Til a

ADDRESS AND PROCEEDmGS

OP THE

FRIENDS OF DAilEL WERSTER,

ASSEMBLED IN FANEUIL HALL,

©u iHcisucsbaij, September I5t!), 1352,

MASS CONVENTION.

BOSTON:
JAMES PKENCH, 78 WASHINGTON STBEET,
1852.

1-, I t K" ^ t

Dear Sir :— Please read and circulate this copy of the Proceedings of the
Webster Union Whig Contention. By request of Executive Committtee.
A. WILSON, Secretary.

PRESS OF THE
FEANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE,
210 Washington Street,
Soston.

PROCEEDINGS.

The friends of Daniel Webster and the Union, assembled in Faneuil
Hall on Wednesday, the 15th inst., at 12 o'clock, for deliberation and action.
The Convention was called to order by Charles A. Wells of Boston, and
temporarily organized by the choice of Henry Lyman of Watertown, as
Chairman, and James French and S. M. Hobbs of Boston, as Secretaries.
Messrs. D. P. McGilvray, Charles Torrey, James French, C. E. Ransom,
and Charles A. Wells, were deputed a Committee to retire, select, and re
port a list of permanent officers for the Convention.
Mr. Torrey, in answer to a general call, made a brief address, which was
received with great applause.
The Committee on Organization here reported the following list of officers :
For President, Henry Lyman of Watertown.
For Vice Presidents, Thos. Thacher of Roxbury, Jab. Dalton of Boston,
Geo. Revere of Needham; Chas. A. Wells, Levi Brigham, Wm. Shimmin
of Boston, Luther Griffing of Richmond, Dudley Hall of Medford, Chas.
Torrey of Boston, Jesse Chickering of West Roxbury, B. P. Poore of
West Newbury, Sam'l L. Cutter of Cambridge, and Puny Cutler of Boston.
For Secretaries, Samuel Kettell, James French, James L. Baker, and
Samuel M. Hobbs.
The report was unanimously accepted, and adopted, and the officers having
taken their seats on the platform, Pres. Lyman made a brief speech of thanks.
On motion of Archelaus Wilson of Boston, that gentleman and Messrs.
Hubbard Winslow, and Gharle.s Torrey were appointed a Committee to pre
pare an Address to the people of Massachusetts, setting forth the reasons of
the present movement of the Union Whigs.
Messrs. J. L. Dimmock, S. L. Cutter, G. A. White, J. Q. Kettell, and
Edw. A. Vose were appointed a Committee to report a list of Webster
Electors to the Convention.
Hubbard Winslow, here, in response to a call, nlade a short speech, to
show the cause of Mr. Webster's defeat at Baltimore, and also in defence
of the present movement.
Messrs. Chas. A. White, Arthur Pickering, J. D. Hedge, J. Fullerton,
and Chas. A. Wells, were appointed a Committee to report the names of
ten persons who shall constitute the " Webster State Executive Committee
or Massachusetts.
Mr. Wilson, on behalf of the Committee on the subject, here reported the
following —

ADDRESS
TO THE WHIGS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The step which a very large number of your fellow citizens, now assem
bled in Faneuil Hall, are about to take, is a highly important one, and
should be taken upon rendered reasons.
We are met here, most of us, doubtless, as Whigs ; not unaccompanied,
perhaps, by some of our Democratic friends, who sympathise with us in
our desire to do justice to a great statesman, who is the property of no
party, but who belongs, in a high sense, equally to us all. Still, the gi-eat
body of this assembly consists, undoubtedly, of Whigs ; and it is therefore
to our fellow Whigs that we are chiefly to submit what we have to say.
At the same time we cannot forget that we are here also as American cit
izens, standing upon the soil of a free country, and free to act according to
our own convictions of duty.
The representatives of the Whig party, chosen as such according to its
usages, and assembled in National Convention, have by a very small ma
jority, made a nomination of a distinguished officer of the army for the
Presidency of the United States ; and the first inquiry to be made by us,
as members of that party, is, whether we in any just sense are bound to
vote for this candidate, and for no other ? It needs, in our judgment, no
great amount of argument to solve this question. Upon the great general
principle on which all our institutions rest, the majority are to rule ; and
when the voice of the majority is expressed in those forms which constitute
the enactment of Law, no man can go behind it, or absolve himself from its
obligations, while he remains in society. This principle is attempted to be
applied by analogy to the doings of political parties. But the analogy is
extremely imperfect. There is a broad distinction between the decrees or
decisions of a body of the representatives of a party, in reference to the
obligations which they impose upon its members, and the decrees of ihe
legislative representatives of the people, in reference to the obligations
which they impose upon the citizen. The former cannot, iu the natm-e of
things, have the force of law, because they do not rest upon its sanctions.
They must, therefore, be referred for approval to the judgment of individ
uals, who are to receive and obey them, according to their own convictions
of their intrinsic propriety and fitness to promote the public good.
We speak here, of course, of the rule that is applicable to the citizen
who has taken no part in initiating or conducting the party proceedings,
which have led to a particular result. What rule is applicable to those

