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

III
led to be Unniss look round on field workshop and
deck ana near We music OF labor rewarded fed and pro-
eced look on he bright siserhood of the States each
singing as serph IN her motion, yet blending in COM
mon beam ana sfeing common harmony and there is
nothing which Pes not bring him by tie to the me-
mory Of America.
We to e his form and hear his deep grave speech
every where ny some felicity Of his personal life by
some wise deep or beautiful word spoken or written by
some service OF his own, some cOmmemoraton Of the
services OF Others has come to pass that our granite
hills our inland and praires and fresh unbounded
magnificent wilderness Z; encircng ocean the rest
ing place of Pilgrims; newb born sister of the Pa
chic; our popular assemblies free schools all our
cherished doctrines of education, and Of the influence of
religion, and material policy and law and the Constitu-
ton, give us back his What American landscape
will you look on what subject Of American interest will
you Study what Of hope ofanxiety as Anne
rcan, will you acknowledge, that does recall him
have reserved until could treat it separate and
final topic the consideration Of the morality Of Mr. Web
sters public character and ife To his fame the
kind and degree Of influence which that large series Of
great actions and those embodied thoughts Of great in
teect to exert the futureths is the aimpdtant
consideration In the last speech which he made the
Senatethe last Of those which he made, he sa for
the Constitution and the Union and which he might have
commended, Bacon his and memory, g to mems
charitable speeches. foreign nations and the ges
yet with better hope-he asserted " The ends Jim at
shall be those Of my country, my God, and truth that
praise hisg
accorded to him by almost universal
as general and as expressive of profound and intelligent
convicton and of enthusiasm love- and trust
ued conspicuous craftsmanship tried by many crises Of
affairs in great nation, agated by parties, and
wholly free.
That he had admitted into his heart desire to win by
deserving them the highest forms of public honor many
would have said; and they who loved him fondly,
and felt the truest soliciude that he should carry good
conscience and pure fame frightening to the end would
not have feared to concede For he ignorant of him
SELF and he therefore knew that there nothing within
the Union Constitution, and law too high too large
too difficult for him. lie believed that his natural or
his acquired abilities, and his policy Of administration,
would contribute to the true glory Of America and he
held theory of ethics which required him to dsparage
to suppress, to ignore vast capacities of public service
merely because they his If the fleets Of Greece
were assembling, and her tribes buckling their
from Laconia to Mount olympus from the promontory Of
Sunum to the isle rthest the west and the great epic
action was opening it was not for him to ain insanity
docy to escape the pers the honor of command But
that all this in him Ind been ever in sabordnation to
prncplcd and beautiful public virtue; that every
tona bias, every party tie well every personal
piring, had been uniformly held by him for nothing
against the claims Of country that nothing lower than
country seemed worthy enough-nothng smaller than
country large enoughfor that great heart would not
have been questioned by whisper. Ali if any hour
before that day he had died. how would then the great
procession Of the people of Amercathe great trumphal
procession of the deadhave moved onward to his grave
the sublimiy of national contrased
ragged by one feeble voice of calumny!
In that antecedent public life, embracing from 1872 to
loou-u perlou thlrty-elght years. hnd grandest
proofs of the genunenes and comprehensveness of his
patriotism and the bodness and manlness of his public
virtue. lie began his career of politics Federast
Such was his father, beloved and rcvered such his
literary and professional companions SUCH although by
very decisive certain preponderance the commun
ty in which he was bred and to live. Under that
name of party he entered Congress- personally, and by
connexon opposed to the which thought to bear
with such extreme sectional severity upon the North and
East And yet might almost say that the only thing
he imbibed from federasts federalism was love and
admiration for the Constitution the of union
That passion he did inherit from them; that he cherished
He came into Congress opposed, as | have said, to
the war; and behold him. If you would judge of the quail
ity Of his political ethics in opposition Did those elo
quent lips, at time of life when vehemence and impru-
dence expected il ever and not ungraceful let fall
word Of faction Did he deny power
the General Government which the soundest expostors
of all creeds have aoweditf Did he breathe yla-
States against the Union which could hold out hope
aid to the enemy which sought tended to turn back
to chill the fiery tide Of and intense nationality
then bursting up to flow and burn till all things appoint
ed America do shall be fulfilled? These questions
their substance he put to Mr.. Calhoun in 1888, in the
Senate and that great man. of the authors Of tho
war; just then, only them in relations unfrendly to Mr.
Webster and who had just insnuated reproach on his
conduct in the war, silent. Did Mr.. Webster con-
tent himself even with Directing to the details Of the mode
in which the Administration waged the war? No. indeed
Taught by his constitutional studies that the Union was
made in part for commerce. familiar with the habits Of
our long line of coast knowing well how many sailors and
fishermen, driven from every sea by embargo and war
burned go the gundeck and ayengc the long
of England the element where she had inflicted them
his opposition to the manifested itself by teaching
tho nation that the deck her field Of fame Non III
imperum elogi sGUuaqUe dente, sed nobis sorte datum
But might recall other evidence Of the sterling and
unusual qualities of his public virtue Look in how
y sort he not merely conducted particular argument
particular speech, but in manly sort, in how
high moral Tone he uniformly dealt with the mind
his country. Politicians got advantage of him for
this while he lived let the dead have just praise to-day
Our public life is one long eeconeering and even Burke
tells you that at popular elections the most rigorous
casuists viii remit something their severity But where
do you find him fatterng his counrymen, indirectly
directly, for vote On what did he place himself
but good counses and useful service His arts manly
arts, and he day of temptation when he
would rather fall than stand any other. Who
heard that voice cheering the people to rapacity to
injustice, to vain and guilty glory? Who ever saw that
pencil of light hold up picture Of manifest destiny to
dazzle the fancy? How anxiousy rather in and
out by the energetic eoquence of his youth by his
sells bequeathed the verge Of timely grave he pre-
errcd to teach that by all possible acquired sobriey
mind by asking reverently Of the past, by obedience tc
the law by habits of patient and legitimate labor by the
cultivation Of the mnd by the fear and worship of God
educate ourselves for the future that is revealing
Men said he did not sympathze with the masses because
his phraseology rather Of old and simple school
rejecting the and vain repetons of humanity
and philanthropy progress and brotherhood in which
may Turk heresics dreadful Of socialism disunon
in which selfish, hollow, and shallow ambition may
mask tsef-the syren song which would lure the pilot
from his course But say that he did sympathze with
them and because he did, he came to them not with
aduation but with truth not with words to please but
with measures to them not that his popular sym
pathes were less but that his personal and intellectual