Part 5 (2/2)
”The anxiety to hear the speech was so intense, irrepressible, and universal, that no sooner had the Vice-President assumed the chair, than a motion was made, and unanimously carried, to postpone the ordinary preliminaries of Senatorial action, and to take up immediately the consideration of the resolution
”Mr Webster rose and addressed the Senate His exordium is known by heart everywhere: 'Mr President, when the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails hilance 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 on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture whereare I ask for the reading of the resolution before the Senate'
”There wanted no h silent, expression of eager approbation, as the orator concluded these opening remarks And while the clerk read the resolution,nearer the speaker Every head was inclined closer towards him, every ear turned in the direction of his voice, and that deep, sudden, mysterious silence follohich always attends fulness of emotion From the sea of upturned faces before hihts reflected as fro countenance, the suffused eye, the earnest smile, the ever-attentive look, assured hi his hearers there were those who affected at first an indifference to his glowing thoughts and fervent periods, the difficult uised, devoted attention followed In the earlier part of his speech, one of his principal opponents seerossed in the careful perusal of a newspaper he held before his face; but this, on nearer approach, proved to be _upside down_ In truth, all, sooner or later, voluntarily, or in spite of themselves, holly carried away by the eloquence of the orator
”Those who had doubted Mr Webster's ability to cope with and overcome his opponents were fully satisfied of their error before he had proceeded far in his speech Their fears soon took another direction
When they heard his sentences of powerful thought, towering in accurandeur, one above the other, as if the orator strove, titan-like, to reach the very heavens theiddy with an apprehension that he would break down in his flight They dared not believe that genius, learning, and intellectual endowment however unco in a career seely so perilous They feared an Icarian fall
”What New England heart was there but throbbed with vehement, tuland sufferings, New England struggles, and New England triu the war of the Revolution? There was scarcely a dry eye in the Senate; all hearts were overconified life turned aside their heads, to conceal the evidences of their eallery was clustered a group of Massachusettsfros variously but alar in intensity as he proceeded At first, while the orator was going through his exordium, they held their breath and hid their faces, land, and the fearful odds against him, her champion;--as he went deeper into his speech, they felt easier; when he turned Hayne's flank on Banquo's ghost, they breathed freer and deeper But now, as he alluded to Massachusetts, their feelings were strained to the highest tension; and when the orator, concluding his encomium of the land of their birth, turned, intentionally or otherwise, his burning eye full upon theirls_!
”No one as not present can understand the exciteive an adequate description of it No word-painting can convey the deep, intense enthusiasm, the reverential attention, of that vast asseer, awe-struck countenances Though language were as subtile and flexible as thought, it still would be impossible to represent the full idea of the scene There is soible in an emotion, which cannot be transferred The nicer shades of feeling elude pursuit Every description, therefore, of the occasion, seems to the narrator himself most tame, spiritless, unjust
”Much of the instantaneous effect of the speech arose, of course, from the orator's delivery,--the tones of his voice, his countenance, and manner These die mostly with the occasion that calls them forth; the impression is lost in the attempt at transmission froeneral terms 'Of the effectiveness of Mr Webster's manner in many parts,' says Mr Everett, 'it would be in vain to atteive any one not present the faintest idea It has been reatest living orators on both sides of the water, but Iwhich so completely realized my conception of what Demosthenes hen he delivered the Oration for the Crown'
”The variety of incident during the speech, and the rapid fluctuation of passions, kept the audience in continual expectation and ceaseless agitation There was no chord of the heart the orator did not strike, as with a master-hand The speech was a complete drahter and tears gaining alternate victory
”A great portion of the speech is strictly argurave as such portion necessarily is, severely logical, abounding in no fancy or episode, it engrossed throughout the undivided attention of every intelligent hearer
Abstractions, under the glowing genius of the orator, acquired a beauty, a vitality, a power to thrill the blood and enkindle the affections, awakening into earnest activity y, a vehe in thehts in their statuesque beauty ment; but he realized the antique fable, and warmed the e,--of poithheld and suggestive of still greater power,--that subdued, as by a spell of mystery, the hearts of all For pohether intellectual or physical, produces in its earnest develop closely allied to awe It was never more felt than on this occasion It had entire mastery The sex which is said to love it best, and abuse it most, seemed as much or more carried away than the sterner one Many who had entered the hall with light, gay thoughts, anticipating at most a pleasurable excitement, soon became deeply interested in the speaker and his subject; surrendered him their entire heart; and when the speech was over, and they left the hall, it ith sadder, perhaps, but surely with farrush of feeling hich he went through the peroration threw a glow over his countenance, like inspiration Eye, brow, each feature, every line of the face, seemed touched, as with a celestial fire
”The swell and roll of his voice struck upon the ears of the spellbound audience, in deep and melodious cadence, as waves upon the shore of the 'far-resounding' sea The Miltonic grandeur of his words was the fit expression of his thought, and raised his hearers up to his theme
His voice, exerted to its utmost power, penetrated every recess or corner of the Senate,--penetrated even the ante-rooms and stairways, as he pronounced in deepest tones of pathos these words of solenificance: 'When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last ti on the broken and dishonored fraglorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it ering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, non and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arinal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its atory as, ”What is all this worth?” nor those other words of delusion and folly, ”Liberty first and Union afterwards”; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every American heart,--LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOR EVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE!'
”The speech was over, but the tones of the orator still lingered upon the ear, and the audience, unconscious of the close, retained their positions The agitated countenance, the heaving breast, the suffused eye, attested the continued influence of the spell upon theht each other, still rerasp Eye still turned to eye, to receive and repay etfulness of all but the orator's presence and words”--pp
132-148
After having spoken about three hours on the 26th of January, Mr
Webster gave way for an adjourn day During , Mr
Hayne occupied hi notes, and rose to reply at the conclusion of Mr Webster's argument An adjournment was proposed by one of Mr Hayne's friends, but he wisely determined to terminate all that he intended to say on the subject upon the spot He accordingly addressed the Senate for about half an hour upon the constitutional question which formed the most important portion of Mr Webster's speech These remarks of Mr Hayne were, in the newspaper report, expanded into an elaborate arguressional debates When Mr Hayne sat down, Mr
Webster, in turn, rose to entleman,” said he, ”has in vain atteument”; and this formidable exordiuument, which, for condensation, precision, and force, ic never surpassed The art of reasoning on o no further
Thus ter the Senatorial chaed those courteous salutations which ate the asperity of political collision, and prevent the conflicts of party fro social life
The sensation produced by the great debate on those who heard it was but the earnest of its effect on the country at large The length of Mr