eye. He was quite, then, in harmony with the society for which he wrote, and it would be rather surly of us if we judged him altogether from our standard of poetry and abused him for complying with the taste of his time. No one dreams of comparing him with the greater men, or of giving his poetry too important a place in the history of English song. But the man whose work Byron frankly admired; whom Scott did not dispraise; who received letters of thanks and appreciation from readers in America, Europe, and Asia; who fulfilled Mathew Arnold's somewhat foolish criterion of a poet's greatness by being known and accepted on the Continent; whom the Italians, French, Germans, 719 Russians, Swedes, and Dutch translated; Persian, and became the companion of whose "Lalla Rookh" was partly put into Persians, on their travels and in the streets of Ispahan; to whom publishers like Longmans gave 3,000l. for a poem before they had even seen it, "as a tribute to reputation already acquired"-can scarcely be treated with the indifferent contempt pleased, and he pleased a very great numwhich some have lavished upon him. He ber. Time has altered that contemporary verdict, and rightly-but when it is almost universal, not merely the verdict of a clique, it counts.-BROOKE, STOPFORD A., 1900, A Treasury of Irish Poetry, ed. Brooke and Rolleston, p. 36. Daniel Webster. 1782-1852 Born at Salisbury (Franklin), N. H., Jan. 18, 1782: died at Marshfield, Mass., Oct. 24, 1852. A famous American statesman, orator, and lawyer. He studied at Exeter Academy and Boscawen, New Hampshire; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1801; was admitted to the bar at Boston in 1805; practised law at Boscawen and Portsmouth; was Federalist member of Congress from New Hampshire 1813-1817; and removed to Boston in 1816. He acquired a national reputation as a lawyer in the Dartmouth College case in 1818; was member of Congress from Massachusetts 1823-27; was Whig United States senator from Massachusetts 1827-41; became famous for his constitutional speeches in reply to Hayne in 1830, and in opposition to Calhoun in 1833; opposed Jackson on the United States Bank question; received several electoral votes for President in 1836; and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Whig nomination in later years. In 1839 he visited Europe. He was secretary of State 1841-43; negotiated the Ashburton treaty with Great Britain 1842; was United States senator from Massachusetts 1845-50; opposed the Mexican war and the annexation of Texas; supported Clay's compromise measures in his "7th of March speech" in 1850; was secretary of state 1850-52; and was again candidate for the Whig nomination for President in 1852. His chief public speeches (aside from those made in Congress and at the bar) are addresses delivered on the anniversary at Plymouth in 1820, on the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument in 1825, on the deaths of Jefferson and Adams in 1826, on the dedication of Bunker Hill monument in 1843, and on the laying of the corner-stone of the addition to the Capitol in 1851.-SMITH, BENJAMIN E., 1894-97, ed., The Century Cyclopedia of Names, p. 1053. PERSONAL He is a magnificent specimen; you might say to all the world, This is your Yankee Englishman, such Limbs we make in Yankeeland! As a Logic-fencer, Advocate, or Parlimentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first sight against all the extant world. The tanned complexion, that amorphous crag-like face; the dull black eyes under their precipice of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces, needing only to be blown; the mastiff-mouth, accurately closed:-I have not traced as much of silent Berserkir-rage, that I remember of, in any other man. I should not like to be your nigger!""I guess Webster is not loquacious, but he is pertibred man, though not English in breeding; nent, conclusive; a dignified, perfectly a man worthy of the best reception from us; and meeting such, I understand.CARLYLE, THOMAS, 1839, To Ralph Waldo Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo EmerEmerson, June 24; Correspondence of son, ed. Norton, vol. I, p. 260. Now those thirsty eyes, those portraiteating, portrait-painting eyes of thine, those fatal perceptions, have fallen full on the great forehead which I followed about all my young days, from court-house to senate-chamber, from caucus to street. He has his own sins no doubt, is no saint, is a prodigal. He has drunk his rum of Party too so long, that his strong head is soaked, sometimes even like the soft sponges, but the "man's a man for a' that." Better, he is a great boy, -as wilful, as nonchalant and good-humored. But you must hear him speak, not a show speech which he never does well, but with cause he can strike a stroke like a smith. I owe to him a hundred fine hours and two or three moments of Eloquence. His voice in a great hou is admirable. I am sorry if you decided not to visit him. He loves He loves a man, too. I do not know him, but my brother Edward read law with him, and loved him, and afterwards in sick and unfortunate days received the steadiest kindness from him.-EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, 1839, To Thomas Carlyle, Aug. 8; Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle with Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Norton, vol. 1, p. 268. ว Daniel Webster dined with me on his own invitation. He was on his way to Morristown and to Sussex County to meet a gathering of the Whigs. Dr. Condit, of Morristown, dined with me. Mr. Collins dined here. It was a very interesting party, and Mr. Webster charmed the party. He is 57 years old, and looks worn and furrowed; his belly becomes protuberant, and his eyes deep in his head. I sympathize with his condition. He has been too free a liver. He ate but little and drank wine freely. - KENT, JAMES, 1840, Diary, Aug. 22; Memoirs and Letters, ed. Kent, p. 261. A column indeed, stately and graceful with its Corinthian capital, gives no bad idea of Mr. Webster; of his tall and muscular person, his massive features, noble head, and the general expression of placid strength by which he is distinguished. This is a mere fanciful comparison; but Sir Augustus Callcott's fine figure of Columbus has been reckoned very like him; a resemblance that must have been fortuitous, since the picture was painted before the artist had even seen the celebrated orator. When in England some ten or twelve years ago, Mr. Webster's calm manner of speaking excited much admiration and perhaps a little surprise, as contrasted with the astounding and somewhat rough rapidity of progress which is the chief characteristic of his native land. And yet that calmness of manner was just what might be expected from a countryman of Washington, earnest, thoughtful, weighty, wise. No visitor to London ever left behind him pleasanter recollections, and I hope that the good impression was reciprocal. Everybody was delighted with his geniality and taste; and he could hardly fail to like the people who so heartily liked him.-MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL, 1851, Recollections of a Literary Life, p. 228. Dipped here and there into "Faust" (Anna Swanwick's translation), and am admitted more intimately than by Hayward's or Anster's version into the subtleties of the modern Satan, the world-spirit of the nineteenth century. Our devil has partaken of the cosmopolitan culture; he, too, is a scholar and a gentleman, scarcely distinguishable in a crowd from any mortal else, his complexion sallower by a shade, perhaps, and, if surveyed closely, some show of hoofs in his boots. Faust's dealings with him are infinitely suggestive and profitable, and inclusive of the whole range of guile. "The demon sat gladly," the portrait is sketched by a master, and is exhaustive of the subject. Goethe knew too much to paint well anything else; and this, his masterpiece, remains as the last likeness, finished up to the latest dates. Yet he lived too early to sketch this Western democratic shape, some fifty or more years later. Apropos of him, just now and here in this Western hemisphere everybody is putting down the dark Webster as the latest and best devil, concrete and astir in space perhaps,― certainly in these American parts,-clearly responsible for the sins of cities, North and South, a Satan of national type and symmetry. 'Tis a great pity that Goethe should have come too soon. Head, shoulders, all, all of Webster should have gone into the picture, and this legal, logical, constitutional Mephistopheles of the States had justice done him by his master. -ALCOTT, A. BRONSON, 1851, Diary. In his personal appearance Mr. Webster was an extraordinary man, and at the age of forty was considered the handsomest man in Congress. He was above the ordinary size, and stoutly formed, but with small hands and feet, had a large head, very high forehead, a dark complexion, large black, deeply sunken, and solemnlooking eyes, black hair (originally), very heavy eyebrows, and fine teeth. To strangers his countenance appeared stern, but when lighted up by conversation, it was bland and agreeable. He was slow and stately in his movements, and his dress was invariably neat and elegant; his favorite suit for many years having been a blue or brown coat, a buff vest, and black pantaloons. His manner of speaking, both in conversation and debate, was slow and methodical, and his voice generally low and musical, but when excited, it rang like a clarion.