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EULOGY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HON. IRA PERLEY, 
 
 ON THE LATE 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENTS OF 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE, 
 
 DECEMBER 22, 1852. 
 
 CONCORD: 
 
 BUTTERFIELD & HILL, STATE PRINTERS. 
 
 1852. 
 

 
To Hon-. In.v Peki.ey — Sir : — The House of Representatives have to-day 
 unanimously passed a resolution of which the following is a copy : 
 
 " Resolved, That the select committee on the subject of the death of Daniel 
 Webster be directed to present the thanks of the House to the Hon. Ira Pcrley 
 for the eulogy by him this day pronounced on the late Daniel Webster, and re- 
 quest a copy of the same for the press." 
 
 We most cheerfully comply with the order of said resolution, and beg leave 
 
 to add our earnest individual wishes that you may find it convenient to comply 
 
 with the request. 
 
 JOHN EL WIGGINS ) 
 
 RALPH METCALF, 
 
 WM. P. WEEKS, I Committee 
 
 ICHABOD BARTLETT, j 
 T. A. BARKER, 
 
 House of Representatives. Dec. 22, 1852. 
 
 Concord, Dec. 24, 1852. 
 Gentlemen : — I have received, to-day, your note of the 22d inst, giving 
 me information of a resolution passed by the Hon. House of Representatives, 
 in which they request a copy of the eulogy pronounced by me on the late Dan- 
 iel Webster, for the press. 
 
 I am deeply indebted to the House for the honor they have done me, and will 
 endeavor to comply with their request. I beg you, gentlemen, to accept my 
 thanks for the obliging terms in which you have communicated the request of 
 the House. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Most respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 I. PERLEY 
 
 Messrs. Joiin 11 Wiggins Ralpb Mbtcalf, Wm. P. V [chabod 
 
 Baetlett and T. A. Barker, Committee 
 
EULOGY. 
 
 The death of Daniel Webster has produced a deep 
 sensation throughout our whole country, deeper, perhaps, 
 and more universal, than that of any public man since 
 Washington. In most cases it has happened that those 
 who have had the strongest hold upon the hearts of the peo- 
 ple have been removed in protracted old age, after long re- 
 tirement from active life, and when the public mind was 
 fully prepared for the event. No surprise, no shock attend- 
 ed their final departure. But the great man whose loss we 
 now deplore was struck down at once from his highest point 
 of elevation, in the full vigor and active exercise of his won- 
 derful powers, while in the discharge of a great office, and 
 at the moment when all eyes were turned upon him as the 
 foremost man of the nation. His countrymen were startled 
 at his sudden disappearance from the great stage of the 
 world. As the solemn tidings spread, they struck all hearts 
 with a deep sense of the national bereavement. And now, 
 after a sufficient interval for calm reflection, when the pub- 
 lic mind has had time to recover from the first shock, the 
 general sense of the national loss is in no degree abated. 
 For his title to our admiration as a great man, his claim to 
 our gratitude as a patriot and public benefactor, can suffer 
 
thing from the strictest, the fullest, and the mot delib- 
 erati nutation. He endured his share — it may be, 
 
 ore than his full share — of the misconception, the misrep- 
 ntation and the calumny which too often attend th<- 
 course of the best and purest public men. But prejud" 
 had given "way. misapprehensions had been corrected, and 
 he lived to see his countrymen with remarkable unanimity 
 agree in their judgment upon the purity and patriotism 
 
 motives, as well as the transcendenl greatness of hi 
 abilities. 
 
 And now that death has come t<< consecrate his character, 
 to extinguish personal jealousies, and silence the 
 party, a mourning people stand round his grave, and with 
 one consent admit him n> assume his just rank as the gn 
 man of this age and nation. A few feeble and factious 
 lissenting voices are not able to make themselves heard 
 amid the loud acclaim oi applause which follows his exit, 
 erhaps something like a feeling of compunction and re- 
 morse has mingled in the general sentiment, and given to 
 
 a deeper and tenderer tone, arising from a prevailing eon- 
 
 <niraic<< that Less than lull justice was done to him in ' 
 
 nine. 
 
 Mr. Webster's titles to the rank of a greal man are nu- 
 merous, and such a- have noi often been found to meet in 
 ame individual. 
 
 \- an orator, if we consider the great range and vari 
 
 of subjects and occasions upon which he spoke, and hi^ ex- 
 
 •cIIcmcc in all ; especially if we take into account tin 
 
 that much of what lie -poke i> of a character to eUSUP 
 
 • rmanenl place in the literature of the language, I think 
 uiii-t all agree in our judgment that this country h 
 produced hi- equal. 
 
7 
 
 Then as a lawyer, looking to his general ability in the 
 different departments of that arduous profession, we must 
 concede to him the first place among his contemporari- 
 
 As a statesman, taken altogether and in the aggregate 
 of his qualifications, we may boldly challenge comparison 
 between him and the ablest and most distinguished of his 
 time, in this or any foreign nation. 
 
 As a writer of his native language he has not been equal- 
 led, certainly not surpassed, by any American author, and 
 is destined, from this time forward, to take rank as a master 
 of English prose by the side of Bacon and Burke. 
 
 To analyze and portray such a character in any worthy 
 manner would be a task quite beyond the limits of this oc- 
 casion, and altogether above any ability which I am con- 
 scious of possessing. Still, having ventured to undertake 
 the part which has been assigned to me in these solemni 
 [ am afraid that I shall not be able to excuse myself entirely 
 from some attempt at a feeble and faint sketch of the great 
 subject. 
 
 Many things must combine, a vast number of fortunate 
 circumstances must occur, to produce a man like Mr. V 
 ster. In the first place, he received very uncommon endow- 
 ments from nature. She showered upon his infant head, in 
 her most prodigal mood, all her choicest gifts. She gave 
 him a bodily constitution of remarkable strength and vigor, 
 at the same time firm and elastic, capable of *c\i>rc and 
 long continued labor, and recovering from fatigue and ex- 
 haustion with surprising ease. He had from nature a I 
 perament which secured to him the calm and undisturbed 
 possession of his powers in every situation o( excitement 
 and diiliculty ; which exempted him. in a very uncommon 
 degree, from all nervous irritation, and all nervous appre- 
 
hension ; which conferred upon him the rare and precious 
 faculty of throwing off at once the cares and anxieties of 
 business, when the hour had arrived for relaxation and rest. 
 He did not lie down at night under the load which he had 
 borne through all the day. as many less fortunate men do. 
 In his greatest debate, and perhaps on the most memorable 
 occasion of his life, when the public expectation was excited 
 to the highest pitch, and the anxiety of friends on his ac- 
 count was most intense ; when he must have felt that qui 3- 
 tions of vital importance to the country, and his own credit 
 ami standing as a public man. were staked upon his ability 
 to maintain the perilous position in which he stood, those 
 best acquainted with his habits believe he could truly and 
 sincerelj say that he had " slept remarkably well" on the 
 speech of his adversary, which he was to answer the next 
 
 morninir. 
 
