The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-11-03

Adams, a Calhoun, Clay, and nova Webster.
| Who shall fall next? Not many left to us OF
the olden days. May He, who watcheth the SPAR
rows fall, watch also over the fathers who still lin
! ger among u.s. and continue them here long
| time hence, TO guide the public mind by their en-
larged wisdom and the purity OF their principles.
OF no one of the honored dead can il be said-they
lived for naught Of the few honored living it shall
not be recorded-the world could have done with
| out them.
| Daniel Webster, all the world knows, was a
| great man. How often has this thing been said
already. Not only was his name established amon e
| mankind as scholar, an orator, a statesman, and
| lawyer, but he was eminent patriot and an
ardent lover of his country honor and prosperity.
| All these he was without overtaxing the simplest
| truth.
But in this association, although we NAV do the
lustrous deceased honor, is not the place TO say
| his panegyric. Other and filter places shall this
be pronounced in-other and ADLER tongues than
mine shall do him justice may be permitted to
say this much: By US, a man, Daniel Webster
was honorcd. We honored him while we differed
from him widely in political principles. OPP
| posed to him in this particular, however, we have
the whole history Of his career to elueidate the
honesty Of his entertained principles nd his man
| ner of enforcing them before his countrymen.
| Unfortunately, however, for Mr.. Webster, his
towering mind became early bent in direction
opposite to that OF majority OF his fellow coun-
| trymen, and the constant adhesion of his mind to
the principles Of his early life has been the fruit
full cause, doubtless Of depriving him from reach
ing that bright goal to which he. through his long
! life, 30 ardently aspired-the Presidency His DO
htcal principles, unfortunately for himself, per-
haps 30 for his country, cast in mould long
since broken and scattered to the winds of the past
They were such as seemed to be innpplicabls to q
democracy-a country governed by institutions
like those OF ours. Some Of MIR. Webster's origi-
nal political sentiments, however, became in the
late years of his life considerably Modified; and
from former federal hue, in the end blended into
| phase akin to conservatism. He of the
Wing school, though upon many questions of pub
lie policy, as asserted by his party, he was less
Iiral
Webster could forget party and go for bis country
in the hour of her need But his political ante
cedcnts were most unfortunate for him. The po-
sitions assumed by him in early manhood proved
disastrous TO his cherished hopes through his long
career. His connection with the Federal party Of
gone days. ever unpopular after its dissolution;
his opposition to the last war of Independence; and
his subsequent opposition to General Jackson's
measures of removing the deposits and vetoipg
the recharter of the United States Bank-all popu.
lar measures since; these cogs that never de-
serted his political pathway From these circum-
stances and facts it ia exceedingly doubtful whe-
Their, with all his great qualities Of shining states
manshp and vast powers of intellect, he ever could
have proved successful competitor for the Presi-
Dental honor.
These remarks suggest to moments refiec-
ton az to the probable cause Of Mr. Webster's sud-
den demise at this time. For many years he had
been second only in the lead of the great party he
had honored Many HARD. fought battle of intel
ect had been fought by him for it and it's princi-
piles, and he had deserved largely at its hands.
lie was prominent candidate for the honor of
nomination to the Presidency before the recent
Wing National Convention which sat at BaIti-
more. We all know how he was defeated. We
all know how his friends turned away
and disappointed. Under the accumulated weight
OF years and the wrongs of his party, which he
had served SO long and well, and under this last
stroke of ts ingratitudc his great spirit bent and
bent until it finally broke. The fact was fully de-
monstrated to him now, that whether Republics be
or be not ungrateful, parties were. II may be
denied by some that the cause have assigned pro-
duced the sad result we have here met to commence
rate; but when il is recoected that since that fatal
convention day the public mind has been constant
ly agitatcd upon the subject of Mr. Webster's pre-
carious state OF health it scarcely be candidly
disbeieved that the result of that convention has
t tened MIN hence Slowly sadly and surely from
fading and falling away. And he ia gone.
Thus fall the great, and loved, and honored of
our land. One by one they drop away, leaving
only their histories behind them. TT us they glide
out from the worlds horizon as stars Of the first
magnitude fade from the mornings vision before
the superior glow of the SUMS ray. These last live
to dawn upon the darkness again. The former,
alas! expire in glory, and seen forever.
TO many who witness the gradual falling away
of the sages of the revolutionary days. our future
as nation may appear somewhat gloomy They
ture success of the young Republic under the sole
guidance Of the generations born after the Const-
tuition. But let the faith of such be cheered. 1t
10 not in men that our prosperity as people
which we live-the rich institutions of liberty we
have inherited-thc grandeur Of past-the
prosperity Of our present-the bright hopes of our
future, and with these the all pervading patriot.
ism of our peoplc-must and will be the momen-
tum which must carry US forward as nation to
the completion of our high and glorious destiny.
For the honored fathers of the State who die let
Va mourn. For the noble deeds of patriotism they
have performed, let bow with gratefulness
and thanks. To their memories let US ever be
faithful and true. Their examples are left behind
~ ln--, e..
will they have been, and their histories be, if tho
living profit not by all that their lives have pre-
sented to US for study and emulation.
When Mr.. Heath concluded
Major HoBBIE rose and remar ked that the great
principle evolved in our political institutions and
forming cardinal point in our Democratic faith,
was Progress-the improvement and elevation Of
man in his rights and capabilities of self govern
ment-in the exercise of that dominion over mate.
rial Nature W hich his Creator gave HMM the
refinement OF his sentiments and feelings-in the
enarge ment Of his powers and enjoyments here,
and his better preparation for that compauionahp
hereafter which is to constitute his eternal happi-
ness. We honor the career of Daniel Webster az
a most conspicuous example of the working of this
principle. The admiration which the heart OF the
million filings out to such an illustration and such
q principle Ia worthy homage to the great and
good-not more honoring him and it than itbene-
hts them, by reacting upon the mass of his coun-
trymcn with direct tendency to improve, elevate,
and refine The son of an humble farmer, reared
in the back wood settlements of New Hampshire.
he dcscends from his mountain home to push his ca.
reer in cities, where wealth, and talent, and refine
ment prevail-like the Dorian of old, to add a
column OF massive strength to the national temple,
and inscribed upon it deathless name; not demi-
god, though called godlike in compliment to his
superatvc displays of the highest of the human
faculties; not hero-such only only in our gene
ration wns our glorious Jackson, whose genius
and will ever mastered the emergency, and with
miraculous power won victories in war and peace
that the labored processes military art of dpo-
macy, or craftsmanship could never hive achiev-
ed-but Webster was a man of largest thought
and lotiest purposes. He rose with the highest
distinction to the head OF the bar, the Senate, and
the Executive councils, From these salient points
hesdiscourscd on themes of highest import in Ian
guage whose force and beauty other lips can
rival, and in thoughts whose intellectual richness,
outshining "the wealth of Ormus and of Iud,''
was derived from the treasures of erudition than
from that more than Californian Ell Dorado the pro.
liic mine OF his own genius. We have the more
right to rejoice in bic lame, since so much of II
emanates from the glowing sympathy he has ex-
pressed for the cause Of liberty and human rights
who can read his remarks to the soma of New
Hampshire, delivered in Boston; hs address to the
lntn rVDal -E