CHAPTER XXXV. 1848-1849. RELATIONS WITH THE ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL TAYLORBEGINNING OF THE SECTIONAL CONFLICT IN REGARD TO THE NEW TERRITORIES-MR. WEBSTER'S VIEW OF THE COURSE PROPER TO BE PURSUED-DEBATES ON CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS -BUSINESS IN THE SUPREME COURT-DEATHS OF A GRANDCHILD AND OF MRS. THOMAS-VISIT TO VIRGINIA-RETURN TO MARSHFIELD-EXCURSIONS. THE election of General Taylor, as President of the United States, occurred in the month of November, 1848. What expectations Mr. Webster then formed concerning his own relations to the incoming Administration will be seen from the following letters, written from Boston before he went to attend the second session of the Thirtieth Congress. [TO MR. KETCHUM.] "BOSTON, November 22, 1848. "MY DEAR SIR: The sentiments of your letter concur, very fully in the main, with my own. My feelings are against office of any kind, at present; but I do not intend to commit myself, nor indeed to make up any opinion, on any subject, till the time comes. "In one respect, I think a suggestion of yours not very practicable. I could have little or no influence with an Administration of which I was not a member. Sometimes members of Congress obtain an influence with the Executive, by assiduity and importunity. These are not accordant with my habits. I could volunteer no advice; and in the course of things my advice would be seldom asked, notwithstanding that I might be on friendly terms with the President. He would naturally chiefly rely, either on himself, or those officially near him. He ought to do so. “The general result of my reflections, up to the present moment, is, that it will be most expedient for me to leave Congress at the end of the session, and attend to my own affairs. I hope to have half an hour's talk with you next week. "Yours truly, "DANIEL WEBSTER.' [TO MR. BLATCHFORD.] "BOSTON, December 5, 1848, Tuesday, Two o'clock. "MY DEAR SIR: I have yours of yesterday. I believe it is true that an effort is making here, for Mr. —, for the Treasury, but it is by only a few. Sensible men see the impropriety of it, considered in connection with the tariff question. "A friend has just said to me, 'The great question in State Street is, can Mr. Webster be prevailed upon to be Secretary of State? If so, that settles the question for New England.' My dear friend! I am old, and poor, and proud. All these things beckon me to retirement, to take care of myself and, as I cannot act the first part, to act none. That is exactly my feeling; without being pressed to say what I would or would not do, in case of the arising of an exigency, in which these who have been friendly, and are entitled to best regards from me, might think I could be of essential service. "I shall be in New York at the end of the week, with no power of stopping; I am under promise to the Supreme Court. "It is my expectation to be back here on professional business at Christmas. "We have no news to-day. If any to-morrow, I will let you know; but all the news here is through New York. "Yours, "D. W." Mr. Webster arrived in Washington on the 13th of December. As this was the period when the existing Administration was about to close, and a new one to come in, speculation of course was rife concerning the formation of General Taylor's Cabinet. The war with Mexico was over; and the questions brought upon the country, by the acquisitions of territory with which that war had ended, were now to be the great political questions of the time. The message of President Polk, at the opening of the session, distinctly admitted-what Mr. Webster had long since declared would be the result-that the acquisition of these territories had created " a domestic question which seriously threatens to disturb the harmony and successful operation of our system." It was claimed, in this message, that Congress ought not to legislate on the subject of slavery in those territories; but that, if such legislation was to be had, it ought to be based on a recognition of the right of citizens of slaveholding States to carry their slaves with them into territories acquired by the common blood and treasure of the whole Union; and that, as the best adjustment between this claim of right, on the one side, and its denial on the other, the line of the "Missouri Compromise" ought to be extended from the western boundary of Texas to the Pacific, which would leave the territories south of the parallel of 36° 30′ with power to become slaveholding States, if the inhabitants should so determine. Such was the attitude of the Administration then about to go out of office; and this course Congress was earnestly pressed in the message to adopt at its present session. Mr. Webster's position, at this time, was in a considerable degree an embarrassing one, because it was not known, when this question was thus precipitated upon Congress, what the character and course of General Taylor's Administration were to be in reference to this momentous subject. If an invitation had come from the President-elect to Mr. Webster, to enter his Cabinet, or if the advice of Mr. Webster had been sought by the friends of General Taylor at Washington, who were concerned in making the new arrangements, there would have been a plain indication that the policy of the Whig Administration, in