PUBLIC DINNER AT BUFFALO.* MR. MAYOR, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE CITY OF BUFFALO, I know that, in regard to the present condition of the country, you think as I think, that there is but one all-absorbing question, and that is the preservation of this Union. If I have strength, I propose to say something to you and your fellowcitizens on that subject to-morrow. In this social interview and intercourse, Gentlemen, I would not aspire to such a lofty, allimportant theme. I desire, rather, on this occasion, to address you as citizens of Buffalo, many of whom I have had the pleasure of seeing in former times; many of whom belong to the generation which has grown up since I was first here; but with all of whom I feel a sympathy for the great prosperity which has distinguished their city, and the fair prospect which Providence holds out before them. Gentlemen, I have had the pleasure of being in the good city of Buffalo three times before this visit. I came here in 1825, with my family, accompanied by Mr. Justice Story and his family. We came mainly to see that all attractive neighbor of yours, the Falls of Niagara. I remember it was said, at that time, there were twenty-five hundred people in Buffalo. Even that was startling, because it was fresh in my recollection when it was only a waste, and when, as a member of Congress, I was called upon to ascertain the value of certain houses which were destroyed in the war of 1812. I came here afterwards, Gentlemen, in 1833. Your city then had been enlarged, manufactures were coming into existence, prosperity had begun. I had the pleasure of address * A Speech delivered at a Public Dinner at Buffalo, on the 21st of May, 1851 ing you or your fathers, or both, in the park, and I remember I was told, among other things, that I might say, with safety, that there were fifteen or eighteen steamboats on Lake Erie. I remember another thing, Gentlemen, with great satisfaction, and I hope some parties to that transaction are here. The mechanics of Buffalo did me the great honor of tendering to me a present of an article of furniture, made from a great, glorious black-walnut tree, which grew to the south of us. They signified their desire to make a table out of that walnuttree, and send it to me. The table was made, and I accepted it, of course, with great pleasure. When I left here in July, the tree was standing; and in about five weeks there was an elegant table, of beautiful workmanship, sent to my house, which was then in Boston. When I went to Marshfield it followed me to the sea-side, and there it stands now, in the best room in my house, and there it will stand as long as I live, and I hope as long as the house shall stand. I take this occasion to reiterate my thanks for that beautiful present. I am proud to possess it; I am proud to show it; I am proud in all the recollections that it suggests. I was again in Buffalo some fourteen years ago, on my return from the West. That, I think, was in July also. I left the seacoast in May. It was soon after the termination of General Jackson's administration, and the commencement of Mr. Van Buren's. I travelled by the way of the Pennsylvania Railroad and canals, and so on to the Ohio; and I was on the Ohio River, I think, at Wheeling, on the 25th of May, when we heard of the failure of all the banks, the breaking up of all the credit of the country, and Mr. Van Buren's proclamation for an extra session of Congress. That rather hastened our progress. I went by the way of Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois, and had the pleasure of seeing my fellow-citizens of Buffalo on my return. Now, Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to say, that between that time and the present the population of your city has augmented at least one half; and here is Buffalo, a city of fifty thousand inhabitants. It is, undoubtedly, one of the wonders of the age and of this country. I enjoy it, Gentlemen, with a degree of pleasure inferior only to your own, because we are of the same country, because we participate in the same destiny, and because we are bound to the same fate for good or evil. All that is my interest is your interest, and I feel it to be so; and there is not in this region, or beyond the Lakes, a city planned, a tree felled, a field of wheat planted, or any other mark of prosperity, in which I, for one, do not take an interest. But then, Gentlemen, one thing strikes me. You are all a young race here. Here is my friend near me.* We were young men together. It seems to me but a short time ago, and here we are. Now, whom do I see around me here? Why, the rising generation have taken possession of Buffalo. Ye fathers, be frightened! Ye grandfathers, be alarmed! The youth of Buffalo have taken possession of the city. But then, you unmarried women of Buffalo, and you, young wives of Buffalo, be neither frightened nor alarmed; for those who have taken possession will be your protectors. And I believe that this is true throughout the whole county of Erie. The strong arms of young men till the soil. The vigorous resolution which takes hold of any improvement, and sustains every public project, takes counsel, no doubt, from age and experience; but young men in this country push forward every thing; complete every thing. Gentlemen, I need not say that this great neighborhood of yours, and this great State of yours, are full of things most striking to the eye and to the imagination. The spectacle which your State presents, the waters of New York, the