 Education and training had doubtless contributed mu 
 to give Mr. Webster this perfect maMery over the action of 
 his mind. Bui no cultivation, no discipline, no length of 
 experience can confer this happy faculty when- nature has 
 denied it to tin' original temperament oi the man. It is 
 not so much an art, or an attainment, as a gift from Heaven 
 to a few favored individuals. If Mr. Webster had been a 
 military commander hew. mid have been able, like the Mac- 
 edonian conqueror, to lay himself down at nighl upon the 
 battle-field, which, next morning, was t.. i\rr\il- the empire 
 of the world, and wake at dawn to give the signal of onset, 
 refreshed with unbroken slumber, and cheered with auspi- 
 cious dream-. 
 
 The incie matter of personal appearance must doubtless 
 l.c regarded as a thing of inferior importance to tin- endow- 
 ments o\' the mind. Hut to a public man in any country. 
 
and especially to an orator and statesman in a popular gov- 
 ernment like ours, it is not easy to over-rate the advantage 
 of an agreeable and striking person. To Mr. Webster, na- 
 ture was in this respect most liberal. It is difficult to con- 
 ceive how his whole personal appearance could have been 
 better matched with the qualities of his mind. His ample, 
 manly and symmetrical proportions, the " fair large front," 
 the majestic brow, the dark yet clear complexion, the strong- 
 ly marked, but delicately drawn features, the deep-set, 
 thoughtful, beaming, mysterious eye — all these attracted at 
 once and fixed the gaze of every beholder — 
 
 "His look 
 Drew audience and attention."' 
 
 Then came the voice justifying and confirming to the ear 
 the impression already made through the eye; a voice sur- 
 passed by many in sweetness, flexibility and musical modu- 
 lation ; but deep, firm, calm and strangely audible in its low- 
 est tones ; nearly unequalled in compass and power, swell- 
 ing and rising with perfect ease into notes over-powering all 
 the noises of a popular assembly and capable of reaching to 
 the most distant person in the largest crowd that could be 
 gathered under one roof. 
 
 Such things do not admit of any adequate description ; but 
 in Mr. Webster's case they were so remarkable, that they 
 could not be wholly overlooked in any attempt at a general 
 estimate of the man. Tin- natural powers of his mind were 
 of the highest order and on the grandest scale. This is quit'' 
 evident to those of us who had only a general acquaintance 
 with his public and professional life ; and those, who had the 
 best opportunity of knowing his private habits of labor and 
 study, agree in their accounts of the surprising ease with 
 
10 
 
 which he despatched the heaviest tasks. He saw things at 
 a glance and in tin- clearest light. He never appeared to 
 have a dim and doabtful perception of any thing. What- 
 ever he knew, he knew with precision and absolute certain- 
 ty. Hi- dew of a Bubjeci was panoramic His mind had 
 .1 broad grasp, thai seemed to lake in all the parts of a com- 
 plicated question at once, and contemplate them ler. 
 
 Few men have excelled him in Tenacity of memory, that 
 master faculty of the practical man, without which all the 
 rest are of little value to him. His mind had a natural prin- 
 ciple of order, not apparently regulated upon anj system ol 
 formal rule-, by which everything fell of itself into the proper 
 place, and there remained in perfect readiness for use as i 
 
 -ion might require. His judgment was penetrating and 
 aim, not to be disturbed by the excitemenl of any occasion. 
 
 The faney and imagination were held by him in strict and 
 
 rn subjection ; but now and then they seemed to break 
 away from this habitual control: and it may be conjectured 
 that these faculties of his mind were originally almost dis- 
 proportionately strong and active, and required something 
 like a constant effort to keep them down in the place, to 
 which his severe taste had assigned them. If they had been 
 encouraged and cultivated, perhaps they might have pre- 
 
 minated among his faculties. As it was, he retained bo 
 the last his love fur the study of poetry, and all the freshm 
 of his early sensibility to the grand and beautiful in nature. 
 No youthful po i r strayed •■ <>u summer eve bv haunt- 
 
 ed stream,** mure Keenly alive to such impressions, than he 
 ■ ontinued to be down to the close of his life. 
 
 His passions, the motive power of the mind, which give 
 
 it impulse and force, must have been naturally Btrong and 
 
 . but his master) over them had become complete. 
 
11 
 
 He was seldom " betrayed into any loss of temper." He 
 had an innate and yearning love for the good, the lofty and 
 the pure ; a controlling will, which held all his powers in due 
 subordination ; an unerring taste 1 ; a steady balance and just 
 proportion in all his faculties, which allowed no one of them 
 to predominate over the rest. 
 
 He was thus endowed with very uncommon natural gifts ; 
 and the circumstances of his life, from the commencement to 
 the close, appear to have been ordered in a manner every 
 way favorable to the fullest development and most perfect 
 training of all his powers. 
 
 His father was a man in the middle condition of life, but 
 considerably above the average standard of intelligence; 
 trusted and respected in the community where he lived; of 
 a frank, honorable and generous nature ; who had borne an 
 active and no mean part in the war of Independence ; whose 
 mind was filled with the recollections and traditions of that 
 eventful period ; who had known Washington personally, 
 and held the great men of that era in the highest admira- 
 tion ; who had the sagacity early to perceive the uncommon 
 promise of his son, and was ready to make every exertion 
 and every sacrifice necessary to bring him forward into life. 
 
 The earliest impressions that Mr. Webster would receive 
 from such a father would be a religious veneration for the 
 great men of the revolutionary times, an ardent love of his 
 country, and a generous ambition to play a worthy part in 
 the opening scenes of her history. What better parentage 
 could be desired for an American statesman and patriot? 
 Well might he say. 
 
 Nil rac pocniteat sanum p.itris hujus. 
 
 And accordingly he appears to have cherished the memory 
 
12 
 
 of his father through life, with pride, with gratitude, and 
 the tenderest affection. 
 
 He was born and passed his childhood and early youth in 
 the retirement of a country life. To the simple habits, the 
 active and hardy amusements and occupations of a rural 
 neighborhood, to the pure and shrewd air. that blows from 
 our mountains, he doubtless owed in gnat measure tin- bod- 
 ily constitution, which carried him through so many severe 
 labors in after life. And to the same circumstance of his 
 breeding in the country, the robust character of his mind 
 must be mainly attributed. There he contracted that love 
 of nature, that taste for simple pleasures, thai passion for 
 out-door life, and the occupations of a farmer, which he re- 
 tained as long as he lived. 
 
 At this early period, his means of education were no doubt 
 somewhat meagre and Bcanty ; but as far as they went they 
 were of the right sort, and eagerly improved: far better than 
 a surfeit, which cloys and digusts the young appetite. The 
 religions Bentiments, which he then imbibed, remained with 
 him though lite, and supported him in death. 
 
 li So the tniin.lations of his mind wire laid." 
 
