E 
 
 U)4M 
 
 
Glass _ Z.1^ 
 
 Book ^ \A^ 
 
 u 
 
o2^ 
 
 EULOGY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHARACTER AND SERVICES ^% 
 
 OF THE I.ATK 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 PRONOUXCED AT THE REQUEST OF THE 
 
 IHnt nnii Cnimnnii Cnunriki nf \\}t (t^itij nf ^^^Ijilahljijiin, 
 
 JANUARY 18, 1853, 
 
 BY WILLIAM H. ALLEN, L L. D., 
 
 // 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE GIR.VRD COLLEGE FOR ORPHANS. 
 
 -♦♦- 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 CKISSY i MARKLEY, PRINTERS, GOtDSMTTIIS HALL, LIBRARY STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 

 IN EXCHANOE 
 
 JAN 5 - 1915 
 
EXTRACT 
 
 FKO.M THE 
 
 a-oxjii.3xr-A.iji oiB' ooxti^oxxjS- 
 
 Thursday, November 4, 1852. 
 
 Mr. roulson offered the following resolutions: — 
 
 Whereas, The principles and opinions which Daniel Webster so nobly 
 advocated and sustained throughout hia eventful life, according to his own 
 words, are essential to the preservation of the Union, the maintenance of the 
 Constitution, and the advancement of the country to the highest stages of 
 prosperity and renown: — and these objects have constituted his Pole-star 
 during the whole of his political career, which extended through more than 
 half the period of the existence of the government, and 
 
 Whereas, When in the dispensations of His Providence, it is tlie Avill of tlie 
 Almighty Ptuler of the Universe to withdi-aw, by death, from amongst us, 
 and from amidst his career of usefulness, such a man, such a friend, such a 
 gifted lover of his countr3% as Daniel Webster, we cannot but severely feel j 
 and deeply deplore the event as a national affliction : it becomes us to bow 
 in reverential and prayerful submission before Him who gave, and who hath 
 taken away : and 
 
 Whereas, In the character and services of Daniel Webster, as a Statesman, 
 and as a Patriot, the people of this country have examples of pure devotion 
 to the public good at home, and of the just preservation of the dignity and 
 honor of his country abroad, — examples, to be cherished and imitated ;— and 
 
4 
 
 although the bitterness of grief be upon us for his loss, yet the memory of 
 his deeds will be the more deeply enehrined, and live in brightness in the 
 hearts of his countrymen — encouraging, sustaining, the determination never 
 to depart from those glorious precepts he inculcated and practised alike with 
 the great fathers of this republic, Washington and his associates, — and never 
 forget the lessons taught by such wisdom and experience : 
 
 Therefore, Entertaining these sentiments and feelings, the Select and Com- 
 mon Councils of the City of Philadelphia, do 
 
 Resolve, 
 
 First, That it is expedient and proper, in further testimony of their respect 
 and veneration of the character and services of Daniel Webster, the great 
 expounder of our National Constitution, and the advocate of those principles 
 of government which have secured the unexampled prosperity and happiness 
 of our beloved country, — that, a day be assigned wherein we will devote our 
 minds to the contemplation of the life and labors of Daniel Webster — a bless- 
 ing to the people — to Daniel Webster's death — a nation's loss ; — and they 
 further 
 
 Resolve, That a Joint Special Committee, consisting of two members from 
 each Council, be appointed, who arc hereby authorized to fix the day for the 
 purpose set forth in the foregoing resolution : to iuN-ite a citizen to pronounce 
 on that day, an oration on the character and services of the late Daniel 
 Webster ; and to make such further arrangements as may be deemed suitable 
 and proper in order to effect the objects and purposes of these proceedings. 
 
 WTiich were read twice and passed. 
 
 The aliove prcamlilc and resolutions were unanimously adopted at a meet- 
 ing of Select and Common Councils, held on the -Ith day of November, A. D. 
 1852, and the following .loint Special Committee appointed in accordance 
 therewith: Charles A. Poulson, Chairman, Samuel V\. t; !'>.l ill. Albert G. 
 Waterman, and .Tusofdi M. Thomas. 
 
 (Attest) CUAIG DIDDLE, 
 
 Clerl- '■'■ '^-'mmon Council. 
 
COMMITTKE ROOM, CITY HALL., 
 
 Novcmlier 26tli, 1853. 
 
 WiiLiAM H. Allen, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: — The undersigned on behalf of a Joint Special Committee 
 appointed in pursuance of certain proceedings in Select and Common Coun- 
 cils of the City of Philadelphia, in relation to the death of the lamented 
 Daniel Webster, — a copy of which, contained in a poi-tion of their Journal is 
 herewith enclosed, — respectfully take the liberty of waiting on you, to ex- 
 press their desii-e, that it may be convenient and agreeable to you to pro- 
 nounce the eulogy suggested therein, on the character and services of that 
 eminent statesman and benefactor. 
 
 We have the honor to be, 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 CHARLES A. POULSON, 
 A. G. WATERMAN, 
 
 Sub Committee, ^c. 
 
 Girard College, November ^9, 185». 
 
 Gentlemen : — Though deeply conscious that I am not equal to the honor- 
 able duty which you have assigned me, I am constrained by a sense of my 
 obligations to yourselves and to the Select and Common Councils which yo\i 
 represent, to comply with the request which you have so courteously made. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 
 Most truly and respectfully, yours, 
 
 WILLIAM II. ALLEN. 
 To Messrs. Charles A. Poulson, 
 A. G. Waterman, 
 
 Suh-Committee of Arrangementg. 
 
Committe* Room, Jauuary 20, 1853. 
 
 William H. Allen, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sik : — The undersigned, a Special Committee appointed by Select 
 and Common Councils in furtherance of the objects of a preamble and reso- 
 lutions passed by Councils on the 4th of "November last ; have peculiar gra- 
 tification in requesting from you a copy of the eloquent and appropriate 
 Eulogium, illustrative of the life and character of the lamented Daniel 
 Webster, pronounced by you before Councils, and a large assemblage of our 
 fellow-citizens, on Tuesday, the 18th inst., at the Musical Fund Hall. 
 
 The Committee desire to see this eulogy preserved in a permanent form, 
 and especially because an opfjortunity ■will thus be presented to all of par- 
 ticipating in the pleasure and advantage which was enjoyed by those who 
 were present at its oral enunciation. 
 
 We have the honor to be, 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 CIIAS. A. POULSON, Chairman. 
 A. G. WATERMAN, 
 SAMUIjJL J. RANDALL, 
 .JOSEPH M. THOM.\S, 
 ^prcial Committee of Select and Common Councils. 
 
EULOGY. 
 
 « < » • » 
 
 The exit of an unusual number of illustrious men, 
 both at home and abroad, has given a mournful inter- 
 est to the past year. It was observed long ago, that 
 there are periods of peculiar brilliancy in history, 
 when many distinguished men cluster together ; and 
 it would seem that there are also periods of gloom, 
 when the great depart together. In 1832 many bright 
 hghts of literature and science went out — Goethe, 
 Spurzheim, Cuvier, Champolion, Crabbe, Walter Scott, 
 Jeremy Bentham and Adam Clarke ; and now, at the 
 close of a cycle of twenty years, death has again 
 aimed at shining marks, and has selected this time a 
 constellation of statesmen. Amonix these, Wellino-ton, 
 Clay, Webster, and Philadelphia's loved and honored 
 Sergeant, stand forth as names of mark — historical 
 men — who have done much to shape the destiny of 
 
8 
 
 nations. And as we saw these stars one after another 
 melt into the light of a brighter hemisphere, until our 
 firmament grew dark, we sadly asked, 
 
 '• When shall retuiu 
 Such lustre to the coining years?" 
 