regard to the new territories, was to be the reverse of that which had been announced by those who were soon to surrender the executive influence and power. But General Taylor remained in Louisiana for the present, and sent no message to Mr. Webster, nor was the latter consulted at all by his Whig associates who undertook to advise General Taylor respecting the formation of his Cabinet. Under these circumstances, it was clearly Mr. Webster's public duty, on the one hand, not to take any step which would prevent the new President from seeking his advice, when he should come to shape the policy of his Administration, if, on arriving in Washington, he should be inclined to do so. On the other hand, it was necessary for Mr. Webster, when obliged to act at the present session on the questions urged upon Congress by President Polk, to maintain the views and purposes which he had always avowed. In every form, and on every occasion, he had resisted the acquisition of new territory. But these territories had been acquired. What was now to be done, in his opinion, was, so to act on the questions to which this enlargement of the Union had given rise, as to prevent the demand for further increase in the number of slave States from bringing the harmony of the Union into peril, by a dangerous conflict of sectional interests and feelings. It is to be remembered that, at this time, although a great immigration into California had already begun, it was not foreseen that it would become a free State by the vol untary action of a majority of its inhabitants; nor that New Mexico would be a country unfitted for slave-labor. At the opening of this session of Congress it was supposed that both of these great regions might become slaveholding, and there was a struggle to make them such. Mr. Webster was of opinion, at this time, that the proper course to pursue was to authorize the President to take temporary possession of these territories as conquered countries, and to hold them under a military government, preserving the operation of their local laws, until the end of the next session of Congress, or until Territorial governments should be provided for them. In this way, he thought that time would develop a state of things which would render action in Congress upon the slavery question unnecessary, besides enabling Congress to see, more clearly than they could now do, how the Territorial gov ernments ought to be framed, and how the boundaries of New Mexico ought to be adjusted. With this explanation of the attitude of affairs at the commencement of the session, I now continue the series of Mr. Webster's private correspondence after his arrival at Washington. [TO MR. FRANKLIN HAVEN.] "WASHINGTON, December 17, 1848. "MY DEAR SIR: Nothing more is known here, I believe, of General Taylor's purposes respecting his Cabinet, than is known with you. It is generally supposed he will defer a final decision till he reaches the city. In the mean time, I think opinion here is settling down on two or three points, absolutely or contingently. I infer this from what I hear expressed in the circles of Congressmen. There seems a general readiness to concur in whatever may be necessary to make a respectable Administration. "I expect to leave Washington toward the end of the week, and to be in Boston on Christmas-day, or the day after. "Yours with very true regard, "DANIEL WEBSTER." TO MR. TICKNOR.] "WASHINGTON, LOUISIANA AVENUE, next the Unitarian Church. "December 21, 1848, Thursday Evening, alone, over a small wood-fire. } “MY DEAR SIR: I thank you for yours, which I received this morning. I remember that next Monday is Christmas; and I have an idea, not indistinct, of Park Street, four o'clock-certain ladies—a certain gentleman, and a good dinner. But pity me; here I am. A case is before the court, of some importance. "Mr. Ashmun spoke yesterday, all day, 'from morn till noon, from noon till dewy eve,' and dropped, etc., 'with the setting sun.’ "Mr. John Davis has occupied this whole day, and he has either not finished, or else, like the angel to whom enraptured Adam listened, though he has finished, he 'seems still speaking.' When I can persuade myself that he has really made an end, I have something to say. But my speech will be the be all and the end all here;' and I shall be off immediately by steamer, since I cannot take passage on the river. Meanwhile, I am, with affection for you and yours, "Mr. Ticknor.” [TO MR. BLATCHFORD.] “WASHINGTON, January 1, 1849. "A beautiful bright morning. The long twilight of such a morning is charming-the sun shining along beneath the horizon, showing his light a great while before he shows himself. As all is open before my southern and eastern windows, I gazed on his 'bright track' an hour this morning. The evening twilight of winter would be equally beautiful in fine weather, and more often seen, but the air is usually not clear enough toward evening. "My dear sir, I hardly think a 'certain event' so probable as Mr. Hall seems to regard it. In the first place, there will be 'cliques' opposed to it, formed by those who wish the principal control themselves. In the next place, allowing much good sense and magnanimity to the President-elect, he still knows that, if my opinion had prevailed, he would not have been nominated. Finally, it is likely he may be much influenced |