INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

In the month of May, 1847, Mr. Webster made a visit to the Southern Atlantic States. He was everywhere, on his route, received with great respect and cordiality; and was hospitably entertained at Richmond, Charleston, Columbia, Augusta, and Savannah. His intention was to go as far as New Orleans, and to return to the North by way of the Mississippi. Unfortunately he was taken ill at Augusta, in Georgia, and was thus prevented from continuing his journey beyond that place.

Short speeches were made by Mr. Webster at the several public receptions attended by him. They were rendered peculiarly interesting by the unusual nature of such an occurrence as the visit of a highly distinguished New England statesman to the South, and the enthusiasm with which he was everywhere welcomed. No full notes, however, of his addresses appear to have been taken on any of these occasions, and in most cases a very brief summary is all that remains.

Of his speech at a public dinner at Richmond, on the 29th of April, no report whatever, it is believed, has been preserved. In addition to his remarks on this occasion, in acknowledgment of a toast complimentary to himself, Mr. Webster rose, when the memory of Chief Justice Marshall was proposed, and pronounced impromptu a brief eulogy upon the great jurist, which appears to have been of the most brilliant character. "We have never," says the editor of a Richmond journal, "had the pleasure of listening to a more finished specimen of Ciceronian eloquence. A gentleman, whose taste and acquirements entitle his opinions to the utmost respect, remarked to us, that not Burke nor Sheridan could have been more felicitious, in giving utterance to thoughts that breathe and words that burn." Unfortunately, no report of these remarks was given to the public.

On receiving intelligence of his intended visit to Charleston, a number of the most respectable citizens of that place were appointed a committee to wait upon Mr. Webster on his arrival, and tender him a public welcome to the city. It took place on the 7th of May. On the following day a brilliant entertainment was given to him by the New

England Society. On the 10th he partook of a public entertainment by invitation of the Charleston Bar. On the 12th he was received with great distinction by the faculty and students of the College of South Carolina, at Columbia. On the 17th he arrived at Augusta, in Georgia, where a public reception of the most flattering kind awaited him. Here, however, he became so much indisposed, as to be compelled to withdraw himself from the projected hospitalities of the citizens, as well as to forego the prosecution of his tour. On the 24th of May he was sufficiently recovered to proceed to Savannah, in which place, on the 26th, a public reception took place in Monument Square, at the base of the monument to Greene and Pulaski. On this occasion a very interesting address was made to Mr. Webster on behalf of the citizens of Savannah, by Mr. Justice Wayne, of the Supreme Court of the United States. From Savannah Mr. Webster returned to Charleston, and immediately took passage in a steamer for the North.

In connection with the speeches made by Mr. Webster, as far as they have been preserved, it has been thought that some of those made by other gentlemen, on the occasions just named, would be found interesting by the readers of these volumes, particularly in the present state of public affairs in reference to the relations between the South and the North. They have accordingly been given, as far as was practicable, with those of Mr. Webster.

ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON.*

THE Hon. Daniel Webster arrived in this city yesterday morning, and took lodgings at the Charleston Hotel. At 12 o'clock, M., he was waited on by the Committee of Reception, consisting of the following gentlemen, viz. Messrs. F. H. Elmore, D. E. Huger, James L. Petigru, William Aiken, H. A. Desaussure, Henry Gourdin, J. B. Campbell, Francis K. Huger, B. F. Hunt, J. B. Legare, R. Yeadon, John S. Ashe, I. W. Hayne, Dr. John B. Irving, and Alexander Black.

The Committee conducted Mr. Webster to the spacious piazza or balcony of the hotel, which was thronged with ladies and citizens, gathered (as was also a large crowd of citizens in the street fronting the hotel) to give the distinguished guest a hearty welcome to the hospitalities of Charleston. Mr. Webster was there addressed as follows, by the Hon. Franklin H. Elmore, Chairman of the Committee of Reception :

"SIR,-As representatives of our fellow-citizens of Charleston, we wait upon you to tender their welcome and good wishes. Having heard that it was your intention to pass through their city, in a tour through the Southern States, undertaken to obtain, by personal observation, a better knowledge of their people, pursuits, and interests, the citizens of Charleston, laying aside all differences of political opinion, in a common desire to further your wishes and to render your visit agreeable, assembled, and unanimously delegated to us the pleasing duty of expressing to you the great satisfaction they experience in thus meeting you in their homes. Although they well know there are essential differences of opinion between a great majority of them and yourself and the great Commonwealth of which you are the trusted and distinguished representative in the councils of the nation, yet, on this occasion, they remember

* Abridged from the Charleston Courier of the 8th of May, 1847. VOL. II.

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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 welcome 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 between 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,