Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-09-28

tances. In those days immenss. 10 hear him
A cynical critic said that Clay could get |
more people 70 listen to him and fewer
people 70 vote for him than any other man
In the Union. BE, however. did get lusny |
votes, though never quite enough.
His power Of winning the hearts OF |
men was unique When al Last he missed |
his prizs by losing the election for the |
presidency, his partisans wept liks children
One Of them Is said 70 have died OF eFief |
He was arisntiy patriotic. after the war
hawk fashion, but the presidency was al |
ways in his thoughts, and its attraction 60
counts for the perturbations of his political
orbit He said that he would rather be
right than be president, but II has been too
truly remarked that even at the moment
Of that memorable utterance he was think
ing more of being president than OF being
right. His policy and sentiments were In
tensely American and by the cosmopoE
itans would now be designated as tingo."
wRBsTKR's MAJESTY OF MTKLLKcr.
Goodwin Smith does not deny Daniel
Webster the qualities that have made his
name household word:
"His character was cast In the Puritan
mold and formed by the New England
school system, under which he had bean
teacher as well as a pupil He was grave,
staid, and In the cast of his character moral
and devout. In his later years he was given
to running carelessly into debt, and like
many other men Of his day too fond of
wine. As an orator of reason he has no SUI
perior. IL he has an equal, In the English
language. It is difficult at least to say
what political speech can vie in logical
force and impressiveness with his speech
defending the Union In reply to the SOUTH
ern senaratist Hayne. or what forensic
| sueech excels in the same Qualities his
speech for the prosecution In the murder
case of White.
| "His style has been compared to the
strokes of a trip hammer, which his SEN
tences resembled in measured force, but
| not in monotony. The majesty Of intellect
sat on his beetling brow, and he had the look
and port of Jove. He was and felt himself
a king. 1t is told of him that when one of
his notes had fallen due he majestically
| waved his hand and said, Let it be paid
All men bowed down to him; all men
crowded to hear him. He swayed the opin-
ions Of all men, but he did not. like Clay,
| win their hearts He never was great
party leader, nor was he ever hopeful
| candidate for the presidency. It must be
added that his moral strength was not
equal to his power of mind"
''THE BLOOD RED STAR" OF JACKSON.
What Goodwin Smith picturesquely calls
"the blood red star" of Andrew jackson
| was now in the ascendant:
jackson, though he had once been In
congress, as we have seen, and had vented
his Jealous spleen on Washington, was a
fighter. with an iron will and great powers
of command, ill educated, destitute of the
knowledge and the habits of statesman,
with an uncontrolled temper and almost as
much swayed by passion as any Indian
chief. though. like many an Indian chief,
he could bear himself when he pleased with
dignity and even with grace. That he had
beaten the British at New Orleans was his
title to the headship of the nation, and he
had not lesssned his popularity BY the law
less execution of two Englishmen, Ambris-
ter and Arbuthnot, or by some acts VI
equally lawless aggression on Spanish ter
ritory--outrages against which a moral
minority in congress had protested in vain.
while John Quincy Adams, swayed prob
ably by his dislike of England, had for once
deviated from his moral course and helped
to whitewash the man who was destined to
oust him from the presidential chair"
LINCOLN MARVEL OF HISTORY.
Professor Smith now comes down to more
, contemporaneous times, and here he paints
bis portrait of Abraham Lincoln:
Abraham Lincoln is assuredly one oi
} the marvels of history. holland but Amer
lea has produced his like. This destined
chief of q nation in its most perilous hour
! was the son of a thriftless and wandering
! settler, bred in the most sordid poverty.
] He had received only the rudiments of edu,
7 cation, and though he afterward read eager
: ly such works as were within his reach II
i is wonderful that he should have attained
, as a speaker and writer mastery of Ian.
3 guage and pure as we'll as effective style
: | He could look back smiling on the day
. when his long shanks appeared bare below
: the shrunken leather breeches which vert
: his only neither garment. His frame was
? gaunt and grotesque, but mighty. HI
8 stood Q feet and was said to have lifted q
Q cask full of beer and to have drunk out ol
: the bunghole, This made him hero with
!, the Clary Grove boys.
!. "He had a strong and eminently fair un
derstanding, with great powers Of patient
4 thought, which he cultivated by the study
8 of Euclid. In all his views there was .
9 simplicity which had its source in the sim
!, plicity of his character. His local popular
!, ity was due largely to his humor and thu
!. stock OF good stories, always pointed
o though not always delicate. which through
e life it was his delight to collect ant
4 repeat. At the same time he was melan
$ choly, touched with the pathos Of huma.
: life, fond of mournful poetry, religious
d though not orthodox, with strong sens,
d Of an overruling Providence, which, wheI
i he was out OF spirits sometimes, took th
n shape of fatalism. His melancholy wa
o probably deepened by his gloomy surround
IF ings and by misadventures in love.