jEtti 3«0Eti'3 ffitilmtt tn jMaHSUtliuBttti 
 
 A EULOGY 
 
 PRONOUSCED 0.\ 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF BURLINGTON, N. J., 
 
 AT THE LYCEUM, 
 
 On November 4th, 1852. 
 
 CORTLANDT VAN RENSSELAER, 
 
 A MINISTER OP THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCD, AKD AN ELECTOR IN BrRLINGTON TOWNSHIP. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES AT MARSHFIELD, ETC. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 BURLINGTON, N. J. 
 
 1852. 
 
 -TJ ^ 
 
gM* 
 
 
 This Eulogy was commenced with the view of preparing an article for The Presby- 
 terian Magazine, of which the writer is the Editor. It soon expanded, however, beyond 
 the limits originally intended ; and finally assumed the form of a popular address, in re- 
 sponse to the Providence which seemed to invite the public improvement of so solemn an 
 occasion. It is now committed to the press, at the suggestion of, perhaps too partial, friends. 
 
 The facts and anecdotes, illustrating Mr. Webster's life, have been derived from Mr. 
 Everett's Biographical Sketch, prefixed to the '• Works of Daniel Webster;'" from Mr. March's 
 Life of Webster ; and from the newsjiapers, especially the New York Daily Times, which 
 has abounded in eloquent notices of the departed Statesman. 
 
 BORLINGTON, N. J., 
 
 NoTcmber 5th. 1852. 
 
 S U E R M A N, I' R I N T E R, 
 
 I'hiladolpbia. 
 
Friends and Fellow-citizens : 
 
 New Jersey, Avitli her sisters of the Confederacy, stricken in Provi- 
 dence, mourns at the grave of Daniel Webster. 
 
 As one of the " old thirteen," — ever dear to the departed states- 
 man, — NeAV Jersey claims to participate in his obsequies. The achieve- 
 ments on our soil were often the theme of his glowing praise. Trenton, 
 and Princeton, and Monmouth, were fields, whose memories of renown 
 were cherished by him as dearly as those of Lexington, and Concord, 
 and Bunker Hill. Our own honoured Richard Stockton, too, was his 
 intimate, personal friend ; and the equally distinguished son, New Jer- 
 sey's high-souled Senator in Congress ; and Frelinghuysen, gracing lite- 
 rature with the laurels won in the halls of legislation. Nor can it be 
 forgotten that the last cause at the bar,* argued by the giant lawyer- 
 statesman, was in our own Capital, on the banks of the Delaware, in the 
 presence of our great men, and in sight of the records, the statutes, and 
 the heraldry of New Jersey. 
 
 In the town of Marshfield is a sepulchre, inscribed with the name of 
 Daniel Webster. Death, like truth, is severe in its simplicity. A 
 few letters tell its triumph ; a little dust is its victory. That noble 
 form, lately animated with life, lies in silence amidst earth and graves. 
 Quenched is the full eye which delighted in the researches of know- 
 ledge, in the glance of the stars of heaven, in the woods, and fields, and 
 streams, and sea, in the countenances of listening men, and in the plea- 
 sant charms of a rural home. He has gone. With his friendship, his 
 learning, his eloquence, his love of country, his genius, his wealth of 
 public service, Webster has gone down to the grave. 
 
 At this season of national bereavement, it is a duty and a privilege 
 to attempt to gather up some of the materials which make his memory 
 a precious inheritance of our own and of future generations. In giving 
 method to the present Address, it is proposed to ofi'er some account of 
 Mr. Webster's early youth ; to form an estimate of his public life and 
 
 * The case of Goodyear vs. Day, the celebrated Patent case, argued at Trenton. 
 
services ; to consider his social and religious character, and death ; and 
 to unfold some of the lessons to be learned at his grave. 
 
 I. The youth of Daniel AVebster has a congruity of promise and of 
 excellence, which it is pleasing to record. From the solemn grave of 
 the illustrious departed on the shores of the Atlantic, let us turn to his 
 birthplace among the hills of New Hampshire. 
 
 GOD S SOVEREIGNTY AT SALISBURY. 
 
 God's sovereignty, exercised throughout the earth, was seen in the 
 town of Salisbury, N. H., where was born one of the greatest of men. 
 Amidst the rude, majestic scenery of nature ; the son of reputable and 
 pious parents ; far away from the scenes of wealth and turmoil ; Daniel 
 AVebster, a creation of God, entered the world. In the year 1782, 
 thousands of children were born, but the pre-eminent among them was 
 the son of Ebcnezer and Abigail Webster. Kor since the 18tli of 
 January, of that year, has there appeared on earth an intellect, whose 
 towering majesty has reached, in the range of human elevation, the 
 aerial height of this New Hampshire child. God, in his sovereignty, 
 gave that mind to that human being, arranged the time and circum- 
 stances of his birth ; ordered for him the training and the memories of 
 a blessed home ; and carried on the designs of Providence in his future 
 career of usefulness and fame. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF A FARMER'S BOY. 
 
 It was fit that a child of God's predestined greatness, should be con- 
 secrated to the service of his Maker. On "Meeting-House Hill" stands 
 the old Puritan Church, where "the rude forefathers" met to worship 
 the King of kings. It is a bright and beautiful morning, according to 
 tradition, when Ebenezer and Abigail Webster set out for the house of 
 God, accompanied by their children, and carrying their new-born infant 
 for the holy rite of baptism. The Rev. Jonathan Searle, the minister 
 of the parish, dressed in the robes of the olden time, is at his post, in 
 the higli, magisterial Puritan pulpit. After prayer, the reading of the 
 Word, and a hymn, the sacrament is to be administered. The young, 
 mysterious infant is brought forward, no one knowing or dreaming 
 " what manner of child this was to be ;" the vows are taken ; and in the 
 [ircscnce of God, and angels, and witnessing men, Daniel Webster was 
 baptized "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 
 
 That old church has long since crumbled into ruin. Minister, parents, 
 and cliihl arc also now in tlie dust; but the ceremonies of that day have 
 an interest which yet lingers around the old "Meeting-House Hill." 
 
THE HOUSEHOLD TRAINING OF FUTURE GREATNESS. 
 
 Daniel Webster is indebted, under God, to nothing more tlian to his 
 youthful training. Without this, he would have been a wreck, cast up 
 and torn to pieces, in early dishonour, upon tlic terrific precipices of 
 human passion. For the elevation of his public sentiments, for the 
 integrity of a long career, for Avhatever of restraint was experienced in 
 social life, and whatever of solace hovered around his dying bed, he 
 was under obligations to the honoured and beloved parents who were 
 the guardians of his childhood and youth. 
 
 His first teacher was his mother. Other children had she already 
 nursed and taught ; but the youngest boy was the darling, and she 
 prophesied great things of her Daniel. There she sits, in her quiet 
 home, with the young child on her knee, teaching him the letters of the 
 alphabet, and telling him how great and good is God. It has been said 
 that the extraordinary genius of the future statesman descended from 
 the maternal line ; and it is certain that Mrs. Webster was a woman of 
 uncommon intellect, of warm affections, of true piety, and of coramand- 
 ino- influence in her household. It is nevertheless true that the father 
 was also an eminent man, both in public and private life. Daniel thus 
 writes of his father, thirty years after he had been in his grave : " He 
 had in him what I recollect to have been the character of some of the 
 old Puritans. He was deeply religious, but not sour ; on the contrary, 
 good-humoured, facetious, — showing, even in his age, with a contagious 
 laugh, teeth all white as alabaster, — gentle, soft, playful ; — and yet 
 having a heart in him that he seemed to have borrowed from a lion. 
 He could frown (a frown it was) ; but cheerfulness, good humour, and 
 smiles, composed his most usual aspect." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the parents' nurture of their son left its 
 influence upon all his future life. The Hon. RuFUS Choate* alludes 
 to "that training of the giant infancy on Oatechism and Bible and 
 Watts' s -version of the Psalms, and on the traditions of Plymouth and 
 Fort William Henry, and the age of Washington and Franklin." 
 All that father and mother could do, to bring up their child in the true 
 principles both of Church and of State, was done by these pious, 
 republican parents. The glorious doctrines of the Bible, and the en- 
 nobling truths of public liberty, were the seed sown into the furrows of 
 his mighty soul. 
 
 THE STATESMAN AT THE COMMON SCHOOL. 
 
 On the easterly side of the road, a short distance from the family 
 
 * Mr. Choate's speech before the Boston bar is one of the eloquent — the most elo- 
 quent? — tributes of the deeply solemn occasion. It does equal honour to the speaker's 
 fine, intense intellect, and warm, large heart. 
 
mansion, between two buttonwoods, stood the log scJwolhoiise, taught by 
 Thomas Chase. Here the future statesman commenced his public edu- 
 cation. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, w"ith instruction in the Bible 
 and Catechism, formed the grand outlines of an old-fashioned. New 
 England education. Like the hills of New Hampshire, these constitute 
 the granite range of the soil, from whence flow the tributaries and the 
 rivers of future acquisition. Into the log school of Salisbury the little 
 boy with a high forehead and black eye went daily, to obtain the rudi- 
 ments of an English education. The hand that is learning to write in 
 the rude copy-book is at some future day to draw up our grandest 
 documents of State, and to sign treaties with foreign powers. Here 
 were acquired those pure Saxon words which were to become the regalia 
 of a king of orators ; here the reading, which opened to his clear 
 intellect the stores of ancient and professional knowledge ; here the 
 early taste for thoroughness and simplicity. How great has been the 
 influence of the schoolhouscs of New England in training up generations 
 for usefulness in Church and State, and for the sacred duties of domestic 
 life ! Happy for Daniel Webster that the schoolmaster was abroad in 
 his day ! Long may the common schools of our land flourish, with en- 
 larged blessings for the people ; and may they never teach human 
 Icarnino; to the exclusion of the hifrher knowledcje of Christ ! 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER LEARNING AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Agricultural pursuits had, in after life, an absorbing influence on Mr. 
 AVcbster. Where did he acquire his fondness for engaging in the culti- 
 vation of the field, and his skill in successfully managing the farm? 
 Where else than on the old homestead ? He used to follow the horse 
 in the plough, was taught to handle the sickle, knew how to rake and 
 stack hay, drove the cows to pasture in the morning and home again at 
 night ; in short, he was trained from a boy to do the work of a farm, 
 and he never ceased to love these joyous and hearty occupations of his 
 youth. Tiic old Salisbury fields were the agricultural school where he 
 became imbued with the taste and knowledge which afterwards made him 
 a farmer of the highest grade, both in science and in practice. 
 
 Agriculture, as an occupation, has a useful influence. It gives a 
 practical direction to the mind: it cultivates habits of industry; pro- 
 motes self-reliance and independence ; gives hardihood to the frame ; 
 fosters the attachment of home, and brings God and his providence into 
 a peculiar kind of contact with every-day life. Deem not the farm-work 
 of tliis boy an unimportant afi'air of his early days ! Among humble 
 and pious farmers, he is, with them, getting good and doing good. 
 
'•' Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 
 
 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; 
 How jocund did they drive their team a-field ! 
 
 How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! 
 
 '• Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 
 Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, 
 The short and simple annals of the poor." 
 
 No ! On that retired farm, there is one Avho will arise to a gran- 
 deur of fame, -which the ambition of feAV Avill be bold enough to aim at. 
 He will be heard of again at Washington ! He ^vill be heard of at 
 Marshfield ! 
 
 the new hampshire boy at an academy. 
 
 The followinfr is Mr. "Webster's own account of the circumstances 
 which resulted in his going to Exeter Academy, a celebrated institution, 
 founded in 1781 by the liberality of John Phillips, LL.D. : 
 
 " On a hot day in July, — it must have been one of the last years of Washington's 
 administration, — I was making hay with my father, just where I now see a remain- 
 ing elm tree, about the middle of the afternoon. The Hon. Abiel Foster. M. C, who 
 lived in Canterbury, six miles off, called at the house, and came into the field to see 
 my father. He was a worthy man. college learned, and had been a minister, but 
 was not a person of any considerable natural powers. My father was his friend and 
 supporter. He talked awhile in the field, and went on his way. 
 
 '' When he was gone, my father called me to him, and we sat down beneath the 
 elm, on a hay-cock. He said, ' My son, that is a worthy man, — he is a member of 
 CoLgress, — he goes to Philadelphia, and gets six dollars a day, while I toil here. It 
 is because he had an education, which I never had. If I had had his early educa- 
 tion, I should have been in Philadelphia in his place. I came near it, as it was. 
 But I missed it, and now I must work here." ' My dear father,' said I, ' you shall 
 not work. Brother and I will work for you, and wear our hands out, and you shall 
 rest,' — and I remember to have cried, and I cry now, at the recollection. ' My 
 child,' said he, ' it is of no importance to me 3 1 now live but for my children ; I could 
 not give your elder brother the advantages of knowledge, but I can do something for 
 you. Exert yourself — improve your opportunities — learn — karn — and when I am 
 gone, you will not need to go through the hardships which I have undergone, and 
 which have made me an old man before my time.' 
 
