Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845 Part 17

[14]P. 141, l. 13. 1. Cf. account of Webster's speech on the Revolution in Greece, made on the 19th of January, 1824, in Everett's _Memoir_, Vol. I. of Webster's Works.

Great as the Plymouth Oration was acknowledged by all to be, the Bunker Hill Address was a distinct advance upon it, both in the scope of the ideas and in the skill with which they are wrought into an organic whole.

It is more compact, more picturesque, more vigorous, more finished. In this field of oratory he probably has never had any equal in the English- speaking world.

Mr. Everett said of the Address: "From such an orator as Mr. Webster, on such a platform, on such a theme, in the flower of his age, and the maturity of his faculties, discoursing upon an occasion of transcendent interest, and kindling with the enthusiasm of the day and the spot, it might well be regarded as an intellectual treat of the highest order.

Happy the eyes that saw that most glorious gathering! Happy the ears that heard that heart-stirring strain!"

Lafayette wrote to Webster on the 28th of December, 1825, from La Grange, saying: "Your Bunker Hill has been translated into French, and other languages, to the very great profit of European readers."

Mr. Hillard, in his Eulogy on Webster, says: "His occasional discourses rise above the rest of their cla.s.s, as the Bunker Hill Monument soars above the objects around it."

Mr. Choate, in his address to the students of Dartmouth College in 1853, in that sublime paragraph in which he reviews the history of oratory and contrasts the eloquence of despair with the eloquence of hope, says: "Let the downward age of America find its orators, and poets, and artists, to erect its spirit, or grace and soothe its dying; be it ours to go up with Webster to the rock, the monument, the capitol, and bid the distant generations hail."

Cf. Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. XI.; Everett's _Memoir_, in Vol. I. of Webster's Works; Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. IV.; Memorial of Webster; Mr. Hillard's and Mr. Choate's Address; J. Fiske's _The American Revolution_.

_THE REPLY TO HAYNE_.

January, 1830.

The third period of Mr. Webster's life and work may be said to begin with his new honor--his election to the United States Senate in 1827, and his changed att.i.tude toward the question of the tariff as seen in his great speech on the tariff of 1828.

To understand Mr. Webster's position on the question of the tariff, one must remember that he insisted upon the principle that the question of the tariff was purely a business question, and that it was to be determined by the conditions affecting business. Up to this time Webster had opposed Protection, but now as the business of New England required a.s.sistance, he boldly stood forth as the champion of a Protective Tariff. It was in connection with the tariff legislation of 1816, 1824, and 1828 that the monster Nullification--carefully disguised until 1830--had its birth. In this year it was found stalking abroad, and in the halls of Congress menacing the bulwark of our liberties--the Const.i.tution of the country. It fell to the lot of Mr. Webster to grapple with this monster and to strangle it in his giant grasp.

On the 29th of December, 1829, Senator Foot of Connecticut moved a resolution in regard to the Public Lands, and a long and weary discussion followed until Mr. Hayne, a Senator from South Carolina, on June 19, 1830, took part and introduced a new element into the discussion by making an elaborate attack on the New England States. Mr. Webster had taken no special interest in the question, and on the day in which Mr. Hayne began his speech he was engaged in the Supreme Court, but came into the Senate in season to hear the closing paragraphs. Thinking that such an attack upon New England required a reply, Mr. Webster at once rose, but yielded to a motion to adjourn. On the next day, the 20th, Mr. Webster proceeded with his reply, in which he showed the absurdity of Hayne's accusations and by which he completely shattered his whole elaborate argument. There was hardly an allusion in Mr. Webster's speech to the question of the tariff as it concerned South Carolina, but so aroused was Hayne by Webster's defence of New England, that on the following day he spoke a second time and in a tone of even greater severity and bitterness than that which marked his previous speech; he indulged in personal allusion to Mr. Webster, and strove to bring odium upon him and the State which he represented; he openly espoused the cause of Nullification and declared war upon the tariff. Before he concluded the Senate adjourned until the 25th, when he completed his speech; Mr. Webster immediately rose to reply, but as it was late yielded to a motion to adjourn. Mr. Hayne's speech had caused the greatest alarm throughout the North; many were afraid that it was unanswerable. This was an evidence that the true nature of the Const.i.tution was not thoroughly understood. "It is a critical moment,"

