Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-02-25
DANIEL, wRBsrER.
A New Rstimate Of His Character.

Daniel Webster, which is likely 10 AT
tract a good deal Of attention. Web
ster's leading trait, Mr.. Parton asserts,
was his enormous physical magnetism.
His presence overwhelmed criticism.
His intimacy facinated it. Fidgety men
were quieted by his majestic calm.
Women were spell-bound by it. n gave
the public sense Of repose. When he
passed up or down: State street, with an
arm behind his back, business was
brought to q stand-still. Webster wat
never a student. T. He absorbed knowl-
edge, but did not work for it. In Latin
he was excelled by some of his own
class. Greek he never enyied. Fol
mathematics he had not the slightest
taste. At college he'was only an ON
niverous reader. He barely passed
muster in the recitation room as a stu
dent His whole college life shows that
he was formed to use the product OF
other mems toll, not to add to the com
mon fund. At the same time nc was
an innocent young His wild oats
were not sown in the days OF his youth.
He was always under the influence OF
| others. Nature made him not to lead,
but to follow. In the early flush and
vigor Of his life he gave a thousand evil
| dences of Il good heart and virtuous
habits, but not one of a superior under
standing. The total absence OF the
skeptical spirit betrayed his want OF
bolduess and originality. In a period
of transition, no young man oftruly en-
incnt intellect accepts his fathers creeds
without first calling them in question.
But no new light ever illumined the
mind of Daniel Webster.
As o as he,came of age he Joined
the Congregational Church. The can
| dor of his judgment WAS impaired by
religious prejudice. In this respect, he
never lost his narrowness and iguor-
ance. In the time Of his celebrity he
preferred the Episcopal as the most gen.
teel religion. His political prejndices
were actually strong. He was OF slow
growth. His powers did not reach their
full development till he was nearly fifty
years Of age. He had no practical Wis
dom. From the year 1882 till the end
of his life he was suffering the process
of moral and mental deterioration. His
material part gained upon his spiritual
He had had an enormous capacity for
physical enjoyment, he became q great
hunter, fisherman, and farmer, a lover
of good wine and good dinners, and a
most jovial companion. But his mind
was fed chiefly upon past acquisitions.
There is nothing in his later efforts
which show any intellectual advance.
He never browsed in forests before un.
trodden, or fed in pastures new. Fol
the last ten years Of his life, though he
spent many thousand dollars on his
library, he had almost ceased to be an
intellectual being. His peculiar habits
demoralized him. she was not one o.
those who find in the happiness and
prosperity of their. country, and in the
esteem of their fellow-citizens, their
own sufficient and abundant reward for
serving her. He pinned for something
lower, smsller-something personal and
vulgar. He had no religion-not the
least tincture Of it; and he seemed at
last, in his dealings with individuals, to
have no conscience. What he called
his religion had no effect whatever upon
the conduct Of his life; it made him 60
to church, talk piously, puff the clergy,
and : patronize Providence'-no more
He was one of those who fell before the
seductions Of his place. He would ac-
cept retaining fees, and never look into
the bundle of papers which accompanied
them, in which were inclosed the hopes
and the fortunes Of anxious households.
He would receive gifts Of money, and
toss into his waste-paper basket the list
Of the givers without having glanced at
its contents; thus d%efrauding them OF
the only recompence in his power to
grant, and the only one they wished
Mr.. Parton gives the following descrip-
ton of the element which formed such
an extraordinary feature in Daniel
Wcbster's composition:
"In surveying the works of this emf
nent and gifted man, we are continually
struck with the evidence of his magni-
tude. He was, as we have said, n very
large person. His brain was within Il
little Of being one-third larger than the
average, and it was n of the largest
on record. His bodily frame, in all its
parts, was on n magic scale, and his
presence was immense. He liked large
things-mountains, elm, great soaks,
mighty bulls and oxen, wide fields, the
ocean, the Union, and all things Of mag
nitude. He liked great Rome far better
than refined Greece, and reveled in the
immense things of literature, such as
Paradise Lost, and the Book of Job,
Burke, DR.. johnson, and the Sixth
| Book of Eneid.' Homer he never cared
much for, nor, indeed, anything Greek.
"He hated, he loathed the act of writ
ing. Billiards, ten-pins, chess, draughts,
whist, he never relished, though fond
to excess of out door pleasures, like
hunting, fishing, yachting. He liked to
be alone with great nature; alone in the
giant woods or on the resounding sea;
alone all day with his gun, his dog and
his thoughts; alone in the morning, be-
fore any one was astir but himself, look
ing out upon the sea and the glorious
sunshine. What a delicious picture OF
this large healthy son Of earth, Mr.. Lam
man gives US, where he describes his
| coming into his bedroom at sunrise,
startling him out a deep sleep, by shout
ing: Awake, sluggardl and look upon
this glorious scene, for the sky and the
ocean are envelopedin flamesr He was
akin to all large, slow things in nature.
A herd of,6ne cattle gave him a keen,
on inexhaustible enjoyment but he
never tasted a horse; he had no horse
enthusiasm. In England h 'chiefy en-
joyed these five things the Tower OF
London, Westminster Abbey, Smith
field cattle market, English farming,
and Sir Robert Peel. Sir Robert Peel
he thought was head and shoulders
above any other man he had ever met.
He greatly excelled, too, in describing
immense things. In speaking Of the
pyramids, he asked: who can inform
US by what now unknown machines
mass was aggregated to mass, and quar-
ry piled on quarry, till solid granite
seemed to cover the earth and reach the
skiesT His peculiar love of the Union
of these States was partly due, perhaps,
to this habit of his mind of dwelling
with complacencyon y~astness.s He felt
that he wanted and required a continent
IN live in. his mind would have paaned