It is very remarkable that such a man as Mr. Webster should furnish, in the very quotation which he offers, the means of utterly confuting the assertion which he makes. I suppose this can be accounted for only on the ground, that he now occupies a position so antagonistic to that which he has abandoned that he can hardly refer to his former views without self-impeachment and self-conviction. Let passages from the two speeches be placed side by side, to show, not their identity, but their utter irreconcilability. MARCH 23, 1848. [_A passage quoted by himself._] “It shall be _in the power_ of Congress hereafter to make _four_ other new states out of Texan territory.” MARCH 7, 1850. “I wish it to be distinctly understood, to-day, that, according to my view of the matter, this government _is solemnly pledged by law and contract_ to create new states out of Texas,” &c. (p. 42.) The first quotation only asserts a “power” in Congress to create new states; the last affirms an obligation, “by law and contract,” to do so. How could Mr. Webster have expected that this broad distinction between _power_ and _duty_, between _option_ and _obligation_, could escape the attention of his readers? But there is another discrepancy or contradiction still more remarkable: MARCH 23, 1848. “It shall be in the power of Congress hereafter to make _four_ other new states out of Texan territory.” MARCH 7, 1850. “----the guaranty is, that new states shall be made out of it, and that such states as are formed out of that portion of Texas lying south of 36° 30´, may come in as slave states to the number of _four_, in addition to the state then in existence.” (p. 29.) The first speech speaks of the _power_ of Congress, but the last of the _obligation_ of Congress, to admit new states out of Texan territory. The first speaks of “four other new states;” but the last of the “guaranty” to admit “SLAVE states to the number of four.” Yet the first speech is cited, to men who can read and write, as identical “in legal construction and effect” with the last. The motto under which Danton attempted to carry himself through his bloody career, was: “_L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace_.” “Audacity, audacity, always audacity.”