said Mr. Bell of New Hampshire to Mr. Webster on the morning of the 26th, "and it is time, it is high time, that the people of this country should know what this Const.i.tution _is_." "Then," said Mr. Webster, "by the blessing of Heaven, they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes down, what I understand it to be." With this utterance upon his lips, he entered the Senate Chamber, which was already crowded. Every seat on the floor and in the galleries was occupied; the House of Representatives was deserted; the lobbies and staircases were packed. The vast audience was composed, on the one hand, of those who feared and trembled lest the rushing tide of hostility to the Const.i.tution and the Union should sweep over the country; and on the other, of those who believed that New England had no champion strong enough to stand in the breach. This scene in the Senate Chamber is rivalled only by that in the House of Commons, when Burke, in 1774, stood forth as the defender of the American colonies. Such was the anxiety to hear the speech that all the ordinary preliminaries of senatorial action were postponed, and Mr. Webster began his "Second Speech on Foot's Resolution," better known as "The Reply to Hayne."

[1]P. 146, l. 10. 1. Mr. Webster rose with great calmness, and in the majesty of that personal presence which could cause the English navvy to shout as he saw him, "By Jove, there goes a king!" with a confidence in his own resources which was the result of experience, in a clear, calm, and firm tone p.r.o.nounced this magnificent exordium which was such a piece of consummate art that its effect was electric; all who feared, and all who hated, knew that he was master of the situation.

[ 2] P. 147, l. 27. 1. When on the 21st Mr. Chambers asked that there be a delay to enable Mr. Webster, who had engagements out of the house, to be present, Mr. Hayne was unwilling to grant the request, saying that the gentleman (Mr. Webster) has discharged his fire in the presence of the Senate, and he wanted an opportunity to return it. Mr. Webster said, "Let the discussion proceed: I am ready now to receive the gentleman's fire."

[3] P. 149, l. 8. 1. The notes, covering only five sheets of ordinary letter paper, from which Webster developed the entire speech of seventy pages, contain no hint of the exordium, but begin with

"No man hurt. If his 'rankling' is relieved, glad of it."

"I have no 'rankling' fear, anger, consciousness of refutation."

"No 'rankling,' original, or received--bow not strong enough."

[4]L. 12. 2. Mr. Benton.

[5]L. 27. 3. Mr. Webster's preparation for this reply lay in the nature of his thought and reading from his first entrance into public life, and especially from the nature of the const.i.tutional questions which he has argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.

[6]P. 152, l. 1. 1. Should not this be "_more_"?

[7]L. 24. 2. This was a political cry raised against President Adams, who was elected by the House of Representatives. Clay had been a candidate, and because Adams gave him a seat in his Cabinet, a cry went up that they had made a bargain, by which Mr. Clay's friends were to vote for Adams in the House, and in return Clay was to receive a Cabinet position. This was a piece of political clap-trap. Cf. _American Politics_, Johnston, Ch. XI.

[8]P. 155, l. 5. 1. If there had been a coalition and it was killed, it was killed by Calhoun, who threw all his influence against Adams and for Jackson. But at the time of this speech Calhoun was treated somewhat cavalierly by Jackson, and had not much reward in party succession.

[9]P. 157, l. 13. 1. "The Missouri Compromise." Cf. _American Politics_, Johnston, Ch. VIII.

[10]P. 162, l. 22. 1. This Convention of 1814 was composed of men of the old Federal party, strongly opposed to war with Great Britain. Cf.

_American Politics_, Johnston, Ch. VIII.

[11]P. 170, l. 3. 1. The "South Carolina Ca.n.a.l & Railroad Company" had on Jan. 9, 1830, asked Mr. Webster to present its claims to government a.s.sistance.

