Life of Daniel Webster Edward 1CSB LIBRARY THE LIFE OP DANIEL WEBSTER BY EDWARD EVERETT FROM The Makers of American History PUBLISHED BY J. A. HILL & COMPANY NEW YORK COPYRIOHT, 1904, BY THK UNIVERSITY SOCIETY, INC. EDITOR'S PREFACE The author of this biographical memoir of Daniel Webster was one of the noted men of his time. An eloquent Unitarian clergyman, Edward Everett was sought and served as Professor of Greek Literature in Harvard College, was elected ten continuous years in Congress, then four years successively as Governor of Massachusetts, was United States min- ister to England during Mr. Webster's secretary- ship of state under Presidents Harrison and Tyler, and was the successor of that great man in the State Department after Webster's death. He was Presi- dent of Harvard for three years, then elected United State Senator from Massachusetts, but feeble health compelled his resignation within a year. He was a noted orator, of a polished and elaborate style, and much sought after on occasions of literary or politi- cal importance. From youth to death he was a friend, admirer, and intimate associate of Daniel Webster, and therefore his account of the public services of the Massachusetts Senator are sure to be authentic and to represent matters from Mr. Web- ster's point of view a matter of concern, if we would understand a man's words and deeds, and, further still, his motives. A. B., VOL. VI. 9 129 130 EDITOR'S PREFACE The Memoir is naturally very full in explanation of certain disputed matters, which, however signifi- cant in their day, have passed out of remembrance. It contains many noble passages from Mr. Web- ster's speeches, and correspondence throwing light upon matters of discussion; it enlarges upon some points of importance in solving questions yet in abey- ance when the memoir was written in Mr. Web- ster's lifetime, but not now; and in other ways it presents matter which has been deemed unnecessary to the purposes of this Series, aiming to give au- thentic, readable, terse biographies of our greatest Americans. Material of that nature, therefore, has been eliminated; but the interest and the authority of the memoir stands unquestionable, the abridg- ment serving merely to relieve it of details no longer of concern to the general reader of to-day. LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER CHAPTER I Parentage and Birth. Early Education. Exeter Academy. Dartmouth College. Study of the Law. Fryeburg in Maine. In the Office of Hon. Christopher Gore. Admission to the Bar. Commencement of Practice. Removal to Portsmouth. THE family of Daniel Webster has been estab- lished in America from a very early period. It was of Scottish origin, but passed some time in England before the final emigration. Thomas Webster, the remotest ancestor who can be traced, was settled at Hampton, on the coast of New Hampshire, as early as 1636, sixteen years after the landing at Plymouth, and six years from the arrival of Governor Win- throp in Massachusetts Bay. The descent from Thomas Webster to Daniel can be traced in the church and town records of Hampton, Kingston (now East Kingston), and Salisbury. These rec- ords and the mouldering headstones of village grave- yards are the herald's office of the fathers of New England. Noah Webster, the learned author of the American Dictionary of the English Language, was of a collateral branch of the family. Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel, is still recollected in Kingston and Salisbury. His personal appearance was striking. He was erect, of athletic 132 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY stature, six feet high, broad and full in the chest. Long service in the wars had given him a military air and carriage. He belonged to that intrepid bor- der race, which lined the whole frontier of the Anglo-American colonies, by turns farmers, hunts- men, and soldiers, and passing their lives in one long struggle with the hardships of an infant settle- ment, on the skirts of a primeval forest. Ebenezer Webster enlisted early in life as a common soldier, in one of those formidable companies of rangers, which rendered such important services under Sir Jeffrey Amherst and Wolfe in the Seven Years' War. He followed the former distinguished leader in the invasion of Canada, attracted the attention and gained the good-will of his superior officers by his brave and faithful conduct, and rose to the rank of a captain before the end of the war. Captain Webster was one of the settlers of the newly granted township of Salisbury, and received an allotment in its northerly portion. More ad- venturous than others of the company, he cut his way deeper into the wilderness, and made the path he could not find. At this time his nearest civilized neighbors on the northwest were at Montreal. The following allusion of Mr. Webster to his birthplace will be read with interest. It is from a speech delivered before a great public assembly at Saratoga, in the year 1840: " It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin ; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the snowdrifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney, and DANIEL WEBSTER 133 curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the hard- ships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode." Soon after his settlement in Salisbury, the first wife of Ebenezer Webster having deceased, he mar- ried Abigail Eastman, who became the mother of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster, the