Note 141 — Chapter I
Reading edition
The Federalists frantically opposed conscription. Daniel Webster, especially, denounced it. "Is this [conscription] ... consistent with the character of a free Government?... No, Sir.... The Constitution is libelled, foully libelled. The people of this country have not established ... such a fabric of despotism....
"Where is it written in the Constitution ... that you may take children from their parents ... & compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of Government may engage it?... Such an abominable doctrine has no foundation in the Constitution."
Conscription, Webster said, was a gambling device to throw the dice for blood; and it was a "horrible lottery." "May God, in his compassion, shield me from ... the enormity of this guilt." (See Webster's speech on the Conscription Bill delivered in the House of Representatives, December 9, 1814, Van Tyne, 56-68; see also Curtis: Life of Daniel Webster, i, 138.)
Webster had foretold what he meant to do: "Of course we shall oppose such usurpation." (Webster to his brother, Oct. 30, 1814, Van Tyne, 54.) Again: "The conscription has not come up—if it does it will cause a storm such as was never witnessed here" [in Washington]. (Same to same, Nov. 29, 1814, ib. 55.)