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THE WORKS OF DANIEL WEBSTER.

VOLUME I.

EIGHTH EDITION


            BOSTON:
    LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
             1854.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by GEORGE W.
GORDON AND JAMES W. PAIGE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.

               CAMBRIDGE:
    STEREOTYPED BY METCALF AND COMPANY,
       PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
     PRINTED AT HOUGHTON AND HAYWOOD


[Illustration: _Daniel Webster_]




           DEDICATION
      OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

         TO MY NIECES,
    MRS. ALICE BRIDGE WHIPPLE,
              AND
     MRS. MARY ANN SANBORN:

Many of the Speeches contained in this volume were delivered and printed
in the lifetime of your father whose fraternal affection led him to
speak of them with approbation.

His death, which happened when he had only just past the middle period
of life, left you without a father, and me without a brother.

I dedicate this volume to you, not only for the love I have for
yourselves, but also as a tribute of affection to his memory, and from a
desire that the name of my brother,

    EZEKIEL WEBSTER,

may be associated with mine, so long as any thing written or spoken by
me shall be regarded or read.

DANIEL WEBSTER.




CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.


                                                                  PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR.

  CHAPTER I.                                                      xiii
    Former Editions of the Works of Mr. Webster, and Plan of
      this Edition.--Parentage and Birth.--First Settlements
      in the Interior of New Hampshire.--Establishment of his
      Father at Salisbury.--Scanty Opportunities of Early
      Education.--First Teachers, and recent Letter to Master
      Tappan.--Placed at Exeter Academy.--Anecdotes while
      there.--Dartmouth College.--Study of the Law at
      Salisbury.--Residence at Fryeburg in Maine, and
      Occupations there.--Continuance of the Study of the Law
      at Boston, in the Office of Hon. Christopher
      Gore.--Admission to the Bar of Suffolk,
      Massachusetts.--Commencement of Practice at Boscawen,
      New Hampshire.--Removal to Portsmouth.--Contemporaries
      in the Profession.--Increasing Practice.

  CHAPTER II.                                                   xxxiii
    Entrance on Public Life.--State of Parties in
      1812.--Election to Congress.--Extra Session of
      1813.--Foreign Relations of the Country.--Resolutions
      relative to the Berlin and Milan Decrees.--Naval
      Defence.--Reelected to Congress in 1814.--Peace with
      England.--Projects for a National Bank.--Mr. Webster's
      Course on that Question.--Battle of New Orleans.--New
      Questions arising on the Return of Peace.--Course of
      Prominent Men of Different Parties.--Mr. Webster's
      Opinions on the Constitutionality of the Tariff
      Policy.--The Resolution to restore Specie Payments
      moved by Mr. Webster.--Removal to Boston.

  CHAPTER III.                                                  xlviii
    Professional Character particularly in Reference to
      Constitutional Law.--The Dartmouth College Case argued
      at Washington in 1818.--Mr. Ticknor's Description of
      that Argument.--The Case of Gibbons and Ogden in
      1824.--Mr. Justice Wayne's Allusion to that Case in
      1847.--The Case of Ogden and Saunders in 1827.--The
      Case of the Proprietors of the Charles River
      Bridge.--The Alabama Bank Case.--The Case relative to
      the Boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode
      Island.--The Girard Will Case.--The Case of the
      Constitution of Rhode Island.--General Remarks on Mr.
      Webster's Practice in the Supreme Court of the United
      States.--Practice in the State Courts.--The Case of
      Goodridge,--and the Case of Knapp.

  CHAPTER IV.                                                       lx
    The Convention to revise the Constitution of
      Massachusetts.--John Adams a Delegate.--Mr. Webster's
      Share in its Proceedings.--Speeches on Oaths of Office,
      Basis of Senatorial Representation, and Independence of
      the Judiciary.--Cent