 Section 7 of Beacon Lines of History, Volume 12, American Leaders, by John Lord. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Henry Clay, Part 3. We now turn to contemplate the beginnings of Mr. Clay's aspirations to the Presidency, which from this time never left him until he had one foot in the grave. As a successful, popular, and ambitious man who had already rendered important services, we cannot wonder that he sought the envied prize, who in the nation was more eminent than he. But such a consummation of ambition is not attained by merit alone. He had enemies, and he had powerful rivals. In 1824 John Quincy Adams, as Monroe's Secretary of State, was in the line of promotion, a statement of experience and abilities, the superior of Clay in learning, who had spent his life in the public service, and in honorable positions, especially as a foreign minister. He belonged to the reigning party, and was the choice of New England. Moreover, he had the prestige of a great name. He was, it is true, far from popular, was cold and severe in manners, and irritable in temperament. But he was public spirited, patriotic, incorruptible, lofty in sentiment, and unstained by vices. Andrew Jackson was also a formidable competitor, a military hero, the idol of the West, and a man of extraordinary force of character, with undoubted executive abilities, but without much experience in civil affairs, self-willed, despotic in temper, and unscrupulous. Crawford of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury, with great Southern prestige, and an adroit politician, was also a candidate. Superior to all these candidates, in political genius was Calhoun of South Carolina, yet not so prominent as he afterwards became. The popular choice in 1824 lay between Jackson and Adams, and as no candidate obtained a majority of the electoral votes, the election reverted to the House of Representatives, and Adams was chosen, much to the chagrin of Jackson, who had the largest number of popular votes, and the disappointment of Clay, who did not attempt to conceal it. When the latter saw that his own chances were small, however, he had thrown his influence in favor of Adams, securing his election, and became his Secretary of State. Jackson was indignant as he felt he had been robbed of the prize by a secret bargain, or coalition, between Clay and Adams. In retiring from the speakership of the House, which he had held so long, Clay received the formal and hearty thanks of that body for his undeniably distinguished services as a presiding officer. In knowledge of parliamentary law and tactics, imprompt decisions, never once overruled in all his long career, in fairness, courtesy, self-command, and control of the House at the stormiest times, he certainly never had a superior. Friends and enemies alike recognized and cordially expressed their sense of his masterly abilities. The administration of Adams was not eventful, but to his credit he made only four removals from office during his term of service, and these for good cause. He followed out the policy of his predecessors, even under pressure from his cabinet, refusing to recognize either friends or enemies as such, but simply holding public officers to their duty. So too, in his foreign policy, which was conservative and prudent, and free from entangling alliances, at a time when the struggle for independence among the South American republics presented an occasion for interference, and when the debates on the Panama mission, a proposed council of South and Central American republics at Panama, to which the United States were invited to send representatives, were embarrassing to the executive. The services of Mr. Clay, as Secretary of State, were not distinguished. He made a number of satisfactory treaties with foreign powers and exhibited great catholicity of mind, but he was embroiled in quarrels and disputes, anything but glorious, and he further found a situation irksome. This field was the legislature, as an executive officer, he was out of place. It may be doubted whether he would have made as good a president as many inferior politicians. He detested office labor, and was sensitive to hostile criticism. His acceptance of the office of Secretary of State was probably a blunder, as his appointment was, though unjustly, thought by many to be in fulfillment of a bargain, and it did not advance his popularity. He was subject to slanders and misrepresentations. The secretarieship, instead of being a step to the presidency, was thus rather an impediment in his way. It was not even a position of as much power as the speakership. He gave him no excitement, and did not keep him before the eyes of the people. His health failed, he even thought, of resignation. The supporters of the Adams administration, those who more and more came to rank themselves as promoters of tariffs and internal improvements, with liberal views as to the constitutional powers of the national government, gradually consolidated in opposition to the party headed by Jackson. The former called themselves national republicans, and the latter, democratic republicans. During the Jacksonian administrations, they became known more simply as wigs and democrats. On the accession of General Jackson to the presidency in 1829, Mr. Clay retired to his farm at Ashland, but while he amused himself by raising fine cattle and horses, and straightening out his embarrassed finances, he was still the recognized leader of the National Republican Party. He was then 52 years of age, at his very best and strongest period. He took more interest in politics than in agriculture or in literary matters. He was not a learned man, nor a great reader, but a close observer of men and of all political movements. He was a great favorite and received perpetual ovations whenever he traveled, always ready to make speeches at public meetings which were undoubtedly eloquent and instructive, but not masterpieces like those of Webster at Plymouth and Bunker Hill. They were not rich in fundamental principles of government and political science, and far from being elaborate, but were earnest, patriotic, and impassioned. Clay was fearless, ingenuous, and chivalric, and won the hearts of the people which Webster failed to do. Both were great debaters, the one appealing to the understanding and the other to popular sentiments. Webster was cold, massive, logical, although occasionally illuminating his argument with a grand glow of eloquence, the admiration of lawyers enclarging him. Clay was the delight of the common people, impulsive, electrical, brilliant, calling out the sympathies of his hearers and captivating them by his obvious sincerity and frankness, not so much convincing them as moving them and stimulating them to action. Webster rarely lost his temper, but he could be terribly sarcastic, harsh, and even fierce. Clay was passionate and irritable, but forgiving and generous, oath to lose a friend and eager for popularity. Webster seemed indifferent to applause and even to ordinary friendship, proud and self-sustained. Clay was vain and susceptible to flattery. No stranger could approach Webster, but Clay was as accessible as a primitive bishop. New England was proud of Webster, but the West loved Clay. Kentucky would follow her favorite to the last, whatever mistakes he might make, but Massachusetts deserted Webster when he failed to respond to her popular confictions. Both men were disappointed in the prize they sought, one because he was not loved by the people, colossal as they admitted him to be, a frowning Jupiter tonens absorbed in his own majesty, the other because he had incurred the hatred of Jackson and other party chiefs who were envious of his popularity and fearful of his ascendancy. The hatred which Clay and Jackson had for each other was inexorable. It steeped them both in bitterness and uncompromising opposition. They were rivals, the heads of their respective parties. Clay regarded Jackson as an ignorant, despotic, unscrupulous military chieftain who had been raised to power by the blind adoration of military success, while Jackson looked upon Clay as an intriguing politician without honesty, industry, or consistency, gifted only in speech-making. Their quarrels and mutual abuse formed no small part of the political history of the country during Jackson's administration and have received from historians more attention than they deserved. Mr. Colton takes up about one half of his first volume of The Life of Clay, indisimal documents which few care about, relating to what he calls the great conspiracy, that is, the intrigues of politicians to rob Clay of his rights, the miserable party warfare which raged so furiously and blindly from 1825 to 1836. I need not here dwell on the contentions and slanders and hatreds which were so prominent at the time the two great national parties were formed and which divided the country until the Civil War. The most notable portion of Henry Clay's life was his great career as senator in Congress, which he entered in December 1831, two years after the inauguration of President Jackson. The first subject of national importance to which he gave his attention was the one with which his name and fame are mostly identified. The tariff, to a moderate form of which the president in 1829 had announced himself to be favorable, but which he afterwards more and more opposed on the ground that the revenues already produced were in excess of the needs of the government. The subject was ably discussed, first in a resolution introduced by Senator Clay, declarative of principles involving some reduction of duties on articles that did not compete with American industries, but maintaining generally the American system successfully introduced by him in the tariff of 1824, and then in a bill framed in accordance with the resolution, both of which were passed in 1832. Clay's speeches on this tariff of 1832 were among the strongest and ablest he ever delivered. Indeed, he apparently exhausted his subject. Little has been added by political economists to the arguments for protection since his day. His main points were that it was beneficial to all parts of the union and absolutely necessary to much the largest portion, that the price of cotton and of other agricultural products had been sustained and a decline averted by the protective system. That even if the foreign demand for cotton had been diminished by the operation of this system, the plea of the Southern leaders, the diminution had been more than compensated in the additional demand created at home. That the competition produced by the system reduces the price of manufactured articles, for which he adduced his fact. And finally that the policy of free trade without benefiting any section of the union would by subjecting us to foreign legislation regulated by foreign interests lead to the prostration and ruin of our manufacturers. It must be remembered that this speech was made in 1832 before our manufacturers, really infant industries, could compete successfully with foreigners in anything. At the present time there are many interests which need no protection at all and the protection of these interests, as a matter of course, fosters monopolies. And hence the progress which is continually being made in manufacturers enabling this country to be independent of foreign industries makes protective duties on many articles undesirable now, which were expedient and even necessary 60 years ago. An illustration of the fallacy of tariffs founded on immutable principles when they are simply matters of expediency according to the changing interests of nations. We have already in the lecture on Jackson described the nullification episode with the threatening protest against the tariff of 1828 and its amendments of 1832. Jackson's prompt action enclaves patriotic and earnest efforts resulting in the compromised tariff of March 1833. By this bill duties were to be gradually reduced from 25% ad valorem to 20%. Mr. Webster was not altogether satisfied nor were the extreme tariff men who would have run the risks of the threatened nullification by South Carolina. It proved however a popular measure and did much to tranquilize the nation, yet it did not wholly satisfy the South nor any extreme partisans as compromises seldom do, and Clay lost many friends and consequence, a result which he anticipated and manfully meant. It led to one of his finest bursts of eloquence. I have, said he, been accused of ambition in presenting this measure. Ambition, inordinate ambition, though groveling souls who are utterly incapable of elevating themselves to the higher and nobler duties of pure patriotism, beings who, for ever keeping their own selfish aims in view, decide all public measures by their presumed influence on their own aggrandizement, judge me by the venal rule which they prescribe for themselves. I am no candidate for any office in the gift of these states united or separated. I never wish, never expect to be. Pass this