 How different maj we suppose that his course, his charai - 
 ter and his fate would have been, if he had been brought 
 up amidst the excitements, the Beductions, and the vapid 
 amusements of a crowded citj 
 
 Hi- youth was surrounded with difficulties ; but they were 
 not difficulties of that kind, which discourage, and depre 
 rod degrade the aspiring mind; but precisely such as rouse 
 and stimulate the opening powers: difficulties which are 
 
 "good lor man": difficulties, which it was necessary that 
 he should overcome in order to prepare him for the part 
 
13 
 
 which he was destined to act in life. If he had been born 
 to wealth and ease, there is not the smallest reason to sup- 
 pose that he would have attained to such eminence. To 
 him the stern motive of necessity was peculiarly important; 
 for, I think he had little of the pushing, enterprising, restless 
 disposition, "the fever of renown," which impels some men 
 forward by an inward impulse. Even after his great pow- 
 ers were entirely developed, and when he must have been 
 fully conscious of them, he never appears to have sought an 
 occasion for their display. 
 
 What appears somewhat surprising to us, who have 
 known him only in later life, he had in early boyhood a 
 shyness, a shrinking diffidence, which it cost him many an 
 effort, and many a pang to overcome so far as to undertake 
 the usual exercise of declamation in the school, to which he 
 belonged. We have his own account of what he suffered 
 from this cause at Exeter Academy. " Mahy a piece," he 
 says, " did I commit to memory, and recite and rehearse in 
 my room over and over again ; yet when the day came and 
 the school collected to hear declamations, when my name 
 was called, and all eyes were directed to my seat, I could 
 not raise myself from it." With such a disposition, if he 
 had not been forced out by necessity, he would most proba- 
 bly have passed through life mute and inglorious, and car- 
 ried the secret of his genius with him to the grave. It is 
 pleasant to imagine how the flippant young gentlemen of 
 Exeter Academy might then exult in their fancied superiori- 
 ty over the bashful country lad, whom they saw chained to 
 his seat by the spell of an unconquerable diffidence, his eye 
 downcast, and perhaps suffused with tears: that eye, whose 
 bend in after years was to strike senates with awe, before 
 whose glance the proudest adversaries were to quail. 
 
11 
 
 He was not long confined to the narrow limns of his own 
 neighborhood and the scanty means of education there af- 
 forded. However ii may be to BOme otbera it was doubtless 
 to him an immense advantage, that he was able to obtain a 
 liberal and classical education. He entered Dartmouth Col- 
 lege at the age of fifteen years, and there gained an intro- 
 duction to the great writers of antiquity. The Lofty exam- 
 ples, the elevated sentiments, and the ehi yle found in 
 those authors had evidently a great influence upon his cha- 
 racter and taste. He certainly himself regarded hi< acquain* 
 tanee with classical literature as of great importance. If 
 there is any thing, in which his correct taste is liable to im- 
 peachment, it is in the frequency with which he indulged 
 himself in quotation from his favorite classical authors. It 
 must be reckoned a fortunate circumstance that he complet- 
 ed his general education at SO early an age, while his mind 
 remained fresh and elastic. 
 
 He chose a profession better suited than any other to de- 
 •velojic and exercise the various powers which were brought 
 into action during the course o( his public life. 
 
 It ha- been Baid by Burke, a name, which carries with it 
 a great weigtri of authority, "that, though the lav. i- ;i -ei- 
 enee, which doe- more to quicken and invigorate the under- 
 aiding than all other kinds o( learning pul together, yef it 
 is not apt, except in persona very happily born, to open and 
 
 liberalize the mind in e\a< ll\ the s&me proportion. " This 
 
 may be quite oorreci of the legal profession in England, 
 where the range of subjects is much more limited than in 
 
 OUI connlrv : and it is doubtless true c\ery\\ here of the law- 
 yer, who is contenl to remain in a subordinate rank, and 
 deal only with the formal p;iri> of the profession — aueept 
 syllabarwn, cantor formalannn. l>ut as to those who, in our 
 
15 
 
 country, reach the highest places in the law, the reproach 
 cannot be fairly made against it, that it has a tendency to 
 contract and narrow the mind ; certainly it could have had 
 no such effect on those who had the lead in the Supreme 
 Court of the United States during Mr. Webster's practice 
 there, which began at least as early as 1815. Great ques- 
 tions arose growing out of the construction of the Constitu- 
 tion. The general war in Europe and our own war with 
 Great Britain produced another class of cases, requiring the 
 broadest investigations. The largest mind would find am- 
 pie room in such a field. Mr. Webster was fortunate in his 
 choice of a profession. Such was his own opinion late in 
 life. In his address to the bar of Charleston, S. C, in 1847, 
 he acknowledges his good fortune in being directed to the 
 law. and to that appears to attribute mainly his general suc- 
 cess in life. 
 
 He studied the law principally in his native town of Salis- 
 bury, under the tuition of Thomas W. Thompson, Esq., 
 who afterwards resided and died in Concord. For a short 
 time, six or eight months, he studied in Boston, and was 
 there admitted to the bar early in 1805. The bar of Boston 
 could then boast of many very eminent names, among them 
 Parsons, Dexter and Gove These great lawyers lie then 
 knew, to use his own modest expression, "as a boy know 
 men." and doubtless profited to the utmost by his short op- 
 portunity to observe such examples. 
 
 When he entered upon the profession in this State he had 
 the great advantage of practising under a learned Court ; 
 for Jeremiah Smith was then Chief Justice, and he had also 
 another equally great advantage in being called apofl al- 
 most immediately to maintain bis position as a prominent 
 member in a bar of uncommon ability, of which Mr. Mason 
 
16 
 
 was then the acknowledged leader, and so continued to be 
 till Mr. Webster was able himself to challenge his title to 
 that place. It is understood that Mr. Webster often took 
 occasion to say in after life that he had never met an abler 
 lawyer than Jeremiah Mason. 
 
 In 1813, Mr. Webster took his seat in Congress, and con- 
 tinued to serve as a member from this State until March 
 1817. This was his first introduction to public life. In 
 Congress he soon established the reputation, which he ever 
 afterwards maintained, of being one of the ablesl men in the 
 nation. Great and exciting questions were then agitated. 
 He met at least on equal terms with men of the most emi- 
 nent ability in the country. He displayed there the Bame 
 qualities for which he has been so much distinguished ever 
 since : a strong grasp of every subject — intimate acquain- 
 tance with the interests of the whole county ; great powi r 
 and force as a speaker and debater; and a moderation in his 
 
 party views, which commanded the respect and esteem of 
 
 the candid and discerning among his political opponents, in- 
 somuch that oi\i- of the most eminent of them then .-aid of 
 
 him, that "the North had not his equal, nor the South his 
 
 superior." 
 
