He showed that these roads would open up the West to settlement, and incidentally defended the policy of selling the public lands at a low price as an encouragement to emigration, telling his Southern friends very plainly that they could not expect to coerce the course of population in favor of their own section.

The whole speech was conceived in the broadest and wisest spirit, and marks another step in the development of Mr.Webster as a national statesman.

It increased his reputation, and brought to him a great accession of popularity in the West.
The measure which he carried through was the famous "Crimes Act," perhaps the best monument that there is of his legislative and constructive ability.

The criminal law of the United States had scarcely been touched since the days of the first Congress, and was very defective and unsatisfactory.

Mr.Webster's first task, in which he received most essential and valuable though unacknowledged assistance from Judge Story, was to codify and digest the whole body of criminal law.