 We are here, on the birth-day of one of these men, 
 to commemorate his life and to mourn his death. 
 Though Daniel Webster only passed the limit of three 
 score years and ten, we shall find, if we measure his 
 life by the changes which took place in the world 
 during its term, or by the growth of this country, or 
 by his own public services, that he lived longer than 
 the patriarchs. Born near the close of our revolution- 
 ary struggle ; nurtured while the fathers of the Repub- 
 lic were laying the foundations of its prosperity in 
 national union ; educated during the first trial of the 
 experiment of the new government ; called to public 
 life during the second war of independence ; holding 
 high posts of duty in seasons of uncommon difficulty 
 and danger, and devoting his ripest powers to the 
 defence of the Constitution and Union, he lived long 
 enough to finish his work, long enough for fame, though 
 not for our hopes, and died a great and not untimely 
 death. While we mourn fi)r him as for a father on 
 whose strength we have leaned, and to \\hose coun- 
 sels we have listened, we rejoice in the fruition of his 
 
labors, we glory in the fullness of his fame, and we 
 are proud that the country which produced such a 
 man is our country. 
 
 We are here, under the auspices of the municipal 
 o-overnment of a city, consecrated by so many recol- 
 lections of our heroic age, that it has become to the 
 American people the Mecca of their patriotic worship. 
 The Continental Congress, the Declaration, Independ- 
 ence Hall, the Old Bell, the Convention, the Constitu- 
 tion, Morris, Reed, Franklin, Washington, all stand 
 around us, and in their august presence, with their 
 memory and their spirit brooding over us, we are to 
 contemplate the life and services of a statesman who 
 has done much to perpetuate the liberty which was 
 here proclaimed, to preserve the Union which was 
 here established, and to give dignity at home and 
 influence abroad to the government which was here 
 formed. 
 
 Few men were ever welcomed to this city with 
 more sincere respect, or more generous admiration 
 than Daniel Webster. When he stood among us in 
 clear light, " Os^ humerosrjue Deo similis,''' you all 
 know how warmly he was greeted. And when his 
 voice, sonorous and flexible, was heard from platform, 
 balcony, or banquet hall, in language to which his 
 deep, dark eyes, whose glance could fascinate or 
 wither, gave prophetic force, you well remember how. 
 
10 
 
 with suppressed breath and eager ears, we hung upon 
 his lips ; and how, at the close of some sentence bi^ 
 with thought, we sat spell-bound, and forgot to 
 applaud. And now, when that eloquent voice is 
 hushed forever ; and those eyes, 
 
 "Which have been piercing as the mid-day sun 
 To search the secret treasons of the world, 
 Are dimmed with death's black veU;" 
 
 and that Atlas form, weary with the weight of public 
 cares, lies mouldering to dust ; and that mind, which 
 seemed too vast even for the vast dome it dwelt in, has 
 returned to God who gave it ; there is no part of our 
 country, except his adopted Boston, where his memory 
 is more cherished, or his death more lamented, than 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 History informs us, that among some of the nations 
 of anti(j[uity, it was the custom, when a great man 
 died, to hold an inquest upon his character ; and if the 
 verdict were favorable, his remains were embalmed 
 with much care and cost, and a solenm eulogy was 
 pronounced at his funeral. 
 
 We are not here to-day to hold the inquest, but to 
 unite our voices with the hundreds that have already 
 pronounced the culogium. The verdict of the contem- 
 poraries of Daniol Webster has been agreed upon, 
 and submitted to the court. The members of the pro- 
 
11 
 
 fession of which he was the acknowledged head, have 
 pronounced it. The statesmen of our country, among 
 whom he moved primus inter pares, have pronounced 
 it. His pohtical opponents, with a magnanimity 
 which softens the hard thoughts and hard words of 
 party strife, have pronounced it. Scholars and stu- 
 dents of history, who have compared Webster with 
 the masters of ancient and modern eloquence, with 
 Demosthenes and Cicero, with Pitt, Fox and Burke, 
 have pronounced it. The pulpit, unscduced by the 
 brilliant and specious, and looking sternly beneath the 
 exterior of public and private character at motives 
 and principles, has pronounced it. And the united 
 voice of the nation, striving to give utterance to the 
 sentiments of its great heart, all alive with fresh recol- 
 lections of its benefactor's arduous and unrequited 
 labors, has pronounced it. Daniel Webster ivas a great 
 lawyer, a great orator, a great statesman, a great man. 
 What a verdict ! from what a jury ! 
 
 This verdict has been so nearly unanimous, that it 
 will go up with authority to the tribunal of history — 
 that high court of appeal which is to review the 
 record, and by which we doubt not that the judgment 
 of the present age will be affirmed. 
 
 What then remains for the present speaker to do ? 
 W^hilc reading the addresses which have been already 
 delivered on Mr. Webster, in number beyond all for- 
 
13 
 
 mcr example, in ability unsurpassed by any composi- 
 tions of their class in our language, I have shrunk 
 from the honorable duty which the Select and Com- 
 mon Councils have assigned me, so painful has been 
 my consciousness of inability to do justice to the great 
 theme. I can add nothing to the reputation of our 
 departed statesman, for that is more than local, more 
 than national, it is world-wide. I can draw forth 
 from forgotten records no new facts to show by what 
 culture, in life's spring-time, plants of such pith and 
 stature grow ; for all these have been explored, and 
 their story is as familiar to you as household words. 
 I can place no stone upon the monument which the 
 master builder has raised for himself; for as the hands 
 of our Zerubbabcl " laid the foundation thereof, so 
 liave his hands finished it, and have brought forth the 
 headstone, shouting, grace, grace unto it." I can add 
 no syllable to the inscription which his own chisel has 
 sculptured so deeply on that monument, nor grave a 
 single emblem in the blazons of its heraldrv. I need 
 not paint again the picture of those home hours, all 
 sunshine, all poetry, when the warrior returned from 
 battle, and i)ut olT his harness, and wiped the sweat 
 from his brow, and shook the dust from his garments ; 
 when the sportsman sallied forth with gun or line ; 
 when the farmer rambled over his broad meadows, and 
 the lowing of his great oxen soothed his chafed spirit ; 
 
13 
 
 or when he sat under the chn at evening, and hstened 
 to the murmur of the sea, and gazed upward at the 
 stars, and mused on thoughts deeper than the sea, and 
 higher than the stars. They who shared the intimacy 
 of his hearthstone have dehneated all these, and have 
 made us know Mr. Webster better, and love him 
 more than before. Still less need I recapitulate his 
 public labors and intellectual achievements ; for he was 
 a city set on a hill, and could not be hid. 
 
 "Ye saw his deeds. 
 AVhy should their praise in verse be sung ? 
 The name that dwells on every tongue 
 
 No minstrel needs." 
 
 What then, the question returns with emphasis, are 
 we to do ? We may at least pour out our libation 
 upon the tomb of our country's benefactor. We may 
 add one note to the grand requiem, which all over 
 this land, has bewailed a national bereavement. We 
 may mingle our tears once more with those of our 
 stricken countrymen, whose full hearts have attested 
 the sincerity of the nation's grief. We may pass by 
 in solemn procession, and drop one sprig of green 
 upon the coffin of the great master, and place one 
 flower, though quickly it may fade, in the chaplct of 
 his unfading memory. 
 
 It has been said that i^reat men are God's gift. 
 
14 
 
 They are more than this ; they are God's agents, sent 
 to tlie nations for specific objects, and trained up 
 under such discipHne as prepares them to accompUsh 
 these objects. When we look at the adaptation of 
 means to ends, which is so clearly discernible in every 
 department of nature, and which points ever and from 
 all directions to one great centre — to a presiding and 
 providing Intelligence, we cannot believe that the 
 movements of human society have been left to the 
 guidance of chance. The same God who reigns in 
 nature, reigns also in history. It cannot be that the 
 Being who has given to the lower orders of animals 
 just such organs and instincts as their condition 
 requires, and who has guided the planets in their 
 courses ever since " the mornino: stars sano- too-ether," 
 would permit the highest order of his earthly crea- 
 tures to grope blindly on without aim or j)urpose. 
 We spurn the philosophy that would make humanity 
 the football of accident. We claim for rcasonins: 
 man at least as high a place in tiie Divine re- 
 gard as unreasoning brutes occupy; and, claiming 
 this, we must believe that historical nations have 
 their work to perform in the world, and are edu- 
 cated for their work ; and that historical men, who 
 alone make nations historical, have also their parts 
 assigned thom in the grand drama, and are trained for 
 their parts. In the Divine Mind the work is antece- 
 
15 
 
 dent to tlic workman, and in due time the workman 
 appears because lie is wanted. 
 
