August, 1840.
Mr. Webster had been in almost continual public service since 1813, and during that period the two great questions which demanded the attention of statesmen were the tariff and the currency. The history of the former is to be found in the Reply to Hayne and the Reply to Calhoun; the history of the latter, in that memorable series of speeches during the session of 1831-1833 on the policy of President Jackson regarding the United States Bank. Out of this great controversy the Whig party arose, and its first nominee for the presidency was William Henry Harrison in 1835, but the friends of Jackson were strong, and Van Buren was elected. He continued the financial policy of his predecessor, or at least made no effort to remedy the evils which it had brought upon the country. Mr. Webster gave himself to the task of exposing the financial heresies of the administration and of preventing further injurious legislation. In the summer of 1839 he visited England for rest, and was everywhere received with the honor due to his high position and his distinguished attainments; he received courtesies usually confined to ambassadors and foreign ministers. On his return he found that the Whigs had again nominated Harrison. Although he had reason to expect his own nomination, for this was the desire ofthe people, he at once threw himself into the campaign in support of the nominee. The people from all sections of the country wished to hear and see the man who had done such noble service for them in Congress. His speeches during this campaign are a fit supplement to those which he had just completed on the subject of the bank. The theme was essentially the same, but the audience was in many respects a more difficult one to reach. In the familiarity with financial questions Mr. Webster had shown himself second only to Hamilton himself, and in presenting the subject to a popular audience he reached the high-water mark of political oratory; there is no cant, no bluster, no personal abuse, but the dignity and simplicity of the simple and dignified friend of the people.
On the 19th of August, 1840, he addressed the citizens of New York in a mass meeting at Saratoga. Of all the great speeches of this campaign this best represents the mind and art of Mr. Webster, and is especially interesting in this year (1892) when essentially the same questions--the tariff and the currency--are before the people, and when the nominee of the party, which is the child of the old Whig party, is Benjamin Harrison.
1.P. 331, l. 28. 1. The history of banking in the United States is interesting as a chapter in the general history of banking. It began with that great financier, Alexander Hamilton. When Secretary of the Treasury he conceived the plan of a great national bank, which should take charge of the disbursement of the revenues, and which should furnish a paper circulation,--founded on national resources,--which should be current all over the country. After a prolonged opposition by the Anti-federalists, who claimed that the establishment of such a bank would be unconstitutional, he prevailed upon Washington to sign the bill of incorporation, and in 1791 the bank began its work. It continued its existence until 1811, when the Anti-federalists refused to recharter it. Owing to the disordered currency resulting from the War of 1812, Mr. Madison brought the matter before Congress in his message, and in 1816 the second Bank of the United States was established.
2.P. 333, l. 27. 1. Cf. Sumner'sLife of Andrew Jackson, Chs. XIII., XIV.
3.P. 334, l. 20. 1. In the session of 1831-1832 the bank applied for a new charter, and here began the great struggle with President Jackson. The bill to recharter the bank passed both Houses in 1832, and was vetoed by the President. Mr. Webster made a notable speech against the veto, and at once took the lead as an authority on questions of finance. The following year the President struck his hardest blow against the bank, by ordering the removal of the deposits. The Senate passed resolutions condemning the act, and Mr. Webster, on presenting resolutions to the same effect from Boston, made a most powerful speech in which he depicted the great commercial distress resulting from the removal and from the institution of State banks. Between the time of this speech and the close of the session he spoke on the subject of the bank and national finance over sixty times. No other such exhibition of intellectual power and grasp of intricate problems, united with commanding eloquence, has ever been made in our history. As a result of the censure by the Senate, the President sent a protest in which he argued that the Senate had exceeded its power. Mr. Webster replied to this in what is now considered the greatest of all his speeches during the great struggle.
