Litchfield enquirer., 1874-05-28
From The Springfield Republican. ~r TWO SCHOOLS OF STATESMEN. Clay and Webster -- Charles Sum-
 nGr.

Clay and Webster had appeared in the councils of the nation in the early part of this century. The republic was then still in it's childhood, in almost every respect still an untested experiment., an unsolyed problem. Slowly and painfully had 1t struggled through the first canficts of constitutional theories, and acquired only an uncertain degree of national consisten- cy. There was the somewhat unruly democracy of the states, with their fresh revolutionary "reminiscences, their in- stlncts of entirely independent sovereign ty, and their now and then seemingly di- vergent interests; and the task of binding them firmly together in the bonds of com mon aspirations, of national spirit and the authority of national law, had, indeed, fair ly progressed, but was far from being en- tirely accomplished. The United States, not yet competed by the means of rapid locomotion which, to-day, makes every inhabitant of the land neighbor of the national capital, were then still strag- gling confederacy; and the members of that confedercy had since the triumphant issue of the revolution, more common memories of severe trials, suferings, en- barrassments, dangers and anxieties to- getber, than of cheering success and of assured prosperity and we'll being.
 The great powers of the Old World, ferceIy contending among themselves for the mastery, trampled, without remorse, upon the neutral rights of the young and feeble republic. A war was impending with one of them, bringing on disastrous reverses and spreading alarm and discon- tent over the land. A dark cloud of finan- cial difficulty hung over the nation. And the danger from abroad and embarrass- ments at home were frightened by arestless party spirit, which former disagreements had left behind them, and which every newly-arising question seemed to embit- ter. The outlook was dark and uncertain. It was under such circumstances that Henry Clay first, and Daniel Webster shortly after him, stepped upon the scene and at once took their station. in the fore most rank of public men. ...
 The problems to be solved by the states men of that period were of an eminently practical nature. They had to establish the position of the young republic among the powers of the earth; to make her rights as a neutral respected, to secure the safety of her maritime interests. They had to provide for national defense. They had to set the interior household of the republic in working order. They had l to find remedies for burdensome public debt and disordered currency. They had ! to invent and originate policies to bring to light the resources of the land sleeping unknown in the virgin soil; 10 open and make accessible to the husbandman the wild acres yet untouched; to protect the frontier settler against the inroads of the savage; to call into full activity the agri- cultural, commercial and industrial ener- gies of the people; to develop and extend the prosperity of the nation so as to make even the discontented cease to doubt that the national Union was, and should be maintained as blessing to all.
 Thus we find the statesmanship o1 those times busily occupied with practi
 cal details of foreign policy. national de fense, financial policy, tariffs, banks, or
 ganization of governmental departments
 land policy, Indian policy, internal i'm
 provements, settlements of disputes and l difficulties among the states, contrlyances
 of expediency of all sorts, to put the gov
 ernment firmly upon it's feet, and to sei
 and keep in orderly motion the. working
 of the political machinery, to build uE and strengthen and secure the framework | in which the mighty developments of the fuburo were bO bake pIac0. OucH u tttSA, I sometimes small in it's details, but diff cult and grand in it's comprehensiyeness, required that creative, organizing, build ing kind of statesmanship, which to large and enlightened views of the aims and l ends of political organization and of the wants of society must add 8 practical knowledge of details, skilful handling of existing material, a just understanding of causes and effects, the ability tocomr pose distracting conflicts and to brine l the social forces into fruitful co-opera