 The work which was maturinsf for Mr. Webster, 
 while he was growing up the man for the work, was 
 one of the natural and necessary results of our polit- 
 ical development. At the time of his birth, Ameri- 
 can independence, though not yet formally acknow- 
 ledged, had been really achieved. But there was 
 another and more difficult task for the patriots af those 
 days. The liberty Miiich had been won by a lover, 
 was to be wedded to a husband. A thing which men 
 worship, fight for, and die for, in its abstract form, was 
 to become a living and prolific force, by being con- 
 nected with institutions, as the soul is connected with 
 the body. And France, so many times set free, to be 
 as often again enslaved, may tell how much more diffi- 
 cult is the latter than the former. 
 
 The Constitution was adopted by the people under 
 the pressure of necessity, and with many misgivings. 
 It was foreseen that delicate questions involving state 
 rights and federal powers must arise under it, and that 
 the complicated machine would not run without fric- 
 tion. What was to be done when state interest, pride 
 or jealousy, roused by an example of real or fancied 
 oppression on the part of the general government, 
 should again apply the maxims of the revolution, and 
 say, "' Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God ;" 
 
16 
 
 " Give me liberty, or give ine death ?" What was 
 to be done when a State, havinij the command of 
 money and physical force, should raise the standard 
 of secession, and say, " Liberty first, and Union after- 
 wards ?" These questions are vital. On their solu- 
 tion, whenever they should arise, was to depend the 
 continued existence of the republic. 
 
 What manner of man was required to meet such a 
 crisis, and to avert disunion and national suicide ? 
 
 1. A great lawyer was required ; a lawyer who could 
 reason from principles, rather than cases; who could 
 ascend to the fountain of right and justice, to "that 
 law^ whose seat is the bosom of God, and whose voice 
 is the harmony of the world ;■' who could pursue the 
 streams which tlow from that fountain, as the}' per- 
 meate every department of society, and regulate the 
 intercourse and define the responsibilities both of indi- 
 viduals and nations, lie must also be a constitu- 
 tional lawyer; because the true exposition of the the- 
 ory of our government was to be made, and the limits 
 of national and state sovereignty were to be carefully 
 defined. 
 
 2. A great statesman was required : — a man of set- 
 tled convictions, not of shifting and temporary expe- 
 dients ; a man who could oppose his party if his party 
 were wrong, and go hand in hand with political oppo- 
 nents when they were ri^ht ; a man who could conqire- 
 
17 
 
 hend the true ends of government, and discover the 
 best means of attaining them. A statesman was re- 
 quired whose point of observation should be sufiicicntly 
 elevated to bring the entire horizon under his eye; 
 above local and sectional prejudices, " knowing no 
 North, no South, no East, no West" ; with a mind 
 capacious enough to embrace the whole country. 
 
 3. A great orator was required; for among a 
 people, led as we are by the authority of our great 
 public men, he alone who had the national ear, and 
 could meet an opponent in debate, could effectually 
 put down a popular heresy. He alone who held the 
 key to men's patriotic sympathies, could so marshal 
 the recollections of the past, the interests of the pre- 
 sent, and the hopes of the future, as to persuade them. 
 While the love of personal freedom, that master pas- 
 sion of our people, was not to be weakened, patriotism 
 was to be strenirthened. The maxims of the revolu- 
 tion were not to become obsolete, but another set of 
 maxims was to be elevated to an equal seat at their 
 side. — '.' Independence and Patriotism'," — " Liberty 
 AND Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 
 Only a great orator could do this. 
 
 4. A great man was required. A man of large 
 head and large heart, pursuing noble ends by noble 
 means, whom neither hope nor fear, praise nor censure, 
 friendship nor hatred might seduce from duty and 
 
18 
 
 steadfast right; for only such a man could hold, or would 
 deserve to hold the confidence of the people. A man 
 was wanted to whose skill the nation midit trust the 
 most delicate and momentous questions, and thuik 
 that nothing was too hard for him to solve; and even 
 while the winds were hijrh, and the waves were break- 
 ing over the deck, and the rocks were under the lee, 
 could rest secure, and believe 
 
 "Nil dcsperandum, Teucro duce, et auspice Teucro." 
 
 This sketch, rude and imperfect though it be, is not 
 an untruthful outline of Daniel Webster. Where are 
 we to look for him, and how is he to be trained for 
 his vocation ? 
 
 Such men do not spring forth full grown and armed 
 from the brain of Olympian Jove. They grow slowly 
 by nurture and culture. Accident does not produce 
 them ; occasions do not ; nor are occasions made for 
 them, but they for occasions. It is an error, now 
 less current than formerly, that fit men are always at 
 hand for every emcrijcncy. An emergency may bring 
 out wliat there is in a man, but \\\\\ not ])ut anything 
 jn him. If men adequate to every crisis are always 
 at hand, why were not the uprisings of the oppressed 
 inhabitants of l'An*ope, in 1848, conducted with mode- 
 ration and wisdom to the desired issue of liberty ? 
 If the want of great men will make <hom spring up 
 
19 
 
 from the ground^likc the fabled crop of soldiers from 
 drao-on's teeth, why is their loss regarded as a national 
 calamity? And why is the divine threatening so 
 terrible when the Prophet declares that " The Lord 
 doth take away the stay and the staff, the mighty 
 man, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and 
 the ancient, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, 
 and the eloquent orator ?" ' 
 
 The ancients deified fortune, and made her a posi- 
 tive force in human affairs. But now we know that 
 the fortunate man is he who knows himself, and 
 knowing himself, has the sagacity to discover his 
 vocation, and the strength to pursue it wisely and 
 well. The man who was growing up to meet the 
 crisis about to arise in our history, owed very little to 
 fortune. He was born in a small town in New Hamp- 
 shire, on what was then the extreme northern boun- 
 dary of civilization. His limbs were inured to toil at 
 an early age, and he was fed with such food as hard 
 labor could extort from a granite soil, — fit nutriment 
 of granite men. His father was of the heroic stock 
 of the Revolution, a man of stalwart frame and robust 
 mind. His mother was of gentler mould, but a woman 
 of sterling sense, discriminating and energetic. She 
 was the first to discover the brave promise of her son, 
 and to predict his future eminence. If all similar 
 
20 
 
 predictions were as fully justified b^i tlie results, there 
 would be no dearth of great men. 
 
 Both parents of Daniel Webster were religious, and 
 they trained up their children in the rigid discipline 
 of the Puritans. As the boy did not remember the time 
 when he was not able to read the Bible, so the man 
 could not point to a moment of his life when he did 
 not reverence it. 
 
 For two or three months in a year he went to such 
 a school as the backwoods of New Hampshire could 
 boast of sixty years since ; — a peripatetic school, with 
 no Stagyrite at its head. The few books which fell 
 in his way he read and remembered ; and the result 
 proved how much knowledge can be acquired under 
 the most unfavorable auspices, by a mind which 
 attracts it from every object, and absorbs it at every 
 pore. Master Chase soon surrendered the embryo 
 statesman to Master Tappan ; and Master Tappan to 
 Preceptor Abbott ; the last a fit Aristotle for such an 
 Alexander. At that time many of the youth of Boston 
 were sent up to Exeter to prepare for Cambridge, and 
 it is said that the coarse apparel and unpolished man- 
 ners of the country lad moved the sneers of his high 
 bred school-mates from the metropolis. But though 
 somewhat abashed at first, he soon outtitripped them 
 all in the race of knowledge, and when at the end of 
 his second quarter he was promoted to a higher grade. 
 
