back to the capitol and his face to the people; the popular orators of Rome, anterior to that time, having always turned their faces to the Senate and their backs to the Forum. Webster never sought to subvert the judgment of the people by inflaming their passions. His sphere was among men of intellect. His power was in convincing the minds of the cultivated and intellectual, rather than by fervid harangues to sway the ignorant or excite the multitude. Clay-bold, brilliant, and dashing, rushing at results with that intuition of common sense that outstrips all the processes of logic-always commanded the heart and directed the action of his party. Webster seemed deficient in some of these great qualities, but surpassed him in others. He appeared his natural auxiliary. Clay, the most brilliant parliamentary leader, and probably unequalled, save by the Earl of Chatham, whom he resembled, swept with the velocity of a charge of cavalry on the ranks of his opponents, and often won the victory before others were prepared for the encounter. Webster, with his array of facts, his power of statement, and logical deductions, moved forward like the disciplined and serried infantry, with the measured tread of deliberate resolution and the stately air of irresistible power.

Camillus,

Daniel Webster is dead. He died without ever having been elevated to the Presidency of the nation. the second founder of Rome, never enjoyed the Consulate; but he was not less illustrious because he was not rewarded by the fasces and the consular purple. Before the lustre of Webster's renown, a merely Presidential reputation must grow pale. He has not only left a reputation of unsurpassed lustre in the Senate, but he will also pass down to posterity as the ablest and most profound jurist of his day. As an orator, he had not, as has been correctly observed by a Senator from New York, the vehemence of Demosthenes, nor the splendor of Cicero; but still Daniel Webster was an orator-an orator marked by the characteristics of the Teutonic race-bold, massive, and replete with manly force and vigor. His writings are marked by a deep philosophy which will cause them to be read when the issues that evoked them have passed away, and the splendor of an imagination, almost as rich as that of Burke, will invest them with at

tractions alike for the political scholar and the man of letters.

We should not deplore the death of Webster. It is true the star has shot from the sphere it illuminated, and is lost in the gloom of death; but he sank full of years and honors, after he had reached the verge of human life, and before his majestic intellect was dimmed or his body bowed down. by old age. He did not sink into his grave, like Marlborough, amid the mists of dotage; but he went while his intellect was unclouded, and the literary remembrances of his youth came thronging to the dying bed of their votary. Napoleon, when he was expiring at St. Helena, muttered disconnected words of command and battle, that showed his turbulent mind still struggled in imaginary conflicts; but gentler spirits brought to the death-bed of the statesman of Marshfield more consoling memories as he murmured,

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,"

and all the tender and mournful beauties of that inimitable elegy clustered around his soul.

But, sir, I will not venture to say more on this theme. I have said thus much in the name of my native State, to testify her veneration for worth, patriotism, and departed greatness, and to add with proper reverence a handful of earth to the mound a nation raises to the memory of the GREAT SECRETARY, and to say, Peace be to the manes of Webster.

IX.

MR. SEYMOUR, of New York, said:

Mr. SPEAKER: I rise in support of the resolutions offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts, and in that connection propose to submit a few remarks.

Sir, our great men are the common property of the country. In the days of our prosperity, we boast of their

genius and enterprise as they advance the general weal. In the hour of a nation's peril, the shadow of their great name is the gathering-point, whither we all turn for guidance and defence; and whether their laurels have been gathered on the battle-field, in sustaining our rights against hostile nations-in the halls of logislation, devising and enacting those wise and beneficent laws which, by developing the resources, instructing the mind, and directing the energies of the nation, may be traced on the frame-work of society long after their authors have ceased to exist-or in the temple of justice or the sacred desk, regulating the jarring elements of civil life, and making men happier and better -they are all parts of one grand exhibition, showing, through all coming time, what the men of the present age and of our nation have done for the elevation and advancement of our race. To chronicle these results of human effort, and to transmit them to future ages, is the province of history. In her temple, the great and the good are embalmed. There they may be seen and read by all those who, in future generations, shall emulate their great deeds. Time, whose constant flow is continually obliterating and changing the physical and social relations of all things, cannot efface the landmarks which they have raised along the pathway of life. The processes by which they attained the grand result, and the associations by which they at the time were surrounded, are unknown or forgotten, while we contemplate the monuments which their genius and heroism have raised.

