Having performed this work of beneficence and mercy on your inland
border, turn, and look with the eye of justice and compassion on
your vast population along the coast. Unclench the iron grasp of
your embargo. Take measures for that end before another sun
sets.... Let it no longer be said that not one ship of force, built
by your hands, yet floats upon the ocean.... If then the war must
be continued, go to the ocean. If you are seriously contending for
maritime rights, go to the theatre where alone those rights can be
defended. Thither every indication of your fortune points you.
There the united wishes and exertions of the nation will go with
you. Even our party divisions, acrimonious as they are, cease at
the water's edge."

Events soon forced the policy urged by Mr. Webster upon the administration,
whose friends carried first a modification of the embargo, and before the
close of the session introduced a bill for its total repeal. The difficult
task of advocating this measure devolved upon Mr. Calhoun, who sustained
his cause more ingeniously than ingenuously. He frankly admitted that
restriction was a failure as a war measure, but he defended the repeal on
the ground that the condition of affairs in Europe had changed since the
restrictive policy was adopted. It had indeed changed since the embargo of
1807, but not since the imposition of that of 1813, which was the one under
discussion.

Mr. Calhoun laid himself open to most unmerciful retorts, which was his
misfortune, not his fault, for the embargo had been utterly and hopelessly
wrong from the beginning. Mr. Webster, however, took full advantage of the
opportunity thus presented. His opening congratulations are in his best
vein of stately sarcasm, and are admirably put. He followed this up by a
new argument of great force, showing the colonial spirit of the restrictive