resign after the Ashburton
Treaty had been negotiated. The command was treated with sovereign
contempt, and thenceforth Mr. Lawrence looked upon Mr. Webster as
ungrateful, and as standing in the way of his own political
advancement. But Mr. Webster defied the would-be cotton-lord,
saying: "I am a Whig--a Faneuil Hall Whig--and if any one undertakes
to turn me out of that communion, let him see to it who gets out
first."

While Mr. Webster had been negotiating the Ashburton Treaty, and
after he had found rest at Marshfield, he displayed the same
sprightly humor and tender sweetness which so endeared him to those
who were permitted to enjoy intimate social relations with him.
He always rose with the sun, visiting his farm-yards at Marshfield,
and going to market at Washington, before breakfast, with a visit
at either place to the kitchen, where he would gravely discuss the
culinary programme of the day with Monica, a cook of African descent,
whose freedom he had purchased. After breakfast, he would study
or write or fish all day, dressing for a late dinner, after which
he gave himself up to recreation; sometimes, as Colonel Seaton's
daughter has pleasantly told us, singing hymns or songs, generally
impartially to the same tune; or gravely essaying the steps of a
_minuet de la cour_, which he had seen danced in the courtly
Madisonian era; or joining in the jests of the gay circle, magnificent
teeth gleaming, his great, living coals of eyes--"sleeping furnaces,"
Carlyle called them--soft as a woman's; or his rare, tender smile
lighting up the dusky grandeur of his face. Mr. Webster was not,
at that period of his life, an intemperate drinker, although, like
many other gentlemen of that day, he often imbibed too freely at
the dinner-table.

An amusing account has been given of an after-dinner speech by Mr.
Webster at a gathering of his political friends, when he had to be
prompted by a friend who sat just behind him, and gave him successively
phrases and topics. The speech proceeded somewhat after this
fashion: Prompter: "Tariff." Webster: "The tariff, gentlemen,
is a subject requiring the profound attention of the statesman.
American industry, gentlemen, must be ----" (nods a little).
Prompter: "National Debt." Webster: "And, gentlemen, there's
the national debt--it should be paid (loud cheers, which rouse the
speaker); yes, gentlemen, it should be paid (cheers), and I'll be
hanged if it sha'n't be--(taking