The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-10-17
Daniel Webster's OratOry.

Weed-amid too many trivial reminiscent
ces-contains some very interesting con-
tributions to the personal and political
history of American statesmen. Daniel
Webster occasionally looms up like old
Mount Ksarsarge; and sketch is given
of notable gathering of the whig men,
bers of congress at the time when I" Cap.
tain Tyler's' vetoes of the United States
bank bill and other whig measures had
struck panic through the party. At the
close of the campaign supper, Mr.. Web
ster arose at the head of the chief table
amid the hushed silence of the company.
Mr.. Weed writes that on that occasion he
heard him." and if the speech had been
reported, it would have ranked among the
ablest eff )rts of his life. 1t is a great
misfortune that this mastery address was
not preserved, for it had prodigious in
huence in shaping the immediate legisla-
ton of that congress.
Everything is interesting that apper.
tains to Webster and Lincoln--who are
unquestionably the two greatest Ameri-
cans of this century. The orator of
Bunker Hill bulks the larger intellectu.
ally; but the great Liberator overtops
him in practical ssgacity and in moral
grandeur. My old friend Joseph Hoxie
once asked Mr.. Webster, Which of your
own productions do you place first 2" He
replied, any friend Mr.. Everett prefers my
speech on General Jackson's Protest. The
mass of my countrymen prefer my reply
to Colonel Hayne. But prefer the first
speech ever made at Plymouth Rock"
We are not surprised that the great ora
tor drew most fondly to the first-born
production of his genius; it is certain
also that he never stood more strong, and
never more glorious than when he stood
forth as the champion of freedom on
Plymouth Rock.
Webster never again quite reached the
lofty moral altitude of that magnificent
Plymouth grafton; but the best thumbed
of all his speeches in my own library, and
probably in most others also, is the tran
scendent reply to Hsyne of South Caro-
lima. That is the high-water mark of
forensic eloquence in America. l once
listened to description of the memorable
scene in the senate chamber, by veteran
member of congress who was present.
That twenty-sixth of January, 1880, was
a day to be remembered; the like of it
has never since dawned upon the annals
of the senate. A steady procession moved
up Pennsylvania avenue towards the Cap.
itol from an early hour of that winter
morning. Before twelve o'clock the sen.
ate chamber was OVERLOOKING into the ro-
tunda, and people were Offering brides for
few inches of breathing-room in the
charmed enclosure. The enormous sena-
tor from Alabama, Dixon II. Lewis, be-
came wedged in behind the vice presi-
dents chair; unable to move he became
imbedded in the crowd like broad.bot-
toned schooner settling at low tide into
the mud. Unable also to see, he drew out
his knife and cut hole through the
stained glass screen that fanked the pre-
siding offi,er's chair; that aperture long
remained as the memorial of Lewis Gu.
riosity to witness the greatest of Ameri-
can orators deliver the greatest of Ameri.
can orations.
The place was worthy of the hour and
the combatants. 1t was the old senate
chamber, the battle arena of the giants,
the same hall which had once resounded
to the eloquence of Rufus King, as it
afterwards did to the eloquence of Rufus
Choate, and which had echoed the bursts
of applause which greeted Harry Clay
of Kentucky. On that memorable morn.
ing from the vicepresident's chair, low.
cred the portentous eye and cast iron
brow of John G. Calhoun. Before him
sat Van Buren,, Forsyth, Woodbury.,
Hayne, and Clayton, the omnivorous Ben
ton who aimed to know everything, and
the sturdy old John Quincy Adams who
actually succeeded. In the seething crowd
was the gaunt skeleton form of John
Randolph of Roanoke; the imperial figure
Of Clay was alone wanting in that most
brilliant assemblage of civilians since the
era of the revolution.
In the midst of that crowded, breath
less chamber, Daniel Webster arose. As
on the evening when Thurlow Weed heard
him, he was attired in his favorite "Whig
uniform" of Burke and Fox-the bluff
and blue" An austere beauty clothed his
swarthy countenance. Such a magnif.
cent brow was never lifted before an audi.
ence, and the furnace fires in his huge
cavernous eyes kindled with the first sen.
tence. That opening sentence-about the
mariner in the storm-was a fit signal
gun OF the tremendous cannonade that
was to follow, and which for three hours
shook the senate chamber. Even when
read this whole triumphant speech thrills
you like battle trumpet; what must
have been its effect during the delivery ?
We do not wonder that during the
glowing tribute to Lexington and Bunker
Hill, his auditors from Massachusetts
cried like little children. Those few sen
fences ought to be carved on the walls Of
the state house in Boston. Quite as eff
fective as his eulogy of the old Bay
State was his sudden and awful on
slaught upon Senator Levi Woodbury. o.
New Hampshire. This representative o.
Webster's native region had supplied Co
lionel Hayne with quantity of loca
pamphlets and harangues to be used a
ammunition. Webster knew this fac
and determined to punish him. Turning
suddenly towards. Woodbury., he thun
dered out in tone of indignant scorn, g"
employ no scavengers !" and the poor New
Hampshire senator ducked down his bali
head as If struck by bomb.shell.
The closing passage of that immorta
speech could not have been extemporized
No mortal man could have thrown off tina
magnificent piece of Miltonio poetry at
heat, and without some careful premedits