[12]P. 179, l. 5. 1. Calhoun, Vice-President, and President of Senate.

[13]P. 180, l. 5. 1. Mr. Forsyth.

[14]L. 25. 2. Cf. Calhoun's speech in the House of Representatives in April, 1816.

[15]P. 182, l. 6. 1. Mr. McDuffie.

[16]P. 186, l. 12. 1. Letter of the Federal Convention to the Congress of the Confederation transmitting the plan of the Const.i.tution.

[17]P. 188, l. 4. 1. Cf. Lodge's _Webster_, Ch. VI.

[18]P. 197, l. 1. 1. President Jackson, who had been an avowed Federalist all his life.

[19]L. 15. 2. A Portuguese prince, who led the revolutionists against the const.i.tutional government.

[20]P. 198, l. 1. 1. A body of Federalists in Ess.e.x County, Ma.s.sachusetts, strongly opposing the Embargo of 1807, and the War of 1812.

[21]P. 199, l. 24. 1. After the pa.s.sage of the Tariff of 1828, the legislature of South Carolina set forth a "Protest" a.s.serting the principle of Nullification.

[22]P. 203, l. 29. 1. "At the conclusion of this paragraph there was scarcely a dry eye in the Senate, the Ma.s.sachusetts men shed tears like girls," _Reminiscence of Congress_, March.

[23]P. 205, l. 28. 1. A toast proposed at a Democratic dinner, April 30, 1830, in New York, in honor of Jefferson's birthday.

[24]P. 212, l. 16. 1. Senator Hillhouse of Connecticut.

[25]P. 214, l. 8. 1. The purpose of this Embargo was to retaliate on both Great Britain and France. In the commercial war waged by those two countries, the foreign trade of the United States was cut off. The Embargo fell with crushing weight upon New England.

[26]P. 227, l. 11. 1. _Paradise Lost_, Bk. I., l. 540.

[27]P. 228, l. 9. 1. The leader of the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania.

[28]P. 234, l. 9. 1. This celebrated peroration was entirely unpremeditated, there is no allusion to it in the "notes" of Mr. Webster.

Mr. March says, "The exulting rush of feeling with which he went through the peroration threw a glow over his countenance like inspiration. Eye, brow, each feature, every line of the face, seemed touched as with celestial fire.... His voice penetrated every recess or corner of the Senate,--penetrated even the anterooms and stairways." Mr. Webster himself said: "I never spoke in the presence of an audience so eager and so sympathetic." Mr. Everett says: "Of the effectiveness of Mr. Webster's manner in many parts, it would be in vain to attempt to give any one not present the faintest idea. It has been my fortune to hear some of the ablest speeches of the greatest living orators on both sides of the water, but I must confess I never heard anything which so completely realized my conception of what Demosthenes was when he delivered the Oration for the Crown."

Mr. Lodge in his excellent review of the speech says: "The speech as a whole has all the qualities which made Mr. Webster a great orator. An a.n.a.lysis of the Reply to Hayne, therefore, gives us all the conditions necessary to forming a correct idea of Mr. Webster's eloquence, of its characteristics, and its value." Cf. Ch. VI., _Webster_, American Statesman Series. This book should be a constant companion of the student while reading these selections.

Dr. Francis Lieber wrote: "To test Webster's oratory, I read a portion of my favorite speeches of Demosthenes, and then read, always aloud, parts of Webster; then returned to the Athenian; and Webster stood the test." As a result of this great effort, Mr. Webster was overwhelmed with congratulations from all parts of the land. The speech was the universal theme of conversation, and there was a general demand for the printed copy. Probably no speech in history has had so many readers as the Reply to Hayne.

Cf. Healey's historical painting of the scene of this great debate, in Faneuil Hall; Curtis's _Life of Webster_, Ch. XVI.; Everett's _Memoir_, Vol. I. of Webster's Works; _Correspondence of Webster_, Vol. I., p. 488.