only sons of the second marriage. Like the mothers of so many men of eminence, she was a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and possessed a force of character which was felt throughout the humble circle in which she moved. About the time of his second marriage, Captain Ebenezer Webster erected a frame house hard by the log cabin. He dug a well near it and planted an elm sapling. In this house Daniel Webster was born, in the last year of the Revolutionary war, on the 1 8th of January, 1782. The interval between the peace of 1763 and the breaking out of the war of the Revolution was one of excitement and anxiety throughout the Colonies. Like so many of the officers and soldiers of the former war, Captain Webster obeyed the first call to arms in the new struggle. He commanded a com- pany, chiefly composed of his own townspeople, friends, and kindred, who followed him through the greater portion of the war. He was at the battle of White Plains, and was at West Point when the 134 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY treason of Arnold was discovered. He acted as a Major under Stark at Bennington, and contributed his share to the success of that eventful day. If the character and situation of the place, and the circumstances under which Daniel Webster passed the first years of his life, might seem adverse to the early cultivation of his extraordinary talent, it still cannot be doubted that they possessed influ- ences favorable to elevation and strength of char- acter. The hardships of an infant settlement and border life, the traditions of a long series of Indian wars, and incidents of two mighty national contests, in which an honored parent had borne his part, were circumstances to leave an abiding impression on the mind of a thoughtful child, and induce an early maturity of character. It may well be supposed that Mr. Webster's early opportunities for education were very scanty. Some- thing that was called a school was kept for two or three months in the winter, frequently by an itinerant, too often a pretender, claiming only to teach a little reading, writing, and ciphering, and wholly incompetent to give any valuable assistance to a clever youth in learning either. From the village library at Salisbury, also, Mr. Webster was able to obtain a moderate supply of good reading. The year before Mr. Webster was born was ren- dered memorable in New Hampshire by the founda- tion of the Acadmey at Exeter, through the munifi- cence of the Honorable John Phillips. To this Academy Mr. Webster was taken by his father in DANIEL WEBSTER 135 May, 1796. He enjoyed the advantage of only a few months' instruction in this excellent school; but, short as the period was, his mind appears to have received an impulse of a most genial and quickening character. The following anecdote from Mr. March's " Reminiscences of Congress " will not be thought out of place in this connection : " It may appear somewhat singular that the greatest orator of modern times should have evinced in his boyhood the strongest antipathy to public declamation. This fact, however, is estab- lished by his own words, which have recently appeared in print. ' I believe,' says Mr. Webster, ' I made tolerable progress in most branches which I attended to while in this school; but there was one thing I could not do. I could not make a decla- mation. I could not speak before the school. The kind and excellent Buckminster sought especially to persuade me to per- form the exercise of declamation, like other boys, but I could not do it. Many a piece did I commit to memory, and recite and rehearse in my own room, over and over again ; yet when the day came, when the school collected to hear declamations, when my name was called, and I saw all eyes turned to my seat, I could not raise myself from it. Sometimes the instructors frowned, sometimes they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I would venture. But I never could command sufficient resolution.' Such diffi- dence of its own powers may be natural to genius, nervously fearful of being unable to reach that ideal which it proposes as the only full consummation of its wishes. It is fortunate, how- ever, for the age, fortunate for all ages, that Mr. Webster by determined will and frequent trial overcame this moral in- capacity, as his great prototype, the Grecian orator, subdued his physical defect." pp. 12, 13. After a few months well spent at Exeter, Mr. Webster returned home, and in February, 1797, was placed by his father under the Rev. Samuel Wood, the minister of the neighboring town of Boscawen, 136 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY He lived in Mr. Wood's family, and for board and in- struction the entire charge was one dollar per week. On their way to Mr. Wood's, Mr. Webster's father first opened to his son, now fifteen years old, the design of sending him to college, the thought of which had never before entered his mind. " I remember," says Mr. Webster, in an autobiographi- cal memorandum of his boyhood, " the very hill which we were ascending, through deep snows, in a New England sleigh, when my father made known this purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he, I thought, with so large a family and in such nar- row circumstances, think of incurring so great an expense for me. A warm glow ran all over me, and I laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." From February till August, 1797, Mr. Webster remained under the instruction of Mr. Wood, at