bill, tranquilize the country, restore competence and affection for the union, and I am willing to go to Ashland and renounce public service for ever. Yes, I have ambition, but it is the ambition of being the humble instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile a divided people, once more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land, the pleasing ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosperous, and fraternal people. The policy which Mr. Clay advocated with so much ability during the whole of his congressional life was that manufacturers, as well as the culture of rice, tobacco, and cotton, would enrich this country and therefore ought to be fostered and protected by Congress, whatever Mr. Hain or Mr. Calhoun should say to the contrary, or even General Jackson himself, whose sympathies were with the South, and consequently with slavery. Therefore Clay is called the father of the American system. He was the advocate, not of any local interests, but the interests of the country as a whole, thus establishing his claim to be a statesman rather than a politician who never looked beyond local and transient interests, and is especially subservient to party dictation. The Southern politicians may not have wished to root out manufacturing altogether, but it was their policy to keep the agricultural interests in the ascendant. Soon after the close of the session of the 22nd Congress, Mr. Clay, on his return to Axeland, put into execution a project he had long contemplated of visiting the eastern cities. At that period, even in an excursion of one thousand miles was a serious affair, and attended with great discomfort. Wherever Mr. Clay went, he was received with enthusiasm. Receptions, public dinners, and fets succeeded each other at all the principal cities. In Baltimore, in Wilmington, and in Philadelphia, he was entertained at balls and banquets. In New York, he was the guest of the city, and was visited by thousands eager to shake his hand. The company controlling the line between New York and Boston tendered to him the use of one of their fine steamers to Rhode Island, where every social honor was publicly given to him. In Boston, he was welcomed by a committee of forty, in behalf of the young men, headed by Mr. Winthrop, and was received by a committee of old men, when he was eloquently addressed by Mr. William Sullivan, and was subsequently weighted upon by the mayor and alderman of the city. Deputations from Portland and Portsmouth besought the honor of a visit. At Charlestown, on Bunker Hill, Edward Everett welcomed him in behalf of the city, and pronounced one of his felicitous speeches. At Fanuel Hall, a delegation of young men presented him with a pair of silver pitchers. He was even dragged to Lyceum lectures during the two weeks he remained in Boston. He then proceeded amid public demonstrations to Warchester, Springfield, Hartford, Northampton, Pittsfield, Troy, Albany, and back again to New York. The carriage-makers of Newark begged his acceptance of one of their most costly carriages for the use of his wife. No one except Washington, Lafayette, and General Grant ever received more enthusiastic ovations in New England, all in recognition of his services as a statesman, without his having reached any higher position than that of senator or secretary of state. In such a rapid review of the career of Mr. Clay as we are obliged to make, it is impossible to enter upon the details of political movements and the shifting grounds of party organizations in warfare. We must not, however, lose sight of that most characteristic element of Clay's public life, his perennial candidature for the presidency. We have already seen him in 1824 when his failure was evident, throwing his influence into the scale for John Quincy Adams. In 1828, as Adams's secretary of state, he could not be a rival to his chief and so escaped the well-meaning overthrow with which Jackson defeated their party. In 1832 he was an intensely popular candidate of the National Republicans, especially the merchants and manufacturers of the North and East and the Friends of the United States Bank, but southern hostility to his tariff principles and the rally of the people in support of Jackson's war on moneyed institutions threw him out again in notable defeat. In 1836 and again in 1840 Clay was prominent before the conventions of the Whig or National Republican Party, but other interests subordinated his claims to nomination in the election of Van Buren by the Democrats in 1836 and of Harrison by the Whigs in 1840 kept him still in abeyance. In 1844 Clay was again the Whig candidate, the chief issue being the admission of Texas, but he was defeated by Polk and the Democrats and after that the Paramount slavery question pushed him aside and he dropped out of the race. The bitter war which Clay made on the administration of General Jackson, especially in reference to the United States Bank question, has already been noticed. And although it is an important passage in his history, I must pass it by to avoid repetition, which is always tedious. All I would say in this connection is that Clay was foremost among the supporters of the bank and opposed not only the removal of deposits, but also the sub- treasury scheme of Mr. Van Buren that followed the failure to maintain the bank. Some of his ablest oratory was expended in the unsuccessful opposition to these Democratic measures. End of section seven. Section eight of Beacon Lights of History, volume 12, American Leaders by John Lord. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Henry Clay, part four. In 1837 came the bursting of the money bubble, which had turned everybody's head and led to the most extravagant speculations, high prices, high rents, and lofty expectations in all parts of the country. This was followed of course by the commercial crisis, the general distress, and all the evils which Clay and Webster had predicted, but to which the government of Van Buren seemed to be indifferent while enforcing its pet schemes against all the settled laws of trade and the experiences of the past. But the country was elastic after all, and a great reaction set in. New political combinations were made to express the general indignation against the responsible party in power, and the Whig party arose, joined by many leading Democrats like Rebs of Virginia and Talmadge of New York, while Calhoun went over to Van Buren and dissolved his alliance with Clay, which in reality for several years had been hollow. In the presidential election of 1840, Mr. Van Buren was defeated by an overwhelming majority, and the Whigs came into power under the presidency of General Harrison, chosen not for talents or services, but for his availability. The best that can be said of Harrison is that he was an honest man. He was a small farmer in Ohio with no definite political principles, but had gained some military acclaw in the War of 1812. The presidential campaign of 1840 is well described by Carl Schertz as a popular frolic, with its monster mass meetings with log cabin raccoons, hard cider, with huge picnics, and ridiculous dog roll about Tippecanoe and Tyler too. The reason why it is called out so great an enthusiasm was frivolous enough in itself, but it expressed the popular reaction against the misrule of Jackson and Van Buren, which had plunged the country into financial distress, notwithstanding the general prosperity which existed when Jackson was raised to power. A lesson to all future presidents who set up their own will against the collected experience and wisdom of the leading intellects of the country. President Harrison offered to the great chieftain of the Whig party the first place in his cabinet, which he declined, preferring his senatorial dignity and power. Besides, he had been secretary of state under John Quincy Adams and found the office irksome. He knew full well that his true arena was the Senate chamber, which also was most favorable to his presidential aspirations. But Webster was induced to take the office declined by Clay, having for his associates in the cabinet such able men as Ewing, Badger, Bell, Crittenden, and Granger. Mr. Clay had lost no time when Congress assembled in December 1840 in offering a resolution for the repeal of the Sub-Tresure Act, but as the Democrats still had a majority in the Senate, the resolution failed. When the next Congress assembled, General Harrison, having lived only one month after his inauguration, and the Vice President, John Tyler, having succeeded him, the Sub-Tresure Act was repealed, but the President refused to give his signature to the bill for the recharter of the United States Bank, to the dismay of the Whigs, and the deep disappointment of Clay, who at once severed his alliance with Tyler and became his bitter opponent, carrying with him the cabinet, which resigned, with the exception of Webster, who was engaged in important negotiations in reference to the Northeastern Boundary. The new cabinet was made up of Tyler's personal friends, who had been Jackson Democrats, and the fruits of the Great Whig victory were therefore, in a measure, lost. The Democratic Party gradually regained its ascendancy, which it retained with a brief interval until the election of Abraham Lincoln. A question greater than banks and tariffs, if moral questions are greater than material ones, now began again to be discussed in Congress, ending only in civil war. This was the slavery question. I've already spoken of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which Mr. Clay has the Chief Credit of effecting, but the time now came for him to meet the question on other grounds. The abolitionists through the constant growth of the anti-slavery sentiment throughout the North had become a power, and demanded that slavery should be abolished in the District of Columbia. And here again I feel it best to defer what I have to say on anti-slavery agitation to the next lecture, especially as Clay was mixed up in it only by his attempt to pour oil on the troubled waters. He himself was a southerner and was not supposed to take a leading part in the conflict, although opposed to slavery on philanthropic grounds. Without being an abolitionist he dreaded the extension of the slave power, yet as he wished to be president he was afraid of losing votes and did not wish to alienate either the North or the South. But for his inordinate desire for the presidential office he might have been a leader in the anti-slavery movement. All his sympathies were with freedom. He took the deepest interest in colonization and was president of the colonization society, which had for its aim the sending of manumitted Negroes to Liberia. The question of the annexation of Texas forced to the front in the interest of the slave-holding states united the Democrats and elected James K. Polk president in 1844, while Clay and the Whig party, who confidently expected success, lost the election by reason of the growth of the anti-slavery or Liberty Party and passed a large vote in New York. The pivotal state, without whose support in the electoral college, the carrying of the other northern states went for naught. The Mexican war followed and in 1846 David Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved an amendment to a bill appropriating $2 million for final negotiations, providing that in all territories acquired from Mexico slavery should be prohibited. The Wilmot proviso was lost but arose during the next four years again and again to the standard of the anti-slavery northerners. When the anti-slavery agitation had reached an alarming extent and threatened to drive the south into succession from the union, Clay appeared once again in his great role as a pacificator. To preserve the union was the dearest object of his public life. He would by a timely concession avert the catastrophe which the southern leaders threatened and he probably warded off in an act of a more strident fugitive slave law. In 1848, embittered by having been set aside as the nominee of the Whig party for the presidency in favor of General Taylor, one of the successful military chieftains in the Mexican war, who as a southern man with no political principles or enemies was thought to be more available. Clay had retired from the Senate and for a lot of slavery complications. In December 1849 he was returned to the Senate and inevitably became again one of the foremost in all the debates. When the conflict had grown hot and fierce in January 1850, Clay introduced a bill for harmonizing all interests. As to the disputed question of slavery in the new territory, he would pacify the North by being more efficient for the pursuit and capture of fugitive slaves. His speech occupied two days delivered in great physical exhaustion and was in appeal to the North for concession and to the South for peace. Like Webster who followed with his renowned Seventh of March speech and who alienated Massachusetts because he did not go far enough for