Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1856-03-15
Nr. Webster's Natural Affections.

AAs "Voot0A N6tuAA4 d0oct4VuD.
Mr.. Everett, in late address thus ell
oquently and justly speaks of the ma.
lions greatest statesman, the lamented
Daniel Webster:
''Let me not conclude my friends,
without speaking of a still more endear.
ing aspect of Mr.. Webster's character,
| mean the warmth and strength of his
kindly natural affections. The great
sympathies Of true, generous spirit,
were as strongly developed in him as the
power Of his frame or the ca
pacities Of his mighty intellect. In all
the gentle humsn,ties of life he had the
gentleness of woman, He honored
his parents, he loved brother and sister
and wife and child; he cherished friend
and neighbor, the companions Of boy
hood, townsman, aged schoolmaster,
humble dependant, faithful servant, and
cultivated all the other kindly instincts
if others there be, with the same steadi.
ness, warmth and energy o: soul with
which he pursued the great secular OBJ
jects of life. Mere social complaceucy
may bave selfish basis but Mr.. Web
ster's heart was full Of pure disinterested
love. Religious conviction is an act of
the understanding, but he bowed to the
Infinite with the submissiveness of child.
With what tenderness he contemplated
the place of bis birth ; how fondly he
pointed TO the site OF the humble cot
tage where he first drew the breath of
lite .; how he valued the pa,ernal trees
that shaded it ; how his heart melted at
the thought Of the sacrifices made by
his aged pareut-the hard working vet
eran Of two wars-to procure him an
education how lie himself toiled to Sc
cure that advantage to his older brother; !;
how be cherished the fond sympatbies Of
husband and father; how lie sorrowed
over the departed ; how he planted bis
grief, if may say so, in the soil at
Marsh6eId, in designating the trees by
the names of his beloved son and daugh-
ter! How beautiful the dedications in
which he has consigned his friendships
and his loves to immortality! How
sublime aud touching the pathos Of his
last fareweiis; how saint-like the medita-
ton OF his departing spirit! How can
1 attempt to do justice to topics like
these. whose sacredness shr,nks from the
most distant approach to public discus
sion These were the pure fountains
from which he drew not merely the
beauty, but the strength Of bis character,
every faculty OF his mind and every pur.
pose of his will deriving new strength
and iervor from the warmth of his
heart.
But some one NAV ask, were there no
shadows upon this bright picture-no
spots upon the disc of this meridian sun
Was he at length.
or did he partake of the infirmities of our
common humanity! Did this great in
tellectual, emotional, and physical organ
ization, amidst the action and re action
of its vast energies, its intense conscious
ness Of power, its soaring aspirations, its
hard struggles with fortune in early life
its vehement antagonisms Of later Pc
Rod, the exhi|arations Of triumph, the
Iassitudes of exertion, did it never under
the urgent pressure Of the interests, she
passions, the exigencies Of the hour, d.
verge in the slightest degree from the
golden mean in which cloistered philos>
ophy places absolute moral perfection
To this question, which no one has
right to put but an angel, whose serene
vision no mote distempers; to which nc
one will expect a negative answer but
Pharisee with beam in lis eye big
enough for the cross-tree ofa synagogue
I make no response. l confine mysel
to two reflections; first, that, while tenn
porary merit is for the most part grud
eingl ' estimated, the faults Of very
great men, placed as they are upon ar
em;nence where nothing can be concealed
and objects Of the most scrutinizlne
hostility, personal and political, are, like
the spots on the sun, seen for the mos
part through telescopes that magnify
hundred, thousand times; and, secone
that not seldom, in reference to questions
that strongly excite the public mind tn
IMPUTED error is on the side Of the Oh
server. We learn from the Earl Of Ross
that the most difficult problem in prac.
teal science is to construct lens which
will not distort the body it reflects
The slightest alteration from the tru,
curve of the specular mirror IS enoug,