Boscawen, and completed his preparation for col- lege. It is hardly necessary to say, that the prepara- tion was imperfect. Short as was his period of preparation, however, it enabled Mr. Web- ster to lay the foundation of a knowledge of the classical writers, especially the Latin, which was greatly increased in college, and which was kept up by constant recurrence to the great models of antiquity, during the busiest periods of active life. The happiness of Mr. Webster's occasional cita- tions from the Latin classics was a striking feature of his oratory. Mr. Webster entered Dartmouth College in 1797, and passed the four academic years in assiduous study. He was not only distinguished for his at- DANIEL WEBSTER 137 tention to the prescribed studies, but devoted him- self to general reading, especially to English history and literature. He took part in the publication of a little weekly newspaper, furnishing selections from books and magazines, with an occasional article from his own pen. He delivered addresses, also, before the college societies, some of which were published. In the winter vacations he taught school. Mr. Webster completed his college course in Au- gust, 1 80 1, and immediately entered the office of Mr. Thompson, the next-door neighbor of his father, as a student of law, where he remained until appli- cation was made to him to take charge of an acad- emy at Fryeburg in Maine, upon a salary of about one dollar per diem, being less than is now paid for the coarsest kind of unskilled manual labor. As he was able, besides, to earn enough to' pay for his board and to defray his other expenses by acting as assist- ant to the register of deeds for the county, his sal- ary was all saved, a fund for his own professional education and to help his brother through college. In September, 1802, Mr. Webster returned to Salisbury, and resumed his studies under Mr. Thompson, in whose office he remained for eighteen months. Besides his law studies, he gave a good deal of time to general reading, and especially the study of the Latin classics, English history, and the volumes of Shakespeare. In order to obtain a wider compass of knowledge, and to learn some- thing of the language not to be gained from the classics, he read through attentively PuffendorfFs " Latin History of England," 138 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY In July, 1804, he took up his residence in Boston, and enjoyed the advantage of pursuing his legal studies for six or eight months in the office of the Hon. Christopher Gore, afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, a lawyer of eminence, a statesman and a civilian, a gentleman of the old school of manners, and a rare example of distinguished intel- lectual qualities, united with practical good sense and judgment. He had passed several years in Eng- land as a commissioner, under Jay's treaty, for liqui- dating the claims of citizens of the United States for seizures by British cruisers in the early wars of the French Revolution. His library, amply fur- nished with works of professional and general lit- erature, his large experience of men and things at home and abroad, and his uncommon amenity of temper, combined to make the period passed by Mr. Webster in his office one of the pleasantest in his life. These advantages, it hardly need be said, were not thrown away. Just as he was about to be admitted to practise in the Suffolk Court of Common Pleas in Massa- chusetts, the place of clerk in the Court of Com- mon Pleas for the county of Hillsborough, in New Hampshire, became vacant. Of this court Mr. Web- ster's father had been made one of the judges, in conformity with a very common practice at that time, of placing on the side bench of the lower courts men of intelligence and respectability, though not lawyers. From regard to Judge Webster, the va- cant clerkship was offered by his colleagues to his son. The fees of the office were about fifteen hun- DANIEL WEBSTER 139 dred dollars per annum, which in those days and in that region was not so much a competence as a for- tune. Mr. Webster himself was disposed to accept the office. It promised an immediate provision in lieu of a distant and doubtful prospect. It enabled him at once to bring comfort into his father's family. But the earnest dissuasions of Mr. Gore, who saw in this step the certain postponement, per- haps the final defeat, of all hopes of professional ad- vancement, prevented his accepting the office. In the spring of the same year (1805) Mr. Webster was admitted to the practice of the law in the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk County, Boston. Immediately on his admission to the bar, Mr. Webster went to Amherst, in New Hampshire, where his father's court was in session; from that place he went home with his father, who was now infirm from the advance of years, and had no other sop at home. Under these circumstances Mr. Web- ster opened an office at Boscawen, not far from his father's residence, and commenced the practice of the law in this retired spot. Judge Webster lived but a year ; long enough, however, to hear his son's first argument in court, and to be gratified with the confident predictions of his future success. In May, 1807, Mr. Webster was admitted as an attorney and counsellor of the Superior Court in New Hampshire, and in September of that year, relinquishing his office in Boscawen to his brother Ezekiel, he removed to Portsmouth, in conformity with his original intention. Here he remained in the practice