nothing. This week I am engaged with Mr. Edward Curtis and Mr. Coxe, on Mexican claims. They are both now here. Mr. Coxe has been to sea to-day, and caught a fish. Mr. Curtis and I have given the day tc work in the office. Last week we went on a visit of two days to Mr. Haven at Beverly, after Mr. Colt left us.' He was with us, to our great gratification, for nearly a week. Marshfield is green and beautiful. It has seen no such October since I knew it. But autumn is here. But autumn is here. Harvesting is in progress, the leaves are fading, and the year prepares for its closing I shall hardly be here much after next week. Caroline says you will be in Boston next Tuesday morning. Nothing happening, I will be there to receive you. Perhaps we will run down to Marshfield, for a day, to take the last look.

scenes.

Among my present occupations, one is the arrangement of a cemetery for my family. I do not find it disagreeable to dwell on thoughts connected with the end of life, and the gathering together those I have loved, and with whom I must, in God's due time, be associated again.

“I am, dear sir, with unabated regard and kindness, your friend,
"DANIEL WEBSTER."

1 Mr. Roswell Colt, of Paterson.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

1849-1850.

SECTIONAL

CONFLICT OF 1850-ITS CHARACTER AND CAUSESNORTHERN AND SOUTHERN FANATICISM ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY-ERRORS -ERRORS OF BOTH SECTIONSSECTIONS-THE PECULIAR PERILS OF THIS ERA-NATURE OF THE CRISIS-PRESIDENT TAYLOR'S PLAN FOR AVOIDING A SECTIONAL COLLISION-INTERVIEW BETWEEN MR. CLAY AND MR. WEBSTER MR. CLAY'S " COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS -MR. WEBSTER'S SPEECH OF THE 7TH OF MARCH-ITS ITS RECEPTION AT THE NORTH--HIS POSITIONS ASSAILED-HIS TRUE VINDICATION

MOTIVES AND -CONTROVERSIES

AND CRITICISMS-HOW HE WAS RECEIVED IN BOSTON-HIS EF

FORTS TO CARRY THE "COMPROMISE MEASURES -DEATH OF
PRESIDENT TAYLOR-MR.
-MR. WEBSTER BECOMES SECRETARY OF
STATE UNDER PRESIDENT FILLMORE-PASSAGE OF THE COM-
PROMISE MEASURES STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THE NORTH,
AND EXERTIONS TO CORRECT IT-THE LOPEZ EXPEDITION TO
CUBA DUTIES OF NEUTRALITY.

وو

THE

HE public events which had occurred during the period commencing with the acquisition of Texas, and ending with the close of the Mexican War, account for the fact that the year 1850 was to witness a great sectional conflict on the subject of slavery, which was not unlikely to rend the Union asunder. Viewed in the relation in which the Constitution regarded the so-called "institution" of slavery, there was nothing connected with it which ought to have produced any serious hazard to the peace and harmony of the country; for, so long as the spirit and intent of the Constitution should

continue to be faithfully observed by the two great sections of the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States, there could be no rational cause for anxiety to either of them.

The duty which a just regard for the Constitution imposed upon the South was, to refrain from efforts to increase its national political power in the interests of servitude; for such efforts could not be made without exciting angry opposition in the North. The correlative duty that rested upon the North was, to fulfil, exactly and literally, the stipulations by which the Constitution always intended to guard the individual rights of the master where the Constitution had recognized those rights as lawfully existing, and to refrain from all interference with a social relation which was under the exclusive control of a local sovereignty, whose independence, in this regard, was fully promised by the fundamental law of the land.

But these duties, plain and imperative as they were, were obscured to great numbers of people in the two sections, by the influence which their several acts and exertions produced upon each other.

It was easy for a Northern man to see that the slaveholding States ought to be content with the guaranties of the Constitution, and ought to refrain from seeking new defences for slavery by increasing its political power; but the same man did not see how his own denunciation of this peculiar social relation operated to lead the Southern people in quest of further sectional power as a means of defending themselves against unwarrantable interference. On the other hand, it was quite natural for a Southern slaveholder to perceive, with great distinctness, that the Constitution had secured to him a personal right of extradition of his fugitive slave, and to be indignant at any failure to comply with this obligation; but he did not see so clearly that, in insisting on extending the area of a social relation, elsewhere regarded as odious and morally wrong, he was only increasing a feeling at the North that found its expression in State laws which obstructed the exercise of his constitutional right, and at the same time fomented a popular spirit which practically denied its existence.

The relation of Mr. Webster to this whole subject cannot