Webster and his master-pieces

Preface

Soon after the death of Mr. Webster, the studeuts of a literary 'astitulion, of which I then had charge, requested me to address tliera ill reference to the occasion; and, with a partiality natural to young men toward those having the oversight of their education, they requested a copy of the address for publication.

Within a few weeks from the time of its publication, a proposal was made to me, by the most extensive inland publishers in this country, to write for them a life of Daniel Webster. The proposal was declined ; but another proposition, to write a volume on the character of Mr. Webster, in the several departments of his intellectual life and labor, with specimens of his style in each department, was returned. These overtures led to quite a correspondence, and finally to the composition of the present work, which, the reader will perceive, is an enlargement of both jwopositions blended.

It would have been possible, perhaps, in the composition of the first volume, which narrates the life of the great statesman, to follow his career more minutely, step by step, and year by year, if not day by day, at least from the time when his career became connected with the history of his country ; but this sort of biography, so common when books were scarce, and when amusement rather tliau instruction was the object sought after by the reader, meets not the temper of an age, which, active and busy to excess, has no time to waste on needless particulars, but hastens over tiresome details to seize upon the great facts involving and demonstrating character.

It is the character of Mr. Webster, rather than the trivialities of Iiia experience, that now constitutes, and will ever constitute, the charm which attaches to his name ; and for the proi>er illustration of that character, it is not necessary to set down everything that he has

Vi . PREFACE.

ever said or done, nor everything that has happened to him, out only enough to exhibit clearly each trait as it rises successively to view. Indeed, a life at all approaching the nature of a diary could have been -written by no one but himself, or by some individual, ■who, like another Boswell, should have been constantly about him ; and such a production, had it been written, would have been a work by itself, but in no sense supplying the want of a biography. A food biography, in fact, instead of being made up of such particulars as fall under the daily notice of a valet, or body servant, or very familiar friend, should, by the laws of taste, exclude such trivial circumstances ; and, just so far as a person banishes all comruon-plavie incidents from his mind, and rises to the level of those greater and more public acts, which are open to the view of all, docs he qualify himself to write such a work as the Roman has left us of Agricola.

These two writers, in fact, Boswell and Tacitus, if names so unlike will admit of a temporary association, mark the two extremes "in biographical composition. Boswell, a vain person, and anxious to get himself into his work as frequently as possible, relates every good-for-nothing event in the history of his hero, as if it were of any consequence to the world when the great man went to bed on any given night, and what he said before leaving the company of his friends, and Avhat he saw after he had reached his apartment, and what clothes he took off in his retirement, and how he looked in his night-dress, and liow he appeared on rising the next morning, and what was the color of the horse he rode tlie next day on his going to a place of no importance, and with people of no consequence, and all the nameless little particulars, which might have happened to ten thousand other persons, and persons of no special value, as well as to Dr. Johnson. Tacitus, on the other hand, though intimately acquainted with Agricola, and a member of his family, relates no familiar incidents, tells no anecdotes, reports no private conversations, exposes no personal secrets, and yet, in spite of this want of details, makes a biography, and a biography which is likely to hold its place in the admiration of the world, as long as there is a scholar capable of reading and interpreting his language.

Between these two extremes, there is a style of biographical composition, which, while it makes as much use of particular incidents as are essential to a true exposition of general character, is inclined to feel, in the life of a man long and intimately known, the excess

PREFACE. Vii

of this class of materials, rather than the want of them. To be able to compose this higher species of biographj', it has been thought that the writer should by no means have been an intimate friend, or companion, or even cotemporary of the subject of it; as it has been supposed, that such intimacy fastens the little facts of a life in the writer's memory, to the exclusion or prejudice of those greater ones, which are alone of consequence to the more distant public, and to coming ages.

