1:20 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



in my family, and listened to with as much interest 

 it had been a Waverley novel. I added, that we had 

 . in our domestic circle, spoken of his style as possess- 

 ing the simplicity and perspicuity of that of the Scriptures. 

 iid, he had always made it a rule neither to write or to 

 utter anything which a person of good intellect could not 

 understand ; and that, on an occasion when he, as chairman 

 of a committee, wrote a report, his colleague expressed his 

 surprise that he could understand every word of it ; and 

 this was even adduced as a proof that Mr. Webster could 

 not be the man he passed for, that everybody could 

 understand him. I told him, that, not being a political 

 man, I would take the liberty to say that I had approved, 

 and, in conversation, defended, his course on important 

 political occasions, when he had been censured, and even 

 abused, by some who called themselves his friends. The 

 first occasion was when the ministers of President Tyler 

 took oilciice. and all resigned, himself excepted.* " It was 

 obvious to me," I said, "that you remained in office in order 

 ttle the great boundary question ; you had recently 

 hern in Kngland, and personally knew the members of the 

 ; mm 'lit ; and it was no proof of vanity in you that you 

 \u-iv conscious that you could do on that occasion what no 

 other man could ; and evidently no man in our government 

 but vou could have induced Lord Ashburton to send home 

 lor nrw instructions to enable you to adjust the boundary 

 -ion, each party reciprocally relinquishing por- 

 of territory, instead of adhering literally to a boun- 

 dary which the physical features of the country could not 



you to define." I added: * In these cases 



you did ,-i^ht." He modestly replied: "I meant right." 



Alliidiu- to Trauce, which I had then recently visited, he 



that one important benefit had arisen from the French 



1'ilion. I'mler the old system the crown and the no- 



* XN ' - minister of the deceased President Harrison, whom 



ident, succeeded. 



