Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1852-11-10
0be paiIp Dirainia,1.
Remarks ofNIr. Choate on the Deati,
OF Mr. webster.

We thpy tnclouoAlnB itpolt w hc 'Sfi"''.'
of Mr.. Choate, in the United States Circuit
Court, OF Boston, on presenting to the Court
the resolutions Of the Suffolk Bar, in relation
to the death of Mr.. WEBSTER
May u pleasc your HonorS | hove been
requested by the Members ofthe Bar of this
Court to add few words to the resolutions
just read, in which they have embodied, as
they were able, their sorrow for the death of
their beloved and ius,rious member and coun-
tryman. DANIEL WEBSTER; their estimation
OF his character, life, and genius; their sense oil
the bereavemcni--to the country and 10 his
friends, incapable OF the repair; the pride,
The fondness, the filial and patriotic pride and
fondness. with which they cherish, and
would con,ign TO history to cherish, the men,
ory of n great and good man.
And yet could earnestly have desired 10
be excused from this duty. He must have
known Mr. Webster less, and loved him less
thun your lIonors. or than have known and
loved, him who canquite yet-qute yct--betore
we can comprehend that we have lost him
forever before the first paleness with which the
news Of his death oyersprcad our cheeks has
passed away; before we have been down to
lay him in the Pilgrim soil lie loved so well,
till the heavens be no more, he must have
known aud loved him less than we have done,
" who can come here quito yet TO recount tho
series OF his services; TO display with psychoo-
gical cxactness the traits Of his nature and
mind; TO ponder and speculate on the secrets,
on the marvellous secrets OF that vast pow er
which We shall see more in action, nor
aught in any degree resembling it, among men.
These first moments should be given to grief.
1t may employ, may promote. calmcr mood
to constuct more elaborate and less unworthy
memorial.
For the purposes Of this moment and place,
indeed, no more is needed What is there for
this court or this bar to learn from me, 10 learn
here and now of him The year and the day
ofhis birh-tha, birth place on the frontier yet
bleak and waste; the we'll at which his child
hood drank-dug by that father of HON he
said that through the fire and blood OF seven
years revolutionary war he shrank from no
danger, no toll. no sacrifice, 10 serve his coun-
try, and to raise his children TO condition bet
Ter than his own the elm tree that father plan
ted fallen now, as father and son have fallen;
that training oftbe giant infancy on catechism
and Bible and Watts version of the psalms,
and the traditions ofPlymouth, and Fort Viii
liam and Mary, and the revolution and the
age of Washington and Franklin-on the banks
of the Merrimack, flowing sometimes in flood
and anger, from his secret springs in the crys-
tai hllls--thc two district school, masters, Chase
and Tappan--,he village library-the dawning
Of the love and ambition Of letters-the few
months at Exter and Boscawen, the life of col
lego, the probationary season of school-teach-
ing, The clerkship IN the Fryeburg registry OF
deeds, his admission to the bar, presided over
by Judges like Smith, illustrated by practisers
such as Mason, where by the studies, in tho
contentious of nine years, he laid the founda
tons of the professional mind his irresistible
attraction to public life the Grafton on com
merce; the Rockingham resolutions; his first
term Of four years service in Congress. when
by one bound he sprung to his place by the
side Of the foremost OF the rising American
statesman; his removal TO this State, and then
the double and parallel current in which his
life, studies, thoughts, cares, have since flowed
bearing him to the leadership of the bar by
universal acclaim; bearing him to the leader
ship of public life-last of that surprising
shall VIC say the greatest, most
widely known and admired of all these things,
to their minutest details are known and re-
hearsed familiary. Happier than the younger
Piny. happier than Cicero. he has found his
historian, unsolicited, in his life time-and his
countrymen have him all by heart.
There is, then, nothing to tell you; nothing to
bring TO mind. And then, if | may borrow the
language of one of his historians and friends
one of those through whose beautiful pathos the
common sorrow uttered itself yesterday in Fan
euil Hall" | dare not come here and dismiss
in few summary paragraphs the character of
one who has filled such space in the history,
" ho holds such place in the heart of his coun-
try. 1t would be disrespectful familiarity to a
no, of Lis Infiv apirif hio oraat so,,l b.o r;,b
endowments. his long and honorable life. to
endeavor thus TO weigh and estimate, them
half hour of words, handful of earth, for ff-
y years of grea, deeds on high places
But, although the time does not require any
hing elaborated and adequate-forbids it rah.
broken sentences of veneraiion and
ove may be indulged to the sorrow which op-
presses us.
There presents ITSELF on the first, and to any
observation OF Mr.. Webster's life and charac-
pr n fol