Part 3 (1/2)
Webster for the chartered governovernive the form of a constitution, by a pretended act of the popular will The true principles of popular and constitutional governument Some copies of the report of it in a pa the memorable year of 1848, when the Continent was convulsed with revolutionary struggles froarded as a most seasonable and instructive coations, and of the rights of the people to e portion of the causes argued by Mr Webster belong to the province of constitutional law, and have their origin in that partition of pohich exists between the State governovernnty in its appropriate sphere, each subject to li froislative bodies, its judicial tribunals, its executive authorities, and consequently arhts, and both coreat political system
In such a syste jurisdiction should arise When we consider that the powers of these two orders of government are defined in written constitutions of recent date, and that all the direct precedents of administration must of necessity, at the oldest, be still more recent, we cannot but wonder at the small nuacity, forethought, and practical wisdoovernment, who made such admirable provision for the harmonious operation of the system
Still, however, it was impossible that the class of cases provided for by the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States should not present themselves, and no small portion of Mr Webster's forensic life has been devoted to their investigation It is unnecessary to state that they are questions of an elevated character They often involve the validity of the legislative acts and judicial decisions of governments substantially independent, as they ress itself No court in England will allow any thing, not even a treaty with a foreign government, or the most undoubted principles of the law of nations, to be pleaded against an act of Parliament The Supreme Court of the United States entertains the question not only of the constitutionality of the acts of the legislatures of States possessing nty, but also of the constitutionality of the acts of the national legislature, which possesses those attributes of sovereignty which are denied to the States These circunity to its deliberations, and tend materially to elevate the character of a constitutional lawyer in the United States[8] Professional training in England has not been deemed the best school of statesmanshi+p; but it will be readily perceived, that in this country a great class of questions, and those of the highest i alike to the senate and the court Every one must feel that, in the case of Mr
Webster, the lawyer and the statesman have contributedthis subject, it may be proper to allude to Mr
Webster's professional labors of another class, in the ordinary State tribunals E a long professional life, it is hardly necessary to say, that his investigations have extended to every departu and a control of the logic belonging to it, which are in most cases to be attained only by the exclusive study and practice of a life The jurist and the advocate are so led in Mr
Webster's professional character, that it is not easy to say which predoination place at his control all the resources of an overwhel rhetoric, and uided by his severe logic, and instructed by the choice which he lays before theues It happens, unfortunately, that forensic efforts of this kind are rarely reported at length A brief sketch of an iuuished counsel rarely have ti an elaborate address either to court or jury There is probably no species of intellectual labor of the highest order, which perishes for want of a contemporary record to the same extent as that which is daily exerted in the courts of law
The present collection contains two speeches addressed to the jury by Mr Webster in crie, and in defence of the persons whohway This cause was tried in 1817, shortly after the establishment of Mr Webster at Boston Rarely has a case, in itself of no greater ier impression of the ability of the counsel The cross-exae, who pretended to have been robbed, and who had previously been considered a person of soree of respectability, is still remembered at the bar of Massachusetts as terrific beyond example, and the speech to the jury in which his artfully contrived tale was stripped of its disguises may be studied as a model of this species of exposition
Mr Webster's speech to the jury in the reat ial principles involved, as of the depth of the tragedy in real life hich it was connected, has given it a painful celebrity A detailed history of the case and of the trial, froenious and learned Mr Merrill, will be found prefixed to Mr Webster's speech, as contained in the fifth volume of this collection The record of the _causes celebres_ of no country or age will furnish either a reater ability A passage on the power of conscience will arrest the attention of the reader There is nothing in the language superior to it It was unquestionably owing to the legal skill and e hich the case was conducted by Mr Webster, that one of the foulest crin punishment; and the nicest refine out the most important practical results But it is tiical series of events
FOOTNOTES
[6] 1 New Hampshi+re Reports, p 113
[7] American Review, Vol IX p 434
[8] ”Crescit enienii, nec quisquam claram et inlustrem orationeue _De Oratoribus_, -- 37, usually printed with the works of Tacitus
CHAPTER IV
The Convention to revise the Constitution of Massachusetts--John Adas--Speeches on Oaths of Office, Basis of Senatorial Representation, and Independence of the Judiciary--Centennial Anniversary at Plymouth on the 22d of December, 1820--Discourse delivered by Mr
Webster--Bunker Hill Monu of the Corner-Stone, 17th of June, 1825--Discourse on the Completion of the Monument, 17th of June, 1843--Simultaneous Decease of Aday by Mr Webster in Faneuil Hall--Address at the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New Wing of the Capitol--Remarks on the Patriotic Discourses of Mr Webster, and on the Character of his Eloquence in Efforts of this Class
