Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-17
BY RUFUS CHOATE.

By RUFUS CHOATE, IF
1t would be strange neglect Of beautiful and APP
proved Of the schools of learning and Of oe Of
the pous and appropriate of the Offices Of literature
the college in which the intellectual life Of Daniel Ncb
ster began, and to which his imparts charm bnd
illustration, should give formal expression to
grief in the common sorrow if she should not faw
near of the sad in the procession Of the beread
to the tomb at the sea- nd in all her classic shaqes
aectonate and grateful leaf to set in the taxnd
with which they have bound the brow Of her ehj1
mightiest departed Others mourn aud praise him =
his distant and general titles to fame and re-
membrancc his supremacy Of intelect his statesman-
ship many years his eoquenee Of and Of the
heart bis love Of country, incorrupbe conscientious
and ruling every hour and that greatness combined
of genius of character of manner of place. of achieve
ment which was just among us, and is not and yet
lives still and evermore You come his cherishng mother
to own closer tie, to indulge emotion personal
and fondgref and exultation contendins for
terry in the bosom of the desolated parent whose
tears could hinder him from exclaming, Z. would
not exchange my dead for any living of Chris
tendom"
Many places in our American world have spoken his
euogy To all places the service BETTING, for his
is it Of the of the whole country 2"
To it belonged with strong local proprety to dis
charge it. In the halls of Congress, where the majestic
form seems ever to stand and the deep tones to nger
the decorated scene of his larger abors and most diff
fusve gory in the courts of law to whose gladstone
light he loved to return putting again the robes Of
that profession ancient magistracy noble as virtue
necessary justice in which he found the beginning of
his honors; in Faneuil Hall, whose air breathes and
burns Of him in the commercial cities, to whose pur-
suits his diplomacy secured peaceful sea- in the cities
of the inland around whom his capacous public affcc-
tons and wise discernmen aimed develop the
counted resources of that other and that larger and
newer America; IN the pulpit, whose place among the
higher influences which exat State, our guide in lfe
consolation in DEATH he appreciated profoundly and
vindcated by weightiest argument and testimony OF
whose offices it is among the test mark and point the
moral of the great things of the world the exceency of
dignity and the exceency Of power passing away the
pride of the wayepassing from eye to take immor
talty IN these places, and such these there seemed
reason beyond and other than the universal calamity for
such honors Of the grave But if So how fit place this
for such service We among the where the
youth of Webster awoke first and fully the life of the mind
We stand, as it were at the sourcesphysical social,
moral, inteectual-of that exceeding greatness Some
now here that youth. Almost it was yours, Naum
pdrram racre Some, Of his instructors certainly
some possibly of his classmates college friends
some of the books he read of the apartments in
which he studied here. We almost call up from
their habtaton in the past in the fancy, the whole
spiritual circle which environed that time of his life the
opinions ne bad ePbraced the theories Of mind of re
gion Of morals Of philosophy TO which he had
dered himself the canons Of taste and criticism which
he had accepted the great authors whom be loved best
trOpnfeS
OF history which he had learned believed and begun to
interpre the shapes Of hope and fear in which gina
on began to bring before him the good and evil of the
future. Still the outward world is around you and
above you The sweet and solemn flow Of the river geam
ing through nteryale here and there margins and
pies Of the old woods but thnned and retrng the
range Of green hills yonder tolerant of culture to
the top but shaded then by prmeval forests whose
crest the last Of sunset fingered the summit of As
Quincy the great northern light that sets the
stelations that walk around and watch the pee the same
nature undecayed unchangeds Almost the doatres
OF the old paganism grow ineligible. Mdgnorum fani.
mum capita peneydmur, exclams Seneca SuJta et 1t
a5Tnpso pas aans crupfo haIer' We stand at the
fountain OF stream stand rather at the place whefe
stream, sudden and from hidden springs bursts light
and whence follow it along night our
Connecticut and trace its respenden pathway tie
and and would almost build affairs here
If may adopt the lofty language of Of the admirers
OF Wm Pitt, we come naturally to this place. if We
could thus recall every circumstance Of splendid
ton which contributed to fit the great the scene
of his glory We come, If better here than elsewhere
we could watch, fold by fold the bracng on of his Vu
canian panoply and observe with pleased anxiety the
leading forth Of that chariot which, borne irresistible
wheels and drawn by seeds of immortal race is crush
the necks Of the mighty and sweep away the sericd
strength Of armies"
And therefore it were filter that should ask Of rou
than speak TO you concerning him. Little indeed any
where be added that wealth Of euogy thathas
been heaped upon his tomb Before he died even,
nowned in two hemispheres, in he seemed 10 be
known with universal nearness knowledge lie walked
long and conspcuousy before the general eye his
actions, his opinions all things, which had been rge
enough to agtate the public mind for the last thirty years
and more had had importance and consequences 50
waited for, passionatey canvaised
not adopted always into the particular measure nor de-
Gliding the particular vote Of Government the country
yet sinking deep into the Of the pcopea stream
of influence whose fruits it is yet too for political
philosophy to appreciate completely impression Of his
extraordinary intellectual endowments and Of their
har superiority in that most imposing and nellirible
of all forms Of manifestation, the moving Others minds
by speech; this impression had grown universal and
hxed and II had kinded curiosity hear him and read
him so wide and so largely indulged; his individuality
altogether absolute and pronounced the force
OF will no less than the power Of genius the type
and fashion Of his mind less than its general magni
tude, were so distinctly shown through his musca and
transparent styles the exterior Of the man. the grand
terry OF brow and the deep tones the solemny
sovereignty, as of those who would build States where
every power and every grace did to set its se
had been made by personal observation by description
by the exaggeraton even of those who had felt the SPELL
by art the daguerreotype and picture and statue
mar to the American eye, craven the memory like
the Washington of Stuart the narrative of the in
cdents Of his life had been so often todby some 50 au
and with such skiand had been literally
committed to heart that when he died there seemed to be
little left but to when and how his change with
what dignity, with what possession Of himself with what
loving thought for others, with what gratitude to God
uttered with unaterng voice. that was appointed to
MN there to die to how thus leaning the rod and
staff of the promise he took his way into the great dark
ness undismayed, till death should be swallowed up of
grave and turning and pausng and joining their voices
to the voices Of the sea, bade him hail and farewell
And yet hardly know what there is in public biogra
ply, what there is in literature to be compared in its