of his profession for nine successive 140 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY years. They were years of assiduous labor, and of unremitted devotion to the study and practice of the law. He was associated with several persons of great eminence, citizens of New Hampshire or of Massachusetts occasionally practising at the Ports- mouth bar. Among the latter were Samuel Dexter and Joseph Story; of the residents of New Hamp- shire, Jeremiah Mason was the most distinguished. Often opposed to each other as lawyers, a strong personal friendship grew up between them, which ended only with the death of Mr. Mason. Although dividing with Mr. Mason the best of the business of Portsmouth, and indeed of all the eastern portion of the State, Mr. Webster's practice was mostly on the circuit. He followed the Superior Court through the principal counties of the State, and was retained in nearly every important cause. It is a somewhat singular fact in his professional life, that, with the exception of the occasions on which he has been associated with the Attorney- General of the United States for the time being, he has hardly appeared ten times as junior counsel. Within the sphere in which he was placed, he may be said to have risen at once to the head of his pro- fession; not, however, like Erskine and some other celebrated British lawyers, by one and the same bound, at once to fame and fortune. Mr. Web- ster's practice in New Hampshire, though probably as good as that of any of his contemporaries, was never lucrative. Although exclusively devoted to his profession, it afforded him no more than a bare livelihood. CHAPTER II Public Life. Election to Congress. Extra Session of 1813. Foreign Relations. Berlin and Milan Decrees. Naval De- fence. Reflected to Congress in 1814. Peace with England. National Bank. Battle of New Orleans. New Questions. The Tariff Policy. Specie Payments. Removal to Boston. MR. WEBSTER had hitherto taken less interest in politics than has been usual with the young men of talent, at least with the young lawyers of America. In fact, at the time to which the preceding narrative refers, the politics of the country were in such a state, that there was scarce any course which could be pursued with entire satisfaction by a patriotic young man sagacious enough to penetrate behind mere party names, and to view public questions in their true light. The United States, although not actually drawn to any great depth into the vortex of the French Revolution, were powerfully affected by it. The deadly struggle of the two great Euro- pean belligerents, in which the neutral rights of this country were grossly violated by both, gave a com- plexion to our domestic politics. The aggressions of the belligerents on our neutral commerce continued, and, by the joint effect of the Berlin and Milan Decrees and the Orders in Council, it was all but swept from the ocean. In this state of things two courses were open to the United 141 142 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY States, as a growing neutral power: one, that of prompt resistance to the aggressive policy of the belligerents ; the other, that which was called " the restrictive system," which consisted in an embargo on our own vessels, with a view to withdraw them from the grasp of foreign cruisers, and in laws inhibiting commercial intercourse with England and France. There was a division of opinion in the cabinet of Mr. Jefferson and in the country at large. The latter policy was finally adopted. It fell in with the general views of Mr. Jefferson against com- mitting the country to the risks of foreign war. Although the discipline of party was sufficiently strong to cause this system of measures to be adopted and pursued for years, it was never cordially ap- proved by the people of the United States of any party. It continued, however, to form the basis of our party divisions till the war of 1812. In these divisions, as has been intimated, both parties were in a false position ; the one supporting and forcing upon the country a system of measures not cordially approved, even by themselves; the other, a power- less minority, zealously opposing those measures, but liable for that reason to be thought backward in asserting the neutral rights of the country. A few men of well-balanced minds, true patriotism, and sound statesmanship, in all sections of the coun- try, were able to unite fidelity to their party associa- tions with a comprehensive view to the good of the country. Among these, mature beyond his years, was Mr. Webster. As early as 1806 he had, in a public oration, presented an impartial view of the DANIEL WEBSTER 143 foreign relations of the country in reference to both belligerents, of the importance of our commer- cial interests and the duty of protecting them. At length the foreign belligerents themselves per- ceived the folly and injustice of their measures. In the strife which should inflict the greatest injury on the other, they had paralyzed the commerce of the world and embittered the minds of all the neu- tral powers. The Berlin and Milan Decrees were revoked, but in a manner so unsatisfactory as in a great degree to impair the pacific tendency of the measure. The Orders in Council were also re- scinded in the summer of 1812. War, however, justly provoked by each and both of the parties, had meantime been declared by Congress against England, and active hostilities had been commenced on the frontier. At the elections next ensuing, Mr. Webster was brought forward