In 1820, on the separation of Maine, a convention became necessary in Massachusetts to readjust the Senate; and the occasion was deeeneral revision of the constitution The various towns in the Coates as they were entitled to elect members to the House of Representatives; and a body was constituted containing ht of character of the State Mr
Webster was chosen one of the delegates from Boston; and, with the exception of a few days' service, two or three years afterwards, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives;[9] this is the only occasion on which he ever filled any political office under the State government either of Massachusetts or New Hampshi+re
The venerable John Adaate to this convention froinal draft of the State constitution in 1780, and although his advanced age (he was now eighty-six years old) made it is of the convention, he received the honor of a unanimous election as president He declined the appointment; and Chief Justice Parker was chosen in his place
The convention of 1820 was no doubt as respectable a political body as ever assembled in Massachusetts; and it is no h he had been but a few years a citizen of the Coer tothe most efficient members of the body He was named chairman of the committee to whom the important subject of oaths and qualifications for office was referred, and of the special committee on that chapter of the constitution which relates to the ”University at Ca part in the discussion of itated in the convention, he was the authority most deferred to on questions of order, and in that way exercised a steady and powerful influence over the general course of its proceedings It is believed that on this occasion the practice of considering business in committee of the whole body was for the first time adopted in Massachusetts; that islature of the State The dignified and efficient manner in which the duties of the chair were performed by Mr Webster, whenever he was called to occupy it, was ret with those itnessed the uncommon aptitude evinced by hiton, for the discharge of the duties of presiding officer of a deliberative asseressional career, called to the important office of Speaker of the House of Representatives
Considering the relation of the House to the political condition of the country, there is no position under the governeneral character of the public counsels The place has occasionally, both in forreat ability; but it has more frequently happened that speakers have been chosen froard to personal qualifications and fitness for the office The effect has been highly prejudicial to the tone of the House, and its consequent estimation in the country It has frequently happened that the decisions of the Speaker, as such, have commanded no respect An appeal has been taken fros is very different in the bodyas an appeal from the decision of the Speaker on a point of order is hardly known in the British House of Commons, and the disposition of all parties to acquiesce in, if not to support, the decisions of the chair, is one of the characteristic features of that asses of the Massachusetts convention were ably reported, from day to day, in the Boston Daily Advertiser; but a contement of the speeches Much that was said by Mr Webster, as by other prominent speakers, appeared but in a condensed forreatest length and with e of personal revision by the speakers The third volume of the present collection contains Mr
Webster's remarks on those provisions of the constitution which related to oaths of office and forious test, which Mr
Webster was disposed to abolish; a speech upon the basis of senatorial representation; and another upon the independence of the judiciary
In the speech on the basis of the Senate, Mr Webster defended the principle, which was incorporated into the original constitution, and is recognized by the liberal writers of greatest authority on governard should be had to property in establishi+ng a basis of representation He showed the connection between the security of republican liberty and this principle He first called attention in this country to the fact, that this iton's Oceana, a work much studied by our Revolutionary fathers The practical consequence which Mr Webster deduced froal provision ought to be made to produce the utmost possible diffusion and equality of property
It is a melancholy instance of the injustice of party, that these views of Mr Webster, which contain the philosophy of constitutional republicanism as distinct from a mere democracy of numbers, have, even down to the present day, served as the basis of a charge against hi observed in the speech referred to, ”that it would seeovernment on property, and to establish such a distribution of property by the lahich regulate its transreat overnment,” the former part of this sentence has often been quoted as a substantive rule in favor of a moneyed aristocracy, and the latter uncandidly suppressed It is hardly necessary to observe, that the point at issue was the constitution of the senatorial districts on the basis of the valuation; and that it was never proposed by Mr Webster, or by any body else, to apply the principle to individuals The poor man in the rich senatorial district possessed as hbor The principle, in fact, is but another forave the first impulse to the American Revolution, nao hand in hand
While the Massachusetts convention was in session, Mr Webster appeared before the public in another departuished success It is hazardous for a person of great professional eminence to venture out of his sphere; perhaps the experiment has never before been so triumphantly rireat anniversary of New England, the ever-memorable 22d of December Several circumstances contributed on this occasion to the interest of the day The peaceful surrender by Massachusetts of a portion of her territory, greatly exceeding in nitude that which she retained, in order to for exemplification of that prosperous multiplication of independent commonwealths within the limits of the Union, which forms one of the most distinctive features in our history It was as much an alienation of territory from the local jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as if it had been ceded to Great Britain, and yet the alienation was cordially made