The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-05-22


can. Webster was patriotic, and very
dear to his intimate friends, but some
what cold and stately to all the rest OF
the world. Like Cardinal Woolsey, as
Shakespeare says of him, he was 50
"Lofty and sour to those who loved him not.
But to men that sought him sweet as summer
Choate lived chiefly in books and in
court rooms, and shrank from the world
One day 0or illustration in passing) thi,
writer had occasion to walk with him, al
his request, from his office to Winthrop
place, where he then resided, and he in.
sisted on taking him down Spring lane
through Devonshire street-at that time
a mere lane-through Theatre alley by
the Catholic Church in Franklin street,
and thence through another lane into
| Winthrop place, ''to avoid the people,
brother T., as he said, in his charming.
ly pleasant way.
have stated in a previous paper how
Webster used to almost march in state
down Court and State streets, and the
reader may be sure that Clay never made
a custom of stealing through alleys. No
he liked to show himself everywhere and
mingle with, and be- as it were, part OF
the people; and though intensely Ameri-
can, as have said, as an orator or a
statesman, he was humanitarian and cos
mOpolitan, as man, and attracted to
himself everybody, everywhere, and in
every walk of life. Whether "as mill
boy of the SlaShes,n as clerk in coun-
try store, or in RegiSter's Office, as
student at law, or advocate before juries a;
as Speaker, over and over again of the
National House of Representatives
where he was and probably always will
be acknowledged to be .fdcile princepS;
on the floor of the House, ON the floor of
the Senate, on the hustings or at Pres
Iidential levee, it was all the same.
Everybody admired him, everybody
loved him. Probably no other public
man ever lived in America who won the
affection of so many hearts. ...s
'fIe was chiefly great compromiser, ~
some one tartly says. Yesi Well, com
promise at times is better than eternal
pickering and warfare, is itnot? 'IIc was
first a Democrat, then Whig' Yes.
And so were Daniel Webster and John
G. Calhoun, both of them, during their
career, on opposite sides of the tariff
circumstances, of course, alter cases, and
heard Ralph Waldo Emerson once de-
clare that consistency was no virtue
Clay always hated slavery, as the early
fathers of the republic did, and he tried
at his very start in public life to project
some means to gradually get rid of it,
and made himself, at the time, very un-
popular for doing so. Hemever hesitated
to defend any negro in court, and always
without charging any fee. In 1920, when
Missouri was knocking at our doors, and
the safety of the Union became endan-
gered, and again, in 1850, when Califor-
mia was asking admission, and the Union
hung on rope of sand, he came forward
as great paciiicator. i am not saying
whether he was right or wrong. | am
only saying that he did what he thought
was right. am speaking of him as an
American orator and statesman, and he
brought the great wealth of his powers
to bear upon those questions for the well
fare of his country and his whole coun-
try.
1t has been said that Webster never in
augurated anything. Well, Clay did.
Webster was bnlwark and a break
water against attacks, but CLAY was a
born and lifetime leader. While Web
ster, like Welling at Waterloo, would
keep his guard well in hand till the right
moment came, and then the fight would
be terrific. Henry Clay, when in his
prime and at his best, would be dashing
all oyer the field, placing his infantry
here, his heavy artillery there, his cav
airy in the proper place--ready and wait
ing to advance; and when he gave the
word to "Charge!n he would be the first
to- lead them on, and, amid the shock
and din of battle, his trumpet tones of
command could be heard ringing through
the air and his tall plume be seen wav-
ing and advancing wherever the flag we
all love so well could be seen, and in the
very thiokest of the fight. Yes, he was
a leader, and a great one, and if Webster
was great statesman and orator, CLAY
was great genius. While Webster only
bestired himself on great occasions, and
then chiefly to expose some iniquitous
measures of his adversaries, or to lend
his mastery aid to some measures pro
posed by Others, Clay was a creator and
a debater, and he met, in order to NOW
them down, all who presumed to oppose
lhim-great or small.
But, as have before intimated, when
| saw and heard him the fire of his youth
and the blaze of his manhood were about
flickering away, and he made me feel
withal unacoOuntably and most surpass.
ingly sad. He looked very much as
Webster looked the last time | saw him
when he came home from Washington
as It proved, to die, careworn, disap-
pointed, heart broken.
Alas alas! that man, made in the i'm
age of his Creator-his noblest and best
work-should not be transferred from
this world, as Enoch was, or taken up in
a chariot of fire, as Elijah was, bu
should fade away like the silent fiower'
of the field
Great, splendid, dazzling, noble, i'm
perial, glorious Henry Clay; it was moi
he that stood there in that Senate Cham
Der before me. mol 1t was only his
shadow, his wreck, his monument
Reqmescdt IN pdce!-W T. in BostoI
Journal. t..t stu.t.r