Part 4 (1/2)

CHAPTER V

RETURN TO CONGRESS

The thorough knowledge of the principles of governislation, the practical statesmanshi+p, and the capacity for debate shown in the State convention, combined with the splendid oration at Plymouth to land, with the single exception of John Quincy Adaeneral desire that he should return to public life He accepted with soress from the Boston district in 1822, and in December, 1823, took his seat

The six years which had elapsed since Mr Webster left Washi+ngton had been a period of political quiet The old parties had ceased to represent any distinctive principles, and the Federalists scarcely existed as an organization Mr Webster, during this interval, had reard to public affairs He had urged the visit of Mr Monroe to the North, which had done so much to hasten the inevitable dissolution of parties He had received Mr Calhoun when that gentleman visited Boston, and their friendshi+p and apparent intiht to be his host's candidate for the presidency

Except for this and the part which he took in the Boston opposition to the Missouri compromise and to the tariff, matters to be noticed in connection with later events, Mr Webster had held aloof froton in 1823, the situation was much altered from that which he had left in 1817 In reality there were no parties, or only one; but the all-powerful Republicans who had adopted, under the pressure of foreign war, most of the Federalist principles so obnoxious to Jefferson and his school, were split up into as many factions as there were candidates for the presidency It was a period of transition in which personal politics had taken the place of those founded on opposing principles, and this ”era of good feeling” was marked by the intense bitterness of the conflicts produced by these personal rivalries In addition to the factions which were battling for the control of the Republican party and for the great prize of the presidency, there was still another faction, coanization, still held to their naether more as a matter of habit than with any practical object Mr

Webster had been one of the Federalist leaders in the old days, and when he returned to public life with all the distinction which he had won in other fields, he was at once recognized as the chief and head of all that now reton and Hamilton No Federalist could hope to be President, and for this very reason Federalist support was eagerly sought by all Republican candidates for the presidency The favor of Mr Webster as the head of an independent and necessarily disinterested faction was, of course, strongly desired in h reputation as a lawyer, orator, and statesman made him, therefore, a character of the first iton, a fact to which Mr Clay at once gave public recognition by placing his future rival at the head of the Judiciary Coressional life which now ensued were a the most useful if not the most brilliant in Mr Webster's whole public career He was free from the annoyance of opposition at home, and ice returned by a practically unani and influential and at the saton, where he was regarded as the first man on the floor of the House in point of ability and reputation He was not only able to show his great capacity for practical legislation, but he was at liberty to advance his own views on public questions in his oay, unburdened by the outside influences of party and of association which had affected him so much in his previous term of service and were soon to reassert their sway in all his subsequent career

His return to Congress was at once signalized by a great speech, which, although of no practical or iht which it throws on the workings of his ard to his country The House had been in session but a few days when Mr Webster offered a resolution in favor of providing by law for the expenses incident to the appointment of a commissioner to Greece, should the President deem such an appointment expedient The Greeks were then in the throes of revolution, and the syle for freedo the American people When Mr Webster rose on January 19, 1824, to move the adoption of the resolution which he had laid upon the table of the House, the chae and fashi+onable audience attracted by the reputation of the orator and the interest felt in his subject His hearers were disappointed if they expected a great rhetorical display, for which the nature of the subject and the classictemptations Mr Webster did not rise for that purpose, nor to make capital by an appeal to a temporary popular interest His speech was for a wholly different purpose It was the first expression of that grand conception of the Auely excited his youthful enthusiasm This conception had now co, and then and always stirred his iination and his affections to their inmost depths It embodied the principle from which he never swerved, and led to all that he represents and to all that his influence means in our history

As the first expression of his conception of the destiny of the United States as a great and united nation, Mr Webster was, naturally, ”more fond of this child” than of any other of his intellectual family The speech itself was a noble one, but it was an eloquent essay rather than a great example of the oratory of debate This description can in no other case be applied to Mr Webster's parliamentary efforts, but in this instance it is correct, because the occasion justified such a forh the true policy of the United States absolutely debarred the any part in the affairs of Europe, yet they had an i their proper influence on the public opinion of the world Europe was then struggling with the monstrous principles of the ”Holy Alliance” Those principles Mr Webster reviewed historically He showed their pernicious tendency, their hostility to all overnment, and their especial opposition to the principles of Aress of Laybach were right and could beand the systeovernainst such infamous principles it behooved the people of the United States to raise their voice Mr Webster sketched the history of Greece, and ive an expression of their sy for freedoht hear, the true duty of the United States toward the oppressed of any land, and the responsibility which they held to exert their influence upon the opinions of ard to other nations was his the, that he would ”call in the neorld to redress the balance of the old,” a deep and real significance was his object