A cotemporary, or familiar friend, is exposed to other evils equally deleterious to a correct and just biograph}-. The friend writes with the partiality of a friend ; he sees, in the composition of every line, how it is likely to affect the family and associates of his subject ; he sees and feels how each line and word is to affect himself in their good opinion ; and he writes accordingly, evincing a restraint of censure, or an excess of eulogy. He has his and liis subject's neighborhood, also, their particular latitude or longitude, to satisfy ; and he is almost certain to be carried forward, or held back, by these delicate considerations. The cotemporary, though not a daily friend, is supposed to live under the same temporary and hence partial influences, to have his hopes or his fears in some way connected with the events he narrates, and thus to write under improper impulses. So fundamental, indeed, are these considerations, and so universal is their application, that the memoir of Agricola itself tlie great classic model of one species of biographical history, while it is a piece of splendid composition, is undoubtedly a very flattering account of the Roman general's actual life ; and were it now of more consequence to have a true narrative of that life, than to possess one of the finest extant specimens of Roman literature, and of Roman art, the world would demand anotlier work.

With the full admission of tlie truth of all these acknowledged principles, and of their just application, it is possible, nevertheless, for a cotemporary to write at least an impartial biography. The writer may never have been a companion, or a friend, or in any way a part of his subject's social circle. He maj'not have been a citizen of his locality. In both these respects, he may have been as distant, as separate, as distinct from his subject, as if he had been born in another hemisphere, or had lived in another century. It is possible, too, that he may have been so distinct from all the associations, political or ecclesiastical, in wliich that subject moved and acted, as

Vm PREFACE.

to be capable of looking upon them with as much disinterestness as will be felt by a writer of a coming generation.

Nor would this position of the author, if admitted in its full force, Becessarily exclude him from those sources of information, in relation to his subject, which are essential to his undertaking. He has all the sources, and more than all, that will be open to that future biographer, who, according to the standard canons just stated, will alone be capable of writing a reliable biography. It is possible, indeed, perhaps probable, that more personal incidents, more of minute details, more epistles, more table-talk, more particiilars of every sort, may be imparted to the public before the appearance of that coming biographer ; but it is also possible, and in fact quite true, as any one making an attempt to write the life of such a man as "Webster would quickly find, that there is likely to be already siich an amount of personal details as to embarrass rather than facilitate a writer's hand. It cannot be improbable, indeed, that Mr. Webster may have left many unpublished letters, and similar documents connected with his career ; but, should these documents be 60 ample as to fill many volumes, as it is supposable they may, they cannot be regarded as at all essential to the exposition of a life so thorouglily open to investigation, and so accurately prefigured, in his works.

The published writings of Mr. Webster, indeed, constitute, as they will ever constitute, the main reliance of all who shall undertake to write the narrative of his life. Xext to these, the history of his countrj^ during the period when he lived, will be the second most complete and authentic resource ; for such was his position, such the magnitude of his individual acts, that there is scarcely an event in his historj', after he became a iiublic man, and scarcely a speech in the entire collection of his speeches, which is not directly connected with some important event, and generally some epoch, in the history of the nation of which he formed a part. The third and last source of information is found in what his friends and his enemies have written in relation to him; and, though the lowest testimony respecting him, it is so abundant, that, were it sufficiently reliable, his life might be written, from beginning to end, without going beyond it. When it is considered, indeed, that his published works, wherein his whole career lies embodied, nearly fill six heavy octavo volumes ; that the history of his time is spread out in a thousand different forms; that everything he ever did, or ever

PREFACE. iX

said, possessed of any consequence, has been successively presented, recalled, repeated, discussed, by every grade of intellect, in every possible shape, and witli every conceivable kind and degree of censure and of praise, in books, in periodicals, and in newspapers ; that his name and character have been through life constantly before the world, daily and hourly, from one end of our country to the other, and in other countries, as subjects of investigation ; that, for forty years, there was not a day when that name, and something in relation to that character, were not to be found in any political or secular sheet, which any man might happen to take up at home or abroad, in any city of the Union, in any town or village or hamlet of the country, it may well be doubted whether anything that Mr. Webster may have left not now publi-shed, or anything he could have written, would add anything now or hereafter to the wonderfully and almost oppressively ample stock of information which the world has long since had respecting him. All that a biographer can now do, in fact, in tracing out the actual history of his life, is to select from this abundant store as much as is positively essential to his purpose, and the best material for that purpose, making no farther use of the remainder than, by reading and appreciating it, to prepare himself to understand and properly employ what is to enter more directly into his composition.

