New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-02-07

nave before me I write a private photogrs nh
OF MI Gladstone, frora the camera OF a lady
VINO had something more than technical skill:
VINO mad a sympathetic insight into character
anu an art-sense. Among the hundreds of pho
'ogrephs Of the Tory-Liberal the Protectionist-
free Trader, the Imperialist Home Ruler this
Is the finest and truest I have seen But IL is
one which brings out his unIfkeness to Webster
raF more clearly than those resembIauces have
noted II those resemblances have not before
oeen remarked, there are, I imagine, few men
living who have seen both men in the full spIen-
dor Of their heroic mould
The records OF those later days are full not
only Of admiring friendship for Webster but
also OF that bitterness which his apostasy-for
so We thought it-begot Even friends turned
against him after his support OF the Fugitive
Slave Law. AS for his enemies, there was no
limit TO their language. A single unpublished
incident will show what the feeling was. AT a
meeting of the Abolitionists in the Boston Melo-
deon, Charles Lenox Remond. a negro IN the
course Of a diatribe against the white race
called Washington a scoundreL Wendell Phil
lips, who the platform interviewed.
NO. Charles. don't say that. Don't call Wash
ington a scoundreI. The great Virginian held
slaves, but he was q great virginian still, and
a great American It is not q fit word TO use
1t is not descriptive.
how you going to describe Webster
Besides again, the Fugitive Slave Law wrought
the redemption of Massachusetts; and we owe
that redemption TO Webster. indirectly. It was
the renJdition Of Anthony Burns in 1854 two
years after Webster's death which completed
the conversion Of the Bay State from the pro
slavery to the anti-slavery faith. But what l
can tell Of the unwritten history Of those black
days must be for another time
Whatever Webster's faults. and whatever re-
sentiment he aroused in 1880 he remained. and
viii long remain the foremost citizen of Massa-
chusetts in that generation. Go to his oppo-
nents if you want testimony for that ASK
Wendell Phillips and he answers in one Of his
finest sentences. pouring sc0rn on the men VINO
took up so late as 1861, Webster's mission 10
crush anti-slsvery agitation:
1t was Webster who announced from the
steps Of the Revere House that he would put
down this agitation. The great statesman. dis
credited and defeated. sleeps at MarshheId by
the solemn waves Of the Atlantic. COHTempst
Cdtilinae glGdios non tleos pe1-timescam. The
haIf-ornnipotence Of Webster We defed' VINO
heeds this pedIer's empty speech"
Ask Theodore Parker. who delivered IN the
Music Hall Of Boston g discourse on WebsteTs
death: half fnvective, more than half panegyr1c,
whether he would OF no. Il was, think. Par
ller who said Of him that four American master
pieces in four different kinds were Webster 5.
The abIest argument ever heard in the Supreme
Court OF the United States that IN the Dart
mouth College case was his His was the no
blest platform speech OF his time at the dedica-
ton OF Bunker Hill Monument. His the most
persuasive address TO an American jury; in the
White murder case at Salem: with its tremen-
dous epigram. There is no refuge from confess
sion but suicide: and suicide is confession" His,
1aSr i
tional Law. the reply 10 Hayne in the United
States Senate All these were Websters, and
to Webster alone could any such tribute be
paid.
When heard Webster in FaneuH Hall, where
he was perhaps at his best and most al home II
seemed 10 me it mattered little what he said.
The authority OF the man was what told Be
fore he had uttered a word he had possession Of
the minds OF the three thousand people who
stood-for we were all standing-waiung for the
words We knew would be words Of wisdom
Twice have seen similar effect by very diff
ferent artists once by Rachel at the Boston
Theatre. as Camille in CorneIIles Horace.
when the mere apparition or that white-robed
figure and the first rays from those deep burn
ing eyes laid spell on the audience. Not once
but many times by Aimee Desclee, at the Prin-
cess's Theatre in London and at the Gyrnnase
n Paris OF her shall have something 10 say
~, and nv but name her now beCa Use she had
that rarest OF gifts the power Of gathering an
audience into her two small hands while stu
silent and rnotionless; and thereafter never let
ring them 20 IN her II was perhaps magnetic
force Of emotion, for she was the greatest u
emotional actresses IN Webster It was the
domination Of an irresistible personality. with
an unmatched intellectual supremacy. and the
rrestiEp Of an unequalled career
Whatever II was. We al bowed TO IL We
y-are there 70 take orders from him; 20 think
bic -boDeh+s TO do as he would have US He
might Rave talked nonsense. We should not
80 ,7o,,ph+ II was nonsense He might have
raverssd his policy. We should have held him
,,-s,e-en- We should have followed him. be
Iie-5np rbe road was the same We had always
.-a,aIIad together He still the man whom
delighted 10 honor The forces
- the uhsae state were at mis- disposal, as they
had been for thirty years
he stood upon the platform an august
ma ,es.ic figure. from which the blue coat ana
80 trousers and the glitter OF gilt buttons dld
~ derract once and only once, have found
eel, ,,1da- the sway OF individuality
,-,ors rnasterful than webster's; much later in
If,a an that the test was more decisive; but It
vas not Mr.. Gladstone's- q. .
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM.