St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-18


the former estimate of the Mas5achu-
sets statesmen that it wouItl consider
it against every canon of standard APP.
probation to deny him the least ray of
his former luster.
SO be it. 1t Is we'll to feel respect for
that enthusiastic verdict of long ago,
but 1t Is strange TO the reminiscent
mind. that while Webster lived he was
never landed without some cursory or
sustained comparison with Burke; and,
near your own day. good judges. like
Summer and Hannibal Hamlin. said thar
Roscoe Conkiing was the superior of
Webster. Clay and Calhoun as an
orator-Sumner asserting that "he
knew English TO the last shade"
Webster was ne more like Burke than
he was like Cohkiing. He had not the
culture. the glorious imagination, nor.
above oil, the moral senslbility of
Burke. The solemn splendors or rhet-
orle i'll the reflections on the French
revolution, aud the speeches in tie i'm
parchment of Warren Hastings were as
remote from Webster's mind as the
conception and expression of Hamlet
would have been.
His one great speech in leply to
Hayne Is the measure of his oratOry
the rest OF his record is that of skilled
advocate and diplomatic arbitrator. Not
IA vestige of any measure he favored
and supported has the least considera-
ton I'D the political world OF today. ex-
cept, perhaps, the Missouri compromise.
Finally. Caro- Padre Conway. presi-
dent of the Press club. the names of
Daniel Webster and MAJ. Gen. Winfield
Scott, deceived by the hectic flush
of victory" of the Native American fac
ton in 1874, were used with fatal sue
cess in the furnishing of that consistent
patriotic reputation which otherwise
would have more eminent share in
the pride of our common political his
tory.
Now while this regenerated republic
honors in receptions and banquets and
congresses its worthy men, why are we
prone to the awkwartlnesS of. praising
some Of them by comparative juXta-
position with others in the nations
Walhalla, whom they may or may not
even suggest?
Ii a man be memorable at all, why
not leave him "SOle and responsive to
! his own distinction?
In this intense and vital present a
recent affair shows us as repeating the
comparison of Webster's day, when we
went back TO Burke for his parallel !;
and now we retrieve Webster anu his
famnnC for ciDliIar
when. the while, there seems to be a
strange fOrgetfuluess of the splendid
three, Conkling. Phillips and Curtis,
each i'll his own Incompatible way the
spokesman in the mighty play of events
which we all remember without specia
recounting.
The ever-eited orators of the Web
sterian period almost seem like the
nodding friends of Rip Van Wrinkle in
the interlude to his long nap, for their
oratory was about as useless, with the
coming awful issues almost in sight,
and their only solution IN conflict and
bloodshed. The eloquent voices of a
nations kindled spirit should never be
forgotten in the least, as when by some
happy chance distinguished guest of
the hour may be enriched by sugges-
ton of their faintest ring. But the
suggestion must have some perceptible
pertinence. 1t will hardly passto make
ID. 0. Mills SOn-in-law greater than
Horace Greeley, or George d. Prentice
1.-THE demi,god of all parties and
classes" instead of the commendable
Henri Watterson. who lends the Cou-
rier-Journal to no ri0tous blood-letting,
but cherishes his atty and star. eyed
abstraction with chivalrous loyalty.
Nor will it do to set forth the amiable
and estimable Kentuckian as standing
with the immortals in oratory-unless
the occasion is one of thigh jinks''-
and the hour-One of carly mellownesS.