CHAPTER XI. 1824-1825. VISIT TO MR. JEFFERSON AND MR. MADISON-DEATH OF HIS SON CHARLES-ELECTION OF MR. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AS PRESIDENT-INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS-CRIMES ACT OF 1825-CORRESPONDENCE WITH J. EVELYN DENISON, ESQ.-FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION-JOURNEY TO NIAGARA. A FTER passing the summer of 1824 in the relaxation which he had promised himself, it was arranged in the autumn that Mr. Webster should make a visit to Mr. Jefferson at Monticello, in company with Mr. Ticknor, who had been invited by Mr. Jefferson to assist him in regulating the course of studies at the University of Virginia. Mr. Ticknor has furnished me with the following account of their journey, and the incidents of their visit to Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison: "Early in the autumn of 1824, I was one day dining with Mr. Webster at his own house, and talked about passing some time in Washington the next winter, as I had often done before. I told him that Mr. Jefferson had invited me to meet General Lafayette at Monticello, but that I did not think I should be able to do it. I thought, however, that, in the event of my going to Washington, I should endeavor, as Mrs. Ticknor would be with me, to take her to Mr. Jefferson's He said he should like to be of the party. I replied that if he were in earnest, and could afford the time for it, I could easily arrange matters so that it would be agreeable for him to go. He held out his hand and said, 'It is a bargain, if you say so.' "In consequence of this conversation, I wrote to Mr. Jefferson, intimating to him that Mr. Webster might visit Virginia with us. He answered immediately, under date of November 8th: 'Whether Mr. Webster comes with you, or alone as suits himself, he will be a welcome guest. His character, his talents and principles, entitle him to the favor and respect of all his fellow-citizens, and have long ago possessed him of mine.' "We left Washington on the 9th day of December, and went by steamboat to Fredericksburg Landing. At Fredericksburg, a friend had made all the arrangements necessary for the journey, and we set off the next morning in a carriage and four horses and a gig, all very slovenly, after the Virginia fashion. The roads were very bad. The landlord of the house where we dined dropped his knife and fork with astonishment, as he was carving a very nice turkey, when he understood that he was talking with Mr. Webster of Massachusetts; but he was nothing daunted, and they had a great argument upon the question of internal improvement, the Virginian confessing that if the power were not in the Constitution, he wished it was. We were to pass the night at a tavern kept by a Dr. Tyrrel, but the days were short and the roads detestable, and it was long after dark before we reached our destination. Mr. Webster was very amusing, telling stories to keep our spirits up, singing scraps of old songs, and making merry like a boy. Our accommodations for the night were bad enough, but before we went to bed we prepared a note for Mr. Madison, which was to be dispatched the next morning at daylight, and informed him of our intended visit, for which President Monroe had prepared him. At Orange Court-House, five miles from Dr. Tyrrel's, we met our messenger, who brought us a kind welcome from Mr. Madison, and who was accompanied by Mr. Madison's coachman, whom he had sent to show us the way-a needful providence, where proper roads were none and landmarks very few. "We were very hospitably received. Mr. Madison and Mr. Webster were old acquaintances, and evidently well pleased to see each other again. Mr. Madison talked well, and laid himself out to be agreeable to Mr. Webster. After a long and pleasant dinner, as we were going back to the saloon, Mr. Webster said to me, in an undertone, 'Stare hic;' for he was afraid I might say something of going away the next day; but I had no such intention. We did not talk that evening very late, for we were tired, and late hours were evidently not the habit of the family. The next morning (Sunday), after breakfast, Mr. Webster and I, accompanied by Mr. Todd,' took a ride on horseback of eight or ten miles. When we had passed beyond the limits of Mr. Madison's domain, the country looked pretty cheerless. We rode through woods and across fields, Mr. Webster making himself merry as he had the day before with wondering where 'Phil Barbour's constituents could be,' for this was Mr. Philip Barbour's district. Before we returned, however, we made a visit to Mrs. Barbour, to whom Mr. Webster gave an account of her husband, whom he had left in Washington, which visibly interested her. The dinner that day was as agreeable as the one the day before. Mr. Madison told many stories with Son of Mrs. Madison, by a former husband. much grace and effect. Mr. Webster was much interested in them, especially in those that had a political cast; for, though every thing of a party nature was avoided between persons whose opinions were so opposite, yet both were too much interested in the country and its history not to talk about its affairs. After we returned to Washington, Mr. Webster told me that he had been very much impressed by Mr. Madison's conversation, and that it had fully confirmed him in an opinion he had for some time entertained, that Mr. Madison was 'the wisest of our Presidents, except Washington.' "We spent two days at Mr. Madison's, and then went to Mr. Jefferson's, which, though only thirty-two miles off, proved a journey of more than one day. At Charlottesville, before we went up to Monticello, Mr. Webster received a letter which changed his appearance and manner the moment he had read it. It was from Mrs. Webster, and gave him bad news of his youngest child, little Charles, who was thought ill, but not dangerously so. The change was the more apparent from his having previously been so gay. Only the evening before, at Mrs. Clarke's tavern, he had said, 'that without intending any compliment to his companions, he would say that he had not felt so free from care and anxious thought, as he did then, for five years.' (I find this in a memorandum made at the time.) "We remained at Monticello four or five days, detained one day beyond our purpose by rains and the consequent swelling of the streams, which made travelling difficult in a country where bridges are rare. Mr. Jefferson had regular habits and fixed hours for every thing; but he was very attentive to Mr. Webster, and plainly liked to talk with him. Mr. Webster, on his part, was very respectful to Mr. Jefferson, and led him constantly to converse upon the doings of the old Congress and the period of the Revolution, on both which topics Mr. Jefferson was interesting and instructive. Mr. Webster enjoyed these conversations very much, and spoke of them afterward with