The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-19

Chase and ThaGdeUe Stevens, who also
were brought W in the New England
hill country, he found an intellectual
stimulus in the country folk and in the
little college which he attended. From
childhood up people loved him, admired
him and favored him; he easily got into
one Of the best law offices in Boston
and had the friendship and professional
rivalry of the great jeremiah Mason Of
New Hampshire. ThencefoTth he Assoc
eiated freely WITH the most intellectual
and highly trained men of mis- epoch,
and throughout most Of his life he com
bIned laboriOuS public duties with
lucrative private practice of the law.
The first period Of Webster's public
service brought out at once his skill as
a parhanentarian and his ability as "a
pleadeT. From 1913 to 1917 he was a
member of the house of representa-
tives at Washington, and distinguish
ed himself by mis- unyielding opposition
to Madis0n's administration and to the
war Of 1872; he was one Of the Federal
ISIS who refused to vote men Or money
for what they believed to be an unjust
war. In 1918, when only So years OLD
he made his most famous argument be-
fore the supreme court, that on the
celebrated Dartmouth college case; the
principle which he argued and which
the court sustained was that state
could not revoke the charter Of a cor
poration, If once granted without re-
stTlction; and he thus had a great part
in establishing a most important pillar
Of our present system Of constitutional
law.
Webster re-entered congress in 1923,
and during the remaining thirty years
of his life ne was never out of public
service Tor more than a few months:
and he came forward as the greatest
orator in period Of elOquence and as
the champion CT the principle of nation
al-ly. Majestic in presence. with a
countenance bold ard commanding. a
voice which vibrated like the Deals Of
diminishing thunder. perfectly self-pos-
sessed, his words springing together
with power and sweetness, no wonder
that thousands crowded together to
hear him speak. Webster began his
career as an orator in a time when the
tradftion Of the elOquence of the revo-
luton was still strong, when many liv-
ing men had been swept off their feet
by a torrent of Patrick Henry's d.se,.l-
nected rhetoric; yet Webster was al
ways q ratural and conversational
speaker, never depending for his eff
fects upon a climax Of striking words
thrown together into an impassi0ned
appeal. diStruSting effects Of voice and
gesture, but irresistible in the appeal
CI Ms tremendous nature to lesser
minds. He was an orator Of the modern
school, which requires easy, persuasive. /
almost conversational manner, but he
Ie-efaloIced MS case with power and
lEtensity which carried all before it.
Inc greatest test of Webster's gen
Ius as an orator was his parliamentary
duel with Hayne of South Carolina in
1880. Every schoolboy knows how upon
an inrOcent little resolution as to the
public lands there arose the most in
tereSt1Hg constitutional debate in
American history. and how Webster. in
January, 1880, prefaced his speech with
his famous simile: when a mariner
has been tossed for many days in thick
weather and on an unknown sea, he
naturally avails himself Of the first
pause in the storm. the earliest glance
OF the sun, to take his latitude and as
certain hoy. far the elements have
driven him from his true course" In
reality. hayHe was only a sort of stalk
ING morse; the man whom Webster Nds
attacking sat as presiding officer of the
senate, It was John c. Calhoun. vice
president Of the United States. The
speech was in reality a reply to Cal
nouns doctrine of notification. which
that willy statesman had a few months
neI0fe set Forth in what was called the
south Carolina exposition" What
Webs er sought was an opportunity 10
meet and to refute the doctrine that
the Union and the exercise Of national
powers were subject To the viii of in
dividual states. Webster was not the
only man TO see THAT the Union was
what was a4terward called an ''inde-
atrUctlDle union of fnperishable
states his service was by the power
of his splendid orstory his elear-cut
thought, his high patriotism. TO express |
the national feeling which was con-
sctous Of itself, yet unable to give a
reGson tor its being.
We are affected by such statements
much as Was the gentleman who went
TO near Hamlet for the first time, and
thought Il was TOO fun of quotations
Websterd doctrine is the everyday doc
tIine now, but in 1890 il was denied by
Calhoun and by a large school OF
southern Statesmen: and Webster put
u into form where school children can
learn 1t by heart and yet where the