freedom, Clay showed that there could be war to propagate a wrong in which the sympathy of all mankind would be against us. Calhoun followed defending the interests of slavery which he called the rights of the South, though too weak to deliver his speech which was read for him. He clearly saw the issue that slavery was doomed if the Union were preserved and therefore welcomed war before the North should be prepared for it. It was the South agitation on the slavery question the cause would be lost. It was already virtually lost since the conflict between freedom and slavery was manifestly irrepressible and would come in spite of concessions which only put off the evil day. On the 11th of March Seward of New York now becoming prominent in the Senate spoke deprecating all compromise on a matter of principle and declaring that there was a higher law than the Constitution itself. He therefore would at least have the means in the power of Congress on the ground of moral right not of political expediency undismayed by all the threats of secession. Two weeks afterward Chase of Ohio took the same ground as Seward. From that time Seward and Chase have planted Webster and Clay in the confidence of the North on all anti-slavery questions. After seven months of acrimonious debate in both houses of Congress which put off the dreadful issue for eleven years longer it was the best thing to do for the South was in deadly earnest exceedingly exasperated and blinded. A war in 1851 would have had uncertain issues with such a man as Fillmore in the presidential chair to which he had succeeded on the death of Taylor. He was a most respectable man in of fair abilities but not of sufficient force and character to guide the nation. It was better to submit of the Union with the logical consequences of the separation. But the abolitionists had no idea of submitting to a law which was inhuman even to pacify the South and the law was resisted in Boston which again kindled the smothered flames to the great disappointment in alarm of Clay for he thought that his compromise bill had settled the existing difficulties. In the meantime the health of the great pacificator began to decline. He was forced by threatening and distressing cough to decline an invitation of the citizens of New York to address them on the affairs of the nation but wrote a long letter instead addressed more to the South than to the North for he more than any other man saw the impending dangers. Although there was a large majority at the South in favor of Union yet the minority had become furious and comprised the ablest leaders concerning whose intention it is wiser to predict that they will act against reason. Here Clay was wiser in his anxiety than the northern statesman generally who thought there would be peace because it was reasonable. Clay did not live to see all compromises thrown to the winds. He died June 29th, 1852 in the 76th year of his age at the national hotel in Washington. Imposing funeral ceremonies took place amid general lamentation and the whole country responded with glowing eulogies. The speeches which the great statesman made in his long public career and have presented only the salient points of his life in which his parliamentary eloquence blazed with the greatest heat. For he was the greatest orator and general estimation that this country has produced although inferior to Webster and massive power and purity of style and weight of argument and breath of knowledge. To my approach to him in electrical power no one had more devoted friends no one was more generally beloved no one had greater experience or rendered more valuable public services. And yet he failed to reach the presidency to which for 30 years he had aspired and which at times seemed within his grasp. He had made powerful enemies especially in Jackson and his partisans and politicians dreaded that he would have been a happier man if he had not so eagerly coveted a prize which it seems is unattainable by mere force of intellect and is often conferred apparently by accidental circumstances. It is too high an office to be sought either by genius or services except in the military line but even General Scott the real hero of the Mexican war failed in his ambitious aspirations as well as Webster, this may be looked at as a rebuke to political ambition which ought to be satisfied with the fame conferred by genius rather than that of place which never yet made a man really great. The presidency would have added nothing to the glory which Clay won in the Congress of the United States. It certainly added nothing to the fame of Grant which was one on the battlefield and it detracted from that of Jackson and yet Clay felt keenly the disappointment that with all his clay and attempting to grasp a phantom his character stands out in an interesting light on the whole. He had his faults and failings which did not interfere with his ambition and great noble traits which more than balanced them the most market of which was the patriotism whose fire never went out. If any man ever loved his country and devoted all the energies of his mind and soul to promote its welfare and secure its lasting union with the land. With him there was no east no west no north and no south to be especially favored or served but the whole country won and indivisible for ages to come and no other man in high position had a more glowing conviction of its ever increasing power and glory than he. Weather says his best biographer he thundered against British tyranny on the seas or urged the recognition of the South for his dedicated protection and internal improvements or assailed the one man power and spoils politics and the person of Andrew Jackson were entreated for compromising conciliation regarding the terror for slavery there was always ringing through his words a ferfid plea for his country as Ellis appeal on behalf of the honor and the future greatness and glory of the republic or an anxious warning and shaping the policy of national legislation as Henry Clay a policy which on the whole has proved enlightened benign and useful and hence his name and memory will not only be honorably mentioned by historians but will be finely cherished so long as American institutions shall endure he is one of the greater lights in the galaxy of American stars as he was the advocate of principles which have proved conducive to national prosperity in the first century as a country and especially to be a source of patriotic inspiration to its people it is greater glory than to be enrolled in the list of presidents especially if they are mentioned only as the fortunate occupants of a great office to which they were blindly elected of the long succession of the occupants of the papal chair the most august of worldly dignities not one in twenty has left a mark or is of any historical importance the glory of clay is not dimmed because he failed in reaching a worthy object of ambition it is enough to be embalmed in the hearts of the people as a national benefactor and to shine as a star of the first magnitude in the political firmament authorities Carl Scherz's Life of Henry Clay is far the ablest and most interesting that I have read the life of clay by Colton is fuller and more pretentious but is diffuse Benton's 30 years in congress also the various lives of Webster and Calhoun see also Wilson's rise and fall of the slave power in America the writings of the political economists like Sumner Walker Kerry and others should be consulted in reference to tariffs the life of Andrew Jackson Sheds light on Clay's hostility to the hero of New Orleans is in the public domain recording by Kay Hand Daniel Webster Part 1 AD 1782 to 1852 the American Union if I were required to single out the most prominent political genius in the history of the United States after the death of Hamilton I should say it was Daniel Webster he reigned for 30 years as a political dictator to his party and at the same time as the acknowledged head of the American bar he occupied two spheres in each of which he gained preeminence but for envy and the enemies he made he probably would have reached the highest honor that the nation had to bestow his influence was vast until those discussions arose which provoked one of the most gigantic wars of modern times for a generation he was the one who had an experience he had no contemporaneous superior there was no public man from 1820 to 1850 who had so great a prestige and whose name and labors are so well remembered his speeches and forensic arguments are more often quoted than those of any other statesman and lawyer the country has produced his works but the name and memory of Webster are still fresh amid the tumults and parties of the war he foresaw and dreaded his glory may have passed through an eclipse but his name is today one of the proudest connected with our history living men occupying great official positions are of course more talked about and thought of than he but of those illustrious characters who figured in public affairs a generation ago no one wished senator from massachusetts no man since the days of jefferson is seated on a loftier pedestal and no one is likely to live longer if not in the nation's heart yet in its admiration for intellectual superiority and respect for political services while he reigned as a political oracle for more than 30 years almost an idol in the eyes of his and honored him and at last to die broken hearted from the loss of his well-earned popularity and the failure of his ambitious expectations his life is sad as well as proud like that of so many other great men who at one time led and at another time opposed popular sentiments their names stand out on every page of history examples of the mutual time's glory for what is evil and shame for what is good when Daniel Webster was born 1782 in Salisbury New Hampshire near the close of our revolutionary struggle there were very few prominent and wealthy families in New England very few men more respectable than the village lawyers doctors and merchants were even thrifty and intelligent farmers very few great fortunes had been acquired and these chiefly by the merchants of Boston reports whose ships had penetrated to all parts of the world Webster's spring from the agricultural class larger than in proportion to other classes than now at the east at a time when manufacturers were in their infancy and needed protection when travel was limited when it was a rare thing for a man to visit Europe when the people were obliged to practice the most rigid economy when everybody went to church when religious skepticism sent those over the leading power when the press was feeble and elections were not controlled by foreign immigrants when men drank rum instead of whiskey and a lager beer had never been heard of nor the great inventions and scientific wonders which make our age and era had anywhere appeared the age of progress had scarcely then set in and everybody was obliged to work in some way to get an honest living for the Revolutionary War had left the country poor and had shut up many channels of industry the farmers at that time were the most numerous and powerful class sharp but honest and intelligent who honored learning and enjoyed discussions on metaphysical divinity their sons did not then leave the paternal acres to become clerks in distant cities nor did their daughters spend their time in reading French novels or sneering at rustic duties and labors this age of progress had not arisen when everybody looks forward to a millennium of idleness and luxury or to a fortune acquired by speculation and gambling rather than by the sweat of the brow in age in many important respects justly extolled especially for scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions yet not remarkable for religious earnestness or moral elevation the life of Daniel Webster is familiar to all intelligent people his early days were spent amid the toils and blessedness of a New England farmhouse favored by the teachings of intelligent God fearing parents who had the means to send him to Phillips Academy in Exeter where he fitted for college and shortly after entered Dartmouth at the age of 15 in connection with Webster I do not read of any remarkable precocity at school or college such as Mark Cicero Macaulay and Gladstone but it seems that he won the esteem of both teachers and students and was regarded as a very promising youth after his graduation he taught an Academy at Freiburg for a time then began the study of the law first at Salisbury and subsequently in Boston in the office of the celebrated Governor Gore he was admitted to the bar in 1805 and established himself in Bosco in but soon afterwards removed to Portsmouth where he entered on a large practice encountering such able lawyers as Jeremiah Mason and Jeremiah Smith who both became his friends and admirers for Webster's legal powers were soon the talk of the state at the early age of 31 he entered Congress 1813 and took the whole house