exchange. One of these courses became inevitable. The administration had no other choice. The State banks. could be no longer tried, with the opinion which the administration now entertained of them; and how else could any thing be done to maintain the currency? In no way but by the establishment of a national institution.

"There was no escape from this dilemma. One course was, to go back to that which the party had so much condemned; the other, to give up the whole duty, and leave the currency to its fate. Between these two, the administration found itself absolutely obliged to decide; and it has decided, and decided boldly. It has decided to surrender the duty, and abandon the Constitution. That decision is before us, in the message, and in the measures now under consideration. The choice has been made; and that choice, in my opinion, raises a question of the utmost importance to the people of this country, both for the present and all future time. That question is, Whether Congress has, or ought to have, any duty to perform, in relation to the currency of the country, beyond the mere regulation of the gold and silver."

During the regular session of 1837-38 Mr. Webster again came in conflict with the potent champion of South Carolina, Mr. Calhoun. The latter introduced a series of resolutions in the Senate, the purport of which was to condemn any interference by Congress with the institution of slavery in the District of Columbia; and to assert that the intermeddling of any State or its citizens with slavery either in that District or in any of the Territories, on the ground that it was immoral or sinful, would be a direct attack on the rights and institutions of all the slaveholding States. Mr. Clay offered an amendment to the resolution of Mr. Calhoun which added that such interference would be in effect a violation of the faith implied and pledged to

the States of Virginia and Maryland when they ceded the territory of the District to the General Government. Both of these propositions Mr. Webster opposed in the Senate, and held that Congress possessed the constitutional right to abolish slavery in the District, and that in this respect the powers of Congress were unlimited and unrestricted. In the preceding March he had presented several petitions praying for the abolition of slavery in the District, and had then expressly asserted the power of Congress over slavery in the District. On the present occasion, after the debate had progressed during some days, he delivered one of his most powerful arguments in support of his opinions, and in reply to a great effort made by Mr. Clay on the opposite side of the question. This speech deserves to rank among his acknowledged masterpieces.

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Webster's Visit to England-Election of General Harrison to the Presidency-His Death-Accession of Mr. Tyler-The "Treaty of Washington"-Its Various Provisions-Ability displayed by Mr. Webster as a Diplomatist-Approval of the Treaty by Congress and the Executive-Impressment”—Great Oration of Mr. Webster in Faneuil Hall-Extract from the Speech-Hostility of C. J. Ingersoll to Mr. Webster-Mr. Webster's Retort upon him.

IN the spring of 1839 Mr. Webster gratified his very natural desire of seeing the Old World, and of enjoying the pleasures and vicissitudes of travel, by making a voyage to Europe. During the summer of that year he visited a large portion of England, Scotland and France. As may readily be supposed, his fame as the first and greatest of American orators and statesmen had preceded him, and he was greeted with applause and a hearty welcome. wherever he went. Among the public festivals which he attended by invitation was the First Triennial Celebration of the Royal Agricultural Society at Oxford. He received many invitations to proffered hospitality from the most distinguished and cultivated personages in England. No American traveller had ever been honored with greater marks of consideration in that country than was he. During his tour he paid special attention to the agriculture and the currency of England, as well as its commerce and manufactures. Having at length returned home, he is said to have declared, with patriotic pride and pleasure, that he was more of an American than ever; and that he entertained a higher estimate than before of his country's real greatness and glory.

In 1840 General Harrison was elected to the Presidency; and that venerable hero, as one of his first official acts, tendered to Mr. Webster the choice of a place in his Cabinet. The President desired that he would select the Secretaryship of the Treasury; but Mr. Webster, for various satisfactory reasons, chose the Secretaryship of State and the control of foreign affairs. He was led to prefer this post inasmuch as he believed that he could be more useful to the country therein, in settling several important and difficult questions which at that time were litigated between the United States and Great Britain. He accordingly assumed the duties of the office; and the first question of grave difficulty which engaged his attention was the adjusting of the boundary-line between the northern limit of the Confederacy and Canada.

In the summer of 1841, Mr. Webster received the permission of Mr. Tyler, who had succeeded General Harrison in the Presidency, in consequence of the death of the latter, to address a note to Mr. Fox, in which he informed. him that the United States Government were prepared and willing to commence negotiations for the purpose of settling all the disputes existing between it and the English Government. Soon afterward Sir Robert Peel became British Premier, and Lord Aberdeen, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, immediately informed Mr. Everett, American minister at the Court of St. James, that the Government of England had resolved to despatch Lord Ashburton as a special minister to the United States to confer with Mr. Webster in the settlement of all existing or apprehended difficulties between the two Governments. Lord Ashburton arrived at Washington on the 6th of April, 1842; and Mr. Webster sent a communication to the Governors of Maine and Massachusetts, informing them of the arrival of the British plenipotentiary, and requesting them to ap

point commissioners to assist in settling the disputed matter of the Northern boundary. The Executives of those two States immediately complied with the suggestion of Mr. Webster, and the commissioners selected by them arrived in the Federal capital in June, 1842. The northeastern, northwestern, and much of the intervening portions of the line which separated the territorial possessions of the two countries had never been really determined. From New Brunswick to the distant Pacific coast, disputed territories of vast extent were claimed by both nations, upon some of which American citizens had located and rights had been already vested, on the supposition that the soil was under the jurisdiction of their native Government; and in other places settlements had been made by British subjects under a similar impression. The question of settlement had become intricate; and the adjustment of it was a task of great delicacy and difficulty.

After four months of incessant labor, a treaty was agreed upon, familiarly known in American history as the "Ashburton treaty," but technically and properly termed the "Treaty of Washington," by which this point and several others were judiciously settled. This treaty definitely fixed the boundary between the United States and the British possessions in North America along the whole line from Nova Scotia to the St. Lawrence River, thence along that river and through the great chain of lakes to the head-waters of Lake Superior, and thence over a vast area four thousand miles in extent, over mountains and primeval forests and pathless plains, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Another question which engaged the attention of the diplomatists on this occasion was the African slave-trade, which had been pronounced piracy by both Governments. England had adopted the policy of declaring those slaves