House of Representatives. He was elected
Senator of the United States by one branch of the Massachusetts
Legislature when the term of Elijah H. Mills expired, March
3, 1827. There can be no doubt that if he had consented he
would also have been elected by the other house. Mr. Webster
was chosen at the next Session. But before he was elected
he wrote very strongly urging Mr. Lincoln to accept the office.
He said in his letter dated May 22, 1827:

"I beg to say that I see no way in which the public good
can be so well promoted as by your consenting to go to the
Senate. This is my own clear and decided opinion; it is
the opinion, equally clear and decided, of intelligent and
patriotic friends here, and I am able to add that it is also
the decided opinion of all those friends elsewhere, whose
judgment in such matters we should naturally regard. I believe
I may say, without violating confidence, that it is the wish,
entertained with some earnestness, of our friends at Washington,
that you should consent to be Mr. Mills's successor. I need
hardly add after what I have said that this is my own wish."

Mr. Lincoln felt constrained to decline, although the office
would doubtless have been very agreeable to him, by reason
of some statements he had made when elected Governor that
he should not be a candidate for the Senate. Mr. Lincoln
might, without dishonor or even indelicacy, have accepted
the office in spite of those utterances. It was quite clear
that all the persons who might be supposed to have acted
upon them, desired his election when the time came on. But
he was a man of scrupulous honor and did not mean to leave
any room for the imputation that he did not regard what is
due to "consistency of character," to use his own phrase.
Now if Mr. Lincoln would have accepted the office it is likely
that he would have held it until his death in 1868. At any
rate it is quite certain that he would have held it until
the political revolution of 1851.

It is quite clear to me that the office of Senator was at
Mr. Lincoln's command. Observe that this was in 1827, and
was the election for the term of six years, ending March 3,
1833. That includes the period of Jackson's great contest
with Nullification, when Mr. Webster, with all his power,
came to Jackson's support. It includes the time of the Reply
to Hayne, and the great debate with Calhoun.

Daniel Webster, I need not say, would have been a great figure
anywh