to be trite and co e of the current speculation of his tiical order Webster, as I said before, may be taken in this pamphlet as an admirable example of the American political thinker, who has worked out, under the new conditions of this continent, ideas and principles which his ancestors brought fro new, but the worth of his thought is in its experience In a period when every one was engaged in rearranging the universe upon so that those who thought they had a brand-new nation on their hands should havethe afresh froreatly concerned about their prehly artificial, while their conclusions were sound, for these really drew their life from the historic development of free institutions, and the nation which was foranic process
Webster hi to this paood sense to say, ”The reeneral, and some of them I now believe to be too visionary for practice; but the fourth sketch was intended expressly to urge, by all possible arguments, the necessity of a radical alteration in our systeested” He adds, ”As a privateand unknown, I could do but little; but that little I did”
In the autumn of 1786 he went to Philadelphia at the invitation of Franklin, and stayed there a year Hemaster of an Episcopal academy; but his interest centred upon the debates of the Constitutional Convention, then in session, and a month after it rose he published ”An Exa Principles of the Federal Constitution,” which was, in effect, a popular defense of the work of the Convention, especially as regards the division of the legislature into two houses The paper shows rather zeal and fervor than acuteness, and seems to have been hastily written to serve soniloquence not elsewhere found in his writings, as when he says: ”This western world now beholds an aera important beyond conception, and which posterity will nuation of the Jewish laws at Mount Sinai The naested a system of constitutions for the American empire will be enrolled with those of Zamolxis and Odin, and celebrated by posterity with the honors which less enlightened nations have paid to the fabled demi-Gods of antiquity In the fores is collected; the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned In short, it is an empire of reason” In all this there is a flurry of enthusiasm which was not confined to Webster