by surprise with his remarkable during the war with Great Britain on such topics as the enlargement of the Navy the repeal of the embargo and the complicated financial questions of the day in 1815 he retired a while from public life and removed to Boston where he enjoyed a lucrative practice in 1822 he re-entered Congress so popular was he at this time that on his re-election to Congress in 1824 he received 4,999 votes out of 5,000 votes cast in 1827 he entered the Senate where he was to reign as one of its greatest chiefs the idol of his party in New England practicing his profession at the same time a leader of the American Bar and an oracle in politics on all constitutional questions with this rapid sketch I proceed to enumerate the services of Daniel Webster to his country since on these enduring fame and gratitude are based and first I allude to his career as a lawyer not a narrow technical lawyer seeking to gain with an eye on pecuniary awards alone but a lawyer devoted himself to the study of great constitutional questions and fundamental principles in his legal career when for nearly 40 years he discussed almost every issue that can arise between individuals and communities some half a dozen cases have become historical because of the importance of the principles and interests involved in the Gibbons and Ogden case he assumed to the broad ground that the grant of power to regulate William Wirt his distinguished antagonist then at the height of his fame relied on the coasting license giving by the state but the lucid and luminous arguments of the young lawyer astonished the court and made old Judge Marshall lay down his pen drop back in his chair turn up his coat cuffs and stare at the speaker in amazement at his powers the first great case which gave Webster a national reputation was that pertaining to Dartmouth College his alma mater which he loved Newton loved Cambridge the college was in the hands of politicians and Webster recovered the college from their hands and restored it to the trustees laying down such broad principles that every literary and benevolent institution in this land will be grateful to him forever this case which was argued with consummate ability and with words as eloquent as they were logical and lucid melting a cold court into tears placed Webster in the front rank of lawyers in this case he settled the constitutionality of state bankrupt laws in that of the United States bank he maintained the right of a citizen of one state to perform any legal act in another in that which related to the efficacy of Steven Gerard's will he demonstrated the vital importance of Christianity to the success of free institutions so that this very college which excluded clergymen from being teachers in it or even visiting it has since been presided over by laymen of high religious character including Dr. Allen in the Rhode Island case he proved the right of a state to modify its own institutions of government in the Knapp murder case he brought out the power of conscience the voice of God to the soul was such terrible forensic eloquence that he was the admiration of all Christian people no better sermon was ever preached than this appeal to the conscience of men in these and other cases he settled very difficult and important questions so that the courts he enriched the science of jurisprudence itself by bringing out the fundamental laws of justice and equity on which the whole science rests he was not as learned as he was logical and comprehensive his greatness as a lawyer consisted in seeing and seizing some vital point not obvious or whose importance was not perceived by his opponent and then bringing to bear on this point the whole power of his intellect his knowledge was marvelous on those points essential to his argument and his actions outside his cases I mean the details and technicalities of law he did however know the fundamental principles on which his great cases turned and these he enforced with much eloquence and power so that his ablest opponents quailed before him perhaps his commanding presence and powerful tones and wonderful eye had something to do with his success at the bar as well as in the senate a brow if he sometimes intimidated he rarely resorted to exaggerations but confined himself strictly to the facts so that he seemed the fairest of men this moderation had great weight with an intelligent jury and with learned judges he always paid great deference to the court and was generally courteous to his opponents of all his antagonists at the bar perhaps it was Jeremiah Mason and Rufus Chote whom he most dreaded yet both of these great men were his warm warfare at the bar does not mean personal animosity it is generally mutual admiration except in the antagonism of such rivals as Hamilton and Burr Webster's admiration for Wirt Pickney Curtis and Mason was free from all envy in fact Webster was too great a man for envy and great lawyers were those whom he loved best whom he felt to be his brethren not secret enemies his admiration who was not a rival Webster praised Marshall as he might have Erskine or Lindhurst Mr. Webster again attained to great eminence in another sphere in which lawyers have not always succeeded that of popular oratory in the shape of speeches and lectures and orrations to the people directly in this sphere I doubt if he ever had an equal in this country although Edward Everett Rufus Chote Rex were the equals of Webster but he was a great teacher of the people directly a sort of lecturer on the principles of government of finance of education of agriculture of commerce he was superbly eloquent in his eulogies of great men like Adams and Jefferson his Bunker Hill and Plymouth addresses are immortal he lectured occasionally before Lyceum and literary institutions political campaigns to any great extent as is now the custom with political leaders on the eve of important elections he did not seek to show the people how they should vote so much as to teach them elemental principles he was the oracle the sage the teacher not the politician in the popular assemblies whether for the discussion of political truths or those which bear on literature education history finance or webster was preeminent what audiences were ever more enthusiastic than those that gathered to hear his wisdom and eloquence in public halls or in the open air it is true that in his later years he lost much of his wonderful personal magnetism and did not rise to public expectation except on great occasions but in middle life in the earlier part of his congressional career he had no peer as a popular order Edward Everett on some occasions was his equal words were concerned but on the whole even in his grandest efforts Everett was cold compared with Webster in his palmy days he never touched the heart and reason as did Webster although it must be conceited that Everett was a greater rhetorician and was master of many of the graces of oratory these speeches and orations of Webster were not only weighty in matter but were wonderful for their style so clear so simple so direct that everybody attempted to express more than one thought in a single sentence so that his sentence is never wearied in audience being always logical and precise not involved and long and complicated like the periods of chalmers and chote and so many of the English orators it was only in his grand perorations that he was Ciceroanian he despised purely extemporary efforts he did not believe in them he admits somewhere that he never could make a good speech the principles embodied in his famous reply to Colonel Hain of South Carolina in the debate in the senate on the right of nullification had lain brooding in his mind for 18 months to a young minister he said there is no such thing as extemporaneous acquisition Webster's speeches are likely to live for their style alone outside their truths like those of Ciceroan and Demosthenes like the histories of Voltaire and Macauli like the essays not only for both style and matter but for the exalted patriotism which burns in them from first to last for those sentiments which consecrate cherished institutions how nobly he recognizes Christianity as the bulwark of national prosperity how delightfully he presents the endearments of home the certitudes of friendship the piece of agricultural life the repose of all industrial pursuits however humble and obscure it was this fervid patriotism this public recognition of what is purist in human life and exalted in aspirations and profound in experience teaching the value of our privileges and the glory of our institutions which gave such effect to his eloquence and endeared him to the hearts of the people until he opposed their passions if we read any of these speeches extending over 30 years we shall find everywhere the same consistent spirit of liberty of union of conciliation the same moral wisdom the same insight into great truths the same recognition of what is sacred the same repose on what is permanent the same faith in the expanding glories of this great nation which he loved with all his heart in all his speeches one cannot find a sentence which insults the consecrated sentiment of religion or patriotism he never casts a fling at Christianity he never utters a sarcasm in reference to revealed truths he never flippantly aspires to be wiser than Moses or Paul in reference to theological dogmas ah my friends said he in 1825 let us remember that it is only religion and morals and knowledge that can make men respectable and happy under any form of government that no government is respectable which is not just that without unspotted purity of public faith without sacred public principle fidelity and honor no mere form of government no machinery of laws can give dignity to political society thus did he discourse in those proud days when he was accepted as a national idol and a national benefactor those days of triumph and of victory when the people gathered around him as they gather around a successful general ah how they thronged to the spot where he was expected to speak as the scotch people thronged to Edinburgh and Glasgow to hear Gladstone and when they saw his chariot but appear did they not make an universal shout that Tiber trembled underneath her banks of their sounds made in her concave shores but it is time that I allude to those great services which Webster rendered to his country when he was a member of Congress services that can never be forgotten and which made him a national benefactor there were three classes of subjects on which his genius preeminently shown questions of finance the development of American industries and the defense of the Constitution as early as 1815 Mr. Webster acquired a national reputation and the proposition to establish a national bank which he opposed since it was to be relieved from the necessity of redeeming its notes in specie this was at the close of the war with Great Britain when the country was poor business prostrated and the finances disordered to relieve this pressure many wanted an inflated paper currency which should stimulate trade but all this Mr. Webster opposed as certain to add to the evils it was designed should be established on sound financial principles with notes redeemable in gold and silver and he brought a great array of facts to show the certain and utter failure of a system of banking operations which disregarded the fundamental financial laws he maintained that an inflated currency produced only temporary and elusive benefits nor did he believe in hopes which were not sustained by experience banks said he are not revenue sources of national income which much flow from deeper fountains whatever bank notes are not convertible into gold and silver at the will of the holder become of less value than gold and silver no solidity of funds no confidence in banking operations has ever enabled them to keep up their paper to the value of gold and silver any longer than they paid gold and silver on demand similar sentiments he advanced in 1816 in his speech in 1832 when he said that a disordered currency is one of the greatest of political evils fatal to industry frugality and economy it fosters the spirit of speculation and extravagance it is the most effectual of inventions to fertilize the rich man's field by the sweat of the poor man's brow in these days when principles of finance are better understood these remarks may seem like platitudes but they were not so 50 or 60 years ago for then of new truth although even then they were the result of political wisdom based on knowledge and experience and his views were adopted for he appealed to reason end of section 9 section 10 of beacon lights of history volume 12 American leaders by John Lord this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Kay Hand Daniel Webster parts 2 Webster's speeches are very calm like the papers of Hamilton and Jay in the Federalist but as interesting and persuasive as those of Gladstone the greatest finance minister of modern times