WEBSTER IN DEFENSE OF THE NORTH.

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comparatively recent, the spirit of this resolution was most faithfully adhered to; so that Mr. Webster was perfectly justified in what fell from his lips on this subject in the memorable debate in the United States Senate between himself and Mr. Hayne, when he said, referring to the resolution above cited,

"The fears of the South, whatever fears they might have entertained, were allayed and quieted by this early decision; and so remained, till they were excited afresh, without cause, but for collateral and indirect purposes. When it became necessary, or was thought so, by some political persons, to find an unvarying ground for the exclusion of Northern men from confidence and from lead in the affairs of the republic, then, and not till then, the cry was raised, and the feeling industriously excited, that the influence of Northern men in the public councils would endanger the relation of master and slave. For myself, I claim no other merit than that this gross and enormous injustice toward the whole North has not wrought upon me to change my opinions, or my political conduct. I hope I am above violating my principles, even under the smart of injury and false imputations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved reproach, whatever pain I may experience from them, will not induce me, I trust, nevertheless, to overstep the limits of constitutional duty, or to encroach on the rights of others. The domestic slavery of the South I leave where I find it-in the hands of their own governments. It is their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which the magnitude of that population has had in the distribution of power under this Federal government. We know,

sir, that the representation of the states in the other House is not equal. We know that great advantage, in that respect, is enjoyed by the slaveholding states; and we know, too, that the intended equivalent for that advantage, that is to say, the imposition of direct taxes in the same ratio, has become merely nominal-the habit of the government being almost invariably to collect its revenue from other sources and in other modes. Nevertheless, I do not complain, nor would I countenance any movement to alter this arrangement of representation. It is the original bargain, the compact: let it stand; let the advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The Union itself is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for changing its original basis. I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it is. But I am resolved not to submit in silence to accusations, either against myself individually or against the North, wholly unfounded and unjust-accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade the constitutional compact, and to extend the power of the government over the internal laws and domestic condition of the states. All such accusations, wherever and • whenever made, all insinuations of the existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be groundless and injurious. And we must confide in Southern gentlemen themselves; we must trust to those whose integrity of heart and magnanimity of feeling will lead them to a desire to maintain and disseminate truth, and who possess the means of its diffusion with the Southern public; we must leave it to them to disabuse that public of its prejudices. But, in the mean time, for my own part, I shall continue to act justly, whether those toward whom jus

ADMINISTRATIONS OF WASHINGTON AND ADAMS. 45

tice is exercised receive it with candor or with contumely."

Nothing can be more undeniable than the proposition that, during the eight years' administration of Washington, there was not in existence any where what has since become so mischievously known as a sectional party organization, though much opposition was in various quarters presented to the measures of policy recommended by this most venerated of all our presidents. That this opposition was mainly of a factious and reprehensible character can not now be doubted, and it would seem to have owed its origin in a considerable degree to the eager desire entertained by certain ambitious statesmen to secure their own advancement to the highest official position known to our form of government, to the exclusion of others whom they suspected of possessing a larger share than themselves of the confidence and friendly wishes of the exalted personage who was even then preparing to return to private life. The election of John Adams, of Massachusetts, to the Presidency, and of Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, to the Vice Presidency of the United States, would appear to prove conclusively that sectional jealousies had not yet gained much strength in either of the two great divisions of the republic. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, during the administration of the elder Adams, and the questions connected with the then anticipated war with France, furnished a plausible occasion for the array of opposition to the new administration, and supplied an opportunity far too tempting to be passed by of calling into existence a party organization which, under proper tutelage and training, it

was hoped might be of sufficient power to prevent the election of the then incumbent for a second presidential term, and secure the elevation in his stead of one of the most accomplished statesmen, as well as one of the most astute and skillful political managers that has yet made his appearance any where upon the public stage. With a view to attaining the interesting end then held in view, it was necessary that steps should be immediately taken to aggregate all the elements of political opposition in one cohesive and potential mass, that the same might be wielded with adequate efficacy against those who were then seated in the highest stations of Federal trust. Hence the adroit preparation of the celebrated Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, '9, the former of which are now known to have been drawn by Mr. Jefferson, and transmitted to certain trusted political friends of his in Kentucky, while the latter were drafted by Mr. Madison, under the counsels of the same distinguished personage (always recognized by the former thereafter as his veritable political Magnus Apollo), and placed in the willing and ever facile hands of the celebrated John Taylor, of Caroline, for presentation to the Virginia Legislature. I have not time now to analyze either of these famous sets of resolutions, nor have I the smallest inclination to do so. They answered admirably well the purposes for which they had been originally fabricated; and though the dogmas embodied in these resolutions were not sufficiently fortunate to find general sanction in the. co-states of the Union, yet they undoubtedly constituted, in a great degree, the basis upon which that great political party was then brought into existence, which was

VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS.

47

soon to raise to the presidency three eminent personages in succession, all of whom will go down to future generations as representatives of a school of politics which owes its origin and long-retained ascendency mainly to the subtle and prolific genius of him to whom his numerous admirers have been long accustomed to refer as "the sage of Monticello." That the fearful doctrine of nullification, which was more than twenty years subsequent to this period so imposingly blazoned forth to the world by Mr. Calhoun and his enthusiastic political disciples, and that of secession likewise, which has been recently subjected to the severest of all earthly tests, may be directly traced to these same resolutions, though perchance not set forth in either of them with all the precision and clearness that an Aristotle or a Locke would have required, no discerning and unprejudiced man will be much inclined to dispute. That either set of these resolutions contains sound and salutary principles, and is in strict unison with the Constitution framed by our fathers, few, it is to be presumed, will be hereafter heard to assert. It is certainly not a little remarkable that Mr. Madison, who, in the Federal Convention, was the close ally of Hamilton and Governeur Morris in claiming for the new government which he was aiding to build up powers wholly inconsistent with, the practical enforcement either of nullification or secession, and who had said on one occasion, according to his own report of the matter, that he "was of opinion, in the first place, that there was less danger of encroachment from the general government than from the state governments; and, in the second place, that the mischiefs from the encroachments