Weekly national intelligencer., 1852-10-30
WASHINGTON.
Liberty aud Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable.0
MONDAy, OCTOBER %. 1852,
DEATH OF DANIEL WEBSTER.

DEATH OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
Tb1 emblems of wo which shroud our columns
toby will announce to our readers National Ca
lanity. The sad event has fallen upon us which
he tidings for the last few days had rendered but
too certain was soon to strike the National heart
: with sorrow,
DANIEL WEBSTER breathed his last at Marshfeld
yesterday morning, at three o'clock. Thus, one
after another rapid succession the great lights of
our country and of the world pass away. Less
than four short months ago his great compeer CLAY
descended to the tomb and already the greatest of
surviving Americans takes his place also in the "cata
combs of time" What can We say of this national
calamity which. every bosom does not feel? The
ruptured ties of friendship and personal affection
might add their private grief; but these could not
swell the tide of public sorrow, could we pre-
sumo to attempt thus suddenly to do justice to the
life and character of the illustrious dead. That
duty must be left to more fitting occasion and to
ADLER hands.
More appropriate than any thing which we could
pen, add the closing remarks of the Sermon pro-
nounced yesterday by one of our most eloquent Di-
city little before the hour of morning service in
our churches. The sermon was on the subject of
Death, and from this text of the Goth psalm, 'We
spend our years as tale that is told" After an
| impressive discourse on the solemn theme, the
Preacher paused and then resumed as follows:
"My friends you all understand why l have
chosen for the subject of this mornings meditation
the most solemn event that can address itself to
mortal men-DEATH-th hour, the crisis of our
| departure from this ife This morning brought as
tidings of such an event Ii occupies the whole
public mind: we feel that it is ordinary event
From high place in this Government-from a
place still higher in the estimation Of his country
men-from the highest place, | suppose, on this
continent, in intellectual power, great man mas
passed away He is gone he is gone! How dift-
cult, how almost impossible, to realize it de was
so with us and Of US he was so part OF tins ma
ton and of this nations life and history mat the
very world, this American world, feels a shock IN
this disruption of his ties to it. He is gone
. DANIEL WEBSTER is dead That vast space which
he occupied is darkened that great and majestic
presence has passed away
"You mourn for him. There pfe friends OF his
here whose hearts are stricken or his loss. 1t IS
not a great man only that you hVe lost but man
YOU loved His was not wgeshc presence only,
but, to those who knew hin well, presence the
most winning. No conversation perhaps was ever
more captivating than hjsn his, hours OF ease and
unbending from broodpg thought and weghty care
/ think / never sawthe cloud OF brow so dark
at times. beam forl a sweeter smile
@Am 7 saving4hat he had no faults If he had,
,et the nall of Jeath cover them to-day. But of
what mortal pan shall that be said? Yet this
saw that tbse who imagined that in the majestic
nronort;on/ of his nature, the heart had no place
have nttIiy misconceived him. And this, too,
sav. thb, in the moral judgments which his polit-
cal o,ponents were accustomed to pass upon his
dali life, no man, am thoroughly convinced, was
eyf more misrepresented,
"a But it is not my part to pronounce his eulogy.
That belongs to others. This country, indeed, to
which his life was devoted-this country in its
yhoe length and breadth, bears his eulogy The
hame Of DANIEL WEBSTER will be known and cele-
ybrated as long as this nation shall endure.
II am reminded in this connexion Of what one
of his great compeers in political life Mr. CALHOUN
once said in conversation upon the question, What
is the highest human greatnessp What is the
greatest action that a man can performH He said
t was this: for man to speak, in difficult and
perilous national emergency, THE GREAT WORD, that
should give guidance and deliverance to his people
For (said he) it implies the largest knowledge of
the past the clearest foresight of the future, and
the fullest comprehension Of the present. MIR.
Webster more than once, spoke that WORD. 1t was
given TO him in perilous emergencies to stand by
the Constitution and Union of his country, with
sage wisdom and giant strength.
And many other words did he speak, in the
Senate and the Forum, which the world will not
let die 1t is most fortunate that among the last
cares of his life was the collection under his eye,
of his speeches into Volumes which destined to be
read, marked, and noted as long as there is an Anne
rican or Englishman to read any thing.
" But he is gone All our thoughts of him now
yield to that thought-he is gone The voice is
lsilent; the eye is quenched the brow that awed
the world is but cold, dead, senseess clay Oh
Life how art thou but a tale that is told 7 We
say few words IN memoria,n /; we take our last
look, or feel that the last look is taken we shed
some natural tears and all is over.
"Oh in the infinite realm Of the unseen life
there is place for all souls What awaits them
there is not decided by what we say here. We bow
before the infinite wisdom Of God To his infinite
care and mercy we commit the dead, and we com
mend the living we commit the dead, who is gone,
and we commend the living, who mourn for him.
" Yes, we commit, we yield him up to Gods be-
hest il is all over; the last struggle is past; the
strugglc tho strife, the anxiety, the pain, the tur
moil Of life is over the tale is told and finished
~ r1~ p.~ novx,.. n.~~~