as connected with the machinations of the French party. It
was not without reason that Mr. King expressed the opinion to Mr. Jay
"that the essays of Curtius had contributed more than any other papers
of the same kind to allay the discontent and opposition to the treaty;"
assigning as a reason that they were peculiarly well adapted to the
understanding of the people at large.

Webster had the newspaper faculty, and was as omniscient as any editor
need be. A consideration of his general labors belongs elsewhere, but it
ought to be noted here that he was prompt to see the perils which
underlay American slavery. He discussed the subject, indeed, chiefly in
its industrial relations, but he regarded these as affecting parties and
national well-being. As early as 1793 he delivered an address before the
Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom "On the Effects of
Slavery on Morals and Industry," and shortly afterward expanded the
address into a treatise. His work bristles with historical
illustrations, for it was the habit then more than later to draw
inferences from foreign facts; there had not yet accumulated that great
swelling volume of home testimony which made reference to experience
outside of America unnecessary and rather impertinent. His remedy for
the existing evil is the elevation of slaves to the rank of tenants, not
in a sudden emancipation, but in the gradual selection of the most
capable, and he finds his most satisfactory example in the experiment
made thirty years before by the Chancellor of Poland. The appeal is not
greatly to the conscience, but to the interest of men. He sums up the
argument at the close with the words: "The industry, the commerce, and
the moral character of the United States will be immensely benefited by
the change. Justice and Humanity require it; Christianity _commands_
it." He had not long been conducting the "Minerva" before he took up the
subject again, reminding the public of this treatise. "In that
pamphlet," he says, "I endeavored to show by arguments and facts that
the labor of slaves is less productive than that of freemen. A doctrine
of this kind, if clearly and incontrovertibly established, will perhaps
go farther in abolishing the practice of enslaving men than any
declamation on the immorality and cruelty of the practice." He then
takes up the statistics which had accumulated since the publication of
his pamphlet, showing in a forcible manner that the Northern Free Sta