The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-06-12
CORRESPONDENCE OF MR.. FOX AND MR.,
WEBSTER

CORRESPONDENCE OF MR. FOX AND Mr..
WEBSTER
The Globe endeavors to make some cspital out OF
this matter but in doing inflics, unnten,ionally,
some severe blows upon its own friends
Mr. Fox's letter s.peremptory, positive and point
ed The demand for the release Of Mcleod is not
dressed IN the usual crcumlocu ion of diplomacy
when is intended To veil the enoi cement OF an hum
bling concession under "acandy deal OF courtesy"
Now this is cruel if it be intended as a slap at Mr.
VAN BuRkN's pee uiar style of conceoing ideas in
mass of words If not designed, it certainly is no
less applicable to that gentleman who never within
our recollection wrote pal which would not bear
as many interpretations US tie responses of the Py-
thonel OF Old, except IN tlno particular instances,
when in direct plain EGG .h, he recommended and III
sisted on his tavorile Sub Treasury scheme.
! be pe>rle did understand him then, and their re-
Spouse has not yet leased ringing in his ears.
Mr. Web-ter'srepy to Mr. Fox, taken in connec
ton with his instructions to Mi. Ciilte"den-a hch
the letter itself 70 alorously pr, pared 10 Iaili
a,e-is In perfect keeping with his character aud the
splrlt OF subseivlenty 10 England and her policy
which has 50 long distinguished the party of which
Is the head"
Can il be possible that this is covert attack upon
Mr. Van Buro !, the first and only American states
man who ever dared to instruct Minister 10 bend
plant knee to the Brush throne, and who, for selling
oui best interests and degrading the Republic fr ia
yor from British King, degraded aud rebukcd
Ivy tribunal passed and unriv allied for purity and
patriotism
Surely, were this language in any other paper, we
should think it we'll wordsd and richly mercd re-
buke to late President and former farorts at the Br.
fish Court
In regard to the letters of Mr. Webster we have
hut little TO say Every righ,-mnded and inteIi-
gent man will admire The tone and manner and
will approve and sustain the spirit of even handed
justice un,erited either by the fear Of any clamor
which may be raised by demagogues or unthinkng
men at home, the one hand. Of the power Of
Great Britain the other. MIR. Webster's replies
arc couched in the pure and simple language for
which he is distinguished, and while it is free from
the contemplate buster which almost always comes
from coward spirit, il at the time comedies moth
ing TO Great Britain from which any thing like int
mda,ion is to be inferred by her subjects 1t is
true that he ground ia taken that, since the avowa
and justification Of the burning ofhe Caroline by the
British Government that it alone, and not Mcleod,
is responsible. But the peremptory demand of the
immediate release Of Mcleod is calmly but firmly de-
MED Mr. Fox is assured that tribunal so eminent
ly distinguished for ability and learning as the Su-
preme Court of the State of New York. may be safely
relied on for The just and impartial administration
of the lar in this tce in other cases" that in
the United States, in England, persons confined
under judicial process be released from that
finement only by judicial process" &c, sc That
lust and proper grounds Of defence must be taken by
the friends Of Mcleod and sufficient and legal cause
shown by them for his discharge and that then, and
not till then will he be released.
The Globe charges Mr. Webster with admitting
the correctness Of the ground assumed by Mr. Fox,
who usiifes the attack upon the Caroline upon the
ground Of self defence agalns, plratical force In
this the editors oftha paper manifest either great de
gree Of stupidity their characteristic preference fol
fasehood when the truth will their purpo-
Mr.. Webster distinctly and decidedly denies the
pira,ica character Of the attack upon the Canadian
territory which is cited the provocation ustifying
the outrage on the Caroline, and says further
" Under these circumstances, and under those i'm
modiaely connected with the transaction itself il will
be for her Majestys Government to show upon what
offacts and what rules of national law, the des
truclon Of the Caroline" Is to be defended. IL will
be for that Government to show necessity of self de-
fence, Instant overwhelming, leaving no choice of
means and no moment for deliberation IL will be
Tor show, Also that the local authorities Of Cana
da, surprising the necessity oithc moment auho.
rized them to enter the territories of the United
States at ALL did nothing unreasonable excessive;
since the justified by the necessity of sell defence
must be limited by that necessity, and kept clearly
within it, 1t must be shown that admonition or re-
monstrance to the persons on board the Caroline"
mpracticable, OF would have been unavalling; ;
II must SHOWN that daylight could not be waited
for that there could be attempt at discrimination
between the innocent and the guilty that II would
not have been enough TO seize and deain the vessel
hut that there necessity present and inevitable
for attacking her in the darkness of the night, while
noored TO the shoie, and while unnamed men were
asleep on board killing some and wouniing uthcr',
and then drawing her into the current above the cat
dract, ting her IRE, and careless to know whel-
rr there might not he her the innbcent with the
gui W or the living wrh the dead CON hitting her to
a tate which fills the imagination with horror. A
Necessity for all this the Government OF The United
states canuo. believe to have existed"