mportant improvements,
ought to be ascribed rather to a series of causes than to any particular
and sudden one, and to the participation of many rather than to the
efforts of a single agent. It is certain that the general idea of
revising and enlarging the scope of the federal authority, so as to
answer the necessary purposes of the Union, grew up in many minds, and
by natural degrees, during the experienced inefficacy of the old
Confederation. The discernment of General Hamilton must have rendered
him an early patron of the idea. That the public attention was called to
it by yourself at an early period is well known."

We are not especially concerned with Webster's claim except as it
illustrates his character and activity. He was a busy-body, if I may
recover to better uses a somewhat ignoble word. We have seen him
traveling back and forth, visiting the state capitals and public men in
behalf of his "Grammatical Institute," lecturing and writing, projecting
magazines, and putting himself into the midst of whatever was going on.
The air was full of political talk, and Webster was the conductor that
drew off some of it. He rushed eagerly into pamphlet-writing, both
because he had something to say, and because he never stepped back to
see if any one else was about to say it. He had no public character to
preserve, and he issued his pamphlet as he delivered his sentiments upon
many subjects,--to whomever he might catch. He carried it to Mount
Vernon and put it into the hands of General Washington, and Madison saw
it there. The nickname of the Monarch, which Belknap and Hazard gave
him, fitted a young man of aggressive self-confidence, who saw no reason
why he should not have his say upon the subject which was upper-most in
men's minds, and used the means most natural to him and most convenient.

Alexander Hamilton was but a year older than Noah Webster, and was
indeed a much younger man when he first took part in the discussion of
public affairs. Hamilton was a man with a genius for statesmanship; in
Webster we see very significantly marks of political common sense, the
presence of which in the American mind at that day made Hamilton's
leadership possible. It would be hard to find a better illustration of
the average political education of Americans of the time than is shown
by Webster in this pamphlet and in other of his writings. We are
accustomed sometimes to speak of the Constitution as a half-miraculous
gift to the A