 Let as consider for a moment in what position he stood 
 
 at the lime when he left this Slate. lie was a resident of 
 
 New Hampshire till March, L817, though ne had determined 
 on removing to Boston, and had opened an office there a 
 few months before. Down to that time he had been alto- 
 gether a .\<\\ Hampshire man. The brief period of his !<•- 
 1 ^iiid_\ in Boston was nothing more than was quite usual 
 m the education of a New Hampshire lawyer, and his expe- 
 rience in Congress lie had as a member from this Stale. 
 
 11-' bad passed the middle time of life, being then in his 
 
17 
 
 thirty-sixth year. He had been twelve years in the law, had 
 established his practice in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and won his way to the first rank in the profession. 
 In Congress he had met with such men as Clay, Calhoun, 
 Randolph and Lowndes, and was admitted to have no su- 
 perior there. His reputation was indeed afterwards much 
 extended ; his great abilities displayed upon wider fields, on 
 a greater variety of occasions, and in another line of public 
 life. But he had already attained to his full growth. His 
 powers were all developed and completely trained and exer- 
 cised before he left our State. He owed everything but an 
 opportunity for the largest display and exhibition of his tal- 
 ents to his native State, and, I believe, always heartily and 
 gratefully acknowledged the obligation. 
 
 In his case, then, we may justly claim the whole man as 
 a New Hampshire production. Other distinguished men, 
 born here, like Cass, have gone from among us so early in 
 life that we are compelled to divide the honor of rearing 
 them with other States. But Webster left his native State 
 in all his full grown strength. He was made for the whole 
 country ; for mankind ; and we have no right, and no dispo- 
 sition, to cramp and limit him " within State tines." But 
 it becomes New Hampshire on all suitable occasions to 
 vindicate her title in the renown of her great men, living 
 and dead, at home and abroad. 
 
 Since Mr. Webster left this State he has had an ample 
 field for the exercise and display of his various abilities. 
 He was soon called into public life by his adopted Com- 
 monwealth. For the largest part of the time during thirty 
 years he has been in Congress. Under two administrations 
 he has held the first place in the cabinet, and in that capac- 
 ity has conducted the most important and delicate negotia- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 tions with foreign powers, while in his profession of the 
 law lie has at the same time been engaged in the grea 
 causes that have arisen in the country. Not so much as a 
 sketch or outline of this brilliant career can be attempted 
 at this time. It may however be safely said that on the 
 whole he could hardly have been placed in circumstances 
 more favorable to the development and e\< rcise of the 
 erreal natural abilities with which he was endowed. 
 
 One other circumstance may deserve to be noted here: 
 Mr. Webster, during by far the larger pan of his public 
 life, acted generally in the minority; not from any factious 
 disposition, but from deep convictions of duly. This \ 
 doubtless matter of regrel to him. It would have been far 
 more agreeable to float down the current of public opinion 
 than to struggle again>i ii. Hut it may be doubted whether 
 in his case it would have been more favorable to the growth 
 and discipline of his abilities if he could have broughl his mind 
 to act with majorities. Leading men in a majority doiibtlese 
 have in this resped certain great advantages; they have the 
 responsibilities o( power, and the habits of official business. 
 Bui the reputation and weight which a statesman wins in 
 the ranks of a minority must be purchased at every step by 
 personal effort and personal merit, and are all hir- own. An 
 
 examination, I think, would show that a very Large propor- 
 tion o\' the really -real statesmen i>\' England have been 
 bred in thai severe and self-denying school. 1 cannot there- 
 fore think thai Mr. Webster would have been ^^w the whole 
 ;i greater man if he had uniformly belonged to the prevail- 
 ing political party. 
 
 1 have thus hinted, and I could do no more, al some of 
 the circumstances in Mr. Webster's life and career, which 
 
19 
 
 may be supposed to have had an important influence in 
 forming his character and making him the great man that 
 he was. 
 
 Let us contemplate him now for a moment as an orator 
 
 and public speaker. 
 
 His manner of speaking, it is well known, was usually 
 calm, deliberate, and unimpassioned ; often quite familiar 
 and almost colloquial, but never wanting in dignity ; some- 
 times full of vivacity and fire ; and rising with the occasion 
 and the subject to the highest degree of animation and 
 force consistent with decorum and a just taste. I have 
 already alluded to his very remarkable voice. When ani- 
 mated by his subject his eye and whole countenance were 
 radiant with thought. His attitudes were natural, but full 
 of a noble and manly grace. In action and gesture he was 
 sparing, and never used them without a meaning. His 
 whole manner and bearing were most impressive, striking 
 and dignified, but at the same time simple and unaffected, 
 as far removed as possible from the appearance of every- 
 thing studied and theatrical. 
 
 It would be difficult to name the orator, ancient or mod- 
 ern, who has spoken on such a vast variety of subjects to 
 audiences so different and opposite in their characters and 
 tastes. Yet in all cases he showed a most happy adapta- 
 tion to the occasion. Whether as a Lawyer he argued be- 
 fore twelve plain men a simple matter of fact in a cause of 
 mere pecuniary interest, or discussed the highest questions 
 of constitutional law before the most august tribunal in 
 the world ; whether in the Senate he spoke to a dry point 
 of order, or stood forth the champion of the assaulted con- 
 stitution of the country ; if he addressed a group of stu- 
 
20 
 
 dents at a college ; or a company of elegant women col- 
 lected at the capital of another State from curiosity to see 
 and hear so distinguished a stranger ; or a party of fisher- 
 men landed on the sea shore ; whither he spoke at Plymouth 
 Rock and Bunker Hill on the great principles of liberty and 
 free government, or at a political gathering on the eve of a 
 contested election ; on these and on all occasions he was at 
 ease and at home, saying and doing precisely what each 
 appeared to require, and attempting nothing more. Yet 
 amid all this astonishing versatility and variety, the identity 
 and marked individuality of the man is never lost. His 
 style is always peculiarly and entirely his own, unborrowed 
 and inimitable. 
 
 He is unsurpassed, certainly in our country, for the idio- 
 matic purity of his English style; not nervously fastidious 
 in this respect, like John Randolph, but still absolutely re- 
 jecting all new-coined words and doubtful phrases. The 
 reproach of corrupting the English language, made more 
 frequently against Americans in former years than now, 
 will not lie at all against him. I do not believe that the 
 English are able to produce a public speaker of this gene- 
 ration who can for a moment compare with him as a per- 
 fect master of all the powers and niceties of the language. 
 
 He commanded at will the mosl weighty, the most forci- 
 ble, the most lofty, the most glowing, the mosl ornamented 
 style; but he usually and on ordinary occasions preferred 
 a Bevere simplicity. He used Common words in their plain- 
 est sense. His illustrations were for the most part drawn 
 from the common experience of everyday life. Yet lie 
 never had (he air of an affected humility: never appeared 
 to come down and condescend to the understanding of his 
 
21 
 
 audience. It seemed to be his own natural way of viewing 
 the subject. 
 