21 
 
 his classmates were summoned to bid him adieu, "for," 
 said the teacher, "i/om will never see him again." 
 After leavinji Exeter he studied awhile with the Rev. 
 Samuel Woods, and at the age of fifteen was admitted 
 into Dartmouth College, that foster mother of great 
 men. 
 
 A tradition used to be current in the New England 
 colleges, that Daniel Webster was what is called 
 among students a genius ; that is, a lad who reads 
 every thing but his text-books, and who knows every 
 thing except his lessons. I remember, too, that every 
 idle student loved to cite W^ebster to prove how great 
 a man such a lad may become. Reasoning from 
 example is not always safe, especially when the ex- 
 ample happens to be imaginary. I have taken some 
 pains to come at the truth of this matter, and have 
 learned from authentic sources* some facts which I 
 fear will not be very consoling to that class of students 
 who expect to become eminent because they do not 
 study. The facts are these. Daniel Webster studied 
 more, read more, and wrote more than any member 
 of his class. He was constant at his recitations and 
 always well prepared. He was so careful an observer 
 
 * The facts and references relating to the student life of Mr. Webster 
 were communicated to me by Professor Edwin D. Sanborn of Dartmouth 
 College, to whose courtesy I am greatly indebted. 
 
22 
 
 of order, that the President of the 'College would have 
 beea suspected of lawless conduct as soon as he* 
 As a debater and writer he so far excelled all others 
 in his class, that no one was spoken of as second to 
 him.t While his fellow students selected their pieces 
 for declamation, he icrolc his. Whenever there was 
 a difficult task to be performed the class laid it on 
 Webster. So tenacious was his memory that he was 
 known to repeat twenty pages of poetry after reading 
 them carefully twice.J He wrote many fugitive pieces, 
 both in prose and verse, which were published. Dur- 
 ing his Junior year he tested his powers in two kinds 
 of composition and speaking, in which aspirants to 
 rhetorical fame, so often make trial of their strength 
 of winrr; — a Fourth of Julv Oration, and a Euloijy. 
 At the close of the same year he wrote a drama, 
 which, accordinor to the custom of the time, when the 
 buskin and the gown associated together in classic 
 halls, was enacted on the stage at commencement. 
 Above all he was a serious, earnest, truthful lad; dis- 
 tinguished in college for the same traits which after- 
 ward made him eminent as a man. When he came 
 to receive his degree, so far from stamping his diploma 
 
 * llcv. Elilm Smith, of Pomfret. Vt 
 
 f Governor Henry Hubbunl, of Charlcstown, N H. 
 
 + Dr. Farrar, of Deny, N. H. 
 
23 
 
 under foot, as the story runs, a man now living,* who 
 stood at his side, testifies that he received it with a 
 graceful bow. 
 
 The young Bachelor of Arts now goes forth into 
 the world "/o kani and lo earn.''' With habits of 
 economy which necessity has formed ; with a self-re- 
 liance which successful efforts have nourished; with 
 a courage which no obstacles can daunt; with a per- 
 severance which fears no labor ; and with a strength of 
 will which is innate and indomitable, he goes forth 
 " to fmd, or to make a way." 
 
 We next find Daniel Webster Principal of the Frye- 
 burg Academy, in the then District of Maine. His 
 salary is $350 a year, and as much more as he can 
 add to it by copying deeds at night in the Register's 
 office at twenty-five cents each. With these earnings 
 he is to support himself, and pay the college expenses 
 of his brother Ezekiel. When his fingers ache with 
 copying, he reads Blackstone till his eyes ache. He 
 is usually grave and thoughtful, though sometimes 
 playful and facetious. His religious training has not 
 been lost, and he opens and closes his school with 
 prayer. All his amusements are manly and invigo- 
 rating, and taken in the open air. The companions 
 of his rambles are a fishing rod and Shakspcarc. He 
 
 • Rev. Eliliu Smith. 
 
24 
 
 is the same man, in all essential qualities, that he will 
 be when nations listen to his words. He is esteemed 
 and beloved as a teacher; and at the end of eight 
 months he leaves Fryeburg, with good testimonials of 
 his skill, and with what he had not always in his later 
 and more prosperous life, some money in his pocket. 
 
 Mr. Webster's lawyer life begins in the olhce of 
 Mr. Thompson of Salisbury, where Coke is placed in 
 his hands " to break him in," or to break him down. 
 But Webster would not be broken down; he chose 
 rather to break throuirh the usual routine of office 
 study, and to read law books which he could under- 
 stand. 
 
 We next meet him in Boston, in the office of Chris- 
 topher Gore, who is his teacher, friend and adviser. 
 Mr. Gore discovers that his student is tit for some- 
 thing more than to record the doings of others, and 
 saves him from becoming *' once a clerk always a 
 clerk." Many a man may look back upon some such 
 turning point of his life as this, when his destiny hung 
 upon the decision of an hour; and many a man, 
 press(>d by the res a/iirusta domi^ has sacriliced a 
 brilliant future to a present necessity. If Daniel 
 Webster had accepted the clerkshij) which his father 
 urged upon him for the sake of the competency it 
 offered, he would probably have lived a respectable 
 njan, inllumtial in his neighborhood, jx'riiaps the great 
 
25 
 
 man of a little village ; but it is doubtful wlictber bis 
 honest neighbors would have ever suspected that the 
 man was greater than his office. 
 
 At the age of twenty-three Mr. Webster is admitted 
 to the Suffolk bar. Partly from the difficulties which 
 a young lawyer without influential connexions must 
 encounter in commencing practice in a large city, and 
 partly from a desire to be near his father in his de- 
 clining age, he returns to New Hampshire and opens 
 an office at Boscawcn. Having buried the father 
 whom he went thither to assist and cherish, he removes 
 to Portsmouth and at once enters into successful com- 
 petition with the best lawyers in the State. In five 
 years he has become known and has made himself 
 respected. He has studied hard, and worked hard, 
 for he has had to measure strength with Titans. 
 
 But New Hampshire was becoming too small for 
 him, or rather he was growing too big for New Hamp- 
 shire. He has to be transplanted to a soil where his 
 roots may strike deeper, and his branches spread out 
 their leaves to a more genial air, and a brighter sun- 
 shine. New Hampshire is a fertile grower of great 
 men ; and after exporting a large surplus, she can still 
 afford to give a President to the Union. As the rivers 
 from her granite hills flow down to fertilize Maine, 
 Massachusetts, and Connecticut; so her streams of 
 
26 
 
 intellect pour forth ^vitll full tide, and spread from the 
 lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean. 
 
 It ^vas essential to the development of Mr. Webster 
 as a statesman, that he should establish himself where 
 the party of conservatism was predominant. Massa- 
 chusetts had this attraction for him, and Boston was 
 ready to receive him with a cordial welcome. In the 
 mean time the ties which bound him to his native 
 State are sundered by the burning of his house, 
 furniture and library. He removes to Boston, where 
 he soon obtains a lucrative practice, and enters upon 
 that branch of his profession w hich is to open to him 
 his vocation as an expounder and defender of the 
 Constitution. He is retained on the defence of Dart- 
 mouth College ; and sixteen years after he received 
 his diploma, he appears as the champion of his Alma 
 Mater in the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 Every lawyer in America is acquainted with this case, 
 and as the rights of all our colleges and other chari- 
 table corporations were suspended upon its issue, the 
 trial was regarded with deep solicitude throughout the 
 
 country. 
 
 It was not enough for the counsel to explore the 
 well-springs of English law. The old principles of 
 jurisprudence relating to eleemosynary corporations, 
 were to be applied to a new system of government. 
 The invasion of corporate rights had been made by 
 
27 
 
 the Government of a State ; and the question involved 
 state rights, the authority of the Federal Judiciary, 
 and the powers of the General Government under the 
 Constitution. Mr. Webster put forth all his strength, 
 and was triumphantly successful. The old charter of 
 the Colleire was sustained. The acts of the Lesjisla- 
 ture of New Hampshire were declared void, and the 
 institution was restored to its former footing and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 This case established Mr. Webster's reputation as 
 a constitutional lawyer, and thenceforward he was 
 retained on almost every suit involving constitutional 
 principles. 
 