Who that reads the story of the battle of Marathon, by which the liberties of Athens were rescued from Persian despotism, stops to inquire to what party in that republic Miltiades belonged? Who that listens to the thunders of Demosthenes, as he moves all Greece to resist the common enemy, attempts to trace his political associations? So it will be in the future of this republic. The battle of New Orleans will disclose Jackson, the hero and the patriot, saving his country from her enemies. The debates of the Senate-Chamber will exhibit Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, illustrating and defending the great principles of our Government by their lofty patriotism and eloquence. On neither picture will be observed whatever we of the present

time may judge to have savored of the mere politician and the partisan. We, from our near proximity, may see, or think we see, the ill-shapen rocks and the unseemly caverns which disfigure the sides of these mighty Alpine peaks. Future ages will only descry their ever-gilded summits

"Who, then, shall lightly say that Fame

Is but an empty name?

When, but for these our mighty dead,
All ages past a blank would be,
Sunk in Oblivion's murky bed-
A desert bare-a shipless sea.
They are the distant objects seen,
The lofty marks of what hath been;
Where memory of the mighty dead,
To earth-worn pilgrims' wistful eye

The brightest rays of cheering shed
That point to immortality."

Sir, I shall not attempt here to even briefly review the public life or delineate the true character of Daniel Webster. That public life, extending through more than forty years of the growth and progress of our country, will doubtless be sketched by those of his compeers who have shared with him in his public service. That character, too, will best be drawn by those intimate friends who knew him best, and who enjoyed the most favorable opportunities for observing the operations of his giant mind..

In looking at what he has achieved, not only in the fields of legislation, but in those of literature and jurisprudence, I may say he has left a monument of his industry and genius of which his countrymen may well be proud. His speeches in the Senate and before the assemblies of the people, and his arguments before our highest courts, taken together, form the most valuable contribution to American literature, language, and oratory which it has been the good fortune of any individual to have yet made. Were I to attempt it, I should be unable to determine on which of the varied scenes of his labors his genius and talents stood pre-eminent.

His argument in the Dartmouth College case has ever been regarded as a model of forensic debate, exhibiting

the rare combination of the dry logic of the law with the tender, the beautiful, and the sublime. His address before the Historical Society of New York not only exhibited a thorough acquaintance with ancient and modern literature, but was itself a gem whose brilliancy will never cease to attract, even by the side of the great lights of the literary world. The speech in the Senate in reply to Hayne, by its powerful argumentation, its sublimity, and patriotic fervor, placed him at once, by the common consent of mankind, in the front rank of orators.

But I cannot on this occasion review a life replete with incidents at once evincing the workings of a great mind, and marking important events in the history of the country. I can here only speak of his labors collectively. They were the result of great effort-grand in their conception, effective in their execution, and permanent in their influences.

As a son of his native New England, I am proud to refer back to the plain and unostentatious manners, the rigid discipline, and the early and thorough mental training to be found among the yeomanry of that part of our country, as contributing primarily to the eminent success of Mr. Webster in the business of his life. Born, reared, and educated among the granite hills of New Hampshire, although his attachments to the place of his birth were strong to the last, yet, upon the broad theatre upon which he was called to act his part as a public man, his sympathies and his patriotism were bounded only by the confines of the whole republic.

Although, in common with many of us, I differed in opinion from the late Secretary of State upon grave political questions, yet, with the great mass of our fellowcitizens, I acknowledge his patriotism, and the force and ability with which he sustained his own opinions. However we may view those opinions, one thing will be conceded by all his feelings were thoroughly American, and his aim the good of his country. In his whole public life, and by his greatest efforts as an orator, he has left deeply impressed on the American mind one great truth, never to be forgotten-the preservation of American liberty depends upon the support of the Constitution and the Union of