at
the head of the Government. I pray you to assure yourself,
my dear Sir, of my continued esteem and attachment, and remember
me kindly and cordially to your father.

Yours, etc.,
DANIEL WEBSTER

Honorable E. Rockwood Hoar.

Mr. Hoar had before had a somewhat interesting interview
with Mr. Webster to the same effect. Late in the winter,
before the convention at Philadelphia, some young Whigs had
a dinner at the Tremont House, to concert measures to support
his candidacy. There were forty or fifty present. Mr. Webster
was expected to speak to them, but his daughter Julia was
very ill. He sent them a message that he would see them at
the house in Summer Street where he was staying. So when
the dinner was half over, the party walked in procession to
Mr. Paige's house. As Judge Hoar described the interview,
he seemed very glum. He shook hands with the young men as
they passed by him, but said very little. There was an awkward
silence, and they were about to take leave, when the absurdity
of the position struck Mr. Hoar, who was the youngest of
the party, rather forcibly. Just then he heard Mr. Webster
say to somebody near him: "The day for eminent public men
seems to have gone by." Whereupon Hoar stepped forward and
made him a brief speech, which he began by saying that the
object of their coming together was to show that, in their
opinion, the day for eminent public men had not gone by, and
some more to the same effect. Webster waked up and his eyes
flashed and sparkled. He made a speech full of vigor and
fire. He spoke of his name being brought before the Whig
convention at Philadelphia, and of his fidelity to the party.
He said that whether his own name should be in the judgment
of the convention suitable or the best to present to the country
the convention would determine, and added: "If the convention
shall select anyone of our conspicuous leaders, trained and
experienced in civil affairs, of national reputation as a
statesman, he will receive my hearty support. But if I am
asked whether I will advise the convention at Philadelphia
to nominate, or if nominated I will recommend the people to
support for the office of President of the United States,
a swearing, fighting, frontier colonel, I only say that I
shall not do it."

Many people think that if Mr. Webster would have supported
General Taylor's policy of dealing with the questions relating
to slavery it would have prevailed, and that