who have taken part in those proceedings, we have now no occasion tt^B
quire. We speak for those and to those who stand free from such connec
tion, but are yet members of the same party ; and we have no hesitation in
saying, that the attempt which has been made to force upon such persons an
obligation of honor to support a nomination which they may disapprove, is
without a shadow of justification. The decision of a National Party Con
vention is in no sense conclusive upon the conduct of all the members of
that party throughout the country. If it were, neither the regularity nor
fairness of the proceedings, nor the fitness of the candidate nominated,
could ever be inquired into. The truth is, that the act of a majority of
the delegates in a National Party Convention is not the act of a majority of
all the members of the party, unless it is assumed that all are actually or
technically represented. That all are not actually represented, is perfectly
well known. Not a quarter part of the voters of any great political party
ever take part in the proceedings by which the delegates to such a body
are appointed ; and it is one of the easiest, as it is one of the most common
of political transactions, for political managers, especially in some of the
other States of this Union, to procure the appointment of delegates, whose
purposes as to the selection of a presidential candidate are no certain and
safe guide to the real wishes and preferences of a majority of their nomi
nal constituents. The position, therefore, that the act of a majority of
such delegates is the act of a majority of the members of the party, must
rest upon the doctrine that all the members had notice, and might have
attended the choice of delegates if they had seen fit. That is to say, it
rests upon a fiction, by which every man's political conscience and conduct
are to become bound by the acts and doings of his neighbor. For our
selves we reject this doctrine. We hold that the decision of a majority of the
delegates in a National Convention is not, of itself, proof of the sentiments
and wishes of a majority of the party ; and we think that any man who
will ask himself whether he can believe that a majority of the Whigs of the
United States this day prefer General Scott as a candidate, to Daniel
Webster or ^Millard Fillmore, will be satisfied with the soundness of our
position. We are here, then, in all the freedom of our individual judg
ments. In that freedom we propose to examine the nomination made at
Baltimore, and to refer the action of the Convention which made it to the
only standard which we recognize, namely, its tendency to promote and
secure the good of the country.
The Convention assembled at Baltimore, it is to be presumed, for tho
purpose of nominating that person for the Presidency, in whom would be
united high qualifications for the office, with reasonable chances for obtain
ing it by the suffrages of the people. This is the duty of a party Conven
tion, under ordinary circumstances. But on the occasion of the late Whig
National Convention, the circumstances were peculiar and extraordinary.
One of the candidates before that Convention was, confessedly, the first