In regard to the second volume of this work, it is, perhaps, sufficient to say, that it has been my intention to give only the acknowledged master-piece of Mr. Webster in each of the several fields occupied or entered by his almost universal genius. As the age is too much employed to dwell upon every minor incident in even a great man's life, so it is too busy to admit of paying equal attention to everything he has produced. Tlie world is now so full of reading, and the topics of investigation are so greatly multiplied, that the best nile a man can now laj^ down for the government of his studies is, not to read wliatever comes to hand, nor all that even great men have written, which would be impossible, but chiefly the master efforts of the master minds of the most enlightened and illustrious countries and ages of the world. In this way, whatever be tlie associations he is compelled to hold in his daily life, which, in general, have to be rather common-place at best, he may maintain a very close conversation, not only with the first spirits of every period and of all places, but with these in their happiest moments and in the highest inspiration and soaring of tlieir minds. This is the

X PREFACE.

TiBe that the rising generation, and all future generations, will wish to make of Webster. One after another, his secondary efforts will be dropped from the general regard, and consigned to those few, lawyers and civilians, who will study his productions with their professional ends in view, while his most able and brilliant performances, which, like the books of the Sybil, will maintain the undiminished value of his works, thoiigh their number may be less, are to endure the wreck of ages and the touch of time.

Clifton Springs, August, 1854.

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

CHAPTER 11.

TUE WEBSTER FAMILY.

First settlement of the "Webster •Family in New Hampshire, Their Peculiarities, .....

Kevolutionary Services of Ehenezer Webster, The Birth-jilace of Daniel, ....

CharacterofEbenezer Webster, drawn by his Son, . .

Ezckiel Webster, ......

CHAPTER HI.

THE YOUTH OF -WEBSTER.

His Feeble Health in Infancy and Boyhood, The Pocket-liandkerehicf— his first reading of the Constitution, Story of the Cnck-flght, . . . . . .

His first Instructors, ....

Letter to Master Tappan, ....

Maternal Instruction, ....

Employed in Mr. Tliompson's Office— Strange Choice of BoolvS,

Is sent to Pliillips' Academy,

His Introduction to the Principal,

Kapid Progress in his Studies,

Cannot Declaim, . . ' . .

Influence of Dr. Abbott, ....

Becomes a Pupil of Dr. Wood,

It is decided to send him to College,

CHAPTER IV.

WEBSTER IN COLLEGE.

His First Appearance at Dartmouth College,

General Demeanor as a fitudeut, ....

His Choice of Studies, ......

His Description of True Eloquence,

Quickness at Repartee, .....

Amusing Anecdote, .....

Determines that his Brotlier shall go to College,

Has no equal among the Students in Philosophy and Rhetoric,

22 23 24 25

49 51 52 67 58 59 61 63

Xll

CONTENTS.

His first Public Oration,

Studies during his last year in College,

His Classmates in the Graduating Class,

Commencement Orations,

Eeceives his Degree, .

Destroys his Diploma,

CHAPTER y.

WEBSTER TUE LA'WTER.

Returns Home and enters the Otiice of Mr. Thompson,

Takes charge of the Academy at Fryeburg,

Acts aG Assistant Registrar of Deeds out of School-hours,

Travels through Maine witli his Brother,

Affectionate Remembrance of the People of Fryeburg,

Re-enters the Office of Mr. Thompson,

A Hard and Judicious Student,

Completes his Law Studies with Governor Gore, at Boston,

Thrown into the Society of Distinguished Men there.

Severe Study impairs his Health, ....

Visits Albany — -Attentions shown hira there,

Appointed Clerk of his Father's Court,

Visits Home, and declines the Overture,

Is confirmed in this Resolution by Governor Gore,

Admitted to the Bar — Governor Gore's Eulogy,

Flattering Offers to remain in Boston,

Returns Home and opens an Office tliere,

First Cause in Courts

Is at once Successful, .

Still a Hard Student— Love of Poetry,

"Writes for the Press, .

Anniversary Oration at Concord,

Removes to Portsmouth,

Marries Miss Grace Fletcher, . » ,

Joyof his Domestic Life,

Amusing Professional Anecdote, .

Increasing Popularity as a Lawyer, .

Rule of his Professional Life,

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78 62 83 85 lOT

CHAPTER VI.

REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS.

Is drawn into Politics, ......

Events preceding the War with England, . ...

European Politics, .......

State of Affairs at the Commencement of Madison's Administration, War declared, .......

