The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-04-23


w big party, and TO doubt his public virtue, or the
soundness of his principles the rankest OF here
sizes He brought to the defence and advocacy ofthat
partys principles intellectual powers great perhaps
ever were combined in any single statesman-a
wide range of knowledge, eloquence, majestic or
familiar the required and reasoning powers
before which fallacy could pass Undecided, whe
Their concealed beneath the flowers of metaphor, or
snugly hid in the recesses of logical formula In
the darkest hours ohat party ne led the fOrorn nope
Negecng profession to which few years assiduous
devotion would have given him competence, he be-
came the champion of cause which seemed hopeless
In the Senate, discussing great constitutional qnes-
tons, or at the stump speaking TO the people, and
stormng prejudice with eloqueDce when 1t could not
be undermined with logic, he was sever ready" His
praise resounded from all Wings HypeIbole was
put upon the rack for sounding epthets In his praise
and his really great powers swelled to colossal dimen-
sons in the magnifying mirrors OF partisan
prints. He called the "GcdIike" and as an ora
tor often favorably compared with those OF old,
Whose resistess eoquence
Shook the arsenal, and fuImined over Greece,
To Macedon, to Artaxerxes throne"
In the campaign which resulted in the overthrow
of Mr. Van Buren's administration, he was in every
place where his aid was Misunderstanding or serving
fighting in the trenches, giving laws for the con-
duct of the battle,-it appeared all the same to him.
Opposed to the most CALLING fire of fierce political
hostility, he was not driven from his path His pub
lie and private life ruthlessly ransacked with no
honest intention; the former in poor attempt to
make him out traitor, apostate and arisocrat; the
latter to give pausbiity to Misrepresentation point
to an epigram, or venom to sheer. He passed
through the storm. His party succeeded and all re-
member the shout of congratulaon which ran through
the Wing ranks when he nominated Secretary OF
State We were to have glorious times of peace and
prosperity. All difficulties with foreign powers
would be satisfactorily settled and the lion would lie
down with the lamb. The envy of political associates
was mute; the roar of party hostility died away ;
and Daniel Webster appeared at the height of his
popularity.
But times it seems, have changed. A portion of
Mr. Webster's former good friends have turned
into malignant opponents, and the Wing papers gen
orally have softened the tone of their eulogium.-
Periods which glowed in his praise with words
that burn, now flash with but momentary brightness
from the embers of their decaying fires. His ser
vices hardly appear remembered in the apparent de-
cline Of his popularity; the waters of Lethe have
rolled over the memories of many of his former
eulogists. Detraction dogs him with keen scent,
and Adulation forbears her sweet music. And,
worse than all, each of those puny pigmes OF pol
tics who confound patriotism with place. and coun-
try with cupidity raises his little anh OF lies,
or handles into shape and proportion the tiny ugness
of his begotten imp OF calumny, to bear against
the great statesman, and crush him by the accretlon
of small fasehoods One bright particular star, who
edits paper in the West, and whose poetical talents
cast such an imaginative glow over his chronicles OF
political facts, takes the field against him. A man
whose reach Of thought rarely extends beyond an
epigram, and whose logic finds tit utterance IN pun,
is to crush him who conquered Hayne, and measured
swords with Calhoun! And can Mr.. Webster stand
this invasion of wit from Lput' We fear not
eTremble, thou brawny and thunder-scarred Titan,
for pleasant has come out against thee, and
thou shalt be laid low by joker of jokes, and ne
shall talk his pleasant talk to thee and thou shalt be
no more !" Pray heaven, that the country be not
called to witness the affecting spectacle of giant
slaughtered with pins!
The secret of this opposition we take to be this.
Small politicians hate great statesman with cor
dial and very natural hatred for he is reproach to
their narrowness of mind and bitter satire on their
poverty of soul. Mediocrity when united to Mean
ness and sworn into the ranks of Faction ever wages
its cunning and cowardly war OF anonymous abuse
against the craftsmanship which detects its objects,
Blingsgate which it does not Gull for its purpose no
effort which it does not USE in its pursuit OF scandal
and petty detraction, to
"Distort the truth, accumulate the lie,
And heap the pyramid OF calumny."
If the opposition to Mr.. Webster honest if it
really arose from difference of opinion on vital ques-
tons of national policy if it were conducted on rules
of honorable mental warfare. ono would hovo any
obectlon to it. We are no defenders OF MIR. Web
sters peculiar political opinions and with that modest
assurance which sits amiable on the brow OF a
newspaper editor, we have occasionally seen cause
to dissent from portions of his policy Secretary of
State but we feel, as we trust every New England
man feels, be he honest Wing or honest Democrat, a
becoming pride in his intellectual greatness, and an
indsposton to see him betrayed by seeming friends
or damned with the faint praise of trucking partisan
prints or made the mark for the poisoned arrows of
brazen and branless political fanatics. 1t is as bad
to see the hoof of the lifted against the lion in his
lair as against the dead lion We feel assured that
Judging from what is before the public Mr. Webster
accepted his present Office from pure and patriotic
motives that he remained in it, in the breaking up
of the last cabinet, from the motives; and that
a good portion of the abuse now heaped upon him
comes from those who incapable of approaching
dsinterestedness in public servants and nothing
more noble in official station than it's oaves and fishes