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an external profession of religion, a simple oath of allegiance to the commonwealth and of a purpose to serve the state with fidelity and integrity was all that should afterwards be required as a religious qualification for any office. In defense of this new principle, he made a brief but characteristic speech, in which he expressly concedes the right which the people have, if they see fit, to affix any qualification, religious or otherwise, as a test of office; but, at the same time, he argues against the expediency of any such test, particularly in Massachusetts, where the general sentiment of the people is favorable to christianity. He thinks, however, that some recognition of the christian religion ought to be comprised within the constitution of the state; and he is the more willing to dispense with the test oath, because in the new instrument there is retained a passage, which makes the strongest acknowledgment of the providence of God and the blessings of his revealed word. "I be lieve I have stated," says Mr. Webster, in the conclusion of his speech, "the substance of the reasons which appeared to have weight with the committee. For my own part, finding this declaration in the constitution, and hearing of no practical evil resulting from it, I should have been willing to retain it, unless considerable objection had been made to it. If others were satisfied with it, I should be. I do not consider it, however, essential to retain it, as there is another part of the constitution which recognizes, in the fullest manner, the benefits which civil society derives from those christian institutions which cherish piety, morality, and religion. I am clearly of opinion, that we should not strike out of the constitution all recognition of the christian religion. I am desirous, in so solemn a transaction as the establishment of a constitution, that we should keep in it an expression of our respect and attachment to christianity-not, indeed, to any of its peculiar forms, but to its general principles."

While & member of this convention, Mr. Webster delivered another speech, on the Basis of the Senate, which has been

made the foundation of a charge, long retained and frequently repeated, against his political reputation. It is the charge, that, at this time, and in this critical business, he gravely advocated the propriety of making property the basis of representation. This charge is without foundation. It has been urged chiefly by newspaper politicians, who, perhaps, never read the speech which was made the ground of the charge. It has been made, and urged, and repeated by men, who had no great amount of discrimination, or who did not intend to give a perfectly fair account of Mr. Webster. The truth is, in fact, not that Mr. Webster would have made property the basis of representation in Massachusetts, but that he thought it wise to make it a basis that property should be respected as well as persons— in the constitution of a mixed government, where persons and property are the objects of all legislation, and where property has to pay for the protection which the government gives to persons. The doctrine he advocated was only the doctrine of the Revolution, that representation and taxation should always go together. This principle, however, he did not wish to apply to representation in general, but only to the constitution of the senate, the senate of Massachusetts. As the house, according to other provisions of the new constitution, was to be the popular branch, representing the people as persons, he thought it expedient that the senate should represent the same people as holders of property, that both property and persons might be represented, and thus effect a balance between the two great interests which are known as the exclusive topics in all governments, in all jurisprudence, in all legislation. He thought with Aristotle, with Bacon, with Sir Walter Raleigh, with Montesquieu, with Harrington, whom the fathers of the nation most admired, most read, most trusted, not that the property of the rich only should be acknowledged as an existing fact in a free government, but that all the property of the commonwealth, the poor man's shilling as much as the land

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lord's acre, should be recognized, respected and represented somewhere; and, in the case before him, and for the reason just mentioned, he thought that that recognition, respect and representation could, with the greatest propriety, be permitted to exist in the senate.

It was while Mr. Webster was a member of the constitutional convention of Massachusetts, that he was called upon by the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth, to deliver an address on the occurrence of the centennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. The invitation was an honorable but merited distinction for Mr. Webster. If the reader will remember how many and what able men, eloquent men, men able and eloquent in the highest stations, were then living in New En gland, and even in Massachusetts, he will see how great an honor it was to a young man, then but thirty-eight years of age, to be summoned from the midst of his superiors in age and office to this high duty. Massachusetts had no festivar, as she has none now, comparable with this for the hold it has upon the sympathies of the people. It is a festival, too, of the whole nation. All Americans turn to it, and turn to the ever memorable day, the 22d of December, as the birth-day, not of one republic, but of a continent of republics. Where was the man, who, with fitting character, dignity and eloquence, could stand up and represent Massachusetts, represent New England, represent every state in the union, and do them all honor in the service? It was a young man, the son of a New England farmer, who, but a few years before, had been keeping an academy in an obscure village, that he might assist a brother and pay up the expense of his own education. But it was Daniel Webster. In that name, even then, after all that had been seen of him, and heard from his lips, there was a confidence that would have trusted him anywhere, on any emergency, on the most august occasion. Well did he answer to that confi dence. Nobly did he meet the expectations of his friends

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and the demands of every American. The address then deliv ered needs no comment. No extract will do it justice. No extract is needed. Americans, even the children of our schools, know it by heart. "The felicity and spirit," says his friend, Mr. Everett, "with which its descriptive portions are executed; the affecting tribute which it pays to the memory of the Pilgrims; the masterly exposition and analysis of those institutions to which the prosperity of New England, under Providence, is owing; the eloquent inculcation of those great principles of republicanism on which our American common. wealths are founded; the instructive survey of the past, the sublime anticipations of the future of America, have long since given this discourse a classical celebrity. Several of its soulstirring passages have become as household words throughout the country. They are among the most favorite extracts contained in the school-books. An entire generation of young men have derived from this noble performance some of their first lessons in the true principles of American republicanism. It obtained at once a wide circulation throughout the country, and gave to Mr. Webster a posititon among the popular writers and speakers of the United States scarcely below that which he had already attained as a lawyer and statesman. It is doubted whether any extra professional literary effort, by a public man, has attained equal celebrity." The reader should remember, as he reads this judgment, that it is Edward Everett, himself equal to any living American in the same department, who awards it.

The next legal case, that claimed the attention of Mr. Webster, was that of James Prescott, judge of probate of the county of Middlesex, who was tried on an impeachment before the senate of Massachusetts. The defense set up, and the speech delivered by Mr. Webster, can be referred to as being precisely what the case demanded. This was a peculiarity of the great advocate. He always met the occasion. He met it fully

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but exactly. He never tried to outdo the demand of his case for the sake of his reputation. There was no excess of learning no striking of heavy blows merely to show that he could strike them, no indulgence of the low vanity of the mere barrister, but everything that could, in any way, help his client. His expertness as a manager of a trial, and his sagacity as a speaker, in getting hold of any accidental fact, or circumstance, that could aid him in his work, were exhibited to good advantage in this defense. The concluding paragraphs of his peroration may be quoted as a fair specimen of his power of appeal to the highest sentiments and noblest feelings of a tribunal:

“Mr. President, the case is closed. The fate of the respondent is in your hands. It is for you now to say, whether, from the law and the facts as they have appeared before you, you will proceed to disgrace and disfranchise him. If your duty calls on you to convict him, let justice be done, and convict him; but, I adjure you, let it be a clear, undoubted case. Let it be so for his sake, for you are robbing him of that for which, with all your high powers, you can yield him no compensation; let it be so for your own sakes, for the responsibility of this day's judgment is one which you must carry with you through life. For myself, I am willing here to relinquish the character of an advocate, and to express opinions by which I am prepared to be bound as a citizen and a man. And I say upon my honor and conscience, that I see not how, with the law and constitution for your guides, you can pronounce the respondent guilty. I declare that I have seen no case of wilful and corrupt official misconduct, set forth according to the requisitions of the constitution, and proved according to the common rules of evidence. I see many things imprudent and ill-judged; many things that I could wish had been otherwise; but corruption and crime I do

not sce.

"Sir, the prejudices of the day will soon be forgotten; the passions, if any there be, which have excited or favored this