The Coolidge examiner., 1932-10-21
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Webster Replying to Hayne
TROY TIE PAiFSrif1o BV FtEALT

1t; and It win fall at last If fall It must amidst
the proudest monuments Of its own glory and on
the very spot of its origin"
Then followed this peroration
"When my eyes shall have turned to behold for
the last time the sun In heaven may not see
him shining on the broken and dishonOred frag-
ments of a once-glorious Union; on states dis
severed, discordant, begerent; on land rent
with civil feuds, or drenched. ii may be- in fra
ternal blood. Let their last feeble and lingering
glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the
Republic, now known and honored through the
earth, still fuhgh advanced, its arms and
trophies streaming in their original luster, not
stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star OBJ
scured, bearing for its motto no such miserable
interrogatory as What is all this worth? nor
those other words of deusion and folly. Liberty
first and Union afterwards but everywhere,
spread all over in characters of living light,
blazing on all its ample folds they float over
the sea and over the land, and in every wind
under the whole heavens, that other sentiment,
dear to every true American heart-I.iberty and
Union now and forever, one and inseparabe.'
Webster was born on a New Hampshire farm
January IS, 17S2-so this year is the one hun
dred and fifth anniversary of his birth as well
as the SEVENTEEN anniversary of his famous
speech His parents were poor, but they were
Accordingly Webster was entered first at Exc
ter and then, in 1897. at Dartmouth college.
After winning his degree he served briefly as
schoolmaster at Fryeburg Maine. But in 1904
he took the decisive step and went TO Boston,
where he entered the law office of Christopher
Gore an excellent lawyer who saw in Webster
qualifications far beyond those of an ordinary
law clerk.
Diligent in his studies. the dark noble-browed
W. hnfr
admitted to the Boston bar and shortly after his
father died he assumed the elder Webster's debts,
removed to Boscawan N. H.. and then trans
ferred his law business to his brother, Ezekiel
He himself went to Portsmouth where he came
in contact, among others. with Jeremiah Mason,
one of the outstanding lawyers of the time. On
opposing sides. Mason and Webster were to
make legal history. People came miles to hear
them argue their cases.
Webster attained his first fame shortly there
after when he expressed most clearly the views
of a large section of the people against the War
of 1872 1t Webster, delegate to a
convention held in August of 1912 by the citizens
of Rockingham county to oppose the war against
England, who wrote the famous Rockingham
Memorial.
Massachusetts rewarded him for this service
by sending him to congress in 1913 and there.
although he was only thirty-one years of age,
his legal reputation was so great that Henry
Clay, who was speaker Of the house made him
member of the committee on foreign relations.
He was reelected but at the conclusion of his
second term in 1917 he left congress to return to
his law practice.
In 1922 he was returned to congress- where
he became a supporter of that tariff of abomin-
ations' which so outraged Calhoun, and in 1897
he was prevailed upon to accept the United
States senatorship from Massachusetts.
From that time on his fame increased con-
stantly becoming international in its scope. But
although ambition turned his eyes toward the
White House. he was never to realize the at
tainment of that goal. When the Whg party
was organized, Webster became one of its lead
ers but just as that party failed to offer the
Presidency to its other great leader, Henry Clay
so it failed to offer it to Webster. He could
have had the Vice Presidency, but refused it;
he was however, secretary of state under both
Harrison and Tyler
(G by Western Newspaper Union)