The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-09-19

our much hcnorcd friend, bod seen him shattered
by disease, his all persuasive soice faint and langud
his beamjng eye quenchcd, avd no lc us In search
Of health in a foreign cline, . painful image and y
sad foreboding too soon fulfilled dwok upon my mind.
But on the morning Of the day when we we're TO pay the
last sad offices TO our rVnd, the sd Of july with sad
let net say repins thought that 30 much talent, 50
much learning, so mush coqucnce, much wit, SO much
wisdom much force Of intellect, much Kindness of
heart were taken from us, engraved likeness OF him
brought TO mo in which he seemed to live again. The
shadows OF disease and suffering had passed from tho
lis wonled serenity cheerful smile lighted up the iei-
lures genius kndled in the eye persuasion lowered over
the lips AND felt as If were going not 70 his funeral Sl
his triumph. weep not for me, " seemed 10 say, " out
weep for yourselves And never while he dweit among
us IN the feeble tabernacle Of the flesh never while the
oyertaked spirit seemed exhaust the delicate frame;
never as had listened TO the melody OF his living voice,
did he speak TO my imagination ami heart with snch
q touching though silent eioquence, rs whca we iot'
lowed his hcarse along these streets that bright mid
summers noon up the ria in front of this CAPT
ol, slowly moving to the solemn beat Of grand dead
marches, as they swelled from wailing clarion aud
mualed drum, while the minute guns from yonier
lawn responded TO the passing bell from yoner steepe
then understood the sublime significance Of the words,
which Cicero puts in the mouth Of Cato, that tho mind,
elevated tho foresight Of poserity, when departing
from this life, begins at length 70 live: yea, ths submer
words Of greater than Cicero, On, death where IS
thy sting oh, grave where is thy victory And then,
as we passed the abodes Of those whom he knew and
honored and loved, and who had gone beforc OF Law
renee here the left OF Prescott yonder on the right
this home where Hancock lived and Washington was re-.
ceived; this where Lafayette scjourned; this capitol
where his political course began, and on wn'cn 80
MANY patriotic concentrated felt, not as
if we were conducting another frat and weary body TO
the tomb but escorting noble prother u
the oongenia company OF the departed great and good
and was ready myself to excam, 80 prsscarum dini
cum ad ud drinuns animorun coacittum c1tas,qae pro
fscicar cumque hac urba q coun,Iohe, dtsceaaas"
TIE PERIOD WHICH MR. WEBSTER LIVED.
The period which Mr. Webster came forward in life
and during which he played distinguished part was
not one which small men, dependent upon their own
cxertous, likely 10 rise to high place in pubic es
tmaton The present generation OF young men arc
hardly aware Of the Of the storms that shook
the world at the time when Mr.. Webster became old
enough TO form the first childish conceptions of the nature
of the in progress at home and abroad His reco
cctons, he tells in photographed sketch, went
back the year l7eOa year when the political system
OF Continental Europe about 70 plunge into state Of
-ghtful disntegraton, while under the new constitution
the United States commencing unexampied career
Of prosperity; Washington just entering upon tn. first
Presidency OF the born repubhc the rcins Of the old
est monarchy in Europe slipping besmcarcd with blood,
from the hands Of the descendant Of thirty generations OF
kings The fearful struggle between France aud the allied
Powers succeeded, which strained the Of the
European governments TO their utmost tension Armies
and navies were arrayed against each other such the
civilized world had never seen before, and wars wagcd
beyond all former experience. The storm passed over
the Continent tornado passes through forest when
comes rolling and roaring from the Clouds and pros
trates the growth Of centuries in It's path England in
free Institutions had more than any other foreign coun
try weahered the Storm but Russia saw the arctic sky
lighted with the flames OF her old Muscove capital the
shadowy Kasers Of the house of Haisburg were COM
PEELED abdcate the crown of the Holy Roman Empire
and accept substitute that OF Austria; Prussia, stag
gcrng from Jena trcmbed the verge Of political
initiation; the other German States, Italy, Switzerland
Holland, and the Spanish Peninsula were convulsei
Egypt overrun Constan,nope and the East threatened
and many of these States institutions laws ideas and
manners were changed efectualy as dynasties With
the downfall OF Napoleon partial reconstruction of tho
old forms took place. bu. the political genius Of the Con-
tinent of Europe was revolutionixed
On this side Of the Atlantic the United States though
studying impartial neutrality, were drawn at first 70
some extent into the outer circles the terrific mael
but escaping they started of
national growth and developemen ofwhch the world has
witnessed other example Meantime, the Spanish and
the Portuguese VicerOyales south OF from Mexico 10
Cape Horn asserted their Independence that the Cstn
empire on which the sun never set was dsmembered aad
the golden chain was forever sundered by which Column
bus had linked half his found world 70 the throne Of
Ferdinand and Isabella.
HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Let me not be thought, however, in this remark,
TO intimate that these contemporaries at home were
second-rate far other WISE IL has sometimes
seemed 10 me that, owing to the natural reverence
in which hold the leaders OF the Revolutionary
period-ihe heroic age Of the country-and those
Of the constitutional age who brought out of chaos
this august system of confederate republicansm we
hardly do full justice TO the third period in political
history, which may be dated from about the time when
Mr.. Webster came into political hfe, and continued
through the first part his The heroes and sages
OF Their evolutionary and constitutional period indeed
gone-washington Franklin Greene, Hamilton, Morris,
Jay, slept their honorcd graves. John Adams Jefr-
son, Carroll though surviving, withdrawn from
affairs But Madison, who contributed much TO the
formation and adoption Of the constitution was at the
helm Monroe in the cabinet. John Quincy Adams, Gala
and Bayard negotiating in Europe, in the Senate
Rufus King, Christopher Gore, jeremiah Mason, Giles
isSnes II Aesss Il Forsyth Randolph
Oakley, Fkin, Grosvenor; the bench of the Supreme
Court Marshall Livingston, Story at the bar, Dexter,
Emmett, Pnkney and Writ, with many distinguished men
that time the general government OF whom il is
enough TO name De Witt Clinton and Chancellor Kent;
The opinion pronounced Of him, at the commencement
Of his by Mr. Lowndes, that the South had not in
Congress his superior the North his equal savors in
the form of expression of sectional partaty it had
been said that neither a. the South the North had any
public risen rapidly to brilliant reputation, no
one think would have denied the justice OF the remark
He stood from the first the acknowledged equal Of te
most distinguished Of his associates In later wears ne
acted with the of those have named with
Mel can Sergeant layton, Wilde Storrs, Bates,
Davis Gorhan Choat and others who still survive, but
position which he assumed at the outset Of his
stood second to any man any part Of the country After
summing the various important questions discussed in
Wcbster's time Mr.. Everett proceeded.
CAREER AZ eTATEsMAS.
Such the period in which Mr. Webster lived, such
the associates with whom he acted the questions
with which he had to deal statesman urst the head
Of administration Of the government and public
speaker Let US contemplate him for moment in either
capacity.
without passing through the preliminary stage of the
State Legislature and elected to Congress in six years
from the time Of his admission to the Superior Court
New Hampshire, he was, on his first entrance into the
House of Representatives. placed by Mr. Speaker Clay
the Committee of Foreign Affairs and took rank fmth
with Of the leading statesmen Of the day His first
speech had reference 70 those famous Berlin and Milan de-
crees and orders in Council to which have already al
luded; and the impression produced by it such to
lead the venerable Chief Justice Marshall, eighteen
years afterwards in writing to Mr. Justice Story,
to say At the time when this speech deliver
ed did not know Mr. Webster, but was ch
struck with it that did not hesitate then that
he a very able man, and would become one of the
very first statesmen in America perhaps the very 6rst'
His mind at the very outset of his career had, by kind
Of instinct scared from the principles which govern the
municipal relations Of individuals 70 those great rules
which dictate the law Of nations to independent states
He tells Us in fragment of diary kept while he
law student in Mr. Cores office, that he then read Vlite
through for the third time Accordingly in after c there
subject which he discussed with greater pleasure
and may add with greater power than questions Of the
law Of nations
The greatest parliamentary effort made by Mr. Webster
his second speech Foots resolution the question
at issue being nothing less than thsIs the constitution
of the United States compact without common umpire
between conederated sovereignties, il government
Of the people OF the United States sovereign within the
sphere OF its delegated powers but reservng great
of undelegaed rights TO the separate State governm
and the peopler With those who embrace the opinions
which Mr.. Webster combatted in this speech, this is
not the time nor the place TO engage in arguments
but those who believe that he maintained the true
prin of he will hal,I