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period of his professional career, in the Dartmouth College case, and subsequently in the great steam-boat cause, and in other cases involving the leading principles of Constitutional law, been called to explore its doctrines to their foundation. They are doctrines of a nature which require the lawyer's precision and discrimination. Loose and popular views cannot be relied upon, in drawing the delicate line between the powers granted by the Federal Constitution and the powers reserved to the States. They must be distinguished, compared, reconciled, and limited, by a severe professional logic. But logic alone is not enough. Constitutions are historical documents: their formation and adoption are historical facts; and a judgment well disciplined in historical studies is as necessary as the talent of perception or argument. Nor must a sort of patriotic moral sense be wanting. The politician whose soul is not warmed with an elevated and comprehensive patriotism, knows nothing of the Constitution; he does not feel the value of the objects for which the Constitution was framed. The qualities we have enumerated are found in the closest union in Mr. Webster's Constitutional speeches-the sternest dialectics-a species of historical tact, as well as an entire familiarity with historical records, and a love of the Union which takes the heart to the work of its defence. The student of Constitutional law will ever resort to the speeches of Mr. Webster, in this department, with the same deference that he pays to the numbers of the Federalist and the opinions of Chief Justice Marshall.

The speeches on the financial policy of the Administration, and the Bank question, are of a character somewhat different, although the reply to the Protest is also a Constitutional argument. Mr. Webster's knowledge of the whole question of finance is second to that of no man in the country. He was a leader on this subject, upon his first entrance into public life, in the debates on the charter of a bank in 1814, and the years immediately following. For unadorned and close reasoning, on a financial question,—for luminous exposition of a subject wrapped up in mystery, by the declamations of the party press,-Mr. Webster's report, as chairman of the committee of finance, at the last session of Congress, may be quoted as a model. But even in the speeches of this class, it is pleasing to see the strong patriotic and Constitutional bent of his

mind. The Bank, in itself, is comparatively nothing. As an instrument of finance, it is convenient; as the fiscal agent of the Government, it is probably indispensable; and these topics are properly enforced. But it is the distress of the country, produced by this unhappy tampering with the currency; the loss of a twelvemonth's prosperity; the ruin of thousands; the embarrassment of hundreds of thousands ;-these are the topics which perpetually force themselves upon his mind. Nor these alone; he beholds, in the treatment of the stockholders and directors of the Bank, a violation of the law, a breach of the spirit of the Constitution, an absorption into executive discretion of powers, intended to be exercised by other functionaries; and these higher views give a peculiar warmth and solemnity to his appeals.

The miscellaneous speeches present a great variety of the most interesting subjects of discussion. In this class we include his addresses at the great public festivals, offered by his admiring fellow-citizens, as expressions of their gratitude for his defence of their Constitutional liberties. It will be recollected, that, at the close of the session of 1831, Mr. Webster was invited by a large number of the most respectable citizens of New York and its vicinity, including among them distinguished gentlemen of both political parties, to meet them at a festival prepared as an expression of their satisfaction, at the part which he had taken in the great Constitutional struggle, that had occurred in the Senate of the United States. There were persons uniting in this tribute of respect and gratitude to Mr. Webster, who had perhaps never acted together before, in any matter connected with party politics. The principle and the feeling, which had brought them together for the purpose named, are emphatically stated in the address made to Mr. Webster, by the president of the day, (Chancellor Kent,) and which we have prefixed, as the proper introduction, to the report of Mr. Webster's speech, at the commencement of the present volume. It was a principle of attachment to the Union, and a feeling that the maxims of Constitutional law, on which the stability of the Union rests, had, "by the discussions in the Senate, and the master genius that guided them, been rescued from the archives of tribunals, and the libraries of lawyers, and placed under the eye, and submitted to the judgment, of the American

people. Their verdict is with us, and from it their lies no appeal." The speech of Mr. Webster, which we have already ventured to name as one of the very happiest of his efforts, is conceived in the spirit of the occasion. It is the outpouring of a full heart, the breathing of a pure patriotism, kindling with the sentiment of the worth of the Union, as illustrated in the history, the growth, and the prosperity, of the great metropolis in which he spoke, and in the lives and services of the patriot statesmen, who, in all the States, contributed to establish the Independence and frame the Constitution of the UNITED States. What citizen of New York but must have glowed with honest pride, as Mr. Webster unrolled, on this occasion, the long record of her illustrious men! What lover of the Union but must have caught new views of its inestimable value, as its connection with the prosperity, the industry, and the whole social system of the country was pointed out with the eloquence of a master! Not less significant, appropriate, and instructive, is the delineation of the character of Washington, delivered on the 22d of February, 1832, before a company assembled to commemorate the birthday of the father of his country. The character of Washington is there lifted up from common-places; its strong points cleared away from the mere generalities of eulogy; the distinctive features which marked him pointed out; and that beau ideal of the perfect patriot, which exists under his name, in every American imagination, shown to have its original, in the life and conduct of our Washington.

