XXXI.
ARRAIGNMENT OF DANIEL WEBSTER.

Mr. Clayton, when Secretary of State, had received a proposition
from August Belmont, as the agent of the Rothschilds, to pay the
Mexican indemnity in drafts, for which four per cent. premium would
be allowed. Then Mr. Webster became Secretary of State, and he
entered into an agreement with an association of bankers, composed
of the Barings, Corcoran & Riggs, and Howland & Aspinwall, for the
negotiation of the drafts by them at a premium of three and a-half
per cent. The difference to the Government was about forty thousand
dollars, but the rival sets of bankers had large interests at stake,
based on their respective purchases of Mexican obligations at
depreciated values, and a war of pamphlets and newspaper articles
ensued. The dispute was carried into Congress, and during a debate
on it in the House, Representative Cartter, of Ohio, afterward
Chief Justice of the Courts in the District of Columbia, was very
emphatic in his condemnation of all the bankers interested. "I
want the House to understand," said he, with a slight impediment
in his speech, "that I take no part with the house of Rothschild,
or of Baring, or of Corcoran & Riggs. I look upon their scramble
for money precisely as I would upon the contest of a set of blacklegs
around a gaming-table over the last stake. They have all of them
grown so large in gormandizing upon money that they have left the
work of fleecing individuals, and taken to the enterprise of fleecing
nations."

Mr. Charles Allen, of the Worcester district of Massachusetts,
availed himself of the opportunity offered by this debate on the
payment of the Mexican indemnity to make a long-threatened malignant
attack on Daniel Webster. He asserted that he would not intrust
Mr. Webster with the making of arrangements to pay the three millions
of Mexican indemnity. He stated that it was notorious that when
he was called to take the office of Secretary of State he entered
into a negotiation by which twenty-five thousand dollars was raised
for him in State Street, Boston, and twenty-five thousand dollars
in Wall Street, New York. Mr. Allen trusted that the Democratic
party had yet honor enough left to inquire into the matter, and
that the Whigs even, would not palliate it, if satisfied of the
fact.

Mr. George Ashmun, Representative from the Springfield district,
retorted that Mr. Allen had eaten salt with Mr. Webster and received
benefits from him,