natural phenomena of New York, are exciting to a very high degree. There is this noble river, the Niagara; the noble lake from which it issues; there are the Falls of Niagara, the wonder of the world, and the numerous lakes and rivers of a secondary class. Why, how many things are there in this great State of New York that attract the wonder and draw the attention of Europe! I had the pleasure, some years ago, of being a few weeks in Europe, and every one asked me how long it took to go to Niagara Falls. New York, in all its relations, in its falls, its rivers, and secondary waters, is attractive to all the world. But then there is New York, in the State of New York. Gentlemen, the commercial character so far pervades the minds of commercial men all over the world, that there are many men, who are very respectable and intelligent, who do not seem to know there is any thing in the United States but New York. * Hon. Albert H. Tracy. When I was in England, it was asked of me if I did not come from New York. I told them my wife came from New York. That is something. Well, Gentlemen, I had the honor, one day, to be invited to a state dinner, by the Lord Mayor of London. He was a portly and a dignified gentleman. He had a big wig on his head, all powdered and ribboned down behind, and I had the honor to sit between him and the Lady Mayoress; and there were three hundred guests, with all the luxuries and gorgeousness of the Lord Mayor's dinner. Soon after the cloth was removed, his Lordship thought proper to take notice of his American guest. He seemed not to know exactly who I was. He knew I was a Senator; but he seemed to have but little idea of any place in the United States but New York. He arose: "Gentlemen," said he, "I give you the health of Mr. Webster, a member of the upper Senate of New York." Well, it was a great honor to be a member of any Senate of New York, but if there was an upper Senate, to be a member of that would be a great honor indeed. Gentlemen, New York, the State of New York,— let me indulge in a moment's reflection on that great theme! It has so happened, in the dispensation of things, that New York stretches from east to west entirely across the country. Your fellow-citizens, to-day, are eating clams at Montauk Point, seven hundred miles from this spot, and you are regaling on lake trout. You stretch along and divide the whole country. New York extends from the frontier of Canada to the sea, and divides the Southern States from the Eastern. Here she is with two heads; one down at New York, and the other at Buffalo, like a double-headed snake. Well, what are you to do with her? Fixed, firm, and immovable, there she is. It has pleased Heaven, in assigning her a position in the configuration of the earth's surface, to cause her to divide the whole South from the East, and she does so, physically and geographically. As she stretches here, in the whole length and breadth, she divides the Southern from the Eastern States. But that is her inferior destiny, her lower characteristic; for, if I do not mistake all auguries, her higher destiny is likewise to unite all the States in one political union. Gentlemen, nothing so fills my imagination, or comes up so nearly to my idea of what constitutes a great, enterprising, and energetic state, as those things which have been accomplished-by New York in reference to commerce and internal improvements. I honor you for it. When I consider that your canal runs from the Lakes to tide-water; when I consider, also, that you have had for some years a railroad from the Lakes to tide-water; and when I examine, as I have just examined, that stupendous work, hung up, as it were, in the air, on the southern range of mountains from New York to Lake Erie; when I consider the energy, the power, the indomitable resolution, which effected all this, I bow with reverence to the genius and people of New York, whatever political party may lead, or however wrongly I may deem any of them to act in other respects. It takes care of itself, it is true to itself, it is true to New York; and being true to itself, it goes far, in my opinion, in establishing the interest of the whole country. For one, I wish it so to proceed. I know that there are questions of a local and State character with which I have nothing to do. I know there is a proposition to make this canal of yours greater and broader, to give to New York and its commerce, if I may say so, the power to send forth what it has with greater facility. I know not how that may comport with State politics or State arrangements, but I shall be happy to see the day when there shall be no obstruction or hinderance to any article of trade or commerce going out right, straight and strong, with breadth enough and margin enough and room enough to carry all to its market. May I say, Gentlemen, that a broad, deep, and ample canal realizes, and more than realizes, what the poet has said of the River Thames: 66 "O, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, But, Gentlemen, there are other things about this State of yours. You are here at the foot of Lake Erie. You look out on the far expanse of the West. Who have come here? Of whom are you composed? You are already a people of fifty thousand, a larger population than that of any New England city except Boston; and yet you are but of yesterday. Who are your inhabitants? A great many of them are my countrymen from the East, and I see them with pleasure. But these are not all; there are also Irish and Germans. I suppose, on |