 No one can read his arguments in these cases, par- 
 ticularly in the college case, and in Gibbons vs. Ogden, 
 and Ogden vs. Saunders, without perceivino- that he is 
 pluming himself for those higher flights, in which a 
 broadier stretch of wing will be required to sustain 
 him, in his defence of the Charter of the Union. 
 
 The small number of Mr. Webster's forensic efforts 
 which have been published, will carry with them to 
 posterity abundant proof that his contemporaries did 
 not over-rate his merits when they pronounced him 
 the best lawyer of his time. His speeches at the trial 
 of the murderers of White, and in defence of Judj^e 
 Prescott, are not only master-pieces of forensic skill, 
 but they contain passages of unsurpassed eloquence. 
 
28 
 
 In the Girard College case he labored under the dis- 
 advantage of not having the law on his side, but his 
 arguuient is valuable as a defence of christian educa- 
 tion, and as the testimony of a great mind in favor of 
 the benefits and blessings of our holy religion. Had 
 he known at the time, that the noble sentiments he 
 was pronouncing, were the very sentiments which 
 would animate the Trustees and Directors of the col- 
 lege, he would have been spared the utterance of those 
 gloomy forebodings, the greater part of which proved 
 imaginary within his own life-time. 
 
 The statesman life of Mr. Webster began with his 
 election to Congress as a representative from New 
 Hampshire in 1812, and terminated only at his death. 
 His first movements in public affairs leaned a little 
 towards sectionalism ; but he threw no impediments 
 in the way of the government in its prosecution of the 
 war. However strong his attachments to local inter- 
 ests, patriotism prevented his indulging them at the 
 expense of the honor and safety of the country. 
 
 After six years of successful practice in Boston, 
 Mr, Webster received the honor of representing in 
 Conijress the focus of New EnMand Icarninir and 
 talent. At the call of duty he sacrificed his private 
 interests, and abandoned the prospect of wealth which 
 was opening before him. Henceforth he bclonirs to 
 his country, and to her service he surrenders himself 
 
29 
 
 with entire devotion. During the session of 1824, he 
 made his speech on the Greek question, and asserted 
 substantially the same doctrines which, a quarter of a 
 century later, he enforced with so much point and 
 pungency in the Hulseniann letter. His words of 
 sympathy for struggling freedom bore encouragement 
 to the sulTering Greeks, and arc still remembered by 
 the friends of liberty throughout Europe. 
 
 To pursue, step by step, the career of Mr. Webster 
 as a legislator and administrative officer beIon<Ts to 
 the historian, and not to the eulogist. The limits of 
 this address would be hardly sufficient to give a cata- 
 logife of his labors, without any discussion of their 
 merits. When we -consider the number and variety 
 of the subjects which engaged his attention, we are 
 amazed at the industry and breadth of mind which 
 could grasp them all. Whether he spoke of currency, 
 banking, revenue, the judiciary, the criminal code, 
 foreign relations, internal improvements, protection 
 of American industry, the removal of the deposites, 
 the presidential protest, the sub-treasury, and above 
 all, of Nullification and the Force Bill, Secession and 
 the Compromises, he was never mastered by his sub- 
 ject, but was always his subject's master. He never 
 failed to throw new light on the question under dis- 
 cussion, to seize its strong points, and to hold them 
 up clearly to the nation. Whatever the matter in 
 
30 
 
 hand, be went right to the bottom of it, brought to view 
 great principles, and clothed them in bold and strong 
 lansuase. They who dissented most earnestly from 
 many of his opinions, admitted the ability and honesty 
 of their advocate. 
 
 Mr. Webster first took his seat in the Senate in 
 1828, and in 1830 he commenced what I regard as 
 pre-eminently the work of his life, — the work for 
 which all that had preceded was but the preparatory 
 training. This was the exposition of the Constitution, 
 and the defence of the Union. 
 
 South Carolina was dissatisfied with the protective 
 tarift* of 1828, and threatened to nullify the* law. 
 Murmurs of discontent, audible during the first term 
 of Gen. Jackson's presidency, rose during his second 
 term to a degree of violence which threatened treason 
 and rebellion. The leaders of that movement were 
 desirous, as a preliminary measure, to destroy the 
 influence of New CnMand and her statesmen. A 
 combination was formed for this purpose ; the forces 
 were marshalled, and the parts assigned. Mr. Ben- 
 ton commenced the assault, and Mr. Haync followed 
 with bitter denunciations of New England measures 
 and men. Mr. Webster replied to the latter. The 
 first speeches of both were but the skirmishing of 
 light troops before the charge of massive columns. 
 Neither party put forth his strength. But in llayne's 
 
31 
 
 second speech the tug of war commenced, and it was 
 obvious that Greek was to meet Greek. Mr. Web- 
 ster was not disconcerted by the dashing boldness and 
 brilHancy of the cliarge. He receives the shot, and is 
 prepared to return it. Next day he rises calm and 
 self-possessed to reply. There is no tremor of a 
 muscle, no blanching of the cheek, no quailing of the 
 eye, but a kindling rather, as when the war-horse 
 hears the trumpet calling to battle, and anticipates 
 the strife and the triumph. Nothing is visible in his 
 face or air, but the confidence of right, and conscious 
 power to maintain it. He surveys the crowded as- 
 semblage for a moment with that searching look, with 
 which he was wont to scrutinize an audience, so pene- 
 trating that every one present believed it was directed 
 to himself alone. He speaks, slowly at first and with 
 some slitrht hesitation, but soon rises to the full heiorht 
 of his theme. The keen irony with which he dissects 
 ♦ the speech of his opponent, the force with which he 
 exposes the injustice of the assaults upon New Eng- 
 land, the running fire of raillery and eloquence with 
 which he makes good his personal defence, are only 
 equalled by the energy with which he pursues and 
 tortures his adversary and hurls back the shafts of 
 wit and sarcasm which few men could use with more 
 effect than he. 
 
32 
 
 The fiery and impetuous assailant had met his 
 master. The granite man had triumphed. 
 
 In rhetorical merit I think that the second reply to 
 Hayne will compare favorably with the celebrated 
 oration of Demosthenes on the Crown. Indeed the 
 two speeches are not very unlike in their general drift. 
 The prosecution instituted by .^schines against Ctesi- 
 phon, was a blow aimed at Demosthenes; so the 
 assault of Hayne upon New England, was intended 
 to prostrate Webster. In defending his client Demos- 
 thenes was obliged to enter into an exposition and 
 defence of his own public life. Webster did the same 
 thing. Demosthenes proved that the measures which 
 ^schines had charged as ruinous to the common- 
 wealth, had been proposed and advocated by .Eschines 
 and his friends. Webster proved that the injustice 
 to the West which New England was charged with, 
 would have been actually perpetrated by Southern 
 votes, if New England votes had not prevented.. 
 There are passages in both speeches which are not 
 only equal in beauty and grandeur, but similar in con- 
 ception. And finally, Demosthenes closes with a 
 prayer to the gods to dispose the enemies of his coun- 
 try to better purposes than i)l;inniiiL,^ her dt'strnction, 
 to deliver her from impending evils, and to restore the 
 blessings of tranquillity and safety. So Web.-ter, in 
 a prayer more eloquent anil sublime, which almost 
 
33 
 
 every American knows by heart, implores the Divine 
 protection upon our Union, and deprecates dissension 
 and civil strife. The arsjuments of both orators are 
 equally clear and demonstrative, and the results of 
 their efforts equally triumphant. But I submit that 
 Webster has the advantage of the old master of elo- 
 quence in maintaining the dignity of a gentleman and 
 the courtesy of debate. He is also more felicitous in 
 turning the weapons of his adversary against himself. 
 Demosthenes indulges too freely in personal abuse, 
 and his vehement denunciation and coarse invective 
 bruise like a maul, while the irony of Webster, and 
 his good natured but provoking raillery cut like a 
 razor. 
 
