324 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



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 explanation. I think it was the true explanation. Within 

 a few weeks after the pubUcation 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 reasoning that now, almost a century after they 

 were delivered, his arguments are cited at the bar, as are the 

 decisions of the great judges before whom he practiced. 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 setthng the boundaries, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty 

 of 1842, He was a statesman of commanding influence in his 

 coimtry, 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 influ- 

 ence of Washington and of Lincoln. The boys of America have 

 all been thrilled with a kindUer feeUng 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 

 keeping 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 main- 

 taining 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 insensible 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 