^6
silRman in America then capable of being thought of for the office. He
was a person who had rendered services of the utmost importance to his
party. On three several occasions he had supported with the whole power
of his vast influence, rivals, whose claims to the nomination, except in one
instance, could be supposed by no one to be superior to his own. But
above and beyond all this, he had rendered to his country services which
surpassed those to his party, in as large a measure as country is greater
than party to every true patriot. He was, moreover, a person fitted beyond
all men within the reach of the Whig party, not merely to adorn, but most
beneficially to administer the high office in question. This was felt and
acknowledged every where by all candid persons. The common judgment
of the country, the current and admitted forms of speech, the general consent
of right-thinking minds, had made his pre-eminent fitness for that great
trust a maxim among men. A wide and confident expectation among the
masses of the people, who had nothing to gain and much to lose by adverse
political combinations, looked to the Whig party, in confidence that it
would do the justice to the country, to itself, and to Mr. Webster, to put him
in nomination.
The time was most propitious. Party animosity had died away before
the signal merit of services, which challenged the equal admiration and
gratitude of friends and opponents. Personal detraction, save from the
kennels of a rabid fanaticism, had ceased to pursue him. Public confidence,
respect, alFeotionate admiration and pride, universal appreciation of the
vast importance to the country of his life, health and happiness, broke forth
to him, wherever popular feeling had an opportunity of expression.
Never had a party such an opportunity to confer a vast good upon a free
country ; and never was such an opportunity more unworthily lost.
It was lost, we are told, because a majority of those who were sent to
the Convention to select a candidate preferred some one else,, and chose to
exercise their preferences. We admit the fact ; but, as a portion of the
people of this country, we claim and shall exercise the right to judge of
the reasonableness and propriety of those preferences. By whatsoever
constituency each of those delegates was appointed, they were all assembled
to execute a public trust upon publio motives. A great party organiza
tion, like any other social instrumentality, is a trust in the hands of those
who hold it ; to be exercised and discharged upon motives which will bear
the test of subsequent examination and submission to the moral judgment
of mankind.
Mr. Webster was set aside in the National Convention, and Gen. Scott
was preferred by a majority of the members ;— first, because the latter,
being a military man, supposed to have gained great personal popularity by
his military success, was believed to be, in the language of party tacticians,
the more " available " candidate. We will not do any member of that
convention the injustice to suppose, that his preference was determined by

a belief that the military candidate possessed superior fitness for the office
of President. The ruling motive, in this case, was the same which, on two
former occasions, had led to the selection, by the Whig party, of military
men a.s candidates for the Presidency, to the exclusion of their most expe
rienced and most accomplished statesmen : in one of which instances, the
candidate was without any civil experience whatever. Against this princi
ple of political action we desire and intend to enter our protest. It is aii
appeal to the people, contrary to the truth of the case, to regard military
success as evidence of a fitness to discharge the highest civil trust in tlie
country, as well as the ablest and most accomplished and experienced
statesmen in the land.
There is no executive government in the world, in which civil wisdom and
a trained practical statesmanship are so necessary as in the Presidency of
this great republic. Consider for a moment that our government is founded
on, and administered under, a written Constitution ; and that the doctrines
which are to go into that high office and be practically applied in adminis
tering that Constitution, if they are to be of the least value, must be the
fruit of long civil study, of practical acquaintance with principles, and of
vast civil experience. Consider that the whole machinery of the govern
ment is civil administration. Consider that all the offices which a Presi
dent holds in his hand for distribution — from the highest of the Judiciary,
who may have to pass upon even his acts, to the tide-waiter upon the
wharves, who is to obey without questioning the law — are all to be filled by
the exercise of a discretion, which can exist, in fiill and juSt development,
only after great experience in the civil departments of government. Con
sider the great influence which the character and opinions of a President
exert over the legislation of the country ; — an influence which the Consti
tution contemplated, and which usage has made quite as powerful as it was
ever designed to be. Consider, finally, that the foreign relations of this
country are at all times full of questions, for the right management of
which a military life and military experience can affi)rd scarcely any train
ing whatever.
We are not in the slightest degree desirous to detract from the just merits
of Gen. Scott, as a highly distinguished and successful soldier, or to refuse
to him appropriate honors and rewards for his very brilliant military servi
ces to the country. But we do not consider that the Presidency is the
appropriate honor, or that it is fit that it should be held and bestowed as a
reward for military distinction. If we have taken a correct view of the
duties which it involves, we are compelled frankly to say, that we do not
know what evidence the distinguished nominee of the Baltimore Convention
has given, of that degree of fitness for it, which a Whig candidate ought to
possess. We say a Whig candidate — for we are not prepared to admit that
the Whig party is morally at liberty to regard only the elements of popu
lar success in the canvass, and to treat its most eminent leaders, its wisest

