The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-27
IMPRESSIONS OF WEBSTER.

Dr. Fisher Recalls Him-A View Re
 garding the Compromise Speech. It was after a season of seclusion in Marshfield-whither he retired after the nomination os Gen. Taylor, as Achilles retired to his tent. and when he came to Worcester to deliver a speech in favor of the candidate-that II saw him pass with stately tread through the dense throng gathered of an evening in a spacious hall to hear him, and heard one say to another in an audible whisper, Just look at him!"
 Such impressions were not confined to New England, or to this side of the Atlantic. Wherever webster went he was one.
 Whom no one met at first
 But took a second and wondering look. In England his person, his manners. and his intellectual traits elicted glow ling tributes of admiration from An glican sources most worthy of respect. By Sydney Smith his form and aspect were lauded in a homely simile characteristic of the authors wit. Such men as Henry Hallam, not given to extravaganza, expressed an unstinted admiration. Carlyle was generally not indisposed to utter cynical comments on things and persons American. To 1 him Webster seemed a parliamentary Hercules" besides being "a dignifed, perfectly bred man." The honor, par taking almost of awe, with which sehoolboys in Massachusetts in the forties regarded him and recited ex- tracts from his speeches can be realized
 only by those of them who still survive. His writings remain 10 attest the power as well as the purity and sim Iplicity of his style We often hear now praise of what is termed his Saxon vocabulary. A mistake is here i'm
 piled. Webster was conversant with,
 and used with unsurpassed effect, the
 Saxon side of the English vocabulary. I His style, however was much eTl.
 riched by the Latin contents of our
 English tongue, which he interwove
 with not less propriety and effect. I The accusation brought against
 Webster was that he forsook his anti
 slavery principles in order to win the
 favor of the South, and that his aim
 was to secure for himself the presi-
 dency. The charge was that his course
 in reference to the fugitive-slave ques- I tion, and to other legislative measures Il embraced in the compromise, was dic- tated by these unworthy incentives That he was profoundly desirous of
 composing the differences between the I af J;o h and the South. admits of no doubt. If there is any question at issue. 1t con
 cerns his motive and the means he fused. The question is not whether the 3I course which he took was in all parti-
 culars wise. The points is whether his
 course evinced a disregard of con-
 science under the spur of selfish am- bition. A candid attention to the con tents of the Seventh-of-Marchs speech,
 and to Webster's conduct in his official l capacity during that crisis in public
 affairs, warrants a negative answer. After the Congressional conflict was lover, MT. Giddings, the anti-slavery T champion, published the statement that before the delivery of his speech Web-
 ster had conferred with him and told
 him that in the great dispute he should take ground the opposite of that which
 he actually took. It occurred to the Ipresent writer, in view of these imputa-
 tions, to ask MT. Robert c. Winthrop, in whose knowledge and trustworthi-
 ness as a witness he had absolute con I fidence, if averments of this character l were entitled to credence. MT. Win-
 throp much as he admired and hon.
 ored MT. Webster, did ont in this pe-
 riod entirely harmonize with him. He never believed him, however, to be die 1 honest or warped by an unbridled
 craving for advancement
 ner's Magazine.