they are plain simple direct without much attempt at rhetoric he spoke like a great lawyer to a bench of judges the solidity and soundness of his views made him greatly respected and were remarkable in a young man of 34 the subsequent country shows that he was prophetic all his predictions have come to pass what is more marketed our history than the extravagance and speculation attending the expansion of paper money irredeemable in gold and silver what misery and disappointment have resulted from inflated values it was doubtless necessary to do without gold and silver in our life and death struggle with the south but it was nevertheless a misfortune seen in the gambling operations a immense issue of paper money after the war the bubble was sure to burst sooner or later like john law's mississippi scheme in the time of louis the fifteenth how many thousands thought themselves rich in new york and chicago in fact everywhere when they were really poor as any man is poor when his house or farm is not worth the mortgage as soon as we return to gold and silver or it was known we should return many a successful merchant found he was really no richer than he was before the war it had been easy to secure heavy mortgages on inflated values and also to get a great interest on investments but when these mortgages and investments shrank to what they were really worth the holders of them became embarrassed and impoverished the fit of commercial intoxication was succeeded by depression and unhappiness and the moral evils of inflated values were greater than the financial since of all rising things the spirit of speculation and gambling brings at last the most dismal train of disappointments and miseries inflation and uncertainty in values whether in stocks or real estate alternating with the return of prosperity seem to have marked the commercial and financial history of this country during the last 50 years more than that of any other nation under the sun and given rise to the spirit of extravagant speculations both disgraceful equally remarkable were Mr. Webster's speeches on tariffs and productive industries he here seemed to borrow from Alexander Hamilton who is the father of our protective system here he cooperated with Henry Clay and the result of his eloquence and wisdom on those great principles of political economy was the adherence to a policy against great opposition which built up New England and did not impoverished the west where would the towns of Lowell without the aid extended to manufacturing interests they made the nation comparatively independent of other nations they enriched the country even as manufacturers enriched Great Britain and France what would England be if it were only in agricultural country it would have been impossible to establish manufacturers of textile fabrics without protection without aid from governments this branch of American industry would have had no chance to contend I do not believe in cheap labor I do not believe in reducing intelligent people to the condition of animals I would give them the chance to rise and they cannot rise if they are doomed to labor for a mere pittance the more wages men can get for honest labor the better is the condition of the whole country withdraw protection from infant industries and either they perish or those who work in them sink to the condition of the laboring classes of Europe nor do I believe it is a good reason to raise in one basket I would not make this country exclusively agricultural because we have boundless fields and can raise corn cheap any more that I would recommend a Minnesota farmer to raise nothing but wheat insects and mildews and unexpected heats may last a whole harvest and the farmer has nothing to fall back on he may make more money for a time by raising wheat exclusively but he impoverishes his farm then he is more independent and more intelligent even as a nation is by various industries which call out all kinds of talent I know that this is a controverted point everything is controverted in political economy there is scarcely a question which has settled in its whole range of subjects and I know that many intellectual and enlightened men are in favor of what they call free trade especially professors in colleges in the history of nations no nation legislates for universal humanity on philanthropic principles it legislates for itself there is no country where there are not high duties on some things not even England no nation can be governed on abstract principles and in disregard of its necessities when it was for the interest of England to remove duties on corn in order that manufacturers might be stimulated they took off duties on corn and fed agricultural interest gave way for a time to manufacturing interests because the wealth of the country was based on them rather than on lands and because landlords did not anticipate that bread stuffs brought from this country would interfere with the value of their rents but England with all her proud and selfish boasts about free trade may yet have to take a retrograde course like France and Prussia the English aristocracy who ruled the country cannot afford to have the value of their lands reduced one half for those lands are so heavily mortgaged that such a reduction of value would ruin them nor will they like to be forced to raise vegetables rather than wheat and turn themselves into market gardeners instead of great proprietors the landlords of Great Britain may yet demand protection from themselves and as they control parliament they will look out for themselves by enacting measures of protection unless they are intimidated by the people who demand cheap bread or unless they submit to revolution it is eternal equity and wisdom that the weak should be protected there may be industries strong enough now to dispense with protection but unless they are assisted when they are feeble they will cease to exist at all take our shipping for instance with foreign ports it is not merely crippled it is almost ready to march on to our destiny blind and lame and halt what will we do if England and other countries shall find it necessary to protect themselves from impoverishment and reintroduce duties on bread stuffs high enough to make the culture of wheat profitable where then will our farmers find a market for their superfluous corn except to those engaged in industries which we should crush by removing the benefit of the nation on the whole rendered very important services even as Hamilton and Clay did although the solid south wishing cheap labor and engaged exclusively in agriculture was opposed to him the independent south would have established free trade as Mr. Calhoun advocated and as any enlightened statesmen would advocate when any interest can stand alone and defy competition as was the case with the manufacturers of Great Britain 50 years ago the interests of the south and those of the north under the institution of slavery were not identical indeed they had been in fierce opposition for more than 50 years Mr. Webster was in his arguments on tariffs and cognate questions the champion of the north as Mr. Calhoun was of the south and this opposition and antagonism gave great force to Webster's eloquence at the time his sentences are short interrogative idiomatic he is intensely in earnest he grapples with sophistries and scatters them to the winds both reason and passion vivify him this was the period of Webster's greatest popularity as the defender of northern industries this made him the idol of the merchants and manufacturers of new england he made them rich no wonder they made him presents they aught in gratitude to have paid his debts over and over again what if he did in straight into circumstances except their aid more than he owed to them and with all their favor and bounty Webster remained poor he was never a rich man but always an embarrassed man because he had expensive tastes like Cicero at Rome and Bacon in England this truly was not to his credit it was a flaw on his character it involved him in debt created enemies and injured his reputation it may have lessened his independence and it certainly impaired his poor had he devoted his great talents exclusively to the law he might have been rich but he gave his time to his country his greatest services to his country however were as the defender of the constitution here he soared to the highest rank of political fame here he was a statesman having in view the interests of the whole country he never was what we call a politician he never was such a miserable creature as that I mean a mere politician whose calling is the meanest a man can follow since it seeks only spoils it is a perpetual deception incompatible with all dignity and independence whose only watchword is success not such was Webster he was too proud and too dignified for that form of degradation and he perhaps sacrificed his popularity to his intellectual dignity and the glorious consciousness of being a national benefactor as a real statesman seeks to be and is when he falls back on elemental principles of justice one of the most conscientious statesman that ever controlled the destinies of a nation Webster like Burke was haughty, austere and brave but such a man is not likely to remain the favorite of the people who prefer an alcibatis to a cato except in great crises when they look to a man who can save them and whom they can forget I cannot enumerate the magnificent bursts of eloquence which electrified when he combated secession and defended the union how noble and gigantic he was when he answered the aspersions of the southern orators great men as they were and elaborately showed that the union meant something more than a league of sovereign states the great leaders of secession were overthrown in a contest which they courted and in which they expected victory his reply to Hain is perhaps the most masterly speech in American distorting praise and admiration from Americans and foreigners alike in his various encounters with Hain McDuffie and Calhoun he taught the principles of political union to the rising generation he produced those convictions which sustained the north in its subsequent contest to preserve the integrity of the nation there can be no estimate of the services he rendered to the country by those grand and patriotic efforts but for these the people might have succumbed to the great a giant as Webster and was more faultless in his private life he had an immense influence he ruled the whole south he made it solid the speeches of Webster in the senate made him the oracle of the north he was not only the great champion of the north and of northern interests but he was the teacher of the whole country he expounded the principles of the constitution that this great country is one to be forever united in all its parts that its stars and stripes were to float in every city and fortress in the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the river St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico and bearing for their motto no such miserable interrogatory as what are all these worth nor those other words of delusion and folly liberty first and union afterwards but that other sentiments dear to every American heart liberty and union now and forever one and inseparable it was after his memorable speech to Hain that I saw Webster for the first time I was a boy in college and he had come to visit it and well do I remember the unbounded admiration yea the veneration felt for him by every young man in that college and throughout the town indeed throughout the whole north for he was the pride and glory of the land it was then that they called him godlike looking like an Olympian statue or one of the creations of Michelangelo when he wished to represent majesty the most commanding human presence ever seen in the capital of Washington when we recall those patriotic and noble speeches which were read and admired by every merchant and farmer and lawyer in the country and by which he produced great convictions and taught great lessons we cannot but wonder why his glory was dimmed and he was pulled down from his pedestal and became no longer an idol and then alienated his constituents I therefore compelled to say something about that speech and of his history at the time Mr. Webster was doubtless and ambitious man he aspired to the presidency and why not it is and will be a great dignity such as ought to be conferred on great ability and patriotism was he not able and patriotic had he not rendered great services was he not universally admired for his genius and experience and wisdom prominent than he among the statesman of the country were more thoroughly fitted to fulfill the duties of that high office was it not natural that he should have aspired to be one of the successors of Washington and Adams and Jefferson he comprehended the honor and the dignity of that office he did not seek it in order to divide its spoils or to reward his friends but he did wish to secure the