Mr. Mason. In the mean time, the news of the fire, which had
been attended with some appalling circumstances, had reached
Washington, where Mr. Webster, on his arrival, first met the
account. Before he could open his letters, his firmness was put
to a great trial, by the somewhat exaggerated statements of
those who hastened to give him information. But a cheerful
letter from his wife, advising him not to return, reassured him;
and "finding nothing lost," he says, "but house and property,"
and considering how critical were the public affairs, he com-
mended his little family to their friends, and remained at Wash-
ington through the winter.

There was, indeed, no little need for such men, even if they
were not political friends of the Administration. The war,
although there had been some brilliant successes on the Lakes
and one important victory on the ocean, had not been prosper-
ous on the land. In Europe, the star of Bonaparte was no
longer in the ascendant--disaster had overtaken him; and
England, at the head of the great combination that was now
closing around him, was not unlikely to be in a situation to
carry on her contest with us more vigorously than before. Our
Administration, not a strong one, was in want of both men
and money. Perplexed, and not sure of an undivided support
from its own party, it was in danger of following counsels
insufficiently weighed. It was conducting the first impor-
tant war that had been undertaken since the establishment of
the Constitution; and on that war the sentiments of the peo-
ple were by no means unanimous. New measures were to be
brought forward, new powers were to be exercised, which might
subject the Constitution to a severe test. These measures were
to undergo the ordeal of discussion by the representatives of
a people who had been accustomed to the utmost freedom of
debate and criticism; who had not learned to surrender that
freedom to the demands of official judgment; and who would
be certain to insist that the hitherto untried powers of war,
embraced in the Constitution, should not be pressed to its injury
and its possible overthrow. If the war was to go on, its policy
was to be settled; and perhaps there never has been a war con-
ducted by a constitutional government and in behalf of a free
people, in which the restraining influence of a vigilant and

-116-