The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-16


Which once he wore
The glory from his gray hairs gone
Forevermoro,
Revile him not-the Tempter hath
A snare for all
And plying tears, not scom and wrath
Beft his fall
Oh dumb be passions stormy rage,
When he who might
Have lighted up and led his age,
Falls back in night.
Scorn would the angels laugh to mark
A bright soul driven,
Fiend goaded, down the endless dark,
From hope and Heaven
Let not the land once proud Of him,
Insult him now,
Nor brand with deeper shame his DIM
Dishonored brow.
But lot its humblest sons, instead,
From sea to lake,
A long lament, as for the dead
In sadness make.
OF all we loved and honorod, naught
v Save power remains
A fallen angels pride Of thought,
Still strong in chains.
All else is gone from those great eyes
The soul has fled
When faith is lost, when honor dies,
The man is dead
Then pay the reverence of old days
To his dead fame;
Walk backward, with averted gaze,
And hide his shame y
Still, should leave this part of my subject
manned and incomplete, should | forbear to
draw the moral which the fate of this eminent
man so impressively teaches. In the history OF
the world, it is inexpressibly sad that offences
should come. IL would be still more sad if we
could not use them TO warn others from offend
ing. Besides, the drama, in one of whose scenes
we were brought together upon the stage and
enacted part has now been played out, and
| am now able to establish by history all the
positions then maintained by argument
The grandeur of Mr. Webster's intellect
the first point always made in his Defence
readily admit. On this point give his friends
carte blanche of concession and agreement-the
whole argument their own way.
But, on the next point, ! claim to have the
whole concession and argument my own way
that though his intellect were fitted to fill a
dome OF Thought" vast az one of those Egyp-
tlan statues that have been lately found on the
banks OF the Nile, from whose craniums the ma
tives have long been in the habit of cutting
millstones without sensibly diminishing their
bulk. yet if he could exchange it all to blot out
the history OF the 18th of March speech, he
would make divine speculation
For proof of this, might cite volumes.
might refer to his Pilgrim Address at Plym-
outh and his reply to Col Hayne, and select
something from almost every page of those vol
umes of eloquence-beautiful as painting and
grand as statuary-whOse appeals fell upon
mems hearts like an afliatus of the spirit of
God. With all this, | might then contrast
what he has written and spoken since the day
of his downfall, pictorial as it is with embcms
of whips and chains, of auction-blocks, and
shrieking fugitives, fleeing from the bloody
lash and the lechers arms and finding no pro
lection in the sanctuary of Faneuil Hall. or un-
der the shadow of Bunker Hill, or by the sa-
cred monuments of Lexington and Concord
But will cOnfine myself to single item of
proof, irrefragable and conclusive.
The Buffalo Convention of 1913 proclaimed
its determination "to maintain the rights of
free labor against the aggressions of the slave
power, and to secure free soil for free people,
1t declared its independence of the slave
power, and its fixed determination to rescue the
Federal Government from its CONTROL
1t declared that the Provso of Jefferson, to
prohibit slavery in all the Territories and the
Ordinance of 1887, excluding slavery from the
Northwestern Territory, clearly show that it
was the settled policy of the nation. not to en-
tend nationalist, or encourage, but to limit, To-
cail-e, and discourage slavery and to this poll
cy which should never have been departed
from, the Government ought to return
1t declared {" that it is the duty of the Fed
cral Government to relieve itself from all re-
sponsiblty for the existence or continuance of
slavery wherever that Government possesses
constitutional authority to legislate on that
subject and is thus responsible for its exist
enceo
1t declared that the only safe means of pre-
venting the extension of slavery into territory
now free, is to prohibit its existence in all such
territory by an act of Congress-
1t declared Z" that we accept the issue which
the slave power has forced upon us and to
their demand for more slave territories, our
calm but final answer is, no more slave States
no more slave territory"
And what did Mr. Webster say of this plat
form, within one month after it had been adopt
ed This is his language:
" have said, gentlemen, that In this Buffalo plat
form, this collect of the school, there nothing
new. There is nothing in it that all the Wings OF
the Northern and Middle States may not adopt
this Buffalo platform which, in general does not
meet the appreciation of all the Wings of the Middle
and Northern States. Suppose, now, that all of us
who are Wings should go and join the Free Soil par
ty, what would be the result Why, so far nothing
would happen, but that the Wing party would have
changed its name That would be ali Instead of
being the Wing party it would be the Free Soil par
ty. We should he all there, exactly upon the same
principles upon which we have always stood"
Now, contrast this full, explicit, comprehen-
sive, and apparently ingenious subscription
and adhesion to all the doctrines and articles
of the Buffalo platform, in lS4S, with the 18th
of March speech in 1850, and with all that has
since followed it from the same source.
Surely IT General Jackson, in 1896, in order
to obtain third election had courted and de-
Tended the United States Bank, written and
spoken through all the Eastern cities in its be-
halt, and made james Watson Webb and Mich
olas Biddle his bosom contidants and counsel
lors; surely, if Mr.. Clay, in 1S4S, had declared
for free trade, against all tariffs, against river
and harbor improvements, and against all the
policy that had most signalized his life surely,
If MIR. Calhoun, during the controversy respect
ing the new Territories, had suddenly avowed
himself the disciple of Clarkson and Wilber-
force, and had raised the standard of Gimme
date emancipation surely, say, neither of
these events would have furnished such ample
material Of contradiction and amazement as
are supplied by the melancholy case am now
considering. After having nurtured tutored,
and led Northern Anti-Slavery sentiment for
thirty years; after having claimed the patent
ed thunder" of the Wilmot Provlso; and after
having discovered the North star in a single
day, without premonition or cause of change,
MIR. Webster espouses doctrines more Southern
than South Carolina, and becomes Calhouner
than Mr.. Calhoun
Where shall the searcher of history find
parallel for this! know of none. can con-
ceve but one--that Of Moses, from the confines
of Jordan and the ton of pisrab. commanding