highest prize that could be won by political services he did desire to consulate at Rome he did believe himself capable of representing the country in its most exacting position is nothing against a man that he is ambitious provided his ambition is lofty most of the illustrious men of history have been ambitious Cromwell Pitt Thiers Guizot Bismarck but ambitious to be useful to their country as well as to receive its highest rewards Webster failed to reach the position I am possibly from jealousy of his towering height just as Clay failed and Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton and Stephen Douglas and William H. Seward the politicians who control the people prefer men in the presidential chair whom they think they manage and use not those to whom they will be forced to succumb Webster was not a man to be controlled or used and so the politicians rejected him this he deeply embittered his soul although he was too proud to make loud complaints I grant he did not hear show magnanimity he thought that the presidency should be given to the ablest and most experienced statesmen he did not appear to see that this proud position is too commanding to be bestowed except for the most exalted services and such services as attract the common eye especially in war presidents in so great a country as this reign like the old they are selected by divine providence as David was from the sheepfold no American however great his genius except the successful warrior can ever hope to climb to this dizzying height unless personal ambition is lost sight of in public services this is wisely ordered to defeat unscrupulous ambition it is only in England that a man can rise to supreme power by force of genius since he is selected by his peers and not by the popular voice of England for the time since parliament is omnipotent had Webster been an Englishman and is powerful in the House of Commons as he was in Congress at one time he might have been prime minister but he could not be president of the United States although presidential power is much inferior to that exercised by an English premier it is the dignity of the office not its power which constitutes the value of the presidency and Webster loved dignity even more end of section 10 section 11 of Beacon Lights of History volume 12 American Leaders by John Lord this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recorded by Kay Hand Daniel Webster part 3 in order to arrive at this coveted office although its duties probably would have been irksome it is possible that he sought to conciliate the South and win the favor of Southern leaders he did not believe he ever sought to win their favor by any abandonment of his former principles or by any treachery to the cause he had espoused yet it is this of which he has been accused by his enemies many of those enemies his former friends the real cause of this estrangement and of all the accusations against him was this he did not sympathize with the abolition party he was not prepared to embark in a crusade against slavery he did not like slavery but he knew it to be an institution which the constitution of which he was the great defender had accepted accepted as a compromise in those dark days which tried men's souls many of the famous statesmen who deliberated in that venerated hall in Philadelphia also disliked and detested slavery but they could not have had a constitution they could not have had a united country unless that institution was acknowledged and guaranteed so they accepted it as the lesser evil they made a compromise and the constitution was signed now everybody knows that the abolitionists of the north about the year 1833 attacked slavery although it was guaranteed by the constitution attacked it not as an evil merely but as a sin attacked it by virtue of a higher law than constitutional provision and as an evil as a stain on our country as an insult to the virtue and intelligence of the age as a crime against humanity these people of the north declared that slavery ought to be swept away Mr. Webster as well as Mr. Fillmore Mr. Lincoln Mr. Everett and many other acknowledged patriots was for letting slavery alone as an evil too great to be removed without war which moreover could not be removed without an infringement on what the south considered as an evil constitution in order to preserve the constitution as well as the union the abolitionists were violent in their denunciations and although it took many years to permeate the north with their leaven they were in earnest and under persecutions and mobs and ostracism and contempt they persevered until they created a terrible public opinion the south had early taken the alarm and in order to protect their peculiar and favorite into newly acquired territories where it did not exist claiming the protection of the constitution Mr. Webster was one of their foremost opponents in this contesting their right to do it under the constitution but in 1848 the anti-slavery opinion at the north crystallized in a political organization the free soil party and on the other hand the south proposed to abrogate the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as an offset to the admission of California and at the same time asked in further concession the passage of the fugitive slave bill and in anticipation of failing to get these threatened secession which of course meant war it was at this crisis that Mr. Webster delivered his celebrated seventh of march speech in many respects his greatest in which he advocated conciliation and adherence to the constitution but which was represented to support southern interests which all his life and more to advocate these interests in order to secure southern votes for the presidency some of the rich and influential men of Boston who disliked Webster for other reasons for he used to snub them even after they had lent in money made the most they could of that speech to alienate the people the abolitionists at last hostile to Mr. Webster who stood in their way and would not adopt their dictation as the common people few of whom ever read it as a very unpatriotic production entirely at variance with the views that Webster formally advanced and they forsook him now what is the real gist and spirit of that speech the passions which agitated the country when it was delivered have passed away and not only can we now calmly criticize it but people will listen to the criticism with all the attention it deserves it is my opinion shared by Harvey and other friends of Mr. Webster that in no speech he ever made our patriotic and union statements more fully avowed said he with fiery emphasis I hear with distress and anguish the word secession secession peaceable secession sir your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle the dismemberment of this great country without convulsion the breaking up the fountains building the surface there can be no such thing as peaceable secession it is an utter impossibility is this great constitution under which we live to be melted and thawed away by secession as the snows on the mountains are melted away under the influence of the vernal sun no sir I see as plainly as the sun in the heavens what that disruption must produce I see it must produce war peaceable secession peaceable secession what would be the result where is the line to be drawn what states are to secede what is to remain American what am I to be am I to be an American no longer a sectional man a local man a separatist with no country in common heaven forbid where is the flag of the union to remain where is the eagle still to tower what is to become of the army what is to become of the navy what is to become of the public lands how is each of the thirty states to defend itself will you cut the Mississippi into leaving free states on its branches and slave states at its mouth can anyone suppose that this population on its banks can be severed by a line that divides them from the territory of a foreign and alien government down somewhere the lord knows where upon the lower branches of the Mississippi sir I dislike to pursue this subject I have utter I would rather hear of national blasts and mildews and pestilence and famine than to hear gentleman talk about secession to break up this great government to dismember this glorious country to astonish Europe with an act of folly such as Europe for two centuries has never beheld in any government no sir such talk is enough to make the bones of Andrew Jackson turn round in his coffin now what are we to think of these sentiments of march speech so disgracefully misrepresented by the politicians and the fanatics do they sound like bidding for southern votes can any union sentiments be stronger can anything be more decided or more patriotic he warns he entreats he predicts like a prophet he proves that secession is incompatible with national existence he sees nothing in it but war and of all things he dreaded and hated it was war and he knew that a civil war would be the direst calamity he would ward it off he would be conciliating he would take away the excuse of war by adhering to the constitution the written constitution which our fathers framed and which has been the admiration of the world under which we have advanced to prosperity and glory as no nation ever before advanced but a large class regarded the constitution as unsound in some respects a wicked constitution since it colonized slavery as an institution by the higher law they would sweep slavery away perhaps by moral means but by endless agitations until it was destroyed Mr. Webster I confess did not like those agitations since he knew they would end in war he had a great insight such as few people had at that time but his prophetic insight was just what a large class of people did not like especially in his own state of truth as all prophets do and they took up stones to stone him to stone him for the bravest act of his whole life in which a transcendent wisdom appeared and which will be duly honored when the truth shall be seen the fact was at that time Mr. Webster seemed to be a croaker a Jeremiah as Burke at one time seemed to his generation when he denounced the recklessness of the French Revolution very few people at the north dreamed of war it was never supposed that the southern leaders would actually become rebels and they on the other hand never dreamed that the north would rise up solidly and put them down and if war were to happen it was supposed that it would be brief even so great and sagacious a statesman as Seward thought this the south thought that it could easily whip the Yankees and the north thought that it could suppress a southern rebellion but as it turned out in the end it seems a providential event the way God took to break up slavery the root and source of all our sectional animosities a terrible but apparently necessary catastrophe since more than a million of brave men perished and more than five thousand millions of dollars were spent had the north been wise it would have compensated the south for its slaves and the south been wise it would have accepted the compensation the issue could only be settled by the most terrible contest of modern times I will not dwell on that war which Webster predicted and dreaded I only wish to show that it was not for want a patriotism that he became unpopular but because he did not fall in with the prevailing passions of the day or with the public sentiments of the north in reference to slavery not as to its evils and wickedness but as to the way in which it was to be opposed the great reforms of England and the oppression of William the third have been affected by using constitutional means not violence not revolution not war but by an appeal to reason and intelligence and justice no reforms in any nation have been greater and more glorious than those of the 19th century all affected by constitutional methods Mr. Webster vainly attempted constitutional means he was a lawyer he reverenced the constitution with all its compromises he would observe yet no man in the nation was more impatient than he at the threats of secession he foretold that secession would lead to war and if Mr. Webster had lived to see the war of which he had such anxious prescience I firmly believe that he would have marched under the banner of the north with patriotism equal to any man he would have been where Mr. Everett was one of his own sons was slain there never was a time when he was not hated and mistrusted by the southern leaders it is not a proof that he was southern in his sympathies because he was not an abolitionist and by an abolitionist I mean what was meant 30 years ago one who was unscrupulously bent on removing slavery by any means good or bad since slavery in his eyes was a malum per se not a misfortune an evil a sin but a crime to be washed out Mr. Webster did not sympathize with these extreme views he was not a reformer but that does not show that he was unpatriotic or a southern man in his heart the higher