Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-25
MASSACHUSETTS, AND HER IDOLS.

The one hundredth anniversary OF the
| birth of Daniel Webster was celebrated in
Boston on Wednesday last by banquet.
| The report of the proceedings occupy nearly
two pages in the Boston papers. Thespeeches
are eloquent in praise OF the great constitu-
! tional expounder, but 1t cannot be said that
| they are extravagant, for it is impossible to
exaggerate the lofty patriotism and intellec-
| tual grandeur of Daniel Webster's character.
But in reading these tributes to the illus
| trious dead, we were forcibly struck with the
inconsistency of the people of Massachusetts,.
| The death OF beautiful child always causes
the fond mother to sorrow over the punish
ments she had inflicted; so do the people OF
| Massachusetts, grieve over the injustice done
their statesmen after they are dead. They
prosecute their idols while living, then wor-
ship their memories. They broke the heart
Of Daniel Webster while living, and now
| with broken hearts they weep over his grave
they censured Sumner, and, after his death,
sought to blot out the unkind words with
tears. But this inconsistency and injustice
is not confined to Massachusetts,, for nearly
every State furnishes an illustration of
the disposition of the people to traduce
their greatest men while living and to can
onize them when dead. Jackson and Lin
coin and Garfield had to grope their way
to the Presidency amid the clouds OF cal
jimmy in which they were enveloped, but
they stood the shock as the oak with
stands the storm. The people now measure
theul in their just proportions. Any assault
now upon their patriotism would be
national affront, and their flames will in
crease as the years go by. This change from
hate to admiration should teach the lesson
oil moderation in American politics. Web
ster had many elements of greatness which
no other American ever possessed. We have
had many patriots and national men, but
somehow Webster seemed only bounded by
the shores of the universe, and there was
majesty about him which always seemed
little more than the majesty of this world.
And yet they Missed him in the State to
which his name and brain gaze glory: hissad
him in the hall which gathers the
brains OF Massachusetts and conse-
crates them even as Westminster gath
ers highlands dead to pay them hal
lowed honors. There were men who doubted
both the brain and heart of Daniel Webster
and there were small minds who sought dis
tinction by aiming their puny, poisoned
shafts at the hight on which the Colossus
stood. 1t is not thirty years since the grand
man ceased to live, and yet how secure is his
fame; how forgotten are those who reviled
him. 1t ought to be a comfort to other
grand spirits, which, just now, are being ira
duced, who are having their motives and
their acts questioned by low natures who
envy them the work they have accom-
pIished. Let all such men think of him
whose body sleeps by that ocean with which
his own great soul seemed ever in accord;
let them turn and remember that in the life
time of many men who are not yet very old,
that man, too, was slandered and abused.
But who remembers or will remember where
those slanderers sleep or will sleep? The
records of this world are just, though some
times horribly slow. The right wins at last,
though sometimes true hearts grow faint in |
waiting