 " The next INIay he took me to Exeter to the Phillips Exeter Academy, and placed 
 me under the tuition of its excellent preceptor, Dr. Benjamin Abbott, still living." 
 
 Mr. Webster entered Phillips's xVcademy in May, 1796, at the age of 
 fourteen, and remained there nine months. He greatly endeared him- 
 self to Dr. Abbott, and made considerable progress in the acquisition of 
 the Latin language, in composition, and in declamation. His intellec- 
 tual and social faculties received a kindly development among the ninety 
 boys at the institution. After leaving Exeter, Mr. Webster was placed 
 
. 8 
 
 for six months in the family of the Rev. Samuel Wood, D.D,,* of Bosca- 
 wen, who superintended his studies, and persuaded him to apply for 
 admission, Ayithout delay, into Dartmouth College. 
 
 THE YOUNG STUDENT AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 
 
 Although Mr. Wehster did not begin his Greek grammar until Jure, 
 ho entered College in August. This was in 1797, when John Wheelock, 
 LL. D., was president. Mr. Webster chiefly distinguished himself, in 
 the words of Dr. ShurtlefT, by "attending to his own business," and 
 pursuing his studies with diligence. Virgil and Cicero were his favourite 
 Latin authors. Watts on the Mind and Locke on the Understanding 
 developed his metaphysical acumen; and his style of speaking was nur- 
 tured by reading Burke, Pitt, Ames, Hamilton, and other distinguished 
 orators. While in College, in the Junior year, Mr. Webster delivered a 
 fourth of July oration, which showed that he well understood American 
 history and the origin of our constitution. This remarkable production 
 — for a young man — was published in the year 1800. The following 
 extracts will be read with interest : 
 
 '•'The solemn Declaration of Independence is now pronounced, amidst crowds of 
 admiring citizens, by the supreme council of our nation; and received with the un- 
 bounded plaudits of a grateful people. 
 
 •'•'That was the hour when heroism was proved — and the souls of men tried. y 
 
 " It was then, yk venerable patriots (speaking to the Revolutionary soldie/s 
 present), it was then you lifted the indignant arm, and unitedly swore to be fre^! 
 Despising such toys as subjugated empires, you then knew no middle fortune between 
 liberty and death. 
 
 '•' Firmly relying on the protection of heaven, unwarped in the resolution you had 
 taken, you then, undaunted, met — engaged — defeated the gigantic power of Britain, 
 and rose triumphant over the aggressions of your enemies. 
 
 "Trenton, Princeton, Bennington, and Saratoga, were the successive theatres of 
 your victories, and the utmost bounds of creation are the limits to your fame ! The 
 sacred fire of freedom, then enkindled in your breasts, shall be perpetuated through 
 the long descent of future ages, and burn, with undiminished fervour, in the bosom of 
 millions yet unborn." 
 
 The young orator alludes to the Articles of Confederation and to the 
 Constitution in the same terms which characterized his subsequent 
 speeches in the Senate of the United States : 
 
 * The Rev. Dr. Wood was one of the great and useful men of his day. It is said that 
 he personally instructed, in his own liouse, one hundred and fifty-five pupils, many of 
 whom lie educated gratuitously. Of these, one hundred and five entered college; from 
 forty to fifty became ministers; twenty pursued the profession of law, and six or seven 
 that of medicine. Among his pupils, also, Avere governors, judges, and members of 
 Congress. 
 
9 
 
 "No sooner was peace restored with England (the first grand article of which 
 was tlie acknowledgment of our indopeiulonce), than the old system of Confedera- 
 tion, dictated, at first, by necessit}^. and adopted for the purposes of the moment, 
 was found inadequate to the government of an extensive Empire. Under a full 
 conviction of this, we then saw the people of these States engaged In a transactiori 
 which is undoubtedly the greatest approximation towards human perfection the po- 
 litical world ever yet witnessed, and which, perhaps, will for ever stand in the 
 history of mankind without a parallel. A great Republic, composed of different 
 States, whose interest in all respects could not be perfectly compatible, then came 
 deliberately forward, discarded one system of government and adopted another, 
 without the loss of one man's blood." 
 
 Mr. Webster's future eminence was clearly predicted in college. 
 Professor Sanborn sa^'^s: "By the unanimous consent both of teachers 
 and classmates, he stood at the head of his associates in study ; and 
 was as far above them in all that constitutes human greatness as he is 
 now." Anecdotes of him, treasured up in the traditions of succeeding 
 classes, were told for many years. His collegiate course was the means 
 of nurturing and developing the greatness which gave honour to New 
 England and the whole country. Fortunate the institution which enrols 
 Daniel Webster among; its alumni ! 
 
 THE GRADUATE A SCHOOL-TEACHER. 
 
 There is something sublime in the association of such a name with 
 this great profession. Twice did this mighty man of intellect conde- 
 scend, as teacher, to train the intellect of others. Once during a col- 
 lege vacation, and again at Fryeburg in Maine, shortly after he was gra- 
 duated.* It was at the latter place that he was more particularly 
 known as a teacher. The town of Fryeburg will ever be celebrated as 
 the sphere which exercised the training talent of the immortal statesman. 
 The object of Mr. Webster, in securing the situation, was honourable to 
 his heart. It was for the purpose of assisting his brother Ezekiel 
 through college. His salary as teacher was only $350, or at the rate 
 of about $1 a day ; but by becoming assistant to the Register of Deeds, 
 he was enabled to defray his own expenses, and to contribute to the 
 education of his beloved brother.f 
 
 Daniel Webster, a teacher ! Well done, thou glorious son of Puritan 
 
 * Mr. Everett, in his glowing speech, says that when he was a little boy, about ten 
 years old, his teacher, Ezekiel Webster [Daniel's brother], was taken sick, and that 
 Daniel supplied the place for a week or two. This was in 1804. 
 
 f " Mr. Webster's son, and one of his friends, have lately visited Fryeburg, and 
 examined these records of deeds. They are still preserved in two huge folio volumes, 
 in Mr. Webster's handwriting, exciting wonder how so much work could be done in 
 the evening, after days of close confinement to the business of the school. They looked 
 also at the records of the trustees of the academy, and found in them a most respectful 
 and affectionate vote of thanks and good-will to Mr. Webster when he took leave of his 
 employment." Everett's Memoir, p. xxvii. 
 
10 
 
 ancestry. The office honoured tliee, as tliou honoured it. Second only 
 to the ministry in its capacities of usefulness, it needs the services of 
 the greatest and of the best. What thou hadst, thou didst bestow ; 
 and teachers will thank thee for the recollection of thy labours, and for 
 thy impressive professional example. 
 
 The Kev. JDr. Osgood, of Springfield, Mass., related* that Mr. Web- 
 ster boarded with his father for seven months, whilst teaching at Frye- 
 burg, and that during that time he [Dr. Osgood] became intimate with 
 him. Dr. Osgood bore testimony to the manly, moral, and religious 
 character of Mr. Webster, who " at one time seriously entertained the 
 idea of studying for tlie ministry." Such a testimonial, coming up from 
 the cherished memories of half a century, exalts the young teacher in 
 the hearts of other generations. 
 
 II. Mr. Webster's public life now opens before us. The Connec- 
 ticut River, on the banks of which stands Dartmouth College, sweeps 
 downward to the sea. Thus the career of the graduated youth swells 
 into the vast affairs of the world. 
 
 The anticipations of Mr. Webster's early life had a glowing fulfil- 
 ment in a long career of distinguished professional and political service. 
 In his public relations, he may be contemplated as a laivyer, a states- 
 man, an orator, and a writer. Would that a more competent person 
 stood before you, to do justice to this various greatness ! 
 
 DANIEL "WEBSTER AS A LAWYER. 
 
 Whilst teaching school in Fryeburg, the eye of Daniel Webster first 
 rested upon Blackstone's Commentaries, as the book of professional 
 study. t He, who was born and educated in New Hampshire, and who 
 spent the strength of his days in Massachusetts, and at Washington, 
 was sent to Maine to learn law. The calling, which Providence had in 
 view for the young man, was promoted by bringing him in contact with 
 Blackstonc in a country village. The principles, then acquired, were at 
 the foundation of all his future legal attainments. 
 
 Admitted to the bar in 1805, he was drilled to the drudgery and 
 honours of the profession, in close competition with the intellect of 
 Jeremiah Mason, and otlicr distinguished men. In the midst of a grow- 
 ing and extensive practice, he cultivated his powers by study and 
 general reading, until finally he was surpassed by none in his vocation. 
 Ilis knowledge of the elementary principles of law was profound ; his 
 learning, in the application of precedents, and in the citation of statutes 
 
 * In a speech on the occasion of Mr. Webster's death. Dr. Osgood is an Orthodox 
 Congregational minister. 
 
 f lie borrowed the book, not being in a condition to buy it. 
 
11 
 
 and authorities, was minute ; and his skill in managing a case, and in 
 pleading before a Court or Jury, was eminent. Daniel Webster has 
 never had a superior in the combination of qualifications requisite for 
 an accomplished lawyer. In the language of llufus Choate, "he Avas 
 by universal designation, the leader of the general American bar ; and 
 Avas one, 
 
 " ' The whole Law's thunder born to wield.' " 
 
 His reputation as a lawyer Avas established in the eyes of the nation 
 by his argument in the celebrated Dartmouth College case, at Washing- 
 ton, in 1818. On that occasion, he appeared before the Supreme Court 
 of the United States in .all his eminence of laAV and oratory, winning 
 the judgment of the Bench by his logic, and moving the audience even 
 to tears by his pathos.* The tradition of that speech — the technical 
 outlines being alone preserved in his Works — makes it one of the 
 grandest forensic efforts ever put forth. No lawyer in this country 
 has been engaged in as many great cases as Daniel Webster, or managed 
 them with more ability and success. He was equally great in civil and 
 in criminal cases. His knowledge of human nature was abreast of his 
 legal learning. His eye Avas a searcher of character. His capacity to 
 unravel circumstantial testimony, and to present it with precision and 
 power to a jury, was one of the many professional adaptations, AA'hich, 
 at times, made him terrible towards the guilty. The murder case at 
 Salem gave opportunity for displays of this nature. f 
 
 Some of the other celebrated cases, in AA'hich Webster's fame is en- 
 shrined, are the steamboat case of Gibbons and Ogden, that of the 
 Charles River Bridge, the United States Bank, the boundary of Massa- 
 chusetts and Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion, the Girard AYill, the 
 Gaines estate, and the Goodyear patent. 
 
 Mighty man in a mighty profession ! His name is associated Avith the 
 weightiest judgments of Courts, the most intricate questions of civil and 
 constitutional laAV, the dearest rights of mankind, the most severe dis- 
 plays of intellectual competition, and scenes of the most commanding 
 and effective eloquence ! 
 
 DANIEL AVEBSTER AS A STATESMAN. 
 
 Although the sciences of law and of government have common prin- 
 ciples, and maintain general relations of aflSnity and correspondence, 
 they are by no means identical ; nor does professional eminence in the 
 
 *■■ It is said that the dignified Chief Justice Marshall did not escape the contagious 
 sympathy of the occasion. 
 
 f See his AVorks, Vol. VI., 41. 
 
12 
 
 one necessarily lead to equal honour in the other. On the contrary, 
 an eminent lawyer rarely makes a great statesman. Daniel Webster 
 was both. Law and statesmanship were the double sciences through 
 which his great mind gave expression to its diversified powers. This 
 remarkable combination heightens immeasurably his eminence in each 
 profession. To be great in either, is greatness indeed ; but to be great, 
 and so great, in both, is the achievement only of genius, gifted superla- 
 tively. 
 
 Mr. Webster's early predilections seem to have been towards public 
 life. This is indicated in his Junior oration at Dartmouth College, an 
 oration exhibiting both political knowledge and party enthusiasm. The 
 young student, when at Fryeburg, did not confine his studies to Black- 
 stone. At this same place he committed to memory Fisher Ames's cele- 
 brated speech on the British treaty — a speech abounding in comprehen- 
 sive investigations of political science and history. He thus began early 
 in life that double Avork of law and government, which was perfected in 
 the world-renowned reputation of an eventful public career. 
 