law to him was the fulfillment of a contract the maintenance of promises made in good faith whether those promises were wise or foolish the observance of laws so long as they were laws there was undeniably a great evil and shame to be removed and he left that evil in the hands of him who said vengeance is mine I will repay as he did repay in the four years devastations miseries and calamities and these so awful so unexpected so ill-prepared for that a thoughtful and kind-hearted person in view of them will weep rather than rejoice for it is not pleasant to witness chastisements and punishments even if necessary and just unless the people who suffer and incarnate devils as very few men are human nature is about the same everywhere and individuals and nations peculiarly sinful are generally made so by their surroundings and circumstances the reckless people of frontier mining districts are not naturally worse than adventures in New York or Philadelphia nor is any vulgar and ignorant man whose appearance were more profane in his language than was Vitellius or Heliogobelus or Ortho on an imperial throne but even suppose Mr. Webster in the decline of his life intoxicated by his magnificent position or led astray by ambition made serious political errors what then all great men have made errors both in judgment and morals Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon the Adotius slaughtered the citizens of Thessalonica Luther when he quarreled with Zwingli Henry IV when he stooped at Canosa Elizabeth when she executed Mary Stewart Cromwell when he bequeathed absolute power to his son Bacon when he took bribes Napoleon when he divorced Josephine Hamilton when he fought Burr the sun itself passes through Peter stumbled because Webster professed to know as much of the interest of the country as the shoemakers of Lynn and refused to be instructed in his political duties by Garrison and Wendell Phillips does he deserve eternal reprobation because he opposed the public sentiments of his constituents on one point when perhaps they were right is he to be hurled from his lofty pedestal are all his services to be forgotten and even suppose he sought to conciliate the south when the south was preparing for rebellion is peacemaking such a dreadful thing go still farther suppose he wished to conciliate the south in order to get southern support for the presidency which I grant he wanted and possibly sought is he to be unforgiven and his name to be blasted and he held up to the rising generation and to be dethroned because he is not perfect when was Webster's vote ever bought and sold whoever sat with more dignity in the councils of the nation would he have voted for back pay would he have bought a seat in the senate even if he had been as rich as a bonanza king consider how few errors Webster really committed in a public career of nearly 40 years consider the beneficence and wisdom of the measures which he generally advocated and which would be lost but for his eloquence of power consider the greatness and luster of his congressional career on the whole who has proved a greater benefactor to this nation on the floor of Congress than he I do not wish to eulogize still lest a whitewash so great a man but only to render simple justice to his memory and deeds the time has come to lift the veil which for 30 years has concealed his noble benefit and said go up thou bald head although no bears were found to devour them the time has come for this nation to bury the old slanders of an exciting political warfare and render thanks for the services performed by the greatest intellectual giant of the past generation services rendered not on the floor of the senate alone not in the national legislature for 30 years but in the Ashburton treaty is the brightest gem in the Coronet with which he should be crowned it was the proudest day in Webster's life when Rufus Chote announced to him one evening that the senate had confirmed the treaty it was not when he closed his magnificent argument in behalf of Dartmouth College not when he addressed the intelligence modest emotions swelled in his bosom but when he learned that he had prevented a war with England for he knew that England and America could not afford to fight that it would be a fight where gain is loss and glory is shame at last worn out with labor and disease and perhaps embittered by disappointment and sadden Webster died at Marshfield October 24th 1852 at 70 years of age at the time he was secretary of state he died in the consolations of a religion in which he believed surrounded with loving friends and even his enemies felt that a great man in Israel had fallen nothing then was said of his defects for great defects he had a towering intellectual pride like Chatham an austerity like Gladstone and Bow extravagance like that of Cicero indifference to pecuniary obligations like Pitt and Fox and Sheridan but these were overbalanced by the warmth of his affections for his faithful friends simplicity of manners and taste courteous treatment of opponents dignity of character kindness to the poor hospitality enjoyment of rural scenes and sports profound independence of opinions and boldness in asserting them at any hazard and against all opposition and unbounded contempt of all lies and shams and tricks these traits will make his memory dear to all who knew him and as Florence too late repented of her ingratitude to Dante and appointed her most learned man to expound the divine comedy when he was dead so will the writings of Webster be more and more a study among lawyers and statesman his fame will spread and grow wider and greater like that of Bacon and Burke and of other benefactors of mankind and his ideas will not pass away until the glorious fabric of American institutions whose foundations were laid by God fearing people shall be utterly destroyed and the capital where his noblest efforts were made shall become a mass of broken and prostrate columns beneath the debris of the nation's ruin no not then any more than the genius of Cicero has faded among the ruins of the eternal city but they shall shine upon the most distant works of man since they are drawn from the wisdom of all preceding generations and are based on those principles which underlie all possible civilizations authorities the works of Daniel Webster in eight octavo volumes including his speeches addresses or rations and legal arguments Life of Daniel Webster by G.T. Curtis Private Correspondence edited by F. Webster Private Life by C. Landman C.W. March's Reminiscences of Congress Peter Harvey's Reminiscences and Anecdotes Edward Everett's orration on the unveiling of the statue in Boston are C. Winthrop and Everts on the same occasion in New York Contemporaneous Lives of Clay Calhoun and Benton the great orration on Webster by Rufus Chote at Dartmouth College J. Barnard's Life and Character of Daniel Webster E.P. Whipple's essay on Webster eulogies on the death of Webster especially those by G.S. Hilliard L. Woods A. Taft R.D. Hitchcock and Theodore Parker also addresses and orations on the 100th anniversary of Webster's birth too numerous especially the address of Senator Bayard at Dartmouth College The complete and exhaustive life of Webster is yet to be written although most prominent of his contemporaries have had something to say. End of section 11 Section 12 of Beacon Length of History Volume 12 American Leaders by John Lord This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Kay Hand John C. Calhoun Part 1 1782 to 1850 The Slavery Question The extraordinary abilities of John C. Calhoun the great influence he exerted as the representative of Southern interests in the national legislature and especially his connection with the slavery question make it necessary to include him among the statesmen who for evil or good have powerfully affected the destinies of the United States he is a great historical character the peer of Webster and Clay in congressional history and more unsullied than either of them in the virtues of private life. In South Carolina he was regarded as little less than a demigod and until the anti-slavery agitation began he was viewed as among the foremost statesmen of the land. His elevation to commanding influence in Congress was very rapid and but for his identification with partisan interests and a bad institution there was no recognition to which he could not reasonably have aspired. John Calhoun Calhoun was born in 1782 of highly respectable Protestant Irish descent in the Abbaville district in South Carolina. He was not a patrician according to the ideas of rich planters he had but a slender school education in boyhood but was prepared for college by a presbyterian clergyman entered the junior class of Yale college in 1802 and was graduated high honors. He chose the law for his profession studied laboriously for three years spending 18 months at the then famous law school at Litchfield Connecticut and gave great promise in his remarkable logical powers of becoming an eminent lawyer. Whatever abilities Mr. Calhoun may have had for the law it does not appear that he practiced it long or to any great extent his taste and his genius inclined him to politics and having married fortune he had sufficient means to live without professional drudgery after serving a short time in the state legislature of South Carolina he was elected a member of congress and took his seat in the house of representatives in 1811 at the age of 29 from the very first his voice was heard he made a speech in favor of raising 10,000 additional men to our army to resist the encroachments of Great Britain and to prepare for hostilities should the country engage for a young man and its scornful repudiation of reckoning the costs of war against insult and violated rights had a chivalric ring about it Sir I here enter my solemn protest against a low and calculating avarice entering this hall of legislation it is only fit for shops and counting houses it is a compromising spirit always ready to yield a part to save the residue here at an early date we hear of the war and half-measures if it were necessary to go to war at all he would fight regardless of expense thus Calhoun began his public career as an advocate of war with Great Britain the old revolutionary sores had not yet had time to heal and there was general hostility to England except among the Virginia aristocrats and the federalists of the north although a young man Calhoun was placed upon the important Calhoun's early speeches in Congress gave promise of rare abilities the most able of them were those on the repeal of the embargo in 1814 on the commercial convention with the Great Britain in 1816 on the United States bank bill and the tariff the same year and on the internal improvement bill in 1817 the main subject which occupied Congress from 1812 to 1814 was the war with Great Britain during the administration of Madison in 1817 the great questions at issue were in reference to tariffs and internal improvements in the discussion of these subjects Calhoun took broad and patriotic ground at that time we see no sectional interest predominating in his mind he favored internal improvements great permanent roads and even the protection of manufacturers and a national bank on all these questions his sectional interest at a later time in 1816 was a long and carefully prepared argument in favor of the whole economical platform on which the Whig Party stood to the last day of its existence even Henry Clay and Horace Greeley have not been able to put their favorite doctrine into stronger language his final aim was the industrial independence of the United States from Europe and this he thought Calhoun's speeches during the six years that he was a member of the House of Representatives were so able as to attract the attention of the nation and in 1817 Monroe selected him as his secretary of war and he made a good executive officer in this branch of the public service putting things to rights and bringing order out of confusion living on terms of friendship with John in his department in making salutary reforms he tolerated no abuses he was disposed to do justice to the Indians and raise them from their degradation even seeking to educate them when it was more than probable that they would return to their barbaric habits a race as it would seem from experience very difficult to civilize Adams thus spoke of his young colleague Mr. Calhoun and clear understanding of cool self-possession of enlarged philosophical views and of ardent patriotism he is above all sectional and factious prejudices more than any other statesmen of this union with whom I have ever acted a very different verdict from what he wrote in his diary in 1831 judge story wrote of him in 1823 in these terms I have great admiration for Mr. Calhoun and think few men have more enlarged and liberal views of the true policy of the national government the post he held however was not Calhoun's true arena but one which an ambitious young man of 