Webster opposed to the Policy of the Administration,

His first Political Speech, ......

Elected to Congres.s, ......

CONTENTS.

An Extra Session— Journey to Washington, .

Takes his seat in Congress,

Appointed on the Committee of Foreign Relations,

His Action in the Committee,

Offers Resolutions of Inquiry,

His first Speech in Congress,

His Fellow-members surprised at his Eloquence,

Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall,

Speaks only on the most Important Questions,

His Opinion of the War, ....

Advocates an Increase of the Navy, .

Is Re-elected to Congress,

The United States Bank,

Webster opposes the Administration Plan of a Bank

His Objections to it, .

His Library destro3-ed by Fire,

Increased Preparation for his Official Duties,

Opposes a High Protective Taritf,

Reasons for that Opposition, .

Again Opposes a United States Bank,

His Resolutions on the Collection of the Public Revenues,

CHAPTER VII.

A LAWYER IN MASSACnUSETTS.

Resumes the Practice of his Profession, .

Removes to Boston, ......

Takes the Highest Position as a Counselor and Advocate there, Case of the Kennistons, .....

Mr. Webster successfully defends them, .

The Dartmouth College Case,

Mr. Webster's Great Speech thereon,

Professor Goodrich's Account of it, .

Conclusion of the Speech,

Its Effect on the Court, ....

Elected a Member of the Massachusetts Convention,

Speech on the Property Qualification,

His Oration at Plymouth, ....

Defense of Judge Prescott, . . . ,

Murder of Joseph White, ....

Arrest of the Brothers Kuapp, ...

Trial of John Francis Knapp,

Mr. Webster's Great Argument for the Prosecution,

Mr. Choato's Account of it.

Fame as a Lawyer — Judgment of his Cotemporarlcs,

CHAPTER VIII.

REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR FROM MASSACnUSETTS,

Re-enters Congress, ....

Speech en the Greek Revolution, xm

PAGE. 133

134 136

XIV

COKTENTS.

His Estimate of the Power of Public Opinion, Clay ami Webster, ....

Sijcech on the Tariff, ....

Case of Gibbons and Ogden, Mr. Webster's Great Constitutional Argument, Judge Wayne's Opinion of it, .

Almost unanimously re-elected to the Lower House, First Bunker Hill Oration, Election of J. Q. Adams, Charge against Clay and Adams, .

Mr. Webster's Courtesy as a Debater, Bill to remodel the Judiciary, Speech on the Panama Mission, Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, .

Transferred to the Senate, First Speech in the Senate, Election of General Jackson, The Tariff and New England, Speech on the Tariff of is28, .

Opposition of South Carolina, Foot's Eesolution on the Public Lands, The " Great Debate,'' Mr. Hayiie, as an Orator, Mr. Hayne's first speech on Foot's Eesolution, Mr. Webster's Eeply, .

Mr. Hayne's second Speech, Mr. Webster's Great Eeply, .

Judge Sprague's Opinion, .

Mr. March's description of the Debate, ' The Exordium, ....

Wonderful effect of the Speech, Its popularity, ....

Nullification — General Jackson's Proclamation, Mr. Webster's Speech on the Force Bill, .

CHAPTER IX.

SECOND TERM AS SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. Webster's private Life, . . .

Death of his Wife,

Marries Miss Caroline LeEoy,

Kcjcction of Mi-. Van Buren, as Minister to England,

Speech on the United States Bank,

Is courted by General Jackson, .

Visit to the West,

Speech at Pittsburgh, . , .

Not a Consolidationist, . ,

Mr. Clay's Compromise Act, . .

General Jackson's tour to the East, .

Eemoval of the Deposits,

PAGK.

CONTENTS.

XV

Debates on the subject,

Speech in reply to the President's Protest,

Mr. "Webster the leader of the Opposition in the Senate,

Opening of Van Buren"s Administration,

The Extra Session,

The Sub-Treasury Scheme,

Mr. "Webster's Speech thereon.

The Domestic Slave-Trade,

Second Speech on the Sub-Treasaiy, .

Debate •srith Calhoun,

Personal Relations with Calhoun,

Visits England.

CHAPTER X.

FIRST TERM AS SECRETARY OF STATE.

Election of General Harrison,

Difficulties with England, . .