 Mr. Webster's first speech on entering public life, as he himself says,* 
 Avas in behalf of the system of common schools — a beginning worthy of 
 the log school-house boy, of the Dartmouth College youth, of the Massa- 
 chusetts Senator, and of the United States Secretary of State. In 
 1813, at the age of 31, Mr. Webster, then residing at Portsmouth, took 
 his seat as Representative from New Hampshire in the Congress of the 
 United States. His maiden speech, delivered the same year, on the 
 Berlin and Milan decrees, placed him in the front rank with Clay, Cal- 
 houn, Lowndes, and the other leaders in the House. The distinguished 
 Lowndes remarked, " The North had not his equal, nor the South his 
 superior, "t Mr. Webster's most celebrated speeches in the Lower 
 House were on the embargo, the increase of the navy, the bank, the 
 Greek revolution, the Panama mission, and the tariff: in the Senate, on 
 the tariff", Mr. Foot's resolution, nullification, the United States Bank, 
 the French spoliation bill, the public lands, the power of removal from 
 office, the national defence, the currency question, internal improve- 
 ments, the annexation of Texas, the independent treasury, the boundary 
 treaty, the compromise measures. 
 
 His statesmanlike capabilities, as Secretary of State, were signally 
 displayed in the settlement of the Northeastern boundary, the Caroline 
 and Amistad cases, the relations with Mexico, the German Zoll-Verein, 
 the Hulseman letter, Central American aff'airs, China and the Sandwich 
 
 * Speech at Madison, Indiana, in Vol. I., p. 403, of his Works. 
 
 f Chief Ju.Hicc Marshall, in a letter to a friend, says: ''At the time this speech was 
 delivered, I did not know Mr. Webster, but I was so much struck with it that I did not 
 hc-itatc then to state that Mr. Webster was a very able man, and would become one of 
 the very first statesmen in America, perhaps the very first." 
 
13 
 
 Islands, and the right of fishery. Mr. Webster's diplomatic and official 
 papers, embracing the relations of the United States with the principal 
 nations of the earth, embody an amount of intricate political disquisi- 
 tion, creditable to his intellect, his wisdom, and his learning." llis 
 administration of the State department will be chiefly associated with 
 " The Treaty of AVashington" and the boundary question. This treaty 
 was negotiated under circumstances of extreme embarrassment; England, 
 on the one hand, never feeling better prepared for war than in 1842, 
 and our own people being strongly clamorous for an uncurtailed boun- 
 dary line. The controversy, however, of nearly half a century was 
 settled amicably and honourably to both nations. 
 
 A necessary element in the character of a statesman is devotion to 
 his country. The sources of Daniel Webster's patriotism were the Bible 
 and American history ; to these he had been led by a mother's piety 
 and a father's example. The father's personal services and reminis- 
 cences, in the war of 1T7G, were rallying points of hereditary patriotism ; 
 and naturally served to associate, with more than ordinary vividness, 
 the principles of the Revolution with those of the Mayflower compact, 
 of Plymouth Rock, and of Pilgrim heroism and suff"ering. Nurtured 
 under the inspirations of Bible truth, and of Puritan and Revolutionary 
 history, Daniel Webster was a true lover of his country. Referring to 
 the early history of New England in his Address at Plymouth Rock, he 
 exclaimed : " Who would wish for other emblazoning of his country's 
 heraldry, or other ornaments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, 
 that her first existence was with intelligence, her first breath the inspi- 
 ration of liberty, her first principle the truth of divine religion." 
 
 Mr. Webster's patriotism was displayed in a long public life by 
 his unquenchable attachment to the Union. Thoroughly and minutely 
 acquainted with American history, deeply realizing the radical defects 
 of the Articles of the old Confederation, convinced of the necessity of 
 the permanent Union of the States, and glorying in the wisdom of the 
 Constitution as it is, he put forth his whole powers in perpetuating 
 American liberty on its ancient covenanted foundation. He ever main- 
 tained that our present Constitution was formed, not by the separate 
 States, but by the people of the whole United States. This was the 
 groundwork of his argument against Nullification. Ilis soul was with 
 the people as the framers of the Constitution. To their wisdom in 
 adopting this instrument, he always gave due homage. For example, 
 in his speech at Faneuil Hall, in 1838, he said that the mechanics of 
 Boston " saw as quick and as fully as any men in the country, the infir- 
 mities of the old Confederation, and discerned the means by which they 
 
 * See Webster's AVorks, Vol. \i., pp. 247-530. 
 
14 
 
 might be remedied. From the first, they were ardent and zealous 
 friends of the Constitution. They saw the necessity of united councils, 
 and common regulations, for all the States, in matters of trade and 
 commerce."* The Constitution, the Constitution originating in the 
 wants of the ])eopIe, and approved by their own ivisdom, were ideas 
 which illuminated the way of his whole political career, and which 
 flashed their light amidst the splendour of his most sublime eloquence. 
 Mr. Webster's political reputation will be identified not so much with 
 one particular measure, as with the grand principle of constitutional 
 integrity which pervaded all his counsels and opinions. He was the 
 man for the Union, for " the country, the whole country, and nothing 
 but the country." The crown of his statesmanship will receive its 
 highest glory, — not in the laurel leaves of a general renown, but in the 
 " bright particular stars" of the American Union, set in jewelled bright- 
 ness upon his brow, adorning and adorned. 
 
 The conclusion of his celebrated speech, in reply to Colonel Hayne, 
 presents the leading principle of his public life. 
 
 •' When my eyes for the last time shall be raised to behold the sun in heaven, may they 
 not gaze upon the broken fragments of a dishonoured, but once glorious Union ; upon 
 States dissevered, discordant, and belligerent; upon a land rent with civil feuds, and 
 drenched, it may be, in paternal blood. Let their last feeble and lingering gaze 
 rather behold the glorious ensign of the Republic, now known and honoured through- 
 out the earth, still full high advanced — not one stripe erased or polluted, not one star 
 obscured — ^but streaming in all their original lustre, and bearing for its motto no 
 such miserable interrogatory, as ' What is all this worth?' nor those of the words of 
 delusion or folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterwards;' but everywhere, spread all 
 over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over 
 the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other 
 sentiment, dear to every true American heart, ' Liberty and Union-, 9!ou" and forever, 
 one and inseparable.^ " 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER AS AN ORATOR. 
 
 The characteristic of Calhoun was his earnest dialectic power, which 
 stormed the intellect — but often in vain. Clay possessed a pathetic, 
 soul-stirring eloquence, which commanded the homage and the emotions 
 of the multitude. Webster's impressive majesty of thought commonly 
 captivated the understanding ; but when, on special occasions, he 
 wielded the thunderbolts of his great right arm, and the lightning of 
 his outbreaking soul flashed athwart the firmament, there was an awe in 
 the spectators, seldom felt among men. Calhoun was the metaphysical 
 reasoner ; Clay, the popular orator ; Webster, the philosophical Senator. 
 Of the three. Clay had the most personal influence and the greatest tact; 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 430. 
 
15 
 
 Calhoun was equal to cither in honest purpose and zealous, manly deter- 
 mination : Webster was suhlime in towering genius, comprehensive 
 argumentation, and bold, Saxon utterance. Each was independent and 
 lofty-minded. Although Carolina, Kentucky, and Massachusetts, are 
 well-nigh unanimous, each in favour of her own son, the general voice 
 of the nation would probably give to Calhoun more of bold, metaphy- 
 sical subtlety (in the best sense of that word) ; to Clay more of winning 
 and accomplished oratory ; to Webster more of influential reasoning, 
 literary acquisition, and enduring impression. 
 
 Daniel Webster's oratory became ^is personal appearance, like the 
 drapery of a classic statue. There was a harmony in his presence, and 
 in his words ; in the light of his eye and the light of his thoughts ; in 
 his compact muscular form, and his arguments ; in the majesty of his 
 brow, and the full-meaning, solemn enunciations of his truth. lie was 
 a man equal to emergencies. Indeed, emergencies were necessary 
 for the full development of his powers. He was ordinai'ily calm and 
 argumentative. His address was in winning the understanding ; but 
 when needful, reserved forces of passionate eloquence were marshalled 
 forth, at the sound of his great voice, with consummate skill and suc- 
 cess. He was not aggressive by nature. His tremendous prerogative 
 was defence. Constitutionally conservative, he stayed himself upon 
 the established principles of American liberty and national policy. 
 The subjects that gave scope to his powers were usually fundamental 
 ones. Great themes exercised his greatness. He was a fearful anta- 
 gonist, if compelled to vindicate his own opinions, and descend into the 
 arena of personal conflict. His reply to Colonel Hayne, has nothing 
 superior in the whole history of parliamentary gladiatorship.* His 
 rejoinder to Colonel Hayne is equally celebrated as a specimen of close, 
 succinct, unanswerable ratiocination. Mr. Webster was ordinarily con- 
 cise. He spoke to the point. He did not " draw out the thread of his 
 verbosity finer than the staple of his argument." He respected his 
 subject as well as himself. His presence excited awe in a deliberative 
 body. Although generally slow and distinct in his enunciations, his 
 
 * The Tvriter happened to be travelling at the South when this debate occurred. 
 After reading the speech of Colonel Ilayne, he felt that the North had received a terri- 
 ble castigation, and was held up to the derision of the Republic. Nor did it seem pos- 
 sible, even for Webster, to turn that tremendous attack. On arriving at Augusta, Ga., 
 the whole town was talking of Mr. Webster's reply, which was everywhere pronounced 
 triumphant. Nothing but reading the reply satisfied me that the people had given a true 
 judgment. On arriving at Charleston, Colonel Hayne's residence, the same judgment 
 was freely rendered. The following is an extract from the speech of the lion. R. Barn- 
 well Rhett, recently delivered before the Charleston bar, on the occasion of Mr. Web- 
 ster's death ; "As an orator, he leaves in his speech on Foote's resolutions, the greatest 
 oratorical effort ever made by an American statesman." This speech of Mr. Webster, will 
 be found in Vol. III., of his Works. 
 
16 
 
 sreat thoughts came out as fast as the most attentive audience could 
 follow them. His eloquence belonged to the North, rather than to the 
 South or the West ; but it received homage from all sections of country, 
 from all classes of society, and from all orders of intellect. There was 
 nothing provincial about it. On the contrary, it was pure, elevated, 
 human, Anglo-Saxon. The oratory of Webster will go down to pos- 
 terity with applause. In the monumental column of the world's elo- 
 quence, formed by the contributions to the illustrious of all ages, the 
 name of the Massachusetts Senator Avill appear with those of Demos- 
 thenes, and Cicero, and Burke, and Fox, and Patrick Henry, and Clay ; 
 and if any stones in the column have a brighter polish, or more exter- 
 nal beauty, not Grecian marble itself will attract more eyes than the 
 enduring granite, inscribed with Webster. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER AS A WRITER. 
 
 The aptitude of a noble mind is a pleasing exhibition of the various 
 endowments God has given to human nature. We have contemplated 
 Jurist — Statesman — Orator — these three ; but Writer completes the 
 square on which is demonstrated the entire problem of Webster's 
 mysterious greatness. 
 
 The remark about to be made may excite at first surprise, but it will 
 stand the test of examination : — that the English language does not 
 exhibit purer and more classic models of efficient literature than Daniel 
 Webster's addresses at Plymouth Rock, at Bunker Hill, and in com- 
 memoration of Adams and Jefterson. These alone would immortalize 
 any man. They are better known throughout the United States than 
 any similar productions of human genius. They are the familiar ora- 
 tions in schools, academies, and colleges, to develope, and to develope 
 nobly, the elocution of the young men of our country ; and they will 
 contribute, throughout all coming generations, to form the taste, the 
 style, and the thoughts, of American statesmen and public speakers. 
 May I be allowed to introduce here an extract from his Bunker Hill 
 Oration ? 
 
 ''We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence; and we wish 
 that the light of peace may rest upon it for ever. We rear a memorial of our con- 
 viction of that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and 
 of the happy influences which have been produced by the same events on the 
 general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must 
 be for ever dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming 
 time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished 
 where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this struc- 
 ture may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and 
 every age. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from 
 
17 
 
 maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may bcliold it, and he solaced by 
 the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labour may look up here, and be 
 proud, in the midst of its toil. We wish that, in tho.«e days of disaster, wiiich, as 
 they come upon all nations, must be expected to come upon us also, desponding 
 patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our 
 national power are still strong. We wish that this column, rising toward heaven 
 among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute 
 also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We 
 wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, 
 and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind 
 him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise ! let it rise ! till it meet 
 the sun in his coming ! — let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day 
 linger and play on its summit !" 
 
 Let Mr. Webster's orations be carefully and critically examined, and 
 there will be found pure, vigorous diction ; a style which, whilst it is 
 neither elaborately ornate nor carelessly free, conveys with elegant 
 precision the simplicity of truth ; thoughts grand and inspiring ; pleasing, 
 classical, and appropriate illustrations; minute and copious learning; 
 graphic description; a reverence for God and for the solemn things 
 of religion ; all interwoven with passages of sublimity and beauty, and 
 compacted in the texture of finished literature. 
 
