Page images
PDF
EPUB

CONTENTS.

SPEECH delivered in the City of New York, March 10, 1831............. 17 SPEECH at the Dinner in Honor of the Centennial Birth-day of Washington 36

REMARKS in Secret Session of the Senate of the United States, on the Nomination of Mr. Van Buren as Minister to Great Britain, January 24, 1832...

REPORT on the Apportionment of Representation.......

49

60

SPEECH in the Senate of the United States, on the Bill for renewing the Charter of the Bank of the United States, May 25, 1832............. 78

SPEECH in the Senate of the United States, on the President's Veto of the Bank Bill, July 11, 1832..

[ocr errors][merged small]

SPEECH at the National Republican Convention in Worcester, Mass., October 12, 1832......

125

SPEECH in the Senate of the United States, in Reply to Mr. Calhoun's Speech, on the Bill "further to provide for the Collection of Duties on Imports," February 16, 1833......

160

REMARKS made to the Citizens of Buffalo, June, 1833....

209

ADDRESS to the Citizens of Pittsburgh, July 9, 1833................

213

SPEECH on moving for Leave to introduce a Bill to continue the Bank of the United States for six Years, delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 18, 1834........

229

SPEECH on the President's Protest, delivered in the Senate of the United

States, May 7, 1834..............

248

REMARKS, on different Occasions, on the Removal of the Deposits, and on the Subject of a National Bank, delivered in the Senate of the United States, January and February, 1834......

286

REPORT On the Removal of the Deposits, made by Mr. Webster, from the Committee on Finance of the Senate of the United States, on the Fifth of February, 1834.......

366

REMARKS in the Senate of the United States, on the Affairs of the General
Post-Office, June 27, 1834.....

393

REMARKS in the Senate of the United States, in Relation to Steam-Boats,
December 19, 1833.

397

SPEECH delivered at a Public Dinner in Salem, Mass., August 7, 1834.... 401

SPEECH at Concord, New Hampshire, September 30, 1834.............

412

ARGUMENT in the Goodridge Case.

423

SPEECH in the Senate of the United States, January 12, 1835, on the Bill granting Indemnity to Citizens of the United States for French Spoliations on American Commerce prior to 1800.....

SPEECH on the Appointing and Removing Power, delivered in the Senate of the United States, on the 16th of February, 1835, on the Passage of the Bill entitled "An Act to repeal the first and second Sections of the Act to limit the Term of Service of certain Officers therein named."......

REMARKS in the Senate of the United States, February 26, 1835, on the

Bill to regulate the Deposits of the Public Money.......

438

461

479

SPEECH

DELIVERED IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, MARCH 10, 1831.

Is February, 1831, several distinguished gentlemen of the City of New York, in behalf of themselves, and a large number of other citizens, invited Mr. WEBSTER to a public dinner, as a mark of their respect for the value and success of his efforts, in the preceding session of Congress, in defence of the Constitution of the United States. His speech in reply to Mr. Hayne (published in the former volume), which, by that time, had been circulated and read through the country to a greater extent than any speech ever before delivered in Congress, was the particular effort, doubtless, which procured the honor of this invitation.

The dinner took place, at the City Hotel, on the 10th of March, and was attended by a very large assembly.

Chancellor KENT presided, and, in proposing to the gentlemen the health of their guest, made the following remarks:

NEW ENGLAND had been long fruitful in great men, the necessary consequence of the admirable discipline of her institutions; and we were this day honored with the presence of one of those cherished objects of her attachment and pride, who has an undoubted and peculiar title to our regard. It is a plain truth that he who defends the Constitution of his country by his wisdom in council, is entitled to share her gratitude with those who protect it by valor in the field. Peace has its victories as well as war. We all recollect a late memorable occasion, when the exalted talents and enlightened patriotism of the gentleman to whom he had al Juded, were exerted in the support of our national Union, and the sound in terpretation of its Charter. If there be any one political precept, preeminent above all others, and acknowledged by all, it is that which dictates the absolute necessity of a union of the States under one government, and that government clothed with those attributes and powers with which the existing Constitution has invested it. We were indebted, under Providence, to the operation and influence of the powers of that Constitution, for our national honor abroad, and for unexampled prosperity at home. Its future stability depended upon the firm support and due exercise of its legitimate powers in all their branches. A tendency to disunion-to anarchy among the members rather than to tyranny in the head -had been heretofore the melancholy fate of all the federal governments of ancient and modern Europe. Our Union and National Constitution were formed, as we have hitherto been led to believe, under better auspices and with improved wisdom. But there was a deadly principle of disease inherent in the system. The assumption by any member of the 3

VOL. II.