-LANMAN, CHARLES, 1852, The Private Life of Daniel Webster, p. 179. We called him giant, for in every part He seemed colossal; in his port and speech, In his large brain and in his larger heart. And when his name upon the roll we saw Of those who govern, then we felt secure, Because we knew his reverence for the law. So the young master of the Roman realm Discreetly thought, we cannot wander far From the true course, with Ulpian at the helm. We have no high cathedral for his rest, Dim with proud banners and the dust of years; All we can give him is New England's breast To lay his head on-and his country's tears. -PARSONS, THOMAS WILLIAM, 1852, On the Death of Daniel Webster, Poems, pp. 62, 64. Consider that from the day he went upon the Committee of Foreign Relations, in 1813, in time of war, and more and more, the longer he lived and the higher he rose, he was a man whose great talents and devotion to public duty placed and kept him in a position of associated or sole command; command in the political connexion to which he belonged, command in opposition, command in power; and appreciate the responsibilities which that implies, what care, what prudence, what mastery of the whole ground-exacting for the conduct of a party, as Gibbon says of Fox, abilities and civil discretion equal to the conduct of an empire. Consider the work he did in that life of forty years the range of subjects investigated and discussed; composing the whole theory and practice of our organic and administrative politics, foreign and domestic. How much then, when rising to the measure of a true, and difficult, and rare greatness, 46 D 721 remembering that he had a country to save as well as a local constituency to gratify, laying all the wealth, all the hopes, of an illustrious life on the altar of a hazardous exceeding glory which now attends-which patriotism, he sought and won the more in the next age shall more conspicuously attend his name who composes an agitated and saves a sinking land-recall this series of conduct and influences, study them carefully in their facts and resultsthe reading of years-and you attain to a true appreciation of this aspect of his greatness his public character and life. -CHOATE, RUFUS, 1853, Address on Daniel Webster before Dartmouth College. No gloom that stately shape can hide, I have looked on many mighty men, day of October, 1852, the gates of his late Accordingly, at noon on Friday, the 29th residence were thrown wide, that all who wished might come to look for the last time upon that majestic form. The coffin mansion-house, and a rich autumn sun was placed upon the lawn, in front of the poured down upon it the full light of day. A concourse of more than ten thousand filled the grounds, and passed slowly around the bier, each one pausing for an instant, to take the last look of that gracious figure, which was arrayed for burial in the same well-known dress that he had always worn. I was intimate and in frequent correspondence with another American of still higher eminence, Daniel Webster; a man whom Sydney Smith aptly described as a "steam-engine in trousers. His massive forehead indeed strikingly betokened the massive intellect that lay within. He belonged to the higher and earlier class of American Statesmen; though falling upon times when political partisanship and election trading had usurped so largely on the original institutions of the Republic, that he, as well as his contemporaries Clay and Calhoun, were excluded from its highest office because they signally deserved it. I am half inclined to believe that the civil war might have been averted, had Webster's genius and masculine eloquence, as they at one time existed, placed him in a position where they could be of national avail. HOLLAND, SIR HENRY, 1871, Recollections of Past Life, p. 189. He did not "let himself out," and display his lighter, frolicsome, and humorous moods, except in presence of those whom he had known long and well, and between whom and himself there existed strong mutual attachment. Those who did know him as he was, however, were aware that not only was he simple in manners, and often boyish in spirits; not only was he hearty, hospitable, and affectionate, steadfast in his love of his family and his attachment to his friends, kind of heart towards men and towards animals, courteous to his adversaries, courageous, benevolent, but that he was also fond of fun, and had a very keen zest for, and sense of, the humorous. -HARVEY, PETER, 1877, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster, p. 316. his sweet and tender smile, his very white teeth, and his dark complexion and heavy brows. He was fond of children, and was very kind to me.-OAKEY, S. W., 1881, Recollections of American Society, Scribner's Monthly, vol. 21, p. 417. a" He was the "godlike Daniel" to his countrymen in general, who thus called him by a phrase which, with a certain semi-conscious humor in it racy of the national character, redeemed its own excess of veneration by a corrective dash of associated familiarity. But no less the educated men among his fellows were accustomed to employ in their own more scholarly way a similar language. To them he was "Jove," a "descended god," a "demi-god," "the Olympian.” If he went abroad, some Englishmen said he "looked like a cathedral," or Sydney Smith, with irreverent homage to his Titan might, said he "was a steam-engine in breeches." This imposing effect of Webster's personal presence was partly due to the remarkable physical mold in which he was cast. He was not gigantic in proportions, was not even greatly above the medium height; but somehow the beholder took from him an instantaneous and overwhelming impression of immense mass, weight, momentum, -in one word, of power. He was always one of the sights of Boston, where his presence in the streets made the neighboring buildings look smaller. Men from the country, that did not know who it was, would stand to gaze at him.