The result was debt; then subscriptions among his friends to pay his debts; then a fresh start and more debts, and more subscriptions and funds for his benefit, and gifts of money for his table, and checks or notes for several thousand dollars in token of admiration of the 7th of March speech.[1] This was, of course, utterly wrong and demoralizing, but Mr.Webster came, after a time, to look upon such transactions as natural and proper.

In the Ingersoll debate, Mr.
Yancey accused him of being in the pay of the New England manufacturers, and his biographer has replied to the charge at length.

That Mr.Webster was in the pay of the manufacturers in the sense that they hired him, and bade him do certain things, is absurd.

That he was maintained and supported in a large degree by New England manufacturers and capitalists cannot be questioned; but his attitude toward them was not that of servant and dependent.

He seems to have regarded the merchants and bankers of State Street very much as a feudal baron regarded his peasantry.