 But his most remarkable faculty, that in which I believe 
 he immeasurably excelled all other men of his time, was 
 his peculiar power, his marvellous gift, of making every 
 subject that he handled, however extensive, however com- 
 plicated, however abstruse, perfectly plain and intelligible 
 to every man of common understanding, who heard or read 
 him. He saw things in their clearest light, and was able 
 to set them at once in the same light before the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
 No faculty of the orator, not even the highest, can equal 
 this in importance to one who desires, as he did, to speak 
 directly to the masses of his countrymen. He needed no 
 commentator, no interpreter. For many years preceding 
 his death, whatever he spoke on any great public question 
 was reported and immediately spread by the most rapid 
 means of communication to the remotest corners of the 
 land, and eagerly read by all intelligent men who took the 
 smallest interest in public affairs ; not entirely nor chiefly 
 on account of the pleasure and amusement derived from 
 the perusal, nor because he was understood to speak the 
 views of the government, or the opinions of a party ; but 
 more from a desire to know what he himself thought on 
 the great questions of the day, and to learn for themselves, 
 through him, the real state of those questions. The few 
 hundreds or the few thousands that might be collected be- 
 fore him within the sound of his voice, were the smallest 
 part of his real audience. He spoke in effect to the whole 
 reading community of this country and to the enlightened 
 and well-informed in all parts of the civilized world. 
 
 This of course he must have well known ; and towards 
 
22 
 
 the last of his life was apparently more solicitous to be 
 correctly and fully understood by his readers than to make 
 a strong impression on his immediate audience. Besides, 
 he must have known and fell that he had secured to him- 
 self a high place in the histdry and literature of his coun- 
 try, and that what he said on high occasions would go 
 down to be reviewed and judged again by posterity. To 
 that tribunal he has modestly, but not unfrequently, referred 
 his public life and opinions. He had the usual faith of 
 genius in the perpetuity o[ his fame, like Bacon, who be- 
 queathed his name and memory to the charitable judgments 
 of men "after some ages," and like Milton, who has re- 
 corded his early assurance that he should " leave something 
 so written that posterity would not willingly let it die." 
 He therefore, in later years, on all important questions, must 
 have seemed to himself to be speaking, not merely to his 
 immediate audience, nor to his contemporaries only, but 
 also to the thronging millions of future generations in all 
 time to come. This gave wonderful elevation to the moral 
 tone of all that he uttered, and raised him far above the 
 little personal and party contests of the time. But per- 
 haps i1 led him to speak with more than his habitual and 
 constitutional moderation and caution, and with less of 
 animation and lire in his manner, than had belonged to his 
 earlier days. 
 
 Hence it mighl Bometknes happen that those who went 
 
 to hear him with the expectation i^C witnessing a great 
 
 display of oratory in the delivery of a speech mighl go 
 away v -oh something like a feeling of disappointment, and 
 
 l>c half inclined to admit a suspicion thai the force and 
 vigor of his early manhood were somewhat abated. But 
 when the same speech came to be read in the next morn- 
 
23 
 
 ing's newspaper, all such impressions were at once dissipat- 
 ed. It was found to be as fresh and clear, as full of life 
 and force, as the best of his earlier productions. 
 
 I suppose there can be no doubt that the immediate effect 
 of eloquence upon the hearer was greater in past ages than 
 it ever can be again. The railroad, and telegraph, the news- 
 paper and pamphlet now keep the public continually inform- 
 ed of all that is passing in the world. But when there were 
 no such things, nor even post offices and post roads, an au- 
 dience generally expected to receive their first reliable infor- 
 mation of facts, and their first impressions respecting the 
 merits of a question, from the lips of the speaker. The great 
 orator of antiquity had in " the fierce democracie of Athens," 
 an auditory more eagerly attentive, more excited, and more 
 ready to receive any impulse, that he might choose to give 
 than any public speaker can ever expect to address again 
 in a civilized country. But the influence of the orators was 
 then mainly confined, at least for the time, to those who 
 heard him. There was no such thing as contemporaneous 
 publication in our sense of the word. A public speaker in 
 our time, whose merit does not consist chiefly nor in any 
 important part, in acting and representation, has an ample 
 compensation for the want of an excitable and impulsive au- 
 dience in the advantage of immediate dissemination to the 
 whole reading public, an advantage which Mr. Webster 
 enjoyed, in as high a degree as any man that has ever lived. 
 
 Mr. Web- lied but little on blandishments of style, 
 
 or tli and ;irlifices of tin 1 rhetorician. He never studied 
 
 to lull the ear with melodious cadences, or beguile the eye 
 with a theatrical grace of action. He addressed himself to 
 the reason and judgment rather than to the fancy and the 
 imagination. His main object never appeared to be to 
 
24 
 
 amuse, entertain and delight. He had some contemporaries, 
 and has left perhaps a few successors, who excelled him in 
 the mere power of administering to the present gratification 
 
 of an audience; but not one that could compare with him 
 for the weight, the force and the permanent interest of what 
 he spoke. This didactic character prevailed with him on all 
 occasions. He seemed to look upon it as his great business 
 and mission to enlighten and instruct. 
 
 Mr. Webster seldom appeared to enter into a question with 
 the zeal and heat of a partisan. He assumed much of the 
 guarded moderation of the judge ; and on this account his 
 eloquence may have lost something of its power to excite 
 and impel. You were not carried away by sympathy with 
 the ardor of his own feelings. You did not take sides with 
 the man in a personal contest. You yielded your judgment 
 and your conviction to the sheer force of argument. Or, if 
 he did move the passions, it was not so much upon the trite 
 rhetorical maxim of being first moved himself, as by plating 
 the subject in a light which appealed of itself to the natural 
 and inbred sentiments of the human heart, lie knew all the 
 sources of feeling mid emotion in the human soul, and could 
 stir them at will in their deepest fountains. The hardest na- 
 tures have been known to give way at once beneath his 
 stroke and break forth into loti-r suppressed and unwilling 
 currents of tenderness. Tbit he was not curried away him- 
 self by the impulse which he gave. He remained perfectly 
 self-possessed. Tf he had the power, which may be doubted, 
 
 he seldom used it. of mo\ ing men by sympathy with his own 
 
 feelings. 
 
 ITe had more of humor and good-natured pleasantry than 
 ( pigramatic point and wit ; an overwhelming power of 
 
 i 
 
25 
 
 ridicule, when he chose to use it, which was seldom, for his 
 prevailing tone was grave, dignified and serious. 
 
