a vexatious quarrel
over our Northeastern boundary, it overthrew the British claim to
exercise the right of search, and it established the right of
property in slaves on an American vessel driven by stress of weather
into a British port. But the treaty did not settle the exasperating
controversy over the fisheries on the North Atlantic coast or the
disputed Northwestern boundary. When the treaty finally reached
the Senate, it was debated for several weeks in executive session,
Mr. Benton leading a strong opposition to it. Near the close of
the debate Mr. Calhoun made a strong speech in favor of ratification,
in which he praised both Lord Ashburton and Mr. Webster. This
speech secured the ratification of the treaty.

Having concluded the Ashburton Treaty, Mr. Webster started for New
England to enjoy the rural life so dear to him on his farm at
Franklin, New Hampshire, and at Marshfield, Massachusetts. He
announced, before he left Washington, that on his arrival at Boston
he should address his friends in Faneuil Hall, and there was an
intense desire to her what he might have to say on public affairs.
The leaders of the Whig party hoped that he would announce a
resignation of his office as Secretary of State, denounce the
duplicity of President Tyler, and come gracefully to the support
of Henry Clay, who had imperiously demanded the Presidential
nomination. But Mr. Webster declined to accept the advice given
him, and spoke his mind very freely and frankly. There was--said
one who heard the speech--no sly insinuation of innuendo, but a
straightforward, independent expression of truth, a copious outpouring
of keen reproof, solemn admonition, and earnest entreaty.

Among those former home-friends whose behavior was very annoying
to Mr. Webster at this time was Mr. Abbott Lawrence, a Boston
merchant, who, having amassed a large fortune, coveted political
honors, and was a liberal contributor to the campaign fund of his
party. Astute and observing, he imagined himself a representative
of the merchant-princes of Venice under the Doges and England under
the Plantagenets, and he spoke in a measured, stately tone, advancing
his ideas with a positiveness that would not brook contradiction.
On several occasions he had been one of the "solid men of Boston"
who had contributed considerable sums for the pecuniary relief of
Mr. Webster, and this emboldened him to assume a dictatorial tone
in advising the Secretary of State to