Commencement of Negotiations — Case of McLeod, .

The North-Ea-stern Boundary, . ...

Pormer Negotiations, ....■•

Settlement of the Boundary, ....

The African Slave-trade, and the Plight of Search, .

Treaty between France and England,

The Quintuple Treaty, ....

Settlement of the Question by the Treaty of Washington,

Extradition of Fugitives, ....

Burning of the Caroline, .

The Doctrine of Impressment,

Claim set up by England, .

Eatification of the Treaty,

Difficulties of the Secretaryship,

Attacks upon Mr. "V^'ebste^,

Ecply to those Attacks,

Attacks upon the Treaty,

Mr. "Webster's Defense,

CHAPTER XI.

AGAIN SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS, Tv.-o years in Private Life, ...

His Pursuits and Eecrcations, "Warns the People against the Annexation of Texas, Election of Mr. Polk, ....

Speech on Annexation, .

"War with Mexico, .....

The Oregon Boundary Question, Services of Mr. "Webster, . • . . ' .

The Tariff of 1842

Revival of the Sub-Treasury,

PACK.

830 831 333

XVI

CONTENTS.

Visit to the Southern States, .

Speeches on tlic War with Moxieo,

The Treaty of Peace with Mexico, .

Mr. Webster's Ojiposition to its Provisions,

Revival of the Slavery Question,

Mr. Webster's Position,

Tlie Wilmot Proviso, ....

Nomination of General Taylor, .

Mr. Webster's opposition to Military Presidents,

The Admission of California,

The Union threatened,

The Compromise Measures,

Mr. Webster's views of the Basis of the Union,

Speech of the 7th of March,

It is not well received at the North, .

Is accused of yielding too much to Slavery,

His other Speeches overlooked,

CHAPTER XII.

CLOSING PEKIOD OF HIS LIFE.

Death of John 0. Calhoun, ....

Death of General Taylor, .....

Mr. Webster's Eulofcy, .....

Last Speech in the Senate, .....

Appointed Secretary of State by President Fillmore, Boundaries of Texas, ......

Eeply to Hulscmann, .....

Address on laying the Corner Stone of the Capitol Extension, The Lopez Expedition, .....

Successful Exertions of Mr. Webster in behalf of the Prisoners, Case of Mr. Thrasher, . . . • .

Sudden Announcement of Mr. Webster's last Illness, His previous Attacks, ....

Visits Dr. .JeflTrles — Description of his appearance.

Is directed to abstain from all Mental Labor,

His Views of Life and Death,

Ilemarks of Mr. Hillard, . . .

General Concern of the Nation,

Inscription for his Monument, written by himself.

Increasing Debility — Dictates his Will,

Alarming Symptoms — Executes his Will,

Concluding Scenes, ....

Wishes to Comprehend Death,

His last Words—" I still Live ! "— and Death,

Keview of his Life, ....

PAGE.

388 390 391

3ur

4oa

426 ■

463 465 466

AVEBSTER AND HIS MASTEIl-PIECES.

CHAPTER I.

i:XTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

When, after the 24th day of October, 1852, it was announced fi'om Marshfield, that Daniel Webster was no more, as soon as' men had time to begui to realize the nation's loss, his own words, which he had used in reference to the deaths of Adams and of Jefferson, seemed to spring spontaneously to the lips of every individual, who had made himself familiar with his works : " A superior and commanding human uitellect, a truly great man, when heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burnmg brightly for a wliile, and then givuig place to returning darloiess. It is rather a spark 'of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind ; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit."

This language was immediately applied to the man who had first uttered it. It was extensively copied mto the public prints. Every American felt, that nothmg short of the strongest expressions could do justice to the universal sentiment. That sentiment was higher than it has ever been, in this countrv, since the death of Washington. It was as high, probably much nigher, than it was in England on the decease of Wellington.

Napoleon, when he died, was not more mourned by his friends in France, than was Webster in America. Napoleon was mourned by one party, the strongest, it is true, but blamed, hated, though too great to be despsed, by every other. Webster was so universally mourned, by the whole American people, that the very few citizens, who had the folly to become exceptions, could scarcely be regarded as constituting an exception. They were lost, and buried, and overwhelmed amidst the general burst of feeling, which the whole nation poured out over the grave of its fallen statesman.