8
statesmen, and its long-tried and faithful champions, with neglect and in
justice, because they do not possess the means of appealing to a popular
love of military glory. The Whig party is an organization professing dis
tinctive political principles. It has benefitted the country, through the
labors of its great statesmen, who have established, defended, and admmis-
'tered the principles which characterise it, and by which alone it can con
tinue to be useful. If it is to cast such men aside, and bestow the highest
honors of the Republic upon those, whose sphere of action has not identi
fied them with the maintenance or illustration of the great principles which
constitute it a party, it will either achieve victories fruitless of benefit to
the country, or achieve its own destruction.
We are not prepared to see the Whig party go down in the confiision
and inefficiency which must ensue from the continuance of a practice, that
removes its great statesmen from their true positions as its leaders, its coun
sellors and guides. We cannot thus surrender its glorious civil history,
which has been marked from its early formation as a party, in all its suc
cesses and all its reverses, with unquestionable usefulness. We cannot for
get that it was Whig statemanship, of the very highest order, which main
tained a long contest with a powerful adverse executive, and thereby pre-
v-ented the Constitution from being wholly wrested out of its legitimate
sphere. We cannot forget whose voice and whose influence it was, that
¦came to the aid of that executive, in an hour when patriotism demanded the
oblivion of all party differences, and crushed nullification forever. We
cannot forget that it has been Whig policy, vindicated and sustained by
Whig leaders, that has given to the industry of the country all the protec
tion it has ever enjoyed, and to internal improvements, all the vitality they
have ever felt. We cannot forget that it was a Whig civilian, who rescued
the country from a foreign war, and whose words of warning, wisdom, truth
and courage, dispelled the gathered clouds of domestic strife, that were
about to burst in fury over the land. All that the Whig party has ever
accomplished for the country, all the principles that it has made efficient in
the administration of the Federal Constitution, and all the positive blessings
which it has achieved for the Union, it owes to the labors of its statesmen,
sustained by the intelligence and patriotism of the people. No act of ours
shall ever have a tendency to destroy the influence and limit the usefulness
of that order of public men, of whom the greatest living example now pre
sents, in his own person, the strongest proof that party neglect may become
a public injury.
There is another ground upon which it is impossible for us to support
the nomination made at Baltimore, which we shall briefly lay before you.
During the administration which is soon to terminate, this country passed
through the most dangerous crisis which has occurred since the formation
of the government. The firm and willing maintenance and administration
of the measures deemed necessary to meet that crisis, are, beyond all doubt.

9
essential to the continued tranquility and pHlfWrthe Ufl|Tn. f The Whig
party has affirmed this position as a capital article of its creed : and it is a
circumstance of no small significance, that the Democratic party has done
the same thing. Yet it is a fact, incapable, we think, of denial, that the
distinguished head of the army was selected and brought forward as a
candidate, by that portion of the AATiig party, who deny the propriety of
affirming the finality of the Compromise Measures, and who mean to hold
themselves at liberty to renew the sectional agitation of those questions,
whenever they see fit. The fact that a majorityof his original supporters
in the Convention — sixty-six in number — voted against the platform of
principles which the Convention adopted, can leave no doubt as to
their sentiments and their purposes. Whether it was under their influ
ence or some other, that the Convention was kept in ignorance of
the personal sentiments of the candidate, and that private informa
tion ouly was given to a few persons, whose sense of publio duty
was supposed likely to be satisfied with private information, we do not
think it material to inquire. Nor is the fact of decisive importance, that
the candidate personally approved or favored the original enactment of the
measures in question, or that he has subsequently, in accepting the candi
dacy, as a matter of necessity, accepted the platform of the party which
offered to him the nomination. The position of the party itself is, how
ever, of great consequence. It has formally declared the duty of main
taining and executing a series of measures of great public importance. At
the same time, it has rejected two candidates identified with the enactment
and execution of those measures, and personally responsible for their ex
istence, and has adopted a candidate who is not identified with them, and
whose principle supporters in one entire section of the Union refused to
acknowledge the duty of preserving and enforcing them.
Under these circumstances, it is impossible for us to shut our eyes to the
danger, that the Whig party — whatever may be the personal wishes of its
head— may be withdrawn, as a party, from one section of the Union, and
be obliged to find its principal and most efficient support in another section.
An administration that should come into power, in such a posture, might
prolong the nominal existence of the party, only to turn it into a sectional
organization ; and the personal wishes or honest intentions of its chief would
avail little ih the execution of measures, which his principal supporters
inight be unwilling to execute, in favor of a portion of the country that
did not contribute materially to the strength of his administration.
We make no impeachment of the integrity of the candidate. We look
at public facts, the position of the Whig party, and the interests of the
country ; and upon these we are constrained to say, that we cannot feel the
force of the appeal that is made to us, upon public grounds, to support this
nomination. The position in which we are placed is not of our own choos
ing. It has been forced upon us by those who had objects to gain inr

