resumed his seat, when he earnestly prayed that this event might be used to soften the animosities, to allay party criminations and recriminations, and to restore fellowship and good feeling among the various sections of the Union. Mr. Secretary, great as is our loss to-day, if these inestimable and inappreciable blessings shall have been secured to us even by the death of Zachary Taylor, they have not been purchased at too high a price; and if his spirit, from the regions to which he has ascended, could see these results from his unexpected and untimely end, if he could see that he had entwined a soldier's laurel around a martyr's crown, he would say exultingly, 'Happy am I, that by my death I have done more for that country which I loved and served, than I did or could do by all the devotion and all the efforts that I could make in her be half during the short span of my earthly existence!""

When the last solemn respects had been paid to the remains and memory of the departed president, the discussion of the compromise measures was again resumed; and it was at this time, and on this subject, following Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, that Mr. Webster delivered his last speech, and uttered his last word, in the senate of the United States, where he had been so long the acknowledged head among its orators and statesmen. It was delivered on the 17th of July, 1850; and it was immediately issued in pamphlet, in which form it was extensively circulated and read in every section of the Union. It was a very able effort, the title-page itself bearing sufficient proof, that the production was from no common man. His tact at making historical and poetical quotations has been, as before seen, greatly celebrated; but there is perhaps no example in all his writings, of a perfectly apposite quotation, surpassing that employed as the motto of this address. He had been misunderstood, misrepresented, slandered, abused, at home in Massachusetts, and in every northern state, for having yielded too much, and that for ambitious purposes, in the great contro

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versy still raging; and it was thought by many, and expressed by some, that the end of all these Union-saving measures would be, or might be, a dissolution of the Union. Prophesies of national disaster, and threats of a personal character, had been freely lavished by the northern press upon Mr. Webster; but he had stood erect, and firm, and immovable, conscious of no motive for his conduct but that of being useful to his country; and now, in sending to the world his concluding effort for the peace and harmony of the states, he calls attention to an illustrious crisis in English history, where a similar spirit of conciliation had saved the kingdom, by quoting the memora ble words of Burke: "Alas! alas! when will this speculating against fact and reason end? What will quiet these passive fears which we entertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory conduct? Is all authority of course lost, when it is not pushed to the extreme? All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, conjectures, divinations, formed in defiance of fact and experience, they did not discourage me from entertaining the idea of conciliatory concession, founded on the principles which I have stated." What could have been more to Mr. Webster's purpose? It would almost seem, when the facts in both cases are closely compared, and when the language of the English statesman is compared with what the American statesman might have hoped that some such great authority had sometime said, that the event and the comment had both occurred expressly for the benefit and use, at this particular crisis, of Mr. Webster. All history, and the entire range of literature, could scarcely have furnished so apt a passage, which, probably, occurred to the mind of the great nian the moment he had decided to fix a motto to his performance. Such was the compass of his reasoning, and such the promptness of his intellectual faculties, till the very closing period and last days of his existence !

Having given, on a former page, the first words uttered by

Mr. Webster in the congress of the United States, the period has now come when his last words can be here recorded; and it will be evident that they are words worthy, not only of perusal, and of simple recollection, but of being written and engraved on the most durable material, in characters to be read by all his countrymen, and especially by those who have innocently misunderstood him. After having finished the argument in the case, in which he had shown that the compromises proposed to be made, between the north and the south, were legitimate subjects of compromise, and that, as matters of public interest, they were not all on either side, but were such as very fairly and equally balanced each other, he brings the senate to a final decision by asking what is to be done, and then telling them plainly what he shall do, whatever course may be pursued by others: "And now, Mr. President, to return at last to the principal and important question before us, What are we to do? How are we to bring this emergent and pressing question to an issue and an end? Here have we been seven and a half months, disputing about points which, in my judgment, are of no practical importance to one or the other part of the country. Are we to dwell forever upon a single topic, a single idea? Are we to forget all the purposes for which governments are instituted, and continue everlastingly to dispute about that which is of no essential consequence? I think, sir, the country calls upon us loudly and imperatively to settle this question. I think that the whole world is looking to see whether this great popular government can get through such a crisis. We are the observed of all observers. It is not to be disputed or doubted, that the eyes of all christendom are upon

us.

We have stood through many trials. Can we not stand through this, which takes so much the character of a sectional controversy? Can we stand that? There is no inquiring man in all Europe who does not ask himself that question every day, when he reads the intelligence of the morning. Can this

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country, with one set of interests at the south, and another set of interests at the north, and these interests supposed, but falsely supposed, to be at variance; can this people see what is so evident to the whole world beside, that this Union is their main hope and greatest benefit, and that their interests in every part are entirely compatible? Can they see, and will they feel, that their prosperity, their respectability among the na tions of the earth, and their happiness at home, depend upon the maintenance of their Union and their constitution? That is the question. I agree that local divisions are apt to warp the understandings of men, and to excite a belligerent feeling between section and section. It is natural, in times of irritation, for one part of the country to say, If you do that, I will do this, and so get up a feeling of hostility and defiance. Then comes belligerent legislation, and then an appeal to arms. The question is, whether we have the true patriotism, the Americanism, necessary to carry us through such a trial. The whole world is looking toward us with extreme anxiety. For myself, I propose, sir, to abide by the principles and the purposes which I have avowed. I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand by it. I shall do justice to the whole country, according to the best of my ability, in all I say, and act for the good of the whole country in all I do. I mean to stand upon the constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and truth's. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this, with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let the

consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer toc much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defence of the liberties and constitution of his country."

The death of General Taylor, and the unexpected as well as needless if not factious resignation of his cabinet, threw upon Mr. Fillmore, suddenly and at an evil time, the task always difficult, even under circumstances the most favorable for deliberation, of nominating a new cabinet. It is not to be doubted, that Mr. Fillmore would have chosen to have the former members hold office, at least till he could find time, after being thus called upon to assume the reins of government, to look carefully into a duty, which, from the nature of the case, could never have formed with him the subject of a moment's contemplation. It is understood, too, that he gave utterance of his desires to this effect; but, even if that were so, no heed was given to his wishes. In a day, in an hour, he was compelled to appoint all his ministers, or leave the departments of gov ernment without their proper officers. Thus forced to act, and to act at a time when a mistake would have proved fatal to his administration, and perhaps fatal to the existence of the republic, he laid his commands upon a statesman, for the first position in his cabinet, whose views corresponded very exactly with his own, and who, for nearly forty years, had shown himself to be, not only superior to the most distinguished of his countrymen, but equal to any demand that had ever been made upon him. That man, it need not be said, was Daniel Webster. With his assistance, and guided by the conscious integrity of his own honest heart, Mr. Fillmore commenced an administration, which, for the fundamental and serious difficulties surrounding it, bears no comparison with the most difficult of former administrations, and which would suffer nothing by a comparison, for honesty and uprightness, with the most illustrious.