 Mr. Webster's writings properly include his whole works. By these 
 his reputation is to be tested. His literary orations, his Congressional 
 speeches, his legal arguments, his occasional addresses, his diplomatic 
 and official papers, his miscellaneous letters, form a unity of mental 
 achievement which cannot fail in all future time to command admiration. 
 The specimens given to the public of Mr. Webster's easy, off-hand, 
 familiar letter-writing are equal to anything of the kind that has ever 
 appeared.* The variety of the subjects in Mr. Webster's works is as 
 remarkable as the general excellence which marks the treatment of 
 them all. 
 
 One thing about Mr. Webster's writings is a fortunate attainment. 
 I refer to his love of pure, old, strong words. No man has done more 
 to retain the Saxon element in our literature. In his speeches, writings, 
 and conversation, Daniel Webster was true to his mother tongue. To 
 use one of his own allusions at the Royal Agricultural Society in Eng- 
 land, he loved " the kith and kin of the old Saxo7i rrt(?g."t 
 
 Daniel Webster's works have recently been published in six splendid 
 octavo volumes. They are the repositories of great thoughts on great 
 subjects expressed in great words. Mr. Everett states that, in preparing 
 the works of Mr. Webster for the press, almost everything was left to 
 his editorial discretion in matters of taste. But one thing Mr. Webster 
 
 * For example, his Letters about his father and his early home ; on the morniiig; 
 those addressed to his farmer, John Taylor, and to various political characters. 
 
 t Vol. I., p. 438. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 cnjoiueJ. '* My friend," said he, "I wish to peq^etuate no feuds. . . . 
 I have sometimes, though rarely, and that in self-defence, been led to 
 speak of others with severity. I beg you, where you can do it without 
 wholly changing the character of the speech, and thus doing essential 
 injustice to me, to obliterate every trait of personality of this kind." 
 Mr. Everett well adds: "But I need not tell you, fellow-citizens, that 
 there is no one of our distinguished public men, whose speeches contain 
 less occasion for such an injunction." Mr. Webster's writings are per- 
 vaded with high moral sentiment, and with references to sacred subjects 
 adapted to impress the mind with reverence. In the language of one 
 of his friends* to the citizens of Springfield, Massachusetts : 
 
 ••' It is fortunate for us and for posterity that so many of his speeches have been so 
 well preserved ; and that his works have been collected and published while he 
 lived to superintend the publication, and to adorn them with such exquisitely beau- 
 tiful and touching dedications to those relations for whom he felt so warm an affec- 
 tion. Those works, and others, which will yet be added, are of the richest treasures 
 of the country. There is yet one — a history of the Administration of Washington, 
 which he had long been engaged to some extent in preparing, but which it is to be 
 feared is left incomplete. No man was so competent to write this history as he ; for 
 he knew all the history of this country by heart. He once remarked of himself, that 
 it was but a little that he knew : but if he knew anything, it was the history of this 
 country. He added, that at the age of fourteen years he became interested in the 
 study of this history, and had never lost that interest, nor ceased to make it a study."" 
 
 Daniel Webster's Works will serve admirably to increase and to per- 
 petuate his reputation. Whilst they are splendid contributions to 
 American literature, they are guardians, for posterity, of his fame as 
 Jurist, Statesman, Orator, and Writer. 
 
 III. Having attempted to form an estimate of Mr. Webster in the 
 prominent varieties of his public life, let us turn to his more private and 
 social traits of character, and to the solemn scenes of his death. 
 
 DANIEL Webster's social traits. 
 
 It is acknowledged by all that Mr. Webster's greatness shone in the 
 social circle no less than in public life. Though not as readily accessi- 
 ble as some men, and having an appearance, which might, at times, be 
 called dignity, and, at times, reserve, he had nevertheless a large, social 
 heart, which beat true in its friendships, and which was generous and 
 warm in its aficctions. 
 
 A writer, who knew him well, thus remarks of his more familiar in- 
 tercourse :t 
 
 '•Mr. Webster was never seen to more advantage than within his own household, 
 at the family board, or in strolling with him over his farm at Marshfield, or standing 
 
 * Reuben A. Chapman, Esq. f In the Boston Atlas. 
 
19 
 
 with him upon the sea-beach aiul looking out upon the ocean before us, which, hke 
 the scope of his intellectual vision, appeared boundless. 
 
 •'• We have enjoyed these things, and there are no events in our life in which we 
 have e.vpcrienced more pleasure. As we write, they involuntarily rise before us, 
 like blessed visions of other and better days. To hear him converse upon the past, 
 the present, the future, in a familiar, collotiuial manner, to listen to his great thoughts 
 expressed in the purest words of our language, and wonder how he could thus speak 
 and think, are joys which we can find no words to express. 
 
 "His fund of anecdote and of personal reminiscence was inexhaustible. No one 
 could start a subject, relating to history, and especially to American Congressional 
 life, about which he could not relate some anecdote connected with some of the prin- 
 cipal characters, which, when told, would throw additional light upon the narrative, 
 and illustrate some prominent trait in the characters of the persons engaged in the 
 transaction. This great gift he posses.sed in a degree unsurpas.sed. Mr. Webster's 
 'table talk' was fully equal to any of his more elaborate elibrts in the Senate. He 
 could talk, to use a somewhat niisnonieric expression, as well as he could speak. 
 He had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and loved and appreciated nice touches of 
 eccentric humour."' 
 
 The manner in which Mr. Webster was accustomed to speak and 
 write of his father and mother, his sisters and brothers, his wife and 
 children, indicates the true sensibilities of his nature. The following 
 language of one of his friends* beautifully expresses the sentiments, 
 doubtless, of all who knew him. 
 
 '•' Upon a near and familiar approach to most great men, they dwindle to the size 
 of common men. Their greatness is only seen on special occasions, and after much 
 preparation. But he, though familiar and frank as a child, though never attempting 
 to display his superiority, appeared greatest in his most familiar and careless con- 
 versation. It may be said of him, as travellers say of the Pyramids, that one can 
 only appreciate their full size when standing at their base. I have heard in his pri- 
 vate conversation higher specimens of eloquence than his published works contain. 
 
 '• Great as his powers of argument and eloquence were, that which gives the 
 brightest lustre to all his public addresses, is the lofty tone of moral purity that per- 
 vades them. This moral purity of sentiment was founded in a reverence for God 
 and for the Christian religion. His private conversation, his most intimate friends 
 testify, was never blemished by a profane, irreverent, indecent, or unseemly ex- 
 pression.'' 
 
 HIS LOVE OP AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Mr. Webster had a strong sympathy with nature. The works of 
 creation afforded relaxation and delight to his mind. A taste for agri- 
 cultural pursuits, which was early sown in the rich mould of his genial 
 nature, was cultivated, as he had opportunity, and yielded harvests of 
 enjoyment in his summer and autumnal years. In his speech on the 
 agriculture of England, delivered at Boston, in 1840, he commenced by 
 saying : 
 
 * Kcuben A. Chapman, Esq., in liis address before the Springfield bar, Massachusetts. 
 
20 
 
 " Mr. Chairman : I would observe in tlio outset of these remarks, 
 that I regard agriculture as the leading interest of society ; and as 
 having, in all its relations, a direct and intimate bearing upon human 
 comfort and national prosperity. / liave been familiar with its opera- 
 tions in my youth ; and I have always looked upon the subject with a 
 lively and deep interest."* 
 
 About the year 1825, Mr. Webster purchased a part of his Marsh- 
 field estate, which he afterwards enlarged by other purchases until the 
 farm included about 2000 acres, " extending from a beach at the north, 
 nearly two miles in length, on which the ocean dashes its ever-rolling 
 waves, to a low range of picturesque hills on the south and southwest." 
 This large plantation embraced every variety of upland and lowland ; 
 and although much indebted to nature, it owed more to the laborious, 
 reclaiming processes of a scientific and masterly agriculture. Mr. 
 Webster attended by personal oversight to the practical w^orking and 
 general management of his farm. Thus, in his letter to John Taylor, 
 he gives the following directions about one of his farms, whilst attend- 
 ing, at Washington, as Secretary of State, to the great political interests 
 of the nation : 
 
 Washington, March 17, 1(S52. 
 
 John Taylor: Go ahead. The heart of the Winter is broken, and before the 1st 
 day of April, all your land may be ploughed. Buy the oxen of Captain Martson, if 
 you think the price fair. Pay for the hay. I send you a check for $160, for these 
 two objects. Put the great oxen in a condition to be turned out and fattened. You 
 have a good horse-team; and I think in addition to this, four oxen and a pair of 
 four-year-old steers will do your work. If you think so, then dispose of the Stevens 
 oxen, or unyoke them, and send them to the pasture for beef. I know not when I 
 shall see you. but I hope before planting. If you need anything, such as guano, for 
 instance, write to Joseph Buck, Esq., Boston, and he will send it to you. 
 
 Whatever ground you sow or plant, see that it is in good condhion. We want no 
 pennyroyal crops. " A little farm well tilled," is to a farmer the next best thing to a 
 '• little wife well willed."' Cultivate your garden. Be sure to produce sufficient 
 quantities of useful vegetables. 
 
 Mr. Webster w^as interested in agriculture, mind and heart and soul. 
 Thoroughly conversant with its philosophical principles, he was also an 
 enthusiast in their practical application. Ilis crops were large ; the 
 pastures kept in good order ; drainage thoroughly attended to ; the 
 agricultural implements of the best description ; the cattle of a superior 
 quality ; in short, the Marshfield estate presented an example of 
 thorough, prosperous, intelligent management. 
 
 Mr. Webster paid particular attention to his cattle. lie loved a fine 
 animal, and knew wherein consisted its good points. He was an excel- 
 lent judge of stock. Among his numerous animals of foreign blood, 
 
 * Webster's Works, vol. i., page 443. 
 
21 
 
 -were Devons, Alderneys, Ayrshircs, Ilortfovdsliires, and Duvliams. His 
 interest in these amounted almost to a friendship. It is an affecting 
 incident that, during one of the days of his hist sickness, he ordered his 
 favourite herds to be driven up towards the house, in a position to be 
 seen from his window ; and there, for the Inst time, his admiring eye 
 looked upon their well-bred proportions of beauty and strength. 
 
 Mr. Webster's address on "the agriculture of England," to which 
 allusion has been made, contains a large amount of useful matter. 
 Beginning Avith the primary elements which enter into the consideration 
 of the agriculture of a country, which he defined to be four — "climate, 
 soil, price of land, and price of labour" — he makes some general re- 
 marks on each, and then goes on to discuss a great variety of practical 
 questions of the highest interest to American agriculturists. The ad- 
 dress contains a mass of agricultural information, compact as a rich 
 wheat-field, and goldened all over Avith the natural colour of his ripe 
 literature. It concludes as follows : 
 
 "Agriculture feeds us; to a great degree it clothes usj without it we should not 
 have manufactures, and we could not have commerce. These all stand together, 
 but they stand together like pillars in a cluster, the largest in the centre, and that 
 largest is agriculture. Let us remember, too, that we live in a country of small 
 farms and freehold tenements; a country in which men cultivate with their own 
 hands their own fee-simple acres, drawing not only their subsistence, but also their 
 spirit of independence and manly freedom, from the ground they plough. They are 
 at once its owners, its cultivators, and its defenders. And whatever else may be 
 undervalued or ovedooked,. let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the 
 most important labour of man. Man may be civilized, in some degree, without great 
 progress in manufactures and with little commerce with his distant neighbours. But 
 without the cultivation of the earth, he is, in all countries, a savage. Until he gives 
 up the chase, and fixes himself in some place and seeks a living from the earth, he 
 is a roaming barbarian. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, there- 
 fore, are the founders of human civilization." 
 
 Mr. Webster's general information on the branches of knowledge, 
 which are cognate to agriculture, was extensive. lie understood a good 
 deal of chemistry, botany,* natural history, mineralogy, geology. No 
 branch of learning was alien to him, as an agriculturist. 
 
 Mr. Webster's recreations were of the out-door kind. He loved 
 fishing, gunning, riding, walking, sailing. His boat, which was called 
 the " Home Squadron," often tested his skill at navigation. In these 
 recreations he was hearty, and up to any one in skill and enjoyment. 
 His habits of early rising gave him a long day, and no man had a better 
 right to pleasant relaxation. He ever delighted in 
 
 "■'■■ The writer remembers his astonishment, many years ago, when, in walking about 
 his father's grounds in Albany, with this statesman (the only character in which he 
 was then known tome), Mr. AVebster seemed perfectly familiar with every variety of trees, 
 some of which were rare, and referred to Micliaux' Nortii American Sylva, and other 
 standard works on botany, as he would to Vattel's Law of Nations. 
 
