The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-11-08

} outlined the progress of the principles
{ Of the Pilgrims, and, by easy transition,
passed thence to the extension of the
Republics power and iimits.---NNith a
reservation as to his own concurrence
In the grasp after grasp that we have Ia
ken, of territory South and West, he
expressed, in an outbreak of most glow
ING and overpowering eloquencc, his
feeling as to liberal usage and prompt
equalization Of rights to all who arc
once covered with our banner. Clan
eng at our relative position toward the
Governments Of Europe, hc spoke OF
Hungary and IFS downfall, giving that
unhappy country his complete sympathy,
and mourncd over its prostration, with
the language and certainly with the look
Of a prophet whose spirit was darkencd.
though he still expressed a confidence
that the liberty painted for abroad could
not long be kept under. The probable
and possible future of our own country,
aud the needtul extension OF the Pill
grim principles through its remotest
limit Of space and time, formed the
theme of the great orators isnPassion-
cd conclusion
These were the topics upon which Mr..
Webster had come prepared TO express
himself; but he was once or tWlcc again
upon his feet during the eyening, and
i'll taking lis leave, he made j. parting
address that was OF different tenor
and meditation Unable, from illness,
to join III the conviviality of the even
ing, he was possibly, saddeHcd by a
mirth with which his spirits could not
keep pace; and, at the same time, sur
rounded by those who had met there
from love to him, and whose pride and
idol he had always been, his kiadest and
warmest feelings were uppermost, and
his heart alone was IN what he had to
say. His aifoctionate attachment to
New England was the leading senti-
ment, bat, through his allusiqns to his
own advancing age and present iilncss,
there was recognizable u wish TO say
what he might wish to have said, should
he never again be SO surrounded and
example Of manly and restrained pathos,
ii seemed TO me, Of which language and
looks could be capable. No one who
heard it could doubt the existence of a
deep well OF tears under that lofty tenn
pie Of intellect and power.
Sickness, like low tide, shows the true
depths and shadows Of the harbor Of ex-
preston IN a face, and | looked long
and earnestly at the noble invalid, both
as he sat and as he spoke, to see, if pos
sib!e, where his tidc-channels lay, and
where his eycr-buoyant greatness had,
at least, come nearest to running d.
ground. He was really ill---nuch thin
ner than | had ever seen him, and so
dcbilitated that in the least emphatic
sentences, the more difficult words fail
ed Of complete utterance. Without col
/ or, without the excitement of high spirits,
fallen away in flesh, and evidently COM
pletely unconscious of the observation of
those around, he was there without the
advantages of an ordinary public APP
pcaranco-himselfa and at the ebb. Som
bre as the lines are, unlighted with
health or impulse--tbe eyes so carniver-
Gus and dark, the eyelids so liyid, eye
brows so heavy aud black, and the tca-
lures 50 habitually grave---it is a face
Of strong affections, genial, and foreign
to all unkindness. There is not trace
in it where pettiness or peevishness
could lodge, and no means in its sallow
muscles for the expression of an intel
lectual httleness or peryersion. 1t Is al
broad-all majestic--aIl expansive and
generous. The darkness in it is the
shadow of a Salvador Rosa, a brighten
ing of grandeur without injury to the
clcarness. 1t is cas-, to ina gine locking at
his pondcrous forehead alone, how W eb-
'ster might have been Unbalanced with a
little difference Of nature. Less phy-
sicallv powerful, or with less strong SEN
sous affections, he might have been an
intellectual man without a statesman s
deep-plowing propulsion, or without a
practical mans appreciation Of the
commonplace, and constancy Of every
day purpose--he might have been a
great poet, in short, with infrmites G.
nough, to have made a good biography.
With less intellect, on the contrary. the
powerful animal that he is would have
developed, perhaps in antagon!sm and
passionate violence, and we might have
had a underwriting politician blind with
headlong impulses and intoxicated with
his power. 1t is in his consistent and
proportionate endowment, that his great
ness lies. His physical superiority and
noble disposition, Off his grand face, in
the subsidized lines of illness, tells truly
to my reading1 are in just balance with
his mind, and keep its path broad and
its policy open. 1t is the great mind
with the small heart which makes a
dwindling and iliberal old age. Web
ster-incapable of the forecast narrow
ness which makes the scope of charac-
ter converge when meridian ambition
and occupation fill it no longer-wiIl
walk the broadening path that has been
divergent and liberalizing from his child
hood to the present hour, till he steps
from its expanding lines into his grave !"
1t is a serious evil that many young
man has fallen into, to be above his bu-
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