The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-09-22
How Webster's Famous Peroration In
the Hayne Speech was Delivered.
New York Times. /

New York Times
II is impossible for any one TO have his
ideas so well in hand that on the spur
! of the moment he can talk or write rs
we'll as he could If he had given thesub-
! ject thoughtful consideration. Even
when this has been done, and the speaker
in his notes has clearly mapped out the
| line of his discourse, it usually hap
pens that in force and beauty of express
sion he falls far short of what he had
hoped to do. One of he most remark
able illustrations of this difference be-
tween intention and execution is found
in the celebrated reply of Daniel Web
stcr to the speech Of Mr.. Hayne. The
peroration, which begins with the words,
"When my eyes shall be turned for the
last time to behold the sun In heaven,
may not see him shining on the bro
ken,o etc, is too well known to need
further quotation. Most of us have in
school-boy days acclaimed it over and
over again, and, no doubt, innocently
wondered how the grand and full,
rounded periods sounded when theywere
first uttered. Unfortunately, as it now
turns out, these were never spoken, but
like congressional speeches of the present
day, were what Mr.. Webster intended to
say. The speech, as delivered was taken
down in shorthand by Mr.. Joseph Gales,
the editor Of The National Iatetiigcnccr,
and IL was from his notes that Mr.. Web
stcr subsequently wrote out and gave to
the world what has since been known
as the reply to Mr.. Haync. These notes
have lately obtained semi-publicity,
and il is curious to contrast the clumsy
and involved mode Of expression in
which this concluding section was de-
livered with the smooth, flowing diction
of the popular version. As spoken, this
was as follows:
"Whcn my eyes shall be turned for
the last time ON the meridian sun,
hope may see him shining bright upon
my united, free, and happy country. !
hope shall not live to see his beams fall
ing upon the dispersed fragments of the
structure of this once glorious union. /
hope may not sec the flag of my coun-
try with its stars separated or obliter-
ated tornby connections; smoking with
the blood of civil war. hope may not
see the standard raised of separate States
rights, star against star, and stripe
against stripe but that the flag Of the
Union may keep its stars and stripes
corded and bound together in indis-
soluble ties. hope / shall not see
written as Il motto, first liberty and
then union. hope shall see no such
delusivc and deluded motto on the flag
of that country. hope to see spread
I'll over IL, blazoned in letters of light
and proudly floating over land and sea
that other sentiment, dear to my heart,
Union and liberty, now and forever,
one and inseparable.'
1t will readily be seen that the above,
while infinitely worse in manner than it
is in its revised state, is much more like
the speeches one ordinarily hears than
is the pruned and prepared edition.
These are supposed to be the most elo-
quent words Of one of Americas greatest
orators; and yet their weakness is suf-
ficicnt, from strained metaphor and
constant repetition, to make them, when
put in print, ridiculous rather than sub
lime.