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Show ~70 TilE l.IDEnTY }H;J,L. :\Ir. 'Vcbstcr (unnecessarily, as most nrc now willing to confess,) had whetted and steeled against them 1 Tbcy could not have been intended as sober irony. That were o. cruel and mocking insult, of which Mr. Hillard must be deemed incapable. To suppose he believed them true were to degrade his intelligence to the level of the Hubbard Winslows and Hale Smiths. It is now very gcncra1ly admitted that Mr. "'cbstcr's course on the Fugitive Slave Law was dictatc<l by personal ambition, and shaped by regard to prh·atc ends. His predecessor, in the office of Secretary, has declared that the grounds he alleged were mere pretences. But whether this be so or not, if be really acted- from noble motives, or at tho call of inevitable necessity-still, 1\Ir. Hillard's assertion is false. All even then that Mr. Webster's friends could plead would be, that patriotism and necessity excused him for "withholding the poor from their desire, and causing tho eyes of the widow to fail; in lifting up his hand against the fatherless when nANn:L \n:nsn:n. 271 he ~nw help in the gate." :.\fr. Ilillard is famed os a rhetorician. An old adage, " not to name halters," &c., should Lave warned him, when gh•ing a false gloss to ugly facts, to avoid language too suggestive of the truth. ll '!I a des louanges qui midz"sent. The curses of the poor have blighted his laurels. He is mourned in coiled houses and the marts of trade. But the dwellers in Slave huts and fugiti\• cs along tho highways thank God they have one enemy the less. 'Vhat a terrible record will History make up against him ! The fricmllcs.'J and the hunted cannot help rejoicing at his death ! Grnnt all Ids merits. Put against them, that the Slave knew him only as an enemy : knew of his logic, only to fear it: of his inftucncc, only to wear chains heavier for its weight, and to pray to God ngainst it. 'Vhcrever that terrible face turned, it cnn-ied gloom to the Slave's hovel. On how many a hearth, since 1850, has it required the utmost Christian principle not to call down curses on his |