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

were te hrst sweet tones OF inexpcable but delightful
influence OF that voice, unconrmed yet, and unassur
ed whose more expression charmed and sus
Pended the soul OF nation To read these essays
disapponts you somewhat AS Qnint;lian says Of Hor-
tensius, APpor oclsse auid dice gnod lgentes
'nvenlHass Some spell there was in the spoken word
which the reader misses To find the secret Of that spell
yon must recall the youth Of Webster Beloved fondy,
and appreciated by that circle much as by any audience
larger more exaetng more various and fit which af
terwards he found any where known to be manly Just,
pnre generous aeconate known and felt by his strong
Will MS high aims his commanding character, his
common ana dIihcu studies he had every hearts
est good wish with him when he rose and them when,
unchecked by any very severe theory Of TASTE unop
pressed by any dread Of saying something incompatible
With his place aId fame unequal himself he Just
the deep spring Of that eloquent feeling which,
connexon With his power Of mere intellect was such
stuPenaous psycholosicAl mystery aand gave heart a
soul not g the conduct Of argument or tho jhyes
CATION and display Of truth Of tho reason, but to
fervid, beautiful and prolonged emotion to grief
TO cuiogy to the patriotism of scholars why need we
doubt or wonder they looked that presiding brow
the eye large sad unworldy incapable to be fahomed
the lip and chin whose frmness chiseled perfect
marble, profoundest sensbility alone caused to
trembe why wonder at the traditions of the charm which
they owned, and the fame which they even then pre-
dicted?
His college life closed in 1901 For the statement that
he had thought of selecting the profession of theology
the surviving members of his family his son and his
brother inaw, there is no foundation. Ger
tany he began at the study of the law and inter-
rupted only by the necessity of teaching academy
few months, with which he united the recreation Of
cordng Deeds he prosecuted it at Salisbury in the Office
Of Mr. Thompson, and at Boston in the office of Mr.
Gore, until March, 1906, when, resisting the sharp temp
taon of clerkship and annual salary of fifteen hun
| dred dollars he admitted to the bar.
And so lie has put the robe of manhood, and has
come to do the work of life. OF his youth there is
need to say more It had been pure happy strenuous
in many things privileged. The influence of home, of
his father and the excellent mother and that noble bro
ther whom he loved dearly and mourned with such
sorrow-these influences his heart, principles WILL
/ n1p nalax nfala n1ufrnp
parativey the then great distinction Of liberal education
was his His college life brilliant and without
stain and in moving his admission to the bar Mr.. Gore
presented him as one of extraordinary promise.
With prospects bright, upon the world he
Pure love of virtue, strong desire Of fame:
Men watched the way his lofty mind would take,
ana all foretold the progress he would make
And yet, if day as that season was drawing
its close it had been foreold to him that before his life
prolonged to little more than threescore years and ten
should end he should see that country in which he
coming 10 act his part expanded continents the
thirteen States of 1901 multiplied thirty-one; the
ritory of the northwest and the great valley below
full Of those stars of empire the Mississippi fored and
the Sabine, and Rio Grande and the Nueces the pom
derons gates Of the Rocky Mountains opened shut
more; the great tranquil become her area
seven times larger, her people five times in
ber that through al experiences of trial. the madness of
party the injustice of foreign Powers the vast enlarge
men Of her borders the unagonisms Of interior interest
and feeling the spirit of nationality would grow stronger
still and more plastic that the tide of American feeling
more scientific her arts various and instructed and
better rewarded; her commerce winged TO a wider and
stl wider fight that the part she weuld pay in
affairs would grow nobler ever, and recognised;
that in this vast growth Of national greatness time would
be found for the higher OF the soul that her
popular and her higher education would go advauc
ng that her charities and all her enterprises of pha
thropy would enlargng that her age Of ettered
glory would find its auspicous dawn and then il had
been also foretod him that with her growth and
strength, should his fame grow ami be established and
cherished there where she should garner up her heart
that by long gradaons Of service and labor he should rise
to be- before he should Of DEATH of the peerless
among her great ones that he should win the double
honor and the double wreath Of professional and
public supremacy that he should become her wisest to
counsel and her most eloquent to persuade that he should
come to be called the Defender of the and
preseryer Of honorable peace that the austcre glory
suhepg TO save the Union should be his that his DEATH
at the summit Of greatness the verge Of ripe and
venerable age should be distinguished less by the flags
at halfmast and lake, less by the minue-gun
less by the public procession and the appointed euogy
than by the sudden paeness oversprcadng all faces by
gushing tears, by sorrow, thoughtful boding, SILENT the
senfe OF desoateness if renown and grace dead
as the hunters path and the sailors in the great so
tude of wilderness henceforward lonely
and less safe than beforehand this prediction been whs
pered, how calmly had that perfect sobrety Of mind put
il all aside perncious or idle dream Yet in the
fuhlmen of that prediction told the remaining story
Of his life.
1t does not within the plan which have marked
out for this discourse repeat the incidents Of that sub
sequent history The conspicuous are known to YOU
and the whole American world Minuter details the time
does not permit nor the occasion require Some quite
general views of what he became and achieved some at
tempt TO appreciate that intellectual power and force of
W and elaborate culture and that pewer Of eloquence
50 splendid and remarkable, by which he wrought his
work some tribute to the eudcarng and noble parts Of
his character and attempt to vinicate the pot
cal morality by which his public life guided
its last great act oil that PROPOSE and much more
than can hope worthiy to accomplish.
In coming, theD to consider what he became and
achieved have always thought it easy lay too
much stress in the first place. that realization Of what
might have been regarded incompatible forms Of superior
ity and that exempfcaon Of what mi ght have been
garded incompatible gifts requirements, rare in their
separate excellence wonderful in their special combna
tion, which meet Ms In him every where Remark first
That cmnence, rarv, n unprecedented, of the first
rate in the two substantially distinct and unkndred pro-
essions that Of the law and that OF public life. In sur
veying that ultimate and finished greatness in which he
stands before you in his full stature and It his best this
double and blended cminence is the first hing that xes
the eye and the last. When he died le was first of
American lawyers and first of American statesmen In
both characters he continued discharg the foremost
part in each, down to the falling Of tn awful curtain
Both characters he kept distinct the habs of mind the
forms Of reasoning the nature Of the profs the style of
eloquence Neither hurt nor changed to other. How
much his understanding was 'quickene and inveora-
ted" BY the law have often heard him aSnowedge and
explain But how in spite Of the law that mind by
other felicity and other culture, opened nd berazed
also How few Of what called the,ad intellectual
habits Of the bar be carried into the dut Of statesman
ship His interpretations of the constiton and of trea
ties; his expostons Of public law, how le do you nd
in them, where, f any where you would Spect H. Of tho
mere ingenuity, the moving Of 'vermicute questions
IN olastio +.