-WILKINSON, WILLIAM CLEAVER, 1882, Daniel Webster, Century, vol. 23, p. 538. A congenial marriage seems to be essential to the best development of a man of genius, and this blessing rested upon that household. It was like organ-music to hear Webster speak to or of the being upon whom his affections reposed, and whom, alas! he was so soon to lose. I am sure that those who knew the man only when this tenderest relation had been terminated by death, never knew him in his perfect symmetry. Whatever evilspeakers might choose to say about the subsequent career of Daniel Webster, he was at that time [1826], "whole as the marble, founded as the rock." He was on the happiest terms with the world, which had crowned him with its choicest I was very fond of Mr. Webster, with blessing, and stood forth in all respects as an example and a hero among men. Without asking the reason, men once subjected to his spell were compelled to love, to honor, and (so some cynics would wish to add) to forgive him. No man of mark ever satisfied the imagination so completely. The young men of to-day who go to Washington find a city of luxurious appointments and noble buildings, very different from the capital of muddy streets. and scattered houses with which I was familiar. But where is the living figure, cast in heroic mould, to represent the ideal of American manhood? Can the capital of to-day show anything so majestic and inspiring as was Daniel Webster in the Washington of 1826?-QUINCY, JOSIAH, 1883, Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals, pp. 256, 267. When Mr. Webster failed it was a moral failure. His moral character was not equal to his intellectual force. All the errors he ever committed, whether in public or in private life, in political action or in regard to money obligations, came from moral weakness. He was deficient in that intensity of conviction which carries men beyond and above all triumphs of statesmanship, and makes them the embodiment of the great moral forces which move the world. If Mr. Webster's moral power had equalled his intellectual greatness, he would have had no rival in our history. . . He stands to-day as the pre-eminent champion and exponent of nationality. He said once, "there are no Alleghanies in my politics," and he spoke the exact truth. Mr. Webster was thoroughly national. There is no taint of sectionalism or narrow local prejudice about him. He towers up as an American, a citizen of the United States in the fullest sense of the word. He did not invent the Union, or discover the doctrine of nationality. But he found the great fact and the great principle ready to his hand, and he lifted them up, and preached the gospel of nationality throughout the length and breadth of the land. In his fidelity to this cause he never wavered nor faltered.-LODGE, HENRY CABOT, 1883, Daniel Webster (American Statesmen), pp. 360, 361. Huge and solemn as were his eyeballs, vast and capacious as was his skull, massive as were his shoulders, and sonorous as was his voice, there was yet occasionally something deprecating in his manners and apologetic in his discourse. These deficiencies for championship were due to the influence of Puritanism, which had done its work upon him in his youth.KEYES, GEN. E. D., 1884, Fifty Years' Observations, p. 148. He As an infant he is described as a crying baby who worried his parents considerably. He grew up to boyhood pale, weak, and sickly; as he himself often told me, he was the slimest in the family. And yet, by doing a boy's work on his father's farm, by indulging a propensity for outdoor sports, by leading a temperate and frugal life, he succeeded in building up a robust constitution. On arriving at manhood he had a physical frame which seemed made to last a hundred years. It was an iron frame, large and stately, with a great mountain of a head upon it. When Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, saw his head in Powers's studio in Rome, he exclaimed: "Ah! a design for Jupiter, I see." would not believe that it was a living American. Parker describes him as "a man of large mold, a great body, and a great brain. Since Socrates there has seldom been a head so massive, huge. Its cubic capacity surpassed all former measurements of mind. A large man, decorous in dress, dignified in deportment, he walked as if he felt himself a king. Men from the country who knew him not stared at him as he passed through our streets. The coal-heavers and porters of London looked on him as one of the great forces of the globe. They recognized in him a native king." Carlyle called him "a magnificent specimen whom, as a logic fencer or parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back at sight against all the world." And Sydney Smith said he was "a living lie, because no man on earth could be as great as he looked."-ALLEN, STEPHEN M., 1885, Reminiscences of Daniel Webster, The Century, vol. 29, p. 724. |