 Three years after this debate the crisis of Nullifica- 
 tion came. South Carolina had reduced her peculiar 
 principles to their last result ; but there was to be a war 
 of giants in the Senate before the conflict of physical 
 force should commence in the field. General Jackson 
 had put forth his proclamation, expressing his determi- 
 nation to execute the laws by the military power of 
 the country, and Governor Hayne had issued a coun- 
 ter proclamation answering menace with defiance. 
 Mr. Wilkins had introduced the Force Bill, and Mr. 
 Calhoun had offered a series of resolutions reaffirming 
 the South Carolina doctrines. It was in reply to the 
 speech of the latter, that Mr. Webster made what I 
 3 
 
34 
 
 consider the most perfect constitutional argument ever 
 constructed : an ariiument Avhicli overthrows and de- 
 molishes every proposition of his opponent, and de- 
 monstrates, with a compact and irresistible plialanx 
 of reasoning, the true theory of our government. 
 Tliis speech gave the death blow to nulhfication ; for 
 though it lingered awhile, it was past all medical skill. 
 Seventeen years afterwards the South Carolina 
 doctrine made its appearance in a new form, which 
 oflered the alternative of compromise or secession. 
 Mr. Webster was again in the Senate, and his course 
 on these questions was watched with deep solicitudcj 
 Will he, so long a national man, now become sectional? 
 If he will consent to do this, he will gratify a large 
 party in New England ; perhaps a majority in discreet 
 and conservative Massachusetts will applaud him. 
 But if he still adhere to a national course, he will be 
 assailed with the bitter taunts of foes, and meet the 
 averted faces of friends. Fanueil Hall will be bolted 
 a^rainst him. lie will sharpen the ferocity of men 
 who will raven upon his reputation before his corpse 
 shall have become cold in its sepulchre. The choice 
 he makes is the test of his magnanimity. It is only 
 the hi"hest order of men who do not hesitate to act 
 on their convictions at the cost of self-sacrifice. 
 Daniel Webster had counted the cost, and was ready 
 for the sacrifice. His speech of March 7th, 1S50, is 
 
35 
 
 dedicated to the people of Massachusetts, with a motto 
 which shows how clearly he foresaw the probable con- 
 sequences of the step he was taking. " His ego gratiora 
 dictu alia esse scio ; sed me vera pro gratis loqui, etsi 
 meum ingeniuui non moneret, necessitas cogit. Vel- 
 lem, equidem, vobis placere; sed multo malo vos 
 salvos esse, qualicumque erga me animo futuri estis." 
 He holds fast his integrity. He speaks " not as a 
 Massachusetts man, nor as a northern man, but as 
 an American, and as a member of the United States 
 Senate." He believed that the welfare of many gene- 
 rations hung upon the right decision of the questions 
 at issue, and he spake for the preservation of the 
 Union. After that speech the country breathed more 
 freely, and light broke in through the gloom. The 
 victim was prepared for immolation, and was soon 
 led to the altar. He had tasted the bitterness of office, 
 and was to pay the penalty of greatness. They who 
 imputed his action to unworthy motives, and pre- 
 tended that there was really no danger of secession, 
 did not know that the trained eye of a maViner can 
 see Axrther than a landsman. They forgot that the 
 dweller upon a hill-top has a wider horizon than the 
 inhabitant of a valley. They who can see only a part, 
 never comprehend him who can see the whole. As 
 a man of one idea cannot take the measure of him 
 
36 
 
 ^vho has many, so the hne of a sectional politician is 
 not lonir cnouah to fathom a national statesman. 
 
 When Mr. Webster held the post of Secretary of 
 State, under Harrison and Tyler, our foreign relations 
 Avere delicate and threatening. There ^vere difficulties 
 crrowin(T out of the burninir of the Caroline, and the 
 trial of McLeod. The Northeastern Boundary ques- 
 tion, ^vhich had defied all attempts at settlement, 
 ^vas to be solved by diplomacy, or cut with the 
 sword. There were controversies both old and new, 
 respecting maritime rights. The limits of Oregon 
 were in dispute. There were difficulties with Spain, 
 with Mexico, and with the Indians. There was 
 no quarter of the political horizon, where the clouds 
 did not look angry. Mr. Webster was not the 
 man to desert his post at an hour like this. The 
 administration had lost the confidence of the party 
 M-hich had raised it to power, and significant hints 
 were thrown out to the Secretary, that he was expected 
 to come away and be separate. These he silenced 
 with a look and a word. When the Mayor of Boston 
 suggested that he was competent to take care of his 
 own honor, he replied that " he was exactly of the 
 same opinion." He remained in the cabinet till the 
 Ashburton Treaty, the great service of his adminis- 
 trative career, was finished ; — a work which averted 
 incalculable mischiefs, and entitled him to the lasting 
 
37 
 
 gratitude of liis countrymen. The results of this 
 negotiation proved that 
 
 " Beneath the rule of men entirely great 
 The pen is mightier than the sword." 
 
 The State Papers which Mr. Webster left in the 
 archives of the government will compare favorabl}^, in 
 dignity and ability, with those of his distinguished pre- 
 decessors in the office of Secretary of State. There 
 are indeed some expressions in the Hulsemann letter, 
 which, as a matter of taste, we may wish had been 
 expunged ; and the provoking tone of the paper was 
 better suited to popular sentiment at the time, than to 
 tlie courtesy and reserve which usually marked the 
 writer's official style. But the letter sets forth true 
 American sentiments and principles with vigor and 
 boldness ; and Europe, while she saw that the United 
 States were practising lessons in a style of diplomacy 
 in which they were hereafter to address her ancient 
 monarchies, prayed that we might not indulge in an 
 insolence commensurate with our power. The hint 
 is worthy of consideration, for while 
 
 " It is excellent to have a giant's strengtli, 
 It is tyrannous to use it like a giant." 
 
 Either throuizh failing health, or want of access to 
 the best sources of information, Mr. Webster made a 
 
38 
 
 mistake on the question of the Lobos Islancl^^, uhich 
 the government has frankly admitted, and honorably 
 rectified. 
 
 With these exceptions I believe there is nothing in 
 tlie diplomatic correspondence of the great Secretary, 
 of which an American may not say, as they go forth 
 to the world, or down to posterity, " 7, nostra decus^ 
 
 During his active professional and public life Mr. 
 Webster found time to prepare numerous addresses, 
 on subjects not directly connected with law or politics. 
 Among these there are five which may be regarded as 
 models of patriotic eloquence, and noble specimens of 
 literary art. You have all read the Address at Ply- 
 mouth on Forefather's day, the Eulogy on Adams and 
 Jeflferson, the Addresses at the laying of the Corner 
 Stone, and on the completion of the Bunker Hill 
 Monument, and the Oration last February before the 
 New York Historical Society. While all of these are 
 rich legacies to our national literature, it appears to 
 me, though I say it with some hesitation, that the first 
 is unsurpassed by any of its successors, and that the 
 last is surpassed by each of the preceding. Mr. 
 March observes, in his sprightly manner, that " every 
 one has read the Plymouth Address who knows how 
 to read and what to read." We may add thtit it will 
 be read as Ion": as Plvmoufh rock shall stand, and 
 the English language endure. 
 
39 
 
 Mr. Webster was too constantly engaged in active 
 duties to become a profound scholar, cither in general 
 science, or in foreign and ancient literature. His 
 favorite Latin authors were Cicero and Sallust. With 
 these his mind was thoroughly imbued, and formed to 
 think and speak " in the high Roman fashion." He 
 was well read in the English Classics, and his style 
 was disciplined to severe simplicity by intimate com- 
 munion with the best of them. His knowledge of 
 history was extensive and accurate, but he studied it 
 rather as a practical statesman, for examples and 
 illustrations, than as a philosopher. His literary style 
 was characterized by perspicuity, dignity and energy. 
 As a writer he sometimes reminds us of Demosthenes, 
 and sometimes of Burke ; but he had less vehemence 
 than the former, and less copiousness than the latter. 
 In directness of purpose, clearness of statement, and 
 irresistible sweep of argument, he was the equal of 
 Demosthenes ; and while Burke used more rhetorical 
 ornament, and abounded more in historical and classi- 
 cal illustrations, Webster was his superior in simpli- 
 city and force. 
 
