the influence of a false sentimentality, or borne away, by the puffs of a transcendental philosophy, into an atmosphere flickering between light and darkness. But that is not a malady of the great body. They remain of sound and disposing minds and memories. I am misled by authority which ought not to mislead, if it be not true that that great body approves the sentiments to which I have given utterance on the floor of the Senate.

Between Kentucky and Ohio complaints have arisen, occasionally, on the subject of fugitive slaves; but by no means to the extent which has been represented by the Abolition societies. Slaveholders in Kentucky complain of the difficulties which they encounter in reclaiming fugitives; and the people of Ohio complain, not of the execution of the act of Congress, and reclamations under it, but of the conduct of slaveholders, in coming into the State and taking and carrying back their slaves by force, and without legal process. The State of Ohio has had the discretion not to prohibit her officers and magistrates from performing the duties enjoined on them by the act of Congress. Such duties they perform when occasion requires; yet as they may be prohibited by the legislature, and as the Supreme Court has decided that it is in the power of Congress to make complete provision, by law, for the whole subject, and to give the power of executing such law to officers of the United States; and as the prohibitory acts of some of the States make an appropriate and suitable law of the United States indispensable, such law, if passed, would of course be general, and would comprehend Ohio with other States.

The act of 1793 gives a right of action to the owner of a fugitive slave against any person who shall harbor or conceal him. Such actions have been brought in Ohio, and 1 have heard an eminent judicial authority say, that he has found no more obstruction to the course of judicial proceedings in these cases than in others. Ohio juries try them with as much impartiality and calmness as they try other causes.

Gentlemen, from what I know of the subject, and of the public men and the people of those two States, I fully believe, that, if left entirely to them, a law might be passed perfectly satisfactory to every body except those whose business is agitation, and whose objects are any thing but the promotion of

peace, harmony, patriotic good-will, and the love of UNION among the people of the United States.

And now, Gentlemen, does not every sober-minded and patriotic man see the necessity, and feel the duty, of rebuking that spirit of faction and disunion, that spirit of discord and of crimination and recrimination, that spirit that loves angry controversy, and loves it, most especially, when evils are imaginary and dangers unreal, which has been so actively employed in doing mischief, and which, it is to be lamented, has received countenance and encouragement in quarters whence better things were looked for?

We are now near the close of the sixth month of the session of Congress. What important measure has been adopted for the advancement of the great interests of the country? For one, I hardly dare expect any progress in useful legislation, until a spirit shall prevail, both in Congress and the coun try, which shall look more to things important and real, and less to things ideal and abstract. That there are serious difficulties in our present condition, growing out of the acquisition of new territories, is certainly true. These difficulties were foreseen and foretold. An honest and earnest effort was made to

avoid and avert them. They are now upon us. But we CAN overcome them, and still remain a prosperous, happy, and UNITED people, if prudence and conciliation shall animate our public counsels, and a spirit of forbearance, moderation, and harmony spread over the land.

I am, Gentlemen, with entire regard, your obliged fellowcitizen, and obedient servant,

DANIEL WEBSTER.

To Dudley C. Hall, Esq., and others, Citizens of Medford, Mass. Washington, June 3, 1850.

GENTLEMEN,-I thank you for your letter of the 3d of May last, expressing satisfaction with the sentiments of my speech in the Senate on the great question which now divides the nation, and tendering your thanks for my services in strengthen ing and preserving our glorious Union.

Gentlemen, we have a country which we love, and of which

we are proud. We have a government under which that country has prospered, for sixty years, in a degree surpassing every thing which has been known in the history of mankind. And this government is founded on the union of the States; which union is established, defined, and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States. And, Gentlemen, I can conceive no rashness or folly greater than that which would either seek to overturn this Constitution, or, by unprincipled agitation, by heated local controversies, or angry mutual criminations and recriminations between different parts of the country, would effectually weaken the bonds which hold the Union together. It has been, it is, and it will be, my great object to preserve and strengthen the Union, to establish it deeper and stronger in the regard and affections of the people. I wish to see all the pow ers vested in the government by the Constitution administered with so much prudence, impartiality, and patriotism, that every State, and all the people of every State, should feel profoundly that the union of the States, as now existing, is honorable, useful, and indispensable to the prosperity of every part of the country. And with this purpose always uppermost in my mind and always filling my heart, I studiously avoid useless local controversies, useless abstract questions, and every thing else which unnecessarily exasperates, embitters, or wounds the feelings of any portion of the United States. I have no doubt, Gentlemen, that you and the great body of your fellow-citizens of Massachusetts approve these sentiments and opinions, and will sustain those who honestly act upon them. I have no fear that that great State, which has been among the first and foremost for UNION, from early Colonial times down to the present moment; I have no fear that that great State, which poured out her blood and her treasure like water in the Revolutionary struggle, and afterwards strained every nerve and every muscle for the establishment of the present Constitution; that State, which has enjoyed so fully and felt so sensibly the benefits derived from this united government; I have no fear, not the least, not a particle, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will ever expect from those with whom she has intrusted her interests in Congress any thing but uprightness and fairness, impartiality and justice, and a spirit that seeks rather to reconcile opposing interests and allay irritated feelings, than

