DANIEL WEBSTER TO JEREMIAH MASON.

BOSTON., March 23, 1822.

MY DEAR SIR,-I came home this day week, after a longer absence than usual, and having had a severe cold on the way, which detained me two or three days at New York. My observation at Washington has not probably enabled me to say anything new to you, as Mr. King has probably often written you, and his guesses are worth a great deal more than mine. I have formed, however, one or two opinions, which I shall state, without at present giving reasons for them, as to the future events. In the first place, I think it clear there is to be a warm contest for the Presidency; and my expectation is that after sifting out sundry candidates having less support, the final struggle will be between Crawford and Calhoun. It would certainly come to this, if the present Congress were to decide the matter and were now to take sides. Whether the People may not interfere, before the time comes, and make a President of somebody else, I know not. The New York dominant party talk mysteriously, and hint that they may bring up Mr. King. Of all this I do not believe one word. I think they are aiming not to serve Mr. King, but to serve themselves by him; and I fear he is (265)

not quite so fully impressed with this truth as he ought to be. I

the pure unspotted private life are all there, are all here with us now, untouched and unimpaired for after ages to admire." - From speech on acceptance of the Statue of Calhoun, in U. S. Senate, Mar. 12, 1910.

On the contrary, James Parton says: "Mr. Calhoun was not a student; he probed nothing to the bottom; his information on all subjects was small in quantity, and second-hand in quality. Nor was he a patient thinker. Any stray fact or notion that he met with in his hasty, desultory reading, which chanced to give apparent support to a favorite theory or paradox of his own he seized upon eagerly, paraded it in triumph, but pondered it little; while the weightiest facts which controverted his opinion he brushed aside without the slightest consideration. His mind was arrogant as his manners were courteous. Everyone whoever conversed with him must remember his positive, peremptory, unanswerable 'Not at all, not at all' whenever one of his favorite notions was assailed. He was wholly a special pleader; he never summed up the testimony. We find in his works no evidence that he had read the masters in political economy; not even Adam Smith, whose reputation was at its height during the

take the New York votes to be yet to be disposed of, according to circumstances. Pennsylvania, it is thought, will be unanimous for Mr. Calhoun, and I suppose is the basis of his expected support. I have heard opinions expressed, respecting other States and parts of States, about which speculations have been formed. Maine is expected to go for Mr. Crawford. Your Mr. Hill is gone to Washington, and in all probability he will pledge New Hampshire to the same interest. I think the "Intelligencer" latterly favors the same interest. The President, as far as he ventures to have any opinion, is, I imagine, against that interest. We had rather an interesting court. There were some causes of consequence. Your friend Tazewell (who quotes you on all occasions) made a good speech in one of these Baltimore privateering causes. He is a correct, fluent, easy, and handsome speaker; and a learned, ingenious, and subtle lawyer. Our friend Judge Story seems to have drawn up more than his share of opinions; and I think in general they were very able. In the Spanish Commission affairs go tolerably well. The general course is favorable to the North and the real mercantile losses except only as far as relates to the contract cases which are likely to be forced in, against the opinion of the Commission. I have a particular reason for wishing to see you between this time and the first of May. Shall you probably be this way?

I am, dear Sir, yours as always,

D. WEBSTER.

first half of his public life. In history he was the merest smatterer, tho it was his favorite reading, and he was always talking about Sparta, Athens, and Rome. The slenderness of his fortune prevented his traveling. He never saw Europe, and if he ever visited the Northern States, after leaving colloge, his stay was short. The little that he knew of life was gathered in three places, all of which were of an exceptional and artificial character - the City of Washington, the up-country of South Carolina, and the luxurious reactionary City of Charleston. His mind, narrow and intense, because, by revolving always in this narrow sphere and breathing a close tainted atmosphere, more and more fixed in his narrowness and more intense in its operations." *** According to Calhoun's reasoning, South Carolina should have a veto upon acts of Congress. Very well; then each county of South Carolina should have a veto upon the acts of the State Legislature; and each town should have a veto upon the behests of the county; and each voter upon the decisions of the town. Mr. Calhoun's argument, therefore, amounts to this: that one voter in South Carolina should have

JEREMIAH MASON TO RUFUS KING.

PORTSMOUTH, April 12, 1822.

DEAR SIR, I thank you for sending me your Report on the Restrictions of our Trade with the British West Indies. The very satisfactory view which you have given of the justice and policy of the measures adopted by the United States, must tend to silence the complaints which local interests had excited. In this quarter (266) of the Union no dissatisfaction has been felt except by a few individuals whose private interests were supposed to be affected. Our best informed merchants are of opinion that the value of this trade has been greatly overrated, and if it should be permitted to our vessels equally with the British, under the restrictions which would probably be imposed, that it could not be profitably pursued to any considerable extent. A strong recommendation of the President for acknowledging the independence of the South American provinces, and the extraordinary unanimity with which it was adopted by the House of Representatives, leads me to suspect there was information at Washington that this measure would give no serious offense in Europe. If the late intelligence of the declaration of the Spanish Cortes be true, it would seem that was not the case.

I hope we are in no danger of a misunderstanding with Spain, or any other power, on this subject. We are certainly not in a situation to justify the encountering much risk. In the present condition of our finances, it would be folly even to talk of a war. If I mistake not the people at large do not participate much in the zeal felt by their representatives on this occasion.

The squabbles among the members of the Cabinet for the succession tend to degrade the government and deprive it of the public confidence. It must require nothing less than the whole energy of the President to keep the peace of his own household. Should these squabbles continue, there is a chance that the people may take the matter into their own hands and determine it for themselves, in which event I hope that more than one of the present

the constitutional right to nullify an act of Congress, and no law should be binding which has not received the assent of every citizen.”—Article, “Calhoun,” in Famous Americans of Recent Times, pp. 142 and 165-6.