It is not our province to enter into any criticism on the style of Mr. Webster's addresses. He is himself, in several instances, in no degree responsible for their style, in the common acceptation of the term. Not one of the speeches contained in this volume is of a character to admit of being written beforehand. They are taken by the publishers as found in the reports of the day, in the contemporaneous newspaper and pamphlet form. In some cases, the publishers presume, of course, that the speeches, as printed, were written out by Mr. Webster, from his own brief notes and the minutes of the stenographer; in others, it is probable that the speech written out by the reporter may have passed under Mr. Webster's revision; but not seldom, as the publishers have reason to know, they have been obliged to content themselves with

the contemporaneous newspaper report, without the advantage of the slightest revision. There is, however, one feature, not so much of style as of manner, to which the publishers feel warranted in adverting; it is the dignified absence of personality in the speeches of Mr. Webster. His career has fallen on times of warm party collision; he has himself shared the inevitable fate of eminent talent, in being the object of hostility and attack. When called upon, in self-defence, to wield the weapons of sarcasm, he has shown that he can do it with terrific effect; but the entire series of his speeches does not present an instance of a voluntary personality. We do not commend this, however, as a great merit on the part of Mr. Webster, so much as we would notice the bad taste and the mistaken policy of the opposite course. It requires power to bend the bow, and skill to point the shaft, but the meanest malice can dip it in poison. And, when the passions of the day are passed, personal abuse is forgotten, or remembered only to the discredit of those who deal in it; but argument never loses its force; eloquence never ceases to charm; and truth is eternal.

We close these introductory remarks, by commending the volumes of the Speeches of Mr. Webster to the affections of the American people, and particularly of the Young Men of the country, for their strong practical and patriotic tendency. They deal not in metaphysical abstractions, nor in popular generalities; they speak to the common sense, to the sound judgment, the patriotic feeling, of all good citizens. The future incidents of his public course are in the disposal of Providence, to be decided by second causes, which no one can foresee. But of his station before the American people; of the relation in which he has placed himself to the Constitution; of his connection with the truths and the principles on which the Union rests,-there is no question; and over these, time, and events, and men, have no control. It may please the people to honor talents such as Heaven has intrusted to his stewardship, to reward services such as he has performed,—as the people only can honor and reward them; or others may attain the high honors of that Constitution which he has so nobly vindicated, and done so much to uphold. The alternative is certainly no mean one, in the common estimation formed of human things; but to no man in the United States can it be personally so indiffer

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ent as to a man like Mr. Webster. The service has been rendered; the good has been performed; the tribute of gratitude has flowed from millions of patriotic hearts; and the time will never come when it will be forgotten, either in the United States, or wheresoever, in the whole world and in all time, the English language shall be understood, and the history of this generation shall be read. The party triumphs of the day may be, and sometimes are, decided by influences with which worth and merit are of little account; but thanks to the press, the great suffrage of an approving age cannot be diverted from its rightful object.

Let it not be thought, however, by this reflection, that we are unobservant spectators of the signs of the times. We rejoice in the strong and encouraging indications, that the contemporaries of Mr. Webster are gratefully sensible of his merits, and in the earnest and extensive conviction, which is daily manifesting itself, of the expediency of calling his great powers of usefulness into their appropriate sphere of activity. Proofs are rapidly multiplying, that the people are disposed to do their duty to themselves and the great interests of the country; that they are inclined to take away from mere politicians the decision of the question,-To whom shall the momentous trust of the chief administration of the Government be confided? Let this become the general feeling of the country, and we regard it as the inevitable result, that "the HIGHEST HONORS OF THE CONSTITUTION WILL BE BESTOWED ON ITS ABLEST DEFENDER.”

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