Southern shield., 1850-08-17
From the Richmond RpasbIican.
 Daniel Webster,

Daniel Webster.
 in the foreground of the new Cabinet which President Fillmore is calling about him, stands the collo8al figure of Daniel Webster. There he is, one of the giants, ppIs massive brow looking as if made to bear the weight of empire, and the light of age tsmperlng with calm serenity that grand and .15 aghtfpl countenance. IS the rays of the setting sun finger upon and beautfy the stern and rugged mountain side There he IS, man and an American, whom we are proud to present to the nation as a repre- sentative ot our country--a statesman who commands the admiration of the Old World ant the New, and whose name, in any caNnet and any enterprise, is tower of strength and majesty, against which the waves Ot faction and of section beat in vain.
 Daniel Webster has before filled the office of Secretary of State It was not known, when he entered il, whether he could add new laurels 10 his fame in other fields. At th9 bar, he had long stood prominentin the realms of law, of logic, and of eloquence; as a scholar and an orator, he had no rival among the public men of America, as Senatorial debater, he stood without peer, wblding in his sinewy arm a battle axe of argument, heavy as the ponderouS weapon of COur de Leon, yet bright and keen as thsscimetar of Saadin. Underline renown of such reputation, he came 10 the De- p@tment of State; yet instead of disap- pointing expectation so highly raised, he more than realized the most ardent hopes. lie proved himself, in his management of our foreign affairs, as remarkable fol powers ot diplomacy IS for eloQuence in debate Wise, calm, tar-sghted, firm, yet liberal, he SC tied advantageous one of the most an- cient and ominous of our difficulties with England, and elevated the character of our country By tie digniied spirit as we'll as materIy skill with which he conducted its affairs. Were there no monuments of Daniel Webster but his correspondence as Secretary of State, ne might well rest upon them his immortality. Even considered onIyas models of pure, clear, vigorous Eng fish composition, they are notto besurpassed by any similar productions upon the public records of England or America.
 Yet fl was possible for even this man, clothed and crowned with all these aurels, and advancing 10 the border of old age, to win new trophies, which should outshine all the achievements of his younger days. While there was no longer a voice to Ques- ton the supremacy of his intellectual powers, and his genuine American feeling so firmly and 50 nobly during his oi our foreign affairs, it was asserted that he was a man of section, and that the powerful structure of his intclIectQ- al organization was accompanied by an absence of moral courage which destroyed the harmonious symmetry of his character. 1t has been reserved platter events to draw the last fang from the serpent tooth of malice, and 10 vindioate Daniel Webster, as a true man and a great genius, as patIi- out and a statesman. The most bitter of his democratic opponents have hailed his recent efforts with loud burst of applause, echoed even from all South Carolina, at the manly and noble stand taken by Daniel Webster, in the Senate of the United States, and the heroic and sublime ground assum- ed by this great moral hero, when, in the very front of Boston fanaticism he thun- dered forth, "I Harel no stcp bdckwards."
 The true character of Daniel Webster isl now understood. He is seen as the great American, to whom North and South are a common country; who is ready to sacrifice in a moment, admiration of his own section, rather than do injustice to q section which has not always rendered justice to him; butt who could not, even if he would, prevent posterity of all sections and of all lands from proclaiming him the greatest intellect of the nineteenth century, and a patriot above fear and above reproach-
 Such is the man whom President FillmoreI has selected as Secretary of State. Vel hail that appointment as a most evidentI token that the new President will plant his administration upon the broad, just, liberal, national grounds of which Mr., Webster has been the exponent in the U. l States Senate. In that appointment we see the heel of power crushing, as it ought, the serpent head of fanaticism.
 The Purchase Of New Mexico.
 Tha Hon Trunoan Sn1ith in his sneechI