APPENDIX TO WEBSTER.

APPENDIX A.

To illustrate the influence of natural scenery blending with early associations upon the formation of character, I may cite the following beautiful passage from a Discourse by Dr. W. E. Channing, delivered at the dedication of a Church in Newport, his native place, in 1836. The writer's experience could be easily confirmed by that of multitudes whose names have become historic.

"On looking back to my early years, I can distinctly recollect unhappy influences exerted on my mind by the general tone of religion in this town. I can recollect, too, a corruption of morals among those of my own age, which made boyhood a critical, perilous season. Still, I may bless God for the place of my nativity; for as my mind unfolded, I became more and more alive to the beautiful scenery, which now attracts strangers to our island. My first liberty was used in roaming over the neighboring fields and shores; and amid this glorious nature, that love of liberty sprang up which has gained strength within me to this hour. I early received impressions of the great and the beautiful, which I believe have had no small influence in determining my modes of thought and habits of life. In this town I pursued for a time my studies of theology. I had no professor or teacher to guide me; but I had two noble places

of study. One was yonder beautiful edifice, now so frequented and so useful as a public library, then so deserted, that I spent day after day and sometimes week after week amidst its dusty volumes, without interruption from a single visitor. The other place was yonder beach, the roar of which has so often mingled with the worship of this place, my daily resort, dear to me in the sunshine, still more attractive in the storm. Seldom do I visit it now without thinking of the work which there, in the sight of that beauty, in the sound of those waves, was carried on in my soul. No spot on earth has helped to form me so much as that beach. There I lifted up my voice in praise amidst the tempest. There, softened by beauty, I poured out my thanksgiving and contrite confessions. There, in reverential sympathy with the mighty power around me, I became conscious of power within. There, struggling thoughts and emotions broke forth, as if moved to utterance by nature's eloquence of the winds and waves. There began a happiness surpassing all worldly pleasures, all gifts of fortune, the happiness of communing with the works of God. Pardon me this reference to myself. I believe that the worship of which I have this day spoken was aided in my own soul by the scenes in which my early life was passed. Amidst these scenes, and in speaking of this worship, allow me to thank God that this beautiful island was the place of my birth."

APPENDIX B.

I MUST here disclaim the advocacy, in any sense, of the Fugitive Slave Law in the abstract. A law, recognised by the

66 'powers that be," and found in the Constitution, the highest authority of all, may be submitted to from a sentiment of loyalty to the government, without being to the citizen necessarily an object of idolatry or blind admiration. I have no sympathy with the law itself. I deplore the necessity that gave it birth, and the imperious circumstances, at the formation of the Constitution, that demanded for it a place in that Charter. If I submit to the law, in faith and hope that the time may soon come for its just and orderly abrogation, and thus prefer present submission to the confusion and anarchy that must ensue from lawless resistance and rebellion, I trust that I violate no duty of the good citizen, but rather perform my duty in a spirit that He will not disown who paid, on His own and His disciples' behalf, a miracle-produced tribute into the coffers of a government which was anything but a just and righteous government to Him.

The charge of inconsistency and betrayal of freedom urged against Mr. Webster for his sentiments and course in relation to this law, is founded, I think, neither in justice nor truth. Making the Constitution the standard, I cannot discover, in his speech referred to, any abandonment of ground formerly taken by him, any broaching of novel doctrines, any interpretations of constitutional law, at variance with those put forth by him so authoritatively on other memorable occasions, much less any course of action dictated by the gross motives of personal ambition, of which he is so unsparingly accused.

I have made an allusion or two to the Rev. Mr. Parker's strictures on Mr. W., and will here submit a few further remarks on this subject. I am not insensible to the rare merit of Mr. Parker's "Discourse" as an intellectual performance, nor disposed to detract from the admiration due to those strong qualities which he

is sure to stamp on his more ambitious performances, investing them with interest and attraction, which secure them a large and attentive audience, and which have given the one in question a great circulation. While we commend the discourse for its ability, we must condemn it for its bitterness. As a master of scathing and terrible invective, Mr. P. has hardly an equal; and every weapon at his command, in this case, has been sternly grasped, and hurled with all his force at the unwaking and unwitting object of his ire. The real strength of the position or person assailed, is at once attested by the extraordinary fury and virulence of the assault. Its excessive gall should occasion mistrust of the motives, while they betray the animus of the assailant. And the question will arise, whether the law of love, the gushing humanity by which Mr. P. professes to be governed, is really compatible with the intense hatred exhibited towards one who had loved and served his country long and well, and whose living voice could no more, as it had often done, repel attacks and cover assailants with confusion?

The readiest weapons, and the easiest to use, are vituperation and evil-speaking, but their use, especially when the grave has closed over their object, is always suspicious. Their use is indicative, too. It points rather to a narrow and selfish than a large and magnanimous soul. The palpable cruelty of a single blow decides more with men than volumes of humanitarian theory. It indicates lack of the kindness, the forbearance towards human infirmity, the mild-visaged charity, the humility, springing from one's own consciousness of being liable to mental and moral obliquity-qualities which none need more than professed reformers, and which the Nazerene taught and exemplified with an authority which Mr. Parker possibly ignores. This harsh

and intolerant spirit which saturates his discourse, is not only a disfiguration, but detracts greatly from any real force his teachings might otherwise possess.

Mr. Parker evidently, and in spite of himself, admires Mr. Webster greatly. It could not well be otherwise. There seems a perpetual struggle going on in his mind to repress bursts of honest admiration as Mr. Webster's great qualities and deeds are surveyed, and the struggle is not always successful. But after the praise is fairly spoken, immediately, as if to atone for a momentary weakness, he deals out to his illustrious victim thrusts with fourfold earnestness and energy. He raises him high aloft ever and anon, that by knocking away the platform beneath him, with remorseless hand, he may fall farther, and faster, and more fatally. Nothing greatly meritorious and commendable in Mr. W. is set forth, without placing over against it some vitiating counterpoise. And I hardly know which to wonder at most-the ingenuity of the constant juxtaposition of great and heroic qualities, and, according to Mr. P., of great faults and vices, or the pertinacity with which he insists that a few of the latter shall override a whole life-service given to the country, and make Mr. W. irredeemably bad. Even Mr. Parker acknowledges that up to the speech of March 7th, 1850, Mr. W.'s sentiments and course had been on the whole patriotic and straightforward, and thus the little two years that remained to him of life, were enough to shipwreck for him all the honors and trophies that all the former years of his life had accumulated. And this he would have his readers believe!

Mr. Parker seems to as to be quite as unfitted by idiosyncrasy, by mental and social aptitude, for understanding and hence justly characterizing Mr. Webster, as Johnson, according to Dr.