Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1851-04-10
From the ". Y. Tribune.
The Old and the New Webster.

Ten or twelve years ago, at time when the
Annexation of Texas had not yet been seriously
meditnted by any considerable portion OF our
People, Daniel Webster made speech in our
City. wherein he volunteered a declaration that
resistance TO the Extension of Slavery and Slave
Power under our Government was with him a
matter of conscientious principle and patriotic
duty, which could not be waived nor compromis-
ed, but must be lived up 10 at all hnzards and at
all cost.
Seven years ago he spoke at intervals through
the struggle of 1874, making resistance to slave
ny extension the great, controlling issue, and
thereupon calling Northern freemen to rally TO
the Wing Standard. Wei do we remember the
bitterness he felt and expressed upon the receipt
of Mr.. Clay's first Alabama letter, which seemed
to take the true ground from under our feet
Three years ago MIR. Webster came into the
support Of General Taylor with uniegned reuc-
lance, IN view of the pro-slavery influence which,
to great extent, secured his nomination. The
North :" said Mr. Webster in one Of his first
speeches of that campaign; "there is no North
but think see indication that hereafter
there ,ciH be a North p Sc.
In that campaign, Mr. Webster ridiculcd the
claim OF the Van Burens and their Buffalo drove
to bc distinguished as Free Soilers, claimed the
Wilnot Proviso as not Days at all, but his
| thunder and insisted that he and his Wing breth-
]
years before the Wihnots and Van Burens ever
1 thought Of such thing--that the Wing party
was the true party of resistance to the en-
croachments Of the Slave Power, and the Butia-
oes were Bogus.
in 1919, Mr.. Webster fought a noble battle in
the Senate against the efforts Of the Extension
isis and their allies TO organize California, &c.
without the Wilmot provlso, and maintained the
struggle down to the last hours Of the Session.
! In l6jO-not one year ago-Mr. Webster,
even after making his great plunge, in the
Senate declared that any Fugitive Slave bill to
be passed ought to guarantee to the persons
claimed as iugitives Trial by Jury, and, in this
connection, took from his drawer a bill which he
said he had drawn long before, expressly secur
/ ing this right
Another Mr. Wcbster-diycrse in spirit, tho
identical in hody-has Just been making speech
to the assembled slave breeders Of Maryland
Speech very full of Union and very empty of
Liberty. This speech speaks of the Federal
/ Constitution as a compact between Slave States
on the one hand and the Free States on the 9TH
cr, when in truth the whole. substantially, were
slave States-nearly all holding men in bondage,
and no one of them having then thoroughly con
sdered the ethical and social bearings of Slave
~. This speech talks as if hostility to or even
a disposition TO ask notifications of the present
Fugitive Slave law, which utterly denies and sub
verts the Right of Trial by Jury which the other
/ Mr.. W ebster insisted should be nviolate-were
synonymous with disloyalty to the Union-with
moral treasonl
Both these men make able and plausible
Speeches, but-in spite of our progressive ten
denotes, our iondness for noyety---we can't help
liking the old Webster better than the new.