Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-11-06


previous thought. He never spoke without aborious
preparaton and my venerable and learned friend who
early knew him said, he industrious to the last
" 1t must be admitted that Mr.. Webster was ambitious
Whether his ambition is be ranked among his virtues
or his weaknesses is not for TO say He was an am
bilious man, very ambitious man. the last hour of
his life He desired the highest position and his ambi
ton to surpacs every other who had been in the
same position He labored TO accomplish that eyenthe
abored with great assiduy to effect that result Wheth
er he has succeeded postery win decide That he labor
ed TO NIL the highest position in this country is fact that
be denied That he thought that position worthy
of his ambition is fact not to be denied That he
thought he had earned claim to that position is fact
not TO be denied And it is fact not TO be denied that
because that claim regarded his days short
ened"
'0BsERvER," the correspondent of the Philadelphia
Ledger writes follows from Potsve under date Of
the 25th ultimo:
'.The news of Mr. WEBsTER's death has reached us
this morning. and has filed every heart in these secluded
valleys with grief and sorrow. BY this melancholy be-
reavement the country has lost its greatest statesman
the Union its nobest deyoee the Constitution its ablest
champion. Mr.. Webster had great mission to fulfil,
and did not leave the elevated stage which he was
acting till he had accomplished it. The Union is not only
preserved but Mr. Webster has left arguments enough
behind him TO show why it must endure forever The
Presidency If it had been within his reach, would have
added nothing to his colossal fame could it have in
creased the with which all thinking and reflect
ing men wont to pronounce his As President,
he might have biassed the legislation of Congress for
per0d o. Tour years. as patriotic statesman, philoso
phc commentator of the Constitution, and prophetic
of the remotest consequences of legislative acts and
principles Daniel Webster will exercise commanding
influence on the Judgment and acts of his countrymen in
i all times to come.
. Mr.. Webster was not a popular tribune he never
stopped TO persuasion emphatic appeals to the pas
sions and prejudces of He addressed par-
GUAR classes Of voters or looked to the applause Of tho
ster looked upon government science and upon its
philosophical analysis as the proper object of his unrva
led intellect he never spoke on ordinary topics; but
when great occasion presented ITSELF he failed
address posterity through his contemporaries Other
men may have pleased captvated enchanted their
trymen; Mr. Webster preferred to instruct them And
his lessons energetic in their character simple
in language elevated in sentiment forcble in logic
so irresistible in argument that they read and stu
died by ALL and will continue textbook to statesmen of
future generations and ages Other have given force
TO opinions and established theories by which they be-
came the founders of secs Mr. Websters grandeur
statesman consisted in that classic repose with which
his serene intellect exposed and crushed wherever
he found it, and maintained the integrity of principles
against the phrenzy of party and the zeaots of sectional
interests Mr. Webster has become the codier of our
duties as Americansthe Aristotle of republican reason
1t can hardly be expected that such should have
been fully appreciated in the age in which he lived it
for posterity TO do him Justice.
Gas to Mr.. Websters administration of the State De-
partmenthe last theatre of his official actst has been
distinguished by the peculiar characteristics of his genius
Mr. Webster perhaps the first Secretary Of State
who IN his own person, represented the dignity and
strength OF our Government The influence of foreign Ii
pomasts sank into utter insgncance by his side while
the representatives of the exhausted Governments of
Europe stood in of his intellectual vgor and those
prodigious powers of mind which made him not only
pleader, but judge in all national affairs. Mr. Webster
the first American Secretary of State who in his
official capacity pointed to the radical difference between
the basis of all European Governments and that of the
United States twas he who for the first time claimed
for his country not merely the position of member of
the family of nations by virtue of the public law of Eu
founded fact
which marks the development and progress of the human
race. Mr.. Websters letter to the Austrian official at
Washington marks an era in American diplomacy scarcely
approached by the imagination Of his predecessors in the
State Department General Cass had traced its outlines
but Mr. Webster first promulgatedt the world under
the great seal Of the State. The date of Mr. Websters
letter to Cheyaer Huemann is that of the emancipation
OF American diplomacy from the shackles of European
precedents and constitutes the long looked-for answer
of the United States to the resolutions adopted at the
Congress Of Laybaeh and Verona.
Mr.. Websters detractors pronounced him cold and
unfeellng because he not impulsve, and not APP
proachabe through the usual Of vanity and self
love- Yet Mr.. Webster possessed cxuberant fancy,
delicate and refined taste and appreciation bordering
enthusiasm of the sublime and beautiful Milton and
Shakespeare his favorite Saxon poets as he ever
loved the pathetic and the truthful Cicero and Demos
themes his models Of oratory though he surpassed
them both in the severity of his dicon and in the com
prehensiveness of his ideas, which gushed like an mpet
uous stream from the rich fountain Of his teemng mind
Mr. Websers taste and genius made him eminently So
cial being an attached friend and devoted husband
and father Nothing could exceed his tabe-tak among
friends II more instructive and certainly more en-
tertaning than other mems essays Gold and unfeel-
ing men create sympathies They may have patrons
and clients but they have friends Ii is not the peo-
pie at large that penetrate into great mans cham
ber read the sentiments which treasured up in the
recesses Of his heart But who of all the prominent
statesmen Of the country, boast Of large number
Of prominent friends ready have shown
70 follow him into political exile? These the promi-
nent witnesses who bear testimony Mr. Webster exat
ed humanity the camor Of politicians, and the inder-
ence Of those who follow them only furnish the evidence
by which his age and his country will be judged by pos
terity.
= Mr. Webster a universal man, and a universal
statesman He could not have lived in any quarter Of
the globe without leaving his name in its history He
and would have exercised controlling influence on its
destiny One such would have saved the French
Revolution from ptrsa- the quicksands OF military
glory while England herself would have revered in him
the conservative statesman whose well-consdered po
would have impaired fresh impetus TO her gigantic in
dusria development While the nation depores his loss
there is but man. in all the land ht to his
eulogy That is General CAss-like the ilustrious
deceased, native Of New Hampshire and cassmate Of
his at school, There is other now living
approaching the great departed in atainments expert
ence, comprehensyeness Of genius and when LEWIS
CAss shall leave the stage, which he has performed
many high Intellectual and noble parts Clios the pen-
sve Of history will find orator worthy Of her
theme"
literary journal says that Of all public men Mr.
WEBSTER cultivated most and most relied on the strength
and graces Of literature the structure Of his speeches
BY him style and language have been most carefully con-
dered and he has furnished passages Of the pure crys