The speech touched Mr Clay to the quick He supported Mr Webster's resolution with all the ardor of his generous nature, and suppleainst the interference of Spain in South As and taunts of John Randolph, but the unwillingness to take action was so great that Mr Webster did not press his resolution to a vote He had at the outset looked for a practical result from his resolution, and had desired the appointment of Mr Everett as coed by Mr Calhoun, who had given hiarded the Greek mission with favor Before he delivered his speech he became aware that Calhoun had misled him, that Mr Adams, the Secretary of State, considered Everett too much of a partisan, and that the administration holly averse to any action in the premises This destroyed all hope of a practical result, and made an adverse vote certain The only course was to avoid a decision and trust to what he said for an effect on public opinion The real purpose of the speech, however, was achieved Mr Webster had exposed and denounced the Holy Alliance as hostile to the liberties of mankind, and had declared the unalterable enmity of the United States to its reactionary doctrines

The speech idely read, not only wherever English was spoken, but it was translated into all the languages of Europe, and was circulated throughout South America It increased Mr Webster's fame at home and laid the foundation of his reputation abroad Above all, it stamped him as a statesman of a broad and national cast of mind

He now settled down to hard and continuous labor at the routine business of the House, and it was not until the end of March that he had occasion to make another elaborate and important speech At that ti certain protective duties and advocated it strenuously as part of a general and steady policy which he then christened with the naainst this bill, known as the tariff of 1824, Mr Webster made, as Mr Adams wrote in his diary at the time, ”an able and powerful speech,” which can be e of position on this question a few years later

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the affairs of the national courts were his particular care Western expansion dees for the circuits, but, unfortunately, decisions in certain recent cases had offended the sensibilities of Virginia and Kentucky, and there was a renewal of the old Jeffersonian efforts to li able to ied to defend the court, and this he did successfully, defeating all attempts to curtail its power by alterations of the act of 1789 These duties and that of investigating the charges brought by Ninian Edwards against Mr Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, made the session an unusually laborious one, and detained Mr Webster in Washi+ngton until midsummer

The short session of the next winter was of course marked by the excitement attendant upon the settlement of the presidential election which resulted in the choice of Mr John Quincy Adaitation in political circles did not, however, prevent Mr Webster fro through successfully one of the islative career The speech was delivered in the debate on the bill for continuing the national cumberland road Mr Webster had already, many years before, defined his position on the constitutional question involved in internal improvements He now, in response to Mr McDuffie of South Carolina, who denounced the measure as partial and sectional, not merely defended the principle of internal improvements, but declared that it was a policy to be pursued only with the purest national feeling It was not the business of Congress, he said, to legislate for this State or that, or to balance local interests, and because they helped one region to help another, but to act for the benefit of all the States united, and in uided only by their necessity He showed that these roads would open up the West to settle the public lands at a low price as an encourage his Southern friends very plainly that they could not expect to coerce the course of population in favor of their own section The whole speech was conceived in the broadest and wisest spirit, and marks another step in the development of Mr Webster as a national statesreat accession of popularity in the West