00 
 
 •'The breezy call of iticense-breathing mom;" 
 
 and the exliiltiration of the early sun was spread through the liabits of 
 his life, whether at Washington or on his farm. 
 
 His mansion, with all its sights and associations, was Websterian. 
 It is a large, massive structure, combining the antique and the modern, 
 raised upon a knoll above the general outline of the surrounding scenery, 
 in full view of the rolling sea, and in the midst of the associations of 
 Pilgrim history and the remnants of Pilgrim graves.* Its internal 
 arrangements are those of convenience and taste, with plenty of room 
 for friends, a large library, and the miscellaneous appurtenances of a 
 gentleman-farmer's home, specially adorned with a collection of medals, 
 voted to General Washington by the old Congress.f 
 
 Yonder magnificent elm, which stands near the mansion, and which 
 has seen a century of storms, sheltered its proprietor for the last time, 
 about a fortnight before his death. Going out to reciprocate the salu- 
 tations of a wedding-party who had called to see him, he returned after 
 a few minutes into the house ; leaving his last footmark upon his beloved 
 Marshfield farm, and taking the last outdoor glance upon its beautiful 
 and variegated outline. 
 
 DANIEL Webster's moral and religious character. 
 
 AVould that a man, so great, had borne through life a consistent reli- 
 gious character ! Here his greatness, alas ! fails. Whatever may have 
 been latterly his religious feelings and exercises, his moral example can- 
 not be held up to the unqualified admiration of American youth. 
 
 The great question, after all, that decides human character and des- 
 tiny is, " Was he religious?" That many have entertained doubts in 
 reference to the religious character of the distinguished man who has 
 now ended his earthly probation, is an admission due to truth. It is 
 not denied, and ought not to be concealed, that Mr. Webster's character 
 during periods of his lifetime, suffered serious loss from charges of im- 
 morality. To what extent these Avere true, or false, it is impossible to 
 afiirm ; doubtless they were much exaggerated. And who can say that 
 the delinquencies charged were not either backslidings from general 
 Christian steadfastness, or sins repented of in the later exercises of his 
 soul, and washed away by the blood of an atoning Saviour ? 
 
 * Plymouth Rock is about twenty miles off, and on a clear day the scene of the May- 
 flower's landing may be discerned. The graveyard, where many of the early colonists 
 of the parish were buried, is within a mile of the mansion. Here is the grave of Gover- 
 nor Winslow, and also of Peregrine White, the first-born child of the Colony. Near by, 
 stood the old parish church, built next after that of Plymouth. 
 
 •j- These medals were offered to Congress ; but that body being slow to purchase them, 
 they were presented by private liberality to Mr. AVebster's family. Since the death of 
 the great Wasiiinoto.nia.n, are they not to be deposited with some national institution':^ 
 
23 
 
 There are certainly many intcrcstiu;^ illustrations of the strength of 
 the religious sentiment in the mind and conscience of the great states- 
 man. His early religious training, under the parental roof, ^vas thorough 
 and enduring in its impressions. He acquired a taste and reverence for 
 the Bible which never forsook him, and committed to memory the Cate- 
 chism and the larger portion of Watts's Psalms and Hymns. Under the 
 care of Dr. Abbott of Exeter Academ3% and of Dr. Wood of lioscawen, 
 his religious convictions must have been cultivated and strengthened. 
 In his college course, Dr. Shurtlelf testifies to the fidelity witii which he 
 discharged his general duties, and to the undeviating strictness of his 
 moral character. When he taught school at Fryeburg, Dr. Osgood, who 
 lived in the same house with him, says that he was a professor of reli- 
 gion, and even had thoughts of entering the ministry. His first wife 
 Avas the pious daughter of a Congregational clergyman. So far, all be- 
 tokens well. Evangelical religion, deeply rooted in his mind, seems to 
 have been exerting also a practical influence on his life. 
 
 After Mr. Webster's settlement in Boston, few particulars about his 
 religious sentiments and habits have been divulged to the public. It is 
 well known, that at this time, or shortly after, the great mass of the 
 educated and influential professional men of the city, were Unitarians. 
 Almost all the old churches had departed from the ancient faith of New 
 England, and Park Street Ciiurch was not yet founded. It is stated, 
 in one of the papers, that Mr. W^ebster attended the Brattle Street 
 Church — Unitarian — for sixteen years. Unitarianism at that time, 
 however, was in a comparatively latent form, and many persons attended 
 the old churches, partly from choice, and partly from necessity, who 
 never enrolled themselves as Unitarians. Certainly Daniel Webster 
 has never been claimed as a Unitarian. He was always a believer in 
 the divinity of Christ, and in the fundamental doctrines of the evan- 
 gelical Faith. An orthodox Congregational clergyman, who had charge 
 of a parish to which Mr. Webster formerly belonged, says that, upon 
 one occasion, the distinguished statesman " spoke of how the cause of 
 orthodoxy was protected in the north of Boston by the indefatigable 
 Dr. Morse, of Charlestown," a man who was "always thinking, always 
 reading, always writing, always preaching, always acting" — of the Rev. 
 Dr. Codman, " who maintained the cause at the south, at Dorchester, 
 and of other clergymen of that day." Mr. Webster, on becoming an 
 inhabitant of Dorchester, where he spent the summer for a number of 
 years, called upon Dr. Codman, and, in the course of the conversation, 
 he remarked, " Sir, I am come to be one of your parishioners, not one 
 of your fashionable ones, but you will find me in my seat both in the 
 morning and afternoon." 
 
 Mr. Webster, in the latter years of his life, attended the Episcopal 
 church, of which his wife was a member. He himself had joined the Con- 
 
24 
 
 gregational church, in Salisbury, in early life ; and this accounts for the 
 fact, that he occasionally partook of the sacrament, where he happened 
 to be, Avith members of different denominations. Such acts show the 
 powerful, indwelling sense of the claims of religion ; and as he was the 
 farthest possible removed from hypocrisy, they are the expressions of a 
 sincere belief in the doctrines and requirements of the Gospel. 
 
 For the last two years of his life, the great statesman seems to have 
 given himself up more and more to religious duties. The Rev. Dr. 
 Shurtleff, of Dartmouth College, in referring to this subject,* " spoke 
 of his last interview with Mr. Webster in Boston, about two years ago, 
 at his (Mr. Webster's) invitation. Knowing that great men are liable, 
 from their position, to fail of receiving personal exhortation from the 
 clergy, he resolved to do that duty which early intimacy, and as pas- 
 tor in the college for a long period, made fit. He did so, and found 
 Mr. Webster not only kindly disposed, but even anticipating him in the 
 free communication of his personal religious feelings. Dr. Shurtleff 
 said, ' I found his views of Christian doctrine and the claims of Chris- 
 tian duty perfectly coincident with my own.'" 
 
 There are many other concurrent testimonies to the same purport. 
 The pastor of the Orthodox Church in Marshfield, unequivocally 
 expresses an entire confidence in Mr. Webster's religious character. 
 In the address at the funeral, f reference is made to his habit of 
 engaging, at least at times, in family worship ; and the pastor applies 
 to Mr. Webster these words : " I am bound to say, that in the course 
 of my life, I never met with an individual, in any profession or con- 
 dition, who always spoke and always thought with such awful reverence 
 of the power and presence of God. No irreverence, no lightness, even 
 no too familiar allusions to God and his attributes, ever escaped his 
 lips." " Those who know him best, can most truly appreciate the les- 
 sons, both from his lips and his example, teaching the sustaining power 
 of the Gospel." 
 
 In the light of these various evidences, especially when viewed in 
 their connexion with his sound training in the faith and his early atten- 
 tion to religion, tlie hope may be charitably indulged, that Daniel Web- 
 ster relied for salvation upon the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ;| 
 
 * At a late meeting of the officers and students of Dai'tmoutli College. 
 
 f Published in the Appendix to this Discourse. 
 
 j The caution of the writer in speaking on this subject, may seem excessive, and 
 even repulsive to those whose views of religious truth are more lax than the Westmin- 
 ster standards. I have, however, according to my own religious convictions, alluded to 
 this solemn and delicate question, and endeavoured to obey the claims of Christian 
 charity. There are persons, on the opposite extreme, who will doubtless censure even 
 the expression of a hope. I trust that the language employed will not, on the whole, 
 offend many of the followers of Christ. God alone knows the heart. This prerogative 
 the writer has not attempted to invade. 
 
25 
 
 and yet a little child, or a poor slave, may, in the kingdom of God, be 
 greater than he. 
 
 The hope of his religious character is strongest -when wo apjjroach 
 his dying bed, and behold him in the hour when heart and flesh fail. 
 
 DANIEL Webster's death-bed. 
 
 The startling intelligence is brought that the great statesman is 
 dying ! Disease is invading the frame which God built for the abode of 
 living greatness. The body is but dust, but dust in mysterious glory ! 
 " It is said that when Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, was residing 
 in Rome, he visited the studio of our countryman, PoAvers. In look- 
 ing about the room, he discovered a plaster cast of Webster. lie 
 inquired, Avith surprise, whether it could be possible that it was the 
 actual representation of any man ; and after a long and careful exami- 
 nation, he pronounced it superior to the highest conception of mental 
 strength and dignity which the ancients had been able to express 
 in their busts of Jupiter." That wonder-compelling cast, though brittle, 
 is to outlive the majestic head that gave it form. The cheek, which 
 once corresponded with its outline, is now wan and shrunken with 
 disease. The arch of his massive, intellectual brow, is already shaken 
 by the failing keystone of life. The " large, black, solemn-looking 
 eye," alone shines with unabated strength, lighting up the impending 
 ruin, and casting rays which will soon, in expiring, render the darkness 
 more visible. Ah ! Immortal Orator ! Art thou on the bed of death ? 
 Heaven sustain thee there ! The terrific work of bodily destruction is 
 going forward under the arrangements of that Providence which is 
 concerned in all births, all lives, all deaths. Let us approach the scene 
 with awe ; and may God be with us when our own time shall come ! 
 
 On Thursday morning, Mr. Webster despatched his last public busi- 
 ness: in the afternoon, gave some directions about his farm; and in 
 the evening, executed his will, Avhich had been previously prepared. 
 " During all these transactions, and throughout the whole evening, Mr. 
 Webster showed an entire self-possession, and the most perfect compo- 
 sure and clearness of all his faculties, speaking with his peculiar aptness 
 of phraseology, words of kindness and consolation to those around him, 
 and expressing religious' sentiments, appropriate to his condition, 
 with the greatest simplicity and earnestness. His voice was as clear 
 and distinct as it ever was, and his mind showed constant evidence of 
 those qualities of exactness and power which had so strongly charac- 
 terized his career." 
 
 On Friday afternoon, he asked to have the people employed in his 
 family and upon his farm, called in ; and after giving them much earnest 
 advice upon matters temporal and spiritual, he bade them a last fare- 
 well. 
 
26 
 
 On Saturday evening, being told that his end was approaching, he 
 summoned, first the female members of his family, and then the male ; 
 and addressing to them appropriate words of farewell, and of religious 
 consolation, bade adieu to them for ever. In the course of these inter- 
 views, he remarked, " What would be the condition of any of us without 
 the hope of immortality ? What is there to rest that hope upon but the 
 gospel ?"* He also remarked, "My general wish on earth has been to 
 do my Maker's will. I thank him, I thank him for the means of doing 
 some little good ; for these beloved objects, for the blessings that sur- 
 round me, for my nature and associations. I thank him that I am to 
 die under so many circumstances of love and afiFection."* 
 
 Shortly after the interviews with his relatives and friends, as if speak- 
 ing to himself, he said, " On the 24th of October, all that is mort-al of 
 Daniel Webster will be no more." 
 
 He now prayed in his natural, usual voice — strong, full, and clear — 
 ending with, " Heavenly Father, forgive my sins and receive me 
 
 TO THYSELF, THROUGH JeSUS ChRIST." 
 
 Conversing with great exactness, he seemed to be anxious to be able 
 to mark to himself the final period of his dissolution. 
 
 He was answered that it might occur in one, two, or three hours, but 
 that the time could not be definitely calculated. 
 
 "Then," said Mr. Webster, "I suppose I must lie here quietly till 
 it comes." 
 
 The retching and vomiting now recurred again ; and Dr. Jeffries of- 
 fered to Mr. Webster something which he hoped might give him ease. 
 
 The dying statesman remarked — " Something more. Doctor — more. 
 I want restoration." 
 
 Between ten and eleven o'clock he repeated, somewhat indistinctly, 
 the words, "Poet, poetry — Gray, Gray." 
 