There have been but few men, since the beginning of history, whose characteristics were so prominent, whose greatness was so emphatic, that they left but one opinion of their merits. Aristides was starved to death by his own countrymen. Anaxagoras was driven from the land of his birth by those who had listened to his lofty teachings. Themistocles was banished after he had saved the liberties of his native country. Miltiades was forced into exile after he had covered his country with the brightest rays of its military glory. Phocion and Socrates, the mcorruptible politician and the almost inspired philosopher, were compelled to drink the fatal hemlock, after they had furnished their fellow citizens with the brightest examples of patriotism and of purity of character ever witnessed by them. None of these men, great as they certainly were, were great enough, it would seem — not to escape slander ; for this is common to all mortals — but to rise above it, to beat it down, to conquer it, and to impress upon the world, a true, single, immistakable image of their characters.

Such was not the fate of Daniel Webster. When he departed, not only his own nation, but all the civilized nations surrounding it, on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as more distant countries, and the islands of the seas, uttered substantially one voice, gave vent to one emotion, luiited in one opinion. That voice, that emotion, that opinion was, that the great-

THE nation's loss. 19

ness of Webster had left nothing equal to it among the living, and could not be expected to be followed by any greatness superior to it in many a generation.

What a spectacle, indeed, this vast country presented to the world immediately upon, and for weeks and months after, the lamented 24th of October ! A statesman had died ; and all the - statesmen of the lepublic, including its chief magistrate, and the heads of departments, and both houses of congress, and all the state legislatures, as soon as they assembled, and the most distinguished of our retired patriots, hastened to pay their profoundest respects to the illustrious dead, and freely acknowledge him to have been superior to any of their number. An American lawyer had died ; and, with the same consent, all the courts in the country, then in session, or immediately upon their being opened, passed resolutions of honor to his memory ; and the first jurists of the nation, with the most able and noted advocates, as well as every class and individual connected with our tribunals, seemed to be in haste to free their breasts and tell the world, that they had lost a inan whose equal had not been known among them. An orator and writer had gone ; and all the orators of the land, and the writers of greatest talent, and highest genius, and proudest reputation, appeared to have a burden upon their hearts, till they had proclaimed him, from !Maine to California, the sublimest speaker and the ablest writer of his country. A patriot had departed, whose birth had occurred amidst the scenes of the American Revolution, whose ancestors had fought in the battles of that mighty period, whose political career had covered nearly two-thirds of the history of the government, and whose personal services had been all devoted to the establishment of the constitution and the perpetuation of our liberties ; and, upon the first announcement of the nation's loss, the most patriotic of our citizens, in every state and territory, from ocean to ocean, hastened together in solemn assemblies to declare to each other, and to all countries, that they VOL.

I. 2 mourned the departure of their most fearless, unselfish, and useful fellow citizen. That citizen had been, through life, so much from his family abode, and so constantly employed in public business, as to have left doubtful his relations to the christian church, though his views of Christianity itself had been frequently expressed ; but, on his burial day, when his family and friends, when his immediate neighbors who knew him best, with the devout pastor of the parish at their head, while shedding their tears upon his grave, told how he had loved and read the bible, how he had reverenced the character of God, how he had led for years the devotions of the domestic circle, with what patience and submission he had borne the distresses of the sick bed, with what emphatic terms he had given his last testimony to the truth of the christian religion, and with what fervor and earnestness he had committed his spirit, in the closing hour, to the care and protection of his Maker and Redeemer, a new phase of the great man's character came to light, a new cliord was touched in the general heart. The pulpits of more than fifty denominations, of every christian body with scarcely an exception, united with the acclamations of a whole people, in pronouncing the national eulogy upon liim, who, for nearly half a century, had been acknowledged as the first and foremost of the nation.

Such a vast, amount of panegyric, so general and universal an expression of respect, of movn-ning, and of eulogy, would be more than enough to establish the immortality of any individual. There is now no other American, there is now no Englishman, there is no European, who could not afford to exchange all he hopes, and all he is likely to obtam, of posthumous fame, for what has been said, and written, and published of the fallen statesman, since the day of his decease. Could all the well-earned praise that has been heaped upon him, for almost half a century, be blotted out and forgotten, -what has Deen said within a few months would be an equivalent for all