The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1Webster, Daniel
History
The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1
Webster, Daniel
United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
At the same session of Congress, Mr. Webster spoke frequently on the
presentation of memorials, which were poured in upon him from every part
of the country, in reference to the existing distress. These speeches
were of necessity made, in almost every case, with little or no
preparation, but many of them contain expositions of the operation of
the financial experiment instituted by General Jackson, which will
retain a permanent value in our political history. Some of them are
marked by bursts of the highest eloquence. The entire subject of the
currency was also treated with great ability by Mr. Webster, in a report
made at this session of Congress from the committee of the Senate on
finance, of which he was chairman. Few documents more skilfully digested
or powerfully reasoned have proceeded from his pen.
The same topics substantially occupied the attention of the Senate at
the Twenty-fourth as at the Twenty-third Congress. The principal
subjects discussed pertained to the currency. The specie circular and
the distribution of the surplus revenue were among the prominent
measures. A motion made in the Senate to expunge from its records
the resolution of March, 1834, by which the Senate expressed its
disapprobation of the removal of the deposits, drew forth from Mr.
Webster, on behalf of himself and his colleague, a protest against
that measure, of singular earnestness and power. Committed to writing,
and read with unusual solemnity, it produced upon the Senate an effect
which is still remembered and spoken of. Every word in it is weighed
as in a balance.
The administration of General Jackson was drawing to a close; Mr. Van
Buren had been chosen to succeed him in November, 1836. In the month of
February following, upon an invitation from a large committee of
merchants, professional men, and citizens generally of New York, given
some months previous, Mr. Webster attended one of those great public
meetings which he has been so often called to address. His speech on
this occasion, delivered in Niblo's Saloon on the 15th of March, 1837,
is one of the most important in this collection. It embraced a
comprehensive review of the entire course of General Jackson's policy,
and closed with a prediction of the impending catastrophe. After the
adjournment of Congress, Mr. Webster made a hasty tour to the West, in
the course of which he addressed large public meetings at Wheeling in
Virginia, at Madison in Indiana, and at other places. The coincidence of
passing events with all his anticipations of the certain effects of the
administration policy gave peculiar force to these addresses. It is to
be regretted that these speeches appear from inadequate reports; of some
of the speeches made by him on this tour, no notes were taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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