 Mr. Fletcher Webster repeated the first line of the elegy — "The Cur- 
 few tolls the knell of parting day." 
 
 "That's it, that's it," said Mr. Webster; and the book was brought 
 and some stanzas read to him, Avhich seemed to give him pleasure. 
 
 From twelve o'clock till two there was much restlessness, but not much 
 suffering ; the physicians Avere quite confident that there was no actual 
 pain. 
 
 A faintness occurred, Avhicli led him to think that his death was at 
 hand. While in this condition some expressions fell from him, indicating 
 the hope that his mind Avould remain to him completely until the last. 
 
 He spake of the difficulty of the process of dying, when Dr. Jeffries 
 repeated the verse: — 
 
 " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 
 * George T. Curtis, Esq. 
 
27 
 
 fear no evil, for thou art witli mc— tliy rod aiul tliy staii; tlicy comfort 
 me." 
 
 Mr. Webster said immediately : — " The fact— the fact ! That is ■what 
 I want ! Thy rod— thy rod ! thy staif— thy staff!" 
 
 Only once more did he speak after this. On arousing from a deep 
 sleep, he uttered the words, "I still live." The close was perfectly 
 tranquil and easy. He died on the 24th of October, about a quarter 
 before 3 o'clock, in the morning. 
 
 Thus, by a beautiful coincidence, his departure occurred early in his 
 own favourite part of the day — early in the morning. In his letter, on 
 this topic, he said : "I know the morning — I am acquainted with it and 
 love it." We trust, that through the infinite grace of Christ, he had 
 reason to love that last morning, and that its light was to him, spiritu- 
 ally, " as the light of the morning ivhen the sun riseth, even A mouninu 
 
 WITHOUT CLOUDS I" 
 
 LESSONS AT DANIEL WEBSTER'S GRAVE. 
 
 IV. As Christians, and as citizens, it becomes us to endeavour to 
 search out some of the lessons of Providence, in the light and gloom 
 of the grave of Webster. 
 
 1. Let us THANK God for raising up such men, in His Providence, 
 and LOOK to IIim for their succession. 
 
 Webster came from the hands of God. His vast intellect, in fitting 
 union with a noble frame, was workmanship divine. Ilis life, although 
 not free from censure, and in nothing perfect, has left influences so 
 generally favourable to our national prosperity, that a thankful acknow- 
 ledgment is due to the Maker and Ruler of all. The mind, which enabled 
 the jurist to plead, the statesman to devise and execute, the orator 
 
 "The applause of listening Senates to command/' 
 
 that mind, so fertile in resources of power, and so exerted in behalf of 
 his country, her laws, and her rights, was given and sustained in reason 
 to the last, by Him, in whom we all " live, and move, and have our 
 being." Let God have the glory of his genius, his wisdom, his eloquence, 
 his public services, his political influence, and his solemn death. 
 
 Whence but from heaven can the succession of such men be expected? 
 To God alone can the nation look for public characters, who shall be 
 equally able and equally willing to serve the L^nited States of America. 
 In time past, God has given to our country great minds as well as great 
 natural landmarks. Bounded Avith mighty oceans, and coursed by vast 
 rivers and prairies and mountains, our land has been the birth-place of 
 Washington and Franklin and Henry and Jefferson and Adams and 
 Marshall and Jay, and many other names of national immortality. But 
 never have appeared simultaneously in American history three states- 
 men of superior mental greatness to Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. The 
 
28 
 
 general mourning, which followed the departure of each from the theatre 
 of their common fame, shows a nation's estimate of its great public loss. 
 And never was mourning more universal and less interrupted by party 
 prejudices, than over the last of the three — the Champion of the Con- 
 stitution. In the beautiful language of one of America's chief poets :* 
 
 ''The great are falling from us; to the dust 
 
 Our flag droops midway, full of many sighs;' 
 A nation's glory and a people's trust 
 
 Lie in the ample pall where Webster lies. 
 
 "The great are falling from us, one by one, 
 As fall the patriarchs of the forest trees ; 
 The winds shall seek them vainly, and the sun 
 Gaze on each vacant space for centuries. 
 
 " Lo ! Carolina mourns her steadfast pine, 
 
 Which, like a mainmast, towered above her realm; 
 And Ashland hears no more the voice divine 
 From out the branches of her stately elm. 
 
 " And Marshfield's giant oak, whose stormy brow 
 Oft turned the ocean tempest from the west, 
 Lies on the shore he guarded long: and now 
 Our starded Eagle knows not where to rest." 
 
 But God mW continue to give us great men, if we put not undue con- 
 fidence in them. There are saplings in our American forests which 
 may yet attain to equal elevation with Upland, or Hanover, or Salisbury 
 growth ; and the American eagle, when it no more shall find high resting- 
 places for its glory, will soar away into heaven and die in the light of 
 the dazzling sun. 
 
 2. The influence of early religious training and of association 
 in the formation of character is one of the plainest inferences. 
 
 Daniel Webster was well trained and well associated all his early 
 years. He was cradled, and nurtured, and fellowshij)ped, by the wise 
 and good. Few men have had better influences to grow up under than 
 the Salisbury boy, until after he left his Fryeburg retirement, and came 
 to Boston. Early education marked its traces upon his character, dis- 
 tinctly visible. Like the even flow of a crystal current wearing into 
 the rock of the mountain, his training wrought into the solid I'ange of 
 his thought and soul. Fathers ! mothers ! take care of your children ! 
 Without thorough religious influences, there is little hope of future 
 restraint upon their passions, or of the right application of their talents. 
 Unattended to in their early days, your sons will grow up to become 
 
 * T. Buchanan Read. 
 
29 
 
 like the deceitful brook, — dry in the season of need, and pouring down 
 wild torrents in every storm. 
 
 3. The value of an academical and coLLEaiATE education is an- 
 other important lesson. 
 
 If Daniel Webster had not been furnished with the discipline of a 
 complete education, his mind never could have received that intellectual 
 expansion which made him so great among his fellows. The academy 
 and college are the workshops of busy minds, lie was early indentured 
 to his profession, and acquired his civil and political skill from lessons 
 in the ancient classics, in philosophy, history, and literature, and from 
 the mind-sharpening processes of youthful competition and industry. 
 The rule of greatness is early diligence and acquirement. There are 
 indeed exceptions to this rule, but never exceptions like unto Daniel 
 "Webster. Such men are men of trained attainment, of early-wrought 
 cultivation ; not left to the rare contingency of self-development, but 
 nurtured out by the skilful influence of preparatory study, mental dis- 
 cipline, and learned acquisition. Our academies and colleges are the 
 training-places of able public and professional men. Let them be sus- 
 tained and multiplied ! Let learning be honoured ! 
 
 4. A great encouragement is presented in the life of Daniel Webster 
 to the laudable aspirings of young men in honest poverty. 
 
 Ambition, misdirected and earthly, is a curse to the soul that harbours 
 it. But there is a pure and commendable desire to do ones best, which 
 is alike the dictate of patriotism and of Christianity. Webster once en- 
 gaged in the commonest employments among men. Reputable but 
 lowly, his intellect and perseverance elevated him to the highest stations 
 and honours of his country. Many a common school-boy will feel the 
 influence of his example ; many a student of Dartmouth and other Ameri- 
 can colleges will be stimulated by the rising fortunes of the farmer's 
 son ; and many a teacher, toiling over the double work of instructing 
 others and of self-instruction, will gain energy from the scenes of Frye- 
 burg, Avhich led up to the heights of legal and political distinction. All, 
 of every condition and age, may learn from Webster to do their best for 
 their country. But a right ambition stops not there. And if he failed, 
 in any respect, in the fulness of a true example, let all remember that 
 it is our duty to do our best for our country and FOR OUR God. 
 
 " Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
 Thy God's, and truth's."' 
 
 5. The capriciousness of public opinion is one of the truths of 
 the occasion. 
 
 Public men cannot count upon a full reward of their eminent services 
 at the tribunal of popular favour. This life is a life of discipline ; and 
 
30 
 
 none need its trials and disappointments more than those who mingle in 
 the great scenes of the world's afi'airs. Nor are any more sure of ex- 
 periencing disappointments in large, embittering measures. Every 
 statesman at times is made to realize the capriciousness of public opinion, 
 and 
 
 " Finds the people strangely fantasied."' 
 
 Mr, Webster received many testimonies of high national homage, and 
 yet the highest was given not to him, but to far inferior men. It is no 
 departure from truth to say that Harrison and Taylor never once 
 breathed the intellectual inspirations which were the daily motions of 
 Webster's soul. And yet such men were preferred before him. But 
 no fame of theirs, — though the fame of battles and of victories, — can 
 equal the triumphs of genius, wrought by thee, Statesman, Jurist, and 
 Orator, of a deathless renown ! Thou wast spared the sight of the last 
 contest, and the fruitless efforts of a faithful few ! Crod ImnseU with- 
 drew thy illustrious name from the struggle, wrapping thee away from 
 the dust of an inglorious arena in the majestic pall of a statesman's 
 mantle ! 
 
 6. The homage paid by intellect to Christianity is illustrated 
 in the life of this great man. 
 
 Mr. Webster's public speeches and addresses, throughout his whole 
 career, are pervaded with religious thought, and the acknowledgment of 
 Christianity. It is stated by his Marshfield pastor that he contemplated 
 writing a book on the Evidences of Christianity, so much interest did he 
 entertain in that great subject. Behold, then, another great name 
 added to the long list of those whose highly cultivated intellects sustain 
 the religion of Jesus Christ on its external and internal evidences. Let 
 the sceptic pause in view of the confounding testimony of such an array 
 of minds, capable of far-reaching discrimination, of severe investigation, 
 and patient deduction of truthful conclusions. 
 
 Among Mr. Webster's many public declarations in homage of reli- 
 gion are the following sentences of an address delivered in commemora- 
 tion of his old friend and compeer, Jeremiah Mason : 
 
 " But, Sir, political eminence and professional fame fade away and die with all 
 things earthly. Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal 
 worth. These remain. Whatever of excellence is wrought into the soul itself 
 belongs to both worlds. Real goodness does not attach itself merely to this life ; it 
 points to another world. Political or professional reputation cannot last for ever: but 
 a conscience void of offence before God and man, is an inheritance for eternity. 
 Religion, therefore, is a necessary and indispensable element in any great human 
 character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that connects man with 
 his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tic be all sundered, all broken, he 
 floats away, a worthless atom in the universe, its proper attractions all gone, its 
 destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation, and death. 
 
31 
 
 A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe, in such 
 terse but terrific language, as living ' without God in the world.' Such a man is out 
 of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his hap- 
 piness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation."' 
 
 7. The end of earthly greatness is seen at the MarshfielJ grave. 
 There is an appointed season unto man and of life of death. Both 
 
 his soul and his dust are under providential doom ; and generation 
 after generation passes away, amidst crumbling thrones and universal 
 instability. Human elevation, at best a tottering pinnacle, falls at 
 death. 
 
 "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike th' inevitable hour : 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 
 The death of Webster is the expression of a universal law, — of a 
 law which regulates the setting, as well as the rising, of the star of 
 human destiny. This great man, closing his eyes in death, declares, 
 with speechless solemnity, more eloquent than living utterance, that 
 "political and professional reputation cannot last for ever ; but a con- 
 science void of offence towards God and man is an inheritance for eter- 
 nity." " Political eminence and professional fame fade away and die 
 with all things earthly. Nothing of character is really permanent but 
 virtue and personal worth." 
 
 8. Personal religion, the highest form of worth, is the true glory 
 and joy of a statesman. 
 
 Alas ! that the character we have been contemplating, should fail in 
 inspiring the same trust in its religious attributes as it commands in its 
 other forms of greatness ! If the illustrious statesman had exhibited 
 the transparent and consistent piety of "William Wilberforce, or John 
 Jay, what an amount of service might have been rendered in the spiri- 
 tual kingdom, as well as in the political world ! The example of public 
 men, and especially of great public men, is influential on a large scale. 
 May God never curse our country with greatness dissevered from good- 
 ness ! The religion of Jesus Christ, which is the only true basis of 
 individual character, is the only safe support of the State. 
 
