Boston, May 12, 1823.
My Dear Sir,—It
will give us great pleasure to go to Portsmouth, especially in company with you
and Mrs. Story. I believe there is very little to do in the Circuit Court. For
myself I have next to nothing. There will probably be one capital trial, as I
learn from Mr. Blake, which he thinks must be postponed for a short time from
the commencement of the court; so that on the whole there will probably be no
inconvenience in adjourning the court over next week.
I never felt more down sick on all subjects connected with
the public, than at the present moment. I have heretofore cherished a faint
hope that New England would some time or other get out of this miserable, dirty
squabble of local politics, and assert her proper character and consequence.
But I at length give up. I feel the hand of fate upon us, and to struggle is in
vain. We are doomed to be hewers of wood and drawers of water; and I am
prepared, henceforth, to do my part of the drudgery, without hoping for an end.
You know I am not disappointed at the result of the election for governor. My “agony”
was over before the election took place, for I never doubted the result Indeed,
on the grounds on which the controversy was placed, I could have enjoyed the
triumph of neither party. What has sickened me beyond remedy is the tone and
temper of these disputes. We are disgraced beyond help or hope by these things.
There is a Federal interest, a Democratic interest, a Bankrupt interest, an
Orthodox interest, and a Middling interest, but I see no national interest, nor
any national feeling in the whole matter.
I am, dear Sir, your
true but despairing friend,
D. Webster.
SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence
of Daniel Webster, Volume 1, p. 325
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