The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-08
WEBSTER IN THE SOUTH.

Editor The Advertiser:
 Chapter VIII of the interesting series of Home Study Circle papers you are kiving, treating of MT. Webster as one of ..the makers of the Nation,"' omits the Importance of the visit of the statesman to the South, in the late forties, The assumed or 5palpable effects of that visit on Mir. Webster demonstrated the fact that he never afterwards maligned the South, and in his refusal to support ac- lively Gen. Taylor in 1S4S and in the sur prising tone of his seventh of March speech of 1s50 are studiously avoided by Chapter Wifi of Prof. BrinE's Study Cir cle.
 propose here to recur to that visit in the portion devoted to South Carolina, because I happen to know something of the particulars. Mir, Webster had stop ped at Richmond on his Southern tour, where the Whigs were ere many many Sna S oL59e sofs of the Potomac before, and his ardent support of the Wilberforce or, as to that matter, the Jefferson doctrine o1f anti slavery had insensibly prepared nim with conceptions of Southern society destined to 8 rude awakening, first at Richmond. MT. Webster was man of fine sensibili- ties. None more generous or honest than he in his mental processes. No man was ever more willing to know the truths Prof. Brink says:
 T cannot here discuss at length the merits of this controversy over Webster s Eth of March speech. If you say that in his previous years he had steadily oppos- ed the slave power anu LnGI HOW On Lne some question he made an entire change of attitude, we shall not quarrel with the assertion .s--
 When Mr. Webster reached Charleston by coast steamer, from Wilmington, ;ts the line of travel South then lay. he was received with most cordial welcome. rot that public exhibition of the honor vate houses were opened to him and the most ancient of polite society of all America received him with unfeigned b.lt digniied. ard rlain and amiable in his personal contact with society: For illustration of his manners, after he had returned to Washington: some South sultry summer afternoon. The great man was found sitting on his porch un- der the shade of vine. in hls shirt sleeves. and there he had them seated and proceeded to entertain them disha- bile. Presently he called negro ser vaHt ordering brandy and claret to be brought, . Webster alone imbibing the From Charleston he went on the railroad only lately then completed to Columbia. There the planters who lived near. re- Wade Hampton, father of the present General Hampton, took him around 10 the plantations. He was profoundly fn- terested. The conditions before his eyes were a revelation to him. He had. gone there to reach candid conclusion for his own satisfaction. He passed into the
 
 manner of their living. the rearing of their children and the provision made for orderly conduct of a great planta- tion. He drove out into the fields where the negroes were at work and, leaving his carriage, walked among them and talked with them. That night he dined at the residence of Dr. R. W. Globes, in Columbia. with a distinguished company. He was quite willing to make a post prandial speech on the occasion, adapted to the circumstances. Rising, with ut most deliberation, from his chair he be- propos remark. long repeated among the school boys of whom was one. Said Mir Webster: Gentlemen, I feel-Cal. hounish." In answer to direct interro- gatory, in conversation on the result oi the Impressions he may have received or Webster said, with emphasis: ''Nc change in his condition would be of ben eft to the negro! Governor B. F. Perry heard the words spoken in his presence took them down and they. may now be found among his his published writings
 A few years, five years perhaps, later the fayorite maid of honor to Queen Vic tofia also disciple of Wilberforce Miss Amelia Murray, followed Mir Webster fin a tour. much mere extended, of the South. When she got back to court she remainder of her life in retirement be- cause she explained that mo change in his condition would be of bereft to the negro
 MT. Wenster's Southern tour made him ashamed of the abolitionists and above ali causes of his defeat by Charles Sumner in 1851, for the Senate. the touI s.history' to tell 1t that way .thps MT T.odCa avoids the fact.