Hannibal journal. (Hannibal, Mo.) 1852-1853, 1852-12-23


galows such as clothed the naked, fed the needy,
visited the prisoner, s. gave cup of cold water to
him that was ready to perish Think of Daniel
Webster become the assassin Of Liberty in the
Capitol
What was the recompense2 Ask MaSsuchu-
setts--usk the North Let the Baltimore Con-
vention tell. He was the greatest candidate
before it, General Scott is a little man when
the feathers are gone. Fillmore, you know
him. Rcc...h Of these, for greatness Of intellect
compared to Webster, were as a single maggot
measured by an eagle. Look at his services,
look at his forehead; look at his face! The two
hundred and ninety-three delegates came togeth.
er and voted. They gave him thrty-three
votes, and that only once! Where were the men Of
the lower law who made denial of God the first
principle in their politics? where were they
who in Faneul Hall scoffed and jeered at the
higher law or at Capon Springs, who laughed
when he scoffed at the law higher than the Vir-
GINA hills? Where were the kidnappers? the
lower law men? Kidnappers strained them
selves to the utmost, and he had thirty three
votes. Where was the South? Fifty-three
times did the Convention ballot and the South
never gave him vote. Not votel No. not
onel Northern friends-I honor their affection
for the great man, there was nothing else left in
them for me to honor-went round TO the South
and begged for the poor and paltry pittance of a
seeming vote in order 10 break the bitterness of
the fall! They went with tears in their eyes,
and in mercy's name asked that crumb from the
Southern board. But the cruel South, treache.
rous to him whom she had beguiled TO treason
against God, she answered, Not vote
Oh, Cardinal Wolsey, there was never such
a fall! He fell like Lucifer, never to rise
again!
But it seemed as if nothing could be spared
him. His cup Of bitterness, already full, was
made to run over-for they called him up at
midnight out of his bed--the poor disappointed
old man!-to congratulate him on their nominal
ton Of Scott! And they forced the great man,
falling back on his self-respect, to say that he
should rise with the lark, as jocund and as gay
as he Was not that enough? Oh, there is 10
pity in the hearts of men! Even that was not
enough. Northern friends went to him and
asked him to advise men TO vote for Scott
Gen. Scott is said TO be an ant-Slayery man,
but soon as the political carpenters put the
'planks' together he crawled upon the Balti-
more platform, and stands there on all tours to
this day, looking for citizens, native and adopt
ed,' listening for that brOgue,' and declaring
that, after all, he is 'only common man.
Did you ever read Gen. Scott's speeches? Then
think of asking Daniel Webster to recommend
him for President Scott in the chair, and Web
ster out? That was the gall after the worm
wood! They say Daniel Webster did write
letter advocating the election of Scott, and after
wards said, Il still live. If he did so, attribute
it to the wanderings Of great mind, shattered
by sickness; and be assured he would have Ia
Ken II back, II he had ever set foot again on the
ground.
Daniel Webster went down to Marshfeld-to
great heart-it was always great
heart no downfall could make it little-his
great heart broke. Daniel Webster died of his
9TH of March speech That word endorsed on
Mason's bill drove thousands of fugitives from
America to Canada. 1t put chains around your
courthouse; it led men 10 violate the majesty
Of the law all over the North. l violated it,
and so did you. 1t sent Thomas Sims in letters
10 his Jail, and to his scourging in Savannah; it
caused practical atheism to be preached in the
churches Of New York, Philadelphia, Washing
ton, and worst of all Boston, itself! and then,
with its own recoil, it sent Daniel Webster to
his grave, and gave him such reputation as a
nan would not wish for his bitterest foe.
No event in the American Revolution was
lalf SO terrible. We lost battles again and
again, lost campaigns-our honor we never lost.
The army was without powder in '76 in Cam
bridge, without shoes and blankets in '78, and
the bare feet of New England valor marked the
ice with blood when they cross ed the Delaware.
But we were never without conscience, never
without morality. Powder might fail, and
shoes drop, old and rotten, from soldiers feet.
But the love Of God was in the American heart,
and no American General said, there is no
law higher than the Blue Ridge!' Nay, they
appealed TO Gods higher law.
Cardinal Wolsey fell and lost nothing but
his place. Bacon fell; the 'wisest, brightest.
lived long enough TO prove himself the 'meanest
of uankind.S STAFFORD came down, but it was
nothing to the fall of Webster. The Anglo
Saxon race never knew such terrible and pre-
cipitate ruin. His downfall shook the CONT
nent. Truth fell PROSTATE in the street.
Since then the court house has twist in its
walls, equity cannot enter its door; the steeples
point awry and the higher law was hurled
down from the pulpit. One priest would send
back his mother; and another would drive fu-
gitive from his own door; a third was certain
that Paul was kidnapper; and fourth had the
assurance of his conscience that Christ Jesus
would have sold and bought slaves. Practical
Atheism became common in the pulpit of Amer
lea; they forgot that there was a God. In the
hard winter of 1880, if Lafayette had copied
Arnold, and Washington gone over to the enc
my, the fall could not have been worse. Bene-
dict Arnold fell, but fell through, so low that nc
man quotes him for precedent. Webster fell,
and he lay there mo less than archangel ruined,
and enticed the nation in his fall.
My friends, it is hard for me to say these
things. My mothers love Is warm in nv own
bosom still, and hate to say these things. But
God is just, and in the presence of God stand
here 20 tell the truth.
Did men honor Daniel Webster? So did I.
| was bow ten wears old when he stood at PLY