 Few men have surpassed him in power of sarcasm and 
 retort. But he never indulged, like Wedderburn, in that 
 cold blooded, long prepared invective, which delights in the 
 protracted sufferings of a victim, as th# savage victor rejoices 
 in the slow torture of his captive ; nor did he scatter the 
 keen, glittering and envenomed shafts of satire with a ca- 
 pricious and wayward hand, like Randolph. It would be 
 difficult to find the instance where he was the aggressor in 
 any personal encounter. But if a studied personal insult, or 
 a malignant personal attack demanded his notice, the con- 
 dign punishment fell at once upon the offender's head swift 
 and effectual. A single blow was enough. He seldom met 
 an adversary that was not swept from his path by the mere 
 " wind of his stroke." Take an instance in the great debate 
 on Foot's resolution. The provocation there was great ; the 
 opportunity was tempting — yet with what graceful ease, 
 what dignified forbearance, what scornful brevity he des- 
 patches the whole subject of the personal controversy. 
 
 Mr. Webster's eloquence was of a kind to produce the 
 highest effects on the immediate audience, and it also suffers 
 little when coolly read in print after the temporary interest 
 of the occasion has passed away. This requires a union of 
 qualities, which have no! often been found in the same 
 speaker. In this respect I think we must go back to the an- 
 cient masters for anything like his parallel. Burke has left 
 written orations which are destined to be read and admired 
 as long as the language shall last. But the playful Barcasm 
 of Goldsmith is as founded on well authenticated fact. 
 The speaking of Burke was so tiresome thai it drove mem- 
 bers of Parliament from their benches. On the other hand. 
 
26 
 
 a few fragments arc all that remain of the older Pitt; and 
 the eloquence of Sheridan, which is said to have transported 
 and astonished the hearers, is now a vague and suspected 
 tradition. So men, who have excelled in one line of speak- 
 big, have commonly failed when they attempted another. 
 in the case of Erskimvwho was unrivalled as an advocate, 
 but had little success as a parliamentary speaker and de- 
 bater. But Mr. Webster tried almost every kind of public 
 speaking, and in no one of them can he be said to have fall- 
 en below the very highest standard of excellence. 
 
 Such is a feeble and wholly inadequate view of mx. Web- 
 ster's claim to the first place among American orators and 
 public speakers. 
 
 For near forty years Mr. Webster occupied a high pi 
 tion among the state-men of the country ; and for several 
 years before his death he was, ] think, generally regarded, 
 both at home and abroad, as the leading public man of the 
 nation; not thai he held the firsl place in office, nor that he 
 had so much direct control over measures and the adminis- 
 tration of the government; but an account of.his long expe- 
 rience, his intimate acquaintance with all our interests, the 
 honesty and consistency ol' his public character, the red 
 nised weight of his individual opinion, and the intellectual 
 supremacy <>f the man. His character as a statesman opens 
 a wide field, which cannot be ( \plored at lhi> time. 
 
 Few men have been SO fully furnished with all the knowl- 
 edge and all the attainment- \ to a great statesman. 
 tie had studied thoroughly and thought profoundly on the 
 lir.-i principle government and human society, lb- had 
 taken a \<r\ broad survey of all that general history teaches 
 on th I subject; and with the history of our own coun- 
 try, colonial and national, he wa- rnosl intimately acquaint- 
 
27 
 
 ed. Pic scorned to hold in his tenacious memory, not only 
 the great and striking events, but every minute detail and 
 circumstance that could help to illustrate our wars and the 
 progress and foundation of the government. He appeared to 
 know everything of the public men of the country, that 
 could be gathered from books, from tradition, and from an 
 extensive intercourse with well informed society. He 
 showed on all suitable occasions a remarkably exact ac- 
 quaintance, not only with the public career, but with the 
 personal history of all who had taken a considerable part in 
 affairs. 
 
 He was well informed in the various interests, wants, 
 opinions aud prejudices of the different sections and the dif- 
 ferent classes and occupations of the country ; deeply studied 
 in the whole vast subject of finance and political economy, 
 both as a general science and as particularly applicable to 
 the business and condition of the United States. No man 
 understood better all that belonged to the foreign policy and 
 foreign relations of the country, and he has shown a practi- 
 cal ability in his administration of that Department unsur- 
 passed by the ablest of his predecessors. 
 
 In his genera) temper he was a hopeful, though not per- 
 haps a sanguine, statesman. He had a confiding faith in 
 the destinies of the country. No man had larger anticipa- 
 tions of her future progress, or brighter visions of her future 
 greatness and glory. But in his prevailing tune, I think he 
 musl be regarded as cautious and conservative. He was in- 
 clined to be content with the presenl degree of prosp 
 and the present rate of progress. " Let well enough alone *' 
 was with him a leading maxim. He feared the ultimate 
 consequences of an aggrandizing policy, and trusted for 
 
28 
 
 growth and advancement, rather "to internal development 
 than to external accession." 
 
 Without any bigoted attachment to old forms and me- 
 thods, he adhered firmly to the maxims and principles which 
 his judgment had once approved. lie came of a revolu- 
 tionary stock, and had learned from his earliest youth to 
 look upon the founders of the republic with a religious ven- 
 eration. He believed in the wisdom, as well as in the pat- 
 riotism and valor of our fathers, and thought that they had 
 laid the foundation of the State deep enough and broad 
 enough to sustain any structure, however lofty, that might 
 be reared upon it. The examples of history, old and recent, 
 had not taught him to place great confidence in theories and 
 speculations on tin' subject of government. His trust was 
 in " our American liberty," founded on social institutions, 
 consolidated by habit, and tried by experience. He looked 
 forward to the future, but he also looked back upon the past. 
 lie thought every wide departure from the course on which 
 the government was first started, a hazardous deviation, and, 
 in the surveyor's phrase, took frequent back sights, in order 
 to 1"' sure that we were going on in that course. 
 
 This cautious and conservative tendency in .Mr. Web- 
 ster's politics was in agreement with the general habits and 
 original temperament of the man. He appears to have 
 been retentive of early opinions, and very faithful to early 
 impressions. He clung to early friendships, ted in <-ar- 
 
 ly habits, retained in remarkable freshness all the simplicity 
 of hi y tastes, and died with meek and humble confi- 
 
 dence in the religious faith which his mother had taught 
 him. He was on the whole more inclined to stability and 
 perseverance in <h<' old and settled courses, than to agitation 
 and change. For some years before his death he served as 
 
90 
 
 a sort of balance wheel in the political machine to keep its 
 action regular and steady. 
 
 I think Mr. Webster must be set down as wanting in 
 some of the qualities which arc usually supposed to be ne- 
 cessary to a successful politician, and especially to a con- 
 summate party leader. He was never altogether, and for 
 all purposes, a thorough party man. He broke no party 
 pledge, he abandoned no maxim or principle of the party to 
 which he belonged. But on several important occasions he 
 acted without the smallest regard to mere party grounds. 
 
