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with far more pleasure, that, whilst at the head of the State Department, you watched with fidelity over other sections of the Union; that the South was not neglected, but her interests and her rights found in you an able and impartial vindicator; that you made, amongst other public services, great and successful efforts to preserve our relations in peace and harmony with the most free and powerful nation of the Old World; and that, while you served the general cause of humanity and civilization in so doing, you at the same time sustained the honor and promoted the best interests of our common country. They remember, too, that Massachusetts also is one of the Old Thirteen, that she was the leader in the struggles of the Revolution, and that, amid its common trials and dangers, she, with our own State, won our common heritage of freedom and a common stock of glory. They feel, also, that, in these grateful reminiscences, we should be bound up in a common love for each other, and in an unalterable determination to honor, maintain, and respect the rights, welfare, and feelings of each. They hope to see these tendencies cherished and these ties strengthened. Events, like this now transpiring with us, conduce happily to such results. The influence of public men is a powerful agency, and it is very much to be regretted, that, of American statesmen, whose enlarged and liberal minds make their opinions authority, and best qualify them to understand their character and to do them justice in their own, so few travel into other sections, and make themselves personally acquainted with and known to their distant countrymen. In such intercourse, and in the interchange of courtesies and opinions, prejudices disappear, misjudgments are corrected, and a just appreciation of each other created, leading to cordiality in feeling, harmony in public measures, and eminently conducing to their common prosperity and welfare.

"Entertaining these views, our constituents heard of the intention and objects of your visit to the South with unmixed satisfaction. "They are happy in the opportunity of expressing these sentiments to you, Sir, especially. They welcome you with the frankness and cordiality due to your high station, to your representative character, and to your eminent abilities. And they will not, on this occasion, withhold the expression of hopes which they warmly cherish, that Massachusetts will see, in all she does, that, while South Carolina may not forbear the maintenance of her own rights with decision, she still entertains for your State all the kindness and affection due to a sister, illustrious for her great virtues, her great men, and her great achievements. For yourself, and as her representative, again, Sir, we bid you a cordial wel come to South Carolina and to Charleston."

To this address Mr. Webster returned the following reply.

GENTLEMEN,It would be an act of as great violence to my own feelings, as of injustice and ingratitude to the hospitality of the citizens of Charleston, if I should fail to express my cordial thanks for the welcome you give me in their behalf, and to reciprocate, to you and to them, my sincere respect and good wishes.

You are quite right, Gentlemen, in supposing that my purpose, in undertaking the tour which has brought me into the midst of you, is to see the country, and the people of the country, and to obtain a better and fuller knowledge of both. Hitherto, I have not been a visitor so far south; and I was unwilling, quite unwilling, to be longer a stranger, personally, in the Southern States. The citizens of Charleston do me an honor, which I most deeply feel, when they say, through you, that they have satisfaction in meeting me at their own homes, and wish to render my visit agreeable. When one is made welcome to the homes of Charleston, I am quite aware that the warmth of hospitality can go no further.

Undoubtedly, Gentlemen, differences of opinion on many subjects exist between your fellow-citizens and myself, and be tween South Carolina and Massachusetts. But how poor must be that spirit, a spirit which I am sure prevails neither here nor in Massachusetts, which out of these differences would extract cause of social alienation or personal disrespect! What would be the value of our political institutions, if men might not differ on public questions, without sacrificing mutual esteem or destroying the sense of common brotherhood? We have diverse political sentiments, but we have but one country. We may differ as to the best manner of serving and honoring that country, but we agree that she is to be served by all to the utmost of their power, and honored by all with filial reverence and patriotic devotion. If we do not always think alike, we all feel alike. We feel that much of the individual happiness, as well as the national renown, which belongs to us now, or may belong to us hereafter, does and will attach to us as the undivided, and I hope always the indivisible, members of the great American republic.

I am happy, Gentlemen, if you think that, while discharging the duties of Secretary of State, I paid just regard to the protection of Southern interests. In my judgment, those interests,

important in themselves, were connected with grave questions of public law, questions touching the immunity of flags, and the independence and equality of nations upon the ocean. To the magnitude of these questions I could not be insensible. It is true that they commanded my utmost attention; and if the result has been greater freedom from annoyance, more security for maritime rights, and a general advance in the maintenance of peace and the friendly intercourse of nations, I am bound to ascribe this result rather to the concurrence of fortunate circumstances, and to the encouragement and support of others, than to any ability displayed in my efforts.

I concur with you cordially, Gentlemen, in the sentiment, that mutual intercourse strengthens mutual regard; and that the more citizens of different parts of the country see of one another, the more will asperities be softened, and differences reconciled. I may undertake to say, for Massachusetts, that she is ready, at all times, to meet and to return the respect and the hospitality of South Carolina; and that she remembers ancient ties of union and fraternity; that she acknowledges a common interest, and a common fate, in a common country; that there is nowhere a juster or a higher appreciation of the men, or the deeds, of this her sister State; and nowhere the prevalence of more earnest wishes for whatever may advance her prosperity and distinction.

Gentlemen, I come among you, with my family, as travellers, but not feeling that we are entirely strangers. I wish to attract no ostentatious notice, but desire only to be regarded as a fellowcountryman and a fellow-citizen, and to see the country and the people without formality or constraint.

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Thanking you, and the citizens of Charleston, again, for the cordial welcome extended to me, it remains that I offer you, Gentlemen, personally, the assurance of my high regard; and to this concourse of your fellow-citizens, which now surrounds us, and whose assembling together, on this occasion, I regard as so respectful, and so imperatively demanding my grateful acknowledgments, I must tender my sincere respects.

Citizens of Charleston! I am happy to regard you as countrymen. We are born to the same inheritance, won by the same

patriotism and the same valor. New England blood has moistened the soil where we now stand, shed as readily as at Lexington, or Concord, or Bunker Hill. May it prove a durable cement of the union of our respective States! And may many generations, now far off, find themselves, when they arrive, as we now find ourselves, a free, respectable, united, and prosperous community! I pray you, Gentlemen, accept my sincere good wishes for you all.

32*

DINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY.*

On the 8th of May a public dinner was given to Mr. Webster, in St. Andrew's Hall, by the New England Society. In the lamented absence, caused by indisposition, of the venerable President, Doddridge Crocker, Esq., the chair was occupied by A. S. Willington, Esq., Vice-President. The entertainment was attended by a large company, consisting of members of the Society, and of the most distinguished citizens of Charleston and the vicinity, present by invitation. After a toast from the chair in honor of Massachusetts and South Carolina, Hon. B. F. Hunt, one of the Vice-Presidents of the day, spoke as fol lows:

"MR. PRESIDEnt, - As our Society dispenses with the usual formali ties of a set occasion, and is determined to receive our guest as an old family friend and connection, whom we have found journeying through the land of our adoption, I shall take leave to invite your at tention to a few observations, after which I shall propose a toast.

"Our experience authorizes us to assure him, that he will return to his own New England farm more attached than ever to that Constitution which, we trust, is destined, through all time to come, to bind together all parts of our country in one great and glorious republic; each State governing its own internal affairs, which practical experience enables it to do wisely, while the federal government is left free to manage our national concerns.

"We hail with pleasure the interchange of unofficial and social intercourse by the statesmen of the different quarters of the country. It cannot fail to wear away that distrust which is prone to render strangers distant and suspicious, and I may add selfish, in their conduct of affairs.

"We believe that the more Americans see and know of each other at

* Abridged from the Charleston Courier of the 10th of May, 1847.

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