‘My dear Sir,—If what Dr. Johnson says be true, I am somewhat “advanced in the dignity of a thinking being,” as the past and the distant at this moment predominate in my mind strongly over the present. From amidst the labors of law and the strife of politics, I transport myself to London. No sooner am I in London, than I go off to find you, to grasp your hand, to assure myself of your health, and then to sit down and hear you talk. I enjoy all this, my dear Sir, most highly, and mean to enjoy it, so long as you and myself remain on this little bit of a globe. The pleasure of your acquaintance is not, with me, the felicity of a few months only. I fund it, and intend to get a very nice annuity out of it, as long as I live. I shall be receiving a dividend whenever I think of you; and if I can persuade myself into the belief that you sometimes remember me and mine, the treasure will be so much the more valuable.
‘To that end, my dear Sir, as well as for other
purposes for which one writes a friendly letter, I transmit you this. You will
learn from it that we are all alive and safely landed on our side of the ocean.
Our passage was of thirty-five days, with the alternations of head winds and
calms; and an approach to the shore, a little dangerous, perhaps, from the
season of the year and the state of the weather. But no accident happened to
us. One of the greatest annoyances in such a voyage, at such a time of the
year, is the shocking length of the
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‘My wife is at New York, passing a few weeks with her father, an aged gentleman who has been a good deal out of health. Mrs. Paige is in Boston, entertaining the circles around her with the wonders of London and Paris. Julia is also in Boston, and if she knew I was writing, would be eager to put on to my sheet her warm recollections. You have many older admirers, but none more ardent or enthusiastic. If it were proposed to her to visit Europe again, the pleasure of seeing you, I am sure, would be a very powerful inducement.
‘Having visited Boston, I came hither a fortnight ago. Congress is in session, and will remain so, not probably quite so late as Parliament will sit, but until June or July. Our affairs are bad enough. The currency is terribly deranged, and the important and delicate questions which always belong to such a subject are sadly handled when they become topics for heated and violent parties. I see, too, that the money crisis is not over in England. Our concerns are, indeed, much connected, and the same causes affect them all.
‘I am coming to the opinion fast, that some new modes
of regulation must be adopted in both countries; or else these frequent
contractions and expansions of the paper circulation will compel us to give it
up and go back to gold, or iron, or the Lord knows what. But I will not bore
you with politics. Let me, rather, say that I have answered a hundred questions
about you, made many persons happy by speaking of you, and that
| LETTERS FROM DANIEL WEBSTER | 191 |
‘I am, my dear Sir, with the most sincere attachment and regard,
