Washington telegraph., 1850-10-23

| PROF. w EBSTER. Several of the Jour
nalists have occupied themselves with
drawing from the crime and punishment
of the late Dr. Webster the admonitions
which they conceive to be wrapped ur
| in them. We have no disposition tc
quarrel with any thing they have SAID
concerning the danger Of induging in
bursts of passion, aud in habits of ex.
travagance. All this is very well, and
yet ii seems to us that in the midst of al
| this moralizing, the great moral defect ol
Webster's miud, which gave the tempta.
ton to commit this murder the mastery
over him, has been overlooked He APP
pears to have been entirely destitute OF
veracity, addicted to getting up false pre-
texts, and accounting for his own deiin-
quences, or acts of neglect, by stories of
his own invention. The public mind
seems to be settled in the conviction that
The murder of DIR. Parkman was premed-
itated, and that Webster made no state
ment in regard to it, from his first denial
of guilt 10 what was called his confess
ion, which was false II is the misfor-
tune of such men, and Que of the modes
in which their deprayity brings its own
punishment, that they trust too much to
their own devices They deceive them
selves more effectually than they deceive
the world The most measureless liar
generally cherishes the delusion that he
is looked upon by his fellow creatures as
man Of truth; and the most arrant
knave lnvariable puts on the air of pass
ing in his owa estimation for an honest
man. There Is scarcely one Of this class
who does not suppose, however shallow
are the arts he employs, that he is ma
king fools of every body else 1t is this
habit of deceit, and its accompanying
sef-delusiou. which forms the most dan
gerous temptation to all other immortali-
ties. lie who practices art!ul conceal
ments and is accustomed to put people
upon wrong track by plausible preten-
ces, has parted with one great security to
human Yirtue-the certainty that any act
of guilt he may commit will be immedi-
ately known He trasts to hide his
crimes or his vices from the world, and
commits them with less scruple. There
is scarcely any fault to which the habit
of deceit does not serve as a Cleak. Un-
der it the various forms of licentiousness
and injustice, under it theft, and murder
itself, hope to conceal themselves from
detection, and obtain impnnity. If DR..
Webster he'd boon "a man Of frank and
open temper. unaccustomed to dlsgGises
of any sort, and averse to the practice of
stralagems, it would have been hardly
possible for him 10 commit the murder
for which he suffered. The crime would
have presented itself TO his mind as i'm
nediately attended by publicity, by inta-
my, by an ignomiuious punishment, aud
by the sharpest and most immiIlgable dis
tress to his family, and his hand would
have been withheld, in all probability,
from the fatal deed. The balance of i'm
mediate personal interest would have
been so strongly against the crime as to
ueutralze the temptation. 1t Is a great
error therefore. as it seems to us, in speak
ing of the moral lessons 10 be drawn
from the fate of DR.. Webster not to
dwell upon it, in particular manner, as
most Impressive aGmonition against
duplcity AID dissmulation, and III favor
of cutivating an adherence for all the
arts of Uening Post.