The h was the famous ”Criislative and constructive ability The criminal law of the United States had scarcely been touched since the days of the first Congress, and was very defective and unsatisfactory Mr Webster's first task, in which he received ed assistance froest the whole body of cri followed of carrying the ress In the latter, Mr Webster, by his skill in debate and familiarity with his subject, and by his influence in the House, was perfectly successful That he and Judge Story did their ell in perfecting the bill is shown by the admirable manner in which the Act stood the test of tiether in 1825, Mr Webster at once turned his attention to the ied to postpone in order to ward off the attacks upon the court After e Story, and having ht in a bill increasing the Supre ten instead of seven circuits, and providing that six judges should constitute a quoruh not a party question, the measure excited h the House Mr Webster supported it at every stage with great ability, and his two most important speeches, which are in their way models for the treatment of such a subject, are preserved in his works The bill was carried by his great strength in debate and by height of forcible arguuardianshi+p of its author, it hung along in uncertainty, and was finally lost through the apathy or opposition of those very Western members for whose benefit it had been devised Mr Webster took its ultimate defeat very coolly The Eastern States did not require it, and were perfectly contented with the existing arrangements, and he was entirely satisfied with the assurance that the best lawyers and wisest ht which he had expended were not wasted so far as he was personally concerned, for they served to enhance his influence and reputation both as a lawyer and statesht with it also occasions for debate other than those which were offered by islative and practical interest The adood feeling,” as it was called, and sowed the germs of those divisions which were soon to result in new and definite party combinations Mr Adams and Mr Clay represented the conservative and General Jackson and his friends the radical or de Republican party It was inevitable that Mr Webster should sympathize with the for so he should become the leader of the adreat and co influence,” to quote the words of an opponent, made him a host himself The desire of Mr Adaress, a scheme which lay very near his heart and to which Mr Clay was equally attached, encountered a bitter and factious resistance in the Senate, sufficient to deprive the e In the House a resolution was introduced declaring simply that it was expedient to appropriate money to defray the expenses of the proposed mission The opposition at once undertook by ao beyond the powers of the House

The real ground of the attack was slavery, threatened, as was supposed, by the attitude of the South American republics--a fact which no one understood or cared to recognize Mr Webster stood forth as the chareat ability he denounced the unconstitutional atteative of the President, and discussed withpower assailed on another famous occasion, many years before, by the South, and defended at that time also by the eloquence of a representative of Massachusetts

Mr Webster showed the nature of the Panaress, defended its objects and the policy of the administration, and made a full and fine exposition of the intent of the ”Monroe doctrine” The speech was an important and effective one It exhibited in an exceptional way Mr Webster's capacity for discussing large questions of public and constitutional law and foreign policy, and was of essential service to the cause which he espoused It was imbued, too, with that sentier space in his thoughts with each succeeding year, until it finally pervaded his whole career as a public ress, after a vain effort to confer upon the country the benefit of a national bankrupt law, Mr Webster was again called upon to defend the Executive in a much more heated conflict than that aroused by the Pana the Creek Indians, in open conteations of the United States Mr Ada pretty plainly that he intended to carry out the laws by force unless Georgia desisted The reat wrath by the Southern members They objected to any reference to a coia declared the whole business to be ”base and infaia would act as she pleased Mr Webster, having said that she would do so at her peril, was savagely attacked as the organ of the adn State This stirred Mr Webster, although slow to anger, to a deterh the reference at all hazards He said:--

”He would tell the gentlehts of the Indians which the United States were bound to protect, that there were those in the House and in the country ould take their part If we have bound ourselves by any treaty to do certain things, we h words will not terrify us, loud declae of that duty In my own course in this matter I shall not be dictated to by any State or the representative of any State on this floor I shall not be frightened froe to produce any reaction on hts of both parties I have ia to understand that it was not by bold denunciation nor by bold assumption that the members of this House are to be influenced in the decision of high public concerns”

When Mr Webster was thoroughly roused and indignant there was a darkness in his face and a gleaether pleasant to contemplate Hoell Mr Forsyth and his friends bore the words and look of Mr Webster we have no e was referred to a select committee without a division The interest to us in all this is the spirit in which Mr Webster spoke He loved the Union as intensely then as at any period of his life, but he was still far distant from the frame of mind which induced him to think that his devotion to the Union would be best expressed and the cause of the Union best served by mildness toward the South and rebuke to the North He believed in 1826 that dignified courage and fir the peace He was quite right then, and he would have been always right if he had adhered to the plain words and determined manner to which he treated Mr Forsyth and his friends

This session was croork of varying importance, but the close of Mr Webster's career in the lower House was near at hand The failing health of Mr EH Mills made it certain that Massachusetts would soon have a vacant seat in the Senate, and every one turned to Mr Webster as the person above all others entitled to this high office He hi to accept the position He would not even think of it until the impossibility of Mr Mills's return was assured, and then he had to meet the opposition of the adarded with alarth in the House Mr Webster, indeed, felt that he could render the best service in the lower branch, and urged the senatorshi+p upon Governor Lincoln, as elected, but declined After this there seemed to be no escape from a manifest destiny Despite the opposition of his friends in Washi+ngton, and his own reluctance, he finally accepted the office of United States senator, which was conferred upon hiislature of Massachusetts in June, 1827

