Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1852-11-03
DEArH OF DANIEL WEBSTER.

on Sunday morning last, VIII occasion profound
sensation through own country and the world.
He died at an advanced agein the seventy-frst year
of his ife-and in the foil possession of his faculties.
Mr.. Webster was unquestionably the greatest ora
tor in the world when he died. His superiority in
the school, in which he had made his own, was I'M
contested. He was an orator, not so much in the
mere graces of in those copioHs resources
with which he fortified and adorned his speeches.
| His style was at once solid and sublime. There is
depth of thought in his writings and in his speech
es, elevation of tone in the language in which he
clothed his ideas, and grandeur in his illustrations,
that will command admiration through all coming
time. He seemed to have taken for his model the
poetry of Milton. There is stately but harme NOUS
dignity, "a gorgeous style Of imagery, and deep
and music in the productions of w ebster,
that remind forcibly of the rich and massive
of the immortal bard AT the bar, well as in the
Senate Mr. Webster confessedly the head of all
others in the great qualities which he abundantly
possessed. He no less thorough a lawyer
than he was resistless advocate, but he exceed
in the arena of tho national Legislature. That was
the scene of his greatest triumphs. What he said
there will live long the language, and in the tu-
ture generations of men will profit by the great
ideas he uttered the great principles he defended
opposed, and the example he left to posterity OF his
unrvalled powers in every field of intellectual con-
troverSy.
Mr. Webster, throughout his life, belonged to the
whig federal party. But although some of his
greatest efforts called out in opposition to the
antagonists of that party more than one occasion
he gave his best energies 10 the cause OF his country
II these occasions that he laid broad and Sc
the foundations of deathless renown. 1t was
on these occasions that he seemed glow with in
SEPARATION. 1t these occasions that he gave to
mankind the noblest and grandest creations of his
intellect. The poet may aud This part OF his history
10 the Skies the painters art may exhaust itself IN
trying to preserve the ineamens of the great orator
these moments; but his best title to the gratitude
of his country and his securest hold upon future adj
miration and reverence, founded in the works
themselves, which, in ali the splendor of eoqueEce,
in all the majesty of patriotism, and in all the soidty
of frnth Wi Ike
monuments to his memory.
Some of Mr.. Webster's great speeches as full
of dramatic power and enhancing interest the pro-
auctions of the old masters. His orations at the lay
ing Of the corner stone, and the completion OF the
Bunker Hill monument; his reply to Mr.. Hayne !;
his speech at the New York dinner his discourse
on the characters of Thomas Jefferson and John
Adams-these will survive to the latest period OF llme
in all the grandeur and symmetry of their proportions
The life of such man as Daniel webster Is a ms
tory of his country. He was cotemporaneous with
of the greatest events and many OF the greatest
men of the last fifty years. His education COM
menced almost at the moment that the constitution
went into being, and from that period down to the
presen; he has been actor in many of the most i'm
portant scenes in the progress Of the republic When
such man lives, the space he fills Is large, and the
influence he yields is commanding. He leads mass
es of men by his genius, and he may make and nm
make great party. When he dies it is like botting
a star from the heavens. We feel his loss more
sibly, it is loss that cannot be supplied.
Mr. Webster was more emphaticalIy at the head OF
the whig party than any other man but Henry Clay.
He early attached 10 the federal party, and he
adhered it with a!dor after had assumed another
name. But Mr.. Webster survived the affections of
his party He lived long enough to realize its heart
lessLess and its ingratitude. He saw 1t flourish UNI
der the prestige of his master intellect, and succeed
under the bold leadership of Clay; and he was proud
of it. But when the fate of Clay was made mani
fest to the world-when that great champion was
thrown aside for the glitter of availability that
never could have been triumphant if the wing party
had not been made strong by his brilliant leadership
then Mr.. Webster must have felt that his fate
foreshadowed, and that his own doom was writ
ten. Presented to the very last Wing National Con-
venton, he was called upon to undergo in his own
person the final and severe trial. He saw the party
to which he dedicated the best years of his life
whose pathway the steady golden radiance of his
genius had more than once lighted to vctory-tramP-
ling his just aspirations under foot; and, on the one
hand, sacrificing his friends and himself for their he
roic stand in favor of the Union while. the other
hand they elevated the candidate OF the foes OF that
Union, the time dealing in professions OF re-
gard for the very principles they had Just before tried
destroy His proud spirit sank before this spec
tace of neglect and of ingrattude. The whole past
rushed upon his mind. His services and his sacTlh
for and his devotion to whg principles all came
back upon him to torture Intervening of his life and
poison the years he then believed be in store for
him. But, alas he calculated too confidently upon
his own powers of endurance. To fall for his prn-
cipes not to dishonor himself; but 10 fall under
the blows of those who have been made great by his
devotion to wing doctrines, who had many of them,
OOIdlneu OIHce anu power III HIS ndIne-IuIS "dS
fate for which all his former disappointments, and all
the outrages heaped upon Henry Clay, had not pre-
pared him. He feel wounded by the daggers of those
who had fawned upon and fattered him; who had
called him I" godlike,' and made him the idol of their
prayers and their praise. Well may say of this !
sad sequel of his life, in the language of the poet
"'Twas thine friends who gave the fatal blow |
And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low. |
So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to again,
Viewed his own feathers the fatal dart,
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pnion which impeled the steel.''
Even the grave, wherein all the hatreds of pass
sion and of party should be bu ried and forgotten,
has secured Mr.. Webster from the harsh and Bit
prosecutions of his former partisans. His death
the signal for the unconeealed and almost public
fluctuations of the friends of Scott at the national
capital. Because, in the moment of his sorrow and
Sickness he turned his back upon political malignty,
and retired home to die in peace, declining with the
sad dignity of stricken heart to add his own voice
to the migrate sentence which had condemned him,
the hounds of faction let loose upon his track,
and now his honored remains they howl their
chorus of They forget all his abors in their
behalf-hs long years of championship of whig meas
ures, and the luste he had shed upon the whg faith
They forget ALL and remember only the dark spots in
character which they have tried Defy for nearly
half century, They forget all, because at the last
moment of his career Mr.. Webster would not, or
could not. dishonor himself and stain his fame
by applauding what he conceived to be the degrada-
ton of his party and the signal of It's utter and its
annihiIating overthrow First he is Frustrated in the