' 10
which we cannol participate, 'and we must act upon our own sense of duty,
exercised upon the facts by which we are surrounded.
Deprived, by these considerations, of the power of voting for the regular
candidate of our own party, we do not choose to be driven to the alterna
tive presented by the Democratic nomination. We know too well the
importance of avoiding all affiliation with those who have brought upon
our own Commonwealth the mischiefs and disgraces of the " Coalition."
With you we mean to defend the time-honored institutions of the State,
and to place at the head of its government an able and honorable man,
whose administration will be worthy of its long established character.
But to the principles on which we act,, in relation to national interests, we
remain firm ; and for the sake of those principles, and to do all that we
can to secure their just influence, we place in nomination the 'electoral
ticket which we now present to you.
In the event of the success of either of the other candidates for the
Presidency, the public life of the first statesman of the country must be
terminated. The unrivalled intellect and lofty patriotism which Massachu
setts has for more than thirty years given to the councils of the country,
must be forever withdrawn from every department of the public service.
It were vain to ask how this void is to be fllied. But if it must happen
before the ordination of Providence brings it upon us, is it a thing quite
unworthy of Massachusetts, that the last honors which the ballot box can
render, should be bestowed upon him who has done so much for her honor,
her influence, her prosperity and her security? Time was, when she
deemed it no idle and empty ceremony to confer upon him her electoral
vote, although it stood alone. On that occasion her vote was not necessary
to his fame, or demanded for personal gratiflcation ; nor is it now. But
then, as now, a. deep popular sense of justice, and a clear popular sentiment
of gratitude sought expression through the suffrages of the people, and
proclaimed to all the world that a nice balance of advantages, not easy to
be discerned, does not always become a people who have been served as the
people of Massachusetts have been served by Daniel Webster.*
If she looks no farther than to her own domestic history, she sees in that
life which has spent its vast treastires for her welfare, the occasion for no
ordinary feeling. The very foundations of the State Constitution, which
has been such a blessing to her, and to the defence of which her people are
now called to rally, were deepened by his labors. To his wisdom and
eloquence she owes much of its strength and virtue. To his courage and
his profound knowledge of the principles of free government, she owes
directly many of the inestimable safeguards which its principles enshrine.
And when to this older record of great service she adds the long catalogue of
* Any one who will consider how very improbable is the election of Gen, Scott, even with
the electoral vote of Massachusetts, will see, that a vote cast for the Scott ticket, in this State, is
thrown eway, in a sense far more plain and palpable, than it can be if cast for Mr. Webster.

