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to exist under the conditions specified, it was relieved from the necessity of redeeming its notes in specie; in other words, it was an arrangement to issue an irredeemable paper currency. During the greater part of the year 1815, Mr. Webster was busily engaged in the practice of law. Though he had his share of employment in New Hampshire, it did not furnish an adequate support for his increasing family. The destruction of his house, furniture, and library, with many of his manuscripts, by the great fire at Portsmouth, in December, 1813, rendered his exertions necessary in order to meet his increasing expenses. In the Fourteenth Congress, he was instrumental in procuring the passage of a resolution which restored to a sound basis the currency of the country.

That Mr. Webster is entitled to rank with the greatest orators either of ancient or modern times, will never be successfully dis puted. His speech in reply to Mr. Hayne, delivered in the Senate chamber of the United States, January 26, 1830, is generally considered as his greatest effort. The accounts which writers have given of the eloquence of Demosthenes, Cicero, Sheridan, Phillips, Henry, and Ames, were stripped of their seeming extravagance; and the wonderful and soul-subduing effects of their oratory were again renewed. "Of the effectiveness of Mr. Webster's manner in many parts," says Mr. Everett, "it is impossible to give any one not present the faintest idea. It has been my fortune to hear some of the ablest speeches of the greatest living orators on both sides of the water, but I must confess I never heard any thing which so completely realized my conception of what Demosthenes was when he delivered the Oration for the Crown."

S he went through the magnificent peroration, his countenance glowed as if he were inspired. His voice, exerted to its utmost power, penetrates every recess of the Senate, and even the ante-rooms and stairways, as he pronounces, in deepest tones of pathos, these words of solemn significance: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining upon the broken and dishonoured fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honoured throughout the earth, still full

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high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first and Union afterwards; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every American heart-LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE!"

The last words of the lamented Webster are contained in the exclamation," I still live!" In their noblest sense, how emphatic are these words! how forcible, how eloquent, how impressive, and how true! Yes, indeed, he still lives, the mightiest of our mighty intellects!-lives in the glowing words of his own immortal pages -lives, and will live, in the gratitude and admiration of mankind to the latest generations! Clay, Calhoun, Webster-immortal and glorious triumvirate! worthy of being named with Chatham, Cicero, and Demosthenes-your eloquent voices are hushed in death; but the memory and benefits of your services and patriotism "still live," and, let us hope, will live forever.

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HE approaching expiration of Mr. Fillmore's term of service turned the attention of the people to the election of his successor, and induced a preparation for one of those periodical exercises of popular power which form the distinguishing features of

this free and happy republic. The first nomination of a candidate was made by the democratic party, assembled in national convention at Baltimore, in June, 1852. It was with great difficulty, and after a protracted session, that a candidate could be agreed upon, in consequence of the number of prominent statesmen whose names were presented, and whose pretensions were adhered to with great tenacity by their respective supporters. Among them were Lewis Cass, of Michigan, William L. Marcy, of New York, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, General Butler, of Kentucky, and General Houston, of Texas-all men of great ability and experience, and of undoubted fidelity to the party; men, too, some of whom had conferred distinguished honor on the American name abroad by their brilliant diplomacy, and at home had acquired a high national repu

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tation by their civil and military services. Being unable to unite upon either of these, it was finally found advisable to take up a new name, and, on the forty-ninth ballot, a very nearly unanimous selection was made in the person of General FRANKLIN PIERCE, of New Hampshire-the ballots being 283 for Pierce, 1 for Marcy, 2 for Buchanan, and 2 for Cass. With much greater facility, Col. Wм. R. KING, of Alabama, formerly U. S. Senator from that State, and at the time Acting-President of the U. S. Senate, was selected as the candidate for Vice-President.

HE Whig Convention followed shortly after, in the same month, in Baltimore, and experienced similar difficulty in arriving at a choice of a candidate. The wishes of a large majority of the party were very nearly divided between a re-nomination of Mr. Fillmore and the selection of Gen. Winfield Scott; while a small portion of the delegates favoured the nomination of Mr. Webster. On the fifty-third ballot, the choice, by a small majority of votes, fell upon General SCOTT; and Wм. A. GRAHAM, of North Carolina, was nominated for the VicePresidency.

The Free-Soil party put forth, as their presidential candidate, the Hon. JOHN P. HALE, of New Hampshire, and the ultra Anti-Slavery party also organized under distinct leaders.

Thus marshalled, the various parties engaged in the political contest. After an animated canvass, the election was held simultaneously in every State of the Union, on Tuesday, the 2d day of November, and resulted in favour of the democratic candidates. The electoral college consisted of 296 members, of which 254 were for Franklin Pierce, and 42 for Winfield Scott. By States, Gen. Pierce received the votes of 27 States, and Gen. Scott of 4. No more decisive election has been held in this country of late years. second election of Gen. Jackson, in 1832, and the election of Gen. Harrison, in 1840, are the nearest approaches to it in point of unanimity.

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Not long before his inauguration, the family of the President elect was called upon to submit to a most awful and heart-rending dispensation of Providence. By one of those fearful railroad accidents, of late quite too common in this country, they were summoned to weep over the remains of a beloved son, a youth of the most promising talents, and, for many reasons, an object of particular affection. The

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people throughout the Union, and others elsewhere, were deeply affected by this event, and shared sincerely in the sorrows of the afflicted family.

T is perhaps unnecessary to attempt an analysis of the differences which existed between the two leading parties of the country at this time, or of the causes which led to the political result just recorded. Really, there would seem to have been few questions at issue leading to partisan division or calling for partisan support. On the question of the compromise measures, so called, including the Fugitive Slave Law, intended as a settlement of the late sectional disputes

which agitated the country, both parties were agreed, and so distinctly set forth in their respective resolutions, or "platforms," adopted in convention. Indeed, adherence to these measures was considered a sine qua non of successful political action, and no candidate could have received a nomination from either party who was known to be opposed to them. The Bank and Tariff issues, the former long "obsolete," and the latter practically useless, as public opinion ran, no longer entered into the canvass; or the latter, if at all, to a very limited degree. On the subject of Internal Improvements, the old party landmarks were still perceptible, it is true; but there was little or no effort to make political capital out of this question. Even on the score of military popularity, which heretofore is supposed to have exercised a preponderating influence in favour of particular candidates, both parties were very nearly matched-each candidate being possessed of a military reputation; the advantage indeed being with the candidate of the party which was destined to defeat, whose military laurels had been long worn, having been won in many a hard-fought battle and brilliant achievement in the service of his country. The election, in its result, seems rather to have been determined by other causes than these. Popular dissatisfaction with the policy of the existing whig administration in regard to the foreign relations of the country-prejudice created by an alleged prodigality in the use of the public funds, and indiscretion in the allowance of doubtful claims-together with that periodical desire of change which to a marked degree affects the popular mind, and characterizes our national elections; these, with other causes even less directly related to the usual political issues, appear to have led to the success of the democratic party. Whatever of justice there

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