Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-03-11
WHO KICKED THE DEAD LION,

by, exalted him to the skies, and dwarf
ed every man of that intellectual pre-
cinet in whose era he hourished, or with
whom he might be brought into COM
parisou! 1t seems incredible, but so it
is, nevertheless; and a correspondent
who was familiar with Daniel Webster
and his great career in the history ofthe
country which he loved and defended
''against all comers,' even to the close
of his life, thus vents his disapproval
Of the critics assumptions, and the ar
gumeRts upon which they are based.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
have just finished reading Mr.. Par
toms paper upon Webster, in the last
number Of the North American Review,
that ''high old journal which has re-
Hected for SO many years distinguished
honor upon the literature Of our country
both at home and abroad. | have a
high respect for Mr.. Parton, for he has
q most attractive style, and groups his
subjects and poses his sitters with the
skill Of a practiced hand and the observ-
ant eye Of a true artist. But in his
sketch Of Webster he has belittled his
theme, and his hand seems to have 'lost
its cunning"
| have but space to advert to a few
only Of the assumptions which Mr.. Par
ton makes in the article alluded to. In
the FIRST place, Mr.. Webster's leading
trait was ''his enormous physical mag
netism," by which his every presence
overwhelmed criticism" Now, did not
this very physical magnetism, coupled
with the fact also adduced that he ''liked
large things'-(mountains, great rivers,
wide fields, the ocean, the Urion, all
things Of magutude) make them what
he was, the most impressive-the most
memorable public speaker We have
ever had in this country since the forma-
ton of the Constitution? Look at his
SMILES, illustrative of whatever subject
he had in hand. They are all drawn
from some great object in nature. None
| ofyour rose-water comparisons; nothing
efeminate, nothing small, nothing in
definite, or that required explanation by
way of enforcement, ever passed his lips.
l have all his works, complete; have
read them all, aud have not found
one: nor do all the anecdotes which
have been recorded of him since his
lamented death, mention q single in
| stance of this kind. So that if he
''loved all great things in nature he
| certainly made good use Of them.
When | went around in Collins steam
err, the Baltic, to Washington, and while
we were passing Mount Vernon, two
hundred and fifty passengers uncovered
on the spacious decks Il was in the
shrouds, and looked down upon their
upturned faces), the solemn tolling OF
the bell only illustrating the silence,
what do you think first came to my
mind? Why, this grand sentence of
Webster's: $50 long as this noble river,
on whose banks Washington was born,
on whose banks he lived, on whose
| banks he died, and on whose banks he
rests, still flows to the sea, SO long will
his memory survive in the hearts Of his
countrymen."
The tide was running out; the noble
Potomac, tinged with many-colored sun
| set-hues, wa flowing to the sea, and
felt the sublimity Of the illustration.
Perhaps it was enormous physical
magetism which suggested this exalted
sentiment; if so, | can only say that
wish there was more Of it in our mod
eru public men. No, gentlemen, there
were giants in those days, and Daniel
Webster was ''one Of EN-"
Some time ago I was in Boston, and
my room in the crowded hotel first
floor from the roof looked out, east
ward, upon the imposing granite shaft
of the Bunker Hill Monument. The sun,
Just rising, had touched its top with
fame, and was slowly running down.
ward to its base, to gild the crest Of the
eminence upon which it stands. Could
! choose but think Of what Webster said
in the presence of two hundred thousand
hearers, when the cornerstone of that
monument was laid!
"Let il rise! Let the last object to
the sight of him who leaves his native
shore, and the first to gladden. his who
r~evisits it, be something which shall
remind him Of the liberty and the glory
of his country. Let it risel let it rise,
till it meet the sun in his coming: let
the earliest light Of the morning gild
it, and parting day linger and play on
its summit
Everybody knows and feels, Of course,
his sublime ~peroration in the reply which
he made to Hayne, in his speech upon
Foot's Resolution. In that was exhibit
ed his glove for great things in Ma
tnre.r arising. from his
enormous physical organization. His
eye turned for the last time to the sun
in heaven, shining upon a glorious,
Union; upon a ''iag till high advanced,
not a star obscured, nor a stripe erased,
floating upon the land and upon the sea,
in every wind under the whole heaven"
ought to have partaken somewhat more
of the intellectual than the physical
brush. But posterity seems to think
that "good old Daniel" was about right
after all. LEWIS GAYLORD CLARK.