Part 6 (1/2)

He could describe with great vividness, brevity, and force what had happened in the past, what actually existed, or what the future promised

But his fancy never ran aith hiination of this sort is readily curbed and controlled, and, if less brilliant, is safer than that defined by Shakespeare For this reason, Mr Webster rarely indulged in long, descriptive passages, and, while he showed the highest power in treating anything with a touch of hues draholly fro in words natural scenery or phenohts, while he is often grand and affecting, full of life and power, he never shows the creative iination But if he falls short on the poetic side, there is the counterbalancing advantage that there is never a false note nor an overwrought description which offends our taste and jars upon our sensibilities

Mr Webster showed his love of direct sieneral arrangement and composition of his speeches His sentences are, as a rule, short, and therefore pointed and intelligible, but they never become monotonous and harsh, the fault to which brevity is always liable On the contrary, they are s, and there is always a sufficient variety of fore is likewise simple Mr Webster was a remorseless critic of his own style, and he had an allo-Saxon words and a corresponding dislike of Latin derivatives The only exception he”coin” His style was vigorous, clear, and direct in the highest degree, and at the same time warth with perfect sireat lish

Charles Fox is credited with saying that a good speech never reads well

This opinion, taken in the sense in which it was intended, that a carefully-prepared speech, which reads like an essay, lacks the freshness and glow that should characterize the oratory of debate, is undoubtedly correct But it is equally true that when a speech which we know to have been good in delivery is equally good in print, a higher intellectual plane is reached and a higher level of excellence is attained than is possible to either the ument, which loses its flavor with the occasion which draws it forth Mr Webster's speeches on the tariff, on the bank, and on like subjects, able as they are, are necessarily dry, but his speeches on nobler the

This is, of course, due to the variety and ease of treatment, to their power, and to the purity of the style At the sareater, even, than the intrinsic merit of the speech itself There has been much discussion as to the amount of preparation which Mr Webster made His occasional orations were, of course, carefully written out beforehand, a practice which was entirely proper; but in his great parliauht preparation in the ordinary sense of the term The notes for the two speeches on Foote's resolution were jotted down on a few sheets of note-paper The delivery of the second one, his masterpiece, was practically extees and occupied four hours He is reported to have said that his whole life had been a preparation for the reply to Hayne Whether he said it or not, the staterandeur of Aarnered up for years, and this in a greater or less degree was true of all his finest efforts The preparation on paper was trifling, but theover weeks or days, sometimes, perhaps, over years, was elaborate to the last point When the hts in order, and on the next day they would pour forth with all the power of a strong hly saturated with its subject, and yet with the vitality of unpre upon it, and with no trace of the lamp

More than all this, however, in the immediate effect of Mr Webster's speeches was the physical influence of the man himself We can but half understand his eloquence and its influence if we do not carefully study his physical attributes, his temperament and disposition In face, form, and voice, nature did her utmost for Daniel Webster No envious fairy was present at his birth to n influence He seeiant; that, at least, is the e most commonly find applied to him, and there is no better proof of his enormous physical impressiveness than this well-known fact, for Mr Webster was not a man of extraordinary stature He was five feet ten inches in height, and, in health, weighed a little less than two hundred pounds These are the proportions of a largeremarkable about them We must look elsewhere than to iant He had a swarthy coe, the brain weighing, as is well known, more than any on record, except those of Cuvier and of the celebrated bricklayer At the same time his head was of noble shape, with a broad and lofty brow, and his features were finely cut and full of th His eyes were extraordinary They were very dark and deep-set, and, when he began to rouse hietting everas excitement rose His voice was in harmony with his appearance It was low and ing out into deep notes with the solean-tones, while the words were accoled in complete accord The impression which he produced upon the eye and ear it is difficult to express There is no man in all history who came into the world so equipped physically for speech In this direction nature could do no more The mere look of the man and the sound of his voice made all who saw and heard hinity, and strength, divinely eloquent, even if he sat in drea but heavy commonplaces

It is coives a true idea of what he was We can readily believe this e read the descriptions which have come down to us That indefinable quality which we call personalby one's personality every huht in Mr Webster He never, for instance, punished his children, but when they did wrong he would send for theer or sorroas punishh It was the sahter of Mr Wirt once ca with his back toward her, and touched him on the arm He turned suddenly, and the child started back with an affrighted cry at the sight of that dark, stern, melancholy face But the cloud passed as swiftly as the shadows on a summer sea, and the next htened child into Mr Webster's arms, and they were friends and play expression, so ical with a child, was hardly less so with men There have been very few instances in history where there is such constant reference to merely physical attributes as in the case of Mr Webster His general appearance and his eyes are the first and last things alluded to in every contemporary description Every one is falish navvy who pointed at Mr Webster in the streets of Liverpool and said, ”There goes a king” Sidney Smith exclaimed when he saw him, ”Good heavens, he is a small cathedral by himself” Carlyle, no lover of Ao I saw at breakfast the notablest of all your notabilities, Daniel Webster He is a ht say to all the world, 'This is our Yankee Englishic fencer, or parliaht against all the extant world The tanned co-like face; the dull black eyes under the precipice of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be _blown_; the mastiff mouth accurately closed; I have not traced so e_ that I reuess I should not like to be your nigger!' Webster is not loquacious, but he is pertinent, conclusive; a dignified, perfectly bred ; asuch I understand”