great satisfaction. "One day, after dinner, Mr. Webster told a story of himself, which was characteristic of him, and amused Mr. Jefferson very much. Mr. Jefferson remarked that 'men not unfrequently obtained more credit for readiness in command of their knowledge, and indeed for its amount, than they deserved.' He said it had happened to himself. Mr. Webster replied that he supposed it had happened to most men, and especially to lawyers. He said that, soon after going to Portsmouth as a young lawyer, a blacksmith brought him a case under a will; he was unable to give him a decided answer, and desired him to call again. Having little to do, he went to work upon the case, and found it a difficult one. He went through all the books in his own little collection, that could give him any light, and then borrowed what he could find relating to the point in question, in the libraries of Mr. Jeremiah Mason, and of Mr. Peyton R. Freeman, a curious black-letter lawyer in Portsmouth. His client called for an opinion, but he was unable to give him one-he had only got far enough into the mat. ter to ascertain that the blacksmith's bequest was either a contingent remainder or an executory devise. He sent to Boston and bought Fearne's Essay on these two subjects, and other books, all together costing him fifty dollars. At last, after a month's hard work, and making out a very elaborate brief, he gave an opinion favorable to his client's claim, argued the case, won it, and received a fee of fifteen dollars; all that the amount in controversy would warrant him to charge. "Years passed by, and the blacksmith and his case had almost passed away also from his memory. At length, being in New York on his way to Washington, Mr. Aaron Burr sent him a note, saying that he wished to consult him on a legal question of some consequence. Mr. Webster gave him an appointment, and, when Mr. Burr began to explain his case to him, he said that he knew in a moment that it was his blacksmith's case over again. He, however, heard Mr. Burr quietly through, and then, with the blacksmith's brief full in his mind, began to reply. He cited a series of cases bearing on the point, and going back, if I remember rightly, to a leading one in the time of Charles II. Mr. Burr listened to him for some time, and then interrupted him somewhat suddenly, by asking him whether he had been consulted in that case before. 'He evidently suspected,' said Mr. Webster, 'that I must have been of counsel to the other side. I assured him that I did not know there was such a case or such parties in the world till he explained it to me.' Mr. Webster said that he subsequently gave Mr. Burr a written opinion on his case, and made him pay enough for it to cover all his work for the blacksmith and something moreover for Mr. Burr's suspicion that he had been of counsel for the opposite party. He added, ‘Mr. Burr, no doubt, thought me a much more learned lawyer than I was, and, under the circumstances of the case, I did not think it worth while to disabuse him of his good opinion of me.' "Mr. Jefferson, though then eighty-one years old, rode constantly on horseback in fine weather. One day we rode with him to Charlottesville, about four miles, to visit the buildings for his university, which had not yet gone into operation, but was soon to be opened. It was the last great interest of his life, and Mr. Webster took much pleasure in witnessing the beginning of the enterprise. He did not, however, fail to discover some of the defects of the system; he especially suggested to Mr. Jefferson that a project he had introduced into his laws for the university, to train the scholars in military exercises with guns made wholly of wood, because he did not think it safe to trust them with the usual fire-arms, would fail from the ridicule of the young men. It proved so. "Mr. Webster was impatient of our detention by the weather. He was very anxious to get news of his sick child, and could not hope for any letters till he should reach Washington. He wanted also to know what was going on in Congress; but Mr. Jefferson took no newspaper but the Richmond Enquirer. With the first fine weather, therefore, we descended the mountain. Several of the young gentlemen of the family accompanied us. On the banks of the Rivanna we found many wagons waiting to be ferried over; the stream was much swollen, and the passage difficult. Many had their turn before us, and, among the rest, a drove of pigs from Kentucky. The ferryman had but one person to assist him-an inefficient slave-they were both much exhausted, having been at work since daybreak. While we were crossing, Mr. Webster, in his usual cheerful manner, began to talk to the ferryman, who found it very difficult to stem the sudden turbulence of the stream. You find it hard work enough this morning, I think,' said Mr. Webster. 'Yes, sir,' said the boatman, 'it puts a man up to all he knows, I assure you.' An apt phrase, which amused Mr. Webster very much at the time, which he was constantly using on all occasions through the rest of the journey, and which he often introduced in speaking and writing in after-years. In this way it has become a common phrase in our part of the country, where few persons know its origin. "Of the rest of our journey back to Washington I remember nothing but that it was uncomfortable from the season of the year, and that Mr. Webster was depressed and anxious from the news he had received from home, and from what he feared he should receive." To this account, which was written by Mr. Ticknor since Mr. Webster's death, I have to add a memorandum of Mr. Jefferson's conversation, that was prepared by both these gentlemen at the time of their visit, and which remained private until it was included in the first volume of Mr. Webster's correspondence, published by Mr. Fletcher Webster in 1857. It was dictated partly by Mr. Webster and partly by Mr. Ticknor at the inn where they passed the first night after leaving Mr. Jefferson's, Mrs. Ticknor acting as amanuensis, and adding her recollections of Mr. Jefferson's conversation to those of the gentlemen.' This paper will be found in the appendix to the present volume.' I mention these facts, because the biographer of Mr. Jefferson has doubted the accuracy of Mr. Webster's account of some of Mr. Jefferson's remarks, especially those relating to Mr. Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. The facts are, that what was published in 1857, in Mr. Webster's correspondence as a "Memorandum of Mr. Jefferson's Conversation," was a very carefully-prepared paper, the result of the recollections of three persons, who assisted and corrected each other, and who composed the account immediately after leaving Mr. Jefferson's house. It was originally prepared for the purpose of preserving a private record of this most interesting visit; although it was doubt- 2 Post, D. |