The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-18

A REMINISCENCE or WEBSTER.
 To an octogenarian who has a good memory unimpaired, together. with a wide range of observation and large acquaintance, there are few pastlmes more agreeable than reminiscence. That entered not little into the en- joyment l experienced yesterday while at my residence, I was receiving let ters and telegrams and calls from those who had kindly remembered that January 26 was my eighty-eighth birthday. The evening previous, when the Caledonian club was celebrating the 139th birthday of Robert Burns, which little heart trouble had pre- vented me from attending, l had been greatly interested for an hour by read ing some of the inimitable stories os Abaham Lincoln. And yesterday l had occasion to recall some of the incidents in the life of Daniel Webster, whose l16th birthday occurred eight days ago, and whom I heard in the United States senate for the first time sixty-two years ago, and of whose speeches and orations from my student days had
 been a diligent reader and enthusias-
 tiN etdiiitI Cl. It WdS QuIlIlS lIlc SStiii- paign which resulted in the election of
 General Taylor that the incidents
 which I am about to relate occurred. A great mass-meeting had been called
 in Worcester, where I happened to be,
 and MT. Webster had been prevailed
 upon to make a speech in behalf of the Whig candidate. Martin Van Buren, who had been successor to General Jackson in the presidency and dem ocrat all his days, had been nominated by the Free-Soil party Those who had known him as an arch politician made no little sport when it was announced that Van Buren had joined the Aboli- tionists. His friends alleged that a
 great change had come over him and | that he had been suddenly converted
 to anti-slavery ideas.
 When MT. Webster came to pay his
 respects to the Free-Soil candidate, he said: T met few days ago a gentle- | man who said, MT. Webster, you have no idea of the change which has come over MT. Van Buren, and went on ex- | tolling the new convert. Now" said MT Webster, T am reminded of an in- cident which occurred when Dr. Kirk l land vas president of Harvard college | A minister from one of the rural dis tricts called upon the president of | Harvard and said, I have called upon | you, Brother Kirkland, to get your ad- l vice about a matter which is giving
 some of us great deal of anxiety.
 The fact is, some of our church mem
 bers are getting loose notions concern ing one of the important articles of
 faith; that is, the doctrine of the per-
 severance of the saints, and called to
 get your advice as to the best method l of arresting the heresy.' An, my l brother said Dr. Kirkland, Gin this
 region we have for more serious heresy
 to deal with, and that is the the perse-
 verance of the sinners And now,''
 said MT. Webster, that is just my
 trouble with MT. Van Buren, I have
 known him for many years, and touch- ing this subject of slavery fear he
 will persevere unto the end the same | incorrigible sinner''
 At this keen stroke of wit the hall
 rang with roars of laughter
 | General Taylor was elected the 18th l president of the United States and 1 Martin Van Buren was defeated. IL l H. Angler in the Boston Transcript.