 ]Mr. Webster was fond of poetry, a;id loved to quote 
 it, both in his speeches and in conversation. It has 
 been already remarked that he paid his court to the 
 Muse of song in early life, and you remember that 
 some verses which he loved, lingered in his memory 
 
40 
 
 when all else of earth was losing its interest, and 
 earth itself was recedin<'- from his view. 01" iinaiiina- 
 tion he had much ; hardly less than Milton, though 
 he cultivated it less; and both drew their nutriment 
 of this faculty from the same sublime source — the 
 Bible. Of fancy, that playful power, which Shaks- 
 {)eare possessed in so eminent a degree, and which, 
 like the Aurora Borealis, takes all forms and hues, 
 with bewildering and fantastic inconstancy, he liad 
 very little. lie never " turned to shape the forms of 
 tilings unknown, nor gave to airy nothing a local 
 habitation and a name." His great strength lay in 
 the understandiniT, and hoklinfr imaijination subordi- 
 iiate to that, lie drew upon its rich wealth with a 
 sparing hand. 
 
 In his manner of speaking, Mr. Webster was gene- 
 rally calm and unimpassioned. To hearers who had 
 not the power of concentrated attention, and mIio 
 could not follow link by link the chain of his ar<rumcnt, 
 he sometimes appeared dull. But when roused by a 
 great occasion, or by an adversary worthy of his 
 power, he rose to his full height, and surpassed expec- 
 tation. The narrative^ part of his discourses was 
 riluavs lucid and discriminatintj. It has been siiid, 
 that in makin<r a statement of facts Ik^ never had a 
 superior; and it is equally true that finding the divid- 
 ing line between too little and too much in making a 
 
41 
 
 narrative, between the circumstances that will leave 
 the most distinct impression upon an audience, and 
 those that will crowd and confuse the picture, is one 
 of the last attainments of an orator. 
 
 His exposition of a subject was equal to his narra- 
 tion. His definitions were like newly struck coins, 
 with sharp outline and bright surface. He never 
 mistook the object at which he ought to aim ; nor 
 w'as it possible for the listener to mistake the object 
 at which he was aiming. 
 
 In refutation he rarely used personalities ; but when 
 provoked to retort, his irony was as withering as the 
 red flashes of his eye. No man was ever more cour- 
 teous in debate, but no man ever demolished the 
 arguments of an opponent with more ponderous and 
 effective blows. Nothing but Cyclopean masonry 
 could resist his heavy guns. 
 
 As he approached his argument you might see him 
 delving far down beneath the surface till he came to 
 the solid rock on which his structure was to rest. 
 Then course after course, with massive blocks hewn 
 out from the deep quarries of law and reason, he built 
 up his work, every layer supported by all below it, 
 and sustainins all above it, and the whole bound to- 
 gether with bars of iron logic, till the grand result 
 stood finished in the stern simplicity of a Doric temple. 
 
 His perorations were beautiful, grand, or sublime, 
 
42 
 
 as the subject might warrant or require. They gene- 
 rally contained sentiments of lofty patriotism, and 
 these were often clothed in lanfjuatre that burned 
 ineffaceable marks into the memory of his hearers. 
 They have been for years the common themes of 
 student declamation, and as almost every educated 
 American youth has personified Webster on the 
 college stage, so almost every one carries with him 
 into life the patriotic sentiments which these noble 
 specimens of eloquence inspire. 
 
 It . must be admitted that Mr. Webster did not 
 originate any of the leading political movements of 
 his time, but yet his mark is on them all ; and he 
 probably did more than any of his contemporaries to 
 shape public opinion on these movements, to instruct 
 the national intellect, and to guide the national will. 
 The man who could do this must have been a great 
 statesman. Though he discovered no new principles 
 of government, and opened no new path for himself 
 or others to walk in, and was content with the maxims 
 of political wisdom which the founders of the Republic 
 had taught, yet he made new applications of the old 
 formulas; lie cleared and- straightened the old paths; 
 and he gave prominence and force to such of the old 
 maxims as would consecrate the marriage of liberty 
 with law. ^^'hilc, therefore, he was conservative, his 
 conservatiFui was compatible with progress. It was 
 
43 
 
 a brake to check the engine when its velocity ^vas too 
 great for safety ; but not to stop it. It was not the 
 conservatism of a rock which cannot be moved ; but 
 the conservatism that builds upon a rock a structure 
 which cannot be moved. It was the conservatism 
 which makes its piers firm and strong before it springs 
 an arch. 
 
 Mr. Webster's consistency was of a piece with his 
 conservatism. There is a thing called consistency, 
 which is only standing still. A ship at anchor may 
 ride secure, from whatever point of the compass the 
 wind may blow. But to make her port she must 
 weigh anchor, and trim her sails to the breeze. Never 
 to change an opinion is never to grow wiser. May 
 not a man consistently advocate a measure this year 
 which he opposed twenty years ago? When he 
 attains a hiirher level will he not have a wider view ? 
 When the light increases must he shut his eyes to 
 prevent seeing objects that were invisible before? 
 Again, the circumstances of the countrv chansje, and 
 its wants change with them. A measure may be 
 beneficial to-day, which would have been mischievous 
 yesterday. The only statesmanlike consistency, is 
 consistency in adherence to the eternal principles of 
 justice and truth ; — consistency in the ends pursued ; 
 adaptability, which may sometimes approach muta- 
 bility, in the means of attaining them. 
 
44 
 
 Such I believe was the consistency of Mr. Webster. 
 He opposed a national bank in IS 15 and IG, because 
 he believed that the proposed charter contained ele- 
 ments subversive of all safe bankinir, and destructive 
 to the credit and usefulness of the institution. But in 
 1S32 he advocated the re-charter, under a modified 
 form, because the bank had, as he believed, demon- 
 strated its utility as a fiscal agent of the government, 
 and a regulator of domestic exchanges. He opposed 
 the first TarifT for protection, because he believed that 
 it would injure New England, and benefit no one. 
 But in 1828, and ever after, he was the friend of 
 moderate protection, because a vast capital, before 
 employed in commerce, had been invested in manu- 
 factures, and the interests of industry required a stable 
 polic}'. Is there inconsistency here? For every 
 change of opinion has he not a warrant to show? 
 
 Many in this audience were better acquainted with 
 Mr. ^V'ebster, personally, than I was. It therefore 
 becomes me to speak with diffidence of his manners 
 and personal qualities ; but I will venture to describe 
 him as he appeared to me from my humble point of 
 observation. I need not tell you that his form and 
 mien were majestic and imperial. You would single 
 him out among assembled thousands as a man of 
 mark. If you had seen him for the first time in the 
 Senate, you would have pointed to him as "the noblest 
 
45 
 
 Roman of them all." His stout, massive frame, 
 modeled for dignity rather than grace, yet graceful 
 in its grand repose, seemed a fitting support for a 
 head of prodigious size. The surgeons tell us that 
 but two of earth's millions, within the memory of living 
 men, had more brain than he. His large dark eyes 
 were set deeply in his head, so deeply that their sockets 
 seemed cavernous, an appearance which was given 
 them by the remarkable prominence of his fore- 
 head. His whole exterior indicated a man in whom 
 intellect predominated over all other qualities ; and 
 this I believe was the fact. To the friends whose 
 fidelity he had proved, his attachments were strong 
 and unwavering ; but he was not easily approached by 
 men who could not show a sjood title to his confidence. 
 He was kind to those who treated him with deference, 
 and who sought his good offices. His servants, his 
 farm hands, his fishermen, his neighbors, and " that 
 true man, John Taylor," loved him with the devotion 
 of honest and faithful hearts, and he reciprocated the 
 feeling. He was loved by all who had the privilege 
 of seeing and knowing him, when his armor was off; 
 but he moved amonix men abroad mail clad and with 
 visor down. His afiection for his own kith and kin 
 w'as intense ; and thoir names are embalmed, with his, 
 in the works which he has dedicated to their memory. 
 The poor who sought him never went empty away. 
 
