ARGUMENT OF ELIHU BOOT. 2191 



ical events exercised in those localities might perhaps be able to 

 account for," that is to say, political exigencies; and the other that 

 the preparation of the notice was to be ascribed " to the excitement 

 induced by the disease, whose fatal termination he handsomely 

 laments." I would rather that he had given only the latter explana- 

 tion. I think it was the true explanation. Within a few weeks 

 after the publication of this extraordinary document, Mr. Webster 

 died. He was a very great man one of those rare men of power and 

 genius, surpassing ordinary men, who come in a century or two in a 

 country. He was an advocate of such power and cogency of reason- 

 ing that now, almost a century after they were delivered, his argu- 

 ments are cited at the bar, as are the decisions of the great judges 

 before whom he practised. He was a diplomatist of great wisdom 

 and courage. It was he who made with Lord Ashburton the most 

 important treaty that has ever been made to preserve peace between 

 Great Britain and the United States, in settling the boundaries, the 

 Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. He was a statesman of com- 

 manding influence in his country, and it was his voice more than 

 any other, more than all others altogether, that built up in the people 

 of the United States that sentiment of loyalty, of union, and of love 

 for freedom that in the great civil war enabled the north to determine, 

 by the issue of the sword, that our country should be free. His 

 influence over his country passed beyond that of any man, unless it 

 be the influence of Washington and of Lincoln. The boys of America 

 have all been thrilled with a kindlier feeling, and a quicker pride in 

 the ties of blood to the great empire that Webster described to them 

 the empire " whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keep- 

 ing company with the hours, encircles the earth with one unbroken 

 strain of the martial airs of England." Altogether he was the man of 

 his time, from whom was to be especially expected wisdom, judgment, 

 cogency of reasoning and effectiveness in maintaining the part of his 

 country in a discussion of this kind. Yet look at this paper ! We 

 must conclude that the fatal disease that took him from earth within 

 but a few short weeks was the origin of such an incoherent and insen- 

 sible document. 



I am indebted to this case for a kindlier feeling toward President 

 Fillmore, because of the kindly way in which he performed his duty, 

 of instantly setting right the erroneous impressions that might be de- 

 rived from this public document. It appears in the record that Mr. 

 Fillmore, on the day after the paper was published, had an inter- 

 view with the British Minister in which he stated authoritatively 

 what the position of the United States was, and that on the same day 

 he wrote a letter to Mr. Webster. The paper was published on the 

 19th July, and on the 20th July there was an interview between 

 Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Crampton that appears in the British Appen- 



