DANIEL WEBSTER,

THE DEFENDER OF NATIONAL UNION.

N THE hall of the United States Senate, on January 26, 1830, occurred one of the most memorable scenes in the annals of Congress. It was then that Daniel Webster made his famous "Reply to Hayne,"-that renowned speech which has been declared the greatest oration ever made in Congress, and which, in its far-reaching effect upon the public mind, did so much to shape the future destiny of the American Union. That speech was Webster's crowning work, and the event of his life by which he will be best known to posterity.

Nothing in our history is more striking than the con trast between the Union of the time of Washington and the Union of the time of Lincoln. It was not merely that in the intervening seventy-two years the republic had grown great and powerful; it was that the popular sentiment toward the Union was transformed. The old feeling of distrust and jealousy had given place to a passionate attachment. It was as though a puny, sickly, feeble child, not expected by its parents even to live, had come to be their strong defense and support, their joy and pride. A weak league of States had become a strong nation; and when in 1861 it was attacked, millions of men were ready to fight for its defense. What brought about this great change? What was it that stirred this larger patriotism, that gave shape and purpose to the growing feeling of national pride and unity? It was in a great degree the work of Daniel Webster. It was he who maintained and advocated the theory that the Federal Constitution created, not a league, but a nation,-that it welded the people into organic union, supreme and perpetual; who set forth in splendid completeness the picture of a great nation, inseparably united, commanding the first allegiance and loyalty of every citizen; and who so fostered and strengthened the sentiment of union that when the great struggle came, it had grown too strong to be overthrown.

Daniel Webster was born in the year 1782,-soon after the surrender of Cornwallis, but before the treaty of peace had formally ended the War of the

Revolution. His father was one of the brave men who fought at Lexington; and like most of the patriots of that day, had a large family to support and educate on his rocky New Hampshire farm. Daniel was the youngest of ten children, and, like the rest, was early put to work. He was intensely fond of books. When at work in his father's saw-mill, he would set a log, and while the saw was going through it, would devour a book. There was a small circulating library in the village, and Daniel read everything it contained, committing most of the contents to memory. His talents as a reader were known in the neighborhood, and the passing teamsters, while they watered their horses, delighted to get "Webster's boy," with his delicate look and great dark eyes, to come out beneath the shade of the trees and read the Bible to them with all the force of his childish eloquence.

Daniel's abilities as a boy in many ways gave promise of his future greatness. His powers of memory were, all through life, most extraordinary. His teacher used to tell of one of the facts of his schoolboy days. “On a Saturday, I remember," says the ancient pedagogue, “I held up a handsome new jack-knife to the scholars, and said that the boy who would commit to memory the greatest number of verses in the Bible by Monday morning should have it. Many of the boys did well; but when it came to Daniel's turn to recite, I found that he had committed so much, that, after hearing him repeat some sixty or seventy verses, I was obliged to give up,-he telling me that there were several chapters yet to recite, that he had learned. Daniel got that jack-knife."

The story of the sacrifices made by the whole family in order that the boys might be educated, bears touching witness to the family affection and unity. When fourteen, Daniel was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy, and in the following year he entered Dartmouth College. By teaching school in vacation he made his way through college, and also managed to aid his brother Ezekiel. He was the foremost man in his class, maintaining this position throughout the whole course. In 1801 he began to study law in Salisbury, New Hampshire. In 1804, to perfect his legal knowledge, he went to Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1805.

WEBSTER'S MAGNIFICENT APPEARANCE.

No sketch of Daniel Webster is complete or adequate which omits to describe his extraordinary personal appearance and presence. "We can but half understand his eloquence and its influence," says Mr. Lodge, "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. He seemed to every one to be a giant; that, at least, is the word we most commonly find applied to him; and there is no better proof of his wonderful impressiveness than this fact, for he 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

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are the proportions of a large man, but there is nothing remarkable about them. We must look elsewhere than to mere size to discover why men spoke of Webster as a giant. He had a swarthy complexion and straight black hair. His head was very large; at the same time it was of noble shape, with a broad and lofty brow, and his features were finely cut and full of massive strength. His eyes were extraordinary. They were very large and deep-set, and, when he began to rouse himself to action, shone with the deep light of a forge-fire, getting ever more glowing as excitement rose. His voice was in harmony with'

his appearance. It was low and musical in conversation; in debate it was high but full, ringing out in moments of excitement like a clarion, and then sinking to deep notes with the solemn richness of organ-tones, while the words were accompanied by a manner in which grace and dignity mingled in complete accord."

That indefinable quality which we call personal magnetism, the power of impressing by one's personality every human being who comes near, was at its height in Mr. Webster. He never, for instance, punished his children, but when they did wrong he would send for them and look at them silently. The look,

whether of sorrow or anger, was punishment and rebuke enough. It was the same with other children.

Daniel Webster had surpassing abilities in three great spheres,—those of the lawyer, the orator, and the statesman. As a lawyer his most famous arguments are those in the Dartmouth College case, the White murder case, and the "steamboat case," as it was called. A part of his speech in the murder case is still printed in school readers, and declaimed on examination days. The Dartmouth College case is one of the most famous in American litigation. While very intricate, it may be generally described as a suit to annul the charter of the college on the ground that it had failed to carry out the purposes expressed in the will of its founder. After trial in the State courts, it was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, before which Mr. Webster made his great argument in 1818. Mr. C. A. Goodrich, who was present, has given the following description of the scene :

The Supreme Court of the United States held its session, that winter, in a mean apartment of moderate size-the Capitol not having been built after its destruction in 1814. The audience, when the case came on, was therefore small, consisting chiefly of legal men, the elite of the profession throughout the country. Mr. Webster entered upon his argument in the calm tone of easy and dignified conversation. His matter was so completely at his command that he scarcely looked at his brief, but went on for more than four hours with a statement so luminous and a chain of reasoning so easy to be understood, and yet approaching so nearly to absolute demonstration, that he seemed to carry with him every man in his audience, without the slightest effort or weariness on either side. It was hardly eloquence, in the strict sense of the term; it was pure reason. Now and then, for a sentence or two, his eye flashed and his voice swelled into a bolder note, as he uttered some emphatic thought; but he instantly fell back into the tone of earnest conversation, which ran throughout the great body of his speech.

A single circumstance will show the clearness and absorbing power of his argument. I had observed that Judge Story, at the opening of the case, had prepared himself, pen in hand, as if to take copious minutes. Hour after hour I saw him fixed in the same attitude, but, so far as I could perceive, with not a note on his paper. The argument closed, and I could not discover that he had taken a single note. Others around me remarked the same thing; and it was among the on dits of Washington, that a friend spoke to him of the fact with surprise, when the judge remarked : Everything was so clear, and so easy to remember, that not a note seemed necessary, and, in fact, I thought little or nothing about my notes."

The argument ended. Mr. Webster stood for some moments silent before the court, while every eye was fixed intently upon him. At length, addressing the Chief Justice, Marshall, he proceeded thus:

“This, sir, is my case! It is the case, not merely of that humble institution, it is the case of every college in our land. It is more. It is the case of every eleemosynary institution throughout our country; of all those great charities founded by the piety of our ancestors to alleviate human misery, and scatter blessings along the pathway of life. It is more! It is, in some sense, the case of every man among us who has property of which he may be stripped; for the question is simply this: Shall our State Legislatures be allowed to take that which is not their own, to turn it from its original use, and apply it to such ends and purposes as they, in their discretion, shall see fit. Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of our country.

You may put it out.

But if you do