 Something like a settled division of parties, perhaps 
 something like a nearly equal division of parties, is useful, 
 if not necessary, in a free government. This Mr. Webster 
 doubtless well understood ; but he also knew that great oc- 
 casions now and then occur in the history of free States, 
 which rise far above all considerations of party, and require 
 the union of all good men, consensus omnium bonorum, for 
 the safety of the commonwealth. More than once, when 
 he believed such a crisis to have arrived in the affairs of the 
 nation, he acted with the greatest decision, wholly regard- 
 less of party distinctions. 
 
 Then, I think, he must have sometimes appeared to his 
 political friends somewhat deficient in party zeal ; for he 
 never threw himself headlong into the rush of a party con- 
 test ; never lashed forward a mere party movement ; but 
 seemed rather disposed to moderate the party impulse. His 
 lofty nature never stooped to the common arts and contri- 
 vances of a mere politician. He had higher objects and 
 larger views than the success of an election. No statesman 
 ever resorted less to evasions and temporary expedients. 
 He stood firmly on the ground which he had once taken, and 
 did not find it necessary from time to time to define his new 
 
30 
 
 positions. He had nothing to do with political intrigue, and 
 I do not ihink that he understood or attempted anything 
 like party management. He stood on an elevation ! 
 raised above all this ; and what immeasurably exalted the 
 statesman and the man may have obstructed the success 
 of politicians, and prevented him from reaching to the high- 
 est office in the nation. 
 
 A leading idea with him was the paramount and supreme 
 importance of preserving at all hazards the constitution and 
 the union of the States. His childish recollections would 
 go back to the time when his father, as a member of the 
 New Hampshire Convention, gave his hearty approval to 
 the constitution. All his studies and all hi- experience had 
 confirmed his judgment on that question. His hopes for 
 the future greatness and glory of the country were all staked 
 upon the Union. For many years before hi< death he was 
 universally regarded as the great interpreter and chain, 
 of the constitution. His highest services to the country, 
 and the most brilliant displays of his powers, had been in 
 defence of the Union. The preservation ol' the Union had 
 thus become with him, in some sort, a personal question. 
 His permanent fame as a statesman and patriot was largely 
 involved in it. Attachment to the Union was not with him 
 a matter of calculation and cool conviction merely ; it had 
 assumed something like the character of a passion. 
 
 A- the constitution was in its origin the work vl' concession 
 and compromise, bo he fell thai it could be preserved onlj by 
 
 acting at all times in ihe same spirit. To tlii- ureal object 
 
 lie was ready to make large sacrifices of Bectional interests, 
 
 and personal and party preferences. This object he Q< 
 losl out of sight. 1 do not cecal an instance, and I do not 
 believe that an instance can be found, in which he ever said 
 
31 
 
 or did the slightest thing to inflame sectional feelings or set 
 one part of the country against another. He was a nation- 
 al statesman. His patriotism was large enough to embrace 
 the whole Union ; it did not turn and Bettle towards any 
 point of the compass ; it knew " no north, no south, no east, 
 no west." 
 
 On this subject of the Constitution and the Union, there 
 is no danger of overrating the obligations of the country to 
 Mr. Webster. In this respect, public opinion has done him 
 full justice. The nation accords to him with one voice the 
 well-earned title of Champion of the Constitution. This 
 is no time to enter upon that chapter of our political history; 
 but without going into details, it may be safely said that 
 to him belongs the chief merit of having met and over- 
 thrown, upon its first appearance in the national councils, the 
 doctrine of nullification, by arguments which have never 
 been effectually answered, and which can never be improved. 
 The question, with all intelligent and right-minded men, 
 was settled at once and forever. He saw immediately all 
 the consequences of admitting the principle to obtain a foot- 
 hold in the country. He placed the whole subject in a light 
 so plain and clear that every man of common intelligence 
 has since that time been able to understand it for himself as 
 well as the most profound statesman and jurist. Other men 
 had equal devotion to the Union ; but what other man had 
 the power of speaking thus directly to the patriotism and 
 common understanding of the whole nation? 
 
 And when Hie crisis arrived, which he had seen to be im- 
 pending, let it never be forgotten how cordially he acted 
 with an administration to which he stood politically op- 
 posed, in putting down the vaunted threat of violence aimed 
 against the integrity of the Union. 
 
32 
 
 How fortunate, too, how providential, that at the time, 
 when this question of nullification appeared to be in immi- 
 nent peril of coming to the arbitremcnt of force, a man was 
 found at the head of the government, whose patriotism on 
 such an occasion lifted him high above all party considera- 
 tions, whose sagacity saw at once the full extent of the 
 public danger, whose energy and fiery courage and uncon- 
 querable will shrunk from no responsibility, and whose hold 
 on the affections and confidence of the people gave him a 
 control over public sentiment not equalled in our country 
 since the days of Washington. 
 
 It is not perhaps extravagant to say that we owe it to 
 these two men, of opposite political parties, of characters 
 and general views so extremely diverse, yet agreeing in one 
 thing and the main thing, that is to say, in their devotion to 
 the Union and the whole country, thai we still remain a 
 united people, and preserve our place as a great power 
 among the nations of the earth. 
 
 It would be quite presumptuous in me to state any opinion 
 of mine as to the extent and exactness of Mr. Webster's 
 attainments in science and general literature. Considering, 
 however, the early age at which he entered into active life, 
 and the immense amount of his labors in various ways as a 
 practical man, his attainments in the different departments 
 
 of liberal knowledge must be regarded as truly wonderful. 
 Without Bettingup lor him the claim to rank in learning 
 With professed scholars, whose lives have been devoted to 
 
 retired study, il may y. i be safely asserted that, he always 
 appeared to know ever-, thing that could illustrate or adorn 
 
 every subject which he had OCi asion to handle. He showed 
 himself to be very thoroughly acquainted with the standard 
 English writers in pfbse, and especially in poetry. It might 
 
33 
 
 probobly be said of him with as much truth as it has been 
 said of Erskine, that " no man of his time was better ac- 
 quainted with Shakspeare, and he had Milton by heart." 
 
 I do not pretend to know how general or how minute his 
 acquaintance may have been with the classical writers. It 
 is certain that he was quite familiar with the best of the 
 Latin authors, and had thoroughly mastered the spirit of 
 that literature. He appeared to set a high value on his 
 classical attainments, and continued to delight in those 
 studies to the close of life. He quoted oftenest, I think, 
 from Cicero; and it is perhaps a little curious that he ap- 
 pears to have been a great student and admirer of that bril- 
 liant writer, whose elegant but ornate and somewhat redun- 
 dant style is so little like the simplicity and terseness of his 
 own ; while I recollect hardly an instance of a quotation 
 which he has made from the sententious pages of Tacitus. 
 
 He had taken a very wide survey of the w^hole field of 
 human knowledge, and his stores were probably as great as 
 would have been useful to him. Larger attainments would 
 have been more likely to overload and encumber his mind, 
 than to strengthen it. 
 