46 
 
 His bounty ^vas large, sometimes excessive, and often 
 indiscriminate, lie was careful of dress and etiquette, 
 but careless of money. He was luxurious without 
 ostentation, proud without vanity, ambitious without 
 envy, generous without pretension. 
 
 In general intercourse with society there was a 
 strikin"[ contrast between j\Ir. Webster and his illus- 
 trious contemporary, Mr. Clay. Webster was usually 
 distant and reserved ; Clay, always cordial and sym- 
 pathizing. Webster conversed brilliantly, but he re- 
 quired to be drawn out. Clay would take the initiative; 
 and he always selected the subject with tact, and a 
 true discernment of the tastes and intelligence of his 
 companions. In fashionable society at Washington, 
 Webster stood in proud repose, with icy brow, like 
 Mont Clanc among lesser Alps, its summit covered 
 with perpetual snow. He was among them, but not 
 of them. Clay, on the contrary, had the facility to 
 adapt himself to every situation. He could shine as 
 brilliantly in the saloon as in the Senate. Webster 
 would enter the party of a Secretary or Minister, 
 move slowly to one side of the room, and sit down 
 silent and abstracted. After a while a few friends 
 would oathcr around him, and the conversation, at 
 first sluggish and cold, would gradually become in- 
 structive, sometimes warm into eloquence, but seldom 
 grow light and lively. Clay would address himself 
 
47 
 
 to the ladies, cniraoje in their conversation or amuse- 
 ment, and vie with the hghtest of them in gaiety ; 
 with the liveliest, in vivacity ; and with the brightest, 
 in wit. Thus Clay was always the most popular man 
 in Washington society ; a distinction which Webster 
 never attained and never sought. 
 
 Similar differences between the two were observa- 
 ble in their public and official intercourse with men. 
 Webster made firm friends of the few, but held the 
 many at a distance. He was courteous to all, but 
 -cordial only to those who had the key to his heart, 
 and knew how to turn it. Clay made friends of all 
 who approached him. Many who voted against him 
 as a politician, loved him as a man, Webster in- 
 spired respect, but he was inscrutable. When you 
 grasped the warm hand of Clay, you could look 
 throufrh the windows of his eves riojht down into his 
 heart and see it beat. Webster awed men ; Clay 
 attracted them. They admired Webster ; they loved 
 
 Clay. • 
 
 In their treatment of great questions, the differ- 
 ence between Clay and Webster was as striking as 
 in their manners. It reminds us of the contrast drawn 
 by a writer some years since, in a style somewhat 
 exaggerated, between Canning and Brougham. Clay 
 swept lightly over the surface, seized the obvious 
 points, and adorned his subject with all the graces of 
 
48 
 
 wit and rhetoric. Webster toiled in deep mines, 
 grasped the strongest points, and addressed himself to 
 the understanding rather than the sympathies of his 
 hearers. Clay was the more persuasive; Webster 
 the more convincing. Clay constructed his edifice of 
 the materials which lay nearest at hand, and it rose 
 up light, airy and graceful. Webster brought up 
 froui below the everlasting granite, and made his 
 structure as solid as a pyramid. In personal contro- 
 versy Clay used a rapier; Webster, a broadsword. 
 But both were adepts in the use of their peculiar 
 weapons, and fortunate was the man who escaped 
 alive from an encounter with either. 
 
 With regard to the moral and reliirious character 
 of Mr. Webster, great difference of opinion existed 
 before his death, and unusual interest has been man- 
 ifested since. Wlien a man has ceased to be feared, 
 and stands no longer in the way of competitors, the 
 lips of envy are apt to be closed, and the tongue of 
 malice hushed. That Mr. Webster had faults, all 
 admit; and that calunmy exaggerated them, all now 
 believe. " Let him who is without sin throw the first 
 stone.'' The man who is loved by his family may be 
 a bad man ; but the man whom his friends and 
 neighbors love more as they know him better, cannot. 
 
 Mr. Webster's rcliizious veneration was lar^e. It 
 was nurtured in his youth, and grew stronger in his 
 
49 
 
 acre. He was a lover of the Bible, and his lircat mind 
 yielded full assent to its trulli. How far his great 
 heart was imbued with its precepts, and governed by 
 them, while he was pursuing the hot and dusty path of 
 ambition, I know not. How far he may have gone 
 astray from the fold, in which he had taken shelter in 
 earl}' manhood, I know not. I prefer to know, and 
 so far as human tcstimon}" may be relied on in such 
 cases, we all do know, that he returned to that fold. 
 They who were most competent to judge, and had the 
 best means of judging, assure us that toward the close 
 of his life, he made religion a practical ^nd personal 
 matter. When ill health compelled him to Axithdraw 
 from the cares of office to his retreat at Marshfield. 
 he gave his thoughts earnestly to preparation for the 
 change which he knew could not be far distant. 
 
 The greatness of Mr. Webster's life was only sur- 
 passed by the grandeur of his death. They who 
 stood around his bed during those days and hours, 
 when the pall of a mii»htv sorrow was about to 
 descend upon the land ; and who caught every word of 
 the dying statesman, and treasured it among their 
 most precious memories, have lifted the curtain from 
 that scene, and permitted us to look upon its solemn 
 beauty. Grateful for the favor, it is ours to gaze and 
 be silent. There are scenes which are marred by des- 
 cription ; there are thoughts whose utterance would be 
 4 
 
50 
 
 sacrilege; there arc leelings whose only appropriate 
 expression is silence : and these are such. But 
 while we gaze and listen, we may lift our hearts in 
 gratitude to Heaven, that in this sublime death, we 
 have another example of the power of the religion of 
 Jesus, to subdue the greatest of minds, and to cheer 
 with immortal hopes the weary denizen of earth. 
 
 The last words of Mr. Webster, though he uttered 
 them as the simple expression of a fiict, have more 
 than a literal significance. His friend, Mr. George 
 Ticknor, who has given the best account I have seen 
 of the olorious sunset of his life, relates, among others, 
 the following particulars. " He had intervals of rest 
 to the last ; but on rousing from them, he showed that 
 he was still intensely anxious to preserve his con- 
 sciousness, and to watch for the moment and act of 
 his departure, so as to comprehend it. Awaking 
 from one of these slumbers, late in the night, he asked 
 distinctly if he were alive, and on being assured that 
 he was, and that his family were collected around his 
 bed, he said, in a perfectly natural tone, as if assent- 
 in(T to what had been told him. because he himself 
 perceived that it was true, 'I still live.' These were 
 his last coherent and intelligible words." 
 
 And thouMi all that was mortal of Daniel Webster 
 did on that night cease to live, he still lives. He lives 
 in the hearts of his countrymen : he lives in tlu- mem- 
 
51 
 
 ory of great and patriotic services ; he lives in many 
 a recorded word of instruction to us and to our chil- 
 dren; and in many a burning appeal in behalf of our 
 National Union. He has left behind him lessons of 
 wisdom and warning as a legacy to us, imperishable 
 as his own memory ; and though he stands no longer 
 at the helm, he has given us a chart for our voyage, 
 and commending us to the guidance of an unerring 
 Pilot, he has bidden our flag-ship of humanity sail 
 safely on toward the haven of its hope. And if we 
 had been permitted to follow his emancipated spirit, 
 as it ascended to its Eternal Source, and became con- 
 scious of the Divine Love, the pledge of its own 
 immortality, mc might have heard him repeat the last 
 words he spake on earth, as his first in heaven, — " I 
 
 STILL LIVE." 
 
7^ 
 
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J