as a candidate for Congress of the Federal party of that day, and, hav- ing been chosen in the month of November, 1812. he took his seat at the first session of the Thirteenth Congress, which was an extra session called in May, 1813. Although his course of life hitherto had been in what may be called a provincial sphere, and he had never been a member even of the legislature of his native State, a presentiment of his ability seems to have gone before him to Washington. He was, in the organization of the House, placed by Mr. Clay, its Speaker, upon the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a select committee at that time, and of necessity the leading committee in a state of war. There were many men of uncommon ability in the 144 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY Thirteenth Congress. Rarely has so much talent been found at any one time in the House of Repre- sentatives. Although among the youngest and least experienced members of the body, Mr. Webster rose, from the first, to a position of undisputed equality with the most distinguished. The times were criti- cal. The immediate business to be attended to was the financial and military conduct of the war, a sub- ject of difficulty and importance. The position of Mr. Webster was not such as to require or permit him to take a lead ; but it was his steady aim, with- out the sacrifice of his principles, to pursue such a course as would tend most effectually to extricate the country from the embarrassments of her present position, and to lead to peace upon honorable terms. Mr. Webster was not a member of Congress when war was declared, nor in any other public station. He was too deeply read in the law of nations, and regarded that august code with too much respect, not to contemplate with indignation its infraction by both the belligerents. Early in the session, he moved a series of resolu- tions of inquiry, relative to the repeal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees. The object of these resolutions was to elicit a communication on this subject from the executive, which would unfold the proximate causes of the war, as far as they were to be sought in those famous Decrees, and in the Orders in Coun- cil. On the loth of June, 1813, Mr. Webster deliv- ered his maiden speech on these resolutions. No full report of this speech has been preserved. It is known only from extremely imperfect sketches, con- DANIEL WEBSTER 145 tained in the contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the proceedings of Congress, from the recollec- tion of those who heard it, and from the general tra- dition. It was marked by all the characteristics of Mr. Webster's maturest parliamentary efforts, moderation of tone, precision of statement, force of reasoning, absence of ambitious rhetoric and high- flown language, occasional bursts of true eloquence, and, pervading the whole, a genuine and fervid patriotism. We have reason to believe that its effect upon the House is accurately described in the follow- ing extract from Mr. March's work : " The speech took the House by surprise, not so much from its eloquence as from the vast amount of historical knowledge and illustrative ability displayed in it. How a person, un- trained to forensic contests and unused to public affairs, could exhibit so much parliamentary tact, such nice appreciation of the difficulties of a difficult question, and such quiet facility in surmounting them, puzzled the mind. The age and inexperience of the speaker had prepared the House for no such display, and astonishment for a time subdued the expression of its admiration." pp. 35, 36. The resolutions moved by Mr. Webster prevailed by a large majority, and drew forth from Mr. Mon- roe, then Secretary of State, an elaborate and in- structive report upon the subject to which they referred. We have already observed, that, as early as 1806, Mr. Webster had expressed himself in favor of the protection of our commerce against the aggres- sions of both the belligerents. Some years later, before the war was declared, but when it was visibly A. B., VOL. VI. 10 146 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY impending, he had put forth some vigorous articles to the same effect. In an oration delivered in 1812, he had said : " A navy sufficient for the defence of our coasts and harbors, for the convoy of impor- tant branches of our trade, and sufficient also to give our enemies to understand, when they injure us, that they too are vulnerable, and that we have the power of retaliation as well as of defence, seems to be the plain, necessary, indispensable policy of the nation. It is the dictate of nature and common sense, that means of defence shall have relation to the danger." The principal subjects on which Mr. Webster addressed the House during the Thirteenth Congress were his own resolutions, the increase of the navy, the repeal of the embargo, and an appeal from the de- cision of the chair on a motion for the previous question. His speeches on those questions raised him to the front rank of debaters. He manifested upon his entrance into public life that variety of knowledge, familiarity with the history and tradi- tions of the government, and self-possession on the floor, which in most cases are acquired by time and long experience. They gained for him the reputa- tion indicated by the well-known remark of Mr. Lowndes, that " the North had not his equal, nor the South his superior." It was not the least con- spicuous of the strongly marked