Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-08-29
Last Words of Daniel Webster
are Ourtalled in History.
BARLOW MAN MAKES The CORRECTION
Ancient Latin Maxim: Speak We'll
of the Dead Does Not Apply
to People Prominent in
Worlds History.


the character and deeds of notable
and great men, and it is our duty to
study them and profit by their exam.
pie. That Latin maxim was intended
no doubt to apply to our neighbors
who had recently died and not to the
great public men whose acts and deeds
made up history. The world had a
perfect right to analyze and criticise
the characters of Alexander and Cae-
sar and Cromwell and Bonaparte and
Benedict Arnold, but even these were
not settled until a century or more
had passed after their death. Bona
parties is not settled yet and English,
French and American historians are
still hammering away at his character
and his deeds. That he was a scourge
to mankind and the age in which he
lived and a traitor To his devoted
wife and all to crafty his selfish ambl
ton, no reflective man can doubt, The
disposition to idolize great warriors
handicaps all young historians and
captivates the people when one Of
these fighting men offers for office 1t
was this that elected Taylor and Har-
rison and Jackson How Roosevelt
viii get along with his war record for
killing bears remains to be seen, but
l reckon he is relying more on being
a historian and alaudering men after
they are dead. He viii lose nothing
up north by telling lies on Jefferson
Davis. He belongs to the same school
Of historians that Professor Goodwin
Smith did-that lying Englishman
who wrote a history Of the United
States that was taught in northern
colleges and said the first settlers Of
Virginia were renegades from England
mostly conyicts who were given
choice OF Tho gall5vs or Of exile to
Virginia, ana strange to say they
chose the exile
But J was Eliminating about these
.aer words of Daniel Webster, who in
my opinion was the greatest man the
country ever produced, not the great
est but the grandest-the most god
like II emade many great speeches
but the greatest Of all was that dellv-
cred at Capon Springs, where he was
brave enough to qualify all his pre-
vious utterances concerning the rights
OF the states and to declare that any
state had the right to withdraw from
the union when it was unjustly treated
and that the state was the sole Judge
Of that. For this he was denied the
privilege Of speaking again in Faneuil
hall. For this he was sacrificed in
verse by Whittier For this that
speech was left out Of his published
works-the publishers saying that it
would greatly damage their sale to
have it in. This brings me to the text
started to write about. for l have re
ceivCd three letters from cultured gen
temen who tell me that Il still live
were not Webster's last words, but
there were two more that the editor
suppressed. and those two were more
brandy" These gentlemen concur in
saying that Webster was very fond Of
brandy and in his last days INDUCED
too much and during his last illness
his physician kept him alive on bran
dy The morning he died his physi-
clan called and, finding him alive, but
apparently unconscious said to the
attendant. "He cannot live but a lit
tie while, but if he should live until
o'clock give him some more brandy
When the clock struck 8 MIR. Webster
reused up and pointed to it and whis-
pered. q still live-more brandy" The
last two words are left out of the biog
raphy and may not have been said
Nevertheless. this version has para
lived much of my sentiment and ali
can do is to leave it in doubt. l re-
member that it was caid of Mr.. Web
ster that he was overload of his bran
dy toddles Brandy was a gentleman
drink. whisky was for the common
people and rum was for eggnog and
for the yankees to ship to Africa to
buy nlggers with Even IN my young
days the gentlemen drank brandy
peach or apple, or Cognac. 1t was
kept on the sideboards and was al
ways offered to visitors When l was
about IA years old John Mcpherson
Berrien came to our little town Of
Lawrenceville to attend court. He was
considered very great man. He was
our United States senator and had
been attorney general of the United
States under Jackson. After | had
swept out the store l walked down to
the hotel to get a glimpse of him,
He had Just gotten up and came out
on the piazza in his shirt sleeves to
take wash. After that the landlord
brought him out bottle Of brandy and
some sugar and the great man took
liberal toddy. 1t was a revelation to
me to see how suddenly a great man
could come down to the level Of com
mon people. But then it must be re-
membered that Mr.. Berrien was from
Savannah.
Now here Is another letter in which
take peculiar interest and commend
to the veterans of Georgia. For years
| have lamented that we have no rec
ord roll of our confederate soldiers.
alluded to this not long ago in one of
my letters, and it has provoked an
old friend to write to me upon the sub
iect and give me encouragement. The
letter IS from Hon Walter Clark, as
sociate justice of the supreme court