 Personal piety includes more than an acknowledgment of Christianity 
 as a system of religions belief; it has holier exercises than a mere 
 respect for sacred things ; it implies more than an outward morality, 
 however severe. Originating by the grace of God in " faith in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ," it "Avorks by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the 
 world." Works are the evidence and the expression of faith; and trust 
 
32 
 
 cannot be sincere, however clear may be credence, without the accompa- 
 nying fruits oi righteousness. Religion, heartfelt and sustaining, is the 
 want of our nature. The highest attainments of worldly fame can never 
 satisfy the immortal soul. It grasps for something that is divine and 
 enduring. All else is a reed — brittle and deceitful — which no one may 
 rest upon in a dying hour. "A rod — thy rod; a staff — thy staff" 
 — " that is what ive want" when we go out to walk alone in the valley 
 of the shadow of death. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The death of Mr. Webster was received with a profound sensation throughout the 
 country. Meetings were held in the chief cities and towns to express the deeply 
 felt sense of national loss. The addresses, on these occasions, exhibit some of the 
 finest specimens of American eloquence. Reference is here made particularly to the 
 speeches of Messrs. Everett, Choate, Chapman, Park, and Curtis, of Massachusetts, 
 of Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, of George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania, and others 
 in New York, Charleston, &c. It is to be hoped that these addresses will be collected, 
 and published in a "Webster Testimonial." 
 
 The following account of the Funeral Rites and Ceremonies has been compiled chiefly 
 from the New York Herald : 
 
 THE SOLEMNITIES AT MARSHFIELD. 
 
 The morning of Friday, the 29th of October,— the day set apart for consigning to the 
 tomb the mortal remains of our greatest statesman, — dawned upon the country as bright 
 and glorious as the opening of a summer day. It seemed as if nature, like men, had, 
 for that solemn occasion, hushed to stillness all discordant elements, as a tribute of 
 respect to the yet unburied dead. Not a breeze came from the nigh shores of the ocean 
 to disturb the serenity of that beautiful morning at Marshfield. The dying leaves still 
 clung with lingering fondness to their parent stem, unsevered by the breath of the au- 
 tumnal wind, and all things seemed to speak to the mind of peace, harmony, and love. 
 It was, indeed, a morning well suited to that solemn ceremony which its noonday sun 
 was doomed to witness. 
 
 AREIVALS AT THE SCENE OF MOUKNIXG. 
 
 From an early hour the numerous roads and avenues to Marshfield swarmed with 
 vehicles and equipages of all descriptions, conveying thousands of sincere mourners, 
 anxious to participate in the last sad rites of friendship and respect to the illustrious 
 dead, and to have the melancholy satisfaction of taking a final look at the form and 
 features so enshrined in the memory and hearts of all. Hundreds on hundreds of car- 
 riages came pouring in from every quarter, with their quota of grief-stricken hearts, 
 and all the villages, farm-houses, and fields, for miles around, were impressed to afford 
 accommodation to the innumerable teams which continued to arrive during the forenoon, 
 so that by one o'clock in the afternoon there could not have been less than ten thousand 
 persons in and about the grounds. The distance of Marshfield from Boston is about 
 thirty-five miles, and as there were no means of railroad conveyance nearer than within 
 ten miles, and as the facilities for reaching it by water were equally unfavourable, the 
 largest proportion of the attendance arrived by private conveyance. Many of those 
 from Boston had left on the previous evening, and swarmed the little villages, inns, and 
 farm-houses on the route, seeking for accommodation during the night. They left at 
 an early hour in the morning, and by nine o'clock there was a vast congregation 
 present. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 THE HOUSE AND GKOUNDS. 
 
 Marshfield, as seen from the road, which runs through the demesne some quarter of 
 a mile westerlj', presents a very handsome and picturesque appearance. It is ap- 
 proached by a winding carriage road, which, witli a gentle descent, leads to the front 
 of the mansion. The house stands on a slight elevation, facing the south, while before 
 its eastern front stretches away a long plain of marshy land, flooded at high tide, and 
 from which it takes its name. The settlement of Marshfield is one of the oldest in New 
 England, being next in point of antiquity to Plymouth, from which it is distant some 
 twelve miles, and has many interesting historical reminiscences. On the little hill to 
 the north, where now "the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," and where the ho- 
 noured ashes of Mr. Webster are to-day entombed, stood the second Christian church 
 erected on this continent by the Pilgrim Fathers, not a vestige of which, however, now 
 remains. 
 
 The house is situated about two miles from the village of Marshfield,— a small, insig- 
 nificant hamlet, containing some score of houses, two churches, and a mill, but present- 
 ing no evidence of worldly prosperity. The house has been much improved and 
 enlarged, and it is now one of the finest seats in that portion of the country. The farm 
 consists, for the most part, of marshy, sandy soil, so that but a small proportion of its 
 1,800 acres is laid out in tillage; but yet the agricultural produce has been always 
 adequate to the feeding of the cattle, and to the payment, in kind, of some thirty or 
 forty labourers, — the customary mode of paying farm-servants in that portion of the 
 country. Mr. Webster also owned a large farm in his native State of New Hampshire. 
 It was his earnest desire that Marshfield should remain in the hands of his family, and 
 we understand that his wishes in this, as in all other respects, will be strictly complied 
 with. 
 
 TAKING THE LAST LOOK SCENE ON THE LAWN. 
 
 About nine o'clock, a.m., "all that was mortal of Daniel Webster" was conveyed 
 from the library in which it had lain since his death, and placed on a bier in front of 
 the house, under the shade of a handsome silver maple tree, which in life he had much 
 admired. The body was encased in a metallic coflSn, so constructed as to permit of the 
 upper portion of it being taken off, and exposing to the sight of his sorrowing friends 
 the head and bust of the deceased. It was lined with white satin, and presented a 
 highly finished and tasteful appearance ; and within its narrow limits lay, in the repose 
 of death, all that now belonged to him whose matchless genius and surpassing eloquence 
 had invested the whole nation with glory. Tastefully woven wreaths of oak leaves with 
 their acorns, ivy, myrtle, and exotic flowers, adorned the cofiin, and seemed appropriate 
 offerings of respect and aflTection. The same habiliments by which he was familiarized 
 to all his acquaintance, formed his only winding-sheet. They consisted of a dark blue 
 broadcloth dress coat, with brass buttons, white pants, patent leather gaiter boots, 
 white cravat and vest, and white silk gloves. 
 
 The scene around the cofiin was extremely affecting. There marched, one by one, in 
 mute and mournful procession, the thousands who felt a desire to take a farewell look 
 at him whom it contained, ere the earth claimed her own for ever. It Avas a sorrowful 
 sight to behold the emotion of aged men as they passed by and looked into those fami- 
 liar lineaments — now how changed ; and as they felt their cherished reminiscences 
 connected with the illustrious dead crowding upon them with an appeal to their nature 
 not to be resisted, the old men bent with excess of grief, and with convulsive effort strove 
 to wipe away the fast-trickling tears. And stalwart manhood bent low in anguish, and 
 moved quickly on as if ashamed of exposing its weakness. And women and maidens 
 joined that melancholy procession, and paid the tribute of tears and sighs to the memory 
 of him whom in his life they had loved and honoured. And scattered in clusters about 
 the spot stood the simple villagers and farmers of Marshfield, discoursing among them- 
 selves of the bereavement which they had personally sustained, and recounting scenes 
 
of homely life and manners, in -wLich the lamented had taken part with them time and 
 • again. It was a scene -which cannot be easily effaced from the memory of those who 
 witnessed it. 
 
 FUNEEEAL KITES. 
 
 At half an hour after noon the solemn rites commenced. The relatives and friends 
 of the deceased occupied the music-room ; the deputations stood in the parlours, on the 
 opposite side of the front entrance; while the officiating clergyman, the Rev. Ebexezer 
 Alden, a lineal descendant of one of the Pilgrim Fathers, occupied a position on the 
 piazza, where he could be heard by those within as well as by the vast multitude on 
 the lawn. The service commenced by the reading of the following 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth 
 like a flower, and is cut down ; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. 
 
 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment 
 with Thee ? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one. 
 
 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with Thee ; thou hast 
 appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. 
 
 Turn from him, that he may rest till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day. 
 
 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the 
 tender branch thereof will not cease. 
 
 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, 
 yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. But 
 man dieth and wasteth away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ? 
 
 I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth. 
 
 And though after my skin worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
 God. 
 
 Jesus said iinto her : I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live. 
 
 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this ? 
 
 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. 
 
 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
 
 But every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are 
 Christ's at his coming. 
 
 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
 Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. 
 
 For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
 
 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 
 
 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 
 
 Behold, I show you a mystery : we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 
 
 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 
 sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 
 
 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
 tality. 
 
 So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have 
 put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is 
 swallowed up in victory. 
 
 Oh, death, where is thy sting ? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? 
 
 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, 
 which giveth us the victory through our Lord .Jesus Christ. 
 
 After the reading of these selections from Scripture followed the Address by the Rev. 
 Mr. Alden, which is as follows : 
 
 .\DDKESS. 
 
 On an occasion like the present, a multitude of words were worse than idle. Stand- 
 ing before that majestic form, it becomes ordinary men to keep silence. "He, being 
 
36 
 
 dead, yet speaketh." In the words he applied to Washington in the last great public 
 discourse he ever delivered, " the whole atmosphere is redolent of his name; hills and 
 forests, rocks and rivers, echo and re-echo his praises." All the good, whether learned 
 or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, feel this day that there is one treasure common 
 to them all ; and that is the fame and character of Webster. They recount his deeds, 
 ponder over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and more guided by 
 them in future. Americans by birth are proud of his character, and exiles from foreign 
 shores are eager to participate in admiration of him ; and it is true that he is this day, 
 here, everywhere, more an object of love and regard than on any day since his birth. 
 
 And while the world, too prone to worship mere intellect, laments that the orator and 
 statesman is no more, we enter upon more sacred ground, and dwell upon the example 
 and counsels of a Christian, as a husband, father, and friend. I trust it will be no rude 
 Avounding of the spirit, no intrusion upon the privacy of domestic life, to allude to a few 
 circumstances in the last scenes of the mortal existence of the great man who is gone, 
 fitted to administer Christian consolation, and to guide to a better acquaintance with 
 that religion which is adapted both to temper our grief and establish our hope. 
 
 Those who were present upon the morning of that Sabbath upon which this head of 
 a family conducted the worship of his household, will never forget, as he read from our 
 Lord's Sermon on the Mount, the emphasis which he alone was capable of giving to 
 that passage which speaks of the divine nature of forgiveness. They saw beaming from 
 that eye, now closed in death, the spirit of Him who first uttered that godlike sentiment. 
 
 And he who, by the direction of the dying man, upon a subsequent morning of the 
 day of rest, read in their connexion these words: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine 
 unbelief;" and then the closing chapter of our Saviour's last words to his disciples, — 
 being particularly requested to dwell upon this clause of the verse: " Holy Father, 
 keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, 
 as we are;" — beheld a sublime illustration of the indwelling and abiding power of 
 Christian faith. 
 
 And if these tender remembrances only cause our tears to flow more freely, it may 
 not be improper for us to present the example of the father, when his great heart was 
 rent by the loss of a daughter whom he most deai'ly loved. Those present on that 
 occasion well remember, when the struggle of mortal agony was over, retiring from the 
 presence of the dead, bowing together before the presence of God, and joining with the 
 afflicted father, as he poured forth his soul, pleading for grace and strength from on 
 high. 
 
 As, upon the morning of his death, we conversed upon the evident fact that for the 
 last few weeks his mind had been engaged in preparation for an exchange of worlds, 
 one who knew him well remarked, "His whole life has been that preparation." The 
 people of this rural neighbourhood, among whom he spent the last twenty years of his 
 life, among whom he died, and with whom he is to rest, have been accustomed to regard 
 him with mingled veneration and love. Those who knew him best can the most truly 
 appreciate the lessons both from his lips and example, teaching the sustaining power of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 His last words, " I still live," we may interpret in a higher sense than that in which 
 they are usually regarded. He has taught us how to attain the life of faith and the life 
 to come. 
 
 Vividly impressed upon the memory of the speaker is the instruction once received as 
 to the fitting way of ijresenting divine truth from the sacred desk. Would that its force 
 might be felt by those who are called to minister in divine things ! Said Mr. Webster, 
 " When I attend upon the preaching of the Gospel, I wish to have it made a personal 
 matter — apersonal matter — a I'eksonal matter." It is to present him as enforcing these 
 divine lessons of wisdom and consolation that we have recalled to your minds these 
 precious recollections. 
 
 And we need utter no apology. Indeed, we should be inexcusable in letting the pre- 
 sent opportunity pass without unveiling the inner sanctuary of the life of the foremost 
 man of all this world; for his most intimate friends are well aware that he had it in 
 naind to prepare a work upon the internal evidences of Christianity, as a testimony of 
 his heartfelt conviction of the "divine reality" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But find- 
 ing himself gradually approaching those august scenes of immortality into which he had 
 so often looked, he dictated the most important part of his epitaph. And so long as 
 " the rock shall guard liis rest and the ocean sound his dirge," the world shall read 
 upon his monument not only 
 
 "One of the few, the immortal names, 
 Which were not bom to (lie," 
 
37 
 
 biit also tliat Dauicl AVebstcr lived and died in the Christian faith. The delineation 
 which he gave of one of his early and noble compeers could never have been -written, 
 except from experimental acquaintance with that which he holds up as the chief excel- 
 lence of his friend. This description we shall apply to himself, trusting it will be as 
 well understood as admired. 
 