qualities of his character as a public man, disclosed at this early period, and uniformly preserved throughout his career, that, at a time when party spirit went to great lengths, he never permitted himself to be infected DANIEL WEBSTER 147 with its contagion. His opinions were firmly main- tained and boldy expressed; but without bitterness toward those who differed from him. He cultivated friendly relations on both sides of the House, and gained the personal respect even of those with whom he most differed. In August, 1814, Mr. Webster was reflected to Congress. The treaty of Ghent was signed in De- cember, 1814, and the prospect of peace, universally welcomed by the country, opened on the Thirteenth Congress toward the close of its third session. Ear- lier in the session a project for a Bank of the United States was introduced into the House of Representa- tives on the recommendation of Mr. Dallas, Secre- tary of the Treasury. The charter of the first in- corporated bank of the United States had expired in 1811. No general complaints of mismanage- ment or abuse had been raised against this institu- tion ; but the opinions entertained by what has been called the " Virginia School " of politicians, against the constitutionality of a national bank, prevented the renewal of the charter. The want of such an institution was severely felt in the war of 1812, al- though it is probable that the amount of assistance which it could have afforded the financial opera- tions of the government was greatly overrated. Be this as it may, both the Treasury Department and Congress were now strongly disposed to create a bank. Its capital was to consist of forty-five mil- lions of the public stocks and five millions of specie, and it was to be under obligation to lend the gov- ernment thirty millions of dollars on demand. To 148 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY enable it to exist under these conditions, it was re- lieved from the necessity of redeeming its notes in specie. In other words, it was an arrangement for the issue of an irredeemable paper currency. It was opposed mainly on this ground by Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Webster, Mr. Lowndes, and others of the ablest men on both sides of the House, as a project not only unsound in its principles, but sure to in- crease the derangement of the currency already existing. The project was supported as an admin- istration measure, but the leading members from South Carolina and their friends united with the regular opposition against it, and it was lost by the casting vote of the Speaker, Mr. Cheves. It was revived by reconsideration, on motion of Mr. Webster, and such amendments introduced that it passed the House by a large majority. It was carried through the Senate in this amended form with difficulty, but it was negatived by Mr. Madi- son, being one of the two cases in which he exer- cised the veto power during his eight years' admin- istration. On the 8th of January of the year 1815, the vic- tory at New Orleans was gained by General Jack- son. No occurrence on land, in the course of the war, was of equal immediate interest, or destined to have so abiding an influence on the future. Be- sides averting the indescribable calamity of the sack of a populous and flourishing city, it showed the immense military power of the volunteer force of the country, when commanded with energy and skill. The praises of General Jackson were on every DANIEL WEBSTER 149 tongue throughout the land, and Congress responded to the grateful feelings of the country. A vote of thanks was unanimously passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. In the interval between the Thirteenth and Four- teenth Congresses (March-December, 1815), Mr. Webster was busily engaged at home in the practice of the law. He had begun at this time to consider the expediency of removing his residence to a wider professional field. Though receiving a full share of the best business of New Hampshire, it ceased to yield an adequate support for his increasing fam- ily, and still more failed to afford any thing like the just reward of his legal attainment and labors. The destruction of his house, furniture, library, and many important manuscript collections, in " the great fire" at Portsmouth, in December, 1813. had entailed upon him the loss of the entire fruits of his professional industry up to that time, and made it necessary for him to look around him for the means of a considerably increased income. He hesitated between Albany and Boston ; and, in consequence of this indecision, the execution of his purpose was for the present postponed. The Fourteenth Congress assembled in December, 1815. An order of things in a great degree new presented itself. After a momentary pause, the country rose with an elastic bound from the pressure of the war. Old party dissensions had lost much of their interest. The condition of Europe had undergone a great change. The power of the French emperor was annihilated; and with the return of 150 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY general peace, all occasions for belligerent encroach- ments on neutral rights had ceased. Two-thirds of our domestic feuds had turned on foreign questions, and there was a spontaneous feeling throughout the country in favor of healing the wounds which these feuds had inflicted upon its social and political harmony. Nor was this all. New relations and in- terests had arisen. The public debt had been swelled by the war expenditure to a