Such was the effect produced by Mr Webster when in England, and it was a universal impression Wherever he wentforce of his personal presence He could control an audience by a look, and could extort applause frolance On one occasion, after the 7th of March speech, there is a story that a noted abolitionist leader was present in the crowd gathered to hear Mr Webster, and this bitter opponent is reported to have said afterwards, ”When Webster, speaking of secession, asked 'what is to beco calamity” The story may be apocryphal, but there can be no doubt of its essential truth so far as the effect of Mr Webster's personal presence goes People looked at hih Mr Parton in his essay speaks of seeing Webster at a public dinner, sitting at the head of the table with a bottle of Madeira under his yelloaistcoat, and looking like Jove When he presided at the Cooperin New York he uttered only a few stately platitudes, and yet every one went aith the firm conviction that they had heard hirandest eloquence

The terew on him as he became older, which was to be expected with a man of his temperament Even in his early days, when he was not in action, he had an i to the invective of Hayne, no emotion could be traced on his cold, dark,with a dull light This all vanished when he began to speak, and, as he poured forth his strong, weighty sentences, there was no lack of expression or of movement But Mr Webster, despite his capacity for work, and his protracted and often intense labor, was constitutionally indolent, and this sluggishness of terew older It extended from the periods of repose to those of action until, in his later years, a direct stimulus was needed to hty poas still there in undily put forth Sometimes the outside impulse would not come; sometimes the most trivial incident would suffice, and like a spark on the train of gunpoould bring a sudden burst of eloquence, electrifying all who listened On one occasion he was arguing a case to the jury He was talking in his heaviest and most ponderous fashi+on, and with half-closed eyes The court and the jury the law quite wrongly to his nodding listeners

The counsel on the other side interrupted him and called the attention of the court to Mr Webster's presentation of the law The judge, thus awakened, explained to the jury that the laas not as Mr Webster stated it While this colloquy was in progress Mr Webster roused up, pushed back his thick hair, shook hied lion When the judge paused, he turned again to the jury, his eyes no longer half shut but wide open and gloith excite his voice, he said, in tones which made every one start: ”If my client could recover under the law as I stated it, how much more is he entitled to recover under the law as laid down by the court;” and then, the jury now being thoroughly awake, he poured forth a flood of eloquent argument and won his case In his latter days Mr Webster h by the power of his look and manner, but the time never came when, if fairly aroused, he failed to sway the hearts and understandings of rand and splendid eloquence The lion slept very often, but it never became safe to rouse him from his slumber

It was soon after the reply to Hayne that Mr Webster overnment in the White e case, and the defence of Judge Prescott before the Massachusetts Senate, which is of similar character, have been preserved to us The speech for Prescott is a strong, dignified appeal to the sober, and yet syment of his hearers, but wholly free from any attempt to confuse or mislead, or to sway the decision by unwholesome pathos Under the circuument was a es full of the solee speech is chiefly remarkable for the ease hich Mr Webster unravelled a complicated set of facts, deuilty party, and carried irresistible conviction to the minds of the jurors It was connected with a remarkable exhibition of his power of cross-exa, but extreument in the White case, as a speciround than either of the other two, and, apart from the nature of the subject, ranks with the very best of Mr Webster's oratorical triu the account of the s of a mind seared with the re the very finest s of the murderer has a touch of the creative power, but, taken in conjunction with the wonderful picture of the deed itself, the whole exhibits the highest iinative excellence, and displays the possession of an extraordinary dramatic force such as Mr Webster rarely exerted It has the sa us shudder with a creeping, nameless terror as the scene after the murder of Duncan, when Macbeth rushes out fro, ”I have done the deed Didst thou not hear a noise?” I have studied this faently in the works of all the great modern orators, and of soher merit My quest has been in vain Mr Webster's description of the White uilt which pursued the assassin, has never been surpassed in dramatic force by any speaker, whether in debate or before a jury Perhaps the e in the literature of modern eloquence is the picture drawn by Burke of the descent of Hyder Ali upon the plains of the Carnatic, but even that certainly falls short of the opening of Webster's speech in simple force as well as in dramatic power Burke depicted with all the ardor of his nature and with a wealth of color a great invasion which swept thousands to destruction Webster's theland town Coer than the other, seeht als of the human heart under the influence of the most terrible passions, and those have furnished sufficient enius of Shakespeare The test of excellence is in the treatment, and in this instance Mr Webster has never been excelled The effect of that exordium, delivered as he alone could have delivered it, ht into the case to hurry the jury beyond the law and evidence, and his whole speech was certainly calculated to drive any body of men, terror-stricken by his eloquence, wherever he wished theo Mr