4.P. 335, l. 26. 1. After the removal of the deposits, effected by Jackson, State banks were formed in large numbers, and certain of these became deposit banks. The notes of State banks were used for the purchase of public lands from the United States, and the treasury was thus accumulating paper currency of doubtful value. The Secretary of the Treasury (1836) issued the so-called "Specie Circular," ordering the government agents to receive in future only gold and silver. Only those banks which held government revenue deposits could furnish coin, and widespread bankruptcy was the result.
5.P. 337, l. 17. 1. Cf. Gay'sLife of James Madison.
6.P. 339, l. 9, 1. Jackson had never questioned the right of the government to regulate the currency, but had asserted it when he made certain State banks banks of deposit. Van Buren was obliged either to return to the policy of a national bank, or to renounce all rights of the Government to regulate the currency. He chose the latter, and by means of the "Sub-Treasury Scheme" completed the separation of "bank and State." The speech of Mr. Webster on the "Sub-Treasury" is the most complete and convincing of all his speeches on the right of the Government to regulate the currency.
7.P. 346, l. 24. 1. Mr. Webster was living at this time at Marshfield, Massachusetts.
Cf. Curtis'sLife of Webster, Chs. XIX.-XXIII.; Lodge'sWebster, Ch. VII.;Works of Daniel Webster, Vols. III., IV.;Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. II., p. 83.
September, 1845.
Of the many friends of Webster during his long political career, there was no one more constant in his attentions, more sympathetic in his judgments, or more helpful in his counsels than was Mr. Justice Story. Ever since they had acted together in the Massachusetts Convention in 1820 they had maintained for each other's character and attainments the most generous and cordial enthusiasm. The death of Mr. Story on the 10th of September, 1845, was a great affliction to Mr. Webster, and cast a gloom over his Marshfield home, where they had passed so many delightful hours together.
At a meeting of the Suffolk Bar held in the Circuit Court Room, on the morning of the 12th of September, the day of the funeral, Chief Justice Shaw having taken the chair and announced the object of the meeting, Mr. Webster pronounced the following noble and beautiful eulogium.
The following letter of dedication to the mother of Judge Story accompanied these remarks in the original edition:--
"Boston, September 15, 1845.
"Venerable Madam,--I pray you to allow me to present to you the brief remarks which I made before the Suffolk Bar, on the 12 instant, at a meeting occasioned by the sudden and afflicting death of your distinguished son. I trust, dear Madam, that as you enjoyed through his whole life constant proofs of his profound respect and ardent filial affection, so you may yet live long to enjoy the remembrance of his virtue and his exalted reputation.
"I am with very great regard, your obedient servant,
"Daniel Webster.
"To Madam Story."
1.P. 358, l. 28. 1. Cf.Life and Works of Judge Story.
2.P. 362, l. 10. 1. The following inscription, which Mr. Webster wrote with his own hand a short time before his death, and which he desired to have placed on his monument, is interesting in connection with these closing words of the eulogy:--
"Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief."
Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of the Universe, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has some- times shaken my reason for the faith which is in me; but my heart has always assured and reassured me, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human production. This belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. The whole history of man proves it.
Daniel Webster.
When he wrote the above, he said to a friend: "If I get well and write a book on Christianity, about which we have talked, we can attend more fully to this matter; but if I should be taken away suddenly, I do not wish to leave any duty of this kind unperformed. I want to leave somewhere a declaration of my belief in Christianity."
It was not Mr. Webster's custom to make a parade of his religious beliefs; he was simple, sincere, and unaffected in his religious life. That he was a lover and student of our English Bible, no one familiar with his thought and style needs to be told. Mr. Choate, in speaking of Webster's models in the matter of style, mentions Cicero, Virgil, our English Bible, Shakespeare, Addison, and Burke.
For the latest estimates of Webster's work the student should consult the following:
The Proceedings of the Webster Centennial, Dartmouth College (1902).
Address of Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge at the unveiling of the Webster Memorial in Washington, in the volumeThe Fighting Frigateand other essays.
John B. McMaster's Life of Daniel Webster.