and that he was the only one who dared thus
malignantly to assail him. Mr. Ashmun alluded to a letter from
Washington, some time previously published in the Boston _Atlas_,
stating that a member of the House had facts in his possession upon
which to found a resolution charging a high officer with "corruption
and treason," and he traced a connection between that letter and
Mr. Allen's insinuations.

Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, of Alabama, followed Mr. Ashmun with a
glowing eulogy of Mr. Webster, in which he declared that, although
Massachusetts might repudiate him, the country would take him up,
for he stood before the eyes of mankind in a far more glorious
position than he could have occupied but for the stand which he
had taken in resisting the legions which were bearing down against
the rights of the South. This elicited a bitter rejoinder from
Mr. Allen, who alluded to the fact that Mr. Hilliard was a clergyman,
and said that he had found out how to serve two masters. Mr.
Ashmun, asking Mr. Allen if he had not published confidential
letters addressed to him by Mr. Charles Hudson, received as a reply,
"No, sir! no, sir! You are a scoundrel if you say that I did!"
The debate between Messrs. Ashmun and Allen finally became so bitter
that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, and other Representatives objected
to its continuance, and refused to hear another word from either
of them. The next day Mr. Lewis, of Philadelphia, improved an
opportunity for eulogizing Mr. Webster, provoking a scathing reply
from Mr. Joshua Giddings.

Immediately after this debate, Mr. Ashmun wrote to Mr. Hudson to
inquire whether the statement was true or false, and received the
following telegraphic dispatch:

"BOSTON, March 3d, 1851.

"HON. GEORGE ASHMUN: I wrote a confidential letter to Hon. Charles
Allen just before the Philadelphia Convention in 1848. He read
the letter in a public meeting at Worcester and published it in
the Worcester _Spy_. (Signed) CHARLES HUDSON."

Mr. Ashmun declared on the floor of the House, by the authority of
Mr. Webster, that the statement of Mr. Allen was "false in all its
length and breadth, and in all its details," but there was doubtless
a foundation for the statement. The friends of Mr. Webster admitted
that a voluntary contribution had been tendered him as a compensation
for the sacrifices he had made in abandoning his profession to
accept the office of Secretary of State, and they justified his
acceptanc