Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1851-03-15
Mr.. Webster's Assailants.

The fierce attacks made on the 2Sth ult. by
Free Sellers in the House of Representatives
on the personal character Of Mr.. Webster
accusing him of y%enality and corruption in
having received Il gratuity of fifty thousand
dollars from friends in New York and Boston,
to enable him to accept the Office of Secretary
of State-has a significance far beyond that
of enmity to the man or zeal for the purity Of
public servants. The commanding position
which Mr.. Webster has taken in regard to the
compromise measures of the last Congress, his
attitude of stern hostility to the abolition agi-
tators and their schemes, and the power which
his great name and unsurpassed abilities bring
to the side of peace and union, have made him
the most dreaded obstacle in the path of the
anti-slayery fanatics. 1t is for these things that
they hate him. To destroy his influence BY
weakening confidence in his integrity, and thus
to disarm of all moral force that mighty intel
lect which is the most formidable adversary of
their schemes, by degrading it into an object
of suspicion and dislike; for these ends it is
evident this foul exhibition Of malignitv was
got up in the House. The rancorous mo-
tives were too transparent to be hidden under
hypocritical pretentions Of fastidious regard
for the honor Of the States, and the purity of
public men.
The history of these men shows that they
are not honest in their clamors for public mo-
rails; but they are moved by sinister motives
now in their assumption of a puritanism in re-
gard to Mr.. Webster's alledged reception Of
gifts from the public. 1t is by no means the
first time that Mr.. Webster has been known to
receive large gratuities from his admirers-onlv
the first time that these men have undertaken
to find fault with it. Once or twice before,
certainly, when the public service needed his
great abilities, to the total neglect ofhis private
interests and the abandonment of the profess
sion upon which provision for his family de-
ponds, men OF large means have contributed to
indemnify him in some degree for the personal
sacrifices which the country exacted from him.
We have never heard that these contribu-
tons were made with any purpose of iuAuen-
cling a vote i'll any particular way, or that they
any specific return other than the
entire application Of great talents to the SER
vice Of the whole country. But the same ac-
%cusation Of venality has been made before, by
political adversaries and personal enemies, for
the SAME offence, of accepting from the public
esteem a compensation for the inevitable sa-
critlces OF giving up his mind to the uses of
the State. These attacks never injured Mr..
Webster in Massachusetts, among his immedi-
ate constituents, or with the people of the Uni
on, who, in spite of the petty calamities, have
to look to him as the nobiest and
ablest among the patriots and statesmen of
the whole country. The abuse of the sordid
not a speck upon the brightness Of his es-
During all these trials, when the
and malignant were assaling him,
the same men who are now his bitterest ene-
mics were the staunchest Of his defenders, and
the warmest of his eulogists. They treated
with perfect scorn the imputations upon his
honor for accepting these tributes from the adj
mlrers of his public life. Some of them were
his Jealous supporters for the Presidency, and
recognized him as one of their most able leaders.
until he frowned upon abolitionism,
md raised his voice of power and effect
against the madness of the hour, did a single
word escape them, in regard to him, which was
lot redolent of praise and admiration. Allen,
in his conduct, and never would have
one, though ten times fifty thou
'Ynd dollars had been bestowed upon him bv
public subscription, if he had not separated
'imself from them and their schemes, and put
orth his mighty strength to roll back the cur
ent Of wild disorder with which they mena-
AAo viz PS"SS3 tuu NSSlIuCtIOAt W
he Union of the States. He has become their
nemy; and they renew the very ISLANDERS they
nd repudiated, and are convicted of unprinci- :
led hypocrisy, making themselves ridiculous
nd their malice impotcnt. +,
Such has been the general verdict on the \
scene in the House of Representa- =
ives. The sense Of the House was manifest !
that of disgust at the coarseness and mean :
ess of the attack, and contempt for its imbc- !.
Iity. The country has treated it as concert .
d effort to strike a blow at the cause Of the Q
Mon, in the person of its leading and ablest !.
offender; and resented it as as a malignant /.
'anifestation of bad men against a faithful L
nblic servant, because he has been faithful.
Mr.. Webster's reputation will survive all =
leh attacks, and grow brighter, and be more
fectionately cherished therefor by the people; :
# they know that il is because he Is a firm !
lend Of the constitution and the Union, and a T
for7Whom their enemies have no
atch,in genius eloquence and power, that he
thus hated and slandered.-N. O. Picavune, 4
AN Honest OBITUARY,-A western paper. y