The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-09-20
Webster and Abolition.

This noble stanza is from a poem in
the National Era, on the death of Dam
iel Webster;
How well he fell asIeepl
Like some proud riyef, widening towards
the sea
Calmly and gIandIy, silently and deep,
Life Joined eternity.
ZancsvW Courier (Whig.J
What a relief to his heart, that he fell
asleep before the year 1854, before his
admirers and friends had desecrated his
memory by joining the hounds who hunt
ed him while iving-hunted him to
the death, and, with the m~alignancy of
THEODORE PARKER, slandered him before
the tomb at M~arshfeldhad hardly ceased
to echo the retreating step of the
mourner. We have not forgotten the
last political testament which WEBSTER
left to his friend CHoATE. He foresaW
that the contest of 1852, under the lead
of GREELY, would be the last great con-
test between the Wing and Democratic
parties-the last contest in which, on g
national platform, these parties would ar
ray themselves. He left he knew that
the insidious serpent ofs~setianaliam was
already creeping, even mt &he proud
anu c4CAuBlf0 Td0k6 9EsIW
Whigsry and, his heart, proceeded the
word of warning. However much we
differ from the peculiar political ethics of
DANIEL WEBsTER-however much Dem-
ocrats may depreeate that tendency to
strengthen the Federal arm, and raise,
on the ruins of the State soyereignties,
a splendid and o~mnipotent central gov
eminent, of which he was the expounder
we cannot but admire, as we quote the
Union sentiment which pervades his ora
tions, and which, in common with Gen
JACKSON, he shared SO earnestly. His
opinions of the present allies ofthe Wing
party, would lead him, were he again to
arise into political life, tc ask with more
emphasis than he did in the days of TY-
LER. Whittier shall I GO p For he
could not go with his old detractors, of
whom he said, withthe utmost gravity Of
his impressive eloquence
!" I say that all agitations and attempts
to disturb the relations between master
and slave, by persons not living in the
slave States, are unconstitutional in their
spirit, and one, in my opinion, productive
ofnothing but evil and mischief
And even SO late as the 9th of March,
1850, in his great speech for the Union,
he said
Then, sir, there are the Abolition
Societies, of which am unwilling to
speak, but in regard to which Ihaye very
clear notions and opinions. I do not
think them useful. I think there opera
tions, for the last twenty years, have
produced nothing good ar vaIuG6Le.n
And again, on the next page he is re-
ported to have said ofthose Abolitionists:
eve sl know the fact, we all know
the cause; and every thing that these
agitating people have done, has been, not
to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free,
bat to bind faster the slavepupulationef
the north"
And again, In speaking of the danger
of secession, from the sectional agitationS
of the fre-eaters and Abolitionists, he
INDUCED in this strain of lofty eloquence :
cam I become a sectional man, a To-
cal man, a separatist, with no country In
common with the gentlemen who sit
house of Congress? Heaven forbid l.
Where is the flag of the Republic to re-
main ? Where is the eagle still to tow
er? Or is he to COVER, and shrink, and
fall to the ground ?'
And yet these sectionalists, who we're
SO denounced by the great publicist-the
idol of Conservatism, and D~EMosTHEEEs
of America, are now linked in fraternal
embrace with the very Wings who once
jechoed WEBsTER's speaches as the high
est reach of patriotic wisdom.
It becomes the National Era, the or
gan of the Abolitionists, to print poetry
in praise of WEBSTER ! What lofty scorn
would curl on his lip, to hear such praise
from such a source. 1T Is praise to be
praised by the praiseworthy." So WEE
sTER regarded it. He would be proud
to receive the admiration of fall his coun-
trymen, regardless of party, who revere
the Constitution, whose defender he de-
lighted to be called. But to receive
praise from those whose whole stock in
political trade is to denounce that charter,
~ a league with death, and a covenant
with hell, who pray night and morning
that the charter may be burned up In the
fiery Indignation of the people, even as
one of their Abolition apostles burned it
in form; is a shame, to which the mem
ory of WEBSTER should have been spar
ed. We never looked forward to the
time when his life, "like some proud
river, widening towards the sea" should
be discolored BY the mire of " Free Soil'
fattery. Much less does he look for
ward to the year when the darty, whose
leader on Constitutional topics he was,
would SO soon merge itself into the con-
temptible Abolition faction, which bay
ed at his heels, like dogs after anoble
charger State DeMOcTat.
-Tha Jefferson City Ernniner