Daniel Webster, the Orator : An Address Delivered Before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the New England Society of Brooklyn (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Daniel Webster, the Orator: An Address Delivered Before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the New England Society of Brooklyn

He was a lawyer, and he was also a statesman. He had studied the constitution that he might defend it. He had examined its principles that he might maintain them. More than all men, or at least as much as any man, he was attached to the general government and to the union of the states. His feelings and opinions all ran in that direction. A question of constitutional law was, of all subjects, that one which was best suited to his talents and learning. Aloof from technicalities and unfettered by artificial rules, such a question gave opportunity for that deep and clear analysis, that mighty grasp of principle, which so much distinguished his higher efforts. His very statement was argument. His inference seemed demonstration. The earnestness of his own convie tion wrought conviction in others. One was convinced and believed and assented because it was gratifying, delightful, to think, to feel and believe, ll'l unison with an intellect of such evident superiority.

It is Webster himself, the orator, lawyer, and statesman, who is here painted by his own hand in a portrait for which Dexter sat, but of which none but Webster could fill the outlines. We are to look at Webster the orator. It is the most attractive if not the most important character in which he appeared. Webster's greatest power was the power ofspeech. As an orator he won his highest triumphs, and as an orator he will be longest remembered. His pre-eminence as a lawyer and statesman was largely due to his surpassing powers of clear, eloquent, and convincing statement. There were other lawyers of his time who had more learning of the books, and a few who were quite' his equals in comprehensive grasp of legal principles. There were statesmen who had more qualities of leadership, more organizing and constructive power, more depth and permanence of conviction. As a consummate master of speech, Webster is without a rival in our history, if he has a superior in the history of eloquence. Halfa century has now passed since Webster's death, and threescore and ten years since he reached the summit of his powers. The atmosphere is cleared of the incense of praise and the mists of detraction which rose about him in his own time. His contemporaries have disappeared, and the mem ory of the greatest of them is fading. Historic events have intervened, of the utmost importance, almost transforming the character of the government. Another generation of states men has appeared, done its work, and passed away. That Webster is still among the first in interest of all our great characters is striking evidence of the permanent hold which he took upon his countrymen. The great political changes which have befallen since his day, so far from obliterating his memory, have helped to preserve it; for in every one of them his influence was felt and his authority invoked, as it is in voked to - day, even by those who would pervert it. The new procession of historic figures which has passed across the national stage has hardly crowded him from the central place. The reason is not far to seek. Webster stamped himself in delibly upon the American mind. To an extent of which we are not always conscious, he wove himself into the very fabric of the government. His word directed the course of the public thought on national topics. His great speeches became part of our history, our literature, our constitutional law, almost of our national existence.

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