 " Political eminence and professional fame fade away and die with all things earthly. 
 Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth. These re- 
 main. Whatever of excellence is wrought into the soul itself, belongs to both worlds. 
 Real goodness does not attach itself merely to this life ; it points to another world. 
 Political or professional reputation cannot last for ever ; but a conscience void of oflfence 
 before God and man is an inheritance for eternity. Keligion, therefore, is a necessary 
 and indispensable element in any great human character. There is no living without 
 it. Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. 
 If that tie be all sundered, all broken, he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe, 
 its proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but 
 darkness, desolation, and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom 
 the Scriptures describe, in such terse but terrific language, as living without God in the 
 world. Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of 
 the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away from the purposes of his crea- 
 tion." 
 
 A mind like Mr. Webster's, active, thoughtful, penetrating, sedate, could not but 
 meditate deeply on the condition of man below, and feel its responsibilities. He could 
 not look on this mighty system, 
 
 '•This universal frame, thus wondrous fair," 
 
 without feeling that it was created and upheld by an Intelligence to which all other in- 
 telligences must be responsible. I am bound to say, that in the course of my life I 
 never met with an individual, in any profession or condition, who always spoke and 
 always thought with such awful reverence of the power and presence of God. No irre- 
 verence, no lightness, even no too familiar allusion to God and his attributes ever escaped 
 his lips. The very notion of a Supreme Being was, with him, made up of awe and 
 solemnity. It filled the whole of his great mind with the strongest emotions. A man 
 like him, with all his proper sentiments and sensibilities alive in him, must, in this 
 stage of existence, have something to believe and something to hope for ; or else, as life 
 is advancing to its close, all is heart-sinking and oppression. Depend upon it, what- 
 ever may be the mind of an old man, old age is only really happy when, on feeling the 
 enjoyments of this world pass away, it has learned to lay a stronger hold on the reali- 
 ties of another. 
 
 Mr. Webster's religious sentiments and feelings were the crowning glories of his 
 character. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains 
 were brought forth, or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from ever- 
 lasting to everlasting. Thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction ; and sayest, 
 return, ye children of men." In that solemn event, which has changed this abode into 
 a house of mourning, we acknowledge Thy sovereign hand, and bow before thine infi- 
 nite majesty and thine adorable power. " Clouds and darkness are round about" Thee ; 
 yet "justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne, mercy and truth shall go 
 before Thy face." Grant us then, Heavenly Father, the influences of Thy divine Spirit, 
 that we may be enabled, in this the day of our calamity, both to see the visitation of 
 Thy hand and submit ourselves to Thy most righteous will. AVe bless Thee for Thine 
 Holy Word, which irradiates the darkness of the tomb, revealing Him who is "the re- 
 surrection and the life," and cheering us with the promise of the holy and ever present 
 Comforter. While we mourn, we would not forget to gratefully' acknoAvledge Thy mer- 
 cies. We bless Thee that Thy distinguished servant, to whose mortal remains we are 
 now about to pay our last tribute of respect, was permitted to live out the allotted 
 period of human existence, and attain his " threescore years and ten." We bless Thee 
 that for so long a time we were allowed to rejoice in his counsels, his afl"ection, and 
 care. We thank Thee that during the last hours of his life the privilege was granted to 
 his friends, in this quiet retreat of home, to minister to his wants and soothe his dying 
 pillow. AVe rejoice that in his illustrious life we have seen verified Thy promise, 
 
38 
 
 Them that honour mc, I -will honour." We render Thee thanks that, above all our 
 
 he was enabled, as we humbly trust, to say, " Though I walk through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they 
 comfort me." JMay the rich inheritance of his life, and the sad remembrance of his 
 death, be sanctified to our eternal good. 
 
 Especially do we implore Thy divine blessing upon those who sustained to the departed 
 the tenderest of all human relations ; and whose hearts are to-day oppressed with the 
 deepest affliction and sorrow. To thy gracious care and keeping we would fervently 
 commend her from whom Thou hast removed a beloved husband. Thou hast laid Thine 
 hand heavily upon her. Yet may her language be, " The Lord gave and the Lord hath 
 taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." May she be supported and sustained 
 in this trying hour by the consolations of the religion of Jesus, and hear the kind voice 
 — -'In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kind- 
 ness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer." Remember, also, in 
 tender compassion, we beseech thee, the children who mourn the loss of an affectionate 
 parent. Bless them and their children, and establish with them Thine everlasting 
 covenant. May grace within them triumph over the repining of nature so that each 
 one can from the heart exclaim— " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Im- 
 part the consolation of Thy AVord and Spirit to all who to-day mourn that they shall no 
 more see the face of one who was bound to them by the ties of kindred and affection. 
 Enable them to acquiesce in Thy sovereign will, to confide in Thy compassionate love. 
 " For the Lord will not cast off for ever." But though he cause grief, yet will he have 
 compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not aftiict willingly, 
 nor grieve the children of men. This bereaved household, this large circle of devoted 
 and long-tried friends, those with whom Thy departed servant was accustomed to 
 associate in the familiar intercourse of domestic or social life, we commit unto Thee, 
 Thou great dispenser of all events, praying that this impressive lesson of Thy pro- 
 vidence, which we are now called to learn, may result in the best good of our undying souls 
 through the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 And now. Lord, we would implore Thy blessing upon our stricken land. Enable 
 Thy servant, the President of the United States, and those immediately associated with 
 him in administering our national affairs, to suitably improve that act of Thy Providence, 
 which has removed from their midst a counsellor and guide. Direct the minds of all 
 who occupy stations of authority and influence, to recognise their dependence upon 
 the great Arbiter of human destiny, and the Sovereign of nations. And bless the people 
 throughout the length and breadth of our national domain. May they feel, though 
 the right arm of their strength is broken, and perils to our peace and prosperity impend, 
 " it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." The Lord God be with 
 us, as He was with our fathers ; let Him not leave us, nor forsake us ; that he may incline 
 our hearts unto Him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his 
 statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. 
 
 And now. Lord,' go with us, as we follow to their last earthly resting-place these mortal 
 remains of human greatness. We go to deposit these sacred relics in the house appointed 
 for all living, there to slumber amid the ashes of the near and dear, and the sleeping dust 
 of those who upon these shores planted the germ of the institutions under which Ave dwell. 
 Almighty God, wc beseech thee, go with us ; let Thy visible presence cheer the heart J-^ 
 of every mourner. As we resign this body to the tomb, there to rest till summoned 
 by the last trump to rise glorified and fitted for the renewed and final abode of its 
 exalted and immortal spirit, may we be cheered and encouraged by the power of a 
 living faith, and by the hope of a glorious reunion in the world of light and love. 
 
 These favours we ask through the prevailing merits and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, the praise of our sal- 
 vation be ascribed, now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 During this solemn ceremony there were few hearts in that vast assembly unmoved 
 — few eyes that did not pay the tribute of a tear to departed worth. 
 
 The solemnities closed at the mansion at half-past one o'clock, Avhen the funeral cor- 
 tege proceeded to the tomb, about a half mile distant. 
 
 PROCESSION TO THE TOMB. 
 
 There were no ladies in the procession, and no carriages, but so great was the 
 
39 
 
 length that scarcely two-thirds had left the house when the body reached the grave. 
 The procession was composed wholly of pedestrians, and moved in the following order : 
 
 Funeral Car, 
 
 (drawn by two elegant black horses appropriately draped.) 
 
 Pall Bearers. 
 
 Asa Hewett, Seth Weston, 
 
 Seth Peterson, Tilden Ames, 
 
 Joseph P. Cushman, Daniel Phillips. 
 
 Fletcher Webster and sons. 
 
 James W. Paige and John J. Joy, and other Relatives. 
 
 Domestics of the Mansion. 
 
 Workmen upon the Farm. 
 
 Attending Physician and officiating Clergyman. 
 
 Selectmen of IMarshfield. 
 
 Committee of fifty of the citizens of Marshfield. 
 
 Governor and Council. 
 
 President of Senate and Speaker of House. 
 
 City Government of Boston. 
 
 General Pierce and Mayor Seaver. 
 
 Edward Everett, Rufus Choate, Hon. Abbott Lawrence, and George Ashmun. 
 
 City Governments of Iloxbury, Charlestown, and Cambridge. 
 
 Delegations from other cities and towns. 
 
 Delegations from the New York Historical Society. 
 
 Delegates of New York Bar. 
 
 Delegates from General Democratic State Committee, New York. 
 
 Friends and Neighbours. 
 
 Citizens generally. 
 
 THE SEPULCHRE. 
 
 It had been among the cares of Mr. Webster's latter years to construct a tomb on his 
 own grounds, wherein should repose the ashes of himself and his descendants. It 
 stands, as we have before said, on an elevated spot, about a quarter of a mile north- 
 ward from the house, occupying the site of the old church of IMarshfield. From its 
 summit the eye takes in a large extent of country, including the little village and its 
 two modest spires, the mansion and its grounds, and in the distance is seen the blue 
 waters of the ocean, which at that hour lay " calm as a slumbering babe." The tomb, 
 which is merely separated by a metal paling from the old cemetery, is a rude and 
 simple excavation, rising in a grassy mound, and descending to the depth of three or 
 four feet. Its interior is arched with undressed stones, collected about the farm, and 
 six stone steps conduct into it. ^Mr. Webster had intended, before his death, to have 
 removed into the sepulchre the ashes of his first wife and children, who had been 
 interred in Boston. He did not live to execute that pious duty himself, but he requested 
 that it should be performed previous to his own interment. On the preceding day, 
 therefore, in obedience to this expressed inclination, their remains, eight in all, were 
 exhumed from a vault under St. Paul's Church, and conveyed to Marshfield. 
 
 The remains of Daniel Webster were deposited on the left side of the tomb, leaving 
 the opposite side vacant. 
 
 On the plot in front stand three square, marble tablets, to Grace Fletcher, his first 
 wife; to Julia Webster Apj}leto?i, his daughter; and to Major Fletcher Webster, his son. 
 
 Mr. Webster has directed that a similar monument — no largei*, no smaller — shall be 
 there erected to his own memory ; the only memorial of him at present existing there is 
 a plain marble slab, about eighteen inches in length, rising out of the mound, and bear- 
 ing the inscription, Daniel Webster. The little burying-ground of which this tomb may 
 be said to form a part, is supposed to be the second oldest in New England, and contains 
 
40 
 
 the ashes of Governor Winslow, over which rises a plain monument, with the following 
 inscription quite legible upon it: — 
 
 THE HONBLE JOSIAH WINSLOW 
 
 V Gour of New Plymouth dyed Pecember ye 18, 1680, aetatis 52. 
 
 It is also a tradition among the peasantry that Peregrine White, the first child of 
 English parents born in the colony, is interred here. 
 
 LASTSCENEOFALL. 
 
 When the head of the procession reached the tomb, the body was borne within the 
 enclosure, and placed within a plain deal box, or case, covered with a pall. Some 
 seven or eight hundred persons, who had left Boston by the steamboat Atlantic, and 
 had not been able to disembark where it was expected they would, arrived at the place 
 of interment at this moment. It was their anxious desire to be permitted to take a last 
 look at the illustrious dead; and to gratify them, as well as others who had joined in 
 the procession, the coffin was brought outside of the gate^nd the upper portion of it 
 taken off. Again was repeated the sad scene which had taken place under the maple 
 tree, and upwards of an hour elapsed in this manner. At length the mourners slowly 
 departed, the final prayer was said, the cofiBn was lowered into the tomb, and all that 
 was mortal of Daniel Webster passed for ever from the eyes of man. 
 
 The entire proceedings were appropriate, solemn, and affecting. 
 
 ^^^ The Marshfield South Congregational Church was organized in 1G40. According 
 to the minutes of the "General Association of Massachusetts," no other church, belong- 
 ing to the "Pilgrim Association," dates back to so early an origin. Hence, the writer 
 infers that the First Church of Plymouth is no longer in the orthodox Congregational 
 connexion. If so, the Marshfield Church is the oldest orthodox Congregational church 
 in what was Plymouth Colony, but not in the State; the churches of Charlestown, Cam- 
 bridge, and others having been organized before 1640. 
 
 Some of Mr. Webster's letters are dated from his farm in Franklin, N. H. The old 
 town of Salisbury was divided some years ago, and the part in which Mr. Webster 
 was born is now named Franklin. — C. V. 11. 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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