Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-03-08
DANIEL wEBsTER's WAYS.
His Curt Reply 30 a Delegation
that Had Not supported Sim.


DtocknOh1etsl MNN
An incident unquestionably authen
tic which has never before been re
lated in print may be told of MI
Webster. On their way home from
the convention, which was held, VI
believe, at Philadelphia, the Missis
sippi delegation called upon Mr.
Webster at his modest house OF
Louisiana avenue, in Washington. l
was near the close OF a summer
day, when, ushered into the littl'
front parlor and introduced to Mr.
Webster, the chairman, Judge Shar
key-the same it may be who year;
~afterWard was conspicuous in the re-
construction politics Of his stste-ad'
dressed the great orator in terms oil
fattering eulogy, saying, among other
things, how pleased he and his fellow
delegates would have been to see Mr..
Webster's great abilities recognized
In the nomination of their party for
the presidency. As a matter of fact.
the delegation had steadily voted
against him in the convention. /;
was upon this fact that Mr.. Webster's
curt reply turned. You have ex-
pressed, Mr. Chairman" said he, ''the
sentiment that you desire-and | must
suppose that your action was in con-
formity with that desire-in the re-
cent convention Of the whig party for
the nomination of a candidate for the
presidency of the United States your
desire and effort was that that honor
should fall upon me. In response to
which l have only to say that the
record, gentlemen, is the other way.
Good night, gentlemen And bow
ing himself through the folding doors
into the rear parlor, where Mrs. Web
ster sat in the deepening twilight, he
vanished to Mississippi eyes, leaving
his visitors sternly rebuked for lip
service. TO find their homeward way
as best they might.
1t was in the prece ding presidential
canvass, in l848, when General Taylor
was the whig candidate, and elected,
that the writer heard Mr.. Webster
make. on his farm at Marshfeld, the
speech ia which he declared that the
Of Gen. Taylor-who in
private conversation at Washington
had been characterized, but unjustly,
as only a swearing frontier colonel
was a nomination not fit to be made"
1he speech, the only one, we think,
he made in the canvass. was listened
to by a large assemblsge who had come
to Marsh6eld for the purpose, many
straight wings from Boston and
elsewhere being among the number,
with a considerable sprinkli0g Of So
called conscience wings out of
whose secession from the party grew
the historic condition which soon
after put Charles Sumner and Henry
Wilson 10 the senate Of the United
States. Many of these Boston gentle
men, we remember, wore white OF
light-colored kid eloveg on the occa-
sion, and their applause was diverse,
as one and another Of the orators Mt
t%erances, affected the divergent preju-
dices of his auditory. The expression
above quoted remained 10 the printed
speech as Mr.. Webster made it, but
another, still more offensive to the
wings proper, was eliminated from the
verbatim report as it stood in type IN
the Office of the Boston Atlas. The
wing committee sent a delegation to
Webster asking that the obnox-
ious phrase might be Cancelled before
the speech went to the rress. No,
said Mr.. Webster, 'let it stand as /
spoke it," Not to be bafied in their
for its expurgation, one of
the committees renewed the request
in a note to Mr.. Webster, enclosing a
check for $500. Mr.. Webster's reply
10 this was that the expression could
as well be left out; that the speech
with that word omitted would suii-
express his views on the points
10 which it related. So the speech
to press without il. There may
be those among u contemporaries, |
for Mr.. Webster fame, who
may be moved TO dispute the substan
tial accuracy Of what is here related.
The fact, in its main details aud chief
we believe TO be suscopt-
ible Of proof, the lapse Of thirty-two
years nevertheless.