 As Mr. Webster's habits of labor and study are repre- 
 sented by those who have been best acquainted with them, 
 they were in some respects rather peculiar, and suited only 
 to minds happily constituted like his own. He is not sup- 
 posed at any time of his life to have kept any thing like reg- 
 ular commonplace books or journals, which many other men 
 find so useful and necessary. His tenacious memory enabled 
 him to dispense with such aids. He appeared to be little 
 confined by any strict rules for the disposition of his time. 
 He was seldom so pressed by engagements as to deny him- 
 self ample time for relaxation and exercise. He generally 
 3 
 
34 
 
 had more the air of a leisurely gentleman seeking amuse- 
 ment, than of a lawyer and statesman overloaded with labor 
 and care. But he was capable of sustaining a prodigious 
 amount of labor, for a long time together, without relaxa- 
 tion or rest, as I am informed was remarkably the case while 
 he was counsel for the Spanish Claims, and at the same 
 time managed a great business in the Supreme Court, and 
 maintained his standing as a laborious and leading member 
 of Congress. 
 
 There was however a substantial order and method in all 
 he did, and things were not allowed to accumulate on his 
 hands. He retained through life his country habit of rising 
 with the earliest bird. His day's work, like Sir Walter 
 Scott's, was often finished while that of other men was 
 scarce begun. But notwithstanding his astonishing des- 
 patch, and some peculiarities in his habits of labor, Mr. 
 Webster was obliged to learn things after all substantial!) 
 as other men do. For instance, I am informed that in the 
 early part of his professional life lie went carefully through 
 the whole, of Saunders' Reports, both the cases and the en- 
 tries, in the Latin and law French, and made a very exad 
 abstract of the whole, which 1 am told is stili in existence. 
 My professional friends know that nothing eould be more 
 purely technical than such an exercise. Lei it not be sup- 
 posed then that Mr. Webster, with all his wonderful pow- 
 ers, could place himself at a leap on the summits of the 
 law. He went, up through all the laborious gradations of 
 the profession. 
 
 It is worth) of remark thai Mr. Webster's studies and 
 pursuits, though various, were congenial and mutually aid- 
 ing to each other. lie was a great lawyer and a great 
 
 statesman. The highest questions which he was ever called 
 
35 
 
 oil to discuss as a lawyer arose upon the construction of the 
 constitution, the fundamental law whieh binds us together 
 in the Union, and makes us a nation. His most eminent 
 services to the country as a statesman have consisted in 
 his defence of the same constitution, and in maintaining a 
 sound construction of its provisions. Thus on the heights 
 of the law and on the heights of statesmanship, the lawyer 
 and the statesman are found together. Indeed, it may be 
 said that all the arts and all the different kinds of human 
 knowledge converge as they rise, until they meet in the cul- 
 minating point. It is the remark of a brilliant French 
 woman that on the summits of the human intellect Homer 
 and Newton stand together. 
 
 In the case of ordinary men, who engross a large share 
 of the public attention, death comes to detect their small 
 proportions. They are elevated to high official station, or 
 accidentally connected with great affairs. Seen through 
 this deceptive medium, they are enlarged to the world's eye 
 beyond their real stature. When they die, this illusion is 
 dissolved, they shrink to their just dimensions, disappear, 
 and are soon forgotten. We need to apprehend no such 
 fate for Mr. Webster. He owed little to office, and nothing 
 to a capricious and accidental popularity. His fame stands 
 on the solid foundation of long and arduous labors in the 
 public service, and on the imperishable productions of his 
 mind and intellect. His memory and renown are linked 
 with the destinies of his country. No man, living or dead, 
 has done so much to explain, and defend, and establish the 
 glorious constitution under which we live. That, thanks to 
 God and to him, we trust will be perpetual ; and his name 
 shall stand engraven in living characters on every pillar and 
 
36 
 
 tablet in the structure of the government, till the whole 
 shall sink in ruin. 
 
 "What he has dun.- for the constitution of his country 
 and for the cause of liberty and government through- 
 
 out the world, will not be lefl to the faithless Keeping of 
 tradition, or even subject to the ordinary accidents of histo- 
 ry ; it will go down to future generations recorded in his 
 own undying style. 
 
 His fame therefore must spread and expand with the 
 growth of the country in all coming time. As long as our 
 political union shall endure, until the latest hour of time 
 in which his native Language shall be spoken or read by any 
 free people in any region of the world, his name shall be 
 remembered, and fondly and reverently repeated, as the 
 great champion of free government and constitutional lib- 
 erty. 
 
 Our country mourns the death of a great statesman, a 
 great public benefactor, and a truly greal man. He has no 
 successor: his place is vacant, and according to the usual 
 economy and frugality of nature, it will remain so for some 
 generations. But of such a man how small is the pan that 
 
 can die! The impress of his character is stamped upon 
 the national mind. Who shall undertake to estimate the 
 
 amount of his permanent influence upon the institutions! 
 
 the opinions, the taste and the general spirit of the nation.' 
 
 The authentic history of the great public questions that 
 
 have been agitated in his time, will hereafter be studied 
 prineinall\ in hi- work-, which are to remain as models and 
 standards while the language shall last. The thought, the 
 
 style, the genius of a great writer pass into the national 
 
 mind and become part of its elements. Who can say what 
 
37 
 
 the English people and r.ur would now have been, if such 
 men as Shakspeare, and Milton, and Bacon had not lived! 
 
 The fame of a great man is a national inheritance, in 
 which the humblest individual enjoys his portion and share. 
 Every generous American youth will hereafter feel a more 
 confiding trust in the fortunes of his country, and entertain 
 loftier hopes for himself, when he looks to the example of 
 Daniel Webster, who, under these free institutions, raised 
 himself from the condition of a ploughboy to be the first 
 man in the nation for personal weight and character; wdio 
 earned a name which adds to the respect with which his 
 country is regarded all over the world, and which will go 
 down to posterity as one of the bright est in our annals. 
 
 Many soothing considerations are connected with the 
 event which we mourn. Providence ordered all the circum- 
 stances of our great countryman's death with a kind and 
 gracious hand. Though he fell suddenly at last, he was 
 not cut off prematurely. The measure of his years and 
 fame was full. He had reached and passed the limit which 
 Providence ordinarily assigns to the active life of man. 
 The world witnessed no painful decay of his great powers. 
 No tear of dotage has been seen to How from that kindling 
 eye. He was not called to depart in the hour of public 
 disaster, when clouds were settling upon the prospects of 
 his country. He left her great, prosperous and united. 
 
 He died beneath his own roof, surrounded by all the con- 
 solations which the tenderest cares o( family and friends 
 can yield to the parting hour. To him much had been 
 given, and, while the day lasted, he worked " in his great 
 task-master's eye." When the night came and the stern 
 summons, he was found ready. Death approached his 
 
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