11
deeds, which have filled up the measure of I^^^B^-cnown, and connected
her name with the preservation of a Unioii^^ppshe was one of the fore
most to create, she will never account that suffrage an unworthy or useless
act, which seeks, in honoring him, to honor all that has been most noble in
her own history since that Union was formed.
But we do not limit our hopes to a complimentary vote by the people of
Massachusetts. We call upon the friends of the Union everywhere, throughout the coun
try, to arouse themselves from the lethargy which is upon them, and to act
with the vigor that becomes them.
We call upon independent Whigs everywhere, to reject an organization
which will hand down the national government to a sectional fragment of
their great party, in hands that they cannot approve.
We call upon the People everywhere to undo the work of politicians of
every party, who would persuade them that they have too little intelligence
to confer their highest honors upon their best statesmen, and that military
reputation is the best avenue to the government of this great Republic.
Even now, if they will assume their own rightful control over the destinies
of their country, it is not too late to place at the head of its affairs an ad
ministration worthy of its better days, and able to perpetuate, to a United
People, a Constitution which has made the blessings of Liberty and Union
One and Inseparable.
The Address was adopted by acclamation, and the Convention then
adjourned to half-past seven o'clock in the evening.
EVENING SESSION.
The Convention re-assembled at half-past seven o'clock, at which hour
the hall was thronged to its fullest capacity. The President stated
the first business in order was to hear the reports of the Committees ap-
pointedin the morning ; where upon John L. Dimmick, from the Committee
on the subject, submitted the following list of Electors :
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.
At Large— PLINY CUTLER, of Boston.
AT 1.ARGE ^j^.^^j^p ^ NEWTON, of Pittsfield.
District No 1— ISAIAH GIFFORD, of Provincetown.
DismiCT sso. ^_j^gj^jjj,L MAY, of Attleboro'.
.. 3_FREDERICK W. LINCOLN, of Canton.
a 4_WILLIAM HAYDEN, of Boston.
.' 5— GEORGE T. CURTIS, of Boston.
.. 6— MARK HEALEY, of Lynn.
.. 7— ALBERT H. NELSON, of Wobum.
« 8— HENRY B. PEARSON, of Harvard.
» 9— ALVIN G. UNDERWOOD, of Oxford.
u 10_HOMER FOOTE, of Springfield.
.. 11_LUTHER GRIFFING, of Richmond.

12
The report was accofmipppr unanimous vote, followed by great cheer
ing. C. A. White submitted the following nanu'^ of gi.'utlt'Uien fo
constitute the Werstee Execttive Committee.
HUBBARD WIN,SL< )W, of Boston.
TOLMAN WILL FA', of Boston.
HENKY LVMAN, of Watertown.
CilARLE.S A. WHITE, of Boston.
J. 1). HEDGE, of Cambridge.
JOHN L. DIMMt )CK, of Watertown.
CHARLES A. WELLS, of Boston.
TH0:\1AS THACHER, of Roxbury.
ARTHUR PK.'KERING, of Boston.
CHARLES TORREY, of Bcston.
This report was accepted, whereupon the following resolution was
adopted :
Resolnd, That the Executive State Committee he, aud they hereby arc instructed
and auUioinzed U) till any vacancy that mi^J occur in the ticket of Electois, or in their
own bo<lv ; also, to add to the number of tlic E.xeentive Committee at their pleasure,
and to take all other proper measures to promote the objects for which the present
ticket of Electors is nominated.
Addresses were made by 3Iessrs. 31. H. Smith, A. WiKon, II. Win.slow,
and S. L. Cutter. Thoy were speeches of a hii^h tone — moral in sentiment
and dignified ia thought.
Mr. "\Vinslo\v, ttt the conclusion of his speech, offered ihe following res
olutions, which were adopted :
Resohvd, That those men who serve their country most faithfully in the army, ought
to receive from their country its hiLHicst military honors; and thn^c men who serve
their country most faithfully in the councils of state, ought to receive from their country
its highest civic honors.
Resolnd, That our country, our whole country, in all its vast extent and rarions in
terests, is entitled to the equal and full iDrotection of its Constitution, in all its provi
sions and reiiuircments.
Rr-soli-fd, That whatever section.al jealousies and .agitations may occur to mar the
pe.ace of the Union, we shall ever bold it to be our privilege and our duty, firmly
to abide by the principles, and faithfully to fulfil the conditions of the national com
pact. Rfsolvcrl, Tbat the man who has scrvcil his country the most faithfully for the longest
period, in the councils of state, of :iny man living, is Daniel Wees'JI.i:, and that to
him, pre-eminently, the nation owes its highest civic honors.
Rf.sohf.l, That as citizens of this republic, we will do what we can to induce our
country to pav this glorious debt,
Rrsolnd, That whether our country shall prove faithfid or false to this obligation, it
shall ever l>c among our happiest reflections, that wc were true to our country in this
matter, and did what every citizen ought to have done — c.vst our. Jicsi iie,v i;ti" vote
FOR E)AMtIj WkUSTER.
At a ([uarter of ten o'clock the Cnnvention adjourned, amid cheers for
Daniel Wkii,ster of Ma,ssa('husetts and Cii,\ri,i:s .1. Jk.ni^ins of (Jenrgla, the
eandiilates of the Union Whigs of Masstichusetts, for President aud Wa
President of the United States. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08725 8886