undertake it in all the other points, if those connected with the then
recent treaty with Spain, under which he had been appointed a
commissioner by Monroe, were assigned to other counsel; and he suggested
the name of Webster. He ever held the abilities of Mr. Webster in the
highest respect; and when asked, on reaching Norfolk after the argument,
what he thought of Webster, who was then, comparatively, a young man, he
said he was excessively clever, but a lazy dog.

We now approach an epoch in the history of parties which materially
involves the consistency of Mr. Tazewell as a politician. Although he
had not been in public life since his withdrawal from Congress, he held
no unimportant place in popular estimation. His course in the House of
Delegates during four troublous years, and in the House of
Representatives where he had taken an active and fearless part in the
fierce strife for the election of a President, had commended him to the
affections of that majority which has ruled the politics of Virginia
since the adoption of the present federal constitution. He was the son
of a beloved statesman who had fallen while in the innermost councils of
that great party, and whose name was held in honor. His talents had now
gained him a position among the ablest members of the bar; and his old
political associates looked to him for aid in the crisis which was
drawing near; and they looked in vain. This aspect of his political life
it is my office to present before you.

Up to 1805 the administration of Jefferson was floating, to use one of
his own figures, on the full tide of successful experiment. The
obnoxious measures of the federal party, where repeal was possible, had
been repealed. The alien act, which Tazewell condemned not only as
unconstitutional but to the last degree unwise, as tending to repress
the emigration of those who would not only settle our waste lands, but