in the land have possessed more legal learning; other orators have uttered more moving, rhapsodical, popular eloquence; other politicians have shown more tact, and more insight into the perfidious workings of human nature, as developed by the vicissitudes of party; other savans have had more scientific culture; but as a complete and majestic whole, Mr. Webster had no equal in the history of his times for an assemblage of great and rare qualities combined together in one intellect. No other man possessed so many different great faculties developed to the same wondrous and extreme degree.

As an orator, Mr. Webster's manner did not exhibit the same winning and mellifluous fluency which characterized the speeches of Henry Clay. On ordinary occasions his delivery was rather dull and heavy; but when fully aroused by the exigencies of some important crisis, then he was matchless. He was a giant, who launched his forensic thunderbolts with a degree of power which no other orator of modern times possessed. His speeches always read to advantage when printed, which effect resulted from the inherent substance and superior value which they contained; whereas the orations of Mr. Clay lost their most potent charm and their greatest merit the moment they were committed to paper. The reason of this peculiarity was, because with Mr. Clay the chief excellence was the delivery; with Mr. Webster the main value was the substance. Yet the speeches of Mr. Webster were not devoid of the beauties of the imagination; for he was a lover of poetry, was familiar with the best productions of the modern muse, and frequently quoted select and appropriate passages from his favorite authors with great effect and propriety. His memory, indeed, was accurate and tenacious to a very rare degree; and it

was richly stored with all the treasures of varied knowledge.

As a reasoner, Mr. Webster was a match even for the great master of logic in the Senate, Mr. John C. Calhoun. In all his arguments and combats with that able man, he ever proved his superiority to him, even on his favorite field of intellectual effort. No sophistry could blind him; no metaphysical labyrinth of specious ratiocination could mislead or delude him as to the true fact or principles involved in the case. He probed to the bottom of every subject, and brought up the gem of truth to the light of day, however deeply it may have laid embedded in the depths of the abyss of error and of falsehood. When occasion called for the display of sarcasm and invective, no orator could ever exceed him in the use of those formidable and terrible weapons. Let the discomfiture of Mr. Hayne, and the obliteration of Mr. Ingersoll, bear witness to his destructive power in this respect. In general, he was mild and courteous in his intercourse with his fellow-men, and was ever ready to extend the generous hand of charity to those who might desire or request his interposition. At the same time, he was dauntless and full of fortitude. No opposition or hostile combination could terrify or move him. At one time a ponderous load of public opprobrium and censure lay upon his shoulders, a fate which also fell to the lot of Henry Clay at a certain period of his career; but he bore that burden, as did the great Kentucky statesman, as superior and powerful natures always endure calamities and vicissitudes of that description, with a dignified, undaunted, and defiant self-reliance, not unmingled with contempt for his persecutors, which sustained him successfully even during his darkest hour. As the expounder and defender of the Federal Constitution, he was unrivalled; and his

judgments and opinions on that important subject will always remain indisputable and unanswerable dicta, for the future guidance and instruction of his countrymen.

The contemplation of the fame of such a man is a pleasing theme for those who rejoice in the excellence and elevation of human nature. It shows us how great, how noble, how powerful, humanity can become, and reminds us that, while the history of the race is filled with countless proofs of its imbecility, misery, and degradation, such defects are not inherent in the nature and destiny of humanity; but that it may, and it sometimes does, rise in majesty and grandeur to an equality even with angels. Mr. Webster's fame is immortal; for it is indissolubly identified with the growing greatness of that vast Confederacy whose federal unity in critical times he more than once preserved from ruin. He needs no better monument than the living and perpetual memory of his own great thoughts and deeds. Men may erect statues to his honor; the sculptor may transfer to the speaking marble the faultless semblance of his person; the skilful painter may depict on the breathing canvas that form and those features which overawed and impressed his own generation with a clear consciousness of his vast superiority: all these expedients are useless; for, though dead, he yet speaketh; and he will continue to speak, until the last hour of recorded time, as one of the most profound, most patriotic, and most eloquent of Americans.

SPEECHES OF DANIEL WEBSTER.

I.

MR. WEBSTER'S REPLY TO MR. HAYNE.

In the United States Senate, January 26, 1830.

FOLLOWING Mr. Hayne in the debate, Mr. Webster addi essed the Senate as follows:

Mr. PRESIDENT: When the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading of the resolution.

[The Secretary read the resolution, as follows:

"Resolved, That the committee on public lands be instructed to inquire and report the quantity of the public lands remaining unsold within each State and Territory, and whether it be expedient to limit, for a certain period, the sales of the public lands to such lands only as have heretofore been offered for sale and are now subject to entry at the minimum price. And, also, whether the office of surveyor-general, and some of the land-offices, may not

159

be abolished without detriment to the public interest; or whether it be expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales and extend more rapidly the surveys of the public lands."]

We have thus heard, sir, what the resolution is, which is actually before us for consideration; and it will readily occur to every one that it is almost the only subject about which something has not been said in the speech, running through two days, by which the Senate has been now entertained by the gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, whether past or present, every thing, general or local, whether belonging to national politics or party politics,-seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before us. He has spoken of every thing but the public lands. They have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a passing glance.

When this debate, sir, was to be resumed, on Thursday morning, it so happened that it would have been convenient for me to be elsewhere. The honorable member, however, did not incline to put off the discussion to another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That shot, sir, which it was kind thus to inform us was coming, that we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall before it, and die with decency, has now been received. Under all advantages, and with expectation awakened by the tone which preceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of its effect than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or wounded by it, it is not the first time in the history of human affairs that the vigor and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto.