166 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



hardly ever been in Boston at the season of the year when he was in 

 Marshfield, and when it was agreeable to go there. 



" I told him that Sir Charles and Lady Lyell were staying with us, 

 and that Mrs. Ticknor would not probably be able to go he then said 

 I must bring Anna with me and it was settled that I should give 

 him, the next morning, a definitive answer to his kind invitation. I 

 would then have left him, but he said he would like to have a little 

 talk; he said he hadn't done much during the summer, but that he 

 had had a good deal of discussion with Mr. Crampton upon the 

 fishery matters, and had drawn up a protocol about them, and begun 

 another paper which he would show me. 



" He said he did not feel sure that he could do such things now 

 as well as he used to. I laughed, and told him that he had suggested 

 the same idea to me the year before, and that he had had abundant 

 reason since to know that it was unfounded. ' True,' he said, ' true, 

 but I don't feel now as I did a year ago.' 



******* 



Mr. Ticknor writes : 



******* 



"After dinner, he gave me the protocol and papers on the fishery 

 question, and explaine'd to me how he had intended to complete the 

 unfinished argument. It struck me that it was logical and strong, 

 but I forget its precise form. He said, as he gave them to me, that 

 he wished I would read them carefully; and added: ' President Fill- 

 more thinks the protocol is as able as any thing I have done of late.' 

 I understood the intimation ; it was a misgiving as to the full strength 

 of his powers. The protocol was not of sufficient consequence, it 

 struck me, to settle that doubt ; but the beginning of the general argu- 

 ment, with the explanation of the manner in which he meant to carry 

 it on, left no hesitation in my mind, and, when I returned the papers, 

 I told him so. What I said (I do not remember the words I used) 

 was evidently not unwelcome to him. 



******* 



Mr. ^Webster to President Fillmore.\f\ 



Private & Confidential.] 



MARSHFIELD, Aug. 4, 1852. 



MY DEAR SIR: Enclosed you will find the draught of two Treaties, 

 prepared by Mr. Crampton and myself one respecting Oregon, and 

 one respecting Copy-right. I forward them in advance of my own 

 arrival; to the end that you may have the longest time for their con- 

 sideration. I think it very probable that you will be of opinion that, 

 in the embarrassed state of the business before Congress, it will be 

 hardly worth while to submit either of them to the Senate this Ses- 

 sion. Indeed, in regard to the Oregon Treaty, the draught differs so 

 far from Mr. Crampton's instructions, that he thinks it will be neces- 

 sary for him, before he signs it, to consult his Government. 



I have been informed of the flare-up in the Senate, yesterday re- 

 specting the Fisheries. I have very considerable alarm on this sub- 



[ Extract from " The Letters of Daniel Webster," by Van Tyne, pub. 1902.] 