large amount, and its interest was to be paid. Domestic manufactures had, in some of the States, grown up into import- ance through the operation of the restrictive system and the war, and asked for protection. The West began to fill up with unexampled rapidity, and re- quired new facilities of communication with the Atlantic coast. The navy had fought itself into favor, and the war with Algiers, in 1816, forbade its reduction below the recent war establishment. The necessity of a system of coast defences had made itself felt. With all these loud calls for in- creased expenditure, the public finances were em- barrassed and the currency was in extreme disorder. In a word, there were new and great wants and in- terests at home and abroad, throwing former topics of dissension into the shade, and calling for the high- est efforts of statesmanship and a patriotism embrac- ing the whole country. Among those who responded with the greatest cordiality and promptness to the new demand were the distinguished statesmen of the preceding Con- gress, and conspicuous among them Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Lowndes, and Cheves. It will excite some DANIEL WEBSTER l$l surprise at the present day, in consideration of the political history of the last thirty years, to find how little difference as to leading measures existed in 1816 between these distinguished statesmen. No line of general party difference separated the members of the first Congress after the peace. The great measures brought forward were a national bank, internal improvement, and a protective tariff. On these various subjects members divided, not in ac- cordance with any party organization, but from in- dividual convictions, supposed sectional interests, and general public grounds. On the two first-named subjects no systematic difference of views disclosed itself between the great Northern and Southern leaders; on the third alone there was diversity of opinion. In the Northern States considerable ad- vances had been made in manufacturing industry, in different places, especially at Waltham (Mass.) : but a great manufacturing interest had not yet grown up. The strength of this interest as yet lay mainly in Pennsylvania. Navigation and foreign trade were the leading pursuits of the North; and these interests, it was feared, would suffer from the attempt to build up manufactures by a protective tariff. It is accordingly a well-known fact, which may teach all to entertain opinions on public ques- tions with some distrust of their own judgment, that the tariff of 1816, containing the minimum duty on coarse cotton fabrics, the corner-stone of the pro- tective system, was supported by Mr. Calhoun and a few other Southern members, and carried by their influence against the opposition of the New Eng- 152 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY land members generally, including Mr. Webster. It has been stated, that, during the pendency of this law before Congress, he denied the constitution- ality of the tariff for protection. This statement is inaccurate ; although, had it been true, it would have placed him only in the sam& relation to the question with Mr. Calhoun and other Southern members, who at that time admitted the principle of protection, but lived to reject it as the grossest and most pernicious constitutional heresy. It would have shown only that, in a long political career, he had, on the first discussion of a new question, expressed an opinion which, in the lapse of time and under a change of circumstances, he had seen occasion to alter. This is no ground of just reproach. It has happened to every public man in every free country, who has been of importance enough to have his early opinions remembered. At a later period, and after it had been confidently stated, and satisfactorily shown by Mr. Madison, that the Federal Convention that framed the Con- stitution intended, under the provision for regulating commerce, to clothe Congress with the power of laying duties for the protection of manufactures, and after Congress had, by repeated laws passed against the wishes of the navigating and strictly commercial interests practically settled this consti- tutional question, and turned a vast amount of the capital of the country into the channel of manufac- tures, Mr. Webster considered a moderate degree of protection as the established policy of the United States and he accordingly supported it. It is un- DANIEL WEBSTER 153 necessary to state, that this course was pursued with the approbation of his constituents, and to the mani- fest good of the country. No change took place in Mr. Webster's opinions on the subject of protec- tion which was not generally shared and sanctioned by the intelligence of the manufacturing States. Mr. Webster took an active and efficient part, at the first session of the Fourteenth Congress, in the debates on the charter of the Bank of the United States, which passed Congress in April, 1816. But the great service rendered by him to the currency of the country in the Fourteenth Congress was in procuring the adoption of the specie resolution, in virtue of which, from and after the 2Oth of Febru- ary, 1817, all debts due to the treasury were required to be paid in the legal currency of the country (gold or silver), in treasury notes, or the notes of the Bank of the United States, or in notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the same legal currency. This resolution passed the two houses, and was approved by the President on the 3