It contained
a large body of able and influential men who wielded the power
of absolute disinterestedness. They were satisfied if they
could contribute, by counsel or labor, to the well-being of
the State by the advancement of their cherished political
principles. They asked no other reward. The Whigs were in
favor of using wisely, but courageously, the forces of the
Nation and State to accomplish public objects for which private
powers or municipal powers were inadequate. The Whigs desired
to develop manufacture by national protection; to foster internal
improvements and commerce by liberal grants for rivers and
harbors; to endow railroads and canals for public ways by
grants of public lands and from the treasury; to maintain
a sound currency; and to establish a uniform system for the
collection of debts, and for relieving debtors by a National
bankruptcy law.

The Whig policy had made Massachusetts known the world over
as the model Commonwealth. It had lent the State's credit
to railroads. It had established asylums for the blind and
insane and deaf and dumb, and had made liberal gifts to schools.
The Massachusetts courts were unsurpassed in the world. Her
poor laws were humane. All her administrative policies were
wise, sound, and economical.

They asked from the National Government only a system of protection
that should foster home manufacture, and that they might pursue
their commercial and manufacturing occupation in peace.

Daniel Webster was the idol of the people. He was at the
fulness of his great intellectual power. The series of speeches
and professional and political achievements which began with
the oration at Plymouth in 1820 was still in progress. The
Whigs of Massachusetts disliked slavery; but they loved the
Union. Their political gospel was found in Webster's reply
to Hayne and his great debates with Calhoun. It was the one
heart's desire of the youth of Massachusetts that their beloved
idol and leader should be crowned with the great office of
the Presidency.

Mr. Webster tried to avert the conflict by voting against
the treaty with Mexico, by which we acquired our great territory
in the far West; but in vain. The Whigs feared the overthrow
of the Whig Party. The manufacturer and the merchant dreaded
an estrangement that would cause the loss of their southern
trade, and with it all hope of a law that would protect their
manufactures.

It was in this condition of things that