35 could not well decline from the honor it brought the secretary ship of war is the least important of all the cabinet offices in time of peace and was especially so when the army was reduced to 6,000 men its functions amounted to little more than sending small detachments to military posts making contracts enforcing fortifications and making a figure in washington's society it furnished no field for extensive operations or the exercise of remarkable qualities of mind but in as much as it made Calhoun a member of the cabinet it gave him an opportunity to express his mind on all national issues and exercise an influence on the president himself it did not make him prominent in the eyes of the nation he was simply the head of a bureau in the hands of west point and of some lazy lieutenants stationed among the indians but whatever the part he was required to play he did his duty showed ability and won confidence he doubtless added to his reputation else he would not have been talked about as a candidate for the presidency selected as a candidate for the vice presidency and chosen to that position by northern votes instead of Jackson president Calhoun's popularity with all parties resulted in his election as vice president by a very large popular vote he deserved it the day had not come for the a descendancy of mere politicians and their division of the spoils of office the condition of the slave holding states at this period was most prosperous the culture of cotton had become exceedingly lucrative rich planters spent their summers at the north in luxurious it was the era of general good feeling no agitating questions had arisen young men at the south sought education in the new england colleges manufacturing interests were in their infancy and had not as yet excited southern jealousy commercial prosperity in new england was the main object desired although the war with great britain had proved disastrous to it political influence seemed to center in the southern states these states had furnished four presidents out of five the great west had not arisen in its might it had no great cities but charleston and boston were centers of culture and wealth and on good terms with each other both equally free from agitating questions and both equally benign to the institution of slavery which the constitution was supposed to have made secure forever the adams administration was notable for nothing but beginnings of the tariff question and the election of jackson with calhoun as vice president as the incumbent of this office for two terms mister calhoun did not make a great mark in history his office was one of dignity and not of power but during his vice presidency important discussions took place in congress which placed him as presiding officer of the senate in an embarrassing position he was between two fires and gradually became alienated from the two opposing parties to whom he could go neither with adams nor with jackson on public measures and both interfered with his aspirations for the presidency his personal relations with jackson who had been his warm friend and supporter became strained after his second election as vice president he took part against jackson in the president's undignified attempt to force his cabinet to recognize the social position of mrs. etan further it was divulged by mrs. etan that the latter had in 1818 favored a censure of jackson for his unauthorized seizure of spanish territory in the florida campaign during the seminal war and this increased the growing animosity what had been an alienation between the two highest officers of the government ripened into intense hatred which was fatal to the aspirations of calhoun for the presidency for no man could be president calhoun for he had his heart set on being the successor of jackson in the presidential chair there were two subjects which had arisen to great importance during mr. calhoun's terms of executive office which not only blasted his prospects for the presidency but separated him forever from his former friends and allies one of these was the tariff question which gave him great becoming the policy of the government to the enriching of the north true it was only an economical question but it seemed to him to lay the axe to the root of southern prosperity it was his settled conviction that tariffs for protection would increase the burdens of the south by raising the price of all those articles which it was compelled to buy and at large profits on articles manufactured in the united nation actually sought to buy in the cheapest market and therefore wanted no tariff except for revenue when mr. calhoun saw the protectionist duties were an injury to the slave holding states he reversed entirely his former opinions and what influence he could exert as a presiding officer of the senate was now displayed against the Adams party which had favored his election to the vice presidency favored and praised him calhoun now had both the jackson and adams parties against him though for different reasons up to this time until the agitation of the tariff question began mr. calhoun had not been a party man he was regarded throughout the country as a statesman rather than as a politician but when manufacturers of cotton and woollen goods were being established in Lowell, Lawrence, Dover, and other power to turn the mills it became obvious that a new tariff would be imposed to protect these infant industries and manufacturing interests everywhere the tariff of 1824 had born heavily on the south producing great irritation and very naturally the planters complained that they had to bear all the burdens of protection without enjoying its benefits that the things they had to buy had become in the face it seemed to them a great injustice that the interests of the planters should be sacrificed to the monopolists of the north in the defense of southern interests mr. calhoun in the senate at first appealed to reason and patriotism it is true that he now became a partisan but he had been sent to congress as the champion of the cotton lords he was no more unpatriotic than webster and afterwards as the representative of massachusetts at large turned round and advocated protective duties for the benefit of the manufacturer it is a nice question as to where a congressman should draw the line of advocacy between local and general interests what are men sent to congress for except to advance the interest entrusted to them by their constituents when are these to be merged in national considerations calhoun's mission was to protect and defend them with admirable logical power he was one of three great masters of debate in the senate no one could reasonably blamed him for the opinions he advanced for he had a right to them and if he took sectional ground he did as most party leaders do it was merely a congressional fight but when after the tariff of 1828 it appeared that some of our exports were paying tributes to northern manufacturers which were growing strong under protection of federal taxes on competing imports and that the south was menaced with financial ruin he took a new departure the first serious political error of his life and became disloyal to the union in july 1831 he made an elaborate address to the people of south carolina in which discussing the laws of congress when it deemed them unconstitutional as he regarded the existing tariff to be he looked upon the state rather than the union of states as supreme and declared that the state could secede if the union enforced unconstitutional measures this as van hoist points out practically meant that whenever different views are entertained about the powers conferred by the constitution upon the federal government those of the minority were to prevail an evident absurdity under a republican government in june 1832 was passed another tariff bill offering some reductions but still based on protection as the underlying principle in consequence south carolina entirely subservient to the influence of calhoun who in august issued another manifesto passed in november the nullification ordinance to take effect the following february as already recited president jackson took the most vigorous measures sustained by congress and gave the nullifiers clearly to understand that if they resisted the laws of the united states the whole power of the government would be arrayed against them they received the proclamation defiantly and the governor issued a counter one it was in this crisis that calhoun resigned the vice presidency and was immediately elected to the united state senate where he could fight more advantageously then the president sent a message to congress requesting new powers to put down the nullifiers by force should the necessity arrive which were granted for he was now at the height of his popularity and influence the nullifiers enraged him and though they abstained from resorting to extreme measures they continued their threats the country appeared to be on the verge of war the party leaders felt the necessity of a compromise and henry clay brought forward in the senate not yet prepared to go out of the union and the storm blew over there was no doubt however that had the south carolinians resisted the government with force of arms they would have been put down for jackson was both infuriated and firm he had even threatened to hang calhoun as high as heyman an absurd threat for he had no power to hang anybody except one with arms in his hands the government means to gain his ends in the compromise which clay affected the south had the best of the bargain and in view of it the culmination of the irrepressible conflict was delayed nearly 30 years calhoun himself maintained that the compromise tariff of 1833 was due to the resistance which his state had made but he also felt that the force bill with which congress had backed up the president in danger the compromise tariff which reduced duties to 20% in the main and made provision for still further reduction found great opponents in the senate and was regarded by webster as anything but a protection bill nor was calhoun all together satisfied with it it was received with favor by the country generally however and south carolina repealed her nullification ordinance that subject being disposed of for the presence now turned to the president's war on the united states bank as this most important matter has already been treated in the lecture on jackson i've only to show the course mr calhoun took in reference to it he was now 53 years old in the prime of his life in the full vigor of his powers in the senate he had but two peers clay and webster and was not in sympathy with either of them though not in decided hostility as he was towards jackson he was now part of the union having in view the welfare of the south alone of whose interests he was the recognized guardian was only when questions arose which did not directly bear on southern interests that he was the candid and patriotic statesman sometimes voting with one party and sometimes with another he was opposed to the removal of deposits from the united states bank and yet was opposed to a renewal of money power which might be perverted to political purposes in pointing out the dangers he spoke with great power and astuteness for he was always on the lookout for breakers he therefore argued against the removal of deposits as an unwarrantable assumption of power on the part of the president which could not be constitutionally exercised here he agreed with his great rivals while he was more moderate than they in his language he made war on measures of money regarding the ladder as of temporary importance of passing interest so far as the removal of deposits seemed an arbitrary act on the part of the executive he severely denounced it as done with a view to grasp unconstitutional power for party purposes thus corrupting the country and as a measure to get control of money said he with money we will get partisans with partisans votes and with votes money he regarded the measure as part of the spoils system which marked Jackson's departure from the policy of his predecessors Calhoun detested the system of making politics a game since it would throw the government into the hands of political adventurers and mere machine politicians it was too lofty a man to encourage anything like this and here we are compelled to do him honor whatever he said or did was in obedience to his convictions it was above and beyond all deceit an attempt for political wire pullers amounted almost to loathing he was incapable of doing a mean thing he might be wrong in his views and hence might do evil instead of good but he was honest in his severe self-respect and cold dignity of character he resembled William Pitt his integrity was peerless he could neither be bought nor seduced his disagreement with Jackson put him out of the democratic race and when the new crisis arose in southern interests to which he ever after devoted himself with entire self-abnegation End of section 12