Webster did not have that versatility and variety of eloquence which we associate with the speakers who have produced thecalled a jury He never showed that rapid alternation of wit, huenuity which have been characteristic of the greatest advocates Before a jury as everywhere else he was direct and simple He awed and terrified jurymen; he convinced their reason; but he commanded rather than persuaded, and carried theuant ad his followers has undoubtedly exaggerated his greatness in h as the praise bestowed upon him as an orator has been, in that direction at least he has certainly not been overestimated The reverse rather is true

Mr Webster was, of course, the greatest orator this country has ever produced Patrick Henry's fame rests wholly on tradition The same is true of Hamilton, who, moreover, never had an opportunity adequate to his talents, which were unquestionably of the first order Fisher Ale speech which is distinctly inferior to many of Webster's Clay's oratory has not stood the test of time; his speeches, which were so wonderfully effective when he uttered them, seem dead and cold and rather thin as we read thereat debater, but was too dry and hard for the highest eloquence John Quincy Adams, despite his physical limitations, carried the eloquence of cohest point in the splendid battles of his congressional career, but his learning, readiness, power of expression, argu sarcasraceful attributes which also form an essential part of oratory

Mr Webster need not fear comparison with any of his countryreatest randeur of Chatham, hom it is impossible to compare him or indeed any one else, for the Great Coments of doubtful accuracy Sheridan was universally considered to have made the uiven by Moore does not cast Webster's best work at all into the shade Webster did not have Sheridan's brilliant wit, but on the other hand he was never forced, never involved, never guilty of ornaes would now pronounce tawdry Webster's best speeches readof Sheridan, and, so far as we can tell from careful descriptions, hisThe ”manly eloquence” of Fox seems to have reselish rivals Fox wasthan Webster, and had reater ease and charm of manner But he was often careless, and soreat speaker can be wholly free any more than he can keep entirely clear of coained upon hiument Before a jury Webster fell behind Erskine as he did behind Choate, although neither of the at all comparable to the speech on the White eneral field of oratory, he rises high above them both The man hom Webster is oftenest compared, and the last to be mentioned, is of course Burke It ination, and in richness of ie, Burke ranks above Webster But no one would ever have said of Webster as Goldsmith did of Burke:--

”Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they thought of dining”

Webster never sinned by over refinen to his nature Still less did he impair his power in the Senate as Burke did in the Co too often and too race of which Burke was capable, he was hty blows He was greatly aided in this by his brief andand elaborate sentences Webster,excitement which led Burke to draw a knife from his bosom and cast it on the floor of the House This illustrates as, perhaps, Mr Webster's very strongest point,--his absolute good taste

He may have been ponderous at times in his later years We know that he was occasionally heavy, pompous, and even dull, but he never violated the rules of the nicest taste Other ination, and eous style, with a more brilliant wit and a keener sarcasm, but there is not one who is so absolutely free from faults of taste as Webster, or who is so uniforht and style, even to the point of severity[1]

[Footnote 1: A volureat orators Only the briefest and most rudimentary treatment of the subject is possible here A most excellent study of the comparative excellence of Webster's eloquence has been e Chamberlain, Librarian of the Boston Public Library, in a speech at the dinner of the Dartmouth Alumni, which has since been printed as a pamphlet]

It is easy to coreat orator, and to select points of resemblance and of difference, and shohere Mr

Webster was superior and where he fell behind But the final verdict ether He had the ifts of face, fore Thus equipped, he delivered a long series of great speeches which can be read to-day with the deepest interest, instruction, and pleasure He had dignity, grandeur, and force, a strong historic ireat dramatic pohen he chose to exert it He possessed an unerring taste, a capacity for vigorous and telling sarcaslow and fire none the less intense because they were subdued, perfect clearness of stateument, and he was master of a style which was as forcible as it was sireatest orator this country has ever known, but in the history of eloquence his name will stand with those of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Chatham and Burke

CHAPTER VII

THE STRUGGLE WITH JACKSON AND THE RISE OF THE WHIG PARTY

In the year preceding the delivery of his great speech Mr Webster had lost his brother Ezekiel by sudden death, and he had married for his second wife Miss Leroy of New York The forrief to him, and taken in conjunction with the latter seegles and privations, its joys and successes

The slender girl whom he had married in Salisbury church and the beloved brother were both gone, and with thehed deep, laughed free, Starved, feasted, despaired, been happy”

One cannot coret

There was enough of brilliant achieveone before to satisfy any man, and it had been honest, sireater naly scandals, bitter personal attacks, an ambition which warped his nature, and finally a terrible mistake One feels inclined to say of these later years, with the Roman lover:--

”Shut thelories and the rest, Love is best”