132 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



outfit. The House concurred in the amendments and the bill was 

 quickly signed by the President. ^-'^ 



The mission was first offered to Edward Everett, who was 

 then minister to Great Britain, his nomination having been hurried 

 to the Senate the last hour of the session. Webster urged him 

 to accept it. The newspaper report was that the Secretary of 

 State wanted the London post for himself, as he was soon to 

 resign from the cabinet, but he wrote to Everett mentioning the 

 rumor and emphatically denying it, saying that in the present 

 state of affairs he had not the slightest wish to go to England. 

 Some have thought that the denial was only apparent, not real, 

 and have cited as evidence Webster's pending resignation and 

 the conversation with Adams in which he asked him to write 

 Everett urging an acceptance.^-* Everett, however, refused the 



I 



^^ Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years' View, or a History of the 

 American Government for Thirty Years from 1820 to 1850. 2 v., New 

 York, 1856, 2:510-512. Benton was very much opposed to the act, and 

 gives the impression that it was railroaded through. While adhering, 

 except in one instance, to the facts as to dates, his account is misleading. 

 The one error in date is where he says that the bill was taken up in 

 the House ten days before the close of the session. It was passed there 

 Feb. 21. Cong. Globe, 3 Sess., 27 Cong., pp. 323-325. The law as passed 

 is in Statutes at Large, 5 : 624. 



^"' Those taking the position that Webster wished the English position 

 are James Schouler, History of the United States of America under the 

 Constitution, Vol. 4, 1831-1841, Washington, 1889, p. 436, Lyon G. Tyler, 

 The Letters and Times of the Tylers, 2 v., Richmond, 1885, 2:263, who 

 quotes Adams' Diary and the letter in Curtis, Life of Webster ; and 

 Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 77-79, who quotes no one. George Ticknor 

 Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster, New York, 1870, 2: 178, takes the opposite 

 position. 



The documents in the case are as follows : 



Webster to Everett, Mar. 10, 1843. ". . . . You see it said in the 

 newspapers that the object in nominating you to China is to make way 

 for j-our humble servant to go to London. I will tell you the whole 

 truth about this without reserve. 



I believe the President thinks that there might be some advantage 

 from an undertaking by me to settle remaining difficulties with England. 

 I suppose this led him to entertain the idea, now abandoned (at least 

 for the present) of an extra mission ; but in this present state of things, 

 I have no wish to go to England — not the slightest. To succeed you in 

 England for the mere purpose of carrying for a year or two the general 

 business of the mission is what I could not think of. I do not mean only 