In tracing the labors of Mr Webster during three years spent in the lower House, no allusion has been made to the purely political side of his career at this time, nor to his relations with the public , because it showed the first signs of the development of new parties, and to Mr Webster in particular, because it brought hiradually toward the political and party position which he was to occupy during the rest of his life When he took his seat in Congress, in the autuues for the presidential succession were at their height Mr Webster was then strongly inclined to Mr Calhoun, as was suspected at the tientleman's visit to Boston He soon became convinced, however, that Mr Calhoun's chances of success were slight, and his good opinion of the distinguished South Carolinian seems also to have declined It was out of the question for a ht, to think for a round ofpopular enthusiasland, and as a conservative and trained statesman, was the natural and proper candidate to receive the aid of Mr Webster But here party feelings and traditions stepped in The Federalists of New England had hated Mr Adarows out of domestic quarrels, whether in public or private life; and although the old strife had sunk a little out of sight, it had never been healed The Federalist leaders in Massachusetts still disliked and distrusted Mr Adams with an intensity none the less real because it was concealed In the nature of things Mr Webster now occupied a position of political independence; but he had been a steady party man when his party was in existence, and he was still a party s retained vitality and force He had, ht personal acquaintance with Mr Ada toward him This disposed of three presidential candidates The fourth was Mr

Clay, and it is not very clear why Mr Webster refused an alliance in this quarter Mr Clay had treated him with consideration, they were personal friends, their opinions were not dissi constantlyof rivalry on this very account At all events, Mr Webster would not support Clay Only one candidate remained: Mr Crawford, the representative of all that was extre the Republicans, and, in a party sense, most odious to the Federalists But it was a time when personal factions flourished rankly in the absence of broad differences of principle Mr Crawford was bidding furiously for support in every and any quarter, and to Mr Crawford, accordingly, Mr Webster began to look as a possible leader for himself and his friends Just how far Mr Webster went in this direction cannot be readily or surely deterht on the subject from an attack made on Mr Crawford just at this time Ninian Edwards, recently senator from Illinois, had a quarrel with Mr Crawford, and sent in a ainst the Secretary of the Treasury which were designed to break him down as a candidate for the presidency Of the e, even if it were important The character of Edwards was none of the best, and Mr Crawford had unquestionably hly unscrupulous use, politically, of his position The reat love for Edwards, who had been appointed Minister to Mexico, were distinctly hostile to Mr Crawford, and refused to attend a dinner from which Edwards had been expressly excluded Mr Webster's part in the affair caation of the Edwards memorial Mr Adams, as of course excited by the presidential contest, disposed to regard his rivals with extreme disfavor, and especially and justly suspicious of Mr Crawford, speaks of Mr

Webster's conduct in the ain and again as an attempt to screen Crawford and break doards, and denounces Mr Webster as false, insidious, and treacherous Much of this may be credited to the heated animosities of the moment, but there can be no doubt that Mr Webster took the matter into his own hands in the committee, and made every effort to protect Mr Crawford, in whose favor he also spoke in the House It is likewise certain that there was an atte about an alliance between Crawford and the Federalists of the North and East The effort was abortive, and even before the conclusion of the Edwards business Mr Webster avowed that he should take but little part in the election, and that his only purpose was to secure the best ternition for them from the next administration At that tieneral, and had already turned his thoughts toward the Englishpolicy he adhered, but when the popular election was over, and the final decision had been thrown into the House of Representatives, more definite action became necessary From the questions which he put to his brother and others as to the course which he ought to pursue in the election by the House, it is obvious that he was far fro carefully other contingencies

The feeling of New England could not, however, be mistaken Public opinion there demanded that the land candidate to the last To this sentiment Mr Webster submitted, and soon afterwards took occasion to have an intervieith Mr Adams in order to make the best terms possible for the Federalists, and obtain for thenition Mr Adams assured Mr Webster that he did not intend to proscribe any section or any party, and added that although he could not give the Federalists representation in the cabinet, he should give them one of the important appointments Mr Webster was entirely satisfied with this promise and with all that was said by Mr Adams, who, as everybody knoas soon after elected by the House on the first ballot