Union, of the right to question and resist, or annul, as its own judgment should dictate, either the laws of Congress, or the treaties, or the decisions of the Federal Courts, or the mandates of the executive power, duly made and promulgated as the Constitution prescribes, was a most dangerous assumption of power, leading to collision and the destruction of the system. And if, contrary to all our expectations, we should hereafter fail in the grand experiment of a confederate government, extending over some of the fairest portions of this continent, and destined to act, at the same time, with efficiency and harmony, we should most grievously disappoint the hopes of mankind, and blast forever the fruits of the revolution.

But, happily for us, the refutation of such dangerous pretensions, on the occasion referred to, was signal and complete. The false images and delusive theories which had perplexed the thoughts and disturbed the judgments of men, were then dissipated in like manner as spectres disappear at the rising of the sun. The inestimable value of the Union, and the true principles of the Constitution, were explained by clear and accurate reasonings, and enforced by pathetic and eloquent illustrations. The result was the more auspicious, as the heretical doctrines, which were then fairly reasoned down, had been advanced by a very respectable portion of the Union, and urged on the floor of the Senate by the polished mind, manly zeal, and honored name of a distinguished member from the South.

The consequences of that discussion have been extremely beneficial. It turned the attention of the public to the great doctrines of national rights and national union. Constitutional law ceased to remain wrapped up in the breasts, and taught only by the responses, of the living oracles of the law. Socrates was said to have drawn down philosophy from the skies, and scattered it among the schools. It may with equal truth be said that constitutional law, by means of those senatorial discussions, and the master genius that guided them, was rescued from the archives of our 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.

As soon as the immense cheering and acclamations, with which this address and toast were received, had subsided, Mr. WEBSTER rose and spoke as follows:

I owe the honor of this occasion, gentlemen, to your patriotic and affectionate attachment to the Constitution of our country. For an effort, well intended, however otherwise of unpretending character, made in the discharge of public duty, and designed to maintain the Constitution, and vindicate its just powers, you have been pleased to tender me this token of your respect. It would be idle affectation to deny, that it gives me singular gratification. Every public man must naturally desire the approbation of his fellow-citizens; and though it may be supposed that I should be anxious, in the first place, not to disappoint the expectations of those whose immediate representative I am, it is not possible, that I should not feel, nevertheless, the high value of such a mark of esteem as is here offered. But, gentlemen, I am conscious that the main purpose of this occasion is higher than mere manifestation of per

sonal regard. It is to evince your devotion to the Constitution, your sense of its transcendent value, and your just alarm at whatever threatens to weaken its proper authority, or endanger its existence.

Gentlemen, this could hardly be otherwise. It would be strange, indeed, if the members of this vast commercial community should not be first and foremost to rally for the Constitution, whenever opinions and doctrines are advanced hostile to its principles. Where, sooner than here, where, louder than here, may we expect a patriotic voice to be raised, when the Union of the States is threatened? In this great Emporium, at this central point of the united commerce of the United States, of all places, we may expect the warmest, the most determined and universal, feeling of attachment to the National Government. Gentlemen, no one can estimate more highly than I do the natural advantages of your City. No one entertains a higher opinion than myself, also, of that spirit of wise and liberal policy, which has actuated the government of your own great State in the accomplishment of high objects, important to the growth and prosperity both of the State and the City. But all these local advantages, and all this enlightened state policy, could never have made your City what it now is, without the aid and protection of a General Government, extending over all the States, and establishing, for all, a common and uniform system of commercial regulation. Without national character, without public credit, without systematic finance, without uniformity of commercial laws, all other advantages possessed by this City, would have decayed and perished, like unripe fruit. A General Government was, for years before it was instituted, the great object of desire to the inhabitants of this City. New York, at a very early day, was conscious of her local advantages for commerce-she saw her destiny, and was eager to embrace it; but nothing else than a General Government could make free her path before her, and set her forward on her brilliant career. She early saw all this, and to the accomplishment of this great and indispensable object, she bent up every faculty, and exerted every effort. She was not mistaken. She formed no false judgment. At the moment of the adoption of the Constitution, New York was the capital of one State, and contained thirty-two or three thousand people. It now contains more than two hundred thousand people, and is justly regarded as the Commercial Capital, not only of all the United States, but of the whole Continent also, from the Pole to the South Sea. Every page of her history, for the last forty years, bears high and irresistible testimony to the benefits and blessings of the General Government. Her astonishing growth is referred to, and quoted, all the world over, as one of the most striking proofs of the effects of our Federal Union. To suppose her now to be easy and indifferent, when notions are advanced tending to its dissolution, would be to

« PreviousContinue »