[Footnote 2:  Whether Mr. Hunter’s draft was also sent to Mr. Everett, I do not know.  The internal evidence would seem to indicate that it was; but the fact is not material.]

[Footnote 3:  I have seen, I believe, all the documents in relation to this matter; viz.  Mr. Hunter’s draft, Mr. Everett’s (in his handwriting, with Mr. Webster’s erasures), the third draft, made at the department under Mr. Webster’s directions, and the original added paragraphs, written by Mr. Webster with his own hand.  To those who are curious about the question of authorship, it is needful only to say that Mr. Webster adopted Mr. Everett’s draft as the basis of the official letter, but that the official letter is a much more vigorous, expanded, and complete production than Mr. Everett’s draft.  It is described in a note written by Mr. Everett to one of the literary executors, in 1853, as follows:  “It can be stated truly that what Mr. Webster did himself to the letter was very considerable; and that he added one half in bulk to the original draft; and that his additions were of the most significant character.  It was very carefully elaborated in the department by him, till he was authorized to speak of it as he did at the Kossuth dinner....”

This refers to what Mr. Webster said in his speech at the Kossuth banquet, in Washington, January 7, 1852:—­

“May I be so egotistical as to say that I have nothing new to say on the subject of Hungary?  Gentlemen, in the autumn of the year before last, out of health, and retired to my paternal home among the mountains of New Hampshire, I was, by reason of my physical condition, confined to my house; but I was among the mountains, whose native air I was bound to inspire.  Nothing saluted my senses, nothing saluted my mind, or my sentiments, but freedom, full and entire; and there, gentlemen, near the graves of my ancestors, I wrote a letter, which most of you have seen, addressed to the Austrian charge d’affaires.  I can say nothing of the ability displayed in that letter, but, as to its principles, while the sun and moon endure, I stand by them.”]

[Footnote 4:  From Hon. George T. Curtis’s Life of Daniel Webster, Vol.  II. pp. 535-537.]

INDEX.

A.

Aberdeen, Lord, on right of search, 661, 662.

Abolition Societies, Mr. Webster’s opinion of, 571;
  effect of, 619.

“Accede,” word not found in the Constitution, 276.

Accession and Secession defined, 276.

Act of 1793, regulating coasting trade, 121;
  of 1800, concerning custom-house bonds, 383.

Acts of 1824, concerning surveys for canals, &c., 245.

Acts of Legislature of N.H., on Corporation of Dartmouth College, 1, 3;
  in regard to Dartmouth College, 14, 15.

Adams and Jefferson, eulogy delivered in Faneuil Hall on, 156;
  coincidences in the death and lives of, 157;
  made draft of Declaration of Independence, 159;
  compared as scholars, 173.