to foment discord, or to sow or to cultivate the seeds of jealousy and disunion.

I am, Gentlemen, with entire regard, your obliged fellowcitizen and obedient servant,

DANIEL WEBSTER.

To G. W. Warren, Esq., Chairman of the Bunker Hill Committee. Washington, June 13, 1850.

GENTLEMEN, - You cannot doubt that it would afford me the utmost pleasure to be at Charlestown on the 17th instant, to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.

In addition to the great interest which the occasion itself must naturally excite, I confess I should be glad to have an opportunity of saying some words to so great an assembly of Massachusetts men as will undoubtedly meet together on that day at the foot of the monument. Those words would be few; but they would express what I think to be the duty of every Massachusetts man, and every true American, in the present crisis of the country; and they would proceed from a heart full of anxiety for the future, not the far distant future, but the immediate future, and from a spirit resolved, in the face of all perils, and careless of personal consequences, to make every practicable effort to uphold the CONSTITUTION, as it is, and the UNION, as it is; to defend them against all assault, open or covert; and to exert every faculty to persuade all honest and patriotic men, North and South, to stand between the assaults of extreme factions and the Constitution of their country, and stay the plague. But, Gentlemen, my public duties leave me no option. I must remain here.

I thank you, Gentlemen, for your civility and kindness, and remain, with true regard, your obedient servant,

DANIEL WEBSTER.

Bunker Hill Monument: May it crumble to the dust, before it shall look down upon a country dishonored, disgraced, and ruined by the breaking up, by sacrilegious hands, of that UNION which has secured its liberty, fostered its prosperity, and spread its glory and renown throughout the world.

To R. H. Gardiner, Esq., and others, Inhabitants of the Cities and Towns on the Kennebec River.

Washington, June 17, 1850. GENTLEMEN, Your friendly and acceptable letter has been duly received.

It is true, Gentlemen, that I have made an effort in the Senate "to allay the spirit of sectional strife, which has threatened the destruction of our Union"; and such efforts I shall continue to make, earnestly, and with whatever ability I possess, under a deep conviction that that "spirit of sectional strife," if not checked, will ere long drive the country into a lamentable and disastrous condition. It is exceedingly to be regretted, that any part of the public press in the State in which you reside, or elsewhere, should discourage, and, as it often does, denounce, all attempts at reconciliation and peace; and should contribute, by its daily effusions, to promote ill-will, resentment, and angry contests between the North and South. That all this is done by a portion of the press, both North and South, is but too true. The conductors of these presses would seem to have lost all sense of a common country, all sentiments of patriotism, unless there may be patriotism in those local feelings in which the great Father of his Country so affectionately admonished us never to indulge. That the conductors of these presses mistake the opinions of the people, to a very considerable extent, I doubt not; but while they are so active and so zealous, who can tell how far, or how fast, their sentiments may spread?

It is no longer to be doubted, that there are persons, both in the North and in the South, who are opposed to the existence of the present Constitution of the United States, and would gladly see it brought to an end. Some in both extremes openly avow this wish, and others conceal it under very thin disguises. Nevertheless, the great body of the people, North and South, are firmly attached to the Union; their hearts are for it, and with it, and they will defend it against all open attempts for its overthrow. This is my decided opinion. The Union, therefore, we may hope, will not be rudely broken up; but this spirit of sectional strife, if it be not effectually rebuked, will produce infinite mischiefs, by embarrassing the government, thwarting and defeating useful legislation, and giving increased