Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1847-04-30


my! refer to his whole course in the ma
lional legislature as evidence OF what say i
and | am bound to confess that the record is |
black Nth treason If any evidence were |
wanting TO substantiate the fact, would refer
to his hostility othe sovereignty of the States,
to his uniform and persevering efforts against
the equal rights of all classes of the people, |
and to his whole public life, which shows be-
yond all doubt that he has uniformly been the
inveterate enemy of republican principles,
and the unwavering advocate and supporter of
a policy tending to convert the government
into mere engine of political corruption. /
allude to Mr.. Webster on this occasion, be-
cause he is recognized as one of the great
leaders of the whig party in eliminating
President Polk in relation to the war The
Infamous course of the "god-like," as he has
called, is held up by the wing leaders as wor-
thy of imitation, in his shameful and Gespica-
bic efforts to embarrass his own government
and cripple the energies of his own country
in the present emergency, when all hands
should be armed and all hearts nerved for the
conflict. He now stands forth as the giant OF
his party in denouncing the present Admins
tration with all the furious and opprobrlous
epithets that a prolific Imagination can invent
Boston, and the one more recently delivered
in Philadelphia In his Boston speech he
declared that the war in which the country is
now engaged was not voted for by any body
that the President made it-and at the same
time declaring that the war grew out of the
determination of Mexico not to acQuiesce in
The annexation OF Texas. He declared in the
same speech that the war was presidential
war;" and as it was not voted for BY any body
it was an improbable offence" on the part
of the President. 1t was then and there he
said, &c, The natural justice of a acar, 1t as
perhaps not an american habit to consider !;
but it is an American habit to count the cost o'
This is the same miserable compliment he paid
his coGntrymen in the war Of 1912, when he
refused to assistin furnishing supplies to pros
ecute the war. 1t is SANDER upon the pa
triotism and valor of the American people to
assert that they are more accustomed 10 count
the cost than the natural justice of the contest!
The present war is not the first that this
same Mr.. Webster has SO violently opposed !;
for he eXerted himself against the grant of men
or money TO carry on the war with England,
and denounced it as 1" Mr. Madison's war !"
and the inference then drawn by the federal
lists was, that las Mr.. Madison had made the
"dI lie 6nOulU Dc lell 10 llSuL IL Out. III uIe
speech at Brentwood, in 1912, he threatened
to impeach President Madison for the war
with England. now refer to the trensona-
bic conduct of Daniel Webster during the last
war with the first Power of Europa war
which tried mems sOuls"--because any thing
which comes from him is taken as the whig
text book, as the true record of wing policy,
and as the grand Shiboleth of their faith. The
calamities of the times could not disturb his
complacency; and when ruthless soldiery
had actually invaded our soil and were rava-
ging our coast and sacking and burning our
towns and villages, no sense of national dam
ger or dishonor, no sympathy with private
suffering could move him to- one word, much
less to single act, in behalf of his struggling
country! All the savage atrocities perpetra-
ted on the weak, the innocent, the lovely, the
aged, and even on the dying, by the savage
and barbarous British forces, could call forth
from him only the deriding ant ta.i,ous icvity
of remark in the memorable speech in which
he rejoiced over the defeat and massacre of
the American troops, and with the malignant
EMULATION of a fiend, exclaimed, This IS
mot the enterta t11naent to 1rh1ch 4ce we're invi-
| ted r'
He was one OF the federal leaders in New
England who sought to paralyze the arm of
his own country in her struggle for freedom,
and in her efforts to drive the villainous ma
rauders from ourshores. The miserable pre-
text could not then be set up by the federalists
that it was war of conquest - on foreign
SOIL The ignominious cruelties inflicted on
our countrymen had been discussed, and an
appeal to arms had been decided upon Here
was predicament in which no patriot could
hesitate as to the path of duty 1t was wal
forthe liberation of our kidnapped countrymen
for the plundered property of our merchants
and for our maritime rights as an Independent
nation.
Mr. Webster denied the business of the las
war, though the English had captured thirteen
hundred of our merchant vessels, nearly al
practically! He denied its justice, though
more than SIX THOUSAND of our seamen hac
been impressed, not a single one of whom
they had right to touch, and portion o
whom they afterwards shot down at Dartmoo
like wild beasts He denied the justice of thu
war with England, though our very coasts
and harbors had been again and again violated
by the bloody aggresslons of British sol
diery; when the suferings and distress of on
countrymen were still vibrating on the ear
when loads of them were returning to gu
J shores wounded and dying, and when thu
Chesapeake had been attacked within our owl
limits 1t was no Ieras question then tina
>. involved the country in war, as is now shame
fully proclaimed to be the cause of the pre-
l. sent war with Mexico. by every migrate ant
; unpricipalled demagogue in the land who ar
, opposed to it. And even had Daniel Webste
deemed his country's quarrel wrong, his high
. est earthly obligation bound him to protec
: her from foreign conquest and to save her PEG
! pie from murder and rapne But how did h
. .cquit himself IN this most solemn of human
: obligations Let the records of his countr
answer: III.
5 On the first day ofJuly, 1913, Daniel Web
f ster, then. a member of the House of Repre-
I sentativesin the Congress of the United States
voted against the bill to raise money to carr
, on the war. 81 :
r On the FIRST day ofvJanuary, 1914, when tn
e government was straining every effort to OIL
j ganize an army for the national defence, b
r voted against the SO bill for the encouragement
Y LOT enlistment sat s~~-.
It On the seventh of the same month, he ve
: ted against an appropriation to defray the eA
S penses OF the navy, who were calamity hgh
= ing their country's battles.
IS On the same day, he voted against bill I
II recruit the army of his country.
= On the tenth of the same month, he vote
= against proposition to detect and puns
J. traitors and spies!
: On the twenty second, he voted against tt
: bill to enlist troops for the war.
d On the first and seventeenth DAYS of Decen
: Der, 1914, he voted against chill to provic
g. At q