The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-09-15
OUR GREATEST SENATOR.
Daniel Webster Still Holds His Pre-emi
nence.

In Franklin, n. H., to-day admirers oi
Daniel Webster will set apart, with ap'
propriate ceremonies, his birthplace as a
permanent memorial. Samuel w. Nc.
Call, whose capacity as public speak
er is equalled by few present day states
men, will deliver the GRAFTON. Others
of national reputation viii contribute
to the success of the occasion.
| With the fight of time and the chang
ing perspective in which the world holds
| its great historical characters, Webster
still retains several titles to pre.eml-
nence that seem secure. He remains our
greatest senator. Nobody attempts to
pay tribute to the upper branch OF our
national Congress as an institution with
out calling it "the Senate of Webster,
| Clay, Calhoun" etc. The lists of names
appended in such a phrase as this vary
with the time, the locality and the point
of views; but every list begins with Web
! ster. He thus symbolizes the Senate,
at great period, and one likely to be
long considered its greatest period. Steel
engravings of the Senate, seen on the
walls of public edifiees and private
homes, almost invariably picture that
body with Webster in action. And yet
he was not a longtime senator He
served less than 20 years in all. tie held
other offices, twice that Of secretary Of
state. in rather acute crises OF our poll
itics and history. But few people think
Of him as our minister of foreign af-
fairs. 1t is as great senator that he
stands out.
This is because it was in the Senate
that Webster found the forum for the
exposition of the point of view with
which his name viii be forever associat-
ed. He gave the American people a
sense of national unity. To that idea
they did not come naturally. An en-
phasis on the rights of states grew logi-
cally out OF the individuat assertiyeness
Of the revolutionary period. At the
opening OF the last century We were all,
North and South, as occasions invited,
more or less reliant on state sovereignty.
And we usually referred TO our struc-
ture of government as eonfederacy.
At about the right time Webster came
along, and with an Imagination which
pictured the national aspiration, drilled
that into the American people I'm Sc
ries OF oratons, the stately eloquence
Of which has rarely been equalled and
never exeelled. The Washington monu-
ment was building in the great days OF
Webster. It's memorial blocks, contrib
uted by various states, municipalities
and civic bodies, still bear silent testi-
mony to the extraordinary power OF the
Massachusetts senator over the thought
Of his time. To the national idea he
asked not only the states to subordinate
their individual interests, but to II he
subordinated his own native intuitions
in regard to human slavery. On the al
tar of the Union he thus placed great
sacrifice.
Dying in 1852. Webster was not per-
mitted to see the land rent in that
fratrical strife which he, better than
any other man OF his time, had fore.
seen. But when that struggle came, the
national spirit which his eloquence had
aroused beat in the hearts of the armies
of the Union. Even the great Wing
states of the South, because loyal to
his teachings, entered into the confed-
eracy reluctantly or not at all. And
everywhere that the appeal to the I'm
ion arrested the wandering steps Of men
it was because of that national senti-
ment which Webster, more than any
body else, had through the years been
building up. Verify he was the Defend
er Of the Constitution. Boston Her
aid.